You know, sometimes a passage you read, it just sticks out to you.
It's almost like it's just spiritually highlighted off the page.
! I knew I had read it before, I'm sure many times.
Several years ago, when I read Luke 9, verse 51, it just stuck out to me.
It says, when the days drew near for him, speaking of Christ, to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Up until that time, Jesus was healing the sick, he was raising the dead, he was teaching the kingdom, he was training the twelve.
And something happened after that. Things began to change.
Before that time, often he would tell people not to tell others what he had done.
Sometimes he would tell them not to tell others what he had said.
And the reason he did that was to make his ministry longer.
To have more time with the disciples.
But at this point in his ministry, he reached the point where he began to drive toward the cross.
It is a pivotal passage.
And one that is appropriate for us today.
And in the Sundays to come.
Because we are setting our face toward the cross.
Toward the empty tomb.
Toward the death and the resurrection of Christ.
As we prepare for Easter.
In July of last year.
Three miners were trapped underground in British Columbia.
At a mine called Red Chris.
It's a copper and gold mine.
There were two separate rock falls that had affected their exit.
And they could not get out.
They were alive.
But they were not free.
Now the mine had an underground emergency refuge area.
It had air.
It had water.
It had food.
It had communication.
In other words.
They had what they needed to be sustained for a while.
But there was nothing in that chamber that would get them out of the hole that they were in.
They could not live there forever.
They could breathe.
But not there forever.
Their only hope was that someone on the outside would reach them.
Someone would get through what was blocking them.
They needed somebody to clear the way that they could not clear themselves.
They needed someone to save them.
And after 60 hours, thankfully, they broke loose, got to them, and they got out alive and saved.
When I read that story, I thought about how that is a fitting picture of us in a human condition apart from Christ.
We can survive this life without Christ.
We can linger for a while, maybe for a long time, but we can't linger forever.
We cannot cope with what's to come.
We can cope with the daily.
That is until we can't.
We need somebody to lead us out of the hole we are within without Christ and lead us to Christ.
Let's set our face toward the cross this morning.
2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning in verse 14 says,
For the love of Christ controls us.
He's talking about Paul and Timothy.
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.
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 anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come.
All this is from God, who through 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,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In this passage, Paul is telling the Corinthians that he is in a struggle.
He loves the Lord.
He wants to see the Lord.
He's been faithful to serve the Lord.
And he looks forward to the day that he can see him face to face.
But he also wants to live to please the Lord.
And he knows for the time being that that's to be on the earth.
And what he's saying here
is that what he does for others,
he does through the love of Christ.
Because of what Christ has done for him.
And thank God what Christ has done for us.
The cross makes all the difference.
And I want to show you the difference that the cross makes.
First, I want you to understand the motive of the cross.
The love of Christ is the controlling factor in the Apostles Paul's life.
No wonder.
Christ radically changed his life.
In late 2014 and early 2015,
ISIS militants abducted 21 migrant construction workers in Libya.
All of them were from Egypt except for one.
And he was from Ghana.
These workers were passionate Coptic Christians.
They were passionate for the Lord.
They loved the Lord.
And ISIS was trying to force them to convert to Islam.
And in an ISIS propaganda video,
they lined the men up on the beach.
They announced in that setting
that they were targeting, quote,
people of the cross.
And you could hear the kneeling men praying,
Ya Rabbi,
Ya Soha.
Which in their language means,
Oh my Lord Jesus.
The one Guanian among the Egyptians said,
while they were crying out to God,
their God is my God.
Shortly after this picture was taken,
each man was decapitated
and died on that beach
because they would not back off the Lord.
Now, I want you to look at that picture.
When Paul was saved,
he was on his way to Damascus
to kill Christians.
The guy in the white camouflage
is the leader of this group.
He was their spokesman.
He was their leader.
Paul went from being a guy like that
to being one of the greatest men of God
and proclaimers of the gospel
to ever live.
My friend,
that's the kind of difference
that Christ makes in someone's life.
He went from being the one in white
to the one in orange
for the sake of the gospel.
He is the man that writes in verse 15,
and Christ died for all
that those who live might no longer live
for themselves,
but for him who for their sake died
and was raised.
Let me tell you something.
The motive of the cross,
the reason Christ went to the cross
is to miraculously save
a lost and dying world.
Not only that,
I want you to see the miracle of the cross
because the apostle Paul goes on
to explain what happens
through the cross.
The miracle of the cross
is not that Christ changes someone
or that he restores someone
or that he improves us.
The miracle is that he makes us new
is what scripture says.
In other words,
the sin
and our lack of restraint
toward temptation
that comes before the sin
is removed
by the forgiveness of God,
we have a lack of restraint.
Once we come to Christ,
things change.
Now, I didn't say temptation's gone.
It's not.
What I'm saying is
when we come to Christ,
the powerlessness that we felt
toward temptation is gone.
In Christ,
we have the power of the Holy Spirit
to fight our battles for us.
However,
for that newness to come,
the old has to pass away.
Just like the picture of baptism shows us,
we have to die to self.
Jesus died
that we might die to self
than that we might live for Christ.
And when we die to the old way
and to the wants of ourselves,
we come to life in a new way in Christ.
No longer are we shackled to sin,
unable to be free from it.
In Christ,
when we lean upon the Holy Spirit of God,
we're free from it.
We're made new from it.
Our perspective on God is made new.
Now, the devil loves for us
to fall back into that old mindset
and think that we can't walk away from it.
But I want you to know
that in Christ,
we have the power of the Holy Spirit of God
to walk away from it
and to walk in freedom in Christ.
Verse 16 says
that we do not regard Christ
according to the flesh anymore.
In other words,
we don't worship a babe in the manger.
We don't worship the suffering servant of the garden.
The cross, thank God, is empty.
Don't wear jewelry with Christ still on the cross, okay?
Because he's not on the cross.
We serve a risen Savior.
We worship a glorified Savior
on the throne of God.
And it is through that glorified Savior
that we invest our lives
and that we're made new.
And that changes our perspective on things.
It changes our view of people.
In Christ,
when walking with the fullness
of the Holy Spirit of God,
we see people that live in ways
contrary to the ways of God.
We see them in a new perspective.
We don't see them as enemies.
We see them as people that need Christ.
They're not just lost friends
and family and coworkers.
They're lost sheep that need a shepherd.
They're in a hole sustaining.
They need somebody to clear the rock.
They need a cross.
To provide a way for them to come to Christ.
And that leads to the ministry of the cross.
This is powerful.
Because as Christ has ministered to us and for us,
we're to minister to others.
And it's called here the ministry of reconciliation.
As I travel,
Dawn likes for me to bring her coins
from around the world.
And years ago,
I was on my way to Africa on a mission trip
and I stopped in Paris for a layover.
And at that time,
I had never been to Europe.
And so I stopped at the money exchange
in the airport.
And I either gave the lady a $5 bill
or a $10 bill or something like that.
And I said,
can I just get a mixture of coins
with this money?
And she said, no.
She said, the fee is more than you're giving me.
So I took my good old American money
and I left.
When I went to Europe just a month ago,
before I went,
I contacted my bank.
And for an even exchange,
I received euros in my mailbox
just a couple of days later.
Now, I want you to see this.
In verse 18, it says,
all this is from God,
who through Christ reconciled us to himself
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
The word for reconcile there
is a marketplace word.
It's a word that speaks of someone
exchanging money for another currency.
And through Christ,
because of what he did for us on the cross,
we have the opportunity to go
from being outside of Christ,
thank God,
to being in Christ.
It is the great reconciliation.
It is a faith exchange.
Christ took on our sin
and gives us life in return.
And in return,
we are simply to share
that message with others.
We join in to a ministry
of reconciliation
by sharing what Christ has done
for us with others.
As he did for us,
we do for others.
We share the change
that Christ has made in our lives.
Now, how do we do that?
Well, he goes on to say in this passage
that we are ambassadors for Christ.
Now, what's an ambassador?
An ambassador is a representative.
I want you to hear me now.
It's a representative of a different land.
Ambassadors live in a foreign land
among a people of a foreign language,
and they live a different way of life.
Ambassadors live in that land.
They take part in that land,
but they're not citizens of that land.
Instead, they speak for their country
they represent.
The reputation of their country
is in the hands of the ambassador.
Their words are listened to.
Their deeds are watched.
Their duty is to carry out
a definite message
and implement definite policies,
all while being sensitive
to how they impact the country
in which they live.
My friends, I want you to understand something.
We are resident aliens.
We live here,
but if you're in Christ today,
you're a citizen of heaven,
and we need to act like it.
This world is not our home.
We need to talk like it.
Let's speak as an ambassador
a definite message
with boldness
for what we represent.
God has called us
as Christians
to be ambassadors
for the gospel
to a lost and dying world,
and it is
the ministry
of the cross.
If Christ has changed you
through the Holy Spirit of God
empowering you,
you have the opportunity
to participate
in seeing other people
change
by the power
of God.
It's the ministry
of the cross.
Let me tell you,
lastly,
the ministry
of the cross.
One of the great passages
of Scripture
and one that defines
why Easter
is so very important
is in verse 21,
and it says,
for our sake
he made him
to be sin
who knew no sin
that in him
we might become
the righteousness
of God.
Christ
never sinned.
He was not born
with a sin nature.
That is the significance,
one of the significance
of the virgin birth.
He did not have
a sin nature.
He never sinned.
He never felt a strain
between he and the Father.
He never felt
the weight of guilt.
He never felt
the dread
of the ramifications.
He never felt
the anticipation
of the fallout
that comes
when somebody's in sin.
That is until the cross.
And on the cross,
he took on
all of our sin,
felt the chasm
of separation
between he and the Father,
and that darkness
that covered the earth,
as Scripture tells us,
upon his death,
that started
within him.
And he did all of it
to allow us
to become
the righteousness
of God.
Ellen Vaughn
is a journalist
who wrote a book
called
The God Who Hung
on the Cross.
And in that book,
she tells the story
of a Cambodian pastor
who traveled
throughout his providence
sharing the gospel.
And in that providence
of Cambodia,
it was filled
with small villages.
And he would go
from village
to village.
And one village
he would go,
they would not listen
to him
because they followed
Buddha.
He would go
to another one,
and they did not
listen to him
because they followed
demonic spirits,
spiritualism.
Seemed like
everywhere he went,
they would not listen
to the gospel
until he got
to one particular
village
that received him
warmly.
He asked the villagers
about their openness
to the gospel.
Why were they different?
And a woman
shuffled forward,
she bowed before him,
she grasped his hands,
and she said,
we've been waiting
on you for 20 years.
And then she told him
the story
of the mysterious God
who had hung
on the cross.
In the 1970s,
there was a brutal
communist-led regime
that took over Cambodia.
It caused destruction
throughout its path,
destroyed everything.
And when the soldiers
came to this village
in 1979,
they immediately
rounded the villagers
up and forced them
to dig their own graves.
After the villagers
had finished
digging their graves,
they prepared
themselves to die.
Some screamed out,
to Buddha,
others screamed out,
to demon spirits.
Others cried out
to their ancestors.
But one woman
started to cry
for help
based on a childhood memory.
She said a story
her mother told her
about a God
who hung on a cross.
And the woman
prayed to that
unknown God
on a cross.
Surely,
surely if this God
had known suffering,
he would have compassion
on their plight.
And suddenly,
those people
who had been
calling on all
their individual gods,
all of a sudden,
there became
a solitary cry,
just a great wail
among them all
praying to the God
in which she was
calling upon.
All of them
praying to this
mysterious God
who hung
on the cross.
as they continued
facing their own graves,
their wailing
began to slow
and they began
to quiet
and it just
become quiet crying.
There was an eerie
silence
in that muggy
jungle air.
And suddenly,
they dared
to turn around
and look
at those who
were there
to kill them.
and they were gone.
As the old woman
finished telling
that story,
she told
that pastor,
she said,
ever since
that humid day
20 years ago,
the villagers
have been waiting.
Waiting for
someone to come
and share
the rest
of the story
about the God
who hung
on the cross.
Church,
almost all
of Pickens
and the
surrounding area,
if not all
of them,
have heard
of the God
who hung
on the cross.
But many
are waiting.
whether they
realize it
or not,
they're waiting
for somebody
to free
their way
out,
to show
them hope.
God
has surrounded
us
with a world
that desperately
needs Christ.
And he's
called us
to a ministry
of reconciliation.
reconciliation.
He's called
us to be
ambassadors,
representatives
for him.
Living in a land
that's truly
not our home.
To send a message,
to stick
to a calling
that God
placed upon
our life
when he
changed
our life.
If you're
here this
morning
and you've
never surrendered
your life
to the Lord
Jesus Christ,
I got good
news for you.
He'll take
you as you
are.
If you'll
confess that
you're a sinner
and ask him
to forgive you,
he'll wash
you clean
of those sins.
He'll make
you new.
Folks,
he won't
just clean
you up.
He'll make
you new.
Maybe you're
here this
morning and
you have
done that.
Maybe like
James,
you did
that years
ago,
but you
never have
acknowledged
that publicly.
And Jesus,
by his
commission and
by his
example,
tells us
that we
need to
follow him
in baptism.
If you've
never been
baptized as a
believer,
but you know
that you are
a believer,
I encourage
you to come.
Maybe God's
drawing you to
Pickens First
Baptist Church,
doing a wonderful
work in our
church,
I'm thankful
for that.
Maybe God's
drawing you
here.
If that's
the case,
we'll be
happy to
guide you
in what it
means to
be a member
of First
Baptist Church.
We'll stand
and sing in
just a moment.
You come
as God
leads.
Christians,
there's a
message that's
very clear in
scripture again
and again.
The Apostle
Paul makes it
very clear,
I hope I
didn't muddy
the waters
this morning,
that we
have a job
to share
what Christ
has done
in our lives
with others.
We have a
job to live
it out before
them.
we have a
job to share
with them.
Will you
commit your
life today
to be an
ambassador for
Christ?
To be one
that properly
represents the
kingdom in
which you are
a part of?
And will
stay to the
definite message.
Stay on
task.
Walk the
walk and
talk the
talk and
make the
difference
for Christ
that he's
called us,
enabled us,
and commissioned
us to do.
No better
time to do
it than as
we approach
a celebration
of the
resurrection
of the
Lord.
I don't
know what
God's telling
you, I
know what
he told
me.
I encourage
you to be
obedient to
whatever God's
telling you to
do.
We'll stand
in just a
moment, we'll
sing, but
more important
than that, you
obey God.
If you need to
give your life to
Christ, you
come.
If you need to
be baptized, you
come.
If you feel led
to join this
church, you
come.
If you need to
come to this
altar, you
come.
If you need a
pastor to pray
for you, you
come.
If you need to
pray where you
are, you
come.
Don't do
anything more
than what God's
told you to do.
Don't do
anything less than
what you feel like
he's told you to
do.
Just be obedient to
follow.
Heavenly Father, I
love you and I
thank you, dear God,
for the love that
you show us and
how your word shows
us that not only do
you change us, but
you give us the
opportunity to be a
part of change in
other people's lives.
And I pray that we'll
be faithful to that
today.
Lead us, Lord,
right now to simply
be obedient to
follow you.
in Jesus' precious
name.
Amen.