2nd Corinthians 5
Advent dox
Call to worship:
pastor bobby owens
Isaiah 65.17-25
song:
In Christ Alone
Historical reading:
pastor andrew loginow
Apostles Creed
song:
His mercy is more
Confession & Pardon:
pastor michael champoux
Doxology
song:
What Child is this?
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
2nd Corinthians 5
Introduction
I’ve been thinking about you guys all week. That’s nothing new, of course. I think about you every week. The church is generous and responsible enough to pay full-time salaries for Pastor Kevin and myself in order that we can think about you all week. But this week I was thinking about you specifically in light of today, tonight, and tomorrow.
I was wondering all week how you’re feeling this New Years. Are you excited for a new calendar year? Do you have a theme for 2024? Do you have a new years resolution?
Is there something big you’re looking foreword to in 2024 – a wedding or engagement? Are you pregnant or trying? Are you anticipating a new job or a promotion? Are you graduating? Are you excited about what 2024 might bring?
Maybe you’re hurting. Maybe 2024 will be the first full year he or she has been gone, or the second full year, or maybe it’s been several years but the pain doesn’t fade. Maybe your health is failing, or you’re in financial trouble, or your marriage is hanging on by a thread, or you’ve lost your job, or you’re struggling with infertility, or any number of trials and tribulations. Regardless of whether you’re leaping or limping into 2024, when the clock strikes midnight tonight it will be here; time marches on and so must we.
Regardless of what 2024 brings you there is an anchor for the soul and that’s what I hope to remind you this morning. Our text is 2nd Corinthians 5. The epistle of 2nd Corinthians addresses the relationship between suffering and life in the Spirit. Chapter 5 is part of a section where Paul is detailing how the new covenant affects the way that we live in the Spirit – specifically living a life of faith and the ministry of reconciliation. My goal is to encourage you from 2nd Corinthians 5 to live for Jesus in 2024. Regardless of your circumstances the most important thing you can do in 2024 is live for Jesus and this pericope gives us 6 reasons why.
This World Is Not Your Home (vss 1-5)
The first reason we see in verses 1-5 is because this world is not your home – live for Jesus in 2024 because this world is not your home. Paul uses some Old Testament imagery to paint this picture. He compares our lives now to the tent and our future with God to a building. The tent he’s evoking is the tabernacle and the building is the temple. The tabernacle was transient, small, simple; the temple was a more permanent building, it was large and opulent.
Our earthly tent can and will be destroyed. The storms of sin and suffering wear us down until one day we all will face death but the building from God, the house not made with hands, the true temple is eternal in the heavens. We groan for the comfort and security of eternity. We groan to be clothed in life.
And the good news is that God has given us the Spirit as a guarantee of comfort, security, and life. The Spirit is the down payment for eternity. When the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven he sent the Holy Spirit to give us a bit of eternity now so that we know what’s coming. And the Spirit’s job is to point us to Jesus.
Because this world is not our home, Jesus is our true home. Jesus is the true and final temple of God (John 2.19-22) – Jesus is the place where sins are forgiven and God dwells with his people. Jesus is the one who clothes us in his righteousness. The Holy Spirit testifies to Christ through the Word and through the sacraments so that we don’t ever get too comfortable here because this world is not our home.
When we make the things of this world – money, relationships, stuff, education, work, anything – when we make these things ultimate things, they only let us down. The life we were created for, the life we all truly long for does not exist in this world. This world is nakedness in the tent and we long to be clothed in the building. So don’t live for the things of the world in 2024. Live for Jesus because this world is not your home.
Jesus Will Judge You On The Last Day (vss 6-10)
Second, live for Jesus in 2024 because Jesus will judge you on the last day. Paul goes on in verses 6-8 to encourage us that we must walk by faith. We walk by faith because while we’re here in the body we are away from the Lord and when we are away from the body we are at home with the Lord. Paul says he would rather be away from the body and home with the Lord.
That’s hard for some of you to understand. When you’re young and healthy it’s hard to imagine longing for heaven but I suspect that the older you get, the more loss you experience, the more sin and suffering waste away at your earthly tent, the more you can identify with the Apostle here. I imagine some of you agree wholeheartedly with verse 8. Regardless of your mentality the text reminds us in verses 9-10 that whether we are at home or away our aim must be to please God because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
When Jesus returns he will raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. We confessed earlier in the Creed that Christ will return from the right hand of the Father to judge the living and the dead. When you stand before King Jesus in judgment on the last day he will either find a life of faith or not and that will make all the difference. Our thoughts, words, and deeds matter because each one will receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.
That’s why in verse 11 Paul says, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. Our relationship with Jesus isn’t one of fear exclusively but church, don’t get this wrong; don’t neuter the Scripture. We should have fear. If there is not some fear motivating you to persevere because of the final judgment then you do not understand the final judgment. Matthew 7 tells us that there will be people at the judgment who do not know Jesus but were convinced that they did and Jesus will say, depart from me, I never knew you (Matt 7.22-23).
Make it your aim to please God in 2024. Live for Jesus in 2024 because the judgment is coming. Jesus is King and everyone will answer to him. That’s an appointment that none of us is getting out of. Live for Jesus in 2024 because Jesus will judge you on the last day.
Jesus Died So That His People Might Live For Him (vss 11-15)
Third, live for Jesus in 2024 because Jesus died so that his people might live for him. Verses 14-15 say,
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Some Christians have been confused by this vocabulary and have taken it to mean that Jesus died for everybody. Obviously that’s not true because if Jesus died for everybody then everybody would be saved. No, the all Paul’s referring to is all who believe; all of the church. And his point is that if your faith is in Christ you have died with Christ in order that you might no longer live for yourself but for the one who died and was raised for you.
This is why the sacrament of baptism is our doorway into faith and church membership. In baptism we reenact death and resurrection with Christ. Just like Israel was led out of slavery in Egypt, through the waters of the red sea, in order that they might be a people who belong to yhwh, a people who keep God’s Law, so we in faith are led out of the slave market of sin and death, through the waters of baptism, and into this life where we belong to Christ and live for Christ. If you’re a Christian then your life does not belong to you. You have died with Jesus and been resurrected with Jesus so you belong to Jesus. So in 2024 live for Jesus because you belong to Jesus.
If You Are In Christ You Are A New Creation (vss 16-17)
Fourth, live for Jesus in 2024 because if you are in Christ you are a new creation. Because we have died and resurrected with Christ, we no longer regard anyone according to the flesh. That means we don’t view anyone naturalistically. We don’t view people or interact with people as if this life is all there is, as if there isn’t a heaven and hell, as if there isn’t a final judgment, as if there isn’t good news.
C.S. Lewis said,
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
We cannot help but view people this way because verse 17 tells us that if we are in Christ we are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. What does it mean to be in Christ? That’s an important question because the New Testament uses that language to describe believers way more than terms like Christian.
In Christ describes our identity. People seek identity in everything under the sun. Eastern cultures find their identity in honor, family, and tradition. In the West we’re individualistic so we find our identity in our sexuality, or our wealth, or our education, or work. But the pericope reveals to us that our true identity, the most important identity we can have is to be in Christ.
To be in Christ means that your faith is in Christ. How do you know if you have faith in Christ? The Reformed tradition has long defined faith in terms of 3 facets: knowledge, assent, and trust. So to have faith in Christ means, first, that you know who Jesus is and what Jesus did.
You must know that God is your holy creator, and that you have sinned against him. You need to know that Jesus, who is the eternal 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus lived without sin and then died on the cross to pay for the sins of his people. Then on the 3rd day Jesus rose again from the dead, which validated everything he said and did and gives us hope for forgiveness and eternal life.
But knowledge of this good news is not faith. Faith also includes assent. You must assent to the validity of the gospel. You must affirm and not deny this good news. You must acknowledge that the story is true.
And finally you must transfer your trust to Jesus alone. You must rest the full weight of your righteousness in Jesus. You must humble yourself before him and acknowledge that he is your only hope and without him you deserve eternal conscious punishment in hell. Like a deer approaching a stream, you must confess that you have nothing to offer him but the reality that without him you die – that’s trust.
If God has given you the gift of faith it will be revealed in your repentance. To repent means to confess your sin and to turn from your sin. It means to agree with what Scripture says about your sin. Repentance cannot save you, only faith can. If you repent it’s proof that God has given you the gift of faith and you are in Christ.
And the text says that if you are in Christ you are a new creation. That means the new creation, that new creation that we long for where sin and death will be no more and everything sad will be untrue, that new creation has already started inside us. When Jesus walked out of the tomb on that first Easter morning he was the firstborn of the new creation and we are in him. I love that Paul uses the word behold. We don’t often behold things. But he’s inviting us to stop, take a breath, and think about what this means.
Jesus is remaking the world and the starting place is the hearts of the elect. Because that’s true, because you’re in Christ, because you’re a new creation, live for Jesus in 2024. Don’t live for the old things that are passing away. You’re a new creation; you’re the first fruits of the new heavens and the new earth. Live like it in this New Year!
You Are An Ambassador Of Christ (vss 18-20)
Fifth, live for Jesus in 2024 because you are an ambassador of Christ. Because we are part of the new creation we are also ambassadors of the new creation given the ministry of reconciliation. We make an appeal to those who do not believe in hopes that they might believe. We are evangelists; we share the gospel; we tell lost people the good news of Jesus.
This is why we preach Christ every Sunday from all the Scriptures. We implore everyone on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. If you don’t think this is the most important thing in the world then you are blind. There’s nothing more important for your spouse, your kids, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, for anyone than to be reconciled to God.
Make it a priority in 2024 to live for Jesus by sharing Jesus. No one’s saying you need to be a street preacher. When God gives you an opportunity with anyone simply tell them the truth. Speak to them as if the gospel is real because it is.
Tell them that it’s their only hope and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit. It is not your job to save anyone; in fact, it is impossible. It is your job to simply speak the truth. You are an ambassador; you speak on behalf of your King. Live for Jesus and share Jesus in 2024 because you are an ambassador of Jesus.
You Are The Righteousness Of God (vs 21)
Finally, live for Jesus in 2024 because you are the righteousness of God. Verse 21 is one of the clearest presentations of the gospel that we have in all of Scripture – for our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus never sinned in thought, word, or deed. He obeyed God’s Law perfectly – Jesus knew no sin.
But God made Jesus to be sin. Jesus died the cursed death on the cross and stood in place of all of the elect bearing God’s judgment and wrath for our sins. Every sin that every Christian ever committed – in though, word, or deed – that’s what Jesus was on the cross. Jesus became the very rebellion against God that cursed humanity and the world in order to save the rebels.
And it is because of the cross that God can accomplish the great exchange. On the cross Jesus took our sin, our guilt, our shame, our wrath, our judgment, our hell. And now through faith and repentance God gives us Jesus’ righteousness. That’s what it means when the text says, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We are united to Christ by faith so that when God sees us, he sees the righteousness of Jesus. Our sin was imputed to Christ on the cross and now by faith Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us.
You must live for Jesus in 2024 because if you have faith in Christ, this is who you are – the righteousness of God. You are in Christ and his righteousness is imputed to you. Yes, you still battle your sin, you still give in to temptation, you still must repent, but at the same time you have been declared righteous by God because of Jesus so live like that is true. Strive for that which is outside of your grasp, not in order to earn God’s favor, but because you already have it.
Conclusion
Many people view January 1st as a fresh start each year. Whether you’re coming into 2024 excited or depressed, motivated or stressed, leaping or limping, there is only one fresh start that can cleanse you of your guilt and shame, that can give you meaning and identity, that can give you hope for the future and peace and joy even in the midst of crippling circumstances and that is the gospel. The gospel is the only legitimate fresh start and it’s the most important thing you can ever do. Christ Community Church, let’s live for Jesus in 2024. God promised that we wont regret it.