Sermon Central
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We Are Ambassadors For Christ
Contributed by Carl Allen on Jul 28, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: As Christians we have the honor and great responsiblity of being Christ ambassadors to the world. With that responsiblity comes the need to fully understand the message and manner is which we are to carry.
We Are Ambassadors for Christ
2 Cor. 5:20 – 6:2
Intro
Jesus thought of his disciples as brothers in a great task. He called them his friends. Jesus placed himself among his disciples as a fellow servant of God. Jesus issued his commission to his disciples as if they were soldiers in Matthew 28:18-20.
In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul gives a beautiful picture of a compassionate and gracious God and a graphic and forceful portrayal of the service we are to render: “We are the ambassadors for Christ.” An ambassador is an envoy or minister of a state sent on a mission by one sovereign or state to another. An ambassador is a spokesperson or representative of one state with authority to speak to the authorities of another state.
As ambassador for Christ, we have been authorized and clothed with divine authority and power to speak his reconciling message of love to the unsaved world. We are the representatives of the King of Kings. We are the stand in the courts of human conscience authoritatively representing the authority of our King.
Ambassadors serve their sovereign. Ours is a position of high and holy responsibility. Our position is one of great dignity and prestige. The privileges and responsibilities of the office should be assumed with the greatest of humility and gratitude.
I. The mission of the ambassadors of Christ
a. An ambassador is a representative
i. We must guard against the peril of misrepresenting the Christ.
ii. We must be diligent to represent Christ properly and adequately by being genuinely Christian.
b. An ambassador is a messenger
i. God wants to speak through us to a lost, wayward, and guilty world
1. We are messengers of the pleading Christ.
2. We are messengers of the beseeching God.
ii. Jesus prescribing one of our functions as being that of a witness.
1. By this commission our Lord intends that each of us should be communicators of the message of redemption to both the eyes and ears of those who live in our world.
2. Acts 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
iii. Sinful are the lips that are silent because of an ungrateful heart or an indifferent spirit.
II. The message of the ambassador of Christ (v. 21)
a. Our message is a revelation of what God has done in Christ so as to save people from sin.
b. God has promised a Savior who knew no sin
Heb. 4:15 “Jesus was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin”
c. God has placed our sins on the sinless Savior.
Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
d. The Sinless One suffered for the sinful
i. 1 Peter 3:18
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might ring us to god, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit”
ii. 2 Cor. 8:9
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
e. It is now possible for the sinful to be saved from sin and to be treated as if they were righteous.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom god displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.”
III. The manner of our service as ambassadors for Christ (v. 6:1)
a. With the greatest of reverence we would speak of the helplessness of the almight God.
i. He is in need of human helpers if he would achieve his purpose of saving people from their sins.
ii. Angels could have been used for this purpose, but for some unknown reason they were bypassed.
iii. God has chosen to work through people
iv. This is our challenging opportunity and at the samt time our fearful responsibility.
v. The Holy Spirit of God abides in the church to bless the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God.
vi. God is still in the business of saving the unsaved.
b. “Now is the day of salvation” was spoken to those who had been appointed as the ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
