2 Corinthians 5 - Part C

He started seeing people differently. He didn't see them as clients. He didn't see them as just people who could benefit him. He saw them as souls, souls who are either right with God or not right with God.

His whole world view began to change, and so he sought to persuade men. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip shares a teaching encouraging you to live passionately for Jesus, like Paul did, and change how you view those around you. But first, here's a resource that gives you a comprehensive look at everything the Bible says about the last days. The Book of Acts says we need to understand the days we live in and how we should be spending our time, energy, and finances. The first step is information, and this month to complement Skip's series, The End is Near, we're offering the excellent Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy by Tim LaHaye and Mark Hitchcock. This 450-page hardcover book is a reference guide to what the Bible says about the end times, covering over 150 topics from Armageddon to the wrath of the Lamb. The Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy is a comprehensive survey from the world's foremost experts on biblical prophecy. Here is what Tim LaHaye said about the importance of understanding what the Bible says concerning the future. To me, the signs of the times are evident that we're in the last days.

In fact, I call them the last days of the last days. I believe that the people that had a great deal to do with the early church were the expositors of the scripture but gave Christian evidences. Why do we believe what we believe? And one of the reasons we believe what we believe is because of prophecy. This Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy is our gift to you this month when you encourage the growth of Connect with Skip with a gift of $50 or more. Make your financial vote of support at connectwithskip.com or by calling 1-800-922-1888. With the Harvest Handbook of Bible Prophecy on your desk, you'll find yourself reaching for it frequently as events in these days speed forward. Receive this excellent hardcover book with your gift.

Go to connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888. Great. Let's get started. We're in 2 Corinthians 5 as we begin today's lesson. The word that is used for judgment seat is the word beimatas. You've ever heard of the beima seat judgment? You hear preachers talk about the beima seat? It's actually the beimatas. And the beimatas was a raised platform where a governor stood. And I'll show you a picture that I took in Corinth.

So Paul is writing to the Corinthians. I know it's in the middle of the day and so it's not really great to see. But you see that little white sign on the wall?

It says beima on it. And that's where the beimatas sat. So why is that significant? Because in the book of Acts chapter 18, Paul was brought before the proconsul named Gallio of Corinth at the, it says, judgment seat. Paul stood there to be judged.

And it wasn't a judgment of life and death. It was a rendering on a civil court, rendered by a governor. And it was also the place when there were the Olympic games, in this case, the Ithsmian games that took place in Corinth that I told you about before. Whoever won and got first place stood before the beima seat and they placed a wreath, a crown on his head. It was a place where you would get rewarded. And the Bible says, don't you know that all who run in a race, they all run, but only one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may win that prize. So the beima seat, the judgment seat of Christ, is where you will stand before Christ not to get into heaven. You know, that's all taken care of.

You know that, right? Whoever believes in me, Jesus said, passes from death into life and will not face the judgment. Words of Jesus, John chapter 5, you will not face judgment.

The only judgment that you will receive is what reward you get for what you did on earth. Now get this, the rewards that He will dole out to you won't just be based on what you did. So, well, you were a preacher, you get a great reward.

No, not necessarily. In fact, you were a prayer warrior and nobody saw you, but you accomplished so much, but nobody knew it. Therefore, you didn't get any rewards on earth versus you were a preacher and yeah, you did a bunch of stuff and said a whole lot of stuff, but everybody saw you. One sense you already got a reward, but the one who never was rewarded may be rewarded more handsomely in eternity.

You get the idea that it's motivation and faithfulness to your calling. So, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, when you do a charitable deed, don't do it in such a way that everybody sees that you do a charitable deed, for verily I say you have already received your reward. But when you do a charitable deed, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.

Do it in secret. When you pray, don't stand in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men, Jesus said, for verily I say they have already received their reward. When you fast, don't shovel your face and look sad and appear to be fasting, for I already say they have received their reward. So, you can get rewarded here, but I'd rather get rewarded there. And motivation—I love this—motivation is key. You see, you might not accomplish a great deal, but you have the right motive and the right heart, and you love people, and you share the gospel with people, and you try in humility to reach them and lead them, and you're so discouraged because, well, I haven't led anyone to Christ, or I've only led one person to Christ.

They've led thousands. But you can do the small thing in the huge way, the right way, the right motive, and I think you're going to get rewarded for that. I know you're going to get rewarded for that.

You can also do the right thing in the wrong way, and if you do the right thing in the wrong way to be seen by men for the plaudence of men, for whatever motivation, you've already gotten your reward. That's why Jesus said, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where nobody can steal from you, nobody can diminish that. So that's the idea of the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciousness. The terror of the Lord is not toward believers. I am not terrified of God.

I am not scared to stand before Him. It's not going to be like the cowardly lion before the wizard of Oz. Give me some courage, shaken in my little paws, but for unbelievers it will be a terror. Here's a scripture that might help in interpreting this verse.

This is 1 Peter 4. He says, for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? So knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, I mean, we're going to be evaluated as believers for what we do and how we do it and why we do it, but I know also the terror of the Lord for those who don't know Him. Therefore, knowing that, I do everything I can to persuade people, to get them into the kingdom, to talk to them.

Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. You know, Paul, think about it, Paul could have been anything he wanted to be. He was very astute intellectually. He was very accomplished as a Jewish scholar, but he said, the things that were gained to me I counted loss, that I could be found in him not having my known righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is in Christ alone. So his motivation changed, and though he could have accomplished great things on his own or his own purpose and glory, he counted them as nothing and realigned with the purposes of God. He started seeing people differently. He didn't see them as clients. He didn't see them as just people who could benefit him. He saw them as souls, souls who are either right with God or not right with God.

His whole worldview began to change, and so he sought to persuade men. For we do not commend ourselves against again to you, but give you opportunity to glory on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who glory in appearance and not in heart. Or if we are beside ourselves, it is for God, or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. Remember I told you that the Corinthians had been infiltrated by a group of people saying, you know, don't listen to Paul. Paul's out to glorify himself. Paul doesn't really teach the truth, and the flock was being divided. And evidently some people were saying, Paul's nuts. He's beside himself. You know what that term means, beside himself? It's an ancient way of saying nuts, crazy.

It comes from the idea of a person who talks to himself. So if you see a person going down the street saying, I didn't say that. Yes, you did. I did not. You most certainly did, and I can prove it.

You can't prove it. Okay, you know the guy, he's like beside himself, right? He's acting like there's two of him, and there's only one.

That's where the concept came from. They said that Jesus was beside himself, his own family members, because he was ministering and teaching and didn't take time to eat meals properly. They thought he's beside himself.

Who but a madman would do this? Festus, the Roman procurator, accused Paul the apostle when he stood before Herod Agrippa of being beside himself. Paul, you're beside yourself. Your much learning has made you mad. So Paul lived so passionately for Jesus that people just thought, only an addled individual acts that way.

Only somebody who's one taco short of a combo plate acts that way. He has a screw loose. Your lights are on.

Nobody's home. They said that of D.L. Moody.

D.L. Moody, the evangelist from Chicago, in his early ministry was so passionate for souls that he virtually would ask everybody he met on the street, do you know Christ? Are you saved?

If not, why not? He'd ask everybody about their eternal condition. And, you know, people kind of got weary of it, and he garnered the name Crazy Moody. They all called him Crazy Moody. God, make me crazy, if that's what it is. And Paul lived with such passion. They said, oh, he's beside himself.

And Paul is alluding to that. If we're beside ourselves, it's for God. And if we're of sound mind, it is for you.

It is for you. You know, to this day, family members who are unbelievers or young believers, when another family member makes the announcement that they're leaving the United States and moving to a foreign country to do mission work, especially an impoverished country, especially an impoverished, dangerous country. I know one in particular who's a doctor, and if I mentioned his name, you'd all know who it is, so I'm not going to distract you with it.

But he's somebody who's rather famous. He has a very famous medical practice, but he gives up half of his year almost to go to the mission field, which means he has to abandon his practice in the United States when he could be making lots of money stateside. But he decided, no, this is what God called me to, to the poor and to the people who need to hear the gospel through medicine. And a lot of people just look at him and they would, any missionary, shake their head and go, you're beside yourself.

What would cause you to do that? Well, verse 14, for the love of Christ constrains us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

Now that could mean a couple of things. It could mean, number one, that Jesus' death was sufficient for all men, that he died one for all men. So when it says that if one died for all, then all died, all those who believe in him are united with him.

He could have a reference to that. Some other translations do it a little bit differently. They say we judge that if one died for all, then all are dead. If Jesus had to die on a cross for the world, it proves that the world by itself is dead apart from Christ. So there's a few different ways to interpret it.

I'm not going to try to unlock or unravel which is which. Both truths are true. Therefore, from now on, verse 16, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. I'm going to look at people differently. My worldview changes. I don't look at people as anything but potential brothers and sisters, souls in the kingdom, or souls apart from Christ. That's how he viewed the world. Saved, unsaved. Saints, aint's.

Those two groups. And he makes a reference to Christ. Before Paul was saved, he thought of Jesus was simply a human imposter, a false messiah. Now, we don't know if Saul of Tarsus ever met Jesus personally. It could be that he indeed met him. And this verse could be a reference to that, that he actually met him, but he didn't believe in him. But when he did come to believe in him, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. We know him as Lord and Savior and King of Kings. King of Kings.

Let's finish this out. Verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. One of the greatest verses in the New Testament. 87 times the New Testament says we are in Christ.

87 times. You're in union with him. You share life with him. And because you're in union with him, he died. The Bible says you died with him. He rose. The Bible says you believe in him.

You rose too. So you share his life. You share his power. You share eventually his glory.

You get a new status before him. You have a new family of believers, a new world view, a new perspective, a new set of appetites. All things have become new. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation or how to be right with God. God has given us the ministry of telling people how to be right with God. That's our ministry.

That sort of boils everything down to the irreducible minimum. Let me introduce you to Jesus. Let me tell you how you can get from earth to heaven. I don't feel right with God. Let me show you how you can be right with God.

That's the idea of reconciliation. God and humanity are at odds with each other. We are born in sin.

We are born in rebellion against God. Because of that great chasm, we all need salvation. We need reconciliation. And that comes through the blood of the cross. And God has given us that ministry of reconciliation.

It's interesting. I follow the prayer request that we get on our app pretty much every day. And in just going through it today, I noticed four, five times people were saying, pray for reconciliation in my family. Pray for reconciliation for a husband and wife.

Pray for reconciliation of parents and children. And that seems to be a common theme. We're at odds with each other. We need to be reconciled. And that's true. But greater than that, and more fundamental than that, is we all need to be reconciled with God.

And here's the thing. If this person gets reconciled with God and is right with God, and this person gets reconciled with God and right with God, it makes it a bit easier for these two people to get reconciled with each other. Because now they're brother and sister, or brother and brother, or sister and sister. They're in the same family. They look at each other and go, he's your father? Well, he's my father too.

Put it here. Let's reconcile. He's given us the ministry of reconciliation, peacemakers.

That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are, I love this, ambassadors for Christ. You're an ambassador. You go, I've always wanted to be an ambassador.

You are one. You're an ambassador of the kingdom of God. Ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. He's summing up his ministry. He's probably not writing to unbelievers in Corinth as much as summing up what he is about in this world. Pleading with people on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Now, verse 21, we close this out, is probably the greatest verse in the New Testament on substitutionary atonement. It's the gospel in a nutshell. For he, God the Father, made him who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, spotless Son of God, holy and undefiled, as it says in Hebrews, God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us.

Really? How was Jesus Christ made sin for us? Only in one sense. God treated Jesus as if he committed every sin ever committed. You know why?

Here's why. That we might become the righteousness of God and him. In other words, God the Father, on the cross, treated Jesus like Skip deserves to be treated and like you deserve to be treated, so that he could treat you and I like Jesus deserves to be treated. That's the great doctrine of substitutionary atonement. God treated Jesus as if he were a sinner, though he didn't commit a single sin. God treated Jesus as if he were guilty of every sin ever committed by everyone who would ever be saved, if you want to get really Calvinistic about it, or we could just say the whole world, so that he could treat us like Jesus. You know when God sees, looks at you, he sees Jesus? He sees the perfect righteousness of Christ because God treated Jesus that way, and Jesus took it.

Not my will, but thine be done. No wonder Jesus, who could heal and could walk on water and know people's thoughts and was God of very God, while he was on the cross, felt such utter distance from the Father and said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What would cause him to feel that? The weight of all of our sin placed on him. And for that moment, he felt what it was like to be guilty of every sin ever committed.

The good news is now he looks at us and so you go, Oh God, I'm such a failure. I love you. Yeah, but don't say yeah, but don't hide behind your yabbits.

Get rid of the yabbits. You're a child of God. You're a son and daughter of the living God. You are royalty and God sees you in Christ. Can you see why Paul was so confident in every situation?

That was his perspective. We are in Christ. God made him who knew no sin to be sinned for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That's Skip Heitzig with a message from his series Expound, 2 Corinthians, challenging you to live with total sold out passion for Jesus. Find the full message as well as books, booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. We love to partner with friends like you to share God's life changing truth with people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Through your generous gift to support this ministry and keep this program reaching you and others around our nation and all across the globe, you can take part in this life changing work today. To make a gift to help grow this ministry and continue to share God's love with more people, visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for helping change lives. Join us again tomorrow as Skip shares a teaching about depending upon and cooperating with the Holy Spirit in ministry. You see, if I'm carrying my own message or I as a preacher make up some sermon that I think is clever, some new awesome truth that I just think is, oh man, the world needs to hear what I think and what I have to say, then I'm going to degenerate to the level of just hopefully working for him. But when I confine myself to the message he has given, his word, by the power of the spirit that he supplies, his Holy Spirit, now that's powerful. That's working with him.

Far greater results. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.