The Corinthian Correspondence, Part 41; 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 "The Ministry of Reconciliation"

The Corinthian Correspondence, Part 41 2 Corinthians 5.11-21 The Ministry of Reconciliation I don't know about you, but I have been reviewing and chewing on last week's message all week. And I delivered it! To know that we are going to stand before the Lord and give an account of our lives to him on that day is, terrifying, to say the least. At least to me. But the great relief is the issue of the Book of Life, where figuratively speaking, the names of those who belong to the Lord are written down in that book. By God's grace and mercy, I have hope -- biblical hope -- a confident, absolute expectation, that my name is written in the book. Like the Thessalonians, the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin and need for Christ. When I heard the gospel, I turned to God in faith, I turned away from idols--called repentance, and I continued to serve God -- not perfectly, but loyally, while I am even now waiting for Christ to return to rescue me from the coming wrath of God. Since the day I repented of my sin and believed the gospel, God continues to change my life. Some days I serve him better than others. But over the years, I have learned that God's goal for me, to be like Jesus, is an increasing reality. I'm learning that everything that comes into my life is all for one purpose, that I might look just like Jesus when it's all said and done. But between now and when God glorifies me, and makes me just like Jesus, comes the judgment seat of Christ. In our passage for today, 2 Corinthians 5.11-21, we are going to hear about Paul's reaction to his personal appointment before the judgment seat of Christ. We are going to hear about the ministry that God gave him to help many others get ready for the judgment as well. He calls this the ministry of reconciliation. In masterful terms, we have the privilege of hearing Paul describe in wonderful detail what the ministry of reconciliation is all about. But there is something I find in this passage that seems really odd. Paul declares that part of his ministry of reconciliation includes the Corinthians--as in Corinthian Christians. Why would Paul implore those who were already saved to be reconciled to God? For reconciliation means to reestablish friendly relations after the relationship has been broken. Let's find out. To begin with, let's see Paul's response to his "dreaded anticipation" of Christ's judgment seat as is found in the first part of v.11: Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord. The word that is translated fear is the Greek word, "phobos". It's where we get our English word, phobia. It's described this way: Phobos refers to the emotion when we have a sense of alarm or danger or we anticipate something negative. Like with every word, phobos has a range of meanings. In this case it could be as intense as what happened to the guards when they experienced the resurrected Lord. They trembled, passed out, and after they recovered, they ran away! On the other side of things phobos could be a motivation factor to serve the Lord properly. When we lived in Lynchburg many years ago, Kitty made friends with a pastor's wife whose watchword was, "I'm too afraid of God to sin." The point I want us to see is that Paul took this date at Christ's throne very seriously, with some trembling required. And for me, I cannot imagine not standing before the Lord Jesus on that day without some trembling. Now, the apostle Paul didn't just hunker down and hide out, too afraid of doing anything that might offend the Lord. Because he knew what it was like to fear the Lord, he took action, orienting his life toward that day. In the middle part of v.11, Paul begins to describe his actions in preparation for that great day of judgment: he persuades others. Of course, that begs the question: persuades others of what? We all know the answer to that. Persuade others of the gospel, of course. For Paul, and indeed for every follower of Jesus, we understand something: every person needs to be saved. Salvaged from destruction. Because we are all in various stages of decay and brokenness, we need the grace and mercy and power of God to come our rescue. Paul declared this to the church in Rome in Romans 1.16: for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. When Paul walked into Corinth the first time, he saw how many people who were living in rebellion against the Lord, on their way to a Christless eternity, unsaved, on their way to hell. And so Paul began to preach. He persuaded some in Corinth. He planted gospel seed. Others came and helped, watering the seed. God gave the increase, and a church was born. But Paul persuaded many others besides the Corinthians about the truth of God and the gospel of Christ. He did not use gimmicks. Or tricks. Or incentives. Or pass out free gifts. Or give them words that made people feel good about themselves. What was his message? Christ crucified. Again, what was his perspective of the gospel as a sinner encountered it? It was a moronic, scandalous message. Seemingly unworthy of the people living in the sophisticated, worldly, pagan city called Corinth. And he concluded, "if anyone would come to Christ and be saved, it would have to be because of the power of God in the gospel." But remember what happened over the several years since the gospel was preached in Corinth and the church was formed. True Christians struggled with sin--as we all do. Some were attached to the church but were not true Christians--sounds like many churches in our day. But there was something else afoot. False teachers entered into the fellowship and sought to lead the true Christians astray. And Paul was broken hearted. And angry. He was seeing family members walk away from their spiritual home and Paul was desperate for them to return. As we know, to be part of God's family means to fully embrace the truth as our Lord defines it. And we demonstrate that we fully embrace the truth by living the truth, loyally following Jesus. These false teachers were making great inroads into winning the hearts and minds of the Christians in Corinth. It is crucial we understand this as we go through the rest of the passage, for it will answer a lot of questions that we would otherwise have. As we have done from time to time, I want to simply walk us through these verses as we hear Paul pleading with the Corinthian Christians to return, ultimately to the Lord while at the same time exposing and attacking the false teachers. Let's read together the rest of v.11 through v.12 and see Paul reminding his beloved Corinthians to not believe the fake news the false teachers were feeding them about his character. They know who he is! 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. What's Paul saying? We can explain it like this: "We're not playing games with you. Communicating the truth of Christ in full measure (who he is, what he has done, and our interaction with him now and in the future), and appealing to your conscience is who we are, not like the false teachers who are appealing to anything else but the conscience and the heart. Paul says, I'm appealing to your conscience--your sense of right and wrong--and I have hope--absolute assurance that you know who we are and what we're all about. Corinthians, do you remember how we lived our lives in front of you? Let me remind you: But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." That was Paul's testimony as found in 2 Corinthians 4.2. Our lives are an open book of integrity and honesty, aiming at the conscience in the sight of God. This ministry, Paul says, this gospel is much to valuable to play with. It has profoundly changed us, and you, Corinthians, as well. It's as though Paul lived his life inside out, rather than hide what was inside. His character was such that there was no hiding who he was. But contrast Paul's testimony about the false teachers. What were they all about? They were all about emphasizing the outside, rather than the inside. Though the false teachers falsely accuse Paul to the Corinthians, Paul rightly accuses the false teachers of their character. But how do we know that the false teachers boast about outward appearances and not about what is in the heart? Let's look at v.13: For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. The accusation given by the false teachers was that Paul was nuts. "You're out of your mind, Paul!" was their cry. "Who wants to be around that? It's embarrassing!" And could that be that Paul may have worn that as a badge of honor? I think of Proverbs 29:27: An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked. Regardless of what people think of Jerry Falwell--Senior that is, he did say some pretty good things. He was also a staunch supporter of pro-life issues. And he often said, "It's good to have the right kind of enemies." Indeed. We should welcome it when the wicked doesn't like us. Now, of course let's not give the wicked a legitimate cause to hate us because we are being jerks! But if we stand for the Lord in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, then our attitude ought to be, "Bring it!" But you know, this accusation that Paul was crazy would not be the only time he would hear this. Nor was Paul the only godly person people accused of being crazy. Remember when Paul gave his testimony to King Agrippa in Acts 26. Governor Festus blurted out these words: Acts 26:24: And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind." And remember how even Jesus' own family thought he was crazy. They actually came to where he was and probably wanted to take him home--you know--to put him in some quiet, out of the way place, where he would not bother the neighbors. But of course, the Lord would have none of that. He basically said, "I'm not going with you. I've got work to do. Who are the members of my family? Those who do the will of God, these are my mother, my sister and my brother." And the same with us. Someone who goes all out for Jesus will not be warmly welcomed by most people, especially now. See, the way the culture is today, unless you are woke, you will be cancelled. And followers of Christ don't have "being woke" as part of their perspective. Why is that? Simply put: followers of Jesus don't make wokeness as a major part of their lives. They are resurrected. Followers of Jesus understand that the only cure for the world's evil is the gospel, not social justice, for it is the gospel which affects the heart, not merely demands one's behavior conform, as it has been said, to the foolishness Du jour! I remember when I first came to Christ. One of the first things I did was to tell my family, to include my 6 parents, that I was a Christian. I told them of the things I was learning and how my life had changed. When I went back to visit them while on military leave I, was treated strangely. I was practically ignored. I thought my family would be glad to see me. I didn't know what was going on. I asked one of my family members about it, and they said, "They're all afraid to talk to you. They think you are a Jesus freak!" My foster parents thought I joined a cult. My dad did his level best to embarrass me and my new relationship with Jesus. But my life turned upside down, or should I say, right side up! And by God's grace I have seldom looked back. But let me make a comment or 2 about those who boast about outward appearance, rather than what is in the heart, for I see that our culture does a great job of focusing on and boasting about outward appearance. Appearances can be, and often are, deceiving. Think transgender. Regardless of what a person does to his or her body does not change the fact that it is God who has assigned every person exactly 1 sex at the moment of conception: every person is either male or female. The science is simply this: we cannot get beyond our chromosomes. But because we live in a fallen world there are rare occasions a person is born with what is technically called Klinefelter Syndrome. Literally, every cell in our body has either xx chromosomes or xy chromosomes. No amount of bodily modification can change that. We need to let God tell us who we are. Focusing on external appearances can also apply to people in the ministry. Think Ravi Zacharias. Raised in a Hindu home, he embraced the Christian gospel as a teenager. He dove into the area of apologetics--defending the Christian faith against all kinds of competing world views. Eventually, Zacharias became world renowned. But for all the external good he did, he led a double life for years. It was confirmed that he committed many acts of moral failure. Now that Ravi Zacharias has passed away from cancer, he is on the other side. Like all of us he will stand before the Lord and give an account of his life. My point in this is that anybody can make things look different on the outside that what is on the inside. The false teachers who were making great headway into the hearts and minds of the Corinthians certainly made themselves look very attractive to them. But the truth of the matter is that truth is the heart of the matter. Remember how David, in his confession of adultery and murder in Psalm 51 told the Lord how he knew that God desired truth in the inward parts. For it is the heart God sees. It is the heart is where truth is deposited. And where truth is found in the heart, it will show itself externally. When it comes to our own reformation, we try to work from the outside in. God works from the inside out. The bottom line for Paul regarding the false teachers is that if all they focus on is outward appearance, then there is no real life there. All they have, Paul seems to say, is nothing more than what is on a typical movie set, if movies would have been a thing back then. It looks good in front of the camera. But what is behind the makeshift walls? Certainly nothing of substance. Now that Paul reminded the Corinthians of who he was, let's now take a brief look at the all-important ministry the Lord gave him, the ministry of reconciliation. As we do, we are going to see several dimensions of this incredible ministry that the Lord gave Paul. And not only him, but all of us as disciples of Jesus. First, let me remind us of what reconciliation is: It is a reestablishment of friendly relations after the relationship has been broken. In terms of best friends, it is that moment when the two of you get things squared away, you embrace and go out for a meal. Or in marriage, it's when you make up after a period of fighting about the finances or the kids. And with God, it's a restoration of an estranged relationship, or more accurately, the resurrection of a dead relationship. Paul describes it this way: we all were at one time dead--completely separated in our sins and trespasses from holy God. As tragic as that is, it wasn't that way from the beginning. Remember how in the first couple chapters of Genesis, God and the first couple walked together in a perfect relationship. We know the story. And ever since then, the Lord has been working his plan to enact a way for us to be reconciled to him. But over and over, things did not exactly work the way he wanted. In our separation from him, we continued to go our own way. But at the right time, the Father sent his Son. He, as the Lamb of God, Messiah, lived a perfect life as the God-man, uniquely qualified to take away the sin of the world. He suffered, died, rose again, ascended to the Father's right hand, now praying for his people. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus has given to his church--every one of his disciples--the ministry of reconciliation. One where we work with the Lord, seeking out sinners to give them the great news that our God reigns. That our Lord died in our place and rose again. And we have the awesome opportunity to be reconciled to God, by repentance of sin and embracing the gospel of Christ. Now with that said, let's briefly look at the several dimensions of the ministry of reconciliation. The first dimension is love and life. Verses 14-15: 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. Notice the truth and the attack in this life and love dimension. Paul answers his critics who accused him of being out of his mind. Paul says, "No. I'm perfectly in my right mind. What appears to be insanity is simply that I'm radically saved." What got hold of Paul was the love Christ had for Paul, and as a result, the love Paul had for Christ. The spiritual fact of life is that Christ died for everybody. That is the extent of his love. He paid the price for everybody's sin. Paul was totally affected by the death of Messiah. In the simple sentence "Christ died for me" changed everything for the apostle. It reminds me of the time when Jesus had dinner at a Pharisee's house. Though Jesus was Simon's guest in his own home, Simon afforded none of the common gestures of hospitality, a huge diss to Jesus. Total lack of respect. Then a woman came in. Morally dirty. But desperate. One look at Jesus was all it took. She began sobbing, so much so that her free flowing tears were enough to wash Jesus' feet. She dried his feet with her hair. She anointed his feet with perfume. The end of the encounter went something like this: because this woman recognized the depth of her sin, and was forgiven, she was able to show great love. And Jesus also gave the other side by saying this as well: he who is forgiven little shows only a little love. Paul understood the depth of his sin, as much as a human could. That's why he was able to do what he did. Loved Jesus the way he did. Sacrificed his life for Jesus. Because he was forgiven much and he knew it. He never got over the wonder of God's forgiveness. And because he was forgiven much, Paul was able to love Jesus and others, much. And I wonder how it is with you. And with me. Could it be that we don't love like we should because we don't know the depth of our sin? Could it be that we treat our own sin too lightly, and therefore conclude that we don't really need much forgiveness? May the Lord help us to recognize our own depravity, and then in tears weep over our sin, loyally obeying the Lord out of gratitude for his salvation? For after all, he who is forgiven much, loves much. The second dimension of the ministry of reconciliation is in vv.16-17, repentance and power: 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. This is a huge thing for Paul. And in our day, for us as well. Who is Jesus? Scripture tells us he is the God-man, God incarnate, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made flesh. But there was a time in Paul's life when he only saw Jesus as this itinerant preacher, upsetting the establishment, causing a great fuss, proclaiming that his way of Torah is right, while the scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites. He may have even bought the idea that Jesus was an illegitimate child. Who could buy that "Holy Spirit overshadowed me and I became pregnant" story? And as long as Paul only saw Jesus as a mere human, he was cut off from the power of a changed life. But on the road to Damascus, as Paul encountered the risen Jesus, everything changed. For Paul, he went from death to life. Paul spent his entire adult life up to that point longing to be right with God, wanting God's power and strength to live the way God wanted. After all Paul was a member of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. When Paul repented of his sin of unbelief in the identity of Jesus, that opened the door for Paul to declare his old life was dead, and new things had come. Things have changed very little since then. Ever notice that those who refuse to believe the testimony about Jesus as found in Scripture almost always deny the authority of Scripture in other areas of life? The huge areas such as where did we come from--did God make us or did time, plus chance, plus matter? Who are we? What is our purpose in life? What is our ultimate destiny? The bottom line is that we must get the truth about Jesus right in order to experience spiritual birth, and therefore eternal life. After all, didn't Jesus say that eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent? The third dimension of the ministry of reconciliation is reconciliation and transformation. This is found in vv.18-21: 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. There is a LOT here we could unpack. But let me say this. God reconciles us to himself through Christ for a reason: that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. The reconciliation of God means simply that we are reconciled with God; he is not reconciled to us. It is we who need to go to him. He does not need to come to us. In other words, it is not God who changes. If you or I want to be reconciled to God, we must go God's way. When we are reconciled to God through Christ, our lives will be on a path to transformation, lives that will look more and more like Christ. It would be scandalous in any other way. Think with me on this. It took the death of Christ to offer us reconciliation with God. The cross shows us how God thinks and feels about sin. To see his son there, with the garbage of the world on his perfect shoulders, taken into his perfect heart, swallowing the cup of his damnation on the nations, and then for any of us say, "well I'm glad that was done to Jesus. I can do what I want now because I have freedom in Christ. He died for me. Yippee!" We step back in revulsion over that thought. But if our lives were to be on constant display in heaven, like one of those electronic billboards at Times Square, what would it show? Would it display the "freedom in Christ" notion? Or would it display, "I'm accepted in Christ because he was condemned instead of me?" See, the purpose of salvation is that we might die to self and live for Jesus. We have the power to do that because God writes his ways on our hearts. We have the incentive to live God's ways because the Holy Spirit lives in us. And as ambassadors, of our King, we are to live in an alien country so to speak, representing the Lord Jesus, showing those outside of the kingdom what life is really like as citizens of the heavenly kingdom. And we have the privilege tosay to all who listen, "be reconciled to God." This is what Paul did with the Corinthians. Let's look at v.20 again: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." Why would Paul say that to those who are already reconciled? Could it be that though they started out in a right relationship with the Lord, saved by his grace, following Jesus, that the false teachers came and stole their hearts away? How many have done that over the years? Do you know anyone like that? Either through being exposed to false teaching or convinced that God just accepts me regardless of how I live my life, how many have left the fellowship of Christ? Several years ago, when we were going the letter to the Hebrews, I described apostasy as "getting divorced from Jesus." This is not the time or place to discuss the Calvinism / Arminian debate. I am convinced that God has given us such dignity that we can make the choice, even as God himself and the prophets have said, "choose you this day whom you will serve." As I see it, there are too many Scriptures which indicate that though we can't lose God's salvation, we can deliberately forfeit it. I believe we can get divorced from Jesus. And I believe this is what was looming large in Paul's mind and heart. That is why he told the Corinthian church: "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." But as the writer to the Hebrews tells us, Hebrews 6:9-12: Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things-things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. We have begun with Christ, let's move on to maturity with Christ. As we conclude the message today, let me quote a great, great song by Carman. As we know, Carman sang a lot of songs which put radical Christianity to music. Radical to the world, and to luke warm church goers. But in actuality, the normal Christian life to those who really seek the Lord. Remember how the false teachers labeled Paul? Remember how Jesus' own half siblings labeled him? Crazy! And when we live our lives to the glory of God conspicuously, we are going to get treated the same way. Let's wear the names the world calls us as badges of honor. Carman's song Radically Saved goes like this: Jesus Christ is Lord & God's still on the throne / There's power in the blood & I'm saved to the bone / The devil comes against me, he's gonna feel some pain / I can bind him, bruise him, cast him out by the power of Jesus' name! No longer on the outside; on the inside I now stand / I'm sold out, the whole route. / Completely born again / I believe on the third day Jesus, He rose from the grave / The world thinks I'm crazy / I am just radically saved! Choose you this day, tell me who will you serve? / Now's the time to stand up. Gotta let your voice be heard / You gotta come out from among the rest / You gotta tell the gospel tale / You tell 'em: Black is black & white is white; & hell is hot & sin ain't right; God is holy; Christ is coming & righteousness will prevail! Tell it to you once, I'll tell it to you twice: / The only thing that's gonna change this world is the gospel of Jesus Christ / Wimpy saints won't survive in spiritual warfare / If you know that Jesus is the only way, let me hear somebody say, "YEAH!" On the inside we now stand / I'm sold out, the whole route / Anybody here born again?! I believe that on the third day Jesus rose from the grave / The world thinks we're crazy / Our friends think we are crazy / Our family thinks we're crazy / But we are just what?! /We are just radically saved! It's been said, "I'm a fool for Christ." The question is, "whose fool are you?"