[0:00] Hi, I'm Steve Taberski and today I get to speak with you guys from Colossians.
[0:13] Colossians chapter 1 verses 20 through 23 is where I'm going to be speaking out of. So if you'll go ahead and get your Bibles out, ready to go. Before I start the message there, I've got a little bit of business to take care of.
[0:27] A lot of you guys, especially you people who come in early, know that people will bring stuff in and put it on the table out here for free.
[0:41] And those who are early birds get to have the first choice on it. Well, I've got this bowl that, you know, I want to make sure everybody has a chance.
[0:55] So I'm going to put it up here and actually instead of giving it away free, I'd like to auction it off. That's funny. Now I'm not auctioning off a bowl, but this bowl does have a story.
[1:09] Actually, in 2007, at a yard sale in New York, somebody bought this bowl for $3. And they put it on their mantle and they kept it on their mantle for several years.
[1:24] They figured it was an antique. So one day they decided, you know what, let's take that bowl to some shops and see, you know, see if we can get the story on this bowl.
[1:36] Well, it turns out that this is a rare ding bowl from the Northern Song Dynasty from the 10th or 11th century. The 10th or 11th century.
[1:48] And they auctioned that bowl in 2013 and brought in $2.225 million for the $3 bowl.
[2:05] Got another story for you. In 1989, at a flea market in Pennsylvania, a guy bought a painting. Four bucks, he paid for this painting.
[2:17] The painting was torn. But what he liked was the frame. He said, I want this frame. I'll pay four bucks for it. So he takes the frame, takes the painting home.
[2:28] And when he takes the painting out of the frame, he finds a document behind the painting. And it was one of the original 200, they think there were 200 original signed copies of the Declaration of Independence.
[2:45] And he had one of them. In 2013, I mean, in 1991, he sold this fine for $2.42 million.
[2:58] Now, who will sell a bowl, a $2 million bowl for $3? And who's going to sell a document that's worth $2.4 million for $4?
[3:14] Who would do that? Somebody who doesn't know what they have. If they knew what they had, they wouldn't have done it, right?
[3:26] They sold it because they just didn't know what they had. Well, today I'm going to declare to you something that you and I, as children of God, have. It's worth way more than any kind of money.
[3:39] But yet, as evidenced by the way we act sometimes, it's like we either don't realize what we have, or we just don't value it.
[3:52] And that is reconciliation with God. That's what our scripture is going to be about today. Last week, Matt unfolded verses 15 through 24, and he introduced, or in those scriptures, it talked about who Jesus was.
[4:13] Jesus was the creator. He created all things. And he also sustains all things. I hadn't ever thought about it, but Matt was talking about the atom, and I knew what an atom was.
[4:26] You know, it's got a nucleus with the protons and neutrons and the electrons that are floating around it. And it never dawned on me that the thing should pop apart because the protons are going to repel each other and be attracted to the electrons, so it should pop apart.
[4:44] So why doesn't it? Well, God sustains it. If God, like Matt said, if Jesus wasn't sustaining this, the world would just fly apart. He also talked to us about Jesus being the perfect representation of God.
[5:02] He's the perfect image of God because he is God. Matt showed us pictures of the universe, remember? There was a viewer last week. Started with the earth, and then we go out to our solar system.
[5:16] You realize, man, we're small compared to that. But then we got out further to the galaxy. And we're like, man, we're just one star out of billions of stars in the galaxy.
[5:26] And then you go out further, and there's like billions of galaxies. What kind of being can just speak that into existence? The mastermind of...
[5:37] It's just unfathomable that somebody, some being has that power and can mastermind all this stuff. I've got a bum eye right now.
[5:51] That eye... I had an infection. For those of you who don't know, I had an infection, and now I can't see out of it very well, but it's getting better. But just to look and go to the eye doctor and look at the picture of the eye on the thing and all the little parts that are in there that make that eye work, how can that...
[6:12] He just speak that into being. And not only just one eye, but everything in the world. And yet this all-powerful mastermind creator wants to reconcile with us.
[6:28] Insignificant as we are, He cares enough about us to want to reconcile us to Him.
[6:39] And why... Reconciliation is a process or it's where relationships that are broken get restored.
[6:52] We hear this word a lot concerning marriages, you know, that people have issues together and they... Well, they even hear you talk about one of the reasons people get divorced is irreconcilable differences, you know.
[7:07] But in reconciliation, the couple works through the problems and they restore the relationship. We're going to read today's passage and explore this reconciliation.
[7:26] But before I read the passage, let's pray so that we can see God's face. Father, I thank you, Lord, that you are so big, but you care about us.
[7:38] I thank you for today's passage and what it means to us, Lord. And I pray, Father, that I won't stumble over any words. And Lord, that everything that is said today is true and honoring and will bring you glory.
[7:57] Help us to understand you better, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, if you've already in Colossians, let's read our passage. I'm using the NIV.
[8:09] And I put it up here for you, big enough for you to see, by the way. I hope you appreciate that. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him.
[8:21] He's talking about Jesus, dwelling Jesus. And through Him, Jesus, to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.
[8:36] Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation.
[8:55] Reconciliation is one of the best descriptive words for salvation. It goes along with other terms that we come across in the Bible, such as justification, redemption, forgiveness, and adoption.
[9:13] There was a fellow named John MacArthur wrote a commentary. And here's how he describes these terms.
[9:23] In justification, the sinner stands before God guilty and condemned, but is declared righteous. In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a slave, but is granted His freedom.
[9:39] In forgiveness, the sinner stands before God as a debtor, but the debt is paid and forgotten. In adoption, the sinner stands before God as a slave, but is made His son.
[9:53] And in reconciliation, the sinner stands before God as an enemy, but becomes His friend. Those are some wonderful concepts. Some wonderful...
[10:03] How blessed we are to have these things. So since I'm a Greek scholar, I can tell you that the Greek word for reconciliation is kataloso.
[10:20] And it has a couple of meanings, but one of the meanings is to change or exchange. So it's taking from enemies to friends, exchanging hostilities into understanding and acceptance, separation to restoration, and estrangement to endearment.
[10:43] Actually, there was a time in this earth when we were, when mankind was reconciled with God. He didn't need to be reconciled, actually, because he had a perfect relationship with God.
[10:56] Adam and Eve in the garden had a, you know, just a relationship where they could walk with God daily. There was perfect harmony. But it didn't stay good for very long, though.
[11:13] You know, in Genesis, God said, after He created everything, He looked at everything, and He said, it is very good. You know, after He created things, like I say, it didn't stay good long.
[11:25] Adam and Eve chose to rebel, chose to do something that God told them not to do. And they brought sin into the world. And with the sin came the curse of death.
[11:42] And thus, death passed on all of us. The Bible says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.
[11:53] It says here in this verse, that once you were alienated from God, and enemies in your minds.
[12:05] Romans 8, 7 says, The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. So, God promised a long time ago, though, that He would bring reconciliation.
[12:24] That was the promise of the Messiah that would come one day. And it came in the form of Jesus. Jesus, it says right here, He was the one that reconciled us with God.
[12:41] Take a look at the words in verse 22. It says that you're going to be holy, present you holy, without blemish, free of accusation.
[13:02] Does that describe you? It doesn't describe me very well. I'm not exceptionally holy or without blemish, free of accusation.
[13:17] Sometimes I have evil thoughts. Sometimes I say things that I shouldn't say. But notice what it says here.
[13:30] The only way we are without those things is in His sight. We know ourselves. But when God looks at us, He sees us holy, without blemish.
[13:46] So, what's wrong with His eyesight? Why does He see us that way? There's a passage of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 5, and I'm going to read 18 through 21, and we're going to find the answer to how God can see us that way.
[14:10] It says, all this is from God who reconciled us to Himself in Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. This is Paul talking. He said, He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
[14:23] That God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
[14:35] We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
[14:46] God made Him to be sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. So, the way God can see us as holy, without blemish, is because God, in this passage, took our sins and laid them on Jesus, and He took Jesus' righteousness and put it on us, put that on our account.
[15:14] In other words, God the Father treated Jesus like you and I deserve to be treated, so that He can treat us the way that Jesus deserves to be treated.
[15:30] That's reconciliation. How wonderful is that? So, I want to read the rest of it.
[15:42] I was supposed to go through verse 23. We haven't read that yet. So, I'm going to start in verse 22 because it's all one long sentence. But now, He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.
[16:02] If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. The way this is written, it sounds like you could possibly lose that reconciliation.
[16:21] If you don't continue in the faith, will you lose the reconciliation? The reconciliation period is over because, oh, you didn't continue.
[16:32] The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for by grace you save through faith and not of yourselves as a gift of God, not of works.
[16:43] So, and then in Isaiah, it talks about our works or our righteousness are like filthy rags.
[16:56] So, does it make sense that now that you have been reconciled, that you have to work to keep it? You couldn't work to gain it. So, why would we have to work to keep it?
[17:10] So, that's not what he's saying here. Paul has simply given us a measure of your reconciliation. You see, you're not saved by continuing in the faith, but we continue in the faith proving that we've been reconciled.
[17:28] Real faith produces real results. Real results then become the measure for real faith.
[17:40] So, one of the marks of being converted is staying faithful. Salvation leads to service.
[17:53] There's a story of an engineer who was at a construction site and he climbed up a scaffolding. It was up three stories up on a scaffolding. Somehow or other, it must not have been built to nuclear standards that we have at our nuclear plant.
[18:11] He fell off of that scaffolding. Three stories high, he's fallen off the scaffolding and there's a laborer down on the ground and he hears the commotion, the screaming stuff.
[18:25] He looks up and sees this guy falling and realizes he's going to fall on me. You know, I'm right in the way here. and something comes over this guy.
[18:36] Instead of jumping out of the way, he just grabs a hold of those scaffold poles and he braces himself. And the guy falls on him and believe it or not, the engineer kind of walked away with minimal injuries.
[18:53] But the guy that he fell on was severely injured. Matter of fact, he was permanently handicapped. he could never work again.
[19:07] A few years had passed and a reporter had heard about this story and he wanted to do a story on it. So he went and found the laborer and said, hey, you know, tell me about what happened that day.
[19:25] And in his conversation with him, he asked him, so what about the engineer? does he ever contact you or anything or how has he treated you? And he said, you know, that guy gave me half of everything he owns.
[19:42] He contacts me quite often. I never have to be wanting anything because he's always there and hardly a day goes by that he doesn't contact me just to see how I'm doing and remember what happened that day.
[20:02] You see, the engineer that was saved became the servant of the one who saved him. That's a measure for reconciliation for us.
[20:20] if you're really reconciled to God and not just giving lip service about, I'm a Christian, then you will do like it says here, you'll continue in the faith and you won't be moved from the hope that's held in the gospel.
[20:46] Let's bow our heads. thank you Lord for your word. Now Lord, I'm asking these people in here to examine themselves.
[21:01] Have they been reconciled? Have I really been reconciled to you? Lord, I know that I've been reconciled, but you know, I just don't act like it sometimes.
[21:15] Sometimes I forget, Lord, how good you are. I pray, Father, that as people now examine their hearts, examine their lives, Lord, that they'll either come to you and want that reconciliation because we know, Lord, that you won't force it on anyone.
[21:38] You give us a choice. You provide the reconciliation that's up to us, Lord, to accept it. So I pray, Father, that if anyone in here today has not been reconciled to you, Lord, that today is their day for salvation.
[21:54] And I pray for the Christians, Lord, who have been reconciled, Lord, that they'll walk away here with a refreshed heart, realizing just what we have.
[22:06] In Jesus' name, Amen. God