A New Creation - 2 Cor 5

Christ, triumphant, ever reigning, Savior, Master, King, Lord of heaven, all life sustaining, Here is as we sing, Yours the glory and the crown, The higher name of the eternal name. Verdict now this truth revealing, Son of man on earth, God and majesty concealing, By your humble birth, Yours the glory and the crown, The higher name of the eternal name. Servant, servant, soldier, treater, Victim, prince, divine, Tennis, thriller, prostitute, Singer, star, divine, Yours the glory and the crown, The higher name of the eternal name.

Priest, leading, in triumph forever, High in heaven above, Sinner, death, and illusionary, Tribal kings of love, Yours the glory and the crown, The higher name of the eternal name. So our hearts and voices raising, Worthy angels all, Ceaselessly upon you praising, This shall be our song, Yours the glory and the crown, The higher name of the eternal name. A star, a greatness to adore for all, His work is perfect and all his ways are just, A star, a greatness to adore for all, His work is perfect and all his ways are just, A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Good and upright is he, A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Good and upright is he, A star, a greatness to adore for all, His work is perfect and all his ways are just, A star, a greatness to adore for all, His work is perfect and all his ways are just, A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Good and upright is he, A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Good and upright is he, Thank you for saving me, What can I say? You are my everything, I will sing your praise, You shed your blood for me, What can I say? You took my sin and changed the sin I called my name, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, For we know your truth has set us free, You set your hope in me, Mercy and grace are mine, Forgiveness is my sin, Jesus, my only one, The Savior of the world, Great is the Lord we cry, God bless your kingdom come, Your word as word we see, Thank you for saving me, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, For we know your truth has set us free, You set your hope in me, Thank you for saving me, What can I say? Do be seated.

Second Corinthians in chapter 5. We'll look at one or two verses from the 16th through to the 18th. As we try to set up the scene for moving from coming around the word of the Lord to the table of the Lord. There were a couple of caterpillars one day and as those of you who are into animal rights know, they talked to one another.

You get this sort of conviction as you get older and more dotty. And they were speaking in a philosophical fashion and a butterfly came around and one of the caterpillars said to the other, you'll never get me in one of those. About 26 years ago, I think it was, I had a new car and I can still remember the experience.

It smelt new. It was gleaming. And driving it well, I felt like a million dollars.

It was a Morris Thousand Traveler and had I retained it then, because as you see, I'm an antique, that also would have been on the current market value, I think I'd probably have made quite a mint of money. One or two Christmases ago, somebody gave me a present. It's quite an unusual present and it was a voucher which I redeemed by taking my present car to some outfit here in Worthing and they spruced it up.

And when they had finished, it was returned to me. And when I got inside, it smelt just like that new car that I recall from years ago. It looked clean.

It shone. And in the back of my ten-year-old vehicle was a notice that had been stuck on the inside of the rear window. This car has been gleam-cleaned.

Now, John Kennard would know that though it looked new, it wasn't new. If you had got inside and you're not a connoisseur in the things of cars, then you might have been fooled. But it still has 90,000 miles or something like that on the clock.

And it does need to have a bit of a rear upholstery as far as the driving seat is concerned. And it wouldn't hurt if the rear fender had the bump knocked out that a lady... Well, I'm sorry, but it was a lady. My text says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

It doesn't say that he's been dry-cleaned, spring-cleaned, or gleam-cleaned. What it says is if you make a commitment to the Lord Jesus, a mind-boggling thing occurs, which should shock you to the same degree as that apocryphal story of one caterpillar saying to the other, I could never become so delicate or airborne as a butterfly. Because the essentials of the Christian gospel state this, or these things, that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he enters into your life as he shows an interest in you, can completely transform you.

So that what used to be is now no longer. And what now is, is only explicable because of what God has done. So in this 16th verse of 2 Corinthians 5, you find this mighty apostle Paul telling us in an unusually autobiographical fashion as to how he used to look upon things, what the world was like.

David Frost, years ago, had a program called, That was the week that was. Here is the world that was. Before I was made new.

Before I moved from being as a slug, as an insect, on a lettuce leaf, so to speak, and moved into the experience of being a son of God. So from now on, as a result of being a Christian, we regard no one from a worldly point of view, though we once regarded Christ in this way. What does it mean? You have to think a little because it's not obvious on first hearing.

What does Paul, this man who rarely speaks about himself, what does he mean when he says that now, having become a Christian, I no longer regard people and things from a worldly point of view? Well, when you become a Christian, distinctions which used to exist in the world in which you found yourself are no longer relevant. The apostle talks about in Christ Jesus there's no longer slave, there's no longer free, there's no longer rich, there's no longer poor, and there's a sense in which there's no longer woman and there's no longer man because in Christ Jesus all those old distinctions have gone away. And when you think in terms of those social, almost Marxist categories, then you are indicating that you haven't understood a great deal about Christianity.

So says the apostle, no, that's how I used to think. But now I become a Christian, I realize that the important thing, that the only distinguishing factors that there are within humanity is those who believe and those who don't believe. Either you're in Christ or you're outside of Christ, either you're a Christian or a non-Christian.

Indeed, the apostle is more daring. He says, once we regarded Christ in this way. What does he mean by that? I mean, how can you regard Christ from a worldly point of view? I mean, bless my soul, this seems so strange.

Paul seems to have taken leave of his senses, but not so. The man is inspired. What does he mean? What could it be about Christ, knowledge of him, that would not benefit you at all in time nor on into eternity? How can you know Christ simply from a worldly point of view? Well, let's talk about the disciples for a moment.

Pre-Pentecost, what were they like? Well, they were a group of 12 men, one who would turn out to be a villain, the dud of the collection. But even the other 11, when you listen to them, you don't discover that they have changed very much in their character, do you? I mean, there they are just before Jesus is about to die and they're squabbling like kids in a playground. They completely misunderstand a lot of his teaching.

Their one boast could be, well, we knew Jesus, but simply knowledge of Jesus at the level that it was at during the time that they were his disciples would not have been sufficient for their salvation. Let's have another run at it. Let's think from the perspective of this man who writes this epistle.

Paul, Saul as he used to be known. The suggestion is, and I think it's reasonable, that actually he knew Jesus before the time when on the Damascus Road he was unhorsed and he made that remarkable confession and he moved into the deserts of Arabia and he was trained by the Holy Spirit and eventually he's enabled to be this extraordinary missionary and ambassador. But I'm suggesting to you that as he was a member of the school of Gamaliel, that's one of the top theological colleges in Jerusalem, and as he did his studies during the time that Jesus was engaged in his public ministry, it's more than not reasonable to assume that he did know a little of Jesus.

Maybe he'd heard him speak. Maybe it was by proxy. But although he knew Jesus perhaps at this level, from a worldly point of view it really was no benefit to him eternally.

You can read the gospels, you can come here Sunday by Sunday, you can listen to Tim Saunders or some of the preachers that we bring into this pulpit and you can follow through what they're saying. And if it's just an academic thing, if he was just instructing you regarding the historicity of Jesus and his ethics and so on and so forth, you know he might say just from a worldly point of view. It doesn't affect you.

You're still like the caterpillar on the lettuce leaf. You're still, if you like masquerading or perhaps if you claim yourself to be a Christian like I could masquerade that my car's new whereas it's not, it's ten years old. You see, here is the Apostle Paul and he's talking about how I used to be.

I used to regard people from a worldly point of view. Once I regarded Christ in this way, I do so no longer. You say you still haven't understood? Well, let me give you this illustration.

Here's our beloved Lord, you read of him in Matthew's gospel and he's been preaching. It's been a long day and his mother comes to see him and his brothers because with great respect our Catholic friends are wrong. Jesus had brothers.

Mary was a virgin at the time of the conception but she didn't remain so. She became legally the wife of Joseph and she bore more children. And Jesus' brothers and sisters, they come along with his mother and there's a big crowd and the disciples spot them and they say to Jesus, don't you know that your mother's there? Your brothers, they want to hear from you.

And Jesus said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? Those categories are no longer important to Jesus. He turns to his disciples and he says, you are as my brothers. You are as my family.

Because once you move from life as it used to be without knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and you enter into a relationship with him, then those old distinctions have passed away. And our Lord sets the scene with this personal family illustration of what Paul here is trying to underline. If anyone is in Christ, you see this is what it means.

Mary and his natural brothers at one level, they were not in him. They were not his followers at that point. They became so, thank God.

The Apostle Paul became so, thank God. And at the point of becoming Christians, then they were changed. That was the world that was.

This is the world that is. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. And now, of course, the Apostle knows a thing or two about creation.

After all, he's a Pharisee who had known the first five books of the Old Testament off by heart. And in the opening chapter of Genesis, references made to the creation as it fell fresh from the hand of God. In the beginning, God created.

Created what? Created the heavens and the earth. This world didn't just come as a fluke of an evolutionary process. You need greater faith than the faith that is required to trust in God to go along with that.

It's a hypothesis. It is illogical. It is unscientific.

It is utter nonsense. What it caused the infinite God to do in the first instance, bringing this world into existence, it would cause that same, it would require that same infinite God to do in the second instance. In other words, to bring you into a relationship with himself, which had been forfeited because of your sin.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The whole transforming experience of salvation is as a result of God moving into your life and bringing you from the old world and from out of those false categories into this new relationship with him and into this marvelous organism, his body, otherwise known as his church. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

And actually, the Greek would give you the opportunity to translate this slightly differently, at least as far as the punctuation is concerned. Instead of, therefore, behold, instead of a comma, an exclamation, behold a new creation. Here is Peter.

The day of Pentecost, he's speaking. He's not a man who's given to speech. He's not an educated man.

He's a businessman. In terms of running a successful fishing industry on the seashore of Galilee, but he's not a natural orator. At least that seems to be the case.

And yet, he's doing so well. How do you understand it? Here is Peter who flunks it when Jesus has been arrested. And Peter finds himself in the high priest's palace, in the courtyard there.

And he's accused of being an associate of Jesus. He's so filled with fear. He runs away, joins the rest of those disciples who fled like frightened rabbits.

But now watch it. He's preaching. And with what authority he preaches.

And it's not just a one-off. Turn over the chapters, the third chapter, the fourth chapter. You find him and his colleagues.

They're preaching. They are taking on the challenge that Jesus left with them. They are running with the baton.

And in the same manner as which Jesus taught, and with that same degree of courage, they too are teaching and fighting, so to speak, for the cause of the gospel. And I say, how do you explain it? Behold, a new creation. He's different, you see.

Here is Paul. He was just a religious bigot. He knew Christ, possibly after the flesh, but now he's completely different.

He's been saved. He's known the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And as he moves around Asia Minor, planting churches, behold, a new creation.

Ah, but don't just stay in the first century. Come to the 20th century. I look around this audience this evening.

And I look at one, and I look at another, and I remember what you were like. I remember some of you when you first came to this place. I remember some of you tell your testimony in terms of how you were saved, not here but elsewhere.

It doesn't really matter. But you said, this is what I was like. Now this is where I am.

This is what I believed. This is now what I believed. This is what I lived for.

This is now what I live for. Behold, a new creation. How do you explain it? How do you explain this man who was so dedicated just to advancing himself professionally, just to making a few bucks? How do you explain this person who was loose in their morality and so on and so forth, and now they're trying to live a clean and a wholesome life? Behold, a new creation.

This is what they were like. But this is what they have become. And the reason? Well, the old has gone.

That, in the original language, is a decisive action. The moment they trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, all the sins, all the rubbish of the past went. Just like the guillotine chopping with its blade, so the blade of the Holy Spirit chops off all those old sins.

No longer are they called, will they call us to book to answer for because Jesus has shed his blood on our behalf. The old has gone. The new has come.

This new way of life, the verb here is perfect, and there is a sense in which the perfect act then continues. The new, redemption, regeneration, being completely transformed, that has come. And in the sight of God, he sees me as he sees his Son, perfectly sinless.

Now, be careful. You're not sinless, but he judges you as though you were sinless. You're moving as you make your way through life, year after year, decade after decade, following him.

Sometimes you're strong, sometimes you're weak, sometimes you're successful, sometimes you fall, but thank God he sees you. As a man, as a woman, as a young person, of whom it can be said the old has gone and the new, the new life has come. And how do you explain this? Well, verse 18, all this is from God.

You see, there is no other explanation. If God had not moved towards you, if God had not moved towards me, of all people, we would be most miserable. But this God has moved.

He's moved in the person of his Son. The Sunday school teacher who tells the story of Calvary and gives the impression to the child that Jesus Christ died to make God love us, should just be put out to grace for six months and to learn their theology accurately. Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary because God loved us.

God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself. A father feels, a good father. Not all of you are so fortunate, I was.

He felt for his sons. And this father of our Lord Jesus feels for his son as he climbs that hill and he holds that cruel cross and as he bears the burden of your sin, my sin. All this is from God who at enormous cost reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Thank God for Steve Chalk. Do you know him? Remarkable young man. I remember being in his company some time ago in Germany.

He's on television again this evening so I understand his program will just be about through. And if ever a man can explain as well as Cliff Richard, can the gospel of reconciliation. It's Chalk.

And it's this opportunity that these men who have access to the media have served the church so well in doing in these days. What are they doing? Well, they are telling that this reconciliation, this reconciling gospel which has had such an effect on their lives must be communicated to others. And gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

So that we do what? So that verse 20, we implore men and women on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. You remember in the story of the prodigal son how there were two lads who were distant from their father emotionally. And in terms of understanding where he was at.

Not just the younger boy but the older boy. When the younger son comes back after squandering his father's wealth. And as he receives his father's gracious forgiveness a party is thrown.

And the older son comes in from the fields. He asks the servant what's going on. And the servant is joyful and he says it's wonderful.

Your brother's back and your dad is throwing a party. Isn't it nice? Come along. And the news went up like a lead balloon.

Far from nice as far as he was concerned. It was a waste of money. Far from being kind.

The old man had got past it. He'd gone weak in his mind. And you remember how he refuses to go into the banquet in which there is a party celebrating the reconciliation of his younger brother to the father.

Now what happens? The father for the second time having gone out of his home to greet the pig smelling younger son. Now goes out the second time to implore the older boy to come in. Exactly the same word as the apostle Paul here uses when he talks about in the authorized version beseeching.

The father beseeching his older boy to come into the family and to be reconciled to his younger brother as well as to identify himself with the loving heart of his dad. Now don't you see my brothers and sisters? It's this God who elevates you to the degree that to talk in terms of a caterpillar and a butterfly is almost an immature illustration. It's this God who does not spring clean you, glean clean you or dry clean you but changes you.

That asks you then to go out and to communicate to others as persuasively as you can the gospel that has had such an effect on you. In a moment or two we come around this table and we do so thanking God that the world that was and the life that we used to live is now no longer so many of us here. The life that we now live and the experience that we enjoy is because of God's reconciling grace.

We want to give him all the honor. We want to give him all the praise. We're going to thoughtfully prepare for our time around this table as we sing that great historic old hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died.

We'll sing all these verses and then go on to another old song which I'll introduce in a moment or two. And as we sing each of these stanzas, let's sing them meaningfully, thoughtfully and making again a commitment to our beloved Lord. We'll stand and sing and my brothers will help us as we arrange the furniture a little out the front and prepare for the distribution of the emblems.

755 Mission Praise. See how his head, his hands, his feet, so low and low, lowly, low down. He cares for me.

Oh, thoughts of love. So relational. Oh, prayer of nature.

Oh, so amazing. So holy. So he doesn't dry clean.

He doesn't spring clean. No, he doesn't even gleam clean. He makes you new.

Not because you deserve it, but because he desires it. Not because of what you have done. The only contribution you made to salvation was your sin.

But because of his love and his grace. So let's thankfully and carefully follow the prayers of our brothers as they remind us in sequence of the purpose behind the bread and the reason behind the wine. The Apostle Paul in his letter to Colossians wrote these words.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth and the reality of your word. For we were once separated from you by our sin. Lord, we thank you that we too have been redeemed by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ through his death on the cross.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you loved us so much that you bore all of our sin that we might be presented to God the Father as holy, free from sin and without accusation. And so we look to your glorious resurrection and we praise you that we serve the risen Christ and the living God by the power of your Holy Spirit. And so we humbly accept this bread, which we recognize is your broken body, which was broken for us.

We thank you, Lord, for what you've done for us. In the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, the bread which we break, is it not our communion in the body of Christ? So let's eat it with thankfulness of heart. I am redeemed. Yes, I am.

By the blood of the Lamb. Jesus Christ has done it for me. I am his.

He is mine. I'm the part of the royal vine. All my sins were washed away at Calvary.

Once I was lost. I had nowhere to go. My life was just a lonely round of sin.

Till Jesus said to me, by my blood shed on the tree, I've paid the price. Brought you back. You're mine.

Oh, what a friend. Dear Heavenly Father, we just come here tonight in recognition we take this wine, Lord, of the blood which you shed for us on that tree. We're so grateful, Lord, that we can come weekly here at the tab to remember the deeds that you did for us so long ago.

That we might be able to worship together and to know that we have life with you. And we just ask, Lord, that your love will continue to flow through us. We ask this in your name.

Amen. So let's stand in the presence of the King as we remember the second part of this communion which speaks of the taking of the Passover cup. There were several cups, and our Lord elected to take the last one.

Because his death on the cross, though rapid compared with some, was nonetheless something that was to endure. It was to take hours for him to endure. And we're grateful for the bravery as he coped with the horror of that darkness.

When God the mighty Maker died for man the creature's sin. The cup which we bless, is it not our communion in the blood of Christ? Then let us with thankfulness of heart drink of it. He loved me and gave himself for me.

The Lamb of God, slain as it were before the foundation of the world. His blood satisfying the law of righteousness to bring absolution for those who lived before him in time on this earth. And all of us who live after him.

All hail the one enthroned on high. His name shall be the Lamb of God. He reigns victorious.

His name is Jesus. He is the Lord. All hail the Lamb enthroned on high.

He reigns victorious. His name is Jesus. He is the Lord.

And because of that we can sing. I am a new creation. No more in condemnation.

Here in the grace of God I stand. My heart is overflowing. My love just keeps on growing.

Here in the grace of God I stand. I am a new creation. No more in condemnation.

Here in the grace of God I stand. My heart is overflowing. My love just keeps on growing.

Here in the grace of God I stand. And I will praise you Lord. Yes, I will praise you Lord.

And I will sing for you alone. The joy that knows no end. The light that's in my spirit.

Here in the grace of God I stand. I am a new creation. Here in the grace of God I stand.

Here in the grace of God I stand. And I will praise you Lord. Yes, I will praise you Lord.

And I will sing for you alone. The joy that knows no end. The light that's in my spirit.

Here in the grace of God I stand.