Ambassadors

2 Corinthians 5:17-­‐20 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 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. 

You know our church has recognized that we need to be a more outward facing church – more missional in nature! We noticed we have become very good at serving our members – growing and maturing, but something was missing. Ralph Moore points out that most established churches serve their constituents well, but on the whole are not winning the unchurched. 

So we began to think that to attract the unchurched we needed to be outward minded. We need to reach out into our neighborhoods, our schools, our towns, our culture. Some would say we need to be relevant and while this can sometimes be taken to extreme, we must attract and engage. 

Our pastor recently gave a sermon and in it there was an illustration that as believers we can be three types of people: Tourist, Immigrants, or Ambassadors. He went on to say that as tourist we merely visit and do not connect to the culture around us; as immigrants we actually become the culture; and as ambassadors we respect and actively engage the culture all while knowing our citizenship is not of the culture. 

This caused me to think deeply about what it means to be an ambassador; an ambassador for Christ. I found a definition in a bible dictionary that tells us that an ambassador is the official representative of the King; that ambassadors are raised up and qualified by the work of Holy Spirit, appointed for spiritual care. And as Paul points out above to carry the message of reconciliation out into the world – what good news that is! Amen. 

King Jesus, help us as your ambassadors to be an attractive light in the culture around us a light that can show your love, your grace, your sacrifice that we might be reconciled to God! 

Grace and Peace!

The Sufficiency of God’s Word

John Piper once said; "the Scriptures are sufficient in the sense that they are the only (once for all) inspired and (therefore) inerrrant words of God that we need, in order to know the way of salvation (make you wise unto salvation) and the way of obedience (equipped for every good work)."

In Psalm 19:7-14 we  find: 

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.  The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.  The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.  The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.  The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.  They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.  By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.  But who can discern their own errors?  Forgive my hidden faults.  Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.  Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

And in 2 Timothy 3:16-17  we see:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I know that God’s word is precious, I know it is needed and necessary and all sufficient but in our struggle to be relevant, to be authentic in our culture we must be careful to insure that our ministry is Christ centered as revealed by the Word of God.  I believe we must be relational to reach others, but is it possible to take being relevant too far?

David Platt in his book Radical says; “But is his Word enough for us?  This is the question that often haunts me when I stand before a crowd of thousands of people in the church I pastor.  What if we take away the cool music and the cushioned chairs?  What if the screens are gone and the stage is no longer decorated?  What if the air conditioning is off and the comforts are removed?  Would his Word still be enough for his people to come together?”

Something to think and pray about…Father God, I pray the words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart would be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer!  Amen and Amen.

Grace and Peace!

Jesus - Our Savior

It seems that lately I have had a renewed and overpowering sense of awe for Christ and all He was, is and will be. I am utterly amazed by His majesty, love, mercy and grace. This obsession is bringing into focus the Gospel; the good news. And what good news it is! As my vision becomes more and more focused on Christ, I am able to see my urgent and all encompassing need for a savior. I am able to see my totally broken nature, the darkness of my heart, my sin.

I am so thankful that our Lord is mighty to save. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us; The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

Wow, not only will he save; he will actually rejoice in doing so…I recently came across a writing from Joseph Parker; an English pastor and preacher from the 19th century. Parker wrote:


“Out of a true knowledge of sin will come a true appreciation of Jesus Christ as the Savior. Apart from this, he will be a strange teacher; with it, he will be the Redeemer for whom our hearts have unconsciously longed when they have felt the soreness and agony of sin. We could sum up the Christian creed in a sentence, yet that sentence contains more than all the libraries in the world. The faith which bears us up above all temptation and all controversy, the faith in which we destroy the power of the world and soar into the brightness of eternal day, is this: I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God!”

Amen! So as we recognize our brokenness, as we feel nowhere near good enough as we struggle in this life let us remember we have a Savior. Let us proclaim, I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Let us know with every fiber of our being we have been rescued.

Colossians 1:13-14 tells us: For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Oh what good news the Gospel of Jesus Christ!


Grace and Peace!