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2 Corinthians 5:18-6:13
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling1 the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
6:1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 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. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
11 We have spoken freely to you,2 Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Invite you to open your bibles to second Corinthians 5. But before we look at God's word, I wanna just talk about a a couple of things about, who we are as a church. We've last week, I think we had 25 new people who joined. I think we're having 6 more people tonight. And so we've, we're having a lot of people who are coming and joining the church, which is really exciting to see.
Joel Brooks:First thing I want to do is issue a challenge to those of you who have joined recently Because a number of years back, we had maybe 30 people after the first few months as a church. And of those 30 people, we were able to or God was able to grow 4 elders, to launch several different outreaches into the community, able to have a worship team up here, out of just 30. And so I just want to encourage those of you who've just joined, you're not coming to sit. Okay? We're not at the point of a church place in, you know, our church history where you could just come and you get you can be comfortable.
Joel Brooks:I expect and I hope for equal things, if not greater, from those who have recently come to join our church. Another one of the things that I guess I've noticed about the people who are now coming and being in our midst is we're a very diverse group. Now, you're gonna look around and you're gonna say, no. You know, everybody here looks like a lumberjack or, you know, we we all kind of We we all have kind of the same look, but we we are a very diverse group. I I would say this.
Joel Brooks:I've been pastoring now for about 15 years, and we are more diverse than any group that I have ever been a part of. We have people from all different, theological persuasions from, different denominations. You know, you just look up at the worship team, and you have some people who grew up, Pentecostal, some who grew up Anglican. I look out there, and I see some who come from very Pentecostal charismatic persuasions. And some I don't want to name denominations, but I'll say Anglican or Presbyterian or something on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Joel Brooks:And yet, you're here together, and you're worshiping. It's really a beautiful thing to look out and to see the, the diversity out here. And we have some people who come from church traditions where it was completely liturgical, And then you have others who thought liturgical meant anti spirit or something. You know? And and and yet we're here together, and it's a beautiful thing.
Joel Brooks:And what I want to do though is just kind of before we open up God's word, remind us of a few of our core things of of who we are, because half of our church is new this past year. And I'm not gonna go over everything, but I want to go over just a few things. Years back at at our very first redeemer meeting, when we were at our house, and kind of the the inaugural, I guess, sermon, if you will. The first thing I said was, nobody here is going to get the church they want. There weren't that many of us here, but I said, nobody here is going to get the church we want, or they want.
Joel Brooks:You know, all of us come in with some preconceived notion of what the perfect church is. And and when you're starting a church, you're thinking, I can make that. And I wanted us in that time to lay that down at the altar before god and say, god, I that is dead to us. It's dead to me. The church we want is the church you will build.
Joel Brooks:And so we trust that you know what I need more than I know what I need. And so I'm not gonna get the church that I want, but I'm gonna get the church that you want for me. And, you know, there's a lot of things that even I would do differently. I'd sing more hymns. You know, I I love hymns, but but we have people who who that doesn't resonate with.
Joel Brooks:God brings different people in, and and so we we might have preferences, but we wanna lay those down. And I think that's one of the reasons that we have been able to bring together so many different diverse backgrounds here is because of those those original prayer times in which we intentionally laid those things down at the altar. And and I just want those of you who are new to our church to lay that down too. That that you're not gonna get the church you want, but pray that God gives you the church that you need in being here. And and redeemer has blessed me more than I could possibly imagine.
Joel Brooks:Now, although we're we're diverse, there's a number of things we're committed to. One of the things we're committed to when we gather together is we want to to abide in God's spirit, and we want to abide in his word. And we are deeply committed to that one thing. I don't say 2, because word and spirit are not divided. And so we want to abide in God's spirit, and we want to abide in his word.
Joel Brooks:And so, we we come together, and we we seek God through his word. So we will be a a bible believing, and a bible preaching, bible listening, bible responding church. When when Paul uses the phrase that we're all familiar with in Ephesians, be filled with the spirit. In Colossians, he he phrases that a different way. He just says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Joel Brooks:He uses those terms synonymously. Be filled with the spirit. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The word and the spirit of God are wed together. And when we come and we seek his spirit, we're seeking to listen to his spirit through his word, the word that he has spoken.
Joel Brooks:That's why preaching is of such prominence here. We, we, we wanna be a people who are shaped by God's word and we want to listen to his spirit and respond to Jesus through it. The second thing, we want to be an intentional gospel community. I touched on this earlier, but our goal is not just to kind of get a lot of people in here. I want to be crystal clear about that.
Joel Brooks:I mean, if there was a way I could almost cap it, I would. Our goal is not to become larger and larger and larger. We don't want to grow in breadth if we don't deepen the gospel rooted relationships that we have. I was a pastor of a ministry that grew to be really large. Some of you were involved in that, which we would have, you know, a1000 or or more every week, for our bible study.
Joel Brooks:And so, I've been a pastor of a really large event, gathering. Now, there there's useful things about an event and a gathering, but it's not church. So so if if you think being a part of Redeemer is coming to just be a part of an event or in a gathering, you're missing church. When I look back at those years where I was, director of UCF, I look at UCF as all the small groups that we had. I I look at it as all the little conversations, all the prayer times, not the at large gathering.
Joel Brooks:That's where God shaped me, and that's where God shaped the students. And that's where he's going to shape you as in this church. If you're going to come, you need to be part of a body, not part of a service, not one who just sits in a chair. You're you're to be part of the body of Christ, which means that we intentionally seek one another out for times of fellowship, for times of prayer, times of studying God's word. Basically, we want to live life together in what I would call a gospel community.
Joel Brooks:Whatever size God has us. So please understand that being part of a church is is more than coming and sitting. 3rd and finally, I just wanna say we we wanna be a church on a mission. We want to make disciples throughout the world. One of the reasons we're meeting in this place, and we met at Girls Incorporated before that, is because it frees up our resources, to to spend on missions, to spend on different outreaches.
Joel Brooks:You know, every time a person walks across these floors and all you hear is squeaking or you hear the water coming down there, you know, you you you hear all of these distraction, all these noises. I I don't hear distractions and noises. To me, my heart sings. Because I think, you know, really, we're we're in this place to free us up, to remind us of our mission to to give this money out. And it's not just money.
Joel Brooks:You know, one of the reasons we don't have many programs, we have a home group, and we have the service is to free up your time in order that you might invest in your neighbors and that you might reach out into your community in order that you might be a disciple maker. And so those are some of the things that I think define us as a church, meeting in Woodlawn. And so for those of you who are new, I mean, half of us are new, I just kind of wanted to remind us. I just wanted to take a step back before we we look into God's word to remind us of who we are as his people, and who we are specifically as Redeemer Community Church, before we move forward. I'm really excited about what the lord has ahead for us.
Joel Brooks:Alright. So with with that in mind, let's do open up his word that we might be shaped by it. I'd like us to look at second Corinthians chapter 5. We've been going through 2nd Corinthians. We'll begin reading in verse 17.
Joel Brooks:Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And 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.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks: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've helped you. Behold now is the favorable time.
Joel Brooks:Behold now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the holy spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech and the power of God with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors and yet are true. As yet making many rich is having nothing, yet possessing everything.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our God, we do ask in this moment that you would come and that you would fill your temple here. You would fill your people with your presence. Holy Spirit. You're welcome here to move in our midst.
Joel Brooks:We want to hear from you. We want to see clearly Jesus. For we know when we see him, we will be drawn to him and we will respond to him. So god, in this moment, may my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But lord, may your words remain and may they forever change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. If you go back to Genesis and you look at the fall of man, one one could argue, and actually Paul does at some point, that that in that fall, when when Eve sinned against the lord, that she was deceived. The serpent told her lies and deceived her, and that's why she she took the piece of fruit. But you can't say the same thing for Adam.
Joel Brooks:Adam knew God's command, and God had given Adam every possible blessing you could imagine. He, he gave Adam an amazing place to live. He gave him rewarding work. He, he gave him a wife. Every possible blessing, rulership, authority.
Joel Brooks:It was over the earth. And after he'd given them all of these things, he said, here, here's one special way, Adam, that you can show that you love me and you worship me. Here's, here's, here's the one way that I ask. There, there's a tree here and I just ask that you not eat from it. You can have all of the other 100 or the 1,000 that are out there, but just out of your love for me, out of an act of worship to me, if you would just not eat from that tree.
Joel Brooks:And even went beyond that. He gave them not just worship as an incentive, but he gave them a warning. He said, and also if you love yourself, you won't eat it because if you do eat from it, you're gonna die. So, so don't eat from this. And Adam knew this.
Joel Brooks:But instead of obeying God, the very God who gave him his life, who gave him every single blessing, Adam just stands by and watches Eve fall first. And this is so cold. I mean, such a cold thing to do as, as, as he's just standing there and he's watching her and he, he doesn't warn her. He doesn't remind her of truth. Adam is He's standing there and he's really just wondering what's gonna happen.
Joel Brooks:He wants to know, is is is there really gonna be a consequence if she does do this? And when he sees his wife take of the fruit and eat it, and she doesn't immediately die, instantly, Adam thought, no consequences. There's no consequences. And then he willingly and he gladly disobeyed his lord. And he took of that.
Joel Brooks:So if he could disobey God and get away with it, he most certainly would. But he didn't get away with it. As we know, death did enter into his body, and and his relationship with his creator was was fractured at that moment. I mean, before he and God used to walk in the cool of the evening, but now he's no longer walking with God. He's, he's hiding from God.
Joel Brooks:He goes from friendship with God to the fear of God. And what Adam did has become the practice of every human who has ever walked this earth. You need to understand when you, when you think of the fall, and when you think of our sin, that we didn't just have this, this slight misunderstanding with God. We didn't have a miscommunication with God. What we've done is we've willingly rebelled against our creator.
Joel Brooks:We've openly defiled him and we are justifiably, guilty and should receive wrath from him. That's our condition. Think of it this way. If if you knew that if you lied, god would kill you instantly and you would die. None of you would lie.
Joel Brooks:If you knew, if I steal, but if I steal, God will kill me instantly. I promise you not one of you would steal. If God says, if if you're not generous with your money, if you don't give away your money, if you don't do that, I will kill you instantly. I promise you, every one of you would would give away your money. However, when those consequences are taken away and God says, just out of love for me, just out of worship for me, will you do those things?
Joel Brooks:It shows where our heart is and we were bell up and we says, no one tells me what to do. No one. And when the only consequence that we see in our sin is simply a fractured relationship with God, we jump at it. That's the, that's our rebellion right there. That's that's our hearts.
Joel Brooks:So we have openly and we have gladly rebelled against god. Because of this, he is rightfully angry with us. He has every right to pour wrath upon us. Let me tell you, you need to know what your condition is in order for you to ever really appreciate the good news. I heard a preacher illustrate it this way.
Joel Brooks:He said he was gone for a while, and he came back. And one of his friends who was taking care of the dog while he was gone, happened to notice that he had got a bill in the mail. And so, he paid off the bill, and when the pastor came back, his friend told him that I found a bill in the mail. And so, I went ahead and I took care of it for you. Now, the pastor doesn't know how much to be grateful for.
Joel Brooks:I mean, if it was like, you know, a $5 thing or whatever, he's like, okay. Thanks. But if they were about to, you know, cut off his heat, or about to foreclose on his home, and he paid that, well then he's, he's incredibly grateful. You gotta know what your debt was in order to really bring the gratitude and joy out of your hearts that you need to have. And so you need to know that you were an open rebellion against God and and and you stood justly before him, justly deserving his wrath.
Joel Brooks:When you understand that, you begin to appreciate the good news. Now, Paul loves to use a number of different images when he portrays the gospel. It's a way of kind of bringing it, bringing life to it and make it very vivid in our minds. The one we're most familiar with is, of course, the courtroom in which you have God as the judge, you have us as the defendant, and we stand guilty. And because Jesus paid our penalty, God then declares us not guilty.
Joel Brooks:And so, our legal status has changed before God. And so, that's the image of the courtroom. Sometimes Paul uses another image. He uses, the image of a slave market, and he says that you were a slave to sin, but but God has redeemed you. He has bought you with great sacrificial price, and he has set you free.
Joel Brooks:And so we use that imagery. So we use this priesthood imagery Paul does when he's communicating the gospel saying that, Jesus is now the one who intercedes on our behalf. And now we have access to God. And that's what the gospel really is about. And here he uses a different image.
Joel Brooks:He uses the image of friendship. He says, God used to be our friend. He used to be our friend. We used to go on walks with God, you know, in the cool of the evening, but but now our friendship with God has been fractured. We we spat on that friendship.
Joel Brooks:We walked away from that. And and now as a result, our relationship with God is broken in this beyond repair. And so we need to be reconciled with him. Reconciliation is what, what all of this is about. He says the word reconcile, reconciliation 5 times in just the first few verses.
Joel Brooks:It's the heartbeat of this. We have this broken relationship, this broken friendship, and we need this reconciliation. I want you to notice that when you're reading through that first section and you read those words, reconciliation and reconcile over and over, notice that never once are you asked to do the reconciling. Never once are you asked, go, I want you to go and try and reconcile yourself to God. The languages that you were to receive reconciliation, that you were to be reconciled.
Joel Brooks:Verse 18 pretty much frames this entire discussion when it says, all this is from God. All this is from God. Reconciliation is his work. It's it's not our work. He's the one who reaches out to us.
Joel Brooks:He's the one who initiates this restoration. He's the one who brings us in back into right relationship. And so, this is the glorious news of the gospel. This is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion. The fact that all of this is of His doing.
Joel Brooks:Every other religion in the world says that you need to be the one to try and reconcile yourself to god. You need to maybe do this by turning over new leaf, becoming a better person. You need to try to make things right with God. It's up to you to do that. Since you've wronged God, since you're in his debt and you need to somehow try to pay back that debt.
Joel Brooks:And so hopefully, hopefully through doing enough good works, and hopefully through, you know, this Christmas season, every time you hear the Salvation Army bell, you know, give a few dollars. Try to build up some credit with God. Then maybe you can make things right. This is how religion works. This is how karma works.
Joel Brooks:It's, you know, I keep thinking of, what is that TV show, My Name is Earl? You know, My Name is Earl is built on this whole concept here. You've got to do something good to counter all the bad that you have done. But all this does when when you're trying to do that is is show that you have no magnitude, no concept of the magnitude of your rebellion. As if you could wipe that out with just a few good works.
Joel Brooks:Paul says in Romans that we are at war with God. We're trying to take him off his throne and put ourselves on it. That's treason. So so there's no way that we can actually do the reconciling. If there's to be any reconciliation at all, it's gotta come from God himself.
Joel Brooks:So how does god repair that rift between us? Look at verse 19. That is in Christ, god was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. So, so Christ is not counting the trespasses against them. He's not counting the trespasses against us.
Joel Brooks:Now it does not say that Christ is not counting trespasses. It's not what it says. It doesn't say that he's just sweeping trespasses under the rug. He's just kind of forgetting about them, or he's ignoring them. He's letting bygones be bygones.
Joel Brooks:That's not what it says. He he is counting them. He is keeping track of every careless word we've ever spoken. What this says is here, he's not counting those against us. Our sins are not being counted against us, which begs the question.
Joel Brooks:Well, where or to whom are they being counted against? We have the answer in verse 21 in one of the most glorious verses in the bible. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. God counts our sins against Jesus.
Joel Brooks:We read here that Jesus knew no sin. Jesus was perfect. He always obeyed his father. He, even though he was surrounded by the same, you know, sinful people and sinful structures that, that we're surrounded with. Jesus did not sin.
Joel Brooks:But he always lived a life of faith, always lived a life of trust. He always obeyed his father. So, so, so he was, he was closed in this sinless perfection. However, our sins were then placed on him. When Paul says that Jesus was made to be sin, he's not saying that Jesus was made to be a sinner.
Joel Brooks:That's not what it is. Jesus was never a sinner. What he's saying he was, he was made to be sin. And what Paul means by that is, is on the cross. Our sins were placed on him to such an extent that when God saw Jesus, God saw sin.
Joel Brooks:He was made to be sin. And this is where we see what I would call this glorious exchange, which is the gospel. Christianity is really just an exchange. It's exchange between Jesus and us. Jesus exchanges his righteousness for our sins.
Joel Brooks:We get to close ourselves with perfection and righteousness and beauty, and in return, we give Jesus our filth and our sins. That's the gospel. I talked about this with our home group. I'll say it again here. We, we, we cannot fathom the depths of suffering that took place on the cross.
Joel Brooks:We can't fathom it. You know, you've had Mel Gibson and all these people make movies that really highlight the physical suffering of Christ, but Jesus was not even thinking about the physical suffering. He doesn't say my hand, my hand, my feet, my feet, my back, my back. He says, my God, my God, that's, that's the source of his suffering. It is coming from God.
Joel Brooks:Because here is a God that he has always had an eternal, perfect union with This, this unbroken, glorious relationship for all of eternity in which his father has always looked at him as beautiful. And suddenly now on the cross, he has looked at covered in sin. This illustration falls short, but it's it's probably the best way that I can illustrate that. A number of years back, there was a guy who I was meeting with who was struggling a lot with Internet pornography. And so, we were talking and we were praying through that.
Joel Brooks:Well, he came to my office one time, and he was just deeply distraught. He, earlier that day, he was out in his apartment and his girlfriend came over and a bunch of his friends came over. He went in the kitchen to get something. And while he was in the kitchen, his girlfriend went to check her email. And when she did and the computer came on, one of the videos that was on there began playing.
Joel Brooks:And so he comes in from the kitchen, and immediately, he sees on his computer this pornographic video playing. And he stops, and he says, and then my girlfriend and all my friends turned and looked at me. Said, I will remember that look for the rest of my life. Where where once I was looked at as an object of beauty, I was I was there was such friendship, there was such joy there. Now I was looked at with disgust, like I was covered in filth, and he had to just get out of there.
Joel Brooks:Now imagine that with Jesus is and it's an imperfect example, but imagine that with Jesus, who is the father's always looked at him with such beauty and adoration for all of eternity. But now our sin is placed on him and he's covered with filth and God looks at him, gives him that look. And now instead of feeling this closeness, he feels a separation as he is covered with our sin. That's what happens at the cross. We get that beautiful righteousness and now God looks at us the way he looked at Jesus and all of his perfect beauty.
Joel Brooks:Jesus has looked at the way we deserved on the cross. It's the beautiful exchange. That's the gospel, And this is the great work of reconciliation in which we see Jesus lived the life we should have lived, and he died the death that we should have died in order that we might now be seen as righteous and beautiful before God, in order that we might once again, enjoy friendship. Now, feel like I need to point out something that I hesitate to do it because it's kind of obvious. It's really so obvious.
Joel Brooks:And the only reason I'm going to point this out is because it's probably so obvious that maybe we've missed it. All right. And that when Paul is saying, be reconciled to God, he's talking to Christians, not unbelievers here. He's saying, be reconciled to God, and he's talking to the Corinthian church. Now, Paul would never tell Christians be justified before God.
Joel Brooks:Because if you're a Christian, you're justified. Okay? You are. Your legal status has changed. You're you're declared not guilty.
Joel Brooks:But but reconciliation is more than just justification. Alright? It's more than that. It goes, it goes beyond it. To be reconciled with God means this renewed friendship with him.
Joel Brooks:It means that now that we're friends with God, we need to experience the joy that comes from in this growing life giving relationship with him. You're not just saved in this is one little act. The save salvation is this start of this beautiful friendship. Be reconciled. The image of justification is this.
Joel Brooks:It's think of it as a criminal being declared not guilty before a judge. And not just any judge. Maybe it's the judge, and whose home he broke into. Alright? And so, that that judge was personally hurt by this criminal.
Joel Brooks:And so, he's he stands guilty before this judge, but somebody pays the price, pays the penalty. And so this judge declares him not guilty. Your penalty has already been served. That's justification. Reconciliation is this.
Joel Brooks:Now that you've been declared unguilty, the judge invites the criminal over to his house, Says, would would you would you mind coming and having dinner with me? And he treats this criminal like the dearest friend. Not not just that, he treats him like family. That's reconciliation. It's it's it's above and it's beyond just justification.
Joel Brooks:It's really about the relationship or the friendship with God that we should be enjoying as believers. So what Paul is saying here is the gospel message is more than just fire insurance. It's more than just being justified. It's more than just avoiding hell. God has filled you with his spirit.
Joel Brooks:He's he's given you his spirit, and he's given you complete access to him. So you need to press into that. You need to you need to enjoy the fruits of that. You need to keep building that relationship. So delight in this friendship that you've been given.
Joel Brooks:God God hasn't come to you shaking hands and said, hey, let's call it a truce. What God has done is he's opened his arms and he says, Let's come in for an embrace. That's reconciliation. That's why Paul can tell Christians, be reconciled. Just because you're saved doesn't mean you've given up all your idols and you've given up all your sins.
Joel Brooks:You're still going to other lovers when there's Jesus that you could continually go to. Go to him. Now Paul, he says that he has been made an ambassador of this message of reconciliation. An ambassador is the language he uses in verse 20. Says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, making his appeal through us.
Joel Brooks:God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Now when when I was in middle school, I I once earned a badge for memorizing verse 20. We are we are ambassadors for Christ because I was a royal ambassador. Any of you go royal ambassadors?
Joel Brooks:Alright. It's the, the Christian Baptist version of the boy scouts. Verse 20 was our theme verse. We said it almost every week. And I remember I grew up thinking that to be in a royal ambassador meant that you could identify poison Ivy and poison Oak or, that you could start a fire using a flint and straw and and you can make an oven out of an old coffee can.
Joel Brooks:You know, that's what being a royal ambassador was all about. For those of you who were royal ambassadors, it might please you to know that although it took a while, it took years, I eventually moved up from being a squire to a knight. And so, I am a knight, which sounds a little cooler than it really was. I didn't get a sword or arm or anything. I got a badge.
Joel Brooks:But it was a proud moment. Ambassador here is a lot different. Paul uses this word ambassador to mean that he's God's representative. One of God's representatives in this world. And so the way he acts the things he says all need to demonstrate to the people, the will of God and who he is.
Joel Brooks:So an ambassador does not live for himself. He does not have his own agenda. He does not try to make a name for himself, but he lives only to promote the interest of his kingdom and his king. That's what an ambassador does. And so what Paul is talking about here is really the great commission that that we are all to go into the world.
Joel Brooks:We're going into the world as ambassadors, and what we're doing is we're making disciples. And we're going into the world to deliver a very specific message, a message of reconciliation. And let me just say as a side note that an ambassador didn't go in to try to point out flaws in the culture that he was living in. Didn't go in to just point out sins with people. That's not what an ambassador did.
Joel Brooks:An ambassador did what what he would do is he would simply declare the message and king that he came from. And I say that just because I think a lot of times the church goes out and it preaches moralism. It just preaches everything that the world is doing wrong and everything that needs to do better. But we leave out really the words of Christ in this ministry of reconciliation, which is really the heartbeat of what an ambassador is supposed to proclaim. That's what Paul proclaimed.
Joel Brooks:Says he implores people with this message. He pleads with people. Be reconciled to God. And 6 verse 2, he he reminds people that there might not be a tomorrow, so they have to respond today. And then in verse 3, he he says something a little unusual.
Joel Brooks:It's often misunderstood. This is when he gives this message of reconciliation, he says, we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. If you read on, he he describes this. He says, by great endurance and afflictions and hardships and calamities and beatings and imprisonments and riots and labors and sleepless nights. What I mean when this is unusual or slightly misunderstood, because when Paul says, I'm not going to put an obstacle in anybody's way, it seems like what he names right after that are obstacles to Christianity.
Joel Brooks:Certainly was obstacles for the Corinthians. Says, I'm I'm not gonna put an obstacle in your way, but look at me. I'm a Christian, and I have to go through hunger, riots, imprisonments, beatings. Do you wanna be a Christian too? I mean, it certainly seems like obstacles.
Joel Brooks:And the Corinthians, as we've been studying through this book, they want to avoid those things. They actually think that Christ came to deliver them from those things. And Paul is saying, I didn't want to put obstacle before you. So I went through all of those things. And it just kind of leaves you scratching your head.
Joel Brooks:But this is this is Paul's thought. This is what he's he's saying to them. He said, listen, if I came to you as an ambassador, how you're thinking of an ambassador, And I came from the nicest part of town in my mansion and I drove up in my luxury new car and I was wearing the finest clothes and the finest jewelry. And I, I had this wildly popular ministry and not to mention that I would be tall and muscular and, and eloquent in all my speech. If I came to you as that, and then told you to trust in Jesus Christ for your joy and for your hope, you would have looked at me and said, that's not why you have joy.
Joel Brooks:That's not why you have hope. You have all of those things. You have all of those things. And those things, that lifestyle would have actually been an obstacle for them. They've thought, no, no, really the key to hope and the key for joy is really just living the good life like you're living.
Joel Brooks:And Paul says, I didn't want to have those obstacles before you. And yet still had joy and hope found in God, then he would say, well, it had to be the gospel. That's it. God alone had to give him that. That's why Paul goes through this list.
Joel Brooks:He says, when you see me dying yet having life, when you see me sorrowful, yet at the same time rejoicing, when you see me as poor, yet I'm acting like I'm inheriting the entire world. When you see those things together, you realize my hope is not in circumstances. My hope is in the gospel. I will not put an obstacle in your way. I see this every time I've gone gone on a mission trip to maybe a third world country, I see this so clearly.
Joel Brooks:Even I would see this in all the times I went to Northern Ireland and working in the projects there. You're talking with somebody and you're like, man, you can, you know, you can have hope and you can have joy in Jesus. They're like, no, you have hope and you have a joy because you're an American. I mean, you have great school systems. You have great healthcare.
Joel Brooks:Now, do you have your own car? Yeah, I do. There's your hope. That's the reason you're so happy. And so, me being an American, with a with a good job, a good home, a good education, those are my greatest obstacles on the mission field.
Joel Brooks:Because people think that's the reason I have hope and the reason I have joy. Listen, a lot of the things we pray for as Christians, we're praying for obstacles. That's what we're praying for. Paul, when you go through the new testament, he didn't pray for the things that we prayed for, that we fixate on. He would pray that Jesus's name would be known, that he would be seen as glorious, that his fame was spread throughout the world, that his spirit might come and fill us.
Joel Brooks:He prayed for those things, but he didn't pray for all the success, all the career opportunities, all all of the healings, all of those things that we we fixate on. It's not wrong to pray for those things, but so much we fixate on things that really can be obstacles to the gospel and could keep people from seeing where our true hope and our true joy comes from. Paul says, I will not be guilty of that. I will not do that because this message of reconciliation is the greatest message in the world. So hear this, Christians.
Joel Brooks:God is calling you to be his friend. He's calling you to be his friend. Pray with me. Our father, I am thoroughly convinced that we can never, never mind all the depths of your gospel. We can never mind the depths of you.
Joel Brooks:As we spend our days worshiping you for all of eternity, we need an eternity because you will continually be revealing a new side and a new beauty of yourself. But I thank you that we get a taste here. We get a taste now. God, I pray for those of us here who are justified in you, but maybe just have a toe in and reconciliation. God, that we would jump all in or that we would give into your loving embrace.
Joel Brooks:Spirit of God move in our midst. Now I pray that you would lift high the name of Jesus that you make his presence real to us in these moments. And I pray this in his name. Amen.