Christ’s Ambassadors

Paul’s second letter to the Church at Corinth contains some powerful words of exhortation beginning at the fifth chapter and the 18th verse. The New English Bible indicates that the paragraph starts at the 18th verse of the 5th chapter and ends at the second verse of the sixth chapter.

Paul’s words are: “From first to last this has been the work of God. He has reconciled us men to himself through Christ, and he has enlisted us in this service of reconciliation. What I mean is that God was in Christ, reconciling the World to himself, no longer holding men’s misdeeds against them; and that he has entrusted us with a message of reconciliation. We come therefore, as Christ’s ambassadors; it is as if God were appealing to you through us. In Christ’s name, we implore you, be reconciled to God. Christ was innocent of sin yet for our sake God made him one with the sinfulness of men, so that in him we might be made one with the goodness of God himself. Sharing in God’s work, we have urged this appeal upon you. You have received the grace of God, do not let it go for nothing. God’s own words are, In the hour of my favor I give heed to you; on the day of deliverance I come to your aid. The hour of favor has now come, now I say has the day of deliverance dawned.”

While reading these verses, the experiences that we had in a recent vacation came to mind. These experiences were a present day example of some of the things that are mentioned in these verses. On this vacation, we left very early on a Saturday morning. As we were driving across the desert the sun arose. We witnessed the dawn of a beautiful day as the clouds reflected the colors of red, gold and silver. This was also the dawning of another new experience in our life. During this vacation, we enjoyed a freedom which is not attainable during the normal day to day events of life. We had no specific schedules to meet. We enjoyed the fellowship of two other Christadelphian families on this trip. Thinking back on this we realize that for two entire weeks we had continuous fellowship with other Christadelphians. This is not easy to attain in these days when we must work in the world and associate with those who do not share our belief. It was a er) gratifying experience to associate for this length of time with those who had the same hopes, the same goals, the same aspirations and the same values concerning things in this life. The experiences we had on this particular vacation were so wonderful that our family is still talking about them and no doubt will talk about them for many weeks to come.

Now how do these temporal experiences compare to the thoughts that we have read in Paul’s letter to the Church at Corinth? He says, “On the day of deliverance I come to your aid”. And then in the last phrase he says “Now, I say, has the day of deliverance dawned”. Yes. Brethren and Sisters, the day of deliverance has dawned. The day has dawned for each of you who have become related to Christ. Those who have not become related to Christ can look forward to the dawn of the day of deliverance. Furthermore, we are exhorted to be ambassadors for Christ so that the Day of Deliverance can dawn for those with whom we associate. Baptism into Christ (the reconciliation of us to God and God’s reconciliation to us) is the dawning of a new experience in life. This new experience in life can give us a freedom which cannot be attained any other way.

Paul emphasizes: reconciliation. The word “reconcile” means, “A mutual changing.” Reconciliation involves a change in us and a change in God. The change in us is that we devote our lives to serving God. We have said, “Now we will place the Kingdom of God first in our life. We will do these things which relate to the Kingdom of God first and make the other things secondary.” Since we have made a change in our life: God’s attitude towards us has changed. Paul says that He will no longer hold our misdeeds against us. What a wonderful situation! If we do those things which are not pleasing to God (we know that we will, for we are weak mortal creatures) He will no longer hold these things against us. His attitude towards us has changed. This is reconciliation: we change our life and God changes his attitude toward us. What freedom this offers us: Freedom from sin, freedom from worry. We can enjoy the peace of God that pass­eth all understanding. We know that God will care for us. We call to him and he will answer us. No longer need we depend entirely upon ourselves. We can depend completely on Him.

The dawning of a new day in our life brings to us fellowship: Fellowship with Christ. He now becomes our elder brother. Paul tells us that he was made one with the sinfulness of men so that in him we might he made one with the goodness of God himself. Jesus was made bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He can sympathize with us when we fall short of the mark because he experienced these same mortal experiences. He is sympathizing with us when we pray to God through him. He is our mediator in God’s sight. We have an elder brother in God’s presence to intercede for us. What wonderful fellowship this is. We are in fellowship with God. He gives heed to our prayers. He comes to our aid both in our time of need and in our time of plenty.

We also have fellowship with the Brethren and Sisters. We share a common goal, we share a common belief, we share a common set of values. This is a rallying point in this world of distress and turmoil. We need the strength of those who share our beliefs.

We must also share the good things that we have with the world around us. We are told that we are ambassadors of Christ. By sharing with the world around us the good news of the Word of God we will be an example to them. Perhaps through the experiences that we share with others we will cause the day to dawn in their life. Paul says, “you have received the grace of God, do not let it go for nothing.” We must proclaim this grace to everyone with whom we come in contact, by our words and by our actions. Paul says that we are Christ’s ambassadors. An ambassador is a special representative, one who was specifically chosen to represent something else. In this case we have been specifically chosen to represent to the world, the Kingdom of God. We must present to the world the qualities necessary to enter the Kingdom of God Each one of us has been given a commission: we are Christ’s ambassadors. We must exercise that commission now. We cannot put it off; now is the time. We can’t say, we must wait until we’re older, when we have a better knowledge so that we can more completely express ourselves. We cannot say, we’ll be Christ’s ambassador when we have more time, after we have finished our schooling or after we have completed a special project. We cannot say that we will be Christ’s ambassadors after we have finished a certain task. The time to be Christ’s ambassadors in NOW! “The hour of favor has now come, now I say has the day of deliverance dawned.” Now is the time to be Christ’s ambassadors. We cannot let a moment slip. We do not know how or when we will be influencing someone by our actions or our words.

Now we’ll say to ourselves, “It’s fine to say we are Christ’s ambassadors and that we are special representatives, but what specifically must we do to be an ambassador?” That is a very logical question. If we are Christ’s representatives, the best thing we can do is to act like him. The more we act like him, the closer we are to being like Christ himself. The next question is, “What specific actions can we take?” We must consider Christ’s character and his attitude toward other people. We must determine the characteristics that we feel were most important in his life. Then we can pattern our lives after these characteristics.

Two important characteristics are expressed in the first two beatitudes. Christ preached to the people around him, and as a good preacher, he lived what he preached.

The first beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The poor in spirit are those who have a self emptying personality: Those who subject their own will to the will of God, those who will let God’s will rule in their life completely. They will make their own desires secondary. Their life will not consist of “I want to do this” or “I want to do that,” but their life will consist of “Thy will he done.” Christ was the supreme example of this attitude. Remember the incident in his temptation when he imagined himself on the pinnacle of a temple in Jerusalem. The crowds were gathered below. He would cast himself from the pinnacle of the Temple. Just before he crashed on the courtyard below, the angels would swoop in, grasp him and lower him gradually to the ground. What a magnificent way to begin his ministry. What a spectacular way to show them that he had God’s power. What a way to get all the attention for himself! Christ rejected the thought because he realized that he had to come as the Lamb led to the slaughter. He realized it was God’s will for him to incur the animosity and the rejection of the people rather than to be the ruler at that time.

Look at another incident in Christ’s life. He was riding the ass down the hillside from the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron valley into Jerusalem. The people gathered along the pathway and spread out palm branches. They cried Hosanna for they thought they were welcoming their king into Jerusalem to take over the government, exalt himself and shed the Roman yoke. Yet he went into the temple and taught as usual. The crowds melted away and by the end of that day, which had started so spectacularly, he and a few of his disciples walked back alone to the house of Mary and Martha across the hill in Bethany. Once again he followed his Father’s will because it was not intended that he be-exalted and made king at that time. He subjected his own fleshly desires to the will of God.

Brethren and Sisters, we must do the same thing. Whenever we strongly desire something, we must stop and ask ourselves, is this what God wants of me? Is this the way that Christ would have acted? Am I being a true ambassador of Christ? We must continually pray to God, “Lord make me thy instrument.”

Christ’s second beatitude was “Blessed are those that mourn.” Now I don’t believe that this is a state of continual weeping or being sorrowful, but more a genuine concern about others’ needs. Jesus certainly had a genuine concern about other peoples needs. Look at a few examples. There was the woman taken in adultery. The Pharisees, no doubt looking for something in which to catch Christ found the woman in the very act. She was definitely guilty.— no question about it. They brought her before Christ and said, “What shall we do with this woman, she was caught in the very act ?” Christ had genuine concern about the woman herself. He addressed the accusers, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” They gradually all left. Finally he said to the woman herself, “Go thy way and sin no more.” He had concern about her as a human, as a person with a potential for salvation. He told her to go and sin no more. The incident must have made such an impression on her that she probably went her way and sinned no more.

Then there was the occasion of the death of Lazarus. The Scripture says that “Jesus wept.” He was weeping because of the mental distress he had caused those of the immediate family of Lazarus. He had not immediately responded to their call. He had waited a few days till He was very sure that Lazarus was dead and buried in the tomb. This fact had caused them mental anguish and so when Jesus finally arrived upon the scene he was generally sorrowful. He cried because of the sorrow he had caused Mary and Martha. He was interested in them personally, he considered their feelings.

We must forget ourselves and all of our problems and be concerned about things that others are involved in. In this way we can follow the example of Christ and we can be his ambassadors.

In summary, the thought that we would like to leave with you, brothers and sisters is: We are Christ’s ambassadors. How can we be Christ’s ambassadors? We can act like he does. We can be His instrument and we can show kindness and a genuine concern about others. We must do it now! These are the words of Scripture, “The Hour of favor has now come, now I say- has the day of deliverance dawned.” Brethren and Sisters it may be through your influence that the day of deliverance will dawn in the life of someone with which you associate.