January 27-29, 2024 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: 2 Corinthians 5: 14-21 (EHV) “WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST!”

 

EPIPHANY 3

January 27-29, 2024

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: 2 Corinthians 5: 14-21 (EHV)

 

“WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST!”

1.     Compelled by the love of Christ.

2.     Changed by His presence.

3.     Proclaiming His message

 

          I must tell you I am very honored to be in the presence of such important people. I am not kidding nor stroking your egos. You are very important people. Why? Each one of you has been appointed to serve as an ambassador for Christ. From the moment the Holy Spirit brought you to faith you received that appointment. So that you would know you have been appointed, Jesus gave you your Baptism where you put on Christ. So from the youngest baby to 104 year old Helen Tellier we are ambassadors for Christ and that has some implications for each one us. The Apostle Paul helps us to see that in his second letter to the church at Corinth. What he wrote about himself and them is true for me and you. We are ambassadors for Christ.

          An ambassador’s job description can be quite simple. You represent the real ruler of a country to other nations. Motivation is important. For instance, for America, if you really don’t like your President, it would be difficult to fairly represent that president. As Christ’s ambassador we have the best motivation. “For the love of Christ compels us, because we came to this conclusion: One died for all; therefore, all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves but for him, who died in their place and was raised again.” The love of Christ. Linguistically you have to make a decision. In both New Testament Greek and modern American. Is Christ subjective or objective? In other words, when saying “The love of Christ” does Paul mean that Christ’s love of us compel us or is our responsive love for Him? The love of Christ compels. Subject or object? Isn’t the right answer “Yes.” Both. Because Christ loves us, we love Him in return. That’ s why we want to be His ambassadors first or foremost.

Let’s keep that in mind this election year. In America the government wants informed and involved citizens. It becomes our civic duty and our 4^th Commandment Christian duty to then be informed and involved citizens. So please do that as you see fit. However, let’s make sure that our zeal to see one candidate or another in office does not detract from our first love. Let’s make sure that our actions and words and posts don’t disqualify us from being Christ’s ambassadors. I can’t spew hate and venom and then expect people who know me to accept my invitation to know Christ better. And don’t let your best ambassadorial skills be wasted on someone who didn’t die for you, and in fact is not willing to give their life for you. None of them will. Jesus did. We are Christ’s ambassadors, compelled by His love.

          Changed by his presence. “As a result, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him that way. ¹⁷ So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come!”  Christ’s presence in our life changes how we view people. In case you haven’t noticed, people are messy. Our sinful natures haven’t just put a blotch on us we can cover with some makeup. We are broken. All of us have weaknesses toward selfishness, lust, pride greed, one of them, all of them and more. That’s what makes people messy. When we regard people according to the flesh it means we look at them the way the world looks at them. How is that? Friend or Foe. Us and them. It has always been that way since sin came into the world. Think Cain and Abel. Hatred of my brother. For much of our world’s history that hatred was based on culture. Greek vs Persian. Jew vs Gentile or Samaritan. Rich vs poor. In our country it’s about color: black vs brown vs white. If you look like me, talk like me, have the same status as me you are friend, if not you are foe. If your sins and weaknesses are the same as mine, you are normal, if they are something I would never do you are the vilest of sinners. Us and them. When you look at people according to the flesh, the way of the world.

          But Christ changes us. The old has gone. The new has come. At a recent conference the presenter asked a thought provoking question. Do you view yourself as an American who happens to be a Lutheran Christian or a Lutheran Christian who happens to be American? That order changes things, doesn’t it? Let me ask it a different way. Are you a black person or white person or brown person who happens to be a Lutheran Christian or are you a Lutheran Christian who happens to be gifted and tinted just the way God wants you to be? What’s your first love, your first identity? While sin divides it is Christ that unites. So we need to first see ourselves as equally sinful and equally saved no matter our status or color and that the presence of Christ is what is most important and has us cheering for the same team and playing for the same team.

          Then as Christ’s ambassadors we need to view others in the same way. Other messy people. The list of initials and genders and identities that our fellow Americans are using for themselves continues to grow. You can’t keep up. When you look at people, messy people, from a worldly point of view you may find yourselves doing anything from rolling your eyes and shaking your head to muttering FREAK! Under your breath. But with Christ in our lives we see others differently. People Jesus loves so much He gave His life for them. Messy people just like us and the only difference between us and them is we have Jesus in our lives and He cleaned us up. You know the only people difference the Bible focuses on is believer and unbeliever. And amongst those unbelievers some are Christ haters and they are lost. But some are ignorant and some are victims of lies of the Devil and some are following wrong ways because they instinctively know there is a God sized hole in their heart that needs to be filled with something.

          That is where you and I come in. We are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador’s job is quite simple. Speak the message the one you represent gives you. What is Christ’s message He wants us to deliver? Reconciliation.  “And all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, inasmuch as God is making an appeal through us. We urge you, on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” In these times that we live in where our government leaders seek to divide us along political lines so they can stay in power and our sinful natures try to divide over color or social status Jesus comes in and seeks one thing for all people. Unity. With God. Reconciliation. Two parties who are at odds coming together.

          Sin divides. People from people. People from God. Sin cannot be undone. You can’t make up for sin. Oftentimes you can’t undo its earthly damage. Only one thing takes care of sin. Forgiveness. Only one thing makes that possible. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. We are His ambassadors. When you rub shoulders with those who like to identify themselves with initials make sure they don’t get the impression that what you really want to do is change their behaviors. You are an ambassador for Christ. What I really want to do is change your relationship with God. Jesus does that. He had no sin. Yet He became sin, the world’s one and only sinner on the cross. For you. Heart first. Behaviors later. We are ambassadors for Christ.

          Which means you are very important people. But maybe you don’t feel that way. Maybe you think you can’t influence many people. In 2022 Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barret was appointed to be ambassador to Luxembourg. Belgium. I remember my first reaction. Mmm. Why him? And Luxembourg. Not very important. I wonder if the people in Belgium would agree. There are actually smaller countries. Liechenstein, Tuvalu, Nauru and covering a whopping .77 of a square mile, Monaco. The people there are all important. So are the people God has you rubbing shoulders with whether many or few. Whenever you do keep this truth in the forefront. We are Christ’s Ambassadors. Amen.

January 6-8. 2024 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 2:1-12 (EHV) “INSIGHTS FROM THE EPIPHANY”

 

EPIPHANY

January 6-8. 2024

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 2:1-12 (EHV)

 

“INSIGHTS FROM THE EPIPHANY”

1.     God does not care about the things that man cares about.

2.     Man does not care about the things God cares about.

3.     God’s preplanning is absolutely astounding!

 

Matthew 2:1-12 (EHV) “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, when Herod was king, Wise Men from the east came to Jerusalem. They asked, ² “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” ³ When King Herod heard this, he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ He gathered together all the people’s chief priests and experts in the law. He asked them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, because this was written through the prophet:

⁶ You, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are certainly not least among the rulers of Judah: because out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people, Israel.”

⁷ Then Herod secretly summoned the Wise Men and found out from them exactly when the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report to me, so that I may also go and worship him.” ⁹ After listening to the king, they went on their way. Then the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them, until it stood still over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced with overwhelming joy. ¹¹ After they went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² Since they had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.”

 

          So there is Epiphany and there are epiphanies. Very specifically Epiphany is referring to the time when God revealed that the Messiah, Jesus, is Savior for all people, not just the Jews, but for all people as well. The occasion is when the non Jewish Wise Men came from the East. Today when people say they have had an epiphany they mean the light bulb went off in their head as they gained some new insight or revelation about something important. The Epiphany of Jesus serves as a source of some other epiphanies for us too.

          The first is that God does not care about the things that man cares about. God gives us that insight as the Wise Men come to visit. Where do they stop first? Jerusalem. Why? It’s the capital city of Judea. They had seen the special star that told them the new King of the Jews that had been born. Where would you expect to find the new crown prince? In the capital city. In the palace with guards and servants and pomp and circumstance. Those are things man cares about. But not God. His son is born in the little town of Bethlehem, nowheresville. He was born in a stable, not a palace. And while it is very unlikely that Mary and Joseph were still in the stable when the Wise Men came, they were the only attendants of Jesus that the Wise Men found.

          What else does man care about? Power. Being in charge. Because you know the rest of Matthew chapter 2 you know exactly why Herod said to the Wise Men, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report to me, so that I may also go and worship him.” Liar. Herod did not want to go worship Jesus. He wanted to kill him. Why? He thought that Jesus was a threat to his power and his throne. And let’s make sure we understand what Herod’s authority was. He was a puppet king. Rome controlled Israel at this time. Rome allowed conquered nations to keep their rulers as long as they behaved and paid their taxes. Herod valued temporary and limited earthly power. God doesn’t. His Son was born to rule an eternal kingdom with unlimited power of King of kings and Lord of Lord.

          Now what can we learn from this Epiphany insight? Check your values. Align them with your Lord’s. We have tendencies to value the things of man over the things of God. Cars. Heirlooms. Clothes. Epiphany! God does not care about those things. Prestige. Status. Who’s in charge of temporary powers and limited authority. Epiphany! God does not care about those things. He just uses them. So should we.

          For as God does not care about the things man cares about, the reverse is also true. Man, sinful man, does not care about the things that God cares about. What is it that God cares about? People! Their salvation. Keeping His promises. Everything that happened leading up to Epiphany was put into place because God cares about people. He loves them. He wants them in heaven. So His Son becomes man to take the place of sinful man, to be their substitute. To live the perfect life they could not and die the sinner’s death so they don’t have to. The coming of the Savior into the world was such a great event that God made sure Wise Men from the East went to a whole lot of trouble, spent a lot of time and money to come and see that Jesus was for them. But that was not the common reaction. King Herod? He doesn’t care about his eternal salvation, only his earthly power. And what a spiritual tragedy! When the Wise Men come it is the chief priests, the experts in the law, the equivalent of the pastors and seminary professors of today, who are consulted. And what do they do when they hear the long-awaited Messiah has been born? Nothing. They didn’t care about the things God cares about.

          Nothing new today. Sinful man pretends to care about people but does not. You hear too often of how the United States sends humanitarian aid to some third world country only to have its rulers turn around and sell it for profit instead of giving it to its people. King Herod didn’t care about the families of Bethlehem but would order the murder of every baby boy 2 years old and younger because he didn’t care about what God cares about. Those babies could potentially inconvenience him. In the same way some of our government leaders don’t care that God cares about every human life. Instead, our Vice President will be here in Wisconsin soon on a nationwide tour that pretends to care about people, but not those who could potentially makes someone’s life inconvenient. As I would not want to be Herod on the day of Judgment I would also not want to be the abortionist. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of an angry God. Sinful man does not care about the things God cares about. One day too late, he will.

          But not everyone is messed up. There are some who care about what God cares about and not what man cares about. Here it is the Wise Men and that leads to our third Epiphany Insight. God’s preplanning is absolutely astounding! Wise Men. From the East. Who are they? How did they get there? God’s preplanning. We are not told but the only thing that fits with the truth Scripture reveals is that they were exposed to Old Testament prophecy. My guess is these are descendants for the wise men influenced by Daniel of lions’ den fame. Over 500 years before it happened God set the stage for these Wise Men to be believers in the Savior. He also equipped them to serve. They were different from the rest of the people in Matthew 2. They did not care about pomp, circumstance, earthly power or all the other things man cares about. They had in mind the things of God. They looked to the baby Jesus as their Savior. They treated Him as their Savior. They served Him as their Savior. Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh. Costly items. Easily transported. These Gentiles received the honor from God of providing for Mary, Joseph and Jesus when they would flee to Egypt to escape the baby murdering Herod. God preplanned all of it so the Wise Men would be in place and have the opportunity and means to serve Jesus.

          God is doing that same thing today with you! Read this passage with me if you don’t already have it memorized.

 

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

 

Did you catch that? Good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. His preplanning is absolutely astounding. For each one of us God has preplanned a part to play in His plan of salvation for you and others. We all get to be Wise Men who don’t act like sinful man and do value what God values. Think. Look at your life. What has God prepared you for? How has He gifted you, shaped you, blessed you? There’s a method and meaning to all of it. God’s preplanning.

          As I said, there is Epiphany and there are epiphanies. We thank God today for giving us Epiphany insights that lead us to check our values and align them with God’s and to be aware of and be willing participants in God’s preplanning. One final epiphany from the Epiphany: Here’s a great motto for 2024:

 

As with gladness men of old

Did the guiding star behold,

As with joy they hailed its light,

Leading onward, beaming bright,

So, most gracious Lord, may we

Evermore be led to thee.