Chad Dexter teaches from 2 Corinthians 5 that missions and evangelism are callings for every believer. Chad also explains how the Christian ministry of reconciliation is both privilege and duty.
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well it’s my pleasure today to uh bring to you straight from the Philippines uh Chad Dexter um he is our missionary to the Philippines he’s been there since about three years ago and uh we’ve been supporting him since uh his Inception and um there’s a lot to say about him he said a lot during the Sunday school but he was born in in Florida raised in Texas right and um he has a a wife and two beautiful kids Titus and Kenan five and two and a half his wife’s name is Cara and she’s somewhere the back right there and um we got to hear a lot from them in Sunday school he has a MD from a master of Seminary just like uh many of well our pastor and also Dave kosha is there as well right now so he got his MD in 2010 and then he had a masters of theology right is that right in 2012 and when they asked him what his was um he said well it’s people he just loves having people over and the sight of all of the shoes on the on his front porch um means that there’s good times going on in his house that’s what he’s about that’s what he loves he loves people he loves communicating the truths of God’s word um he’s a gifted communicator and a gifted Expositor of the of the word of God so we’re excited to have him here this morning and I know you’re in treat so Chad come up and bring us to the word of God thank you Greg for the introduction thank you also for leading Us in worship I I love that last song I believe the uh words of that last song were taken from 1 John 3: 1 and 2 see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him beloved we are God’s children now and what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is and that is our great hope that we will one day be with our Lord and savior and with the father in Heaven that we’ll know him as he truly is that will’ll see him face to face and that we we will be fully Sanctified rid of these bodies of sin no longer struggling against sin in the flesh and just in Perfect Harmony and peace in the Lord’s presence and we look forward to that day it’s a delight to be with you again for I think the third time here at Calvary Baptist Church uh we were here in 2012 a year before we left 2013 the month before we left and now uh we’re here while we’re home on our first Furlow um we were able to share with a number of you folks thank you for those who came out during the Sunday School hour we were able to give you robust update on our ministry I want to take just a few minutes and and give a brief update on our Ministry for those who have been praying for us thank you so much for your prayers when we went out as missionaries 3 years ago we knew that we would need prayer uh I think we didn’t know how much we would need prayer and so uh it is an encouragement for us and when we encounter opposition and trials and difficulty on the mission field we just remember this church we remember all of you that you’re also praying for us and and we draw strength from that we thank you um our ministry is a Ministry of training and equipping pastors there are so many churches in uh the Philippines with pastors who have a heart for the Lord a heart for the Lord’s people a love for God’s word and a desire to be equipped and and fully trained in God’s word and yet because of the demands of Life uh because of the economic realities most of the men that we work with they already are have a weekly you know responsibility in their pulpit in their churches they have families some of them because their their incomes are so meager uh they’re working a second job to provide for their families and they just don’t have the time or the means to attend a good Seminary or a good bible school if one would even be available in their area which in many cases it isn’t and so what we do we have established myself and my Ministry Partners we’ve established five training centers around the city of Manila Manilla is a huge City 13 million people um we have established one Training Site in the center of the city and for around the perimeter of the city so wherever folks live they can they can find us we’re easily accessible uh we try to make the the program cost very affordable to them as well uh we have three programs that we offer we offer a a program which is about two and a half years in basic Bible foundations that covers hermeneutics Bible survey and Bible Doctrine we have a three-year program in advanced Christian leadership that’s for pastors and elders and other church leaders and that covers things that would be very U practical in in Ministry and then we have a three-year program for pastoral Ministries and that’s really that’s really the goal to work with the pastors and to train them how to study and interpret and to preach God’s word so our pastoral Ministries program is very heavy in additional theology it is um we teach them Bible Exposition preaching Labs we even thrown a little bit of Greek so um those are our three PR programs what I want to do just briefly just so you show you a few pictures so you will see uh what our life is like what our schedule is like those who are here during the Sunday School hour I already saw most of these um so when you think of our ministry you can think of a tripod okay we’ve got our our local church ministry and I’ll show you that we’ve got our training Ministry and then we have our personal Ministry and our home and home Bible studies and personal discipleship this is a typical example of our training Ministry this meets in a local church most of our classes meet in churches uh we have 43 students in this class this is our basic Bible foundations class we have a number of pastors Elders pastors wives and deacons and other even lay folks in this program so I think on this particular night we’re teaching introduction to the Epistles you see the 29 in the back it’s 29th anniversary of this church I guess they replace the number every year but uh this is the group very enthusiastic group and you can see um just how eager and excited they are uh to be there this is an as Center at the end of the table that’s the pastor of this church pastor Primo PA May Jr his father plan of the church and since passed and he’s now pastoring the church very sharp gifted Pastor he has graduated from our first program and he’s now actually helping us teach the second batch of students and that’s what we want to see is uh you know for a while we’re we’re kind of out leading leading the pack and running the first leg of the relay and then for a period of years there’s a time when when we’re holding the Baton and they’re holding the Baton and we’re running together and then Lord willing and and he’s actually I believe he’s almost ready for this uh we let go of Aon and we say now you run and we’ll go and we’ll establish a new training center in a different city and you keep teaching and training the folks here uh in your community um this another one of our classes this is probably our our sharpest group of pastors uh everyone who attends this particular study is a full-time pastor and one pastor’s wife who comes with our husband this class meets on Saturdays this is our church uh we have a wonderful Church in Kin City in Manila um there are three of us who preach our senior pastor preaches twice a month I’m able to preach once a month and uh third Pastor also preaches once a month these are some of the leaders of our Church our senior Pastors in the center in the blue shirt these are our home Bible studies we have three regular home Bible studies we have a Wednesday night bible study a Friday night bible study and a Friday morning Bible study that’s our Wednesday night we’ve been going through First Corinthians and now 2 Corinthians we recently had a baptism in our church we’re able to baptize Ser for new Believers aside from our regular training Ministry and our church ministry we do a lot of one-time events so we’ll do like a one- day seminar or a two-day seminar and we invite pastors from the area and this is to expose them to our ministry give them a taste what their appetites and hopefully they’ll have a desire for more in this particular one day seminar uh I taught for four hours and we taught them how to preach through a book of scripture verse by verse from beginning to end because they want to know how to to do that but they’ve never had it modeled for them and I love these photos because you can see how how diligent they are during their workshop time and they’re really getting into it and uh some of these pastors actually went out and applied this they say now I I know how to do this I’ve been wondering and they’re preaching through scripture verse by verse on Sundays in their own churches this was an event I was asked to do for the Philippine Council of Evangelical churches it’s the largest group of Evangelical churches in the Philippines this is at their facility outside of Manila In tagay tha we did a two-day seminar and we spoke on a variety of topics which would just be practical for pastors in the Philippines I taught on the subject of homosexuality and I was actually asked to teach on that that homosexuality is rampant in the Philippines and uh the pastors who were attending this conference they would stand where we stand on that issue and yet what we did we went through scripture from Genesis all the way through the end of the Bible and we did a Biblical theology a Biblical exposition of homosexuality and as it relates to the church and they were very thankful because while they know where they stand we were able to give them all the scriptures all the scriptural support and so they would now be able to defend what they believe and also teach their people uh this is the same group we also have just basketball Ministry for Evangelistic purposes they love basketball there uh this is uh this is outside our home we do do a lot of hosting in our home uh Greg asked me what are your hobbies and we do have some Hobbies you know normal folks but really what we do with most of our free time is we spend time with people because we love people and we love being around them and it’s just great to get to know them and that’s where a lot of our ministry takes place is in our home or we’ll visit them or we invite them out for a coffee or a meal and this these kinds of scenes are just very frequent in our home at least a couple times a week these are some young ladies who came to spend time with Cara uh this is our annual Thanksgiving uh meal we host a meal Thanksgiving uh every Thanksgiving in our home we were able to fit about 20 folks in our home uh and so it’s something people have grown to look forward to I think when September October rolls around they start talking about who’s going to be invited to the Dexter for her Thanksgiving and they keep asking us are you doing something at your house for Thanksgiving this year like yeah we are and we invite as many folks as we can but U just love being with the people the Philippines a very relational culture and if they don’t know you they’re not really going to listen to you and so uh we just love to spend time with them and show them that we love them and build friendships with them and as you do that that’s where there’s now opportunities for counseling that’s where there’s opportunities for discipleship that’s when people start asking you know we just do a little devotion after before our Thanksgiving meal and people people like it they’re like can we have Bible study we try to do those things so that is um that is a typical week in our life that’s what our our schedule looks like in terms of challenges that we have found um just a couple of things number one I think one of the largest has been um territorialism uh turf wars uh opposition you know that there like like the church here there are some pastors who are false teachers and when you come in and you’re preaching the word of God they’re actually threatened by that there are pastors there who um they don’t want the people to be dependent on God’s word they want want the people to be dependent on them and so when they began hearing God’s word and learning God’s word um we had there were some folks we began doing a Bible study with about a year ago and we’re actually it meets Friday mornings even while we’ve been here in the states we’ve continued to meet with them via Skype Friday morning there it’s Thursday night here so wherever we are in our travels we just stop and we we get online and we have our Bible study with those folks a couple of times we’ve been in the car on the way driving somewhere and uh and and we’ve we’ve done Bible study in the car by by phone while we’re on the way but these folks they’ve been in a church for 20 years and they asked us to do Bible study with them and the first thing we did is teach them how to study God’s word on their own and in 20 years in the church they never learned how to do that but when they began learning how to study God’s word on their own their Pastor was really threatened because then they were going to be on God’s word and all of them so we have found that kind of opposition uh just a couple of cultural things and and we have a couple Filipino folks here who will recognize these things things I’ve had to adjust to and it’s been good for me um the Philippines the culture there and the culture there people are very sensitive and Americans are typically not very sensitive I’m not very sensitive I um I offend very easily and probably a lot of us without Reon realizing it would give offense to people in that culture and we wouldn’t even realize that we’re giving offense um and so I’ve had to learn to relate to them in a way um that that they can appreciate that is within you know kind of the um uh within the culture there and in a way that it won’t give offense to them and one of one aspect of this is just indirectness and I think the indirectness and Comm communication stems from the sensitivity because uh Filipinos will do anything not to offend you okay uh and so because of that that leads to very indirect communication because they won’t really if they’re feeling a certain way they won’t want to tell you they’ll just withdraw they might go tell everybody else but they but they won’t tell you um and so we’ve had to learn to do ministry within those that cultural context and that’s difficult sometimes because as missionaries as those who are there to to help the church to help Believers grow and just in our responsibility as Christians we have that responsibility to sharpen one another to to strengthen one another sometimes that involves um confronting sin you know and just showing people exposing things in their lives areas where they need to grow and uh that can be difficult if you’re trying to avoid giving offense and so three things God has taught me those are the challenges but three things God has taught me number one he’s taught me patience um I think I wasn’t born with any patience uh doesn’t come naturally to me I’ve had every bit of patience that I’ve had is all of God’s grace and I’ve had to learn it um but I’ve learned patience because Ministry um you know will you tell me pastor Joe you know do you just stand up here in the pulpit and you you preach something one time and then everybody immediately you know immediately understands and follows and obeys it just doesn’t work that way in the church here or in anywhere in the world people take time to grow we need all of us I need to be reminded over and over and over and over of the truths of God’s word and it’s God’s word that changes my heart and helps me to grow um so I’ve had to learn patience you know I I I work with a lot of pastors and I I see things in their churches and their Ministries that I want to help them them but sometimes I have to learn to hold my tongue and and wait doesn’t mean that I’m not going to try to help them it just means I’m going to wait until the relationship is there uh until the time is right to really discuss those things with them and and uh that has been a fruitful approach even in with people that were discipling and the Bible studies that we’ve had there have been times where we’re Cara and I our if it’s women’s group were teaching over and over and over again and some of these folks it seems like really aren’t getting it and we can become a little frustrated with that but we just remind ourselves be patient be patient be patient and if these people are genuine Believers most of them are and we keep giving them God’s word then they’re going to grow so we’ve learned patience um connected with this I’ve learned really resting in God’s sovereignty and it’s different to believe in God’s sovereignty and to really trust in and rest in God’s sovereignty because there are a lot of things in in churches there Ministries and people’s lives that we want to fix and and we can’t fix and only God can do that you know and we just have to rest in God’s sovereignty that he knows his sheep his sheep hear his voice he will save his sheep and he will bring to matur maturity Those whom he has saved uh so that goes along with patience and then third just the importance of faithfulness the importance of faithfulness that uh it really isn’t how clever I can how how well I can articulate things how persuasive I can be although we want to be persuade people from God’s word ultimately it’s God’s word that does its work in the hearts of God’s children and so I’ve learned to be faithful to give people God’s word and along with that I’ve seen my frustration decrease my patience increase and I’ve learn just keep giving the people the word of God over and over and over and over over and over again and these people a lot of them have never been in a good church their entire lives they’ve never been well taught their entire life so there’s kind of a lot of junk and bad thinking and unbiblical thinking that’s floating around and if we just keep giving them God’s word eventually they’re going to think biblically and it’s going to push a lot of those other wrong patterns of thinking out of their minds and it’s very very rewarding when you see this happen you see the light bulb come on you see the kind of aha moment where where they get it and we had this in our Thursday night Friday morning Bible study that we were doing on the phone the other day and um uh one of the folks on our Bible study car the answers that she was giving she was thinking biblically and it was like the first time and Cara and I both looked at each other and she whispered to me she gets it and it was just so rewarding because this was someone that that we love dearly but we’d been we’d been growing increasingly frustrated because we’ve been doing Bible study for a year and she wasn’t getting it but then there was this aha moment where she was getting it and car and I just looked at each other and smiled and that brought so much joy uh to our hearts uh but as you pray for us uh please pray for our Furlow 3 weeks left please pray for our church we have our annual Retreat um April 12th or April 16 as soon as we get back please pray for uh Pastors in the Philippines because they really have difficult Ministry to do there and please pray just for our person testimony because people are watching our lives and they want to see how we live and we want to set a Godly example for them well um aside from our update on the ministry we really want to look at God’s word this morning uh we’re going to be looking at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 18 through 20 and I hope to show you from these verses that missions is every believer’s calling you know I I grew up in the church Church very privileged to grow up in in mostly good churches to be taught God’s word at home and I always had a love and a heart for evangelism and yet I always thought missions is for someone else but it’s not for me God has called that person to missions but he hasn’t called me and God ended up using his word his spirit and experience that I had in missions to show me that I was wrong and to show me that missions is something that every believer is called to and I I think you’ll be persuaded from God’s word this morning as we look at it together that this is also true for you but since we’re we’re jumping in right here uh in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 let me give you a little background before we read our verses verses 18 through 20 the church at Corinth was founded by Paul during his second missionary journey around ad. 52 and if you read Acts chapter 18 you’ll find that Paul spent about a year and a half at Corinth and he stayed in the home of two people that you’ll know Priscilla and Aquilla and Corinth was a very worldly and immoral City and that imor immorality and that worldliness had been creeping into the church there was sexual immorality um there were factions lawsuits marital problems and the problems at Corinth were so severe that people were getting drunk during communion and bringing absolute disgrace upon the house of God and so when Paul wrote the book of First Corinthians he wrote to address those problems in the church now we learn from 2 Corinthians 2:1 that between the writing of his first and second Epistles Paul had apparently visited Corinth again and his his visit was a painful visit because the Corinthians were not doing well and it had prompted him to write a letter which is known as the severe letter we read about that in 2 Corinthians 2:4 so Paul wrote this letter following his visit his sorrowful visit and he dispatched Titus with this letter and apparently it was a letter of rebuke and you can imagine if you’ve ever had to write a letter like that a letter of Correction a letter of rebuke uh to to someone maybe to a child you’re you’re kind of anxious to hear back how are they going to receive this letter and are they going to repent and be responsive are they going to be angry and so after Paul dispatched Titus with the letter he waited for Titus to return with a report and when Titus came with his report it was a tremendous Comfort to Paul because the report was essentially that that most of the Corinthians um who were most of the Corinthians had repented of those things which Paul had rebuked them for and they even expressed a great affection for Paul and a desire to continue to learn from Paul so Titus report was encouraging on one hand but evidently it also brought troubling news that some in Corinth were undermining Paul some were attacking Paul they were questioning him his truthfulness they were questioning his authority as an apostle and they were even stooping to the level of personal attack second Corinthians 12:10 for they say his letters are weighty and strong but his personal appearance is unimpressive and his speech contemptible Paul had been to Corinth but a lot of these folks knew Paul through his letters and there were some in the church and they’re just saying hey this guy yeah he’s a good writer but when you see him in person you know he’s really not impressive at all we really shouldn’t be paying any attention to this person we shouldn’t be following Paul so Paul’s primary purpose in 2 Corinthians was really to defend himself and you might think well that’s that’s an interesting reason to write an epistle but why was that was it because he was so concerned with his own reputation no it was because Paul recognized that an attack on his apostleship was an attack on the gospel itself and so in defending himself he was really defending the gospel and this epistle perhaps more so than any other gives us a glimpse into the nature of genuine Ministry because Paul is contrasting himself with false teachers and he’s saying this is what real Ministry looks like and so this is something that we can relate to from our time in the Philippines because we’ve encountered false teachers who aren’t essentially Heretics in their Doctrine but by their lives they’ve denied the gospel and like Paul they’ve come at us with some attacks we’ve been called Liars we’ve had our character malign why because those who are advocating some other practice will always attack those who are standing firm on God’s word and so as I pied pick up at at 2 Corinthians 5:18 and please open your Bibles we’ll read together through verse 20 but as we look at these verses I want you to understand that these words are not just for pastors these words are not just for missionaries and as I’ll show you as you will see from God’s word these words are for all of us and these verses will give us a greater understanding of what it means to serve Christ they will give us a greater sense of our responsibility to share the good news of Christ with those around us and to make disciples of all Nations so please as you have your Bibles open uh follow along and I will read 2 Corinthians 5 18 through 20 now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation namely the God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God well these are verses which are familiar to you they’re beautiful verses and as we study them this morning I want to bring your attention to two things in these Verses first that the privilege of reconciliation and we’ll spend most of our time on this point in verses 18 through 19 the privilege of reconciliation and second the duty of reconciliation in verse 20 so as we look at the the privilege of reconciliation I I first want to point your attention to the fact that reconciliation is an act of of God we begin in verse 18 now all these things are from God and when Paul says all these things he’s looking back to verses 14 through 17 where he’s talked about the new nature verse 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature the old things passed away behold new things have come and so when Paul says all these things are from God he is talking about various aspects of the new nature which he has just discussed in verses 14 through 17 for example the love of Christ that controls us because Christ died for us that’s an aspect of the new nature the ability to know Christ for who he truly is because our perspective of Christ is no longer a perspective which is according to the flesh verse 16 but it is a spiritual one the the new nature the new heart God’s spirit within us these are all things which are from God now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ who reconciled us himself through Christ now reconciliation is one of these biblical terms theological terms that we read and we kind of gloss over why because we’ve heard it so many times we we know what it means but it’s easy to lose sight of the profound truths found in a word like reconciliation now this word reconciliation was originally a term from accounting it referred to the exchanging of coins or the balancing of books so reconciliation presupposes something doesn’t it reconciliation presupposes that there is a problem which needs to be addressed in accounting it it presupposes that the books are out of balance the books are in the red and we need to reconcile the books in this context reconciliation presupposes that a breach of relationship has occurred what causes a breach in a relationship of course we know that the answer is sin Isaiah 59:2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear our sin creates a separation between man and God so there’s a breach in that relationship because of sin what happened in in the Garden of Eden what was Adam and Eve’s relationship like with God it was one of peace and of Harmon Harmony and of familiarity and they walked together and spoke together in the garden but what happened when Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit which he had forbidden what happened they hid themselves because a breach of relationship had occurred because of their sin think even think even of Jesus our lord when he took upon himself the sin of the world in that moment when Jesus bore upon himself not the penalty of his own sin but the weight of the sin of the world he suffered a momentary breach of relationship with the father and what did he cry out my God my God why have you forsaken me and this this makes sense when we think about our own relationships doesn’t it when we wrong one another there is a breach of relationship and we need to reconcile with one another don’t we but that’s not what Paul says here he doesn’t say that God and Men needed to be reconciled to one another he says now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ you see God doesn’t need reconciling does he we are the ones who need reconciling to God so reconciliation is an act of God it is accomplished by God and it is accomplished on God’s terms and this is what separates the gospel of scripture from every false religion in the world did you know that there’s a lot of Truth or there is some truth in almost every false religion what is it that every false religion has in common it’s a recognition that a problem exists in man’s relationship between himself and God and religion is man’s effort it’s man’s answer to the problem of enmity with God it is his attempt to reconcile himself to God through his own good works that’s almost every false religion but the gospel of scripture is that God so loved the world that he gave his only son to reconcile Sinners to himself Sinners as pastor Joe prayed this morning who were his enemies Romans 5’8 but God demonstrates his love toward us in this that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Romans 5:11 and not only this but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have nowed the reconciliation now when we are offended we are often reluctant to reconcile aren’t we when we are offended we are reluctant sometimes to forgive but it is not so with our God remember the parable in Luke 15 of The Prodigal Son The Prodigal the son goes and squanders his inheritance and he returns penniless to the father and what might how might a father respond in that situation the father might respond oh you foolish son how foolish you have been you have squandered your inheritance the son’s the son’s words to his father were actually humble words of recognition of what he done in Repentance father I’m not even worthy to be called your son you know what the father might have said he might have said you know what you’re right you’re you’re no longer my son but you can go you can go work down with the pigs but he didn’t did he what was the father’s response when he saw his son returning from afar how did the father approached the son do you remember he ran he ran and he placed his best robe on his son and a ring on his finger and he slaughtered the fatten calf and he threw a feast and that is a picture of God’s reconciliation of Sinners to himself you see the way that we tend to reconcile with one another some sometimes we sweep things under the rug don’t we and we do this well I forgive you but I don’t have to like you I forgive you I love you brother I love you sister but I’m I’m going to avoid you now and I’m going to always make sure I’m sitting on the other side of the church but I praise God that his reconciliation of us to himself is not that way that it’s not a sweeping of things under the rug it’s not just kind of politely bearing that Hatchet but it’s two things it is a removal of all hostility a removal of all hostility and the granting of the full privilege of ass son full restoration full reconciliation and this kind of reconciliation comes from God second I want you to see that reconciliation comes at a price because while reconciliation is free to us it is not free because it says that God reconciled us to himself in verse through Christ and those two little words through Christ tell us that our reconciliation to God came at Christ expense it came at his expense we read this all throughout the scriptures Colossians 1:19 for it was the father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him through Christ to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through what through the blood of his cross Ephesians 2:13 but now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace he is our peace reconciliation our reconciliation to the father comes at Christ’s through his blood so reconciliation is only possible because somehow somehow through Christ’s blood God chooses not to count our trespasses against us and that somehow is called the substitutionary atonement that he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf and substitutionary atonement means that Christ was offered in our place to pay the penalty for our sin and it is because Christ has satisfied the penalty for sin that Paul is able to say in verse 19 that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them isn’t that one of the most beautiful truths in all of scripture that for those who believe in Christ he does not count our trespasses against us you know Psalm 103:12 that says he has removed our sins from us as far as what as far as the East is from the West I love Isaiah 318 he has cast our sins behind his back he has placed our sins behind his back so that he looks upon them no more and when he looks at us he sees the blood of Christ he sees the perfect right rightousness of Christ and that’s reconciliation reconciliation of Sinners requires God to pay an unpayable debt to balance our books which were hopelessly in the red now that’s not in our nature is it it’s not in our nature to forgive a debt if someone has wronged us we may Harbor resent towards that person for years I have seen people take that kind of resentment and bitterness to the Grave why do we respond that way when when God has forgiven us so much I think that we remember transgressions against us because it gives us the upper hand in our relationship with someone else it gives us something to hold over their head to remind them and to justify ify anything that we anything any wrong that we do toward them because well you wronged me first I praise God that he has not treated us in this way Colossians 2:13 he has forgiven us all our transgressions having canell the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us and he has taken it out of the way having Nailed It To The Cross by his blood Christ has atoned for all that created hostility between us and God and God has reconciled us to himself through the blood of Christ so reconciliation is an act of God it comes at a price and third the task of reconciliation has been given to us again returning to verse 18 now all these things things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation he gave us the ministry of reconciliation allow me to make three comments on this first this is for every believer it’s for every believer not only for missionaries we know this elsewhere from scripture as well um Ephesians 41 and he gave some as pastors and teachers not all but some for the equipping of the Saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ now from this verse what is your pastor’s primary responsibility who is Prime excuse me who is primarily tasked with the work of ministry your pastor’s responsibility according to this verse is to equip you for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ but you as a congregation you as Believers you have that responsibility to do the work of the ministry yourselves so in 2 Corinthians 5:18 when Paul says that God gave us the ministry of reconciliation who does he mean you you might be tempted to think he’s talking about the apostles Paul is saying that God has given the apostles the ministry of reconciliation you know it was Titus who had sent the letter to the Corinthians and return with the letter and so maybe maybe Paul is talking about himself and Titus or himself and Titus and Timothy his missionary companions what does he mean when he says God has given us the ministry of Recon ilation well let’s look at Verse 18 because the word us appears twice in this verse now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ who’s the US it is we who have been reconciled to God through Christ that’s the us all these things are from God who reconciled us it’s everybody who’s been reconciled it’s every believer would you agree with that this means yes do you agree with that see we’re saying here God has reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave who gave us the ministry of reconciliation well who’s the US it’s us it’s the same us it’s we the people of God whom God has reconciled to himself it’s all believers so everyone whom God has reconciled to himself he has entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation so when we read in Matthew 28 that the mission of the church is to evangelize the world that command isn’t directed at me or at pastor Joe but it’s directed at all of us it’s directed at you and the third thing on this or second thing it is a gift and a joy this ministry of reconciliation it’s a gift and it doesn’t say God has given us a burden or a chore of reconciliation God has given us a task of reconciliation no he’s given us the ministry of reconciliation and I find that many Christians shy away from this responsibility would you agree with that I can see people starting to shift in their Seas a little bit because you’re getting uncomfortable because evangelism is one of those words we hear and we’re immediately convicted because almost every single one of us realizes I’m not being as faithful in that responsibility as I need to be but the rec the the ministry of reconciliation I hope that you will learn to look at it not as a chore not as a burden not as just something you feel guilty over but as a gift and something which brings Joy To Your Heart have you personally seen someone come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ I hope you’ve been able to experience that there’s nothing there’s nothing more joyful in this life than to see someone come to an understanding of the gospel and to come to repentance you know we’re so eager to share good news aren’t we I got a promotion you know I got accepted to Princeton the Giants one you know that’s not news that we just keep to ourselves and yet somehow when it comes to the greatest and most joyful news that the world has ever heard we keep that one under wraps now to share the gospel it’s hard sometimes isn’t it sometimes um sometimes you feel like you’re not equipped and that’s why it’s hard sometimes you feel like um you’re not sure how someone going to respond and by sharing Christ with them you might lose that friendship and it’s Parton and God recognizes this Apostle Paul recognizes this and that’s why he has not left us without a weapon or without a tool in this ministry of reconciliation what is it what’s the tool God has given us he’s given us his word verse 19 he has committed to us not only the ministry of reconciliation but the word of reconciliation have you ever noticed that when you try to share the gospel with someone that the wall goes up or they begin to hold you at arms length um I love to share Christ on the on the plane especially when we’re home on Furlow we we fly from time to time uh and I’ll just share Christ well in La I shared Christ with our Uber driver on the way to the air report um but I’ve noticed people are very generally warm and friendly and willing to talk to you about almost anything family vacation work weather politics Sports you name it most people most people are friendly most people talk to you until you mention the b word GW or the CW The Bible the gospel or Christ and the moment you mention one of those words they become very uncom comfortable and very sleepy and very disinterested in talking to you and you look over in the seat next to them and suddenly they’ve grabbed the paper out of the uh you know out of the seat in front of them and they’re reading it upside down and it’s just obvious that they don’t want to have a conversation with you at all about the gospel now why is that it’s because people in our culture have heard it so much their hearts have grown cold and hard towards the gospel and they have learned how to keep you at arms length and how to not allow you to share Christ with them and they have all these these phrases these things I mean some of them are kind of trivial that uh you know you start to share Christ with some and they’re like well yeah but where did Cain get his wife and they think you know they’re just so proud of themselves that they think they’ve thrown you an impossible question and that just blows up you know everything it blows up the gospel and or they’ll say um well that’s good for you but it’s not good for me you know and and they’re very Pious about it and very you know they sit up and puff their chest out a little bit and they think that lets them off the hook for the fact that they stand condemned before God and you just want to shake them and you say it I can tell you where Kane’s wife came from but it doesn’t matter you’re on your way to Hell wake up hear the gospel but when you encounter that and you encounter someone that resistance remember that the word of God is your tool Hebrews 4:12 the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of Soul and Spirit of both joints and Marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart when there is that resistance and when that wall goes up God’s word will pierce man’s heart in a way that nothing else can so learn God’s word learn to use it and then just briefly I just want to point out that reconciliation is not only a privilege it’s also our duty it is our duty verse 20 therefore we are ambassadors for Christ we are ambassadors for Christ it is not a matter of choice if you are a believer in Jesus Christ if you have been reconciled to Christ you are his Ambassador now when you think of an ambassador what comes to mind let me point out two things number one an ambassador is a messenger an ambassador is a messenger and an ambassador is a representative of the one who sent him so when we bring the message of reconciliation to the world we are no mere Aon boys because it is God’s message it is God’s message we come in God’s name as representatives of the Courts of the court of heaven and that lends us Authority doesn’t it but it also reminds us to be mindful of our conduct why because we represent our King and everything that we do every word that we say is a reflection upon him in John 17 Christ is praying to the father he’s first praying for the apostles and then he’s praying for all of us all who believe in him he says I do not ask John 17:20 I do not ask on behalf of these alone but for those also who believe in me through their word that they may all be one even as you father are in me and I in you that they may also be in us and Christ is praying for the testimony of the church he’s praying for the unity of Believers why so that he says the world may believe that you sent me you see when we have Unity with one another when we love one another the world looks at that and they say there is something supernal at work here and when you share God’s word with them God may open their eyes and show them that what is Supernatural which is at work within us is God himself and our love our conduct give people reason to believe that the gospel is true so we are God’s representatives and lastly we go with his entreaties looking one more time at verse 20 therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us now this word for appeal does not mean a request okay it means a strong and an urgent call and I think sometimes our evangelism lacks urgency not only do we not share Christ enough but when we share Christ we don’t share with the passion that we ought to have but when we urge men to be reconciled to God it is as though God is extending his own person personal summons to them and that should give us great power and boldness in our witness shouldn’t it it was what allowed Paul in Romans 6 1:16 to say for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation this is God’s word this is his message this is truth and we should not be ashamed of it and that should give us boldness he goes on to say we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God not just well this is what I believe or why don’t you think about this but it is urgently pleading with men’s for the sake of their souls be reconciled to God it’s Recon it’s recognizing what is it stake that men’s souls are at stake and it’s recognizing that we are God’s ambassadors and this is his message and we are his representatives and that is our duty as Christians now there is a hidden Duty here as well there’s a duty of the one who has been reconciled to God but there is also the duty of the one who needs reconciliation because there is something inherent in this appeal that although reconciliation is a unilateral Act of God God and that it has been fully accomplished and paid for through the blood of Christ it is still something that needs to be received by faith and there may be one here today who has never entered into a peaceful relationship with God maybe you’ve been going to church for years you’ve heard the gospel many times you know the truth but deep down inside you know that your relationship is not right with God and that you still need his forgiveness and if that describes you today we beg you we beg you on behalf of God be reconciled to God today put your faith in Christ but for those of us who have been reconciled to God remember that you are an ambassador for Christ you are his his representative you are his messenger and we must be the gospel in shoes some of those shoes will travel thousands of miles some of those shoes will travel right here locally in this community but we must be the gospel and shoes the visible proof of an invisible truth and the gospel must always be evident in the way that we live but it must also always flow out of Joyful Hearts from our lips amen amen let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you so much for Christ that through him through his blood you have reconciled us to yourself and that it is all of Grace God we thank you for the privilege of being your sons and the privilege Lord of being part of your ministry of reconciling the world to yourself Lord I pray for this church keep them faithful to your word Lord I pray that you will give them increased boldness Lord to share in the good news of Christ with those around them in their families and their workplaces in their communities and we pray Lord your protection upon them and your great blessing upon them until you shall bring us here again it is in Christ’s name that we pray amen am amen