Responsibility.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] Good morning. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open to 2 Corinthians 5, [0:06] start reading in verse 14 today. This is your first time here. [0:10] My name is Steve. I’m one of the pastors here. [0:12] I do a great portion of the teaching at this church. [0:17] And what I want to talk about today is really, the last song that we just sang, [0:22] really what I want to do is I want to set a foundation for why that song is,

[0:29] number one, true of what we should take joy in, but also why it is something that we can do [0:37] and that we are more than that, we are responsible for if we are truly followers of Jesus Christ. [0:45] If we are people who believe the gospel, if we are people who trust in Jesus, [0:51] there is a life in which he wants us to walk into that we do not have the ability or the allowance or the privilege to define. [1:04] It is a life that he himself, Jesus, as the Savior of the world, as God, the creator of all that exists, [1:12] according to Colossians chapter 1, he and he alone has the authority to define what life looks like and what justice looks like and what responsibility looks like.

[1:28] If you’ve been here over the past few weeks, you know that we’re in the middle of a series in which we’re talking about ways in which we resist the work of the gospel in our lives. [1:38] Those of us who would even die for the fact saying that, yes, the gospel is true. [1:43] Yes, Jesus is God. Still there is inside of us. [1:47] Still there is this force that resists a lot of what the gospel even spells out in scripture is to do and God wants to do and God has promised to do in our lives. [1:58] The gospel changes us. The gospel grows us. [2:02] The gospel brings us a new level of commitment in our lives.

[2:07] It’s something that we are to commit to. [2:09] In Second Corinthians chapter 3, we saw that the gospel brings this force in which we can now the walls between us and God have been taken down. [2:18] There is no separation between God and man. [2:21] And in verse, wow, don’t quote me on this, but verse 21 of Second Corinthians chapter 3, we saw where the gospel continually changes us and progressively changes us as we live lives in which we are following Jesus into his purposes. [2:41] There’s this continual change that is supposed to be taking place. [2:45] And we as people who struggle to understand, we resist any type of change, even change that God says happens when we trust the gospel.

[2:57] And then in chapter four, we saw that this change in this progressive nature of the gospel, it leads to us growing in the gospel, that we don’t stay where we start, but we move with God. [3:10] And God is moving us to this place where we trust him with more and more of our lives. [3:16] And we kind of see ourselves sacrificing more and more of what we come to realize is mundane and meaningless and pointless for the great treasure that Paul says we have in Jesus. [3:29] And that as we grow, we find this joy in seeing more and more people understanding and clinging to and trusting in the grace that God has given us through the person and work of his son, Jesus, on the cross and through the resurrection. [3:47] And that the gospel brings growth. [3:50] And if we are not seeing growth in our lives, then that tells us that something is wrong.

[3:56] We need to take inventory. [3:59] And then last week, we really did take a great deal of inventory. [4:05] As we saw that for change and growth to take place, we have to walk into environments that foster it, that growth is not going to happen by accident, that no one just kind of drifts towards growth accidentally, but rather it must be intentional. [4:22] It must be something that we commit to. [4:24] That there are certain environments in life that bring growth. [4:29] And we all know that I don’t think that’s anything new.

[4:31] But what it is, is there’s resistance to commitment. [4:34] So we kind of just believe, well, if I show up once a week, growth is going to take place. [4:40] And yeah, that is an environment, but that’s not the final environment, because our commitment level must not be driven by factors in our life that have nothing to do with the gospel. [4:52] Unless we kind of unpacked that the gospel must be the driving force in our lives, that pain cannot dictate us. [5:02] That the kind of transient, what Paul calls temporary in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, that the temporary things of this life cannot dictate what we commit to in the gospel, not our career, not our family. [5:15] None of those things can dictate our commitment to the gospel.

[5:17] But our commitment to the gospel must dictate those things, and we must take captive those things for the gospel. [5:24] And what that commitment is eventually going to lead to is this understanding and this weight that’s going to fall on your life.

[5:36] That is responsibility.

[5:39] And it undoubtedly happens if you’re changed by the gospel, if you’re growing in the gospel, if you’re committing to those environments. [5:46] And it never fails. [5:49] There eventually comes this weight on your shoulder where you realize just how urgent the work of the gospel is. [5:56] And if there’s anything that we’re going to resist in life, it’s responsibility. [6:03] Culture even itself. [6:04] If you read the sociological studies, the age of adolescence has gone from about 16 years old years ago to between 25 and 30 now.

[6:17] Parents are keeping a responsibility for their children. [6:22] That’s really how they gauge adolescence is when are you responsible for your own life? [6:27] And we see that as time goes by, that age just gets older and older and older to where eventually you’re 40 years old, living in your mom’s basement. [6:36] Maybe you have a blog, maybe you play video games all day, but you are responsible for absolutely you don’t even do your own laundry yet. [6:44] And you’re 40 years old. [6:47] That’s every mom’s nightmare.

[6:49] And you may pretend, oh, I love making his pancakes every morning. [6:52] And then you turn around, you’re like, I wish you’d move out.

[6:56] At one point when I was about 12 years old, I made a commitment, a verbal commitment that I reminded my parents of in college where I got both of my parents to do a handshake agreement with me that I was allowed to live at home till the age of 35. [7:10] And then none of the rules would change. [7:12] And I would still stay that dependent. [7:14] Now, my mother is thankful that I met a woman and got married and now I have have have a son. [7:19] And that at 30, they haven’t had to keep their end of the agreement that I actually moved on and became what we refer to as an adult. [7:27] But I know that in the back of my mom’s mind while I was in college, what if he comes back?

[7:34] What if he makes us hold up to that bargain? [7:38] Because something is happening in really the coming generations where responsibility is something that we resist at all costs. [7:46] Maybe you’ve had the kind of job and I’ve had this thing that we’ve all probably experienced is if we’ve had a job, you adolescents, maybe you haven’t. [7:53] But for those of you that actually have reached adulthood, maybe you’ve had a job where it just seems like they lay more and more responsibility on you day by day. [8:02] The tasks that you are responsible for get bigger and bigger as days go by. [8:06] But your paycheck does not get bigger and bigger.

[8:08] So what you eventually do is you say, well, if they put one more responsibility on me, I’m going to have to resist and I’m going to have to ask for a raise. [8:18] And then eventually that other responsibility comes and you kind of chicken out because you see the economy. [8:23] So there is something in us that says, no, that’s just too much.

[8:29] You’re asking too much of me. [8:33] And when you’re a church planter, you you get that a lot. [8:37] So don’t feel bad because I understand there was a point in my life where I looked to God and said there must come a point with the gospel where I am able to say no.

[8:51] Where enough is enough, that’s just God, you’re asking too much. [8:55] I cannot be responsible for that.

[9:00] Because we have more pressing matters. [9:04] I got a family, I’ve got a job, I’ve got 18 holes of golf on Saturday morning. [9:10] It’s important stuff.

[9:13] I have to have my free time. [9:15] I have to be able to relax.

[9:18] What you’re asking of me and entering into these environments and in committing to this growth and in wanting to actually change inside of my life.

[9:29] I got to say no. [9:31] The problem with that is that the gospel specifically calls for our utter commitment and the biggest sense of responsibility that life could ever ask for. [9:57] That there is no difference between knowing Jesus and living a life in which we follow him. [10:02] That to know him, like we said last week, is to follow him. [10:06] And to follow him is to live this level of commitment that we never thought we were capable of. [10:11] And then sometimes we don’t even know where the strength for it’s coming from.

[10:15] But today, that’s what I want to talk about. [10:18] And so in Second Corinthians, Chapter five, let’s go there. [10:21] What I want to do is I want to read through the entire text and then it’s a little different than we usually do. [10:25] I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to just break it down. [10:29] Starting in verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. [10:40] And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves.

[10:45] That’s an important one. [10:47] If you have a pen, underline that. [10:48] No longer live for themselves, but for him who, for their sake, died and was raised. [10:55] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh. [11:02] We regard him thus no longer. [11:04] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

[11:08] The old has passed away. [11:09] Behold, the new has come. [11:12] All this is from God, who through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. [11:18] 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. [11:29] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. [11:34] We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

[11:38] For our sake, he made him to be sinned, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [11:50] What I want you to understand about this passage first is that it is totally progressive. [11:54] From chapter 3, where we started, to chapter 5, what Paul is doing is he is building and building and building. [12:02] You will constantly, through these passages, see the word therefore. [12:06] Because what he is doing is he builds a foundation. [12:09] He says, because this foundation is true, this is true.

[12:11] And then because that is true, this is true. [12:13] And then because that is true, this is true. [12:15] And pretty soon, your head is just spinning because it is information overload. [12:20] Paul is just unloading the magnificent truths of the Gospel onto the reader here. [12:27] And then he comes to verse 21 of chapter 5, and it is just the climax. [12:32] Because in that verse, what we have is what is called the great exchange.

[12:38] The fact that Jesus, in spite of who we are, came and willfully said, [12:44] You owe a payment for your sin, but I am going to pay it for you. [12:50] And in exchange, I’m just going to freely give you my righteousness. [12:56] You can have it. [12:57] It’s totally unfair. [12:59] It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in human terms because Jesus doesn’t get anything good out of it.

[13:07] We do. He gets all of the bad. [13:12] He takes everything we’ve ever done, because here’s how it breaks down inside of the Gospel.

[13:21] Jesus comes because of God’s great love for his creation, but his creation is in constant rebellion. [13:27] And here’s how it works. [13:28] And here’s why. [13:30] If you just deny that Jesus is greater than everything and that his love is greater, here’s how it works. [13:35] God creates. [13:38] Everything is dependent on God.

[13:39] He owns it all. [13:41] He makes it all. [13:42] He speaks it into existence. [13:44] He is the creator. [13:46] We are the creation. [13:48] So by just common logic, the one who designs it, the one who makes it, the one who creates it, the one who builds it,

[13:56] he knows how it should work and everything belongs to him.

[14:03] He’s responsible for all, but all that exists is responsible to him. [14:11] And what we did is we did a different type of exchange. [14:16] We said, God, we know you made it all, but we know better how it should work.

[14:24] We’re going to take glory in what you’ve made rather than in you. [14:30] And so what man does is man says, I know that you’ve done all this. [14:33] And sometimes we even get to a place where we deny that he did anything. [14:37] And we say, I’m going to take joy in creation. [14:40] I’m going to redefine what I exist for and what the world is supposed to be for to fit my standards rather than for your standards. [14:50] And here God is revealing to everyone, everything’s for me, everything’s done to me, everything exists for me.

[14:56] And we say, no, God, everything exists for me. [15:00] Everything works for me. [15:01] Everything’s about me. [15:04] And in that, what we do is this was the great sin in the garden is that we say, I want to be equal to God, as important as God. [15:13] And everything for us for me, because we will never say it. [15:16] But this is how we act.

[15:17] I am God.

[15:25] And God could have justifiably. [15:30] In clear conscience, in perfect holiness, and it would have been right to do it. [15:37] He could have said, well, as the creator, I have the authority to just end it.

[15:43] To condemn you all. [15:46] To prepare a place called hell, send you there. [15:51] Pour my wrath on you as people who have rebelled against me. [15:56] And he could have.

[15:59] But what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is that that’s not what God did.

[16:05] And Paul is so overcome with the fact that God did not destroy him for his sin. [16:14] He’s so overcome that God did not condemn him for his sin. [16:18] He’s so overcome that God did not even judge him for his sin.

[16:26] He says, that’s the definition of love.

[16:30] Nothing else could be called love than this. [16:32] That rather than kill me.

[16:38] Jesus, God, the son, perfect. [16:42] Eternal. [16:44] Colossians says there’s nothing that exists that did not come from him. [16:49] God, the son, he steps down. [16:51] He becomes a human being, lives a perfect life for over 30 years, never sins, never rebells like everyone else did. [17:01] He’s the only one that does not deserve judgment.

[17:06] And instead of just continuing in that and never dying, what he does is, according to scripture, he willfully and joyfully.

[17:20] He says, I will take the judgment that the rest of the world deserves. [17:28] And so on the cross what we see is all of the condemnation, all of the wrath, all of the destruction that you and I deserve is poured on him.

[17:51] And he does it gladly. [17:54] He says, I’ll take their sin.

[17:58] I’ll take their punishment. [18:00] I’ll give them my life.

[18:04] Because my life is the only one that can save because I’m the only one that doesn’t.

[18:11] So in that mindset.

[18:15] Paul pens this. [18:19] And that’s what he means. [18:21] Mean. [18:21] That’s what he means. [18:23] In verse 14, when he starts it. [18:27] He says, for the love of Christ controls us.

[18:33] See, Paul is not laying down just this dead command in which he says, we are robots. [18:40] Jesus is God. [18:41] He is in control of us. [18:43] He is a puppet master. [18:44] No, Paul is saying, look at the great love with which he loves us. [18:49] He gave himself for us.

[18:50] He’s given us life. [18:52] We don’t have to go to hell. [18:53] We don’t have to face the judgment of God because Jesus faced that judgment for us. [18:58] Judgment is over. [19:00] It’s done.

[19:03] And then Paul says, if anything.

[19:07] It’s going to number one, define love. [19:09] And number two, be the foundation with which I build my life upon. [19:16] It must be that. [19:21] Because nothing else compares.

[19:27] This is because we have concluded this. [19:30] See, he’s speaking in terms of logic. [19:32] He’s saying because of the great love of Christ, because nothing else is worth living my life for. [19:37] I make a conclusion out of it. [19:40] He’s making an argument here.

[19:44] He says that one has died for all. [19:48] Therefore, all have died.

[19:52] He died for all. [19:55] That those.

[19:57] Excuse me. [19:58] That those who live might no longer live for themselves. [20:04] See, he’s saying something that’s somewhat confusing because he says we’re dead, yet we’re alive. [20:08] And we’re like, well, if I’m dead, I can’t be alive. [20:10] Because when you’re dead, you’re dead. [20:12] The coffin, the grave, you just don’t exist anymore.

[20:14] And then when you exist anymore, it’s pretty creepy. [20:16] It’s like in the movie Scrooge when that guy’s old boss shows up and golf balls are falling out of his head. [20:20] That freaks you out.

[20:24] And Paul says here, what he’s saying is that if Jesus died and he took my sin. [20:29] You see, what is the greatest analogy of sin throughout all of scripture? [20:31] It says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. [20:35] We’re dead in sin. [20:37] And what Paul says is that if Jesus died for my sin, then me, the me that is sinful, the me that is rebellious, the me that doesn’t want God, the me that just wants everything from me, he’s dead. [20:49] Because Jesus took that guy to the cross.

[20:51] He spells that out even more in Galatians chapter two, where he says that I’ve been crucified with Christ. [20:56] Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ who lives in me in the life I now live. [20:59] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21:02] So we’re saying he’s just spelling out this thing that we must believe. [21:06] And that is that I’m no longer dead in my sins. [21:10] I’m no longer condemned.

[21:12] He’s just claiming the promises of God here. [21:16] And he’s saying if Jesus died for my sin, then my sins dead and those who are still alive. [21:23] He’s on kind of the flip side of it. [21:26] He’s saying you’re dead to your sin, but you still woke up and ate breakfast this morning, didn’t you? [21:30] You acted like a person that was still alive. [21:34] He’s saying that life does not end with the truth of the crucifixion and the resurrection.

[21:39] That is where life begins.

[21:44] You don’t know life until you know the love of Jesus. [21:48] You don’t know life until you know what it is that Jesus died for me and then rose to new life, giving me new life.

[21:58] He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves.

[22:10] That’s where we start today. [22:11] You’re like, I thought we started 15 minutes ago.

[22:16] Jesus exchanges his life for our lives.

[22:22] Jesus does not come to kind of pie in the sky mystically, spiritually, give us this new reality in which we just kind of meditate. [22:32] And, you know, we get alone and we’re like meditating on it and just like, oh, I’m alive in Christ. [22:38] And then I go back to the real life, the real world.

[22:42] Now, what Paul is saying is that the death and life of Jesus define the real world for me. [22:49] That in light of everything that Jesus has done, that is what real life exists for. [22:54] And that because of that, I’m no longer to live for me.

[23:02] And that the life that Jesus gave me is a real life in which God wants to do something in and through my life. [23:10] And we all in that moment would say, I agree. [23:15] I agree. [23:17] But the problem comes when we try to define what that is and nobody wants to do it. [23:22] I’m going to do it for you. [23:25] Actually, Paul did it.

[23:26] The rest of this text. [23:28] Here’s where he goes. [23:30] Verse 16. [23:31] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh.

[23:41] That’s one of those verses where we’re like, well, that sounds good. [23:43] I have no idea what it means, but it sounds good. [23:47] Here’s what it means. [23:48] That Jesus exchanges his life for our lives. [23:51] And now Paul’s going to say, and that looks like something that has to have a definition to it. [23:57] And so what he’s going to do through verse 20 is he’s going to begin to build a foundation on top of what that means.

[24:03] To believe that Jesus exchanges his life for my life is to believe that I must live the mission of Jesus. [24:12] Believing the gospel of Jesus leads to living the mission of Jesus. [24:18] That’s what verse 16 means. [24:19] In other words, what he’s saying is I used to see the world through human terms. [24:25] I used to simply just see stuff. [24:29] I used to see my career.

[24:30] I used to see my family. [24:31] I used to see my 401k. [24:33] That’s what I used to build life on. [24:36] The things that were tangible. [24:37] Now I’m forced to no longer view the world through that lens. [24:44] And here he makes a good argument for it.

[24:46] He says, take Jesus, for example. [24:48] At one time, Jesus walked the earth. [24:52] And I, Paul, because there’s a chance Paul was alive when Jesus was alive. [24:57] They don’t know quite if they ever interacted while Jesus, before Jesus died. [25:01] But here’s what Paul is saying. [25:02] At one time, everyone just saw Jesus as a person.

[25:07] But once he died and rose from the dead, something happened and everything changed. [25:15] Because only God can raise himself up from the dead. [25:18] More than that, Jesus says, I am God. [25:21] So I no longer view God according to the flesh.

[25:27] The skin. [25:28] That’s what he’s saying. [25:29] Sarx is the word there. [25:30] It just means skin, human terms. [25:33] Because I don’t see Jesus that way anymore. [25:35] He’s God.

[25:36] So I can’t just say Jesus is a man. [25:39] Because to say he’s a man is to deny everything about him. [25:41] Jesus is God. [25:43] But what he says is, that changes everything about how I view everything else. [25:49] Because I no longer view Jesus as human, I also no longer view other human beings the same way either. [26:00] Because I regard no one according to the flesh.

[26:04] So how does he regard other people? [26:09] Just keep going. [26:11] This is where this great transformation is going to happen that Paul is talking about. [26:16] He says, I regard no one according to the flesh. [26:18] At one time, he used to regard even Jesus according to the flesh. [26:20] But I don’t do that anymore because he’s God.

[26:22] Then in verse 17.

[26:26] He says, therefore, there’s another therefore. [26:28] He’s keeping a build. [26:29] He says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation. [26:33] The old is passed away. [26:34] Behold, the new has come. [26:36] That’s one of those coffee cup verses.

[26:39] If you were in a youth group, there’s a good chance that was like your youth group verse. [26:45] It’s like, new creation.

[26:48] You know, it’s like you had these themes and you’re like transformation. [26:52] And the thing is, is like we’ve got all these people that can quote this verse verbatim. [26:57] But then when you go up to a kid and you’re like, well, so what does it mean? [26:59] He’s like old stuff. [27:03] It’s gone. [27:03] News come.

[27:04] What’s the new look like? [27:06] Jesus. [27:07] What’s that mean?

[27:10] Church. [27:11] Well, what’s that all about? [27:13] Jesus. [27:14] And it’s like, you know, you got a lowest common denominator and you say Jesus enough times, you’re eventually going to be right. [27:19] Right. [27:20] But here’s the thing.

[27:21] Can we put legs to that? [27:24] I think we’ve quoted this verse so many times that it’s become this mystical thing and we’re like, it’s so extreme we can’t even say what it means.

[27:36] And while like, you know, that might make you feel good or something. [27:39] And I love how some Christians do that kind of stuff. [27:41] They’ll say these crazy things. [27:42] And then you’re like, I don’t I think you just said a whole paragraph, but you didn’t really say anything.

[27:49] And so a lot of times when we quote this verse, we’re not really saying anything. [27:53] Because it has no legs. [27:55] There’s no way to actually live this. [27:58] But Paul’s writing from a standpoint where he’s saying this is what you build your life on. [28:02] So if I’m supposed to build my life on it, I need to know how to live it. [28:06] So here’s where he goes.

[28:08] For 17. [28:09] Clearly, that’s where he’s going. [28:10] That’s the next verse.

[28:13] Oh, that’s not that’s the verse. [28:15] Verse 18.

[28:20] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. [28:31] He starts to put legs on that transformation. [28:34] He starts to put legs on what it means to change. [28:38] He starts to put legs on what God is actually going to do in your life. [28:41] So first, we’ve got believing the gospel, seeing the love of Jesus. [28:46] And saying, that’s the greatest love.

[28:49] That’s what I want to build my life on. [28:50] Then he says, absolutely. [28:52] But understand, it’s going to change everything. [28:55] And now he’s saying, here’s what it’s going to change. [28:57] It’s going to lead you to actually beginning to set your life up in such a way that you want to emulate the purpose, mission and vision of Jesus Christ himself. [29:13] Because this is what we look at verse 18 again.

[29:14] Notice what he says. [29:16] He says, all this is from God. [29:18] So in other words, God has done everything needed for us to live life as it was meant to be lived. [29:24] And he says, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. [29:27] So he makes reference again to the work of the gospel. [29:29] You never grow past the gospel.

[29:31] You continually stay in the gospel, continually changing in the gospel. [29:35] Because it is the greatest thing that has ever been. [29:38] And then he says, and Jesus then, because of our reconciliation, has changed us to live exactly like him for the purpose of reconciliation.

[29:52] See, it’s a cycle. [29:54] That when Jesus changes us, he changes us so that we can seek and save the lost for him. [30:02] We have the same mission that Jesus has. [30:05] So when I say the mission of Jesus, that’s what I’m talking about.

[30:10] Matthew chapter 28. [30:11] Here’s what Jesus says. [30:12] He says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

[30:17] He says in verse 19, because that’s true, go therefore, make disciples of all nations. [30:24] Jesus is saying, I’m God. [30:26] Don’t regard me according to the flesh. [30:28] Now, what do you do with my authority? [30:29] Here. [30:30] Here’s what you do with my authority.

[30:31] You go and tell the world of it. [30:33] You go and tell the world of everything that I’ve done. [30:38] He reconciles us so that we can become reconcilers for other people that do not know the gospel and other people, quite frankly, that think they know the gospel, but they have no idea what the gospel actually is. [30:55] That 15 year old kid that’s just quoting first Corinthians five, 17 over and over again with no clue what it means. [31:03] The fact that he can memorize a Bible verse does not mean he’s saved. [31:08] Someone needs to unpack it for him and say, hey, guess what?

[31:12] That’s in a chapter with a whole bunch of other verses, too.

[31:17] We can put definition to these things, but we’re afraid to. [31:22] Why are we afraid to? [31:25] Because just like we said in the first week of this series, we’re afraid of change.

[31:33] We’ve been living life the same way and for the same reasons for so long that even the change that the great love of Jesus will bring to our lives, we are scared to death of it. [31:47] We don’t want to rock the boat, even though life’s not that good for you.

[31:54] I’ll hear someone say, well, my life sucks. [31:59] And then I’ll have a conversation. I’ll be like, well, why? [32:02] Oh, well, maybe if you change this. Oh, I don’t change anything. [32:06] What? That’s insanity. You just said it sucks.

[32:12] But I love every minute of it. [32:13] What? We’re crazy.

[32:17] All of us. [32:19] Because none of us, if you reach the age of 18, you figured it out that you’re not going to be the next famous person. [32:26] I figured out by the time I was 12, I was not going to be the shortstop for the Oakland A’s like I wanted to be. [32:30] I had a weight problem and running just wasn’t in the equation. [32:34] And so at some point you finally find you’re like, life’s not going to look like I want it to look. [32:39] So I’ll just settle for junk.

[32:45] And change is so scary.

[32:48] So the question is why?

[32:52] What Paul is saying is if we truly believe, if we truly trust the power of the gospel in our lives, [33:00] it will change us.

[33:03] And it will give us the greatest joy imaginable. [33:06] Because God finds glory in changing people for His mission. [33:15] See, I like to use the word change because in Christianese, we love Christianese as a language, by the way, [33:21] we love to use the word transformation. [33:25] We love it. [33:27] And then we have no idea what it means.

[33:31] Transformation means change. [33:34] It’s as simple as definition.

[33:37] What God is saying here, what God is spelling out through really the whole book of 2 Corinthians, [33:41] especially up to this point, [33:44] is that God wants glory because He’s God. [33:48] Anything that He would glorify would then be God. [33:52] But since He’s God, He deserves and must receive glory. [33:56] More than that, He defines what that glory looks like.

[33:59] He defined it on the cross. [34:01] When Jesus says, not my will, but thine be done, [34:04] what He’s saying is God, I live for your glory and I want your glory to be done. [34:08] And so He goes to the cross, ultimate obedience. [34:10] And what does the cross do? [34:11] The cross makes redemption possible.

[34:13] The cross redeems us from our sins, puts us in the life that God designed us for, [34:17] and in the resurrection, God gives us the life of Jesus and says, now you live it. [34:22] And so God specifically changes people so that they can continue to live this mission. [34:27] That’s just simply what verse 18 means. [34:30] It’s not convoluted and mysterious. [34:33] Paul’s just putting it in simple terms.

[34:35] Jesus reconciled you to God, now you live to reconcile others to God. [34:40] Go to verse 19.

[34:48] That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, [34:54] not counting their trespasses against them. [34:57] See, He says it again. [34:59] He’ll continually do this. [35:00] Anytime Paul says, this is what we must do because of the Gospel, [35:04] he always goes to, this is what the Gospel did to us.

[35:08] He wants us to understand, we’re not earning anything with God. [35:11] Jesus earned it all for us. [35:13] Jesus just gives us this life and then gives us His Holy Spirit that gives us the power to live it. [35:17] He says, don’t be afraid. [35:20] In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. [35:27] What are trespasses?

[35:29] Sin. [35:30] We’ve wronged God greatly and God says, I will not hold you accountable. [35:35] I will throw the penalty on my son. [35:39] And you should take joy in that. [35:41] So much joy that you build your life on it. [35:45] And then He says, look at what He says next.

[35:48] And entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [35:55] Notice that word, entrusting.

[36:00] A lot of parents will entrust their house to their children so that they can go on a date, [36:05] only to come home to find chaos and disaster. [36:08] Why is your child in trouble then? [36:11] You know, mom, why does that vein pop out of your forehead and the screams start coming out? [36:14] God, you’re a room. [36:15] Why?

[36:15] Because you entrusted your child with something that they did not live up to. [36:22] That’s why.

[36:28] What Paul is spelling out here is a sacred trust between us and God. [36:34] Throughout the Old Testament, God constantly refers to the covenant that He’s made with Israel [36:38] and then constantly says Israel hasn’t lived up to their end. [36:41] He’s lived up to His end, but Israel never lived up to their end. [36:44] Throughout the New Testament, we see a little bit of a different picture. [36:47] Not that we live up to our end, but that God, while living up to His end,

[36:53] also stepped out of glory and said, I’m going to live up to your end for you. [36:58] And in Jesus, God, the covenant between God and man is perfectly sealed and finished. [37:04] It’s completed. [37:06] God keeps our end of the covenant. [37:08] He keeps His end of the covenant. [37:10] And He seals it completely.

[37:11] It’s done. [37:11] And then He says, because the covenant is sealed, because it’s fulfilled, [37:15] because My covenant with you is now perfect through My own hand, [37:19] I’m going to give you a new life in which you can be trusted with My message of reconciliation. [37:26] And I think that’s what scares us because we’re afraid we’re going to screw it up.

[37:33] We’re afraid we’re going to blow it. [37:35] We’re afraid we’re going to make God look bad. [37:38] The only problem with that is God is not afraid that we’re going to make Him look bad.

[37:43] We will mess it up.

[37:47] We will. [37:49] We often make God look bad.

[37:52] But God says, it doesn’t matter because Jesus paid for that too.

[38:00] He doesn’t entrust us with the message of reconciliation because of how able we are. [38:06] He entrusts us because of how able Jesus is. [38:10] See, in Jesus in John 14, He says, I must leave so that one greater than I can come. [38:16] He doesn’t leave us alone. [38:17] At the end of the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28, He says, [38:20] Behold I am with you always to the end of the age.

[38:22] I’m never going to leave you. [38:23] See, He entrusts us because He is the one working inside of us, [38:27] working the life of Jesus out of us and into the lives of others.

[38:34] You must understand then that in believing and in trusting the Gospel, [38:40] there is a great responsibility put on our shoulders. [38:43] And that responsibility is to live under the power of the Gospel [38:47] so that others can know the same reconciliation that we know. [38:52] Keep going.

[38:54] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. [39:00] We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [39:07] See that? See what we’re called there? [39:11] Let me just put it in simple terms. [39:13] Every Christian is responsible for taking the Gospel to others.

[39:22] Every Christian.

[39:24] If you believe the Gospel, these verses apply to you. [39:28] If you’ve been changed by the Gospel, these verses apply to you. [39:32] If you’ve been transformed, if you’ve been renewed, [39:37] any word that you can think of, if the Gospel’s done it in your life, [39:42] then you have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. [39:47] And then he furthers it.

[39:48] And he says, we’re ambassadors for Christ. [39:50] In other words, we’re not ambassadors, we’re ambassadors of representatives. [39:53] We’re representatives of Christ.

[39:57] We’re messengers of reconciliation.

[40:01] God is actually making His plea through us to the world, be reconciled to God. [40:10] And here’s what we’ve done. [40:12] We’ve made two classes of Christians. [40:15] We’ve said there are those who are called to live for the Gospel, [40:19] they’re called to be ambassadors for Christ, [40:21] they’re called to live the message of reconciliation,

[40:24] they’re called to be evangelists, [40:26] and then there are others who are called to something else.

[40:37] No.

[40:40] That is a lie from hell.

[40:45] That is deception. [40:48] Why do we, and you’re like, how do you know? [40:51] This.

[40:54] The Scriptures never set up different classes of Christians.

[41:01] The Scriptures never set up different callings. [41:06] The Scriptures never say, you take the Gospel to other people, [41:10] you be an accountant and never worry about it.

[41:14] The Scriptures never do it.

[41:17] And there’s an entire generation of people claiming to believe the Gospel, [41:23] who think they have no responsibility for taking the message of the Gospel [41:28] to people who don’t have it. [41:30] And Paul comes in and he says, [41:32] If you believe the love of Christ, then the love of Christ will control you [41:37] and the life of Christ will come out of you

[41:39] and you will be a messenger of reconciliation to a world that is desperate for it. [41:44] And if you don’t, then you don’t know the love of Christ.

[41:53] There are different giftings, [41:57] but there are no different callings, friends.

[42:02] Somewhere along the line, some preacher wanted some people to say, [42:06] he’s greater than everybody else. [42:07] So he said, I got the call on September the 13th, 1957. [42:12] No, you got the call the day you got saved. [42:15] It’s the same call that everybody else gets on the day they got saved. [42:20] And that is to be an ambassador for Christ.

[42:23] You have a different gifting that just makes you be able to talk for a long time, [42:27] but you are called the same way that everyone else is called to. [42:31] And there’s nothing more special about me than there is to be special about you. [42:35] There’s no anointing on me that you yourself cannot have. [42:38] There’s no filling of the Holy Spirit on me that you yourself cannot have, [42:42] because I have the same calling on my life that you have on your life.

[42:45] And that is to go to the world and say, [42:47] reconciliation with God has been made possible through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. [42:53] Be reconciled to God because he loves you. He doesn’t hate you. [42:57] He killed his own son for you.

[43:02] And that is what those of us that believe the Gospel are to build our lives on, [43:12] because nothing else compares.

[43:19] The responsibility to take the message of reconciliation to the world [43:24] is on the shoulders of every Christian.

[43:35] And in verse 21,

[43:46] as Paul wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, [43:49] and only God, only God could give me such a weighty responsibility [43:57] and then say,

[44:02] here’s why you can be entrusted with it, son.

[44:06] Here’s why you can live it.

[44:13] For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, [44:21] so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[44:32] What did I do to earn favor with God? [44:37] Nothing.

[44:39] I did everything to be irresponsible.

[44:45] And he said, I still love you. [44:49] I love you so much that I will take your rebellion. [44:54] I will take your irresponsibility. [44:56] I will take all of your sins, the sins of the past, the sins of the present, [45:01] the sins that you haven’t even concocted yet, [45:03] and I’ll pay for them.

[45:09] I’ll pay for them. [45:12] And here you have my righteousness.

[45:20] Everything that we do in our lives

[45:25] represents the work of Jesus in our lives.

[45:29] You see, Paul uses this text to put a book in. [45:33] On the great life that he’s been spelling out. [45:39] And here’s where we get confused, I think, and then I’ll close. [45:42] We get confused because we look at that and we glory in it, and we should. [45:47] Wow!

[45:50] But that’s where it stops.

[45:54] See, Paul has already put legs to something. [45:56] Here’s what he’s put legs to, and that’s the end of that verse. [45:59] Because we’re comfortable with our sins being paid for, [46:02] but what’s tough is when we consider the righteousness.

[46:08] See, it’s the fact that he says so that we might become the righteousness of God, [46:13] which is Jesus clearly spells it out. [46:16] We don’t know how to define that, do we? [46:18] We make it very subjective. [46:20] This is going to look different in my life, this is going to look different in your life. [46:22] No, it’s not.

[46:25] Because it’s not based on you. [46:28] Whose righteousness is it? [46:29] It’s Jesus’. [46:31] Sissississ. [46:33] I never know how to end those, you know, it’s like those possessive ones. [46:36] I don’t know how to end them.

[46:38] But you just keep doing S’s over and over again and then you pass out or something.

[46:45] Most of my humor comes from just somewhere that I don’t know. [46:51] See, even that was funny, right? [46:54] Here’s what happens. [46:56] The righteousness of God is perfectly revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

[47:02] What did Jesus use his righteousness for? [47:06] Tell me that. [47:07] He used it to redeem sinners.

[47:12] What does it look like to live the righteousness of Jesus? [47:18] To take redemption to sinners.

[47:25] Every Christian being responsible for taking the gospel to others must also understand that the righteousness of Jesus is revealed in a life of worshipful mission.

[47:40] You see, it’s not a mission in which we, you know, it’s like you’re a Navy SEAL or something. [47:46] You’re pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. [47:48] You took all the right classes. [47:49] You know all the right courses. [47:50] You know all the right words. [47:51] So you’re going to storm hell with a machine gunner or squirt gun or whatever they used to say.

[47:55] No, it’s not what it is. [47:56] What it is is it goes back to verse 14. [47:59] It’s this awe of what God has done in your life. [48:03] It’s complete awe. [48:06] And when you see the gospel, that all is transformed into a life in which you say, other people need to know about this. [48:18] And God says, yes, they do.

[48:20] Take it. [48:21] You’re my ambassador. [48:23] What does Jesus say to the woman at the well caught in adultery? [48:27] Go home. [48:27] What does he say to the demon, to the demon, demonic man who’s chained inside of a graveyard because he keeps ruining everything? [48:36] And then Jesus comes, liberates him and he says, Jesus, I’m going to follow you.

[48:40] I need to be trained. [48:40] Jesus says, no, you don’t need any. [48:41] Go back and just tell everybody.

[48:45] You have everything that you need to live the mission of Jesus because you have the life, the righteousness, the spirit. [48:56] You have Jesus. [49:00] He’s all you need.

[49:04] We have been entrusted with a great responsibility.

[49:09] God desires our worship. [49:12] He does. [49:13] And in this life for now, for this current age, he says, I’m going to be with you to the end. [49:20] For this age, he defines what that worship looks like, folks. [49:25] He defines it. [49:27] He spells it out right here in Second Corinthians five and through the rest of the New Testament, even through the rest of the old system, he defines it.

[49:34] We make much of God to everyone around us when we take the message of reconciliation to those who need it. [49:41] He’s worshiped through living a life consumed with the mission of the reconciliation that is available through Jesus. [49:50] That is what he wants. [49:52] That is what he yearns for. [49:53] That is what he desires to come out of us. [49:58] And anything else is less.

[50:05] Because Paul says, I’m controlled by his love.

[50:11] And when you’re not, you’re saying that his love isn’t good enough.

[50:20] And that, my friends, is not belief.

[50:26] We must live for this. [50:28] We must not resist the responsibility, because to resist it is to deny the very work of Jesus.

[50:43] Father, we love you.

[50:48] God, we often find ourselves unfaithful. [50:53] In those moments, may we look back at the cross and say, he paid the penalty. [50:58] And may we just get up and keep walking. [51:00] May we just get up and keep following.

[51:03] May we not resist the great calling that you’ve put on our lives, God. [51:08] The very reason that we planted this church, the very reason that we live our lives is for your mission. [51:14] Lord, we live to take your mission to those who need it. [51:18] May we begin to walk into the environments with which that type of reality can be built upon. [51:25] That commitment can take root. [51:27] That growth can take place.

[51:28] So that you can continually change us more and more into the image of your son.