2 Cor. 5:16-21 (NRSV)

INTRODUCTION

There was once a couple who had been married for 60 years.

They had shared everything together and loved each other very deeply.

No secrets, except for a small shoebox (wife) kept her closet.

When they got married, she had put it there and asked that he not go snooping or ask any questions.

For 60 years he honored her request.

One day she had fallen gravely ill and docs weren’t sure how long she had.

The wife added one final item to the honey-do list (fav. dress).

The husband then left and went home to get the dress so he could take it to the cleaners.

As he went to grab the dress, he looked up and saw the box sitting on the shelf.

He decided take it with him.

He asked her if perhaps now they might be able to open it. She agreed.

They opened the box, and inside were two crocheted dolls and a roll of money that totaled almost $100,000.

The man was astonished.

The woman told her husband that the day before they were married, her grandmother told her that if she and her husband were ever to get into an argument with one another, they should work hard to reconcile, and if they were unable to reconcile, she should simply keep her mouth shut and crochet a doll.

The man was touched by this, because there were only two crocheted dolls in the box.

He was amazed that over 60 years of marriage, they apparently had had only two conversations that they were unable to reconcile.

Tears came to his eyes, and he grew even more deeply in love with this woman, even at the end of her life.

Then he turned to the roll of money. "What's with this?" he asked.

His wife said, "Well, every time I crocheted a doll, I sold it to a local craft fair for five dollars."

2 Corinthians 5:16–21 (NRSV)

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

All this is from God, who 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 entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat 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.

“EVERYTHING NEW”

New kainos (2537), denotes “new,” not “new” in time, recent, but “new” unaccustomed or unused.

“We’re not accustomed to seeing people the way God does.”

“CANCEL CULTURE”

Conversion is an idea that sounds suspicious to some people.

“Why is somebody trying to change me?”

“What’s wrong with the way I am?”

While we’re all made in God’s image, we also have turned away from serving God toward serving ourselves.

We’ve become selfish in a way that’s destructive to others and ultimately destructive to us; we live our lives in a way that doesn’t reflect our Creator God at all.

Because of this, the Bible teaches that we need to be converted.

“What Does it Mean to Be Reconciled?”

The idea is that two persons who should have been together all along are brought together; two persons who had allowed something to come between them are restored and reunited.*

The thing that broke the relationship between God and man was sin.

When any of us sin, we work against God and promote evil by word and example.

When the sinner lives for himself, he becomes an enemy of God.

Why?

Because God does not live for Himself.

God gave Himself up in the most supreme way possible: He gave His only Son to die for us.

When the sinner lives for the world and worldly things, he becomes an enemy of God.

Why?

Because he chooses the temporal over God.

He chooses that which passes away over God.

“The Problem of Reconciliation”

The problem we have with reconciliation is that we’re not sure that the cross of Jesus Christ that has so radically changed us could actually change other people.

“Daddy Finds Jesus”

Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine that there is a girl who grows up with a daddy who loves his job more than he loves his family. He's a workaholic.

As this man grows further apart from his family, he becomes verbally abusive.

He takes all of the guilt that he feels and he pushes it of on other people.

Eventually, he divorces his little girl's mother, and because of all the conflict, he doesn't even pay child support.

This family is torn apart.

The little girl grows up...She heads off to college.

She wishes that her relationship with her daddy was different, especially when she sees the relationships her friends have with their fathers.

But this girl is not going to move toward her father.

She doesn't want to get hurt again. There's too much risk.

She's willing to live with one kind of pain to avoid some unknown pain that might be there if she draws close to him.

“WHAT IF”

But what if she hears news that her daddy, living on the other side of the country, is invited by a friend to a men's retreat?

He goes to this retreat and encounters the cross of Jesus Christ.

God gets a hold of her daddy's life, and over the course of the next few months, he becomes a changed man.

The filter through which he looks at the world is changed, his priorities are changed, and his heart is made tender to the things of God.

He is humbled.

In fact, he calls this girl's mother and acknowledges his responsibility in the failure of their marriage.

He begins to pay the child support that he neglected and makes good on college payments.

He does all he can to reconcile that relationship.

Do you think that young lady might want to be reconciled with her daddy now?

(v.17)“IN CHRIST”

Notice the verse does not describe a believer’s actions.

Instead, it refers to his/her position.

The words in Christ are the key tothe passage.

You see, In Christ, old things have passed away and all things have become new.

Unfortunately, “in me” not all this is true as yet!

But as I progress in the Christian life, I desire that my actions may increasingly correspond to my position.

We don’t become perfect in this life, but we become really and truly different than we were.

We become more what God made us to be.

Paul was an an ambassador for Christ!

- Consider some facts about ambassadors.

Ambassadors are chosen.

And Christ had chosen Paul to be His representative. - Paul did not represent himself (see 4:5) but Christ.

His message was the Gospel Christ had committed to his trust (1 Thes. 2:4).

Ambassadors are protected.

An ambassador must be a citizen of the nation that he represents, and Paul (as is every Christian) was a citizen of heaven (see Phil. 3:20 where “conversation” is equated with “citizenship.”)

The nation supplies their ambassadors’ every need and stands ready to protect them.

Likewise Christ supplied Paul’s every need and stood with him in every crisis.

Ambassadors are held accountable.

Ambassadors represent their countries and say what they are instructed to say.

They know that they must one day give an account of their work.

Ambassadors are called home before war is declared.

God has not yet declared war on this wicked world, but one day He will. -

There is a coming day of wrath (1 Thes. 1:10) that will judge the wicked, but Christians will be called home before that day comes (1 Thes. 5:1–10). -

The church, God’s ambassadors, will not go through the Tribulation.

All believers are ambassadors, whether we accept the commission or not.

“As the Father has sent me, also I send you,” said Christ (John 20:21, NKJV).

“The Love of Christ”

Note that Paul does not say that he is driven to minister because of...

the great teaching of Christ

the great example of Christ

the great ministry of Christ

the great life of Christ

All of these areas of the Lord’s life are important, but they are not the foundation of our salvation and ministry.

The foundation of the believer’s life is the love of Christ.

It’s the love of Christ that inspires Paul to hold fast to the ministry.

“The Cross Changes People”

Here’s what I want you to hear today: People can genuinely be changed.

If the cross of Jesus Christ has changed you, it can change the person sitting next to you.

It can change the person living across from you or down the road.

So we need to get those people to the cross of Jesus.

That person who has offended you, who has taken advantage of you, needs to get to the cross of Jesus.

The cross can change anyone.

“Something New”

Paul was going to look at people through the filter of their potential the potential of the cross to be at work in their lives.

Paul was going to imagine that people could actually be brand new.

The way I see it we’ve got two choices going forward:

“Do we want to keep the same view?”

OR

“Do we want see something new?”