THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

[This is revision 4 of the sermon previously titled “The Message of Reconciliation”]

Thursday, 10 January 2008

TEXT: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Central Idea of the Text: Paul says clearly that God “has given to us a ministry of … reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor 5:18,19).

SERMON FOCUS: God has already given us this ministry of reconciling others to God through Christ.

Major Objective: Evangelistic

Specific Objective: Share with others the experienced reality of God in our own lives in a way that is relational, sacrificial, redemptive, and respectful.

SERMON FORM

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

0. This message arises from a passage of Scripture that I have been thinking about — and preaching about — for quite some time.

1. It is a message that I think lies at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.

2. And it has to do the ways in which we can share the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ with others.

3. I know there are a lot of people who are not comfortable sharing the Gospel with others, and if perhaps you are one of them, don’t feel badly, because you are certainly not alone.

4. But I think that sharing what God has done, and is now doing, in your own life

1. is the real basis for sharing the good news of salvation, and that

2. sharing the Gospel is both easy and natural, and that

3. because your own story is unique, no one can share the Gospel in the same way that you can do it.

5. But this message is also especially appropriate for me to share with you,

1. because it not only incorporates many elements that I have learned from my studies in the Divinity School and my experiences as a chaplain and interim pastor, but also

2. because it relates to practical experiences in sharing Christ in other cultures.

6. Sharing the Gospel with others is simply sharing how God has already interacted with each of us, and when we share the Gospel, we are really just doing for others what God has already done for us.

7. So, in this message, I hope to persuade you that

1. sharing the Gospel is a natural and easy thing to do, and that

2. sharing the Gospel arises out of your own personal relationship with Jesus Christ and with others.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

1. The Scripture for this message comes from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 5, beginning at verse 17. I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

[Read here 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.]

2. In these verses, Paul says clearly that God “has given to us a ministry of … reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor 5:18,19) (CIT).

3. The central point in this sermon is that God has already given to us this ministry of reconciling others to God through Christ Jesus (SERMON FOCUS).

4. As we study these verses, we will discover that sharing the Gospel with others is an act of reconciliation that is relational, sacrificial, redemptive, and respectful in its nature (SO).

8. But before we go any further, perhaps we need to say in a clear and concise way what the word “reconciliation” actually means.

9. Reconciliation is the cessation of hostility or opposition between persons or parties or groups. It is a state of affairs in which quarrels or disagreements or inconsistencies have been settled, and a state in which harmony and agreement are achieved.

SERMON DEVELOPMENT

1. The very heart of our Scripture passage is verses 18 and 19:

“¹⁸All this is from God. who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation,

¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”

2. There are two important words to notice in these two verses:

1. First, verse 18 says that God “has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”

   1. The words “has given” are in the past tense.

   2. That means that God has already done it.

   3. And so this “ministry of reconciliation” is already ours,

   4. And we have no choice about whether or not we will accept it.

2. In verse 19, the NRSV translates the word “entrusting” in the present tense, but in the original Greek this word is also in the past tense, and it literally reads “having given.”

   1. So, twice in two verses the Scriptures tell us that God has already given to us the ministry of reconciling others to God through Christ.

   2. And again, the assignment is not optional. It is ours, whether we want to do it or not.

2. But there is an even more important reason why this “ministry of reconciliation” is central to what it means to be a Christian.

1. Part of the reason is illustrated in a parable Jesus told (Matthew 18:21-35) about the servant who owed his master a great deal of money. You know the story: the servant begged his master for forgiveness, but then he went out and mistreated someone else who owed him much less. When the master found out about this deceit, he reinstated the servant’s debt and had him jailed until he could repay it. Jesus concluded the parable by warning, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

2. We can never repay God for what God has done in bringing us into relationship with God. But I believe that when each one of us truly understands what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, our deepest desire will be to pay forward to others the grace of God and to share with everyone we encounter the love that God has so overwhelmingly given to us.

3. Personally, that is the passion that drives me to the ministries of pastoral care and chaplaincy.

4. And that is what this “ministry of reconciliation” is all about — it is simply sharing with someone else the experienced reality of God in your own life.

3. The Scriptures are very clear about how God has achieved reconciliation with us. It occurs through the sacrificial death of Christ.

1. In the passage we have just read, verse 21 says:

²¹ 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. And the book of Colossians, chapter 1, verses 19-22, spells this out in a little more detail:

¹⁹ For in him [Christ] the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

²¹ And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

²² he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him. (emphasis added).

5. So the result of God’s reconciliation with human beings through Christ is that our human natures are remade.

1. Our Scripture passage makes that clear right away: “if anyone is in Christ, [it says], there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, all things have become new” (verse 17).

2. The first thing that we notice about this ministry of reconciliation is that it is based on one’s own personal relationship with Christ. (5:17, 18)

3. This means that sharing the Gospel with others must arise first out of our own personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus.

4. There is no other basis for sharing the Gospel. In presenting the Gospel, it is often useful to be able to remember a few verses of Scripture, and sometimes a tract or other written resource may be helpful, but the real basis for sharing the Gospel lies in what God has done in your own life.

5. Verse 18 begins with the words “All this is from God.…”

1. These words point out that the reconciliation that God achieves with humanity through Christ’s death is entirely at God’s own initiative, not our own.

2. Romans 5:8 also restates this point very clearly: “But God proves [or, in the NIV and NASB, “demonstrates”] his love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us.”

3. Clearly it is God who saves us; we cannot save ourselves.

4. And every believer who has a real personal relationship with Christ knows very well that his or her relationship with God has come about entirely because of God’s initiative, not because of his or her own actions.

6. From verse 19 we learn three important things about the ministry of reconciliation.

1. In the first place, reconciliation is sacrificial in its nature: “God was in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting their sins against them…” (5:19).

   1. Verse 21 completes this thought: “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. So, even as God took the initiative in reconciling humanity to God’s self, as Christians, we must take the initiative in restoring broken relationships with one another.

   3. It is principally because of our personal relationships with God through Christ that we have opportunity to share God’s reconciliation with others.

2. In the second place, reconciliation is redemptive in its nature: verse 19 says that God did “…not count… their trespasses against them…” (5:19)

   1. Sharing the Gospel with someone else always arises out of a redemptive relationship with that person: even as God has entered into a redemptive relationship with me, so I am entrusted to enter into redemptive relationships with others.

   2. The Gospel is never just a “thing” to be carried around in a tract or a memorized presentation, to be given to someone else, but rather a web of relationships of caring and redemption to be shared and nurtured with others.

   3. God’s message to us is always a message of reconciliation — it is

      1. never a message of condemnation of others, and it is

      2. never a message of abdication of our responsibility to share God’s love.

   4. It is what God has done for us in Christ that forms the basis of our relationships with every living person on this earth, both in its motivation and its method.

3. In the third place, reconciliation is relational in its nature: our passage says that God has already “…entrust[ed] to us the message of reconciliation.” (5:19)

   1. The act of reconciliation, by definition, establishes a state of harmony and agreement between persons who were formerly at odds with one another, a state of affairs in which quarrels or disagreements or inconsistencies have been settled.

   2. Therefore, one cannot be reconciled to someone with whom one has no personal relationship,

   3. and the reconciliation that we seek is accomplished on our part by living relationships both with Christ and with those with whom we live and work and witness.

8. And finally, from verse 20 we learn a fourth characteristic of the ministry of reconciliation: the respectful nature in which the Gospel is to be shared:

1. The verse begins by saying, “We are ambassadors for Christ…”

   1. An ambassador is one who represents the full authority and power of his or her sovereign to the government of another country or region, but also one who serves without power to coerce or force change in the host country. His or her powers are powers of reason and persuasion only.

   2. As “ambassadors for Christ,” we are also without either authority or power to force or coerce change in those with whom we share Christ. And even our powers of persuasion are best left to the work of the Holy Spirit.

2. The verse continues by saying, “…since God is making his appeal through us, we entreat you on behalf of Christ; be reconciled to God.” [emphasis added]

   1. An entreaty is not a forceful command, but rather a respectful appeal, based upon reason and human feeling and persuasion.

   2. 1 Peter 3:15-16 also speaks of the respectful way in which the Gospel is to be shared with others:

¹⁵ But in your hearts, sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is within you;

¹⁶ yet do it with gentleness and respect. (emphasis added).

1. That is the spirit in which we are to carry out the ministry of reconciliation that God has already given to us.

CONCLUSIONS

1. Paul wrote that God has already given to us the ministry of reconciling others to God through Christ, (CIT and SERMON FOCUS)

2. In thinking about this ministry of reconciliation, we have discovered that:

1. God has achieved reconciliation with us through the sacrificial death of Christ.

2. The result of God’s reconciliation with human beings through Christ is that our human natures are remade.

3. The reconciliation that God achieves with humanity through Christ’s death is entirely at God’s own initiative, not ours. Clearly it is God who saves us; we cannot save ourselves.

4. God has already given us this ministry of reconciling others to God through Christ. (SERMON FOCUS)

   1. Even as God took the initiative in reconciling humanity to God’s self, as Christians, we must be prepared to take the initiative in restoring broken relationships with one another.

   2. Sharing the Gospel with someone else always arises out of a redemptive relationship with that person: even as God has entered into a redemptive relationship with me, so I am entrusted to enter into redemptive relationships with others.

   3. The reconciliation that we seek is accomplished on our part by a living relationship with Christ and with those with whom we live and work and witness.

5. The ministry of reconciliation that God has already given to us is to share with others the experienced reality of God in our own lives in a way that is relational, sacrificial, redemptive, and respectful. (SO)

APPLICATIONS

So that leaves us with several questions to ponder:

1. With whom do you have relationships today?

2. Do you have a personal relationship with God first, and then with others?

3. Are the relationships that you have with your family, your friends, other members of this church, your coworkers, and others you encounter day-to-day positive and productive, or are they distant and estranged?

4. How are you involved in the redemption and reconciliation of others that you know who do not themselves have a personal relationship with Christ?

5. What has God done, or what is God now doing, in your life that you can share with someone you know?

6. Sharing who God is in your life today, and what God is doing in your life today, is the ministry of reconciliation that God has already entrusted to you. How are you doing that?

7. With whom do you need to share God’s message of reconciliation?

8. What decision do you need to make today about your relationship with Christ, and your relationships with those around you?