Revering the Word
2 Corinthians 5 The glorious immediacy of heaven and our calling as His ambassadors while here.
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and let's recall for a moment the last couple verses of 2nd Corinthians 4. Recall that chapters in verse numbers were something that was added later and sometimes a chapter will very much flow into the next and we have a chapter break but not necessarily a thought break of the original writer. So verse 17 of chapter 4 for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal and Paul is really shifting our focus away from the trials of life and onto the promises of eternal life so that even as we go through difficulty in this life we have our hopes on things that are not seeing things in heaven promised for those who believe. So this very much flows then in 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 1 for we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens hallelujah. So Paul is comparing our body to a tent because as a as a tent wouldn't last forever you know a fabric tent so to speak nor will our bodies on earth our earthly bodies last forever but when it's torn down when this body has finished its course we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens it reminds me very much of Jesus's words in John chapter 14 I go to prepare a place for you and my Father's house there are many dwelling places there are many mansions and I go the prayer to prepare a place for you so that I may come again and take you to the place that I'm going hallelujah there is a home in heaven that God has for those who believe in him and Paul is sharing in this passage the immediacy of the unseen world of heaven that comes when our earthly time here on earth is done and praise God for that comfort that peace that's why our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory because we have the promise of heaven an eternal life for those who believe hallelujah for indeed in this house we groan in this tent in this life and in this world that we live in we groan meaning we groan we groan for what's to come meaning we we angst we look forward to what's to come and sometimes in this life there's even groaning there's pains there's suffering there's sickness and that actually is to make us groan to long to look forward to the heavenly dwelling that God has for us for indeed in this house we groan longing to be clothed with our heavenly with our dwelling from heaven and as much as having put it on will not be found naked you know we're we're gonna put on a heavenly dwelling and we're gonna be with the Lord in heaven for indeed while we are in this tent in this body this temporary habitation that we have on earth we groan being burdened and sometimes life is is challenging and you know I'm thinking of you know some really good friends right now that are facing some significant suffering and it's hard but you know praise God that all who believe have just gone before us into the heaven and praise God for that promise and one day we here left on earth you know we we have something to look forward to those who have gone ahead of us are doing better than us those who have believed and we groan and we long one day to be in heaven hallelujah where those who have gone ahead of us are for indeed while we are in this tent we groan being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed meaning clothed with Christ clothed with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal that is our physical bodies here will be swallowed up by life and that's the eternal kind we're gonna be swallowed up by the eternal kind of life with the home that we has been made for us in heaven hallelujah now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God he prepared us for heaven that was his plan and he gave us the spirit as a pledge and you know we've been focusing on the Holy Spirit at our church and it's a pledge it's a promise God has given us the spirit it's a foretaste of the fullness of what we're gonna receive because the Lord's dwelling with us now and that's a foretaste of the fact that we're gonna be dwelling with the Lord in heaven and it's a pledge it's it's a promise it's you know I used to sell real estate and and it was like the earnest money you put down the earnest money for the closing date and and and and then and that assured that you were gonna buy the home and God has given us the earnest money pledge of his Holy Spirit and one day we're gonna come into the fullness of that when we're with him again and because of that listen to what says in verse 6 therefore being always of good courage see we can have great hope and great courage and and and have positive good thoughts about the future because of this and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we're not absent we're absent physically we're not absent spiritually because the Lord's with us in spirit but physically we're not with Jesus right now but we're gonna be with him one day for we walk by faith not by sight and and right now we don't see heaven we promised it we can trust in it our Lord and Savior died to give us it but right now we walk by faith and one day we will see what we have had faith to believe in we will see it and we will be there we are of good courage what a great word to be of good courage I say and prefer the apostle Paul says rather to be absent from the body to be at home with the Lord he's like you know what if I passed on I'd be better off I'd be with the Lord and you know some some are here a little while some are here much longer but our destination is not here our destination is in heaven and those who have gone before us who believed in Jesus are they're doing well hallelujah they have come to the Lord side in his mansion in heaven therefore verse 9 we also have as our ambition whether at home on this earth in this body or absent meaning in heaven to be pleasing to him so we live to honor him now we live to please him because of the promise that he's given us and our assuredness that we're gonna be with him one day in heaven while we're here we live to honor him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad and you know there are rewards in heaven listen we wouldn't even be in heaven to receive a reward unless we believed in Jesus but when we believe in Jesus we still are judged now the judgment seat of heaven you are already there if you believe so hallelujah you've been you've been given what you've been promised in heaven but now there will be rewards for our faith rewards for our service to God rewards for living for him on earth and and it won't that's not gonna be equal it's gonna be based on how we've lived for him the crowns received are gonna be for our faithfulness for how we've lived him for him on earth in heaven but all who believe you won't even be before the judgment seat of Christ of the heavenly judgment seat if you haven't believe so all who believe will be there and all who believe will be ushering to heaven and then people are going to be rewarded in heaven for how they've lived for the Lord and that's why we make it our ambition now to please him hallelujah as a result of that verse 11 therefore knowing the fear of the Lord and and there that's a proper fear of like all respect that God I want to live for you now I believe that living for you matters I believe that you are the judge of living in the dead and because I believe that and have an all respect and even fear of that I want to live for you and as a result of that fear of the Lord to a proper fear we persuade men we we we we get this word out so that people can come to know Jesus to like we have hallelujah we persuade men but we are made manifest to God so that what that means is a manifest is to be made to be appeared God knows God knows our lives God knows how we've lived God God knows and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciousness Paul saying listen I hope you realize that we have honored God with the way that we have lived our lives remember Paul was under some attacks and people have tried to undermine his ministry and he's like I hope you know you really know that we have lived honor the Lord as God knows as we have been made manifest to God God knows how we've lived I pray that you would know that as well but he says in verse 12 we are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us so that you will have an answer for those who take pride and appearance and not in the heart and he's getting back to those challenges that he's received he's he's saying you know what I hope that you trust that we've lived honorably before the Lord and that you will have a reason to be proud of us and you'll have a reason to answer for those who have tried to undermine Paul's credibility that you would know better not to fall for that verse 13 for if we are beside ourselves it is for God if we are of sound mind it is for you and I love this verse these verses coming up they're so glorious let's take him in for the love of Christ controls us having concluded this and man that is such a powerful word first of all do you know that Jesus died for us because he loves us he died to forgive us Jesus Christ did not come to condemn the world hallelujah but he came to save the world and it was God's great love and Jesus's obedience to God that allowed him to go up on that cross to take our sin and it was love that motivated him to do that so that we could be forgiven and and have you concluded this have you concluded that Jesus Christ died for you have you concluded that he is your Lord and Savior have you come to that conclusion may we all you know just be like solidly built on the foundation that man I believe in Jesus and what he did for me on that cross I believe in him he is my Lord and Savior have you concluded this that one died for all and therefore all died and what that means is Jesus died for all of us when we recognize that we died our former way of living we died to living for the flesh and we begin to live for a new purpose we're not the same person in a sense the old persons died and there's a new person now in Christ that spent transformed that is alive that is now wanting to live for our Lord and he died for all Jesus did so that they who live that's us might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf what a powerful word when we have come to the conclusion that Jesus died for us we then in recognition of the fact that he died for all position our lives that we would no longer live for ourselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf and for the believer their life should now reflect the fact that they want to live for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords it really should be obvious that we are believer in Jesus by the priorities in our lives now praise God he has given us this beautiful world to live in and he's given us this world to enjoy and you know praise God for that praise God that we have the ability to enjoy this beautiful creation he's given us but yet let there be no doubt of why you're here and why I'm here excuse me and may it be very evident by how we live our lives how we serve our Lord how we serve our church how we reach out to our fellow man let me just read it again having concluded this that one who died for all one died for all therefore all died and he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for him Jesus who died and rose again on their behalf I pray that God would motivate us through these scriptures to be so thankful for the Lord for his salvation for his forgiveness that we would position our lives that the number one priority in our lives would be to serve God for what he's done for us serve him in our families serve him in our church serve him among our friends so that we are here to live for the Lord hallelujah that would be good and right and honorable to Jesus that our lives would be transformed and repositioned to serve his kingdom hallelujah therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh and what a what a great word you know before we really come to Christ and even in Christ if we're not really focused on him rightly we can view people through the flesh we can see through a human lens this life we could live in this world and just see it humanly and and Paul saying that's not how we want to see the world we want to see the world from a spirit perspective from a heavenly perspective we want to view others as having living breathing souls that are going to spend their eternity in one place or another even either in heaven or hell and you know even beyond that because you know that awaits for our death or awaits for Jesus Christ return but you know one of the sad things that I think about when I think about people whom I care about and love who aren't living for the Lord is not just that they're going to expend eternity and how if they haven't believed in him and that that is sad but also that God wants to use them now you know God wants to give them purpose now God wants it's it's in a way it's kind of like robbing God of a life right that person could be seen life through God's lens and could be living for him the one who died for them but as a result of not knowing the Lord they they are they're not repositioning their lives to live for the Lord and they're not living for an eternal purpose and that makes a great difference in our world now so it's not just missing out on heaven it's missing out on having a purposeful life while we're here and I pray that all we know and love would would turn to him you know I would admit that sometimes you know I don't know I've kind of given up or how do I put it there's people that have spent their whole lives rejecting Jesus and not turning towards him and you know sometimes I've gotten comfortable with that like if if we've tried repeatedly and they just aren't interested you know sadly they're gonna they're missing out now and they're gonna miss out on eternity and you know it was with my family yesterday and my my dad was reaching out to my uncle and invited in the church I mean so many times he's tried I mean I just had a conversation with my uncle maybe a few months ago in a restaurant and it was you know a little bit a little bit kind of intense I guess because he was denying the word that it could be trusted and I was trying to encourage him to believe in the word and that without that how to what do we have we don't have a foundation in order to even know God if we don't trust the word that he's given us so we were talking about that but here here was my dad you know not giving up on our uncle or my uncle and witnessing to him and you know I give my dad credit sometimes I've kind of I've kind of given up and I when I say that it's not that I don't care about someone's salvation but one of the mistakes that I do think we make sometimes in life is that we keep going back to the same well you know I've shared it as a story or illustration of a vacuum salesman you know if I go to your house and I try to sell you a vacuum today and you say what you know what I just bought one like six months ago I don't need a vacuum and I'm a vacuum salesman I'm not coming to your house tomorrow it wouldn't make sense you know I'm gonna go try to sell a vacuum elsewhere and I do love and I you know we've had in our church some amazing stories of persistence of people coming to the Lord because someone wouldn't give up and what a beautiful thing that is but there's also something to be said that you know Jesus and the apostles and others moved on because the very next person you talk to you could be hungry yearning looking and and I love trying to introduce the church or Jesus or reviewing the words very podcast and new people and and you know sometimes family there's been built-up resistance to hearing from you and you know there's other people who are eager to find out and to learn and grow and I think although I'm not trying to say the right attitude is to give up praise God for those who have been persistent and been rewarded but I am saying that don't always put your eggs back in the family basket and do consider reaching others for the glory of God because there could be someone in your life that you've never talked to you that today you could make a big impact on hallelujah so verse 16 therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh even though we have known Christ according to the flesh you know at one time the apostle Paul didn't know Jesus the way he knew him now he was persecuting the people of Jesus yet now we know him in this way no longer now he really knows who Jesus is verse 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature hallelujah that's the transformed life the old things have passed away and that's what he meant by dying you know we we die to our old ways and new things have come now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation what an incredible word now God has reconciled us see because we were in sin and because of the curse of the law of the Old Testament law and because mankind had fallen short of keeping that law mankind was under the curse of the law and what God did is he took what was separate us from God because of our sin and he brought Jesus Christ and he put the curse of the law he became a curse for us upon that tree and Jesus Christ died taking the sin that was dividing us from God placing it on his son and then restoring our relationship to God and giving us peace with God that's what it means to be reconciled it means to take something that was a part and bring it back together again a husband and wife who are contemplating divorce and then God does a work in their life and he reconciles their relationship and brings them back together again and God in his great love sent his son to die in order to take what was dividing us from God in order to reconcile us back to him hallelujah now we've become part of his family again he's made us a new creation and then it says he's given us the ministry of reconciliation oh what a word meaning that that's our ministry now our ministry is to let people know that God can restore them to a relationship to himself through Jesus and you know one of the things that's required is for people to understand that they're separated from God by their sin that's the hard part is people don't want to admit that but listen we were there too we're all separated by God all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and it's really important that we know that that we know that we have a sin problem and that we're separated from God and separated from his heaven because of our sin problem but that God made a way to reconcile us and he's given us that ministry now to teach people about the reconciliation they can have in Jesus the forgiveness the promise of eternal life the power of the Holy Spirit working in them that's now our ministry a ministry of reconciliation verse 19 namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself God did not send his son to condemn the world but to save the world hallelujah verse 19 namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them who wants that hallelujah now I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more Jeremiah said of the new covenant and that's what's happened through Jesus and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation now we have this ministry we have this word we've been reconciled and now we're trying to help others in this world become reconciled therefore we are ambassadors for Christ do you know that I'm an ambassador what a word that is an ambassador is a representative of a country that goes to another country to represent their homeland in a different land and we really our home is in heaven and we are here on earth on borrowed time and we are representing the homeland we are in a foreign land on earth representing our homeland of heaven we're an ambassador of heaven for Christ as though God we're making an appeal through us he's he's making an appeal to the world through us we are his ambassadors and listen to what it says in case anyone has not received this we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God and in Paul at the end here although he's talking to Christians he's kind of backtracking and saying listen do you know for sure that you've been reconciled have you given your life to Jesus Christ listen you have to be reconciled everyone will pay for their sin in hell apart from God unless they come to God through Jesus believe in what he did and therefore be reconciled brought back into a relationship to God and in this passage here we're he's begging us on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God place your trust in Jesus so that you can be restored and that way then you can be a part of the ministry that's kind of what I was talking about earlier not only then would you have the promise of heaven but you can take part in being part of God's ministry here and live purposely on earth what a wonderful word that is and you know without that we're really living purposeless lives oh we could be successful we could have a career we could go about doing this and doing that we could even have fame in this life but you know what if we don't know Jesus we're not going to have eternal life and we're not living for the right purpose here listen we have jobs to do people are not going to all work in full-time ministry but we're all ministers of God and no matter what we do for a living we're supposed to be embracing Jesus as our King of Kings and Lord of Lords in being part of his ministry of reconciliation that's why we live we move we have our being that's why we're here hallelujah he God made him Jesus who knew no sin he was sinless he was this sinless lamb the blameless lamb who took our sin let me say that again he who made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf see he died and took our sin so that we might become the righteousness of God what a glorious word what that means dear brother or sister in Christ is that you can know that you have right standing before God because of what Jesus did if you have faith in him and taking that back you know historically hopefully you're seeing this as Abraham believed and was accredited righteousness now we who believe in Jesus have been accredited righteousness we stand now knowing that we will stand before God one day righteous because not we've done everything right but because we've been forgiven through Jesus and that's what allows us to have right standing before God in heaven there's no way you can live perfectly or perfectly righteously on your own now we should seek to honor him with our lives but the way to stand before God righteous the way to stand before God rightly is to have the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ if you haven't or maybe if you've fallen away I pray that you'd return to him that you trust him with your life that you'd give him your life that you get baptized that you'd allow him to make you new and that he then could have you take part in his ministry of reconciliation to this world that desperately needs peace with God what a wonderful chapter I would say one of the very best in all the Bible may I hope it has blessed you and has altered how you want to live your life for the glory of God God bless you all