Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
We Have a Ministry of Reconciliation | Rev. Paul Lawler
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What does it mean to truly live as an ambassador for Christ? This message from 2 Corinthians 5:11–21 explores the urgency of the gospel, how being made new in Christ reshapes your identity, compels your life, and sends you with a mission of reconciliation into a broken world.
Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ. We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.
SPEAKER_03Today's scripture passage is 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 11 through 15.
Introduction to 2 Corinthians 5
SPEAKER_03Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us. So that we so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves it is for God, if we are in our right mind it is for you, for the love of Christ controls us, because we have included this that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_01Amen and amen, and good morning in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My name is Paul Lawler. I have the honor of serving as a senior pastor of Christ Methodist. We welcome you, whether you're a member here or a guest. Delighted that you're here, loved ones. This is a weighty passage of Scripture. And it's easy to miss that. This is the kind of scripture or passage that doesn't just inform you, it confronts you, it reshapes you, and it sends you. Now, what I'm about to say can come off as if I'm sounding trite, but I'm being serious. I'm being as serious as I know to be. It won't, it won't sound theological, but the intent is to grasp your attention around this word. What the Apostle Paul does here is a Holy Spirit smackdown. It's a weighty word. And this is a word that he's reminding the church of some things that she's not living into, that's a part of her design. There's an urgency with what Paul shares in this passage. You can feel it, you can sense something pressing in his spirit. He says in verse 11, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. In other words, we are aware that in verse 11, if you remember from last week, that he's reminding the church that everybody is going to stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00And this is why he uses the word, therefore, knowing these realities, that we're all living accountable lives.
SPEAKER_01Paul saying, I've seen enough, I know enough in God to know that these things and eternity is real, that the judgment seat of Jesus Christ is coming and it's real. And because of that, Paul articulates that he cannot stay silent about these realities in God for believers. Let me give you a kingdom axiom. Normally I do those kinds of things once we're into the meat of the sermon, but loved ones, in light of the context, we're already in the meat. Here's the kingdom axiom: a life that knows God cannot stay silent about God. Paul's modeling that, but that should be true for all of us. And you're going to see that this is a part of the core of what he expresses in these passages. And the question we could ask: what kind of fuel burns in a brother's heart that enlightens one's heart and one's mind and one's will in this way? What is it that Paul the apostle feels so strongly in the power of the Holy Spirit for the church that he confronts us, that he challenges us to be reshaped, and he commends us and commissions us as a sent people. Well, I'm going to break that down into four categories. Here's the first category. First, he describes what we would call the compelled life. This is true for every believer. We should be living compelled lives. This is why Paul says in verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us. Some of your Bibles translates that, compels us. Both are accurate translations. Notice that he's sharing that there is a velocity at work in his heart. There's a velocity of the love of God at work in the life of a believer that compels and even controls them. Note that it's not a control coming out of guilt, not out of obligation, not out of religious routine, but note specifically it is the velocity of the love of Jesus Christ burning in the heart of a believer. That word compels or controls in the original language, carries the idea of being hymned in, pressed in on every side. But that pressing and that hemming is the purity of the love of God. The love of God burning in you, the love of God burning through you. I when I was reflecting on these passages this week, I could not help but think about our persecuted sisters and brothers in Laos, in China, other parts of Asia. I thought, as I've shared with you before, my mind went back to the last time I was in Laos and the questions asked in an upper room where we were meeting secretly. How many of you have been in prison for your faith and half the hands in the room go up? How many of you have loved ones that have been martyred for following Jesus Christ five or six hands go up in the air? And I'm mindful. Why do they press forward in suffering and lifting up the name of Jesus Christ? Because the love of God compels them. I think about time in China with the underground church and in fellowship there and three men that I deeply admire who've led movement in China and having met two of them, spent time with them. The only one that I haven't spent time with is Brother Yun, who has written a book that I've recommended to many of you called The Heavenly Man, and tells the story of the faithfulness of Jesus as he's in and out of prison, as he's persecuted, as he's physically beaten, how he perseveres, how the love of Christ compels him. And when I stand with sisters and brothers in the underground church in China and I bring up the name Brother Jun, things grow silent. And someone will break the silence and say to me, Paul, you must understand there are thousands of Brother Yun's in China. Or I think about our last mission into Asia with a team out of the Christchurch family last November and a young lady with cotton in her ear. And when we ask, why is there cotton in your ear? And she says, Because when I was sharing the gospel, a grown man took his hand and struck me across the head and busted my eardrum. And yet she's faithful, compelled to continue to share the love of God through Christ. She was not and is not deterred by the suffering. The love of God compels her. I was in a meeting last week in Atlanta, and there was a gentleman there from the persecuted church. And he would say to us in that meeting room, please listen to us from the majority world church. Please let us teach you what God has revealed to us around sharing his gospel, around the pulses of prayer that's necessary to be the people of God and live in to his design. I sat there knowing what he was saying by virtue of experiencing and seeing what God is doing among the persecuted church around the world. And the apostle Paul is saying to us this morning, I don't preach because it's
The Compelled Life
SPEAKER_01my job. I don't serve because it's expected. I do what I do because Christ's love has taken hold of me in such a way that I can't live for myself anymore.
What Drives You?
SPEAKER_00What about you? What about you? What compels you, a believer? What controls you, Christian? Is it comfort? Is that what you choose over living out your faith? Your security? Is it success? Is it approval? What other people think of you? Or is it the love of Christ?
SPEAKER_01Because the text makes it plain and clear. Hear this word, verse 14 into 15. He, Jesus, died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all. And notice the bold part that those who live may no longer live for themselves, but live for him. You have been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus. You are not your own anymore. This is what the word of God says about us. And I am not naive. I know that rubs against the grain of culture because everything around us says, live your truth, live and follow your heart, live your best life, build life your way. But the gospel says something different. You were bought with a price. I think I have, I'm going to share a few things with you that I may have shared before this morning. Missy and I, we we don't argue a lot. We are normal. We have our occasional moments where we work through things. It's probably just us, none of you. But I our first argument centered, and this is what I've shared with you before. I was a young believer. I didn't have, uh I didn't, I had never read the Bible. I'm new in Christ. I've only been a Christian for a few months, and then we met. And I read this passage that where Jesus says that it is easier for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than a camel, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And I read that and didn't read the full context. And I began to reason that a person with wealth and prosperity can't go to heaven. I was wrong, but that's the way I began to reason in my young naivete. My wife, who was right, said you need to keep reading because Jesus said, with man these things are impossible. With God all things are possible. And that Miss E rightly was interpreting the passage that riches can be very deceiving and can make us so comfortable that we miss our need and our purpose. And so a few years passed. I'm in student ministry now, and I'm traveling and teaching and speaking some at youth retreats and youth conferences, and I got invited to speak at a youth conference outside of Philadelphia in a bedroom community called Washington Crossing. And the conference was based out of a United Methodist Church called Washington Crossing United Methodists. It's a very wealthy area. The student pastor that invited me and was organizing the event said, Paul, you don't need to be put off by the fact that a lot of the students will drive to the parking lot to get on the bus in brand new BMWs that their parents bought them. A few of the students will be dropped off in limos. I was like, okay. And then I learned that in the neighborhood around the church, that Barbara Streisand lived there, that Lee Ayacoka, the former chairperson of Chrysler, lived there, that Charles Barclay from Leeds, Alabama, I might add, played for the 76ers at that time. And he lived in that neighborhood, again, very wealthy neighborhood. And so I go with this skepticism.
SPEAKER_00And what rocked my world was to see a church fully alive, teenagers alive in Christ.
SPEAKER_01Because they recognized, they had come to recognize the emptiness, the emptiness that riches do not satisfy the deepest hole in the soul. And they had awakened to the love of Jesus. And that church was on mission in the greater Philadelphia area. That church was on mission around the world. That church was on mission with worship that was fully alive. And what I grew to understand is this church family, never limit God in any circumstance. Can somebody say amen? The love of God compelled them. The emptiness in their own souls God had satisfied with his living water. And this is what Paul is pointing to: to live a compelled life out of the love of God and love for people. But that's not all Paul confronts us with here. He also confronts us not only with living a compelled life, but also living as a new
Living as a New Creation
SPEAKER_01creation. Paul shifts the lens when he says in verse 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is pass away. Behold, the new has come. Now, may I invite you this morning, don't rush past that verse because it's familiar. This is much more than poetic language. This is a description of spiritual reality. And he doesn't say that because of Jesus in your life, that you simply got improved. He doesn't say that you just got cleaned up. He says you became new. Jesus said you must be born again. You must be born again to see the kingdom of God, to enter the kingdom of God. And here Paul describes in this verse that your identity is no longer rooted in your past, believer, not in your failures, your identity is not in your wounds, your disappointments, your identity is not in your success. In fact, not even in your success. Let me take just a little rabbit trail to tee up this point. About nine months ago, I, in a sermon, quoted Elizabeth Elliott. Here's the quote: The secret of joy is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances. Now, the reason this is relevant is because in knowing Jesus, there is fruit in there, the Bible describes there's fruit that emanates out of knowing Jesus. One of those expressions is the joy of the Lord. Joy is a deep-rooted state of being that stems from God, rooted out of your relationship with God in Christ. Happiness, on the other hand, is dependent on favorable circumstances. Certainly, we wish favorable circumstances upon all people, but God is declaring that there is something deeper that's available to the believer. But here's the tension: a lot of men and women have received Christ, but they're still living the old version of themselves. And because of that, they're not living in the joy of the Lord and the contagion that you bring to people out of joy in the Lord. Many of you remember an old movie called Hook. I think it's 20, 25 years old, starring Robin Williams playing the role of Peter Penn. And you may remember the premise in the movie is Pan has forgotten about his old life in Neverland. He's married now in the real world, and he has two young children. And Hook decides he's going to seek revenge against Peter Penn, and he kidnaps his two children. And he decides that the way he's going to seek revenge is he's going to win the affections of Penn's two children. And there's a scene in the movie where young Jack, Peter Pan's little boy, is looking up at Hook, idolizing him. In fact, he's even dressing like Hook. And as he begins to dress like the captain, young Jack forgets who he really is.
SPEAKER_00And loved ones, this is said in love by your pastor.
SPEAKER_01But some of you have forgotten who you really are, because you've lost sight of whose you really are. And because of that, you are living a distortion. You are saved and redeemed, but you're still thinking like you're stuck. You're redeemed, but you're still walking in shame or fear, or you're walking by sight rather than walking by faith as the Lord has instructed you. You're new in the Lord, but you're still thinking and even talking like your old self has the final word. And the apostle Paul says, No. No. Something decisive has happened to you. You put your faith in the person of Jesus Christ. The old has passed away, not partially, not occasionally, but passed away. It's the old is gone. So the question becomes: are you, believer, living out of who you were, or are you now living your new life in Christ? Because Paul is confronting us here, the apostle, that you in Christ, you're a new creation. Thirdly, as a new creation, Paul is confronting the church at Corinth. And this morning, God in Christ is confronting us in love. Now are you embracing living into a ministry of reconciliation?
Ministry of Reconciliation
SPEAKER_01So this is where this word turns outward. Paul says this, verse 18, and this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. May I encourage you.
SPEAKER_00Don't miss that. You were reconciled to God, but you were also assigned.
SPEAKER_01Being reconciled to God is unto something. This is not just about your personal salvation. This is about your public mission. God didn't save you to sit, He saved you to represent Him. This is why verse 20 says, We are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador does not speak his or her own opinion. They represent the authority and message of another kingdom, which means that when you, loved one, step into the workplace or your neighborhood or your family dynamics, you are not there just by accident. You are sent. And here's the message you're sent with according to God's word.
SPEAKER_00Be reconciled to God. His name was Daryl.
SPEAKER_01He had moved into Cynthia, Kentucky, where I was serving as a student pastor. And he had moved into the community in the fall and was new at the high school. And a young lady in our student group who had determined to live an ambassador-style life built a relationship with him or tried to, and he didn't say much. But she wrote him a note and said, Daryl, I know you're new at the school, you're new in the community. Here's when our youth group meets. I want to invite you to come and be a part. If you need a ride, call this number. Our family will come get you. And she put that on his desk. And he showed up at youth group only the entire time. He never spoke a word. Week two went by, didn't say a word. Week three, four, never a word. It's really strange. So finally I pick up the phone and I call the guidance counselor at the high school and I say, Look, there's a new man, young man in our community. I don't know anything about him. Here's his name. Could you do do you know anything about him?
SPEAKER_00He's not talking. And she said, Paul, Daryl and his family had to move to the community quickly.
SPEAKER_01He's in trauma. His father was under their house, touched a live wire, electrocuted him, he had a heart attack, died on the spot. Daryl found him under the house.
SPEAKER_00And now I understood why Daryl wasn't talking.
SPEAKER_01About the fifth or sixth weeks, Daryl got up to walk out of the student group as it ended, and he turned and he faced the student group and he said, spoke for the first time, and he said, DeAndre, I want to thank you for inviting me to this youth group, and I want to thank all of you for being so kind. This has made more of a difference in my life than any of you can imagine. And he turned and he walked out. I got a phone call a few days later from a personnel manager in a grocery store, member of the church, Paul, we're looking for some young people who can bag groceries that are really good with people. And then Daryl ran through my mind. And I'm thinking, he's not necessarily really good with people right now. But I said to the lady, her name was Mary, Mary, have you ever wanted to take a chance? I explained the situation, and we got him down there for an interview. They hired him. A few months later, Missy looks at me. We have one child. Honey, we got to make a diaper run. And I ran to the grocery store to pick up diapers. And I'm getting ready to walk out of the grocery store. And there are three registers open, but only one line. And it happened to be Senior Citizen Day, where you get a discount on your groceries. Three registers are open. And so as I walk up, it's like peer pressure kicks in reverse. Is it okay for me to go through these open lines? And I look up and there's a lady that I know from church, her name is Mabel. I walked over. Mabel, what's going on? Why is there only one line? And she looked at me so prim and pop proper and she said these words.
SPEAKER_00Oh, we all want to go through Daryl's line. Get this.
SPEAKER_01When Daryl would take the groceries of senior citizens to their car, he was intuitive enough to know senior citizens, many of them are some of the loneliest people in the world, and he would say something like this I know what it's like to be lonely too. I lost my father last summer. But you see that steeple over there? Those people invited me into their community. And I've come to know Jesus Christ and the joy of having people that are close to you. And I want to share that with you because while God hasn't taken the pain away, there's a comfort that I know whereby my life will never be the same.
SPEAKER_00DeAndra was an ambassador. Daryl was an ambassador. And I'm simply saying to you, church family, it's impossible to truly know God and not talk about him.
SPEAKER_01And so we recognize that as we read this reality, that it's also impossible for all of us as the people of God to not be living into a divine appointment with a mission filled all around us. Can I remind you of Acts 17, 26, where the Bible says this, that God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their allotted times or allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place? May I remind you that that means the fact that you're alive in 2026 is not your idea, that God orchestrated it, but it also means that the boundaries of your dwelling place have been determined by God. And you may think it was your idea to get a job in Memphis, Tennessee, or somehow it's just coincidental that you were born here and you've lived here all your life. Loved ones, may I remind you, you, according to the word of God, you're in a divine appointment living here in Memphis. What does God desire of you living here in Memphis? You are the salt of the earth. You're his ambassador. And the world is fractured, relationships are broken, people are carrying guilt and anxiety and confusion, and most of all, distance from God. And heaven's strategy is not a program. It's people.
SPEAKER_00Heaven's strategy is not a program. It's you. It's you.
SPEAKER_01In a few weeks, there's a team from Christchurch that will leave on the Hugo mission trip. About 60 members of our faith family. We want to pray for them. There's another team that will be headed out to the Biddy Biddy Refugee Camp here this summer in ministry. And glory to God, we want to pray for them. There's another team that will be headed to Asia this fall to share Christ, to plant churches, and to reach unreached people groups. We want to pray for them. But loved ones, as was affirmed earlier when we were casting vision for vacation Bible school. We also want to serve as ambassadors with children for the glory of God. We also want men and women who work at First Horizon Bank or Regions Bank or Pinnacle Bank to be on mission as ambassadors for the glory of God. We want men and women whose kids are playing little league baseball and softball to be ambassadors in conversations with parents and the bleachers and with kids and neighbor to neighbor. And we want to be faithful ambassadors of Jesus Christ as we serve together on a churchwide serve day on May 2nd on that Saturday as we serve our city for the glory of God. And as we're ambassadors of Christ, I lovingly remind you that God does not use perfect people, no, not people who've had have it all figured out. There are two things, loved ones, that you cannot do in heaven. You cannot sin in heaven, and you will not carry the message, be reconciled to God in heaven. So if you can't do those two things in heaven, what do you think God's leaving you on this earth to do? He's leaving you on this planet to bring him glory, to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples. Sometimes I get in conversations with Christians and I say, Hey, tell me why you're here. And they'll say things like this I'm here to love God and love him with my heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I'm going, that's a good answer. Is that all? And I remind you that you have both a purpose and a mission. Your purpose is to love the Lord God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. Your mission, according to Jesus, not your pastor's opinion, is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. That's your mission, loved ones, to serve as an ambassador. And this is all over the pages of scripture. What did Paul say his purpose was? My purpose is I want to know him. I want to know him. I want fellowship with him, even when I suffer for him. That's his purpose. But what's his mission? He said it to make Christ known where he's not yet known. He's an ambassador. You have a purpose to love the Lord God, to glorify God, but you have a mission as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. And so we're mindful that we have a ministry of reconciliation.
The Great Exchange
SPEAKER_01And then finally, Paul takes us to what we call the great exchange. Paul closes with one of the most profound words found in all of Scripture, in one verse, where he writes this for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Church, this is the gospel in one sentence. Jesus, who knew no sin, perfect, holy, righteous, became sin for us. He didn't just carry it, he didn't just observe it, he became sin. That's exactly what the text says. Why? So that you and I would become the righteousness of God. That's the great exchange. He took our guilt, he took our shame at the cross, he took our judgment at the cross. And in return, he gives you a gift. He gives you righteousness. He gives you forgiveness. He gives you new life. It's not something you've earned, it's something that you receive. So when God looks at you in Christ, he doesn't see your past, he sees his son. So loved ones, here's where all this lands.
SPEAKER_00If you've been living for yourself, Jesus calls you to surrender. The love of Christ compels you.
SPEAKER_01If you've been stuck in your past, the call is to believe God for your new identity in Jesus Christ. If you've been silent, the call is to embrace your assignment as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. And if you have never received reconciliation, the invitation is open. Be reconciled to God through the love of what God has done in Christ.
SPEAKER_00Now, church, I want to remind you where we started. This is not casual. Paul the apostle shares this with fervency.
SPEAKER_01We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Therefore, and that's when he goes into all of this. Be sobered by what the word teaches here. These are eternal matters. That's why Paul says things like, uses this urgent language. We implore you on behalf of Christ. And that is strong. That's urgency. That's love that can't stay quiet. And we'll echo it today. Don't just admire what the word says. Loved ones, I encourage you to respond to it.
SPEAKER_00Don't just hear about reconciliation. Receive it. God loves you like that. And love compels me to affirm it. Don't just receive it then. Carry it. Because you are, whether you realize it or not, you are an ambassador.
SPEAKER_01In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Let's pray for a moment.
SPEAKER_01God, I have such a keen sense that we're st we're on holy ground here.
SPEAKER_00And I sense your presence in a very unique way. And so we don't want to play in your presence, God. We reverence you. And we pray that in our hearts that you will work.
SPEAKER_01If we're not reconciled, God, that the reconciling work would take place in our lives, that we would call on the name of the Lord. You said, all those who call upon the name of the Lord, confess Jesus as Lord, believe in their heart he's risen from the dead, that they'll be saved. So I pray all over this sanctuary, let the gift of repentance and confession of sin draw draw near to you, reconcile us to you. God, where we haven't been faithful as ambassadors, rekindle the flame. Lord, where we've lost sense of who and whose we are as new creations in Christ, God, solidify the living into our new identity. And we pray, O God, in these holy matters, that all of this be transformative for your glory and for your mission. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ. To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at Christchurch Memphis.org. We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.