Title: Jesus Christ desires all to be his child!
Text: 2 Cor. 5:18-21
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
A group of expectant fathers were in a waiting room, while their wives were in the process of delivering babies. A nurse came in and announced to one man that his wife had just given birth to twins. "That's quite a coincidence" he responded, "I play for the Minnesota Twins!" A few minutes later another nurse came in and announced to another man that he was the father of triplets. "That's amazing," he exclaimed, "I work for the 3M Company." At that point, a third man slipped off his chair and laid down on the floor. Somebody asked him if he was feeling ill. "Oh no," he responded, "I just work for 7-up!"
Source Unknown.
Regardless of the number of children you may have or what company you might work for:
Jesus Christ desires all to be his child!
Paul speaks in our Epistle lesson today about being a new creation. The old has gone away and the new has emerged. No longer will they be regarded according to the flesh. Even though Jesus Christ was once regarded as the man, according to the flesh – His human nature – he has now been raised and is no longer in His state of humiliation but has been raised and is seated at the right hand of the father.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
It is not always evident though.
Sin permeates our very being; which means to spread or flow throughout or to penetrate something. Sin is not just an act of disobedience. It is not just the act of doing something or saying something wrong or not doing what we should. It is in fact who we are.
Paul speaks of Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. His once for all sacrifice for sin pays the price for the Corinthians and Paul explains that:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Jesus Christ desires all to be his child!
The Civil War was carnage beyond belief. Jefferson Davis, who was the President of the Confederacy died and eventually commanding United States General, Ulysses S. Grant of the Union died. Their widows, Varina Davis and Julia Grant, settled near each other in New York. Both were writers as Varina wrote her husband’s autobiography, publishing it as Jefferson Davis, Memoir in 1890. Julia Grant too was a writer, though she was unable to find a publisher for her own personal memoir for many years. Though they had been on different sides of the conflict during the Civil War they became the closest of friends.
Source Unknown.
Even in the worst of human endeavors reconciliation is possible. At times even at church separation occurs. I was doing a home visit with a shut in whose daughter had been a member of Peace many years ago and for quite some time as well. In talking about her past affiliation with the church, she reminisced about all the good times and pastors, her children’s baptisms and true joy in being here. But at sometime in the past there was conflict between her and another member family. I don’t know the problem, the family, if they are still members here or even still alive. You can see that in this sin … which has separated two families, the church, people they love from being built up and sustained by our loving God …
20 Therefore, Paul says: we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, give up these petty arguments and whatever separates you from fellow believers and be reconciled to God.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Martin Luther reminds us in the 5th petition of the Lord’s Prayer from our Small Catechism.
-We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely-
So too we who have been separated from God by sin can be brought back to His loving arms by Christ who desires that all will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
But do we? Are we? The cost of peace between God and man required the life of Jesus. The very Son of God came to be your substitute and took the sin of the world, your sins upon Himself so that you might be his child by faith.
Paul continues:
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus Christ desires all to be his child!
The very Son of God, Paul tells the Corinthians, came down to live, suffer, die and rise again just for them. So too we, who have been brought to faith by God’s Holy Spirit giving faith to both you and me in Christ’s finished work and reconciling us to God through this same faith in Him.
In this one sentence, Paul tells us that we have the entire essence of God’s work in Christ for the forgiveness of sins in the world.
Just as God’s great Gospel message from blessed John 3:16 tells us:
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Paul tells us how that will happen, because:
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the eternal hope for you and for me.
That:
Jesus Christ desires all to be his child!
(Today / Yesterday) my mother-n-law, Jeanne Comins was remembered in a memorial service at her church and we gathered as family and friend to mourn, remember and to celebrate her 89 years devoted to her children, grandchildren, family and friends. That is a joyful life for sure.
But, the true blessed joy for us all is that we will all be reunited in Him, in Christ, because Jeanne held to the blessed hope of reunion in heaven one day and just as Jesus was raised, so too she and all who believe, will be raised spending eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ our Lord and all who in faith have been brought to this blessed reconciliation in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ desires all to be his child!
The joy of the birth of a child, twins, and triplets or no matter how many children you have or are blessed with pales in comparison to the blessed hope and rebirth that we are given in Christ.
God who has made Christ our substitute, brings us to faith in Him washing us clean in our baptisms and making us holy, by the once for all sacrifice for sin at the cross that Jesus won over sin, death and the Devil.
We who are in Christ are reconciled to Him by His all sufficient sacrifice for sin in our place. This is the joy that we all can have peace in. Christ has been raised and so will you be raised too.
May this blessed good news comfort you by his Spirit now and forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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