2 Corinthians 5:11-21
Ambassadors for Christ
Oak Ridge Baptist Church
October 27, 2019
Introduction
Today I want to challenge you with one simple idea. I want to plead with you to give your life to Christ. If you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, I plead with you even now to give your life to Christ. If you’ve be saved for a couple of months or a couple of decades, I want to plead with you to give your life to Christ. Our message today will come from 2 Corinthians 5. While you’re turning there let me tell you a little about the Corinthians.
Now, they may not have had cell phones and cars or comfy buildings with padded chairs and central heat and air or 10 versions of the Bible to choose from, but they were pretty much just like you and me. They weren’t as spiritually mature as they should have been. They were prone to cliques, were guilty of not taking sin seriously, could be petty, were idolatrous, had trouble with irreverent worship, and they were guilty of judging the spirituality of others by how outwardly blessed they appeared to be. They had money problems and marriage problems and problems with getting people to use their gifts and talents for Christ. I’m sure they didn’t always like their jobs and probably would have enjoyed a Walmart. The church couldn’t appreciate Paul and his entourage and the way they suffered for the gospel – and like us, it was very much a church who struggled to find freedom from their culture and be different for Christ.
We have that struggle don’t we? I’m not saying we’re not basically good people who come to church and carry Bibles and try to love other people. But if there’s a major difference between the lives most of us live and the lives we’re called to live, it’s that we struggle to get both feet out of our love for this world and embrace the life to which we’ve been called. I believe that’s at the heart of this passage of Scripture.
Ask people to stand as we read 2 Corinthians 5:20. Say this: I’m an ambassador for Christ. If you’ve been in church any length of time you already knew that. You’re an ambassador for Christ. Pray with me.
So, you’re an ambassador for Christ. So what? What does that really mean? In short it means two things for you. First, an ambassador is someone who represents the interests of another. We have US ambassadors stationed in other countries. They’re not there on vacation or to pursue their own interests. They’re stationed there to represent the interests of the United States – after all their citizenship is in the US! We’ve been stationed here to represent the interests of our homeland – and our homeland isn’t the US, it’s not Texas, it’s not Grayson County – it’s heaven!
Second, an ambassador is someone who bears the message of the one who sent him. When you’re an ambassador you’re not tasked with making people like you or telling them what they want to hear or to please an audience. When we interact with those who are far from Christ, we’re supposed to bear His message, not our opinions or ideas, not our goals or our interests. You’re an ambassador for Christ and you bear His message.
So, say this with me again: I’m an ambassador for Christ!
Now let me ask you this – are you a good one? Or are you a bad one? Over the years I’ve heard church members want to get church bumper stickers, and we all know why most churches don’t do it. There are some people you just don’t want to represent the church. They aren’t good ambassadors. But I believe that everyone in this room wants to be the best representative of Christ they can be. You want to be the best ambassador for Christ you can possibly be – right? So, here’s what I believe needs to happen: wherever you are right now in your walk with Christ – give yourself to Him. Offer yourself to Him as a living sacrifice even now before you’ve heard the rest of the message. If you want to be a better ambassador for Christ than you were last week or yesterday or even before you got here, then I believe, from our text, that there are several things that need to become a reality in your life.
You need to become convinced of the terror of the Lord – verse 11a
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…
Some of your Bibles say the fear of the Lord, others say the terror of the Lord. Do you know that every human being is going to stand before the Lord one day? If you’re saved, you’ll stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ mentioned in verse 10. It’s for believers, and we’re going to give an account for what we did with Christ and for our motives. How many of us will stand there with little to show? Who wasted our lives on carnal, short sighted living? Paul said in 1 Corinthians that one day all of our works will be burned up to see if the life we built on the foundation of Christ was of any eternal value. I’m glad that in Christ I’m safe and secure, but it scares me to think of standing before Him with my little faith.
But that’s us who are saved. Those who are lost will face the Great White Throne Judgment – that place where God condemns everyone who refused His Son, everyone who thought they’d try to be good enough to get to heaven, everyone who blasphemed His holy name, everyone who had a better way than Jesus, everyone who thought they’d put it off for another day…this is the judgment where all the lost are condemned to a devil’s hell for all eternity.
Listen, as ambassadors for Christ we need to get it in our heads and in our hearts that apart from Jesus Christ we are the targets of the righteous terror of the Lord, and in Christ, we’ve been delivered from it! That neighbor or spouse or kid or parent or the guy that changes your oil – God has placed them in your life and their eternity hangs in the balance and without Christ they will know the terror of the Lord! It’s real and we need to become convinced of it. You may be the only voice they’ll hear.
And not just the lost – how many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have no heart for Him? We are our brother’s keepers. Don’t be content to let a child of God be far from the Lord and face Him with wasted life. Be an ambassador for Christ to that person.
You need to get some persuasion to you about Christ – verse 11a
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…
I like McDonalds. You like Whataburger. So what. I’m not going to plead with you to eat at McDonalds. I don’t care if you like it or not. But that’s kind of the approach we often take with people when it comes to Jesus and church. “It’d be nice if you come, but if you don’t that’s cool too.” “I gave my life to Jesus, but if you don’t want to or you just want to explore your options that’s cool too.” No! It’s not cool, and shame on us for not caring enough to try to persuade people otherwise.
Paul says here that knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade others. Over in vs 20 it says that God makes His appeal through us and Paul was busy imploring people. If we were really convinced of the terror of the Lord we’d be pleading with people. If we really understood that our lost friends and family were going to a hot devil’s hell, we’d implore them to give their lives to Christ. But our motives for pleading with people are like a two-sided coin – yes there’s the terror of the Lord and hell, but there’s also the love of Christ that I’ll get to in just a second. Listen, if the bridge were out down here, I would plead with you not to keep driving in that direction. I’d plead with you or jump up and down with a warning sign because I wouldn’t want you to meet a fiery end, but I’d do it because of love for you.
You need to be gripped by the compelling love of Christ – verse 14
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one died for all, therefore all have died.
The amazing, gracious, unconditional love of Christ controlled him, it constrained him, it pushed him, compelled him to see himself as an ambassador for Christ and plead for the souls of anyone who would hear him. He said he had concluded this, that one, Jesus Christ, had died for all. He died for you and me. He died for your neighbor, for your good for nothing dad, for your sorry foul-mouthed coworker. He died for the best person you know, and He died for the worst. He died for Republicans and for Democrats. He died for straight people and for gay people. He died for the left and for the right. He died for our soldiers, and He died for the Jane Fondas. He died for people like Tom who protect us and for the people he protects us from. He died for Billy Graham, and He died for Ted Bundy. He died for white people, black people, brown people, red people and yellow people too.
He died for all. And because He died for all, all have died. I’m of the opinion that when Paul says this, he means that because of our sin everyone had to die. We all deserved the righteous judgment of God, but Jesus died in our place. Think of a politician – a politician is your representative. When our representatives vote, they don’t vote instead of us, they vote as if they were us. That’s what Jesus did. He died on that rugged cross just as if He were you. His death was imputed to us – and those who choose to give their lives to Christ in salvation are raised to new life just as Jesus was.
I don’t understand the love of Christ for me. And I sure don’t understand it for you. The Bible doesn’t explain it – it just states it.
For God so loved the world…
But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
If you’re going to be a better ambassador for Christ, you need to spend some time reflecting on the love He has for you. God commended His love toward you, in that while you have lied and cheated and thought those horrible things and been unwilling to forgive and been unkind and decided to do what you want to do with your time and whatever else you might have done, Jesus Christ died just as if He were you and He took the wrath of God that should have been yours upon Himself.
The question is, does the love that Jesus Christ has for you compel you to go out as His ambassador and love all people the way He did? Does it compel you to lay your own life down for those people out there?
You need to come to terms with your new identity in Christ – verses 15-19
And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, in anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Three questions I need to ask you in relation to your new identity:
1. Who are you living for? – Verse 15 said that Jesus died for us so we would quit living for ourselves. Isn’t that interesting wording? He died so we would quit. Like, by dying, Jesus was rescuing us from living for ourselves. Jesus said this,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses himself?”
Who are you living for? If it’s for you and your own pleasures, Jesus said you’re wasting your life and you’ll have to answer to Him for that. But if you lose your life by living for Him you’re going to have a life worth living. Two of my favorite words in the Bible are “but now”.
a. You were living for personal pleasure, but now…
b. You were living for a check, but now…
c. You were living for the weekend, but now…
d. You were plowing through drudgery, but now…
The Bible says you’ve been bought with a price, you are not your own. Who are you living for?
2. What’s keeping you from representing Christ out there? – the Corinthians were guilty of having carnal, temporal sight. They only saw people for what was right in front of them. Paul said that he even once viewed Jesus that way. But once he was born again and was given new spiritual sight, he began to see people differently. Maybe that’s you. All you see is what you see. But if you’ll give your life to Christ and live for Him, I promise you He’ll open those eyes to see people the way He does.
Maybe it’s something else though. Whatever it is, I promise you the Bible has an answer for it. So your past isn’t pretty and you don’t think you can be an ambassador. That’s only because you’re comparing yourself to someone else with a less cluttered past. 1 John says that God is faithful and just to forgive all that and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. As far as He’s concerned you just need to get busy.
You won’t know what to say? The Holy Spirit will tell you. You don’t know enough? The Holy Spirit will teach you. You’re afraid? You have the Spirit of the living God residing inside you. What if they reject you? So what? They rejected Jesus first.
If you’re hiding behind something, it’s time to take a step of faith.
3. Will you accept your higher calling from Christ? God reconciled you to Himself through Jesus Christ, and as a result, He has given you a ministry. If you’re a child of God, you have this ministry. It’s not like our nominating committee where we sign up for stuff or where you get asked if you’re interested. It’s much simpler than that. If you’re saved, then this is your ministry – reconciling people to God through the message of Jesus Christ.
Let me give it to you in the most simple way I’ve ever heard it, “Every Christian is responsible to leverage his or her life for the sake of others…If you are a Christian, you are called.”
Do you realize the work God is trying to do through you? The Christian life isn’t just about coming to church and learning all you can before you die. It’s about God trying to reach a lost world through your life. He is making His appeal through you. But too many of us are getting in the way.
Conclusion
I don’t have to convince you that people everywhere are far from Christ. I don’t have to convince you that most people don’t care about Jesus or God or the Bible or church. But that’s why you’re here – to represent the interests of our homeland – in this land.
I know I have raced through this rich text. There’s more in it than we could possibly dig out in a half-hour. But I hope you’ve gotten this – that you’re an ambassador for Christ. So I want to circle back to my initial plea with you. Will you give your life to Christ? I don’t know what that means for you today – but I know there’s not one of us in this room that couldn’t take one more step toward a deeper place of commitment to Him. Maybe that means accepting His call on your life. Maybe that means to start living for Him. It might mean you speak up when you’re scared. It may mean you need to reflect on His love for you. That’s between you and Him.
But maybe someone here today has never trusted Christ as his or her Savior. If that’s you, would you give your life to Christ today? Be reconciled to God today. Chapter 6 says that today is the day of salvation.
“For your sake God made Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Christ you might become the righteousness of God.”
If you know God is dealing with you, tugging at you, reaching out to you, give your life to Him today.
