Untitled Sermon (4)

I feel like I’ve used this illustration before…but here goes.

Branson 4D, 5D, 7D rides. I don’t know how many D’s there is supposed to be, but they strap you in this little chair and you watch on this big screen and they have wind blowing and sometimes water misting, and noises all around you, and on the screen you look you’re riding a roller coaster, or running away from dinosaurs, and it feels somewhat realistic.

But the key to the whole thing are these glasses that you have to put on. 3D—or how many ever D’s—glasses. You take those things off and the whole screen is a mess. It’s dizzying. And everything is blurry.

But then you put on the 3D glasses and the whole movie comes to life. It’s no longer fuzzy. You see things that you didn’t see before. It’s not blurry anymore but crystal clear. Everything has come to life. And I suppose this illustration would be just as effective if we told everyone who had contacts or glasses to take them out and then put them back on. It makes everything sharper. If your eyes are as bad as mine it makes life livable.

What Paul is saying in our passage this morning is that the gospel is just like that. It’s like what C.S. Lewis said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” What Lewis is saying, and what Paul is saying in our text is that the gospel not only is something that puts us in a right relationship with God, it’s not only something that gets us to heaven when we die…the gospel is something which gives us a worldview. It shapes the way we look at things. We once saw the movie in 2D but now we see it in 3D.

In our text this morning we see three primary ways in which a gospel lens shapes the way we view the world. And really throughout what I believe we are asking are two questions. First, do you have these glasses? Secondly, if you do, are you wearing them?

We’re going to read 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. But really focus on verse 17 this morning…I’ll read the whole thing so we can use some of the context around it to really understand what Paul is saying in this text:

2 Corinthians 5:11–21 ESV

Therefore, 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 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 concluded 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.

Sermon Introduction:

The gospel changes everything. But that kind of presupposes something—I guess. Why would I want to change? I mean, we humans don’t really like change all that much. Did you know they did a study awhile back observing a group of humans and then a group of monkeys to see how quickly they would change in order to accomplish their goals. Monkeys will change quicker than humans.

But to go back to our previous illustration, I think one of the issues is that we don’t realize that a 3D or 7D world might be available to us. We’re so accustomed to viewing things a certain way, we live in 2D world but we don’t even know it.

There is this thing called the Dunning-Kruger effect. These two psychologists did this massive study and found that the people with the least amount of knowledge tend to have the highest amount of confidence on a subject.

We don’t know what we don’t know—and so that gives us the illusion that we’re smarter than we actually are. When we actually dig into a topic, we come to realize that it’s a bit more complex than we first thought.

To say that differently—when we look at a 3D world with 2D eyes, it’s disorienting. And when that happens we start to say, “oh, man. I need to see things differently”.

That’s what happened to Paul on his way to Damascus. Christians are a threat. This Jesus is a poser. I need to stamp out all of these followers of Jesus for the glory of God. What matters is observance of the Law—these people are law-breakers.

But then everything changes…

But then, Paul is given this vision. He’s taken into a 7D theater without glasses and it blinds him. He can no longer see things how he once saw them. But he doesn’t yet have that new set of glasses. Then, He interacts with Jesus and through this becomes an entirely different person. A new creation.

That’s what we see in our text this morning. The gospel changes everything.

First, it changes the way we view Christ, it changes how we assess Christ and the nature of Christian minstry.

Paul says that he once viewed Jesus according to the flesh. What does that mean? For Paul it meant that he was viewing Jesus through the lens of his Jewish upbringing.

He was a bit like the religious leaders we see in the gospels. They were viewing Jesus with the wrong set of criteria. They were looking for some big strong muscular hero type, who would overthrow Rome. They wanted a political leader.

You can see some of this in Philippians 3. There Paul lists all the things he once took pride in. Things like his heritage, his national identity, his own works of righteousness, his accomplishments, his religious zeal, and then he says it’s all rubbish compared to knowing Christ. What does that mean? It means he once viewed the world with one set of glasses but now he sees how unbelievably incomplete and backwards that way of thinking truly was.

How might we miss Jesus today? A good moral teacher. A passionate guy who died for a cause. A guy who was filled with love and died because others radically misunderstood Him.

What do you do with Jesus? You HAVE to do something. Yes, you can ignore Him. You can simply dismiss the claims of Jesus. You can push Him over to the side as something you’ll deal with in the future. You can analyze all the evidence and ultimately reject Him. You can conclude that He was just a bit delusional. You can conclude that His followers were crazy. You can say, ah, we just can’t really be sure anymore can we. So much time has passed. But you have to do something.

But what this text is saying is that “we have concluded this”....we’ve got a new set of glasses…that’s what Paul is saying there in verse 14-15. The reason he is saying all of this is that the Corinthians weren’t putting on their gospel lens. So, it was causing them to view Paul’s ministry the wrong way.

Jesus has done such a work in Paul’s life that he no longer lives for himself. But if you don’t have on gospel glasses then a humble person who admits his weakness doesn’t look that appealing. A guy who doesn’t live for himself who doesn’t have this cutthroat ambition to climb to the top…that doesn’t look so good on a resume. But when you have a pair of gospel glasses on you see that death to self is an absolute must in gospel ministry. A man who is sold out to the cause of Christ and not to his own.

But the Corinthians were looking with the wrong set of glasses. They, like we still today, were notorious for picking talent over character. They looked on outward appearance and judged based upon that wrong set of criteria. They picked flash over substance. How do you assess a ministry? How do you tell whether or not you’re being successful?

For Paul it was to be a faithful ambassador. The success of Paul’s ministry isn’t determined by people’s response, it isn’t determined by how dynamic his preaching was, or how effectively he led. No, the success of an ambassador is this…did you tell them the message I told you to tell them? Do you plead with them to be reconciled to God through the gospel? If so…success!

That’s part of what is happening in verse 13. The Corinthians were drawn to ecstatic stuff. They liked dynamic and flashy leaders—with all sorts of gifts and signs. Dynamic, 5-fold ministry, like a 5-tool player in baseball. This guy can preach, heal, lead, do all this stuff!!! But Paul, he’s just kind of a loon...

Crazy about Jesus, doing slow plodding discipleship. Disciples making disciples. But they, and we often, don’t care as much for that. We end up asking all the wrong questions. What’s this guy going to do for us? How is this guy going to fill the seats? What’s the flash? What’s his draw? And back we go to square one. This is why I love this quote by Craig Hamilton:

People can pick up skills relatively quickly, but character isn’t something you just pick up. Character is often forged over a long period of time and over multiple experiences, and it only changes with great and sustained effort. It can and does change, but it’s much harder to change your character than it is to learn skills.

Not only does this change the way we view Jesus and ministry, it fundamentally changes how we view people.

Secondly, it changes the way we view people...

I like how Kent Hughes says it, “Because of the gospel, Paul and all believers are to be done with their shallow, external, carnal regard of Christ and others—and especially those who are of the household of faith…Hughes goes on to show how this is so contrary to the spirit of our age:

Paul’s declaration collides with the spirit of our age, a spirit that is revels in superficial, fleshly regard. If I am to judge by the reading material available in most barber shops and doctors’ offices, People Magazine is the devotional literature of our day, and it is read with and adoration and reverence that amounts to a religious longing. Looks, externals, dominate our existence.

So let’s be honest. How do you view people? With what lens are you using? We live in an increasingly polarized nation. We are fragmented. We might even be worse about this than the Corinthians. They would say, “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, etc” but we are broken down into even more factions. We are like the guy who was going to stop a stranger from jumping off the bridge:

It is an undoubtedly fictional story of a man that was walking across a bridge one day, only to find a man standing on the edge about to jump. So, this guy runs over and tries to stop the guy. “Stop, Don’t do it”. “Why, shouldn’t I jump”? “Well there’s so much to live for!” “Like what?” “Well, do you believe in God?” “Yes”. “Me too!” “Are you Christian, Buddhist, or something else? “ Christian. “Catholic or Protestant”? Protestant. Me too, Episcopalian or Baptist? Baptist. Me too, Southern Baptist or Northern Baptist? Southern. Me too. Are you a General Southern Baptist or a Reformed Particular Southern Baptist. Reformed Particular Southern Baptist. Me too, Reformed Particular Southern Baptist, Reformation of 1879 or Reformation of 1915? 1915. DIE HERETIC SCUM. And the man helped out the desperate man’s cause—he pushed him off the bridge.

So what lens do you use to classify people? Is this person a Republican or a Democrat? And how does that impact the way you are going to listen and deal with this person as a person. Is this a man or a woman? How does that shape the way you listen? A poor person, a wealthy person, a middle-class person? A white man, a black man, a Hispanic man? Does that shape the way you listen? Are you viewing things through that lens? An educated man or an uneducated man. A person’s title or not having a title.

And that cuts both ways—friends. A poor person can pigeon hole a wealthy person, just as easily as a wealthy person can pigeon hole a poor person.

What Paul is driving at here is that with a gospel lens the only category we use now is, “in Christ” or “not in Christ”. You have more in common with a liberal Democrat who has faith in Jesus than you do a dyed in the wool, social conservative, who goes to church every Sunday but doesn’t actually have a relationship with Jesus”.

Why is that? Because the gospel fundamentally changes our relationships…all of them. Our relationship with ourselves, how we view the world, our relationship with Christ, our relationship with other people. Everything.

This is what Paul means when he says…I am a new creation. Behold, the old has gone the new has come. That means that when you are connected to Jesus everything changes.

You know there is this quote

This is an oft quoted statement from John Calvin,

From this we may gather that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols

I’ve read this quote a few times in books that deal with idolatry. It is no secret that the human heart has a propensity towards idol worship. Calvin is really saying no more than what the apostle Paul said in Romans 1:18-25—because of the fall, humanity worships and services creation instead of the Creator.

We are idolaters. With that statement I agree totally. Furthermore, I believe with Keller, that “idolatry is always the reason we ever do anything wrong”. It’s the root of all our problems.

But what does it mean to be a new creation? This is where I think we’re often misreading and misapplying that Calvin quote. I don’t think “perpetual idol factory” is an accurate description of the heart of one transformed by Jesus Christ. Nor do I think that is what Calvin, or more importantly the apostle Paul is saying.

To say that we are still churning out idols at a perpetual rate is, in my mind, to deny the transforming work of the Spirit within us.

The Image I Prefer

I believe the Scriptures teach that we were idolaters, but we have been washed, we were sanctified, we were justified (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). In other words, our idol factory was bought out by Someone else. We have a new owner. The factory that is your heart has a sign on the door that says, “Under New Ownership”.

Yes, you still churn out some of that old product. The new boss hasn’t gutted out the entire place. He hasn’t fired every one. He even uses some of the same machines that used to produce idols. The transition is a slow process. As such the factory sometimes goes back to its old way of working. That’s why you still produce idols.

But it’s still different. When you produce an idol it is now considered a defect. What once was celebrated is now met with disappointment. The Manager calls the workers to the side and disciplines them. He reminds the crew that this factory doesn’t produce idols anymore, and slowly points to the sign that reads, “Under New Ownership”.

Some day all those old machines will be replaced. The workers will no longer even know how to produce idols. The factory will be totally and completely His. And on that day we’ll all rejoice because our new Boss is marvelous. He’s given everything to ensure that this takeover will not result in business as usual. We love our new Boss and want this factory to look exactly as He designed it.

One day it will…

How about you?

Is your heart under new ownership? If you are still churning out idols without rebuke, without battle, then that tells you something. You haven’t been bought yet. You’re still an idol factory. You need a new owner.

You need Jesus.

If your management has changed, let’s stop paying homage to our old boss. Let’s stop pretending that our heart is still an idol factory. It’s not. It’s a former idol factory that is being slowly transformed into a factory that serves it’s new owner. May we not forget that.

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Are you a new creation? If so, are you viewing the world as if you are a new creation?

Repent—put on your gospel glasses.

Come to Christ for the first time.