This message is the
follow up of the previous message, on the concept of bringing “Heaven on Earth”. This part focuses on knowing
whom we are representing as Ambassadors. Again Paul put in 2 Corinthians 5:20, that we are representing
our King and Savior Jesus Christ.
We are Christ’s Ambassadors
“We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.” -2 Corinthians 5:20
We Are God’s Workmanship
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10
“We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.” -2 Corinthians 5:20
We Are God’s Workmanship
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10
We Are Ministers Of Reconciliation For God
“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
We Are Bought With A Price And Belong To God
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
We Are Established, Anointed And Sealed By God
“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” - 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” - 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
We Are Members Of Christ’s Body
“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” – 1 Corinthians 12:27
“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” – 1 Corinthians 12:27
We Are Branches Of The True Vine
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” – John 15:1,5
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” – John 15:1,5
We Are Personal Witnesses Of Christ’s
“But you shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” – Acts
1:8
We Are Christ’s Friends
“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” – John 15:15
“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” – John 15:15
1. The First Principle
There is no way to know God except through Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. This is the center and beginning of Christianity. Man must know God.
Well, there is only one way, and Christ said so Himself repeatedly: “I am the
way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John
14:6). That is His own claim. So if you think you can arrive at God without
Him, you are already denying the first principle.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The Sparrow and the Swallow)
2. The Personal Element
a.
If we neglect the personal element in the Christian faith, we will
go wrong all along the line. It is personal in the matter of our original
salvation. You are not saved in crowds; you are saved individually. We come to
a personal knowledge of God; we have personal dealings with God. It was a sad
and sorry day in the history of the Christian church when the Emperor
Constantine took the Roman Empire into the Christian church. She has never
really recovered from that. You cannot be saved in families; you cannot be
saved in countries; you cannot be saved in whole churches. Conversion may
happen to a number of people in the same service, but it is always intensely
personal and individual. So conforming to a certain moral or ethical pattern
does not make you a Christian. There must be a personal encounter with Jesus
Christ, personal dealing, personal knowledge.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The
Possibilities of the Christian Life)
b. We are not wearing a jersey but a ring. We are in a personal relationship.
c. Christians are ordinary people who are committed to the extraordinary person of Christ.
d. The dearest friend on earth is but a mere shadow compared to Jesus.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
........
those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. Psalm 34:8,10
(OUR GREATEST PRIVILEGE IS TO
ENJOY GOD'S PRESENCE)
3. To Be Like Jesus
a. We are not called to imitate any another good person or a minister/pastor or another Christian but Jesus. -1 Corinthians 11:1
b. “As God helps you grow, you will change, but you will always be you. An acorn can grow into an oak tree, but it cannot become a rose bush. It can be a healthy oak or it can be a stunted oak - but it won't be a shrub. You will always be you - a growing, healthy you or a languishing you - but God did not create you to be anybody else. He pre-wired your temperament. He determined your natural gifts and talents. He made you to feel certain passions and desires. He planned your body and mind. Your uniqueness is God-designed. Here is the good news: When you flourish, you become more you. You become more that person God had in mind when he thought you up. You don't just become holier. You become youier ... God wants to redeem you, not exchange you."
a. We are not called to imitate any another good person or a minister/pastor or another Christian but Jesus. -1 Corinthians 11:1
b. “As God helps you grow, you will change, but you will always be you. An acorn can grow into an oak tree, but it cannot become a rose bush. It can be a healthy oak or it can be a stunted oak - but it won't be a shrub. You will always be you - a growing, healthy you or a languishing you - but God did not create you to be anybody else. He pre-wired your temperament. He determined your natural gifts and talents. He made you to feel certain passions and desires. He planned your body and mind. Your uniqueness is God-designed. Here is the good news: When you flourish, you become more you. You become more that person God had in mind when he thought you up. You don't just become holier. You become youier ... God wants to redeem you, not exchange you."
The me I want to be -by John
Ortberg
4. The Body of Christ
a.
As personal element is crucial, being part of the body of Christ is
also crucial. Whole is always greater than the sum. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
b. God reproduces and lives out His image in millions of ordinary people like us. It is a supreme mystery. We are called to bear that image as a Body because any one of us taken individually would present an incomplete image, one partly false and always distorted, like a single glass chip hacked from a mirror. But collectively, in all our diversity, we can come together as a community of believers to restore the image of God in the world. (In His Image, Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand, p. 40)
b. God reproduces and lives out His image in millions of ordinary people like us. It is a supreme mystery. We are called to bear that image as a Body because any one of us taken individually would present an incomplete image, one partly false and always distorted, like a single glass chip hacked from a mirror. But collectively, in all our diversity, we can come together as a community of believers to restore the image of God in the world. (In His Image, Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand, p. 40)
5. The Questions
a. How do we know that we look like Jesus?
b. If somebody asks us whom we represent, how would we respond?
Peter 3:15-16
c. Where do we get the letter of recommendation from that confirms we are ambassadors of Christ? ……..
2 Corinthians 3:1-6, 1
Corinthians 4:10-13
Corinthians 1:18, 1
Corinthians 33:18
6. Check list
b. Controversial (are you a topic of disagreement in your surrounding?)
2 Corinthian 2:7-10
When the storm nearly capsizes the boat transporting Jesus, he yells into the wind, "Quite, be still!". The disciples shrink back in terror. What kind of person can shout the weather, as if correcting an unruly child? That scene helps convince them Jesus is unlike anyone else on earth. Yet it suggested a reason for their confusion about him. Jesus has, after all, fallen asleep in the boat from sheer fatigue, a symptom of his human frailty. In a way, Jesus is just like everyone else-he has a race, an occupation, a family background, a body shape. In a way, he is something entirely new in the history of the universe. In between those two statements lies the mystery that never completely goes away.
-Meet the Bible, by Philip
Yancey
7. The source
How do we get it?
John 10:27, Matthew 11:28, Jeremiah 29:12-13
a.
If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire; if you want
to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal
life, you must close to, even into, the thing that has them. They are not sort
of prize, which God could, if He chooses, just hand out to anyone.
Mere Christianity – C. S
Lewis
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. – Galatians 2:20
b. Keep your eyes on the one who refuses to turn stones into bread, jump from great heights or rule with great temporal power. Keep your eyes on the one who says, 'Blessed are the poor, the gentile, those who mourn and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful, the peacemakers and those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness' .... keep your eyes on the one who is poor with the poor, weak with the weak and rejected with the rejected. That one is the source of all peace.
He left the house of his heavenly Father, came to a foreign country, gave away all that he had, and returned through a cross to his father's home. All of these he did, not as a rebellious son, but as the obedient son, sent out to bring home all the lost children of God ... Jesus is the prodigal son of the prodigal father who gave away everything the Father had entrusted to him so that I could become like him and return with him to his father's home.
- Henri Nouwen (From Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey)
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