Sunday 05/24/26 – Adams Village Baptist Church
Sermon Title: “New Life, New Creation” – “The Power of Transformation” Sermon Series – (Part 2 of 6) – 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 3:3 - (Memorial Day Sunday)
(Cover
Picture – New Creation)
This morning, we are continuing our six-week “The Power of
Transformation” sermon series. Last Sunday on our “Live It Out Loud” Sunday, or
formerly “Camp” Sunday, we discussed the idea of “When You’re Stuck in the
Cocoon.” It is hard to live our faith in Christ out fully when we feel stuck,
or not fully who God has called us to be. If we want to continue to be
transformed by Christ, and if we want to have the fullness of “The Power of
Transformation” in Christ then we need to pursue Christ daily. We need each
other, and we need great churches like this where we can live out our faith and
lives together.
This morning, since this sermon series is called “The Power
of Transformation,” on this Memorial Day Sunday, I want to talk about “New
Life, New Creation.” For those that were here last Sunday, or who watched
online last Sunday, you know that we talked about the transformation that a
caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly. This transformation in Christ
that we continue to experience makes us more and more like Jesus. Further, the
scriptures talk very directly of about “New Life, New Creation.” The two
scriptures that I chose for this morning on this topic, once again are 2
Corinthians 5:17 and John 3:3.
(2
Corinthians 5:17 – Butterfly - Picture)
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we hear, once again, this:
17 Therefore, if any
one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the
new has come (2
Cor. 5:17, RSV).
So, this idea of “New Life, New Creation,” this idea of our sermon series,
“The Power of
Transformation” is powerful. How do we come to Jesus, and how do we grow deeper
in faith with Him? How do we have “New Life, New Creation?” The first thing that
we need to do if have not done so already, is to surrender our lives to Jesus
Christ. Jesus loves us, has forgiven us, and He has died for us. When turn
Christ and when we give Him our grief, our shame, and our sin, He offers us,
wait for it, new life. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 just told us, when we come to Christ,
we are a “new creation,” and everything that we have ever done has been
forgiven. Or as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “the old has passed away, behold,
the new has come”.
This being said,
for most of us or many of us, there will be a fair amount of time in our lives from
when we first come to Christ, to when we go to be with Christ. So, coming to Christ
and being a new creation is an amazing thing. “The Power of Transformation”
however, goes much further then just when we come to Christ as our Lord and Savior.
The transformation continues, as we seek Him. The transformation continues as
we read God’s word. The transformation continues as we pray, as we serve, as we
love, as we worship, and as we seek the make the world look more and more like
Jesus Christ. As we seek justice and mercy. This, my brothers, and sisters is, “The
Power of Transformation.”
(2
Corinthians 5:17 – Tree Stump - Picture)
Further, the speed of our spiritual transformation in
Christ, can happen at all different speeds, and in different ways. We might be
like a tree stump, and then we have the “New Life, New Creation” of Christ in
us. It might just look like a small sprouting tree. You see, the tree stump is
dead, like some people are or feel they are spiritually. Coming to Christ and receiving
“New Life, New Creation” might be like having a small plant in a dead tree
stump. Imagine over time however, what the Holy Spirit can do with that small “New
Life, New Creation”? It can grow into a mighty new creation!
In our reading from the gospel of John 3:3 for this
morning, it says, once again this:
(John 3:3 –
Man in the Water - Picture)
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, RSV).
The idea of being a “Born
Again Christian” comes from scriptures like this. In this case, Jesus is
telling Nicodemus that he must be reborn, but of course Jesus means spiritual
rebirth. Jesus is saying that “The Power of Transformation,” occurs with “New
Life, New Creation.” Coming to Jesus, asking Him into your heart is “New Life,
New Creation.” The process of growing in Christ though, is what we call “Sanctification,”
or growing in God’s grace. This is a process that we live out our whole life
long. For example, before we get baptized in this church, and churches like
this, we must first profess our faith in Jesus Christ. We must first say that
we have “New Life, New Creation” in Jesus. When someone gets baptized in this
church, and churches like this they go into the waters of baptism to spiritually
die to themselves, and to be raised to new spiritual life in Christ. It is as
if we are spiritually going into Jesus’ tomb on Good Friday when He died when
we go into the waters of baptism. It is also as if we are spiritually rising to
new life when we come up from the waters of baptism. Baptism by itself and the
waters of baptism in our church, and churches like our hold no spiritual power
in and of themselves. The hope though is that we are open to movement of the
Holy Spirit, and that we come up out of the waters of baptism with “New Life,
New Creation.” This means that our transformation in Christ through the power
of the Holy Spirit continues from when accept Christ, to when we get baptized, etc.
Or to put it another way, when we come to Christ and make Him our Lord and our Savior,
He offers us forgiveness, eternity, and salvation. This is not the end of our spiritual
transformations here on earth though. Rather, it is only just the beginning.
(John 3:3 –
Forest - Picture)
As we grow closer and closer to Christ, as we become more
and more like Jesus, which is the ultimate goal of the Christian life, as we become
holier and more righteous. Not “holier than though,” but more and more like
Jesus. To be a “Christian” is to be a “mini-Christ,” as the goal of the
Christian life is to be just like Jesus. Sometimes though, the journey with
Christ towards holiness and righteousness can seem hard. It might seem foggy,
or as if we are walking through a forest together. Be encouraged though
brothers and sisters, because Jesus designed our faith through the power of the
Holy Spirit, for us to walk this road of faith, not just as individuals, but
together.
Here are a couple of other scriptures, out others, which discusses
“New Life, New Creation” and “The Power of Transformation.” The first one is
Colossians 3:10 that says this:
10 and have put on
the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its
creator (Col.
3:10, RSV).
To be a Christian, to come to Christ, is to realize that we
are not perfect, as only Jesus is. It is to realize that we need a savior, and
that we need God’s mercy and grace. When we do this, we shed the old self, and
put the new self that is of God, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
In Galatians 6:15, it says this:
15 For neither
circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (Gal. 6:15, RSV).
What the Apostle Paul is
saying to the church in Galatia, or the “Galatians,” and us, is that Jewish ritual
and belief of male infant circumcision in and of itself does not make us a new creation.
For Jesus once again, says in John 3:3 that we must be spiritually reborn. In
fact, the founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley, preached a famous
sermon the 1700’s called “The Circumcision of the Heart.” The idea of this
sermon was that a religious belief, ritual, or practice has no meaning if we do
not believe in it, and if God is not in it. You see Jesus is telling us that
just wearing “church clothes,” and just saying the words, and just singing the
songs, does not save us and transform us. Only faith in Christ, through the Holy
Spirit can we truly know “The Power of Transformation.” This is how we receive and
pursue “New Life, New Creation.” This means that John Wesley’s sermon called, “The
Circumcision of the Heart,” is a call to be changed, and be changed, and wait
for it, to be changed some more! This why the song called, “Change My Heart Oh
God” says
Verse
Change my heart, O God,
Make it ever true.
Change my heart, O God,
May I be like You.
Chorus
You are the Potter,
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray (https://www.google.com/search?q=change+my+heart+oh+god+lyrics+in+english).
This is the Christian
journey, the Christian life, and it all starts with saying yes to Jesus.
How then, on this specific Sunday, Memorial Day Sunday, does
this connect to the idea of “New Life, New Creation,” and “The Power of
Transformation?” It certainly is a hard argument biblically to say that war is
a good thing, and something that Jesus taught and advocated. A saint of the
Roman Catholic Church, Saint Augustine who lived in the 300’s and 400’s AD
argued though for what is called “Just War Theory”. What is “Just War Theory?”
This is what it is:
“Just war theory is a moral and
political doctrine designed to evaluate when it is ethically justifiable to go
to war and how warfare may be morally conducted. It strikes a balance between
total pacifism and unrestrained realism, functioning as the ethical foundation
for modern international laws of armed conflict (https://www.google.com/search?q=just+war+theory&rlz).
You see in order to be transformed by Christ, and in order
to gain “New Life, New Creation” you have to be alive to turn to Christ and
accept Christ. Have there then been times throughout history when war was
necessary? Some might say yes, and some might say no. My Quaker friends, also
called “The Society of Friends” are generally strict pacifists, meaning no war
ever. I admire my Quaker friends and others who are ardent pacifists, but I
wonder what we should have done when King George III would not give us “Taxation
without Representation?” This of course led up to the Revolutionary War that
was fought our nation’s independence two hundred and fifty years ago. Should we
have fought the British for national independence? What do you think? While I abhor
war, I understand why the American colonists fought for what would become the
United States of America. I also understand why the Civil War that was fought
in this country from 1861-1865, was largely fought to end slavery, or owning as
property other human beings. In understand why our brave soldiers hit the
shores of Normandy France on June 6, 1944 or “D-Day” to liberate the world of
Nazi fascism and tyranny. Some of these same soldiers liberated holocaust camps
where humans being, including 6-million Jews were being massacred.
What is also true, my brothers and sisters, is that we live
in a very broken world. Some of us, per my definition of Saint Augustine’s “Just
War Theory,” might believe that there
were times when wars have been “justified,” and other times when we feel that
war and military aggression were unjustified. You might in fact, be thinking
right now of some wars or military actions that you personally feel were “justified,”
or “not justified.” As people though, I believe it is very important in this
country and every country to support, love, and respect our soldiers. In both
the Republican and Democratic parties in this country, we have elected leaders
in congress that are military veterans. They signed up for service likely out a
sense of duty to the families, their communities, and their country. Tomorrow,
we honor those who have served in our armed forces who never made it home.
For these reasons, and because I have people in my family
and family history that served in the United States Armed Forces, I honor all
three of the United State Military holidays of Armed Services Day, for those
serving, Memorial Day, for those that never made it home, and Veteran’s Day for
those who have served. In fact, I remember doing a special Veteran’s Day
service at one of the churches that I served for six years. It turned out that
this church had four Vietnam War veterans. As it also turned out, three of these
Vietnam War veterans, whom were all drafted into the Vietnam War, never even
saw combat. Meaning, three out of four of these never actually fought in Vietnam.
Two of these three Vietnam veterans further, were medical soldiers. One was a
field surgeon, and the other was a medic. Also, wait for it, both the field
surgeon and the medic, at times cared for and operated on North Vietnamese
forces too, as that was the side our United States military was fighting against
in the Vietnam War. These two Vietnam veterans in particular spent their time
in the Vietnam War preserving life and not taking it. Both of these men were drafted
from a metal bingo cage rotating with numbered bingo balls. There numbers were called,
and they went to Vietnam. They saved and preserved life the entire time that
they were in the war, and when they got home, there was no parade. No “thank
you for your service,” instead these two men largely were heckled, called “baby
killer,” and were even spat upon. The first Sunday that I did a Veteran’s Day
service in this church that I served for six-years, one of these Vietnam War veterans
came up with tears in his eyes, and firmly grabbed my arm, and said, “Pastor
Paul, thank you for that service, we have not been honored like that in years”.
Friends, brothers and sisters, this is why we need to honor
our soldiers, our warriors, our troops. Many of these men and women have seen
and endured things that are beyond the comprehensions of many. Today, tomorrow,
and always may we respect, may we remember, and may we realize that if we want
the “The Power of Transformation” and “New Life, New Creation,” we have to be
changed in Christ. Sometimes for us this can be a struggle, but so was the American
Revolution, the Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, etc. Tomorrow, we
honor men and women, who never made it home from serving in the armed services
of our country.
To take all of this, and make this sermon something that we
can take out into Adams and the world, here are some application points for this
morning message:
Memorial Day is a time to honor
fallen service members, whose ultimate sacrifices defend the freedoms that make
both physical life and spiritual liberty possible. Many observe the holiday’s
somber weight alongside the concept of “new life” and “new creation,” bridging
grief with the enduring promise of redemption, renewal, and hope.
The
connection between remembrance, sacrifice, and rebirth spans deeply rooted
theological concepts and cultural observances:
·
Sacrifice and Redemption: In many faith traditions,
Memorial Day’s central theme of laying down one's life parallels the ultimate
sacrifice made for spiritual renewal. It echoes scriptural foundations like John
15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's
friends”.
·
From Grief to Renewal: The transition from the sorrow
of loss to the hope of a "new creation" (often tied to passages like 2
Corinthians 5:17) serves as a comfort for mourning families. It emphasizes
that out of the darkness of conflict and death, God and the human spirit can
bring forth beauty, healing, and restored purpose.
· Community and
Remembrance: For many, visiting war memorials and cemeteries represents tending
to the legacy of the fallen. It ensures that the memory of their ultimate
sacrifice continues to inspire a peaceful, thriving, and renewed society.
In our closing hymn for
this morning, is the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” written in 1863. It says
this in the fourth verse:
4 In the beauty of
the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
while God is marching on. [Refrain]
Refrain:
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on (https://hymnary.org/text/mine_eyes_have_seen_the_glory).
Friends, brothers and sisters, come to Christ and experience
“New Life, New Creation” and the “The Power of Transformation.” Happy Memorial
Sunday, and may we remember and honor our fallen soldiers tomorrow and always. For
freedom is free in Christ, but is so often pushed and fought for here in the United
States and in the world. Amen.
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