Audio Transcript:

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We're going through a sermon series through II Corinthians that we're calling prodigal church. Why prodigal church? Because every church goes prodigal in one way or another. So we need to focus on the scriptures, go back to the scriptures to reorient our focus on what's most important. This week reminded me of one of my favorite things about living here is that Boston is a city of champions. And I was reminded of this last Sunday night when Tom Brady came back to Gillette Stadium. And I grew up watching Tom. Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl when I was still in high school.

And so the immensity of the moment didn't really hit me until I sat down like, "Oh wow. My childhood hero is playing against my favorite team. Who am I rooting for?" And I rooted for both. And every single play of the game was awesome because it felt like two of my favorite teams were, the bucks I don't care about, but it's Tom Brady. He's a team in of himself against the... And it was tremendous. And then Mack Jones went 19 for 19 completions in a row tying Tom Brady's long. So I remembered that. Awesome. And the reason why Tom Brady, he orients his whole life around this one goal of winning championships. And then Tuesday comes around and it was Sox, Yankees, oh my. And the Sox pulled it out. It was probably the best game they played all season.

And then now that with the Rays. This is all in one week. This just happened this week. And then the Rays, okay, we blew that first game, but the second one we snagged the second one. Now, it's one on one. And so that's all to say this is a great city living. And we know about winning and we know what it takes to win in life. It takes short term pain to win for long term gain. Every athlete knows this. And we just lose sight of the fact of what is the finish line? The finish line isn't it when you get a championship, the finish line isn't when you cross the marathon finish line, that's not the finish line. The finish line is when you die and you stand before God. That's the only race that ultimately matters.

And when we talk about Christianity, why is there suffering in the world, it's because in order to have the ability to love, in order for love to exist, sacrifice has to be part of reality, because you can't love without sacrifice. So how can we talk about loving God and loving people if we don't talk about the pain that you have to go through to do that. It takes pain to live a revolutionary life. I'm so fed up with this narrative of kids growing up in a good solid Christian home, and then finally they turn 18 and they go off to college and they rebel against their parents. And by rebel, we're taught the rebellion is you get drunk, you get high, you live any way that you want. That's rebellion. That's not rebellion. That's what everyone does.

You know what true revolutionary living is, you love God, you love Jesus Christ, you love the holy scriptures. If you were single, you commit yourself to chastity. If you're married, you commit to yourself to this one person. If you have kids, you do not abandon them. You proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with your words and with your life. That's the only revolutionary life that's left. And that's the only way of living that actually matters in terms of eternity. Living a revolutionary life means you do not live for yourself. Look at everyone in scripture and live a revolutionary life.

Jesus Christ comes to hung out with 12 dudes, just regular dudes. And he taught them, "Look, don't live for yourself and I'm going to throw you transform the world." They turned the world upside down. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Nathaniel, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Judas, not Iscariot, and then Paul replaced Judas Iscariot. As you got Sarah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Mary, Anna, Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene and Lydia, all people that changed the world, but not living for themselves. So today we're going to look at the keys to living a revolutionary life from II Corinthians 5:11-21. Would you look at the text with me?

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. 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. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 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. 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. 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.

This is the reading of God's holy in our infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The bigger the mission, the bigger the goal, the more sacrifice it takes. So if you have a big vision for life, if you have a big goal for life, you need a why that is iron clad. Why am I doing this? What motivated Paul to orient his whole life run the gospel. What was it? What were the keys to a revolutionary life? And I'll give you four from this text. It was fear of judgment, love of Christ, gospel, respect and reconciliation. First is fear. I missed out one, but that's okay. Fear of judgment. The context here is one of the greatest summaries of the message of scripture. It's all about salvation and St. Paul saved. You need to understand what happens after.

Once you are saved, a lot of people think that you're saved and Jesus saves you from your sin. And then all of a sudden, you are in the waiting room. Like in a hospital, you're in a waiting room. Like yeah, you got better, but you're in a waiting room until you die. And that's now what happens, what happens is when you become a Christian, you get thrown in gladiator and God gives you a sword. And now lions and tigers and soldiers are coming at you. That's what the Christian life is. And Saint Paul says, there will be a ceremony, there will be a podium, a medal ceremony when we die.

There's the first judgment. We talked about that last week before the White Throne of Christ, where Jesus Christ is going to judge us, did we believe in him, did we trust... Out medals. And St. Paul says, "This drives me." II Corinthians 5:9-10: So whether we are at home or away, whether we're alive or not, we make our aim to please him. That's our goal. That's our finish line. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Saint Paul says, "I've been saying, I know I'm saved." Now, I'm running with every fiber of my being to get to the finish line. And I want to win as much as possible for God, for God's glory. And verse 11" Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

He's saying since we are going to give an account to God, I fear, I stand in fear in awe of the awesomeness of the Holy God before whom I stand. Fear of God is what fuels me, he says. He's not terrified or afraid that God won't accept him. He knows he's accepted because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He just knows that he's going to stand before a Holy God who is morally superior in every way. So removed from evil in every way and in his awesome presence, all human pride, all selfishness, boasting, arrogance, all of it vanishes. And as you stand before, you got nothing to say, you're a humble speechlessness. God, you saved me, thank you. And you equipped me and you gave me time and you gave me talents, you gave me treasure and I will give an account to you for that.

And as an apostle, St. Paul felt the fearful way on his soul, that he will give a strict account, the judgment, see, for how he fulfilled his apostleship. James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know, that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." I do not take that verse lightly. And if you are a leader, if you're a Christian, you should be teaching somebody. It's called discipleship. You should be learning from somebody and you should be teaching somebody. And you should know that when you teach someone something that you do not live out yourself, God will judge you for that hypocrisy.

There's a verse in Hebrews that says, "Elders will give an account for the souls that God has entrusted to them." I do not take that lightly. That's why we take membership seriously. Who's part of the church? Who are the souls that I will give an account to God for? Knowing the fear of the Lord, he says, that's why we persuade others. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. Fear evokes in him persuasion. Fear of God releases him from fear of people so now he can persuade people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was at the park yesterday. There's a gentleman that we've just known for years. He's got two daughters who are the same age as my two youngest daughters. And we got to talking. And he's like, "Do you want to slice it? We're birthday parties. Like do you want to slice pizza?" I said, "No, I'm saving room." He said, "Saving room for what?" I said, "I'm saving room for barbecue. I got our 10th anniversary. Our church is doing our 10th anniversary birthday party today. I'm saving room for the brisket," which I did not have any of.

So if you had brisket, I want to emphasize that fact, that leaders eat last. And I sacrificed my love for brisket, because I love you guys so much more. And so he said, "Oh, your church 10th anniversary. Wow." He's like, "Oh, have you been going there for a while?" I was like, "Yeah, kind of. Yeah." He said, "Why did you start a church, because you like community or because you're religious?" Where are we going with this one? If a fear for the Lord does is like... I was like, I can't reveal all the cards right away, because I still got to see him every week. But I said, "Yeah, because we believe in God. That's why. We believe that there's a God that created everything and you haven't said thank you to him." So that's how I planted that seed.

Fear of God helps you get over the awkwardness of telling people, hey, we really believe this. We believe this is true. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved from the wrath of God that we deserve for our spiritual insurrection before God is the only way. Fear of God. Do you share the gospel with people in your life? Do you speak words of the truth of the gospel? Not just talking about living in a way where people see that you're a good person. Everyone's so self absorbed, they're not even going to notice. Do you speak the truth of the gospel to people in your life? That Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and he is life. He's the only way to God. Do you speak truth of the gospel? If not, what's holding you back? I know what's holding you back. Oh, what are they going to think? Who cares? Who cares? Who cares what people think about you? Only one person's opinion matters, and that's God's.

Saint Paul says that fear evokes persuasion. He's persuaded. He persuades people of the gospel. You know that someone said something and you definitely disagree with them, but you do the math of is it worth it? Is it worth to have this conversation right now? Is it worth the emotional toll it's going to take? And St. Paul says it is when it comes to God. And Saint Paul doesn't need to persuade God. He says what we are is known to God. And I hope it's also known to your conscience. Paul says, "I don't need to persuade God, God knows my life, character, motives." All of that is laid bare before God. And Paul's character has been assailed with these poisonous slurs by critics that come in and they've criticized him for not being an apostle, not seeing Jesus Christ, not really being anointed, not being filled with the Holy Spirit. And Saint Paul appeals to the Lord. The Lord knows. So does your conscience.

He speaks to their heart. Your heart testifies what the critics are saying is a lie. Deep down, the Corinthians were aware of Paul's character and the character of his ministry and the moral faculties of their conscience would connect the dots. He's sure of that. And in expressing himself like this, that God knows who I am, he knows my character, you know in your heart. He's aware that his detractors are going to accuse him of boasting in a dubious manner. So he covers himself. Verse 12 he says, "We're not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you a cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance, not about what is in the heart." So as critics are boasting about outward appearance, literally, about the face, about their image.

And it's a conscious reference here to God's advice to Samuel. When Samuel goes in and he's about to choose a king, and he goes into David's family, he sees all older brothers and God says, "No, I'm not picking people based on height or based on what they look like or based on their athletic ability or leadership skills or anything like that." He's like, "I will choose a leader based on the heart." I Samuel 16:7: But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, that's face and the Septuagint, but the Lord looks on the heart." So Paul's opponents come in and they boasted in the face on their sheer externalities, perhaps about their skills or about the rhetorical eloquence that they had or extravagant letters of recommendation or where they went to school.

The Paul's saying, "I'll give you cause to boast about me." My heart is in this. I love the Lord, I love you, I love the gospel. What's most important was written in the heart by God's spirit says I'm giving you cause to boast about us. I remember when I was a new Christian, I was enamored with... So I grew up in a church where no one went to seminary. And I grew up in a church where if you showed up to church 15 minutes early with a Bible, you're probably preaching. Especially, if you wore a tie, the pastor would come up to you and he was like, "I think you have a word from the Lord." You're like, "I do." Yes, you're going to preach them. And the reluctant preacher, you're going to preach on Jonah. And that's why.

So no one really knew what was going on. Guys would just read the text and they're like, "Yeah, I think this is what it's talking about." And another guy would be like, "No, that guy is totally wrong." And then once in a while you get into these debates. And at the end, the pastor would get up and correct everything and then you go home. And it was a four hour service. So I was enamored with pastors who had degrees. Like, "Oh, that pastor went to Cambridge university. He's got a PhD in church history. He really beezes better. He knows more." But if that pastor doesn't preach from the holy scripture, it doesn't matter. That pastor doesn't love God with all his heart, soul, strength, mind, love Jesus Christ, love the cause, love the gospel, love his family. And none of that.

Saint Paul says those are fine, skills are fine, degrees are fine, all of that. Influence of a pastor or how well known a pastor is, that doesn't matter, what matters is what's in the heart. Boast about the fact that God's spirit is in or upon a person and ever weary and attuned to his critics. He continues verse 13. He says, "For we are beside, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are not in our right mind, is for you." What's going on here? When he talks about being beside ourselves, he's talking about spiritually ecstatic experiences, where you have an experienced vision from God or a prophetic dream or you have a prophetic word or ecstatics. That's what he's talking about, that's being outside the body.

And he's like, "If we want to go there, if we want to establish credibility for spiritual work there," he's like, "I could do that." Paul was taken up to the third heaven. He talks about this in II Corinthians 12:4. And heard things that cannot be told. He's talking about himself. I heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. He says, "I've seen, I've experienced things I can't even communicate to you, but that's not, I don't want you to base your spiritual walk on my spiritual experiences." I have spiritual experience, some kooky spiritual experiences, I don't share. I never share. Sometimes I share once in a while, maybe I'll share. I'll share right now.

My wife wakes me up in the middle of the night this week. She wakes me up in the middle of the night. She's like, "What were you doing?" I said, "I was wrestling." She said, "Who were you wrestling?" I said, "I was wrestling a demon." She said, "What did it look like?" I was like, "I didn't see it. The demon, don't see demons, but I've felt it." See, that's why I don't share because that's kooky. You're like this guy's a nut. That's what I'm saying Paul doesn't share any of this stuff. The spiritual realm is real. It's as real as everything that we see. A spiritual warfare is absolutely real. But Saint Paul says, I don't want you to ground your walk with the Lord. I don't want you to ground on that stuff.

He said, "I want to reason with you." He said that if we are beside ourselves is for God; if we are in our right mind, it's for you. He's like I want to be in my right mind because I want to argue with you, persuade you from the holy scriptures because that's the only foundation that we really have. II Corinthians 5:18-19, Paul told the Corinthians earlier. It's in I Corinthians and it's not second Corinthians 5:18. I don't know why I put that in there. I Corinthians chapter 14. I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. St. Paul says, "I spoke in tongue. I pray in tongues, he says that." But in church, I want to speak words with my mind in order to instruct mark of authentic ministry is an ecstatic experience is public ministry, where you persuade others passionately, soberly.

Martin Lloyd Jones called this logic on fire. It's just truth and logic and you're persuading and you're doing it passionately. And that was Paul's consuming passion to persuade others from scriptures. So he was motivated by the fear of God and that he's motivated by the love of Christ. This is the opposing side of the paradoxical power of Paul's revolutionary life. It was fear of God. On the one hand that I will give an account to God, fear of God, love of Christ on the other. II Corinthians 5:14: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died. Love of Christ controls us. And how is Christ's love demonstrated to us, not just in sentimental words. He says, "This is the love of Christ that he died," because we have concluded that he has died for all, therefore all have died. And that's curious logic here.

Why does he say therefore all have died? Wouldn't it make more sense to say Jesus died for all, therefore all did not die? Or Jesus died for all, therefore all live. That would make more sense. But he says one has died for all, therefore all have died. How does that compute? Well, from the scope of scripture, the math is rigorously logical and it's also sublime. What does this mean that we have all died? Christ died for all, therefore all died. He's talking about the fact that Christ died, not just the personal death, he died a substitutionary death. He didn't die for his own sins, he's pure and blameless. He died for the sins of the elect. The all here doesn't mean all. It doesn't mean that Jesus Christ died for the sins of everybody alive ever. That's not what it means.

Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for everybody, but ultimately it's only efficient, it's only going to count for those who repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. Because if Jesus Christ, by the way, that's where universalism starts that Jesus Christ died for everybody. And then they say, well, Jesus Christ died for everybody. And then how is there a hell? Because it's like double jeopardy of Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and why would he make you pay for your sins in hell? So that's where that goes. That's not what scripture teaches. You have to respond. It counts to you, but you have to respond. Christ's death is the death of all the elect. In a sense, he died the death that we each one of us should have died. He bore the penalty for our sins. He died in our place.

So when Christ died on the cross, I died on the cross. When Christ died on the cross, you died on the cross if you are follower of Jesus Christ. I died on the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. That's what he's saying. I deserved that, but Jesus did that for me. This is the unmitigated love of Jesus Christ. This is the love St. Paul says that controls us. Christ love is the controlling force in his life. It's what keeps us tethered, keeps us in bounds, hams us in. Fear of the Lord negatively controls us. Although that could be argued that it's actually positive control, because you want a reward. But then love is what propels us, overpowering love of Christ demonstrated when he died in the cross for us. This is what led Paul to live a revolutionary life and seeing this great love.

How in the world could you live for yourself? That's what he says. II Corinthians 5:15: 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. Do you live for yourself? I think this is why I'm going to start asking people. Are you a Christian? Like yeah, I believe in Jesus. I repent of my sin. I want to start, do you believe in Jesus? Yeah. Do you live for yourself? Because Christians do not live for themselves. If you're like, I'm a Christian, but I still live for myself, you're probably not a Christian.

Back in the day, I used to think there was different levels of Christians. Like if you're a Christian, you just got to pray this prayer and you're a Christian. And then you got to grow to get to the point where actually you're a revolutionary Christian and you do not live for yourself. That's not true. It's not true. Like that point of when you live for Christ revolutionary life, that's you become a Christian. Jesus literally says, "Take up your cross and follow me daily." That means every single day you got to die to something that you really, really want. That's what it means to follow Jesus. You wake up and you pray a prayer, "Lord, Jesus, what would you have me do today? And in order to do that, what would you have me sacrifice on my personal cross that I'm carrying around?"

Jesus died for you. So it's unfathomable to live primarily for yourself. If you're a lukewarm Christian, Jesus is having a conversation with you as he's doing an assessment of your current life. And Jesus will sit down and say, "I died for you." And in response, you show up to worship service once a month at best twice a month, once a month, when there's a long weekend. That's once a month. When there's a holiday weekend, okay, I'm gone, I'm going to go worship God, doing something else. Well, worshiping God just isn't even a priority. And you show up once in a while, you give God some half hearted worship on Sunday and then you tip God and pray to him whenever you're in a bind. How does that math make any sense? Jesus says, "I gave everything for you and you give me lip service and the tip? I died for so much more than what you're giving me and I didn't die so you could live a small life focused on possessions and earthly passions."

Jesus, didn't die just to save us from sin, he died to save us from a pathetic life. Pathetic life is a small life is when you live for yourself. You just live for yourself and you can get older and older and older, and it's just you. You're just living for yourself. There's no joy in that. Jesus died to free you from yourself to live for him to give you freedom and joy. What good? And then ultimately, is there anything better? Is there anything better than serving people, seeing them rejoice and that fills your whole heart with so much joy. Is there anything better? Romans 8:31 says, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Every athlete knows this. It's like short term pain, but that's actually the best thing for you. Deny yourself in the short term, but then the feeling of completions, the satisfaction of crossing the finish, I did this. There's nothing greater than that when you do it for the Lord and God fills your heart with joy and satisfaction and just his delight. This is the energy cell and Paul's revolutionary heart is charged both negative and positive fear of Christ and love of Christ. And the combination was explosive. Point three is gospel respect. Verse 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.

The word regard means to be cognizant of or aware of something, understand something, but also means honor something. So when he's talking about regarding Christ and regarding the gospel, he's talking about a level of respect. I Thessalonians 5:12, he uses the same word with the same Greek word. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. St. Paul here is saying, he said, "I knew of Jesus before I was..." Paul was a Pharisee. He was a high ranking Pharisee. I don't know. We're not told if he heard Jesus preach or saw Jesus or had conversation with Jesus before his crucifixion, burial and resurrection. We don't know if he saw his miracles. It's easier to assume he didn't, some theologians say, because he doesn't mention it anywhere. But perhaps he doesn't mention it anywhere because he viewed Jesus through the flesh.

He saw Jesus and he just did the analysis. And in his mind, Jesus was a messianic pretender who pushed too far and got exactly what was coming to him. And when Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin, crucified by the Roman, Saint Paul was in agreement with that, so much so that he then persecuted the church because in his mind, from the old Testament, it was clear that Jesus Christ was cursed. The scripture in Deuteronomy says, "Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree." Jesus was hung on the cross, the tree, but something changed. Jesus changed all that by appearing in splendor, the splendor of his glory. And something happened in Paul's life where the thing that Paul had despise became the center of his life. And he realized that he had been viewing Jesus through the flesh. Therefore, he wasn't respecting Jesus and giving him the respect that he deserved.

In personal irony, Paul, now is being regarded in the same way by certain people in the Corinthian church, where they are regarding him according to the flesh and judging him on his looks, on the way he speaks, judging him on his credentials, judging him on letters of recommendation. And Saint Paul is saying, there's two ways of looking at Jesus Christ. Some people evaluate Jesus Christ on his historic significance, historically, and they just look at the stats, everything he's accomplished. And there's a different way of looking at Jesus Christ. And that's through the eyes of the spirit. Many know Christ only in worldly ways. They know about him and judge him without a true understanding of who he is. And St. Paul talked about this in the past chapter, it takes the holy spirit to come in and change your heart. Put the lights on. And because of Christ, St. Paul says, "Because he did that, now I have respect for him, respect for the gospel. I honor him.

And also because of Christ, he says, we regard no one according to the flesh. He says, "I'm done with judging people by what they look like. I'm done with judging a book according to its cover. I'm done with judging people in the shallow, external carnal way, especially those of the household of God." Stop judging people according to the flesh. That's what the whole world is doing. The whole world wants everybody focused on what you look like. The whole world wants, because image is everything. So let's focus on image. And Saint Paul says, "Instead of judging people by image, we should view them as image bearers and look at everyone through the eyes of Christ's love." This changes everything.

Imagine we viewed each other like that, like children of God, image bearers of God, it doesn't matter what your skin color is, it doesn't matter what your nationality, none of that matters. We're children of God, the whole world's trying to divide and conquer. That's what they're trying to do. And Saint Paul says, "No, we are to be unified, unified as one human race, unified in our need for Christ. And then unified once we're in Christ as the body of Christ. Why? Because anyone in Christ is a new creation. This is verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The oldest passed away, behold, the newest come. This is a biography of every single Christian.

There's many metaphors in scripture to describe becoming a Christian, receiving a new heart, a new birth, being born again, becoming a new person. And one of the main results of being United with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection is that you change. There's a profound and radical change that happens when you become a Christian. Salvation isn't just Jesus forgiving you of your sins, it's Jesus changing your nature, it's a radical change. You've changed at the core, change so profound, it makes you a different person than you were.

Jesus had this conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He shows up to Jesus at night because he didn't want the other Pharisees to know that he's having a conversation with Jesus. And he says, "How do I inherit the kingdom of God? How do I get into heaven?" And Jesus said, "You got to be born again." And Nicodemus says that's not even a category in his mind, because he thought he was good enough. I was born this way and Jesus says you have to be born again. You need a new heart, you need a new nature, you need new affections, new desire. You must be changed. The presupposition to you must be changed. This is why it's highly offensive. The presupposition is something so wrong with you and me. In of ourselves, there's something wrong with us and God is offering to make you new, make you all over again, wants to make you a new creation from the inside out.

So what's the prerequisite to becoming a new creation. You've got to accept, acknowledge your need. This is the gospel respect. I need the gospel. God, I need transformation. There's something wrong with me. I can't fix it. Yes, God. I agree with the fact that I'm so bad that God had to save me, that Jesus Christ had to die for me. I'm helpless without his work. But then when you are in Christ, there's a security and acceptance and insurance for the future. Inheritance of glory of participation in the divine nature that you now are a new creation. And the fourth thing that motivated him to live revolutionary life was reconciliation. II Corinthians 5:18: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

There's three models of Christ's work in scripture. There's redemption, which is Christ buys us out of bondage by a payment of ransom. There's propitiation, which is turning away of wrath by offering a sacrifice, redemption, propitiation. And then there's reconciliation, which is the restoration of a relationship, a restoration of a friendship or a harmony of Shalom between two parties between two persons, who've been estranged or alienated. And obviously if Christ reconciles us, offers us reconciliation, it means that we need reconciliation, it means that we are profoundly as strange and alien and from whom. Everyone around us is telling us that our biggest problem is that people are at odds with one another, that we need reconciliation between people.

Is that our biggest problem? St. Paul says, "No, our biggest problem is that we're separated from God that we are at war with God." Our problem with God isn't some minor misunderstanding that can be easily put right with just a conversation, God, can we work it out? No, we're at war with God. Then of ourselves is a mutiny against God, a rebellion, an insurrection, a true insurrection. There's no human rebellion that can compare to this insurrection. It's an insurrection against the God of the universe. That's the essence of sin that you put yourself in the place of God, that you become the arbiter of truth, that you become a controller of all things. And this desire obviously leads to self absorption, self love, self worship. But this isn't the only factor on alienation from God. Some of us don't understand because we're like, "Oh, we sinned against God. Okay." But the greater the party, the more honorable the party against whom you've sinned, the more egregious that same sin is.

If you go up to a person on the street and you spit in their face, that person is no body. Yeah. You might get a ticket or something. If you go up to a person and the person is the governor of state, well, then there's deeper consequences. If you do that to the president of a nation, well, now that's insurrection. Well, what if you spit in the face of the God of the universe? And you know what insurrection is? It's basically flipping God off. Who are you? Who are you? You're nobody to me. That's what insurrection is. It's not just sin. It's sin against the holy just God. And we deserve his wrath until God's holiness has been satisfied, terms of his justice met. There is no reconciliation.

Romans 1:18-23: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, having clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So we are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Basically says, everyone knows that God exists everybody, deep in your heart. You know it. To believe that everything came out of nothing, takes more faith than believing in a God who created everything out of nothing by speaking. Deep in our hearts we know that we are not here just by accident, we know this, our heart testifies to it. And he says, "This sin is that we didn't honor him. We didn't respect him. And we didn't give him thanks. Didn't give him thanks." I was listening to a comedian who was talking about the fact that he can't be a veterinarian. He's like, I couldn't be a veterinarian. And I didn't really understand what he was talking about. He's like, because animals don't really say thank you.

And then I saw this video clip of this guy driving down the street, I don't know where it is, like in Australia or something, and he's driving down and there's sheep, a big fat sheep. And it's stuck in barbed wire fence. And he pulls over and this thing's massive. This thing's like 100, 150 pounds huge. He gets out of the car and he tries to wrangle it free from this fence. And he's wrestling with it. The thing is fighting back. He's wrestling with it and it's inflicting pain on him, but he finally pulls it out and he understands he can't just leave it, because it's a dumb sheep and it's going to jump into the fence again. So then he musters all his strength and with tremendous deadlift form, he hoisted upon himself and toes it over and then the sheep just runs away. It just runs as fast as it possibly can.

And I'm watching this thing run the whole time. And I'm watching it run to a tree and then it turn. And in my heart, I see it go, "Thank you." But it didn't. And the guy's crestfallen and he is like, "You're welcome." And he gets back in the car, like I did all of this for you, dumb sheep, all I want is a thank you. And that's what I was telling the guy at the playground. If you want to have a gospel conversation, you want to start over here. That's basically what we're saying is everybody owes thank you to God. No one is saying thank you to God. And what we're telling people is you should say thank you to God. And then they're like for what? For the fact that he provided a way for you not to go to hell through the reconciliation and the work of Christ on the cross. That's what Paul's saying. This is precisely what makes Christ sacrifice so important. Jesus died in our place, the just for the unjust, precisely meet the mans of God's holiness and his justice. We've rebelled and we deserve God's wrath, but God matches our rebellion with his love.

Verse 19: That is in Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespass against them and trusting to us the message of reconciliation. This is the message. The message of reconciliation isn't telling people, hey, you got to make peace with God. That's not what we're saying. You can't make peace with God. If right now, from this moment on to the rest of your life you live like Mother Teresa, that would not be enough to atone for your past sins. That's not how the holiness of God works. Ministry reconciliation is telling people, look, Christ has made peace. Christ is offering us amnesty, but you have to accept it. That's why the gospel isn't just good advice, it's good news, is tremendous news, but you need to act upon it. Verse 10. Romans 5:10-11: For 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. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Salvation isn't achieved, reconciliation isn't achieved, it's received. You have to just take it. Just ask for it.

And he says in Christ, God doesn't count our trespasses against us. So apart from Christ, this is the assumption that God does count our trespass against us, which dooms us. We're sinners deeply, constantly comprehensively. We're guilty and liable to be punished for our sins. Therefore, we're in desperate need of salvation. What is the most important information that I can give anybody? What is the absolute most important information I can give anybody at any point? This is it, Christ is offering reconciliation with God. And also there's no information, more offensive, because every time you say that, you're telling the person they've been living wrong.

And that never feels good. That never feels good for someone to show up, and you're like, you're wrong. But I'm saying we're all wrong. That's what I'm saying. We're all unified and being wrong. It doesn't matter how you see yourself, it doesn't matter how others see you, all that matters is that God sees you based on his standards, not the worlds. And a lot of people push back and are like this is so out of date. Speaking of sin is so out of date. Is it speaking about evil is so out of date. We see evil all around us. There's nothing out of date about sin or evil. And because there's nothing out of date about sin or evil, there's nothing out of date about God's grace.

We live in a world where there's so many just logical inconsistencies with the worldview outside of Christianity. One of them is we're told in school that everything came from nothing meaning we got here by accident. Primordial soup and all of that, we just got here by accident. It's all just a lucky accident. So here we are. So there was no creator, no designer, no benevolent God. We are insignificant. If you came from nothing, then you're not significant. That's on the one hand. On the flip side, everyone thinks they're awesome. Everyone thinks they're just amazing. Everyone thinks that you are God's gift to the world. There's no kid that is born and he's like, "Oh, I'm just really insignificant." No, every kid that's born is like I own the place. I am awesome. And I am going to be a tyrant of this house. And that's why you got to parent them actively, parent them. So that's on the one hand.

And then Christianity shows up and says, No little human being. You're not awesome. You are, but you're not." You're sinful. We're all sinful. And we're all alienated from God. We all need to be remade. And at the same time, we are magnificently significant to God because he gave his greatest treasure to save us. We're the object of the most amazing thing that ever happened. The son of God came into the world as a man to suffer and die in our place to reconcile us. Now, Blaise Pascal said, there are only two kinds of men, the righteous who believe themselves sinners and the rest sinners who believe themselves righteous. It's all it takes to be a Christian. Just recognize your need. I Peter 2:24: He himself bore our sins in the body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. How are people reconciled with God through the proclamation of this message, the belief of this message and this changes everything. Verse 20, therefore we are ambassadors of Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.

And St. Paul uses a bold analogy here to describe this ministry and the ministry of each Christians that were ambassadors, that you are a representative for him. Ambassador was your representative of the Roman empire. So you walk into towns with immense authority, you don't speak for yourself. You don't act on your own behalf. It's not your authority. It's not your message. It's the sovereigns authority. It's his words. And this is the message is be reconciled to God. Receive the offer of reconciliation except the amnesty. Isaiah 53:5: But he, Jesus, was pierced for our transgression; he was crushed for our inequities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. Dear Christian do not drift from this message. This is the center of the message that we proclaim, the message of reconciliation between God and human beings. Don't drift like the church in the United States has been drifting for a while.

Quick test. What's more important to the world today, reconciliation between the races or reconciliation between the one human race and God? That's a battle that's waging in the church right now. What's more important? What's more important? What's in the position of primacy? There's nothing more important than talking about reconciliation between the one human race, all of us and God. Talk about unifying and healing, racial tensions. We are all united in the fact that we need to be reconciled with God. There's no greater need. And therefore there's no greater power for unity. You want to be United, I'll do my best to unite this Mosaic. You're all sinners. That's what I do every Sunday. We're all united in that. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, no matter your skin color, nothing.

You know what? I was meditating on this week. We got a couple minutes. I was meditating, my wife noticed recently and she's like, "How come wherever you go, you always find enemies." She's like whatever room you walk into, there's always someone shows up that just doesn't like you before they have ever met. I'm like, "Yeah, why is that?" And then you probably already know. But then this was a revelation to me. Well, first of all, I'm a man, I'm a big man, I'm like 6, 2, 240. I'm a big dude. And I'm a big white man. And I'm a big white Christian man. And then I'm a big white Christian heterosexual man. And on top of that, I'm rushing. So it's like every one of those adjectives just times 10, whatever room I walk into, I just already know hater's going to hate and how's the Lord going to use this?

What's the point? The point is, we're all sinners. That's the point and me too. So we all need Jesus. And II Corinthians 5:21, this is how he sums it up. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. This is one of the greatest verses in holy scripture, 15 words in the Greek. This is our foundation. This is how salvation comes to sinners. Knows how careful the language is. He doesn't say that Jesus became a sinner, he says that Jesus became sin. The sinless became sin. God didn't make us righteous, but he made us righteousness. It's imputed. It's not our righteousness. So our sin was imputed to Jesus and Jesus righteousness is imputed to us. Imputed means counted.

Jesus never sinned. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. 33 years, zero sins. Remained sinless until he became sin for us. The sinless one becomes our sin, our substitute, our sacrifice. All of our sins were poured over Christ on the cross wave after wave, after wave, after wave, he was robed. And all that was heinous and hateful and evil and corrupt lies, hatred, jealousy, pride, lust, gluttony, greed, all poured on his sinless soul. And it wasn't just that. It's not only that our sin is poured on him, it's our sin is poured on him and he's robed in it. And then God's wrath is poured on our sin, which is upon Christ.

Jesus died the death that we deserve to die so that we can live the life that he deserved to live. And John three, that conversation about Nicodemus. And I'll close with this. Everyone knows John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Everyone knows that, but not most people just, they don't know the context. And I'll give you the context. The context is verse 14. And as Moses, John 3, lifted up the serpent and the wilderness. Yeah, there was plague. God set in a plague upon the people of God because they sinned. They rebelled against him. And then he tells Moses, "Hey, Moses, I want you to take a serpent and I want you to lift it up high." And whoever looked upon the serpent got saved. Serpent. So as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of God be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name, the only son of God. Jesus Christ here compares himself with the serpent. Serpent. Jesus died the death the serpent deserves to die, to extend to us the life that the son deserves. He did that so we might be the righteousness of God both legally and practically. This is our justification.

And then II Corinthians 6:1-2: Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, "In a favorable time, I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I've helped you." Behold, now as a favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. If you yourself right now, do not know that you are a Christian, that you do not live for yourself, that you are eternally secure, today is a day of salvation, repent from sin and turn to him. And for the rest of us, what motivates us to live revolutionary life should be fear of judgment, love of Christ, gospel, respect and reconciliation.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you paid everything. You paid the full price. And therefore Lord, we owe everything to you. And I pray that you make us people who are motivated by fear of you and love of you, people who respect the gospel and take the gospel to those who need to be reconciled with you. And bless us as we go and fulfill the mission you've called us to. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.