Ambassador
Eric A. Bland
Paul, a man that I admire very much, was a man that was willing to give up everything in order to serve our Lord and our God. He was willing to give up the uppity up lifestyle to subject himself unto God. And because he was willing to give up the world, God was able to use him in a mighty way. Paul wrote 14 out of the 27 New Testament books. Paul was also sent on the road to do a little traveling. He went on 3 missionary trips to various places and one trip to Rome. But things were not always hunky-dory for Paul. He had been put in jail, whipped without number, and faced death again and again. On five different occasions the Jews gave him 39 lashes, 3 times beaten with rods, and faced danger from a multitude of people. For a more detailed picture, in your spare time read 2Cor.11:22-27. Even though Paul had it so rough he was still willing to continue on. Paul was an up front preacher, today we would refer to him as a preacher who does not ?sugar coat? the Word of God. He was a man that told the Ephesians that it was by grace that they were saved. He told the Galatians that the Scriptures declared all of us prisoners to sin. And he is also the man that challenges us to be ambassadors for the Word of God. Verse 20 from the New Living Translation says, ?We are Christ?s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, ?Be reconciled to God!? Verse 21, ?For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.?
Now through these 2 versus I have three very important questions. If you have pen and paper write these three questions down.
They are:
Do I need to be an ambassador?
Do I need to be reconciled?
And last but certainly not least, Do I need Christ?
Do I need to be an ambassador? Well let?s look at what the bible says; Verse 19 says, ?For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people?s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.? Verse 20, "We are Christ?s Ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you.? Now just for a moment let us examine the latter part of verse 19.
?This is the wonderful message??
What is this wonderful message that Paul is talking about?
It?s the gospel!
It says right above, look at it. It says, ?God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people?s sins against them.? Doesn?t that sound like something Jesus did? Jesus died on Calvary, why? Because of the sin that we were in. Jesus died on the cross for us. That our sin would be rendered invalid; we?re covered by the blood.
So yes this wonderful message is about Jesus on the cross for us.
All right lets continue on, ?This is the wonderful message he?, now lets stop there for a minute.
Who is He????? It?s God.
God has given this wonderful message of salvation.
It says He has given it to who????.. Us.
He has given to us this wonderful message of salvation; does he want us to keep it to ourselves?
No, He wants us to do what?????. Tell others.
We are to be ambassadors. That is an authorized messenger or representative. Look at the Great Commission, ?Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.?
You see that he says Go, that means Go! When you do something that God has commanded you than that means that he will back you, which is to say he is giving the authority to you.
According to Matthew he gave us the authority to teach all nations and to baptize in the name of the father the son and the Holy Ghost. We are to be ambassadors, teaching and preaching the gospel.
Let me ask you this, why do you think there are not very many ambassadors? Or in other words why do you think people are unwilling to open their mouths and tell someone about Jesus? You know if the devil can keep your mouth shut than he has won, that?s ALL he needs to do. He doesn?t care if you go to church, he doesn?t care if you read your Bible, but one thing he does not want you to do is open your mouth.
Go ahead and wear all your gold crosses, there such a fad nowadays no one will think about you being a Christian.
Go ahead and put that Jesus fish on your car, and try to convince someone that you?re a Christian as you zip past everyone on the highway.
Go ahead and wear that pretty church logo on your shirt with scripture, and give someone a nasty look because you think they are starring at you when in reality they were just trying to read your shirt.
Go ahead, if it makes you feel better to tell someone ?Have a blessed day? but then turn around and curse someone else out with the same mouth.
Why do you think people are willing to take the title Christian but live like the world? Why do you think people are unwilling to be an authorized messenger from the one and only living God? Maybe the reason you either can?t or won?t be an ambassador is because you have yet to be reconciled.
Do I need to be reconciled? You may be asking yourself. Well, I?ll tell you yes, of course you do. The Bible is clear in stating that man is a sinner. The word reconciliation is the act of redemption.
You have heard the term for Christ ?redeemer.? By Christ hanging on the cross redemption took place, which means deliverance, atonement for guilt, paying off as of a mortgage, bond, or note, or in our case sin. Or if you want it in plain ordinary English, God rescued you. That means that He was willing to rescue you from your messed up life, and bring you unto him. When I say messed up I?m talking about the sin that your in.
The Bible says in Romans 5:12 ?Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:? So if the Bible says that sin entered the world through one man, and through that one sin death was brought, aren?t we in some trouble? Because the last section of that scripture says ALL have sinned. Guess what that means, you?re a sinner!
And remember what we said accompanies sin? Death! Now that means spiritual death, which thank God means you have a chance to get right with God (Now you don?t know what tomorrow will bring). Of course, I know that there are some super saints in here tonight, and you?re saying, ?well Eric is referring to everyone else because I know I don?t sin.? Well to that, I have the perfect scripture for you, Romans 3:23 ?For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.? The Word says ALL, and that is exactly what it means-ALL.
I want you to know that sin is not something new. And its not something you can hide from God, even with our technology in 2002, God still sees your sin. Sin is talked about in the Old Testament just as much as in the New Testament, and even present day. Look at the Israelites, they were some sinning folks, that?s why they had to do all that sacrificing unto God, they had to get right, that which was wrong so they had to offer up the sacrifices of animals to God.
God hates sin so much that He cannot bear to look upon it. Example, look in the Gospels when Jesus was on the cross what did Jesus say, ?my God, my God why have you forsaken me?? why have you forsaken me. He was talking to God. As all sin was laid upon my Savior God could not bear to look upon it. He could not look upon it for two reasons, first because God loved His son so much he could not stand to look at that which he hated (which is sin) to be laid upon his son, and second because he just plain hates sin.
Sin is vile, disgusting, wretched, rancid, repulsive, and unacceptable in the eyes of Almighty God. The Word says that God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all, that?s saying that God is sinless. So if God is wholly and perfect, than what makes you think that He wants to hang with someone like you? You?re disgusting, nasty and ugly in his sight.
I?m talking about what your involved in, not your physical appearance. Anything in your life that is not bringing glory to His name means He does not like it! Plain and simple! That is the best definition for sin! Anything that is not pleasing in His sight.
Imagine what a person, who has been smoking for fifty years, what their lungs would look like. That?s what we would look like to God. All black and chard, stinky and crusty. When you?re a smoker it?s not apparent to those that do not actually see a cigarette in your hand but the destruction takes place on the inside.
The same is true with our lives we may not be able to tell that you are living in sin but on the inside your being destroyed, you feel like it?s the world against you, you feel like there is no hope, your hurting, there?s no joy, there is no peace, your lonely, your searching in all the wrong places for someone to love you.
But I want you to know that if you smoke long enough the effects will soon surface to your face and body where every one can see it. Your face all wrinkly, teeth falling out and some of you even try to cover that up with make-up and dentures.
And again it?s the same with our lives the longer you live in sin the more and more it will appear on the out side. Maybe some of the results would be hatred, arrogance, pride, wickedness and maybe even jealousy. Would you want to be around that? No, and neither would God.
Now that you know the bad news, being that God cant stand the sight of your sin, let me share with you the good news of Jesus Christ. For while you may think that you have no hope, let me tell you, your only hope hung on that lonely cross over 2000 years ago!
I once heard it put this way, those were my nails, that was my crown, that pierced your hands and your brow, those were my thorns and my scorns those were my tears that fell down, and just as you said it would be you did it all for me. After you counted the cost you took my shame my blame on my cross.
You may be asking do I really need Jesus? My question to you would be where would you like to spend eternity?
Heaven or hell?
Would you like to be a sheep or a goat?
Would you like to sit on the Lords right or His left?
Would you like eternal life or eternal death?
You have to realize that the only way to Heaven is to allow Jesus to come into your heart and take control of all aspects of your life. I?m not just talking about when you feel like it or when you?re in a bind, I am talking about everything.
As I have heard it from Brother Craig, when you wake up every morning you ask God ?what do you want me to do today, and where do you want me to go?? You allow God to have total ownership over your whole life.
And take notice that I say you have to allow Him; because God did not create robots, He has given free will. Back to the original text-2Chorinthians 5:21. No matter the version you have, please read along with me. Before I read this I want to tell you that I am going to read three different versions, I want you listen and tell me if they are all the same.
Verse 21 KJV ?For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.?
NLT ?For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.?
NIV ?God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.?
What is that saying, it simply says that Jesus who lived perfectly for 33 years never sinned and his Father was willing to allow him to be killed for you. Remember how we talked about the Israelites having to sacrifice animals to make themselves acceptable to God? Well the bible says that when Jesus died on the cross He paid the penalty of sin, which is death, for all time. That gives us the chance to be acceptable to God. That means everything you have ever done no matter what the case may be if you accept Jesus he will accept you. All you have to do is say please Jesus I need you.
Receive him now and he will cleanse you white as snow. You know how beautiful, white, perfect and pure fresh snow looks, its so perfect you almost hate to see people make marks in it like foot prints or snow angels, you know what I am talking about. Jesus wants you the same way, but you have to allow him to enter.
Revelation 3:20 says, ?Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.? Who here this morning wants to eat with a King?
God loves you. And I am not just saying that because as a preacher I am supposed to say it, but because he displays it through His son as well as He says it himself.
In second Peter it says He (being God) is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. And I being a preacher am not the only one who realized the Lords love for you. Paul wrote, ?We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, ?BE RECONCILED TO GOD.? If Jesus were here pleading with you. And He is, He is here right now because Jesus is alive, He was resurrected, HE IS ALIVE! And he?s asking or should I say begging or as Paul wrote pleading with you. Will you allow Him to rescue you?
Isn?t that strange how even after He has died for you He is even willing to plead with you? Isn?t it also strange how people have to be begged to be rescued?
Think about it for a minute, pretend your being held hostage somewhere, and a military person or a law enforcement agent came to your rescue and he assured you he could get you to safety without you getting hurt, but you would not go. And because you wouldn?t let him rescue you he had to start begging you to let him rescue you. No that?s stupid! If I were held hostage somewhere and someone could save me and assure my life, even though I would be a little scared, I would go. He wouldn?t have to beg me; I would be out the door. And I have been rescued. Over five years ago Jesus begged me to let him rescue me, and even though I was scared I went with Him. I said YES, Lord take me because I am tired of hurting, I?m tired of being held hostage save me please. I need you, I want you!
In conclusion, I want to know who is willing to become an ambassador? If maybe you feel that you just need to recommit your life to him, or maybe until tonight you never thought that you needed to be rescued, you thought that you didn?t need Jesus. God wants to know who here wants to be an ambassador? Who is willing to open his or her mouth to tell someone that Jesus died for all of us? There is no better way to conclude than with scripture. Please look at it with me. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 ?As God?s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God?s grace in vain. For he says, ?In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.? I tell you, now is the time of God?s favor, now is the day of salvation. (Emphasize the fact that you do not have to do it yourself; He says I will help you.)
