Title: Neither forget where you’ve been, nor how far you’ve come, i.e.
Neither forget who you’ve been, Nor who you’re becoming
Text: II Corinthians 5:16-21
Thesis: When you take time to remember where you’ve been, i.e., who you’ve been, you can celebrate how far you’ve come, i.e., who you’re becoming. (May you see that to in yourself and others…)
Introduction
We may not like it but ours is a superficial culture. We tend toward the shallow in our values. I read about a young man who was a mover and a shaker. He was on the fast track to success and he liked to show it off. He drove a BMW convertible and loved to be seen cruising with the top down and the wind blowing through his hair. One day he parked in front of his business and opened the door to get out and when he did a passing truck tore off the door to his new Beamer. Outraged he jumped out of the car and began to bewail the damage to his shiny new BMW. Then someone on the sidewalk said, “Hey buddy… I wouldn’t be worrying about your car – look your arm was torn off in the accident. He looked down and seeing his arm was missing began to weep, “Oh, my Rolex! Oh, my Rolex!”
A few years ago when America’s Got Talent was really hot, Great Britain also had their version called Britain’s God Talent. I was watching the night Susan Boyle came out on the stage. She was only 47 years old but looked very matronly. She was dressed kind of dowdy. She was obviously not your basic drop dead gorgeous starlet in the making. There was a certain cloud of doubt that filled the room. You could feel it and hear it in the audience. The judges and especially Simon Cowell were openly doubtful and in fact disdainful that Susan Boyle would have a modicum of talent. And then after all the jibes Susan Boyle sang “I Dreamed a Dream.” When she was finished the house erupted and she received a standing ovation. Any first impressions of Susan Boyle were blown away by what no one in the audience could see or hear. For some reason our impressions of others are often formed simply by what we see in a negative light.
One of the things I like about NBS’s “The Voice” is the blind audition. When a singer comes onto the stage and begins his or her performance the four judges are seated in four cushy looking chairs with their backs to the performer. They can’t see the performer. They have no clue what the performer looks like. They do not know the performer’s age. They can only hear the performer’s voice. Their first and only impression of a singer is the singer’s voice.
The trained ears of the judges may pick up on some nervousness in the voice but they have no idea if the singer is young or old or thin or fat or fastidious or frumpy or pretty or plain… they have no idea about any of those things we generally use in forming impressions of others.
We are all concerned about the impressions we make and leave with people. Was my handshake firm enough? Did I smile and maintain eye contact? Did I repeat their name enough times? Was I dressed appropriately? Did I show enough interest in them? Did I ask questions? Did I listen? Did I say something totally goofy or say something offensive? Did I hold in my gut and sit up straight? Did I maintain open body language?
We are all concerned about making good first impressions because we know that first impressions are often lasting impressions. Unfortunately, first impressions are often determined by things that are superficial.
Our text begins today with a rather bold statement: “We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.”
Almost every human point of view is likely to be superficial in nature… by that I mean we form impressions of people based on outward observations.
I. So much for superficiality… we need to see in people what God sees.
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! II Corinthians 5:16
We need to take a peek at II Corinthians 5:14-15 in order to have some insight into the context of our Scripture today. “Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead they will live for Christ, who died and is now raised for them.”
The Bible gives us a vivid image of this in the immersion mode of baptism in Romans 6:1-4
The conversation is couched in the context of continuing to live in sin or continue to practice sin after we become followers of Christ, after all, Christ died for our sin. Of course God’s grace extends to include all of our sin but when we become followers of Christ we die, so to speak, to our former way of life and begin to live out our new life in Christ. So here is the image:
When Christ died for all the sin of all men of all time he was taken down from the cross and buried. Three days later he rose from the dead in newness of life. Symbolically, when Christ died, you died, I died, we all died with him and our sin died with us. When we are immersed in baptism, going under the water symbolizes our death and burial with Christ. When Christ was raised from the dead in newness of life we were raised with him in newness of life. So when we are raised up out of the water, that raising symbolizes our resurrection with Christ in newness of life. We died with Christ in his death and we are raised with Christ in newness of life.
Our text today begins with the word “so” or “therefore.” In other words there are resulting consequences from Christ’s death. Because we died with Christ to sin and are raised with Christ to live new lives, something happened.
The first consequence is in verse 16 (II Corinthians 5:16). Paul said, “I have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.” He goes on to say, “Just as I now see Christ as a risen Christ I now see others in the new light of their new life in Christ.”
We typically make observations about others based on all kinds of factors which are often stereotypical in nature.
One evening this week I sat down and watched Seven Days in Utopia… it is a golf story but it is also a God story. The story opens with a young golfer making his debut on the pro-golf circuit. He does well until he makes a bad choice and has a total meltdown on the 18th hole. He was so frustrated and angry that he broke his putter over his knee and threw it into a water hazard. In the next scene he has had a car accident near the little town of Utopia, Texas. While his car is being fixed he stays at the local motel which just happened to be owned by Johnny Crawford who was once a pro-golf champion.
It is a wonderful story… the old pro-golfer watched the young golfer’s meltdown on television but he saw in that failure, a young man with the potential to be a champion golfer. He did not see what he saw… he saw what could be.
Coach Vince Lombardi had a similar experience with a young lineman playing on the Green Bay Packer’s team. He said to the young man, “Son, you are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking, you’re not tackling, and you’re not giving 100%. But inside you there is a great football player, and I’m going to stick by your side until the great football player has a chance to come out.”
We readily see what’s on the outside… we see:
• Nationality/Race/Ethnicity
• Gender
• Social Status
• Proper or Earthy
• Educated or Uneducated
• Literate or Illiterate
• Home owner or Renter
• CEO or Stock boy
• Rich or Poor
• Civilized/Uncivilized/Barbarian
• Democrat or Republican
• Meat eaters or Vegetarians
We make all kinds of judgments about people based on their things like bumper stickers and fish symbols.
All of the observations we make about people that are essentially external in nature, are gone in the mind the Apostle Paul because they no longer exist in the mind of God.
“There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28
“In this new life it does not matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.” Colossians 3:11
When we stop evaluating people superficially or from a human point of view we do not see what appears to be but what may be. When you or I look at a person we are not looking at the finished product. We are looking at a work in progress. We are looking at someone in whom God is patiently working away transforming them and conforming them into the image of Christ. We do not see what is, we see what God sees and what God sees is what will be. We are works in progress and other people are works in progress… so rather than seeing others from a critical perspective we see the possibilities in them.
In other words, “So much for superficiality!” There is more to people than meets the eye. You can’t judge a book by its cover.
So the first consequence resulting from the death and resurrection of Christ is a new way of looking at others… the second is this:
II. Whenever a person becomes a Christian there is a new act of creation on God’s part.
“Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” II Corinthians 5:17
Some readings of verse 17 say to the effect that anyone who is in Christ becomes a new creation or a new person. It is the same idea as in the story of creation in Genesis. God created… as a result of God’s creative activity there was a new creation. In Revelation 21:5 God says of the end times, “Look, I am making everything new.” Our text suggests that God’s transformative creative activity has already begun in the lives of Christ’s followers.
Philippians 1:6 confirms this ongoing creative activity on God’s part in our lives: “I am certain that God, who began a good work in you, will continue his work until it is finished…”
In II Corinthians 3:18, “And the Lord, who is Spirit makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
So we cannot look at others from an earthly point of view because we are not seeing all there is. When we look at others we need to look beyond the superficial stuff and know that inside of that person God is working away. We need to know that inside you… God is working away.
A. There are different ways of looking at the past.
I’ve noticed on FaceBook a number of nostalgia posts that go around asking “Do you know what this is?” or “Do you remember this?” There will be an accompanying photo of a Magic cube Flash Bulb or a wringer washing machine or Morris the Cat or Home Economics Ironing Class or a bottle of Mr. Clean or an antique glass door knob. Things like that…
We like to remember that kind of stuff. We like to get all nostalgic and sentimental about the past. But we may not like dredging up things from our spiritual past. We may not like uncovering stuff that was hurtful and harmful and at the time life-defining. Shameful and embarrassing things are not pleasant memories.
God says that when we give our lives to Christ God does something with all that stuff. The old life and all the baggage from the old life is gone and a new life has begun!
It is sometimes good to remember who we were and what we’ve been in light of where we now are and who we’ve become and will yet be.
B. Just as we look at the old life for what is was we look at our new life for what it is and the potential if holds.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.
We are new Creations in Christ. We have a past, i.e., old things or where we’ve been. But that was then and now is now. We are hopefully living a new reality. We can look back and see not only where we were but how far we’ve come. And we can also look forward to what God has in mind for us living for and loving God and living for and loving others back to God.
Conclusion:
We are as a culture obsessed with appearances. We are always wanting to restore things or make things over. Whenever we set about any kind of make-over or rebuilding we have something new in mind… the promise of or a vision of how something could be looms large in our imaginations.
Some of the hottest television reality shows are about transforming old spaces into new spaces.
A property owner found a prospective buyer for a property he was having difficulty selling. When he showed the place to the prospective buyer he took pains to tell the buyer what he could do to quickly bring it up to snuff… a few new windows, repair a little structural damage, paint would go a long way.
But the buyer would have none of it. He said, “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want this old building; I want the site.”
We have our ideas about what a little fixing up for appearances sake might look like in our lives and even what it should look like in the lives of other people. But I suspect the stuff we are looking at can hardly be compared to the renovation and rebuilding God has in mind.
One of the most heartwarming stories of late is the story of Grace and Megan Phelps-Roper. Grace and Megan grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas which is pastored by their grandfather, Fred Phelps. The Westboro Baptist Church is famous for or infamous for their picketing hate mongering in the name of God. Megan, who has been the public face and voice for the church recently left the church. She said, “I wanted to be good and I thought I was good…” and then she realized that instead of being good and loving and helpful toward others, she and her church were instead being instruments of all that is evil and deplorable.
Today Megan and her sister Grace look exactly as they’ve looked for years but inside they are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. When Christ comes into our lives the old inside is hauled away and a new renovation begins. We may look the same on the outside; but inside, God is at work.
So we’ve stopped evaluating ourselves and others from a human point of view because anyone who is in Christ is a new person. The old life is gone; and new life has begun.
In Christ the rebuilding has begun… “God, who has begun a good work in you and others, will continue the work until it is finished.” Philippians 1:6
