Well, let us go ahead and turn now to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It's on page 966 of your Pew Bibles. I'm going to read 2 Corinthians 5, 16 through 21. We're going to focus on verses 18 through 21. We did focus on these verses in our last 2 Corinthians sermon. We focused on the content of the message, this time we're going to be focusing on the message itself that it's given to us so that we might get that message out to others. So 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 16 through 21. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if any was in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who gave us Christ. reconciled us to himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God, For our sake he made him to be no sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the very righteousness of God. Praise God for this good word, for this good news, for this gospel. Let's pray. Our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, help us to understand the message of reconciliation, the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that we might be able to share this news well with others. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, I think I probably know the answer to this one. It's probably everyone, but who likes cookies? Yeah, we like cookies. My favorite are definitely oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, or those really thick sugar cookies that are frosted. And in God's providence, I think some of those may be here this evening, just for some of us. But kids, and especially really young kids, you know, but you can think back a few years, does mom ever let you help her make cookies? No, yes, okay. Well, my girls grew up baking with Gwen, their mom. And just a question for us that are really, really young. In order to make these cookies, do you think that mom needs your help? Could she make these cookies on her own? No, no. No, she could. And we know that she could. But even though she could make these cookies without us, mom often lets us help her. We get to help mix up the ingredients, maybe sneaking a few bites of cookie dough or a few chocolate chips here and there. We get to help put them on the cookie sheet and then we wait for what seems like an eternity for them to come out of the oven. And then while you're waiting, you're just being tortured further by smelling the fresh-baked cookie smell. And then finally, when they're done, you know, we're waiting for them to get pulled out, and while they're still way too hot, we eat them immediately. We enjoy how they taste, but we're also really excited because we got to help make those cookies. And again, Mom, she didn't need our help, but she enjoys working with us, and so she lets us help her. Well, now that we all want cookies, let's focus on what Paul's teaching here. He's teaching something similar. Tonight we're going to see that to make disciples, God doesn't need us. He doesn't need our help. He can save sinners on his own. But he's pleased to use us as his ambassadors to proclaim the gospel, the message of reconciliation. Our theme tonight, as God makes the ministry of reconciliation known through his ambassadors. So God lets us help. He lets us be involved. He lets us help save sinners. We get to help by proclaiming the message of the gospel. And the message is that Christ has made friendship with God possible through his suffering, death, and resurrection. And we have three points, and you get your choice of alliterations, either P or A. I think the P ones are a little better. But you can have proclamation, plea, and practice, or announcement, address, and application. So point one, proclamation or announcement. Our passage begins with all this is from God. There are two gifts that Paul mentions in verses 18 through 21. There's the gift of reconciliation itself, And there's the gift of the message of reconciliation. Last time we took a close look at the ministry of reconciliation. We said it was summarized for us in verse 21. to be sin who knew no sin, sorry, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. So that's the first gift of God is that He's made friendship with sinners possible through the work of Jesus Christ. On the cross, there are two transactions taking place. Our sins are imputed to Jesus Christ, or Jesus takes our sins upon Himself. And then because He's perfectly righteous and obeyed the law in every way, shape, and form, He's declared righteous and He takes that righteousness and He gives it to us. Jesus, who knew no sin, took the punishment for all of our sin so that we might be spotless, clean, holy, and righteous. That's the ministry of reconciliation that we have. That's a gift for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He paid for our sin and makes sure that now we can be friends with God forever and ever and that we can dwell with God in His perfect holiness because we are also spotless and holy. I can't think of a better gift. and I know you can't either, the gift of forgiveness and righteousness and holiness and friendship with God. That's the first gift, accomplishing of reconciliation. The second gift then is the giving of the message of reconciliation. In verse 18, It says, God gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19, Paul says that in the giving of this gift, God is entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. The us Paul is referring to is specifically himself and his ministry team. as they're entrusted with the preaching of Christ to the Gentiles. But we can also read the us here and understand these are our preachers today and not just preachers but on some level these are all Christians. All Christians in some way are also given and entrusted with the message of the gospel. And in verse 20 Paul says, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. Now an ambassador is a special trusted official that represents the president or the governor or the king to others. An ambassador is not the king, but he's the king's representative to another nation or area. However, the ambassador does speak with authority, the authority of the governor or the king. And he doesn't deliver the message he thinks is best. He doesn't deliver his own message. He doesn't give his own opinion. He delivers the message that his governor or king has given him and entrusted him to deliver. So Paul is called to be God's representative. He's called to be God's mouth. He's to speak God's message. And what is the message that Paul speaks? It is Christ and Christ crucified. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul says this about this message that he's entrusted with. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Paul's proclamation is the gospel that says, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the very righteousness of God. Paul's called to be an ambassador, God's official representative. An ambassador must have content, he must have a message, he must have something to proclaim. And Paul's proclamation is Christ and Christ crucified. Christ raised so that we might also be raised. This is Paul's message. And an ambassador represents, announces the will of the king. He also acts with the king's authority at often times. And at times the king actually rules through him. Paul as an ambassador is also meant as a part of his job description is to persuade others that his message is true, to persuade men of the truth of the ministry of reconciliation, to persuade sinners to place their trust in Jesus Christ. And this is our second point, the plea or the address. You read of two appeals in verse 20. Paul makes one, and it said that God himself makes another appeal or plea through Paul. Verse 20, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. So even though it's Paul speaking this message, it's God Himself who's making the appeal to repent of your sins, to trust in Christ. To hear the words of God's ambassador is to hear the very words of Christ Himself. In Romans chapter 10, Paul says something very similar, says the same thing. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? This verse literally translated doesn't say, how will they hear of whom they have never heard, or how they believe. It says, how will they call on Him whom they have not heard? In other words, if they haven't heard Christ preach, how are they going to call upon Him? It's the preacher preaching, but it's Christ to the preacher speaking the message of God. through Paul, through the ministry of the Word, God makes His appeal known. He makes His appeal. He puts forth His case. He's trying to persuade. It means that the Almighty God of the universe stoops down so far to our level that it even seems at times as the Lord God Himself, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that we can see, all that we can't see, that He's appealing to us, that He's begging with us, He's pleading with us to trust in Jesus Christ. God Almighty comes down, makes His case and pleads and even seems that He begs sinners through Paul to be reconciled to Himself through Christ. Think of that. How humbling is that for the Lord God Almighty, not just to become man, to submit Himself to a life of suffering, the Lord Jesus, a death on the cross, even continuing in the power of death for a time, but Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth, persuades, invites, even begs us to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ. Paul knows this is what God is doing every time that he preaches the Word. And this is why Paul can also make his own appeal, saying, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Paul implores, he begs, he appeals, he tries to convince sinners of their need for a Savior, to convince folks that Jesus is the Christ promised in the Old Testament. This is the message that he's been entrusted with. And amazingly, even though he doesn't have to, God works through his ambassadors to save sinners. God has ordained the foolishness of the preaching of the Word. Sometimes the bumbling, sometimes the long, sometimes the boring even, ministry of the Word. This is how the message of the Kingdom of God spreads, and that's what makes it exciting. He calls every Christian then, to be ready to explain the gospel, to be ready to give a reason for your hope that lies within you. This leads us to our third point, practice or application. Paul's words help us and give us a few thoughts about sharing the gospel with others. First, we realize there can be no appeal without proclamation. In other words, there can be no plea, there can be no begging, there can be no asking for a decision if there is no content of the gospel. Sometimes well-meaning folks say, well, the gospel's love. Love, love, love. And that's it. Just love. You know what? You don't need to say all those things. Just love people into the kingdom of God. Now, surely people are to see the love of Jesus Christ through us, and Christ is made known through the evidence of our love. We just read that this morning in John 13. But love alone, without the saving message of Christ, without the message of God is holy and we are sinners and we need forgiveness of sins, without the crucifixion and resurrection, love, just random general love, will not save anyone. There are many opportunities that we have to show love to our neighbors. There are many good things that we can do. But these things are not ends in themselves. Just helping our neighbor is not the gospel. It's not the same thing. We should help our neighbor. We should love our neighbor. We should do nice things for our neighbor. But that's not the same thing as the gospel. It's not the same thing as being an ambassador. Love and helping our neighbors through mercy ministry, this is something that we're pleased to do. And we do communicate love through it. But without the word, without the gospel, it's not, it doesn't save. Now maybe not in the moment, while we're helping it doesn't save, we still want to be loving. But eventually at some point in time, and we don't need to announce it, or we don't need to put on like, I'm gonna put on a Christian shirt, a Jesus shirt while I mow their lawn or shovel their snow, you can do that. But we don't have to do those things. But at some point in time, they must understand and know why we're helping. Mercy ministry and word ministry must always go together. We serve our neighbors not just to be nice, but to make Christ known. Good works are good works alone. That's not the same thing as gospel ministry. Word and deed go together. So we cannot make, here's the point, is it can't just be love. It can't only be doing nice things, but we should do those things. but we cannot make an appeal or try to convince others of the truth of the gospel through this alone. There must at some point be a proclamation of how Christ died to save sinners. At some point in the process, whether that's you giving that to them or whether that's, you know, continuing to invite them to to church where they can come and hear Christ preached, we have to pray and find a way that they hear the Word of God. And we can also be patient with these things. It's good for us to take the long view of this. And if we do have the opportunity to do something kind and loving for someone else, What we can also do is just keep praying, Lord, give me an opportunity to invite them to church. Lord, give me an opportunity to ask how I can pray for them. Lord, help me to do something to move this from being kind and loving to kind of a window for the gospel. So we cannot have a proclamation without an appeal as well. We can't just preach the gospel and throw the content out there, Jesus saves. We can't just do that and stop there. There are some that don't think you should call for decisions, that don't think you should call people to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ, that you just get the gospel content out there and if they're elect, they'll believe. Well, that's not what our Lord Jesus does. Come, ye all who are heavy laden, come to me, I will give you rest." That's an invitation. We're to give an exhortation, repent and believe. We're to give an invitation to come to Christ, repent of your sins. Paul does this. He says, be reconciled to God. So proclamation and plea go together. Another observation we can make about the preaching of the Word is God uses the preaching of the Word. Since He uses it, we call it a means of grace. He uses preaching to proclaim His message, and then He uses the Holy Spirit to apply that message to change sinners' hearts. The preaching of the Word of God is not just an academic lecture. It's not just imparting information. That's why preaching, live preaching in person, it's different than sermon audio. It's different than listening to a blog or reading a good book. The preaching of the Word of God is an event. It's an event. The preaching of the Word is something that God designed to change you where you sit in this moment right now. The Spirit of God uses the preaching of the Word to change, to challenge, and to comfort us as we sit here in the pew. This is an event. And as long as the preacher preaches the word and not his own thoughts, own inventions, it's God himself, it's Jesus himself that speaks to us through the preaching of the word. Now I must admit, as a minister, this is frightening to me. And it certainly makes me as careful as I can in preparing sermons. But it's true. Paul says it right here in our passage. Through his ambassadors, God himself is speaking and making his appeal. So this is frightening for us. It's also a warning for all who desire to preach and teach. But it should wake us up from our sleepiness and sometimes our laziness to think, you know, we want to get this right. We need to make sure we know the nuts and bolts of the gospel. And as we gather to hear the preaching of the Word each week, we want to come expecting to hear from God Himself and to receive the ministry of the Word as Christ Himself speaking to us. Some really good questions in the Westminster Larger Catechism that summarize what the Bible teaches about preaching, about the means of grace. If you want to look at all the questions that talk about this later, it's 154. to 160. I'm just going to read a couple here. 155, how is the word made effectual to salvation? The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of enlightening, convicting, and humbling sinners, of driving them out of themselves and drawing them unto Christ, of conforming them to his image and subduing them to his will, of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions, of building them up in grace and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. Those are all the things that's happening as the Word of God is being preached. So this is, even though sometimes it is hard, especially some of our PM sermons, because we're tired, we're hungry, these things. But this is an amazing gift that God gives us, and we get to hear it twice, twice every week. So may we remember what's happening here, that it's it's Christ speaking to us. So even when sermons are a bit boring or long or hard to follow, we must remember there's something here that God has for us and I need to listen and figure out what it is. What's the Lord saying to me right now at this time? Finally, just one last observation we want to make is that there's certainly a special way that the Lord uses the preaching of the Word from His ministers, but all Christians, as we said, are ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Now, no one here is an apostle. Some of us here are ministers, but we all share in Christ's anointing. And as we all share in Christ's anointing, in some way, shape, or form, when God gives us opportunity, we're all called to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ and share this message of hope. Isaiah 61 speaks about Jesus who proclaimed reconciliation and life and these things to the captive. Well, now that's also all of us because the same Spirit that rested upon the Lord Jesus Christ rests upon each of you and in some way, shape, and form has anointed you to bring the good news to the poor and broken in soul. As you are given opportunity, you are to proclaim liberty from the prison of sin, death, and hell so that God may be glorified. If you have trouble thinking about when you get to do this, especially men in your homes during family worship, you get to do this all the time. moms, you get to just daily in conversations with your kids, you get to proclaim this good news to our family members, to our neighbors. This means that we are not, we cannot just leave evangelism and outreach just to the guy who gets paid, just to the professional ministers, just to the elders. There are certainly special gifts and responsibilities that go with these callings, but we're all called to proclaim the mighty deeds of the Lord as he gives us opportunity. For we are a kingdom of priests and we've all received a salvation that's so great So amazing that how could we keep it to ourselves? Speaking about what God has done for us in Christ, how He's overlooked all of my sins. We can't keep that news to ourselves. There are people that need it. So let's pray for those opportunities. Look for those opportunities. And if you get one, Just share what you can about what the Lord Jesus has done for you. Pray that you're a bit bold. Get the Romans road down. Those of you that have been in the membership class, communicants class, you know what that is. Get that down. Speak about how Jesus has saved you. And then, again, there's proclamation and there's plea. You don't just get the message out, but be even a little braver. and try to bring it home a little bit. And you could even just say something, you share something with them. You could say, how does this sound to you? Oh, it sounds good. Oh, well, is there something that's getting in the way of you understanding or believing? And they might say something, and you might say, well, I don't know how to answer that question, but I bet I know somebody who can answer it. Would you like to come to church with me? I plead a little bit. Is there some worry or fear that's keeping you from trusting in Christ? Or, I've told you what I believe. Well, tell me, what do you believe? Try to get the conversation going. You don't have to, you know, pound your school desk and say, repent and trust in Jesus Christ. But try to take that conversation to the next level. And if the conversation goes on and they still don't believe, you could ask them. Even if you reject Jesus, what are you gonna do with your sin? Where is it gonna go? And then you don't necessarily answer the question for them. You just let it sit there and let the Spirit of God do what He will. Now, I admit these things, they make us uncomfortable. Some people might get angry with us. I was just reminded on, I guess that was Friday. It seems like a long time ago now. The Church for Home Mission and Extension, the Checks Banquet, one of the young men was speaking and he referred to the Ministry of Church Planning in Chicago as a ministry of rejection. And that's what it is. You get rejected a lot. You might get made fun of a lot. But you know what? It's a joy. It's a blessing. It's an honor. It's a privilege to even be rejected when we're getting the gospel out there. So as we close, as we think about the content of the message, let us get that down. Let us think about how we might have opportunities to proclaim it and to pray for them. And then let us think about after we get that message out there, you know, are there a few questions that we would feel comfortable asking? What do you think about that? You know, what's keeping you from believing? What other questions do you have? I encourage you to do these things as the Lord gives you opportunities. And as we do, it's amazing for us to think about this. God has helped us to, or God has called us to help him to make cookies, basically. Not oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but kingdom of God cookies, new creation cookies. And it's a great blessing and a privilege that God lets us participate in this work. He doesn't need us, but he calls us to have the blessing of helping him make disciples. Let's pray. Lord God, as we read this message and we see Paul's passion for Christ, we see Paul's love for the Corinthians and his passion for sharing the gospel, may this transfer to us. May we seek opportunities and privileges to be your ambassadors in the various walks of life that you have us, and may we increasingly see this as the redemption accomplished and applied that this is the greatest news ever. ever in the history of the world. So Lord, we praise you that you sent an ambassador at some point in time, whether it's a minister or a parent or a friend, that you sent someone to us so that we might hear, repent, believe, and be friends with God. Help us to be that person for someone else as well. In Jesus' name, amen.