Introduction:
A. The story is told of a very wealthy lawyer who vacationed for several weeks each year at his summer home in the backwoods of Maine.
1. Each summer, he would invite friends to come to visit him.
2. One summer he invited a lawyer from Czechoslovakia to visit him.
3. They had a wonderful vacation, and spent a great deal of time exploring the woods and enjoying the natural setting.
4. One morning, as the lawyer and his Czechoslovakian friend were walking through the woods, they came to a berry patch and saw two huge bears -- a male and a female.
5. The American lawyer noticed them in time to run for cover. His Czech friend, however, was not so lucky.
6. The male bear grabbed him and swallowed him whole.
7. Seeing this, the lawyer ran to his Mercedes and sped for the nearest town to get the local sheriff.
8. The sheriff grabbed a high-powered rifle and they raced back to the berry patch. Luckily, the bears were still there.
9. The lawyer pointed to the male bear and said, “He's in THAT one! Quick -- shoot it. Maybe we can still save my friend!”
10. The sheriff looked at the bears, leveled his gun, took careful aim, and shot the female bear.
11. She fell to the ground while the startled male fled into the woods.
12. “Why did you do that?” demanded the lawyer, “I said he was in the male bear!”
13. “I know,” replied the sheriff, “But would YOU believe a lawyer who told you that the Czech was in the male?”
B. Why do we do what we do?
1. What compels us to do what we do?
C. In today’s passage from 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us what it is that compels him to serve Christ.
1. What compels him is the same thing that should compel us.
2. Let’s spend some time working through the text and discover how we should be compelled, convinced and commissioned.
I. Understanding the Word
A. Today’s passage follows very naturally from last week’s passage.
1. Last week, we discovered from 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 that if our earthly tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal home in heaven.
2. We learned that when we really understand that to be at home in the body means that we are actually away from the Lord, then we will prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
3. But all of this causes us to make it our goal to please the Lord, because we all will some day appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
B. With all of that in mind, Paul began the next section saying: Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. (5:11a) NIV®
1. Paul had a healthy fear of the Lord.
2. He didn’t have a cringing terror for some kind of uncaring, spiritual, tyrannical ruler.
3. Rather, Paul stood with awe and inadequacy before the Lord and Maker of us all.
C. The Old Testament speaks often of our need to have this kind of cleansing fear of God.
1. Psalm 19:9 reads: The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. NIV®
2. Deuteronomy 10:12 reads: And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. NIV®
3. Did you notice that fearing the Lord begins that list of things that God requires.
4. Proverbs says that fearing God is the right place to begin the pursuit of understanding. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Pr. 1:7) NIV®
5. Proverbs 16:6b says: through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil. NIV®
6. The NT also speaks of our need to fear God.
a. In Mt. 10:28, Jesus said, “Be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
b. Heb. 12:28 says: Let us so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.
7. These verses don’t describe the fear of a dog who awaits a whipping or of a child cowering in a corner.
8. Rather, these verses picture the person who seeks to please a Holy God; a person who is motivated to keep from doing something that will break the heart of the God they love.
9. Because we know this Holy God who loves us, and has provided a way to avoid His judgment and wrath, we try to help others be prepared.
10. We try to persuade them to know, and love, and fear the Lord.
D. Paul continued: What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. (5:11b-12) NIV®
1. Here we see Paul back in a defensive mode.
2. He wants to provide a base of support so that those Corinthians who have repented of their rebellion against Paul and his gospel will be able to “boast” in Paul’s suffering and weakness and be able to stand against those who are still taking pride in what is seen.
3. The issue at stake is not a personality contest, but a struggle for the lives of those who appear to be Christians outwardly, but whose hearts are far from the Lord.
4. In the battle for the gospel at Corinth, the issue remained whether the repentant could defend their faith in Paul’s ministry against the attacks of those who “peddle the word of God” (2:17).
5. Paul’s concern here is to provide them with the ammunition needed to do so.
6. Paul believed that God knew of his sincerity and his intensions, and he hoped that the Corinthians would realize it also, and then they would be able to hold their heads up when they think of him, instead of judging him and feeling ashamed of him.
E. Paul explained: If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (5:13-15) NIV®
1. Here we see Paul trying to really get to the heart of it.
2. “You really want to know,” he asked, “why we behave the way we do? Well, then, I may sometimes seem as though I’m out of my mind, but if that’s the case it’s because I’m working for God. But understand that underneath it all it is the love of the Messiah that compels me to behave as I do.”
F. Paul personalized the work of Christ – Christ loved us enough to die for us.
1. Because of that, we must be willing to die with Him and then live for Him.
2. The love of God and Jesus is what the gospel is all about.
3. It is the love in the gospel that should urge us and propel us forward.
4. That’s what love does – it compels us and forces us to do things in response to it.
5. If you want to be free from all constraints, then learn to live without love.
a. Once you have real love, then you will be constrained and compelled by it.
6. The gospel is God’s announcement of a love that changes the world.
7. When people, like Paul, realize that they are loved like that, then that love sends them off to live and work in a totally new way.
8. The motivation to live for Christ comes from more than duty or a fear of punishment, it is a response to an amazing love that has reached out, and captivated us.
G. Paul now seeks to explain how the love of Christ should change everything about us.
1. Look at verses 16 – 17: So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (5:16-17) NIV®
2. In this newness of life that Paul has experienced, he now lives by new standards and has a different perspective.
3. He no longer judges things by the standards that the world uses.
4. There was a time when Paul had judged Christ by human standards and had set out to eliminate Christianity.
5. Paul is likely implying that many of the Corinthians are still judging by human standards; especially their judgment of him.
6. But the gospel should be changing all of that.
7. Verse 17 is one of the greatest summaries of what Christianity is all about – becoming new creations.
8. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!” NIV®
9. Thank God that we can be new and different!
H. In the next verses, Paul explained how this transformation process works, and how God plans to commission us in this enterprise.
1. Paul wrote: All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (5:18-21) NIV®
2. This great symphony of reconciliation composed on Calvary must now be performed again and again by God’s people for the audiences made up of the lost.
3. The world has never heard this beautiful symphony of reconciliation – no wonder the Corinthians and others have found it difficult to fathom.
I. This new thing that God was doing in creating a new kingdom with a new king required that God send out newly appointed ambassadors.
1. As His ambassadors we have an amazing message to share – God made us and loves us and wants to be reconciled to us.
2. God has provided a means for our reconciliation through the sacrifice of Jesus His own Son.
3. The concept at work here is the idea of imputation.
4. It is a word borrowed from banking and simply means “to put to one’s account.”
5. When you deposit money in the bank, the computer puts that amount to your account, or to your credit.
6. When Jesus died on the cross, all of our sins were imputed to Him – He was treated by God as though He had actually committed those sins.
7. The result is that all of our sins have been paid for and God no longer holds them against us.
8. But in addition to that, God has also put to our account the very righteousness of Christ.
9. As far as our bank records show, our account is full of the righteousness of Christ.
J. Paul concluded this section with a direct appeal, which comes to us as much as to them.
1. Look at 2 Corinthians 6:1-2: As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. NIV®
2. To put it in other words, Paul is basically saying, “You’ve accepted God’s grace; don’t let it go for nothing! Make the most of it! Don’t delay in allowing God’s power for the new creation to work in you.”
3. Paul had gone to Corinth and started the church. Many of them had received the good news and became Christians, but Paul was concerned about their salvation – they had been led astray.
4. It was time to be sure they were on the right track, because the only opportunity we have is in the present.
5. They were not guaranteed of anything beyond that moment, and neither are we beyond this one.
II. Applying the Word
A. What would God want us “to do” because of what we have read in today’s text?
1. Let’s try to apply these verses to our lives by asking some probing questions.
B. Question #1: How is the fear of God functioning in your life?
1. Would you say that you have a healthy respect for God?
2. Does the fear of God give you the right sense of urgency and gravity for obeying God?
3. I’m afraid that a lot of the time our God is too small, and our sense of self is too large.
4. We sometimes fear God so little that we don’t sense the seriousness of our sin.
a. And at the same time we don’t sense the seriousness of our sin, so we don’t fear God.
b. It’s kind of a vicious circle.
5. We need a healthy dose of both – respect for the Holiness of God, and proper assessment of our own depravity.
6. A healthy fear of God will not only cause us to do what we must to be reconciled to God, but do what we must to help others be reconciled to God.
C. Question #2: What is Christ’s love compelling you to do?
1. The story is told of a young woman who won a contest and was awarded the first prize which was a three-week trip around the world.
2. The trip was the chance of a lifetime.
3. Unfortunately, the young lady chose to forgo the trip in order to stay with a sick friend.
4. A reporter caught wind of this development and asked the young lady, “What on earth is making you give up this trip?”
5. The young lady held her tongue, choosing not to give an answer.
6. The reporter went on, he said, “I mean, surely the person would have understood that you had to go on the trip. Surely there must have been others who could have stayed with sick person.”
7. Realizing that she had to explain, the young lady said, “All right. You really want to know? You think I’m crazy. But what you don’t know – and I wasn’t going to tell you – is what she did for me three years ago.
I was on drugs and couldn’t stop. It got worse and worse. My family threw me out. She was the only person who looked after me. She sat up all night, again and again, and talked me through it. She mopped me down when I threw up, she changed my clothes, she took me to the hospital, she talked to the doctors, she made sure I was coming through it. She helped me with the court case. She even helped me get a job. She – she – she loved me! So did I have any choice?
Now that she’s sick herself, the least thing I can do is to stay with her. That’s far less than she did for me.”
8. Does Christ’s love compel you like that?
9. Look at all He’s done for you and me, is there anything we shouldn’t be willing to do for Him?
10. Virtually anything we can do for Jesus is far less than what He has done for us.
D. Question #3: Of what are you convinced?
1. Convictions can be powerful things.
2. Paul was convinced that Christ died for Him, and therefore he died and must use his life to serve Christ.
3. Are we convinced that Christ died for us?
4. Are we convinced that Christ arose from the dead?
5. Are we convinced that He lives in us and that we can do all things through His strength?
6. Are we convinced that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and the only way to the Father?
7. Can you see what should happen if these convictions truly get a hold of us?
8. They might cause us to look a little crazy to those in the world.
E. Question #4: How is God’s new creation coming along in your life?
1. God’s new creation work in our lives is an on-going work.
2. We have the opportunity to be transformed into the image of Christ with ever-increasing glory through the Holy Spirit. (3:18)
3. This doesn’t happen all at once, but is a gradual process as we cooperate with the Spirit.
4. Initially, when we became a Christian, there was likely an immediate, drastic change in our lives – the old was gone and the new had come.
5. But then as time passed, our growth in Christ likely slowed or even plateaued.
6. Hopefully, we haven’t regressed.
7. We must not stop where we are, even though we are perhaps quite a bit further along than where we began our walk with Christ.
8. Let’s keep coming to the Lord to see where we need to grow.
9. Let’s allow God to continue His new creation work in our lives.
10. Not only because we want to please God, but because we want to be the best we can be, so that we can be as useful to the Lord as we can be.
F. The final question: Are you putting off changes that need to be made right now?
1. Paul was adamant at the end of today’s passage that “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (6:2)
2. Are you delaying becoming a Christian?
3. Are you delaying repenting?
4. Are you delaying getting involved?
5. The story is told of a preacher who was dealing with a young lady who argued that she had plenty of time to get her life right with Christ.
a. The preacher finally handed her a piece of paper and said, “Would you sign a statement that says that you are willing to postpone your salvation for a year?”
b. No, she said that she would not do that.
c. He said, “How about six months?” She said no again.
d. “How about one month?” She hesitated, but said no.
e. Then she began to see the folly of her argument and realized that the only moment she knew she had for sure was that moment.
f. Right then, she proceeded to become a Christian.
6. Right now is the time of God’s favor. Right now is the day of salvation. Right now is the only time we know we have.
G. How wonderful that right now we can be newly created, compelled, and commissioned by God!
Resources:
Paul for Everyone, 2 Corinthians, Tom Wright, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003
2 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary, Scott J. Hafemann, Zondervan, 2000
2 Corinthians, John MacArthur, Nelson Impact, 2007
The Letters to the Corinthians, William Barclay, The Westminster Press, 1975
Be Encouraged, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Warren Wiersbe, Victor Books, 1989
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Murray J. Harris, Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, Zondervan, 1976
