This message by Reverend Bill Parker was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, December 30, 2007, and was taken from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
What would Jesus explain to us at the end of this year. If Jesus were to teach us something we don’t know by using something we do know about, he might begin with one of our bridges around Tulsa. In the text before us Paul shows us three bridges that need to be built and crossed.
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. 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. – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, ESV
- A bridge to God – verses 17 & 21: We are new creatures in Christ. God must do this. We cannot. Only God can change you. Only God can keep us spiritually ready. Jesus is the only bridge from here to eternity.
- A bridge to one another – verses 18-19: As Christians we have a ministry of reconciliation. We are to be bridge builders between ourselves and our brothers in Christ.
- A bridge to the lost – verse 20: We are to build bridges to the lost world around us.