Called to a Ministry of Reconciliation
Notes
Transcript
Mankind has a massive problem, but it is a problem that is ignored, marginalized, and even dismissed as some kind of fairy tale. The problem is the wrath of almighty God. And the church has been duped into only spreading the message of God’s love without first warning them of God’s impending and certain wrath on those who reject the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Now that is an abrupt manner in which to introduce a sermon, but this is a vital message this morning. It is an urgent call to everyone who belongs to Jesus Christ to get serious about the ministry of reconciliation, otherwise known as being witnesses for our Lord, which is an undeniable command of Scripture to every born-again believer.
John MacArthur writes, “Today’s church is confronted by a seemingly endless variety of ministry methods, strategies, and styles. Some argue that the church should agitate for social and political change to force cultural morality, or even help usher in the kingdom. Others insist the church’s message should be inoffensive, upbeat, and affirming, to create a positive atmosphere in which nonbelievers can feel welcome and not threatened. Still others believe their church’s primary task is to defend its theological distinctives.”
“But there is no confusion in Scripture about what the church’s mission is to be—evangelism. This definitive passage clearly articulates the heart and soul of the church’s responsibility as it represents Jesus Christ in the world. God has called all believers…to proclaim the message of reconciliation—a term which appears in some form five times in these three verses.”
“The glorious, good news of the gospel is that the sin-devastated relationship between lost sinners and the holy God can be restored. That at first glance seems impossible. God’s perfect, infinite, righteous justice demands the punishment of all who violate His law. Standing before the bar of His justice are helpless, guilty sinners, unable either to satisfy God or to change their condition. But through God’s plan of reconciliation all the hostility, animosity, and alienation separating the Holy One and sinners vanishes, and those who were once His enemies become His friends. The high calling and noble privilege of (proclaiming) this message of reconciliation is the most important duty in the world, since it deals with eternal destinations.”
Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Let’s pray.
As we studied last week, when a person is saved, they are immediately transformed into a new creature or new creation. This person’s nature is brand new – the old things have passed awayand new things have come. There is a new transformed nature, a mind that is now set on Christ, and an internal desire to increasingly know God, to grow in understanding Scripture, and to follow your Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.
One of the most important reasons for this new creation, this transformed and changed life, is so that we have the equipping and capability to spread God’s message of saving grace. All humanity is born with a rebellious sin nature and are in defiance of holy God. Many will confess that they do not have a problem with God and that they believe in God, but that’s not the issue. You may not have a problem with God, but God has a big problem with you because of sin.
Hold your place in 2 Corinthians and turn with me in your Bible to the Book of Romans.
Romans 2:5-13
The truth of that passage should terrify unbelievers and should awaken believers to the ministry of reconciliation like an ice-cold shower. Every moment of every day, unbelievers are storing up God’s wrath against them – God’s eternal and unimaginable wrath continues to build and build like the pressure of a boiler that is about to explode. And that wrath will be poured out with no partiality on everyone who rejects Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And only the atonement of Christ can dissipate and pacify and propitiate God’s wrath that is being stored up against all who choose to not believe.
If you are a believer who has placed your trust in Christ, it is your calling, your purpose, your defining mission to spread the Gospel message to everyone that God gives you the opportunity to share with. In 1 Corinthians 1:17, the Apostle Paul gives us with complete clarity what his purpose was, and in the context of the passage implies that it is the calling of all believers: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel”.
Once you have become a new creation in Christ Jesus by the grace of God, your primary reason for existence is to be an evangelist and a missionary to the world. This does not necessarily mean that you become a full-time evangelist or missionary, but that you embrace the ministry or mission of reconciliation that has been entrusted to your care.
It is not my intention to make you uncomfortable or to make you feel guilty, nor is it the intention of Scripture, but is instead a means to encourage and motivate you to unceasing joy as you follow Christ in its fullest measure. So, let’s unpack our text.
2 Corinthians 5:18
“Now all these things are from God” – all what things? We could probably go back further, but I think that we are safe in just going back to verse 14 for the proper context. The love of Christ that controls us, the fact that Jesus died for us, the capacity to no longer live for ourselves but instead live for Christ, the truth of having a transformed perspective of Christ and our lives, and the overarching truth of having been radically changed and transformed into a new creation in which all of the old has passed away and the new has come.
All of these things and more are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ. Don’t miss this. Because of our sin, because of our enmity with God, because of our rebellion, because of our utter depravity, because of our unrighteousness and transgressions and stubborn arrogant prideful way of life, we have done nothing but store up God’s wrath against us, and in return this same God reconciles us to Himself. Did you get that? Before we did anything worthy of forgiveness, worthy of deliverance, worthy of even being given the privilege to breath the air that He provides, He initiated our comprehensive salvation by reconciling us to Himself.
This magnanimous expression of love that God has lavished on us in Christ is the greatest measure of love that we can ever possibly know. At His own immeasurable expense, Yahweh God sent and sacrificed His Son to the brutality of the cross to provide a way for ruined sinners like us to be accepted into the holiness of His heaven, or His throne room, of His eternal state. Only Jesus was able to satisfy the demands of God’s Law and God’s holy justice that required sin to be paid for in full. Only the spotless, unblemished, perfect Lamb of God could be the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin.
If you have ever had even a passing thought that you somehow earned your salvation, this phrase that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ, along with countless other passages of Scripture, is a lie! This is all God, and nothing contributed by us – 100% God and 0% us. And He did this in part so that He could give us the ministry of reconciliation – the ministry of sharing the glory of what has been freely and undeservedly given to us.
And now you say to me, “Hold on a minute, if it is 100% God’s doing to reconcile sinners to Himself, how is it that we have been given this ministry of reconciliation?”
2 Corinthians 5:19
Somehow, in the sovereignty of God, He activates and draws sinners to repentance and eternal salvation through those of us that He has already saved. God uses His Word, spoken through us, to awaken dead souls to new life in Christ. This transforming grace that makes us new creations in Christ, is sparked by someone speaking the message of the Gospel.
If you recall from a few weeks ago, I took you to Romans 10:13-14. I’ll read those verses for you again to refresh your memory. “for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher (or proclaimer)?” Do not read that word preacher and think that you are off the hook. The sense and context of that word as used in the Greek is simply someone who proclaims the message, not someone who has been called to full-time ministry as a pastor, evangelist, or missionary.
In the perfect sovereignty, providence, and will of God, He reconciles hopeless and helpless sinners to Himself through us proclaiming the message of the Gospel. Yes, God is sovereign in His electing power and choice to save, but also yes, He does this through those that He has already chosen and saved, and this includes each one of you, if indeed you are a genuine believer in Christ Jesus. There is no such new creation that has not been given the ministry of reconciliation. Even the thief on the cross witnessed to the other unrepentant thief.
And the beauty and glory of this reconciliation is that God reconciles us by not counting our trespasses against us. We talk about this all the time, but don’t miss it. The Bible speaks of this all the time because we so easily forget it – but our sins are gone! Gone like the wind! The old things are passed away. Blessed are those whose sins are not counted against them. We have been eternally cleansed from the penalty of sin, eternally forgiven, eternally redeemed, eternally delivered, eternally protected, and eternally reconciled to God by God!
So, don’t you dare hang your head in shame over your past, and don’t you dare allow Satan to condemn you for the sins that you still commit, and don’t you dare doubt the transforming grace of God in your life! Pray to God that His Holy Spirit will continue to refine and renew and refresh your dedication to not live for yourself but to instead live for Christ. Seek His help through the washing of His Word as you saturate and soak your mind and heart in its truths. Allow the same grace in salvation to wash over you in sanctification. Then fully embrace your calling in Christ as His ambassador.
2 Corinthians 5:20
The duty of an ambassador is a highly regarded duty. An ambassador is both a messenger and a representative of the one who sent him or her. As believers, we are sent to the world as representatives of Jesus Christ with the message of the Gospel. And just like ambassadors in our world are living in a foreign land, so too are we. This world is not our home, so we must stop clinging to it. We are aliens and strangers (1 Peter 2:11), with our citizenship in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and we should thus have no attachments here that keep us from our calling as a reconciler and ambassador for God through Christ.
And get this, it is not really even us making the appeal to lost sinners. It says here that it “as though God were making an appeal through us”. When we, through a grateful heart over what He has done for us, engage in the ministry of reconciliation, God the Holy Spirit will be making the appeals through us. There should be absolutely no fear in fulfilling your responsibility as Christ’s ambassador because you will never be left on your own, as if it is your words that will be the deciding factor in someone coming to Christ. It is not your words, not your appeal, but God making the appeal through you, God controlling the words coming out of your mouth, God orchestrating the results, and God drawing His elect to salvation through your efforts.
This is amazing! What an unbelievable privilege that the Father of creation has given to His children. Yet most of His children are sadly too afraid, too shy, too comfortable in their existence, or too something to grab hold of this tremendous and incredible privilege.
Beloved, the results are not up to you. And quite honestly, the rewards and blessings are not measured out by how many souls that you have the privilege to witness become reconciled to God. Please understand this. If I follow Christ’s call to be a witness and a reconciler and an ambassador, and nobody ever responds, I am rewarded and blessed by God just as much as the one who is privileged to see dozens or hundreds or thousands respond to the Gospel call. God does not measure us or reward us by the results of our efforts, but by our obedience to His call.
If we were rewarded and measured by the number of souls that we have a part in coming to Christ, it would be foolish of us to be ministering here in these mountains where there are a multitude of more wildlife than people. God has called each of us to be reconcilers and ambassadors where He has planted us and He will not penalize us for having us be His reconcilers and ambassadors in the place He has us. Nor will He give greater rewards to those He has placed in more heavily populated areas with greater opportunity to spread the Gospel to larger audiences.
God may indeed give you a larger sphere of influence at some point, but for now at least, He has us here to minister here, to reconcile here, to be His ambassadors here. Embrace this ministry. Embrace your calling. Embrace the opportunity right here and right now, for you do not know how long the opportunity will be given to you. God could move you to a different location or take you home or sound the trumpet. Redeem the time, take advantage of every opportunity, and, as it says next, be a beggar on behalf of Christ.
Paul says, “we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Don’t be shy in your witness. Don’t be ashamed. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be casual in your witness but instead be bold. Again, God is sovereign in salvation but don’t be a wimp when speaking to people about Jesus. Just how important is it for a lost sinner to respond to the Gospel? This isn’t us casually trying to convince someone that vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate, this is the difference between eternity in heaven versus eternity in hell and the lake of fire. Learn to be a beggar and grow in your proficiency at the art of begging.
But another aspect of what Paul is saying, to us and to the Corinthian church, is that he is begging believers to be reconciled to God in this aspect of taking up the baton of being a witness for Christ as we have been called. Paul is writing to believers, so while it is vital that we should obviously be reconciled to God first and foremost, Paul is in the same sense begging believers to be reconciled to God to the extent of being fully engaged in the ministry of reconciliation and fully committed to being ambassadors for Christ in this foreign land.
There is a sense that the Corinthians were not fully reconciled to God but were instead still embroiled in and entangled in their own selfish issues, which included their petty squabbles within the church at Corinth, so Paul begs them to be reconciled to God in the fullest sense of the word. Stop allowing all of the disagreements and ancillary non-essential issues get in the way of your main purpose of the ministry of reconciliation.
We can get so easily sidetracked by what seems to be very important issues when they are actually side issues or issues that belong in the background or on the back burner. God is not calling us to have our minds filled only with eschatology, the study of the End Times. God is not calling us to be focused on physical healing. God is not calling us to become obsessed with material wealth. God is not calling us to have an overarching agenda to ensure that all believers are baptized. God has not called us to overemphasizing any specific Spiritual gifts.
But He has called us to love Him, to love other, to be His witnesses, and to make disciples. Get your focus on these things. Spend your days on these things. Engage in the ministry of reconciliation. Be His ambassador by spreading His message of salvation and leave all the rest in His fully capable hands. Don’t get distracted. Distraction is a ploy of Satan, and the more he can influence you to focus on anything other than the pure Word of God and only the pure Word of God, the easier it is for him to lead you astray.
So, like Paul, I beg you to be fully reconciled to God.
Let’s pray.