The Spiritual Habit of Sharing (part 2)

Kevin Perry

Stand Alone • Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

2 Corinthians 5:17–6:2

0 ratings

· 1 view

Notes

Transcript

Intro

Good morning LifeWay Church. It is so good to be here with you. For those of you who don’t know, my name is Kevin and I’m here this morning with my wife Rachel and our five month old son John. A few years ago, I was on staff as the youth director and Rachel grew up in this church. Her mom Diane still works here in the office. So being back with you on a Sunday to worship feels a lot like being home. It’s so good to be with you all and see you once again. And if you are watching online, you have a little bit of time to get back here for the lunch afterwards were we will be sharing more about the work that we are involved in in the Middle East.

Many of you know that Rachel and I launched overseas about two years ago. Many of you know the city that we live in but because this is live streamed, I’m going to hold off on saying too much. We’ll share more afterwards. And, in fact, I think we’re going to be sharing a little bit in this service at the end. I’d rather not waste time talking about ourselves and give you an update when we are already going to do that over lunch and instead I’d like to spend the time we have together opening God’s word and seeing how His living and active Word changes the way that you and I live.

Two weeks ago, Heather preached a sermon about the Spiritual Habit of Sharing and today I’m going to continue in that theme. At the end of Heather’s message she was talking about different barriers that get in the way of us sharing the Gospel and she touched on four different things. She said that we have to Grasp the Gospel, that we have to Let love outweigh your fear, that we have to Learn some tools, and that we have to Engage, that is, we have to be active and personal and intentional in order to really engage with something or someone. And so what I want to do with our time this morning is show you how scripture, God’s word, and ultimately how the Gospel itself, overcomes all of those barriers so that if we allow ourselves to be used by the Holy Spirit, we will be a people that shares the good news of Jesus Christ boldly in all aspects of our lives. The passage today illustrates clearly to us that In Christ we are new creations and ambassadors, partnering with God to share salvation.

If you have your bibles, open them up to 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2 We’ll first read it together and then I’m going to give you some background on whats happening in this section.

2 Corinthians 5:17–6:2 (ESV)

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.

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 have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

It is no secret that the church in Corinth was extremely messed up. The first letter to the Corinthians was Paul's attempt to correct the wrong theologies and moral corruption that was plaguing the church that he had planted. Unfortunately, most of the church rejected Paul's first letter which is why we see in chapter 2:2 that Paul had to make a painful visit to them followed by another letter we see mentioned in chapter 7:8-12 where the church finally repented and re-accepted Paul's authority and teaching. The book of 2 Corinthians then is Paul's attempt to remind them of his commitment to them and his authority as an apostle.

The passage that we are looking at today specifically is Paul's illustration of the work of reconciliation. First that we have been reconciled to God through the complete work of Jesus on the cross and second that we are now given the job of helping others to be reconciled with God as well. This passage teaches us that for those of us in Christ, we need to live as new creations, we need live as ambassadors, and we need to live as partners with Christ so that the Gospel will go out and be heard by all people. Again, this passage shows us that In Christ we are New Creations and Ambassadors, partnering with God to share salvation.

Body

The first point that we see from this passage is that Paul commands the corinthians that they ought to live as a first ...

Live as a New Creation in Christ 5:17-19

2 Corinthians 5:17–19 ESV

Living as a New Creation first necessitates that we Receive new life in Christ (v.17)

We to, if we want to be a people who share the Gospel, a people who have a strong spiritual habit of sharing, then we first must be a people who have actually Received New Life in Christ. If you are in Christ that automatically makes you a new creation. Your old self is gone and your new self has come. Jesus has given you new life. Which naturally leads to what Paul writes in verse 18. That you have to be...

Reconciled with God through Christ (v.18)

This new life that you have now, if you are in fact in Christ, comes as a gift from God. It is not because of anything you have done or anything you can do. It is because of Jesus’ death and resurrection that you have been made new. But that reconciliation to God through Christ means that your whole life is now different. Everything that you once were is gone in your old self and your new self now has a task to do. You are commissioned to...

Reach the world with this message for Christ (v.19)

You have not been made new and reconciled so that you can live the same life that you once lived. You have not been made new and reconciled so that you can do whatever it is you feel like doing. You have been made new in Christ and reconciled to the Father through Christ so that you can go forth with the good news for Christ. Jesus takes our trespasses, Jesus takes our sin, onto himself and in so doing, he gives us the task of bringing that same message, the same message that saved us, to others so that they can experience Jesus’ saving grace.

So now let me ask you a personal question. I don’t need an answer but I’d like for you all to take a moment and meditate on this question. Are you a New Creation? Have you been reconciled with God through Christ?

Two weeks ago, Heather talked about some of the barriers that hold us back from sharing the Gospel and she mentioned that we first must Grasp the Gospel. Do you really understand this reality that you are, if you are in fact in Christ, you are a new creation? Does that make sense to you? If so, there should be this daily, and honestly it should really be moment by moment that we are just in awe and wonder of the fact that despite everything you’ve done and everything that has been done to you, despite the evil that you have committed in your own sin and despite the evil that has been done to you, despite all the brokenness around us, God decided to save you. And He did it through Jesus’ perfect and sinless life, death on the cross, and resurrection three days later. I don’t want to assume that just because you are here this morning, or just because you grew up going to children's church and at one time prayed a prayer that you are actually saved. True salvation only comes from Jesus Christ saving you and the evidence of that salvation is that you are a new creation. A new person. The old is now gone as you live for Christ, having been reconciled to the Father and now live sharing this good news with those around you.

Many of you have been following along with our work and may remember our friend Nasir. Nasir is from the unreached people group that Rachel and I are working with. At the beginning of this year, he started to express more interest in reading stories about Jesus. God was doing something in Nasir’s heart and he was wrestling with the implications on his life. One night, Nasir was feeling especially conflicted so we met for coffee. Through the course of that evening, we read passages of scripture and then I shared the full Gospel with Nasir and asked him what he believed. After a few hours of talking we called it quits at 1am and decided to meet the next day. The next day when we met, I shared the Gospel again with him and we talked through it and this time he shared that he fully believed it! We prayed and talked through what that meant and made a plan for what the next few weeks would look like as we read together and did some discipleship. What was so cool to see in the weeks that came after was just how different Nasir’s life started to be. People would meet with him and there was a noticeable difference. The things that he was concerned about started to change. The things that he once considered to be important started to shift. He started to think of everything in life in light of what God’s word said. In fact, one of the things he asked me about pretty early on was cigarettes. Nasir was a pretty heavy smoker and he asked if he was sinning by still smoking. What was so cool about that was that Nasir told me that he was reading some passages from the bible to figure out if he should quite smoking and that he wanted to know my opinion. Nasir started to see every aspect of his life in light of the Gospel. How does the Gospel impact his life? For everything big and small! The proof of Nasir’s salvation was not just that he now wanted to quite smoking, the proof of his salvation was that fact that his life was being changed by the Gospel. One of the things that was a noticeable difference was Nasir’s future. Before, he was somewhat undecided on what he wanted to do but thought about getting to the west and continuing school. Now with his new life, he has a deep desire to help translate God’s word into his heart language so that more people from His people group can hear God’s word in their language. Again the proof of His salvation is in the fact that his is a new. The old has passed the new has come.

You’re experience does not have to be the same as Nasir. It doesn’t have to be as big or as dramatic. But what it does need to have is a noticeable difference from when you were once dead to now that you have true life. Your wants and desires and future and dreams all reflect your old self, then perhaps you are not living as a new creation. But if you have believed the Gospel then you ought to live new. Because In Christ we are New Creations.

The second point that we see from the passage is that Paul commands us to …

Live as an Ambassador for Christ 5:20-21

2 Corinthians 5:20–21 ESV

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 means that we must allow ourselves to Be used by God (v.20b). The word Ambassador is the Greek word presbeuō. I’ll have you direct all of your Greek questions to Heather when she is back, but I thought it was interesting that this is also where the word for elder comes from. In this case, however, in the Greek it is the verb, "to be an ambassador." It is not just ones status, rather it gets at the actual action of, what I like to call, ambassadoring. I know I’m making that word up, but the idea is clear. Ones status is a new creation. That is who you are if you are in Christ and have been reconciled with God through Him. Being an ambassador is now your job, it is what you do. You now represent Christ to those around you. The two go hand in hand. You cannot be a New Creation in Christ without being an ambassador. As ambassadors, our role is not to come with our own agenda to accomplish our own goals, rather our job is to represent the one who sends us. And the reality is that you are always representing Christ. You do not get a day off in it.

I grew up as a military kid and one thing virtually all military kids know, especially if you lived overseas, is that your actions reflect upon you parent thats in the military. My parents made it so clear to us that when we left the house we were representing our dad. How we would behave, for better or for worse, would reflect on my dad and would, in many cases, have direct effect on my dads job. For instance, the base we grew up on had a rule where you had to wear a helmet if you rode a skateboard. And believe it or not, but I was a pretty cool kid growing up so of course I didn’t wear helmets.. We used to hang out at the skate park and have someone on lookout at the top of the ramp so that when the MP’s (military police) were driving down the street, the look out would warn us. They’d yell, “5-0! 5-0!” and everyone would rush to put on the helmets that we weren’t using. On the few occasions that the MP’s would catch you, they would confiscate your skate board, take you to the station, and call your parents to come pick you up. But where it would effect my dad is that they then would send out your name and your fathers name and your fathers rank in community newsletter. Every time one of us got picked up by the PM’s we knew that their dad had the potential to get chewed out by their superior officer.

For the follower of Jesus, if you are a new creation then how you live, what you do automatically reflects upon the Father. You do not have the ability to decide whether or not you want to be an ambassador and you don’t get to turn off and on your ambassadorship whenever you feel like it. If you are sitting here and you have been saved then you have the responsibility to go and represent Christ to those around you with the message of reconciliation to them. Don’t be like I was as a kid and think that you can get away with not obeying in the hopes that someone will warn you before the Father approaches. Instead allow your identity to help you...

Be bold for God (v.20c)

You can be bold with the message because it is not our message. It is the message of what has been done for us! You are not sharing something of your own creation, you are sharing the good news of what has been done for you.

So let me ask you another personal Question Here: What is holding you back from representing Christ?

Again two weeks ago in talking about different barriers, Heather mentioned the barrier of fear and the barrier of knowing how to share and she said that to overcome these barriers we need to let love outweigh our fears and we need to learn some tools. In order to be bold in our ambassadorship we must constantly remember the love that Christ has for us and for others. The love that motivated Paul to boldly proclaim to the Corinthians to be reconciled to God. We need to remember that love allows us to overcome the fear of failure and the fear of people.

Now there is a good type of fear that I want to take a moment to talk about. And if you read the innerview this past week you might be familiar with what I am talking about. Earlier in 2 corinthians 5:11, just a few verses before this passage, Paul talks about fear. He says “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” There is a very real fear of the Lord. For the one outside of His will there is a fear of receiving His wrath. For the one inside His will there is an understanding that we have been given the task of representing him to the world and He will call us to account. Let me be clear, for the Christian, there is no longer a fear that we will receive his wrath, perfect love drives out that fear.

As one commentator put it,

2 Corinthians (6) Persuading Others to Be Reconciled (5:11–21)

Fear refers to a religious consciousness, a reverential awe of God, that directs the way one lives. Paul does not live in unhealthy dread of God’s judgment because he knows the love of Christ who gave himself for him. But his extraordinary experience of God’s love and forgiveness does not deaden his consciousness that God remains a holy and righteous God

There is a fear of the Lord that ought to, as Paul said in 5:11, motivate us to persuade others of the Gospel. To share with others the Gospel.

This passage also gives a glimpse into what sort of tools we need to use. A lot of people, when they think about Christian witness, first think about living in such a way that it is our actions alone that point people to Jesus. You may have heard the quote that is often attribute to Saint Francis of Assis that goes something like this, “Preach the gospel at all times, use words if necessary.” But there are problems with this. First of all, we don’t actual know who said that quote. But more importantly the true Gospel necessitates words. For it is not our actions that save someone, it is the actions done by Jesus. And people need to hear it! That is why Paul reiterates again in verse 21 and, in so doing, gives an example of the sort of tool we need to use. He says in 2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

All of the tools that we may use, if they are to be Gospel tools, need to include the full Gospel. And that proclamation can be as simple as what Paul writes. Jesus took on our sin so that He could give us His righteousness.

An example of a helpful tool that we often use overseas is whats known as 3 Circles. This is a simple tool that explains the full story of Gospel using three simple circles and goes something like this:

Now in using tools like this 3 Circles presentation that illustrates that we...

Live as a Partner with Christ 6:1-2

2 Corinthians 6:1–2 ESV

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 have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

We see a glimpse of our partnership with God in the first two verses of chapter six. Paul is working Together with God (v.6:1a). And if you are in Christ, then you are a new creation and ambassador also working together with God, partnering with Christ, to share salvation. And so in the same way that Paul pleads with the Corinthians not to receive the grace in vain, he so to pleads with us.

Friends, Take hold of grace (v.6:1b). Live it out. Don't receive the gift of eternal life in vain. Allow it to impact every aspect of your life!

I am fearful of how many people in the church today think that they are saved because at one time they heard the good news of Jesus and accepted it. But your life is not actually different. Just because you grew up in the church or just because at one point you went to a kids camp or just because your mom told you that when you were little you made profession doesn’t actually mean that you are saved. I am fearful that some of you here today might be what Jesus was referring to when he gave the parable of the sower. Don’t allow your hearts to be like the seed that fell on rocky ground. Jesus says in Matthew 13:20-21

Matthew 13:20–21 ESV

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Don’t be one who hears the good news of Jesus, responds with Joy, and yet falls away. Don’t be the one who hears the good news of Jesus, responds with Joy, and yet still lives as their old self.

I believe what Paul writes in the final verse of today’s passage is true for us still. Today is the day (v.6:2). Don't waste another day by remaining in your sin, holding onto the dead old self. For those of you in Christ, you are new creations and ambassadors partnering with Christ and sharing the good news of Jesus to the world! Live like it today!

Let me ask you one final personal question: Have you recieved His grace in vain? How might you live to prove otherwise?

Now I want to be clear here, if you are not in Christ, don’t think that you can somehow live and work to gain your salvation. If you are not in Christ, then your starting point is repentance and belief. Prayerfully seeking out Christ at a time when He can be found. Our actions as Christians don’t save us, rather our actions as Christians are an outflow of our love for Christ.

Conclusion

Now I imagine that there are some of you here saying to yourself, "Kevin that sounds easy enough if your an extrovert, but I don't like talking to strangers!" If it is hard for you to get out of your comfort zone and meet strangers and share the gospel directly with them, then thats okay! I may joke at times that the world would be a better place if more people thought and acted like me, but I don't actually believe it. God has created you uniquely and you are a part of the body of Christ for a purpose. Each and every one of you in Christ here today has a role to play in spreading the Gospel to the World. And if you give yourself to Him, surrender yourself to Him, I think that you will find that He is able to use you in amazing ways for His glory.

I believe that we are all called to share the good news of Jesus so that all who have not heard might hear. Some of us, like my wife and our family, are called to go to other countries to do this. Some of us are called to stay here. But we are all called to share.

I was recently talking with Rachel’s cousin about this. He graduated college not too long ago and just moved to L.A. to work with a tech start up as an engineer doing things that I will probably never understand how they work. He is a faithful follower of Jesus so he has been wrestling with what it looks like to represent Jesus in this next season. But it is so encouraging for me to hear. You see, he is still a new creation and ambassador. There are so many lost and broken people right around him that he is trying to figure out what it looks like to preach reconciliation with God through Christ to them.

I hope that many of you are in a similar siutation where you are trying to figure out what it looks like to be an ambassador where you are. And so I want to give you a quick simple tool to start. We use this often overseas and some of you may know it. It's a tool called an oikos map. If you are wondering where to start in your life to sharing the Gospel then here is a good place. Oikos is the greek word for family or household and we use it to refer to the people that God has already placed around you. In your relational network. In the handout you should see a page that has a circle in the middle of the paper with a place for you to write your name. So, I’ll write Kevin in my circle. And I want you to start listing out the names of people in your life who you know are far off from God. So for example, I’m going to write our neighbors across the hall from us. And I’m going to write some family members names on here. Take a moment to list out people in your life who you know and who don’t know Jesus. Now take a moment to think about who they know who don’t know Jesus. For instance, I know my neighbor has a sister and brother-in-law that don’t know Jesus. And I know my sibling has a spouse that doesn’t know Jesus. This is my starting place for who I am going to share the good news of Jesus with. So this week, I’m going to commit to pray for the names on this, but I’m not just going to pray that they would come to faith, I’m going to pray that God would give me an opportunity to share with them the Gospel so that they would come to faith. Would you commit to writing down some names and praying for an opportunity to share the Gospel, maybe you can share the example of the 3 circles that I gave earlier. Or maybe you have another tool like the Romans road that you like. Or maybe you’ll simple share the true statement that Paul said, God made Jesus to take our sin so that we might have Jesus’ righteousness. Do you want to give Jesus your sin and be made new?

Now some of you sitting here might have had the realization that you are not in Christ. And if that is you, then I want to encourage you to, as Paul said in the passage, Be reconciled to Christ. Jesus took on your sin so that you don’t have to try and work your way into salvation. He took your sin and has given you his righteousness. If you have not believed that and want to now, I want to invite you to come and talk to me or one of the other staff members today. Talk to us about what it looks like to pray and repent and follow Jesus. So that you too can be In Christ and a New Creation and Ambassador partnering with Christ to share salvation. Family, there is a very real reality that one day we will all die or Christ will return and we will be judged. For those outside of Christ, they will receive God’s wrath. For those in Christ, we will receive His righteousness. I plead with you, be reconciled to Christ and don’t receive His grace in vain.