2 Cor 5:11 - 6:2
40 Days of Purpose - Evangelism
Dead Poets Society is, I think, one of the best films of all time. In his first lesson with his senior class, the rather eccentric but very inspiring English teacher John Keating, played by Robin Williams, takes the boys into the foyer outside the classroom where he asks one lad by the name of Pitts (a rather unfortunate name, Keating muses) to read out a poem. In an uncertain voice, Pitts reads,
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a-flying
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying."
’Carpe deum’, Keating says to them, ’Seize the day’. Every single one of us is just food for worms. You may be destined for great things, but you need to take the opportunity now. Then he leads his class up to the cabinet on the side of the foyer, filed with old, black and white photos of old boys . What do all these boys, your illustrious predecessors, have in common? asks Keating. They’re all fertilising daffodils. They’re all dead. They were boys with high expectations, high ideals, just like you. They felt they were invincible, thought that the world was their oyster, just like you. But did they manage to fulfil even a tiny bit of their potential? Keating gathers his charges close around the cabinet, telling them to listen to the legacy the old boys have for them. He whispers from behind them, imitating the ghosts of the past. "Carpe deum. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
This teacher, while he might have been inspiring, while he might have been funny, had all his priorities out of order. He thought that success in this life was the most important thing to pursue. He thought that everything ended when we all became "food for worms", when we all began a new job as daffodil fertilisers. Yet, despite his problems, one part of John Keating’s message echoes the thoughts of Paul in 2 Corinthians 6. Seize the day, says Keating, make your lives extraordinary. Seize the day, says Paul, be reconciled to God.
Be reconciled to God. Reconciliation simply means being brought back into relationship, brought back into friendship. Because, brothers and sisters, by nature we are enemies of God. We ignore him and disobey him. And yet God still loves us.
A very famous verse in Romans 5 says this: God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It goes on in verse 10, For if, when we were God’s enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life.
While we were still God’s enemies, ignoring him and rejecting his rightful lordship over us, he sent Christ to reconcile us to himself.
And 2 Corinthians 5 explains exactly how this works. You see, this reconciliation didn’t require God to say, oh I’ll forget about all the bad stuff, come and be my friend. It requires the problem in the relationship to be finally and absolutely dealt with. That problem is our sin. God just can’t accept us when we are black with sin. We have to be pure white, clean, otherwise we will stain God’s presence with a big, ugly black smear - a stain that God won’t and can’t put up with. He reconciles the world to himself by not counting this sin against people - have a look at vs. 19: "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them." But he doesn’t just forget, or pretend they’re not there. vs. 21 says that "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God." Just as the consequences of sin is death, separation of God, being the righteousness of God means that we are clean and can approach God’s throne with confidence. We can be friends with God. Jesus became sin for us by bearing those consequences in our place. He became God’s enemy, so that we could be God’s friend. In his anguished cry of "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" from Mark 14:34, he was cut off from his father’s presence, the unity of the Trinity severed in a tragedy beyond human understanding, so that we could be at peace with God. He became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. That’s the message we’ve received, that’s the reconciliation we’ve enjoyed if we know Jesus – and that’s the message we need to be proclaiming as we’ll see.
Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the purpose of our lives. And we’ve discovered that we have been made by God to be loved by Him, to be in relationship with him, and to serve him. And the final purpose that we’re going to look at this week is the same purpose that Paul took on two thousand years ago when God called him to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Rick Warren calls it our mission. The word we often use is evangelism. And in 2 Cor 5, Paul talks about it as being an ambassador for Christ, being someone who is so desperate to see a broken, sinful world saved, that they plead with those they meet – be reconciled to God!
So, for the next few minutes I’m going to work my way through this passage in 2 Corinthians before drawing together some other parts of Scripture so we get a Biblical picture of our mission.
Paul has just finished a discourse on how we are all to be judged by God. And he is speaking to a damaged and divided church, some of whom are not yet Christians, as we can see from his impassioned plea at the end of this passage. You see, the Corinthian church was turning to other teachers who maligned Paul and his Gospel. Paul was trying to defend himself against this, making sure the Corinthians knew that it was he who taught the truth - he defends himself personally in the rest of chapter 6 and 7. That’s why he points out in vs. 12 that he is not trying to commend himself, he’s doing it for Christ. And that’s the key idea in this first part of our passage. Paul and his co-worker Timothy know the Lord. They know what it means to fear God. They know he is a jealous God who punishes sin and they know that before him everyone will have to give an account, and so they try to persuade men.
I often get the impression that it’s somehow wrong to talk about evangelism and judgement in the same breath. But here we have it: the first motivation that Paul speaks of is the fear of God. We know that judgment is coming, so we need to persuade people to avoid it by putting their trust in Jesus.
There’s a song by Christian singer Nathan Tasker, the nephew of our Bishop, Peter Tasker called “If I only loved him more”, and the opening stanza goes like this:
I cannot recall the last time that I cried
When I read that those who don’t believe will die
So complacent with concern
About a life I did not earn
And I truly wish I knew the reason why
When was the last time you thought that way? When was the last time you looked at your neighbour, you aunt, your colleague, your mother, your father, your daughter, your son - that person who doesn’t know Christ - and thought – “That person is bound for hell”? Because that is what the Bible clearly teaches. AC 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
For us to refuse to spread the gospel – for whatever reason – means one of two things. Either we don’t genuinely believe it, or we don’t care that countless millions are facing an eternity apart from the love of God. We know what it is to fear God – or at least we should do – so we try to persuade men.
The flip side to this motivation, though, is found in vs. 14 and 15: 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And 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. Paul says “I know that Christ died for me. I know that Christ died for everyone, so that we can be made alive with him – and this knowledge compels me to tell others.” Notice the strength of that word compel. It’s more than gentle encouragement. You can be compelled to do something almost against your will. We’ve experienced the extraordinary love of Christ as he sacrificed himself for us and this experience is so powerful and so transforming that we can do nothing other than spread this wonderful message! That’s the sort of compulsion Paul is talking about. We know how great the gospel is and we want others to share in its goodness. If you found the cure to some deadly disease, you’d want to share it with those it could help, wouldn’t you! You’d want them to avoid the suffering that the disease could bring, and you’d want to give them the hopeful future that you have! To not do so would be almost criminal, wouldn’t it? If we truly know Jesus, then there should be a burning desire within us to share his message of forgiveness.
But it’s more than just a desire to share – it’s our job. Paul describes himself as God’s fellow-worker in spreading the gospel. You see, as Christians we’ve got an integral part to play in God’s plans for the world. We’re his chosen instruments to take this message of reconciliation. We’re God’s ambassadors, as though God was making his appeal through us. That’s our purpose for being here as Christians. When I was at school we had a guest speaker coming to our lunchtime Christian group – the speaker was Mark Smith, actually – and the theme for the talk was “I want to die”. So we put up notices around the school with this message – I want to die! The school authorities were somewhat concerned that we were promoting youth suicide but what we were trying to say was that, as Christians, we had something far better waiting for us in heaven. We didn’t fear death, in fact we looked forward to it. And that’s an entirely biblical perspective. But the question is, then – why doesn’t God just take us home to be with him as soon as we’ve been reconciled? It’s better by far, isn’t it? Why keep us here waiting? Well, Mark spoke from Philippians 1, that day and Paul answered the question for us: 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.
That’s our purpose for sticking around – to spread the gospel and encourage others in the faith.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever thought about it before, but God has given us an immense privilege, and an immense responsibility. God has asked us broken, sinful people to be in partnership with Him. God has chosen someone who you know to be one of his people and is saying to you – “let’s work together to see this friend of yours saved.” The God of the universe is saying “let’s work together”. We’re part of his plan and we’re a crucial part of it – and there comes a fairly scary responsibility. If we’re Christ’s ambassadors, we represent him to the world. We represent him in the way we talk, in the way we treat each other, in the way we treat outsiders. But even more so God relies on us to do our job. Not that he isn’t powerful enough to do it without us, but he has given us an incredibly important task to do. Consider Romans 10: 13"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" It’s an obvious point, but one which we often don’t consider. How will people hear the gospel if we don’t tell them? It’s no good saying, “well, someone else will do it” – it’s our collective responsibility. In your reading this week, you’ll come across Rick Warren quoting this passage from Ezekiel: 17 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, `You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.
Now Rick applies this directly to us, without any reference to Ezekiel which is a bit misleading, but we can still take it as a warning. God has commanded us preach and warn and plead with the world. And if we don’t, if we shirk our responsibility, if we disobey the direct command of Jesus to go forth and make disciples of all nations, then we haven’t done our job. We haven’t been faithful to Christ.
But it’s important to notice that Ezekiel’s responsibility is not ensure people repent, it’s to warn them and to try to persuade them. Vs. 19 – If you do warn him, but he still doesn’t turn back to God, you have fulfilled your task and will be saved. Changing hearts is God’s responsibility, but his command to us is to preach
And the trouble is we always seem to have an excuse to avoid it. I know I do. Sometimes these excuses are rooted in our own insecurity, our own lack of confidence, our own laziness. Sometimes, the excuses represent a serious misunderstanding of the gospel. Sometimes, they demonstrate that, when push comes to shove, we don’t really believe Jesus ourselves. This is an example some of you may have heard before but it shows us just how easily excuses can cloud our thinking. In the mid-90s a Catholic priest called Father Madigan had a weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph. In one of his columns, a young university student from Iraq named Ammar had written to him and said that he had been reading the Bible and had become convinced that Jesus was the Christ. So he asked Father Madigan to tell him how he could become a Christians. His exact words were “take me by the hand and lead me where I want to go”. The priest said this in response: “I will send you a copy of the Sunday Telegraph and you will know that I care. If you were here this would be easy for me to do. But in Iraq there are many cultural and social reasons why becoming a Christian would be difficult. So my advice is this: study well, and graduate and stay as you are.” Father Madigan’s excuse was “it’s too difficult, too complicated”. I might get in trouble from the Muslim community here in Sydney. Ammar would be persecuted in his home land. So I won’t preach the ggospel. Pause If Ammar dies still in his sins, then his blood is on Father’s Madigan’s hands. The priest is accountable.
What are your excuses? In Australia the social rule of thumb is that you don’t talk about religion or politics. It’s no wonder, then, that I’m considered a bit socially inept because they’re the only two things I talk about! But we don’t want to spoil friendships with disagreements over beliefs, do we? “A person’s beliefs are their own business, not mine”. If someone is sick and needs help – then that’s our business, isn’t it? You can’t browbeat someone into becoming a Christians just like you can’t force a cancer sufferer to undergo chemotherapy, but you can try to convince them with all your might.
Many people say they lack the confidence, that they don’t know how to explain their faith. I reckon that’s just an excuse, too. There are many, many resources out there to read and give away which explain the gospel. Speak to me after the service and I can arrange a training course, or just to get copies into your hands. But what I particular want to say, is that you don’t need to know all the answers. No one does, apart from anything else. But what you do know is your story. You know what Christ means to you and how Christ has changed you. It’s called your testimony, and it’s a very powerful and easy way to share your faith, because your friends will be willing to listen to your story when they might not listen to a speaker. You’ll read this sentence from Rick Warren this week, and it’s completely true: Your personal testimony is more effective than a sermon, because unbelievers see pastors as professional salesmen, but see you as a “satisfied customer” so they give you more credibility. Or if you’re a mute give your friend a invitation to an evangelistic event, or to our Easter services. You might not be explaining things yourself, but you are still doing your mission job my inviting people to hear God’s Word.
Turn over your handouts and have a read of the list of excuses that Christians often use. I’ve just mentioned a few. I’m sure we’ve all used some of them ourselves, whether out loud or in our own minds to try to justify our inaction. pause Then look down the bottom at what I call the three real excuses. I mentioned this earlier, but I think it’s important to reiterate. If we decide not to preach the gospel, it reflects one of two things: either we don’t believe Jesus is the only way to be saved and we don’t believe his message is worth sharing; or we just don’t care about other people enough to break through our insecurities and preach the gospel.
I show an evangelistic video about death to my year seven students every year. It’s about this group of teenagers who die in a car accident and are facing judgment, and one of them is a Christians. He’s trying to explain judgment to them and one of them says, “Brian, why didn’t you mention this to me before? I mean we’ve been in the same basketball team for five years, we’ve roomed together a sports camp every year – why didn’t you mention it?” “Well, I didn’t think you’d be interested.” “Maybe I wouldn’t have been, but now it’s too late” And, later in the video we see that teenager condemned to an eternity in hell. Think back to that passage from Ezekiel. Think back to Father Madigan. Do you want blood on your hands? If you don’t, and if you want to see people saved then, as Colossians 4:5 tells us, make the most of every opportunity and Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
Because, friends, spreading the gospel and seeing people saved is the one thing that matters into eternity. Anything else that you achieve in life is insignificant compared to seeing a soul saved for Jesus. And apart from anything else, it’s an extraordinary thing to know that God has used you to bring someone into his kingdom. Paul describes those people whom he has brought to Christ as his glory and joy, and I can tell you I know what he means. When I was in year 12 there was this kids in year seven who a number of people said looked very much like me and one day I invited him to an ISCF end-of-term party we were having. Everyone who came was asked to bring something to share, and I had prepared a evangelistic Bible study that day. He said he wanted to come and even told me he’d bring something – even though I hadn’t asked him to specifically. I can generally smell and excuse from three miles away, so I went home and deliberately brought two things in the next day for the party. And sure enough when I approached him at recess to remind him, he said “Oh, I can’t come because I didn’t bring anything. So, quick as anything I whipped out my spare block of chocolate and said here, you can take this. He couldn’t think of anything too quickly, so he agreed and to my slight surprise he turned up at lunchtime and we went through a passage of Scripture. About two or three years ago, when he was in year 12 he emailed me to invite me to his confirmation at his church and he got up to give his testimony and he explained how great it was to be forgiven by Jesus and then he said “And I want to particularly thank James Jack who’s sitting back there for giving that block of chocolate in year seven and for explaining the gospel to me at ISCF.” He is my glory and joy. That’s work that has eternal significance.
Well as we draw to a close, let me take you back to Dead Poet’s Society. Remember the message that the teacher gave to his students? This life is all you have, so make the most of it. Seize the Day! Well, this life isn’t all we have, but it is the only time we have to spread the gospel. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation. Now is the time for people to be saved. The opportunity will not last forever. We don’t know when Jesus will return. We don’t know when people will die, so make the most of every opportunity. Paul is urgent: We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (5:20). If you are here today and aren’t in a right relationship with God, then get back into one! Become that new creation in Jesus because he has died for you! And if you are a follower of Jesus, then today is the day for you to take up your mantle as an ambassador for Christ. You can’t put it off. It’s God’s command and it’s urgent.
We know what it is to fear God. We know what it is to be loved by God. We have been reconciled to God and entrusted with the privilege of being God’s fellow workers. It’s a great gospel we’ve got, so let’s take it to the world.
Appendix – handout
Seven Popular Excuses:
I can’t share my faith with others because…..
1. Someone’s faith is their personal business
2. Australians don’t talk about religion or politics
3. I don’t want to spoil a good friendship
4. They wouldn’t be interested
5. I’m not good at explaining things
6. I don’t know all the answers
7. My dog ate my last Two Ways To Live tract
Two Real Reasons:
1. I don’t believe the gospel
or
2. I don’t care about my friends and family
