The Ministry of Reconciliation

Well, all of us know that we attend this congregation of the United Church of God. That's the name, the corporate name, that we use. And I wonder if we fully understand or benefit from the value of thinking of the fact that God is wanting us to truly be united. He really wants that. Now, to try to get all of us with our different brains and our different activities and the different things that each one of us bring to the table, and for all of us to be united, takes work.

It takes work. It takes effort. We have, in a sense, a governing board, the Council of Elders. They all are looking to Jesus Christ as the head of the church, as each one of us individually should also do. And yet, whenever they get together, they discuss things. They have different points of view, different things that perhaps needs to be brought up. But at the end of the meeting, well, then we're going to agree on what the bulk of the people there thought would be the right approach.

We're going to be cooperative. We're going to live in peace. I want us to look at Ephesians chapter 4 because you have Paul's statement about how it is the body is supposed to work. And I only want to focus on a couple of verses here.

We could go through the whole chapter, which is actually very helpful. But it says in verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. I beg you, I appeal to you, I plead with you to lead a life worthy of the calling which you have been called.

And see, that, of course, is what we should all be desiring to do. He goes on in verse 2 with all humility and with gentleness and with patience, for bearing with one another. You know, that's all going to be a requirement of doing what it says in verse 3. Making every effort. I think your King James or new King James says, Endeavoring. Endeavoring is a process. It is a... it's not something that just happens. Just, you know, it's just like, you know, if you're on a log out in the lake, you probably will fall off, you know, for too long.

Endeavoring means putting forth effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, that's what I want us to think about today. What does it mean to endeavor? To keep the unity of the Spirit. And how do we go about doing that? See, we're drawn together to be a part of the Church of God today, and we meet together on a regular basis every week, and then on the Holy Days. And yet, each of us have a responsibility to achieve what it says in verse 2 and 3, to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit.

So we want to think about how do I go about doing that. And Dr. Ward, as the chairman of the Council of Elders sent out, just in notifying we were having a meeting, he went through some information. That's really important, and that we want to continue to focus on. He talked about how that unity is not just saying that we're united, because often, you know, we can do that, and we often even want to do that. And yet, just saying you're united doesn't achieve what this is talking about, because unity is of the heart. It's of the mind. It's of the Spirit.

And as he would go ahead and explain in the letter that he sent a couple of weeks ago, living by the weightier matters of the law, as we've mentioned, judgment and mercy and faith, or as it says in Micah, to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. See, living by the weightier matters of the law is the key to true unity and peace among all parties. And so, what I want to talk about today is actually living the ministry of reconciliation, because that's really what this talks about.

In 2 Corinthians, we, I think, read one of these verses last time, but I want to read 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It goes through Paul's description, actually chapter 4 and 5. In essence, talk about how it is that Satan has messed the world up, he has caused everything to be divided, he's taught everything to be confused and deceived, and all of us are a part of that deception. We have been. God has mercifully brought us out of that.

But here in chapter 5, starting in verse 18, and talking about how God wants us to be a new creation. In verse 18, all of this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself. See, that's what every one of us needed. That's what we all still need. Reconciling ourselves to God or God, reconciling us to Him through Jesus Christ, that's an ongoing process. That begins when God starts working in our mind and bringing us to an awareness of our need for Him. But he goes on, who reconciled God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, He has given us a ministry of reconciliation. We have, you know, that responsibility. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world. He's reconciling not only us, He's ultimately going to reconcile as many sons and daughters who will choose to be a part of His divine family. He is reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, but entrusting to us the message or the word of reconciliation. See, reconciliation is a process. It's a drawing together of two that are separate into a union, a oneness, a unity that comes from wanting to be really close to God. And of course, we can read other verses. Maybe we should read Romans chapter 5 because it tells us that Romans chapter 5, down in verse, I'm not going to read through all of this, but in Romans 5 verse 10 it says, for if while we were enemies, so obviously we were separated from God, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, we'll be saved by His life.

So clearly, whenever you read through the verses that you see in the New Testament about being reconciled and being in unity, well, that comes from understanding what God did.

So we want to take a look, and this is a part of what Dr. Ward did go over in the letter. I'm sure all of you read that. And yet it's important to focus on just how that judgment and mercy and faith, the weightier matters of the law, are a framework for reconciliation.

As we've read here in Corinthians and in Romans, there are some steps to our personal relationship and reconciliation with God. Steps that we have to take to be reconciled to God and to Jesus Christ. Now, you could say there are three, maybe four steps here, but it's important for us to be reminded of those and to see that, well, this is not something that I made up.

This is something that God says that He is reconciling us to Himself. He doesn't want us to be separated because of our sins. He wants us to be reconciled and to be in true unity with Him.

So first of all, and again, these were things that were mentioned by Dr. Ward, but I want us to go over them. First of all, we have to judge ourselves by God's immutable spiritual law.

If you don't do that, and that, of course, is why many religions, including religions that claim to be Christian, often where they fall down is that they miss the first point altogether.

You know, they are not judging themselves by the law of God. We had a sermonette about how we, you know, have a basis for obeying God and honoring His Word and honoring His law and not disregarding it. Whenever you read in Romans 8, it says, in the natural carnal mind, His hostile to God and His law just isn't compatible. Now, thankfully, all of us have modified carnal fleshly minds. We still have carnal fleshly minds, but they've been modified. We are no longer hostile to God's law, to His lead and His rule over our lives.

You know, we often cover this point judging ourselves by God's law. We cover that every Passover. If you read 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28, and verse 31, and verse 32, it says that we are to be examining ourselves, and it says if we judge ourselves, then we would not be judged. And so clearly, that's, you know, that's a part of how it is that God brought about the beginning of reconciliation with Him for each one of us. By helping us realize, you know, I have to judge myself according to God's divine work, His law.

And of course, you can look at Luke 18, Luke 18, verse 9, and down through verse 13 is a parable that Jesus gave of the Pharisee and the publican. Maybe we could look back at that, because there's a stark contrast that is made here between an obviously hostile to God mind and one that was softening toward God, because that's really the description you find comparing the Pharisee with the publican. Jesus told this parable in verse 9, in Luke 18.

He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt. See, it wasn't just that they, talking about the Pharisees, they thought that they were righteous. They despised others. They wanted to put others down. They wanted to restrict others. So He says, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, one a tax collector or publican. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying, thus, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I'm not like other people, those thieves, those rogues, those adulterers, even like this publican, this tax collector.

He said, I'm righteous. I fast twice in a week. I give a tithe of all I possess.

So He was quite proud of His obedience. He was proud of His righteous life.

He wasn't judging himself by the law. He wasn't judging himself by seeing His sin as defined by the spiritual law of God. But it says in verse 13, the publican standing afar off wouldn't even look up to heaven. Well, he was beating his breast and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. See, he was willing to recognize that he was a sinner.

And that, of course, is an extremely important aspect. He says, I tell you, this publican went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee.

Because he says, those who exalt themselves, those who trust in themselves that they are righteous, are going to be humbled. And everyone who is willing to humble themselves by judging themselves by the law of God, then all the humble will be exalted. See, Jesus' parables are magnificent. He clearly knew not only what to say, he knew what the purpose of saying something is.

And he was able to make an illustration that is extremely important. So, as far as steps in our personal reconciliation to God and to Jesus Christ, first of all, we had to judge ourselves and see that we needed forgiveness.

That we were sinners, and that because of that, we had earned debt. We had earned the great. That's all we earned in our lifetime. Secondly, of course, as far as another step, is heartfelt repentance and crying out to God for His mercy.

Now, you see, that exemplified many different places, and I won't even go to the numerous ones that show that we're told, well, turn from your sins. Maybe we could look at Acts 19, or excuse me, Acts 3. Verse 19, this was shortly after the day of Pentecost. This is in chapter 3, and so it was after the church had begun. But in this case, Peter was talking as well.

And in verse 17, he says, friends, I know that you have acted in ignorance. You really didn't know what you were doing, as neither did your rulers. But in this way, God fulfilled what He had foretold through the prophets, that His Messiah would suffer. So he was pointing out that, well, Jesus died for your sins. And so in verse 19, what you need to do is repent. Repent and be converted. Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah appointed for you, who is Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago by His holy prophets. See, here Peter summarizes the message of the kingdom of God. You need to recognize that you ignorantly were sinning.

You need to repent and turn to God. Repent and be converted. See, that's what God has been, you know, extremely gracious in extending to us not only a knowledge of how we should judge ourselves by His law, but then knowing what we can do. And sometimes, you know, a repentant heart or a repentant attitude is one that is softened. It's one that is, in a sense, remorseful, and it's one that is willing to be lit. But are we that way all the time? Well, unfortunately, we get hardened.

Unfortunately, and I see this in myself, I don't feel that closeness and yieldedness to God all the time. I hate that whenever that's the case. And that bothers me, it troubles me that I get hardened or kind of slack. I actually felt that way yesterday. Didn't feel very good. Felt terrible, really. I feel a little better today because being able to come and see you all. But, see, this is what Peter said, repent and be converted. Be repentant, turned. And of course, in 1 John 1, verse 9, it talks about how God is faithful to those who will recognize and confess their sins.

1 John 1, verse 9, if we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just.

So does He hold that against me, that I confess my sins or that any of us confessers? No.

Says that's clearly what you need. You need a softened heart. You need a desire to draw close to God. You need forgiveness. So He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and He will cleanse us of our unrighteousness. Now, see, that's the beginning of the process that we read about as far as personal justification or reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

We judge ourselves against the law. Secondly, we repent. We repent and we seek God's forgiveness, and clearly He extends that cleansing. And of course, He tells us that His forgiveness is extended to us as we also learn to extend forgiveness to others. Now, the more we understand our need for forgiveness, the better we are going to be desirous of expressing God's attitude of being forgiving toward others. And finally, upon repentance and faith and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, ultimate mercy from God is extended. Now, He wants us to be happy. He wants us to be uplifted. He wants us to be stable. And that's why what we read in 2 Corinthians 5, He is reconciling the whole world. Bit by bit, He's beginning with a few. He must have started with the toughest nuts to crack. He started with us. He started dealing with us, and we are so thankful for that. And He's going to continue to bring people because we have the message of reconciliation. That's what we teach. That's what the Bible says. So, as we can lay that as a groundwork here for what I also want to add to this about living the ministry of reconciliation, you know, how we see how we're reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

How can that same thing be applied to resolving offenses with one another, resolving differences with one another, and reconciling issues so that we truly have unity that is from the heart, unity that is from the heart and the mind and the spirit with even one another? You know, in Matthew 5, I want to read this.

Matthew chapter 5, and again this is a part of Jesus' sermon on the Mount, but it's only a very tiny part of it. But he says, starting in verse 23, so when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, then leave your gift there before the altar and go and first be reconciled to your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift. That's talking about personal reconciliation. That's talking about, as Dr. Ward mentions in his letter, now we've struggled with this for a long time. We have not been successful in the Church of God to fully achieve this, otherwise we wouldn't have some of the problems that we deal with today. But certainly, what Jesus describes is for our benefit.

Be reconciled to your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift.

Now, in order to do that, we've got to follow the same type of pattern that God followed in reconciling each of us to Him. We have to look at the weightier matters of the law. We have to look at exercising judgment and mercy and faith in our relationships with one another. See, that's beyond what we generally like to do. We generally like to think I'm right and whatever somebody else thinks must be wrong. That's what we generally like to do. But see, this has to do with husbands and wives. It has to do with brethren. It has to do with parents and children. It has to do with our personal relationships in every aspect. Now, is everyone that we might have a conflict with, are they going to be trying to do the same thing? Well, surely not. You know, some people, you know, wouldn't even consider making any kind of change. There's hardly anything you can do about that. But at least if it's going to be talking about us as brethren and how we can exercise the weightier matters of the law in our relationship with one another, then we want to apply what it says. First of all, as we mentioned earlier, the conflict, whatever it is, the offense or the transgression, however you want to describe it because the Bible uses different words for that, conflicts must be defined and a judgment made. See, again, defined according to the law, defined according to how it is that God says, you know, we are to live. I want us to look at Luke chapter 6. This is in Matthew, but I happen to write down the one here in Luke, so I will try to go to that. Here in Luke chapter 6, he says in chapter 6, maybe we could start in verse 39, tell them a parable, and he says, can a blind person guide a blind person?

Won't they both fall in the ditch? He says, his disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.

And so, again, why is it that we want to follow God's method of reconciling us to Him whenever we try to be reconciled to one another? Well, here in verse 41, it tells us that we have to judge ourselves. We have to judge ourselves before we can make a right judgment and even define what the conflict might be. Why do you, in verse 41, see the speck in your neighbor's eye?

But you don't notice the log that's in your own. How can you say to your neighbor, friend, let me take that speck out of your eye when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye?

He says, you hypocrite, Jesus said this, you first take the log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.

See, that is judging ourselves in personal reconciliation with one another.

That, in a sense, seeing the problem somebody else has, or what we think they have, that's not near as critical as seeing the speck or the log in our own eye. So, we want to define a conflict, or a difference, or offense, and make a judgment based on God's words, which He says we need to judge ourselves. Secondly, of course, mercy needs to be extended.

We have to be full of mercy. If we're going to be forgiven by God, well, then we're going to need to be forgiving toward others.

But I want to focus on mercy here. Matthew 5, in the Beatitudes, you see a listing of the attitudes that Jesus is going to honor and that He obviously clearly personified at all times.

He was merciful toward others. People were brought to Him who needed healing.

There were blind men who came to Jesus and He said, what do you want me to do?

And He said, Lord, be merciful on us. We'd like to see. And Jesus was, of course, always merciful.

But in Matthew 5, verse 7, He said, blessed are the merciful, for they shall be extended mercy. See, in resolving a personal conflict or offense, we have to judge ourselves.

We have to live the desire to extend mercy because we understand we need it.

And so, as Jesus said, blessed are the merciful because they'll be given mercy.

And then finally, if you have those two steps, then you're going to have the potential for forgiveness and reconciliation. See, ultimately, that mercy being extended and forgiveness being, in a sense, a way of life, it produces or leads to reconciliation. In Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13, you see again the basis of the law here that we want to live by. Romans chapter 13, Paul's giving a lot of instructions here toward the end of the book of Romans. Obviously, these people who lived in Rome, they lived in the world capital at that time. The Roman Empire ruled the world. And the Roman system was one that was predominant everywhere, and the church had to stand out. It had to stand out because it was being punished, it was being persecuted. They needed to draw close together.

But what Paul says in verse 8 applies to the need for forgiveness.

He says, "...I don't know of one anything except to love one another.

For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." See, that's how we achieve success in fulfilling the law.

Judging ourselves, being merciful, and extending forgiveness creates a reconciliation that fulfills the law. He says, "...the commandments, you shall not commit adultery or murder or steal, you shall not covet, you shall any other commandment..." They're all summed up in this word, love your neighbor as yourself.

And so love does no ill or no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

That's how if we focus on the weightier matters of the law, judging ourselves, extending mercy, and walking in faith, walking in forgiveness creates reconciliation, even among what we might think would be lesser offenses, or at least we hope they are lesser offenses. But nonetheless, offenses that sometimes divide us, sometimes adversely affect our interpersonal relationships, because we're not following what God says about living a message of reconciliation. In a sense, that should be, and of course, in this letter that we all got, it mentioned, are we doing what is needed to live and to fulfill the ministry of reconciliation that has been committed to us? It's not just our message to the world, which is, yes, that's God's message, but it's God's message to us to live the ministry of reconciliation with one another and live the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith.

I think we can conclude this. I want those two things to tie together because, you know, it's important that we be reminded that, well, trying to create unity just by saying we're united and yet being divided in our heart, that's not real unity. That's somewhat of a very limited unity. It might create togetherness for a little while, but to have a true unity that comes from God, well, then that unity is going to have to be based on the Word of God, going to be based on what God says to do. And then as we learn to do it or as we follow what God says, then we find that God is able to unite us. He's able to draw us close together in love, as it describes here, and in fulfilling the law by being his loving family and children.

So, in closing here, I want us to look at Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, of course, you can read many of these statements that Paul makes in Galatians or Ephesians or Philippians or Colossians, all of them directed two different congregations, or Thessalonians even, two different books there. And you can read, see directives. You can see what he says to do. He doesn't always explain about how to do it, but living the weightier matters of the law is the right formula to bring about reconciliation. But here in Colossians chapter 3, he says in verse 12, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, you should clothe yourselves with compassion and with kindness and with humility and meekness and patience. And so here we're clearly told what Jesus is like, what we are to become like, the mind that we're to have, bearing in verse 13, with one another. And if anyone has a complaint against another, if there is an offense, if there is a difference, if there is a point of stumbling or discouragement or distress, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other. Forgive each other just as the Lord has forgiven you, you ought to forgive. And above all, verse 14, clothe yourself with love. Clothe yourself with love, which binds everything together in perfect unity, perfect harmony. Harmony seems to be close to unity, being unified, truly being unified in the heart and mind and spirit, as opposed to just saying we're together. If we're together and we're not really united, then we won't eventually be together. We will drift apart. But we want to follow God's divine Word. We want to live by the Word of God. Of course, you can go on here. It's as if we truly learn to do this, this personal reconciliation with God, and apply that to our personal reconciliation with one another. Verse 15, the peace of Christ will rule in your heart, to which indeed you are called in the one body. And be thankful that the Word of Christ will in you richly teach you to admonish one another in all wisdom, with gratitude in your hearts sing hymns and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God. Whatever you do, murder, deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. See, now again, Paul has the answers. He does understand with the mind of God what God wants us to do. But it is again up to us to apply His Word to the interpersonal relationships that we have where that all should be based in love, and yet need to exercise judgment and mercy and faith in order to truly be reconciled to one another. So God encourages us to grow in understanding the message that we're extending to the world, but in living the reconciliation that He wants for us to be able to live toward one another.