One died for all

This is Memorial Day weekend, and it's a time that will be certainly a Memorial Day time tomorrow, but also a memorable day for the sake of Calvin and See's wedding. Just thinking, as we think of Memorial Day, I was pondering that over this last week. I talked to Doug recently.

He said he was in the Battle of the Bulge, which was the last counter-offensive. that the Nazis had during World War II. Some number upwards of 70,000 casualties in that. Doug, am I correct? You said there were 200 that started in your particular group and you were one of 14 that survived. For the first part of high school, my high school principal was also in the Battle of the Bulge. There are a number of people there, and I doubt you crossed paths with them, but he was also a believer.

It is something major for us to remember. people who laid down their lives for our physical and political freedom. We also have... Yes. Yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And when I say casualties, it includes those who are wounded or killed. Yeah. Also something else to remember, we have three with us here that we want to acknowledge and recognize as having graduated. I'm sure they're greatly relieved except for having to come up here.

And now we won't ask Courtney to stand this time. Okay, yes, we won't ask Courtney to stand. But we will ask John to stand and we will ask Edie, you here? to stand, and we will ask Ryan to stand and come up here, please. Go ahead and come on up. We want to make sure you're fully embarrassed, I mean, recognized. Yeah. So let's see, I want to get this straight here. This one is for you, OK? And this one is for you. And this one that's the smallest one is for you.

Yeah. And the reason it's small is we had so much to put in it, we had to go with something smaller. Yeah. It'll be OK. I promise. OK? So now you've graduated with a degree Okay, Master of Science in Genetic Counseling. Okay. And now it's job time. Gotta look for a job. So you pray for her for a job.

Okay. And you? Littleton High School. Littleton High School. And you have a job. Okay. You're busy. Okay. And how about you? Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering. Okay. And you're looking for a job. Yes. Okay. Alright. So let's pray for all three of you since I'm sure you'll need it. Okay. Alright.

Lord, we thank you for just the faithfulness that you have shown as each of these three have graduated and accomplished to this milestone. We do pray for Ryan and for Edie as they look for a job next and look at the challenges in that. We pray for guidance and wisdom and leading for all three of them. And we do give thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Congratulations, you made it. OK. Now we're going to dive into the message. OK? All right. Wow, I'm glad it doesn't feel like that. OK.

We are in 2 Corinthians 5, 11 through 15, which is a passage that Wayne read for us here. It's a passage in those chapters that speak of one death with lots of significance, of course, and two motivations that we'll look at here in this morning's passage.

This passage, for one point, gives us insights into the death of Christ. When Christ died, what are some of the things that took place? No, it doesn't touch on everything, but it does touch on some very important things. So it'll say that Christ died for us. What does that mean?

He died in our place. One way to put it is He died instead of me. I should have been the one there on that cross. I should have been the one to take the penalty, but he died instead of me. So that's one thing that comes out. But also that when he died, we who believe, every believer here this morning, died with him. One of the ways that I like to put it is that cross was crowded. Oh, the people looking up there, they didn't see it. But the Lord's most certainly did, and He made the very point. The cross was crowded. All who believed, even those who believe here today, were there with Him.

Secondly, this passage addresses two motivations for ministry. It starts off with, early in the passage, the fear of the Lord, which looks towards a time of future judgment. for our rewards, and the second motive, the love of Christ. That's our response to His love for us. So we'll be taking a look at that in more depth here this morning too.

The other thing that this passage talks about, and it's a matter of fact a theme that Paul's going to carry on into the next chapter, is Paul's open heart and likewise Christ's open heart. Another pivotal point in this passage is that Paul opens his heart to the Lord and to the saints in Corinth, both. He doesn't just open his heart to the Lord but keep it closed to the saints. He opens his heart to the Lord and to them as well. In the next chapter he's going to speak of a heart opened wide. This is, if anything, a book where Paul just lays his heart out. This is a book where Paul lays out, here's who we are. You know, warts and all, so to speak.

Here's who we are, and this is what motivates us. We're not coming here trying to put on a good show. We're not trying to do a cover-up job. We're not trying to simply go about and impress people. We're laying things out. This is who we really are. This is why we actually do things. This is what's motivating us. We've got nothing to hide. Here it is. It's all laid out.

Paul's motivations and his behavior. What does he do because of those motivations? His activity on behalf of the gospel laid out for everybody to see. He makes it quite clear and quite plain. Paul has an open heart. Why? Because Christ had and has an open heart for us. And he lays out both of those things. Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

That's something we'll take a look at in more detail shortly. Dying in our place. What's amazing is if you take a passage like Hebrews 12.2, for the joy set before him, what joy was that? Believe it or not, the joy of saving and having fellowship and eternal relationship with you, the joy of sharing His glory with us. Everything that He intends to bless us with, starting from now on into eternity, that's the joy. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.

For the joy set before Him to die for and put your name in there, He endured the cross. To him, we think of the cross, we think, what an awful thing. He was beaten horribly. They put nails in his hands and feet. And in Roman times, that was done in order to make it most miserable, a most awful, ghastly death, a slow, agonizing death. It was done to shame to the max.

But He said, for the joy set before Him, I'll sign up for that, for, and put your name there. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. It would also be a very crowded cross, because we who believe are identified with Him. We would be there with Him on that day. That cross would be full. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, and us there with Him. Here's the poetic pattern of this first verse. The points that stand out, we have knowing and hoping.

These are things that go on inside Paul's heart. He's talking about, these happen inside. These happen within Paul. And it also happens, because he says we, it happens with those who minister alongside him. Timothy. Silas and some of the others that were along with them. Apollos, a fellow teacher.

So we have the knowing and the hoping. There is in addition to that that we persuade and we make manifest. These are actions and expressions that come from Paul and his companions because of what they know. Because of the hope that they have. The hope for the other believers. We've made it a point to point out in Paul's point about knowing.

I'm sorry, that was just a groaner. Anyway, so we've made this point about knowing for the last two or three weeks at least here that God very much intends that we believers know with certainty what He has revealed. Not, some people think this and some people think that, we're not sure, we never can know for certain. No, that is not, that is not what God intends. God intends that we know with certainty what He means, and not just intellectually, but we have it at heart. It is based on that knowing of heart. Not just mind, but heart. that we live out the Christian life.

We pointed out previously, do you not know shows up 15 times in the book of Romans, 1st Corinthians many times, and once in the book of James. The grammar and sometimes the context indicates it means do you not know and of course you do. Most certainly you do. God intends that we know and have certainty about the things that are revealed.

Not just and I hope so or wouldn't that be nice. Or, I think it's this. Do you have any idea? Any good guesses? It's not intended to be that. It's a certainty of knowing. That's exactly what he has in mind. Now, here's a good one. Knowing the fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God's wrath. That's not what it means. We will never be subject to God's wrath.

Romans 5.9, we shall be saved from the wrath of God. Is there such a thing as the wrath of God? Yes, there is. Is that what he's talking about us experiencing? Is that why we should have a fear of the Lord? No, that's not at all the case.

1 Thessalonians 1.10 and 5.9 gives us a similar promise. We will not know now, neither will we know in the future, God's wrath. That is not for us who believe here in the church. It's not God's wrath that is the basis for this phrase, the fear of the Lord. Ever seen this bumper sticker or something like it? Jesus is coming soon and boy is he mad. That's not what this is about. That's not what this is about. It's not about God's unpredictable nature.

As a matter of fact, scripture makes very clear that God has a predictable and unchanging nature. God does not change. Jesus Christ, the same today, yesterday, and forever, right? God's character does not change. God is not, and the word sometimes is capricious, like I have no idea what he's going to do next or why he's doing it. God's character does not change. We're not worried about his unpredictable character. That's not at issue.

What is at issue is having an ultimate respect for the Lord. Now we have respect for various things. And we learn to respect this or that. And sometimes we kind of learn lessons about what's respectable and what isn't. And respect is, in fact, a pretty important thing in our lives. But his point here is the fear of the Lord is actually the ultimate respect, the ultimate regard. Why would I have ultimate regard for the Lord? Well, the passage right before this says that one day I will stand before the Lord.

And what I do here will be evaluated not to determine whether or not I'm saved. We're saved by faith in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, period. It is only for eternal rewards. So for those who believe, those who are saved because they believe that Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again, they believe that, so they're saved. For those who are saved because of that faith, there is the question of eternal rewards, the capacity to glorify the Lord eternally.

That's what that's about. Ultimate regard for that. Here is the Lord of glory who took the price for my sins. It should have been me there, but he took my place. And he also will be the one who will judge me Not to draw into question whether I'm saved. If I have faith that Christ died for my sins, was buried, and rose again, that's not at issue. Only rewards.

Then Paul says in this first verse in our passage, verse 11, we persuade men. Now the Greek word translated here, persuade, is to bring people to a place of agreement and confidence and belief. It's not just Paul applying pressure or twisting arms so that they give in. Like this guy in the diagram. Okay, okay, I believe, I believe!

Stop twisting my arm! That's not the point. It's persuading, not by pressure, not by twisting arms, not by harassment. People won't come to the Lord because we harass them. It is not because of that, but to have people be convinced in their own heart and mind. One of the things that Hal used to say, and I would quite agree, is do not make a leap of faith. Don't make a leap of faith. I wouldn't recommend it at all. Hal didn't either.

Why not make a leap of faith? Because faith is not just jumping out into the blind horizon. It's not diving off a cliff into the darkness. Faith is believing what God has said. That's what faith is. And it is based on a conviction that it is true. It is not as one boy said mistakenly in Sunday school, this was some years ago, faith is believing what you know isn't true. No, that's not what the case is. Faith is believing what you are convinced is true. That's what faith is. It is not a leap of faith. A leap of faith is not biblical. It's not recommended. Hal didn't recommend it. I wouldn't either. That is not what God is asking for.

It has been said that a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. A fellow by the name of Lawrence Peters shortened it up. A man convinced against his will is not convinced. That simple, right? So it isn't a matter of pressuring someone or pushing someone to a place of sort of relenting and finally saying, OK, I guess I believe, kind of sort of cross my fingers, you know, all that.

Bringing people to a place of belief, which is a conviction of heart as to what the facts are, is a work on the one part of God's working on their hearts to convict them regarding sin and righteousness and judgment. This is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. John chapter 16. It is also a work through his saints. Paul asks that the believers in Ephesus and elsewhere, but certainly in Ephesus, pray for him to be bold in his proclamation of the gospel. Why?

It's because it is not only the work of the Holy Spirit in hearts, but it is also the work of believers in whatever capacity the Lord is motivating and moving them to share the gospel. So we persuade men, we bring them to a place of being convinced and conviction, not pressure, not badgering, not threatening, but so that they understand what is true, spiritually speaking, and believe it. Not against the facts, not against their wills, but in fact that they are convinced of the facts. In fact, because they're convinced to the point that they willingly believe.

There is also this making manifest that comes out in this verse. Now God knows our hearts better than we do. To manifest something is to show it forth. God knows our hearts better than we do. That's in fact the basis on which the Lord does things in our hearts and our lives that others can't see. The Lord sees everything.

Many feel that they can play hide-and-seek games with God. They want to kind of pretend that God doesn't see what's in their hearts. And so many can play some kind of a hide-and-seek game with God. There was a guy who tried to do that some years ago.

His name was Jonah. God said, I want you to go to Nineveh. And so he kind of looked up on the internet and said, where's the farthest place that I can go to get as far as I can away from Nineveh? I do not want to go to Nineveh. So he got a reservation, and you can do it online, you know how that is. He got a reservation for this place called Tarshish. Now, it turns out that there are several places named Tarshish during that time. One of them that was relatively closer was in Spain. Another place was actually in southern England. This guy Jonah wanted to really get away from where God was sending him, right?

And let me tell you, well, you can know the story. How'd that work out for him? Let's see. It was a little rough. He had this great fish that had some sort of weird indigestion. Belched him up on the seashore, and he ended up going back to where the Lord wanted him to go anyway. So one way we can play games with God and pretend that we're not manifest is to think that we can run away from God. Now some people don't do it geographically, they try to run away from God in other ways. Ever been mad at God or known someone who's been through that pattern? Somewhere between frustration and ticked off?

The idea that God doesn't have our best interest in mind is exactly what the serpent sold Eve on in Genesis chapter 3. Oh, God doesn't really have your best interest in mind. He really actually is motivated because He doesn't want you to discover how good it is to go it on your own. And you know that didn't work out so well. Not so good, right?

The reality is if we move, if we take action the I'm mad at God and I think I'm gonna pull something off that you know, I'm gonna Pull one on God that won't work In first Kings 18 there were 450 prophets who were trying to force God's hand to make God do what they wanted him to do and so I In fact, they had quite a few of them, and they were doing things like cutting themselves and trying to figure out what it is that makes God do something. How can I force God's hand?

Well, of course, none of that was doing any good, as they soon found out. And Elijah had part in showing them, no, that's not going to work. That's not going to help. We can't make God do something. as if we're somehow going to twist God's arm and God finally goes, well, OK, and finally gives up. No, we can't make God do anything.

Paul realizes, and he just expresses it full out, the very best approach in life is to lay out one's life and heart before the Lord of Eternity. Here it is, Lord. Here it is. I can't play any games with you. That's a big waste of time, and I'm fooling myself. Here I am.

You, the Lord of Eternity, you are ultimately trustworthy. There's nothing that you're going to allow in my life. Does God promise that you'll make everything really cool and painless? Okay, not going to happen. If it is God's job to make your life absolutely smooth and free of pain, He's doing a lousy job! If that's God's job, He's doing an awful job! He's really doing a poor job of it. But that's not His job.

But what He will do for every single believer, we can take comfort in the fact that He's going to work all things together for good, even if the circumstance isn't good, to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. You can count on that. And then in fact, every single thing that happens, even if you can't put a label on it, boy, that's good. He's going to make good use of it. He's going to make good, eternal use of it.

The best thing we can do is lay our hearts and lives out and not play games with God. I would add to that And it fits with what Paul tells the believers. He says, we manifest to your consciences. It's not play games with the saints either. That's one of the reasons why I will from time to time, I certainly don't want to make it the content of the message, I will from time to time tell you things that I've struggled with. I'll tell you things I've done wrong. Why? There's no value in playing a game here. Christ died for my sins, and guess what? I've got them! Okay? Okay? There's no games to play. There's no need to do that. Our lives are laid open before the Lord, and in truth, there's no reason for playing hiding and seeking games with other believers, too.

Okay, once more, from the heart. Paul again uses this term, commending ourselves. He did back in chapter 4. He did here in chapter 5. He'll do it once more in chapter 6. He was not patting himself in the back when he talks about commending himself, trying to make a superficially good impression.

That, of course, was what some of the other people who went around selling their religion or philosophy were trying to do. trying to pat themselves on the back and say, look how great I am. So Paul makes the point here that they're just those who try to make a good appearance on the outside. The expression, you know, putting lipstick on a pig. There are those who try to make it look good on the outside. But Paul is all about the heart.

As a matter of fact, as he'll express it in the next chapter, a heart that is open wide. My heart's before the Lord. My heart's before you. This is my heart. This is how I'm motivated. This is what causes me to do what I do. This is what guides my every action. He lays his heart open. Here's the poetic pattern here in verse 13. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. But if we're of sound mind, it's for you. Now, I would suggest to you that if you find that you are beside yourself, you might have a clone. Right? If you find that Vern is beside himself, you might have discovered Nancy's on a trip. Right? Okay.

But that aside from that, to some what Paul said made perfect sense. It was clear. To others what Paul said and the way he said it seemed kind of like, boy, this guy is over the top. He's rather intense. And also sometimes a little hard to grasp, a little tough to understand. Now what is Paul saying here? Paul said in Colossians 129, just after he said, we admonish and we teach every man with all wisdom. And three times he said, every, every, every. This guy's intense, right? He says, for this purpose I labor. That word labor, simple Greek word kapiao, means to labor to exhaustion. striving, that word's agonizomai, related to our word agony.

He's putting forth great athletic effort, okay, for the sake of the gospel, according to his power which mightily works within me. On the outside you look at, man, this guy is working himself to death! This guy is really putting forth great effort. You can see the strain and effort he's putting forth. But does he do that all by his own selfish effort?

No. It is God empowering and energizing within him on the inside that makes it on the outside looking like, boy, that guy is going to wear himself out quick. On the outside, great effort. On the outside, intense expression. On the inside, it's God's working in him.

When Peter writes about his fellow apostle and brother Paul, you have this on page 2 of your handout, I won't read it all, but starting with verse 15, And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort. as they do also the rest of the scripture to their own destruction. So how did many people see Paul's letters?

Hard to understand this guy. Others, they would say, I don't care to understand it, but I love to distort it. Right? Okay. And so there were those that looked at what Paul wrote, and they thought, boy, this guy's a little over the top. Whatever made sense to people, whatever connected and they could understand and say, okay, that's really good. That was for those who could hear and understand it. Whatever was over-the-top intense, whatever was hard to understand, that was for God. And I think we can have a confidence God can deal with what people don't understand. Have you ever had something in your life where you haven't understood it?

And later on, you go, aha, you have one of those aha moments where the light bulb goes on. Hey, by the way, do you ever wonder, did the Apostle Paul have light bulb moments? Before there was electricity? I don't know. Anyway, you think about that. God can deal with people who don't understand, including us. Things that are over the top, things that seem kind of out of bounds, things that make you wonder, God can deal with those things. And over time, he may well answer the question that we're still scratching our head about. Ben and I were scratching our heads about a question this last week. God can deal with that. It's OK. He has the capacity for that.

Here's the poetic pattern in the last couple of verses. The main thing I would like to point out here is these kind of died and live series of words that come out there. Paul alternated between these two themes, dying and living. He finally says here, for the love of Christ, in the passage there, controls or constrains, I would use the word compels.

It's actually, that's what drives us forward. That's the motivator. Our love for Christ is our response to His amazing love for us. Was I a really nice guy when Christ said, you know, you're such a nice guy, I think I'll die for your sins? No. No, I wasn't. It's an amazing love. It's a love for those who are unlovable. It's a love when there's not even the slightest indication that I deserved it. He died for my sins.

We love, 1 John 4.19 puts it real simply, because He first loved us. If we express love as believers, it's because He first loved us. It's His love that motivates us, just like His grace motivates us. The love that is from Christ causes us to love Him in return.

I love Him. Why? Because He first loved me. He didn't come to me and say, Vern, if you love me a lot, I'll actually die for you. But instead, he loved way before I had a chance to do anything like paying him back or earning it. We love because he first loved us unconditionally.

We also love one another because of His love for us. So our motivation to love as a response to Christ's love is both to the Lord Himself and to others. The love of Christ, like grace, is motivating. It's the wind that drives us, if you will. It's a motivating factor. He started off the passage, the fear of the Lord, which we further explain is ultimate respect, ultimate regard for the Lord is motivating and so is our love response to the Lord's love. That also is motivating.

Look here at the pattern of verses in the New Testament starting in John 3.16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

He loved and He gave. God did the loving and He gave His Son. The next three Verses there in Galatians 2 20 the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me So it's not just God giving his son, but it's his son Jesus Christ giving of himself Jesus did not go to the cross kicking and screaming and saying no no this isn't right Stop this you got it all wrong. You're doing something terrible He didn't do that did he? Instead, he gave voluntarily his life for the joy set before him. He voluntarily endured the cross. He loved Tristan so much that he gave his life for Tristan.

I won't do this for the rest of you. Okay. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. There's Galatians 5 too. Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. And later in that same chapter, the passage on marriage, Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Guess what pattern of words you see. Loved and gave, loved and gave, loved and gave, loved and gave, loved and gave. You get the impression that he loved and gave, right? It's almost hard to miss. He loved, not because we deserved it, not because we were oh so nice. It wasn't because we were cute, but he loved and gave himself.

I'll do what we call expanded and explained on this passage in the last couple of verses, verses 14 and 15. I think it helps get the idea across in this particular case. For the love of Christ compels and motivates us since we've already concluded this, that one Christ died voluntarily in the place of all believers as our substitute. Did he die for everyone? Certainly, but specifically most certainly for us who believe.

And since Christ died in our place, and also at the same time all believers died with Christ, having also been identified with Him in death, or as Galatians 2.20 puts it, I have been crucified with Christ. That truth is also in this passage. In verse 15, and He, Christ, died as a substitute for all believers, that they who live, that is, the believers should no longer live for themselves, but rather live for him who died and rose again in their place. We have, as believers then, this motivation of ultimate regard for the Lord.

Does it matter that I eat throughout the day? Yeah. I probably want to get some sleep. Oh, yeah. You know, those things matter. And probably a good idea if you take a shower, you'll especially appreciate that. But of all things, of anything that I consider important, ultimately it's the ultimate respect for the Lord. That's a motivating thing for me. In the end, when life is done, when it's all through, when we're through here, when we're done, we're going to see the Lord.

And that's what will matter. That's what will matter. It won't matter too much that the pastor went on way too long. It won't matter too much that your stomach is growling and it's getting towards lunchtime. But what will matter is that day when we see the Lord face to face.

What will matter is that Lord who paid the price for every single one of us and knows our hearts to the core. is the one that we'll see and be like for eternity. That will matter. For that, we ought to have ultimate respect. And our love response to His love for us, His unfathomable love for us, that ought to matter too.

That ought to be motivating. That ought to be able to motivate us for this day and the next day, the day after that. That's pretty cool. That's pretty amazing. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, what neat things you've revealed through Paul's open heart and through your open heart. We thank you for the motivations, in fact, multiple motivations that you give us. Ultimate regard for you, for the amazing grace, for the infinite mercies, for your love shown to us, that you loved and you gave. We thank you for that, Lord. Thank you immensely. In Jesus' name, Amen.