Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 12, 2023 | 2 Corinthians - No Love Lost

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November 12, 2023 | 2 Corinthians - No Love Lost · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: When we think about 2 Corinthians today, this idea of actions speaking louder than words, though, carries a lot of weight.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is absolutely a situation where we just go on talking all the time about what God has done and never allowing that to sort of rest deep within us and change our hearts and our actions ultimately.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when we get to the Apostle Paul here in 2 Corinthians, you know, he is talking about why his actions are driven so much by the actions of Jesus Christ.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: To say it another way, we worship a God who does not just speak, but also acts.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And as a response to that, Paul and then hopefully us will see that our ministry, then, that what we carry out as ambassadors of Jesus Christ is something that is done not just with words, but with actions as well.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning we're going to look at that.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to actually tackle kind of a controversial topic and then ultimately see how amazing it is when we are able to live out the gospel as we're supposed to, how God's plan seems to just fall into place perfectly if we are doing the role we were destined to do.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So with that, you can turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: We'll begin in verse 14 here.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul begins.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you've heard me once, you've probably heard me a dozen times.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is defending his ministry against the Corinthians who are criticizing him.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about this by this point in time, talking about Paul defending his ministry is like an old sweater that you put on.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's comfortable, you know how it fits, it might be a little loose, but you know exactly what's in there.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is sort of what we're looking at with Paul.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Various reasons.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't eloquent enough, he wasn't, didn't look the part, he didn't sound the part, his ministry didn't follow the cultural norms, it was only the gospel which could be offensive and all these different things.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not to mention some people who had gotten into the Corinthian church and kind of pushed them against Paul, had changed their perspective on him.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So once more he's defending his ministry, but now instead of responding to their complaints, he's kind of setting the vision for them.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's teaching them by explaining what he's doing.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And as he begins here, he says, For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion that one died for all and therefore all died, and he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna get nitpicky off the bat, right, and say that the word compel, that the better word in the Greek is actually constrain.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, why does that matter, whether it's compel or constrained?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: The difference between those two words is that compel is a more generalized form of urgency.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, the love of Christ is moving us forward.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are excited, we want to take these things on, work for God's kingdom, absolutely.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: The concept of constraining, right?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Think about, you know, when you you have your garden hose and you put your thumb over the tip of it and you can spray it a lot further, right?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: When we constrain things and they get more specific, right?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's this language about how we are not only just urgent and we are focused and we are excited, but also we're accomplishing something very specific.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what is going to be revealed here, and I'll go on to explain, is Paul is saying his ministry, the thing that he is compelled to do or he is constrained to do because of Christ, is to reach unbelievers with the gospel.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: There are other things in his ministry that are accomplished, you know.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: People are growing up in their faith and they are understanding more about the gospel, and they are growing in spiritual maturity and love and good deeds and all these other things which are well and good, necessary.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the most important thing about Paul's ministry is that it is reaching unbelievers with the gospel.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what he is constrained to do.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is he and his uh sort of followers understanding the motives behind Christ's love, right, they look back at the cross and they see that God was not just speaking about his love, but it was being borne out in action, that the act of Jesus dying on the cross was an act of love.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that act is now spurring or constraining, we'll keep using that word, Paul towards action as well.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But what is the thing that he has concluded?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says we have reached this conclusion.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says that one has died for all, and there he's speaking, of course, of Jesus.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: One has died for all, that Jesus, his death on the cross was for everybody.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately we step into a bit of our church controversy, right?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are people who love Jesus and know Jesus that we worship together with who are going to have different views on what this in particular means.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And those two views summarized are the idea of limited atonement and unlimited atonement.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so sidebar, we're gonna talk about this real quick.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is a bit of inside baseball, but if you know what I'm talking about, then you'll also understand that this passage that we're gonna be looking at directly relates to this concept.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So limited atonement, in summary, is the idea that when Jesus died on the cross, right, his death was intentionally for those who would accept him, the elect, and for nobody else.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: In order for Christ's death to be considered a success, it must, and I'm quoting from another source here, actually secure a real salvation for all for whom Christ died.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a part of that system of belief, which would be, um, if you lean Calvinist or if you're a part of the Reformed tradition, this would be going into saying that you don't like the idea that Jesus' death was for those who ultimately wouldn't accept him, and that there's a way in which that means that Jesus' death was not successful because he died for those who, again, did not believe in his saving grace.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, the death of Jesus was only for those who, the verses would say, um, that the Father had given to him.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like when the Father says to Jesus, or rather, excuse me, when Jesus says to the Father that he will take and redeem all that the Father gives to him, okay, these would be the verses that are sort of laying into limited atonement.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is way more than two sentences, but we have to kind of use a summary this morning.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Unlimited atonement is going to take the other track, and it is going to say that Jesus' death, Christ's death, was intentionally for all people, but that some would reject this gift of salvation.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, in essence, Jesus died for people who weren't going to believe in him.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Christ took all the world's sin upon himself at the cross, and salvation is for anyone who would believe in him.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, this there are books on this, there are systems of belief that sort of envelop all of these things, but it is important to recognize that there's a differentiation in the view.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: At TBC, we align with unlimited atonement.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this passage, what I'm going to try and show you, is why this, what Paul is saying here, um, supports that conclusion and ultimately makes limited atonement a difficult theology to hold based upon this.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I also want to say before we get any further, this is not one of those things that you divide the church over.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those things that we worship together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and at various points in time we just say, you know what, that's not me.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: But we can still love Christ, trust in him, and share his good news with others because of it.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, let's talk about this.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when we go back to the text, right, there are some very clear things that are supporting the concept of unlimited atonement.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that Paul says that Jesus, that one died for all.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, obviously, there he's speaking about Christ, like I said.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But he does have this kind of interesting conclusion.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, one died for all, and therefore all died.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, it feels like we're missing something in the middle there.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like Paul goes one, two, skip a few.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is because he is not trying to write a book, Atome, on the atonement, which is sort of the longer word we use to describe what the death of Christ accomplished.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: The atonement is all the things wrapped up in what Jesus dying on the cross means for us.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so the atonement has a lot of things that you can attach to it, but Paul is not trying to explain all of them here.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's making a point.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And his point begins with Jesus died for all, and therefore all died.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: How is that possible?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's possible because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's Romans 3.23.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so the connection is all, everybody, has sinned, and therefore all are deserving of judgment because of their sin.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, when he went to the cross, was a substitute for all the people who sinned.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, when Jesus died, all the people were able to see their punishment in the substitute of Jesus.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: To say that a different way, when you think about the cross, when you look at the cross, you should see Jesus on the cross in place of you.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not this like static image of just him hanging there, but really the fact that you should be hanging there, but you're not, because of his gift.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: One died for all, and therefore all died.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the other part that we again are saying supports the idea of unlimited atonement, is that when we say he died for all, there it is a second time, right?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's a second category that he introduces here.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: There are those who live.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And by process of elimination, right, you can discern that if we're drawing a separate category out of the all, then that means that from the all that Jesus died for, there are those who live, who have trusted in Christ, and by definition, there are those who are currently dead in their trespasses and sins, all under the umbrella of all.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: But again, we'll, and we'll bring it up just a little bit later, but setting that aside for a moment, because if you like, if you're new to the church today and you're like, no thanks.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Limited, unlimited atonement, not what I was expecting, right?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much here, though, beyond those things, that we are drawing deep within Christ to see.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And one of them is that if you've accepted Jesus as your Savior, whether you like John Calvin or not, that you are no longer living for yourself, but you are living for Christ.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we are sort of drawn up out of this idea that our life is for ourselves, and instead shown this greater reality that we are living for Christ and on his behalf, and ultimately, as we'll see with Paul, with some very specific job descriptions that God has given to us.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so, who is living, right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is those who have trusted in Christ.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, like I said, whether it's you want to look at Hebrews 2.9, that Jesus tasted death for everyone, or 1 John 2.2, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: We do, in our understanding, have this broader appeal that the death of Christ was for all, but that some, as Paul is making his point, some don't believe in that, and therefore, right, all of this comes as part of his argument.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: There are therefore those who have trust who Jesus has died for, but don't believe in him yet.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, That's my mission field.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's who I'm going towards.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it is in particular this group of people who have received the grace of God in vain, as he'll say later, that is spurring him on towards these great things.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's keep going though.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Verses 16 and 17, Paul says, From now on, then we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective, even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: The old has passed away, and see the new has come.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start at the end and go to the beginning, right?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be a new creation in Christ?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, when you believe in Jesus, there are like a lot of things that happen, okay?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the fact that you trust in him as your Savior means you are, this is not exhaustive, but you are forgiven of your sins, you are redeemed, you are reconciled, you are counted as righteous, you are a co-heir with Christ, you're an inheritor of a new body that will be in the heavenly realms.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: You get to be in eternity with God, right?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: You are not the least of which, you receive the Holy Spirit, which is God Himself indwelling within you.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there are more and such things attached to it, which are all beautiful, but the point here is that when you trust in Christ, it is not just neat, right?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not just a fun thing that happens so that we might be a part of a community or have a new way to think about the world or have some peace.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: It is that genuinely, on a spiritual level, you are changed and you are different than you were before.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that change is not something that is reversed.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is a caterpillar to a butterfly.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: The butterfly might continue to crawl on the leaves and eat them if it wants to, but nevertheless, it is still a butterfly.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: You've changed.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: So this is why, for instance, Paul is so comfortable elsewhere in the New Testament saying, Well, if you've trusted in Christ, then there's an expectation that you would go on and do some of these things that look like Christ because you're being made into his image.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about earlier in 2 Corinthians from glory to glory, right?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, all of that being said, Paul is saying you are a new creation.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the particular way that that is sort of amending his view here is he says, Well, when I think about the atonement of Christ and the act of God's love on the cross, and then I think about the fact that I am a new creation, Paul says, what that means is then from now on, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, what's a worldly perspective?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: A worldly perspective is the way that we view people today.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's the way that we judge them outside of Christ.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: It is the way that we discern who's important and who's not important.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's the way that we sort of use our culture and what is important to it to determine who is more valuable.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to the spiritual realm, when it comes to this new perspective of the new creation under the new covenant with a new spirit, lots of news, right?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to all of those things, this new perspective that we receive, it's kind of like um uh turning the radio dial, like tuning it just so you get the radio station at the perfect frequency, right?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know that most of our radios now do that on their own, but imagine with me, we are back at a time when you still had to tune the radios by the knob to get to the radio station.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you get kind of this image, right?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: We are drawing ourselves into looking at the world, thinking about the world, feeling about the world the way that God does.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, your perspective then is not worldly, but instead is spiritual.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the greatest spiritual discernment that we can have is who knows Christ and who doesn't know Christ.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of the other pieces of information which are true about, in many ways, who people are and what they do and things like that, what goes above and beyond all of that is do they know Jesus as their Savior?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: That begins to be the way with which we see the world around us.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do these people know Jesus or do they not?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, from now on, then, right, moving from this perspective that there are those who have Jesus has died for but have not received the gospel in their hearts.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, we view things from a spiritual perspective.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, we don't do it any longer.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was a great example of this.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was killing Christians before Jesus revealed himself on the Damascus road.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you can imagine Paul going, Yeah, I knew about Jesus.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Paul most likely saw Jesus be crucified in Jerusalem.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, that was not the right way to think about Jesus that Paul had when he was killing Christians.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: He was transformed, he was made into a new creation, and from then on he says, I think about things differently.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us, right?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Paul commits the grave error here of using the big word in the definition of the word, right?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, what is reconciliation?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's like, it's when you reconcile yourself.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, thanks, thanks, Paul.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: So what is reconciliation?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is when two parties who um don't get along when they come together.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: It is when two that were broken and divided reunite in peace.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul is saying here through that word is he says, There are those who have rejected Christ and their relationship with God is broken.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is they are separated from him because of their sin.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And because of their sin, and because of their rejection of Christ, they are never going to be reunited with God in the way that was originally intended, meaning they are never going to have true fellowship with him.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: They will see God again at the judgment seat, but that will not be the reunification that they want.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, but there is a reconciliation that happens.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, it wasn't us, the offenders, who go to God.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is God the one who initiates and does all of the work so that he can be, or rather, we can be reconciled to him.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We offended him.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really simple way to put it, and yet he is the one that comes to us.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, everything is from God, and by that he doesn't, I mean, right here, he's not talking about like everything.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: This means just everything that he had just talked about, everything that he had mentioned.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everything, what has been said up to this point, is from God.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is all from God, it is not from us who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us, ooh, look at this, the ministry of reconciliation.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we have received two things then.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: It is not just that we have received reconciliation from God by accepting Christ, but now believers have received the ministry of reconciliation, meaning that through us, God has chosen that we will be the people who shares this reconciliation message with the world.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is not just that we benefit from the gospel, but we have the privilege of sharing that benefit to other people.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: That is in Christ, Paul just explains, God was reconciling the world to himself.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Colossians 1.20 says, very, very similar, that Jesus was reconciling everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: You see, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was no simple matter.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, and I could be guilty of this, we um sort of distill the death of Christ down simply to he defeated death and sin.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: But uh there are many things on top of that, right?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is like saying a castle is a house for some people, okay?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: That is true, but it does not paint the full picture.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that Paul is talking about here that he speaks of to the uh church in Colossae as well, is he says that Christ was redeeming and reconciling everything to himself through his death on the cross, things on earth or things in heaven, which is kind of an amazing thought to consider.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: But this is where, and it'll be the last time I mention it, but this is where we also see another evidence for unlimited atonement.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: See, that is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: You see, the clear message presented here in 2 Corinthians is that the trespasses that Jesus that were placed upon Christ when he was on the cross were not just those who would ultimately trust in him, but ultimately those of the entire world, which is an expansive term in the New.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Testament and is not ever used to describe just one singular group of people.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is true, absolutely, Jesus is his death for everybody did not save everybody because not everybody has believed in Jesus.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But this is then the thrust of Paul's entire argument is there are some of those that Jesus died for that don't know him.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so then he is constrained and he's urgent scene.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can almost hear him saying, like, get on the saddle and ride.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let's go.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: We've got people who need to know Jesus.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed this ministry of reconciliation to us.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Another way to think about this ministry of reconciliation, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Here in a little over a week, I'm going to have some fantastic people in my family make a delicious Thanksgiving meal, okay?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to it.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've actually got four Thanksgivings I'm going to that week, and I'm going to take advantage of it all, okay?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm going to be wearing a baggy sweatshirt the next time you see me.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Be like Joey with the elastic pants.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the um the mess, one of the things that will probably happen though, at least at one of those Thanksgivings, is because I'll probably be in the kitchen eating already before it's totally finished.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: But at some point they'll say, Hey Connor, would you go and tell other people that dinner's ready?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say, Absolutely, I will, because I have been enjoying this dinner already and have been having a great time with it.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to go and tell other people about the fact that dinner is ready.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so dinner is ready, it is prepared for all, but I have been enjoying it, I've received that benefit, and now I get to go and tell other people.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And there's also, in some ways, a sense of urgency with that as well.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, come to the table, because the turkey's only gonna be hot for so long, right?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to Thanksgiving, or moreover, when it comes to the ministry of reconciliation, you know, unfortunately there is often just this like reluctance in our part to say that we eagerly are a part of God's kingdom as his ambassadors, a word that Paul will use later.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: We don't always like that idea because for some reason it makes us uncomfortable.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why, I should say for some reason, the reason why it makes us uncomfortable is because we don't always keep that perspective that we should have as new creatures in his new covenant.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we often revert back to a worldly perspective that is far more concerned about what somebody might say than whether or not they know Jesus.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: But we have a ministry of reconciliation that has been given to us.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is what Paul says.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: We already use this word.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: We plead on Christ's behalf.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Be reconciled to God.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about being ambassadors for a second, right?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's using some language here that would have been known, obviously, to those who are living in Corinth because they are a Greek, I mean, they're a Greek city under Roman rule.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so if they needed something to get done in their city, if they needed an appeal, they would send an ambassador to Rome itself.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: They would send an ambassador to go and speak to a higher up, as an emissary, as one who was respected and representative of the one who sent them, right?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Roman emperors, many times we'll talk about during the height of the Roman Empire, how many emperors or how many ambassadors, excuse me, and from how far away they were receiving in their courts every single day.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of the low sending ambassadors to speak to the high, what we have here is once more an inversion, a flipping.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: The greatest, the great king over all, the Lord of the universe, sends us as his ambassadors and to those who are his enemies.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is what Romans 5 says, right?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody who does not accept the grace of God that he sends to them is an enemy of his by nature and by definition, because we're sinners against his kingdom, we're rebels.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: But God sends his ambassadors, us, who've trusted in Christ, to speak to those who reject him.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Another example of God not just saying that he loves, but showing that he loves.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we are these ambassadors, and we plead on Christ's behalf.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I love that word.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I love that Paul, he's not like, we ask nicely.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: We say, I mean, well, okay, you should definitely be nice in how you're doing this, but you know, it's not just this, like, if you want to.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, we plead, we beg.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: We appeal to them, we say, be reconciled to God.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: You do not know him, and you must.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because otherwise, you will be somebody who has accepted the grace of God in vain.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that at the very end.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, we are ambassadors for Christ since God is making his appeal through us.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Once more, the amazing role that we have that God makes his appeal through us.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Who are we?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: But he does it.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then Paul here quotes a passage from Isaiah 53.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, We made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to get technical again, this is where we get one of the many places we get the idea of substitutionary atonement.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus was our representative on the cross, and that when he died, it was as a substitute for us.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: He did not know sin because he had not sinned, therefore he did not deserve death, but he received death anyway for those who deserved it.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul is saying in shorthand, right?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You know Isaiah 53, he made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Paul uses the phrase in Christ 76 times in his letters.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: You say, what does it mean to be in Christ?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: It means to trust in Jesus and believe in him.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's no weird language about that.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you've got to climb inside.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's just you love Jesus, you know him, you've accepted him as your Savior.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then here's the final flip, right?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the substitute for us, took our penalty, but now also as the substitute, because he is righteous and he is in the heavenly realms, and he is an heir of the heavenly things, we receive those benefits too.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: He is our substitute.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus not only is your savior from sin, but is going to be the savior and the one that we go to that means, right, because of his ascension, that we get to have this amazing heavenly life.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: So many things.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Final passage, though, that Paul brings up here.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says in 2 Corinthians 6, 1 and 2, this is how he finishes, he says, working together with him.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And by that he means, right?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, God is making his appeal through us.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when he says him, he means God.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Working together with God, we also appeal to you.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Don't receive the grace of God in vain.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: For he says, God says in Isaiah 49, at an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: See, Paul says, now is the acceptable time.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now is the day of salvation.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: You say, well, why is Paul quoting Isaiah 49?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because Paul loves quoting Isaiah.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because Isaiah 49 is speaking of, in that context, about how God heard the prayers of Israel, or rather will hear the prayers of Israel, and that he will return them from their exile to the promised land.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is doing is he is showing that the greater fulfillment of that prophecy, right?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there is a lesser and a greater, that it is fulfilled in its original context, but then also it is foreshadowing something that is more important and more beautiful to come.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says the greater fulfillment of that prophecy in Isaiah 49 is that there is an acceptable day coming, Isaiah would be saying, when the entire world may say that it is the day of salvation, and in that day God says, I will listen to you.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul is telling the Corinthians is he says, that day has now come, right?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: The grace of God was shown, the love of God was shown through action on the cross.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul is saying, now, since that time, and that includes right now, since that time of Christ's death on the cross, every day is the potential day of salvation for anybody who does not believe.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But we see a fork in the road here.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: We say that there are some who might accept this day of salvation, and then there are also some who might, as he says at the beginning, receive the grace of God in vain.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: You say, how can they receive it in vain and yet receive the grace of God?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how does that make sense?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the fact that Jesus died on the cross for the enemies of God before anybody was trusting in him, or before anybody had been reconciled to God, right?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Before all of that, we have God taking the initiative to go out and save people and provide a pathway for them to return to Him, to be reconciled.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so you say, well, what is the grace that extends to all people?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is the undeserved grace that they might return to God even though they don't deserve it.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then there is a fuller grace that is found if they choose to accept that invitation, right?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: The invites have been sent out to everybody, and some people have not RSVP'd yet.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, Paul says, you've received the invitation, but don't let it return in vain.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: That word in Greek it means empty.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let it return empty or void.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also one other question that you might have that would be important to consider, which is why is Paul saying all of these things to a church that already believes in Jesus?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: You have the Corinthians, right?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're trusting in Christ, they know Paul, they love God, and yet Paul is telling them, be reconciled to God, don't accept it in vain.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because Paul is never going to take or make the assumption that everybody that he's speaking to and everybody that's reading his letter is somebody who's saved by Christ.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, the fact that the Corinthians, right, a little inside baseball, because they are so at odds with Paul, the fact that as Christians, they seem to have forgotten the ministry of reconciliation between the two of them, might indicate a deeper spiritual disease that is at place in their church, which could be pointing to something much more grave.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know the ministry of reconciliation at all because of the way it seems like they are treating Paul, who is speaking on behalf of God?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, in many ways, this ministry of reconciliation, even if you've trusted Christ, it is still for us today.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is a consistent reminder of our peace with God.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: It is a consistent encourager to have peace with other people, especially with those who have trusted in Christ, right?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then also it is a reminder that we have a commission from God to seek those who don't know Christ with the ministry of reconciliation.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: So many ways that this comes together.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: But this is also why here at TBC, you say, why do you, boy, Connor, you talked about the gospel last week and the week before that, pretty sure I know the gospel at this point.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we continue to preach the gospel?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because a hundred percent there are people at our church right now who do not know Christ as their savior.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some people who've been going to TBC for a long time who don't know Christ as their savior.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: So to them, I say, today is the day of salvation.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Today is the day in which, at least it could be, the day of salvation, by the power of the Spirit, by God's extending his love into you, giving you the ability to respond, you can trust in him as your Savior.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we continue to preach these things.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul sends this letter back to the Corinthians.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey Corinth, be reconciled to God.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Don't accept the grace of God in vain, because some of you are doing just that.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: You have heard it over and over and over again, and yes, say, I don't need it.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's recap, and then we'll conclude by talking about what we can do.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: The situation: Jesus died for all, yet not all have believed in Jesus.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: The problem, people are then receiving the grace of God in vain.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: The grace has gone out, and they have not responded to it by the power of the Spirit.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: That troubles Paul.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's what drives him forward, it's what constrains him, puts him on his mission, gives him a specific vision.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: The solution, God made us ambassadors of his grace.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Motivated by his love, we plead and appeal to those who don't know Christ.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: We see these people more clearly because we view things from a spiritual perspective.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the result is that God's message of grace is shared with all, reconciling them to God for an eternity.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every day is the day of salvation for those who don't believe.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Every day is the potential day of salvation for those who don't believe.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: So what do we do?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there are two things for us to do: one for those who've trusted in Christ and one for those who haven't.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: As people who, or rather, I should say, for those who don't know Jesus, we've already talked about this, but don't go to your car and drive away today without having accepted Jesus as your Savior for the forgiveness of your sins.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's no reason to do it.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: And particularly if you have heard this message over and over again, I say, What is stopping you?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you keep coming back?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going to reject it, right, what keeps bringing you here to hear me say over and over again, Jesus died for your sins?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Accept him and be saved.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: If that is you today, if today is the day of salvation for you, that flows into our second point.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: You go and you can talk to me, you can talk to anybody who works at the church here, or you can talk to any one of the many, many ambassadors for Christ's kingdom that are currently sitting around you.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I do is also what you do.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: In the sense that if you've trusted in Christ, it is not like it is just my job to talk with people about the gospel.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: It is not just my job to answer people's questions who want to know about the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Happy to do it.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: But that is your job too, right?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this isn't something that we have to have dread over, right?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody's perfect at this.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: But God chose you to be his ambassador.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: He chose you to be his ambassador.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so you should have no shame, you should have no qualms, you should have no hesitation about being somebody who can answer the questions of somebody else who says, tell me about Jesus.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to the very beginning, and to as a kind of a final thought, right?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Paul leads with action.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: His actions speak louder than his words.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is the criticism that so many people have of him is that his words are not powerful.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, But my action is.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be ambassadors of Christ, who just say that we are ambassadors of Christ.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be a people who are furthering God's kingdom through our actions, through the works that we have been saved to do, as Paul says in Ephesians, that you are on a mission, and that is a beautiful mission, and God has given you everything you need to carry out that mission so that your actions speak louder than your words.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is what ultimately is going to send God's message of grace to the ends of the earth.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is ultimately what is going to bring people into his kingdom, right?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is he has chosen us to be the vehicle of it.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there's an individual component, there's a corporate component, meaning the bodily component in the church, that the mission of this church is to lead people to life in Christ and to be an ambassador for his gospel.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the only way that the church does that is by every person taking part in that mission as well.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I know these things are hard, right?
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: These things are difficult to do.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: But keep in mind that we are simply following the action of our Savior who showed us his love by dying on the cross for us, did not just say it, but showed it to us.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you, and God, we thank you for today.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you for your death on the cross.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, it has reconciled us to the Father.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have forgiven us of our sins.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: You have redeemed us.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you have chosen us to be ministers of your new covenant.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help us to live that out.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, that is hard.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: God, it is hard because so often we have a worldly perspective.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know I do.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I don't often enough have the spiritual perspective that you've given to me as a new creation.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help us all to live out our lives as this new creation.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: To think more often how you would think, to see more often, Lord, as you would see, and to speak more often, Lord, as you would speak.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to do these things.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I also pray for anybody who is hearing this and does not know you as their Savior, Lord, that they might believe.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: That you would remove the blindness from their eyes and the veil from their heart, and that by the power of your spirit, Lord, they would accept you as their Savior.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, that they would not go one more day taking your grace in vain and walking away empty.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Father, they would walk away with full hands and glad hearts.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for all of these things.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.