Reconciled | Sunday, May 2, 2021

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. (Luke 19:10)

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us... For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:8, 10)

We were made for connection with God and one another — and only Christ can reconcile what sin has broken.

Jesus Came on a Reconciliation Mission

I'm rarely shocked by the shifts in our culture, though occasionally I'm surprised. As we continue our focus on connection here at Cross Connection Church, our vision is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. In previous messages I spoke about the purpose of the church and of human beings as God's creation. We were created to be in connection with God, to experience perfect communion with Him. Yet because of the rebellious fall written about in Genesis 3, we are all disconnected from Him.

We desire connection with something transcendent, but in our own strength we cannot achieve the connection we seek. That is why Jesus came. His mission is articulated in a dozen or more purpose statements in Scripture. In Luke 19:10, a theme verse of Luke's gospel, He says, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost." This came from the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector, whom Jesus met in Jericho. When the crowds were upset that He would interact with such a sinful man, Jesus declared His purpose.

Another clear expression of His mission is found in Mark 10:45: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." And in John 10:10 He says, "I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly." Jesus came on a reconnection mission.

Reconciled Through the Blood of Christ

The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that God the Father was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Ultimately, though we want to be connected with God, full reconciliation is not possible apart from Jesus's reconciling work, because our sin creates a gulf we cannot cross by our own strength. Using that same word translated "reconciling," Paul writes in Romans 5 that "when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son."

We are reconciled to God through Jesus. The connection to transcendence that every human being desires is possible — I would say only possible — in Christ, because ultimate connection is not fully realized until we are present with God in eternity. King David wrote 3,000 years ago in Psalm 16:11, "In Your presence is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." That fullness of joy is what we were created for, and it will be experienced when we are at His right hand forever.

Created for Connection With One Another

This connection to transcendence is what we were made for, but it isn't the only thing we desire. At a fundamental level we also desire connection with one another.

In preparation for this message I came across a recent essay published in the New York Times by a young African-American woman named Haley Blasengame. In it she described a recent breakup with her boyfriend of five years and how, during the pandemic shutdowns, she had realized she identifies as what she calls a "solo polyamorous" individual. She doesn't want to be joined to just one person; she cherishes and prioritizes autonomy and preservation of self. A monogamous relationship, for her, is confining.

To a certain segment of our society in 2021, none of that may seem strange. But it surprised me for three reasons.

Three Reasons the "Solo" Sentiment Is Surprising

First, it is surprising juxtaposed against the increasing crisis of loneliness, which has been compounded by the shutdowns. In June 2016 the then-Surgeon General said, "Our greatest public health crisis isn't cancer or heart disease; it's isolation." If isolation was the greatest public health crisis in 2016, it is far worse now after fourteen months of isolation. Just this week I saw a headline on StudyFinds.org: "Two in three Americans feel more alone than ever before, and many admit to crying for the first time in years." The article reported that 67 percent of Americans feel more alone than ever, 55 percent feel they've lost their sense of community over the past year, 54 percent withheld talking about their loneliness because they didn't want to be a burden, and 46 percent admitted they cried for the first time in years during COVID. Haley's essay is strange to me because loneliness is at an all-time high.

Second, her essay is strange because it resonates with a relatively large and growing group of young people. On her Twitter account, where she posted the essay, most of the feedback came from people in their twenties and thirties, and most of it was affirming. One responder wrote, "Freeing yourself from the suffocation of society is a great and worthy challenge... the only way to truly be authentic in existence." Another said, "I love people, I love relationships, but I feel more whole alone." Another wrote, "I loved this. So freeing... it is what I've been looking for without knowing I was looking for it."

Third, this resonates with people, but it is not sustainable for any meaningful period of life. It sounds good to have love without the responsibility of genuine connection, but it won't last. In the end, if you buy into this mindset, you will be among the 67 percent who are alone and lonely. In your twenties and thirties, surrounded by other single friends in a big city, you might feel you could do this indefinitely — but that's not how people are geared. As people move toward what they were created for, they will come to a day when they find themselves isolated and alone. We were made to live life in connection with one another.

"It Is Not Good That Man Should Be Alone"

Go back to Genesis 1. In verse 26, "God said, Let Us make man in Our image and likeness." Verse 27: "So God created man in His own image... male and female He created them." Then verse 28: "God blessed them... and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth." Why would God tell them to multiply? Not so they could live solely autonomous lives, but so they could be connected together as one in community. Within the Trinity there is perfect communion between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and God made us male and female so that we could be joined together.

Genesis 2:18 is a verse worth underlining: "It is not good that man should be alone." God did not create us to live solo, autonomous lives. Immediately after this, in Genesis 2:21–25, God formed woman from the man's rib, and Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh... Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

From one man, Adam, God made two — Adam and Eve — so that the two would be joined together as one. This was His plan from the start. It is an issue of creation, not socialization. Marriage was not instituted by men but by God, for the purpose of perfect communion, and from that communion comes fruitfulness and more community.

A Divided and Lonely World

We all recognize that we are not living lives perfectly connected to one another. We live in close proximity — here at our location we're within ten miles of nearly a million people — but we don't experience genuine communion. We live in the same place as others, yet we are deeply divided, perhaps more than at any time in recent memory. We are divided over religion, over skin color, over socioeconomic status, over politics, and over ideology. Is it any wonder that at such a time of division we are also seeing increased isolation and loneliness?

Yet the aspirational message our culture sells us — through the media, publications, and podcasts that steer culture — is the idea of "solo polyamory": that you can connect with everybody without any real responsibility to anyone.

Where did all this separation come from? The same place as our separation from God. Genesis 2 ends with Adam and Eve "both naked... and they were not ashamed." But in Genesis 3:6, the woman saw the forbidden tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise; she took, ate, and gave to her husband. "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings."

In the beginning they lived in unbroken connection — vulnerable, naked, and unashamed. The moment they sinned, that connection was broken; shame entered, and they tried to cover their own brokenness. That is the first evidence of religion in the Bible: man trying to fix the problem on his own. But it will never be sufficient. Division, separation, isolation, loneliness, and death are all the result of the fall. And what is amazing is that all our efforts to deal with the brokenness only make things worse.

The Path and the Place of Reconciliation

So what is the answer? We turn to Ephesians 2. Beginning at verse 14, Paul describes a separation between groups — Jew and Gentile, the circumcision and the uncircumcision. He reminds the Gentiles that they were once "without Christ... alienated from the commonwealth of Israel... having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation... so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross... Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:14–19)

Jesus is the mediator who reconciles us to God and to one another. The path of reconciliation is the gospel. We just read it in brief: Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, was crucified, His blood shed and His body broken — and through His blood we are reconciled, both to God and to one another.

The place of reconciliation is the church, the body of Christ. We are joined together as one body. Where do we break down the separation between nationalities, skin colors, ideologies, and political parties? In the church. Through the blood of Christ we are reconciled; through the body of Christ we are joined together as one. This is where we begin to experience and express true oneness and unity. As a local church in north San Diego County, this is exactly what we are focused on — life in connection with one another through Jesus.

From Theology to Practice

All of this is the theological basis for our mission: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. I'm a huge fan of practical, applied theology. It isn't enough to know these things in the mind; we must move from orthodoxy — what we believe — to orthopraxy — how we live it out. What does life in connection actually look like?

This won't be comprehensive, but here are a few ways to begin. First, you must accept Jesus — putting your trust in Him as Savior and Lord, receiving His forgiving grace for your sins, and committing by His enabling power to become part of the body, the church. We all recognize we live in a broken world and live broken lives because of sin. We try by our own good works — that's religion — and it will never be sufficient. So Jesus stands in our place and deals with our sins so we can enter into connection with God and one another. You must trust in Him, not in your own efforts.

Practically Connecting With God

How then do we connect with God? First, through the Scriptures, God's Word to us, where we get to know what He is like and what He likes — His nature and His will. We connect with Him through prayer, talking to Him and expecting that He hears and answers; here at Cross Connection we see answered prayer all the time. We connect with Him through worship, singing songs of praise as a body. We connect with Him through communion — the bread that symbolizes His body broken for us and the cup that reminds us of His blood shed for us. We connect through baptism, which we'll talk more about as we have a baptism planned in June.

We also connect with God through sacrificial serving, giving of ourselves within the church and in our outreaches, and through giving financially. It is a pattern in my life that my wife and I give of the first fruits of all our income, sacrificially. These are all very practical ways we connect with God.

Practically Connecting With One Another

How do we practically connect with others? One way is what the Bible calls fellowship — koinonia — living in community with one another. We experience it when we gather on a Sunday morning, when we serve together on a service or outreach team, and especially through our connect groups, home groups that meet throughout the month and across our county. There we share a meal, encourage one another, hear about each other's lives, serve one another, and pray together. You can learn more at lifeinconnection.com.

We also connect with one another through serving each other, through worshiping God together in community, and through praying with and for one another. And we connect when we care for one another. There are dozens of "one another" verses in the Bible — probably more than fifty — that say: love one another, care for one another, bear one another's burdens, forgive one another, share with one another. Our aim as a church is to learn more and more what it looks like to actually live out the "one anothers" of Scripture.

We aim to experience, express, and extend this life in connection in all that we do. That final word — extend — is what we'll talk about next time. Our vision is life in connection with God, with one another, and with the world: extending the good news that we can be reconciled to God and one another, sharing it with our family, our coworkers, and our neighbors. This is what Jesus commissioned His followers to do at the end of the gospels — to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. So join us next time as we talk about life in connection with the world.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would take the truths of Your Word and cause them to go deep into our hearts, that like a seed they would take root and grow up and produce fruit in our lives. I pray for those watching who already have a relationship with You, that You would produce in their lives the evidence of Your Spirit — love, joy, peace, kindness, self-control, gentleness, all the good things described in Galatians 5.

And I pray for anyone watching who has not yet put their trust in You. Draw them by Your Spirit to pray and ask You to come into their life, to forgive them of their sin, trusting not in their own good works but in Your saving grace and forgiveness. Begin a work of grace in their life.

I know there are people watching right now who feel isolated and alone. Draw near to them by Your Spirit, that they would recognize Your presence, and bring them into a place of connecting with You through Your Word, prayer, and worship — and with others through fellowship and care. We thank You for the ability to minister Your truth even at a distance. Encourage those who feel alone, and bless them. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

And now may the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.