The Kingdom: Ambassadors

Good morning Southeast family. How are you? You guys are crushing it already. This is going to be like an interactive thing. I'm going to say some things, you're going to echo them back to me. It's going to be fantastic. That's kind of how I go, okay? Are we all on board for that? I'll take it, that's good. Let's roll. So like Lindsey said, my name is Josh McBride and I'm the online campus pastor here at Southeast. And what that means is I have the privilege and pleasure of getting to love and disciple our extended Southeast family. That's what we like to call everybody who engages with us, who watches us when they're not here in Parker, Colorado. So that's our extended Southeast family, which is no small feat because on any given Sunday, on any given Sunday there are between three and four times as many people watching and engaging with us online as there are people who walk through our doors. Isn't that awesome?

Okay, we can clap. We can clap. I'm not going to scare you with too much interaction, but we're going to have a little bit of back and forth. It's going to be good, okay? All right, cool. The other thing is that we have extended Southeast family members in every state in the union and at least nine countries all around the world. How awesome is that? Yeah, that's a big one, right? So when we engage in worship, when we tell God who he is, when we say "Lord, you are so good. You're so good that I can't help but tell others about you." We are doing that literally with people across the world, which I think is a really beautiful thing.

So I get to step into kind of the shoes of Steve Breen, who spoke last week. And remember, he talked about how the kingdom of God is rapidly expanding in countries that you and I might otherwise be like "There's no way." Countries like Iran, countries like North Korea and China. The kingdom of God is rapidly expanding. And we're like "Yes, that's fantastic. We have no idea how it's happening, but praise God." We are getting brand new siblings in Christ Jesus every day and that is a big deal. Right? Okay. We'll take it.

So I get to step into those shoes and I get to talk about what it means to be an ambassador for God's kingdom in our own lives. So how do we live out this incredible news of God's kingdom in our everyday lives? And before I get there I want to give you a little bit of a sign post. We're going to talk about this out of 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. But before then we're going to look at some examples of ambassadors kind of from our own world. So let's look at first, we have my main man Henry Kissinger. And some of you know this man. Others are like "That looks like my grandfather." Henry Kissinger was an ambassador for the United States during the Cold War when we were dealing with kind of the Soviets and the Chinese. He helped to broker a peace between the United States and North Vietnam. He was an ambassador. He was so convinced and convicted of the American way that he took it to people who were our enemies. Okay? So that's one example.

Our next one, behold Miss Beyonce. Right? She's fantastic. She is what we might call a brand ambassador, which means that she is commissioned by companies to kind of bring their product to a wider audience. So I think the one I remember most was Pepsi, the superior of the colas. If you have a problem with that you can find me afterwards. It's great. I'm more of a Diet Pepsi guy myself, but that's neither here nor there. So she was a brand ambassador. Now some of you may still... I mean, I don't know how you can't know who Beyonce is, but let's bring it down one more generation to my Gen-Z friends. We'll take a look at David Dobrik. And if you don't know who David Dobrik is, ask your kids. If you don't know who David Dobrik is and you don't have kids, Google him and then just let out a sigh. Because now I have to know this and it's Josh's fault.

Or we could talk about the Paul brothers. Two people who really don't Google because that's a whole thing in and of itself. But these guys are also brand ambassadors of different kind of brands. You may have also heard them referred to as influencers. Their message, their brand, their ideology is kind of their own lives. And they want to market that to as wide of an audience as they possibly can. Now, I wouldn't blame you if you're sitting there going "Okay, what does Henry Kissinger, Beyonce, David Dobrik, and the Paul brothers have to do with 2 Corinthians 5:11-21?" That is a perfectly rational question. This isn't a fever dream. We really did just talk about them. But we're going to dive into what it means for you and I to be an ambassador.

We're going to start with 2 Corinthians 5:11 and I'm going to read this and we're going to do some background in a minute. Okay? So since then we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God and I hope it is also plain to you. Okay, so let's do some background context. Who is the we in this instance? The we in this instance is Paul and Timothy and they are writing to the Christians at Corinth. That's an ancient city in Greece. They're writing to them and they're saying "Hey, we have something to tell you." Now, they know what it is to fear the Lord, which for some of us might be like "Well, what does that mean?". And that's a good question because what it doesn't mean is that Paul and Timothy laid in bed at night with this anxiety about oh no, God is out there somewhere. They're not frightened of him, they're not terrorized by the idea of God, but rather in the ancient world, to fear God merely meant to understand where he was in kind of the hierarchy of authority.

So really, when they say "We understand what it is to fear God" they know what it means to honor and respect him as creator, as Lord of the universe. They recognize where they stand kind of in position to him. And this idea of honoring God and understanding who he is finds a lot of basis in the Old Testament, but we're going to look at one just really quick and it's Proverbs 9:10. Maybe you know it by heart. It's the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord or the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, depending on what version you read. So it has it's basis in the Old Testament and it's really just about knowing who God is in terms of his position to us and giving him the proper honor and respect is what that means.

The last part about this that we're going to look at is the who we are is plain to God, and we hope that it is plain to your conscience. And what that simply means is Paul and Timothy are living their authentic selves when they present themselves to the Corinthians. There's not this fake piety, there's not this fake holiness, they're not trying to be someone they're not. They're saying "Listen, you know who I am. You know me warts and all. You know my bad habits. But I'm here to tell you about this particular point."

Okay, let's move on. So our next verse is 14. So for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And then 15, and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. This is what Paul and Timothy are attempting to convince the Corinthians about. That this point, that one died for all and therefore all should live for him. This is the message that Paul and Timothy have so internalized, they've found it so worthy of being represented that they will take it to all peoples in all places at all times. Their lives can not but show the light of Jesus, to carry this message, this message that's worth representing.

Great. Cool, Paul and Timothy, that's good for you guys. But there's more. So we see in 2 Corinthians 5:18, all of this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. What is that ministry? That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. I want to camp here for a second because this message, this message that God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them, is our message. You and I, this is our core belief. This is what we carry out into the world. Everyone says "Great, perfect, love that." But Paul's not going to make me actually do it, right? Well, he continues.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. What's that message? That God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ and he's not counting people's sins against them. That's our message. I'm going to say "Hey, what's the message?" You will respond with some version of that. It can be garbled. Okay? There's some laughter like "yeah." I like it. Okay. So he has committed this message of reconciliation to us that 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. Okay? You and I have a call to action from Paul. We have a mission that has been set upon us by God to carry his message out into the world. That message that he is reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them.

And unless you might want to say "Well, maybe that's just the 2 Corinthians thing." I have other verses for us. We see this in Romans 5:6 that you see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. That's us. And again in verse 10, for if we, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son. How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? The core of the Christian message isn't act right and God will love you. The core of the Christian message is rejoice because God is in the business of reconciling the world to himself in Christ Jesus. Not counting people's sins against them. And that's the good news. That's the good news that each and every one of us heard at some point.

When we were on our last leg. We were at the final straw. I was thinking of the rope analogy. We were at the end of our rope. There it is. When we were at the lowest point in our lives. That's the message that we heard. And it wasn't some neutral, far off message. No. It was God in his intimacy, stepping into our lives, reaching down to us, and pulling us up, not just to this neutral place where we're like "Well, I can make an informed decision now." But no, he pulls us up into an embrace and he draws us near to him. And that same message, that good news, if we have that, if we've internalized it, how could we not share that with the people in our lives?

And notice how different it is. It's not this message of you've got to get your stuff together. No. It's the message that God loves you so fiercely he's in the business of reconciling this world to himself. There's a big difference between those two and we'll talk more about that in a little bit. God has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation, which really is a continuation of the ministry that his son had. That he came to announce the goodness and the coming of the kingdom of God and we get to do that same thing. And it's really good when we engage with scripture to engage with everything that's there. We want to analyze words and think how they fit into sentences and structures and what is the main point of a paragraph. But it's equally important for us to look at what's not there.

And what isn't there in the message? The message is that God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting its sins against it. What's not there? There is no half measure. There is no partial forgiveness. There are no caveats. It doesn't go, for God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting its sins against it, unless it thinks the wrong way or it acts the wrong way or it does these things. It's not about acting right, it's about hearing and internalizing our message. The message that God is in the business of reconciling all things to himself. And for some of us, that might give us some angst. If we're rule followers we might be like "I don't know about this. Seems like we're just letting people do what they want."

Here's the thing. We are not in the business of correcting people. We are in the business of announcing God's good news. And he is magnanimous in his forgiveness. He just gives it away freely. And for some of us, we're like "Really though?" Yes, really. Thank God that we are not God. Right? Okay. So what does it mean... We talked a little bit about ambassadors. We've talked about Henry Kissinger, Beyonce, Dobrik, and the Paul brothers. What does it mean to be an ambassador in the ancient world? Well, let me give you some context so we can better understand maybe what Paul is thinking here.

So in the ancient world, ambassadors were not just sent to end wars or negotiate trade agreements. It wasn't simply like this is your job, you clock in and you clock out. No, ambassadors in the ancient world were sent as signs of goodwill and friendship. They were sent to improve relationships. Now, what does that say that God sends ambassadors to the world? Well, it just demonstrates who he is. That even while you and I were enemies of God, he saw us as friends. Even when people who don't know who God is right now are enemies of him, he sees them as friends. There is no one who God doesn't extend a hand of friendship to.

There's this really powerful image of this, I think, in 2 Corinthians 2:14. It's a little dark, but just go with me. So in 2 Corinthians 2:14 Paul talks about us being led, Christ followers being led behind Jesus in a procession, in a captive train. So we have this wonderful picture of a Roman parade. Look at these guys. Wonderful re-enactors. Now in the ancient world, the only time that somebody would be led in a captive train is after a pretty substantial victory by a general. So the general would go out on campaign, he'd conquer a couple of cities, and in each city he would take some captives. And then when he returned to Rome there would be a big old parade. People would be shouting his name and it would be great. He'd be at the head, then his Army, and then captives who are being chained and pulled along solemnly because they know that they are about to be killed. Because in the ancient world that's what you do with captives. You take them from the kingdom of life and you bring them to the kingdom of death.

And yet, what do we see in the example of Christ Jesus? We see that he goes to the kingdom of death and he brings us into the kingdom of light. We are led behind Jesus in a captive train, not as solemn, sad, heads hung low, but rather, rejoicing because we're being brought out of death and into life. And more than that, as he leads us along, you and I are looking at people along the parade route and going "Step into the captive train. Step into life and step out of death." That's what it means for you and I to be an ambassador. Okay.

Our second point about ambassadors in the ancient world is simply this. They never went from stronger nations to weaker ones. And as a great example, we can talk about Caesar Augustus of Luke 2:1 fame. That's right, the Christmas story. Caesar Augustus boasted about the fact that he had ambassadors from Spain, Albania, Persia, and India. And that's like the entire span of the ancient world. He has everyone come to him and go "Oh Caesar Augustus, you are so great. We are so lowly. We have these things to beseech you of." And yet, God sends his ambassadors into the world. And what does that say about him? Does it say that God is weaker than the world? By no means. But rather, what it does say is that God is demonstrating his goodness. He's demonstrating his goodness again, in that he is sending people with the message that God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ. We're working on it. It's okay, we'll get there eventually. Okay. It's first service.

Okay. So he does this. God so loves his world, he so loves this world, that he sends his son and you and I to speak to it to proclaim the message to it. And it just follows the pattern that we see God do time and time and time again in scripture. Right? We can look at Genesis 12:3 where he pulls Abraham aside and he goes "Listen buddy, here's the thing. Your descendants are going to be a blessing to the world. I'm going to bless the world through you." Or we can look at Matthew 5:45 where Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount says "My father sends the sun and the rain on the crops of the righteous and the unrighteous alike." Or we can look at James 1:17 where he says "Hey, God is the father and author of all good gifts. God is in the business of blessing all people. God is in the business of extending a hand of friendship to all people. He's in the business of reconciling all people to himself."

All right. Our third point about ambassadors in the ancient world is that they weren't particularly skilled diplomats. You didn't become an ambassador because you had a silver tongue most of the time. Most of the time you became an ambassador because of the family you were born into. In the ancient world ambassadors were born from noble families. And we can talk about Paul for example, is a smart guy. Studied under some of the greatest teachers of his age, dealt with some of the rhetoric of the time. He understood the world, but he still wouldn't have been a first pick for an ambassador. Why? Because he wasn't noble. And yet, God calls him and you and I ambassadors. Why? Because God views us as noble. We have been adopted into his family. Simply put, there is not a single unimportant person in the kingdom of God. No matter who you are, where you're from, what you've done, how you think, or how you talk, you are the beloved of God and he has a mission and a message for you.

And just so you don't think that I'm trying to butter you up with nice words, here's some scripture for it. In Romans 8:17, now if we are children, that's children of God, then we are heirs, heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. We could look at 32 in that same chapter, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things. Or again in 37, no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. God sees us as highly favored and anointed. He looks on each of us and he says "You are my beloved child and you are going to carry my message into the world." And it's going to be great.

The last point, and I have to attribute this to my friend Walker, who is from Texas, but he is not a Ranger. And if you don't understand that joke, Google Chuck Norris. When I got the opportunity to speak I messaged Walker and I was like "Hey man, what do you think about the word ambassador?" And he hits me with this incredibly powerful point. He says "Ambassadors need to be able to speak both into the culture they're coming from and into the culture they're going to. You have to be able to converse in both worlds. You have to have a foot in both camps so that you can accurately convey what's going on." And what that means is you and I have to know God's heart. We have to know the message. And we have to be able to communicate it to the world that needs to know it.

And unfortunately what has happened for so long in our world, and especially within Christianity is that we have spent so much time running away from and isolating ourselves from the world that we've forgotten how to talk to it. Right? We don't read their books, watch their movies, engage with their theories. We don't do it. If you're from my grandmother's generation, I will forever remember this, she used to tell me that she wasn't allowed to paint her nails or play cards. And I was like "Grandma, how were you supposed to engage with people?" She's like "I don't know." But that's the point. Walls aren't good tools for communicating the message. The message that God is reconciling all people to himself, in Christ, not counting their sins against them. We've built these walls and we've huddled over here and we went, "Well, I wonder why no one's coming over?" It's because we haven't communicated to them.

All right. Ambassadors aside. Let's talk about something else for a second. Let's talk about how we smell, okay? I know this is kind of an odd transition. Just go with me. All right. So in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 Paul seems to be fixated on smell. He talks about how we are an aroma of Christ Jesus. And I want to link these two because our mission isn't about doing right things or acting the right way. That's not our mission. Our mission is entirely about how our lives look and smell. And here's what I mean by that. Okay? In 2 Corinthians 14, we already talked about the captive train, but he also in 15 and 16 talks about how we are a pleasing aroma to God through Christ. He says that we are an aroma to those being saved and to those perishing. To one, an aroma of death and to another, the aroma of life.

And that parallelism is super important because it tells us that our ambassadorial mission, our mission to proclaim the reconciling work of God doesn't end with the unbelieving world. But instead, it also calls to everyone who is a Christ follower. Because the parallelism goes, to those who are being saved, we're an aroma of death. To those who are perishing, we're the sweet aroma of life. So we, when we're on mission and on message, have to be calling our fellow Christ followers to put more of themselves down and put more of Jesus on. We have to die to self more every day that we stay in this captive train. We have to die to self more every day as we let the message, the reconciling, good work of God be internalized in us. We have to die more.

And to the other side, to the people who are perishing, who don't know who Christ Jesus is, our lives ought to be a sweet aroma. And I think it's important that again, I want to belabor this point, it's not about acting right. But it's about being so permeated by this message that you can't help but just smell like it. Anybody who's raised a teenage boy knows this. Right? You're like, "Go home and wash 80 times." And they still smell like after football practice. It's a rough go. The thing is, our lives have to have that same effect. They have to just exude who God is. Okay. This is the most controversial thing I'm going to say to you. So everyone just go ahead and take a deep breath.

Here's the thing. Some of the things that you and I do every day are not in line with the kingdom of God. Right? And we know this. Some of the things that we say, some of the ways that we act, some of the things that we share on Facebook, some of the stuff that we plaster on the back of our cars are in opposition to the kingdom of God. And if we are to live our lives being so filled with this good news, with this message of reconciliation, it ought to drive that stuff out of us. If we are really convinced that God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting its sins against it, that ought to fundamentally change the way that we think and talk about people we don't like. It ought to change the way that we think and talk about institutions or theories or all of that. It ought to totally affect us so that the message that comes out isn't "Well, here's my particular point." But is instead that God is on mission and he's bringing you close to himself.

And for some of us, we want to say, and myself included, let the record show, we want to say "I'm a broken and flawed person. I get mad and I say things I don't mean and I have this attitude sometimes and I just don't like this about certain folks." And we want to hide behind that and we want to say "Well, look at Jesus. He's the dude. He's perfect. He's so full of love. Don't look at me." But here's the thing. That's our job. People may never see Jesus because we're standing in the way of it sometimes. Our job as ambassadors is to be the literal representation of our risen Lord to an unbelieving world. When we're on mission, when we're on message, people look at us and they don't see Josh. They see Jesus. And that's not to say that we have to act right all the time or that we can't have brokenness in our lives, because those things are still going to be true of you and I. But we're so enraptured by the idea that God is in the business of reconciling all people to himself in Christ and not counting their sins against them, that it just flows out of us. People just smell Jesus on us.

So I've got some implications for us. Implication number one, we have been freed from darkness and death and beckoned into God's kingdom. And that means that we should look and live differently. And again, it's not about acting right, it's not about saying the right things at the right times and doing the right stuff. It's not about that. But it is about being so consumed by the message of who God is and what his mission is that we can't help but let that flow through us. We have to look different from our old lives so that we can invite others to step into their new ones.

Second implication. So God's kingdom isn't a one and done experience. It's about continually stepping in further and deeper. Here's the thing. Your life will look radically different 10 years from now. I don't care if you still live in the same house and you still work the same job. Your life will be different in 10 years. But your mission won't be. If we go back and we think about what Doctor [inaudible] said about form and substance, the form of how we live out our mission will look different but the substance will look the same. And continually you and I will be taking off our old selves and putting on a new one. And we'll be inviting others into doing the same thing.

Our third implication is this. That God's forgiveness and mission extends to everybody always. I'm going to say it again. God's forgiveness and mission extends to everybody always. In your mind's eye, picture the person you don't like the most. Some of us, it's not hard, right? And say this with me, "God's forgiveness and mission extends to everybody always." Even to that person who we don't like and we don't want to engage with. God is in the business of reconciling all people to himself. No caveats, no partial forgiveness, no half measures. He is in the business of reaching everyone.

Our final implication is this. You and I are highly favored in that we have the opportunity to act as God's ambassador to this world. No matter who you are, no matter where you're from, no matter what you've done, no matter what baggage you have, God looks at you and he says "Perfect. I've got a great mission for you. A specific mission for you." See, God has uniquely positioned each and every one of us to speak the truth of his message into our worlds for his kingdom. He's uniquely positioned each and every one of us to speak the truth to our families, to our neighbors, to our friends, and our coworkers, to the person who we don't ever want to talk to. God has uniquely positioned you to tell them the good news. That God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ and not counting people's sins against them. Think on that as we step into communion.

Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And in the same way, after supper he took the cup saying "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me." Let's pray. God, thank you for inviting us into your mission, for giving us your message, for looking at each and every one of us and saying "It's for you. You get to carry this out." Lord, we love you...