I guess everyone knows that home ground advantage can be a significant factor in a game of football. Sydney is much more successful at the SCG than in Melbourne. Brisbane is close to unbeatable at the Gabba. But what is it that gives them that home ground advantage? It can’t just be the football ground. After all, most football grounds are alike. The SCG may be a bit smaller than the MCG but that doesn’t explain the difference. So what is it?
Is it perhaps the fact that the home ground crowd is mostly barracking for the home team? Is it a psychological factor, that when the crowd cheers you on you want to do better? When the crowd boos, you get discouraged? Well that’s what I think it’s about anyway. It’s to do with our inclination to respond to positive reinforcement with greater effort.
Now I’ve never played before a big crowd like that, but I do remember playing rugby when I was younger. I remember one game where someone commented at half time how exciting it was when I picked up the ball at one point in the game and ran straight through the defence. Well, how do you think I played in the second half? I was inspired! If I could do it once then maybe I could do it again. And maybe our team might have a chance of winning for once! You see, just like a home team, I began to perform to the grandstand.
It’s true in most spheres of life in fact isn’t it? In fact it’s almost a truism: if someone tells you you’re doing well, you’ll do even better. If they tell you you’re a failure there’s every chance that’s what you’ll be. And if you’ve grown up in an atmosphere where one or the other is the norm then there’s every chance that that’s going to affect the way you behave throughout your life.
It’s called the grandstand effect. Every one of us tends to perform to a grandstand made up of a variety of people. It may be your parents who were always telling you "you could do anything you put your mind to". Or it could be a parent who told you you’d never amount to anything. It could be your first love who ditched you for someone else and you’re still trying to make yourself loveable or avoiding close relationships in case you get hurt again. It could be a teacher who encouraged you to study or a minister who encouraged you in your faith. It could be your mates who laughed at you when they heard you’d become a Christian. And depending on the various experiences you’ve had, the various people who’ve been important influences in your life, you’ll have a grandstand full of people who are pulling you in one direction or another.
So let me ask you, who are the people who are sitting in your grandstand watching you live your life? Are they approving, or are the critical of the choices you make?
And having asked that question, let me ask an even more important question. Are you letting those people control the choices you make? This is important because those people had a whole range of motives for the way they dealt with you. Some were good and some not so good. Some of them were probably responding to people sitting in their own grandstands. But now you have to decide how you’re going to live and that means you have to find the best motives for yourself. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. What is it that motivates you and me in our Christian walk?
In fact we began to think about this last week didn’t we? In ch4 and the start of 5 we discovered 2 motives for Paul’s ministry of the gospel. The first motive was the fate of those who have been blinded to the gospel. They face God’s judgement. A day is coming when God will judge the world in righteousness and truth. But then we saw that there’s also a positive motive: on that day, God will raise those who follow Christ, will give them a new body to live in, not a tent any more, but a house, a building with a solidity that’s made to last. But that promise is to those who, in this life, turn to Christ for forgiveness. There’s a grave seriousness about this prospect. God is to be feared, because he alone will judge the way we’ve lived our lives.
Of course the problem with this sort of motivation is that most people today aren’t worried about what will happen in the future. Most of us are engrossed in the present. This is the "now" generation. If our desires can’t be gratified immediately we’re not interested. But this is one of those areas where the gospel draws us away from our natural inclination to think the way God does. And when we do that we realise that this future thinking does in fact touch on the present. The way we think about the future has a huge impact on the way we behave now. In that passage from the sermon on the mount that we read today (Matt 6:19-21) Jesus says "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." If our treasure is our pleasure, then that’s where we’ll put our energy. If our treasure is our career or our family or our home or our car, or whatever it is, that’s where our energy will be put. If our treasure is the sort of lasting treasure that Jesus speaks of, stored up where moth and rust don’t destroy, where thieves can’t break in and steal, then our energy will be put into things of the kingdom. If we’re conscious of the future hope of the gospel then we’ll work hard towards that future.
So Paul says, we don’t give up. We don’t pay attention to those commentators up in the grandstand who are telling us to keep quiet, to keep our opinions to ourselves; who are telling us that Christianity is outmoded or irrelevant or outnumbered. On the contrary, "knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others." Later on he says: "we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." He’s so concerned for their future welfare that he pleads with them to be reconciled with God before it’s too late.
But there’s more to his motivation than even that. There’s a present reality that also moves us. In fact there are 3 or 4 more motives that he gives us as we read through this passage.
1. The love of Christ controls us
In v14 he says "The love of Christ urges us on." The Greek word has the idea of holding us in, constraining our action as though we’re hemmed in on both sides so there’s only one way forward. Who’s up in Paul’s grandstand setting his agenda, determining his actions? It’s Christ. It’s the love of Christ that’s controlling him. That is to say, the love that Christ has shown to him and to the rest of the world. And why does this love control him? He gives 2 reasons. First, because one has died for all; therefore all have died. Christ’s death was sufficient to take the sins for the whole world. Not one person on this planet need fear the judgement we just talked about. But how does that work? Well, the fear of judgement is removed when a person turns to Christ for forgiveness. At that moment they receive forgiveness of their sins. Their record is wiped clean forever. At that moment not only have they died with Christ but they’re also raised with him to new life. And that new life is life with and for God.
Here’s the 2nd reason that Christ’s love should control us. Because Christ died so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them (v15). The fact that we’ve been given this new life in Christ means that we now belong to God even more than we did to begin with. Not only has he made us, but he’s bought us by Christ’s death on the cross. Again, there’s only one person who has a right to be sitting in our grandstand telling us how to live and that’s Jesus Christ to whom we now belong.
2 We are a new creation
That in itself should have a profound effect on us. We are no longer who we used to be. He says in v17 if we’re in Christ we’re new creations. If that’s the case then everything has become new! That’s why he says we no longer regard anyone from a human point of view. Even if there was a time when he looked at Christ from the human viewpoint of his expectations of what a Messiah would be like, that’s all changed. Now it’s a whole new ball game. Those people sitting up in the grandstand are old hat. Even those who claim to speak for the 21st century, who parade the latest fashions, who batter us with notions of political correctness, are actually part of the old world that persists in its rebellion against God. But now that we’ve been remade our value systems are completely different. Now we can see what really matters and what doesn’t. Now our motivation is the eternal values of the kingdom.
3 We’ve been Reconciled to God
Reconciliation is a word that’s been in the political vocabulary here in Australia for the last decade or so, but it’s been in the Christian vocabulary for a lot longer than that. And it’s the fact that we’ve been reconciled to God that Paul says is one of his greatest motivators. Christ’s death on the cross wasn’t just to remove our sin from us. Yes, it did that. But here’s why that was necessary: because God wanted to bring us back to himself. We were separated from him by our rebellion. Just as Aboriginal reconciliation involves bridging the barriers caused by the ill-treatment of Aboriginals by white people over the past 200 years, so God needed to bridge the barrier, in fact the huge gulf, caused by our rebellion against his rightful rule. And he did that by sending Jesus Christ to take our place.
Notice that this is entirely the work of God. "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them." If God were to judge us on that last day entirely on the basis of our response to him and his rule over the world, how would we fare? How do you think you’d do? When the criterion is the simple straightforward one of "Have you made God Lord in every aspect of your life?" Or "Have you obeyed his law in everything you’ve done?" How will you go? I know how I’ll go. But see what God has done. He’s sent Jesus to take my place. He’s counted Christ’s righteousness to me. He’s brought about the reconciliation that I needed but was unable to achieve; could never achieve in a million lifetimes.
And having done that, having reconciled me to himself, what has he done? He’s said "Go and tell others about this astounding gift." He’s given me the ministry of reconciliation. In fact notice how he puts it in v19: "And entrusting the message of reconciliation to us." God hasn’t just given us something to do. He’s entrusted us with a great treasure. Remember what we saw last week. We may be jars of clay, but we carry around with us a priceless treasure. This is a message that people are dying to hear, and people who don’t hear it are just plain dying. And the only way they’ll hear is if we pass on this message that God has entrusted to us. Do you understand both the privilege and the responsibility that is? God hasn’t sent his angels to pass on this message. He’s sent you! And me!
4 Ambassadors of Christ
And that brings us to the title of this sermon. God has appointed us as Christ’s ambassadors. God makes his appeal to his people through us. God longs for his people to turn back to him. Jesus gave the picture of the waiting father, watching at the window for the day when the prodigal son would return. But he isn’t just sitting waiting. He’s doing something about it. He’s sending out envoys to call us back to him. This is a repeated pattern throughout the Scriptures isn’t it? God sends out first the judges, then the prophets to call his people back to him. To remind them of who is God. To remind them of the good things he’s provided for them. And he continues to do that today. How? Not through prophets, but through you and me. We are his ambassadors. God makes his appeal through us (v20). Again this is both a privilege and a responsibility. An ambassador speaks with all the authority of the king or president that he or she represents. When the US Ambassador, Tom Schieffer goes to see John Howard, it’s the voice of George Bush that’s heard. It isn’t just Tom Schieffer who’s speaking. It’s the President of the United States.
What’s more the ambassador’s personal opinion is irrelevant. If the president tells him to say something that’s what he says.
So too for us. When we speak out for God, when we tell people the gospel, that is, our words carry all the authority and power of God. That’s why the gospel is the power of God for salvation. Because it’s not just my words or your words, but God’s words. But also it means that we have no right to change the content of that message. Even if there are bits that we don’t like. Like the warning of God’s judgement on those who refuse to acknowledge his authority over them. We may not like the sound of that. It may sound a bit too authoritarian for our egalitarian minds, but who are we to change what God has told us to say?
No, God has sent us out as his ambassadors to make his appeal to people, to call them to repent before it’s too late. Notice how Paul responds to this call, even with his readers in Corinth. He says, "we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." Even for them there may be some who still haven’t responded to the gospel, so he implores them to do it before it’s too late. Even for those here today there may be some who still haven’t responded to the gospel, so let me implore you to do it before it’s too late. Which brings us to our last point for today.
5 The time scale
When is the time for this message to be heard and responded to? It’s today. Now is the day of salvation. This is your big chance. Let’s face it, time is short. Life is uncertain. None of us knows how much time we have left. Your friends and family may only have one opportunity to hear the message of the gospel. We hope that won’t be true, but that’s the reality of life on this earth. So why would you put off making that decision today? Why would we put off telling people about this great treasure we’ve discovered? They need to know it now so they’re ready for the last day. And they need to know it now so they can enjoy the love of Christ now, so they can begin today to experience the new creation, the new relationship with God that’s been made possible through Christ; and so that they too can tell their friends about Jesus Christ.
So don’t delay, don’t lose heart, don’t be deflected from the task. Stand up as ambassadors of Christ, gladly sharing the good news with those who haven’t yet heard. And pray that those who hear the gospel will respond today while the opportunity is there.
For more sermons from this source go to home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos/
