A New You for a New Year
2 Corin 5:13-21
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Jan. 7, 2007
*A new house, a new car, a new TV, a new ipod, a new baby... We like new things. Well, nobody can give us new like God can. He is the Creator of all good things, and He is still in the creation business today. He will even create a new you for this new year.
1. First of all, Jesus Christ will give you a new love.
*Paul talked about this love in vs. 13-14, when he said:
13. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
14. For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
*In other words: When Jesus Christ died on the Cross for our sins, He took our death. And when we receive Him as Savior and Lord, we also receive His kind of love, a love so big that it was willing to die on the Cross for us. A love so big in vs. 13, that sometimes it seems “beside” itself or just plain crazy. It’s a love that loves the unlovable, a love that loves people when they let us down, a love that loves people who are different from us, a love that loves the lost.
*And you may not feel it right now. You may not think you have this crazy kind of love, but if you know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then the seed of that love is firmly planted in your heart. You just have to water and feed it with the Word of God. And pray that God will fill your life with this love. He surely will, and we can say what Paul said in Rom 5:5, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
*That’s what God wants to do in every believer’s life. He wants to give you a love that in vs. 14, constrains us. It compels, controls, it presses us to treat people in an amazing way.
*By God’s grace, we’ve gotten a good taste of this love in Christmas giving this year. Here’s a letter from one of the families:
Dear McClendon Baptist Church,
I cannot thank you enough for your generous gifts of money this Christmas. Without going into details, they were surely in answer to prayer! I opened the envelopes and started crying I was so touched and relieved. Gregory, who is 4, assumed I was sad. He doesn’t quite comprehend tears of joy yet but he will.
We have been so blessed this year. I was baptized for the first time at 40 -- you’re never too old! The kids were baptized with me, which was very special. We’ve found a church home [at the Episcopal church] which has been my Mom’s church for over 20 years now.
Gregory continues to have clear scans at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. His last one was on December 14th. He has very few side effects from the CA and we are grateful for his healing. At a glance, you would never know that he was ever sick. God is so good!
Zoe is a wonderful, sweet hearted little girl. She loves her brother most of the time :). She is growing and healthy and we thank God for her.
We thank God for all his blessings, both seen and unseen. I believe we never fully know what God has done for us. Your generosity towards and prayers for my family have touched us. We cannot thank you enough.
Your friends in Christ,
Sarah, Gregory and Zoe
*How can things like this happen? It’s not us. All the glory goes to God, because the love of God is being “poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
2. Jesus Christ will give you a new love, and a new life.
*We can get a good look at this life in vs. 15-17, where Paul tells us,
15. . . . [Jesus] died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
1-When we open the door of our heart to receive Jesus, He gives us a brand new life. We really are born again, and in vs. 15, there is a new order to our life, or there should be. As Paul said, “[Jesus] died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
*Christian, if you are selfishly living for yourself, then your life is out of order. No wonder you are miserable. Stop living for yourself. Start living for Jesus Christ. That’s the new life.
2-The new life has a new order and a new outlook. Paul talked about this new outlook on life in vs. 16, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.”
*What this means is that we see everything in a brand new way. As the New Living Translation says in vs. 16, “We have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!”
*We see everything in a brand new light when we trust in Jesus. Elva McAllaster wrote a book called Free to Be Single, and in the introduction, she gave a good description of our new outlook on life. Elva said:
"I am a believer! That is the one most significant fact about me. Not that I’m a poet, teacher, counselor, woman. Not that I love outdoor nature, love to hike, enjoy travel. Not that I know certain wonderful human beings. Not anything else. The rest is peripheral, subsidiary, radiating from the hub like spokes from a wheel. I believe in God... and in Jesus Christ. Everything else I have to say on any topic has to acknowledge this primacy." (1)
3-The new life has a new outlook, and new opportunity, so Paul said in vs. 17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
*When you place your trust in Jesus Christ, you literally receive a brand new life, and Maxie Dunnam said:
“I now have a more graphic picture of it than ever before. Most of you know about my wife Jerry giving her brother Randy a bone-marrow transplant--and by the way, he is doing amazingly well.
All sorts of amazing and beautiful things have happened. The doctors were brutally honest. It was going to be tough for Randy -- he was going to be brought to the door of death as all his marrow was destroyed and his immune system reduced to zero before he received the transplant -- and even after that, if the transplant worked it would be a flirtation with death for awhile. But his only hope was the transplant.
What rejoicing there was when it was discovered that Jerry was a perfect match for the transplant. Though this has been a painful process for Jerry that went on far longer than we anticipated, few folks can know the joy she has known -- to literally give life.
I think I’ll never forget, and I know Jerry and Randy will never forget, the day February 1 (1990). That was the day when the doctors made the transplant. Jerry was in a room down the hall from Randy -- coming out from the anesthesia, as her marrow was being fed into Randy’s system. I was back and forth between the rooms during that six-hour process.
When the last drop of the liter of marrow had gone into his system, the nurse took the i.v. bag down and said, ‘That’s it, Randy, this is your new birthday. You’ve been given a new life.’
Wow! I can only imagine the joy of Randy and Jerry -- and the special oneness they now have -- her life creating life in him.” (1)
*If you know Jesus Christ, then He has created new life in you! His life, eternal, abundant, everlasting life! And how did all of this new life happen? It could only come through the Cross! Look down at vs. 21: “For He [that’s God the Father] made Him [that’s Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
*God the Father made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus never sinned, but He took all of our sin on Himself when He died on the Cross, so that we could have His righteousness when we have Him as our Savior and Lord.
*Speaking of this amazing transfer, Bill Bouknight said:
“My sister Martha is three years older than I and has always been considerably smarter. This put me at a disadvantage. Teachers in school would compare my work to Martha’s and wonder if I came from the same litter.
When I was four or five and Martha was seven or eight, she sometimes took advantage of my financial ignorance. I would have a dime and she would have a nickel. Showing me that the nickel was clearly larger than the dime, she would suggest a trade. I would gladly do so, wondering how my sister could be so dumb as to make such an offer.
Not all trades are fair. Some take advantage of the ignorant or uninformed. But occasionally one bumps into a trade that is so magnanimous, so caring, so loving that it rattles our selfish bones.
At the heart of the Gospel is a terrific trade, what Martin Luther called ‘The Happy Exchange.’ A sinless Christ took upon himself the sin of all people, bore it to Calvary, suffered and died for it, and in exchange covered all believers with his perfect righteousness. . .” (2)
*Then Bill Bouknight explained it this way:
“Let’s suppose that I am wearing a coat that reveals the state of my soul. Every commandment I ever broke, every needy person I ever ignored, every lustful thought I ever had, every profanity I ever uttered... all have left dirty marks on my coat. What a filthy garment it is! I must wear the coat and no cleaner on earth can remove its stains, stains, and smudges.
Let’s suppose that Jesus approaches me. I try to hide because I don’t want him to see my filthy coat; it reveals everything bad about me. But Jesus finds me and says, ‘Bill, I know all about your coat. I love you anyway. Give me the coat.’
Miserable with shame, I turn the coat over to him. Then I watch as he marches off to Calvary. He wears it on the cross, bearing the penalty for every smudge and stain. And at that very moment when he cries out from the cross, ‘It is finished’ and breathes his last, suddenly I, become aware that I am wearing a new coat. Instantly I recognize it. It is Jesus’ coat. Not a smudge or a stain on it. It’s a coat of perfect righteousness. Now I can walk into the very presence of God, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. What a trade!” (2)
*Only it’s more than a new coat. It’s a whole new life!
3. Jesus Christ will give you a new life, and a new labor.
*Paul tells us about it in vs. 18-21:
18. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19. that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
21. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
*Christian, you are an ambassador for Christ. God has given you a key part in the most important work in the world! You are a vital link in the chain of eternal life. God can and will speak through you. You can help people be reconciled to God. There is no telling all that God can do through your life.
*Max Lucado reminds us in the story of John Egglen. He was a tailor who was also a deacon in his church in Colchester, England. When John woke up on a January Sunday in 1850, the town was covered in snow, and he thought about staying home. Who wouldn’t?
*But John wanted to be faithful, so he put on his hat and coat and walked 6 miles to church. Only 13 people made it that morning: 12 members and 1 visitor, even the preacher was snowed in.
*Someone suggested they go home, but John would have none of that. They’d come this far. They would have a service. Besides, they had a visitor, a 13-year-old boy, but who would preach?
*Well, John was the only deacon, so the job fell to him, and he preached, even though he had never preached before. John stumbled through his 10 minute sermon. He read from Isaiah 45:22, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”
*John closed his message by looking at the young visiting teenager and saying, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. You have nothing to do but to look and live.”
-It was just what God wanted the young visitor to hear. John said: “Look to Jesus!” And the young man did.
-Young Charles Spurgeon got saved that snowy day, and grew-up to become one of the greatest preachers who ever lived. (3)
*Thousands and thousands of people have been saved because of his ministry, and the church where he pastored in London is still going strong today, all because a man who had never preached before was a faithful ambassador for Jesus.
*What can you do this week to be a faithful ambassador for Jesus Christ? Here are two things: First, we must watch how we live, our thoughts, our words, our actions. This is serious business.
*As William Barclay said: “Here is the Christian’s proud privilege and almost terrifying responsibility. The honor of Christ and of the Church are in [your] hands. By [your] every word and action [you] can make men think more-or-less of [your] Church and [your] Master.” (4)
*We must watch how we live, and we must witness for our Lord. An ambassador speaks for His King, but how can we do that? We talked about this last Wednesday, as we looked at the story of Peter going to witness to the Roman soldier, Cornelius. God has two basic methods for getting His Word out and the first one is we have to go. We have to go to the lost people and tell them about Jesus Christ. This is what Peter was willing to do, and this is what we must be willing to do. Maybe it’s a relative or a friend or a co-worker. Sometimes it will be a total stranger that God puts in our path, and it may be stressful, but God will show us what to do and say.
*We have to go, but Cornelius showed us that we also must invite people to hear. That is why Acts 10:24 is such a vital verse for us today. It tells us that Cornelius was waiting for [Peter], and had called together his relatives and close friends. This is one of the most important verses in the whole Bible for us to grow as a church. Nothing can help us grow more than what we see right there. Cornelius invited his relatives and friends to hear about Jesus Christ, and that made all the difference in the world!
*God has blessed us with such a wonderful church! I was saved because of this church. My children were saved because of this church. After almost 32 years, my marriage is better than ever, because of this church. Countless blessings of love and goodness have come my way because of this church!
-And all of that happened because my co-worker, Georgia, invited us to church in fall of 1975. She was an ambassador for Christ at the place where she worked, and that’s what the Lord wants you to be.
Conclusion:
*In this New Year, don’t settle for anything less. Don’t settle for anything less than a brand new you. Jesus Christ will take you there.
1. Quote found in christianglobe.com sermon “I Am Christ’s” by Maxie Dunnam - 2 Corinthians 5:11-6
2. Found in christianglobe.com sermon “A Terrific Trade” by Bill Bouknight 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
3. Max Lucado in When God Whispers Your Name, (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994).
4. Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, by William Barclay - AMBASSADOR FOR CHRIST - 2 Cor. 5:20-6:2
