AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST

2 Corinthians 5:9-21

Today we are looking at the Scripture passage 2 Corinthians 5:9-21.  7Just before this Paul, the writer of this letter has been discussing the whole idea of heaven – Paul is writing to the Corinthian Christians and he says that these bodies of ours are like tents that will one day be folded and away and replaced by our resurrection bodies.  He speaks of how we would love to be with God in heaven – after all living conditions here can be tough. 

But God is gracious and has given us His Holy Spirit to live in us and give us a taste of what lies ahead.  Sure Paul says at verse 8 we would love to exchange life here for life in heaven – which he calls home. 

But living here or living in heaven is not the main thing.  Read 2 Corinthians 5:9-21, and then verse 20 - hear it again, “So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.”  Isn’t that an amazing statement?  It’s a statement that is true of every follower of Jesus Christ.  Think of the image of an ambassador for a moment. 

What is an ambassador? An ambassador is a person who holds citizenship in one country but lives in another country as a representative for his or her home country.  An ambassador is one who lives by the laws of the country in which he lives but is subject to the greater law of his or her home country.  An ambassador is one who works to promote the cause of his home country and promotes the culture, commerce and community of his home country in a foreign land.  

So Scripture teaches us that we are citizens of the kingdom of God. (Ephesians 2) When you became a Christian you got a whole new set of citizenship papers.  You belong to the Kingdom of heaven.

BUT clearly we live here on earth. Sure, we are subject to the laws of the land in which we live, but we are ultimately subject to the laws of the Kingdom.  We live here as God’s ambassadors, promoting all aspects of the Kingdom. 

You are an ambassador for Christ.  Take that in this morning.  Turn to your neighboor and say to them, “You are an ambassador for Christ.” 

Now be careful how you say that to the person next to you – don’t say it laughingly, or jokingly – this is serious stuff.  It’s an amazing statement. You are an ambassador for Christ – you are not the chauffeur in the Kingdom of God.  You are not the maid, the butler, the laborer, or the ditch digger – you are an ambassador, a representative for the kingdom of God.  It’s a huge honour. To be a representative of the King of kings.   When we sit at the lunch table with our fellow workers we are sitting there as an ambassador for God.  When we drive through the streets of Markham we are driving as an ambassador for Christ.  We never stop being an ambassador. Wherever we are and whatever we do we have the honour of being a representative of Christ. 

Now – turn to the person next to you and say, “Wow, you are an ambassador for Christ!”  This is a great honour. 

Not only is this a huge honour, this is a huge responsibility.  And  since none of us have never been an ambassador before we may wonder how do we carry out the duties of being a representative of the King.  I believe that the text of 2 Corinthians 5 tells us how.  It tells us how we are to carry out this responsibility. 

As I read through this, I see first that there is an urgency about this responsibility.   Verse 10 says we all are going to meet God face to face and give an account for what we have done. That’s why in the last part of verse 20 we read, “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  How is that done? Verse 21- “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

There is an urgency here – everyone is going to meet God face to face.  Think of that – that is so awesome – that’s what Paul is says in verse 11. “I’m in awe of God,” – our pew translation says, “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord.” That’s not being scared by God – it’s being in awe of God. 

He’s saying, this isn’t a trite thing that we are all going to stand before God one day in that place of judgment. It is awesome, and because of that our task as ambassadors is urgent, working with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. 

And we know there is an urgency just because of the frailty of life and  the fact of our Lord’s return, but the task of being an ambassador for Christ is urgent in our time because the church in North America on the whole is ineffectual.  It’s like we have several viruses attacking us and the body doesn’t know how to fend it off.

There is the virus that I call entertainment Christianity that is filled with glitz and noise and the cult of the personality.  There’s another virus that is I call dull Christianity – it’s downright boring, stand up, sit down, say this prayer, stand up sit down, listen to this sermon and now leave.  There is another virus I call safe Christianity that basically says that as long as we’ve said this salvation prayer and get down into the water we’re okay.  

The church in North America has lost its way.  There needs to be a deeper commitment to Jesus Christ, there needs to be a greater demonstration of the reality of Christ in our lives because what we are demonstrating right now is a bland-do-what-we-have-always-done, stay-the-course kind of Christianity.  There needs to be step of radical discipleship – for me, there needs to be a radical step of discipleship. 

And we are losing a generation, if we haven’t lost them already.  When you go home read that Child Evangelism Fellowship brochure in your bulletin – it’s one of the organizations we support through our Faith Promise – but the people of CEF are saying “the widespread lack of Christian knowledge and faith among this generation of children,” – and I would say teens and 20-somethings – “is nothing less than a spiritual crisis.” 

Can I recommend a book to you?  It’s called “Unchristian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity” by David Kinnaman.  He says that the new generation looks at Christianity and is saying no thanks.  Through extensive research he has discovered that the new generation looks at the church and says that the church is hypocritical, it’s only message is “get saved”, antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, and judgmental.  And more “than any other generation that has gone on before they are most likely to believe that they can have a meaningful life without Christ.”¹   

The task for true ambassadors for Christ is urgent.  We are on the verge of losing an entire generation.  And we could say, “Oh, they’ll come back to the church when they’re adults and when they have kids.”  No they won’t.  First of all, this is a generation who never had church in the first place, so they won’t return to it.  Second, research has shown that if a person does not decide to live for Christ by the time they are 18 the chances of them becoming a Christian when they are an adult is one is six. 

The task is urgent. 

Realize next that as an ambassador for Christ this is a divine appointment.  That means first, all we do, we do for the King.  We are not Baptist ambassadors, we are not self-promoters, we are not out for our own good, we are divinely appointed and our aim is to please the King.  Our aim to obey the King.  There is a danger when we realize that we are ambassadors – that we walk around like peacocks, strutting – I’m an ambassador for Christ. 

But Scripture says, no, no, no.  In Verses 11-13, Paul says what we do as Christians is all for God.  Our hearts are wide open to Him, and if we do things like serve the poor and people say we are crazy, we don’t care - we do it for God.  If we do things like visit the sick and people say wonderful, well, we do that for God too, but you can’t take pride in it.

Being an ambassador is a divine appointment – He’s the boss and all we do we do for God.     

A friend of mine recently sent me a sermon of a preacher visiting from India by the name of Ashok Andrews and he tells the story of “two young men who decided they would serve as missionaries in the country of India.  They trained in a bible School and after a period of training they went down to this particular village in India to be missionaries.  They got there and they recognized that the tribals wore very few clothes.  And every time these two men approached the tribals the tribals would run away from them.  So these two men stopped and knelt down and prayed to God saying, “God what do you want us to do?”  We want to serve you.  We want to tell these people about Jesus but we don’t know how. What do you want us to do, God?” 

And God spoke deeply into the hearts of these two men.  God said, “I would like you take off your clothes.”

And these two men said, “God that is not what we expected when we came to the mission field.”

And God said, “If you are serious about serving me I’d like you take off your clothes. 

So these two men took of their clothes in the middle of the street, with great embarrassment and they stood there and said, ‘God what do you want us to do?”

God said, “Lesson number two.  Every time you see people with clothes I want you to run away from them.”

The two young men said, “God, people will think we are crazy – that we are out of our mind.”

But God said, “That’s what I want you to do.”

So these two young men with very few clothes sat beside the street and every time they saw someone with clothes they would run.  This happened for weeks.  And after weeks the villagers said amongst themselves, “Somehow these two men are like us.”

You know what happened?  The two men gained access to come into that village.  And during the next few months the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached and demonstrated to that village and several churches are planted to the glory of God.”² 

You know why?  Because two young men said, God, what do you want us to do and we will do it.  We don’t care how crazy it is.  (Sound like our Scripture in verse 13? “If we are out of our mind it is for the sake of God.”)

I wonder if we are really willing to do things that would make people say,You are out of your mind. But we are willing to do it because God has said, this is the direction you need to go. 

What do you think God is asking Markham Baptist Church to do?

When it comes right down to it do we make it our aim to please Him.  We have received a divine appointment – we are responsible to the King.  

And this is important, because we have to ask ourselves – do we do what we do in Christianity to please Him or to please ourselves? 

In Isaiah 58, Isaiah is told to tell this to his people, “Declare to my people their rebellion … Day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways … The ask me for just decisions and seem eager for me to come near to them.

“We have fasted!” they say.  “Why aren’t you impressed?  We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!”

I will tell you why, God says,  “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves … What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling?  This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me …

“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:  Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.  Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.  Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

Then your salvation will come like the dawn …. Then when you call, the Lord will answer ….  Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”

My friends, what if Isaiah 58 describes us?   What if the people of Markham Baptist are living for ourselves, even while we are going through the motions of religion?  What if we seek comfort for ourselves rather than giving comfort to other people?  What if our spiritual efforts are focused on maintaining a pleasant level of comfort and rather than addressing the significant spiritual needs of others?  Doing that which is radical and stepping out in faith in obedience to God?³ 

Are we able to say, with Paul, my conscience toward God is clear, what I am is open to Him, and I make it my aim to please God.   That’s what being an ambassador is about.

A divine appointment characterized by obedience.  It is a divine appointment characterized by love.  Then verses 14 and 15 - Paul says, “Christ’s love compels me.”  It urges me on.  Christ’s love is so great that he has made it available to everyone – so we can know true life – a life that is free from selfishness, a life lived in resurrection power and given over to Him.

An ambassador for Christ is motivated by Christ’s love. Are you motivated by Christ’s love?  It is a love that loves everyone.  Is that the kind of love you have?  

George Whitfield was a great old preacher. He and the Wesleys were instruments of transformation throughout England – they would preach in the open air.  George Whitfield would stand on a stump, or a rise of land and begin preaching and thousands of people would come to hear him.  But he wasn’t received well.  People would throw stones at him, bricks, rotten tomatoes; they would even throw dead cats at him! 

And George said when he was preaching, “I can endure your rotten tomatoes, I can endure your dead cats, stones, but one thing I cannot endure is the thought of going to heaven without you.”

That’s love. 

Do you have that kind of love?   You know, if we are going to win this new generation, do you know what will win them to Christ above all else?  It’s the people of God truly loving them.  If the people of God truly take time to listen to them, not condemn them and listen to them and speak into their lives the truth that God loves them.  

What kind of love is it?  Verse 16 says it’s the kind of love that does not look on the outside, but on the inside, that recognizes people as created by God, loved by God, and worthy to have the message of Christ’s grace told to them.   

My friends, often we say we “love outsiders, but in many cases we show love only if it is on our terms, if they are interested in coming to our church, or if they respect our way of life.

O God help us. 

We say we want young generations to participate in our churches, but we expect them to play by the rules, look the part, embrace our music, and use the right language.  We condemn them if they make moral compromises and we lack the patience to restore them.”⁴ 

O God help us to love people as He loves us, as He loves them.

So we are ambassadors – there is an urgency.  This is a divine appointment. And then this an ambassador for Christ is to be genuine – verse 17-19 .  At verse 17, Paul says we are new creations. Verse 18, we are reconciled to God.  Verse 19, and we have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. 

As ambassadors of Christ all of this is a reminder – you are new creations so act like it.  We are reconciled to God so act like it.  We are entrusted with the message of God – so proclaim it with your lips and your life.  As one author has put it, Christians are to be the good news before they share the good news.

Have I told you about Steve Shogrin before?  I may have – but I love this illustration. Steve Shogrin is a pastor in a Cincinnati church and everywhere he goes he takes with him toilet-cleaning equipment.  He takes cleansers, and sponges and brushes and disinfectants and then when he travels he goes into convenience stores and truck stops and places like that and asks if he can clean their toilets.

He says, “People’s first reaction is always - why?”

And he says, ‘Well, I’m a Christian and I would like to do this for you in the name of God.”

You don’t have to learn any evangelism presentation or anything – all you have to do is go into the washroom and get down on your knees and clean the toilet and every employee and every customer and they will pump the gospel out of you – they will demand an explanation of why anyone would behave like this. 

And Steve tells of a time when he was driving across south Texas and he stopped in at this particular convenience store.  He walked in and said, “Can I clean your toilet for you?”  And the owner said, “Why?”

Steve said, “Well, I’m a Christian and I want to do this as a gift to you in the name of God.”  And the owner looked at him and said, “Fine. I have twenty toilets.”

Steve looked at his watch and said, “Well maybe I could do two.”  No, no, said the owner.  “I have 20.”

“10?”   “Look it’s 20 or nothing, take it or leave it.”   So Steve said, “Fine I’ll do all 20.”

But the owner said, “I only have 2.  I wanted to see what kind of Christian you are.  I have these Christians who come in and they try to share their message with me, they leave literature with me.  I wanted to see if you were one of them or not.”⁵

He was being tested to see if he was authentic.  Perhaps the greatest criticism the new generation has of us as a church is that we are not authentic.  O, that God would cleanse us, cleanse me of all hypocrisy and so that our actions would match our words.

Finally, this brings us to where we started at verse 20, “So we are ambassadors for Christ – since God is making his appeal through us.  We entreat you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.”

The last characteristic of an ambassador that I want to highlight is that an ambassador is sent to the people.   An ambassador doesn’t stay in his home country and try to reach the foreign country. No, he goes to the foreign country on behalf of his home country.    My friends, the North American church has been great at sending missionaries around the world but we have to realize today that we are being sent. 

We are being sent to this area in Markham. We are Christ’s ambassadors.  May we understand the urgency.  May we realize that this is a divine appointment to be carried out in obedience to the King, in the strength of His love and love for others.   May we be authentic in our presentation of the great truth that God has made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.