That All May Know | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from acts church. We hope this message

will light up your day. Yeah, I'm just going to there's a lot

of scriptures. I'm going to be alluding to Matthew chapter nine, meth You

chapter ten, and also Second Corinthians. Actually, I want y'all, when

you all have the time, go back and read the entire chapters of Matthew

nine, metthew ten, and then of course Second Corinthians as well. I'm

going to be picking up from different parts of this three chapters that I mentioned.

But again, the title of the message is that all may know?

And how many of us know that? When we say all may know,

we are basically talking about evangelism. We are talking about preaching God's word.

You know, there are days when sometimes I've read, you know, some

people saying that the whole ministry of preaching is no longer relevant today. Well,

people don't really want to hear, or people don't really want to hear

from someone standing on a pulpit and sharing and preaching, and so sometimes we

find it are less and less preachers, or less and less people actually have

the courage because it's like no one's listening. So might as well, don't

preach. Might as well stop preaching. Might such as every want to go

on the internet and read the Bible for yourself. But I really believe there

is a place for preaching, because evangelism is about preaching. Whether you're preaching

true words or whether you're preaching true actions. Essentially you are preaching the good

News to whoever that you come into contact with. That means all of us

are ministers. It's not just a select few who have been given the role

and the responsibility of a minister. But all of us are called to minister

God's word. And so we cannot we cannot say that we don't really know

God's word. Well, we don't know God's work in his entirety, but

I always believe we know enough wherever we are, in whatever stage in life

we are at to be able to just share truth, and we continue to

grow, and we continue to develop. That is the usual development and the

progression of a believer. We continue to mature in our faith. So don't

ever give up, don't ever give up, don't stop, don't stop reading

God's work. If you say you don't know much of it, then I

say, read some of it today. And then read some of it tomorrow

and carry on reading it until I believe God is doing that new work,

the work of perfecting us into His image more and more. But oftentimes we

like to create God in our image, which becomes dangerous because we have this

or this is how it should be, this is probably better this way,

and so we start creating God in our own image, which it's not how

it was supposed to be. So really, that all may know, evangelism,

this is something that the Lord has always wanted us to be a part

of, and not just something that becomes an afterthought, which it has become

an afterthought for the church today, because you know, for us, it's

like, once we are in, we are here, let's just keep everyone

happy. Let's not go and ruffle feathers and tell others about what we have.

But really, you know, I think about it. I think about

my own family members. There are days and sometimes no, you probably be

like, I can't be reaching out to the whole world, and of course

the Lord will put it in my heart, what about your own the people

you live with. That was my experience as a young believer, coming from

a pre believing family, and it's true prayer, twenty years of prayer that

eventually I finally got to witness my own parents come not just come to the

saving knowledge. I realize a lot of people actually come to the saving knowledge

of Jesus Christ, but respond to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I

think that is something that really needs the ministry or the Holy Spirit to work

in their lives. And so I know, I'm reminded that we all have

loved ones. We all have loved ones that we don't want to see them

go to a place where Christ will not be there because we believe, and

I pray, we really do believe that it is with Christ that we find

freedom, and it is with Christ that we find life. Because if we

half believe, or we don't quite believe, or we believe only in part,

then something is also fundamentally wrong because then we have got nothing to share.

But if we truly believe, then it really does not make sense for

us to not want to share this belief with others who we know will stand

to benefit from it as well. Amen. Okay, So I believe that

we can find from the Gospels and from Jesus' teachings himself on why we need

to share God's word why we need to evangelize, and then of course through

the gospel, it's also where he's showing us the way to do it.

And it's not rocket science. Whatever I'm going to share today, probably it's

definitely not rocket science. I'm just hoping to be able to help us come

back to scripture and be reminded in scripture of why we are called to do

what we do and why we have to continue doing what we do, and

if ever we forget, we will come back to the scripture and read it

and be convinced again. Okay, why must we preach the good news?

And how do we do it effectively? Is the question? Okay. So

in Matthew chapter nine, from verse one to two, the first two verses

of Matthew chapter nine, we actually read the story of a paralyzed man who

was brought to Jesus, and here we see a real determination to find Jesus

and it's just having that confidence that Jesus is going to be the one that

can help us. Okay, So we read no Verse one of Matthew chapter

nine, Jesus climb into a board and went back across the lake to his

own town. Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat.

Seeing their faith, Jesus say to the paralyzed man, be encouraged, my

child, Your sins are forgiven. Okay, now, why did Jesus deal

with the sins of the paralytic rather than only his sickness? Have we ever

wondered why? It's quite a strange thing for him to do when someone who

is sick comes up to him and then he goes your sins forgiven. I

believe in this man's case, his suffering and his sin were directly related,

and there's why Jesus dealt with it the way he dealt with it. He

may not always deal with it in the same manner, but in this manner,

we could actually see what he was trying to do. And we know

Jesus is an amazing doctor. You know, Scriptures tell us that the sick

is the one that needs a doctor, and he diagnos perfectly. He was

probably the best doctor of people because he saw right straight to the cause of

a man's case and problem, and he dealt with the cause, not just

the symptoms. Jesus is not someone who deals and skirts around with the symptoms.

He just goes direct to the cause. And that's why straight away he

actually said to this person, son, your sins are forgiven. And then

to prove that this was the real trouble and this was really what this person

was going through. Jesus actually released this person from the consequences of the cause.

And that's why he says, I tell you now, get take your

bait and go home. That's what he did. And so the key factor

here that you think about it. You know, whenever you go on and

evangelize, you will stir opposition. You will. It's not something that is

done easily, and that's why people don't always do it so willingly. But

that's the reality of it. And what Jesus did really stirred opposition. And

it's not the fact that he healed the paralyzed man, but it was the

fact that he dealt with sins. In other words, think about it.

If only Jesus had stayed with the physical diseases, he would have been perfectly

all right. If he had just gone around the world making sick people better

in a way, the cross would have never happened, but he would be

all right. Why then, did he not just remain on earth as a

physician who could heal people. Surely there would have been a wonderful mission in

his life right to heal the sick, probably one of the noblest things to

do. But Jesus came not just to save people from sickness, but to

save them from their sin, and he was claiming his divine prerogative to do

so, to forgive sins. And then it's why people hated him, because

they find him offensive and prompt in that sense. If you read the Gospels,

you will actually see that account. We also then not just read about

this paralytic. If you carry on reading, you will start reading about the

text collectors. In Matthew, chapter nine, verse nine, it says,

as Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his

text collector's booth, and he says, follow me and be my disciple.

Jesus said to him. So Matthew, also known as Levi, got up

and followed him. Imagine what it was like to be such a person.

Usually, text collectors are social outcastler okay back then, because for the sake

of money, they have essentially cut themselves away from the rest people. People

just don't like them. Some of these are Jewish text collectors collecting on behalf

of the Roman Empire, and Jesus straightened out this text collector. He straightened

out this man just like that, and straight away he became unpopular. Jesus

became unpopular for straightening out this person's life. But he called Matthew, who

was collecting Texas, to thereafter start collecting stories about Jesus, and ultimately we

have today the Gospel of Matthew. It's amazing, think about it. Apart

from the text collectors and his friends in the same trade, there was also

another group of people that Jesus used to hang out, and he hang out

with a lot. He mixed with them for probably the same reasons, and

they were also social outcasts, and they were known as sinners. Okay,

the scripture just calls them sinners Methew chapter nine, verse eleven. It reads

known. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why

does your teacher eat with such scum? Interesting ones? Sometimes I like reading

different versions just to get all the different strong words that can be used to

describe. But are we all not sinners? Yes? The question that we

ask, yes, we all aren't we all sinners? Yes? But the

word that is you see, a sinner actually means people who are in a

state of being excommunicated or already excommunicated from their local synagogue. So we have

to understand that it's not like sinners in general, but this is other Jewish

sinners. There were people who were technically not allowed to join the congregation anymore

because somehow they are either broken down the Ten Commandments or maybe one of the

six hundred and thirteen regulations. There they impose themselves on the preachers of the

of those days, they did something which is not right in the eyes of

the synagogue, and now they are untouchable. Already no one wants to go

near them. And so we see here are two groups of people who have

difficulty in mixing in the ordinary society. And they were technically marginalized sideline people,

and because they were outcasts, they tend to hang out together. Matthew

threw a party for them, he invited them along, and Jesus was right

in the middle of the party. And here, you know, in the

first problem with the parallactic, we see something about Jesus, the fact that

Jesus was someone who was bordered about sin. That's the first thing that we

take note off, and if only he stuck to healing, if only he

just went around healing people, everything would have been all right. That would

not have been the cross, but everything would have been all right. But

the other problem, the subsequent problem that we see here, is that he

would not just be borthered about sin. He was actually borthered about sinners.

And so what do we understand from just reading these few verses. We can

conclude that Gus came to deal with sinners, and he came to deal with

sin. And this is why we have the responsibility of telling everyone the good

news of Jesus, because all must know about sin and acknowledge that we are

sinners before the Lord. That is what we share essentially, I know,

it's huh, that's why it's about to share. Tell someone about their sin

and tell them that they're a sinner and they need God. Actually, yeah,

how you want to how you want to sugar coat that, I'll leave

it to you. But that is the reality of the gospel message, the

good news that we are all we all have wrong in us, and we

are all wrong and we need someone to right that wrong. That is what

being justified means. You are made right. And so let's see what the

biggest problem is. Uh. And hee was highlighted actually at the end of

chapter nine and Chapter nine in the NLT. Versus thirty five onwards just has

this title the need for workers, and so Verse thirty five says, Jesus

traveled through all the towns and villages of the area, teaching in the synagogue

and announcing the good news about the kingdom. And he healed every kind of

disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them

because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said

to his disciples, the harvest is great, but the workers are few.

So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, asks him

to send more workers into the field or into his fields. So this is

chapter nine and chapter nine, and that is still the problem till today.

There is a lack of workers. There is a lack of people who are

able or who are bold enough to say, I'm going to go and I'm

going to share. And the next chapter Jesus and she shows us how all

may know. And I can tell you this, the simplest, most straightforward

way. Is what he did. Was he sent the disciples out. Basically,

go is the instruction that was given Matthew chapter ten. If you read

from verse five onwards, you realize Jesus sent out twelve apostles with these instructions.

Don't go to the Gentiles, all the Samaritans, but only to the

people of Israel, God's lost ship. Go and announce to them that the

Kingdom of Heaven is near. He'll the sake, raise the dead, cure

those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have

received. And that was a real turning point in Jesus' ministry because that was

when disciples became apostles. What are apostles? What is another word? Send

ones? Already okay, send ones, That's what apostles mean. And so

those who have been called to be with him, those who were studying his

him, living with him, are now called to deputize for him. That's

a big difference. You know, when you first walk with Jesus, you're

learning about him, you're getting to know him, you're watching, you're reading

what he's doing. But they will come a point of time when Jesus says

Okay, now is your time to be my debuty. Not just read and

learn and study about me, but yeah, it's time for execution. And

so they were sent out to do what Jesus had already been doing. They

were first commissioned, and then he commanded them to do certain things. In

commissioning, of course, he gave them power and authority, and they needed

both both power and authority. Those who go out and minister in the name

of the Lord, we go out in power and with authority. He told

them know that they were to preach and to heal as they had seen him

do, but without him physically present now, and that was the crucial change

over that was really needed. Sometimes we are so dependent and Jesus knew or

no, I've got this short period of time. I really need to model

this out in a way where we can see the church take on the responsibility

thereafter. There had to be this change over. If not, Jesus couldn't

have died in that sense, then he couldn't have fulfilled his role because he

needed to be here constantly with the people to depend on that. It's the

same thing sometimes when we are dependent on anyone on a on a on a

pastor or the leader or the elder. And we don't we don't do something

to continue growing our faith, then we will be stagnated where we are.

Well's Jesus. His way has always been lo watch, learn, now,

go and do it. And so he gave them certain commandments which was to

be followed. They were to think nothing for themselves, no money, no

spare clothes, no break. Why would they send out with nothing, I

don't know. The answer must be that they were too probably depend on the

people they went to food for a change of clothing, for any money.

They were to go with nothing at all. And I can imagine that would

have been such an amazing test for them. But ultimately I believe God and

Jesus wanted them to learn how to depend on Him, depend on God,

to trust in God. And so off the disciples were. They were to

go and preach. And what were they supposed to preach? Preach that the

Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. For the whole month of February, Puss

Canada went through the Kingdom of Heaven trying to help us understand and that is

exactly what we are to preach. Preach the Kingdom of Heaven they were to

heal the sick, cleanse the leperds, raised the day, cast out demons.

And of course we know persecution will follow, and it will follow.

Yet they should not fear people, but fear God. Verse twenty eight of

chapter ten says, don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body.

They cannot touch your soul. For fear only God, who can destroy

both soul and body. And here is an illustration. Somebody says to you,

are you a Christian? And then of course you are in a situation

where you can either outrightly declare yourself as a Christian or you're thinking, ah,

I'm quite scared to confess that I'm a Christian because maybe I haven't lived

up to it. Maybe I'm a bit embarrassed to acknowledge it. And I

know many many at times we all feel that we all feel like we have

not done enough to be safe or to even be rendered or label a Christian

or a believable. But that is the thinking of men. If you think

of God, and you think of how God thinks, this is what he

would say in that situation, because he would say, if you don't admit

you belong to me, I cannot admit you belong to me. If you

a shame to admit it, I'm a shamed to admit it. On the

other hand, the moment you acknowledge puck greatly to others. Yes, I

do belong to Jesus Christ, I know him and I love him. Then

and a moment Christ can actually turn to his angels and say, this person

is mine, and I acknowledge this person openly because this person belongs to me.

And so Jesus actually teaches that when we are in a tight corner,

and we find ourselves often in tight corners living in this world sometimes because there's

always that tendency and that propensity to be like this world, to try to

not make other people upset, and you find yourself sometimes in the dark because

you belong to Jesus. But if you are there in the name of Jesus,

I want to urge you not to worry, don't be afraid of men,

because the Holy Spirit will put words in your mouth and will help you

to be able to either say the right thing at the right time or do

the right thing at the right time. And there are amazing examples we read

through out scriptures. If you read the life of Stephen, if you read

the life of Paul, if you read the life of Peter, James,

John, they all had at some point appeared in the court room of life,

and they always had the right words to say, the right words that

came from God. And it has been shown through throughout the ages. You

find that whenever people of God have stood on trial and I requested to be

witnessed, the Holy Spirit have delivered them from the fear of men and put

words in their mouths. So let the fear of the Lord take away the

fear of people. In every situation. You will find the Holy Spirit there

willing to help you if you're willing to seek for help. And this is

something I want to encourage us. So let's study this a little bit deeper,

okay, And we're gonna go into We're going to move into the episodes.

I know I'm moving here and then, but I want to give you

an understanding right from the very start. Matthew nine, Matthew ten. And

then now we are going to Second Corinthians chapter five, Versus eleven, and

I'm going to read all the way to chapter six, verse two. Okay,

eyon with me, let's do this verse eleven says, because we understand,

and it's entitled we are God's ambassadors. Okay, because we understand our

fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows

we are sincere and I hope you know this. Two. Are we commending

ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be

proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular

ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy,

it is to bring glory to God, and if we are in our right

minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us.

Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we

have all died to our own life. He died for everyone, so that

those who received his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead,

they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So

we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view, and one time

we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view, how differently we

know him now. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a

new person. The old life is gone, the new life has begun.

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to

himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to

him. For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer

counting people's sins against them, and he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

Were christis ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak

for Christ when we plead come back to God. For God made Christ,

who never sin, to be the offering for our sin so that we could

be made right. We've got thrue Christ as God's partners. We beg you

not to accept this marvelous gift of God's kindness and then ignore it. For

God says, at just the right time I hurt you, on the day

of salvation, I help you. Indeed, the right time is now.

Today is the day of salvation, I pray. As we read these scriptures,

we firstly are able to link our salvation with our purpose. Because there

is a purpose we are safe to serve. That is something that we cannot

forget. But here we see one of the things some people find objectionable about

Christians is that they will not keep their religions to themselves right. They insist

on everybody else coming this same path the same way, which is why people

dread. Sometimes you go to a new office and then suddenly you sit next

to this person in a cubicle and the first cubicle has got cross and got

all sorts of prayer, and you're like, oh man, whatever, I've

got myself into all you I don't know. You go to a new neighborhood

and your next door neighbor and no one has got a crucifix right in the

yard, and you'll be like, oh man, And people sometimes find that

offensive. Why do Christians do this? Why can we not just rest content

with our own faith? They do your own thing like you, you say,

really, okay, no problem, carry on, life goes on.

Why do we insist that we have to persuade men and women to accept Christ?

Why are we always going outside our church just instead of just staying in

it. Of course someone ws we like, I actually like staying it,

But no, actually we are caught go outside because the instruction is the goal.

And Paul gives two reasons, two motives why Christians do what they do.

Firstly the fear of the Lord and secondly the love of Christ. That

is why we do it. These two things go together, they are not

separated. Just go out. Just to go out and seek to persuade people

through the love of Christ is not enough, and just to do it through

the fear of the Lord alone is also not enough. By fear of the

Lord, we don't mean that we cringe, know and we start to coll

and start to shiver in terror of God that no, He's going to pack

us up and all throw us onto Hell if we don't go out and preach

to others. That's not the kind of fear that we are talking about.

The one thing that we aim to do in life is to please Christ,

and we are afraid of therefore displeasing him. People may say, well,

aren't you afraid of displeasing people? Yes, we are. Nobody wants to

offend others, nobody wants to upset others. And really it's not my role

and my responsibility to come out every Sunday just to make your feel uncomfortable,

to make your feel offended. Sometimes we can do that when we are sharing

God's word out of obedience, but we are more afraid of Jesus, more

afraid of displeasing him by not telling others about him. That is the fear

of God that we are talking about here, and this is the motive that

overrides all other motives. We would hate to break the heart of the one

who loves us so much. The only reason He has left us in this

world after we have become Christians is so that we might do a job so

that we might serve Him, which was to tell the whole world about him.

That is my genuine belief why we are still here even after salvation.

Because a lot of us can say save ready, go home, right,

But we are safe and we are still here. That means there has to

be something for us to do right, something for us to have purpose for.

And that is the fear that we have. But if it were the

only motive for one thing to persuade everybody to become Christian, it would be

wrong. It will also be distorted. We know it is matched with the

motive of the love of Christ compelling us. They go hand in hand.

We know the fear of the Lord. Therefore we persuade, and it is

the love of Christ that controls us. Thereafter it is both. We don't

want to break his heart because he loves us, and his love compels us

to go out and love others. That is why we do what we do,

or at least we have to do what we are supposed to do.

If you go out, when you talk about your religion, people will say

straight away you are a maniac gilla. How many of you ever experienced that

before? I can tell you this is one of the main reasons why people

are afraid to evangelize. Is usually more often than not, the fear of

rejection. That's one thing, right, Hey, take your thing and go

home and play far far or this or this one is Halley, Lujah,

Holy Joe. You'll be labeled a mania. And Paul is telling the Chorean

church here, I don't mind if you think I'm mad, because I'm mad

for God. And at one point Jesus was thought to be mad. Do

you realize that a carpenter who thought that he could convert the whole world,

that's a mad man talking right in our point of view? And Paul had

the same difficulty because when he was on trial for his life, he stood

there in the witness dog and then he started talking to the king on the

throne. He said, King Agrippa, I want to talk to you about

Jesus. You know these things are true, don't you. You have heard

about Jesus. And this is a whole court room scene actually, but in

the reverse here is a man in the dog telling the judge all about Jesus

and King Arpa us like, dude, I think you study too much.

You're a big cuckoo. You are man, he says, And Paul stated,

whether I'm mad or not, I wish that everybody was just like me,

crazy right crazy. But this is what Paul is essentially saying. The

fear of the Lord and the love of Christ will lead you to do things

that some people may say you are man, But we do them because the

love of Christ and the fear of the Lord compels us to do it.

You see, the love of Christ controls us because we discovered that love at

the Cross, and everybody discovers the love of Christ. There there is not

one believer who can say that I did not discover the love of Christ at

the Cross. Do you think the cross is just a symbol of torture?

Do you think it's just something there for us to wear around our necks.

No, if you really want to know if Jesus loves you, then go

to the cross and look at it and say he did it for me,

because the love of Christ compels us. Because when we look at the cross

we see that not only was I involved. That mean it's not just you

personally, But then you will realize that he died for or when you seek

to persuade someone else to be a Christian, you remember that they are already

involved weak Christ because he died for oh not just me, yes, me,

But oh so, why did Jesus die in the cross? Well?

I believe it is to promote a personal revelue in everybody's life, so that

the center of our thinking, our feeling, our behavior is no longer the

capital I, because that's what is usually the case, but is now shifted

towards Jesus. Since Jesus died, the purpose of every human life on earth

and a kid you know when I say this with confidence, is to live

for Him, not for self. You see, by nature I am self

centered, and so are you. You may do good things for your children

or other people, for your neighbor, but deep down inside the center of

your life is the number one me. Even when we do things for our

children, that's usually vested interests. It's normal. We are self centered people.

And it is very significant significant that God actually says, I am the

I am, and you are not. That's what God says about That's how

he labeled himself. I am there, I am. If you study the

scriptures, you will realize that's how he refers to himself. And you are

not. And your life is now intended to be lived not for self but

for Christ. And how can you live with someone at the center of your

life who is dead and gone? You wonder, which is why he says,

One died for all. Therefore all died. I'm breaking it down so

that we can see it and we can understand it. He died for all

that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who

for their sake died and was raised. He is alive today. Now let's

let's go a little bit further. Let's go further some more. Having explained

what the motive is, and white Christians just will not keep their faith to

themselves by talking to others about Jesus, Let's look at the message. Because

you can't just be right you need to have the message with you. What

is the message? You see? Human beings are always judging each other.

We look at each other and we judge at the human level. He is

good, he is bad. He's normal, she's average. It's a normal

thing that we go through. We say all these things. But when you

have been to the cross, you don't judge people from a human point of

view any longer. You look at the man and you look at this person,

and you don't look at the clothes that he's wearing. You don't look

at what kind of qualification he or she has. You don't look at the

size of his or her bank account. You don't look at any of these

things anymore. You see someone for whom Jesus died for, and so you

no longer regard them from a human point of view. You see them from

Jesus' point of view. And it is a revolution in our outlook if we

can look at people that way. But that is how God wants us to

look at people, not through our own lenses, but through his lenses.

You just see sinners for whom Jesus died for, Which is the thing that

makes all human beings equal. Remember this, we are not equal in dignity.

We are actually equal in depravity, but we are capable of dignity.

There is potential of dignity within us. But in essence we are all equal

in depravity. That means we are all wrong. Not so much we are

all great, which is how sometimes the world wants to teach us and tell

us. But we are all wrong. And there was a time when perhaps

we even judge Jesus from a human point of view, because Paul said that

he used to know he looked at Jesus that way. What kind of man

is this? You know? And he came to certain conclusions. There were

people who looked at Jesus when he was here on earth, and they look

at him from a human point of view, and then they will say he

is just a carpenter, and they were wrong, because a carpenter can't raise

the day. A carpenter can't heal the sick. He can only make coffins

for the day and maybe baits for the sake. That's the reality of it.

But you can look at Jesus and judge him as a human being,

and I'm sure you will come to a conclusion that he was a great human

being. A lot of people do that. Actually, in fact, most

people will acknowledge that Jesus was an awesome human being. But that's not going

to change your life. We no longer look at Jesus or anyone else from

a human point of view. That is what he is telling, what Paul

is telling the current church. Because Christ has died for all and he is

the universal savior. We see no one as too far gone for Jesus to

be saved. We see nobody disqualified from repenting and believing. Sometimes we can

look at some persons and say we all come. No one cannot save gone.

Really, but that's not how we are to look. When we look

at people through the lens of Christ means everyone, everyone deserves to know Christ

and therefore be given the chance and the opportunity to respond to His goodness.

And that's why Paul is challenging us. He's challenging us in that way because

He died for all. He is our universal savior. You can go to

anyone at all and you can say, Jesus love you enough to die for

you, and that person is capable of becoming a new man, a new

person, a new creature in Christ. Jesus and that's why Paul is challenging

us. How do you look at people? Now? If any man is

in Christ, he is a new creation. This is all of God.

This is all of God. Because only God can create. Only God can

make something brand new. Only God can create something out of nothing. Only

God can make somebody out of nobody. And we see that in Scripture.

And that is the definition of a Christian, a person who is in Christ.

We are little christ little Christians. You may go to church, you

may sing hymns, you may sing your prayers from time to time. You

may even read your Bible and try to be kind to everybody. But that

does not make you a Christian. You're still the same old person trying to

do better. You're still the same old man, the same old woman.

But when you step into Christ, and when you live in Christ, and

when He starts to dwell and live in you, you are a new creation.

All things have passed away. And how does it all start? How

does God create a new life in me? It begins by being reconciled to

God. And that's a funny word, right, reconcile. When you need

to use the word reconcile, you are usually implying that there is an enemy

at hand, and basically we are an enemy. We've God that God is

your enemy and you are his enemy. And that's why the word reconcile simply

means to turn enemies into friends, and that is what God is doing,

True Christ, Jesus. By nature, we don't like God, that's the

reality. We might go to church out of a sense of duty, but

not because we love him. We dislike him telling us what to do.

We want to make our own decisions. We don't like the word. We

find it so boring, so much words. Can he get straight to the

point? But no, he left us sixty six books, mind boggling books.

We find it so challenging and we just don't want to read it.

It is so difficult to persuade men and women to accept the love of God.

But what about God? What about God? A God who loved the

world? Is he therefore an enemy of men? And the scripture says no,

But he is an enemy of sin. He hates it and he's very

angry with it. We've got to remember that it is as ever you spend

a lot of loving care creating something, just put yourself in God's shoes.

You put in so much effort, you created something out of nothing, and

then before you know it, some vandal comes and starts to smash it all

up and spouse it. How would you feel? And that is what we

have done to God's world, and he hates it, and his rough shows,

his anger shows. It shows in the permissiveness in our society today.

It shows in sometimes how blatant evil is just more and more open. That

is the reality. Or you read the news today and it's very rare that

you read good news in the news. Now, somehow that must all be

dealt with. The glorious good news I have got for you is this,

God found a way to take away He's enmity. That means his hatred in

his heart against our sin. He found a way, and that way was

the Cross. And therefore, as Christians, people in whom Christ lives in,

we become ambassadors send from a royal throne to tell others that there is

an offer of peace from God. Now, that is what we are carrying

with us. That is what it means to be an ambassador. You see,

you may have forgotten the wrong things you have done, but God never

does know. He doesn't forget until he forgives. And here we are told

God has found a way of dealing with us in peace. He says,

we can't forget all that. Now I'm offering you peace and I want to

be your friend. You see, this word ambassador is a lovely word because

in the Roman Empire and ambassador man someone who is appointed by the emperor to

go to a conquered nation and then offer them terms of peace. If they

accepted them, then this ambassador will go back to the Emperor and say that

nation has now joined the Roman family. We're all together because they accepted the

terms of peace. Of course, if they don't don't accept it, then

we know it's not very peaceful after della, But this is it. We

are ambassadors for Christ and we are essentially saying, on behalf of the King

of Kings, we come and we offer you peace. Come and join the

family. And that is what an ambassador does. That is what Christians do.

You see my role, Your role as an ambassador is to say we

reconcilt to God, accept the offered friendship. The barrier on his side is

gone at the cross. He can now overlook everything wrong you have done.

He can now forgive and forget, and you can accept his love. And

of course you are wondering, how can he do such a thing. And

we now come to the heart of this passage. I'm breaking down the scripture

because five verse twenty one says this Jesus was perfect, he knew no sin,

and that was the verdict of everyone. Think about it, everyone who

met him. And if you study his life and you will find out no

matter how much you want to find fault with him, you'll be disappointed.

You know. I've read of countless testimonies of different ones, especially lawyers.

If you read some of the books, The Case for Christ, the Case

for Faith. These are either legal journalists or lawyers who have gone out to

try to find evidence to disprove Jesus, find evidence to disprove the veracity or

the truth of the Bible, and more often than not, if not all

the time, they will come to a conclusion. Lawyers will come to a

conclusion that the evidence is clear that Jesus is faultless, just from their studying

of the evidence is something they can't deny. Of course, David, not

all of them will say, I will follow after him, but they will

not deny the fact that this is someone who walked the earth blameless, and

there is the verdict of everyone. At the end of your search, you

will have to say at his trial, if you are putting Jesus on the

trial, I'll find no fault in him. In fact, that was what

the pontest pilot initially said, I find no fault in this man. It

was not just the verdict of man. It was the verdict of Satan.

Even the devil who tried to slender him couldn't find anything to pin on him.

And you know, the devil will pin anything, absolutely anything on anyone

just to make you wrong. But even the devil couldn't do anything like that.

It was also the verdict of his enemies. It was the verdict of

his friends. And you know what is also the verdict of Jesus himself,

because he asked, which of you convict me of sin? A perth all

it was the verdict of God, the father of Jesus. This is my

son whom I am well pleased. And for the first time in all history,

God looked down from heaven and he saw one perfect life lived on earth

from beginning to the end. That is why we see something so amazing.

You know, how can he do such a thing. Well, he was

perfect and he knew no sin. The second thing is this, Jesus was

put to death as the worst criminal on earth. What was happening? Why

did God allow such a perfect life to end like that? Was Jesus assassinated?

Sometimes we ask no, No, it wasn't anything like that, because

it was Jesus who chose to go to Jerusalem and die. Why. Because

at the cross you see two things. You see sinlessness and sin in the

same person. Him who knew no sin was made sin by God. You

see, God the Father treated Jesus, his son, like a sinner.

Jesus was going to have to face God's wrath, God's anger, God's condemnation.

I want you to understand that God the Father was treating Jesus as God's

holiness must treat a sinner. He who knew no sin he made to be

sin. Why And the fact number three is this that we may become righteousness

of God. You see, it is a totally unfair exchange. But it

is as though Jesus now says to us, I took your sin, Will

you have my righteousness? I took all your badness Will you have my goodness?

I took all of God's anger, Will you have his love? And

then is why everybody in your town, everybody in your city, everybody in

your workplace, everybody in your schools. They are all involved in the cross

because he died for all. But it doesn't work automatically. Right. If

it were automatically, then we all can be saved and go home. Also,

a person needs to remove the hostility in their hearts and accept this reconciliation,

this peace of God. Get right with God now. And you,

when you read the scriptures, you will notice that there is a sense of

urgency about this whole thing. I pray we have a scriptural understanding of why

we do what we do, because since Jesus died, you can get right

with God. So now is the day Scripture is telling us. Now is

the day we are living in it. We don't need to wait as they

had to wait in the days of the Old Testament. They were waiting for

the promise to come. They were waiting for the promise to be kept.

They were waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. But Scripture now tells us

that now is the day of salvation. Nobody needs to have any unforgiven sin

on their conscience. But if now now is the day of salvation, then

there will come a day when it will be too late. That is the

reality of it. We live in a day when people can get right with

God and love him as He loved them. And that's why we always say

that the period in which we are living in today is the period where Jesus

is our savior. He is the God who saves, the God who salvages

our life, the God who takes what is broken, mens it and makes

it whole. There will come a day when Jesus will return, and he

will no longer return as a savior. He will return as a judge.

Let's not wait till he returns as a judge, because we are living now

now is the time of salvation. That is what earth is being said should

really mean to how we should carry on living our lives. It's not just

so that I can label myself as a Christian so that on the icy i'm

a Christian. I go to church on Sunday and life goes on and there

is nothing else. No, but I believe we are safe to serve God,

and we serve Him by loving him and loving one another. That is

the commandment that fulfills every single law. And we know that Jesus showed us

the way when he says, I have come therefore to fulfill every single law

on behalf of you. If only you put your hope and you're trusting me,

I will impart, and I will therefore impart my righteousness upon your life

and with dead, just that when we put our trust in him, He

says, now I see someone who is right justify by our faith, someone

who is made right not by what we have done, but by what he

has done. It's crazy. It sounds so simple, but yet we all

know it's not that simple as well, right because it takes a commitment.

It's not so much God, thank you so much for your grace. I

receive it, and therefore I can do whatever I want in my life right

now. No, you're receiving it, and you're saying, God, thank

you for your grace. And now I know that I don't have to do

anything to get to heaven. But because I know I am on my way

to heaven, I will do all things right for you, and I will

reach out to those who I'm supposed to reach. I will love those I'm

supposed to love, and I will go out and continue to share the love

of God far and right. Now is the day he's talking. He's speaking

to you now, and therefore, as ambassadors for Christ, I plead with

you. Except firstly, he's peace offering while it is still being offered,

because that is the first step that all may know when we say, thank

you Jesus for that peace offering, and I accept it. And when you

have accepted it, you also accepted the man day to be an ambassador for

Christ. Because now he has already done that new work in us. And

therefore we go out and share with the world who Jesus is, what he

has done for us, and what he can do for you. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information on our church,

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We're believing that this week is going to be a good week. I

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