Dock
Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 12 April 2026
Summary
This week Raff spoke to us about Colossians 2:13–15, showing how the cross, which looked like defeat, was actually God’s victory in disguise. He reminded us that apart from Christ we are spiritually dead, unable to meet God’s standards, and rightly stand guilty. Yet through Jesus’ death, God cancels the charges against us, removes all evidence of our sin, and sets us free. Raff encouraged us to see that our salvation is not based on what we have done, but entirely on what Jesus has done for us; just like the thief on the cross, our only hope is “the man on the middle cross.” Even in seasons that feel like defeat, God is at work bringing redemption and victory.
Key Points & Takeways
Alive with Christ, dead without Him - Without Jesus, we are spiritually dead and separated from God. The law exposes our sin but cannot save us. Life and forgiveness come only through Christ.
The cross removes all evidence against us - Our sin created a “legal debt” we could not repay. Jesus cancels that debt completely by nailing it to the cross. The enemy can no longer accuse us—there is no evidence left.
Victory through apparent defeat - The cross looked like failure, but it was God’s greatest victory. Jesus disarmed spiritual powers and triumphed over them. God often works through what looks like loss or weakness.
Salvation is by grace, not effort - We are not saved by good works, religion, or moral effort. We are saved entirely because of what Jesus has done. Our response is faith, not performance.
God redeems our darkest moments - What feels like the end can become the beginning in God’s hands. God can transform our worst chapters into testimonies of grace. Even now, God may be working through what feels like defeat.
Dock Discussion Questions
Raff said we are “alive with Christ but dead without Him.” What does that mean practically for how we see ourselves and others?
How does the image of our “charges being cancelled” help you understand forgiveness? Do you still find yourself believing accusations or guilt? Why?
Why do you think it’s so easy to slip into trying to “earn” God’s love? What would it look like to live fully in grace instead?
Can you think of a time when something that looked like defeat turned into something good? How might God be working in a current difficult situation for you?
The thief on the cross simply trusted Jesus. What does that teach us about faith and salvation?
Long-form, edited transcript
Servant Songs LOVE HAS WON.
Col 2:13-15
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Introduction: A God Who Redeems What Looks Like Defeat
As you guys know, normally when I preach I like to go through the passage slowly and break it into small pieces together, because if you are like me, you know Michael read the passage sixty seconds ago and I already forgot half of it. So I want to go through with you guys bit by bit so we can actually pay attention to what this passage is saying.
The title is Victory in Disguise; the cross looked like defeat but was actually victory in disguise.
But before going into this passage I wanted to share a story. There was a man that lived in an area where going to the war was like a badge of honour. A way for the young guys to bring honour to the family name. His father was really proud of his son who was preparing to go to battle, preparing to go to war. The father was really looking forward to having his son represent the family and hopefully win the battle. However, his son fell from a horse and hit his leg in such a bad way that he ended up having to have his leg amputated. And all of a sudden, this man couldn't go to war. And his father was furious, as this was the end of the son’s chance to go to war. The moment that they prepared for, the moment that was going to give honour to our family's name, was missed. Eventually, time passes, and the war comes, and all of his friends one by one go to war, but sadly, the news comes back, and one by one all of them died in the war. Later on, the father realised that what looked like the end for his son was actually the beginning of a new life. That the very same leg that he lost, that didn't allow him to go to war, was the very same thing that was turned into victory in the end. That because of that lost leg, he stayed alive.
And that's what we see in the story of the cross. That's what we see Paul talks about in this passage: Death may look like a loss, may look like defeat, but there is so much more going on here. And I wanted to say something before starting in the passage because it's really important that we get this from the beginning, otherwise the cross makes no sense. And I thank God that we don't do this at SPS, but there is a lot of fake Christianity going around, and one of the things they like to say is that you are loved just because you're good enough and you deserve to be loved. And that's totally unbiblical. That's utterly unbiblical. The Bible nowhere says that the way I am and the way I came, I fully deserve love. In Ephesians 2:3 it says that by nature I am deserving of God's wrath. That by nature I deserve judgment. That I deserve death. That by nature I don't deserve God's love at all.
I'm going to try and put this in sixty seconds. God created the world and we were in perfect harmony with him. When sin entered the world, we were separated from God's presence. and since that moment God started what we call the rescue plan. He started to work out how can we go back to being in his presence. And one of the things that he blessed us with, but ultimately became a curse for us, was his law. God offered us the commandments, and the commandments were a way that we could be in perfect harmony and relationship with him. But what should have blessed us became a curse, because the law was like a mirror. It doesn't make you dirty. It just shows you that you are dirty. So the law is like a mirror. It shows you that you could not keep to God's holy standards. That we failed his standards. We failed his law again and again and again.
Point 1: Alive with Christ, Dead without Christ (v.13)
"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive — he forgave us sins."
He made us alive with Christ. We are only alive with Christ and because of Christ, and without Christ we are dead. Imagine that we are in a courtroom. Imagine that we are in court right now and God is a just God. He cannot just let our sins go without any punishment or without any consequences, because he's holy and he's just. The problem is we need a perfect lawyer in this case. We need a perfect lawyer because in this courtroom there is a big problem. I am the defendant. And the prosecutor has plenty of evidence against me. Plenty of evidence.
I'm there trying to defend myself through religion. I'm trying to say, 'Ah, but I went to church every Sunday, God, and I tried to do my best.' The devil knows the things I'm guilty of and he says, 'Yes, Raf, but we all know the inappropriate thoughts that you had before. Do you remember this inappropriate thought that you had a few months ago that you shouldn't have had? This is standing against you.' So that’s the first piece of evidence. Then you keep trying to defend yourself by the things you've been trying to do. Perhaps you say, 'But I went to my small group every week and I was trying my best.' But then the prosecutor will say: 'Yes, but how many times did you lie in your life?' So there's another piece of evidence. We lie. We failed God. And we keep trying to justify ourselves, but we are under this curse which is called sin, and we are in big trouble because the devil uses those things to accuse us. He has plenty of evidence against us.
Hell is the most fair place, according to scripture. And that sounds really weird, right? 'God didn't give us what is fair. He offered us his grace.' He offered us his grace. He became sin on our behalf and paid the price that we should have paid. Remember, scripture says that by nature we are deserving of God's judgment. But God, instead of judging us, offered the sacrifice on my behalf.
Do you remember when Peter is walking alongside Jesus and Jesus is explaining to Peter and the disciples that the Son of Man needed to be crucified and that he needed to be killed? Do you remember what Peter said to Jesus? Peter said, 'No, Lord, that will never happen to you.' And anyone remembers what Jesus said to Peter? 'Get behind me, Satan.'
A lot of people don't understand that. The devil knew that a price must be paid. The devil knew that for you to be forgiven, a perfect sacrifice must be given on your behalf. And that perfect sacrifice was Jesus laying on the cross for you and for me. So when Peter said to Jesus, 'No, that's not going to happen to you, Jesus', Jesus knew that it wasn't Peter speaking to him, but Satan trying to tempt him through Peter by saying, 'Don't die, because if you die for these guys, they're going to be set free from the judgment that they deserve.' Are you with me? So the devil knew that without evidence he could no longer accuse us. He knew that with no doubt, there is no charge. With no doubt, there is no charge.
And here's the thing: if your advocate is Jesus, there is no evidence against you. That's why this passage says that God made you alive with Christ. And the disciples didn't fully understand this. They stood at the cross thinking it was all the end, when they were watching Jesus hanging on the cross. For them that was hopeless. It was like: this guy I've been following, I thought was the Son of God and the Messiah that was to come, he's now dead, and everything felt hopeless. Just like the father of that man who couldn't go to the war when he lost his leg. He felt that his son losing his leg was the end. But actually that was the beginning of a new life for his son.
As I was preparing for that, I thought of something that happened in my own life that felt like it was the end. A lot of you know bits of my story, but I got to a point in my life where not just me, but my family thought it was the end. I was a drug addict, dying, in and out of treatment centres, in and out of being arrested. And it got to a point where my family and I thought it was the end. But I wonder what moment of your life may have felt, or still feels right now as I speak, like this is the end for you. Or you feel defeated. You think you are going through something that feels like the end and feels like defeat.
Point 2: Evidence Removed (v.14)
"…having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross."
Here we see more of why Satan was trying to use Peter to stop Jesus from being on the cross for you and for me. He didn't want our charge to be cancelled. He didn't want Jesus nailing to the cross our sins. The devil knew that what the Romans and the Israelites thought was defeating Jesus was actually Jesus' greatest weapon on our behalf. Because for the Romans, crucifying Jesus was a way of humiliating him and his disciples, showing them where their Messiah was. Remember what the guys were saying to him: 'If you are the Son of God, why don't you save yourself?' So for them, that was humiliation. What they didn't know is that victory was coming through his death. What man saw as failure, God saw as an opportunity. When the Romans, when the religious leaders thought that was humiliation or punishment on Jesus, Jesus saw an opportunity to set us free.
And isn't this exactly what happened to that man who couldn't go to the war? What his dad saw as the end and as failure, God used as an opportunity. And listen, the same happened in my life. Again, what myself, my family, my friends, and all those around me thought was failure, God ended up using on our behalf. I went from a dying addict to someone today who shares hope with addicts. I went from nearly dying from addiction to today helping people battling addiction. So what I'm trying to say with this is not for my own glory, but we're talking about what God does in the cross: he redeems us. What the enemy used to kill me, God used for good.
Here's the thing: what was my worst chapter became my greatest credential. What seemed to be the worst chapter of my life became the greatest credential that God would be using. We believe in a God that makes beauty from ashes. We believe in a God that uses a weapon made to kill to bring life.
And I wonder if the very thing that you see as defeat right now, whatever that might be, it might be a relationship that is falling apart, or it might be a mental health struggle that you are dealing with right now, I wonder what it is that is making you feel hopeless or defeated. I wonder if God sees that as an opportunity.
Point 3: Charges Being Dropped (v.15)
"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Here Paul is using a language that was very familiar to the people listening. The guys listening in Colossae knew what the Romans used to do, there was something called the Roman triumph. And if you don't know what that is, I encourage you after the service or during the week to investigate it. So the Romans did this Roman triumph, which was basically a public spectacle of showing how powerful they were, but also how they had humiliated their enemies. They would be coming in these parades, and their enemies would be defeated on the side, humiliated, and that would be a way to show how powerful they were.
And Paul here is using that language but pointing to the cross, which would have been very confusing to those listening, because the cross didn't look like a parade of victory. The cross looked like defeat. But they knew well what a Roman triumph was. So Paul uses this language to explain that this is exactly what Christ did to the powers and authorities, not just the Romans and the Israelite political authorities, but ultimately the evil spiritual authorities: Satan and his angels. If you go to Revelation chapter 2, it says in there that the devil and his angels, their job is to accuse you and I day and night. His job is to accuse you and I day and night. But remember: he needs evidence. He needs evidence. By cancelling the charges, God removed the evidence against us and set us free. He took away the only thing the devil could use to keep us separate from God.
So in the end, what looked like defeat was actually victory on our behalf. What looked like death actually brought life. And what looked like the end was actually just the beginning of God's redemption of his people.
And I just want to read this passage from 2 Corinthians 5:21 that really explains to us what was on that cross:
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Friends, Jesus on the cross wasn't just Jesus on the cross. It was our sins being nailed to the cross. When Jesus was carrying the cross on his shoulders, just like the image of the lost sheep, that was him carrying my sins and your sins on his shoulders to take away the charge that stood against us. The punishment that we deserved, he took upon him out of his love for you and I.
And like I said in the beginning, it would be so easy to be loved because we deserved it, right? That's what religion says. Religion says: behave well and God may love you. But Christianity is very different. Christianity says: no, you can't behave well. You can't keep to the law consistently. You deserve God's punishment. Yet you are deeply loved. And because of that, he forgives you.
So here is the best way to explain this passage and what Paul is trying to say: friends, in the end, we will be judged. We will be found guilty. But God, for the death of his Son, removed the charges that stood against us and set us free. The devil can no longer use your failures against you because Christ has paid that price in full. It's really important that we understand that we are not saved by our efforts but by his efforts on the cross. That no amount of good works can rescue you or I.
Closing: The Thief on the Cross
And I want to end with a story that is happening at the very moment Jesus is on the cross. A lot of us have heard this before. When Jesus was on the cross to be crucified, there were two thieves on the cross next to him. One was cursing him. One was saying: if you really are who you say you are, why don't you save yourself? They were mocking Jesus. And so were the Roman soldiers.
But we know what happened to the man on the other cross, the one next to Jesus. I want to talk about the man who recognised Jesus as the Messiah. I heard this preaching the other day where the speaker explains this so well, and I wanted to share it as I finish. So when this thief dies and goes to heaven, it's like if the angel saw him there and said: 'Why are you here? You did no Bible study. You were never baptised. You know nothing of church attendance. You haven't been confirmed by the Anglican bishop. Why are you here?' And the thief on the cross looks at him and says, 'I don't know.' The angel is confused, because he knows that the only people who come to heaven are the ones God has rescued. He doesn't know what else to say, and he goes to call the supervising angel. And he says, 'Listen, this man is here in heaven and he's saying he doesn't know why he's here.' And the supervising angel says: 'Okay. I've got two questions for you. Do you know anything about the doctrine of justification by faith?' And the man says: 'I never heard of such a thing.' Now the supervising angel is getting really frustrated. He asks again: 'Have you ever read scripture?' The guy says: 'I don't even know what that is.' And the angel says: 'Okay. One last question. On what basis are you here?'
And the thief looks at the supervising angel and says:
"The man on the middle cross said that I could come."
And the moral of that story, friends, is that that is the only way we can respond to what God has done in the cross and to our salvation. The moment somebody asks you why you are saved and why you are loved, and you start to answer in the first person, you've made a massive mistake. Because that's what religion does. If you ask a Muslim brother or a Jewish brother why they're going to go to heaven, they will give you a number of things they have done to receive God's love: because I prayed seven times a day, I was facing the right direction when I prayed, I washed my hands. But a Christian is the opposite. We never say that we are saved because of what we did. When somebody comes to you and says, 'Hey, why are you going to heaven when you die?', we don't say because I did church every Sunday, or because I read the sixty-six books of the Bible. We say: because of what that man on the middle cross did for me. That's the only answer we can give when it comes to our salvation.
That what that cross did is: God took the punishment that you deserved and I deserved upon himself. So like the thief on the cross, we could be welcomed in.
I've stood in moments in my life that felt like they should have been the end. It really should have been the end. And I believe that most of you have experienced something like that too. Maybe your problem was an addiction. Maybe it was depression, or a problem in your marriage, or a diagnosis, or a redundancy, or a dream that died for whatever reason, or a relationship that fell apart, or something that made the people that you love go quiet. But yet you are here. And I like to believe that that's not luck. That's a God who doesn't just redeem, he reverses what was done to us. He takes the thing that was meant to bury you and turns it into something that sets someone else free.
And that's the cross. That's what happened on that hill.
So my encouragement for you this morning is this: if you are in a dark chapter right now, if it looks like the end, if it looks like death, hold on. Just hold on. Because God tends to do his best work in the dark. He tends to do his best work whilst we are in the dark.
I sense that there are a lot of us in here that are still stuck to religion in a way that we are still trying to buy our way to heaven, still allowing the enemy to accuse us even though the charges have been dropped. I don't know if that's you. I don't know if you are still trying to show God that you're good enough. I wonder if these passages for you today, I wonder if you need to know that all charges have been dropped. All charges. Yes. Even that one that you just thought couldn't be forgiven, you were forgiven too. It doesn't say that some sins were forgiven. It says that all our sins were forgiven.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Thank you that what looked like defeat on the cross was actually your great victory.
Thank you that through Jesus, our sins are forgiven and every charge against us has been cancelled.
Help us to stop striving to earn your love,
and instead to rest in the grace you have freely given us.
When we feel accused, remind us that the price has already been paid.
When we feel defeated, help us to trust that you are still at work.
Fill us with confidence in what Jesus has done, and give us boldness to share this good news with others.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.