Transcript:

The Abounding Harvest

Luke 10:1-20, John 4:34-38, Matthew 13:24-30

Immanuel - 11/6/22

As a follow-up to the sermon series on Revelation, we have been considering the Church’s ministry of reconciliation. In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul declares that God is reconciling the world to Himself. This is His world, and He will not allow it to be lost or destroyed. No! He is reconciling it to Himself. In fact (marrying two passages), for God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, to reconcile sinners to Himself.

And since Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father – as King of heaven and earth – He sends out His Church as ambassadors. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Our work is to reconcile this world unto God through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are Christ’s ambassadors. If we are going to live as faithful ambassadors, then we need to understand how to do our job, how to speak our message, and how to understand our context. Such has been the goal of this sermon series. I want you all to be equipped for the work of the ministry of reconciliation.

Today we are going to look at a series of parables in which Jesus illustrates our evangelistic calling with images of a harvest: Luke 10:1-20, John 4:34-38, Matthew 13:24-30.

Purpose

1. The harvest parables informs our ministry of reconciliation.

2. It is time for the laborers to reap the harvest!

3. Three effects of reaping.

Read Luke 10:1-20

The last time we visited this passage, we focused on the particulars of Jesus’ commission to the 72. As the disciples go out, they carry the gospel with them. As they come near, so comes the kingdom of God.

Even today, the kingdom of God is near, as close as your breath, as present as this room. It is entered and experienced through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was true then, it is true now.

Grievously, there will be many who greet the gospel of the kingdom of God with indifference or hostility. It might sound harsh, but Jesus instructs His disciples not to waste their time on such people. Elsewhere, Jesus said,

“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” -Matthew 7:6

Neither should we cast the treasures of the kingdom to those who would only trample them underfoot. Instead, we move on. Find the person of peace who will welcome you and your message. They are the ones in whom we should invest our energy and resources.

Those were some of the particulars we considered. Today will now zoom out for a larger, more universal view. There we will see a bigger picture of the ministry of reconciliation.

I told you that we would be looking at some of Jesus’ parables; but, to be sure, Luke 10:1-20 is not a parable, it’s a narrative. And yet, embedded within it is a short, mini parable. We find it in verse 2.

Read vs 2

Image and Truth

There’s the parable. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” And we are going to dive deeply into it.

Jesus says the harvest is plentiful. To see just how abounding it is, let’s put ourselves inside Jesus’ image for a moment.

Imagine being surrounding by fields, fields that stretch to the horizon, fields in all directions. All these crops are ready to be harvested. Yes, harvesting is hard work, but finding where to harvest is the easiest thing in the world. Step in any direction and find the harvest. Reach down in any place and pull up ripe grain.

Yet as you survey the harvest – exciting as it may be – you cannot help but be overcome by the overwhelming task, for only several other workers dot the golden landscape. Let’s say you count 71 in your sight. You know that over the horizon the fields continue. Cross the oceans and still find ready harvest. Even if you, and a thousand more, work yourself to the bone, and spend your whole life gathering harvest, you will barely make a dent.

This is the kind of harvest Jesus speaks of; and the implication is that you are surrounded by fields, fields stretching to the horizon, fields in all directions.

There are many passages where Jesus employs elements of this same imagery. Let’s go to our second harvest parable for today.

Read John 4:34-38

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” -John 4:34-38

Again, the harvest is plentiful and ready. Here, Jesus says it is white for harvest. In this passage Jesus is saying now is the time for harvest. When Jesus spoke these words, it had eschatological significance. The prophet Amos applied such an abounding harvest to the new covenant age (Amos 9:11-15).

The disciples did not need to wait, they were living in the dawning of the new covenant. It was harvest time. It was time to work. It’s why Jesus told them to proclaim, “The kingdom of God has come near you (Luke 10:9).”

And, it is why Paul wrote, Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. -2 Corinthians 6:2

The disciples lived in the dawning of the new covenant. They were the firstfruits. The first grains to be harvested. In 2022, the new covenant Son has fully ascended and abundantly shines God’s favor upon sinners. How much more is the favorable time now? How much more is today the day of salvation?

Yes, the fields are just as white today as they were in Jesus’ day. There is no reason to think the harvest is not yet here. And God has appointed us, each one of us, to reap this abounding harvest.

Jesus told the disciples that His food was to do the will of the Father. Obedience sustained Jesus, energized Him, satisfied Him. Obeying the Father is the highest height of Jesus’ soul.

In the context of John 4:34, Christ is talking specifically about His obedience to gather in the harvest. God sent Jesus to gather in the elect, so Jesus lays down His life for the mission. And as the Son of God dies for the elect, the Father is deeply pleased in His Son’s self-sacrificial love. And to have the favor of the Father is the Son’s greatest pleasure. It was the joy set before Him.

Jesus went before us, to show us what it means to obey the Father and bring glory to God. Just as He laid down His life, 1 John 3:16 tells us that we should also lay down our lives. Just as Jesus devoted His life to gathering in the harvest, so should we devote our lives to gathering in the harvest.

To do so is to fulfill the Great Commission, is to be faithful ministers of reconciliation. To do so is to obey the Father and Son.

Now, let’s look at just some of the elements in Christ’s parables and apply their real-world meaning. So, we’re going to strip away the imagery because we want to be as simple and clear as possible to truly understand what Jesus is telling His Church.

· The fields represent the world.

· The crops are the people that fill the world.

· The plants that are ready to be harvested are people ready to receive the kingdom of God. They are ready to come to Jesus in faith.

· We – the ambassadors of Christ, the people of the Church – are the labors; we gather in the harvest.

· The seed that is scattered and the sickle to gather, both are gospel proclamation.

Once we step out of the image, it becomes painfully obvious that this is just an illustration; and no single illustration can capture the complexity of the real world. Life is messy, and never exactly the same as what a single image can convey. This is one reason Jesus gives us so many different images.

For instance, though there is an abounding harvest, Jesus also tells we don’t just encounter only good and ripe crops. There are also weeds.

Read Matthew 13:24-30

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” -Matthew 13:24-30

This is certainly an added layer of complexity to the Great Commission. As we proclaim the gospel, weeds will come in with the harvest. Stripping away the imagery: people will positively respond to the gospel, they will appear as if they belong to the church, but they are weeds.

They have not come to Jesus recognizing their own sinfulness and helplessness, seeking forgiveness and life; they have come to feed their own self-righteousness and religiosity. They are such good hypocrites that no man can properly sort them out. Only God, who judges the heart, knows the wheat from the weeds.

So it will always be in this new covenant age. This is why we receive warnings to look into the depths of our own souls.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. -Philippians 2:12-13

Notice the link between knowledge of salvation and obedience. Let the weeds of the Church hear the warning of Christ’s parable: if you do not repent, and in faith, obey, you will be gathered up and burned!

But for us who are new creations in Christ, there is a helpful application here. As you share the gospel and people come to faith (perhaps even in your own family) but later they fall away; do not rack yourself with guilt. It is not your fault that anyone turn away from God. In these parables, their turning away proves they are weeds. It is not that they lost their salvation, it is that they were never wheat to begin with.

Note, the weeds are only categorized as weeds at the judgement, at the sorting. Sometimes it is hard to tell if a person is a weed, or a wheat bearing fruit, until then. Because as long as it is called today, they can be saved. Weeds can repent and become wheat, entering the kingdom of God!

3 Effects of Reaping

Now, let us consider three effects of reaping. Remember, proclaiming the gospel is how God’s laborers reap, and gather in the harvest. Jesus tells us three things will happen when we faithfully proclaim the gospel. For this we will return to Luke 10:1-20.

Read vs 3

1. You Will Be Hated

When you proclaim the gospel, as Christ’s faithful ambassadors, some people will hate you for it. They will treat you as ravenous wolves treat helpless sheep.

No one wants to hear that they are not good enough; that they are evil. Even worse, no one wants to hear that their most authentic self earns condemnation from God.

This is precisely why Jesus went to the cross, to face God’s wrath so we would not have to. He died the death we all deserve. Then He rose from the grave, defeating death, and ascended to heavens throne as our Lord.

Now, if we would repent and believe that Jesus gave Himself for us, God forgives us and brings us into His kingdom. He became sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

This is the gospel, and it tells us that our identity, apart from Christ, is evil and condemned. But everyone who is in Christ is a new creation, and given a new identity: sons and daughters of God, ambassadors of Jesus Christ, ministers of reconciliation.

Still, our depravity is a critical element of the gospel, because it shows us that we need a salvation we cannot achieve for ourselves. We need a Savior. This fits into what Paul calls the “offense of the cross” (Galatians 5:11). And it is for this that people will hate us.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that His followers would be reviled, falsely accused, and persecuted. And remember what Jesus said about throwing our pearls before pigs? If we are not careful, we could get ourselves attacked. In other words, as we proclaim the gospel, some people will treat us as ravenous wolves treat helpless sheep.

Or, they will try. We are helpless only in the sense that we will not revert to dishonest tactics nor pick up arms and fight. We are not entirely helpless.

Listen to the parallel that we read in Luke 10:3.

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” -Matthew 10:16

I’m going to paraphrase this: when sharing the gospel, don’t be an idiot. You can get yourself into a lot of trouble by indiscriminate gospel sowing. You can get others into trouble too. In this room, some of you could lose your jobs, alienate loved ones, get kicked out of organizations, and have all kinds of hateful things said about you.

These things may happen because you have been a faithful ambassador. But, it is possible that these things happen because you have been cavalier, your have rushed situations, you have been unnecessarily forceful, or other hasty and foolish tactics. The way of wisdom is to boldly maximize your ministry of reconciliation, while minimizing the collateral damage.

Again, for faithful gospel proclamation, there may be real life consequences. But the consequences we may have are dwarfed by what other flocks face.

There was one particular moment this past year that I will never forget. I was in the Middle East, and the group I was with had just finished training some brothers and sisters how to be ambassadors in their own country, a country other than the one we were all presently in, a country where Christians regularly disappear. If their government catches them laboring to bring in the harvest, they face consequences that only hide in the shadows of our American nightmares.

Before we parted, and they prepared to smuggle the kingdom of God back into their country, I and the other Americans circled around them in prayer. The weight of what they were walking into was heavy on all of us. We all prayed. I prayed Matthew 10:16 over them: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” As they faced the possibility of death, this verse came alive.

Surely, we can bear our American dangers for the sake of the gospel! For what good is it to gain the whole world and lose our own souls (Mark 8:36)? If people hate us for speaking about our great, reconciling God, then we are blessed; for our reward is great in heaven (Matthew 5:11-12)!

2. Ingathering

The second effect of gospel proclamation in our world is ingathering – the bringing in of the harvest. People believe in the gospel and are brought into the kingdom of God! They are saved. They become worshippers of the crucified, risen, and ascended King of all the earth. You, brothers and sisters, are a part of that ingathering.

But something strange happens to every grain that is gathered into the kingdom. They are immediately transformed from harvest to laborer. Everyone brought into the kingdom of God is expected to then turn around and work for the harvest, to become an ambassador.

According to the Great Commission; we believe, we are baptized, and we are taught to obey Jesus. In order to obey Jesus, we then go out to fulfill the Great Commission. The harvest becomes the harvesters.

In Luke 10:2, Jesus said we should be praying for laborers. Though there are a couple ways to understand this, I think Jesus primarily has in mind the very many fields where there are no, or nearly no laborers. There are hundreds of people groups, and millions upon millions of individuals that will never meet an ambassador of Christ. They need ambassadors to come to them!

Every other month we highlight one of these Unreached Unengaged People Groups (UUPG). Next week we will highlight the Kunbi people of India, an enormous field with nearly no laborers. As it stands today, nearly every single Kunbi person – more than 15 million – will live their whole life and never hear about their King, Christ Jesus. Pray that God would send laborers. Perhaps God would send you.

The harvest is exceedingly bountiful. Though there are weeds and wolves, there is no lack to the people that are receptive (yellow and green lights). According to Jesus, they are everywhere. All you need to do is believe Jesus, draw courage from His words, go out there and proclaim the gospel. You do not save, you speak. Swing the sickle of the gospel and be amazed at the ingathering!

The third effect of gospel proclamation is supernatural.

Read vs 17-20

3. The Felling of Satan

Jesus told the 72 that they would be like sheep among wolves. I imagine they set off on their mission with a heaviness upon them. But they return joyful and excited. They can’t believe that the demons are subject to them.

Let’s take a brief moment to consider what Satan, as the ruler of the demons, is trying to accomplish on the earth.

“When [Satan] lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” -John 8:44

“The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” -John 10:10

Hours before Jesus is arrested and crucified, He said,“I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.” -John 14:30-31

From these three passages, we can see that Satan is trying to rule this world, and he uses his unholy powers: lies, theft, murder, destruction.

Do you see how the gospel of the kingdom of God topples all these powers?

Satan’s lies are shattered by the eternal truths of the gospel. Where Satan tries to steal our joy and peace, the gospel offers heaven’s treasure of unceasing joy and peace that surpasses all understanding. Where Satan murders, Christ gives live, and life abundantly. Where Satan destroys, God makes all things new!

Satan’s feeble attempt to overthrow God have been thwarted. The ruler of the earth is not the devil. No. This earth belongs to the Lamb, standing though He was slain, the Lion of the tribe of Judah! To Him has been given all authority in heaven and on earth!

Satan is no king. He has fallen like lightning. The cords of the gospel have bound him and thrown him down. He has not been entirely vanquished. But so long as the gospel goes forth, the devil’s power to kill, steal, and destroy is ever diminishing!

Oh the power of the gospel of the kingdom of God! It offends the wicked, gathers the harvest, and binds the enemy. Through the gospel, God is transforming the world, reconciling it to Himself. Let us not be shy, then, in our proclamation. Let us with boldness and love, call all people everywhere to be reconciled to God.

Today is the day of salvation!

We live in the midst of an abounding harvest. You have been given the sickle and the time for reaping is now. The Lord of the harvest calls you to harvest!

The Discipling Church

Ephesians 4:11-16

Immanuel – 10/30/22

This is week eight of a sermon series entitled “The Ministry of Reconciliation.” Let us briefly review by considering where we began: our identity in Christ.

We live in a culture starved for identity. People lash their identity to their political party, to their class of oppression, to the likes on social media, to some pursuit of success, to their independent nature, or whatever else. But all these false gods cannot conquer our fears and they certainly cannot give life.

Only the True and Living God, our Creator, can vanquish fear and abundantly give life. And if we are in Christ, then we have come to that life. It is a life that has profound purpose. Through faith in Jesus, we have been given new life and a powerful identity: we are the ambassadors of Christ.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

With identity comes purpose. Again, from the first sermon in this series, we consider the highest of purposes.

The Creator of this world did not purpose His world for failure, to fall to the destructive schemes of the Devil. No, God is reconciling this world to Himself, and He purposes that His will, will be done, that His kingdom will come, that His name will be hallowed. As it is in heaven, so it will be on earth.

As we have just read, God is reconciling the world to Himself through the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are in Christ, then you have been gripped – body and soul – by that very gospel. And by the gospel, you have been reconciled unto God.

We considered this gospel in the third week of this series: 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. Jesus then 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.

God, Man, Christ, Response. God calls us – the reconciled – to carry this gospel message to all the nations, to the whole world, to our neighbors. We go to unashamedly proclaim the gospel and make disciples, even if it takes us into uncomfortable territory.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. -Romans 1:16

The gospel is like a mighty cable through which the power of God rushes electric into the heart of the unbeliever. And this divine gospel charge is so powerful that it takes what is dead and springs it to everlasting life. Through it you believe and through it God saves you. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5, God uses the gospel to recreate you – a new creation – an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

But we are not to be ambassadors in isolation; called to shoulder the weight of reconciliation all alone. It is more than individuals are meant to bear. We both represent Christ and disciple the nations more effectively when we come together in community. Christ intends His ambassadors to gather together in the community of the church.

We must understand that the Great Commission, and our calling as ambassadors, cannot be divorced from the community that Jesus has given to us, the community for which He died; the community of the church.

To be sure, we all belong to the Church Universal, the body of Christ comprised of all believers across the planet and spanning the new covenant age. But the Church Universal is far larger than what any of us can experience or understand in this lifetime. So Christ expects us to participate in the life of the local church.

Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation make this abundantly clear. Christ the King delivers powerful messages to a constellation of churches. What He says to these seven local churches is really for all churches – for the Church Universal. But to receive Christ’s message to the whole church one must belong to the local church; for the messages are meant to be obeyed within the community of the local church.

Purpose

1. Ambassadors of Christ need the local church.

2. How does the local church disciple us to be better representatives of King Jesus?

Read Ephesians 4:11-16

The Essential Church

Though there are truths for the Church Universal in this passage, is it meant for the local church. I think you should all be able to clearly see that. Evangelists and shepherd-teachers operate within the context of the local church. Each Christian ministers within the context of the local church. We all work together in the context of the local church.

This passage is showing us how profoundly we ambassadors need the church.

Two years ago, the government told us that church is nonessential. It told us that we can get on with life just fine without going to church. But man cannot live on bread alone. We need to be fed with the word of God. And the word of God could not be more clear: there is no earthly establishment more essential than the church, because through the church the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is being realized on earth; and each one of us is part of that fullness.

Just one chapter earlier, Paul wrote this to the Ephesians:

Through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. -Ephesians 3:10

We are ambassadors of Christ to the world; and, through us, the hordes of hell are beholding the manifold wisdom of God. Consider the weight of that! Paul says that right now the demons are seeing the wisdom of God on display through the church. It is a wisdom that breaks down their gates and thwarts their efforts. It is a wisdom that transfers sinners out of the demonic kingdom and into the kingdom of God’s marvelous light. It is a wisdom that binds Satan.

Oh yes, the church is most certainly essential. No grocery store, or pharmacy, or bar has cosmic effect; but the church most certainly does. And how we ambassadors need it!

The manifold wisdom of God – that’s another way of saying the fullness of the wisdom of God. Ephesians 4, as we have seen, talks about the fullness of Christ. Both aspects of fullness are revealed in the church.

We need to know how this fullness comes to be seen through the local church. It’s all about the Word of God.

Read vs 11

The Church’s Leaders

See at the beginning of verse 11 that Jesus Himself has given the church its leaders. He has both established the leadership roles and He has given specific people, at specific times, to fill these roles. In other words, your church leaders are literally gifts from the King.

That should be a comfort to you and a weight to your leaders.

Consider Paul’s words to the elders of the Ephesian church.

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood.

-Acts 20:28

God gives each faithful local church their leaders: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd-teachers.

Three times in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul uses the phrase “apostles and prophets.” Here is one:

[The Church is] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. -Ephesians 2:20

I don’t want to spend time discussing who apostles and prophets are, but I do want you to know that these are foundational offices. The primary role of apostles and prophets is to first deliver the gospel to the church. So Paul lists apostles and prophets first because they are foundational.

Next come the evangelists. They take that gospel and herald it, sowing its life-giving seed generously and broadly. Do not be fooled, Christ calls every Christian to be an evangelist; but there are some people He powerfully gifts with evangelistic success. These are the evangelists to which Paul refers. They are easily identified, because through their ministry many come to faith and are gathered into the church.

Once gathered – into the church – they need to be taught. In verse 4 we read about shepherds and teachers. But these are not two different roles. Think of it more like a shepherd-teacher. This is obvious when we consider Jesus shepherded through teaching.

When [Jesus] went ashore He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. -Mark 6:34

Jesus saw the people needed a shepherd, so He began to teach.

Notice, of the four different roles in Ephesians 4:11, only the shepherd-teachers regularly interact with the local church. Apostles and prophets are foundational. In other words, they lay the foundation. They neither build the building nor maintain it. Evangelists’ main concern is outside of the church, though they send people into the church.

But the shepherd-teacher is in the church day in and day out, protecting from wolves, mending wounds, leading to green grass, guiding to living waters: and all this is primarily done through the regular teaching of Scripture.

But they don’t teach with cold indifference. He is a shepherd, and his teaching is especially beneficial because he knows his sheep. He lives with the flock. It is his regular duty, and joy, to disciple the people of the local church with the word of God.

I am a shepherd-teacher of this local church. But so are the other elders (Dave Fuller, Dave Nauss, Josiah Stevens, Geoff Christian, Jim Talento, and Norm Fuqua). The role of elder is the role of shepherd-teacher. Listen to Peter’s words:

I exhort the elders among you…shepherd the flock of God that is among you.

-1 Peter 5:1,2

Twice Peter writes “among you” – as in, the people among you. Peter is so clearly talking about local churches. Shepherd-teachers shepherd local churches primarily through loving, relationally informed, Biblical teaching. It is why I am here at Immanuel.

The Bible also tells us that the church is to respond in a specific way to their local shepherd-teacher:

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. -Hebrews 13:17

Just a quick caveat: elders, or shepherd-teachers, are under shepherds. Jesus Christ is the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). If the local shepherd is not himself following Jesus, then you need not follow them.

Ok, Jesus has given the local church its leaders. But He has given these gifts to accomplish a purpose.

Read vs 12

Ministers

Church leaders, and me as one of your shepherd-teachers, labor to make you into ministers. You are the real ministers. You are the real builders of the church. With Scripture on my lips, I am here to teach you how to be ministers.

These past eight weeks I have been teaching you how to build the church through evangelism. I have been teaching you how to be faithful ambassadors for Christ, obedient to the Great Commission.

Yes, we want to see more and more come to faith in Jesus Christ. We want to see baptisms and we want to rejoice in brand new worshippers. But conversion must not be our only focus.

The primary focus that you ministers of the church must have is spiritual maturity. Otherwise, churches will fall into gimmicks, or seeker sensitive shallow attractionalism, or all kinds of compromising endeavors. Making disciples, as we have been commissioned to do, is mostly about teaching people to obey everything that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20)!

This focus is exactly what Paul has in mind.

Read vs 12-13

We’ve already spent some time talking about the fullness of Christ on display through the local church. And what an incredible goal it is! We want to see in one another, as much of Jesus as is possible. We want to see the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Is this not the epitome of selflessness?

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. -Philippians 2:3

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

-Romans 12:10

Jesus said: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

-John 17:22-23

This glorious display of the fullness of Christ is not something that can be seen in any individual. It can only be revealed through the collection of us – through the church. So we work, ministering to one another, building each other up, until we all attain such unity of love and faith.

Oh, you cannot live this life from the couch. It is a high calling given us!

Read vs 14

Speaking Truth in Love

We church, help one another not be carried away with every wind of doctrine, or catchy idea, or clever lie. There are lots of things in the world that sound good, they even sound like doctrine, but they will carry you away, they will carry you to your death. To think that you are not susceptible to this brand of deception is supremely naïve. As we learned from Proverbs, a fool does not know he is a fool.

We need each other in the local church to protect one another from these falsehoods. It is hard sometimes, but we need to be shown when we begin to head down a path of folly and falsehood.

At Immanuel I have heard people concerned about the mark of the beast in a vaccine, or a current world leader bringing with him the end times, or a diet proclaimed as if it were the gospel, or fear that some sin was too much for Christ to forgive, or a whole host of other falsities I could name.

False doctrines, human cunning, and deceitful schemes lead the sheep astray. Far too often, it is because the sheep are not submitting to the local shepherds given to care for them. Instead, they scroll through YouTube’s pastures. Not content with what Christ has given them, too many sheep are hungry for greener grass offered by far more famous shepherds. A difference in preference, in style, in personality, and the sheep think their hunger is greater than what Christ has given them.

Though pastors of other flocks can offer benefit, Jesus has not given them to shepherd the sheep of this local flock.

Each time I see someone wander off into deceitful ideas and foolish thinking, it is my duty – not just as pastor, but as a fellow member of the local church – to lovingly and gently redirect them towards the truths of Scripture. It is your duty too.

In fact, this is the first way which we, as members of the church, are to love one another: by lovingly leading each other to the truths of Scripture.

Read vs 15-16

This verse is not directed at the church’s leaders. Rather, Christ is calling all of us to speak the truth in love to one another. And where else do we get rock-solid, reality-grounding, unshakable truth, but from the Bible?

When someone expresses a doubt, a foolish idea, a questionable doctrine, a disordered priority; they don’t need your opinions, they need the words of God. Speaking the truth in love means grounding what we say to one another in Scripture. According to the focus of Ephesians 4, this is how we minister to one another.

From verses 15 and 16, notice what happens when we minister to one another, speaking the truth in love.

1. We look more like Jesus (who is our Head).

2. We are joined together: We are unified as we love one another.

3. We work properly: We are healthy, functioning as Christ intended.

4. Our body grows: I think in terms of spiritual maturity and in terms of numerical growth.

5. We are built up in love: I take this to mean that we become a living expression of the love of God.

In love, speak to each other Biblical truths. It is how this local church will attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

If we, together, are to become the fullness of Christ, then we must remember that we belong to one another. Your burdens are my burdens, as are your joys, and your hopes, and your weaknesses. And mine are yours. We are here to serve one another. As Christ laid down His life for us, so are we to lay down our lives for one another.

By this we know love, that He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. -1 John 3:16-18

We are members one of another. -Ephesians 4:25

OK, what does all of this have to do with this evangelistic sermon series? Well, we are ambassadors and as ambassadors we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. In Ephesians 4:12, did we not read that the church is all about equipping the saints for the work of ministry?

Therefore, if we are going to be successful ambassadors, we need the church to equip us for the work of ministry – the ministry of reconciliation. We need the church to protect us from the falsehoods that would carry us away. Therefore, you need to be discipled by the church, and so also does every person that needs the kingdom of God.

When you find that person of peace, and have offered them the gospel, whether they are a yellow or green light, bring them to church; or send them to a church that is local to them. They need the church! They need to be taught what it means to be a new creation in Christ. They need to understand that they too are called into the ministry of reconciliation. And if Christ conquers their heart, then they are needed to further display the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The means Christ uses to transform sinners into His own image is through the discipling church.

Make Disciples

Matthew 28:18-20

Immanuel – 10/16/22

In my mind, the New Testament gives the church two great calls to action; two calls that give us our ultimate purpose on earth. You might say worshipping God, or glorifying God, is our ultimate purpose. You would be correct. But through these two calls, God is telling us how we are to glorify Him on earth; and both of them demand action, both of them demand obedience, both of them are the means through which we worship God.

One of these two great calls is what this sermon series is based upon.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We are new creations in Christ and we are ambassadors. These are the two fundamental elements of our identity in Christ: new creations and ambassadors.

And with this new identity, we are given the ministry of reconciliation. We give the world the gospel of Jesus Christ in order that the world would be reconciled to God. The way God has transformed you is the way God is transforming the world – through reconciliation.

The second great call to action was spoken by Christ Himself. I imagine you already know where I am going with this.

Read Matthew 28:18-20

This, of course, is the Great Commission. Briefly, I want you to see that there are four fundamental elements to the Great Commission.

1. Jesus is King of heaven and earth (where He possesses all authority).

2. The King tells us to go – which means uncomfortablity is built into obedience to Christ.

3. The King tells us to make disciples.

4. The King says that He is with us.

Today we are going to focus on the third element of the Great Commission. We want to focus on this precisely because Jesus is King and He has commanded us to make disciples.

We have already talked quite a bit about the “going” aspect of the Great Commission; we’ve just talked about it in slightly different language. We are ambassadors, and as ambassadors we need to be proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, going to those who need to hear it, calling people to be reconciled unto God. That, indeed, is the “going” part of the Great Commission.

Purpose

But once you have gone, once you have given the gospel, how do you practically begin making disciples? That’s the question I want to answer today.

Last week I showed you an image of a traffic light. This diagram is helpful when considering the people to which you have offered the gospel. This categorizes responses to the gospel, and as a result, helps you know how you should respond.

Red Light – As you can see, someone who is not interested in the gospel is a red light. They are a no. Move on and search for a person of peace, for someone who is receptive to you and to the gospel.

Yellow Light – These are people who say “maybe.” They are not ready to give their lives to Jesus, but they are interested in understanding more.

Green Light – These people say yes. They hear the gospel and respond with repentance and belief.

Then there are those who you have shared the gospel with, and they respond, “I already follow Jesus.” Consider if there is a way you can partner with that person for kingdom purposes.

Last week I mentioned that we are to consider both yellow-lights and green-lights as persons of peace. These are the ones we are to invest in. These are the ones we are to disciple.

But the way a yellow-light and the way a green-light needs discipling is inherently different. And if Christ calls us to make disciples, we should know what that means, and how to do it, in ways that are actually helpful.

(Parenthesis)

To be sure, I cannot give an exhaustive explanation of how to disciple yellow-lights and green-lights in this message. Today I am just giving a few basics.

But know that in the next couple of months, the Elders are bringing a more robust evangelism and discipleship training to Immanuel. Its purpose is to better equip you to be obedient to Christ, to fulfill the Great Commission, and to be more effective ambassadors.

Additionally, this training will be mandatory for anyone that this church sends on future mission trips.

(Close Parenthesis)

Yellow-Light Discipling

Ok, one way or another, you’ve given someone the gospel and they respond with interest. They are a person of peace. They are a yellow-light.

And if it isn’t obvious, a yellow-light is not saved. They are not yet a follower of Christ. As long as they are interested, it is your goal to disciple them so they can become a green-light, so they become a follower of Christ.

How does that happen? What are you supposed to do next?

Remember Paul’s words:

Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

-Romans 10:17

That phrase, “word of Christ,” that means all of Scripture. But it is not just all of Scripture; it is how Jesus is the fulfillment of all of Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, The Bible is pointing towards Jesus. Once people understand that, faith is born; because faith comes through hearing the word of Christ.

Therefore, what you want to do next with a yellow-light is spend time with them in the word of Christ. You want to get them in front of the Bible. You might want to give them a Bible, in a translation that you know and trust.

Take this scenario as an example: You recognize a person is a yellow-light after you have given them the gospel and you hear, “I don’t think I’m ready to become a Christian, but you do raise a lot of questions in my mind.”

You should then respond with, “Well, I’d be glad to get together with you and look at what Jesus said. Perhaps we can find some answers in the Bible.”

If they accept, then schedule a time right then-and-there to meet-up. Once you have it scheduled, feel free to ask, “Do you know anyone else who might be interested in joining us?” This will do two things. First, if they are joined by someone they know, it will help them to feel more comfortable. Secondly, it will give you an opportunity to share the gospel with more people.

Ok, the time for the meeting has come. You want to crack open the Bible and begin showing them Scripture; because you want to introduce them to Jesus. Because you want them to encounter Jesus! You want them to hear and believe!

(Parenthesis)

This means that you must have a basic understanding of Scripture yourself. You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to know the basics. What kind of ambassador would you be if you don’t know enough to teach someone else what the Bible says?

If you feel like that is you, then start now. Begin studying some passage or book or idea so that you know it well enough to communicate it to someone else. Again, you don’t need to become an expert, and a yellow-light doesn’t necessarily need an expert, but they do need you to understand how a particular part of Scripture relates to Jesus and how it relates to them.

Once again, the trainings that the Elders will be providing will, in part, teach you how to do this through something called an inductive Bible study.

(Close Parenthesis)

If it were me, and I was going to pick some piece of Scripture to walk a yellow-light through, I would begin with one of the gospels.

In fact, a few years back, I was meeting with a yellow-light couple. We scheduled a weekly time where we would get together and study the Bible together, and I walked them through the Gospel of Mark. I chose Mark because it is the shortest gospel, and it is very easy to understand. After about 10 months of studying the life and teachings of Jesus, the husband gave his life to Christ. Some of you might remember, I baptized Arik right behind me.

Right now I am meeting with another person once a month, and we are slowly working through Mark’s gospel. Pick your favorite gospel and walk through it with a yellow-light individual, or individuals.

There was another time where I was meeting with a yellow-light Muslim couple, and I also took them to Mark. But after nearly two years nothing seemed to be changing. So, being respectful, I got very direct with them about Christ’s call to repent and believe, and the consequences of rejecting Him. Still, no movement. I came to recognize that though they might be presenting as yellow-lights, their hearts were red. They were neither devout Muslim nor interested in obedience to Christ.

You might encounter the same thing. In fact, that’s the nature of yellow-light: they are meant to change. In a spiritual sense, yellows can turn either green or red. If they turn red, then you know what to do: peacefully move on.

But what happens when they turn green? How do you disciple green-lights?

Green-Light Discipling

You have shared the gospel with a person and they have accepted, or the yellow-light has turned green; either way, the person has repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ.

They also need to be shown Scripture. If faith comes by hearing, and they need their brand-new faith to grow, then they need to hear Scripture!

But because you are interacting with a green-light, your goal is not to introduce them Jesus – as it should be for a yellow-light – your goal is to teach them to obey Jesus. Isn’t that what Jesus said in the Great Commission?

“Make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” -Matthew 28:19, 20

If new followers of Jesus, or new disciples, are going to obey Jesus, then they need to be shown His commands. That’s your job ambassador. Christ commissioned you to do this, not just your pastor; you!

So what are the commands of Christ? Where should you start? How about right here, with the first of the two great calls to action in the Bible. Take them to this passage and read it together.

Read Matthew 28:18-20

Inductive Bible studies are so helpful here. Again, if you want to learn how to lead an inductive Bible study, look for those future trainings.

You have read the Great Commission together. And in that very passage Christ calls you to teach them. So what does the new disciple need to understand about the Great Commission?

1. Jesus is King of heaven and earth (where He possesses all authority).

2. The King tells us to go.

3. The King tells us to make disciples.

4. The King says that He is with us.

Surely, you can teach this to a new disciple! Flesh it out for them. Teach them what it means that the King of heaven and earth is present with them right now. Teach them what it means to go, and to whom. Teach what it means to be an ambassador. Teach them how they, new in the faith as they are, even they must also go and make disciples.

If you have never witnessed it before, you may be surprised with the new disciple’s fervor of obedience. Often what happens is that they tell everyone they know about Jesus and how He has transformed their heart. You will witness dynamic, and even convicting, obedience to the Great Commission.

After you have studied the Great Commission together, you are not finished. There is more to learn. Perhaps you could hop over to 1 Thessalonians 5.

Admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. -1 Thessalonians 5:14-18

This teaches them about the Christian life. Here, the commands of Christ speak for themself. They are so simple and so straight forward that the simplest explanation is adequate. And yet, the depth is profound and there is much you could elaborate upon.

Perhaps the new disciple might ask, “What does it mean to pray without ceasing?” What a blessing it is to answer such a question. Invite questions. Encourage them. Do your best to answer, and if you are unsure, say you don’t know, but you would be happy to explore that together. It is good for a new disciple to see that you are still learning too.

The green-light new disciple also needs to be taught something else very early on.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.

-Hebrews 10:23-25

Teach the new disciple that they need church. One of the best ways we hold fast to our hope, remember the promises of God, stir one another to love and good works, is through our regular gathering within the local church. Christians who neglect the local church, with this kind of investment, are living in disobedience to the commands of Christ. Don’t let such neglect become your habit! Teach them this.

This command is so important for the new disciple that as soon as they repent and believe, you should be inviting them to church. Christ calls them, just as He calls you, to be a part of a local church.

And part of entering into the unity of the church and obeying Christ, is getting baptized. Remember, in the Great Commission, Jesus called us to baptize new disciples? It is not wrong to take that new disciple and baptize them yourself in a nearby river. But better, is to baptize them within the community of the church.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

Baptism signifies not just union with Christ, but union to the church body. Therefore, being baptized within the gathering of that body is profoundly honoring to the head of that body, who is Jesus Christ.

Teach the new disciple that Jesus commands them to be baptized, and bring them to church where we can celebrate their baptism together! Here at Immanuel, the door is open for you to participate in a new believer’s baptism.

Brothers and sisters, I have not given you formulas. I have given you tools and ways to think about what Christ has commanded you. As ambassadors of Christ, you are to make disciples – every one of you.

Whether they are yellow or green lights, they need Scripture. Yellow-lights need to be introduced to Jesus. Meet with them as often as possible and teach them the Bible, that they might encounter our King!

Green-lights need to be shown the commands of Christ in Scripture. Teach them what it means to obey. Let them ask questions. Teach them their need for, and bring them to, church. Teach them they need to be baptized, and lead them down that path.

Read Matthew 28:18-20

The Person of Peace

Luke 10:1-12

Immanuel – 10/9/22

I want to lay a foundation for today’s message by considering our world and reviewing what we have learned in this series thus far.

Peace is impossible to find when there is no point to living. Our world, which desperately attempts to reject our Creator, is a humanity without meaning. Paul wrote to the Romans that God has subjected this world to futility (Romans 8:20). Everything is bound by futility. Futility, meaning no meaning, no purpose, no point.

King Solomon – who God gave unparalleled wisdom – wrote of this futility:

I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. -Ecclesiastes 1:13-14

Futility, vanity, meaninglessness – these are the characteristics of a world that has tried to throw off our Creator. Even Friedrich Nietzsche understood this. He wrote:

What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions?

Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. -The Parable of the Madman (1882)

Nietzsche, Solomon, and Paul were all touching on the exact same truth. Life is pointless without God; and in a pointless world, anything goes.

But because God created us all in His image, with meaning built into the deepest parts of our being, we cannot tolerate a pointless existence. It breaks our souls.

So we make gods for ourselves; things that would give us meaning or numb the emptiness. But because these are all lies, they are just as meaningless. This is how, as Paul writes, God has subjected our world to futility – to a pointless existence apart from Him.

Yet despite the meaninglessness that humanity has plunged itself into, we cannot escape the knowledge of God. We looked at this a few weeks ago:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. -Romans 1:19-20

What a shocking truth: everyone knows God as God truly is. Even still, this does not mean that people have a saving knowledge of God. Our natural knowledge of God is suppressed and corrupted through sin. We exchange the truth of God for meaningless lies.

But this is not God’s plan for the world, for us. He did not create all of this so that it would be lost in worthless lies and emptiness. No, God plans to reconcile this world to Himself, restoring it to His created intention.

In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the ministry 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. -2 Corinthians 5:19-20

Christ has commissioned us as His ambassadors. For this job, Jesus has equipped us with the very thing that will reconcile the world to our Creator: the gospel. As we have seen, it is a message succinctly broken into 4 parts: God, Man, Christ, Response.

Hear those four parts in the gospel:

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.

This is our message. This is what we are to proclaim. Last week we considered the power of weaving the gospel into our testimony. For your testimony is the clearest expression of gospel power in your life.

Purpose

1. The kingdom of God brings peace.

2. Think about how people respond to the Gospel.

3. What happens after you have shared the gospel with someone?

Read Luke 10:1-12

Kingdom Ambassadors

Jesus is employing some powerful strategy in this passage. Clearly, He has plans to visit specific places. But before He goes to those places, He sends His disciples ahead of Him. Even though the language is not used here, Christ is sending out these 72 disciples as His ambassadors.

It is critical to see that wherever these ambassadors go, it is exactly where Jesus wants them to be. He is aware of the type of reception they will face. Regardless, they are going to the place that Jesus wants them to go. Jesus is sending them to the people in that place. Similarly, wherever we are, God has put us here, sent us here, for a purpose.

This means that the people around us are not here for us. We are here for them. Jesus has sent us to them whether they are at work, school, neighborhood, or wherever else there might be interaction. Jesus has sent us to them with a message.

Ambassadors carry the message of Jesus to the places Jesus sends them on behalf of Jesus. And look at the message they carry.

Read vs 9

The 72 declare that the kingdom of God is near. How has it come near? It has come near because they, the ambassadors, have arrived. Their presence is the nearness of the kingdom. The implication is that later, when Christ arrives in those towns, it is the coming of the kingdom of God; for wherever the King goes, so goes His kingdom.

The ambassadors go ahead of Jesus so when He arrives, the people are ready to receive Him as King; thus entering into His kingdom.

But this dynamic alters slightly after the cross, resurrection, and ascension; because only then is the gospel of grace fully unfurled. Then, when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon men, Christ comes to dwell in human hearts. Therefore, we ambassadors, we disciples of Jesus, have become the kingdom of God.

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. -Revelation 1:5-6

In Christ we are the kingdom of God. Revelation tells us that when we receive the gospel, we become the living kingdom of God. The church is the living kingdom of God.

How much more true it has become that, as we interact with the unbelieving world, the kingdom of God has come near; for we carry the kingdom of God with us. Additionally, the gospel is the message of the kingdom of God. It is the door through which people enter the kingdom.

But notice, it is not just the nearness of the kingdom that the 72 are to proclaim.

Read vs 5

We are to declare peace! Indeed, is not the kingdom of God the only thing that offers true and lasting peace in this world? We’ve already considered the senselessness of trying to reject God; and how the rejection of God ruins our world and strips us of all meaning. It is impossible to find peace apart from God.

Therefore, all of us can be confident that the message we carry is the only way the human soul can find true and lasting peace. No amount of self-help or success or indulgence works! Truly, peace only comes through the gospel of the kingdom of Christ. And as Christ’s ambassadors, we want everybody to know about this peace!

Ok, you have been a faithful ambassador. You have proclaimed peace. You have offered the gospel of the kingdom of God: God, Man, Christ, Response. You have spoken it. Now what?

You have asked someone, or perhaps multiple people, to respond. The next step should be obvious, right? Understand how they respond.

2 Fundamental Responses

In Luke 10, Jesus tells us that people will respond in two fundamental ways.

First, we see in verse 10 that some people will not receive your message. They don’t want the gospel. But look, it is not just your message they reject. They reject you also. You proclaim peace, and they reject you as a person. They don’t want you around. They may even persecute you.

Again and again, Jesus tried to prepare us for this response.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you…Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know Him who sent me….Whoever hates me hates my Father also.” -John 15:18,20-21,23

When people reject us and persecute us, Jesus is saying we shouldn’t take it personally. It is Jesus they hate. And if they hate Jesus, then they hate God. This goes right back to what this world is trying to do: reject their Creator. Your message reminds them that they are incapable of doing this, and they will hate you for it.

So when you are rejected for the sake of the gospel, Jesus tells us what to do.

Read vs 10-12

The gospel you have shared was rejected. Jesus said three things should follow.

1. Wipe the dust from your feet. In other words, if they don’t want it, let them alone.

As Jesus said elsewhere: “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” -Matthew 7:6

Don’t continue to offer the gospel to people that have rejected you. Jesus compares that to giving pearls to pigs. They don’t understand its value and are happy to treat the gospel as if it were mud. And if you continue to throw pearls at them – if you continue to preach the gospel to hard hearts – they may become so angry that they attack you. They will treat the gospel as mud and they will treat you like mud.

2. Therefore, if they don’t want Jesus, do not continue to offer. Turn and walk away. Spend your energy elsewhere.

Remember, Jesus said the harvest is plentiful. If you are rejected, fear not, there are plenty of people hungry for the gospel! Spend your energy looking for them and bring the Kingdom to those who want it.

Look closer at verse 11.

3. Jesus says that even as we wipe the dust from our sandals, remind them a final time of the nearness of the kingdom of God.

So, if someone is rejecting you and your message, fine, that’s on them. They will face God one day and you will not be responsible for their hardness of heart. But as you turn to find a person of peace, remind them once again that if they change their mind, they can still enter the kingdom of God, they can still be reconciled to God.

And this leads us to the second fundamental way people will respond to the gospel. Some will respond with peace.

Read vs 6-8

If you tell someone about Jesus, share your testimony, speak the gospel, and they respond with peace; then it is your peace – the peace of the kingdom of God – that is resting upon them. Do you know what that means? It means the Holy Spirit is working. If someone responds with peace to the message you are proclaiming, then something supernatural is happening. The Spirit is working.

Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” -John 6:63

The person who responds in peace, let’s call them the “person of peace.” When you begin the ministry of reconciliation with them, and they respond with peace, then the Spirit of God is at work.

Jesus gives us ways we can tell if someone is a person of peace. They are hospitable, generous, they share their needs with you – enough that you might know what needs healing.

Let’s be very practical. What does it look like today, in our context, when someone is a person of peace?

I met a person of peace over the summer. I got to chatting with a friendly individual in my neighborhood and our conversation very quickly turned spiritual. I could sense the hunger in this person’s heart. I shared a testimony of something that God had done in my life. It was a very friendly conversation, they were receptive, and then we parted ways.

Since then, this same person randomly bought me a pizza. They invited me and my family over to swim in their pool. This person of peace has been nothing but generous, hospitable, and warm towards us.

That means I want to do everything Jesus has instructed me to do. I want to eat whatever they put before me. (Not very hard when it’s pizza!) If they invite me into their home, I want to take them up on it. If they express a hurt, I want to be praying for their healing.

In other words, a person of peace is the place we invest ourselves. Don’t spend your gospel energy on people who reject you. Spend it with those who warmly receive you and your message, because it is Christ they are receptive to; and if it is Christ they are receptive to, then they are receptive to reconciliation with God.

OK, in Luke 10 we have seen two fundamental ways that people will respond to you as you speak the gospel. I want to get just a little more nuanced than this and give you 4 categories of response. I think this will help you tremendously as you interact with people around you.

Traffic Light Slide

The first type of response is a red-light response. Red lights respond with a hard “no.” They might be polite or they might be rude, but the response is the same; they are not interested in you and they are not interested in Jesus.

As we have already seen, your response is then to move on. Keep looking for the person of peace. You are still responsible to speak the gospel.

I do want to mention that things are different with family members and neighbors – and by neighbors I mean people your home is located next to, not the Good Samaritan type of neighbor. We cannot just abandon family and it is ridiculous to up and move if the gospel is rejected.

Consider family and neighbors as long-term, even life-long, investments. If they reject the gospel, then don’t force it down their throats. Love them with good works, pray for them, serve them, and hopefully gospel opportunities will open. It’s a marathon.

The second type of response is a yellow light response. Yellow lights respond with a “maybe.” They might not be ready to accept Jesus, or believe in everything you are saying, but they are interested in learning more. They are curious. They are a person of peace.

Whatever they offer – hospitality, generosity, time – accept. This person is worth building a relationship with and investing in. It is your objective then to help them move from yellow light to green light.

The third type of response is a green light response. Green lights respond with “yes.” They repent of their sins and believe in Jesus. These people need intensive discipling. They need to learn what it means to follow Jesus. They need to learn how to read the Bible. They need to participate in church. And God has sent you, as an ambassador, to teach them all these things. If it is not obvious, green-lights are also persons of peace.

The fourth type of response is when someone says they are already a follower of Jesus. Praise the Lord! At this point, it is not a bad idea to see how you two can partner for the sake of the gospel.

You are discovering that Christ has stationed the two of you, both ambassadors, at the same embassy. Figure out a way to work together to find and minister to persons of peace.

Also, in that process, you might discover that the person you are talking to does not truly understand what it means to follow Jesus. At this point, look for opportunities to open the gospel to them; which might mean that you need to lovingly and gently confront them.

I think it should be fairly clear what we do when we encounter red-lights and other Christians. It might not be so obvious what needs to happen when we encounter yellow and green-lights. Really, both yellow and green lights need investment and discipleship, though the types of investment they need is quite different. Next week I want to spend some time on how we disciple these two categories of people.

Brothers and sisters, in an attempt to throw off God, this world has lost all sense of meaning. In such a world, there is nowhere to find peace. But Christ has come to reconcile us to God, returning meaning to humanity and peace to souls. Let us, as ambassadors of Christ, faithfully proclaim the gospel of grace!

And as we do, we need to know what to do as people respond to our message. If people do not want to hear about Jesus, then there is no need to force it. If someone says “maybe” or “yes,” then we engage further. If someone says they are already a Christian, then we look for ways to partner.

The harvest is plentiful. Wherever we find ourselves, Christ has sent us to that corner of the field. He has sent us to the people that surround us. He has given us the gospel and a testimony, the tools of harvest. Let us call all people everywhere to be reconciled to God!

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!