Marvel at the Mission

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 May 29, 2022 Pastor Eric Turbedsky

Thesis Christians must recover a sense of wonder at God's mission—not just the call to evangelize, but the astonishing reality that the sovereign, loving God chooses to persuade sinners through redeemed sinners like us, making us His ambassadors through whom He makes His appeal to the world.

Series

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Type

Expository

Tone

pastoralcelebratorydidactic

Method

grammatical-historicalredemptive-historicalapplicatory

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

34 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #30

"Turbedsky applies the entire sermon by directly addressing those present who are not yet reconciled to God. He invites them to look around the room at broken but hopeful people as evidence of what reconciliation produces. The application is evangelistic, using the congregation itself as the persuasive argument."

Doctrinal loci· 14 surfaced

Ecclesiology · 18 Soteriology · 15 Theology Proper · 11 Anthropology · 4 Christology · 4 Pastoral Theology · 4 Doxology / Worship · 2 Providence / Sovereignty · 2 Bibliology · 1 Covenant Theology · 1 Ethics / Moral Theology · 1 Hamartiology · 1 Pneumatology · 1 Sanctification · 1

Bible citations· 12

Illustrations· 3

cultural reference · unit #3 — Turbedsky uses contemporary cultural references—Google, billionaire space races, iPhones, air conditioning—to illustrate how modern life has conditioned us to be unimpressed even by genuine marvels. The illustration establishes the emotional problem: we have lost our capacity for wonder.
personal story · unit #11 — Turbedsky shares his own conversion story to illustrate the previous theological claim. What felt like a human decision in the moment was actually God wooing him, engaging both head and heart. The illustration makes the doctrine personal and accessible.
cultural reference · unit #19 — Turbedsky quotes an old hymn to illustrate the new worldview verses 16-17 produce. The hymn's chorus—'the dead's alive and the lost are found'—captures the resurrection perspective that makes mission hopeful rather than dutiful. The illustration serves the exposition by making the doctrine singable and memorable.

Theological claims· 15

Christians have become numb to the marvel of the Great Commission, treating God's mission as routine work rather than astonishing privilege. unit #4
Sustained faithfulness in mission requires marveling at the theological wonder of God using sinful humans as His ambassadors, not just receiving practical instructions. unit #5
The sovereignty of God raises the question: why would God persuade sinners when He could simply decree their salvation? unit #7
God's choice to persuade rather than decree displays greater glory because it reveals His intimate engagement with the whole person, wooing us like a bridegroom woos his bride. unit #8
God's method of persuasion demonstrates that He is intimately, personally involved in every conversion, placing His holy hands on our filthy hearts rather than decreeing salvation from a distance. unit #9
The interplay between God's sovereignty and human responsibility in persuasion demonstrates human dignity while revealing divine glory. unit #10
Christ's love—His joy in saving us—is the fuel that sustains a lifetime of faithful mission, reorienting our lives away from self and toward Him. unit #15
Lack of missional engagement is not a missions problem but a gospel problem—we have lost our marvel at grace and must fill up on the mystery of what God has done for us in Christ. unit #16
The question 'why us?' confronts us with the astonishing reality that God employs the church in His mission of persuading and loving others. unit #22
God uses us in His mission not because we meet expectations but because doing so reveals His glory through unlikely means—it's marvelous. unit #24
God uses the church as a theater show for the world, showcasing through our ransomed lives what He can do—we are both His persuasion and His representatives. unit #25
Every Christian's life is always persuasive—the question is not whether we persuade, but what conclusion our neighbors draw from watching us. unit #26
Christians are ambassadors in a dual sense—messengers who carry a message not our own, and representatives who embody the authority of the One who sends us. unit #27
Though people think they hunger for success or technology, what they truly starve for is awe—to be wooed by God, which He offers through Christian witness. unit #28
Christian identity supersedes all other identities—you are Christ's, and your life demonstrates on divine authority what God can do. unit #29

Quotations· 10

"we have been made a theater show for the whole world" — unnamed scholar (unit #6)

"It reminds us that when we speak about God's grace, we do not mean that God sits afar decreeing, but rather God places his holy hands on our filthy hearts" — Richard Phillips (unit #9)

"the irresistible persuasion glorifies the entire Trinity by proving how intimately involved God is in every conversion" — Richard Phillips (unit #9)

"How sublime beyond words it is to realize that the transcendent majestic God takes such a personal interest in every sinner who comes to faith in Christ. Far from being a nameless number in a vast crowd, every believer has been personally ministered to, persuaded, by God's overwhelming grace. Truly he is to us as a father to his dear children and a shepherd to his beloved flock." — Richard Phillips (unit #9)

"here is a God, our God, who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity. As the Father has loved the Son and the Spirit, loving others is not strange or a novel thing for this God at all. It's at the root of who he is in the first place." — Michael Reeves (unit #14)

"let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" — the writer of Hebrews (unit #15)

"the root cause of our lack of engagement in God's mission is not a missions problem, but a gospel problem" — unnamed author (unit #16)

"There, where he is, when we think about who he is and where he is, there is in heaven this fountain of love. A fountain of love, this eternal, three-in-one, set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it. There in heaven, this glorious God is manifested and shines forth in full glory and beams of love. There the fountain overflows in streams and rivers of love and delight enough for all to drink it, and to swim in it. Yea, so as to overflow the world as it were a deluge of love." — Jonathan Edwards (unit #17)

"I know that my Redeemer lives, what comfort this sweet sentence gives. He lives to bless me with his love, he lives to plead my cause above, he lives to crush the fiends of hell, he lives and doth within me dwell. Shout on, pray on, we're gaining ground. The dead's alive and the lost are found. Glory, hallelujah." — old obscure hymn (unit #19)

"an ambassador is at once a messenger and a representative. He does not speak his own name. He does not speak of his own authority. What he communicates is not his opinions or demands. But simply what he has been told or commissioned to say. The ambassador's message derives no part of its importance from the trustworthiness of the ambassador himself. At the same time, he is more than a mere messenger. He represents his sovereign. He speaks with authority. He has accredited by the Master himself." — Charles Hodge (unit #27)

Read it

Full transcript

28,933 characters 34 units ~32 min reading time

0 · Turbedsky frames the sermon by directing attention to the repeated use of "therefore" in 2 Corinthians 5, signaling that Paul's self-defense will reveal the identity and commission of all Christians

a letter to some of the very first Christians, the very first Christians, and he is defending his apostleship, his relationship with them, the church. And as he does so, he has us in view as well. And watch, I want you to watch as I read it. Probably the most important thing I'm going to say this morning is these words, this text, but watch in particular for the therefores. There are a lot of therefores in this passage.

Actually, there are more therefores therefore's in this little passage in 2 Corinthians per square inch than therefore's throughout the rest of the letter.

This is a therefore passage. Paul is explaining himself to us, and in doing so, he's explaining for us who we are and what we're commissioned to do as well. This is one of those life-defining passages that you can embrace as your therefore. Paul's apostolic apology for us and who we are and what we're commissioned to do. Would you look with me?

1 · Turbedsky reads 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 in full, emphasizing the repeated "therefore" statements and establishing the biblical foundation for the entire sermon

I'll read and then I'm going to pray briefly. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning with verse 11. If you're reading from the ESV, the translator heading reads, "The Ministry of Reconciliation." Verse 11, Paul writes, therefore Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.

But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearances and not about what is in the heart. Verse 13, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

And 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. Verse 16, From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. And gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Verse 20.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The very words of God.

2 · Turbedsky prays for the Spirit's work in both the congregation and himself, asking that the exposition would transform lives and empower faithful service

Would you join me in a brief prayer? Father, take these words, big words, big ideas, big thoughts, big truths, and with your Spirit, change our lives.

Don't let us leave here as we arrived. Fill me with your Spirit that I might serve my friends and might please you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.

3 · Turbedsky uses contemporary cultural references—Google, billionaire space races, iPhones, air conditioning—to illustrate how modern life has conditioned us to be unimpressed even by genuine marvels

Now, I don't know about you. I don't know about you here and your life here in El Paso, but in my town in Orange, California, just south of Hollywood, in my life, just next to Disney, we can hear the Disney fireworks every night. There are, there are at this point now in my life, late into life here, a few things that still wow me, right? That wow me, that stop me in my tracks and take my breath away. Maybe it's because everything I want to know is just a Google search away.

It ruins dinner conversations. Kids say something and I Google and give them the answer, and it just goes on and back and forth like that. Maybe it's because, have you noticed, this is impressive for me, that the 3 richest men in the world The 3 richest men alive today are having a space race. Think about this. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, right?

Amazon. And that cool English guy, I don't remember his name, that owns all the Virgin stuff. All 3 of them are building spaceships. What a day we live in. Spaceships right now.

3 billionaires traveling to outer space. One of them took up Will Shatner, you know, right? Captain Kirk. He took him up to literally up to space. What else?

What else is left to entertain us, to wow us, right? What a day to be alive. The 21st century is full of wonders that should wow us, but instead, instead they become normal and we grow numb, bored, like our phones and air conditioning, same-day delivery, right? Even billionaires in space. I don't have a clue how any of these things work, and yet they're just a regular part of my life.

They're in my pocket, on my wrist. And I'm unimpressed, as the saying goes, to borrow from Disney, ho-hum.

I remember when getting a new iPhone was exciting. Do you remember that now? Your new phone? My daughter texted me last night, Dad, is this a good deal? iPhone 13, it's on sale, whatever.

Ho-hum, just get it, open up the box and move on, right? Flying on an airplane, for me, sipping an Americano, watching a movie on demand on my new iPhone. Oh, get out of my way, hurry up.

4 · Turbedsky applies the illustration of cultural numbness to the church's approach to the Great Commission, diagnosing the problem: Christians have reduced God's astonishing mission to routine religious duty, treating it with the same ho-hum attitude they bring to consumer technology

In the church, and in the church, oh, I fear the same goes for so many of the things that are happening all around us as the church that we give ourselves to and we enjoy week in and week out. And in particular this morning, I wanna think about the Great Commission, the Great Commission, our mission, God's mission entrusted to us, our assignment as a church, of Jesus Christ.

And I fear sometimes we just say ho-hum, right? Or even worse, to borrow from Disney, hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go, right? Which, now don't do this right now, this is how Google ruins everything. It wasn't hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go. It was in fact the Seven Dwarfs were singing, look this up later, the opposite, hi-ho, hi-ho, it's home, from home to work, or I'm sorry, home from work we go.

Google that later, it'll blow your mind. But for now, for us, when it comes to what we give our lives to, what we give our lives to in this lifetime, namely straight from our text this morning, each and every one of us, God is making his appeal through us. Could it be that as so often the case with so many other things, hi ho, hi ho, ho hum, Off to work we go, gotta do a little bit more missional work in our community.

5 · Turbedsky proposes the sermon's solution and method: instead of immediately asking practical questions about mission (when, where, how), Christians must first recover a sense of wonder at the theological reality that God uses sinful humans as His ambassadors

And listen, that's what I'm here for this morning. To remind us once more again, to keep it fresh among us, Cross of Grace.

A spectacular, full of wonder assignment. If you wanna be the kind of Christian that has the staying power to sustain you for decades, to live as ambassadors of Christ, to be swept up into God's redemptive purposes, in El Paso and into the world, we'll need to do more than just take on the assignment and go to work. We must listen for God's glory and our own good. We must marvel at this mission. Marvel.

So that's what I want to do this morning. I want to marvel at this mission. When we read God is making his appeal through us, our first question shouldn't be when and where, show me a map, let's get busy. Instead, it should be questions like why. Why would God be making his appeal at all?

At all.

This is the marvelous mission of God. Not where and when, but that God is making an appeal to sinful men through men and women and children like us, forgiveness for every sin possible. Why? Salvation for everyone who will receive and believe in the Son, relenting and repenting of our sins, and then joining us in marveling that any of this is happening in the first place.

6 · Turbedsky unpacks verses 11-13, establishing that Paul's persuasion is not marketing or self-promotion but God's power working through weak vessels

So I want to look at this familiar text and just ask, look at it from different directions, just ask 3 questions.

Listen, here's, First, the 3 why questions, if you look at verse 11 again with me. Number 1, why would God persuade? You gotta think about this. Why would God be in the business of persuading anyone? Verse 11, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, Paul writes, we persuade others.

Now if you stop right there, this is an interesting business that the Apostle Paul is conducting. For on one hand, he is in no way communicating that he is attempting to impress the Corinthians or to sell them on something like it's a marketing or a slick presentation or an innovative argument. No, no, quite the opposite. Paul has been saying, that's why this text is here in this place. He is contrasting himself with those who would do that.

Those so-called potentially super apostles, which the Corinthians had been attracted to in the first place. That's why he continues. If you look middle of verse 11, He writes, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. Not your expectations, not meeting your standards, but internally, spiritually, discerningly, in your hearts he's hoping, this is why he's writing, that the power of God at work through the plain preaching of Christ and Christ crucified is being authenticated. Authenticated, verse 12, look again.

We are not commending ourselves, He's persuading, but he's not commending himself. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us. Both boast about us. Think about more like boast about the work of God in and through Paul and his partners, his associates. In spite of Paul and his associates, the Corinthians, Paul is saying, if they were honest, would admit— we hope so— as he explained in the last chapter, chapter 4.

But we're just treasures in jars of clay to show the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. That's what Paul's saying, not to us. Or I love how one scholar translates this verse. We have been made a theater show for the whole world. We have become a theater show for the whole world.

Verse 12 again. We're not commending ourselves to you again. Verse 12, but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearances and not about what is in the heart. Verse 13, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. We look to be out of our mind, it's for the Lord.

But if we're in our right mind, if that's how you perceive us, it's for you.

7 · Turbedsky sharpens the theological tension at the heart of the passage: if God is sovereign and able to decree salvation, why does He choose the method of persuasion? The question sets up the next unit's resolution

Paul is persuading, but in his persuading, he is trusting not in his power of persuasion, but in the Lord's. Which begs the question now, if God is able to save, and he is, and you catch this in that little phrase, knowing the fear of the Lord, knowing that God is sovereign and does whatever God pleases, and this surely extends to his mission to ransom people of every nation for his Son and his good pleasure. If this is the case, and it is, then why is he persuading anyone when he could simply decree?

8 · Turbedsky answers the question: God's method of persuasion reveals greater glory than mere decree would

This is the greater glory. This is what causes marveling. He creates us, we reject him. And he doesn't simply just like flip the board over and shuffle the deck and try again and reset. He sets out then to ransom us and to win us, right?

And you're in the book of Revelation right now. It's all over the place. To win us like a bridegroom wins his bride. He woos his bride.

All of his powers engaging all of us. Head, heart, and soul.

9 · Turbedsky cites Richard Phillips at length to deepen the theological claim: God's persuasion reveals His intimate, personal involvement in salvation

I love how this one author, Richard Phillips, he says it when he writes, the irresistible persuasion glorifies the entire Trinity by proving how intimately involved God is in every conversion. "It reminds us," he writes, "that when we speak about God's grace, we do not mean that God sits afar decreeing, but rather," listen, "God places his holy hands on our filthy hearts." God places his holy hands on our filthy hearts. With more personal contact than any surgeon uses in operating on our bodies, he writes, God is intimately involved in the saving of our souls.

This is what he writes here: How sublime beyond words— that's how sublime beyond words it is to realize that the transcendent majestic God takes such a personal interest in every sinner who comes to faith in Christ. Far from being a nameless number in a vast crowd, every believer has been personally ministered to, persuaded, by God's overwhelming grace. Truly he is to us, he writes, as a father to his dear children and a shepherd to his beloved flock. There it is. Truly he is to us a father to his dear children and as a shepherd to his beloved flock.

Christian name for God, Father, right? He could just drop the hammer, couldn't he? He could just drop the hammer and then decree that some would receive grace and be pardoned. But no, he woos us. He woos us.

10 · Turbedsky distills the theological resolution into a propositional claim: the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility in persuasion simultaneously honors human dignity and magnifies divine glory

Have you ever considered this? Why would God persuade us when he is sovereign? It's because, it's because that tension between his sovereignty and our responsibility and that interplay, that demonstrates our dignity but reveals his glory.

11 · Turbedsky shares his own conversion story to illustrate the previous theological claim

I don't know about you, for me, it feels so often like it was my decision. I was presented some information, I did some calculations, and I had a conclusion, and it became my salvation. Story. It feels sometimes like in my conversion where it was a Halloween event and the guy came out of a coffin, literally came out of a coffin, scared all the teenagers. I was 17.

And then the lights went up and he was dressed as a corpse and he preached the gospel and I was melted into a puddle of tears. And my wife, who was another teenager sitting next to me, was just staring at me like, what's going on? And I gave my life to Christ.

It was just a convincing speech and presentation. Just keep me humble. But no, not in the end. Not in the end. He wooed me.

He engaged not just my head, but my heart.

12 · Turbedsky applies the theological claim to Christian identity and mission: every believer is called to persuade because God uses us as His instruments to woo the world

Listen, that's our commission. That's our calling. We persuade. That's what Paul's saying. We are, that's our calling and commission.

Every one of us, because it is in us as his instruments that he persuades and conquers for his greater glory. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about the Great Commission. We're talking what a marvelous design. Through us, he woos the world.

13 · Turbedsky transitions to the second major question, shifting from 'why persuade?' to 'why love?' The transition explicitly links persuasion to love and signals a new movement in the argument

But number 2, second question, second question.

Why would God love? He's persuading, we read, because he loves. Why would God love? Look with me again, verse 14 and following.

14 · Turbedsky unpacks verses 14-15, making a crucial distinction: Paul's motivation is not his love for people or even his love for Jesus, but Christ's love for him

Paul writes, for the love of Christ controls us. Because we've concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, but 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. Now notice, please notice Paul's explanation for why he is being poured out like a drink offering, doing all this persuading, why he does what he does, why he lives like he lives, is not located in the object of his intended hearers, those that he is trying to persuade. It doesn't say, for the love of the Corinthians controls us. Or in my neck of the woods, for the love of Californians controls us.

As much as I love Californians, and by the grace of God, and enduring endless summers of cool breezes and palm trees. And he doesn't say to you, Cross of Grace, for the love of El Paso controls you.

This is way better. Listen, marvel at the mission. It's not even that Paul loves Jesus so much that he's willing to give his life to persuade others to follow Christ. It's not even that he loves Jesus so much, it's that God loved us.

Why would he love? Why would he love? Because it's who God is. It's who God is. As, there's another author, Michael Reeves, an excellent book, Delighting in the Trinity.

He states comparing God with all the other gods, and you may be familiar if you've been out there, did all the religions of the world, all these other religions. He's comparing them in his book and he's saying, what makes this God different than all the other gods? And here's what he says. He says, here is a God, our God, who is not essentially lonely. He's not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity.

As the Father has loved the Son and the Spirit, loving others is not strange or a novel thing for this God at all. It's at the root of who he is in the first place.

15 · Turbedsky develops the claim that Christ's love is the fuel for sustained mission

How marvelous is our mission? These are the kind of things that will fuel a lifetime of evangelism and church planning and parenting, right? Small groups, community groups, being present in the lives of your neighbors here in El Paso that don't respect you for your faith but are perishing nevertheless.

Consider that he loves, that God is love, not because El Paso or you or your Pastor Ricky is lovely, though he is lovely. He's my only pastor friend that wears sweaters. It's lovely. But listen, he loves not because we're lovely, but even while we were still enemies, Our Savior considered His saving us His delight, His joy. As the writer of Hebrews exhorts, you don't have to turn there, let us run with endurance.

We're talking about our mission. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. There's a commission, commissioning statement. It's everywhere in your Bibles because that's what the Bible is, a commissioning statement. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Why? Because he loves us. Verse 14, if you look again, for the love of Christ controls us. Because we have concluded this, that one died for all. All.

Therefore, all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves. We no longer live for ourselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

16 · Turbedsky diagnoses the problem behind missional apathy: it's not a missions problem but a gospel problem

Let me suggest, listen, let me suggest that right here might be the missing factor, the X factor, the special sauce, right, in the life of a believer that finds it hard to make everyday decisions to be a persuasion for the lost. You find it hard to make your everyday decisions in such a way that you're moving in the direction of the lost.

Another author puts it, the root cause of our lack of engagement in God's mission is not a missions problem. But a gospel problem. The root cause of our lack of engagement in God's mission is not a missions problem, but a gospel problem. We demonstrate by our inaction, if that's you, that's me often, by our inaction that we no longer marvel at grace. We are unaffected by the beauty of what God what God has done for us in Christ.

Not the mission that He has called us to, but what He has done that sets the mission in progress. By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us. You want to be a pastor? You want to be a church planter? You want to be a deacon?

You want to be an evangelist or a parent or a husband or a wife or someone who— anyone who loves lost people, who loves their neighbors in relative obscurity. You're not going to be famous. It's not going to make you famous or rich. With no fanfare, fill up on the mystery so long hidden but now revealed that God the Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect harmony from all eternity has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ and agreed with the the Father to enter our dark world, live for us, die for us, be raised for us, ascended now, reigning for us.

His love demonstrated for us to save us and redeem us and reconcile us and invite us into his world.

17 · Turbedsky cites Jonathan Edwards at length to paint a picture of heaven as a fountain of overflowing Trinitarian love

This is Jonathan Edwards. This is what Jonathan Edwards writes about this. He says, There, where he is, when we think about who he is and where he is, there is in heaven this fountain of love. Have you ever heard this? A fountain of love, this eternal, he writes, three-in-one, set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it.

That's what happens here. That's what's going on in heaven. There, he says, there in heaven, this glorious God is manifested and shines forth in full glory and beams of love. There the fountain overflows in streams and rivers of love and delight enough for all to drink it, he writes, and to swim in it. Yea, so as to overflow the world as it were a deluge of love.

How can we do that? Steep our souls in this reality, how could we not engage in his great mission?

18 · Turbedsky expounds verses 16-17, showing that Christ's love transforms how believers see the world

That's why Paul writes verse 16, if you look. The way he sees the whole world has changed. Verse 16, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, he writes, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. He's born again. The old is past, behold, the new has come. He's talking about resurrection power.

He's talking about dead men walking.

19 · Turbedsky quotes an old hymn to illustrate the new worldview verses 16-17 produce

I love this old obscure hymn. Maybe someone here knows it. You sing along with me. I won't sing, but I'm gonna read the lyrics.

It's become somewhat of a motto for me, particularly through the pandemic. Just this crazy world we're living in right now. When I lose hope, when I'm struggling, I need my bit set my bearings straight. Here's what this old hymn, it says, I know that my Redeemer lives, what comfort this sweet sentence gives. Stop right there and say, I know that my Redeemer lives, what a comfort this sweet sentence gives.

Goes on. He lives to bless me with his love, he lives to plead my cause above, he lives to crush the fiends of hell, he lives and doth within me dwell. And here comes the chorus, my favorite part. Shout on, the hymn goes. Can you imagine the church singing?

Shout on, pray on, we're gaining ground. They talk about mission, and then he says, the dead's alive and the lost are found. Glory, hallelujah.

If you lost the plot, there it is. This is how we see the world. God's persuading because he loves.

20 · Turbedsky unpacks verse 18, emphasizing that all of this—the entire mission, the transformation, the new creation—is from God, not human power

Verse 18, Paul writes, and all of this the dead's alive and the lost are found. All of this is from God, not Paul, not you, not your power. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. So the chief and final answer to every question, especially when it comes to how he loves us in the first place, that by his loving we would love him and enjoy him on earth and heaven for his greater glory. That's fuel for the furnace.

That warms up a local church like Cross of Grace that wants to reach her beloved city of El Paso for another 40, 50 years. He loves.

21 · Turbedsky transitions to the third and final question: why does God send us? The transition explicitly frames the question as the culmination of the previous two

But last question, last question, last why question. Why? Why would he persuade?

Why does he love? But you read this text and you have to ask, why us? Why does he send us?

22 · Turbedsky poses the third question with urgency and realism: why would God employ the church—why us—in His mission? The question confronts the listener with the unlikeliness and wonder of being used by God

And you gotta be real here. And if you're not asking this question, let me sober you up.

Why you, why me, why the church? Why employ us now in his persuasion and his loving of others? What does my changed life have to do with anyone else's potentially eternally changed life?

23 · Turbedsky unpacks verses 18-20, showing that while all of reconciliation is from God, He nevertheless gives us the ministry and message of reconciliation, making us His ambassadors

We read again starting in verse 18, all this is from God. I'm not part of the equation here.

Who through Christ reconciled us to himself. And here's just marvelous. And then gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Gave us, verse 19, that is Christ. In Christ, God was reconciled the world to himself.

We're not in the picture. Not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us The message of reconciliation. Verse 20, therefore, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God, making his appeal through us.

24 · Turbedsky answers the third question with the same logic as the first two: it's marvelous precisely because it defies expectations

Why, why not? None of it meets my expectations. Why is he making persuasions when he could just decree? It's marvelous. This is what he does.

Why does he love anyone in the first place? I don't know. It's marvelous. Why us? Why not?

25 · Turbedsky develops the theological claim: God uses ransomed lives as a showcase—a theater show—of what He can do

Why not? All this is from him after abolishing the condemnation that would have justly incurred eternal torture for you and I, he then turns around like freed slaves and offers you, he offers us in our ransomed lives. This is intention as a showcase, a theater show. That's what's going on here. This is a theater show.

Of what he does and what he can do for the whole world to see.

We, the church, are his persuasion. You're his persuasion. We are his representatives. We are his ambassadors. Marvel at the marvelous mechanics of God's marvelous mission.

26 · Turbedsky makes a penetrating claim: every life is persuasive—the question is what conclusion it leads people to

You see, listen, Whether we recognize it or not, whether you recognize it or not, your lives are always persuasive one way or the other. You're doing a lot of persuading with your life. You can't get away from it. The question is what the conclusion to someone who watches your life and is persuaded by your life, what you're leading them to.

What conclusions are being drawn by your friends and your neighbors? As they watch you across the street, go to work, come home, kids playing in the yard, friends over, small groups, no longer really small groups but more like medium-sized groups that are like, you know, housing code, building code violations. That's not as far. We need sprinklers in our houses, whatever it is. PA systems.

What are our neighbors concluding from all this?

27 · Turbedsky cites Charles Hodge to define the dual nature of Christian ambassadorship: we are both messengers (carrying a message not our own) and representatives (embodying the authority of the One who sends us)

Listen, one more of my favorite authors, Charles Hodge. He's gonna describe what it is to be an ambassador. He says, an ambassador is at once a messenger and a representative. A messenger and a representative. He does not speak his own name.

He does not speak of his own authority. What he communicates, what we communicate is not his opinions or demands. But simply what he has been told or commissioned to say. The ambassador's message derives no part of its importance from the trustworthiness of the ambassador himself.

At the same time, he is more than a mere messenger. He represents his sovereign. He speaks with authority. He has accredited by the Master himself. That's who you are.

You're both messenger and representative to a lost and dying world.

28 · Turbedsky makes a claim about the spiritual condition of the lost: beneath surface desires for technology, success, or acceptance, people are starving for awe—to be wooed by God

Listen, people are starving for what you believe.

People are starving for what you're experiencing. People are starving for awe.

To be wooed, to be woken up from their ho-hum, hi-ho, hi-ho lives. Most don't know it. Most seem quite happy to get the new iPhone or whatever it is that would wow them. They think they're starving for success or money or excitement or acceptance, you name it. But listen, what they truly are hungry for is what God is trying to persuade them of because he loves them through you.

29 · Turbedsky dismantles false identities—relational status, appearance, career, past failures, external evaluations—and replaces them with one controlling identity: you are Christ's

Listen, you're not ultimately a husband or a wife or a mom or a dad. You're not ultimately single or married or divorced. You're not defined by how your looks or your clothing or what you do for a living or how much you make or by where you live. By who you cheer for. And I won't bring up any sports teams since I'm in Texas.

I'm from Los Angeles where we have many football teams.

Look, your identity, you're not defined by your past. You're not defined by what you're or were addicted to. Your bank account, your genetic makeup.

You're not what your boss at work says you are.

You're not what your parents and teachers might tell you that you are based— your future potential is based upon your grades. No, you are Christ's.

Christ in you. He has superseded your identity. You are now found in Him. He is your identity, and you represent Him. And you both are like a theater show preaching the gospel, but you, by your lives, by your lives are on authority, on authority demonstrating what is possible.

30 · Turbedsky applies the entire sermon by directly addressing those present who are not yet reconciled to God

We must marvel at this mission. The dead are alive and the lost are found. He's loved us and won us and doesn't stop with us. And that's why this morning, like every morning I'm sure here, and if you met someone who brought you here, and maybe it's your parents that made you come here for the 100th time, whatever it is, over and over and over again with the way we spend our money and our time and the way we think and talk, the way we relate with one another, we are imploring you.

As Paul writes, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Look around the room. This is what it looks like to be reconciled to God. Apparently we're not finished. We're not fully cooked yet.

We still got problems. We're still messed up, broken people. But look around. You see someone with hope in an impossible circumstance.

We implore you. Be reconciled to God. You got a broken family and you're chasing after your children and they're not coming home and you don't know where they are and you don't know how you're gonna pay your bills next month. We don't have answers for all that. But look at us facing the same circumstances and hear loudly and clearly, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

31 · Turbedsky expounds verse 21, grounding the evangelistic appeal in the great exchange: Christ became sin so we might become the righteousness of God

Listen, why? Because For your sake, the Father made the Son, him to be sin who knew no sin. He took on your sins so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Listen, we see you potentially the way we see ourselves, all of our sins taken off of our shoulders and placed on him.

Representing us, paying for our sins, that blotting away our transgressions, that somehow mysteriously you can look around in this dark world and say that there surely is a God, for look at His righteousness shining through these broken people, my neighbors, my family, my friends.

32 · Turbedsky concludes with a brief exhortation to the church to continue faithful gospel proclamation and a pastoral word of encouragement for their ambassadorial presence in El Paso

Keep on preaching the gospel cross of grace. It gives me so much joy to know you're here in El Paso as Christ's ambassadors.

33 · Turbedsky closes in prayer, thanking God for His word, Son, love, and method of wooing rather than decreeing

Can I pray for you? Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for your Son. Thank you for your love for us. Thank you for working in all of us and not just dropping the hammer on us, but instead wooing us that we that we might be reconciled to you, that we might have you. And in turn, Lord, we gladly represent you as your ambassadors here. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

Where this fits

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Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

When Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:11 that he persuades people, what does that verb tell us about God's method of reaching the lost—especia…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we recover our marvel at God's astonishing mission: that the sovereign God woos sinners through redeemed sinners like us, sustaining our faithfulness through the love of Christ that controls our hearts.

Prayer

Prayer for Marvel at God's Mission

Father, we stand in awe of Your method—that You do not simply decree salvation from on high, but condescend to woo us like a bridegroom woos…

Family table

Why Would God Use Us?

This prompt invites kids to feel the wonder of being chosen by God for His mission, not as reward for goodness but as grace. Listen for mome…

Couples

Marveling Together at God's Mission

What part of Eric's sermon stirred your heart most—was it the wonder of God choosing to persuade rather than decree, or something else about…

Memorize

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim: that Christ's love—not duty or external command—is the fuel that transforms our hearts and compels us into His mission as ambassadors. It captures the gospel reality that sustains marvel at the Great Commission, moving us from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness.

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

Monday Hebrews 12:1-2

The writer of Hebrews calls us to run our race while fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith—the antidote to numbness is beholding Christ's joy. When we lose sight of what Jesus endured and completed for us, mission devolves into religious duty; when we see Him clearly, we recover the wonder that compelled the apostles and martyrs. Let us strip off every weight that clouds our vision of His glory.

Tuesday 1 John 3:16

Here John grounds divine love not in abstract decree but in Christ's laying down His life for us—a personal, costly, wooing act that awakened our hearts to love Him in return. This is the intimacy God chose: not coercion from the throne but the vulnerability of a bridegroom presenting Himself to win our affection. In this self-giving we see the glory of a God who pursues rather than commands, who loves rather than merely legislates.

Wednesday Hebrews 12:1-2

As we look to Jesus, we witness not a distant sovereign issuing decrees but the God who entered into our condition, walked among us, died for us, and rose to make intercession for us. His hands—once pierced for our redemption—are the very hands that touch our hearts and reshape our desires through His Spirit. This is the intimacy of salvation: the sovereign God personally engaged in wooing each of us into His family.

Thursday 1 John 3:16

John calls us to lay down our lives for one another because we have first beheld Christ laying down His life for us—His love becomes the pattern and the power of our own self-giving. The mission does not drain us when it flows from the boundless well of Christ's love for us; it energizes us because we are no longer driven by self-preservation but by the joy of participating in what He is doing. This is the reversal the gospel accomplishes: we live not by taking life but by spending it for others, as Christ did for us.

Friday Hebrews 12:1-2

The witnesses surrounding us (Hebrews 12:1) are watching our race; our neighbors, coworkers, and families draw conclusions about Christ from the way we run. When we fix our eyes on Jesus and run with endurance, we display to the world what it means to be loved by and oriented toward the Savior; when we flag or stumble into self-centeredness, we confuse the gospel's power. Ask yourself this week: what is my life persuading those around me to believe about Jesus?

Draft · pending review

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

When Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:11 that he persuades people, what does that verb tell us about God's method of reaching the lost—especially when we consider that God is sovereign and could simply decree salvation?

2 Corinthians 5:11

→ Why do you think the sermon emphasizes that God chooses to woo us like a bridegroom rather than simply command our allegiance?
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 together. What does Paul mean when he says Christ's love 'controls' or 'compels' him, and how is that different from mere obligation or duty?

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

→ When you think about your own engagement in sharing faith with others, what typically motivates you—and how might that be different from being controlled by Christ's love for the lost?
The sermon names a fallen condition: we have become numb to the marvel of the Great Commission, treating it as routine work rather than astonishing privilege. Where do you see that numbness in the church, and what do you think causes it?
In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul describes Christians as 'ambassadors for Christ.' What is the difference between being an ambassador who carries a message and being a representative who embodies authority—and why does the sermon say we are both?

2 Corinthians 5:20

→ How does understanding yourself as Christ's official representative change the way you think about ordinary conversations with neighbors or coworkers?
The sermon argues that the gospel itself is the fuel for sustained mission—that we must 'marvel at grace' and be 'filled up on the mystery of what God has done for us in Christ.' When is the last time you genuinely marveled at your own salvation, and what would it take for that wonder to reshape how you witness?
According to 2 Corinthians 5:21, Christ became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. How does this exchange—His filthiness for our holiness—connect to the image of God placing His holy hands on our filthy hearts, and what does it mean that this ransomed life now persuades others?

2 Corinthians 5:21

→ The sermon says every Christian's life is always persuasive. What conclusion might someone draw from watching your life this week—and is that the gospel conclusion?

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

Prayer for Marvel at God's Mission

Father, we stand in awe of Your method—that You do not simply decree salvation from on high, but condescend to woo us like a bridegroom woos his bride, placing Your holy hands on our filthy hearts (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). We marvel that You have made us ambassadors through whom You Yourself make Your appeal to a lost and broken world. Yet we confess that our hearts have grown numb to this astonishment. We treat the Great Commission as mere duty, a routine work of the church, rather than the unspeakable privilege it is. We have lost our wonder at the fact that the sovereign God chooses to persuade sinners through redeemed sinners like us, and in losing that marvel, we have lost the fuel that sustains faithful witness.

Forgive us for our dullness, and rekindle in us the gratitude that comes from understanding what You have accomplished in Christ. The love of Christ, which You displayed when He bore our sins and made us the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21), is the very power that constrains us to live no longer for ourselves but for Him (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). That same love must now compel us to see our neighbors, our workplaces, our families not as audiences for our performance, but as people whom You are wooing through our witness.

Grant us grace this week to recover our sense of wonder—not just at the commission You have given us, but at the staggering reality that You have chosen us as Your representatives in the world. Help us to see that our very lives, broken and ransomed as we are, are the evidence of Your power and the appeal of Your gospel. Make us bold to speak the truth, tender in our witness, and awake to the marvel that You are at work through us. We commit ourselves anew to You, knowing that we are not our own but His who bought us with His blood (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). To You alone be the glory in our mission.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

Why Would God Use Us?

For the parent

This prompt invites kids to feel the wonder of being chosen by God for His mission, not as reward for goodness but as grace. Listen for moments when they grasp that God picks unlikely people—including them—to show His love to others.

Pastor Eric talked about how God could just snap His fingers and make everyone believe in Jesus, but instead He picks people like us—people who mess up and need Jesus too—to tell others about Him. Why do you think God would choose to do it that way instead of just making it happen?

works for ages 7+

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Marveling Together at God's Mission

What part of Eric's sermon stirred your heart most—was it the wonder of God choosing to persuade rather than decree, or something else about how He uses us as ambassadors?
How might recovering our marvel at God's mission change the way we talk about our faith with neighbors, coworkers, or friends—are we treating witness as duty, or are we genuinely wooed by grace ourselves?
Who in your life needs to encounter Christ's love through our witness right now, and how can we pray for each other this week as we live out our calling as ambassadors?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and rose again.

Why this verse: This verse crystallizes the sermon's central claim: that Christ's love—not duty or external command—is the fuel that transforms our hearts and compels us into His mission as ambassadors. It captures the gospel reality that sustains marvel at the Great Commission, moving us from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

About us · What we believe

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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Marvel at the Mission (2 Corinthians 5:11-21, 2022-05-29)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/05/marvel-at-the-mission)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
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