19th June 2009
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
In the weeks following Pentecost the Lectionary directs us to stories of the evolving infant church and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit through the key Apostles. We look more deeply at the season of development and growth, extending for about 60 years after Pentecost. Today’s reading from 2 Corinthians 5 is one such passage.
In the time of Paul, Corinth was arguably the pre-eminent Greek city and like many prominent world centres today it was a city that was materially and intellectually arrogant, affluent yet morally corrupt, and was widely know as a sensual city where sexual sin abounded. Paul wrote two letters to the Corinthians, a church he had personally founded and established over a period of 18 months during his second great missionary journey between 49 & 52 AD. His letters followed in about 55 & 56AD and were directed at correcting errors of theology and the influx of damaging ‘worldly’ attitudes into this vital Christian centre.
Paul wrote for three main reasons...
- To encourage the majority who were faithful to him as their spiritual mentor, and to the gospel.
- To challenge and expose false teaching and wrong attitudes, some of which came from false apostles who were trying to undermine Paul’s leadership.
- To reprimand a small minority who were being distracted and influenced by Paul’s opponents.
This second letter was a precursor to an extended personal visit Paul made about a year after he wrote – part of his third missionary journey .
Today’s passage - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 – is about being reconciled to God and yet, even more than that, it points us to an amazing privilege yet carrying a great responsibility. Paul indicates that we, the members of Christ’s church, are also ambassadors for Him. What an amazing thought!
Paul begins by saying that anyone who has come to Christ... anyone who has been baptised into the faith... has become a new creation. While we remain here physically, in a marvellous way we have spiritually already left this world and become part of God’s new world where the Holy Spirit rules.
That wonderful phrase in verse 17 says...
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come!”
Immediately after this passage Paul goes on to say that this is all from God who has reconciled us to Himself. Through Christ, God the Father has brought His family back. They were lost in sin and far off, but God – in Christ and through the Cross – has found us and brought us home. But Paul then adds an exciting insight... Not only are we reconciled to God, we have now been given the ministry of reconciliation to carry out. Through the Cross and Christ’s atoning death for sin, the way has been opened for all sinners to be reconciled to God. That reconciliation becomes effective when each person come to faith in Christ and repents of their sinfulness. Hear this clearly - The reconciliation between God and humanity is already complete; no more is needed. On the Cross Jesus said, “It is finished!” but the reconciliation only becomes effective in our lives when we accept it and acknowledge that it was done for us, and for all who come to faith in Christ, the one who did it for us all.
Our ministry is to make sure everyone within our sphere of influence comes to understand that God has acted to reconcile all people to Him. The church’s ministry is to proclaim that this reconciliation between God and humanity is not only possible, it has already been done!
You and I are the church so this profound act of God becomes your ministry and mine. Paul uses the phrase in verse 19 that God has committed that ministry to us. He gave us the ministry, and committed it to us. I see that as meaning we have been given a gift that comes with instructions to use it on behalf of the one who gave it.
That concept has a significant power and authority for us to grasp. These are not just nice words from Christian history, but rather we have been given a job description and full employment for all Christians. In a sense Paul says, “God has done His bit through the Cross – now it’s yours...you have it...you must deal with it... the ministry of the Cross is now your ministry.”
Paul then said in verse 20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us...”
On the TV news during this past week the announcement was made that the Italian Consulate in Adelaide would be closing as a cost-saving measure by the Italian Government. They have the Embassy in Canberra but Adelaide’s office was closing.
Like a number of major Australian cities, Adelaide has a significant population drawn from past as well as more recent Italian migration. Many in that Italian sub-community felt as it they had been cut off from their roots, their other ‘home’. One Italian businessman they interviewed said, “Who will speak for us now? Who do we go to?”
Have you ever thought of yourself as an ambassador for Jesus? Have you ever considered our church complex here as God’s ‘consulate’ in Port Lincoln? Is this a place where people can reach the ‘home’ they belong to away from where they now live? Is this a place where people can ask of us, “Will you speak for me? Can you help me be reconciled to God?”
The last verse in this passage also contains a powerful message.
I don’t know about you, but I know there are days when I feel decidedly unholy, unrighteous, stained by the world around me. I know I am forgiven. I never doubt God’s love, and yet I can feel sullied by life. Even so Paul says in verse 21, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.”
- We were given reconciliation...
- We have had that ministry committed to us...
- We have become the righteousness of God... and...
- We are ambassadors into this world of the most wonderful message ever delivered to mankind.
This passage of five short verses contains some of the most wonderful and exciting insights for Christians. Written to a growing and vibrant congregation of the early church established in an ancient sin-ravaged Greek city, this letter from Paul is just as relevant and alive for us today.
So, be encouraged by these key points...
- You have been reconciled to God – nothing separates us from His love as revealed in Christ Jesus.
- You have been given the wonderful ministry of sharing that exorbitant good news with others around you.
- You have been appointed an ambassador for the Living God ... a person who speaks with authority from ‘home’.
AMEN
21st June 09.
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