March 10, 2013
Rev. Philip D.
Eberhart
As I began to read
and pray through the readings for this morning, I was arrested by the first
phrase in our Epistle reading:
From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view;
Someone might ask,
“What other point of view is there?” And
that is what I want to explore with you this morning.
We are about midway
through the season of Lent this Sunday.
Two weeks to Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday and three weeks to Easter.
We are engaged in a
look inward during this season, at our thoughts and our habits of mind and
body, at ‘things done and left undone in thought, word and deed.'
We are encouraged to
ask the hard questions of ourselves during this season; to do the examination
of our motives, our intentions – to allow the Word of God to do its work in us
“piercing to the distinction between thought and motive, desire and intention,
bone and marrow.”
God wants to do a
deep work in us and this season is our remembrance of that fact. But God is working that work of transformation
at all times and one of the areas that God wants to transform is the way we
“see.”
Jesus opened blind
eyes while here on this earth, but the ministry he pointed to in his job
description in Luke 4:18 from Isa 61
points to more than only physical blindness that Jesus was dealing with. Repeatedly Jesus speaks of both a physical
blindness and a hardness of heart in the same breath. Paul even conflates the two in his Apostolic
prayer for the church in Ephesus:
I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be opened.
I think it’s really
interesting that for Paul, the first evidence of his encounter with the living
Jesus, was actual physical blindness. A
kind of reversal of what many encountered when they met Jesus for the first
time! He had to sit in the darkness for
some time before Ananias came to baptize him and to pray for him for his
healing. Paul came face to face with his
own blindness when He met Jesus and received his sight back at the hands of the
living Jesus, moving through the Body of Christ.
It’s on that thought
I want to dwell for a bit this morning as we think about what Paul is talking
about here in this second Corinthian letter.
From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view;
Just what is our
human point of view?
Well, first of all
our viewpoint is earthly – earth ‘bound.
We see people as
flesh and blood: we see sexually, we see racially, we see politically these
days, more and more. Where there is no
spiritual light in a person there is only darkness. There are vivid descriptions of those who are
both IN the world and who are OF the world in Scripture.
Paul in Galatians 5
talks about the works of the flesh vs. the fruit of the Spirit –
Peter talks about
those who “indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority,
daring, self-willed … reviling where they have no knowledge … suffering wrong
as the wages of doing wrong… eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin.”
John is clear in his
first letter: (2:11) “But
the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and
does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
It is clear that our
purely earthbound view of people is fraught with harm, and that we need the light
of the Gospel of Christ to give us a different viewpoint from which to see
people. In the chapter just before our
reading this morning, 2 Cor 4, Paul makes the case for such a blindness and
what he calls “the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
My point here is not
that we need to see people as sinners and convey on them the judgments
prescribed by God – that is God’s business; it’s above our pay grade
friends! My point here is that we need
to see this kind of darkness in ourselves, as we seek God for His light in our
own lives and in our view of those who are around us in the world.
We need the prayer of
Paul to be in full effect in our lives:
“…that the eyes of your hearts may be
enlightened, that you may know the hope of His calling to you; the riches of
the glory of His inheritance in the saints; and the surpassing greatness of His
power toward us who believe.”
The second way in
which our viewpoint suffers is that it is time-bound!
We do not, most days
and in most ways, have or take an eternal view of things or of people. It is easy for us to value things and use
people, rather than the reverse, which is God’s way – to use things and value
people.
When we begin to see,
with the eyes of heaven that Paul prays for we see with eyes of hope. When we let ourselves be earthly and
time-bound our hope often gets crushed.
This is one of Paul’s big three:
“Faith, Hope and Love, these three remain!...” It is a sign of love for others when we “hope
all things” for them, but that loving, bearing, enduring hope is what gets
crushed when we let our eyes fall from a heavenly vision of people to an
earthly vision.
With the eyes of
heaven we see the riches of the inheritance that God has in the saints – in
other words, we see the worth that God places in the people around us,
especially those in the household of faith.
Look around you and ask God to let you see people in the Body of Christ
this morning as he sees them! It will
rock your world!!
When you come forward
and receive communion this morning as you receive the bread, think “this is the
sign of the worth that God places on my life and the lives of those around
me.” God so loved that He gave His only
Son!! You are worth a lot!!!
Finally with the eyes
of heaven, we see the power of God in those around us. God has placed His Spirit in the other
members of the Body here today and each one of us partakes of that gift which
is the Holy Spirit – it is the promise of Jesus to each one of us. You may have a greater or lesser awareness of
God’s presence in your life, just as you do of the Lord in the lives of
others. I pray that you come to a
greater and greater awareness of God’s presence and activity in and through you
each and every day… and in the Body of Christ – those who believe and with whom
you share this life IN CHRIST.
Now I want you to
turn, if you have your bible (please bring your bibles to church)
to the chapter of our
reading, 2 Cor 5.
I want to set this
statement and those following it in a context of Paul’s argument here. One thing that popped out at me when I looked
through this passage is that there are five “therefores” in these 17 verses
from 1 to 17.
Paul is saying
1. We have a heavenly home – a building from God, a house no made with
hands, eternal in the heavens (v.1)
2. We
struggle to be clothed with this heavenly home in the here and now – we groan, being burdened,… so that what is
mortal will be swallowed up by life. (v.4)
3. This is God’s doing, His work – by the
Spirit, who is the pledge toward his finishing the work in us.
THEREFORE (1) WE ARE OF GOOD COURAGE, WALKING BY FAITH NOT
BY SIGHT.
THEREFORE (2) WE ARE AMBITIOUS TO PLEASE HIM, KNOWING WHAT
IT IS TO FEAR HIM
THEREFORE (3) WE PERSUADE MEN, CONTROLLED BY THE LOVE OF
CHRIST, WHO DIED FOR ALL MEN AND ROSE ON THEIR BEHALF.
THEREFORE (4) WE VIEW
NO ONE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, AS WE ONCE DID JESUS, BUT NOW NO MORE.
THEREFORE (5) IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATURE;
OLD HAS GONE, NEW HAS COME!!
THEREFORE (6) WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST – GOD MAKES HIS
APPEAL THROUGH US: “WE BEG YOU … BE
RECONCILED TO GOD!”
Six “therefores” in
16 verses.
Don’t you want to
know what they are there for?
God wants us to view
our world, our work, our lives and each other, from His viewpoint – His vantage
point. Do you remember the verses from
Isaiah 55:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than you thoughts.”
So how do we gain
this perspective of God – the perspective of Jesus Christ – His viewpoint, His
worldview?
I think Isaiah heard
the answer from the Lord in the same chapter!
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not
return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And
furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My
mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And
without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
Friends, we are
ambassadors of heaven – and the Kingdom of God in our world today is like an
embassy on foreign soil – you are sitting in the Embassy of Heaven right
now. When someone on that foreign soil
wishes to make an appeal for asylum or even for a visit, he must come to the
embassy and apply – make his appeal.
But more than that,
this embassy is one which actively seeks those who want to come within its
walls. We are the ambassadors of Heaven,
you and me – each one of us, as we “live and move and have our being” – are
representatives of Jesus Christ, who has given Himself up for everyone we
meet. And we are aware of this fact as a
primary motive and as the overruling truth of our lives.
Therefore!
… we are filled with courage,
walking by faith, not sight.
… we are ambitious to please Jesus,
knowing the fear of God.
… we are persuasive, motivated by
Jesus’ love for every person
… we are not persuaded by earthly
ways of thinking about people
… we are sure of the new creation
that God works in people
… we are ambassadors reaching out
with Christ’s own love and passion.
Why?
“For He (Jesus) who knew no sin, God made sin on our behalf, so that we
might
become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Amen.
I want to be quiet
for a couple of minutes to let that last verse sink in to our consciousness and
into our conscience. Join me please.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ,
you stretched out your arms on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might
come within the reach of your saving embrace.
So clothe us with your Spirit, that we, reaching our hands out in love,
may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of You, for the
honor of your name.
Amen.
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