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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Do you remember when you’ve held a newborn baby in your hands? Were you awed by God’s creative genius and power, and His attention to every detail, both what you see and what you know is inside that baby? What amazes you most? Eyes, ears, fingers, toes, or what you understand about the baby’s internal organs? Or perhaps it’s how God has developed that child, according to His perfect and unique design, from one fertilized egg to a fully developed baby, inside a mother’s womb for 9 months? And now, as you admire a newborn person, do you wonder who that child will grow up to be, and what major experiences will be theirs in the process?
This week I’m inviting you to focus our attention on one of the most powerful statements God has ever made about God’s ways of working His great purposes in our humanity, even and perhaps especially, when our societies seem to have derailed, and are self-destructing. Listen to what God says to us through the Apostle Paul writing to Christians in the volatile city of Corinth, in the first century. “…if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come, and all this is from God…we are therefore ambassadors of Jesus Christ, as though God were making His appeal [to the world] through us.” (2 Cor. 5:17&20)
As amazing as a newborn child is, God wants us to be just as amazed with His ‘recreation’ of a person, when a sinner repents and trusts in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to save them from their sin condemnation. In that moment God begins a powerful work which results in a ‘new creation in Christ’. God changes that person from the inside out! We’ll dig deeply into this miracle this week.
Around the world we have seen major events like the Olympics or the Soccer World Cup or Football Super Bowl, or presidential inaugurations, or special gatherings of global dignitaries. Imagine if you were given an ‘access pass’ to gain ‘up close’ access to one of these significant gatherings, which enabled you to approach and speak with any of the dignitaries present! Imagine if you were given an ‘all access pass’ to the White House or Congress or UN or Buckingham Palace?
Imagine if an angel appeared and gave you an ‘all access pass’ into God’s Throne Room in heaven! The place from which God gives Sovereign oversight to all that take place everywhere in the entire universe! Guess what. . . I have one of those amazing “all access passes” for God’s Throne Room, and I use it often, and I’m not the only one!
Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us ANYONE can be granted an “all access pass” into the throne room of God! Our entry is earned by Jesus Christ who paid for our entrance into that Throne Room with His death and resurrection! As I trusted Him for my salvation, God granted me an ‘all access pass’ to His throne room! May I ask… do you have such a pass? If so, with what attitudes do you enter that sacred, holy, all powerful throne room of God? How often do you enter there, and what do you do in that sacred place of encounter with God?
Now imagine if on one of your visits into God’s Throne Room, the control room of the universe, God asked you to turn in your ‘Throne Room access pass’! What if Jesus then handed you a new pass, perhaps a gold embossed pass. And when you looked at it, what if you saw your full legal name was emblazoned on it, with these words: “AMBASSADOR of GOD to Planet Earth and HUMANITY”! What would be your reaction? What questions would you have for God about the implications of Jesus giving you such a commission?
Is that what God had in His mind for your life, when adults were holding you as an infant for the first time? This week let’s unpack this shocking, amazing, promise of God that Paul wrote about, and let’s wrestle with these questions. . .
1. What does it mean that God wants me to be an “Ambassador of Jesus Christ”?
2. WHY would God choose to “make His appeal” [to the world] through me and other people like me?
3. How should an “Ambassador of Jesus Christ” live, talk, dress, confront the wrongs in society, model God ethics, build God honoring relationships?
4. If I am an “Ambassador of Jesus Christ”, how do I receive from God instructions on where He wants me to go, what He wants me to do, as His representative to my world?
Would you open your copy of God’s Word to 2 Corinthians 5 and begin at verse 14: “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He (Jesus) died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him (Jesus) who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though once we regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”
Do you see amazing things in this paragraph from God, my friends? Do you see it all begins deep in the loving heart of God? That’s what John 3:16 and 1 John 4:9,10 say, right? God developed this remarkable salvation plan because of His great, unconditional love for humanity, despite the reality that humanity has turned its collective and individual backs on God, in every generation since Adam and Eve! That’s Amazing Love!!
In overwhelming love, Jesus, the Son of God, agreed to this outrageous plan and came to earth, lived a perfect life, and allowed the humanity HE had created to reject Him, and slaughter Him on a cross. Listen to Romans 5:8 “God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us.” It was unbelievable love that both God the Father and God the Son had for sinful humanity which caused what we know as Easter weekend! And my friends, it is this great love that compels God to send His Redeemed people like you and me out into the world, as His Ambassadors. But it really becomes personal and powerful when we are so overwhelmed with the extreme of God’s love for us, that WE find ourselves compelled to dedicate our lives to live as His Ambassadors in our dysfunctional, God rejecting world!
Have you discovered this powerful truth: we all live for something!? Something motivates you to say and do whatever you say and do in life. Something moves you to prioritize your life, so the things you most value receive the highest degree of your attention, and investment of your most valuable resources, especially time and finances, right?
So what keeps you going everyday? Listen to what Paul wrote for it’s what fueled him: “He (Jesus) died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for HIM who died for them and was raised [to life] again.” (2 Cor. 5:15)
Would you agree… that which is most valuable to you is what you give your life for? Jesus gave His life for the regeneration, salvation, justification, restoration of people like you and me, who were self-destructing, and bound for hell! Therefore, the best way we can say thank you and honor His sacrifice, is to no longer live selfishly, but to live everyday in His honor, doing that which most fulfills His purposes in our world. That’s what it means to be an “Ambassador of Jesus Christ”. So look closely… is that how you are living each day my friends?
Lastly for today, take note of that very interesting statement: “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though once we regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” Would you agree that when we ‘regard someone from a worldly point of view’ we are looking at them through selfish eyes, thinking how we can use them to our benefit? That is even how some people look at Jesus… ‘what can Jesus do for me to improve my life situation’?
But my friends, consider the much bigger picture here. If Jesus has rescued you and me from our sin condemnation and living daily in sin bondage, oh yes our lives have been wonderfully improved. But then, as the Holy Spirit works in transforming us more and more into a Godly, God honoring man or woman, Jesus is watching to see when we are ready for Him to commission us out into this dysfunctional world, NEVER to take advantage of other people, but rather as His Ambassadors to help and serve others, just as Jesus did when He lived here on earth. Now think about that friends… in fact that is so big, let’s spend the rest of today thinking about that and we’ll pick it up tomorrow right here, OK? Ponder this question… what is the purpose for which you are living today and every day? What gives you a sense of fulfillment?
Oh Lord Jesus, these are very powerful statements in 2 Corinthians 5 and I’m asking that you will open our hearts to understand and OWN them for ourselves for the rest of our lives.
I have a song for you to consider today my friends. What does God look like in the mind of a blind, autistic, adopted boy, who wants to say ‘thank you’ to God for the privilege of life?
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Corinthians 5:14-20; Hebrews 4:14-16. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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