Verse 17 tells us what has happened in our lives: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things have become new." We have accepted Christ into our lives and He has not just renewed us, He has made us new. That's good. What happens after we become new "creatures"? Verses 18-21 answer the question in the title - then what?
I. We have been given a minstry of reconciliation. Vs. 18 "And all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation." This means that we have been called by Christ to help others be reconciled to God. None of us is exempt! Every Christian is His witness of reconciliation. II. We have been given the word of reconciliation. Vs. 19 "To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation." He didn't call us to our ministry of reconciliation and say, "Now go out there and tell whatever you want to tell them." The word of reconciliation is the word of God - the Bible. That's why we need to read and study it and why we need to depend on His word in our witnessing and not our own wits. III. We have been made ambassadors for Christ. Vs. 20 "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's, be ye reconciled to God." What does an ambassador do? He does not go to another country with his own agenda. He goes with the agenda of his country's leader. We are ambassadors for Christ and we need to be about His business. We need to follow His agenda as we serve as His witnesses. Matthew 28:19-20: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." We have these ministries in our lives because of what God has done: "For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
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The dynamics that helped Peter deny Jesus are present in our lives as well.
I. The seeds of denial. A. Peter misunderstood Jesus' purpose. He came to die on the cross. B. Peter misunderstood his relationship with Jesus. 1. Jesus did not need Peter. Peter needed Jesus. 2. Jesus did not need Peter's protection. Peter would need His. 3. Jesus did not need Peter's defense. It was his task, and ours, to serve Jesus. C. Remove these seeds of misunderstanding from your life. II. The denial of denial. A. Vs. 33 - Peter overestimated his courage. Can we truthfully say that we would not have been tempted if faced with the same choice that Peter had? B. Vs. 33 - Peter overestimated his confidence. (See also Matthew 26:33.) As Christ's servants we do not function on self-confidence, but on our faith in Him. 1 John 5:4b C. Do not deny the possibility of denial based on your courage and confidence. III. The reality of denial. A. Peter was overwhelmed by fear. Do not overlook the power of fear to challenge our faith. B. Peter was overwhelmed by people. When I was in the Navy as very, very young man, I envied those sailors who would take their stand for Jesus no matter what other people said. It finally came for me, but it was a long time coming. C. We are ruled by fear and by other people when we do not put all of our trust in Jesus. Finally, there is a value to denial if we will learn from it as Peter did. He went from denial to the great Pentecost sermon. Let us be careful that we do not deny Jesus in a weak moment in our lives. (This is going to be a skimpy offering today, but there is a lot here to preach.)
The Bible warns us in different places to stay on guard, or to be alert. Proverbs 4:20-27 gives us an interesting example. I. Vss. 20-23 - Guard Your Heart. II. Vs. 24 - Guard your mouth. III. Vs. 25 - Guard your eyes. IV. Vss. 26-27 - Guard your feet. If we guard our hearts, mouths, eyes and feet, we will be well-guarded. Think about it. We are victors in Jesus. (See also 1 John 5:4.) We are already victors in Jesus, but we have further victories to win, so I want to point out some areas in your life in which you need to be victorious.
I. If you have been victorious, your faith has been strengthened. 1 John 5:4-5 A. You have been saved by faith. This is primary - first and foremost. B. You have decided to step out on faith in Jesus- to put your faith to work. Ephesians 2:8-10 C. You have decided that you are on God's side and that you will conduct your life like this is true. II. If you have been victorious, you have been challenged to live a better life. A. To repent of various sins which may be: Pride, Envy, Indifference, Hurt feelings. B. To make your life count for something, or someone, beyond yourself. 1. By constant prayer. 2. By daily Bible reading. 3. By service to your community in the name of Jesus and through your church. C. To be the person that Jesus wants you to be and to follow His will for your life. III. If you have been victorious, you have been challenged to be the best church member that you can be. A. To attend the functions of your church, not just a "warm body" but a participant, a worshipper.... B. To attend to the tasks to which you have been appointed in your church. To be as effective in those tasks as you are in your secular work. 1. Using your Holy Spirit gifts. (Look at Ephesians 4:10ff) 2. Working cooperatively with all other members and organizations of your church. Even if you disagree and do not have your way!!!!!! C. To love other people in your church and community. Have a victory celebration in your life. Live for Jesus victoriously before other people. "The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, they whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness."
Our eyes count for more than just seeing. What we let in our eyes, or do not let in them, count for something. We need to watch out what we watch with our eyes. I. First, we shouldn't have closed eyes. A. Closed to the power of God in our lives. Suppose Moses had closed his eyes to God's power. Like Moses, we need to open our eyes to the power of God in our lives. B. Closed to the glorious opportunities in service to the Lord. 1. To witness. 2. To minister. 3. To service and ministry in the church. C. Closed to the joy that is ours in the Lord. II. Second, we shouldn't have faulty eyes. A. Don't just be nearsighted. (myopic) These eyes only see up close. There is not vision for the wider world. There is no vision for missions beyond our frontiers. B. Don't just be farsighted (hypermetropic) Do not choose to just look beyond our borders. There is witness and ministry close to home as well, but it takes time and sometimes courage to go there. C. Don't have distorted vision. (astigmatism) 1. Distorted as to our own worth. (See Galatians 6:3) 2. Distorted as to our own usefulness. We are more useful than we think. Which leads to: 3. Distorted as to what god can do with and through us. D. Don't have tunnel vision. Can't see to either side, only in our narrow view. So you can see that ours eyes do count. The "eyes" really do have it. How are you using your eyes for the Lord? When Jesus and His disciples saw a man who was blind from birth, they asked Jesus who had sinned," this man or his parents that he was born blind." Jesus' answer in verse 3 is the key verse for this sermon on seeing God at work: "Jesus
answered neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest (revealed or seen) in him." This man offered the opportunity to see a work that only God can do. I. First, what God can do is accomplished by Jesus. A. The people were puzzled by what Jesus did. "Who is it that did this?" B.The Pharisees were angered because they weren't part of it, and because it was done on the Sabbath. C. The man's parents were afraid of it. (Vss. 18-23) D. The man who was healed came to see Jesus more clearly. 1. Vs. 11 - "A man that is called Jesus..." He only knew that a man helped him. 2. Vs. 17 - "He is a prophet..." 3. Vss. 33-38 - "Lord I believe. And he worshipped Him." 4. If you want to see Jesus more clearly, let Him work in your life. E. Now, which group would we fall in as we react to Jesus? II. Second, the only possible explanation for this miracle was that God was at work. A. Who but God/Jesus could make a man blind from birth see that God had done a great thing. 1. He brought hope into a hopeless situation. 2. He brought joy into a joyless situation. 3. He brought possibilities into the life of a man who before only had the possibility of begging. He is the God of possibilities! 4. He brought the power of God into a situation that changed everything for the better. B. This is the kind of thing that God had done before and still does today. Biblical illustrations: (1) We see this in Israel at the Red Sea. (2) We see this in David and Goliath. (3) We see this in the resurrection of Jesus. (4)We can see this in our lives if we will look through eyes of faith instead of through the eyes of doubt and fear. C. Consequently, we must learn to look at God's work in our difficulties in a new, challenging and exciting way. 1. We must not spend our time blaming God/Jesus. 2. We must not spend our time blaming ourselves. 3.We must not spend our time blaming our life's circumstances. 4. We must spend our time asking God to do only what He can do in all of the circmstances of our lives. 5. We must spend our time glorifying God and praising Him as we wait to see what He will do. Let's look to Jesus, for He brings the power of God to bear in our lives through the Holy Spirit. Let us learn to enjoying seeing God at work. I try not to sermonize too much when I'm doing my personal Bible reading, but occasionally an idea will jump out and it just has to be of God. That's what happened this morning. I want to share this idea with you and see if you can make something of it. Psalm 105 is a celebration of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. It begins with a call to the people to make the most of the relationship that they have with God. Here is how I saw it:
I. Vs. 1a - Be thankful -- "Give thanks unto the Lord..." II. Vs. 1b - Be prayerful - "Call upon His name..." III. Vs. 1c - Be His witness - "Make known His deeds among the people..." IV. Vs. 2 - Be worshipful - "Sing unto Him, sing praise unto Him: talk ye of all His wondrous works..." V. Vs. 3 - Be joyful - "Glory ye in His name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord..." VI. Vs. 4 - Be dependent on Him. "Seek the Lord, and His strength: seek His face evermore...." VII. Vs. 5 - Be mindful of His works in your life. "Remember His marvelous works that He hath done; His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth." I know that seven points in a sermon are a lot of points, but I couldn't leave any of them out. This idea makes sense to me and hope it does to you. We live in an age of proliferation of knowledge. Computers can take knowledge around the world in a matter of seconds. But all knowledge is neither useful nor wise. Our text gives us the bases for true knowledge.
I. We need to know that God is, indeed, God. A. He is not "the man upstairs," etc. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." B. He is transcendent - higher. He is not like us. He transcends all of our knowledge and all of our abilities. "His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts." C. He is worthy of awe. 1. Awe of His holilness. 2. Awe of His power. 3. Awe of His knowledge. 4. Awe of His love, grace, mercy and glory. D. He is worthy of worship. E. He has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. II. We need to know that God is our creator. A. We are not cosmic accidents. For us to just happen by accident would be like a watch just forming itself while we sleep. B. We are created in his image. 1. We are tied to Him - we need Him. 2. We are incomplete without Him. 3. St. Augustine: "You made us for yourself, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in you." C. He made us who we are in Christ. III. We need to know that we are His people. A. Any number of people say when asked if they are saved, "I'm trying to be." That's like saying "I'm trying to be married." B. If we belong to Jesus, we know it. Jesus said, "I know my sheep and am known of mine...." C. The bottom line question for you is, do you know that you belong to Jesus in a saving relationship? This is not knowledge that will impress the world, but it is necessary in the eyes of God. If you know these three things, you are way ahead in life. After Jesus died, the Centurion said "Surely this man was the Son of God," or "He was a righteous man." Whichever, this is a remarkable statement from a most unlikely candidate - a battle hardened executioner. It is on record in the Bible that he saw the truth about the One whom they crucified. What convinced him? He certainly had clues.
I. Unusual phenomena A. Three hours of darkness - 15:33 This phenomenon was recorded by historians in ancient archives of Rome. B. Earthquake - Matthew 27:51 The timing of the quake was not missed by the Centurion. C. "And the graves were opened..." Matthew 27:51-53 Later, he would have the documentation of Christ's resurrection. II. The demeanor of Christ on the cross. A. He heard Jesus forgive those who crucified Him. Luke 23:24 This man had probably witnessed many crucifixions, but he had never heard anyone forgive those who put him on the cross. B. He saw Jesus' concern for His mother, though He was in agony. John 19:26-27 C. He observed Jesus' acceptance of the penitent thief. Luke 23:39-43 Again, Jesus was not thinking just of HImself in His moment of deepest agony. III. The key: Faith instigated by the Holy Spirit. A. He saw it all and believed, though all of it made no impression on others who witnessed all of the phenomena. 1. Keep in mind that the Centurion did not live in a vacuum. He had certainly heard of the claims that Jesus was the Son of God. 2. The phenomena and the demeanor of Christ were mixed with faith. B. Nothing will convince us about Jesus without faith. Hebrews 11:1 C. According to Hebrews 11:6, nothing else will please God. Throughout the New Testament, we have all kinds of things to convince us. Through His continuing work on this earth we have all kinds of evidence. But the evidence cannot be received intellectually until it is received by faith. It doesn't start in the head but the heart. The first words of Jesus from the cross were words of forgiveness: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This statement says a lot about what Jesus was saying to us from the cross.
I. Jesus was saying "I love you." I once heard Billy Graham say that the cross is God's plus sign to the world, and that from that cross Jesus was saying "I love you, I love you, I love you." Forgiveness itself is a sign of love. II. Jesus was saying "You matter to me." Everybody wants to matter to somebody. When Jesus forgives us from the cross, He is telling us that we matter to Him, and what happens in our lives and in our eternity matters to Him. III. Jesus was saying "nothing can stop the will of God." The whole point of the cross was forgiveness. It was the will of God that we be forgiven through Christ's death on the cross. In Gethsemane Jesus prayed "Not my will but thine be done." He knew that He had to take the sins of the whole world upon Himself if we were to be forgiven. Think of that burden! He was, after all, "the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world..." IV. Jesus was saying "You can come to me." Picture Jesus on the cross. His arms are wide open. He literally opened Himself up to us on the cross. He is saying that if we want to claim His forgiveness from the cross, we must come to Him. |
All of these materials are free of charge. There is no copyright on them and you are free to use them as you see fit. I am happy to be of assitance to you in your preaching/teaching minstry.
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