Are You an Ambassador?

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. -Philippians 3:20

Yesterday, I had someone reach out to me to ask questions about our town. He is from across the ocean, and is considering visiting our town in the next year or so. We talked for a few hours, or so, and I was telling him about quirks and perks, nearby towns and sights to see, and about the people and my love for our town and this area. I felt like an ambassador for Murfreesboro! In the end, I kept the promise to continue talking, and giving information about our town and the surrounding areas.

This led me to think about a few things: we often talk about sports, our families, our jobs, and our homes, just as an ambassador would who was seeking to make peace with a foreign nation. We represent it to the best of our ability, and invite people in, for a time, to the lives we live. But how often do we do that for the hope we have for eternity in Christ Jesus? How often do we actively participate in being an ambassador to a world that is no longer our home?

Loved ones, Jesus left His home on high, put on human flesh and lived among us as one of us, not to merely point us to God’s will, but to live, die and rise again for us, that we may be freed from the tyranny of sin and death. Isn’t that worth living for, and proclaiming to all who will listen? Shouldn’t we seek to be ambassadors for His sake, drawing as many as possible toward the hope He gives us through His death, burial and resurrection? God sent His son to draw us back to Him, shouldn’t we glorify the Son that all may glorify the Father? So here’s today’s challenge: be an ambassador. Seek to give glory to God, who, through Christ, still raises the dead! If Jesus has so transformed your life, what shall you do in response?2 Corinthians 5

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.