Today is Memorial day Sunday. The idea of the holiday surpasses hot-dogs on the grill; it’s an opportunity and a call to reflect on the sacrifice of many thousands of men who have died for the ideals of our country. Some of you served in the military and have given a part of your heart to serving our country. Moreover, you were willing – by virtue of your service – even to die in order to protect and defend this country. What does it take to do that? In rather obtuse brevity, I’ll simply say that it takes a firm belief in what this country stands for. For without the belief that America as a nation possesses the greater opportunity for at least your vision this earthly life as it ought to be, you would not be willing to shoot at another man or to have another man shoot at you in order to make sure that America continues to exist in fulfillment of its ideals.
We have seen in the last two wars in Iraq what happens when a collective of soldiers who are highly trained and well equipped to do the task of killing on their countries behalf are unwilling to themselves be killed for their country because they do not believe in the core of their hearts that the way of life exhibited in their country is worth their sacrifice. And so you had droves of even the elite guard in Iraq dropping their weapons and surrendering – in some cases where nary a shot had been fired because they were aware that they were unwilling to die for their country as it stood.
Therefore, I would submit to you that the secret ingredient to a successful army is a fierce patriotism that goes beyond mere pride in their nation but must seep down to the core belief that a particular nation is in the very least worthy of dying for.
Now let me change gears quite dramatically while keeping that lesson in mind…
When you open up the book of Second Corinthians you discover a long list in Paul was a man who was beaten, and rejected and yet still loved. He writes in a somewhat familiar set of passages the following account of the hardships that he has suffered.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction…
2 Corinthians 1:6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation…
2 Corinthians 1:8 we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;
2 Corinthians 2:4 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.
2 Corinthians 5:13-15 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
What does it take for a man to give his life without reserve into and circumstance and willingly greet discomfort and even death for the sake of the gospel? What does it take? I ask the question because we need to have that ingredient infused into our souls – lest we ourselves fail to attain this level of righteous abandonment to the gospel. And if we are not attaining it, we need further to know what secret ingredient will facilitate the transformation in our souls that will make us willing and able to sacrifice everything in order for Jesus’ name to be spread and glorified among those who do not know him.
Would you like to know what that secret ingredient is that would enable you to gladly accept any task as a glorious gift of God?
I think we find it in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 if you’ll look at them together with me.
As we pick apart the lesson here I want to start with a vital question as it concerns us today:
1 What Controls you?
2 CORINTHIANS 5:14 Who or what controls you?
For many it is Greed: sometimes grossly manifest and many other times hidden under the guise of "self preservation". But in reality greed is a wandering idol in our hearts that so often controls the decisions we make and the efforts we expend or choose not to expend. And many times we will make choices regarding our life’s pattern of living without reference to anything other than our own sense of greed – manifest in self preservation.
This is what happens when we foolishly opt to hold our tongues in silence when the Holy Spirit of God impresses upon our hearts the desire to speak the words of the gospel to someone, yet out of an idolatrous focus on self preservation we opt for silence rather than obedience – lest in the process of revealing Christ to someone who desperately needs it, we should garner unto ourselves a bit of laughter or mockery for being so "foolish" as to believe that God would send his son to die for such an archaic notion as the sinfulness of mankind.
Paul says that the Love of Christ compels him. This is not the love that Paul has for Christ, but rather the love that Christ has for Paul. Let me ask you the question has God’s love for you in Jesus Christ so captivated your heart that you are overwhelmed at any time with the one response of self-sacrifice in the light of His sacrifice?
How many of the activities of your life can you honestly say are a direct result of Christ’s love lavished richly upon you? Does the love of Christ compel you to suffer as one unloved, unrespected, unappreciated - and to do so gladly because you know in it that your labor’s and sacrifices for Jesus are not wasted?
Or, as is sometimes the case is your obedience lacking because the task you could take on doesn’t fit your preconceived notion of what you’re well fitted for? Or worse yet do we avoid serving others because we really don’t have a love for them? Or perhaps we don’t even feel the love of Christ? And if that’s not a fair statement is it more fair to say that we may indeed feel the love Christ and we may indeed love that person, but the cold heart of the matter is that we love ourselves more powerfully than either of those?
2 The Foundation of the Love of Christ.
What is the foundation for this love that controls and compels us if not the very Cross of Jesus Christ? The origin of ministry, the origin of serving another person is not mere giving of oneself for the sake of lifting up another human being or of somehow gaining notoriety or of gaining the applause of those who look at us. The only origin capable of continually fueling the kind of sacrificial life that you and I are all called to - whether we are pastors, painters, mechanics, salesmen, housewives, handymen, retired-men or children- the only origin of successfully clamping down on the arrogant pride of our hearts and generating a willingness to sustain damage for the sake of someone else - the only origin capable of sustaining that life sacrifice is the cross of Christ.
In the cross of Christ, I’m not talking merely about two timbers and 3 iron stakes. I’m talking about the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ in which me and all of the sin that I’ve done, and you and all the sin that you’ve done; these were all dumped wholesale upon the back of Jesus Christ so that he literally carried the weight and substance of the penalty of all of God’s grievances against me and against you into the nether realm of death with him. And he - not deserving to die – leaves open the potential transaction of his life becoming my very own in a great exchange fueled by a fathomless grace.
It’s only when we come to the conclusion that Christ died for ME and in his death I died- it’s only in that stunning realization that you will find the capacity to say to yourself and to the stunned lookers-on that you don’t care what happens to your body, and you don’t care how you are mistreated, you don’t care if you have to go hungry - or lose fame or toss fortune to the wind. Any sacrifice that I could possibly make towards the service of anyone made in the image of my God is a sacrifice too small in its paltry comparison to the grand sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Paul continues the thought in verse 15 as well:
(2 Corinthians 5:15, NLT) "He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them."
Do you see here the key to being a willing self sacrifice for Christ?
Christ died for all!
This is the rallying cry of the church. This is the source for last weeks communion celebration. And it’s the foundation of our capacity to serve at the very peril of our good standing in society. I tell you that the world really doesn’t have a problem with Christians in name or reality who will bend and flex in their devotion to Jesus to the extent that their faith doesn’t have the capacity to impact anyone other than themselves and people in your church. But the moment your faith steps outside of church, WATCH OUT!
The world hasn’t got much use for someone who’s willing to believe so strongly in God that their life is transformed. And then again they don’t mind a personal transformation as long as it doesn’t possess the ignoble capacity to be transforming towards them. Which is to say - if you’re going to start living for Jesus in such a way as to sacrifice self so that the neighbors have a shot at hearing the gospel and receiving Christ than - just you’d best get used to the idea that until the neighbors are converted to Christ they’re going to share a simultaneous revulsion and attraction to Christ.
My son was playing in the yard the other day and there was a dead bird laying out at the side of the road. (I’ll pick on him because he’s too young to defend himself.) Now this bird was nothing more than a common black bird that had been hit by a car. But there was something remarkable – in his eyes – about this dead bird laying on the edge of the road. Lodged somewhat firmly in it’s cloacae was a 1/2 laid egg. Now you listen to that, and immediately the shield goes up and you think, "OK pastor that’s TMI" (Too Much Information!) And that’s how he felt about it, but at the same time he was repulsed by the death he was fascinated at the discovery of something that was truly out of the ordinary. In fact a child confronted with an oddity of that fashion will be instantly drawn to do what? He’s going to pick up a stick and to begin to poke, and to prod from every angle imaginable in order to satisfy the thirst of discovery; and maybe even discern if it’s safe enough to pick it up.
In fact, so unusual is a life that is truly lived out for Jesus without regard to personal comfort and self preservation, that the onlooking neighbors will indeed be repulsed by it. Yet at the same time they will be drawn to it even if it’s just to poke at your faith with a stick. Now doggone it that hurts but faith lived out loud and on purpose for Jesus is such an oddity that the neighbors aren’t really poking YOU with the stick of caustic words or course jokes or any other abusive language.
They are poking at the faith you bear with a stick so that they can keep a safe distance and yet observe what effect poking and prodding will have on it; perhaps so that they might discover somehow in their rather unorthodox procedure of investigation - if they themselves are willing to reach out, to pick up and to claim for themselves this oddity of faith that lives for Jesus at the expense of self.
Tell me the truth, are you willing to die in order to win your neighbor to Christ? I’m not speaking metaphorically here. Are you willing to be stretched on a rack till your joints pop out and you beg for death in order to convince a watching world that Jesus is the savior of all who believe? Why would I ask you that if there is so very little chance of it happening in America?
I ask the question non-metaphorically because your honest answer to that question is in some way is a tell tale indicator of just how willing you are to be publicly shamed by someone else for daring to speak the name of Jesus in a very non-hostile environment.
I don’t ask the question out of some hidden desire to urge you towards martyrdom. And I’m not asking with a hint towards shaming you into thinking "Oh what a poor Christian I am." No, rather I ask the question in hopes of pressing you to the bigger question behind it; that of the love of Christ and its effective compulsion in your life. You see, Jesus Christ died for you. And he did so in order that you might cease living for yourself and begin living - really living for Him.
It is really a very small sacrifice to make, to crawl up on the altar and to say to God, I will go wherever you want me to go. I will do whatever you want me to do, and I will truly say whatever you ask me to say. I will hold nothing back from you, you are my God and I am your servant. God I am no longer interested in my own comforts, and I am willing to sacrifice them all on the altar of obedience to you.
If I am beaten, accused, harassed, ridiculed, disowned, rejected, neglected, or otherwise harmed and vilified for telling people about your son, than I Gratefully accept the consequences of obedience, and count it an honor to suffer even a touch of discomfort or death for Christ.
AMEN.
