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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Every role in life, in every society has certain qualifications expected to enable a person to fulfill that role, right? As you look at your life, and the various roles in life you’ve had, can you recognize the qualifications that were needed to fulfill that role well? So what qualifications would you expect might be needed for someone to be named AMBASSADOR from one country to another?
This week we’re considering the preposterous statement from God: “We are therefore Ambassadors of Jesus Christ, as though God were making His appeal [to the world] through us.” (2 Corinthians 5:20). So today, let’s consider what the qualifications might be for this amazing privilege!
1. A New Creation in Christ: It would seem only logical that if I’m going to represent Jesus, I need to have experienced His life transforming work in changing me from a hell bound sinner who had my back turned toward God; to a born again follower of Jesus, who is being refined everyday by the Holy Spirit of God, and deepening my relationship with Almighty God more and more everyday. It would be ludicrous for Jesus to send me out as His Ambassador in my rebellion against God, my selfish sinfulness, my hard or broken heart, my mind filled with all manner of evil thoughts. But I can’t fix that problem in me, and neither can you. Which is why what God says about Ambassadors is essential.
My re-creation is just as much a miracle as my conception and development in the womb. And it’s all a work of God. Just as I didn’t create myself the first time, so I cannot re-create myself spiritually, only God, and all a work of God. So if there was an application process for becoming an Ambassador of Jesus Christ, the first section would be a detailed analysis of the authenticity of my salvation, and the total re-creation of my life by the Holy Spirit of God. Do I qualify? “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. All this is from God….” (2 Corinthians 5:17,18) So, how much has changed and is changing in me as God does His ‘new creation’ work in me? Is there any part of my life where I am resisting the work of God. Certainly I could not be trusted to be Jesus’ Ambassador if I resist Him in any way in any part of my life, right?
2. Reconciled to God: It would be ridiculous for me to be considered an Ambassador of Jesus Christ, through whom God was making His appeal, if I had no relationship with Jesus! That’s why the last part of verse 18 is so important: “All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18)
You and I were born with a sinful nature, with no natural desire for any relationship with God, and as we grew older that sinful nature drew us further and further away from God. Our behavior declined as we became more and more like this sinful, wicked world. Paul says it this way: “Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now God has reconciled us by Christ’s physical body through His death, to present us holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” (Col. 1:21,22)
It’s a reality that even the most brilliant minds can hardly grasp. God created us magnificent human creatures, made in His image, unlike anything else in all creation. But our sinful nature turned us into monsters, who reject God, demand that God get out of our lives, yet our every heart beat is dependent upon God! But God loves us so much and wants us to realize the wonder of His original design, so He sent HIS Son, Jesus, to pay our death penalty for sin. Now, when we acknowledge our sin and our need for a Savior and fully trust in Jesus to save us, God actually draws us back to Himself, into wonderful, holy relationship with Him. He reconciles us to Himself, as was His original design. And not only for an hour or a day or even a year, but for all the rest of eternity since He made us with immortal souls and spirits!
So a major criteria for being an Ambassador of God is a simple yet profound question: Has God reconciled me to Himself and am I living in a vibrant, holy, growing relationship with Him? And am I doing all I can to nurture that relationship and reject anything that would undermine that miraculous relationship that I have with God?
3. Truth Proclaimer: Since God’s TRUTH is such an essential aspect of any relationship with God or any conversation about God, it seems only right that an Ambassador of Jesus Christ is one who will only and always speak God’s Truth in our world of deceitfulness, deception, and distortion of truth. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4:2 “…we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God.”
Do you remember how frequently Jesus said “I tell you the truth” when He was in conversation with someone or explaining God’s truth to a large crowd of people?
Do you remember Jesus said “If you hold to My teachings you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36) So, if I’m going to be considered an Ambassador of Jesus Christ, I need to do some serious self evaluation. How highly do I value God’s truth? How passionately do I pursue knowing God’s truth, reading and studying God’s truth? How well can I bring God’s truth into the daily conversation of our untruthful world, when I am surrounded on every side by lies and deceitfulness and distortions of truth?
4. Faith in God and my eyes fixed on Jesus: Now this shouldn’t be too hard for me to evaluate. I live every hour of every day having faith in things I cannot control. Big cosmic laws like gravity, or time as determined by the rotation of planet earth, or the continual production of oxygen by plants and trees, or rainfall, or the exact distance between the sun and earth. Do I have unwavering faith in God that all these great things He has put in motion He will sovereign over so they continue properly?
What about my faith in God’s character? Am I confident that no matter how much of a mess we humans make of our world, God is always Holy, always Loving, always Just, always Truthful, always Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent? Is my faith unshakable that my life is safe in the hands of God and I can fully trust Him with EVERYTHING? Seems to me I’d be a terrible ambassador of Jesus if my faith in God was as volatile as the stock market or political opinion or even my own emotions!
And what is the focus of my life? My personal agenda, my hopes and dreams, my ambitions or am I really, genuinely living Hebrews 12:1,2 and 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all… So, we throw off everything that hinders us and the things that so easily entangle, and we run with perseverance the race God marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”
Oh friends, there are probably many more qualifications for being an Ambassador of Jesus that we could name, but may I give you today just one more?
5. Confident of heaven and resurrection: Death is a harsh and certain reality for every human being, yet for Ambassadors of Jesus Christ, we can live each day fully confident that we know exactly what will happen to us at the moment of death! And, we are confident and are actually joyfully anticipating what God says awaits us after human death here on earth! Look at 2 Corinthians 4:14 “…because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us in His presence…” Do you hear unwavering confidence in our resurrection and our arrival in God’s presence in heaven?
Of course Paul often referred to ‘death’ as ‘departure’ (Phil.1:23; 2 Tim. 4:7,8) because he understood our spirit & soul is created by God to be immortal, and continues to live after our bodies die. For ‘new creations in Christ’, we followers of Jesus, our ‘death’ is simply a journey of leaving our bodies here and moving to where God is, often called heaven. It happens in an instant. Notice Paul’s description of this process of leaving our earthly bodies and moving to heaven and then in the resurrection, receiving a new, heavenly, immortal body is detailed here in 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 and also 1 Corinthians 15. It makes sense that an Ambassador of Jesus would be fully confident, trusting in Jesus for their transition through death and their eternal destiny with Jesus forever in God’s presence! So it begs the question… are you and I fully confident of this miracle awaiting us?
5 criteria. 5 qualifications for being eligible to be a good Ambassador of Jesus Christ. Do they describe me? Do they describe you my friends? We know God wants to consider His people Ambassadors of Jesus, but today the Holy Spirit is calling you and me to take a close look at ourselves and see if we are cooperating with God as He continues to refine us to be effective Ambassadors of Jesus Christ, through whom God is making His appeal!
May I urge you to take some time and join me… I’m going into God’s throne room and I’m going to ask Him to show me how HE sees me in each of these 5 Ambassador criteria. . . come on, there’s plenty of room for many of us in that wonderful throne room all at the same time.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Corinthians 5:14-20; 2 Corinthians 5:1-9. (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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