reconcile_02

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)

Now then, we are ambassadors of Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:20–21)

We have the very thing this world is desperately seeking—so why would we hide it from the very people who need it most?

Missionaries to Our Own Culture

At the end of 2008 we began a journey through the book of Acts that may very well take us through the second coming of Christ. Here we are in the middle of 2012 and we're not even to the middle of the book yet, because we're going through the epistles chronologically alongside Acts. Acts is a history book covering the first thirty years of the church's ministry, and during that time the letters that make up most of the New Testament were written.

As we've gone through this study, I have been personally challenged—and I have been challenging our church—that it is our call to be missionaries to our own culture. Through James, Galatians, Thessalonians, and 1 Corinthians I have exhorted us to be aware that it is our role in Christ to be ambassadors of God wherever He takes us. Even living in the culture we grew up in, we are ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven.

This conviction stands as the primary reason for our name change this year. We changed from Calvary Chapel of Escondido—we're still part of the Calvary Chapel movement—to Cross Connection Escondido. We are a people connected to God through the cross of Christ, and we see it as our mission to bring lost people into connection with God through the cross. Wherever we meet them—a boardroom, a classroom, a baseball field, a construction site, the grocery store, the gas station, or down on Grand Avenue—we are servants of Christ and ministers of the gospel.

All Sin Is Sin

Last week I used the topic of marriage and the LGBT community to illustrate something. The message wasn't about homosexual marriage; that wasn't the focus. The point was that all sin is sin, that sin causes the loss of community with one another and the loss of communion with God. This is what people are seeking for—genuine, sincere community with one another and communion with their Father in heaven. We Christians have the very thing this world is looking for: the word, the message whereby man, lost in sin, can be reconciled to community and communion with our Father.

Homosexual behavior is a symptom of the separation that results from sin. It's just one of the many sinful symptoms of that separation. Only Christ deals with the sinful root, and only He is able to deal with the visible fruit that springs from sin. We look to Him as the one who transforms us. How many of you see a transformation in your own life since you put your faith in Jesus Christ? We're all sinners; we've all been transformed by the grace of Christ.

As I expected, I received a lot of correspondence, and I spent most of last week responding to it. Some wondered why even bring up the topic of homosexuality. From the perspective of many in the evangelical church—and we would be an evangelical church—the homosexual community is perhaps the most dreaded and avoided demographic of our society. They are the lepers of our day. They're seen as unnatural, unclean; many in the church consider them anathema. And that is the very kind of people God is seeking to restore to right relationship with Him. They are despised and rejected, acquainted with sorrow and grief, and in desperate need of the gospel.

"Estranged from a Father He Longed For"

The clearest evidence of this came in last week's Newsweek. You probably saw the provocative cover: our president with a rainbow halo and the title "The First Gay President." The article was written by Andrew Sullivan, a conservative blogger who is himself a homosexual. Many of us saw it on the news, but probably few read it. I did, and one paragraph near the end illustrates my point perfectly. Speaking of the president, it says:

Barack Obama had to come out of a different closet. He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family. The America he grew up in had no space for a boy like him: black yet enveloped by loving whiteness, estranged from a father he longed for (another common gay experience).

"Estranged from a father he longed for—another common gay experience." That highlights it perfectly. Here is a group of people who are lost, clearly in sin if they're living in homosexual behavior, and longing for restoration with a father they've been estranged from. This is what humanity is seeking.

Now, I'm not preaching this to get us to start a ministry to the homosexual community—though that wouldn't be a bad thing. I'm saying it so we recognize that within thirty minutes of this building there are hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of salvation, longing for the restoration of that strained relationship between them and their heavenly Father. They are estranged from Him because of sin, just as we who sit here today were once estranged from Him because of our sin. I'm not asking us to change our opinion on the sinfulness of homosexuality; it is clearly identified in Scripture as sin. But these people are sinners just like every other sinner in the world—just like every one of us—and sinners need salvation.

Sent Into the World, Not Away From It

There are seven billion people on the planet, and the great majority are estranged from their Father in heaven because of the stain of sin. This is why we send missionaries to Mozambique, to China, all over the world—to seek and save the lost. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," Paul said in 1 Timothy, "of whom I am chief." It is not until a person recognizes his own sinfulness that he even puts his faith in Christ.

But we must see that we don't only send missionaries to the uttermost parts. Right here in Escondido, Valley Center, San Marcos, Rancho Bernardo, Fallbrook, and Bonsall, there are sinners all around us, and we are missionaries to them. Our mission as ambassadors is to connect the lost with the cross, not separate ourselves from them. If God wanted us completely divided from sinners, never coming in contact with them, He might as well just take us home. But He's left us in this world—we are not of it, but we are in it—to bring people into connection with Him so they might be reconciled.

The Incarnation as Our Model

This is what we call incarnational ministry. Does that word ring a bell? In John 1 we read that the Word who was with God and was God, by whom all things were made, was the light shining in darkness. He came to His own, and His own received Him not; but to as many as received Him He gave power to become the sons of God. Then verse 14: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." This is the great event we call the incarnation, where God in heaven became a man to dwell in the midst of sinful people.

We see it again in Philippians 2. Paul tells us to have the same mind as Christ, who, "being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant... and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

A couple of weeks ago our guest speaker Jeff Johnson said at least three times: "We need to move into the neighborhood, learn the language, learn the culture, and introduce them to Jesus." In his context he was talking about ministry to Muslims—in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Liberia, all over the world. That's another segment of society many people fear. So you have these two groups people are fearful of, and both are sinners in desperate need of salvation, longing to be restored to the God who created them.

We have an awesome example in our Lord: God became man to dwell in the midst of sinful humans to introduce them to the Father. This is the incarnation, and He calls us to be incarnational in the way we live and minister.

Made Righteous to Carry the Word of Reconciliation

Every one of us is called to this ambassadorship. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." God has reconciled us to Himself by Christ and "hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation... and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

How many of you who have put your faith in Christ were righteous before you were a Christian? None of us. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So how many of you Christians here today are righteous? Your hand should be up. Now let me ask—how many will admit you fell short of God's glory and sinned this last week? Good; I'm not alone. We are still sinners, and yet God has made us righteous in Christ. Ephesians promises He will present us blameless before Himself in the age to come.

So incarnational ministry looks like this: God became a man, moved into the neighborhood, learned the language and culture, and introduced us to our Father, restoring us to God through the cross. And He's left us here to move into the neighborhood, learn the language and culture, and introduce people to God—to bring them into connection with the cross and let them experience Christ-honoring community.

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

What does this look like practically? Consider a story from the Gospels. Jesus had been in Jerusalem causing quite a stir. He went into the temple and forced out those buying and selling, because a kind of swap meet was going on in the temple courts. People had to exchange their Roman money for temple shekels at a gouging rate, and merchants sold "certified" sheep and goats at four times the price. This displeased God, as Jesus showed when He overturned the money changers' tables.

Shortly after, one of the most respected religious leaders, Nicodemus, came to Jesus by night, and out of that famous conversation came one of the most translated verses in the Bible: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." After that, Jesus went into the Judean wilderness preaching and baptizing as His fame spread. Then He departed for Galilee, and He had to go through Samaria.

So he cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar... Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink... (John 4:5–7)

She replied, "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Jesus answered, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." He goes on: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." When she asked for it, He said, "Go, call thy husband." She answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said, "Thou hast well said... for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." And she said, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet."

Six Strikes Against Her—and Jesus Still Came

Consider what we know about this woman. First, she's a woman, and in the first-century Middle Eastern world women were not highly esteemed—two thousand years later, very little has changed there. Second, she's a Samaritan. The Jews despised and hated Samaritans. The Samaritans arose about 700 years before Christ when the Assyrians conquered Israel and practiced ethnic cleansing—mingling conquered peoples together. The resulting group, around 721 BC, became the Samaritans. Their land lay between Judea and Galilee, and devout Jews would cross the Jordan and go around it so the very dust of Samaria would not touch them. "Samaritan" became a derogatory term; in John 8:48 they accused Jesus, "Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil." Does that remind you of any group today?

Third, she was divorced—in that culture, strike three. It was nearly impossible for a woman to divorce her husband, so she had likely been divorced, and five times. She was an outcast, shown by her coming alone at noon when other women came together in the morning. Fourth, she was a liar—she told Jesus she had no husband, and He knew it. Yet He didn't simply out her; He commended her: "Thou hast well spoken." Fifth, she was an adulterer—a woman divorced and remarried multiple times was considered such. And sixth, she was a fornicator, currently living with a man who was not her husband.

She practically told Jesus, "You're not supposed to talk to me—Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." She knew she was a sinner and an outcast. Are there outcasts in our society like her? Have people ever said to you, "You're a Christian—you're not supposed to have anything to do with me"? Yet Jesus reached out to this woman, and to people just like her throughout the Gospels—so much so that the religious leaders accused Him of being a sinner: "a winebibber, a glutton, a friend of sinners." That was no commendation in their mouths. Yet He was sinless—tempted in all points like us yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), who knew no sin yet became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Speaking to Her Dissatisfaction and Her Desire

Fully God and completely sinless, Jesus became a man to dwell amidst sinners and restore them to their Father. We Christians are children of God by grace through faith, future citizens of heaven. Why are we still in this world? To restore sinners to their heavenly Father, to bring them into connection with the cross.

How did Jesus do that here? Look at verses 13–14: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." Jesus knew He had the very thing this woman was seeking at the deepest level, because He is Creator God. She thought she came to the well only for physical water, but there was a greater thirst within her. Up to that point she had tried to quench it with human relationships—five husbands and a soon sixth—and nothing satisfied. So Jesus spoke to her dissatisfaction and to her desire: "If you drink the water I give, you will never thirst, and it will spring up unto everlasting life."

It is our mission as ambassadors of Christ to incarnate the grace and love of God among the lost—to seek out those who can't get satisfaction, who still haven't found what they're looking for, and to reveal to them the only source of true satisfaction, found in Christ alone. We have what this world longs for, and yet we could be found guilty of hiding that light under a bush, trying to separate ourselves from anyone we consider sinful—when we ourselves are all sinful. We are sinners saved by grace, given living water that satisfies at the deepest core.

Lights in the World, Not a Moat Around the Church

Sinners continue in sin hoping it will quench the deep thirst of the soul, but nothing in this world satisfies. Sin causes loss of community with one another, as we saw last week in Genesis 3, and it separates us from God: "your iniquities have separated between you and your God" (Isaiah 59:2). We believers have been reconciled to God through the cross, and He has given us the word and ministry of reconciliation—the very thing all humanity is desperately seeking.

Our mission is to connect with the lost, not separate from them. We are to live life together as the body of Christ in this world—not to take a defensive posture, armed to the teeth, ready to nail every sinner who walks through the door, digging the trench deeper and filling it with a moat: "Stay away, sinners—we've got the freshly sharpened sword of the Spirit." The Bible says it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16). Does the all-powerful, all-knowing Holy Spirit need our help? John 5 says Jesus is the one who judges sin, not us.

Don't misunderstand me—I'm not saying we never use the word of God to bring conviction. We do, most certainly, especially to the proud, self-righteous person who fails to see his sin. Jesus spent more time with harlots, tax collectors, and sinners than with the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and chief priests who thought themselves blameless. When a sinful woman came weeping and anointed Jesus' feet, the Pharisee thought, "If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is"—because in their minds, a sinner's touch made you unclean.

A Debtor to Preach the Gospel

How many of us, if honest, will admit a similar mindset—looking at someone and saying, "Your very presence makes me sick"? Remember those WWJD bracelets of the 1990s? It's worth asking why Jesus spent so much time with sinful people. His answer to the Pharisees: "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick." He did not come to call the righteous. There is no one righteous, but some were so self-righteous they could not see their sin, while harlots, tax collectors, and sinners knew very well they were lost. Sinners need salvation; they are in desperate need of what we have, and it is a sin to withhold it.

Paul says in Romans 1, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians"—I am in debt to preach the gospel. Far be it from me to preach not the gospel. Proverbs 3:27 says, "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it." So we are challenged to be in this world but not of it. When a person who calls himself a believer lives in open, unrepentant sin, Scripture says do not associate with such a one who calls himself a brother—there is an area of separation. But throughout the Scriptures we are told to be in the world and not of it, lights that we do not hide under a bush or let Satan blow out.

Next week we'll look at Peter's words in 1 Peter 2: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood... a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." You were not a people, but now are the people of God; you had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. We are in this world to expose darkness with light. Father, work this in us.

Closing Prayer

Father, we pray that You would challenge us. Lord, enable us to live incarnationally, to carry the good news of Your grace to those who so desperately need it. I thank You that every single one of us who admitted today that we are sinners, who lived formerly in sin—someone brought the gospel to us. Challenge us to bring the gospel to those who are lost in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, throughout our community, wherever we may go. Shine through us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.