The Father Who has Qualified Us, Col, 1:11-12
Colossians 1:11-12 · Vern Peterman · Mar 14, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826233595103

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right. Now, back into this Colossians passage. We're here in Colossians 1, 11 and 12. And I have to tell you, we're cheating. The reason we're cheating is because we stopped last week kind of in the middle of the thought and the sentence just because we ran out of time. And so this is really kind of the rest of Paul's thought. But we even kind of cut the corner a little bit beyond that because last week there was one phrase, remember I said we'll handle that next week? So we've got to go back to last week in order to get the picture. Let's step our way through it. Remember last week we said this.

Starting in verse 9 there in Colossians 1, Paul's telling them they hadn't ceased to pray for the believers there, for these saints at Colossae, and he asked that, and kind of the next part there, They may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and understanding, so that... In other words, He didn't just say, stop there. He says, I'm praying for you for this to be taking place in you. Remember, His prayer was not just some external result. I hope you win a million denarii or whatever it is.

It's not an external result. He was praying for this work in them with the consequence. Remember, this is the outcome. that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Now, remember, key thing. He was not just praying that they would have this external behavior. He was praying that because of what was happening in their hearts, what was happening inside, that there would be this outside result.

And that's really important for us to keep in mind as we go through these passages, isn't it? The Lord is not saying, okay, here's the rules, go out and do it. But in fact, the Lord is saying, this needs to be happening inside, so that there's this result on the outside. Key, important thing. Otherwise, we'll be missing something. It's really, really hard to go 60 miles an hour in a car if you don't have an engine. It's a lot of really hard pushing. Same thing.

You really want to look at what's inside and make sure that's there, and that's what Paul is praying for for them. He wants this outcome. Now, see that in blue there, in increasing in the knowledge of God? That's what I said next week, okay? So your handout last week has this slide. I mean, adding this, and this is included in the first part of your handout for this week, and increasing in the knowledge of God, basically what we're studying today is the additional outcome. the additional results that he is praying for them for, that starts with verse 9.

Okay? So let's keep that in mind as we're going through this. Now, as we look at that last phrase, increasing in the knowledge of God, one of the reasons why I wanted to hold off is because I wanted to have a chance to talk this over with Hal and with Mike. Whenever I come and I say, well, the translation isn't quite right. Hey, I want to make sure that I'm stepping on solid ground here. So here's what I think we want to look at, this word increasing.

Okay. And I struggle with increasing, but that's not the kind of talking about here. Okay. It can mean increase, but it can mean grow in examples. We have several here and this is not all of them, but one of them, for example, it shows up. We make frequent reference to.

2 Peter 3.18, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That same word is used here for growing. Not just increasing, but growing. And then prior to that phrase, here in Colossians 1, it says, bearing fruit in every good work.

What does that make you think of? Trees. Trees grow, do they not? Bearing fruit. Now look at this thing here. Oxano here is passive. So we are made to grow resulting from something outside of ourselves. You see that? So it isn't our just sort of trying to grow or even trying to increase. It's not our effort. It's not active, as a lot of the translations bring it across. It's made to grow, being made to grow.

So this is the way I see this verse coming across here at the end. bearing fruit in every good work, and being made to grow by means of the intimate knowledge of God. See the difference there? Not just increasing in the knowledge of God, but in sync with the phrase bearing fruit. Make the comparison to a plant, or a tree, or a vine. Bearing fruit in every good work, and being made to grow by means of the intimate knowledge of God. Is that not beholding the Lord? That's what it's talking about. Our being made to grow as believers is as a result of the intimate knowledge of God.

That's the effect. So anyway, key point I wanted to bring up, also wanted to make sure that the elders are all in sync here before I present something that's a little bit different understanding than what might come out directly from our translations. Okay, now. As we move into verse 11, here's what we see. Strengthen with all power, according to His glorious might. Okay?

And one of the things that's interesting here, we've got all these words, strength, power, might. You see that? Boy, all these different words. As a matter of fact, one of the things that happens, it's interesting, and we'll get behind it in terms of understanding the original language, but this, the New American Standard, which I typically put on there, The power and might, the words are switched from the King James Version. But more important than which word goes where is the understanding of what word is behind it and the meaning behind it. So we'll take a close look at that.

Strengthen here is a verb, might is a noun, and they're from the same family of words. So this doesn't come out in the English, does it? Basically, these words have a connection. Strength and might are together. Something else to look at. This word strengthened and power. The King James there has might for that second word. It's dunamis. Dunamou in the Greek. So the question, this word, you might recognize it. This is where they came up with the trade name for dynamite. And a lot of people bring that up. They say, oh, that's where we got our word dynamite.

This is true. However, I want you to think about something. Is this quite what Paul had in mind? Okay. Was he thinking of dynamite when he did this? Probably not. Okay. So he's not talking about Christians. He's not saying, I'm going to pray for you that you would be exploding. Okay. He's not, that's not his point. Okay. So what is he talking about here?

As you look at this thing here, this word here, even though it's the source of the word dynamite, the real meaning of the word has not so much the idea of being explosive or even having impressive outward expression. The main idea behind these words is ability and sufficiency. That's the main idea, and it's key to get that in our thinking, because otherwise, every time we see that word, we're going to be thinking of exploding, and that's not what it's talking about. It isn't talking even about being impressive to other people. It's being adequate. It's being sufficient. And while we're bringing up that point, have you ever felt inadequate for something? This is dealing with that inadequacy issue, just straight on. It is dealing with that inadequacy issue.

So he says, may you be strengthened with power, and he uses these related words. May you be strengthened, here's the verb, with power. There's the noun, the power. He has this other word that comes in here, which the New American Standard has as might, the King James has it as power there, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience joyously. Now, let's take a look at that one. This word is kratos, and it has a different idea.

It's inherent power. It is power that is basic to who the Lord is. It is because of who God is that there is this Kratos power. He is, by his very character, a powerful God. That's the power that he's talking about here. The sufficiency, Paul's point is, the adequacy that you have as a believer, the enablement that you have as a believer, is consistent with the might of God Himself. Do you feel adequate now? Do you see the point? The adequacy is from the Lord. So, we have this thing here, Revelation.

We went through this some months back here, but Revelation 5.13 Here is every created thing which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them. I heard saying to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and dominion." There's that word, the word we just looked at, kratos, forever and ever.

It isn't that you're giving it to God, it's because it's God's very character. It is attributing to Him the character that He has inherently. That's the point of this word here. Your sufficiency, your adequacy then, is based on this kind of forever inherent might. That's what he's saying. So, is this the point of Christian maturity? Is that what he's trying to get at? I would suggest not, but who knows? Anyway, let's look at it. It doesn't matter what I think, it matters what God thinks. Here is the sense of Colossians 1.11a, the first half of the verse. Boy, you folks are forgiving. Especially Hal and Mike.

Anyway, being entirely enabled with all necessary ability, Consistent with, and remember this Greek word kata, we looked at it before, you'd spell it in English k-a-t-a, it has the idea of consistent with or as a standard. Consistent with or as a standard the glorious inherent power of who he is. Have you felt inadequate for a situation? We asked that question before. The adequacy for the things, because remember last week we talked about works, okay, good works. The adequacy for the things that God has prepared in advance, the good things that He's prepared in advance, comes entirely from Him. He has prepared the good things, He has enabled you, He has given you the capacity and the sufficiency, and the capacity and the sufficiency is entirely consistent with and according to the standard of the measure of the might of the creator of the universe. Is that sufficient, folks? Is it adequate? Yeah. If we feel inadequate, if we feel inadequate, It has nothing to do with reality.

Remember, we're living by faith in the facts. The reality is the Lord, by His power and enabling, is completely sufficient, plenty adequate, for every good work that He has prepared in advance for us to do. Now, let's look at this next thing, because he doesn't just say, okay, we've got this power and ability, what for? He doesn't just say, we've got it, and leave it there. He says, for, and here's where it points to the next part. Here is what that ability, that sufficiency, which is consistent in its source with the Lord Himself, here is what it's for.

Now, it isn't for exploding banks of rock. It isn't for dazzling everybody. Look at what it's for. This is pivotal. For the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. Now, that doesn't sound very impressive. That's what it's for. You have the sufficiency and adequacy of the God of the universe. The creator of all that is. and look what it's for. It's for steadfastness and patience. Wow. How am I going to impress people with that? You might not. But let's look at those words. I'm glad this thing isn't still exploding. It's not for the attaining of ideal personal circumstances.

I'm going to make things perfect around me. You know, now I've got this power, I'm going to make things just perfect around me. I'm going to adjust and adapt and accommodate things around me so that everything is constantly ideal. That's what God made me so capable and sufficient for.

Is that right? No. Not the picture, is it? The attaining of unlimited financial resources. Always the right amount of bucks. How much is the bill? No, that's not what it's for. Sorry. The attaining of continuously perfect health. I can tell you personally, no, forget that one. That's not what it's for. The attaining of overwhelming personal influence and political power. Ain't going to happen, folks. Sorry, not going to happen. That's not what it's for. It's not for the attaining of universal admiration by others. No guarantee of that. It's not for that purpose.

But let's look at what the words are for. One is steadfastness. It has the King James Patience. Hupomonee. This is not whoopee, I've got some money. It's hupomonee. going to make you have a divinely given ability to be a Harry Houdini of all circumstances, miraculously escaping every difficulty.

That's not what it's for. It's not escaping. It is neither passive resignation. It isn't, It's a strength of character that hangs in there through the circumstances based on the source of strength, the power and the might. You see that? It doesn't sit there and say, I'm going to overwhelm every circumstance and adjust it and change it. It doesn't say, I'm just going to sit here and be a flat tire until this thing is done. a strength that hangs in there through the circumstances, whatever it is.

This is one of the words that was used by Paul when he was instructing Titus. Titus is headed over to Crete, or he's in Crete, and he says, teach the older men this, this character, a hanging in there strength. So is this what Paul means by being steadfast? Not quite.

But it does mean remaining in there, not with just a passivity, not with just a resignation, but it means a strength that remains in there in the midst of the circumstances. The other word that comes in here is patience, long-suffering. Macrothumia means long passion. It is for a long time enduring.

What would otherwise make one angry? A slowness. This idea is brought forth in James 119. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. It was interesting, some years back there was a federal study. You know how the government gives grants for all sorts of unimaginable things. And one of them was, what is the secret to marriages that stay together? You know what they found?

James 1.19. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. That was the answer they came up with. Not that verse, but the same idea. Isn't that something?

Why don't they just look up James 1.19? Anyway, that's the idea of this word. It is a patience. Now, we have to make a distinction here. Hupomone, which is the other one, is all about circumstances, remaining strong under the circumstances. This is different. This is about people. This is the patience that Hal and Mike have with me. So that's the distinction between these two words.

If you look at Galatians 5.19 and 20, And it says, now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are, and include, and he lists them, outbursts of anger. Okay, that's in contrast to macrophobia. It is outbursts of anger at people, that's at the other end, and in contrast to what he's describing here, this macrophobia. It's a patience with people that's particularly described here. Okay. Now, let's move on. Joyously giving thanks to the Father, and the King James has therewith joyfulness, and frankly, I think that's probably a better way of carrying it across. The King James, I think, is more correct.

Something else to note there that doesn't come across in the English, remember when we were going through the book of Philippians, we brought out this charis family of words? Here it shows up here, and Paul puts them right together. What does he link up? Steadfastness and patience, and then what does he link up? Two Keres family words. Keres is behind joyously, and giving thanks is eukaristeo. The first one is basically found in joy based on grace, and the next one is good gracing. So he's put those together. That's the way he links them up there, and so the number 12 there that shows our verse, Paul didn't write that. You've got to remember that. So these words as he wrote them are right together.

All right, now, something we've got to look at in the culture. There was a group that we brought them up before as we were going through the book of Philippians, and here they show up again. The Stoic philosophers, we have that term in our own culture, we talk about somebody being emotionless, we say they're Stoic. That's the term that we use.

He's got the same idea here, and if you look at this, being steadfast and patient in the middle of a trial, the Stoic philosophers would say, yeah, I'm for that. Just hang in there through the trial and be unemotional. That's what the Stoic philosophers would say. being steadfast and patient in the middle of the trial, the Stoic philosophers would say, it's just fine.

The next thing that he just told them totally blows out of the water anything that would say, oh, these Christians are just like the Stoic philosophers. Because look at this. Paul is leaving the Stoic philosophers in the dust here. He adds, with joyfulness and giving thanks. The Stoic philosophers would not have agreed with that, desired to do it, or even understood it. So he's saying this is entirely contrary to anything in the culture. As a matter of fact, it's entirely contrary to anything in our culture. But Paul was not just blowing smoke. He wasn't just hypothesizing here.

Let's go to Acts 16.22-25. Remember in Philippi, here's Paul. This crowd had risen up based on basically some false accusations. They had beaten. Paul and Silas, and they put them in the prison. One of the points we made is they put them in the inner prison in stocks. And let me give you the description of the typical inner prison situation. It means you're in the most secure part of the prison.

You're down low. Frequently air circulation is poor. Frequently light entering into that area is poor. They wouldn't just put you on a seat in stocks. They would put you back into kind of a hole in the wall about the size of a dishwasher. And then they would have, out coming across the opening, some locks to lock in your hands and your feet. Okay? They wouldn't necessarily clean it up from where the last guy was there. And if you said, hey, you know, I gotta go relieve myself, they'd say, sorry. Okay?

Now, in the midst of that kind of a circumstance, what do you see in verse 25? In the middle of a miserable time, they had just gotten beaten, The place where they are stinks, they can't move, their wrists and their ankles are hurting like crazy, and what do they do? About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening. What else could they do, right? It's at that point in time, Paul blows out of the water the Stoic philosophy.

It isn't just hang in there and be patient. But in the midst of that, joyfully giving thanks. Joyfully giving thanks. To the world, that's going to be absolutely nuts. You need to understand that. What? You're going through this circumstance and you're joyfully giving thanks? The world is not going to understand that. The world is not going to comprehend it.

That's fine. There needs to be a character. That's what he's looking for. He's praying for them that this change will take place in their hearts, not because God said, act this way and be a good actor, but because the Lord is working personally in the heart of the believer to bring about this kind of a heart from the inside that is joyful and thankful in the midst of circumstances like this. That's remarkable. That's totally inexplicable.

Prepared to have people think you're nuts. Prepared to have them be baffled. Giving thanks to whom? Giving thanks to the Father. Remember, He's the one who's doing these things. And then this is what He says. Who has qualified us to share in the inheritance. The saints and the light. It's those who has qualified us to share in the inheritance. We want to take a look at here.

Here's a key word that jumps out. Disqualified. Hikana'o. Has nothing to do with the people I went to high school with. He made us able, competent, and sufficient as inheritors. That's the ideal. Able, competent, and sufficient. This idea keeps coming across, doesn't it? This capacity.

Is your qualification as an inheritor, spiritually speaking, dependent upon you? You got to work for it. You got to kind of keep your checklist, make sure you're keeping up with it, push really hard, and make sure you're going to qualify. You don't want to get disqualified right at the very end, right?

No. Past tense. He is the one who has done it. It's his doing, it's his accomplishment, not ours. This word is in the active voice. It's God who has done the work, and it's already done. It's happened. He has qualified us. You and I don't need to keep a checklist to make sure we're continually qualified for this inheritance. Not going to happen. Next one, this word inheritance, kleros, okay?

And it's here in Colossians 1.12. I don't find it elsewhere in Colossians or Ephesians. There's a related noun that we've talked about in Ephesians chapter 1, and we're not done. We're going to see it again, and then we're going to see it again towards the end of the book.

And this is speaking of the total inheritance of the saints, all of the saints inherit, and of which each saint has a share, a part in. Now, something we've got to digress with. If your memory is really good, this is all going to be review. Fourteen months ago, we went over this, so you remember it all? Okay, now, haggios. It's a word that we touched on before, and so I'm not going to go into it in as much detail, but I just don't want to overlook it either.

It has this meaning, the saint has this meaning, set apart for a sacred purpose. Again, we want to set aside what our culture tends to pass along to us. We think of saintly as being some exceptional person based on their behavior. That's not what this is. Believers are addressed as saints, even believers where as we see later on in Ephesians, he's saying, He addresses those as saints. So this word saint has a whole different meaning than what our culture gives it.

Holy and sanctified is the idea. The Greeks had this idea. Anything that was used in the pagan temples, the people, the priests, the furniture, was set apart for a sacred purpose. It was hagios. It's that word that Paul uses with every single believer in Christ. If you're a believer in Christ this morning, you're a saint. And you don't have to wait for somebody else to say so. God says so.

Now, they got it from basically the pagan temples, so Paul adapted the word. As we mentioned before, Colossae has not been excavated. So this is Philippi, which has been. But there were pagan gods there, as I'm sure we'll find in the excavation at Colossae. And in these temples, that was where the things would be called haggios. Anything in the temple would be called haggios. So Paul comes to it, he's actually applying the word specially for Christians, and the reason that you find a lot of times just haggios and then other words is Paul frequently had to make it clear he wasn't talking about the pagan temples.

He was talking about taking that definition of being devoted to a sacred purpose, but often using other words to make it clear that this isn't the pagan temple he's talking about, but it is instead those who are in Christ. So he would call them saints in Christ Jesus, or something to particularly define it as being Christian. Okay.

Now, so, as far as saints, there's this moral perspective, okay? Paul could call the believers saints because they were sanctified, made holy, again, by the Lord, set apart for a sacred purpose. And he writes to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, he lists some of the things that they were doing. He says, you know, even you were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, etc. Such were some of you, okay? Sanctified. How about that? Those who had these immoral lifestyles, he says, such were some of you. You've been sanctified, made holy in the Lord. Okay. There's also a time perspective, and you have this in your handout, and I wanted to make sure you do.

All believers are made saints in the past. It is God's doing. It is on the basis of their belief. It's irreversible. Every believer is a saint. In the present, we are being sanctified. That position of sainthood is being worked out day by day. Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica and he says, this is the will of God. So you want to know the will of God? He says, this is the will of God, your sanctification. That's this. the last one in the future, all believers will ultimately, totally, and completely be irreversibly sanctified. That is, they will be made consistent in their position, in their condition. Their condition and their position will be one and the same. Okay. Now, next thing we want to take a look at here, this is the definite articles, and there's a couple of definite articles that show up. in verse 11, but verse 12, he keeps hammering at him, okay?

And it doesn't come across consistently in the English, so I wanted to point it out. Now, I've got a little bit of a quandary here. Art pointed out to me that the use of the and the is different in English, and I keep saying the, and it has to do with where you got starting with vowels or whether you're starting with consonants. So I'm a little bit puzzled here.

But anyway, it says in verse 12, giving thanks to the Father, the One who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. But the point being here, these definite articles are pointing to the specific One. They're emphatic. They're emphatic. They're there to put focus on these things. So he keeps hammering with these definite articles here to get the point home.

While we're at this word light, there's something that I want to make clear. Now, we always like to clarify things here at Holly Hills Bible Church because we think clarity is important. So I want you to know this is light. OK? You got that? That's light. OK. All right. So now we got that clear. Now, let's make it even more clear. Let's talk about it. OK.

The first thing, and you have this in your handout, is the active use. This is the idea that it has the physical, idea of illumination, of making it so that we can see things. It's also the life source. We get our energy from light, and so that is one use there. Another use is the idea of discerning. Light allows us to see things and to discern one thing from another, truth from falsehood. So scripture makes reference to light in that way as well. And finally there's the moral use, the moral use of light and the contrast with darkness. And we'll see that also as we go through Ephesians. So light has all these meanings and significance.

The point that he's making here though, it basically is underscored very simply in 1st John 1.5. John is writing there and he says, this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light. So he says, saints in light is saints in the very character of God. And who God is. The person of God.

One of the things we saw as we went through the book of Revelation is in the New Jerusalem, there will be no need of sun or even, hey, switch on the light. because the Lord Himself will be the source of all light. The Lord is by nature light. One of the things we have said before is glory is the essential brilliance of who God is. Okay? It's the brilliance of who God is. So, saints in light. We are saints in light because we are saints in Him. Saints in Christ.

As we look at this passage, I want to kind of back up here a little bit. We've looked here at verses 11 and 12, but if we look at 9 through 12, one of the things to take a look at here, first point, Paul, based on the things that he has heard about the Colossian church, remember he hasn't been there so far as we know, what does he say? He says, I'm going to be praying for you. So point number one, prayer does matter, does make a difference.

That's the message. Now, couldn't the Lord have just said, hey, I know everything, you don't need to tell me anything, I'll just do it. Couldn't He have done that? But very interestingly, instead He says, no. I want communication with you. I want involvement with you. I want you to grow through the experience. And I want you to be in the loop on how this comes about.

So no, prayer does matter. If you're ever wondering, why am I praying? You know, God knows everything. He's all-powerful. I'm not telling him anything he doesn't know. The Lord does indeed desire that we pray. He gives Paul as the example. And Paul speaks here with every indication that prayer matters. That it is a worthwhile thing to do. As a matter of fact, he says, we haven't ceased to pray. Remember, we haven't ceased to pray at intervals. Prayer does matter. The second point that comes out is that the change that is going to take place in a believer's life is going to happen because of what happens inside and not because of, here's the behavior on the outside.

If you ever see some really good actor or actress in action, they can be terribly convincing, even if what they are doing does not relate to their life at all. A good actor or actress can make it look a certain way on the outside. He is not talking about being a good actor or actress. He's talking about a change that happens from the inside out. And the third thing is, he doesn't present these activities, these external conditions, these external descriptions of what it's like for the believer, without first talking about what happens inside the believer. Key point. We need to be careful that we don't just say, okay, what does that look like? Yeah, I'm good at acting, and try to step into that. This isn't an acting job.

Your sufficiency, your adequacy is entirely from the Lord. You can't just say, okay, Lord, give me the orders, I'll meet you there. But instead, it is the Lord working in the believer that produces this. That's what Paul's praying for. Let's pray for that now for ourselves, okay? Lord, as we look at these things, boy, we sure don't want to get the cart before the horse and miss the boat here. And we do come to you praying and asking, Lord, that you would indeed work in us in the way that we see Paul. praying for the believers in Colossae.

Indeed be working in us that we would not be fooled that we can bring about anything pleasing to you because we act well or because we try to conform to an external set of behaviors. And so Lord we just are thankful for the marvelous position we have in you. We thank you for your enabling to live moment by moment consistent with that position in our condition. Thank you for it all. In Jesus' name, Amen.