Student Night 2.12.25

In Christ

Theological Proposition:

Sermon Purpose: That students would know what it means to be in Christ and would implore others to believe.

Homiletical Proposition: Be made new in Christ and go and implore others to do the same.

Introduction

Image: Kayley and I in a tent in Colorado

Need:

Subject: What do we need to be safe?

Text: Give context of the conjunction therefore, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 ESV

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.

5. Preview: What it means to be made in Christ and what implications that has for how you live your life.

Body

Your Old Identity Has Passed Away and You Have Been Given a New One (Verse 17)

What does it mean to be in Christ?

Being in Christ means there has been a radical change

Old you has passed way

A new you has come

This is the identity we as believers now have, we are no longer searching for who we are, we know who we are in Christ

Keller’s story about women’s 5 identities

Transitional Question, How then do you get this new identity in Christ?

Your identity in Christ is recieved not achieved (Verses 18-19)

It is from God

It is not earned

It is given

It is through Christ who has reconciled you

Illustration of How Martin Luther learned this

Transitional question, How then do we live in this new identity? What do we do as a people who exist in Christ?

We are Spreaders of this message (Verse 20-21)

We preach the Word

In words and with our lives

We are ambassadors

God is making his appeal through Christ

Paul says he implores the Corinthians to believe this

He and the apostles want others to believe

I implore you to believe this

That Christ died for you

He was sinless

He took on your sin

In him we are righteous

Conclusion

Image: How our tent was not perfect, but Christ holds us

Summary: You are not who you were born as, you have been made new in Christ, go and implore others to be made new.

Manuscript

Introduction

Image: This past August my wife and I took an extended weekend trip to Colorado in order to get some time away before Student Night and school started back up for me. We had decided to do a short backpacking trip while we were there, just hike in one night to this alpine lake back in the San Juan mountains of Colorado, set up the tent for the night, and hike back out the next day. So we take off into the mountains and notice that there are some storm clouds forming a few mountains over from us, and I didn’t think anything of it becasue it is not uncommon for rain clouds to for out of nowhere and blow over at the 11,000 feet of elevation we were at.. I had checked the weather and it was supposed to be clear and there was no rain in the forecast, so we keep trudging along the trail. After a few miles had passed the it started to just drizzle, but that soon blew over and I thought we would be in the clear. So we finally get to our campsite and it is right at sunset, which was about an hour later than we had planned on. So I start setting up the tent and get it fully assembled except for the rain cover that goes on top, and I told Kayley that I was going to just leave it off so that when these clouds blow over we can see the stars through the roof of our tent. Well she said, “Josh I really think you should put it on. I don’t want to get soaked tonight if it does rain.” Now this hike had been a little more than I think my wife had signed up for, so I agree to put the rain fly on. And I get to the last stake to drive into the ground to secure it, and it was something out of a movie. Rain just starts pouring from the sky, so I am running around to get our packs and gear and throw it in the tent as fast as I can and get myself in there also. And it proceeded to rain all night long, I had to take our little backpacking stove and pot and unzip the door of the tent and stick them outside so that I could boil some water and we could eat dinner. Becasue I was not going to get out and sit in the rain to do that. But the tent held, as the rain poured all night we stayed mostly dry and safe inside the tent, being covered from the storm that passed over outside it.

Need: Now isn’t there something in all of us that desires to be safe? Not just physically in the case of escaping a thunderstorm, but also safe emotionally and spiritually.

Subject: What do we need to be safe and secure? So that we don’t just flap around in the storms of life.

Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

5. Preview: Tonight we are going to see what can give us this kind of security, how we can get it, and then what it calls us to.

6. Pray

Your Old Identity Has Passed Away and You Have Been Given a New One (Verse 17)

In verse 17 Paul says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and the new has come.” So the question is what does it mean to be in Christ? That is the topic for tonight after all.

To be in Christ can several different, but interwoven, things. It can mean that one belongs to Christ, that one lives in the sphere of Christ’s power, that one is united with Christ, or that one is part of the body of Christ, the believing community. So Paul is saying that if you are in Christ then you belong to him, you are his. Paul is saying that you live in the sphere or under the power of Christ, that you have been united and joined together with Christ, and also that you belong not only to Christ but to him and to his body. That you belong to the Church and are connected to all others who are in him, past present and future.

Now, Paul also gives one major prerequisite or something has to happen in order for you to be in Christ.

He said, “the old you has passed away, and the new you has come.” Passing away meaning you are not who you were before you were united with Christ, new you has come meaning you are a different person than you previously were.

Not just different in that you change a little, no says the old you is not even here anymore. He is dead, he might as well be buried 6 feet under the ground. And what has replaced him is a new you, someone who is totally different. And this is not optional, but is a requirement for anyone who says they are in Christ.

One of the benefits of this is that you no longer have to go around trying to find out who you are. That is what you old self did, your old self walked around wondering, “who am I?” But the new you knows who you are, you identity in Christ is confirmed. So you can stop trying on new identifies like they are shoes. Once you out grow one identity you can just put a new one on. No in the Christian life your identify is solidified not in what you think you are, but in the eternal person of Christ. And you need something that is greater than you and in unable to fail, otherwise you identity will never be able to bear the weight of you and life struggles.

Recently I was listening to this sermon by Tim Keller, and he was telling about this woman who was in his congregation he had conversation with, and she said, “Well pastor I have had 5 different identities in my life.” She said, “When I was a young girl I grew up in a very conservative church, and I felt good about myself becasue I was a very good person , I was very moral, very moral, I was one of the good people.” But then she said, “It began turning me into something a self righteous person, like one of the pharisees. And it put a lot of pressure on me, and I began to crumble under this image I needed to uphold.” So then she left the church, and broke out from it. So next she said she started dating and getting into this romantic relationships. She said, “Previously I felt like a good person becasue I was moral, but now I felt like a good person because someone loves me. This was my second identity, that as long as I have a guy with me who thinks I’m great then I’m okay.” But just like her first identity, she said that this began to break down on her and she would stay in a relationship too long becasue she feared becoming nobody becasue somebody didn’t love her. Well that is when her friends started encouraging her to get a career and to make something out of her life that she could be proud in. So this is what she did, she went and got a career and made her third identity out of it. But what she said to Keller was, “This made me just as unhappy. Becasue when a bump in my career happened, or it didn’t work out perfectly, I felt just as destroyed as when I broke up with a guy.” And then she said someone came along and said, “Oh, you are just working too hard, what you need to do is care for people. You need to help people.” And so she got involved in all sorts of charities and non-profits, and this became her fourth identity. She helped out with the poor and with women in prison, and all this other stuff. And she said, “Eventually I was exhausted.” And then she finally came to this conclusion, which she said to Keller, “First I thought I was someone becasue I was moral, then I thought I was someone becasue I was beautiful, then I thought I was someone becasue I was successful, then I thought I was someone because I was helpful.” But then she heard the gospel, and said, “you know what these identities don’t work.”

She realized that all this striving in finding her identify in another person, or a job, or in good works was a long road that ended up nowhere. Only an identify in Christ is one that works and leaves you not feeling less than. It is the only identity that won’t leave you broken down and in worst shape than it found you in.

So, then the question gets asked…How then do you get this new identity in Christ?

Your identity in Christ is recieved not achieved (Verses 18-19)

Well lets look at the verse, verse 18, “All of this is from God.”

Paul wants it to be clear that anyone who is in Christ and has been made new has done so by nothing that they have done. ALL meaning ALL of this old you passing away and all the new you coming, has been accomplished by the sovereign will of God. So that no one can boast, saying, “Look at me, I have made the smart decision in placing my identity in God.” No you did nothing to get in Christ. You get no credit and he gets all the credit.

And all of the effects and joy that comes from having your identity in Christ is all from this divine will of God, you did not earn it, you did not choose it, you did not seek it, you did not even want it. Until your heavenly father sought you and said no this one is mine.

When asked about what man has contributed to his salvation the famous puritan pastor Jonathan Edwards said there is one thing that man has contributed to his salvation.

He said, “You contribute nothing but the sin that made it necessary.”

This new identity you find yourself in was not earned, you not do good works, or stumble across it, or make the right decision and therefore got reconciled to God. And this is really good news, becasue the it means that the God of the universe does not leave you and I up to our faulty decision making abilities in order for us to have safety in him, but rather he adopts us as sons and daughters by his own accord and we are made glad in him as we glorify him for his grace and mercy.

No he did it all, he saw you, he chose you, he pursued you, he reconciled you, and he made you a new creation.

This is an important realization in the life of the Christian, life in Christ is not earned it is freely given.

The reformer Martin Luther wrote about his ahh ha moment where he realized this. Before he became the great reformer who changed history he spent his days as a monk, meaning he worn those long brown robes and had the funny haircut.

But as a monk Luther also strived to reach a level of holiness and purity that would honor God. And while that is a good pursuit, Luther soon drowned in this pursuit, becasue he could never be as sinless as he wanted. The more he tried to not sin the more he was aware of how much he sinned daily.

This life drove him crazy, concerning those days Luther said, “Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that anything that I thought or did or prayed satisfied God.”

But then one night Luther was at his desk studying Romans Luther discovered what would change his life, the doctrine of Justification by faith. Afterwards Luther had this to say:

“Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation. For why was it necessary for him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our works and afflictions. Accordingly, you will find peace only in him when you despair of yourself and your own works. Besides, you will learn from him that just as he has received you, so he has made your sins his own and has made his righteousness yours.”

The verse then goes on to say, “who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;”

So this old you passing away, making way for a new creation, that is coming from God, is made possible through Christ who has reconciled us to himself.

Now, as people who live in this new identity in Christ, is that all there is? Or since we are new creations is there something new for us to do?

We are Spreaders of this message (Verse 20-21)

Well I just kind of read the answer to that in verse 19 when it talked about giving us the ministry of reconciliation.

But he expands on the answer to this question of outward action change with new life in Christ in verse 20 by saying, “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on the behalf of Christ through God to be reconciled to God.”

In the first part of that verse he said we are ambassadors. Now you may not pick up on this when you read Paul’s letters but must of the time when he uses the words “us” or “we” he is speaking about the apostles, not we as in he and us or he and the intended audience, in this case the church of Corinth.

So Paul is telling the church of Corinth that he, and Peter, and Matthew, and John, and the rest of the apostles are God’s ambassadors. Or another way of saying it is that the direct hand selected men whom Christ chose to go and make disciples and establish the early Church, are now representing Christ and the message of reconciliation he gave them to preach and write about in the New Testament.

But Paul is not on earth today, he was executed in Rome in the first century. So this message that he gave to the church of Corinth was passed on to others, and they preached it to others, and over the last two thousand years it has been handed down and finds its way into my hands this moment and into your ears.

So I like Paul implore you to believe and also become ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation. Being made a new creation in Christ commands you to become an ambassador of reconciliation. This is what it means to be in Christ, this is the responsibility we have been given as sinners who were far off and then reconciled through the blood of Christ.

So when we believe, when our old self passes away, and we are made a new creation in Christ, we then inherit this message and are to be come ambassadors of it.

What an honor that is, a sinner like me now gets to stand here and herald this message. Now thats a noble calling.

So we preach and teach the word in our actions, we pursue holiness and let our lives be a living sacrifice to God so that others may see our good works and glorify our father in heaven. We use our words and talents to proclaim the good news that Christ has come. We show empathy to those around us and point them to the one who can reconcile them to their creator.

And all of this is to glorify God who has made his appeal through Christ to us.

Paul implored the church at Corinth to believe this and they did, and then somewhere down the line some one implored me to believe this and I did. Now I am here imploring you to believe this

You don’t have to go around as I said finding new identifies and trying them on like shoes only for them to wear out and you to find a new pair. But you can believe and know that your identity in Christ and can sustain you through the highs and lows of life.

And then you can go and carry this message and be an ambassador who implores others to believe.

To believe what Paul says in verse 21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.”

expand on that verse in the moment

This is the gospel, believe and you will be made a new creation.

He was sinless, he took your sin, he chose to reconcile you, and in him you are righteous.

Conclusion

Image: I started tonight by telling you about a night my wife and I found security and safety in a tent while it was storming on a backpacking trip. And while we did find shelter in that tent it was far from perfect, the tent swayed as the wind blew, as the rain poured down eventually the waterproof coating wasn’t enough and our tent was getting drips of water inside. Becasue we threw everything in side and it was unorganized we didn’t sleep comfortably. And we got one of the worst nights of sleep of our lives. But this is not so if we rest in the safe and secure arms of Christ. For those who are in Christ Romans 8:38-39

Romans 8:38–39 (ESV)

neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And this is the message we are invited to go and share.

Summary: You are not who you were born as, you have been made new in Christ, go and implore others to be made new.

Pray