Trinity Baptist Church

Key Words of the Christian Life

Reconciliation: Enemies No More

Romans 5:9-11; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

 

Back in 1968, America was a troubled nation. That summer the inner cities of America’s great cities burst into flames as protestors demonstrated. America’s campuses were filled with protest against the war in Southeast Asia.

 

As the time for the presidential election neared, it seemed as if the entire nation was unraveling at the seams.  There was deep division politically.  It seemed we could no longer get along and couldn’t talk to each other anymore. In fact, there was some speculation that America could not even survive.

 

One of the turning points came during the final stages of Richard Nixon's campaign against Hubert Humphrey.  His campaign train stopped briefly in the town of Deshler, Ohio, population 2,000. It's about 45 miles southwest of Toledo.

 

Vicki Lynne Cole was an 8th grader who went to Nixon's whistle-stop. Evidently, at her school, the call had gone out for volunteers to serve as "Nixonettes."

 

She had made a sign to hold up, something about Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, but lost it.  As the train neared she reached down and picked up another one off the ground. Reportedly she didn't look at it before she held it up.

 

 

The sign said, "Bring Us Together Again. No one knows for sure whether Nixon himself actually noticed the sign, but someone on his staff did.

And before long, Vicki Cole, 13 years old, became one of the stars of the presidential campaign.

 

Going forward in the campaign, Nixon would say something like, "I saw many signs in this campaign.” But the sign in Deshler, Ohio, he told crowds, would motivate him and would become the theme of his presidency. If he were elected, he would never forget the inspiration he had received from Vicki. He would bring the nation together. Vicki's words, Nixon said, would be "the great objective of this administration."

 

The word "again" was dropped from campaign references to Vicki 's sign and "Bring us together" were the words Nixon used. He talked about Vicki in Madison Square Garden; he talked about Vicki at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

 

And when Nixon won the election, and plans for his inauguration were announced, press reports said that there would be 56 marching bands, 39 floats, the French Dukes Drill Team, three Lipizzaner horses and Vicki Lynne Cole.

 

And sure enough, on inauguration day, there was Vick Lynne Cole holding a recreation of that sign that said, “Bring us together again.”

 

Today we live in a very fragmented world. We live in a world that to this very day in many ways seems to be coming apart at the seams.

 

Though it is true we are the most technologically advanced generation this world has ever known, it is also true that this is the bloodiest we’ve even been in the world.  For all our intellect and all our education and all our amazing technological progress, it seems all we have learned how to do is kill each other better, faster, cheaper and more efficiently.

 

Today we have wars and skirmishes raging all over the world.  Most citizens of the world live in fear of some kind of terrorist activity.  We are divided ethnically. We are divided nationally.  We are divided politically.  We are divided religiously.

 

We are divided into the haves and the have-nots. We are divided by language, by the way we look, by the color of our skin. And more than that, we are divided personally and spiritually, one from the other.

 

I don’t know how you feel, but I am so tired of turning on the news and hearing about parents who put their own children to death and children who in retaliation have killed their parents. Just in the last few days I read of a man in St. Petersburg, Florida who pulled his five year-old daughter from his car, hugged her to his chest, then dropped her from a 60 foot bridge into Tampa Bay.

 

On October 10 of last year, Alan Hruby murdered his father, John, his mother, Tinker and his 17 year-old sister with a gun he had stolen from his father’s pickup.  He first shot his mother twice in the head, then shot his sister when she came to investigate.

And according to his confession,, he then waited an hour until his father came home. When John Hruby walked into the room Alan killed him by shooting him twice in the head.

When hit by his son's first bullet, the father said "ouch" then dropped to the kitchen floor. That's when the young man finished the job by putting the second bullet into his victim's skull.

 

He then travelled to Dallas to attend the Oklahoma -Texas football game. He stayed at the Ritz Carlton hotel and partied all weekend.  When asked why he had murdered his family in cold blood, the college student said he needed to inherit his parents' estate because he owed a loan shark from Norman, Oklahoma $3,000.

 

I am so tired of hearing news like that and reading about drive-by shootings and the killing of police officers. I am tired of hearing of the constant turmoil and tragedy around the world.  And I am confident when I get up tomorrow morning there will be more, and the day after that there will be more, because we are divided people. We live on a divided planet.

 

Vicki Lynne Cole’s sign: Bring us together again.

 

It’s a beautiful thought, but it seems to be so far from reality. Husbands hate their wives. Wives hate their husbands. Husbands cheat on their wives and wives cheat on their husbands. Children hate the parents and parents the children. Adult children hate their older parents and older parents hate their adult children and grandchildren.

 

Friends break up over the most trivial things. We hate the people we work with. We hate the people we go to school with. We really don’t care much for the people who live down the street or in another community because they are different from us.

 

We constantly hear about church fights and division.  People argue and split over the most foolish of things.  Even in the church of the Living God, we often find this spirit of division and separation.

 

And the sign said: Bring us together again. It seems like a cruel joke.

 

The word for today is reconciliation. In the Greek there are three primary words that are used for reconcile and reconciliation.

 

 

The primary one that is used in the New Testament is a word that literally means to change completely. When you reconcile two people, you are changing their complete orientation. Where they were once far apart and separated, now you have changed them completely so now they are friends again.

 

In the Bible, whenever you find the word reconcile or reconciliation, it always implies at least two things.

 

Reconciliation always involves first of all a removal of that which caused the enmity in the first place, whether it is reconciliation between people, nations, races, groups or individuals and God.

 

Reconciliation is impossible until you deal with the problem that caused the separation, that has forced people apart, that has forced the wedge between. Reconciliation, then, is impossible without dealing with the sin and failure that divides us and pushes us apart.

 

 

So keep those two things in mind.  Whenever you see the word reconcile or reconciliation in the Bible, whether it is between people or people and God, it always involves the removal of the problem and the restoration of friendship.

 

 

One author I read, discussing reconciliation between man and God, explained it like this:  In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, God and man were close. There was nothing between them. They had a close, personal relationship. Nothing could come between them at all.

 

What happened in the Garden of Eden was that when Adam and Eve sinned, they chose to step away from God. They took a step away from close, intimate fellowship. When man turned away from God, God turned away from man. God cannot have a relationship with man when there is sin in between.

 

So when man turned away, then God turned away.

But then, something else happened, thousands of years later, when a little baby was born in a place called Bethlehem. When that happened, God turned back toward man again.

 

If you want a Biblical assurance of that, listen to

 

2 Corinthians 5:18-20

 

What we have described there is exactly the situation we have in the world today.  God in Christ has reconciled the world.

 

He has turned back toward man. But man is still turned away from God. This is the situation in which so many people find themselves.  God has done all that is necessary to establish a relationship with man, but now what has to happen is there has to be a turning on this side. There has to be a belief in what Jesus Christ has done.

 

When a person will say, “Yes, I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me,” then and only then is man finally reconciled to God. God has turned back toward man, but the situation of the world today is one of being turned away from God.

 

With that as background, I want to read

 

Romans 5:9-11

 

Notice we are referenced as “enemies”.  Some want to argue about that to say they are not the enemy of God.  I will remind you it is not your classification of yourself that matters, but God’s classification of humanity.

 

The problem we have is the problem of sin and whether we realize it or not, as sinners we are in rebellion against the authority and control of God.

 

Sin is the great divider.  You’ve probably seen the little witnessing cartoons that place man on one side of a cliff and God on the other. In between is this gap or chasm that represents our sin.

 

Isaiah 59:21 says, “Your sin has separated you from God.” That is the way we all are apart from Jesus Christ. We are all over on one side and God is on the other, and sin has separated us from God.

That’s what happened way back in the beginning.   There was Adam and Eve and God and they enjoyed this perfect relationship of trust and friendship and relationship. They were together in the Garden of Eden.

 

But what happened? Eve was tricked by Satan and ate the fruit, then gave it to Adam. Adam wasn’t tricked; he knew exactly what he was doing. Adam ate the fruit and sin entered into the human race.

 

And what is the very first thing Adam and Eve did once they realized they had sinned? “Suddenly,” the Bible says, “their eyes were opened and they could perceive good and evil.” They realized they were naked because sin had entered into the relationship and they were ashamed and went and hid themselves.

 

God shows up early one morning and called to Adam to see where he was.  Didn’t God know where Adam was? You better believe God knew where Adam was.  He called out like He did so Adam would know where he was.

 

Suddenly there was a division that had never existed before.  God never had to call out to Adam before that day.

 

Adam was always there, eagerly waiting for the Lord.  They enjoyed an unbroken relationship until sin entered the picture.  Sin always divides and the first division was between man and God.

Then God asked Adam what he had done. And what was Adam’s answer? “The woman you gave me gave me the fruit.” He tried to lay it off on her and ultimately on God.

 

So suddenly this first sin caused a separation between man and God and then between man and woman. They were cast out of the Garden of Eden and God said they couldn’t come back in because sin doesn’t belong in paradise. He put the cherubim with the flaming, flashing sword going to and fro because sin had broken man’s relationship with God.

 

So Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden.  It wasn’t long until they had a couple of boys.  One was named Cain and the other was named Abel. Abel offered sacrifices that were accepted by God, but Cain’s were not accepted. When Cain saw that, he was jealous of Abel and he killed him. So now sin has passed down to the next generation.

 

Now we have division between God and man, between husband and wife and brother and brother.

And by the time you arrive at Genesis 6 and Noah and the Flood, sin has spread so much, the entire world has to be destroyed because of the evil. Sin had now even separated man from creation.

 

In Genesis 9 you come to that strange story of Noah and his drunkenness. Remember how Shem and Japheth would not look on their father’s nakedness, but Ham did. A curse came down. The Bible says that from Shem, Ham and Japheth come all the races, all the peoples of the world.

 

 

From that has come racial antagonism and ethnic hatred and ethnic strife which we see right up to this very day in places like Ferguson, Missouri.  it all goes back to Genesis 9.

 

Continue on to the story in Genesis 11. Humanity wanted to build a great big tower to show how great and powerful they were. They all spoke one language, but when God saw what they were going to do, he confounded their speech so they could no longer talk to each other. One language group went over here and another language group went over there and that, my friend, was the beginning of national antagonism and international strife which continues to this very day.

 

What started out as a separation between man and God spread to a separation between man and woman, then to a separation between brother and brother, between man and his creation, between the races and ethnic groups and ultimately between all the nations of the earth.

 

And it only takes the first eleven chapters of the Bible for us to go from absolute perfection and paradise to the chaos and destruction of the world.  You can mark it down big and bold.  Whenever sin comes in, it never brings people together.  It always and only forces them farther apart.

 

 

And that is why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so important because Jesus is the great uniter. If sin is the divider, Jesus Christ is the uniter.  

 

 

Through the pages of our Bible we can travel through the centuries until we finally arrive at a little place called Bethlehem.  Outside of town, out on the hillside there are some shepherds taking care of their flocks.

 

Suddenly the nighttime sky is filled with the glory and majesty of heaven as a heavenly host fills the heavens.  They are announcing the most glorious news sinful humans could ever hear. 

 

They are saying, “Peace on earth, good will toward men”.  They are saying that because somebody had come to the world who was going to at last reverse the effects of the fall. At last God had done something that would provide a lasting solution to the problem that started so long ago.

 

Read in the life of Christ and you know the only people Jesus ever condemned were the religious hypocrites. What kind of people did Jesus choose for his followers?

 

He chose fishermen, farmers, political zealots, tax collectors. In fact, the Bible says Jesus liked to hang around the drunkards and prostitutes and tax collectors so much, they called him a glutton and a drunkard, associating him with the kind of people he felt comfortable with.

 

And was it not our Lord Jesus who said, “I need to go through Samaria?” But the Samaritans were the hated half-breeds.  Jews couldn’t stand Samaritans and Samaritans couldn’t stand Jews. The Jews would do anything to avoid going through Samaria.

 

But Jesus said needed to go through Samaria?  Why?  So He could demonstrate that He is One who can bring the races together. He is the one who can bring the ethnic groups together. He is the one who can bring the nations together.

 

When will we understand that the answer to the deepest problems that we have in the world today is not to be found in Washington? It is not with the Republicans.  It’s not with the Democrats.  It’s not with the Independents.  It’s not with the generally confused.

 

It’s not with any of those people up there. The answer is with Jesus Christ, who came 2,000 years ago, not to separate, but to bring people back to God and to bring people together who have been separated by sin.

 

The Bible says that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself and He has given to us the message and the ministry of reconciliation. The followers of Jesus Christ are to be people who bring reconciliation into the world.

 

And I’ve got news for you.  If you’re always fussing and fighting and bickering and arguing, that is not the Spirit of Christ at work in you.  There are some people who seem to delight in always stirring things up and bring dissension.  Paul instructed Timothy to warn people about fighting over words because it is unprofitable and leads to the ruin of the hearers.

 

Listen:  you don’t have to have an opinion about everything.  You’re not God’s gift to provide answers about every question in life.  The Bible says it is a beautiful thing when we live together in harmony.

 

Vicki Lynne Cole’s sign said: Bring us together again.

 

And in a fragmented, bleeding, dying, hate-filled world, we are to be messengers of reconciliation.

We are to take the message out of this place onto the streets. We are to take it to the rich and to the poor. We are to take it to those who will listen and to those who won’t listen. We are to take it to those who want to hear it and to those who don’t want to hear it. We are to go out and tell them there is a better way.

 

You don’t have to hate each other. You don’t have to kill each other. You don’t have to call each other names. There is a better way. And it has to start with you and with me. It has to start in the most personal areas of life. It is not enough just to come to church and say we believe these things. We have to go out and be agents of reconciliation in a hurting world.

 

That is why Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Why? Because in a hurting, war-torn, evil, fractured, divided world, we have the message that can bring people back together again. It is the message of reconciliation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

There is something I want you to do. I don’t think it is enough for me to preach this to you. I think we have to make it more personal than that. We have to get serious about this. There are areas where reconciliation may be needed in your own life.

Think about where you need to make some changes, where you need some reconciliation in your own heart.

 

Maybe it is racial reconciliation. Maybe you have been guilty of racial hatred, of saying things that have driven people apart.

 

Maybe you have been part of the problem and it is time for you to become part of the solution to the racial tension in our country today. Maybe you can make a difference in your school, in your home, where you work.

 

How about marital reconciliation? There are some families who are just teetering on the brink of marriage and divorce. Some of them are good families, but there is so much anger. There has been so much sin, so much division and separation.

 

Some of us need to take this message back home into our marriage. Husbands, be reconciled to your wives and wives, be reconciled to your husbands.

 

What about in your family? This is the area I have been thinking about a lot. My own family, my own boys, my relationship with my loved ones. Is it what

 

How about in your neighborhood? What have you done to bring people together in the name of Jesus Christ?

 

What about in your work? Maybe you are separated at work from somebody you just can’t stand.

 

 

God has called you to go back into that situation and bring people together in the name of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit and for the sake of the gospel of God.

 

What about your school, your teachers, fellow students?

 

What about in your church, Christian?

 

Maybe you have been separated for a long time from somebody else because they said something and you have never forgiven them. They did something to you and you have never gotten over it.

 

If there is a broken relationship in your life, I want you to know something.  Broken relationships block the Holy Spirit of God. If we say we believe in reconciliation, then we have to believe in it more than just a theoretical sense. It has to work down into the deepest areas of life.

 

Maybe you are in that group right now and you recognize it, but what you really need is reconciliation with God. You can have that. Reconciliation means that God is satisfied with Jesus, with his death and his resurrection. God is satisfied with what his Son did.

 

Are you satisfied with what Jesus did? If you will say yes, and open your heart, if you will say, “Come in, Lord Jesus. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. I believe that what you did was enough,” and if you open your heart to the Lord Jesus, you can have peace with God right now. I urge and beg you to do it.

 

Brothers and sisters, let us be determined to go out as agents, ambassadors, and ministers of reconciliation. There is already enough hatred, killing and bitterness. We need a few ambassadors to go out and in Jesus’ name bring people together again.

 

Vicki Lynne Cole’s sign said:  Bring us together again.  God help us to carry that sign as well.

 

Let’s pray.