Make It Clear

Colossians 4:2-6

Immanuel - 10/2/22

We are all shaped by things we cannot control, and these things shape us more than we can possibly imagine. After my mom died, they said I was a very angry 3 year old. That anger followed me through childhood, and in my teen years it translated into empty rebellion. I caused heartache and I knew heartache.

In countless ways I attempted to fix this yawning emptiness - girls, status, attention, adventure. Nothing worked. Nothing even came close. I knew it to the core of my being, I am a broken sinner. And I knew that my sinfulness is in conflict with my Creator.

And yet, God was using all of this to shape me in a way I could not possibly imagine.

For, running parallel to the emptiness and rebellion in my life, there was hope. I was raised in a home with wonderful Christian parents - my dad remarried. From my earliest memories I knew Jesus as Lord and Savior, even during all the anger of my childhood and dissonance of my teens.

From 15 to 20, God used a series of unrelated events - some born out of my own stupidity, some beyond my control, all by God’s grace - to drive truth from my head and down into my heart.

The weight of God's love began changing me, love that He demonstrated when He sent His Son to die my death. I deserved the judgment that Jesus took. And because Jesus took my condemnation, I am forgiven. No longer does God look on me with judgment, He only looks on me with favor. He loves me like a son because, by grace, Jesus’ righteousness has been applied to me.

The cross of Christ conquered my rebellious heart, and His love filled the emptiness that I could not. This is the testimony of how God transformed my life; and honestly, it is a transformation that is still underway. By faith, I know I have been reconciled unto God.

I am a new creation in Christ, and as His ambassador, this is my testimony.

Purpose

1. I want to know the power of your testimony.

2. I want to give you two ways to think about your testimony.

Read Colossians 4:2-6

Everything in this passage orbits around that phrase, “declare the mystery of Christ.” To be sure, Paul is using the phrase “mystery of Christ” interchangeably with the word, “gospel.”

The Gospel

In fact, Paul uses very similar language when he writes to the Ephesians, and I think you can see how he inextricably links mystery and gospel.

[Pray] for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. -Ephesians 6:19-20

Here Paul says he wants to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. It was a mystery because it is hidden from men until it is revealed from heaven. In the old covenant world, the gospel was a mystery until the new covenant was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. In our world, the power of the gospel is a mystery until God opens our eyes to it and radically transforms us with it.

Read vs 3

The gospel is the mystery of Jesus Christ. As ambassadors of Christ, we are called to speak the gospel in order to make the mystery of Jesus known. Paul went so far as to take the chains of prison for the sake of the gospel. Eventually he gave his life, all to make the mystery of Jesus known to the world.

I wonder, how far are we willing to go for the gospel?

As we saw last week, the gospel is easily broken up into 4 parts: God, Man, Christ, Response. Here it is: God created mankind for relationship with Him, but by our sin we treated that relationship like garbage. The penalty for sin is eternal separation from Him - eternal death. But because of God’s great love, He offers reconciliation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus took our sins upon Himself, even while He was sinless, and died in our place. But three days later He rose from the grave, ascended to the throne of heaven and earth, and from there gives His pure righteousness and eternal life to everyone who repents and believes. This is the mystery revealed in Jesus Christ. This is the gospel: God, Man, Christ, Response.

Whether people know it or not, this gospel is the yearning of every heart and the hope of every soul. It is the only healing for the greatest of humanities’ diseases: separation from God because of sin. The gospel reconciles sinners with their Creator. We must repent and believe!

The singular focus of Paul’s life was to declare this gospel. He wanted people to pray for his ability to clearly communicate the gospel. He wanted people to pray that God would open gospel opportunities. He wants to continue doing the very thing for which he was in prison.

How amazing that even from prison, he did not forsake his identity as an ambassador. In fact, in his letter to the Ephesians, he calls himself an ambassador in chains. Despite the chains, he wanted opportunities to share the gospel. Paul was dauntless.

Read vs 4-6

Clarity

Even though Paul was dauntless, He was not reckless. He wanted his words to be gracious. He wanted his words to be filled with wisdom. And in verses 5 and 6, Paul is exhorting every other Christian to do likewise. It should be a comfort to us that Paul, this incredibly powerful Apostle of Jesus Christ, is concerned that he would clearly communicate the gospel. It’s why he asks for prayer.

What an encouragement Paul’s appeal should be to us! Likely, we feel similarly. Perhaps you are worried that you won't say it right, that you’ll miss something important, that you’ll just come across as offensive. Pray that God would help you to be clear. Imagine, if everyone in this church was praying for everyone else, that we would all be able to speak the gospel clearly and lovingly to those around us.

Do you know that you already have in your possession, one of the clearest ways of offering the gospel to others? Your testimony is the clearest expression of gospel power in your life. Your testimony is the story of how God has changed your life, of how you received the gospel and were transformed, or how it currently is transforming you. And if God has changed your life, then He can change anyone’s life!

But let me be clear, a long winded, over-detailed story about your life, is not a helpful way of sharing your testimony. You don’t want to lose people’s interest. You want them to be gripped by what God has done in your life. Has it not gripped you? Indeed! It gripped your heart and changed you. Therefore, seasoned with grace and love, let your story be clear enough to grip someone’s heart.

At the beginning of this message I took some time to share my testimony. I testified of how God showed me my great need for Him and how He met that need. And I wove the gospel message into that testimony.

When the gospel is woven into our testimony, it makes the gospel so much more relatable.

But perhaps you will not always have that kind of time to share your testimony. I mean, you are all compelled to sit there and listen to me. So think of a couple ways of packaging your testimony. Sometimes you’ll be able to go into more detail, and weave the gospel into it, as I have done today. Other times, you might only have a few minutes to share your story.

What I spoke in longer form can be boiled down to a few sentences. I can speak it in 30 seconds. For example: when I was younger my life was marked by rebellion and emptiness, but a time came when I understood the forgiveness and love of Jesus, and He transformed my life. Now I have peace and I know purpose because of Christ. Have you ever experienced anything like that?

Notice how that brief testimony is followed by a question. I want the person I am talking to, to think about their own life. I want them to think, “Can what happened to him, happen to me?” You’ll be amazed at the gospel opportunities that come from a 30 second testimony followed by a question, “Have you ever experienced anything like that?”

I highly encourage you, figure out how to share your testimony in two versions.

Version 1: Give yourself 5 minutes to share your testimony while weaving the gospel into it.

Version 2: Give yourself 30 seconds to share how life was, how you encountered Christ, and then how life is different now. End with a question that will lead to gospel conversations.

In either version, the purpose is the same, to share the gospel!

You want to have these two versions of your testimony ready because different circumstances will provide different opportunities. And whatever the opportunity, you want to be prepared. Practice each version a few times, even practice it with a friend. When the moment comes, you want to be comfortable and confident in the things you are saying.

Remember, part of your identity in Christ is that you are His ambassador. You need to know what to say! What kind of ambassador faces a foreign entity and has no idea what to say? It is your job to know what to say, and it is your job to say it well. Practice truly does help. God has not given you your testimony so you can be reckless with it. Be wise. Make the best use of your time.

Yes, let us pray for one another, that we would all speak the gospel clearly. But let us also prepare ourselves. God doesn’t call us to sit around and wait for magical words from heaven. Christ does encourage us not to become anxious about what we will say, and to not try to strategize every possible scenario we might face. Even still, we need to prepare ourselves, because wisdom prepares, and Paul exhorts us to walk with wisdom.

Sometimes it is helpful if we see this modeled. Vin and Ben

Notice how Vin and Ben brought together the last few sermons. Everyone knows God, but that knowledge is suppressed with lies. Even still, those lies are built upon something true. That truth was identified, and the gospel was applied to that place of truth. And then, when we can apply the gospel with our testimony, it makes the gospel so much more relatable.

And do you know, there are over 1,100 people in our community that should be easy for you all to relate to. In fact, this was the purpose of Fall Fest. Fall Fest was not a time to proclaim the gospel. It was not an evangelistic effort. It was a bridge building event. We were, very gently, sharing the love of Jesus. When people left our lawn, we want them to feel a sense of warmth and happiness when they think of Immanuel.

That way, when you are talking to someone in an aisle at Hannaford, or speaking with another parent at a soccer game, and you say that you go to Immanuel, that person might just say, “Oh, I know that church. I’ve been to their Fall Fest. What a great group of people!” Immediately, you have a way of relating to them.

It will then be your job, ambassadors of Christ, to turn a superficial conversation into a spiritual conversation. Ask questions. Listen to them. Is there a moment to share your testimony? Is there a gospel opportunity? Pray that the Spirit would give you words of wisdom and clarity when you are in that moment. It is my firm conviction that He will. He absolutely will!

You know, everyone knows God, even if they suppress that truth.

You know the message of the gospel: God, Man, Christ, Response.

You know the power of your testimony.

Take it home and practice.

You are ambassadors of Jesus Christ, you must tell people how to be reconciled unto God!

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

-2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Next week we will look at what happens after we have shared the gospel with someone. What happens next?

The Gospel

Immanuel - 9/25/22

Today we are not working from a single text. Today is all about the significance and the message of the gospel. For this we will draw from numerous passages. Have your Bibles ready.

Purpose

What is the significance of the gospel?

What is the message of the gospel?

Have you bowed your knee to the King of heaven and earth? Do you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Do you believe that your life is not your own, but that you were bought with a price?

If your answer to these is truly yes, then you are in Christ. You are redeemed, reconciled unto God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. The old way of living is to die, for you are a new creation in Christ; and you have experienced the saving power of God through the gospel.

Is this not why we gather in this building every week, to worship God who has made us new, to again remind one another of the awesome power of the gospel? Because it is the hearing of the gospel through which we have life-changing encounters with our Father in heaven, with King Jesus, with the Spirit of Power.

I do not mean that we have some physical encounter with God. I mean that through the hearing of the gospel we have come to know the reality and person that is God; and in light of Him, we have understood much about ourselves. Such an encounter, such an understanding, is utterly transformative.

This kind of encounter brings you to your knees and makes it impossible not to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You know that the price He paid is worth far more than all your life can offer, but still you offer. This is the kind of encounter that changes you forever. This is the kind of encounter one can only experience through the gospel.

This is the power of the gospel.

As we saw two weeks ago, being in Christ does not end with some moment of salvation, that moment you become a new creation. That’s the beginning, but now there is something you are to do with the new life you have been given. Christ calls all of us to be His ambassadors, ministers of reconciliation.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We are new creations and we are ambassadors. In other words, there is no such thing as a Christian who is not calling people to be reconciled to God. There's no such thing as a silent Christian.

Last week we also learned that everyone knows God. We are covenantal beings created in God's image. Every person truly and inescapably knows God as God truly is; yet in our sinfulness we suppress the truth of God, happy to build for ourselves worlds of lies and delusion.

But even a world of lies needs to be built on something real, something true. Every lie is in some way grounded in the truth. It would be wise for us ambassadors to understand the lie a particular person is believing, find the truth within it, and boldly, gently, apply the gospel to that place of truth. Last week I walked you through one small example of how this might work.

Remember, the gospel is what we ambassadors offer, not opinions, not politics, not self-help methods, not programs and positivity and personality. We offer the gospel of Christ crucified, risen and reigning.

Like Paul writes: When I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. -1 Corinthians 2:1-2

Paul is not saying that he abandoned dynamic language and wisdom. In fact, he employs those very things as he writes to the Corinthians. Instead, Paul is saying that he was not proclaiming the gospel in such a way that would draw people to himself. He was happy for the world to see him as a fool so long as he was faithfully speaking the gospel.

Read Romans 1:16-17

Above everything else, Paul wanted people to hear the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation! As ambassadors, it is our purpose to tell people this same gospel. It is the power we wield, the healing we offer, the news so good it is worth dying for.

And as we saw in Revelation, the gospel is the testimony of Jesus Christ, powerful enough to conquer the world and make all things new. Like Paul writes to the Corinthians, the gospel is powerful enough to reconcile the world unto God: the power of God unto salvation, our salvation and the salvation of this world.

You can hardly overstate the significance of the gospel. It is literally changing the world, just as it has changed your world.

But do you know the gospel message? Are you able to clearly articulate it? We must be able to, because it is the primary message given to all the ambassadors of Christ. If we do not know the gospel, then we cannot do what we have been called to do.

The gospel is easily broken down into 4 parts: God, Man, Christ, Response. Let’s take them one at a time.

Gospel Part 1: God

God is our Creator. He is holy and faithful and loving. Everything He does is good and just. His word is true and can be entirely trusted. And all that He does and is, is the epitome of love, is saturated in love, defines love.

And as you should expect, because God is this way, He hates everything contrary to His nature. Because He is holy, He hates wickedness. Because He is faithful, He hates faithlessness. Because He is loving, He hates hatred. God hates things contrary to His nature because anything contrary to His nature introduces pain, brokenness, chaos, and death.

God hates sin and one day everyone will have to give account to Him.

Paul captures all these elements of God in His address to the Athenians. Also, remember last week’s message. Paul is picking out the truth in a world of lies, and applying the gospel to it.

Read Acts 17:22-31

All 4 parts of the gospel are present in this proclamation. But Paul begins with his incredibly high view of God. Before getting to anything else, Paul wants to make it clear who He is talking about, and why it matters.

He says that God is Creator, Lord of heaven and earth, Holy and set apart from mankind, yet He lovingly sustains our lives. And perhaps more than any other reason, this matters because God will judge the world in righteousness. He will judge the lives of each person - every thought and action - to see if they meet His standard of righteousness, or not.

Part 1 of the gospel is the reality of God’s existence. God is your holy and loving Creator, and one day He will judge you.

Gospel Part 2: Man

As we explored last week, God made man in His image. He created us to perfectly represent Him on earth. He made us personal and relational with morality and reason, and God inlaid those image-bearing elements in beauty and righteousness. God created man and woman to be powerful expressions of His glory in the physical world.

And God’s glorious image in us would forever remain beautiful and righteous so long as we lived in right relationship to Him. Because God also created us to be covenantal beings: made for relationship with Him.

But into our paradise slithered a lie, and our first parents chose to believe the lie instead of God. They willingly sinned, rebelling against God and rebelling against His created order. Perfection and paradise were lost. Now, every human ever born is a sinner by birth and a sinner by choice.

To be a sinner is to come under the wrath of God and be condemned to eternal, conscious, death - forever separated from Him.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. -Romans 3:23

The wages of sin is death. -Romans 6:23

God will judge every person according to what they have done. One lie, one arrogant thought, one lustful glance, one hateful urge, just one, proves that you are not holy, not faithful, not perfectly loving, and not bearing His image as He created you to do. Broken mirrors are thrown away. Unrighteous image bearers are condemned to hell, and hell is a place where the ungodly will experience the eternal condemnation of God.

There are so many who shrink back from this part of the gospel. The gospel is the good news, but what I have just reviewed is anything but good news. This is horrible, judgmental, difficult news. This news means we are all condemned and headed to hell.

But we cannot skip, or even minimize, this painful truth. If we minimize the news about judgment and condemnation, we castrate the gospel. It is precisely because of how terrible is the news of hell that the good news - the gospel - becomes so transformatively precious.

For God has created a way for broken and sinful image bearers to be remade righteous, restored, and reconciled unto God! God has exerted His unimaginably gracious power to save sinners from the fires of condemnation.

I read the most famous part of Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death”; but do you know what the rest of the verse says?

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 6:23

Gospel Part 3: Christ

Where sin brought condemnation and death, Christ brought righteousness and life! God the Son took on human form in the man of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus lived a sinless and perfectly righteous life. He perfectly imaged the Father and perfectly fulfilled all the terms of covenant with God.

Then, in the greatest act of love and righteousness, Jesus died on a criminal’s cross, offering His life in place of sinners. He took the death we deserve. Now, through His death, we can have forgiveness and life.

God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

-Romans 5:8

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. -Romans 5:18

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

-Romans 8:1

Jesus died for sinners! But death was a feeble foe for the Son of God! For three days later Jesus burst from the grave, conquering death, vindicating the truth, and securing eternal life for all who would believe. Hallelujah!

There is no news that is greater than this gift freely given to mankind: that God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all (Romans 8:32). This news is the power of God unto salvation! This news is so powerful that through it Christ is reconciling the world unto God! The gospel is absolutely the most transformative truth and the greatest news that will ever circulate the globe.

But, if you stop here, the gospel is incomplete. What comes next may be uncomfortable, but it is imperative. The gospel demands a response. You must include how God expects people to respond to this news!

Gospel Part 4: Response

Remember what we earlier read from Acts. There, Paul said:

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. -Acts 17:30

God commands all people to repent. And from the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus has issued this same command.

Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

-Mark 1:14-15

Repentance and belief are two sides of the same coin; the coin called faith. We believe God is our Creator, that we are sinners who fall short, that Jesus died on the cross so we could be forgiven, and that He rose from the grave to defeat death. We believe!

And that belief drives us to repent. For if we truly believe that Jesus was shamed and brutalized for our sins, then why would we want to pile more sins upon His bloodied shoulders? Our belief drives us to forsake sin; to no longer walk in unbelief and rebellion, but to pursue a life of godliness and faith.

No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps sinning has either seen Him or known Him. -1 John 3:6

Daily forsaking sin and yearning to be more like Christ is repentance.

You can’t have repentance without belief. You can’t have belief without repentance. If we call people to believe without also calling them to repent, we will make false converts. They will never see Jesus in their lives nor know Him in their hearts. Repent and believe: that is what it means to have saving faith.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:9

God calls all people everywhere to repent, repent and believe in the gospel. But response to the gospel does not end at the initial moment of salvation. It means we surrender every part of our life for Christ to govern, rather than indulging in our selfish sins. Rather than believing in lies, we must surrender to Christ with every day, in every moment.

And part of the way we allow Christ to govern our lives is by taking every opportunity God gives us to share the gospel. For indeed, we are not just new creations in Christ, we are also Christ’s ambassadors. So we boldly share the gospel, calling people to respond.

I took a lot of time as I laid out the 4 parts of the gospel. When you are sharing the gospel with a friend, or a co-worker, it will likely not be appropriate to preach a sermon to them, as you have been listening to me do.

See if you can identify the 4 parts as you hear me give a much more condensed version of the gospel (God, Man, Christ, Response).

Your Creator is holy and righteous. Though He created you in His image, you are a rebellious sinner that has broken that image; and such rebellion earns His just and eternal condemnation. But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for our sins and provide a path to forgiveness. Then He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. All you must do is receive the free gift of faith - turn away from your sins and trust Jesus with every aspect of your life - and you will be saved, reconciled unto God.

That is a more condensed version of the gospel. Certainly you can condense it even further. And the gospel presentations I just gave, both the extended and condensed versions, were not personalized at all.

As we considered last week, it is important for you to carefully listen to the person you are talking to, ask lots of questions, seek to truly understand them and the lie they are believing. Then, with the lie discovered, discern the truth embedded within that lie. Gently and boldly begin applying the gospel shaped around the truth they believe. Again, I showed you an example of that last week.

This is how we can cater the gospel to an individual without compromising any of the four gospel elements. Because God has made the gospel to fit with the needs of every human heart.

When Jesus called the disciples, He told them that He would make them fishers of men. In our day, when we think of fishing, we think of recreation, something we do in our spare time. And that’s just how far too many Christians treat the Great Commission. But fishing was not this way when Jesus walked the shores of Galilee. Fishing was a full time job. It was demanding. It took expertise.

Therefore, if we are to be fishers of men, we need training, we need to practice, we can’t be afraid to be out all day and catch nothing, we can’t be afraid of rejection. We should be afraid of not being faithful to the calling bestowed on us by Christ, the King of heaven and earth!

We are fishers of men. We are ambassadors.

We need to make it our business to learn how to speak the gospel in a way appropriate to the context around us. We need to learn how to do this in a winsome way, a way that draws people in. And we need to both know how to boldly proclaim all the parts of the gospel and to proclaim with gentle love.

As ambassadors, we all should be working to become experts at sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, certain people will be more gifted than others in this area, but it would be sinful for you to feel so inadequate or ashamed that you stay silent.

Jesus said:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it…For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” -Mark 8:34-35,38

Therefore, like Paul writes, let us never be ashamed of the message of the gospel! It is the power of God unto salvation and through the gospel Jesus is reconciling the world unto God. What wonder that God has ordained to send us out as His ambassadors, that He is transforming the world through the message which we are all to herald.

Everyone Knows God

Romans 1:18-23

Immanuel – 9/18/22

Last week we began a new sermon series entitled “The Ministry of Reconciliation.” It is a series that is meant to give legs to many of the glories we beheld in Revelation. If God is making all things new, and He is largely doing it through His Church, then we had better be about it!

Last week, in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, we learn that God is reconciling the whole world back to Himself through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s an amazing truth! For unless God’s plan fails, the world is not going to burn, it is going to be reconciled to God!

But more than that – stunningly – God has entrusted to us, His Church, the ministry of reconciliation. God’s plan for this whole fallen world is that it would be reconciled back to Him through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the very gospel we hold and herald.

2 Corinthians 5 also clearly reveals our identity in Christ: we are new creations and we are ambassadors. You cannot be a new creation and not be an ambassador. You cannot be an ambassador unless you have been recreated. If you are in Christ, then you are both: new creations and ambassadors. Therefore, to neglect one or the other, is to neglect – or live in disobedience towards – your identity in Christ.

This sermon series focuses particularly on the ambassador side of your identity. It is meant to teach and train you to fulfill your calling as an ambassador working to reconcile the world unto God.

Today we consider another stunning truth. No matter how it may appear, no matter what you are told, everyone knows God. And I do not mean that everyone knows that God exists. I mean that everyone truly knows the one-and-only living God, the Christian God.

Purpose

How is it that everyone knows God?

What is it that everyone knows about God?

Why is it that no one appears to know about God?

How does this help us in our ministry of reconciliation?

Read Romans 1:18-23

Fundamental Principles

Before we get to the text, an illustration:

A cricket moves along the ground. You also move along the ground. A cricket needs food to stay alive. You also need food to stay alive. Crickets reproduce. People reproduce. Despite these similarities, and countless others we can deduce, you and the cricket are worlds apart. So much so that your commonalities are far outweighed by the vastness of your differences.

Yet, the difference between you and the cricket is miniscule, compared to the chasm between you and the omniscient, omnipotent, infinitely perfect, eternal God of the universe. It is much easier to relate to a cricket, and understand the being of a cricket, than it is to the Being that is God.

In fact, God is so otherly, so far beyond our reckoning, that it should be impossible for us to perceive Him. Like a cricket cannot comprehend the nature of a human, to an even greater degree, we cannot comprehend the nature of God.

Though those statements are completely true, you must realize that they are not entirely true. After all, the sermon is titled, “Everyone knows God.”

Truly, it should be impossible for us crickets to perceive the infinite God; except that God did two completely astounding things in order for us to know Him. And we find these two things at the very beginning of the story.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion…over all the earth”…So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…” -Genesis 1:26,27-28

First, God made us all in Him image. God placed parts of His nature inside of us. He hardwired Himself into us.

Therefore, as God’s image is within us, to know something true about ourselves is to know something true about God. And to know something true about God is to know something true about ourselves.

“There can be no separation between the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. To the extent that we know ourselves truly, to the extent that we know God truly; the two are inextricably moored. This is part of what it means to be image of God.”

-K. Scott Oliphint “Covenantal Apologetics” pg 43

God hardwired this into us. He hardwired the knowledge of Himself into our very being. This means that we cannot truly live unless His image is being expressed within us. If His image is broken, we are broken. If we attempt to kill His image, we attempt eternal suicide.

The second thing that God did so we would know Him, is that He condescended. God blessed Adam and Eve, and He spoke a purpose to them. The very moment God spoke to man, He had to condescend through the vastness that separates us; so we could relate to Him and He to us, so that we could have a relationship. God wanted to condescend, so He created us to need relationship with Him.

And that relationship is fundamentally covenantal. Meaning, God blesses us and we are all obligated to worship Him and obey Him. And we primarily do this by having dominion through imaging Him. So, from the very beginning, God created us to be covenantal beings. If we want blessing from God, if we want a life that is fulfilling and joyful, if we want relationship with the Almighty, then we are obligated to worship and obey Him.

Promise on one side, obligation on the other – that’s the nature of covenant. But make no mistake, this is fundamentally founded on love. God promises to love us, through pouring out blessing a favor. In return, we are to love Him, through worship and obedience.

Our relationship to God is nothing like our relationship to crickets, because our relationship to God is fundamentally covenantal.

Therefore, every human being is bound by nature and bound by covenant, to worship and serve our Creator. And because this is how our first parents were created, imaging God and fulfilling the terms of the covenant was as easy as breathing.

That is, until the fall. With sin, God’s image was corrupted and the covenant broken. Then, like unknowing crickets, Adam and Eve immediately tried to hide from their Maker. But there is nowhere to escape the eye of God. In an attempt to kill the image of God, we had killed ourselves. The punishment for sin was, and always will be, death. Because not only is sin an offense against God, but it destroys our very nature.

In time, at the fulness of time, God condescended even farther. He became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus perfectly imaged the Father and fulfilled the terms of every covenantal obligation. He, the perfect man, then stood in the place of the image breakers and covenant destroyers. He died our death, the death of a shamed criminal and a condemned rebel.

Now all who place their trust in Jesus, surrendering their brokenness and corruption unto Him, are reconciled to God. We are justified according to the covenant, and we are transformed – from one degree of glory to another – into the image of the Son of God; we are reconciled to God and He reconciled us to our true nature. We can truly have peace.

Now, to all who have been reconciled, Christ calls us into the world as new creations and ambassadors. We speak these glories to the dead and dying, that they might have life, that they might be reconciled unto God.

Now that we have established some fundamental principles, let’s return to our text.

Read vs 18-19

Knowing God

In verse 19, Paul makes an absolutely earth-shattering claim: What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. The “them” in Paul’s statement, is found in verse 18: all godless and unrighteous men. And since we know from Romans 3:10 that no one is righteous, all godless and unrighteous men is all humanity. Paul is unashamedly stating that everyone knows God.

Once more, Paul is not claiming that everyone knows God exists, or has a sense that there is some higher power. No, Paul is talking about true knowledge of the true God. Knowledge of the God of the Bible, the only God, is plain to every single person. Everyone knows God as God truly is.

In fact, the word for known, as in what can be known about God, the Greek is gnostos. It means “to apprehend with certainty”; to know beyond a shadow of a doubt. That’s the kind of knowledge Paul says every human has regarding the Christian God.

It really is quite a claim. Then, in the next verse, Paul reveals exactly what it is that every person knows about God.

Read vs 20

Since the beginning of time, and from within the core of our being, every human knows three things about God: He is eternal, He is all powerful, and understands His divine nature. This last term, divine nature, is quite a general category. All the attributes of God are found within His divine nature. This means that everyone knows that God is love, He is good, He is omniscient, He is holy, He is merciful, He is Judge, and on and on.

And because we bear the image of God, we can see reflections of God in the things that He has made. Just as Paul writes, we clearly perceive knowledge of God through the things that God has made. God’s goodness in a summer rain, His power in a thunderclap, His beauty in a sunset, His love in a babbling baby. We humans see it all and we know from where is has come.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. -Psalm 19:1-3

David writes that every day, all day, creation declares the glories of God. The last sentence of this passage means that there is not a single living person who does not hear creation’s declaration.

Again, every person knows God as God truly is; which is exactly why Paul writes – at the end of verse 20 – that all men are without excuse. So when you think of people in a remote Amazonian village, or those growing up in an Islamic society, know that they have enough knowledge embedded within them to have a covenantal relationship with God. They may not know the name of Jesus, but they certainly know about their Creator. All men are without excuse.

Ok, we have now thoroughly answered the question, “How is it that everyone knows God?” (1) We know God because He created us in His image, (2) He created us to be covenantal, (3) and we can see knowledge of Him reflected back to us through creation.

We know God because we are absolutely swimming in knowledge of Him: from the depths of our being (image bearers), springing out of our desires (which are intrinsically covenantal), streaming in from every corner of the universe (creation).

Also we have mostly answered the question What is it that everyone knows about God? In short, everyone truly knows the divine nature of God. But there is one more thing that everyone knows about God. And this is not knowledge that came with creation. This knowledge came with the fall.

Read vs 18

The fallenness of the world, the suffering of humanity, so much of what could be, isn’t; all of it points to the same, singular reality. It is heaven revealing that God’s wrath is against all the unrighteousness and the ungodliness of men.

You may ask, why is there so much suffering in the world? Because we are so deeply sinful. We were meant to image God as we exercised dominion. But because we have corrupted His image, everything under our dominion is likewise corrupted. The internal corruption we feel, is externally expressed in the corruption of our world. This cause and effect is the expression of God’s wrath. It is the consequence of a broken covenant.

Now we see that man clearly knows 2 things about God.

We know the nature of God (eternal, powerful, divine).

We know God’s wrath is extended towards us because we are ungodly.

This is the knowledge that every human being has of God, the knowledge that God has hardwired into us. Just as Adam and Eve discovered, God is definitively inescapable.

And because knowledge of God is part of our nature, and we are unable to escape it, we defiantly suppress that knowledge. Like verse 18 says, we suppress the truth.

Suppressing the Truth

Why does every single human willingly suppress the truth? Because, like Adam and Eve, we know we have been exposed and we are deeply ashamed. We hate it that we are not good enough. We hate it that God’s wrath is coming for us. And because we cannot escape these shameful realities, we do everything we can to deny them, to pretend like they don’t exist. We use lies like little fig leaves, and try to hide what is so nakedly true.

We suppress the truth of God, and we suppress the truth of ourselves.

This is why no one seems to know about God. Everyone has exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And humans are so profoundly good at self-delusion. We latch on to a lie so completely that it seems utterly true, to ourselves and to everyone around us.

But such self-delusion is absurd. Everyone believing in a lie does nothing to rescue you from the truth. And suppression of the truth has grave consequences.

For when we suppress the truth about God, and therefore suppress the truth about ourselves, we end up at war with our very identities. And we turn our world upside down seeking what is forever unattainable: autonomy. We are covenantal beings, made for relationship with God. Autonomy is diametrically opposed to our nature. Thus, we create for ourselves a world of delusion and lies, a world of futility and brokenness, a world of darkness.

And is this not the world that we see all around us. Men truly believing they are women and women truly believing they are men, murder of the unborn labeled a human right, the powerful profiting from the powerless.

Such suppression of truth, such darkness, is the expression of foolish hearts.

Read vs 21-23

There is no room in the Christian worldview for an agnostic; for someone who is unsure of the existence of God. Such ignorance does not exist. There is only truth and the willing suppression of truth: the refusal to acknowledge God as God truly is.

This means that, according to Scripture, all agnostics, all those who place their faith in science, all Buddhists, Mormons, Muslims, non-Messianic Jews, all who do not fear God, all are gathered together and categorized as atheistic: deniers of the true and living God. We have all exchanged the truth of God for a lie. We’ve sold the glory of the immortal God for the fleeting things we can see, touch, and taste.

And once more, we are all without excuse, because we would rather have 30 pieces of silver rather than the glory of God. No one is guilty of ignorance. All are guilty of rebellion. All are enemies of God. All will face His wrath.

As Paul writes to the Ephesians:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. -Ephesians 2:1-3

Because of who we are, from our deepest desires to our most fleeting thoughts, all are touched by the lie. Sin pervades everything. This is the same as saying that we are totally deprave. We are, by nature, children of wrath. And it certainly does not look like everyone knows God.

Ok, we have answered the first three questions. We know how it is that we all know God. We know what it is that we know about God. And we know why no one appears to know God.

Ministry of Reconciliation

Now let us answer the final question. How does all of this help us in our ministry of reconciliation?

Because we have what every human heart desperately desires. We have the gospel. And whether people know it or not, the gospel satisfies the deepest longing of the human heart: the longing to be reconciled to God.

But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. -Romans 5:8-11

Look at all the antidotes to the sinful condition in this passage! When we deserved wrath, God showed His love by giving His one and only Son. When we were covenantally condemned, Christ justified us with His own blood. When we were dead, God gave us life. This is the greatest news possible; we sinners can be reconciled unto God!

The problem is that unbelievers may not realize the goodness of the gospel. They believe in the lie so thoroughly that they are lost in the darkness of self-delusion. They are blind to the truth. They are unable to see the light.

Therefore, if we are going to be successful ministers of reconciliation, we need to show people the Gospel. We are covenantal beings, made to have relationship with God, and every time we speak Scripture, God condescends once more, speaking to His image bearers, calling them back into covenant. The very fabric of our being comes alive as we hear God’s word.

Either that, or we recoil, remembering the truth and the coming wrath.

Regardless of the outcome, if we are going to be effective ambassadors, we need to show people God’s word, not our opinions.

To be effective ambassadors, we need to be able to diagnose the unbelieving condition. We understand that everyone knows God, we understand what it is that people know about God, and we understand that everyone suppresses that truth.

And because we know this, we immediately have an advantage. We understand the unbelieving position better than the vast majority of unbelievers.

But, usually, we do not deal with categories of people. We deal with individuals. Therefore, we need to be able to diagnose the unbelieving condition of the particular person you are talking to. What is the particular way that person is suppressing the truth of God? What is the lie they are believing?

So, when you are engaging with an unbeliever, it is your job to listen carefully and ask lots of questions. Truly try to understand their way of thinking. Because, because they are covenantal beings created in the image of God they cannot escape the truth. Embedded within their lies are actual truths: truths about themselves, truths about the world, truths about God.

Brothers and sisters, those truths are what we are looking for. What are the truths embedded within their lies? If we can identify them, then – with prayer and the Spirit’s guidance – we can gently offer God’s word shed the light on their lie. That tiny truth is a potential highway to the much larger truth of all reality, the truth of God.

It is impossible to explore all the ways we can do this, but I want to give you one example of how this might work. To be sure, this is example is far more simplistic than real life, but for the sake of this sermon, it gives you an idea.

After speaking and listening with someone at length, you come to understand that because they believe they have endured so much pain, how on earth could God love them?

Identify the lie: If pain exists, God is not loving. God is certainly not loving towards me.

Identify the truth embedded within the lie: Pain does exist, and it is a terrible problem.

Pray. Ask for the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Before responding, remember that we are covenantal beings, and we are covenantal because God condescended. So how is their lie undone by God’s condescension through the gospel?

Gently answer with gospel principles:

Pain does exist, and it is a terrible problem. Almost everything we humans do is an attempt to escape pain. But God entered our pain by becoming a man in the person of Jesus Christ.

He endured every hardship common to humanity, and then the very worst of suffering and shame as He was crucified on a criminal’s cross. This was a demonstration of God’s great love for you. He loved you so much that He sent His one and only Son to soak up all the suffering we deserve.

And if we believe in Him, we will not perish, but have eternal life; an eternal life where God will wipe away every tear and every sorrow. He will take this broken world and make all things new.

If the Spirit so chooses, the very fabric of that person’s being will come alive as they hear God’s word offered with gospel application. Either that, or they will recoil, remembering the truth and the coming wrath.

Regardless of acceptance or rejection, such a strategy will help every ambassador of Christ fulfill the ministry of reconciliation. This is how we can hear the unbeliever’s words and respond to their heart.

Everyone is made in God’s image and are covenantal beings. Therefore, every knows God as God truly is. But every unbeliever suppressed the truth of God and believes in a lie.

But because we cannot escape the truth of God, make it your habit to identify truths embedded within lies. Apply the gospel to those truths. See what the Holy Spirit does next. Such is the task of the ambassador of Christ. Such is the ministry of reconciliation.

Ambassadors

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Immanuel – 9/11/22

Though we are beginning a new sermon series today, we are not beginning something new. This sermon series is meant to be a continuation, a follow-up, of the book of Revelation. Because, of the many glories we beheld in Revelation, I know that I have been gripped by the immense and important responsibility Christ has given to His Church. I hope you have likewise been gripped.

Revelation tells us that unquestioningly, Jesus Christ is the victor of history and the hope of the nations. There is no salvation apart from Him. There is no eternal life without Him. And today He reigns on Heaven’s throne.

As Peter writes: Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him.

-1 Peter 3:21-22

Jesus is King over the power of sin; He offers freedom and forgiveness to all who come to Him. He is the King over the power of death; He offers eternal life to those who entrust their lives to Him. Additionally, angels, demons, and all spiritual beings have been subjected to Jesus. Ever since Christ’s ascension, Jesus reigns as the indisputable King of heaven!

But heaven is not the only place that falls under Christ’s domain. Revelation showed us that Jesus’ kingdom unites heaven and earth; for at the moment of the cross, Jesus began to draw heaven and earth together. Like we read in Revelation 11:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” -Revelation 11:15

Yes, since Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension; He forever reigns over heaven and over earth. Just before ascending to Heaven’s throne, Jesus said,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” -Matthew 28:18

In no uncertain terms, Jesus is clearly declaring that He is the supreme King of heaven and earth.

I think we have an easier time understanding how this works in heaven – clearly Jesus rules sin, death, angels, and demons – but we have a harder time understanding how Jesus currently is King of the earth. Just take two seconds to look around our world and you cannot escape the evil, misery, disaster, and death that pervades. Is this all a part of Christ’s kingdom?

The answer is yes, and no. The writer of Hebrews put it rather simply:

Now in putting everything in subjection to [Jesus], [God] left nothing outside of His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him.

-Hebrews 2:8

Do you hear what Hebrews is teaching? Everything is already subjected to the reign of Jesus, yet it does not always appear that way. The kingdom of Jesus has come, and it is yet to come. It is here, and it is coming here more completely, more fully.

Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” -Matthew 13:31-32

So how does how does this mustard seed grow? How is the kingdom of God filling the garden in which we all live? How are we able to see, to ever increasing degrees, that Jesus is King over heaven and earth?

God has ordained that this seed grow, that His kingdom increase, that Christ’s reign expand, through the mission and work of the Church. As the Body of Christ expands, matures, and conquers; the transformative power of the gospel is remaking the world. The Church is God’s agent of advancing the kingdom of heaven upon the earth.

Or, you might say, in Christ God is reconciling the world to Himself, and we – the Church – have been given the ministry of reconciliation.

Purpose

Cast vision for this sermon series, and the Christian life.

God’s purpose for the Church is to reconcile the world to Himself.

Your identity is tied to that purpose.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

God’s ultimate purpose for all of creation, and therefore for every living being, is to glorify Him. As Paul writes to the Romans:

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. -Romans 11:36

All creation, in heaven and on earth, has been created to glorify God. We saw this beautifully pictured multiple times in Revelation as all creation erupts in worship around the throne and the Lamb.

But beneath that great, ultimate purpose, there are penultimate purposes – purposes that accomplish the greater purpose.

You see, on planet earth, there are particular ways through which God plans to accomplish His ultimate purpose. Our passage today contains two of the clearest, most profound statements of how God intends to glorify Himself on earth. These two purposes are not divorced from one another, but work together like a husband and a wife, like a head and a body, like a melody and a harmony.

First, the melody. The melody is the center of the song, it draws you in, gets stuck in your head, stays with you. The song glorifies God, but the melody carries the tune through which He is glorified.

The melody is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Read vs 19a

I want you to notice that this is the center of the passage, both physically and spiritually. This is the melody, the center of the song. Today, we will start here and build out from it.

And this is how the melody of our song sounds…

When sin entered the world, humanity fell away from God. Ever since, each person is a broken sinner: a sinner by birth and a sinner by choice. We are enemies of God. And because of our rebellion against God, all physical creation was subjected to futility (as Paul writes in Romans 8:20). Our corruption spilled out upon the earth in thorns and death.

For indeed, death is the consequence of sin, and all of us sinners deserve to die.

But out of the devastation of the fall, a melody began to rise, reaching crescendo when God the Son became a man. The melody of creation is that God is reconciling the fallen world to Himself through Jesus. All this to His glory!

And do you see how He does this? It says it right there in verse 19. By not counting their trespasses against them.

God is reconciling the world to Himself by forgiving sinners. He is turning enemies into allies and rebels into family. And this happens through Jesus. How in the world does that happen through Jesus? Verse 21 tells us.

Read vs 21

That is the message of the gospel. On the cross Jesus chose to sacrifice His perfect life on behalf of ours. All the sins of the elect were placed upon His shoulders; He then suffered our shame, our separation, our death. He became sin, when we were the sinners; and He suffered the consequences we have earned.

But it does not end there! Behold, from an empty grave bursts the gospel of Jesus Christ, soaring to highest heights of heaven, where we are seated with Christ (Ephesians 2:6). 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that Christ has given His own righteousness to all who believe.

You were wretched, pitiable, and poor, yet God has flooded you with the extravagance of His love. Once wretched, now beloved. Once pitiable, now lights of the world. Once poor, now possessing everything.

Is there no measure to the generosity and love of our God!? Let us, with hearts united, glorify our great God through the melody of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, seated upon the throne as King over all the earth.

Jesus became sin so that you could become the righteousness of God! This is a transformation so complete, so exhaustive, that Scripture calls it new creation.

Read vs 17

Jesus reconciles you to God through recreating you. For when He gives you the Holy Spirit, faith springs to life, and you are made new – born of the Spirit.

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” -John 3:3,5-6

If you are in Christ, the Spirit is in you, and God has recreated you. Behold, the old has passed away and the new has come! Paul so thoroughly understood this that he could write:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. -Galatians 2:20

Being a new creation means that everything is different. You no longer live like you once did, like a person enslaved to sinful desires and selfish pursuits. Now you live as one who has died to sin and lives unto Christ, pursuing the things of Christ and His kingdom. You have been made new.

This is the God-glorifying melody of the gospel.

But there is another part, a harmony. For immediately after the crescendo, when God became flesh, the harmony enters the song. This is the second penultimate purpose found in our passage today; another and complimentary way through which God is glorifying Himself.

Read vs 18

God has given us – the Church – the ministry of reconciliation. Let’s put that another way. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself; and the way He is accomplishing that is through the mission and work of the church. We carry the harmony and have been given the ministry of reconciliation.

The melody is Christ and His gospel, the harmony is the Church going to the ends of the earth proclaiming that gospel. Look how verse 20 builds on that.

Read vs 20

Because we have been given the ministry of reconciliation, we are ambassadors for Christ. In case you were unaware, to be an ambassador is to be a high-ranking diplomat temporarily sent to a foreign country in order to represent, uphold, and advance the interests of a home country. And we know, from Revelation, that our home country is the New Jerusalem, the kingdom of God.

Therefore, we live in this world to represent, uphold, and advance the interests of the kingdom of God.

But here’s the difference between the kingdoms of men and the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is coming to rule the kingdoms of men, because Jesus is already the King of the earth! We are not going away to a different home, our home is coming here. We do not escape to a foreign land (or dimension) and wait for this place to burn.

Remember these words from Revelation:

He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

-Revelation 21:5

God’s recreative work starts with individuals, person by person, as God reconciles us to Himself through Jesus – as 2 Corinthians 5:18 says. But it doesn’t stop with individuals. It doesn’t even stop with nations. Again, like it says in verse 19, God purposes to reconcile the world to Himself. God reconciling the world to Himself, and God making all things new, are the same thing.

God is not going to make everything new by destroying it and starting over, but He will make all things new by reconciling the world to Himself through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we are ambassadors sent to transform this earthly kingdom into the heavenly kingdom; the heavenly kingdom that is already here and coming in greater and great waves.

Every person that receives the gospel of Jesus Christ and is filled with the Holy Spirit, is a person that has entered and expanded the kingdom of God. Every broken family that is reconciled to God and reconciled to each other, is territory conquered by the kingdom of God. Care Net’s buildings in Utica and Illion were once used to perform abortions, now they are used to save the unborn: the kingdom of God advancing. Iran, one of the most anti-God and oppressive governments in the world, is today rapidly decaying as earth’s largest revival moves like wildfire through its population: the kingdom of God advancing.

Every one of these examples, and the countless more that are out there, are happening at the hands of the ambassadors of the kingdom of God. Jesus is working through His Body. God is reconciling the world to Himself through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are the ambassadors carrying that gospel.

God’s purpose for the church is to reconcile the world to Himself. The gospel is the melody. The gospel proclaiming, Spirit-filled Church, is the harmony. The song is to the glory of the Father!

Now, let us consider how this great purpose is inextricably linked to our identity. Again, look at verse 17.

Read vs 17

Every Christian has a new identity: we are new creations. Once we were children of wrath, now we are adopted sons and daughters of God. The comfortable, unconcerned, selfish individuals that we were, have passed away. What has come are newly created people – forgiven and reconciled – that love, serve, and give their lives away for the sake of others, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” -Mark 8:34-35

Jesus said we will lose your old life and live in a whole new way. Indeed, we are new creations, living in a new way. We no longer live for self, as the rest of the world does, we live unto Christ. We follow Him even if it means we lose our physical lives, for we know these physical lives are short and momentary compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits in life everlasting.

But that is not where our identity in Christ ends. There is a second part to our identity found in today’s passage. For to be made new, is to be made into something new. To be a new creation does not mean that the work is finished, and you get to sit around content with your newness. There is a new way to live now, a new purpose meant to grip your new life.

The second part of our identity in Christ is clearly stated in the beginning of verse 20. We are new creations and we are ambassadors. We’ve already discussed what it means to be an ambassador. We live in this world to represent, uphold, and advance the interests of the kingdom of God.

As ambassadors, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. The reconciliation that God wills for the world, He entrusts to us.

Ok, I know that I have labored this point. But that’s because we need it to be drilled into our heads. We need it to penetrate our hearts. We need it to shape out lives. Because here is what this means: you cannot be a new creation in Christ and not also be an ambassador. You cannot be an ambassador for Christ if you are not a new creation in Christ. You cannot have one without the other.

If you are truly in Christ, then you rejoice in the fact that He has made you new, that you have been saved, that you are forgiven and redeemed and reconciled unto God. You know these things and they are your joy, to the glory of God!

But are you equally stirred that you are an ambassador of Christ, that God has entrusted to you the ministry of reconciliation – the ministry that unites heaven and earth? What an incredible job we have been given!

I hope you are. Because there is a lot of work to do. There is an enormous task before us. The whole world reconciled unto God, is a task far too great to any person or any local church. But what we can do is think about our own local context over which we have direct influence.

Let’s consider our local context for a moment. Immanuel’s population lives primarily in Oneida County, with a number coming from Herkimer Country. I want to share with you the latest census data about the population in these two counties.

Area

Population

Percent Protestant

Population Protestant

Percent Lost

Population Lost

Oneida

229,577

7.5%

17,218

92.5%

212,359

Herkimer

61,833

13.9%

8,595

86.1%

53,238

Totals

291,410

8.9%

25,813

91.1%

265,597

New York

20.22 Million

11%

2,224,200

89%

17,997,800

According to information from the 2020 census.

These numbers are troubling and the amount of souls passing into eternal destruction is staggering. Clearly, we can see that there is an incredible task before us, a great burden of responsibility that God has placed on our shoulders; for He has placed us ambassadors here, in this moment, to tell these people about how to be reconciled to God.

But here is a hopeful thought: if we put all of our lives together right now, and add together all of our families, friends, classmates, coworkers, neighbors; we have access to influence around 5,000 of these people. That’s without going out of our way.

Imagine what would happen if just 50 of them were reconciled unto God, and made new. They would likewise become ambassadors, spreading the good news of the kingdom of God to their different areas of influence. Then those disciples make more disciples, and so on. It is the model of the New Testament: disciples making disciples.

Here is an assumption of mine: most of us feel some form of guilt for not evangelizing more, or better. We have made too few disciples. We have not been able to live out the Great Commission as we want to.

In our context, I believe there are three reasons for a lack of evangelization.

Laziness. We are too comfortable. Telling people about Jesus is uncomfortable. Leave it to the evangelists and pastors, they are the professionals. But no, you are ambassadors. The job is yours. It is your identity as new creations in Christ. You must be about it!

Fear. Some of us run a real risk of losing friends or jobs or reputations by talking about Jesus. But Jesus said that we must take up our cross and follow Him. For if we try to save our lives, or our reputations, we will lose them. Be courageous in Christ the King, who possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. If He is for you, then who can be against you?

Ill Equipped. You want to be a better ambassador, but you don’t know how. You are not confident in what to say. You don’t know who to approach and how. You might feel like you’ve been dropped into the middle of a song, and you know the song, but you have no idea how to play your instrument.

Laziness and fear are conquered through listening to the word of God and obeying. Trust Jesus, follow Him, and overcome laziness and fear.

Through this sermon series, and a class soon coming to Immanuel, I want every person in this church to be trained. I want you to be able to identify who to approach with the gospel. And when you do, I want you to have effective words. I want your evangelistic confidence to grow so that you can be dynamic ambassadors for Christ, new creations bringing new creation.

Next week will begin thinking about the people around us. The Bible tells us that all of them, regardless of how it appears, all of them know God.

Then we will consider the message we carry, the gospel.

The first Sunday of October we will think about how to clearly tell people about the gospel.

Then, what do we do when someone is receptive.

And on we will go from there.

We have been reconciled to God. We are new creations in Christ. We have been caught up in the melody, in God’s great purpose to reconcile the world to Himself through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have been given the part of the harmony. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God and everywhere we go we are to declare this message:

Read vs 20b-21

Jesus is King of the earth, and people need to know!