WEBVTT 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.800 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:24.320 Good morning and welcome. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:29.440 I've been out of the pulpit for two weeks, but it feels somehow like a month. 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:31.199 It's kind of strange. 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:44.479 Took a couple of weeks off to be able to get some home projects done, be able to take some time off, but most importantly, I had not done any dissertation writing since June. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:46.399 And I was getting very behind. 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:48.960 So it took some time to get some of that done. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:55.439 Glad to be back to open up the Bible with you in the Word of God in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:58.399 If you are our guest this morning, we want to welcome you. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:03.359 We've been spending a few weeks in a few chapters from 2 Corinthians. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:11.200 This morning we're going to wrap that up with the end of chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:23.519 We've been looking at what the Apostle Paul has to say about the local church ministry through his defense of his own ministry. 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:31.120 So 2 Corinthians, in large part, is one man's defense of his God-given calling. 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:40.000 But regardless of whether or not it's one man's defense, it's applicable to the Lord's church. 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:44.400 It's relevant because of human nature. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:02:01.519 See, our natural sinful human nature, combined with our individual personalities, our individual quirks, and yes, you all have a personality and you all have quirks. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:22.879 I do too, all of those often lead us to adopt perspectives, desires, attitudes, and all of those things work themselves out into actions that may be based on perceptions and not always entirely accurate. 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:35.840 So in 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is addressing and correcting the perceptions of him and his ministry that were in the church in ancient Corinth. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:42.240 There are divisions at this point in time in the Corinthian church. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:51.599 In his first letter, we read that some folks were loyal to Paul, while others leaned towards Apollos. 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.159 Some wanted Peter. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:03:00.159 And some took the high road, at least they thought, and said, Oh, I'm only of Christ. 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:03.759 So they're fracturing, they're splintered. 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:08.400 And the same thing happens in every church. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:23.199 Our personalities, our quirks, our perspectives, our attitudes, our tendencies, and the way those work together in the confines of a local church cause us to work those things out in a way that causes disruption sometimes. 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:37.840 So we can't hear the letters to the church in Corinth without knowing that there is a loud segment of that group of believers who thought that Paul was doing ministry wrong. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:40.080 Even more. 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:48.319 Some had bought into lies and the deception that false apostles had brought with them into the local church. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:51.680 And they were turning people against Paul. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:04:00.800 So people in the Corinthian church were divided on how the apostle Paul was ministering to the churches. 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:06.000 So this letter is in large part written to set the record straight. 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:16.800 Paul defended his ministry and he set the church on a right path by pointing to Jesus. 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:24.240 In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 13, he says, You might think I'm out of my mind. 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:26.879 You might think I'm crazy. 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:40.319 But whether people think he's on target in what he's doing, or whether they think he's out of his mind, he says in verse 14, you need to understand that the love of Christ controls us. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:47.360 This is critical to understanding what's going on in this section of Scripture. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:58.800 Because the Apostle Paul is laying out the apostolic approach to ministry, which is to ground everything in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:04.879 Now we're picking up this morning where Webb left off last Sunday in verse 16. 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:12.879 And as we do so, beginning in verse 16, we need to recall how the people in Corinth were behaving. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:17.839 They had a particular view of local church ministry. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:24.079 They had a particular view of teaching and preaching and everything that came with being an apostle. 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:31.680 And they compared their standard to where the apostle Paul was and their perceptions. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:39.600 They were trying to match Paul up with what they thought things needed to be like. 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:46.560 And they put him up against the so-called superapostles that were in the church in Corinth. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:53.839 And the corrective to all of these issues, the apostle says, is to look to Jesus. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:06:01.199 Because Jesus, he says, has instituted a new world order that impacts how we follow him. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:13.040 We're going to break this section from verse 16 into verse 2 of chapter 6 into four parts by considering how Christ changes in his new world order. 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:22.319 He changes the way we think, he changes who we are, he changes our status with God. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:28.639 And all of that brought together changes our focus as followers of Christ. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:36.959 You see, Christ is active in establishing his kingdom through people who are controlled by his love. 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:41.600 And it starts in verse 16 by the way we think. 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:46.959 Jesus changes the way his people think. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:07:00.000 You remember, I'm sure, from our study of the book of Acts, how the Lord Jesus arrested a man named Saul while he was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians. 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:11.680 He arrested Saul, he sent him into the city of Damascus, and he told a man by the name of Ananias to go to Paul and to heal his vision, for he'd been blinded. 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:21.680 And the Lord Jesus told Ananias, I'm going to show this man how much he must suffer for my name's sake. 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:33.920 So the Apostle Paul speaks much of his suffering in 2 Corinthians chapters 4 and 5, because he was criticized for it. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:36.879 Can you imagine that? 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:44.720 That you're going through all kinds of horrible suffering and you get criticized for it? 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:54.560 You see, for the Apostle Paul, the Corinthian believers were looking at his suffering and say, saying, if you were really an apostle, you wouldn't be suffering so much. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:08:02.639 In their minds, suffering didn't align with being an apostle. 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:08.480 Aspects of the health and wealth gospel were prevalent from the very beginning. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:22.879 That's why he said in chapter 4, verse 7, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:28.879 Jars of clay are breakable, they're frail and fragile. 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:43.120 So he's defending his suffering by showing that suffering for Christ in frail bodies, and that's talking about persecutions and beatings and imprisonment like Paul suffered. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:51.600 Or even by lacking the needs of the body, like food, clothing, and sleep that believers sometimes suffer in a fallen world. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:09:00.559 God is glorified when his people serve him through things that come with having bodies that break down. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:03.440 Let me rephrase that. 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:13.519 If you suffer for Jesus because of a broken body, because of a human body, that brings God glory. 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:17.759 It's not something that brings shame and dishonor to his name. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:26.320 God is glorified because he likes to bring himself glory by showing that the surpassing power belongs to him. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:31.519 And sometimes using bodies that break down is a great way to do that. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:37.759 The apostle knew that God was preparing an eternal weight of glory for him. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:46.879 But that kind of faith requires an eternal mindset, which we see in chapter 4, verses 17 and 18. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:51.200 He says, this light, momentary affliction. 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:54.639 The guy was whipped. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:57.519 He was put in stocks. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:02.080 He faced hunger and lack and shipwrecked. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:04.000 And he calls it light. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.519 I don't know that I could call that light. 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:25.120 This light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that we can see, but to the things that are unseen. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:30.080 For the things that are seen are transient, they're temporary, they're here and they're gone. 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.840 But the things that are unseen are eternal. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:43.600 Paul was content to endure whatever the Lord prepared for him. 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:47.600 Some argued that he walked with a limp. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:51.919 Some argued that he had terrible eyesight. 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:57.519 Because in one of his letters he said, Look at what large letters I'm signing my name with. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:10.240 Still others argue that he he had some kind of speech impediment because he was not able to speak like a skilled orator of the time, like one of the super apostles. 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:20.720 Whatever the case, Paul didn't leave folks with the impression that he was a spiritual giant with a direct line to the throne room of God. 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:34.399 That's why he wrote in chapter 5, verse 12 Look, we're not building ourselves up and commending ourselves to you again. 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:51.200 Instead, we're giving you a cause to boast about us so that you might be able to have an answer to those who look on the outward appearance of people instead of looking at what's in the heart. 00:11:52.080 --> 00:12:02.960 You see, a key problem in how Corinthian believers thought of Paul was that they evaluated him on what they could observe about him as a human being. 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:09.440 And so now in verse 16, Paul summarizes that concept. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:17.840 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, it is according to our human nature. 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:30.080 You see, Jesus' death and resurrection change the way God's people think specifically about one another. 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:35.039 The love of Christ controls us, he says. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:39.200 The love of Christ controls even the way we think. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:51.919 The believer in Jesus symbolically dies with Christ at the moment of salvation, and they no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was risen again. 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:53.200 Look at verse 15. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:54.960 That's exactly what he says. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:13:01.360 And now, according to the flesh, means a human, worldly way of thinking. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:08.240 Some in Corinth were looking at the Apostle Paul from a purely human, worldly lens. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:13.919 They viewed him like non-Christians consider one another. 00:13:14.399 --> 00:13:18.960 Much like judging a book by its cover. 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:26.799 But that's an unjust and unrighteous way of thinking. 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:32.639 But you know it's very normal for most of the world. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:36.240 It's very normal for a non-Christian. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:41.840 That's why he goes on to say in verse 16, we once regarded Christ that way. 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:44.159 But not anymore. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:56.080 Before his dramatic encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, the man called Saul viewed the Lord Jesus as a messianic pretender and blasphemer. 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:08.000 His perspective was that a man who was weak enough to be crucified by the Romans could not in any way be the Lord of all and the promised Messiah. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:12.000 That's a wrong perspective, of course. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:14.480 But it's normal. 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:26.480 And by normal, I mean it is a standard way of thinking about others when Christ has not yet impacted your way of thinking. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:34.799 We shouldn't be surprised when the world thinks about Jesus in that way. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:43.360 I mean, Isaiah 53, one of the church's beloved passages, describes that kind of mindset, does it not? 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:51.360 It represents the perspective of those who see God's promised Messiah as one from whom men hide their faces. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:52.799 He's just, what? 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:54.559 He's a Messiah? 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:56.159 That can't be. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:02.399 But Jesus changes the way people think. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:05.200 And Paul experienced that change. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:12.639 He went from thinking that Jesus was a blasphemer to seeing Jesus glorified at the Father's right hand. 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:17.840 He knows and believes differently, and that faith has altered his thinking. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:24.159 He no longer thought about life through a worldly sinful lens. 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:40.159 Brothers and sisters in Christ, your thinking changes when the love of Christ controls you, and you no longer live for yourself, but for him who died and was raised for your sake. 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:47.200 You no longer think like a pagan because Christ now motivates your mind. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:54.799 Your mind is transformed as you take in his word and it renews you over and over. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:00.000 Now, Paul was speaking about how the Corinthian church thought of him. 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:05.600 And he's leading them to understand believers don't think like that. 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:23.039 He's defending his apostleship and his calling to serve Jesus even in the midst of rejection, but his defense enables us to see and to be challenged about how we think of others, especially believers. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:29.840 If we consider them by their outward appearance, by a human lens. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:36.639 And they don't simply mean what they wear when they come to church on Sunday morning. 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:43.039 Not judging somebody because they wear flip-flops and shorts in the middle of a North Dakota winter. 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:49.360 Might be weird, odd, but that's not what we're talking about. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:53.120 We mean everything that comes with being human. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:17:11.519 So if we judge them by their accent, by their skin color, by their hairstyle, by their wealth or their lack thereof, their education or their lack thereof, if we judge other believers in those kinds of ways, we display nothing of the mindset of Christ that he gives to his people. 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:20.880 If we display a judgment of others that judges by human standards, that is not the mind of Christ. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:24.799 But Jesus changes the way we think. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:30.640 The standard of judgment now becomes what is in the heart, verse 12. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:33.359 What does that look like? 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:36.319 We find out in verse 17. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:46.079 There we discover that our way of thinking must be different than the unsaved world because Jesus changes who we are. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:52.799 Verse 17 is a familiar and loved verse for many Christians. 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:59.759 But do you realize that it's built on something that the scriptures have already anticipated? 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:08.720 Isaiah chapter 43, verses 18 and 19 is in the back of the apostles' mind here. 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:17.519 Isaiah wrote of God sending his people into exile for judgment, for their sin and their rebellion against him. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:23.279 But in Isaiah 43, Isaiah's recording God's words of hope. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:33.440 And he wrote of God coming again as a powerful Redeemer king who makes paths through the waters. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:41.599 So pictur the redemption of Israel from Egypt, bringing them through the waters of the Red Sea. 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:49.839 And he promises, gives hope that even in your exile there's going to be another coming like that, that is like the path of water through the sea. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:19:01.279 And he says in Isaiah 43, verses 18 and 19, don't remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:06.559 Behold, I am doing a new thing. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:19.200 That's a radical statement for a nation of people who rest their identity in their history. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:25.519 A new thing can be very uncomfortable and uncertain. 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:29.440 But God says, You're gonna go into exile. 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:35.599 But as you go into exile, I want you to begin anticipating a new work that I'm going to do. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:44.559 God's promise through Isaiah gave ancient Israel hope as they contemplated their impending exile from the land of promise. 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:53.519 He didn't provide them hope with through some kind of lesson that they had to learn in their pain. 00:19:55.039 --> 00:20:02.880 He gave them hope that would come from a new world order established by God's redeeming king. 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:12.720 And God's prophetic promise, declaring that he would do a new thing, became a reality in Jesus. 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:23.680 That inbreaking, if you will, of God's work to renew his world includes the work of recreating people. 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:34.160 The Redeeming King has come and is conquering work to establish his rule on earth begins through recreation. 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:42.799 And if I accidentally say recreation, you'll have to forgive me because I had a struggle with autocorrecting my computer. 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:46.400 I wanted to do recreation into recreation, and I knew I would mess that up. 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:47.839 Look at verse 17. 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:56.799 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:00.799 The old has passed away. 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:05.039 Behold, the new has come. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:07.839 Now look up at the screen at Isaiah 43. 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:09.440 Do you see the parallel? 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:15.920 The Apostle Paul is pointing back to saying, look, we knew this was coming. 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:20.400 God is doing something new. 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:29.920 This work by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King, the Messiah, recreates people. 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:32.720 The old is gone, the new has come. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:39.680 No one can genuinely come to faith in Christ and remain unchanged. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:49.440 That is categorically impossible because Jesus takes broken image bearers and he remakes them into new beings. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:56.319 The old has passed away and it has been replaced by something new. 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.839 And that doesn't mean we don't still struggle with sin. 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:03.519 And sometimes greatly. 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:07.039 It doesn't mean we are perfected. 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:13.200 It doesn't mean we don't take three steps forward and two steps back in our spiritual journey. 00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:19.119 It means that at the core of our beings we are recreated. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:28.000 So do you see now why our thinking must change when we come to faith in Christ? 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:38.799 If our thinking, point number one, does not change, then it can really only indicate one of two realities. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:56.400 If we are new creations, but we don't think like new creations, then we are either still infants in Christ who have not made much progress in our growth, or we have not been recreated. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:05.440 The recreating work of Jesus begins on the inside with the heart, soul, and mind. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:15.839 We still live in frail, broken bodies that suffer in a fallen world because he has not completed his redemption of the world yet. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:19.839 But there's been an inbreaking of it. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:27.279 The king has begun to establish his rule through people that he has recreated to be his new image bearers. 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:32.319 That means we start thinking and processing our world in a different way. 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:45.839 We must consider Paul no longer as a murderer and a blasphemer, but as a brother in Christ, who carried on the sufferings of Jesus. 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:50.960 Because Jesus recreated Paul. 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:59.279 So Paul's thinking, his processing, and his living began to change from the moment of his recreation. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:01.920 The old passed away, the new came. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:06.240 We gain the mind of Christ, and our lives then begin to demonstrate it. 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:12.000 Sometimes very minutely, sometimes at greater steps, sometimes by leaps and bounds. 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:19.680 But we need to notice a few implications before we move on to the change in our status. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:22.079 And verse 17, notice the if. 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:27.839 There's a what we call a condition there. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:34.720 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ. 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:44.480 Friends, there is a required identification in order to experience this recreating work. 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:57.279 Those are not scare quotes, those are air quotes, because the text focuses on that. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:02.160 That means being in Christ means you belong to him. 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:16.240 You have heard him calling to you in your spirit to believe in him and to trust him, coming to him for the forgiveness of your sins and dying with him to be raised to new life with him. 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:22.319 Only those who are in Christ are recreated. 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:35.279 This is the essence of so many warning passages to those who claim to be believers in the scriptures, but do not live like it. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:40.319 You can flip over to 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, if you'd like. 00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:51.839 That's why the Apostle Paul will say to this same church, examine yourselves and test to see whether you are in the faith. 00:25:54.559 --> 00:26:01.279 Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test? 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:09.680 So we need to understand the implication of if. 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:17.599 It means there's a required identification to receive the new creation. 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:22.640 But friends, it also implies that not everyone is a new creation. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:27.200 Remember the Lord's words on that final day? 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:34.319 He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into eternal glory with him. 00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:42.480 Genuine trust and genuine faith are interconnected with this recreating work. 00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:54.480 And genuine trust means that you embrace the reality that you are not your own, but that you have been bought with a price, and the love of Christ given to you now controls you. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:04.079 This creating work, friends, also proves the old statement quite true. 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:10.640 That the ground is level at the foot of the cross. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:23.599 Small or great, strong or weak, wealthy or poor, everyone must look to the crucified Jesus in the same way. 00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:32.480 And it matters not who you are or where you are before that encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:48.480 If you've ever wondered if there might be a chance that God, the way to God might be accomplished through any other means, this passage destroys any other option. 00:27:50.319 --> 00:28:01.519 The only way to be reconciled and made right with God is through the recreating work of the Lord Jesus Christ by his death on the cross. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:10.319 It only matters what you do with Jesus. 00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:15.119 And that means our mission is still unfinished, does it not? 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:21.440 Because there are those around us who are not yet in Christ. 00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:32.880 This mission of reconciliation, of restoring broken relationships was introduced into our world through sin. 00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:42.640 God made humanity to be in a perfect, continual relationship with him, to be his representatives, his image bearers. 00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:46.079 But sin ruined what God created. 00:28:47.200 --> 00:29:02.000 So the Redeemer King came so that his death and his resurrection, and through that, those who believe in him might die with him and be given new life through recreation. 00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:09.519 And so we are now united to him because of his love for us. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:14.400 This is where we see that Jesus changes our status. 00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:21.599 All this is from God, he says in verse 18. 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:24.559 That's the divine viewpoint. 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:34.960 And God determined that reconciliation, people being brought back into a right relationship with Him, would happen through Christ. 00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:50.160 Sinful, unredeemed, unrecreated beings cannot be reconciled to a holy God without sin being addressed. 00:29:51.359 --> 00:30:05.519 The only way to be accepted by a righteous and absolutely holy God and to be able to stand before him without judgment is to be able to stand before him in a righteous state. 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:08.000 There is no other way. 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:14.160 And God has determined the means of bringing that about. 00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:21.599 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. 00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:28.079 Reconciliation is defined for us in verse 19. 00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:44.880 In Christ, God was reconciling, restoring the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:47.440 So, what is reconciliation? 00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:51.599 Well, reconciliation establishes that there is a standard. 00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:06.400 And that trespass suddenly drives a wedge in what God has designed. 00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:12.799 That's what the scripture means when it says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:19.039 That trespass violated the character of a holy, sovereign God. 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:33.440 Imagine, if you will, the most heinous thing that you have ever encountered in your life that just sickened you and angered you all at the same moment. 00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:37.119 I'll give you a second. 00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:45.119 What was the most sickening and maddening, heinous thing that you ever experienced? 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:52.079 Now multiply that feeling by infinity. 00:31:54.960 --> 00:32:05.119 And you have the anger and the wrath of a holy, absolutely holy God, offended by one sin. 00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:15.119 That violation required God to demand payment for that trespass. 00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:19.440 And payment will be made. 00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:21.359 It will be made. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:31.119 Either by you for eternity or by God's gracious provision. 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:55.759 Through Christ's death, God's wrath against our sin was satisfied so that God can enter into a relationship with human beings once again, not in wrath against their sin, but in love as recreated beings made into the image of the Lord Jesus. 00:32:55.920 --> 00:32:57.440 That's reconciliation. 00:32:57.599 --> 00:33:02.400 And it's the sweetest work of God that you can experience. 00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:19.279 If you have not experienced the sweetness of God reconciling you to Himself, then you, my friend, may not fully grasp the horror of your sin and rebellion against the righteous and holy God. 00:33:21.519 --> 00:33:44.240 If you do not fully grasp the horror of your sin and rebellion, then you will not know the sweetness of God looking at you and saying, My child, my only begotten Son became sin for you, and now you have left off being a sinner, and now you stand in my presence with my righteousness. 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:45.519 Look at the text with me. 00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:46.880 Verse 21. 00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:59.200 For our sake, he, God the Father, made him, God the Son, to be sin who was sinless, he knew no sin. 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:01.279 Why? 00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:14.320 So that in him, in Christ, we might become as he is, the righteousness of God. 00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:21.440 Don't let that opportunity to know that grace go by. 00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:33.519 Don't let it go. 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:50.559 Now, if you have experienced that sweetness of God's reconciling work, then you have been recreated as God's redeemed image-bearer in a broken world. 00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:56.960 You stand out like a sore thumb, as you were designed to be. 00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:03.199 You are his representative, taking his rule to those around you. 00:35:03.360 --> 00:35:06.719 You are his path of reconciling the world to himself. 00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:08.559 It's a change of status. 00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:14.800 Once his enemy, now welcomed at his table through the righteousness of his son. 00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:25.519 That means that grasping Christ's work on your behalf must change your focus in life. 00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:29.119 That's what we see at the end of this text. 00:35:29.519 --> 00:35:32.800 Jesus changes your focus. 00:35:35.519 --> 00:35:39.280 Verse 20, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. 00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:41.760 Therefore, points back, right? 00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:44.480 Points back to God's reconciling work. 00:35:44.719 --> 00:35:50.159 Because God does this reconciling work through Jesus, we are now ambassadors of Jesus. 00:35:50.400 --> 00:35:52.480 Why would we be ambassadors of Jesus? 00:35:52.719 --> 00:36:01.840 Because we have received that reconciling work where Christ has become sin for us, and we now receive his righteousness. 00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:11.440 And so we are now reoriented to the essence of the Lord's satisfying work. 00:36:12.079 --> 00:36:15.840 He became sin who knew no sin. 00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:18.639 The sinless became sinner. 00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:22.159 That doesn't mean he sinned. 00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:32.400 It means that in the sight of God the Father, Christ became in his essence your sin, my sin. 00:36:34.239 --> 00:36:48.159 So that on the cross he might be the sin that received the Father's wrath. 00:36:50.559 --> 00:37:01.920 All so that those who receive his recreating work might stand before the Holy God in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:27.199 As recreated image bearers, we grasp this utterly merciful and gracious act more and more fully each day, overwhelmed more and more with thankfulness. 00:37:28.639 --> 00:37:34.880 And that change of focus looks like something very particular. 00:37:36.159 --> 00:37:45.280 If you are motivated by that thankfulness, you now are motivated to be a participant in God's reconciling work. 00:37:46.639 --> 00:37:51.840 That reconciling work may be with those who appear to be Christians. 00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:54.800 Or it may be with non-Christians. 00:37:55.039 --> 00:38:01.360 You see, Paul was concerned in verse 1 here of chapter 6 that the Corinthians may have received God's grace in vain. 00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:15.039 He looked at them and he said, listen, the way you're acting, the way you're thinking, it's possible that some of you may not really have received that recreating work. 00:38:15.440 --> 00:38:20.639 He's worried that Christ's new world order work had not genuinely impacted them. 00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:23.280 That's why we preach the gospel among Christians. 00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:32.079 But we must also recognize that we are God's means of taking his reconciling work to the world. 00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:37.360 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, verse 20. 00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:40.239 God making his appeal through us. 00:38:40.559 --> 00:38:41.840 We implore you. 00:38:42.079 --> 00:38:46.000 Verse 1, working together with him, we appeal to you. 00:38:48.880 --> 00:39:00.239 We recognize that this work must become our focus as we leave our gathering and go out into the world, for this is the day of salvation. 00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:04.880 What does this look like? 00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:23.280 Many of you are still struggling with the home going of Charlie Kirk. 00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:31.199 I would say to you, in your grief and shock, that Charlie lived out the reality of this passage. 00:39:33.039 --> 00:39:38.880 Jesus changed the way he thought because Christ recreated him. 00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:44.239 The old passed away, and the new came. 00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:58.079 Charlie Kirk experienced the sweetness of God's reconciling work, and he embraced the reality of his status change so that he needed to make an appeal to everyone to be reconciled to Christ. 00:39:58.400 --> 00:40:02.320 You don't need to agree with Charlie's politics or his methods to see that. 00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:15.199 Yes, his death is tragic in the way that he was taken out of this world, and we mourn and long for the fullness of our redemption, of the recreation of all that is. 00:40:16.719 --> 00:40:22.800 But it would be far more tragic had Jesus not first reconciled him to the Father. 00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:26.000 And so in that we can rejoice. 00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:38.880 For he, Charlie, and all who follow in Jesus have passed from death to life before they ever leave life in this world. 00:40:40.320 --> 00:40:46.719 The question before us becomes then: will we work together with Christ to appeal to others? 00:40:47.360 --> 00:40:51.280 For now is the day of salvation we might not have tomorrow. 00:40:52.400 --> 00:41:00.239 Will we give ourselves to the love of Christ for that love to control us and be God's ambassadors to a fallen world? 00:41:01.599 --> 00:41:04.559 The essence, friends, of Christian ministry is clear. 00:41:04.880 --> 00:41:13.760 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:24.400 It's a call for all of God's people to join Paul in the humble work of pointing to Jesus. 00:41:24.559 --> 00:41:25.679 Let's pray together. 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:30.960 Lord Jesus, we give you thanks for your work, for what you've done for us. 00:41:31.119 --> 00:41:34.639 May we never lose sight of it. 00:41:34.960 --> 00:41:41.039 We ask that by the work of your spirit you would humble us to be more and more like Jesus. 00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:49.039 That we would be drawn to Him, molded to think like Him, to live like Him. 00:41:50.719 --> 00:41:52.239 Lord, give us boldness. 00:41:53.119 --> 00:42:04.559 Give us boldness and clarity as we go from this place today, to be ambassadors, to appeal to others to not receive the grace of God in vain. 00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:13.360 For all this is from you, to whom belongs all the praise and all the glory. 00:42:13.679 --> 00:42:14.320 Amen. 00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:20.000 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:27.039 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:42:27.280 --> 00:42:31.440 You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.