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When it all comes down to it, we all need life-change through Jesus. Most of us would probably admit we need to make some changes to our lives, but Jesus comes in and says we don’t just need some changes, we need transformation. And when we experience that life change, we turn around and lead others to Jesus.
Because Jesus people lead people to Jesus.
Short Clip
A few weeks ago, I asked our staff a very important question during our weekly staff meeting: what has been your favorite summer ever?
I got to learn a lot about them based on their answers.
When it was my time to share, I told them about the summer when I was 14 years old. Leading up to that summer, my dad decided that he wanted to begin racing at Baer Field Speedway. They were starting a new racing class that made the bar of entry a lot lower than it had been in the past—they started a front-wheel-drive class.
So he found a little Chevy Cavalier for, I’m not joking, like $80. That winter was spent gutting that car and turning it into a race car.
We ripped out the entire interior of the car. We pulled off as much as we possibly could to get it as light as we could.
We cranked. We pulled. We did some engine work.
He had a roll cage built and installed.
A five-point harness was installed.
What began as a little Chevy Cavalier that no one wanted started to look more and more like something completely different—a race car.
We painted it.
Decals were installed.
Sponsorships were acquired.
And on opening day of Baer Field Speedway (or Motorpark as I believe it’s called now), we were in the pits getting our race car ready.
That summer was such a blast.
And that car? It was completely transformed.
In some people’s eyes…
In some people’s eyes, if they would have bought that car, it would have simply needed some changes to work for what they wanted it for.
But in our eyes, that car didn’t just need changes, it needed transformation.
Do you believe the people around you need to make some changes or do you believe they need transformation?
We’re probably all guilty of seeing someone in our lives and simply thinking, you know they just need to stop doing that.
We see people who engage with sin and we think, I just wish they would do better.
This is especially true with our family members, right?
We look at the things they do, we see the symptoms of the real problem, but we only focus on the symptoms, we see their actions, and we want to fix them. We want them to make some changes.
We see people who struggle with life and we think, if they would just do this differently, then everything would be okay.
All the while, the actions we are seeing on the outside are simply symptoms of a greater problem, a greater need.
Do you believe the people around you need to make some changes or do you believe they need transformation?
I’m convinced that…
In our moralistic culture, we can focus too much on wanting people to make some changes rather than bringing them to the One who can give them transformation.
Before I knew Christ, there were plenty of people—authors, gurus, well-meaning people—who would have gladly given me a new paint job and some chrome hubcaps when what I really needed was to be completely rebuilt and transformed.
What Jesus showed us…
One of the things Jesus showed us is the people who look like they are good need the very same thing the people who don’t look like they are good need—life change through Him.
The murderer needs the same thing the liar needs.
The abuser needs the same thing the gossiper needs.
No matter how big or small we may think someone’s sin is, no matter how good of a person we think someone is or isn’t, we all need the very same thing—a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Today… See ourselves clearer, those around us clearer, and walk the walk God is calling us to.
Today, I believe God wants to help us see ourselves with more clarity than we ever have before. He wants us to see those who are around us with more clarity than we ever have before.
And out of that clarity, I believe we will see what God wants our lives to be on a daily basis.
Mission: Advance
Last week, we started our series, Mission: Advance where we looked at the first piece of our newly stated mission. Today, we’re going to look at the middle piece.
The mission of First Church of Christ is to lead generations into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Here’s the truth about you, about me, and about everyone else in this world.
We don’t need to simply make some changes, we need a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
We don’t just need to get rid of our symptoms, we need to experience transformation because Jesus is the only One who can fix our most fundamental problem.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
If you have a Bible with you or your YouVersion app on your phone, go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5.
Paul, speaking to the Corinthian church, says this…
14 For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died. 15 And he died for allso that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
For the love of Christ compels us…
That word compel is an important word. It carries with it the thrust of holding together, of confinement, of controlling. In other words, for Paul, the love of Christ was what controlled him.
Not in a negative way, but in a powerfully positive way. The love of Christ became his guardrails, his GPS.
It kept him moving in the right direction.
The conclusion he reached that gave him motivation to move
And he says very clearly that he is controlled by the love of Christ because there is a conclusion he has come to. And this conclusion is the implication of the love of Christ made known.
It’s what motivates him. It’s what he is moved toward.
And that is that Jesus was the substitute in death for all people. In other words, when Jesus went to the cross, He died for all people. So since he died for all people, there is a sense that all have the opportunity to experience that death with Him.
Death to the old way of things. Death to our sin-infested selves and life brand new.
That’s why, when we receive the love of Christ, we should no longer live for ourselves, but we are to live for the One who died for us and was raised.
Living for ourselves results in sin and separation from God.
Living for Jesus results in life and relationship with God.
Controlled by this reality
That pattern that Paul lays out for us is the exact one he himself went through.
He was confronted by the love of Christ and then he responded by making his whole life an act of worship to Christ.
That’s why he says things like “it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.”
“To live is Christ, to die is gain.”
Everything changed for Paul. He began to be controlled by the love of Christ because the love of Christ is for all people.
And then he goes on and says…
2 Corinthians 5:16
16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.
Know anyone from a worldly perspective?
What does it mean to know someone from a worldly perspective?
Well, why do we hold athletes and celebrities in high esteem? Why do we run to them and gawk at them when we see them?
Why do we look up to people who have a lot of power?
For Paul, he would have looked at his fellow Pharisees and other religious leaders with a higher level of respect than he looked at the rest of society. That’s how he lived. He talks about it in his letters.
He was smarter than most. He was trained under a great leader. He was a member of high society. And he lived that for much of his life.
But now?
He refuses to look at anyone through that lens.
Now, he doesn’t hold up someone’s status, their skills, their race, their age, their gender, he doesn’t hold anyone up in high esteem anymore.
Why?
Because he now realizes the truth about all of us.
He knows that Christ came to die for him as much as he did for the peasant down the street. So in God’s economy everyone is of infinite worth.
And it’s in light of that fact that he drops this amazing truth on us.
2 Corinthians 5:17-19
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.R
Junk yard in New Haven
The past couple weeks, we’ve driven through New Haven and as we passed through to go up north and as we drove by to visit my sister, we drove by a junk yard. Those cars are simply sitting. They are totaled. They are broken. Dead. Destroyed. But they also have working parts inside them. People go to junk yards to find replacement parts for the things in their current vehicles that have stopped working.
Paul says that if we are in Christ, we are a new creation. The old has passed away, it has been towed away and dropped in a junk yard. God has created us brand new, he didn’t try to restore us because that wouldn’t have been worthwhile or sufficient. Instead, he has given us new life.
But sometimes we are tempted to go back to the junk yard. To go grab a working part from our old lives that are passed away.
How often do we find ourselves resorting to old habits, old attitudes, and old thoughts? We all do it. But v. 18 says that all this new stuff is from God. So I don’t need to go back to the old me in the junk yard to handle this next difficult situation with fear and anger. No. I can go to God and ask Him to show me how to operate in this new life. How do I walk in peace and patience when I want to go back and grab fear and anger?
I have to lean on Him to show me the new way. I have to let Him take over. Holy Spirit, have your way with me.
We don’t have to go back to our old ways
Too many of us, myself included, are continually going back to, defaulting to our old ways of doing things.
We keep going back to that old self for advice.
We keep going back to that old self to handle conflict.
We keep going back to that old self when a friend lets us down.
We keep going back to that old self to walk through the pain.
We keep going back to that old self to tell us how the future will turn out.
My friend, it’s time we begin seeing ourselves as we really are.
In Christ, we are a new creation with a new direction, a new destination, and a new foundation.
Where we used to live in fear, we can live in faith.
Where we used to live in anger, we can live in love.
Where we used to live in dread, we can live in hope.
Why? Not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what Christ has done to us, for us, and what He wants to do through us.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
Justification -> Reconciliation
In Romans, Paul spends a lot of time talking about justification, but here he’s using the picture of reconciliation when it comes to what God did for us through Christ.
Justification says to picture this:
You’re in a courtroom. You’re sitting at the table of the defendant. In fact, you ARE the defendant.
The charges being brought against you carry the weight of eternity because of the crime you committed—sinning against a holy God.
The judge looks at you and says even though you are, without a shadow of a doubt, guilty. Even though you deserve this just penalty. There is no penalty for you.
Because of Jesus, because He paid the penalty that you deserve, you are free to go. You and God are good. You and the judge are good. No penalty for you.
Reconciliation takes this already beautiful picture a step further and says picture this:
Not only is there no penalty for you, but the judge sees you in your brokenness. He sees that you are a spiritual orphan. And He not only says there’s no penalty for you, but He invites you to His home for dinner.
Not only is there no penalty for you, but now the judge—the one you wronged—is pursuing you. And at that dinner, he says let me be your Father. I want you to be my son, I want you to be my daughter.
Reconciliation is God saying yes, you’ve wronged me. Yes, you deserve death. Yes, you deserve punishment. But because of what Jesus did, you and I have been reconciled. I want you in my family. I’m here for you even though you’ve always been against me.
Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-burdened and I will give you rest.
2 Corinthians 5:20
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”
Controlling factors—New title: ambassador
God doesn’t stop with reconciling us, he gives us a mission. He doesn’t want us just waiting around for heaven. He has given us something new to control us.
He says no longer do you need to be controlled by:
- Approval
- Success
- Pride
- People’s opinions
- Your past experiences
- Fear
- Sin
You don’t have to be controlled by that, you can join Paul and be controlled by the love of Christ and become who you were meant to be and that is an Ambassador for Christ.
You get a new title. Ambassador. With one message. Be reconciled to God through Jesus!
When we used to be God’s enemies, now we are His representatives to a world that so desperately needs what we have—reconciliation with God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Our deliverance is all his doing
When we were without hope, Christ bore our sin and by surrendering to Him, we receive life when all we deserved was death.
He’s the substitute. He’s the One who took our place.
He’s the gracious judge. He’s the One who says no penalty for you.
He’s the merciful King. He’s the One who grants us forgiveness when we never deserved it.
He’s the sprinting Father. He’s the One who ran after us, embraced us, and welcomed us into His family.
Know Jesus, Make Jesus Known
This passage has two big points: (1) know Jesus, and (2) make Jesus known.
Our Mission: Bring People to Jesus—A Life-Changing Relationship
As a church, as a people who are bought by the blood of the lamb, as people who have and are still experiencing the joy of a life-changing relationship with Jesus, we have a mission and that is to simply bring people to Jesus so they can have a life-changing relationship with Him.
None of us are the Savior. None of us have the power to change someone’s life.
None. Of. Us.
We are all called to be Ambassadors.
We are all called to be people who are, in every opportunity we have, to be pointing people to the One who can truly address their most fundamental problem—sin.
We must see everyone else and ourselves as people needing Jesus.
We must see everyone else and ourselves as people needing Jesus.
No matter their intellect. No matter their prestige. No matter their skills. No matter their appearance. No matter their wealth. No matter their poverty. No matter their sin. No matter their perceived virtue.
I am a person in desperate need of Jesus.
You are a person in desperate need of Jesus.
We are all, every single person in this world, people who are in desperate need of Jesus.
Paul began to see people in this way. And that drove him to take seriously his role as an Ambassador of Christ.
And all of us, no matter our vocation, are called to be Ambassadors of Christ.
Because
Jesus people lead people to Jesus.
We need to be like the friends of the paralytic…
That’s what we do. We lead people to Jesus.
We need to be like the friends of the paralytic who carried their friend to the house Jesus was in.
The crowd in that house was enormous and there was no way to get their friend to Jesus by going through the front door so they decided to take a different entryway.
They got themselves and their friend on top of the roof. And then they started digging directly above where Jesus was teaching.
All of a sudden, the crowd begins to look up as debris is falling down and a hole is being made.
And as that hole gets bigger and bigger, everyone sees something that they surely didn’t expect… These men lower their friend, a paralyzed man on a mat, down to Jesus. I mean, these guys were resourceful. Think about the engineering they would have had to come up with to lower their friend safely to the ground in front of Jesus through the roof of someone who was likely distraught and on the phone with their homeowners insurance.
They lower this man down to Jesus and Jesus looks at the man and says, “friend, your sins are forgiven.”
And while this is happening, Jesus recognizes that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were calling this blasphemy in their heads so Jesus looks them, asks them why they’re thinking such things, then looks back at the man and says, “get up, take your mat, and go home.”
And that man got up and praised God all the way home as he skipped on his feet that a few minutes prior hadn’t ever worked.
This man’s friends knew…
This man’s friends knew that if they could just get him to Jesus, this man’s life would be transformed.
Church, we must lead people to Jesus because it is only through a relationship with Him that they will be made right with God.
So, who are you leading to Jesus? Who will you lead to Jesus?
Because Jesus people lead people to Jesus.
That’s our mission, church.
Let’s get people to Jesus.
