Sunday Morning August 26, 2001 Bel Aire Baptist Church, Hobbs, New Mexico
Series: Finding Freedom From Sin #3
NEW CREATIONS
2 Corinthians 5:17
Introduction:
1. Last Sunday’s sermons were a bit of a wake up call for me. If you remember, I stood up after both sermons and said if we did not stand up for Christ and get serious about our lives and start acting like God’s kids those sermons were a waste of time.
2. As your pastor, I want nothing more than to see all of us get focused on the main thing and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ.
3. I sometimes worry that we spend too much time being Baptist and not enough time focusing on being a new creation in Christ.
4. Let’s read our text: 2 Corinthians 5:17.
5. We are a new creation. We are not refurbished. I want us to look at the Biblical account of the creation of the earth and see the amazing parallels to the new creation of a born-again Christian.
I. Before Creation (Genesis 1:1-2, 9)
A. Before The Creation Of The World
1. Formless
2. Empty
3. In darkness.
4. Submerged underneath water.
B. Before The New Creation (How this relates to us as new creations in Christ)
1. The word formless in the Hebrew means “confusion”.
a) Before you became a new creation, were you confused?
b) The lost world around us is definitely confused.
2. Empty.
a) Why do we give in to the sin in our lives? Probably because we are trying to fill some void in our life.
b) Instead of being “filled with all the fullness of God,” and having an overflowing cup, we were inwardly empty, lonely, yearning people.
3. In darkness.
a) Before you became a new creation, were you in the dark?
b) The lost world is living in darkness. That is why they cannot find their way and they keep running into the walls of sin and being knocked down.
4. Submerged underneath water.
a) We were dead and buried under the water of our sin.
b) Lost, sunk, submerged, and dead.
C. The Outcome
1. What a perfect description of how we were trapped in sin.
2. We were formless, confused, empty, in darkness, and buried underneath our sin.
3. Does this describe your past or are you still living in this type of setting?
II. During Creation (Genesis 1:3, 9)
A. During The Creation Of The World
1. God said in verse 3, “let there be light”.
2. God said in verse 9, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so”.
B. During The New Creation
1. God said, “Let there be light”. It is the Word of God that brings light.
Psalm 119:130
“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”
a) If you are saved there was a time in your life when you were in darkness but the Holy Spirit led you to Jesus Christ, Who is the Word. Jesus spoke light into your heart through His Word, dispelling your sin and darkness. Notice what Paul says.
2 Corinthians 4:6
“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
b) We were confused, empty, in darkness, and buried in sin; but the Holy Spirit brought light into our life the moment we surrendered our life to Jesus Christ.
2. We also see that the water is pushed away.
a) The earth, which was submerged beneath the water, has now come bursting up through the water, sort of like a resurrection.
b) What was once buried is now alive.
C. The Outcome
1. This is you if you are in Christ.
2. You were once empty, in darkness, buried in sin; now raised from the dead, full of the glory of God, enjoying the light of Jesus Christ.
III. Affects Of Creation (Genesis 1:11)
A. The Affects Of Creation
1. The earth is alive.
2. The earth is producing fruit.
3. Notice that this was spoken into existence on the third day.
B. The Affects Of The New Creation
John 15:5
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in Him, He will bear much fruit.”
1. Just as the earth was made alive so are you when you surrender your life to Jesus Christ.
2. The evidence of life is vegetation and fruit. The Christian life is no different.
3. Also notice that it was on the third day that the “resurrection” of the earth happened.
a) In creation there was initial chaos, darkness, emptiness and death. And then, on the third day, there was resurrection unto life and fruitfulness.
b) The Lord Jesus emptied Himself for us amidst the chaos of His crucifixion. Then He hung on the cross in darkness and died for our sins, but on the third day He arose from the dead.
c) He had victory over sin, death, hell and the grave.
C. The Outcome
1. Through His suffering, we can have this new life.
2. We are a new creation.
Romans 8:1-4
Conclusion:
1) Are you a new creation?
2) What kind of fruit is your life bearing?
3) It’s time for us to strive to be this new creation that Jesus had to pay for.
