Seeking Transformation through Reconciliation

Worship Celebration

Prelude

Welcome and Announcements

Psalter - Psalm 32 (UMH 766)

Opening Prayer

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Hymn of Praise - “To God Be the Glory” #98

Celebrations and Concerns

Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Hymn of Praise - “What Wondrous Love Is This” #292

2 Corinthians 5:16–21 ESV

16 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 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. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Introduction

As we continue our sermon series, “Seeking Transformation,” throughout Lent, we come across a word that is familiar to us but may be more than anticipated - “reconciliation.” We hear that word a lot when it comes to relationships. Couples who are trying to be reconciled after going through difficulties in a marriage. Children who are reconciled to parents because of problems and issues that they have faced. Friends who have had a falling out are reconciled after years of bitterness to a place of forgiveness.

All of these examples of reconciliation display a piece or part of the puzzle for us as Paul unravels this mysterious word. For Paul, to be reconciled means that we are placed in right relationship with God. And through that right relationship, we receive the benefits of being in relationship with God. We are no longer estranged and separated. Now, we come together so that we can have peace between us. At one time, we were separated by sin. But God has made a way for us to return to him and live in harmony.

Today, we are going to explore what it means for us to be reconciled to God and how that reconciliation transforms us so that we can then share this message with the world.

1. We are a new creation in Christ. (vs. 16-17)

One of the foundational understandings of the Christian life is that once we are in Christ we are called to be different than we were before. In our previous state, before we came to Christ, we were dead in our trespasses. We were separated from God. As Wesley puts it in his sermon entitled “The New Birth,” we were “wholly dead to sin” and “void of the image of God.” Outside of Christ, there is nothing that is good in us. Our very nature is entirely corrupted by sin. But, when we come to Christ, there is something that has happened to us that changes us. It changes our thoughts and our desires. We want to be more and more like Christ and not be like we once were.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:20-24

Ephesians 4:20–24 ESV

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Peter talks about being born again in 1 Peter 1:3

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Jesus says the same thing when he has his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:3

John 3:3 ESV

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Paul wants us to understand here in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 that we are a new creation. In Christ we are something different than we were before. The Holy Spirit is changing our inner spirit and our very nature. Like I commented in last week’s sermon, once we are in Christ, we have the ability not to sin as we are transformed and sanctified into the likeness of Christ.

John Wesley called this initial work of the Holy Spirit regeneration. Regeneration is the actual change that takes place in the believer once he or she is justified by God’s grace. And although there is sin that still remains even when we are regenerated and made into a new creation, sin no longer reigns or holds power over us. Paul tells us elsewhere in Colossians 3:12-14

Colossians 3:12–14 ESV

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Wesley says that the image of God that is in us is the moral image. That is, when Adam and Eve were first created by God they enjoyed a moral nature that is like God’s - one that is solely based on love. This love was the sole principle of all that humanity did. All the actions of humanity we found to be in this unchanging characteristic of God. However, humanity was created with a free will to choose to remain in this love or choose to disobey God and fall into death. Unfortunately for us all, disobedience and death were chosen because Adam and Eve decided that they wanted to be like God. The disobedience of Adam and Eve created an “enmity” between God and humanity. That means that there was a divide that was created because sin entered into the heart of humans. The only way that this enmity could be breached is if humanity was re-created somehow. And in Christ, God has made that way.

This leads us to our second point:

2. God has done the work of reconciliation. (vs. 18-19, 21)

Because of this divide, we are enemies of God outside of Christ. Paul says in Romans 5:10

Romans 5:10 ESV

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

This concept of being enemies of God is lost on many people. We want to say that everyone is a child of God. God loves us all no matter what. It is true that God loves us. But he loves us even while we are his enemies and not his children. In Christ, we are adopted into the family. Prior to that, even though God has great and deep love for all of humanity and all of creation, we live as though we are his enemies. Our sinful condition places us in a state where we are at war with God. God is the Ruler and Creator of all things. He alone is worthy of our worship and praise. However, when we are outside of Christ, all of the love that God created us with in his image is not turned toward him but toward ourselves. This worship of the self and the pride that comes with it is the essence of our nature without Christ. Because our sin nature is self obsessed, God has to do something dramatically audacious in order to remedy that situation. The foundation of which was laid throughout the history of Israel and the law. Israel itself and the law were but shadows or pretext for what was to come in Christ when the God who created all things entered into time and space and walked among us in order to save us from the self-consuming sin that has stained and tainted the image of God in each of us. We are all image bearers of God, but we are not his children unless we are in Christ.

Paul tells us that this dramatic and audacious action that God did to bring the reconciliation necessary between himself and his enemies was the cross. We repeat the words of Paul in our liturgy for the Lord’s Supper in Romans 5:6-8

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ironically, it is the God that breathed into us the breath of life that died in our place that we might be reconciled to him and bring us into relationship with him. This is the central message of the gospel. God did that which we could not do for ourselves in order to recreate us through the power of the Holy Spirit and breath new life into us by his power so that we might be regenerated, justified, and sanctified. This work of God allowed us to enter into that state again where the love of self and the central aspect of our sinful nature would no longer have dominion and power over us so that even now we might walk with him everyday in holiness and righteousness so that one day when Christ returns we might enter into that eternal rest with him in the new creation of all the universe where it will return to how it was in the very beginning:

Revelation 21:4–5 ESV

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

And it will fulfill what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 43:18-19

Isaiah 43:18–19 ESV

18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

The reconciliation that is given to us through Christ is but a foretaste of what will be. This gift of reconciliation that has been offered to all who call upon his name is the greatest gift of all. This leads us to our final point:

3. We are called to accept this gift and share it with others. (vs. 20)

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

The gift of reconciliation and salvation is a free gift that has been given without price to us. This gift cost God greatly as Christ gave himself up for us on our behalf. He took upon himself the death that we deserved so that we might live. This is the message that has been imparted to us through the apostles over the past 2,000 years. Paul gives us the imperative that we are to be reconciled. This means that as followers of Christ, our nature is no longer one of sin but one of reconciliation and a new creation. The sin nature no longer has power over us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are something new in Christ. The old self has been taken off, and the new self has been put on.

Because we are now in this new reality, it is our call to be ambassadors for Christ in the world. In our own context, an ambassador is one that represents the interests of his or her home country to a foreign country. An ambassador is going to take policy matters to a foreign government in order to establish trade, military alignments, and diplomatic work to keep peace among nations. The ambassador is the primary representative of the nation in a foreign land.

Paul compares the work that he has done and our work to that of an ambassador. We are Christ’s representatives in the world. As new creations who have been reconciled and born again, we share the message of reconciliation to a foreign land. We are “resident aliens” so to speak.

Acts 7:6 NRSV

6 And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years.

We are in a foreign land. The world around us is a post-Christian society that is often hostile to the message of the gospel. But like Paul and the Corinthians, we must be bold in our proclamation of the gospel. God is making his appeal to the world through us. This is why we must represent him well. Otherwise, we will destroy our witness and prevent others from knowing Christ. Our ambassadorship and representation of Jesus must be a true witness to the gospel through his love and grace. As reconciled people, we are to live differently than the rest of the world. We are to act differently than the rest of the world. We are to respond in a way that is Christ-like and holy. The church is to be a place filled with people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in holiness and righteousness above all other things. We must be the example of Christ to the world. When we or the church in general respond in ways that are contrary to Christ, we nullify the witness that has been given to us, and it may have the effect that someone may not turn to Christ because of our actions.

This is why the reconciliation message is so important to Paul. If we are a reconciled people, we will be a different kind of witness to the world. We will show forth the kingdom of God in a way that will bring glory to God and bring others into the kingdom.

Conclusion

I implore you as Paul did the Corinthians to be a reconciled people unto God. Let us be the witness of the kingdom in a world that would deny him in many cases because so many Christians do not properly represent Christ to the world. May we be a people who are holy and set apart for this work of reconciliation and bring others to know Christ. Let us preach the kingdom of God to the world and be transformed through the work of reconciliation that has been done on our behalf in Christ.

Hymn of Response - “This Is the Day of New Beginnings” #383

Benediction

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be among you, and remain with you always. Amen.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Postlude