[adapted from Sermon Central’s “Love Reigns” sermon kit]
Good morning! Please open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5.
We begin a new series this morning called “Love Reigns.” Between now and Easter, we are going to talk about how love reigns over our past, our present, and our future. This is going to bring us up to Easter Sunday, where we will celebrate together the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ victory over death is proof that he is the truly reigns over every circumstance. Every situation. And when we live our lives under His reign, and submit ourselves to his authority, then we will never face any hardship or difficulty that He doesn’t have an answer for.
Today we want to talk about the ways that the love of God reigns over our past.
In 1945, the Chicago Cubs were up two games to one against the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. William Sianis, the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, decided he would promote his bar by bringing his pet Billy Goat to Game 4 at Wrigley Field. He bought a ticket for him and everything, and even dressed the goat in a little cape that had the name of the bar on it.
But the ticket taker refused to let the goat come through. And as Sianis turned to leave, he proclaimed, “You are going to lose this World Series, and the Cubs will never win another one.”
Well, the Cubs lost Game 4. Then they lost the series. And they didn’t win another one for 71 years. The Curse of the Goat was born.
The past doesn’t just weigh down Chicago Cubs fans. Many of us can probably point to one or two decisions which we have made that we have trouble living down. Some decisions are just honest mistakes that do not have many consequences, while others can have devastating effects that last for years. Sometimes we suffer the consequences of mistakes made by our parents or grandparents.
And if you came here this morning or if you are watching online, wondering if there is a way you can change the past, then you’re going to be disappointed. We can’t change the past. But hear this: we can ensure that our past does not control our present nor our future.
When you read the Bible, you read story after story of men and women who were not defined by their past mistakes. When we think about Moses, we don’t think about the guy that murdered an Egyptian and tried to hide his body in the sand, do we? No, we think about the great leader of God’s people. We don’t think about Rahab the prostitute. We think about Rahab who hid the spies in Jericho, and who’s name is recorded in the genealogy of Jesus.
And I could go on and on. The New Testament often speaks about the transforming power of Jesus’ selfless sacrifice on the cross and His triumphant resurrection from the grave. When people placed their trust in Jesus, they were different, they were forgiven, and they were made new. The gospel is called Good News, and It is the greatest news of all that all of our decisions, even those that have caused guilt and shame, can be nullified by Jesus’ love.
Paul speaks to this truth in 2 Corinthians. Let’s look at theses verses together. This is 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. If you are physically able, please stand to honor the reading of God’s Word:
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray…
The first four words of verse 16 are important: “From now on, therefore.” You know the rule of Bible interpretation: When you come to a “therefore,” you have to back up to see what its… [therefore]
So we see in verse 15, Paul writes
“and he [Jesus] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
??
The “therefore” links verse 16 back to verse 15. So the entire thought is, “Jesus died for everyone, THEREFORE, we don’t regard anyone according to the flesh.
When Love Reigns over our past, We see others with new eyes (v. 16)
What does it mean that we no longer regard one another according to the flesh, or as the CSB we don’t know anyone from a worldly perspective?” Think about this: How does anyone ever form an opinion about anyone else? Well, you base it on what they’ve done. On what they’ve said. On what their pattern of behavior has been. And before we get to what this Scripture says about who we are in Christ, let’s think about what it says about who other people are in Christ.
• Who they were in high school doesn’t matter anymore.
• What kind of family they came from doesn’t matter anymore.
Paul takes it for granted that people who are in Christ aren’t going to evaluate other people from a worldly perspective. Why? Because we know better. All we have to do is look at Jesus and realize that someone’s past or pedigree don’t matter. The second half of verse 16 says, “Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, or according to a worldly perspective, we do so no longer.
Jesus was born in truly humble circumstances. Born in a stable in a backwater town called Bethlehem. A member of a Palestinian people group—the Jews— who had been enslaved, oppressed, exiled, and scattered all over the world. He grew up in another obscure village that apparently had such a bad reputation that one of his own disciples, when he first heard about Jesus, said, “Nazareth?? How could anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46)
When He started preaching and teaching, the religious leaders of the day ridiculed Him and said, “We don’t even know where He comes from?” (John 9:29). He didn’t go to any of our schools. He didn’t study with any of our rabbis.
Jesus himself is a testimony to the fact that your family background, your wealth, your education, your standing in society do not matter. Verse 17 tells us what really matters. And it gives us another “therefore:”
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Follow the train again:
• Christ died for all, therefore we can look at others with new eyes. We can see others the way Jesus sees them.
• Because no one is to be regarded according to the flesh, or from a worldly perspective, Anyone who is “in Christ” is a new creation. And “anyone” includes you.
You know, sometimes we are more willing to give someone else a break than we are to give ourselves one. We can believe that Jesus can forgive someone. Just not us.
But If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. This phrase, “in Christ”, is used 216 times in Paul’s letters. It is a way of showing connection to Jesus and union with Jesus. When we are united with Jesus because of our faith in him, we experience a transformation that makes us new. In order for this newness to be a reality, the old has to pass away.
Do you ever watch Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines? I’m always amazed at how they can look at an old, broken down rat trap of a house and see potential. They have this gift of being able to see past all the old wallpaper, the rotten wood and the cracked linoleum floors, and can see what it could look like if it were all new.
Chip Gaines has made the phrase “demo day” famous. Demo Day is when a remodel begins and everything old is removed, often by force, to make way for the new materials.
When God comes into our lives, he does not simply overlook our sinful past. He looks at our past and says, “DEMO DAY.”
After Demo Day, not only do you not have to live in the past, you can’t. It has been demolished!
When we confess our past to Jesus in order to experience his radical forgiveness. When we confess, we acknowledge the old sinful ways as just that, old and outdated. When we confess, we agree to allow God to demolish those sinful ways and replace them with godly ways that are new and better. We go from telling lies to speaking truth, from being selfish to being selfless, from spreading gossip to offering encouragement, and from burning with anger to being filled with joy.
When remodeling a house, it is important to remove any of the old and rotten pieces and replace them with new and fresh materials. If you do not take out the old parts, then they are destined to come back to haunt you. When we try to live as a new creation while holding on to our past vices, we end up frustrated, and our relationship with God and others always suffers. We have to allow God to remove it all, start us fresh with a renewed heart, and instill within us a desire to live for Him.
Psalm 103 says “For as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us.
We do not have to walk around defeated and full of shame anymore. If you are a Christian and a disciple of Christ, you can be confident in the fact that you have been forgiven, and your sin has been removed as far as the East is from the West. You are a new creation. Your past does not control your present nor your future.
Now look again at verses 18-20. Because Paul goes on to teach that we aren’t just forgiven, we are commissioned. Jesus doesn’t just save us; he employs us. Look what verse 18 says:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ
You know what an ambassador is? An ambassador is a citizen of one country who goes to another country and represents the country he or she came from. An ambassador speaks on behalf of his or her king. They seek to implement their king’s policies. She looks after her kings’s interests. He communicates his king’s wishes.
And God’s wish is that the entire world would be reconciled to himself. He does not want anyone to live a life weighed down by a sinful past or shackled by shame and guilt. God extended grace to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
But God knows also knows that we have a finite amount of time to respond to his invitation. As long as we have breath in our lungs and life in our bodies, we can respond to the forgiveness God offers us through the blood of Jesus on the cross.
But when this life ends, so does the opportunity to respond to God’s invitation. And that brings us to our third “therefore”:
1. Christ died for all: therefore we see others with new eyes
2. We are in Christ, therefore we see ourselves as a new creation.
3. We are ambassadors for Christ, therefore we tell others with a new urgency.
Look at Paul’s choice of words in verse 20: God is making His appeal through us. The Greek word is parakaleo, and it means to admonish, exhort, beseech. Para means to come alongside, and Kaleo means to call aloud or to speak in a loud voice. [Demonstrate this with a volunteer]
And deomai, the word translated “implore” means to desire, to long for, to beg, to pray.
These are strong words. They are urgent words. And truthfully, if we have been made a new creation in Christ, they are words that ought to come pretty easily to us.
When a person really loves something or someone, they cannot help but tell other people about it. It just oozes out of them. When we really love God and his love truly reigns in our lives, talking about him and celebrating his love for us should be second nature. Tell your story. Share how your past has been forgiven. Let people know who you were before you met Jesus, how you met Jesus, and who you are now since He has changed your life.
READ 2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus took on our sin, mistakes, brokenness, and past shame and nailed it to the cross. He became sin on our behalf, even though he was perfect and sinless. It was an act of love for him to die for us, even as we were still sinners. There is an incredible exchange that takes place at the cross of Calvary. Jesus takes on our wrong way of living and we are given the righteousness of God. The Greek meaning behind this righteousness is the idea that we are approved in the eyes of God. His righteousness is his divine approval. Maybe some of you in this room need to hear this today. If you are united with Christ, if you are in him by your profession of faith, then God does not see your sinful past. He looks through the blood of Jesus Christ and sees you as forgiven. It seems too good to be true, but that is the good news of the gospel.
Many of you have seen the gospel presentation that shows the huge divide between us and God. We understand that because of our sin, we are separated from God. But Jesus, by His death on the cross, is able to bridge the gap. This is what it means to reconcile us to God.
Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 3:18:
Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.
A few weeks ago in our Wednesday night Bible study we were talking about the justice of God, and the Bible teacher directed us to this diagram. He said, “write the word unjust on the line above the word humanity.” Because we are all unjust.
But now, write the word “just” above Jesus. Christ is the just. He never sinned. He didn’t have anything in His past that he regretted or was ashamed of. But he gave His life so that He might bring us to God.
And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, Romans 8:33 says that God has justified us. No one can bring any charge against those for whom Christ died—Paul calls them the elect. So write the word “justifier” on the line above “God.”
Now, let me tell you what happened that night in Bible study. I filled out my blanks, just like Chip Ingram said to do. I wrote that humanity—me—is unjust. And that God is the justifier, who has made a way for us to come back to Him.
And that way is by the just Jesus—the just for the unjust.
But when I looked at my handout, I didn’t read it that Jesus is just. Instead, in my heart I saw it this way:
What can wash away my sin?
Just Jesus. Jesus plus nothing else.
I recently read that just after World War 2, when there was such a surplus of dehydrated flour, eggs, and molasses, that Duff’s Cake Mix, the pioneer of prepackaged cake mixes, believed they had a gold mine on their hands. They bought up all the surplus dehydrated flour and eggs from the government and began marketing “just add water” cake mixes. They expected to be wildly successful because their ingredient list and instructions were so simple. All the public had to do was add water.
To their surprise, sales slumped. They did not sell as they had anticipated. After doing some research, they found that their customers were uneasy about buying a cake mix that only required water. It seemed too easy, and therefore it must not be trustworthy. So, they changed the ingredients and instructions to include a single egg. Sales spiked, and the cake mix was very successful.
You know, for a lot of people, “Just Jesus” sounds too easy. I have found that often the truth that God has forgiven us our past by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is too good to be true and far too simple to trust. Many of us think we have to add to it somehow with penance that is not required or by trying to earn something that is priceless.
Rather, we are invited to simply receive the love of God and allow it to reign in our lives. Then, and only then, will we experience the joy and freedom of new life.
This morning, I want to ask if there is anyone who is ready to trust “Just Jesus” to forgive you of your sins. To trust just Jesus “demo day” out of your past. To rely on Just Jesus to bridge the gap between you and God. Let’s pray
[Invitation]
