Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

According to the Legal Information Institute, Eminent Domain refers to the power of the government to take private property and convert it into public use.

The catch is, according to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States - the government is only able to exercise this power if they provide just compensation to the property owners.

You may wonder why I bring this up today?

I have even entitled today’s message aptly, Eminent Domain.

Brothers and sisters, if you are not a saved believer in Jesus Christ, you are by nature under the domain of darkness.

All who are not in Christ are by nature slaves to sin and thus under the rule and reign of Satan.

You are his personal property on earth.

He is your earthly king.

You may say, “I don’t even believe in God or Satan - I’m an atheist.”

Or, “I’m just spiritual and don’t believe in an evil being called Satan.”

Yet, just as not believing in the police won’t keep you from the consequences of a speeding violation - not believing in Satan doesn’t mean his authority over you isn’t just as real.

However, we are all offered a way out of this domain.

Jesus Christ exercises the right of Eminent Domain over His creation.

He has the power to redeem His children from the domain of darkness.

And the exercising of this Eminent Domain required a just payment for our sin.

He paid the ultimate payment for us.

The just for the unjust.

This payment was not to Satan, however.

Satan has no authority over Jesus Christ.

Satan only has temporary dominion over unbelievers on earth.

His dominion will come to an end one day.

He, along with all unbelievers, will be cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity.

The actual payment required is to God.

God is the One who demands justice to be served.

God is a perfect God, and in His perfect righteousness He requires a just payment for sin.

Jesus paid our debt.

He bought us back from sin and has rescued us from the domain of darkness.

He has absorbed the penalty for our sin - namely the wrath of God - by His death on the cross.

Join me as we learn more about this wonderful section of Scripture.

Colossians 1:12-14:

Let us pray.

Prayer

Today we are going to discuss three things that Christ’s redemptive work accomplished.

The first is:

I.

Because of Christ’s Redemptive Work on the Cross… You Can Be Qualified(12)

Why does Paul encourage a thankful heart here?

If you recall the previous verses, 9-11, Paul started a prayer of supplication for the believers in Colossae.

He has just finished praying for them to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and to walk in manner worthy of the Lord.

He has also prayed that they bear fruit and that they endure with patience and joy.

Through all of this they are to give thanks to God because they didn’t deserve or earn salvation.

He wants them to know that even though they may suffer and need to patiently endure at times, it is God through Christ who has qualified them.

My friends, we need to remember this as well as we approach Christ.

This word qualify reminds me of Paul’s frequent metaphorical comparison to this life as a race.

Jesus Christ ran the qualifying race for us.

We fall flat on our face as soon as the race begins.

In fact that is the doctrine of original sin.

We all are born into sin.

Sin is our default nature.

I imagine my life a lot like that guy who just can’t get started out of the block.

Or if I actually get started…I might end up like this!

Sometimes those hurdles sneak up on you in life!

Looking at verse 12 we see that Jesus Christ ran the perfect race and gives us His qualifying time - His perfect righteousness is imputed, or placed upon, us and we are given the blessing to share in an eternal inheritance with Christ and other saints who are believers.

I love that word qualified.

The Greek word is hikanoō (heek-a-no-o) which means to render able, render worthy, make capable, and make sufficient.

None of these definitions are anything we can do.

When considering the word qualified, we also see that the opposite of qualified has two distinct aspects.

According to theologian Sam Storms you can be:

Unqualified or

Disqualified

Being unqualified means that we are not able to do something because we haven’t attained the training yet.

I was unqualified to be a physician until I attended medical school, went to residency, and took my boards.

Using this understanding we can try to create a works-based idea of salvation and righteousness which is not Biblical.

Many believe if they work hard enough - like in my case of working hard to become a physician - that they can go from being unqualified to qualified to going to heaven.

However, when it comes to righteousness, we are actually not unqualified - we are disqualified!

There is no hope for someone who is disqualified.

They aren’t even allowed back in the race at all!

How do we know we are all by nature disqualified?

We all fall short.

As we stated above - we are born into sin and can’t even get out of the starting block of life without ending up on our face!

Just like an Olympic athlete who is disqualified for using a banned substance, we are disqualified from eternal life because of sin.

We have all sinned and we are automatically out of the race.

Because we fall short of God’s perfect standard, there is nothing that we can do to become qualified on our own.

But praise God for Jesus Christ giving us His righteousness and qualifying us for eternal life through His redemption!

At the end of verse 12 we see what this qualifications brings out:

This qualification enables us as believers to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

What is this inheritance?

It is heaven.

It is the blessed promise of eternal life with Jesus Christ for all eternity along with all other believers.

Understand that this inheritance is not just an avoidance of judgment.

Although it is great news that we don’t have to go to Hell - this inheritance is one that is far beyond our dreams and imagination.

It is an inheritance that is far more than we could ever gain on this side of eternity.

My friends, this inheritance is imperishable.

It can never be removed from you once you receive the guarantee of this inheritance.

As we see here, true believers have obtained the inheritance.

The Greek here is in the present tense participle meaning God has chosen and sealed the believer with the Holy Spirit.

The believer has been saved by grace through faith and not by works as we see in Ephesians 2:8-9.

In light of this we can understand that we are not qualified to obtain this inheritance by our own works.

Like we said earlier - Jesus Christ ran the race for us and has given us His qualifying time.

Because of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross we can be qualified.

Because of this work we can also be:

Scripture References: 2 Timothy 4:7-8; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 1:11, 2:8-9

II.

Because of Christ’s Redemptive Work on the Cross… You Can Be Transferred(13)

We see what we were saved from in verse 13.

We were rescued and delivered from the domain of darkness.

This phrase refers to Satan and his area of power in this world.

The word domain refers to one’s jurisdiction.

We see Jesus refer to this in Luke 22:53: