THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN THE SEASON OF LENT,
THE MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY THE 25th OF MARCH, 2001
THE TEXT ARE:
The LESSON:.....2 CORINTHIAN 5: 16-21
PRAYER...MAY THE WORDS OF GOD AND HIS MESSAGE SPOKEN THIS HOUR BE BOTH A WORD OF COMFORT AND CHALLENGE
WE PRAY THAT IT WILL CHALLENGE THOSE WHO ARE COMFORTABLE
AND COMFORT ALL THOSE WHO ARE BEING CHALLENGED THIS DAY.
INTRODUCTION;;;
In the 5th chapter of II Corinthians, Paul supplied us with all the information WE NEED TO OFFER anyone, in order to bring them to saving faith.
He talks about the death of Christ,
His resurrection, AND HE TALKS ABOUT the assurance of newness of life for the one who believes in Christ,
HE TALKS ABOUT the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a down payment of our inheritance in Him,
HE TALKS ABOUT the new man’s relationship of acceptance with God, the fact that our new life in Him is one of faith and not sight, and the eventual glorification of our bodies and eternal life in the presence of God.
SO the primary aim of Paul in this chapter is to define A RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST TO ALL of those who traveled with him, and call his readers to believe IN THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD.
BUT WE ARE ALSO CALLED to believe that Paul’s claims are for every believer in Christ; EVEN IN OUR AGE while we are still here on this earth and until the Lord comes,,
SO AS WE EXAMINE PAULS 2nd EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH AT CORINTH WE LISTEN AS PAUL SPEAKS...
HE SPEAKS This morning about a very important subject for us who profess and desire to be followers of Jesus Christ.
AND what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
There are MANY ideas, concerning our relationship to Jesus that are HINDERING AND impeding the cause of Christ around the world and in our own community.
A......There is the idea that being a follower of Jesus is nothing more than a self-improvement program.
If you want to lose weight, gain deeper insights, quit smoking, repair your relationships, or win the lottery then you should get connected to Jesus.
A NAME IT AND CLAIM IT MENTALITY..but WE DON’T ALWAYS GET EVERYTHING WE WANT..
B......There are others in our society who understand being a follower of Jesus as nothing more than attending church.
Attending worship is a good thing, but Jesus is too big to be boxed in to a one-hour activity to be endured once a week.
C...... There are many OTHER ideas of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
AND EVEN THOUGH Most of them are based on some element of truth found in God’s Word, .......but the vast majority fall far short of what the Bible describes as being a follower of Jesus.
SO ...Let’s take a look at Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth as he describes for them what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
After we gain a good understanding, then we will work to see how this understanding can change and shape each of our lives.
FIRSTLY LETS REFLECT UPON THE BASIC BELEIF OF OUR FAITH..
1......GOD LOVES US..
2......AND BECAUSE HE LOVED US HE SENT JESUS Christ’s TO US.
3......AND WHEN JESUS CAME TO US ,,,HE DIED FOR US .
4.......JESUS died for everyone so that those who receive HIS DEATH WILL RECEIVE A new life IN CHRIST...
5...AND THIS NEW LIFE IS DESIGNED TO NO longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for US.
6....Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we ALL HAVE GOT TO die ....NOT IN THE SAME DEATH AS CHRIST BIT WE HAVE TO DIE to the old life we used to live.
7........What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
8........All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. TELLING THEM ABOUT HIM
9... This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.
SO PAUL SAYS,, THAT We are NOW Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to OTHERS.
We urge THEM, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!"
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BUT OFTEN TIMES WE HAVE TO REVISIT BELEIF OS OUR FAITH SO FIRSTLY...I NEED TO RISE A particular question that there is a fundamental difference between being religious and being a "real Christian."
Many people have trouble with that concept because they think that if you are religious, then you must be a "real Christian." If you asked such people,
"Are you a Christian?" they would reply, "I’m a church member" or "I’ve been baptized" or "I go to Sunday School" or "I go to mass every week. " But those answers raise another important question: Is being a Christian simply a matter of outward activity?
That leads me to ask a very personal question that I would like you to ponder as you read my words. Here’s the question: Am I a real Christian or
am I just a religious person?
This morning I want us to meet a man and get to know him a little better than we might have before. We find him in the passage that was read from John the
3rd chapter.
His name is Nicodemus. There is a lot we don’t know about thisman as he only is spoken of in the Bible in 3 passages and they are all found in John. In spite of this, there is a lot we can learn about him and from him in this brief mention in the Bible.
IN John 3:1-15, we learn that he is a Pharisee, which means that he was an influential man in religious circles in Jesus’ time.
He was also a member of the Jewish ruling council, called the Sanhedrin, which consisted of 71 men ruled by the high priest. This was the highest "court" of the time and would be similar to a countries supreme court today.
So, Nicodemus was an influential and powerful man who came to Jesus to ask him a question. BECUASE he WAS curious AND bothered by what Jesus had said.
REGARDING THE PHARSE YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN...
Jesus dealt with his question and at a time seemed almost harsh with Nicodermus, Jesus sensed in Nicodemus a deep hunger, an emptiness. Here was a man
who was doing his level best to obey what he thought God wanted, yet he had an empty and unsatisfied heart that led him to seek out Jesus by night.
OUR Lord immediately puts him on the right track, saying to him, in effect, "You are wasting your time if you think you can enter the kingdom of God the way
you are.
You cannot do it. You must be born again.
As Jesus continues, he indicates there is a clear and radical difference between the old and the new birth.
He says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." What do you get from your first, fleshly, birth? More flesh! You get a body, a living body. Then what do you get from a new birth, a spiritual birth?
You get a living spirit; your spirit is made alive.
Scripture says that Nicademus admitted his need. He did that by taking a personal inventory of life and realizing that despite all his best efforts, something vital was missing on the inside.
That he needed "something else" in his life. He didn’t know what it was, he couldn’t put his finger on it, but deep within he sensed that his religion-sincere
though it was-could not fill the gaping hole in his heart.
You and I must start in the same place that Nicodemus started-with a sense of your own desperate need of God.
NICADEMUS...HE REALIZED THAT Only God can make one alive in the spirit.
It is quite obvious that it does not make any difference how hard you try; if you
do not have God’s life you cannot live in a way that pleases him.
There is no way to do that. If you are trying, with an unchanged, fallen nature, to please God.
You will only miss the point.
That is what Jesus is telling Nicodemus.
Finally, Jesus indicates in a most remarkable way that the new birth will result in a totally new lifestyle; he will never be the same.
WHICH IS WHERE PAULS BRINGS US TODAY..
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AS We find Jesus speaking of the necessity of a new birth. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again... no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit... You must be born again" (Jn 3.3,5,7b).
PAUL REMINDS US OF THE SAME JOY...
IN VERSE 17..WHERE HE SAYS IF ANY ONE IS IN CHRIST HE/SHE IS A NEW CREATURE, EVERYTHING OLD HAS PASSED AWAY BEHOLD EVERY THING NEW BECOME .
THE OLD IS GONE....
Paul tells the Galatians that the Spirit and the sinful nature are two opposing principles within us. As new creatures in Christ we choose to live by the Spirit and not by the desires of the sinful nature.
WE KNOW THE ACTS OF the sinful nature are obvious: , hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like" (Gal. 5.19,20).
THE BIBLE says that we should "put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature" (Col. 3.5).
It’s as if he’s saying, "The old has gone. That’s no longer part of your life. It has no rightful place in you! Let it go! Stop feeding it! Stop living by it! It has no right to control you!"
What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons.
They are not the same anymore, for the Old has begun!
Those who become new Christians become new persons.
The old is gone and everything has become new.
What is there that is "old" in your life that you would like to be freed from, but can’t seem to shake it?
God can shake it from you, relieve you of your sin, and cleanse you as you begin a new life. There are so many things that plague us, but God can grant us peace through His Son.
God has NOT ONLY saved us,
NOT ONLY cleansed us,
NOT ONLY given us a new vision,
HE GIVES US a new direction, and a new love for all of humanity because of His saving grace.
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AND FINALEY WE WHO HAVE TASTED THE NEW NESS OF GOD HAVE
BEEN commissionED WITH OTHERS WHO have accepted Jesus as Lord of our lives.
BECAUSE God has given us the task of reconciling people to him.
This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!"
God has given us the task of reuniting, people to Him.
That is our challenge.
That is our privilege.
That must be our passion!
Paul says that we are Christ’s ambassadors. I did a little work this past week and found out what it means to be an ambassador. Webster’s definition of the
word, "ambassador" is
1. an official envoy; especially: a diplomatic agent of the highest rank appointed for a special assignment.
2...An ambassador is a messenger; someone sent by his or her sovereign to deliver a message or to communicate a request or thought or treaty.
We certainly have been called to be messengers of our King, haven’t we? The last words Jesus has to say to His people as He leaves the earth can be summed up: "Go and tell them about me." We are messengers.
We too are representatives, here today representing the light and the life and the truth of our God and King. We champion his cause, his agenda to bring
people into a life-changing, soul-changing relationship with Him.
We are to represent and characterize the identity and nature of our King, BY being ;;
living,
walking,
talking representatives of who He is, and what He is like.
The apostle Paul earlier in his second letter to the Corinthian church tells them that we are ‘reflections of Christ.’ Christ shines in our lives and reflects out of our hearts into the lives of others.
Paul saw himself as an ambassador at all times. He wasn’t just an ambassador on Sunday morning when he went to church. He wasn’t just an ambassador
when he felt like it. Paul was always acting as a representative of Jesus.
You and I are called to be ambassadors to this world for the cause of Christ.
At all times and in all situations we are ambassadors.
What is our message? What can we say or do? Great question! Let me share with you what Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to
tell others.
There is whole world out there that is dying to know the good news that God has come to us in Jesus to
forgive us,
take us in His arms,
cleanse us from our sin,
guilt, and shame, and set us back in the world as ambassadors for the Kingdom.
That is the message that you and I have been given to offer to our world.
CONCLUSION;;;;;;
The FIRST part of our MESSAGE this morning...
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
THE SECOND PART gathers around Paul’s exhortation to those who do not yet know the Lord, "We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."
AND THE THIRD PART IS that AS God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, ,,,,not counting YOUR sins against them.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God.
That is why Paul can make the announcement "if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come" (v. 17);
THE JOY OF TODAY PASSAGE IS NOT TO ALSO LOSE THE FACT THAT Paul is talking about a new creation, a life filled with the presence of God.
He says there’s the possibility of a whole new start. Which he says, has all come from God.
He’s saying THAT, GOD IS PREPARED TO WIPE THE SLATE CLEAN.
Forgive you for everything. Not count your sins against you.
SO THIS MEANS ALSO SOME THING VERY PERSONAL TO US ALL, WHICH IS IF GOD CAN FORGIVE OUR SINS WE NEED TO FORGIVE THE SINS OF OTHERS.
IF WE GET SECOND CHANCES FROM GOD, AND THIRD CHANCES ,,,,,ETC.
We need to give people the benefit of the doubt. Look at Paul, from a murderer to an apostle.
People can change... Sometimes the one you might expect the least to change may end up the most faithful of all.
We may not know why someone is searching, but we need to be sensitive to their needs.
That’s Paul’s message. God’s done his part. Reconciled the world to himself by giving his son to die for our sins. There’s a pardon waiting.
So I IMPLORE YOU ON CHRIST’S BEHALF, says Paul, BE RECONCILED TO GOD. Stop running your own life your own way. And TURN BACK TO HIM.
Paul says whatever you do, don’t receive God’s grace in vain. Don’t waste it.
This is the day to do something about it. And you know, maybe it’s the day to do something about it for you too. Maybe you’ve never quite understood it
before. God’s forgiveness. And the need to be RECONCILED TO HIM.
The question is, HAVE YOU HUMBLY TURNED BACK TO GOD. For his forgiveness. And started all over again.
Paul knows that this life is temporary. Like living in a tent. And he’s longing for something better.
Saints, if you haven’t ever got to the point of being reconciled to God, you need to do it today. You can do it when I pray in a moment.
But if you have, can I say to you that you need to be joining Paul in doing what he’s doing, HAVE YOU RECEVED THE COMMISION TO BE AN AMBASSOR
FOR CHRIST????
It is not just the preacers fault or TASK AND JOB .
DON’T BLAME ME IF YOUR SISTER IS NOT IN CHURCH, SON MOTHER BROTHER, NEIGHBOR , DAUGHTER ARE YOU FULFILLING YOU AMBASADOR SHIP???
SO AS WE Look forward to heaven. And in the meantime, serving God.
By being a messenger of reconciliation, just like Paul is.
Urging.
Persuading.
Inviting people.
In exactly the same simple way.
OFTEN TIMES THE BEST WORDS ARE YOUR ACTION???
NOT JUST THE POOR THE RICH NEED IT TO... IF NOT MORE,
LET RECEIVE OUR COMMISSION AGAIN TODAY LEAVING HERE
COMMITTED TO ANNOUNCE THAT,,,God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ. So turn around. And be reconciled to God.
AMEN..................AMEN......................AMEN
