Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: We're in the light, we're in the kingdom of God's son. We have a new king, Jesus Christ. But if you don't know that you have a new king, and you don't know that you're in a new kingdom, you can't live as a kingdom citizen. Once we know what's true about us, we can be set free by that truth.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled "All About Jesus." Let's listen as JP gives us part two of "The Truest Thing About You."

JP Jones: We've been rescued from the authority of darkness. In the book of Colossians and the book of Ephesians, which is a parallel letter to Colossians, the apostle Paul uses this Greek word *exousia* to mean something more than just a kingdom or a domain or a dominion. In fact, it's used in a list of terms to describe a hierarchy.

Colossians 1:16 says this: "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or *exousia*—authorities, that's that word—they've all been created by him." Colossians 2:10 says we've been given fullness in Jesus Christ. He's the head over every power and authority. There's that word *exousia*.

Colossians 2:15: "Christ disarmed the rulers, the authorities, the powers through his resurrection." Ephesians 1:21: "Jesus Christ was raised above all rule and authority, power and dominion, every name that is named." Colossians 6:12—and maybe now it'll come to light in an even clearer way—"Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

The apostle Paul in Colossians and Ephesians uses this term *exousia*, translated in the New International Version as "dominion," translated most often as "authority," not just as a realm of authority, but a person of authority—spiritual authority. It's in a list of terms that are used to describe an angelic hierarchy: rulers, authorities, powers, forces.

There's an unseen world, the Bible says. There's an unseen spiritual, angelic world, and there is a ruler of the darkness. His name is Satan. This term actually is used in Ephesians 2:1-2 where it says, "You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the authority of the air, who is now at work in the sons of disobedience."

Here's what I think this verse is saying: This is the truest thing about you if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, because God's word says it's true. God has rescued you from the dominion of darkness, not just rescued you from the sphere of living in the dark; he's rescued you from the ruler of darkness. We've been set free as followers of Jesus Christ.

We are no longer under slavery to Satan. We are no longer under a curse of just living in the darkness. We've been set free. Now, you might say, "Well, JP, I don't feel that way, and quite honestly, I haven't been living that way." I have a question: What's truer—how you feel and how you've been living, or what God's word says is true?

The truest thing about you is what God says is true. God has rescued us from the domain of darkness. If we're believing a lie, we'll be in slavery to that lie. But if we're believing the truth, we can live in the freedom of that truth. We have to believe the truth before we can live the truth. We have to know that we've been set free from darkness before we can live free from darkness.

Here's a third observation from the text: God has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. He rescued us from darkness, he qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light; thirdly, God has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. That's what it says right there in the text in verse 13: "For he has rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves."

To be brought into is a Greek word that's only used a couple of times in the New Testament. It is the word *methistemi*. It means to transfer or to transpose or to remove—remove from one place to another. So we were under the domain of darkness. We've been removed into the kingdom of God's Son.

God has transferred us. God has moved us from one spiritual experience into another spiritual experience, from one reality into another reality. We're no longer in the darkness. We're in the light. We're in the kingdom of God's Son. We have a new teacher, a new leader, a new authority: Jesus Christ. But if you don't know that you have a new king, and you don't know that you're in a new kingdom, you can't live as a kingdom citizen.

Once we know what's true about us, we can be set free by that truth. That's why we need to know that the truest thing about us is what God says is true. And what God says is true is that we've been moved, we've been brought, we've been transferred, we've been transposed, we've been removed from one situation to another. And the new situation in which we are in is the kingdom of God's Son, whom he loves.

When I was younger, I was a lot smarter than I am now. When I was in fourth grade, I used to finish all my work and then go bug all the other kids while they were doing their work. The only thing is I did my work well. Now, I don't really remember much of this, but apparently this was a pattern. I'd do all my work, I'd finish, then I'd get up and walk around and talk.

In fact, I do remember this; this was third grade. I remember in third grade I'd get bored from when the teacher would be teaching, and I'd start drawing pictures. In third grade, the show on TV that was my favorite show was called "Combat!" Sergeant Saunders, all those guys. Do you remember "Combat?" You're going to have to be as old as Bob and I to remember "Combat."

"Combat" was my favorite show on TV, and I'd get bored in class and I'd start drawing pictures. They were battle scenes, and I'm drawing planes firing down, machine gun nests, guys throwing grenades. I'd get off in my own world. I remember one day I'm drawing all of this, and all of a sudden I become aware that my teacher, Mrs. Summers—Mrs. Summers was huge, she was like six feet tall, she was just this big woman—so she comes in and she's standing there over me.

This is what I became aware of: while I'm drawing, I'm acting it all out and I'm making noise. I'm going [making gun noises]. I was oblivious that I was doing this. I was totally disrupting the whole class as I'm drawing this. So this was a pattern of disruption. In fourth grade, I did all my work and then I'm bugging all the other kids. So they have me go see the school psychologist.

It's true. I'm talking to the school psychologist; he made me take all these tests. I remember he had these pictures of these blocks that had different colors on them and they were in different configurations. He put the blocks in front of me and I had to form the blocks to look just like the pictures. I meet with this guy for a couple hours, he asked me a bunch of questions, I took this test, I did that block thing.

That was like on a Thursday or a Friday. The next Monday, Mr. Williams, the fifth-grade teacher, comes into my fourth-grade class, mentions my name, and they come over and got all my stuff and they moved me from fourth grade into fifth grade. They skipped me. They moved me up. Now I sat, I had a new teacher, and I had new classmates. They transferred me to a whole new environment.

New teacher, new classmates. I didn't choose it myself; it was chosen for me. They came and got me and moved me. The Bible says that we were in darkness, and we've been brought—transferred—into the kingdom of God's Son. We have a new teacher, a new leader, a new authority: Jesus Christ. And we got new classmates—believers in Jesus, other people who've experienced that same reality.

We have new life, new relationships, new potential. It's the truest thing about us because God says it's true. God has brought us into the kingdom of his Son. If we are believers in Jesus Christ, that's our new identity. We're in Christ's kingdom. This passage goes on to say that there's two things that are true about us in Christ's kingdom. It's the fourth observation about what's true about us: In Christ, we have redemption.

The Greek word here is *apolutrosis*. There's a series of words that are all built upon a concept: *lutron*, *lutro-o*, *lutrosis*, *apolutrosis*. They're Greek words that are all describing and are translated either redeem, redeeming, or redemption. The backdrop was the slave market in the ancient world, because slavery was practiced in the ancient world and slaves were purchased. A price was paid to purchase them.

*Lutron*, the Greek word *lutron*, is the agreed-upon price. When a slave would be purchased, the price would be haggled over and it would be agreed upon, and whatever that price was was the *lutron*. You go down to a grocery store, you go to Home Depot, you buy something, you take it, they take the barcode and they scan it before the machine and the price comes up.

If you pay that price, that's *apolutrosis*—paying the price, purchasing something. That's the word here for redemption, because this is what has happened in the cosmic scheme of things: our sin, our trespasses have a price on them. In God's evaluation of the barcode of our sin, the price has flashed up from a cosmic sense, and it's the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what it costs to purchase us.

So you know what God did? He paid the price. Jesus shed his blood. There is now redemption for us in Jesus Christ. What we could not do for ourselves, God has done for us. It says in Romans chapter 8: "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, God condemned sin in the flesh."

God paid the price for us. That concept of paying the price for us is the term redemption. We have redemption, the Bible says. Every believer in Jesus Christ is redeemed. We've been purchased out of the slave market of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. We're no longer obligated to sin. We're no longer under the condemnation of sin. We have been set free because the price has been paid through the blood of Jesus Christ.

In Hebrews 9:15, it says, "For this reason, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called have received the promise of eternal life." Romans 3:24 says that we've been justified as a gift by God's grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:7 says in Christ we have redemption through his blood. It is the truest thing about us because God's word says it's true.

I have a friend who's a missionary and evangelist, and they go into Southeast Asia quite often. One of the terrible things about our humanity is the things that we do to one another. Worldwide, there is an industry of sex slavery, and it's rampant in Southeast Asia. In this ministry, one of the things that they do is they go to these areas where there are sex slaves and they purchase the women. They purchase these prostitutes, buy them out of their slavery to prostitution.

They don't do that so that they can abuse them; they do that so they can share the good news of Jesus with them and they can be set free. But they have to be purchased out. We were slaves to sin, the Bible says, and the only hope was that we would be purchased out, and that is exactly what Jesus Christ has done for us. That's what redemption means.

So the truest thing about you is not your struggle with sin, and for some of us, not even our slavery to sin. If we're believers in Jesus, the truest thing about us is that we've been set free and that we've been purchased, that we've been redeemed. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that's available to anyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

Today you may have come here burdened with guilt. You may have come to church struggling inside, wondering if there's any hope, and let me tell you, there is. Because the Bible says the very moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ, all our sins are wiped away and cleansed and forgiven. We are redeemed, no longer slaves. We're purchased out and we belong to God. We're rescued from darkness, placed into light. We're out of Satan's kingdom and we come into the kingdom of God's Son. It's true because God says it's true.

One last thing: In Christ we have the forgiveness of sins. It says this in Colossians 1:14: "In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins." I think in the immediate context this is extrapolating on what it really means to have redemption, but it's a nuance of truth that we need to fully understand and believe. We have, if we're believers in Christ, present tense right now, the forgiveness of our sins.

We're not getting our sins forgiven, we're not going to get our sins forgiven; if we know Jesus, our sins are forgiven. It's a settled issue. That's why Jesus on the cross said, "It is finished." Our salvation isn't based on what we do or don't do; it's based on what Jesus Christ has done.

Because he has paid the price for our sins and been raised from the dead and ascended to the Father's right hand and seated above all rule and authority and power and dominion, not only in this age but also in the one to come, in Christ we have redemption, and in Christ we have the forgiveness of our sins. The word for forgiveness here—there's a couple of Greek words in the New Testament for forgiveness—this one is *aphesis*, which means to let go or to remove or to release.

God has released us from the penalty of our sin. He's removed the guilt of our sin from us, the eternal consequences of sin from us. We're forgiven. Acts 5 says Jesus is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as prince and savior, to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Acts 10 says of Jesus, all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

Acts 13 says, "Therefore let it be known, brethren, that through Jesus forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you." Acts 26:18: "I was commissioned to open the eyes of the Gentiles so they turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, and that they may receive the forgiveness of sins." Ephesians 1:7: "In Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses."

Hebrews 10:18 says now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. We don't have to offer anything to God to get forgiven. We don't have to come to church in order to get forgiven. We don't have to read our Bible in order to get forgiven. We don't have to do good works in order to get forgiven. We don't have to tithe our money in order to get forgiven. We don't have to be baptized in order to get forgiven.

There doesn't need to be any more offering for sin. Why? Because God has already offered the ultimate sacrifice to pay for sin, that's Jesus Christ. Jesus paid for our sins, and so in Jesus Christ we have the forgiveness of our sins. There's a lot of jokes about heaven. Pastors like to tell jokes about heaven. So here's a little joke about heaven; you've probably heard it before.

I'll tell it on myself. Three pastors die; they're waiting in the waiting room in order to get into heaven and go through the pearly gates. It's Rick Warren and Greg Laurie and JP Jones. They're talking about what heaven's going to be like because they've been preaching it their whole life. They see through the gates these clocks, and there's like only one hand on the clock and the hand is kind of moving. Some of them are moving faster than others.

St. Peter shows up and welcomes the guys, and Rick Warren speaks up and says, "You know, we've been looking at those clocks in through the gates and we're wondering what they are." St. Peter says, "Well, each of those clocks represents believers on earth and they represent your life. Every time the hand on the clock moves, it represents a sin. For everybody who's here in heaven, there's a clock that represents that."

The guys all turn to each other. "Really? Our clocks are there?" And they said, "Yeah." So Rick Warren says, "I want to see my clock." So the three of them walk through and St. Peter takes them to this place and there's a clock and, sure enough, the hand on the clock is going [making ticking sound]. St. Peter says, "That represents every time you sinned on earth."

Wow. Greg Laurie says, "Is my clock here?" St. Peter says, "Yes, it's right over there." They walk over to look at it, and they look at Greg Laurie's clock and they're standing there looking at it and it's going [slower ticking sound]. Every time it ticks, it represents one of the sins they committed on earth. JP Jones goes, "Well, I don't see my clock. Where's that?" Peter says, "Oh, we have that in a lounge. We use it as a fan."

You may feel that your life is like my clock, that there's a lot of sins. You may feel from a human perspective you have not sinned very little at all. Ultimately, whether we've sinned a lot or sinned a little, we're desperately in need of forgiveness. On our own we have no hope. But the Bible says in Jesus Christ we have forgiveness. All of our sins—past, present, and future. It's the hope for the believer in Jesus. It's true because God says it's true.

Don't believe it because I say it or because I preach it, no matter how strong I preach it. If it's not true, it's not true. But we all have an opinion on what we think is true. But what it comes down to is what actually is true. The truest thing is what God says is true. The truest thing about you is what God says is true.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God says you have been qualified to share in an inheritance of the kingdom of the saints in light. You've been rescued out of darkness. You have forgiveness. You have redemption. You've been transferred into a whole new kingdom. That's what God says is true. And when we believe it, it sets us free. Because Jesus said you shall know the truth, and the truth sets us free.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives: 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653.

Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, "Facing Goliath." Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. Before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're looking at this study in the book of Colossians about the fact that it's all about Jesus. Colossians chapter 1, verses 12 to 14 tells us that we've been made new people in Jesus Christ. The truest thing about us is what God says is true. Because we've trusted in the grace of Christ and trusted in Christ for our salvation, what is true about us is that we have been made inheritors of all of God's kingdom.

We've been transferred into God's kingdom of light. We've been rescued from darkness. We've been brought under the rule of God's son. We have received redemption and we have the forgiveness of sins. We've been completely set free from the rule and power of sin in our lives, from the reign of Satan in our lives. We've been taken out of a realm of being under the wrath of God, brought into the place of salvation, and blessed with all the blessings of salvation.

That's the truest thing about us, because the truest thing about us is what God says is true. Today we get to choose what we will believe. We either believe the lies of the enemy or we believe the truth of God. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. We need to believe what's true about us because the truest thing about us is what God says is true. Let me pray for us.

Father, I pray that we will believe what's true about us today. As followers of Jesus Christ, we will believe that we're new people with all the blessings of Christ, and the power of the truth would set us free. I pray for that in Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives: 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you'll find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.