WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:01.800 Grace, mercy, and peace 2 00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:04.600 be to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus 3 00:00:04.600 --> 00:00:05.200 Christ. 4 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:06.100 Amen. 5 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:11.400 When I first read through this text in preparation for the sermon. 6 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:17.800 I was struck by just how many popular Christian one-liners are in 7 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:19.700 these verses. Lines 8 00:00:19.700 --> 00:00:25.400 like if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation and behold the old 9 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:26.200 has gone. 10 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:27.900 The new has come. 11 00:00:28.500 --> 00:00:33.100 And we are ambassadors for Christ. And Christ 12 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:36.500 gave us the message of reconciliation. 13 00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:38.400 In one sense 14 00:00:38.800 --> 00:00:43.500 I was relieved that I, yes, at least this is a text that everyone 15 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:46.500 should know. And ah good 16 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:50.000 this isn't a text that has me preaching on Exodus in front of 17 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.000 President, Edgar or wisdom literature in front of Dr. 18 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:58.400 Saleska because just in case you didn't realize it preaching at 19 00:00:58.400 --> 00:01:02.500 Concordia, Seminary is Chapel isn't exactly the easiest place to 20 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:03.100 preach. 21 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:07.100 It's here where homiletical trespasses or 22 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:12.500 exegetical sins, haunt seminarians, as you are looked at under a scary 23 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:16.900 microscope or a fine-tooth comb. As almost everyone 24 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:21.600 here is a preacher and has a different opinion on delivery style, 25 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:24.200 preferred, structure or sermon length. 26 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:27.100 So considering all of that then 27 00:01:27.100 --> 00:01:29.800 after reading these verses more and more. 28 00:01:30.100 --> 00:01:31.200 I was also relieved 29 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:36.000 that Paul is pretty straightforward with his message. By the end of the 30 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:36.400 text 31 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:39.900 you may only be asking one thing which is wait 32 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:45.100 what exactly is an ambassador for Christ again? But when you go back 33 00:01:45.100 --> 00:01:48.500 to the verses and read, you will realize that Paul lays out his 34 00:01:48.500 --> 00:01:50.500 supporting sentences pretty clearly. 35 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:56.000 So here again, these verses starting at verse 15, through 18. Paul 36 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.600 writes and he Christ died for all that those who live might no longer 37 00:02:00.600 --> 00:02:02.200 live for themselves 38 00:02:02.800 --> 00:02:08.300 but for him, who for their sake died and was raised. From now on 39 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:09.400 therefore 40 00:02:09.699 --> 00:02:13.900 we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded 41 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:15.500 Christ, according to the flesh. 42 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:16.300 We regard him 43 00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:17.500 thus no longer. 44 00:02:18.100 --> 00:02:20.700 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new 45 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.000 creation, the old has passed away behold 46 00:02:24.100 --> 00:02:25.800 the new has come. All 47 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:29.800 this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave 48 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:33.100 us the ministry of reconciliation. 49 00:02:34.100 --> 00:02:37.900 So, what is an ambassador for Christ? 50 00:02:38.900 --> 00:02:43.000 Well, it is someone who no longer lives for themselves. 51 00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:47.800 No longer regards, any one, according to the Flesh and is charged with 52 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:50.200 the message of reconciliation. 53 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:55.100 Hopefully, when you heard those three parts of being an ambassador, 54 00:02:55.100 --> 00:02:59.800 your seminarian teleprompters, have alerted you to what that means and 55 00:03:00.100 --> 00:03:01.400 Seminary, lingo. 56 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:05.400 Number one, don't be a theologian of Glory. 57 00:03:06.200 --> 00:03:07.000 Number two. 58 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:12.100 Don't be a jerk. And number three recognize that you have been 59 00:03:12.100 --> 00:03:15.400 deputized by God to deliver a message. 60 00:03:16.700 --> 00:03:21.400 But there is more to this text more to these popular Christian 61 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:25.700 one-liners and more to those Seminary terms than what meets the eye. 62 00:03:26.500 --> 00:03:30.700 And what comes next is the difficult part both in preaching, and in 63 00:03:30.700 --> 00:03:31.900 its application. 64 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:32.800 Frankly 65 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.400 this difficult part is summed up by a very Lutheran 66 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:39.900 question of, What does this mean? 67 00:03:41.100 --> 00:03:45.100 What exactly does it mean to be an ambassador for Christ today? 68 00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:51.100 What does it mean to be an ambassador for Christ today in 2022 69 00:03:51.100 --> 00:03:56.500 At Concordia, Seminary tasked with the message of reconciliation? 70 00:03:57.600 --> 00:04:00.900 What does it mean for you seminarians and deaconesses who are focused 71 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:02.200 on the future? 72 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:07.500 Your eyes, your hearts, your minds ever, turned toward that future, 73 00:04:07.500 --> 00:04:08.300 vicarage. 74 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:10.600 That future internship. That future 75 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:14.100 Call. What does it mean for you seminarians and deaconesses who are 76 00:04:14.100 --> 00:04:18.600 focused on learning and growing as much as possible who are trying to 77 00:04:18.700 --> 00:04:24.200 prepare yourselves to go out and face challenges on your own in this 78 00:04:24.200 --> 00:04:24.700 world? 79 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:27.600 What does it mean for you? 80 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:32.200 Who are trying to get as much out of this place as possible to train 81 00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:37.400 and form yourself for work in a church that you are going to? 82 00:04:38.900 --> 00:04:43.100 Well, if the answer has to be so centered around you than you've 83 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:45.300 probably missed Paul's point. 84 00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:50.400 You see to be an ambassador for Christ here in the present day at 85 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:53.800 Concordia, Seminary means that you are called to live differently 86 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:59.800 right now as a new creation. And your whole outlook on everyday life and 87 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:03.100 how you view others is changed entirely. 88 00:05:04.200 --> 00:05:07.900 You already know that since the fall of Adam and Eve reconciliation in 89 00:05:07.900 --> 00:05:12.700 this world is a complete foreign concept. Because of the brokenness of 90 00:05:12.700 --> 00:05:16.100 sin intermingled into their a fiber of creation 91 00:05:16.200 --> 00:05:19.800 reconciliation is just a pipe dream for most people. 92 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:25.600 The devil, the world, your own sinful nature will always be working 93 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.700 against any form of reconciliation. 94 00:05:28.900 --> 00:05:32.400 They will always be seeking to divide you from God in others. 95 00:05:32.900 --> 00:05:37.200 They will always be pushing to raise hostility between you and others 96 00:05:37.700 --> 00:05:42.400 And they'll always be telling you and others to live for yourself and to 97 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:46.100 regard someone else, according to the flesh. 98 00:05:47.900 --> 00:05:52.200 Maybe without even realizing it, all of the sudden you find yourself 99 00:05:52.200 --> 00:05:57.100 squarely on the opposite side of the exhortation that Paul in God, 100 00:05:57.200 --> 00:05:59.800 have for you, in 2nd, Corinthians chapter 5. 101 00:06:01.400 --> 00:06:06.100 Maybe you too realize that you are often focused on living for 102 00:06:06.100 --> 00:06:07.000 yourself. 103 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:13.800 You have been focused on how Seminary can build you up. Focused on what 104 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:19.700 you can get out of your Seminary experience. Focused on what you can 105 00:06:19.700 --> 00:06:23.000 get out of your vicarage, internship or call. 106 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:28.600 Or maybe you realize you do regard people according to the flesh. 107 00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:33.900 Maybe you see a fellow seminarian or Deaconess in your class as 108 00:06:33.900 --> 00:06:39.900 someone who is inferior to you in how they think or operate or talk? 109 00:06:40.700 --> 00:06:45.000 You look at them and think about all of the ways they may or may not 110 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.300 be a good pastor or Deaconess. 111 00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:49.500 You become stuck 112 00:06:49.900 --> 00:06:54.000 seeing them as defined only by their strengths or weaknesses, or by 113 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.400 their Harrison assessment, or by their disbyrd. 114 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:03.100 Or maybe you always remember or hold on to that one time, your 115 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:07.500 classmate wronged you. And instead of reconciling or talking with them 116 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:12.200 you hold that trespass against them and put it on the shelf. Maybe 117 00:07:12.200 --> 00:07:14.300 hostility or division 118 00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:18.400 then grows against them as you stay silent or talk about them to 119 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:19.500 others. 120 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:26.300 When you consider all of these opposites of Paul's charge to you, it 121 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:31.800 is scary to think, what, if God the Father regarded, you only 122 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:33.200 according to the flesh. 123 00:07:33.900 --> 00:07:39.000 What if Jesus Christ came to this earth, only In the flesh to live for 124 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:39.800 himself. 125 00:07:41.100 --> 00:07:46.000 What if God the Holy Spirit was never present with you to bring about 126 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.400 reconciliation in this broken world? 127 00:07:50.200 --> 00:07:50.800 All of those 128 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:55.900 what ifs are light-years scarier and more difficult than ever 129 00:07:55.900 --> 00:07:56.400 preaching 130 00:07:56.400 --> 00:07:58.400 at Concordia Seminary's Chapel. 131 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:03.800 But then verse 21 rings in your ear. 132 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:09.500 Paul writes for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. 133 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:13.800 So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. 134 00:08:15.200 --> 00:08:21.700 Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ came to Earth as God in flesh and 135 00:08:21.700 --> 00:08:23.900 did not live for himself. 136 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:28.100 Thanks be to God that because of Jesus, resurrection from the dead. 137 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:29.800 God does not regard you 138 00:08:29.900 --> 00:08:31.300 according to the flesh. 139 00:08:32.100 --> 00:08:32.900 Thanks be to God 140 00:08:32.900 --> 00:08:36.400 that you have become the righteousness of God, through your baptism 141 00:08:36.400 --> 00:08:37.600 into Christ. 142 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:39.900 And you have received the promised 143 00:08:39.900 --> 00:08:40.900 Holy Spirit 144 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:43.500 who helps you in your daily Christian Life. 145 00:08:44.800 --> 00:08:47.900 Because Christ died and rose for your sake. 146 00:08:47.900 --> 00:08:50.800 You can not only be an ambassador for him. 147 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:56.700 You are an ambassador for him. Because you have been reconciled to God 148 00:08:56.700 --> 00:08:58.900 you now are different. 149 00:08:59.700 --> 00:08:59.800 You 150 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.200 are a child of God. You are a reconciler. 151 00:09:05.300 --> 00:09:08.000 Because you have been baptized into Christ 152 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:09.200 the old has gone 153 00:09:09.800 --> 00:09:13.000 the new has come. You have a new identity. 154 00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:17.900 You have new meaning, and you have an eternal purpose. 155 00:09:19.800 --> 00:09:24.900 See, now all of those temporary things that used to seem like a big 156 00:09:24.900 --> 00:09:25.700 deal before. 157 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:30.200 Things like having the perfect class schedule or having perfect 158 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:35.600 classmates or having that perfect vicarage, internship or call. 159 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:40.400 Now, those things mean, nothing. Nothing in comparison to what God has 160 00:09:40.400 --> 00:09:45.600 eternally given you. Although you did not deserve it 161 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:49.400 God reconciled you to himself claiming you as his own. 162 00:09:49.800 --> 00:09:54.800 You yourself have now experienced this radical reconciliation from God. 163 00:09:54.900 --> 00:09:58.700 And the result of this Cosmic level reconciliation 164 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:00.400 that's life-changing. 165 00:10:03.100 --> 00:10:07.200 Remember the second question that I asked you earlier, the question 166 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:08.500 that sounded very Lutheran. 167 00:10:09.300 --> 00:10:13.500 It was, what does it mean to be an ambassador for Christ today in 168 00:10:13.500 --> 00:10:16.500 2022, here at Concordia Seminary? 169 00:10:17.400 --> 00:10:19.900 Well, what does this mean? 170 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:24.000 It means that everything is different here today. 171 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:30.200 Today on March 29th, 2022 you as a reconciled child of God, look at 172 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:36.600 everything and everyone differently through a lens of reconciliation. 173 00:10:37.400 --> 00:10:42.000 Being caught up is God's new creations changes, how you look at your 174 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.100 life and how you view others and it doesn't start in four months 175 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:47.400 when you begin your call, internship or vicarage. 176 00:10:47.500 --> 00:10:48.900 It doesn't start in a few years 177 00:10:48.900 --> 00:10:50.600 when you become an experienced pastor 178 00:10:50.800 --> 00:10:53.800 or Deaconess, it starts right now. 179 00:10:55.500 --> 00:10:59.900 Being an ambassador for Christ means that you no longer to define 180 00:10:59.900 --> 00:11:00.700 something 181 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:06.200 only by the value you get from it. No longer you 182 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:10.700 do you define someone by their strengths or the weaknesses or their 183 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:11.500 actions. 184 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:17.800 No longer, do you define someone by a comparison to you or others. 185 00:11:18.700 --> 00:11:19.000 Rather 186 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.700 you define them by their identity as a child of God. 187 00:11:23.900 --> 00:11:29.200 No longer, do you hold trespasses against someone rather you reconcile 188 00:11:29.300 --> 00:11:34.000 by forgiving them seventy times seven. No longer 189 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:35.500 do you live for yourself 190 00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:40.600 because you realize that life is not about you. 191 00:11:41.900 --> 00:11:45.300 Rather you live for Christ and for the Eternal purpose that he set 192 00:11:45.400 --> 00:11:46.100 before you. 193 00:11:47.900 --> 00:11:52.600 Yet the reconciliation and the good news doesn't quite, and there. 194 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:58.300 Because really, in the end, being an ambassador for Christ means that 195 00:11:58.300 --> 00:11:59.800 you look forward to a day 196 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.000 of perfect, reconciliation. Brothers and Sisters in Christ 197 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:04.400 one day 198 00:12:04.400 --> 00:12:06.600 we look forward to in our perfect 199 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:08.900 Ambassador comes back. 200 00:12:10.100 --> 00:12:14.500 And when he comes again, he will reconcile all things. 201 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:22.000 He will make all things new. And he will complete our message of 202 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.600 reconciliation with eternal peace and joy. 203 00:12:27.300 --> 00:12:31.400 What a wonderful day that will be a day with no more divisions. 204 00:12:31.800 --> 00:12:34.900 No more hostilities, no more brokenness. 205 00:12:35.900 --> 00:12:42.900 But until then live as ambassadors for Christ. Live, with new eyes that 206 00:12:42.900 --> 00:12:48.200 look at other people differently and live with an eternal identity in 207 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:48.900 Christ. 208 00:12:49.800 --> 00:12:50.100 Amen. 209 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:54.400 Now may the reconciling peace of God, which passes all human 210 00:12:54.400 --> 00:12:57.500 understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 211 00:12:58.100 --> 00:12:58.500 Amen.