Colossians 1:12b-13
~20 min read
SERMON OUTLINE
- 💭 Consider this: What aspects of your life evidence your heavenly citizenship? What privileges of being a citizen of God’s kingdom are you enjoying on earth right now?
- I. In The Present, God's Kingdom Is Not Yet Fully Established On Earth
- II. In The Future, God's Kingdom Will Be Fully Established On Earth
- III. In The Meantime, What Should We Do?
💭 Consider this: What aspects of your life evidence your heavenly citizenship? What privileges of being a citizen of God’s kingdom are you enjoying on earth right now?
TRANSCRIPT
Our text for today's message is taken from the second part of Colossians 1:12-13. Allow me to read this passage.
Colossians 1:12-13: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
In the previous message we had learned what it meant to call God our Father, which was taken from the phrase "giving thanks unto the Father" (Colossians. 1:12). Scripture makes it clear that God is not the Father of everyone. God's Fatherhood in relation to the unbelievers is only in the sense of Him being their Creator.
Man is made in the image of God. God is uniquely the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He becomes the Father only of those who believe in Christ and are united to Him by grace and true faith in His only begotten Son.
Remember on one occasion in John 8:44 Jesus said directly to the Jews who thought they were God's children but they were actually the children of the devil. Jesus said, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father he will do" (John 8:44a). That is a very powerful statement — “Ye are of your father the devil.”
So, there are only two families in this world: having God as the Father and having the devil as the father. There is the family of Adam, into which all men are born. And there is the family of God, into which some men are reborn by faith in Christ.
Just as there are two families, there are also two kingdoms: the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. We are speaking about spiritual kingdoms—the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.
You see, every man or woman born into this world is born with a sinful nature. We are born into the family of Adam. We inherited our sinful nature from Adam and we are born into this evil world system which is ruled by Satan. It is the kingdom of Satan. It is the kingdom of darkness.
That is why Ephesians 2:1-2 said we were dead in trespasses and sins. We walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, which is Satan. We were the children of disobedience.
It does not mean that we have no control of ourselves or we are demon-possessed. What it means is that Satan easily uses our sinful nature, inclinations and desires to manipulate us to do his will.
The “power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) means the realm of influence—the realm of ideas and beliefs—which Satan operates as the prince, the ruler.
We are enslaved by his evil world system. We are naturally agreeable with what the world deems to be right and wrong, valuable and worthless, important and unimportant.
We are his willing followers to live in sin as his children—the children of disobedience— we are citizens in the kingdom of darkness. We are dead in our sins.
And there is a price to pay for sin — the wages of sin is death; physically, we will die. Spiritually, we are separated from God. And eternally, we will be cast into the lake of fire forever and ever. Unless something is done, that will be our situation and our destiny.
God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to die on the cross and shed His precious blood to pay the penalty for our sins.
Through the saving work of Christ, God offers to you and me the forgiveness of sins. And God sends the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts of our sins, that we may believe in the gospel—the good news that Jesus Christ alone is able to save us.
That is where we have the wonderful verse John 3:16— "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
When we believe in the Lord Jesus for salvation, from that moment onward we are no longer the children of Satan but the children of God. We no longer belong to the kingdom of Satan but the kingdom of God. Therefore, we call God ‘Our Father’.
As Colossians 1:12 says, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."
The word “meet” means qualified. Through the salvific work of Jesus Christ, we are qualified to be partakers, which means to share in the kingdom of God. And it is a kingdom of truth, righteousness, holiness, and purity.
We are delivered from the power of darkness and translated or moved into the kingdom of His dear Son, where Jesus Christ rules as our King. We have become the citizens of God's kingdom.
And this is what we want to learn for today's message. The title is: ‘What does it mean to be citizens of God's kingdom?’
I would like to draw your attention to our Lord's Prayer. Every week, every last day, we would say the Lord's Prayer. Jesus taught us to pray, saying: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9b-10)
Whose “kingdom” is this? It is God's kingdom. What does it mean to pray “Thy kingdom come”?
I. In The Present, God's Kingdom Is Not Yet Fully Established On Earth
Firstly, we need to understand that in the present, God's kingdom is not yet fully established on earth. When we speak of a kingdom, what comes into our minds? King Henry III? King Richard? Castles and palaces? Soldiers and horses?
But those are human kingdoms. We are not involved in a human kingdom. That is not our priority. We are talking about God's kingdom.
We are not of this world. We are just pilgrims on this earth. Even if you and I were to live up to a ripe age of 100 years old, we are but sojourners on this earth. Our citizenship is not of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven.
As Hebrews 11:10 says, "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
If it is God's kingdom, then it is not something that we can build on and work to perfection, like some people believe—that the Christians will influence the world and make it into God's kingdom. If it is God's kingdom, then it is exalted far above all human kingdoms. It is most certainly infinitely superior to all of them.
When we study history, we see the kingdoms of this world rising and falling over the centuries. Historians tell us that the world has known at least twenty-one great civilisations but they only endured for a period of time and then they passed away.
Egypt was once a mighty world power. Today it is weak. Babylon was once mighty but today it has vanished. Assyria was once powerful but today it is just a nation we read as part of history. Syria, Greece and Rome were once strong but they also have fallen away.
The United States, China and Russia—although they are now at the pinnacle of world power—but they too will not last forever.
The kingdom of God is infinitely superior to all the great nations of this world. It is a different kind of kingdom. It is spiritual. It is eternal. The word “kingdom” refers to sovereignty or dominion. Basically, it means to reign or to rule.
The kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven were phrases often used by our Lord Jesus more than any other. When Jesus first came into the scene in the New Testament, He said: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17b)
When He started his ministry, He said: “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent”. (Luke 4:43)
Even when He died and rose again from the dead, He appeared to His disciples in Acts 1:3. And this was what happened—To them, He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
So the kingdom of God is at the very heart of Christ's message. It is the heart of God's plan. It is the heart of everything. And nothing else matters more than the kingdom of God.
Jesus spoke of the kingdom in three ways — past, present, and future. He spoke of the kingdom as past and it included Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In Matthew 8:11 Jesus said, “And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob” — Where? — “in the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus spoke of the kingdom as present when He said in Luke 17:21, "For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Referring to Himself—His person. He lives in the believer.
And Jesus spoke of the kingdom as future because in the Lord's Prayer He said, pray “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10). It will come in the future.
But how can the kingdom that was already there in the past, here in the present and yet needs to come in the future? What is this kingdom that is past, present and future all at the same time?
To help us to better understand the kingdom of God, there are two elements to the kingdom: the universal kingdom and the earthly kingdom.
When we talk about the universal kingdom, it means God is the King of the whole universe. People may not like it or agree with it or acknowledge it or believe in it. It doesn't matter.
God is the Creator of the entire universe and He controls it. He orders it and He holds it together.
1 Chronicles 29:11 says: “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.”
God is the King of the whole universe and there is no question about that. There ought to be no doubt about that.
Now consider the prayer “thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10). If you take the little phrase ‘in earth and in heaven’ and add it to all the other three petitions—thy name, thy kingdom, and thy will—it will give you a better sense of the meaning:
Hallowed is thy name in earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come in earth as it is in heaven. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Is God's will done in heaven? Most certainly. Is God's name hallowed in heaven? Most certainly. Is God's kingdom established in heaven? Most certainly. So what are we asking here? That it be established on the earth. God's universal kingdom in heaven is established and there's no doubt about it. But our prayer is to let it come to this earth.
Although God's name is hallowed in heaven, it is not always hallowed on this earth. “Hallowed” means to set apart something as sacred. And God's name is sacred on this earth. We always see how the unbelievers would blaspheme the name of our almighty God. Sometimes even the believers, instead of hallowing God's name, they blaspheme His name.
Although God's will is done in heaven, it is not always obeyed on this earth. Sinful men and women always disobey His will. When we sin, we go against His will.
Although God's kingdom is established in heaven, it is not yet fully established on earth because there is rebellion. The vast majority of the people are rejectors of God. So our prayer is: God, bring Your kingdom to earth, that you might put down sin, that You might put down rebellion, that You might put down evil, wickedness and all those horrendous deeds, that the people might come to believe in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and be part of Your kingdom.
As believers, we cannot endure the thought of people blaspheming our Saviour, our God. And so we pray: “Thy kingdom come”. That is what it means to pray: ‘Thy kingdom come in earth as it is in heaven’.
II. In The Future, God's Kingdom Will Be Fully Established On Earth
Our second point is: ‘In The Future, God's Kingdom Will Be Fully Established On Earth.’
“Thy kingdom come.” The Greek word for “come” is in the aorist active imperative, which indicates a sudden, instantaneous coming. It speaks of the coming millennial kingdom of Christ. It is the 1,000 years physical rule of Jesus Christ on this earth. Jesus will return again and He will establish his kingdom and He will rule on this earth for 1,000 years.
During the Millennial Kingdom, the believers, the raptured saints and the saints who have died and risen again from the dead will reign with Jesus Christ for 1,000 years on earth not in heaven. How can we be so sure that this 1,000 years' reign together with Jesus Christ will literally be realised on earth and not in heaven?
Revelation 5:10 says: "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." It is very clear that the believers will reign with Jesus Christ on the earth not in heaven.
Presently, the believers are not ruling on this earth. We are waiting patiently for the Lord's return. And it is only when the Lord returns that the Millennial Kingdom will begin and last a thousand years.
After the thousand years, His earthly kingdom will blend into His eternal kingdom. And there will be no distinction between His rule on earth or His rule in heaven. The believers will dwell together with him for all eternity in what is known as the new heaven and the new earth.
The King cannot be separated from his kingdom. To pray "Thy kingdom come" is to pray for the sovereign plan of God to be fulfilled in Christ in His return. It is to pray for Jesus to come and to come quickly to be the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
God's kingdom, His sovereign plan, should always be the preoccupation of our lives and of our prayers. The greatest opposition to God's kingdom is the kingdom of this present world, which Satan rules. The devil wants us to be preoccupied with the things of this world and forget about the kingdom of God.
Even though we may be believers, Satan wants us to be sidetracked and to join the rat race, so to speak. And as we pursue after the things of this world, we forget about evangelism. We forget about the gospel, the church and missions. We forget about the souls of our unbelieving grandparents, our parents, our children, our family members and friends who are still lingering outside the kingdom of God.
Dear friend, what is the preoccupation of your life? Is it just to be successful in your academic pursuits, to be rich in your material gains, to be victorious in your accomplishments, whatever they may be — whether you are a sportsperson, a professional, a layperson working in a particular company or a political figure? Is that all there is to life?
Take a moment and consider the duration of our preoccupation. Only as long as we live — 80 or 90 years — and that's it. Is that all there is to life? What about the eternal kingdom of God? What about the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ, where we will rule together with Him? What about the new heaven and the new earth?
We should not be preoccupied with the things of this world but rather be preoccupied with the kingdom of God. We should be concerned about the things which will last for all eternity. Remember, James 4:14 says: "For what is your life? It is like a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."
Jesus said: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36) Obviously, no man can gain the whole world. Many have tried but no man has ever been able to gain the whole world. But even if he can, he cannot keep it. And even if he can keep it, it will never satisfy him.
What about your soul? Your soul is that part of you that will last for all eternity. When death knocks on your door, where would your soul be — in the kingdom of God or in the kingdom of darkness? To be outside the kingdom of God is to be in eternal hell. It is a place, the Bible says, where the fire never stops burning. Forever and ever, you will be tormented in eternal damnation.
Today is the day of salvation. Come and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ before it is too late. Once you swing into eternity, it will be too late.
If we truly understand the present and future perspectives of God's kingdom then it must affect the way we live our lives.
III. In The Meantime, What Should We Do?
This brings us to our third point — ‘In the meantime, what should we do?’
When we pray "Thy kingdom come," are we to fold our hands and simply do nothing and just wait for his kingdom to come? No — God forbid!
When you and I pray for his kingdom to come, we must first have Jesus Christ to reign in our lives. If Christ is the King of our lives, then in a certain sense, He has brought His rule to this earth — at least in our lives. Isn't that true?
In the Gospel of Luke 17:20, the Pharisees demanded Jesus to tell them when would the kingdom of God come. And Jesus answered and said to them: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20b-21)
In other words, here was Jesus standing there and they did not even recognise Him. Christ is the King. He is His kingdom. You can never separate the King from His kingdom.
To pray "Thy kingdom come" is to pray that He will take up his rule in our hearts and He will also rule over the hearts of those who are still lingering outside His kingdom. If you have a child who is an unbeliever and still lingering outside the kingdom of God, rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ and you pray "Thy kingdom come," you are praying for Christ to come into his heart and to rule in his life.
On every Christmas we used to sing this song: ‘Joy to the world, the Lord is come’. Whenever we sing this hymn, we almost always think of Bethlehem—the little babe born in the manger. Isn't it? But that isn't what the hymnwriter Isaac Watts had in mind when he wrote that hymn. He said, ‘Let the earth receive her king.’
How? ‘Let every heart’ do what? ‘Prepare him room.’ And then ‘heaven and nature will sing.’ If Jesus Christ is the King in our lives, then that is His kingdom. That is the place He rules. That is where He takes residence.
If that is the case, then all our decisions, our responses to the different situations of life, our words, our thoughts, our deeds will be subjected to our king, who is the president of our lives — the king who rules in our hearts — and we will live as saints in light, in the light and truth of His word.
But how can Christ rule in our hearts unless we first repent of our sins and believe in Him as our Lord and Saviour? Jesus said, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2) The kingdom comes when we repent. The kingdom comes when we believe.
In the Gospel of Mark 12:32–34, one of the scribes said to Jesus, "Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:32-33)
Listen to what Jesus said to that person: “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mark 12:34) He did not say, ‘You are in the kingdom of God’ but “You are not far from the kingdom of God”. What did Jesus mean? He meant ‘you have got the head knowledge but you have not taken the step to believe in me’.
If you want to enter the kingdom, you not only have to have knowledge — you have to make a decision. You can know a lot about God's kingdom. You can even make some effort to go close to it. But until you make that final, complete commitment to a decision to believe in the Lord Jesus and embrace Him as your Lord and Saviour, you have not entered into the kingdom because the rule of Jesus Christ is not established in your heart.
Maybe you are someone who has been rejecting God all these years. You have heard the gospel. You understand the message. And you think to yourself, ‘Well, I'm not too far away from the kingdom of God. I'm getting closer and closer. I just need to take the step of faith to believe and embrace Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour’.
Well, you are right to say that you are not too far away but that ‘not too far away’ is as far as heaven is away from hell if you do not take that step to believe in Jesus Christ.
So it is not good enough to say, ‘Well, I'm getting closer’ or ‘I'm not far away’ or ‘One day I will get there’. You are as far away from God as heaven is to hell.
If we truly believe that Jesus Christ is our Saviour — that He has come to save us. We will make a decision to believe in Him, to follow Him. And that decision is a persevering commitment.
Those who belong to the kingdom of God will continue to persevere. And this is the doctrine of the persevering of the saints.
In the Gospel of Luke chapter 9:62, Jesus emphatically said, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
The kingdom of God is only for those who have decided to follow Jesus and they will not look back. They will not say today they believe and tomorrow they depart from the faith.
If they can depart from the faith, then they have not believed in Jesus Christ in the first place. Because Jesus Himself said, "No man can pluck you out of my hand” (John 10:28b) — not even yourself. Once we are saved, we will always be saved. It is a persevering faith.
The kingdom of God is priceless. It is valuable. It is worth so much that we will be willing to give up everything and anything just to have it.
In Matthew 13:44, Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."
In verse 45, He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." (Matthew 13:45-46)
Why? Because it is priceless. It is so valuable that we are willing to give up anything and everything just to have it. Since the kingdom of God is valuable, it is to be pursued above all things.
Jesus gave the authoritative command: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. (Matthew 6:33)
Do you realise that many people live the opposite of what Jesus has commanded? They will seek all those things first and then the kingdom of God and his righteousness not only comes next—sometimes it is not even in the list. How sad.
As believers, we seek the kingdom of God. We must reject the idea of an easy-going, do-nothing, sit-and-watch kind of Christianity. ‘Just come to church— that's enough.’
We seek the kingdom of God through our services, through our worship, through our praises, through our prayers, through our trusting in God, through our giving and support for the gospel, for the church, for missions.
As theologians used to say, ‘We cannot pray the Lord's Prayer "Thy kingdom come" with folded hands’. We must seek after it.
Dear friend, what is the most valuable thing to you? The kingdom of this world or the kingdom of God? Have you ever asked yourself, ‘If my faith requires me to face certain adversities, trials, afflictions, and persecutions, will I still keep the faith?’ What is your answer?
Your answer should be: ‘If they come to visit me, they may take everything from me. They may take my life. They may put me in prison. They may take my car, my house, my money in the bank—even my health—but they cannot take the things most valuable to me.’ And the thing most valuable to me is the kingdom of God.
They cannot take away the love I have for my wife, as my Lord has taught me. They cannot take away the spiritual lessons I've taught my children, as the Bible tells me. They cannot take away my love for the church.
Above all things, they cannot touch Christ, who is my King. They cannot touch anything that I've investedS in His Kingdom. And He promised me, ‘Whatever I have invested in his kingdom, they shall never be taken away from me.’ This is what it means to be citizens of God's kingdom.
It is not just paying lip service, for we truly understand that in the present, God's kingdom is not yet fully established on earth.
And so we pray, “Thy kingdom come.” We believe in the future, God's kingdom will be fully established on earth in the Millennial Kingdom and we will rule together with Him for 1,000 years.
And so we pray, “Thy kingdom come.” And in the meanwhile, we believe—and we mean it with all our hearts—that as we pray, “Thy kingdom come”, we will let Christ reign in our hearts. We will repent of our sins. We will persevere in our commitments.
Others may give up and walk away, but we will not. His kingdom is most valuable to us and we are not willing to exchange it for anything. And we will pursue after it with all our hearts, with all our strength and with all our might.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. (Matthew 6:33)
Let us pray: Our Father in heaven, once again we give Thee thanks for this opportunity for us to look at Thy precious Word.
We oftentimes talk about Thy kingdom but we do not take time to consider what it means to be a citizen of Thy kingdom. And through Thy word, Thou hast taught us the different perspectives—how we ought to live out this truth.
We pray that we will not just be hearers only but to be doers of Thy Word. We want to be true citizens of Thy kingdom, and not just people who pay lip service—but in reality, they do not belong to Thy kingdom.
We pray that thou will also convict the hearts of those who are still lingering outside Thy kingdom. It is so sad because this is the only life they have and they think that beyond this life, there is nothing. But we know that beyond this life is eternity. And we want to share with them the gospel and it is only through the gospel that they can come into Thy kingdom.
So use us as thy instruments—that we will be bold and courageous as we minister to our unbelieving grandparents, parents, children, family members and friends.
They may reject us, mock at us, laugh at us. But we are willing because nothing is more valuable and more precious than to be in the kingdom of the Almighty God.
We give Thee thanks, and we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.