Announcements

Song – Man of Your Word

Giving

Luke 6:38 (CSB)
38 Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over—will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Scripture

The Ministry of Reconciliation Is For Today – What Does It Require Of You?

14 For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died;
15 And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake.
– 2 Corinthians 5:14–15 (AMP)

Christ died our death for us that we might live His life for Him.

I read that quote and let it sit a bit… How am I doing at living His life for Him?

How about you? How well are you living out the life of Christ for Him since He died your death for you?

It causes me to pause… It is only as I am filled with His fruit and gifts that I can even begin to live out His life.

In other words, we are totally dependent on Him. What He sends us through His Spirit is what allows us to walk as He did.

We must be born again.

It is when we are filled with Him, that we can live out His life. It is His life in us that gets lived out. This happens when we live no longer to and for ourselves, but to and for Him. My body, but His life.

How do we get filled? Hunger and thirst for His righteousness. Those that do this are blessed and filled [Matthew 5:6].

Because of this new way of living our perspective shifts. We saw things like the world. sees things. But this shift causes us to see how God sees things. There are eternal scope and implications that we never noticed before.

16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.
–2 Corinthians 5:16 (CSB)

Because of this change in view we take on a Biblical perspective of all that is around us. The whole Bible makes more sense as God’s plan is revealed and we get new understanding.

When looking at the apostasy that is happening today we can see that those accusing the Word of God are taking things out of context to build their case.

In a recent podcast Tim Mackie talks about the importance of context. When reading the letters in the Bible we must keep this in mind.

Understanding how the letters fit in has immense potential for the followers of Jesus today—because this isn’t just about theology and ethics, this is about a cosmic story. It’s about getting people to elevate their allegiance to Jesus over their socio-economic, national, ethnic, gender boundary lines. I cannot imagine a more important message. And we lose all of that when we don’t honor the original context.
– Tim Mackie 

I think Tim hits an important point here. It lines up with what Paul is saying in verse 16, “From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective.”

We start seeing people as Jesus sees them. It isn’t about the socio-economic, national, ethnic, racial, or gender boundary lines.

These are people that were created in God’s image. He died and was raise to life again for their sake.

The other point in his statement is that our allegiance to Jesus should elevate above all else.

So let’s take a quick look at the timeline of the Ministry of Reconciliation.

Timeline

• In the beginning, God created humans to rule alongside Him.[Gen 1-2]
• They decided to choose their desire over His. [Gen 3]
• This resulted in exile and death. [Gen 3-11]
• But God had a plan to restore man to the correct position through reconciliation, redemption, regeneration, and the alignment of our desire with His. In other words, we choose His desire and to walk in His way.
• God comes into a relationship with Abram. [Gen 12] It will be his family that carries God’s blessing to all nations.
• God changes Abram’s name to Abraham to reinforce the promise to bring a multitude of nations from him. [Gen 17]
• At Mount Sinai God continues to clarify this hope by calling Israel to be a kingdom of priests. [Exodus 19]
• Then God chooses the line of David from whom will come the promised seed, and He will reign forever. [2 Samuel 7]
• Psalm 8 reflects on how God raised up humans to rule alongside Him.
• Psalm 110 points to a king that rules next to Yahweh in glory.
• Isaiah 49 talks of a promised servant who will restore God’s people and be a light to save the nations.
• Isaiah 66 explains the mission to the nations as an ingathering of all nations and tongues to be brought back as an “offering to the Lord.”
• At the end of the Hebrew Bible, this promise for God to bless the nations narrows down to the promised seed of David.
• When Jesus comes on the scene it is like the light that hits a prism and spreads out to every nation. The blessing that was promised, in fact, all the promises of God, come through Jesus.
• Jesus gives the apostles the Great Commission. [Matthew 28:19-20]

The apostles saw themselves as living out Isaiah 66 and bringing in the nations as an offering to the Lord. They did this by taking the good news to the world.

This is the realization of God’s promise to Abraham. This is the Message of Reconciliation that brings blessings to the nations. This is discipleship.

We must live for Him.

We are breaking this out into a two part message. We had an opportunity to to serve through HAN-FAN (Have A Need – Fill A Need) at 11:30 so we wrapped up with these two thoughts.

• We must be born again.
• We must live for Him.

…to be continued…