We're going to continue on in our Second Corinthians series in God's Word. And just a bit of a refresher. Last week we were in Second Corinthians 5, verses 11 through 15. And we wrestled with this reality that Christians, we know that the gospel is good news, that Jesus has done something amazing and we ought to share that good news with others. But we struggle with that. And we struggle with that because we feel the obligation. We feel like, oh, this is should that I have to do as a Christian instead of it being an overflow of Christ's love for us, which we saw in the text last week. And I pray and I hope that we have stories that we could share this morning of that love of Jesus overflowing out of us into people in our lives through us sharing the gospel. But I think we probably many of us this morning are feeling maybe a bit defeated because that didn't happen this. And the reason why I wonder that is because it didn't happen in my life this week. And so there's this reality that we still struggle to share the gospel with people in our lives. And our text this morning opens up one particular struggle in kind. And that's the struggle with how we see people. When we look at people and we wonder, would they ever actually be a Christian? Like would they actually ever hear the gospel? Whether or not we think too highly of them or too lowly, Maybe it's a too highly situation. And there's people that, man, I can't see that they would ever need the gospel. They look like their lives are all together. Look at their vacations, look at their home, look at their job statuses. How would they ever see a need for Jesus? Right? Or we think too lowly of people. Have you seen their life? Have you seen their Facebook posts? They hate God, they hate Christianity. They do everything that Christians aren't supposed to do. Do you know their reputation? Do you know their past? And we can tend to write people off, but think about Jesus, he never did that. I don't know how much you know about Jesus ministry, but if we just look at two situations that will kind of look through this morning, as we're in second Corinthians, we just get this window of how Jesus saw people. In John chapter 4, we see Jesus intentionally place himself so that he comes into contact with a woman at the well. And this woman, Jesus tells her he knows everything that she's ever done. And she's a red letter woman. She's living with a man that's not her husband. After burning through five other marriages and her life is bound up in shame. She's an outcast of her own city, Samaria, which is a city that is hated by Jews, hated by the people of Jesus. But Jesus sees past that to meet with her and to offer her life. So there's someone that would be looked at lowly. What about someone highly. There's Nicodemus. In John chapter three, we see him come to talk to Jesus and Nicodemus is like the farthest away from this Samaritan woman at the well. He is a high society Jewish man. He's learned, he's wealthy, he had influence, he was a part of the ruling religious elites. He's respectful. You know, he's the success story to the train wreck that we heard earlier. But Jesus, he's past all that and shares the gospel with him. Jesus saw them and knew they needed him. He didn't write either of them off. So our question this morning is how do we see people like Jesus to treat people like Jesus did? How can we see people in this way in our text this morning? Second Corinthians 5, verses 16 and 17. Just two verses, but they are transformational and they contain the result of the Apostle Paul seeing people the way Jesus does. The flip, the transformation that happened for him. So read our first verse this morning, verse 16 of chapter 5 with me. 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. Okay, so he says, from now on, therefore. And here's a quick Bible reading tip, you might note it already, but in case you don't, wherever you see a therefore in the Bible, you need to find out what it's therefore. Okay, you guys already got it. I'm old news here, but it's referencing something before this text that impacts what is going on in this text, what is about to be said. And so, quick review, verses 14 and 15. Paul's telling the Corinthians the gospel. He's reminding them, hey, Jesus died on behalf of all who would believe in him, so that they would no longer live for themselves, but live for the one who for their sake, died and was raised. And so because of that, in response to that, moving forward, from now on, because of what Jesus has done, there's a new normal for how to see people. There's a new way to see people. It's not according to the flesh. So we see a contrast there. It's not according to the flesh. And this is a key phrase to understanding how we just naturally look at people that we need to unpack a little bit. Regard. Regard can also mean to understand or evaluate people based on information that you just, you see about them. And so Paul is saying, because of what Jesus has done, from now on, we look at people differently from the world, differently from the way we looked at them before. The Gospel changes the way we evaluate. It's different from the flesh. And the flesh has many different meanings throughout the Bible. But here it means the worldly perspective, the way the world just works and evaluates people and looks at people. The worldly perspective that looks at outward appearances, which is all the different ways that Paul's opponents were looking at him and were saying, like, yeah, you're not legit, like you're not successful, you don't have much influence, you're not living lavishly, like you're not someone we should really look at. They were judging Paul based on this worldly perspective. And so Paul is saying, because of what, what Jesus has done, we don't look at people the way the world does anymore. We're done with that. We aren't using the world's values to judge people. That's how we used to see them, but no longer. We have a different system now. It's like a different grading system. And this makes me think of the fact that there's like two different grading systems in schools right now. I just heard when I was in high school, the whispers of the standards based grading coming in. I never experienced it, but I heard it was coming. I was like, what is that even going to be like? But back in my day, there was only traditional grading, right? There was only traditional grading. So you'd get assigned a paper and you'd get a rubric with that paper and you would be graded based on how you complete the content, the grammar, all these different things. And then you turn in your work and then you'd get a grade. A B. I was a pretty average student. So it's like B, like yay. You do your assignment, you get graded based on how well you did on that assignment. So traditional grading, you're graded based on your work. Now standards grading, as far as I understand, I don't understand it completely, I'll be honest, has to do with mastery of skills. Skills, it's more about development than work completion. Kids get homework that they don't have to do to get a good grade so long as they're able to prove they understand the course material. So standards says you are graded Based on your development, not necessarily your work. So traditional looks at what's done for the grade. Standards looks at what's learned for the grade. I'm not trying to say which is right or wrong. I would have loved to have homework I never had to do. That would have been great personally. But those are two completely different ways to grade a student. Can we just agree on that? Two completely different ways to grade a student. The world has a grading system, doesn't it? The world has a way of looking at people and giving them an A or an F. So there's the first person you can think of. Maybe they're successful, they have a nice house, they manage their money well, they have influence in the community, they're popular at school, they're really athletic, they're really musical. These different things. A, you're great, you're a success story. In Jesus time, that would be Nicodemus grade. And then there's another person, person B, and people look and say, you've had how many jobs in the last five years? You live there, you received government aid, you've messed up, and your community knows it. Because that's just how small towns work, right? Failure. F. That would have been the woman at the Wells grade. And so this is an opportunity for us to wrestle with the question, how are we prone to see people? How do we look at people through this lens and how does it impact the way we treat them? Just stop and think for a moment. Your neighbors, your coworkers, your kids. If we're grading them on the world system, we'll get frustrated about things, we'll get disheartened by things, we'll get prideful about things, arrogant about things, self righteous about things, and we'll treat them accordingly. And then when you think about the way it impacts how you treat yourself, just look back at the last week. Is it a C minus week or a B? Did you factor in your parenting, your work, how well you were a husband or a wife, how well you were a neighbor, a community member? That's heavy, right? What grade does your reputation get you started at? I think we can all admit that the world's grading system is prevalent. It's powerful, it's in our minds. And it's burdensome. It's burdensome. And maybe we can feel like we're being too hard on ourselves or others, or we're putting some people on a pedestal that we really shouldn't. But the reality is we're grading people with the wrong system. It's just the wrong system. It's just not right. We're not looking at people rightly. We have the wrong perspective. We're regarding them according to the flesh. So what is the right way to see people? Like when we break it down, I'm not liking the way that sounds. What is the right way to see people, including ourselves? Verse 17. Read verse 17 with me. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. This is amazing. The right way to see people is that anyone can be a new creation in Christ. That's the right way to see people. We'll break that down a bit. In Christ. We've been singing about it this morning. All sufficient merit has done. What I could not do means united with Jesus, tied to him. But before we unpack what it means to be a new creation in Christ, we need to wrestle with what does it mean for people who are not in Christ, who are outside of Christ? If we see that people can be a new creation in Christ, how do we see people that are outside Christ? In Ephesians 2 last week, we saw that we are all dead in sin, following the prince of the power of the air, meaning living in the ways that Satan has. For in this world, that's what we naturally come into this world, living like. That's what we are outside of Christ. And in that, we're not just dead and lost, but we are also enemies. Romans 5:10. Read Romans 5:10 with me. Paul shows us this Here. He says, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. There's this reality that apart from Jesus, we are enemies of God, rebels of God that are in dire need of reconciliation to be made right with God. And were we to stand before the judgment seat of God this morning, outside of Jesus, apart from Jesus, we would stand as those who have rebelled against God, living for ourselves, judging others. From a worldly perspective, sure, maybe. From a worldly perspective, we have our lives together, but standing before God, it doesn't matter. We're condemned if we don't believe in Jesus. Outside of Jesus, our position before God is an enemy of God. And this is the lens through which Jesus saw Nicodemus and the woman at the well, which is why Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, that famous Bible verse. Thank you. Tim Tebow John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And it continues, and we have to see where it goes. Jesus continues to say to Nicodemus, for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. See Nicodemus, he had a position problem. And that's what Jesus spoke to when he spoke to him. Which was the same problem as the woman at the well. Which is why Jesus didn't tell her, hey, fix up your life. Just pick a man and stick with him. That was not what Jesus said. He told her who he was. I'm the Messiah. I am the one that brings you into relationship with the Father so that you can worship him in spirit and in truth. She had a position problem and that's how Jesus spoke to her. They both desperately needed to be in Christ. To be in Christ. Anyone in Christ. If they were asked before entering into heaven, hey, why should we let you in? Why should you be let in to heaven? They'd instinctively point to Jesus on his throne and say, because I'm with Him, because he has paid for me. I'm in relationship with Him. I am with him, and he's the reason why I can be here. He, I am in Christ because of what he has done for me. He died the death. I deserve to die so that I could have the life I could have never deserved to live. Here's the point. A new creation in Christ is a statement of position. And we need to look at people based on their positions before God, not based on what their lives produce, not their life's production, which we so often are tempted to put an A on or an F on. We need to look past that to their position before God. Whether it's the jobless alcoholic and the generous asset manager, the the homeless streetwalker and the humble father, the caring teacher and the critical neighbor, the respected coach and the red letter lady, the diligent student or the disrespectful teenager, the family members with that proud heritage, or the ones with the skeletons in the closet that everyone knows about the 30 year old preacher and the 30 year old politician. The right way to see people is based on their position before God, not based on what their lives are producing. Anyone apart from Jesus is an enemy of God. But anyone in Christ. Position, transformation. A new creation. This is a miracle. This is amazing. A new creation, a new creature, a new person with a new life and this phrase is just bursting with meaning. It's a soul level gut job. It's extreme makeover, heart and life addition. And this points to the better series to come of God renewing all of creation, the whole cosmos, a new heavens and a new earth. So one person in Christ being made a new creation is a pointer to that new heavens and the new earth that is to come. And maybe you're wondering what happens in this new creation transformation, Taylor. And I'll say I'm so excited that you asked me that question because it is absolutely amazing. In verse 17, we see what happens. The old has passed away. The old has passed away. Our old position before God as enemies of God is gone. It's gone. The ways that we judged ourselves based on the world's standards, the world system, gone. The reasons that we would judge others for the same system, gone. It's old news. It's dismantled. It's proven. Proven as worthless. It's thrown away. And that's good news. Think about it. All the shame of reputation and its mistakes, all the pressure of keeping up an image, earning your place, all the guilt that we've felt before God is taken care of by Jesus on the cross. All sufficient merit, now my own. And there's more. It's such good news that the old has passed away. And so why would we go back? Why would we go back to the old? Let it be old news, right? Because this is what else verse 17 says. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. The new has come. We have a new life in Jesus. Our hearts get renovated with a new desire that are bent towards glorifying God. He's transformed us as individuals who come to worship here as a gathered people, as a transformed people, together as a family, worshiping our heavenly Father. Which is the fulfillment of this beautiful picture in Isaiah 65, verses 17 through 25. We don't have time to unpack it this morning, but I encourage you to go read that passage, Isaiah 65, 1725. This Old Testament prophecy of what Jesus would bring in this old passing away, former things being done away with in this new coming, but us as new creations. That's what it means to be a Christian, to be alive, transformed by Jesus as a new creation, this small part of his redemption in the world. And that's how Christians see ourselves and others. That's how Jesus looks at people. He looks past the things that we can see to the position before God. We are all either new creations in Christ or enemies of God. That's a different way of seeing people, isn't it? That's not natural for us. That's a different grading system. And I think sometimes when we judge whether or not people need Jesus, it's based on that, like, outside stuff, the worldly system, the worldly grade. And, like, why would you go to someone who's got an A in life to tell them about Jesus? But I think that's because we're looking at people needing Jesus like people need pacemakers. You know, a pacemaker helps you out when your heart is out of rhythm. You've been dizzy, you've had some shortness of breath, and maybe you're fainting here and there. So a pacemaker will help get your heart back in rhythm. And when thinking about a person's soul, sometimes it's like you just need a bit of Jesus to get your life on track. Your soul is out of rhythm. You tend towards anger, selfishness, anxiety, and so you need Jesus, and he will get your soul back in rhythm. But what we've already seen, what we've already talked about, is that this is the wrong problem. We're looking at the symptoms, not the true problem going on here. Our problem is that our heart isn't just out of rhythm, in need of help, pacing. Our heart is dead. It needs to start beating. That's the problem going on here. We don't need a pacemaker. We need a spiritual heart replacement. We have a heart that's disease that leaves us spiritually dead, bent towards ourselves, living for our own sake, not for Jesus. And it's that big of a deal. We need a heart replacement. We need a transformed life. We need to be new creations. And when we neglect to see people rightly based on their position, based on that, based on their ultimate problem, we lack the urgency to give them the ultimate solution. The problem is ultimately their position before God, not what their life produces. What our lives produce is just a symptom of our position or us living out of sync with our position. Christians here this morning, are we looking at people based on their position before God or based on what their life produces? Do you see yourself and other believers as new creations in Christ? Do you see non Christians as enemies of God? That could be new creations in Christ, that could be made new in Christ if not, if we aren't seeing that way. I pray that we see that is the right way to see people. And I hope the question you might be asking right now, if that's not how you're seeing people, is how can we see people like Jesus saw them? How can we have this transformation and change? How did Paul change? If we look back at verse 16, he says he changed. He says, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. So there was a time that he did regard people according to the flesh. So what changed for Paul? In Acts 7, we see Paul, young Paul, known as Saul, in the crowd that stoned the first Christian martyr named Stephen. And he approved of it. He cheered it on because he believed it was good. He believed he was a part of God's work, being there, watching the coats of the men that threw stones onto Stephen to crush him and kill him. And he thought that was right because he regarded Jesus according to the flesh. He looked at Jesus and said, there's no way that's the Messiah. There's no way that's the Christ. Because the picture of the Jewish Messiah for Paul and for the Jews had gone from this Old Testament picture of hope to a worldly picture of liberation, revenge and affirmation. For the Jewish people to be the true people of God. Jesus just didn't fit the bill of Christ. For Paul and for the Jews, they were expecting the Christ to be a military leader who would come in and free the Israel, free the Jews from Roman oppression. He wasn't supposed to die a shameful death on the cross, the lowly death of a criminal. Absolutely not. That's ridiculous. But then in Acts 9, Jesus opens Paul's spiritual eyes through blinding his physical eyes, and he reveals to Paul him as Lord. Paul for the first time saw Jesus as the Christ, the risen Lord that he was waiting for. He wasn't just the king to free Israel from Roman oppression. No, he was the king of the universe who would free all peoples of every tribe, nation and tongue from the slavery of sin, Satan and death. He saw that Jesus was that amazing, that magnificent, that incredible. The one who died so that those who live for themselves would no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for their sake. Paul's view of Jesus was forever changed that day. That's why he says in verse 16, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. The Gospel has changed that dramatically. And it changed the way Paul saw himself and everyone else. Paul had become a new creation. And so when we see Jesus rightly, it changes everything for us. It changes how we see everything, including people. Seeing Jesus as the risen Lord makes us see people as potential new creations. Said another way, seeing Jesus rightly makes us see people rightly. Seeing Jesus rightly makes us See people rightly. Do you see Jesus rightly, Church? Maybe you have seen him rightly. You've become a new creation, but that's drifted. Or maybe you haven't seen Jesus. Are we looking at him as the risen Lord, the One who died and rose so that we could have transformed lives as new creations with a new heart? Seeing him in this way inevitably leads us to praise him, to worship him, to honor him, because he is glorious, he's magnificent, he's wonderful. And one of the best ways that we can worship and honor Jesus is to see people the way he saw people. To reject the world's perspective, to say, no, I want to be done with that worldly grading system. It's burdensome for me. And it leads me to see people wrongly and to treat people wrongly. I want to be done with that. Let the old be passed away, let it be gone. The old way of judging people based on what their lives produced. You are a new creation in Jesus. See people as potential new creations. Bring on the new. Ask yourself with every person you encounter, what is their position before God? Where are they at? That's the most important question. What's their position before God? And we will see people rightly if we ask that question. And when we see people rightly, we're going to treat them rightly and God will get the glory. When we see people based on their position before God, either as an enemy of God or a new creation, we're going to treat them rightly and God will get the glory. Think about our brothers and sisters in Christ. If we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ as new creations, we will see that that is an amazing gift, life, transformation. But we struggle to live in line with that transformation. Nobody here is perfect. We still wrestle with the old life that the old stuff that our life produced before. We still struggle to see that there's this new life for Jesus that we get to live. And so if we see in our brothers and sisters that we're producing these things that aren't in line with our position before God, we're going to lovingly come to them and say, that's not who you are. I don't say this to judge you, to shame you, but God has more for us. We are new creations in Christ. Don't be selfish, don't be angry, don't be bitter, don't gossip, don't shame people. God has made us new creation so that old life could be gone and the new life could come and could grow to be more and more like Jesus. So that we could worship God through every single aspect of our life, which is what we will be doing for eternity in the new heavens, in the new earth. So church brothers and sisters in Christ, let us live together now more and more, like we will live together forever, giving glory to God through our lives. We will treat our brothers and sisters in Christ differently, but we will also treat those in our lives outside of Christ differently. Right now, they're an enemy of God. And if they remain enemies of God, they are bound for judgment, eternity, apart from God. But we regard no one according to the flesh. No one is too far gone. Anyone can be a new creation in Christ. So you'll treat co workers differently. You'll get more upset about the state of their soul than whether or not they messed up a project or broke a policy or just left you high and dry. You'll see past that, you'll treat your kids differently. I need to treat my kid differently. Sure, we celebrate their achievements and we discipline the behaviors that are out of line. But we see past that to where they're at with Jesus. We care most for them. Loving Jesus, giving glory to Jesus, being new creations in Jesus. And we'll treat our neighbors differently. The ones that we like, we enjoy being invited over to for dinner or the ones we don't like. The ones we wish wouldn't talk to us. We'll see past that. We'll see their position before God and we'll desire them to know Jesus. We need to look at everyone, anyone, no matter their choices, their stories or reputations, and believe at our core that they can be new creations in Jesus. No one is too far gone. Because that's what Jesus has done for us. That's what Jesus has done for me. New creation in him that can become a part of the family of God that worships God in eternity as a new people forever. From all tribes, nations and tongues and all broken pasts, socioeconomic statuses and reputations. Church. If we took this to heart, if we saw people based on their position, if we saw ourselves based on our positions before God and what God has done to change that, I think we would respond in a way much like the woman at the well did. If you don't know the rest of her story, after Jesus and her had a conversation and Jesus revealed to her that himself and that he knew everything that she had ever done, she sprints back to her town of Samaria and she tells her whole community, she says this. Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. You would think that Wouldn't be a good thing, right? You would think it wouldn't be a good thing that Jesus knows everything that the woman has ever did. But she asks this question, can this be the Christ? Can this be our awaited Messiah, the Savior of the world? Could this be the Christ? Because she knew that Jesus saw past what was going on in her life, the things that her lives produce to the new creation, that he would make her in him. He saw past that and she believed in him and she was made new in Christ. And it changed her life and it changed the community around her. It changed Samaria. Samaria was never. The change after that, was never the same after that moment. The people of the town came to Jesus saying, hey, we believed because of what she said, but now we believe because we see you. They came flocking to Jesus to see what this was about, this new creation, this new life, this new way that Jesus has paved. Just imagine if what happened in Samaria happened and Urbana Vinton, Shellsburg, Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha, Robbins, Coggin, Walker and Centerpoint, that we were just so moved by becoming new creations in Jesus that we just couldn't help but tell people. We couldn't help but say, this is what Jesus has done. And were that to happen, our church months from now would look radically different. Radically different. And not just because we'd be in 104 Town Center Drive, in a new building. Right? We would look more different because of the people gathering with us, because we would see past the train wreck, past the success story, to see new creation. And we would share the good news with them. How amazing would that be? That would be incredible. And our church would be more and more of a little slice of that new creation that is to come. The new heavens and the new Earth, where people from every tribe, nation and tongue and life status gathers to worship at the feet of Jesus because he is worthy. Let us pray that we would see people in that light. That we would see people as potential new creations. That we would see Jesus rightly and treat people accordingly. And that God would do something amazing through that. Let's pray. Father God, you are amazing. I am in awe of the fact that this was your plan. From the very beginning of time, you always knew that you would redeem creation, that you would redeem us. You knew every single piece of our life before we were ever born, every day written for us before we ever lived. You knew every mistake we would make, every success we would have. And you would know we would be in dire need of your son, Jesus to come save us to come die the death we deserve to die so that we could be raised from that life of death, that debt of sin and death to be transformed into a new life. We praise you this morning for doing that. Pray this in Jesus name, amen.