Ambassadors for Christ
Who's Your One? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 40:25
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· 134 viewsIt is easy to tell people about things that make our lives better. Hear about the great things Jesus has done for us and be challenged to live as his ambassador from this message.
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As the kids are being dismissed, let me ask, how many left-handed people do we have in the room?
If you are left-handed, you know one of the greatest challenges you face in life is this: <show picture of hand>
That left-hand smudge is why I have been on a lifelong search for a good ink pen.
Ballpoints often get gummed up because you are pushing instead of pulling. Gel pens or others with a lot of ink are impossible, because they are guaranteed to be smeared before you are done.
Someone tell me, what are your favorite pens for writing? I know some of you have an opinion. Why do you like that particular brand?
I have gone back and forth on what kind of pens I like. For a while, I settled on Zebra pens. I like them, but they are expensive and I have a tendency to lose them.
Recently, I have settled on these: Papermate InkJoys. They are dirt cheap, but they actually write really well for what they are.
I love how smooth they are, but they dry quickly and feel pretty good in your hand.
Now, if you are still with me, you are probably thinking that the moment you were waiting on has happened: I finally snapped and am talking out of my head.
Why would we take a few minutes during a service and talk about what kind of ink pens we like?
Because I wanted to remind you just how easy it is to talk about things that make our lives better.
For some of you, you don’t care about pens. Maybe it is a brand of golf clubs you love. Maybe it is a brand of shoe, some type of gum, or some beauty product that you just can’t recommend highly enough.
When something makes our lives better, we talk about it, especially if we are passionate about it.
As we turn to God’s word this morning, then, I want to ask: then why aren’t we talking about Jesus to those around us who need to know about him?
I realize that it isn’t exactly a parallel, because no one gets mad at you if you say you like one kind of ink pen over another.
However, as we will be reminded of this morning, we have a calling and opportunity to share Jesus with others.
He has done so much more for us than an ink pen could ever do, yet maybe we have lost sight of that.
Turn over to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.
This passage may be familiar to many of you, so I am praying for God to help us see the truth with fresh eyes again this morning.
We are going to see a clear call of God to be his ambassadors, his representatives to a lost world around us.
Ambassadors are people who go to other people and represent the person who sent them. If we are talking about politics, this means they go to another country and speak on behalf of their home country.
You may have heard the term, “brand ambassador,” which is someone a company hires to wear or use their product and tell everyone else how great it is.
Being God’s ambassador means we represent him to those around us who aren’t following him.
It’s a hard job, but he gives us three incredible reasons in this passage why we should serve him this way.
These three reasons give us a powerful “why” behind what we have been doing as we are praying for and sharing with our ONEs over the last month.
Although this is our last message in the Who’s Your One series, it is by no means the last time we will be talking about telling someone about Jesus or praying for those who don’t yet know him.
In fact, let this last message propel us out to take what God has been working in our hearts this last month and share it everywhere we can.
Read through these verses with me, looking for three reasons why we should represent Christ everywhere we go.
Right off the bat, you notice that we are starting in the middle of a thought.
Remember that anytime you see the word “therefore,” you need to see what the “therefore”is there for.
If you were to back up, you would see that Paul is talking about the fact that there are two different ways to look at life. One way is to look at life as if what we see is all that is real. The other is to understand that there is more to reality than what we see. Not only that, but there is more to our existence than what happens in this life on earth.
As those who follow Christ, we take the second view: living life in light of the fact that there is a real God we can’t see right now. As we will see, Jesus’ sacrifice for us allows us to have a relationship with God now that will last for eternity. This changes our perspective on everything, which is why Paul says,
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
That’s what the “therefore” is referring to: in light of the fact that there is a spiritual world that exists, and that we are living as a part of that, God has given us the opportunity to serve as his ambassadors.
It is an intimidating calling, to say the least. Why should we take it on?
We find at least three different reasons why we should be willing to represent God wherever we have an opportunity.
By the way, these are true of every person who has been saved by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. If you have placed your trust in Christ and received salvation, these things are part of what God did when you trusted him.
If you haven’t done that yet, these can be true of you today.
Maybe that’s why you’re here: to hear about what God can do to transform your life.
This isn’t a pitch or a scheme; it is the greatest truth in human history.
Let’s look at what God has done.
First, as we see in verse 17...
1) God made you new.
1) God made you new.
Look back over this verse, and let it sink in for a minute.
If you are here today and you are in Christ, you are not who you used to be.
I know that we are constantly changing and growing and sliding back, but this is different. When God saved you, you became something you never were before.
This is where we often sell Christianity short.
We have heard lots of messages or people saying that Christianity is all about do this, don’t do that, etc.
Yes, there are standards that God has that we should walk by, but here’s the thing: you can’t follow God’s commands without first surrendering your life to him!
The Bible says you aren’t just sick and needing a doctor, you are dead and needing to be brought back to life! That’s a totally different issue.
This is a little bit of a long passage, but here’s how this is beautifully described elsewhere:
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
Apart from Christ, you were dead!
When you got saved, you didn’t get better, you were brought to life and became a new person!
Paul said in this passage that the old way of living life, ruled by what I thought was best and what I wanted is gone now that I am in Christ, and now, I am a completely new person.
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Think about it: when you are dead in sin without Christ, you are living for yourself and what you think is best. Even if you are following someone’s teaching, you are following what you think you ought to do.
When you surrendered to Christ, that life was nailed to the cross with him and he made you alive. This is a new life for you!
If you haven’t ever surrendered to Christ, this can be the start for you!
It reminds me of the speaker from the Pregnancy Resource Center banquet this past week. She is an actress who went into TV and film so she could have something for people to remember her by after she died. Then, she met Christ, and he led her to walk away from acting for over 7 years before finally giving her a role in a faith-based film called Unplanned. Now, she is speaking out on behalf of the power of Christ in your life and using her acting talents to support life. Instead of making up her own meaning in life, she is pursuing what Jesus has put in front of her.
If you are in Christ, you are not who you used to be! Your life has changed and been transformed and you are new!
You don’t have to try to make your life significant; it was significant enough that the Son of God was willing to die on the cross for you!
If we stopped right here, this would be more than enough reason for us to want to tell everyone we know about what Jesus has done.
He didn’t give you a new body through a weight loss drug or workout routine; he gave life back to your soul and made you completely new.
He didn’t unlock the 5 keys to success in your career; he gave you a new life that you could live for his glory and not your own.
He didn’t outline 10 steps to a happy marriage; instead, he gave you the clearest picture of sacrificial love imaginable and gives you the ongoing power to live out his example for you.
This makes even more sense when we realize that...
2) God brought you back to himself.
2) God brought you back to himself.
Pick up again in verse 18-19.
This is absolutely incredible to think about. Don’t miss it.
How many of you have ever had a falling out with someone, and you felt like they did you wrong?
That’s probably all of us in this room. If you didn’t raise your hand, I am going to assume you were the one who did the hurting, and you need to get that right with God and with the people you hurt.
However, if you have been hurt by someone, I hope by God’s grace you have forgiven them so you can be free from the trap of bitterness.
Forgiveness means letting God take care of whatever he needs to do to bring justice in the situation.
It doesn’t mean you don’t put boundaries in place or, if something illegal has occurred, that you don’t pursue it through the proper channels.
However, it means that you aren’t trying to punish them; you are letting God do that.
That’s a difficult place to get to, isn’t it? It is especially hard when the relationship is close.
For those who have been betrayed, you know how painful it can be. That can be even more painful when it comes from our own child.
Have you ever had one of your children get so mad at you that they tell you they hate you? Even when you know that they don’t fully understand the weight of the words they are using, it cuts deeply into your heart.
Here’s the reality that Paul is telling us in these verses: you and I were the kids who looked at God, who loves us better than any earthly dad ever could, and we said, “I hate you.”
When we sin, we are throwing our pride in God’s face and saying, “I know better than you.”
That put a distance between us and God that made it so he wouldn’t even listen to our prayers:
Guys, that’s what God’s reconciliation is all about.
But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.
In our sin, we are separated from God and have hurt him in ways we cannot imagine.
The Bible says that put us as his enemies, separated from him, but God loved us so much that he would put his own Son on the cross in our place so we could be restored to him:
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
Just before that verse, we find one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible:
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were sinners, while we were separated from God and his enemies, he died to reconcile us to himself.
Look back at verse 19, though. Who did Jesus come to reconcile?
It isn’t just us! It is anyone in all the world who will be saved.
The Bible makes it clear that anyone anywhere can call on the name of the Lord and be saved.
The world has been fascinated to see the conversion story of Kanye West. He is an incredibly popular musician and public figure who seems to have made a decision to follow Christ.
Time will tell the sincerity of his decision, but let’s be clear on this: If God can save you, he can save Kanye!
All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. All of us need Jesus, and whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be made new and reconciled to God through what Jesus has done.
“Okay, Sean. I am hearing all this, but I am new to church and I don’t really get this whole, ‘Jesus dying on the cross for me’ thing.”
Great, because that’s the third reason those this passage gives us to be on fire to tell others about Jesus:
3) God took your sin and gave you his righteousness.
3) God took your sin and gave you his righteousness.
Jump down to verse 21.
This is one of the most powerful verses in all of the Bible, because this is one of those truths that sets Christianity apart from every single religion in the world.
Every other religion is about measuring up. You try as hard as you can to live by a certain set of principles, and you hope when you get to the end that you did enough.
That is an absolutely terrifying way to live.
It is November 17. How many of you set New Year’s Resolutions this year? How is it going?
How many of you were going to paint the house before it got cold or clean out the garage so you could actually park in it? I was going to pressure wash the front of the house, but I didn’t do it.
What about that new skill you were going to learn, or the commitment you made to stop yelling at your kids?
How are those things going?
Listen: if we can’t manage to keep a resolution we made in January, or if I can’t be diligent enough to follow through on a commitment we made to something, then how on earth are we going to be able to stand before a holy God and claim that we were good enough to earn a spot in his kingdom?
God clearly says that certain actions and attitudes of the heart are right, and some are wrong.
As we have already said throughout this message, those wrong attitudes and actions are what the Bible calls sin.
When look into the Bible like it is a mirror to our soul, we have to admit that we fall incredibly short of the picture given.
In fact, an honest assessment of my life is that I deserved to die for the way I have treated God.
When you see how good he is, you have to say the same thing.
God knew that you and I could never be good enough to work our way to him, so he did something unthinkable.
He sent Jesus, God in the flesh, to come live with us. There was something different about him, though: he never sinned. Not even once.
He was the one this passage says did not know sin. Sure, he knew what sin was, because he is the holy God. However, he didn’t know it in the same way we who have committed sin do.
Yet, God the Father made Jesus to be the very embodiment of our sin.
He was perfect and had never sinned, yet when Jesus died in my place, he became the darkest parts of my heart that I would never want anyone to see.
There, on the cross, the Father poured out all the punishment that I deserved for every sin I have or will commit, and he poured it on Jesus instead of me.
That was only half of the equation, though. Not only did he take my sin, he gave me his righteousness.
Jesus became my sin, and now, I have become his righteousness.
Think about it this way: Imagine you are in a class and failing miserably. If you fail this class, you are out of the program and will never be able to do the job you wanted so desperately to do.
You have one shot at passing: if you can get a 100 on the final exam.
You sit down to start, and you realize that you don’t know a single answer on the page. You are going to turn it in and walk out with a zero.
Right before you go to turn in your exam, someone offers to trade with you.
This guy has had a straight 100s on every project, and he offers you his test in place of your own.
Not only that, but when you turn in his test, all of your grades for the course switch.
Every project you failed gets replaced with his 100, so when the professor looks at you, he sees that you passed with flying colors.
Not only that, every grade you have ever been given in your entire life gets replaced with this guy’s 100s!
Seems ridiculous and unfair, doesn’t it? But that’s what is so incredible! God did that for us.
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
He took your every moral failure and replaced it with his success!
Every time you didn’t do what you should have or did what you shouldn’t have, Jesus has covered that with his own blood.
So, if he made me new, if he drew me to himself, and if he gave me his righteousness in place of my sin, then what should I do?
Look back at verses 19-20.
I should spend every moment of my life trying to help other people come to know Jesus who don’t know how awesome he is.
He has entrusted this message to us so we will share it with other people!
I heard someone say this week:
“Never lose sight of the fact that the gospel came to you on its way to someone else.” (Ken Whitten)
God is in the process of expanding his kingdom by drawing lost men and women to himself.
If I am willing to talk about a great ink pen or a delicious meal, how much more should I be willing to talk about the God who made me new, who brought me to himself when I didn’t deserve it, and who gave me his righteousness in place of my sin?
Would you join me in praying that God would help us to live as his ambassadors?