Transferred, Col, 1:13-14
Colossians 1:13-14 · Vern Peterman · Mar 21, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826234102625

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

We'll indeed delve into this set of verses here, but as we do that, I'm actually going to start off with a little bit of a story here. Let's begin our story this way. Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, in 1982, Nancy and I began to build a house out in the country in Northern California, okay?

And as we were building this house, there were many custom features. As a matter of fact, things were taken out of old buildings, antique buildings, a number of structural pieces, redwood-heartwood timbers put in the ceilings, very carefully done. Even parts of an old redwood water tower were used. Pieces of hardware from an old logging garage were put into this. This house was to be nestled on the edge of a forest overlooking a grassy hilly area. The entire outside of this house was clad in redwood barn board siding, an inch thick and very good shape. And Nancy had even made custom glass etchings on a number of the windows, this being just a small sample. And the view from the master bedroom was just picturesque beyond belief.

An old barn, a little pond there right in the middle. Occasionally sheep and cattle grazing on the hills. Lovely place. At times the coastal fog would come into the redwoods and it would be very nice and there were lovely agricultural fields nearby, grapes, fruit trees, apples, sheep grazing, cattle on the hills. nearby a historic town of Mendocino right along the coast, lovely winding roads going through grassy knolls and tree covered lanes.

Well, then while I was on a lovely trip into the quaint little town of Baunach, Germany, The board members walked into my bedroom in the middle of the night, turned on the switch and said, congratulations, you're being transferred. So, in the middle of building this house, we moved down to the sprawling Silicon Valley and lived right about there. I worked right about there.

And guess what? We never did get to live in that house with a picturesque view from the master bedroom bay window. Never happened, because we were transferred. We had been translated, conveyed, if you will. Now, we're going to talk about being transferred here this morning, only it's a different kind of transferred, believe me. And this transfer is going to have a number of contrasts from what I just conveyed to you.

But anyway, let's charge into it. We're going to see also this word rescued shows up in the King James Version delivered. And so we'll be looking particularly at those two words and contrasting them. Just to kind of get the big picture here, I want to show it pictorially, and you have it also in your handout.

He rescued us from the domain of darkness, just that very clear statement there, and transferred us translated or conveyed in some of your other translations into the kingdom of his beloved son. I mean, this is a very clear statement of what takes place. We're going to look, of course, into the detail of what that means, but he spells it out clearly here. So as we have it, we've been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son.

Now there's some things to just note right at the outset. First of all, this action is in the past, okay? We're not saying, boy, it'd sure be nice if I was transferred out of here, okay? Sure be nice if I wasn't in the domain of darkness, okay? Or I hope eventually to be out of this domain of darkness, okay? That's not what the statement is. It's a past action.

We have been, as believers, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ here this morning, sitting or standing, you've been transferred. A good transfer, believe me. You've been rescued out of the domain of darkness and into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.

The other thing is the action is a fact. It's a statement of fact. It's not hopeful thinking. It's not wishful thinking. It's not just, boy, it sure would be nice. It's a statement of fact. It's a done deal. The other thing is the action of the Father.

It's not ours to do. It's not saying, boy, I'm going to get up this morning and work really hard to get transferred out of the domain of darkness. Not that deal at all. It is God the Father's accomplishment, His doing entirely, not ours. A key point to get across here. Having been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son does not mean we've been transferred from bad circumstances to good circumstances. Because you have become a believer does not mean now I'm on the highway to heaven in a road of ease. It doesn't mean that suddenly the circumstances are all peachy keen. Not that at all. Key point for us to get across. All right, now let's look at this.

We've got this word rescued, delivered in the King James Version, and we need to take a look at that word, because that's what he starts off with. That's the word that describes how we've been taken out of this domain of darkness, okay? So we've got rescued, or the King James has delivered, and one thing to make quite clear, this delivered has nothing to do with pizza, okay? But, this delivered instead here in the King James has this other meaning, it is delivered out of bondage is the idea, okay?

That's what he's getting across here. Both those words are good translations and get the idea across. It's being taken out of, rescued, delivered from, out from the bondage that we're in. And one of the things that we see an application of here, 1 Thessalonians 1, the last half of verse 9 and into verse 10, Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica and he says, and he talks about how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God. to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus, who rescues us. Okay?

That's this word here. This rescuing that's taking place, who rescues us out of the wrath to come. This is, of course, looking forward. But there is this sense taking us out from something. We have been taken out from the domain of darkness. That's his point here. Okay. Now we have this word domain, or it's called the power of darkness in the King James. And we need to take a look at that one, okay? Because remember, it's not just the activity of rescued. We've been rescued from something, right? And that's the description here. All right. We have this domain or the power of darkness. Exousia, okay? Is the word there.

And this word has the root meaning of a freedom to act. Those who are in the domain of darkness don't have the freedom to act, okay? It's the God of this world that has the tyrannical freedom to act. The God of this world has the freedom, those who are under him don't.

See that? There is a tyranny with which the God of this world acts, and so he's describing that, it's that domain, that domain of tyranny that we have been taken out from. So unbelievers are entirely subject to the sin nature and entirely subject to the domain of Satan. See that?

They have no freedom to act otherwise. They cannot act outside of that. There is no freedom. The domain has all the shots. The domain calls all the shots. The domain decides what happens. People will talk about having free will. You ever hear that term? People talk about having free will. The truth is, every creature acts according to its nature. And those who are not believers have one single nature, and that is the sin nature, and that nature entirely controls everything that they do.

We do not come to a crocodile and say to a crocodile, now crocodile, you behave like a crocodile! And we don't do that. Why? because the crocodile has no choice but to act according to its nature, which is crocodilian, right? It's going to act like a crocodile. You don't have to tell it to. The same thing, an unbeliever entirely subject to the sin nature, entirely within the domain of darkness, is going to act entirely according to that nature. Entirely.

So those who are entirely subject to that sin nature are also entirely subject to the domain of darkness all right now there's the domain of darkness just so you know okay now the domain of darkness looks like this Paul describes it and we'll look at this in more detail as we get there Ephesians 2 1 through 4 he spells it out this way and you were dead in your trespasses and sins well that's real encouraging isn't it in which you formally walked according to the course of this world According to the prince of the power of the air and by the way that according to means consistent with Okay, there is a consistency there, okay? So use this according to according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience Among them we all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest, okay That's his kind of expanded description here of the domain of darkness. You want to know what the domain of darkness is? Right there. Right in the middle of it, he steps aside from just simply the condition of each believer, but the domain in which each unbeliever is situated. That's the domain of darkness.

He says, we've been transferred. The King James will have conveyed, or you'll also see in other versions, translated, transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. All right, now we need to take a look at that word. Methistano is the idea. It's a compound word, and it's real interesting. This word was used in Greek literature for the idea of transferring a large number of people, a mass transfer. from one domain to another.

Examples, which obviously took place well before this, when the northern kingdom of Israel was overcome by the Assyrians, what did they do? They pulled them out of there. Mass transfer. Same thing happened sometime later when the southern kingdom became subject to Babylon. What happened? Babylon didn't just leave them there, they took a large number of them and took them to Babylon.

That's how this word is used. So it's very interesting. It applies to large numbers of people. It's also used in Daniel 2.21 to describe when God changes kings. It's a momentous change, is the idea. A big change. Now, you have in your handout a description.

This is an example that happened just a couple of centuries before the New Testament era. And there's Antiochus III, he resettled 2,000 Jewish families. Now that's a lot of resettling. 2,000 Jewish families from Mesopotamia and Babylonia, to Lydia and Phrygia, and those are recorded by Josephus.

That transfer is an example of this very word. A large number of people transferred from one land to another. A major transfer. And why would he use this word with the people in Colossae? It's because where those people got relocated is right where Ephesus and Colossae are.

So the very people, especially the Jews who lived in that area, getting this letter would say, oh, I know about that. My great, great, great grandparents did exactly that. And so they would take this with good knowledge and understanding of what this word is. So when Paul said it, they said, yep, I understand exactly what that means. My own family was impacted by that.

Okay, so let's kind of go over it. What does this transfer talk about? It means a transfer from darkness to light. Remember in the prior passage, he talked about light, that we are in light, so from darkness to light, point one. From slavery to freedom, he's made that point elsewhere here. From slavery to freedom, completely enslaved to sin, to a place of freedom. That's the second aspect of this transfer.

The next one is condemnation of forgiveness, and that's the point that he makes in the passage, doesn't he? From condemnation to forgiveness. Those who have been transferred to the kingdom of the Son, what does Paul write to the church at Rome? There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. None. You want some condemnation? Can't find it in Christ Jesus. None. It isn't there.

Third, the power of Satan to the power of God. Now, as we say that, very important distinction to be made. Is the power of God and the power of Satan just equal and opposite? Are they equal and opposite? I see heads shaking. I also see some puzzled looks, but heads shaking too. Alright. They are opposite but not equal, are they? Satan's power is certainly opposed to God, but it is not equal to God. So we're not talking about a transfer from one to another of equals. They are opposites, but not equals. God's power way outdoes Satan's power. Satan's power is a small subset. Nonetheless, they are transferred from the temporary and eventually fading power of Satan and lesser power of Satan to the power of God, which is eternal. And there's also a difference in the character of the beings.

Okay, now we have the 64 quintillion dollar question of the day. Are you ready for this? Are you ready for the 64 quintillion dollar question? Now, this issue that we have here in these verses, are you ready? Is this verse talking about a believer's condition or position? Which one?

Okay. Now, if you said position good for you, after the service you need to see Sue about a check, okay? Alright. Okay. Alright. Now, so the question is, when were we rescued? Okay? When were we rescued? Becky recognizes this truck. Anyway, when were we rescued?

We've got to answer that question here. We have some answers. Let's take a look at it. This is a chart that you have in miniature. We've distributed it in larger form previously. And we'll probably distribute it from time to time. But the bottom line here is our rescue has to do with our being identified with Christ. I like to hold up the five fingers or four fingers and a thumb here. Crucified, buried, raised, descended, and seated. That it's those things that are critical, essential, not incidental, not partial. Those things are intimately involved and are having been rescued and transferred. Let's take a look at that in detail. Here's the clue that comes out of Romans 6, 5 through 7.

We have become united with him in the likeness of his death. So the clear statement in verse 6 there that we have highlighted, our old self was crucified with Him. This is the identification with Him. How are we identified? Every believer is identified with Christ in Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding. This is identifying that first step, the crucifixion, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Remember one of the points we made is that that rescue, involves going from slavery to freedom, this is making the point. And how does that happen? It is initiated by our having been crucified with Christ. It is the identification truths, if you will, that starts this rescue and transfer process. Here's the same truth coming across in Galatians.

Galatians 2.20, the first part of the verse is, I have been crucified with Christ.

We just saw that in Romans. and finishes off in Galatians 6.14, and the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. What's the world? The domain of darkness. That comes out of that Ephesians 2 passage. So what we see here is this process of being rescued and transferred is directly tied in with the five ways in which we have been identified with Christ, and it begins with the crucifixion. That's the start of the rescue process.

Now, isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? Do you think that the Romans who were sitting there putting the nails in Jesus thought, boy, this is the start of a rescue process. I'm sure that never crossed their minds. But that's exactly what God had in mind. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? The Jews were thinking, boy, we finally got rid of Him. God said, oh, you don't even begin to understand.

I'm starting a rescue process. Does that look like a rescue process? No. I think that's something real critical to keep in mind. Things oftentimes are very different from what they look like. Okay? Key point here. What looks to some like a horrible tragedy and an awful event, the disciples were scattered all over, had no idea what was going on.

God said, I am just beginning the rescue process. Isn't that amazing? Okay, that got me out of the domain of darkness, so far so good. Then how did I get into the Kingdom of His Beloved Son? Okay? How'd that happen? Let's take a look first at what does he mean by this phrase, His Beloved Son?

We see this phrase, Beloved Son, shows up a number of times in the New Testament. This is one particular one. As a matter of fact, it's the only one that says, His Beloved Son. And this word, Beloved, is this word, agape, okay? It is a selfless, unconditional love. He is the Son who is loved, deeply loved, of the Lord. As a matter of fact, how do we know that?

My beloved Son is a phrase that shows up in these other passages here. Two in Matthew, two in Mark, one in Luke there, and one in 2 Peter. What's interesting is These verses are verses in which the Father is said to have audibly stated, this is my beloved Son. In that last one, in 2 Peter, Peter was saying, I was there and I heard it. The Father made the declaration, this is His beloved Son. And then we see in a couple passages in Mark 12, 6 and Luke 20, 13, Jesus is telling the parable and He says, He talks about, A, or my beloved son.

So this Colossians passage is unique. It's not an eyewitness testimony of someone who was there during the gospel era, or of Christ himself, Peter being an eyewitness. Instead, here's Paul who's speaking with apparent connection with the other apostles. It may be also, too, that the Lord himself revealed this directly to Paul.

Now, but what about the kingdom here? What's Paul writing about? Isn't that something that people have all kinds of questions? You ever heard somebody say, oh, I want to get this person saved and get him into the kingdom. Or, we're building the kingdom. Something of that sort. People say all sorts of things, and so people are, you know, it's understandable they'd have lots of questions. What does this thing mean? What do you mean kingdom? Let's take a look here. How about if we start, we'll start by kind of backing up and taking a look at the big picture. Can you handle that? You might even be in this picture, who knows, but you're looking at the back side. Alright.

So, the first thing is that there is revealed in scripture the universal kingdom of God. Matter of fact, we sang about it this morning. You heard Hal's lovely voice when he sang for us here. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation. Right? That's the very first line in the hymn that we opened up with. That's this, isn't it? The King of Creation.

He is the Lord of all, and you see Him shown as the King in the initial creation, the creation in which we now live, and in the new creation. And you'll see from one end to the other revealed in Scripture how conveniently it starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation. He is the King of all that is.

There is that universal Kingdom of God concept that's there. It's shown as you see in your handout, I think, Psalm 47, 57, 11, Jeremiah 23, 24, and that's but a small sampling, but it gets the point across. Now, there's also another kingdom that is mentioned in Scripture, and that's the Millennial Kingdom. It is spoken of in numerous places in the Old Testament. It's real interesting, this second coming of the Lord, a great number of the Old Testament passages about the second coming refer to this millennial kingdom. Not all of them, but a number of them do. So this millennial kingdom is another kingdom that's revealed in Scripture.

Now, the question is, will we be there? Yes, but we will not be there in these bodies. This will be after a time when we will have been with the Lord, focusing on the Lord during what's called the Tribulation Period. And if that's a puzzle to you, there's a whole bunch of Revelation tapes you can ask Roy for.

But there is this Millennial Kingdom, and so that's one teaching that comes out. Now, in looking at this thing, though, I said, well, is that really what he's talking about? The Universal Kingdom of God? Well, really everybody is subject to the Universal Kingdom of God in the sense that God's in charge of the universe. And the Millennial Kingdom? Yeah, I'll be there.

But there's a verse here in 1 Peter 2.9 that I think brings the point out.

It says, You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood. And in the King James it has a kingdom of priests. a holy nation, a people of God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." See that? This calling out of darkness into His marvelous light is directly connected with this special priesthood that we have. What's he talking about? First of all, let's think about something. First of all, we have to look at this.

What is the position of a priest before the Lord? A priest has direct access to the Lord. And what's real interesting is, unlike the Old Testament priesthood, where there was just one particular tribe, one particular group that had access to the Lord, what's the character of this priesthood? Every single believer has direct access to the Lord.

We are, as believers, people who have access to the Lord, and look at what the consequence of that is, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness and who is marvelous light. The Lord has something else going on here with us as believers here in the church that is in addition to His universal kingdom, it's in addition to the Millennial Kingdom.

It is a kingdom that He has called us into now. It is a kingdom into which we have already been transferred. Unlike the Millennial Kingdom, we're not waiting for it. It's that kingdom that we have, and this verse here makes that clear, even making the point of darkness and light. Something else to bring out, we're also part of the new creation.

Now, isn't this amazing? We read in the Bible about there will be a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth. Have you read that? Revelation 21, starting with the very first verse. When we went through the book of Revelation, we saw that. Here is this new heavens and a new earth. And we say, well, that's great. God's going to make a brand new earth and a brand new heaven. And that's super. And right now, if you're a believer here this morning, you're a part of that. You are a part of the new creation.

2 Corinthians 5.17 and Galatians 6.15 use the exact same phrase there. And it's new, not in sequence. This word kynos is new in kind. New in kind. You are part of the new creation.

Isn't it amazing we were in the kingdom of darkness. We've been rescued out of that, transferred, and now have a position as a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests, who have a place of testimony about the Lord's character and what He's done. And we are part of the new creation. From a position of being in this kingdom of darkness, this domain of darkness, Now, rescued from that and transferred into being a part of the new creation, which has yet, in the rest of the physical world around us, to become reality. Isn't this amazing? You're a part of it already. Now, as we sit here this morning, if you're a believer, that is amazing.

Now, just to clarify a few things, the Church is not the Kingdom of God. The Church is not the Kingdom of God. That's an idea that got developed in the Church actually a couple, you know, two or three centuries after the New Testament was completed. The idea that the Church is somehow the Kingdom of God. We of the Church are not building the Kingdom.

And guess what? We got transferred into this Kingdom, right? And that means the Kingdom was there. You got rescued and transferred into it. This is something God does, not something you do. In the millennium, when Christ will dwell on David's throne, is not now. These are some key things to get clear. When we use this word kingdom, there's a lot of confusion about it, and a lot of Christians have sort of crossed over a bunch of ideas. We need to understand what Scripture teaches about this.

If you look at this 1 Peter 2.9 passage here, spells out clearly, there is this ministry that we have as believers. And this ministry is because we have been transferred. It's because we've been rescued. It's because we have, every believer, a relationship with and access to the Lord that puts us in a very special place. It's not a matter of waiting until some future kingdom It's not a matter of building the kingdom. This is all something that God has done. It's a done deal. It's accomplished. That's the kingdom that we're in.

Now, let's look at Colossians, and this is where we start to answer the question that Hal brought up there, Colossians 1.14.

Colossians 1.14 and in the King James, New King James, you'll see basically through his blood is also included in there. And it's basically some differences in the Greek texts to make it real simple. The teaching is the same either way. Now, the first thing, you'll see a difference between the two passages.

One is that Colossians 1.14 says that forgiveness of sins, and it uses the Greek word hamartia, missing the mark. The idea is to shoot an arrow or to throw a spear and head for the target and miss the mark. That's the word that's used for sins there.

In Ephesians 1.17, we went over this before, excuse me, 1.7, It's trespasses, which is paraptoma, it's falling alongside. It's as if you're walking along the right path and you fell off of it.

Both of those words he uses together, paired together in Ephesians 2.1 that we were looking at as he described what the domain of darkness is like. So when he says, you are dead in your trespasses and sins, he pairs those two words up. They're two different descriptions of the same thing. So as we look at this passage, I think one of the key things as we see it, where does this leave us?

Alright, I've been rescued, that's great. I'm out of that domain of darkness, that's great. I've been transferred, not the same as what Nancy and I were, okay? I've been transferred, and that's a good thing, into the kingdom of His beloved Son. And I look at that and say, okay, where does that leave me now?

One of the things that that does, that 1 Peter 2.9 passage brings us to, it's not just simply a political action. It's not just simply, okay, I took a mass of people and moved them from here to here.

Notice that the character of that kingdom is one of relationship. It's one of relationship first with the Son Himself. We have direct access to the Lord. Direct access to the Lord. So it's a kingdom based on relationship, not just a political transaction, not that she's got moved from A to B. It's into a place of relationship with the Lord, with direct access to Him, the Creator of the universe. I think that's key as we look at this. This isn't just a theological concept. but it is instead a move out of the horrible position that we're in, into a position not only of marvelous grace, but of relationship with the Lord of all creation and the Lord of the new creation.

That's a wonderful thing. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, what a marvelous thing you have done. And you have accomplished it all. Lord, we didn't earn it. We didn't try for it. We're not in the process of earning it. We're not at risk of losing it. It is your accomplishment for which you deserve all the glory and the praise. And we do that this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.