Sermon Tone Analysis
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What are Christians controlled by?
This is an interesting word choice here.
Because this phrase here translated as “love of Christ” can carry with it two meanings.
It is either rightly translated as a possessive.
The love of Christ or “Christ’s love”
or it could be referring to the love of Christ (That is the love that Paul has for Christ)
And lets think about these two loves for a minute.
What is Christ’s love?
(Man what a question)
It is the love that brought Christ down from heaven, an intimate love and sacrificial love that not only led him down from heaven but up Golgotha’s hill to take my stripes, my wounds, my punishment.
It is Christ’s love that led him to perfectly fulfill the law of God.
It is Christ’s love that led to him to say “not my will, but yours.”
It is Christ’s love that chose me before the foundation of the world.
It is Christ love that came down to purchase me before I was born knowing that I would rebel and sin against him.
It is Christ’s love that sustains us now as our priest forever.
When i look at verse 14, I can’t help but think that is the love that controls us.
But it could also be the love that Paul has for Christ.
This man loved Jesus.
Christ was life to him.
This is a man who took beating after beating for following Christ.
He gave his life to Christ.
And he followed him.
He
He embodies what Jesus was wanting when he told the crowd in .
Paul loves Christ.
So we have to make a decision or do we?
Is it Christ’s love? or is it Paul’s love for Christ?
I’m gonna against the grain here and say it is both.
Paul doesn’t love Christ without Christ first loving Paul.
I believe Paul here is referring mainly to the love that Christ has for Paul, but all of that certainly ilicits love from its recipients.
That love controls us.
Can you say that?
That the love of Christ is what controls you.
That it is the main influence on your life.
Honestly, It seems that everything else controls us at times.
the need for worldly success, money, jobs, even family controls us.
Paul says here the love of Christ controls us and he goes on to explain why.
having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;
15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Why?
The love of Christ controls us because it is a love that presents truth that demands control.
If we believe that Christ loved us so much that he died and rose again on our behalf, then there is no other option that to be controlled by that.
Christ death on behalf of someone and his resurrection for them demands submission to his control over their lives.
It is a love that demands control.
It is a love that demands submission.
It is not a love that merely secures our spot in heaven.
It is a Love that demands he be Lord.
WhaT DOES THE LOVE OF CHRIST MEAN TO YOU NOW?
So what does this control look like?
First it begins by recognizing the fact that our being in Christ is the only thing that matters spiritually.
Look at verse 16
I think the best verse to cross reference in this particular verse is .
Its not about me anymore.
Its not about fleshly works.
As we said last week, the only distinction that matters is Christ.
Not are you Jewish.
Not Are you a gentile.
Are you in Christ?
If you are....Then verse 17 describes you, and it starts to answer the question of what this control looks like.
The old man has been crucified with Christ.
That which was previously important to us (that which controlled us), should no longer control us.
That which previously occupied our attention, should no longer occupy our attention as it did before.
That which we lived for before Christ, is no longer what we live for.
New things have come.
(Illustration: writing and using things)
Paul is no bad writer.
He tells us what things he is speaking of.
He tells us where they are from, and he tells us what they are.
Where are they from?
These things are from God.
That which characterizes our new way of life is not of us.
It is wholly of God.
They don’t come from our “doing better”
They don’t come from pulling ourselves up by our boot straps.
They come from God.
These things are based upon what he has done for us and these things are what he expects from us now.
He has reconciled us.
Holy God- sin puts us at odds
Enemies- Now friends.
Enemies- Now sons and daughters.
and he has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
He has reconciled us to himself.
He has done this.
and this is where the Gospel gets good
The offended party goes to work on behalf of the offender to mnake things right.
buT HOW?
but what does that mean.
He has done all of this for one purpose: that we would now be ministers of reconciliation.
Ministers of reconciliation in the work place.
in the world.
in the home.
Mothers: have you ever considered that your ministry in the home is a ministry of reconciliation.
That your main responsibility is to minister reconciliation to your children.
Our children are sinners.
And sin puts them at odds with a holy God.
They need to be reconciled.
And you have been reconciled to make your motherhood a ministry of reconciliation.
Sadly, motherhood and fatherhood has become everything but a ministry of reconciliation.
It has become a ministry of everything else.
“Let me give my child everything I never had.”
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