Introduction

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This past week … 3 of our members have been at the 2024 Synod of the Sydney Anglican Diocese.  Synod is kind of like the AGM of the whole diocese.  And LAST year … someone asked if we could get an analysis on church attendance across the diocese … to see how we’re travelling.  Now some people resisted this … claiming everything is fine.  But the motion passed … and a small team has worked tirelessly over the past 12 months to analyse church attendance across the diocese.  Last Wednesday night … we were presented with the findings of that analysis.

From 2013 to 2017 church attendance was pretty steady … sitting at about 48,000 people per Sunday … across some 270 odd Anglican churches.  It THEN started to drop in 2018-2019.  Across 2020 and 2021 … no church attendance data was taken … due to the rolling lockdowns under COVID.  When attendance records started back up again in 2022 … we were about 8,000 people lower than in 2013.  That number has since risen again … praise the Lord … as people have slowly come back to church.  But overall … the Sydney Anglican diocese has lost about 3,200 attendees across the past 10 years.  That equates to a 6.7% decline in attendance … or a 14.4% decline when we factor in population growth.

THIS table splits church attendance up into mission areas.  A mission area is a collection of 5-10 local churches.  Of the 25 mission areas across Sydney … only TWO have seen significant growth.  They’re the bright green lines.  And ONE of those mission areas … the Hills … has grown primarily due to a mini-exodus from Hillsong … due to recent scandals.  The pink, red and bright red lines all denote mission areas that have suffered negative growth … which is about 70% of the diocese.  In case you’re wondering … we’re part of the Bayside mission area … which declined by 4 people since 2013 … making us one of the better ones.

But if that’s not depressing enough … this graph shows where new church members come from.  The 5 different bars denote churches that have either grown … in the blue … or declined slightly in the red … a bit more in the yellow … down to major decline in the orange.  MOST of our growth in Sydney Anglican churches comes from people either transferring from one Anglican church to another … or switching from one denomination … like Hillsong … to Anglican.  Only about 5% of our church members have become Christians in the last 3-5 years.  They are some sobering statistics … are they not?

This is why our passage for today is very timely … as it’s all about evangelism.  It’s all about persuading people to be reconciled to God.  I cannot think of a BETTER passage to preach on after being presented with those very sobering statistics.  Not only that … but our annual month of outreach is just 3 Sundays away.  So what better time to look at the ministry of the Apostle Paul … THE most influential Christian who ever lived.  And our goal for today is to see how Paul conducted HIS ministry … in the hope seeing how WE can start persuading the people of Sydney to be reconciled to God.

And I’ve got 3 points today … to help us unpack Paul’s ministry of reconciliation.  We’re going to begin by looking at (i) The motivation FOR Paul’s ministry … v. 11-13.  We’ll then look at (ii) The content OF Paul’s ministry … v. 14-17, before concluding with (iii) The purpose BEHIND Paul’s ministry … v. 18-6:2.  The commentator C. K. Barret says this passage is ‘one of the most pregnant, difficult and important [passages] in the whole of the Pauline literature’.  So please come with me as we look at how WE can perhaps stem the tide of decline in our churches … by persuading others … to be reconciled to God.

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The motivation for Paul’s ministry (v. 11-13)

 

And our passage begins with these words:

2 Corinthians 5:11 (NIV) Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.

Now … what does Paul mean by ‘fear of the Lord’?  Well it CAN mean to be scared.  When God showed up on Mt Sinai in a huge electrical storm … coupled with fire and smoke and a deafening trumpet blast … the Israelites probably wet themselves.  But in the Bible … ‘fear’ ALSO means a healthy awe and respect.  So which is it here?  Well given this verse begins with the word ‘since’ … or literally ‘therefore’ … the answer lies in v. 10:

2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Now as we saw last week … Christians don’t have to be SCARED of Judgement Day … because Jesus has taken the punishment for our bad deeds.  BUT … as we ALSO saw last week … the NT teaches that Christians will be rewarded according to our good deeds.  Those who MOST please God in this life … cf. the parable of the talents … will be most rewarded in the next.  Now … SOME might say ‘well the motivation for Paul’s ministry … is he wants a better reward in heaven’.  Someone actually asked a question on that last week.  To pre-empt that charge … Paul says this:

2 Corinthians 5:11b-12 (NIV) … What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us,

So IF Paul was evangelising people simply to get a better reward HIMSELF … that would make him an inherently selfish person.  He wouldn’t be saving people for THEIR sake … or for God’s; but for himself.  And God is not pleased with that kind of selfishness … which Paul knows.  He says ‘IF I have to stand before God … v. 11 … God will approve of my motivation’.  I’m not looking for heavenly reward … v. 10 … nor am I looking to show off … v. 12.  My motivation is to please the one I respect … I fear.

And the good deed that MOST pleases God … is persuading others to turn to Christ.  And the REASON this is the most IMPORTANT good deeds God calls us to do … is because of what is at stake.  Think of it this way.  Imagine you’re camping with a bunch of others in the bush … and you all notice a huge bush fire coming over the hill.  So you and your camp buddies start running.  The thing is … you have some local knowledge.  And you know there’s a huge gorge up ahead.  And the only way across that huge gorge … is a SINGLE foot bridge … which is located upstream.  Yet your colleagues … are all running downstream.  What do you do?

Friends … this is a picture of Christian ministry.  Every single person on the planet … whether they know it or not … is running from the fire of God’s justice.  And there’s only 1 way to safety.  The footbridge that is Christ.  Now how would people respond … if they found out that YOU knew about the only footbridge in that area … yet you kept that knowledge to yourself … leaving the rest of your camp mates to either burn in the fire … or fall to their death off the gorge?  In the same way … God is not pleased … when we keep the words of eternal life to ourselves.

The motivation for Paul’s ministry is firstly to please God … and secondly to save others.  This is what v. 13 is getting at.  It’s one of those difficult verses Barrett spoke of.

2 Corinthians 5:13 (NIV) If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you

Now the phrase ‘out of our mind’ is difficult.  It CAN refer to mental illness.  But in the context of what’s been happening in Corinth … most commentators think it’s referring to ecstatic religious experiences.  We know from 1 Corinthians that the church in Corinth was focussed on the gifts of the Spirit … like prophesy or speaking in tongues.  These are ecstatic experiences.  Yet Paul puts such tight restrictions on these … in 1 Cor 14 … that it’s next to impossible to speak in tongues OR prophesy in church.  But THAT’S what he’s getting at here.  If I’m having one of these ecstatic experiences … that’s between me and God.  Yet when I’m in my ‘right mind’ … I’m ministering to you’.

The POINT is … everything Paul does … is for others.  If I’m speaking in tongues … I’m pleasing God.  If I’m speaking normally … I’m persuading others.  And I’m persuading others because (i) that’s what pleases the one I fear, AND (ii) that’s what saves others from the fires of Hell.’

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The content of Paul’s ministry (v. 14-17)

 

So … that’s the motivation FOR Paul’s ministry.  He then goes on to outline the content OF his ministry.  But this content begins with a THIRD motivation in v. 14.

2 Corinthians 5:14 (NIV) For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

Now firstly … what is Christ’s love?  Is it OUR love for Christ … or Christ’s love for us?  Given the content of Paul’s ministry … it’s Christ’s love for US that compels Paul … that drives Paul to persuade others.  And this LOVE that Christ has for us … is the content of Paul’s ministry.  When we persuade others … we’re not calling them to a life of misery.  The reason many are hesitant to become a Christian is because they think Jesus is going to take all their fun away.  They think that Christianity is nothing more than a big list of rules … to stop us from doing anything fun.  Yet this is a misunderstanding of the Christian gospel.

You see the word ‘gospel’ literally means ‘good news’.  What this means is … the thing we’re trying to persuade people of … is NOT a list of rules.  It’s a story.  Like you don’t watch the 6 o’clock news to get told what to do tomorrow … do you?  No … you listen to the news to hear about what happened today.  In the same way the Christian message is not a list of commands … like the 10 Commandments.  It’s the good news of what Christ has already done.  And what he’s done … is he died for all … v. 14.  It’s what we preach every week here at Earlwood Anglican.  Why?  Because that’s the CONTENT of Christian ministry.  We don’t tell people to follow the 10 Commandments.  We tell people Christ died for you.

So WHERE then do the 10 Commandments fit in?  Like you DO preach Christ every week Brendan … but you ALSO preach obedience.  So where does obedience fit in?  Obedience is our response TO the good news.  Look again at v. 14:

2 Corinthians 5:14 (NIV) … because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

Now from what we know about the gospel … wouldn’t it make more sense to say ‘one died for all, so that all DON’T have to die?’  Like that’s what good news is; that Jesus died as our substitute … so we DON’T have to die?  Yet that’s not what Paul says here.  He says ‘therefore all died’.  So what does that mean?  Well he explains in the next verse:

2 Corinthians 5:15 (NIV) And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

You see Jesus’ death was a ransom.  And a ransom is a payment made … to release someone.  You and I WERE captives of sin.  Sin is best defined as rebelling against God’s wishes for our life … and instead living life for ourselves … v. 15.  And we were captive to that … captive to doing whatever we wanted.  Jesus’ death has ransomed us from that captivity.  What that means is … we belong to Christ now.  His death has bought our freedom.  The way we respond to that … is to live to please Him.  V. 17 says the same thing:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Now the original Greek is a little more emphatic.  Paul literally says ‘if anyone is in Christ; NEW CREATION!’  There’s no verb.  Paul is grabbing our attention.  But he’s grabbing our attention to say the gospel is NOT obedience.  The gospel is the good news of Jesus dying on the cross for your sins.  Yet WHEN that gift is received … we cannot help but obey.  Receiving the gift of salvation means ‘new creation’.  We no longer live for ourselves.  We live for Christ.

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The purpose behind Paul’s ministry (v. 18-6:2)

 

Well … that’s the motivation and the content of Paul’s ministry.  Last … but certainly not least … comes the purpose behind all of this:

2 Corinthians 5:18 (NIV) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

What’s the purpose of Paul’s ministry?  Reconciliation.  The word reconciliation occurs 5 times in these 4 verses.  And the reason this word is so important is it’s the purpose behind our evangelism.  If we’re going to stem the tide of negative growth in the Sydney Anglican diocese … it’s not going to be from inviting people to transfer churches … or switch denominations.  It’s going to be from calling non-Christians to be reconciled to God.

You see Sin has put a huge dividing wall between humans and God.  It’s like the Great Wall of China.  The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from orbit.  It’s THAT big.  Sin is an even BIGGER dividing wall than that.  One that is impossible for humans to scale.  This is where reconciliation comes in.

As v. 18 says … ‘all this is from God’.  You see whenever the word ‘reconciled’ occurs in this passage … God is the subject of the verb.  Paul never says; ‘YOU reconcile yourself’.  We cannot scale that wall.  Reconciliation is something God does.  While ‘reconciliation’ occurs 5 times in these 4 verses … ‘God’ or ‘Christ’ occurs 11 times.  Reconciliation is ALL the work of God … through the footbridge of Christ.

Yet WE are given the MINISTRY of reconciliation.  What does that mean?  It means when we’re trying to persuade others … v. 11 … we’re trying to persuade them to receive the gift of reconciliation … found in the death of Christ.  OK … God has held out the gift of reconciliation to people on a silver platter.  You and I as Christians have received that gift.  Yet AS a new creation … we’ve been given the job to persuade others to receive that gift as well.

So the million-dollar question we need to ask in this is … how do we carry out this ministry of reconciliation?  How do we stem the tide of negative growth in our churches … and persuade others to be reconciled to God?  Well one of the things the team did when analysing attendance figures for our diocese … is they compared the figures with the NCLS data.  Now NCLS is the nationwide church survey we do every 5 years.  And this is what they found.  Now again … the blue bar is the growing churches … while the red, yellow, green and orange are the shrinking churches … in order of decline.

The number 1 thing that made the difference between growing churches and shrinking churches … was how many people had invited someone along to church in the past 12 months.  OK … it’s the SECOND bar graph … that says ‘inviting to ch …’.  They couldn’t fit ‘church’ under the graph.  So out of ALL the questions asked in the latest NCLS survey … the one that shows the biggest difference between growing churches and shrinking churches … you can SEE how it tapers off … is now many of us have invited someone along to church in the past 12 months.  That’s it!  It’s that simple.

OK … If we FEAR God … if we wish to please the one who has already reconciled us … the thing that will make the BIGGEST difference … is if you invite someone along to church for Outreach October.  The sermons for our moth of outreach are all on the book of Jonah … which most non-Christians have heard of.  Tell them to come and hear the message behind the story.  And can I tell you … I’ve already started to prepare those sermons … and they’ve already changed me.  I’ve experienced significant spiritual growth in the past 2-3 weeks … thanks to the book of Jonah.  So PLEASE … invite someone along.  It WORKS!

The number 2 biggest difference between growing churches and shrinking churches was people feeling their gifts and skills are being utilised.  That’s the MIDDLE bar graph.  So our SECOND piece of application today is … make sure you’re serving your church.  Make sure you’re using your gifts and talents for the kingdom.  There’s the parable of the talents again.

The THIRD biggest difference between growing and shrinking churches is sharing one’s faith with others.  That’s the FIRST bar graph.

Now this is not Rocket Science.  Those who are using their gifts and skills to serve their church are usually the more mature Christians.  So if you’re NOT currently serving our church in some way … please come and see me.  It’s time to step up.  But the churches with the higher numbers of mature Christians … are generally the ones that do more evangelism.  And evangelism isn’t rocket science either.  Do you remember our outreach strategy here at Earlwood Anglican?  It’s easy as pie … P.I.E.  We Pray … P … we Invite … I … and we Engage people with the gospel … E.

OK … we’re already having weekly prayer meetings … before each service.  Have you come to one yet?  Do you WANT to see God do something miraculous in our church?  If so … then be here next week at 9:30 for prayer.  Our second and third outreach strategies are the MOST and THIRD most important aspects for a growing church; Invitation and Engaging people in gospel conversations.

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Conclusion

 

And THAT’S how we’re going to make a difference for the kingdom.  If we WANT to see our church and our mission area stay in the red … then ignore everything we’ve spoken about today.  Ignore (i) trying to persuade people, ignore (ii) pointing to Christ’s death for all, and Ignore (iii) our ministry of reconciliation.  But if you want to please the God who reconciled you … and you want to rescue others from the fire of God’s judgment, then (i) Invite people along to church next month, (ii) step up and use your gifts and skills at church, and (iii) engage people in gospel conversations.  For:

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV) We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.