The Resolution of Reconciliation

Welcome

Celebrating the birth of Christ

New year celebrated after the birth of Christ

Representing the new life that comes through the savior

Another stand along message

Before we meet the woman at the well

This is the time for New year resolutions

So this year, I pray we make a resolutin to strive and excel

in one particular ministry

and that is the ministry of reconciliation

So that is what we are going to dive into today

What is the ministry of Reconciliation

What is our role in it?

So please stand

and turn with me to...

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:16–21 “From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Illustration

Christmas Day

Around fire

Callan Trench

Reminded me of

1914 WW1

German and British

Tell story

Germans initiated

Carols, candles

British as well

Tie to Christ and reconciliation

Background and Introduction

And honestly, isn't that what the entirety of the bible is about?

Its a record of God, reconciling us to Himself

See we ran away, yet He pursued us

We scattered like sheep

yet he sent the good Shepard

and this is exactly what Paul is talking about here as he addresses the Corinthians

While this letter in our bibles says 2nd Cor

in fact most likely Paul wrote 3 or possibly 4 letters to them

So to say he has a history with them is an understatement

One of the big things Paul is doing in this letter is defending and defining his ministry

See there were some in this church that were starting to doubt Pauls ministry

Starting to doubt his authority

So in this letter Paul doesn’t do a deep dive into theology like we see in most of his letters

In this letter

Paul pours his heart out

He speaks of his trials and sufferings

and part of his defense for the things that he is suffering

was the fact that his life changed

that he went from persecuting Jesus to being persecuted for him

that his life went from self honoring as a pharisee

to Christ honoring as a slave to Jesus

His new life in Christ is all the he proof needed.

And that should look the same for us

for our ministry

for our church

See for all of us there is a message of reconciliation that leads to life change. And its through that life change

that we are to represent our God as an ambassador.

So today, we are going to  learn of reconciliation, and how through reconciliation, we are to be ambassadors to Christ. Representing him to the world that he sent His son to redeem.

Our Points this morning are..

The Old Outlook

The New Outlook

The Source

The Message

The Ambassadors

The Means

The Old Outlook

2 Corinthians 5:16 “From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective.

The first words are “From now on”

But was is the now that Paul is talking about here

The now Paul is speaking of has a 2 fold meaning

The now on event we will call it

1 Means the crucifixion of Christ

where he took on the sins of the world, and reconciled them to those that believe

and the 2nd meaning is more personal, and is most likely referring to his own salvation story

That defining moment in his life, where everything changed

See, things changed on a worldly scale when Christ did what he did

and things change when we make that decision to give our lives to Christ

And this is what Paul is referring to

From that point on

from the time we give our lives to Christ

We do not know anyone from a worldly perspective

See before we came to Him

we held others to a worldly perspective

Right

See we saw others as the world sees them

As a rich or poor man

As a tall or short man

As someone with tattoos

or someone in a tux

See when we see or saw others from a worldly perspective we see the good and bad in them

We saw their accomplishments,

We saw how they acted

We saw how they treated others

We saw how they treated us

See we most likely judged or based our thoughts of them based on our perspective of them

and honestly our initial judgement of them

And this can cause some problems cant it

How easy is it to just disregard someone because of some reason or another

and never give them another look

or to hold an anomicity towards them for something that probably wasnt that big of a deal

Its all something we are guilty of

But from now on

We are to see them as God sees them…

We are to see them as Gods children, whether saved or not

and unfortunately this is exactly how they were seeing paul

They were seeing him and the things he was experiencing on the external

with no regard to the internal

V16 continues with Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.”

we were once just like those living in the flesh

See before we were changed, before we accepted the Grace of Christ through faith

We most likely saw Christ from a wordly perspective

See at one point in our lives (especially those here in America) we knew who Christ was but we did “know” him as our savior.

We may have prayed to him as though He is some sort of holy genie,

or only turned to Him when times were bad

or maybe he was a man with un realistic laws and goals he required of us

or maybe we acknowledged who he is but didn't feel as though we were good enough for him

maybe we felt we were too far gone for him to save

or maybe we were a lost cause and not worth saving

either way,

whether we admit it or not we had a perspective of people, and a perspective of Jesus that was based on worldly standards

based on our own feelings, based on our own emotions

YET…

For those that have gone outside of these wordly perspectives and accepted that

free gift of grace through faith

The end of 16 says that we no longer see him or others in this way

So, we must not hold others to those worldly standards we once lived by ourselves

and why?

because we have a new outlook

The New Outlook

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”

Here it says if anyone is in Christ

and what does this mean

it means that we are now in union with him

we have been “born again”

sound familiar? lol

The old has passed away

Because we are new creations in Christ

We are no longer bound by who we used to be

We are no longer bound by what we used to say

And we should long for others to have that grace, others to have that experience

Our slate is clean,

sure, we remember our past sins and rightfully so.

and honestly we will still struggle with sin

but our perspective of that sin is different

I am personally glad that when we are born again we do not forget who we were prior to Christ, instead, we are to use that as our testimony.

So that others can see, hey, he used to be like that, but now, he is like this. He’s no longer the same person

And that will look different for each and everyone of us

But we must remember that genuine conversion begins with life transformation

When we decide through faith to follow Christ we must not revert back to the things of old

So again, we are given new life, the new has come!

And what is the source of this new creation?

Where does this reconciliation come from?

The source of it all is given to us in v18

The Source

2 Corinthians 5:18 “Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”

See God initiated this act of reconciliation

This act of new birth and a new life

He is the source of it all

Through Christ we are brought back into a good standing with God

And it is through God that we have been given this ministry of reconciliation

see We are given the privilege

to spread this message of hope

and not only to spread the message

but to act it out as well

to serve others

and Jesus has served us

Now you may ask,

what is this message

and this is exactly our next point

The Message

2 Corinthians 5:19 “That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.”

God made us new creations through reconciliation

And Reconciliation - was just mentioned 4 times within those 2 verses

So finally.... What is reconciliation?

Remember, reconciliation is the process of 2 groups in conflict, coming together and making amends.

2 groups in conflict you may ask?

See at one time we were enemies of God, loving our own sin, living for ourselves, doing whatever we wanted to do for our own Glory.

Through original sin we are naturally enemies of God, offenders of God, violators of His law..

BUT! God sent his Son, to die for our sin,

to die for his enemies.

To offer atonement for us…

And what is atonement? To atone is to suffer the penalty for sins,

thereby, removing the effects of sin from the repentant sinner and allowing him or her to be reconciled to God

See through Christs atonement for our sins, we are now reconciled with God.

We are no longer enemies of God and our relationship with Him has been made right.

And while most reconciliation occurs between 2 parties mutually agreeing,

this reconciliation occurred by blood.

See God did nothing to damage the relationship, we damaged the relationship.

But, God did all the work to repair that relationship.

God did all the work in our reconciliation.

Through Christ… on the cross. God no longer sees our sins… he sees the blood of Christ. And that blood, covers our sins.

We can only have that life change once we fully recognize and truly understand this.

So, whats this about the ministry of reconciliation?

This ministry of reconciliation is that we must carry out the message of reconciliation.

We are to be His ambassadors in spreading this message

Which brings us to our next point

The Ambassadors

2 Corinthians 5:20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.””

So, what does it mean to be an ambassador of Christ? Well thanks for asking…

An ambassador is an official representative, a position of great dignity and respect, a position of great responsibility.

When we think of ambassadors we think of high government representatives representing their country in foreign lands

And that is exactly how we must approach it,

we now represent a King in a foreign land.

As Christians we are now alien to this world,

we are no longer of this world

and we now represent a King that made this world.

And one that will one day judge it.

So as an ambassador we are entrusted to bring this message of reconciliation to all of those around us.

see God is using us to bring others to him

He is using us to help repair the damages done

Therefore, we are told to plead with others that they may be

Reconciled to God

And thus, embracing the ministry of reconciliation.

So that all will know grace that only our God gives through his son.

The grace that saved our lives

The grace that changed our lives

I love how Paul closes out his chapter

with is the means by which this all occured

The means in which we are reconciled

The Means

2 Corinthians 5:21 starts with “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us,

This does not mean that Jesus actually became sin itself

Scripture tells us in multiple places that Jesus is the one in whom there is no sin

So does it mean that Jesus became a sinner?

Absolutely not!

Not even for a second was Jesus ever a sinner

He in fact led a sinless life

So does this mean that Jesus was guilty of sin?

again, absolutely not

So if Jesus did not become sin itself

and if he did not become a sinner

and then he was not guilty of sin

what does this mean

Well, thankfully for us it means that our sins were imputed onto him

Our sins were attributed to him

He was convicted of our crimes

See God took our sins, our transgressions, and gave them to Christ

Verse 21 continues … “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

See Christ died for our sins

And just how our sins were imputed or attributed to him

Just at that very moment his righteousness was imputed or attributed to us

See the one who was sinless took on our sin

so that we who are full of sin could take upon his righteousness

He is our substitute

He took our place

He gives us new life

Conclusion

So lets live a life worth telling others about

So as we start this new year off

Let us remember that we were

and still are all sinners

And many of us have been reconciled to God through Christ

We have been made right through his blood

But! there are a lot of people out there that do not know Jesus as their savior

And we must remember that God loved us and died for us while we were still sinners

so we are to treat each and every person as Christ would treat them

we are to love them

we are to feed them

we are to minister to them

and we are to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them

I also pray that you take the title of Ambassador of Christ seriously.

As we spread the message of reconciliation with our neighbors.

Represent God with the respect and reverence He deserves.

Because, we have a God that is a reconciler. A God that sent his son to die on a tree so that we may become righteous.

The greatest gift ever given in history. Is the gift of salvation through Jesus

And if you have never accepted that gift of salvation, I pray you do so immediately. For tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Let us Pray!