Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. One of the most difficult things for people to grab is whenever you become a believer in Jesus Christ and you put your faith and trust in Him, the New Testament says you are immediately placed in Christ. And the New Testament also says you're in Christ and Christ is in you.
That's what it says. So the implications of that are where you are, Christ is. Where He is, you are.
Ephesians chapter 2, Paul tells the church of Ephesus, we're all seated in the heavenlies. You're like, how can I be in the heavenlies? I'm right here. He's there. You're in Him. You see, He's in you, you're here. You're in Him, He's there. You can take that to the bank, he said.
That's the truth. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. The judgment seat of Christ is where all believers will stand before Christ. The word judgment seat there is bima and it's the judgment seat in Greek culture of a sporting event.
And whenever you ran the race and there were rewards to be given, you went to the bima and the judge at the bima would give you a reward, usually a wreath to put on your head. He said, yeah, we're all going to appear there, he said, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Now, when you first look at that, you say, wow, he's talking about my bad stuff and my good stuff.
No, he's not. Not that way. One thing that will not come up at the judgment seat of Christ are your sins. There's a good reason they were already judged at the cross. What will come up are your deeds, ergon, works, your good things. That's what will come up.
That will come up. And he said, whether good or bad, and it doesn't mean good morally or bad morally, it means good intrinsically. Or the Greek word that is used here is the word fallos, and fallos means in a sense of wasted, an idea of something that has no value at all.
Caucus is the word that means something that's morally bad. What you and I do will be either worthy or worthless when we get to the judgment seat. Hold your place there just for a moment with me and go to First Corinthians Chapter three. I just want to remind you of these verses. First Corinthians Chapter three.
This is what he writes. Verse 12. He said, If any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, those are good things or woodhane straw. He said each man's work.
There's the word ergon again. Each man's work will become evident for the day will show it because it's also to be revealed with judgment or fire and the judgment itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work, he says, which he has built on remains, he'll receive a reward. And if any man's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss. But he himself will be saved. Yet, though, as through fire, this nothing to do with salvation. That's what Paul is saying. And you say, well, what is it?
How do you know whether your works are good or not? Chapter four, verse five in the same chapter, Paul says, Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time. But wait until the Lord comes and he will both bring the light to things hidden in darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts. And then each man's praise will come to him from God. Comes down your motive.
Christ says, whatever you did good, it's a matter of motive. I want to judge it. Did you do it for me or did you do it for you? And by the way, that's harder than you think.
It's really hard. You say, no, I do everything I do for the Lord. Maybe. But don't you like other people to know you did good things? Don't you like when someone comes up to you and says, that was wonderful. You're a great guy. You're a wonderful woman. That's wonderful.
Yeah, I am. I like that. I mean, that's the point. He says, no, you've got to do it for me at the judgment. He said, we're all going to stand there now back to the Second Corinthians. So he says we should look at this differently. He says in verse 11, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. But he said we are made manifest to God and I hope that we are made manifest also to your conscience. And what he is saying there is, look, the reason I do what I do is I I want men and women to be reconciled to God.
I do everything I can to persuade a man for this. That's a very important thing here. He said, but that's part of my service. So we we should look at suffering and death differently and we should look at our life and service differently. Thirdly, he says, we should also look at Christ.
Excuse me, ourselves differently. Notice verse 12. He says, but we are not again commending ourselves to you.
We are giving you the occasion to be proud of us so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. Now, the background of that verse is this. Paul has enemies and the people who hate Paul the most are the religious crowd. The religious Jews just hate Paul. They've stoned them. They've beaten them with rods.
They've driven them out of every city. They hate him. OK. And they really hate his message of grace. Religious people hate grace. And so they hated Paul for it. Notice how Paul describes them.
I think it's an interesting thing. He said those who take pride in their appearance. That's something when you think about it, really, religious people always look religious. They just have a look about them.
How you look means a lot. Like if I was a really religious guy, I could have quite an outfit. You know, really. And you say, oh, look at that. That guy's religious. Yeah. Look at this. Look at the stuff I'm wearing.
I mean, it's ridiculous when you think about it. I was all the way back at the time of Paul. Paul just says they take pride in their appearance, but not in their heart. He said, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. That's a funny verse. If we are beside ourselves, literally in the Greek.
Let me paraphrase it. If we look crazy. The reason I say that is in Mark, chapter three and verse twenty one, Jesus relative said this. We think he has lost his senses.
Same Greek phrase. We're beside ourselves. Paul said, look, if we look crazy to the religious crowd, it's because of God. He's asked us to look that way.
And by the way, to an awful lot of people, that's how people have relationship with Christ look. Well, that's just crazy. What do you mean? You just put your faith and trust in some guy?
He died on the cross, buried and resurrected and everything is right between you and God. Yeah. Well, that's just crazy. That's just crazy.
You got to be doing stuff. That's what Paul said. He said, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. But he said, if we are of sound mind, it's for you. There is a tremendous amount of logic in the love and grace of God.
He said, I know that to be a fact. He said, let me explain my motive for the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all. The gospel.
I'm just driven by the love of Christ. I want to tell every human being I can that one died for all. That's Paul's view. He says, notice one died for all, therefore all died and he died for all so that they, he said, who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. The idea here is the gospel. He says he died for everybody. Then he made a statement that's hard for a lot of people to understand.
He says that therefore all died. One of the most difficult things for people to grab is whenever you become a believer in Jesus Christ and you put your faith and trust in him, the New Testament says you are immediately placed in Christ. Not a believer of Christ, but you are in Christ and the New Testament also says you're in Christ and Christ is in you.
That's what it says. So the implications of that are where you are, Christ is. Where he is, you are. Ephesians chapter two. Paul tells the Church of Ephesus, we're all seated in the heavenlies.
You're like, well, how can I be in the heavenlies? I'm right here. He's there. You're in him. You see, he's in you. You're here. You're in him. He's there. Not only that, he says when the future comes, he said where he is there will you be also. So the shorty is because you're in Christ, where Christ is in the future is where you'll be in the future. You can take that to the bank, he said.
That's the truth. But he takes it a step further. He said, oh, there's one other thing I want to tell you. Where you are, he is. Where he is, you are. Where he will be, you will be. And where he was, you were.
What do you mean? When he went to the cross, you went to the cross. When he died on the cross, you died on the cross. When he was buried, you were buried. When he was raised to the newness of life, you were raised to the newness of life. And then he says in Romans six where he explains all this, he says, now consider it so.
You have to believe it. You see, one of the reasons I'm free to sin is I'm dead to sin. Sin can't enslave me anymore.
I'm not under its power anymore. I've been crucified, buried and raised with Christ. That's his point. That's why he said when one died, therefore they all died.
Amazing. He said in verse 16, therefore, now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him this way no longer. Not only do we see ourselves differently, he said, we see Christ differently. People always tell you, oh, Jesus was a really great rabbi. He was a philosopher. He was a good moral teacher. The Muslims say he was a prophet. He's an example to us all.
That's all true. But that's not what he is to me. He's God incarnate. He's the son of God. You see, he sent Paul says, look, we all knew him according to the flesh, but I don't see him according to the flesh anymore. I see him for who he is. We see Christ in a very different kind of way.
He is the substituting and toning one. He was the one who was buried and raised from the dead. I see him differently. Now we get to verse 17. After we look at suffering and death differently, we look at life and service differently. We look at ourselves differently and we look at Christ differently. Now, Paul says, therefore, having said all that, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come.
That's his conclusion. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new. The word new there is kinos. It doesn't mean a new time. It means new in quality.
That's what it means. And the word there, creature. Probably not a really good word.
Creation would be better. The word you'd have if it was creature is the word zoo on. We get the word zoo from it for animals. Zoology. Zoo on is the Greek word. We're a creature. This isn't that word.
This isn't the word zoo on at all. It's the word catisis. And catisis means creation. We're a new creation. We're not just a better version of ourselves. You see, God's not trying to say, I want to make a better version of Bill. He's a new creation. That's what you and I are. It's a true miracle is what he's saying.
It's a miracle. And think about this. If you're a completely new creation, shouldn't that make a difference in your life? That's the whole point of why I'm standing up here.
Shouldn't that make a difference in your life? You're a new creation. It says the old things have passed away. What old things?
My values, my ideas, my plans, my desires, my guilt, my anxiety, my stress. All passed away. He said that's done. You're a new creation. Then he has a great word. You sort of read over it in English, but in Greek you couldn't. He says the old things passed away, and then in English it says behold. Now, in Greek, they don't have punctuation, so you can't put exclamation points. But the word behold is triple exclamation points.
The word is edu, so it would read this way. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things passed away. Behold!
That's the way it would be. You see, it's big. Behold! New things have come. Completely new things have come. That's a fact. That word have come is the word genomai.
Genomai, what's great about it is the grammar. It's a perfect tense. And being a perfect tense, it doesn't mean it just came at that moment. It means something that came at a point in time, but the results of it coming go on forever. When he says new things have come, something came, and at that moment, those results go on forever. The moment I received Christ, it came. And the results of me receiving Christ go on forever.
You and I are new creations in Christ. You have the capacity to put the past behind you. That's why Paul said, forgetting what lies behind, I press on.
You'll forever enjoy the new things that have come. If you believe this verse, you would never say, I've always been this way. You ever done that? Fall into the same sin, same result, you know, I've always been like this. Ever since I was a little guy, I've always been like this. You're a new creation.
I can't go back to that. You see, I have to believe this to be true. Some people say, oh, I can never do that.
Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could do that. I can do all things through him that strengthens me. I'm a new creation. That's what he's trying to tell us. We are new creatures in Christ. We should look at suffering and death differently.
We should look at life and service differently. Look at ourselves differently. Look at Christ differently.
In verses 18 to 21, we should look at people differently. Paul says, Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. When you put your faith and trust in Christ, you and God have been reconciled. You've been brought together by Christ. A holy God and a sinner brought together, you've been reconciled. Not only have we been reconciled, but God's given us the ministry of reconciliation. Our job is to help other people become reconciled to God.
He says, Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
That's another thing he's told us. Last week, he told us we are witnesses for Christ. We testify what Christ has done for us. Now he says, Oh, you're an ambassador for Christ.
Think about that. You and I are ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We're messengers for Jesus Christ. We represent an ambassador, represents the country he's from. He said, Yeah, you represent me. You're my ambassador.
What a great word that is. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. He said, When you share the good news of reconciliation between a holy God and sinful men with other people, it's as though God's sharing it with them. God says, Yeah, it's because you're my ambassador. When you tell people something like this, God says, I'm right there.
It's just as though I'm talking to them. What an amazing statement that is. He said, We beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
That tells you his heart. When Paul met a person who was lost, his heart was, I beg you to accept this. I just beg you. Accept the love and grace of God. Accept the finished work of Jesus Christ.
I beg you. The consequences of the rejection are overwhelming to Paul and should be to us. He said, We beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. That's us. That's what we do. So we look at suffering and death differently. We look at life and service differently. We look at Christ differently. We look at ourselves differently. And we see people differently. And then there's verse 21. Incredible verse.
Let me state it this way. In 1347. The Mongols. They attempted to conquer. The Genoese trading post, Kaffa.
In Crimea, which is modern Ukraine. They attempt to conquer the city and they can't conquer it. And so they come up with an idea. They decided to catapult bodies of people who had died with bubonic plague over the walls of the city. So they started catapulting bodies over the walls of the city of people who had bought bubonic plague.
The people inside Kaffa panicked. And so they fled and they went all the way to Italy. With the plague.
In the next 34 years. Over 30 over 20 million people in Europe died of the bubonic plague. They just panicked. They called a pandemic. 20 million died. In 1918 and 1919, worldwide, up to 50 million people died of the flu. The greatest pandemic ever. 50 million people died in a year of the flu. Those are called the great pandemics.
But they're not even close to the worst of them all. In fact, Puritan writer Ralph Venning calls it the plague of plagues. It affects every single person who has ever lived. It is 100 percent fatal. The pandemic of sin.
Death. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. It's the greatest pandemic ever. And verse 21. Is the remedy.
It's the remedy to the worst pandemic ever upon man. John MacArthur says these 15 Greek words are some of the greatest words ever written in the New Testament. And he's right. He starts out first. Who's the benefactor? Notice the words he made him. God the father made him. He's the benefactor. God the father made him. For God so loved the world that he sent him. He is the benefactor.
Next, the substitute. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. He made him who knew no sin to become sin.
Cursed one who hangs on a tree. He made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf. He was the substitute on our behalf means we're the beneficiaries.
Man's the beneficiary. Christ is the substitute. And then look at the benefit so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
In him again. There's the benefit. How simple is that? He made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God.
Is there anything simpler than that? It's just the gospel. It's the difference between heaven and hell. It's the most important remedy to the worst plague that plagues mankind. And everything changed because of the cross. The cross changed everything.
Every single thing for you and I. The reminder to us today is simply this. You and I are new creations in Christ. And that should change everything about us. Let's pray.
Father, I feel that our dilemma is simple. These truths are profound. And yet somehow they get lost on us and we never can climb to our lives. We are constantly finding ourselves under the weight of life.
Crumbling under the circumstances. Struggling with sin. Whatever it is, we find it over and over again. And last week you told us we're your children and this week you told us we're new creations. That this should make a difference in life. The difference in the way we suffer. The difference in the way we die. The difference in the way we live. The difference in the way we serve. The difference in how we see Christ. The difference in how we see ourselves. And the difference in how we see everybody else.
Father, I just pray that your spirit will convict us of this. Help us understand something here. That we have such an enormous potential to live a life that is filled with your spirit. A life of peace and joy and hope. A life of victory rather than failure.
A life that makes a difference. That gives us purpose and meaning. But as Paul told the Romans, you must consider this to be true. That's my prayer for all of us, Father. That we believe these things to be true.
And we allow that to shape us as we live for Jesus Christ who died for us. In his name we pray, amen. In his name we pray, amen. In his name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-03 13:55:05 / 2023-09-03 14:04:41 / 10