Lent 4 Wed 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Ambassadors for Christ

  In the 7^th chapter of Acts we read, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it."

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. (Acts 7:51-60 & 8:1-3 ESV) 

Saul who we also know as Paul was acting according to the flesh. Paul was a Pharisee. He was an expert in Jewish Law and when he compared himself to others, he saw himself as a better Jew than most. In his way of thinking, Jewish people who were leaders, who were wealthy and well educated and who made the proper sacrifices under the Law were blessed by God.

Paul, in common with his countrymen, had expected a Messiah who would be an earthly prince and conqueror, one who would be a worthy successor of David and Solomon.  Paul had confidently expected the coming of such a prince. He expected no other Messiah. The Messiah Paul expected would be a man of this world; a grand and magnificent prince who would become a great King.

In other words, he had fixed his hopes on a Christ of the flesh and the people chosen by this messiah to rule alongside him would be selected by how well they obeyed God’s Law. So Paul had reasoned that Jesus was a false Messiah and he vigorously opposed the Christians.  Paul, as we read in Acts, opposed the Christians so vigorously that he was devastating the church.

It was at that time that God intervened in Paul’s life. You know God struck Him blind and led him to the house of Ananias. (Acts 9:17-20 ESV)  In Acts 9 we read, “And laying his hands on him (Ananias) said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.”

Paul, now filled with the Holy Spirit was a new creation. During his time with the disciples Paul learned about Jesus and saw His Messiah in a whole new light. Paul learned that all people regardless of their religious standings, have transgressions, but God does not charge their trespasses against them. Instead of counting their sins against them, He counts their faith in Christ as righteousness. God continues to do this again and again, always when sinners are brought to faith by the Holy Spirit.

But first the trespasses we accumulate have to be removed. Christ removed them by dying on the cross in our stead, by extinguishing the guilt of our sins with His blood. His death on the cross changed the whole world of men in its objective relation to God. It was then and there a redeemed world; every sinner from Adam onward to the end of time was redeemed, reconciled to God through Himself as Christ Jesus.

Jesus needed no reconciling, nothing to change Him, for He is love. Jesus never knew sin as we do by sinning. But He became sin for us, taking upon himself all of the punishment we deserve.  The trouble is with the world, with us as individuals who sin and with what our transgressions have made.  God never did fall away from us; rather we fell away from Him. We were wrong, and because we were all born with a sinful nature, it was impossible for us to change ourselves.  What was necessary for our salvation was someone free of sin to pay for our sins. That payment required the death of His Son. Paul now understood that God reconciled all men to Himself through the work of Jesus Christ. 

You might say that rather than being religious, Paul was now faithful. As far as salvation was concerned, the Law which had been his inspiration was useless to him. Paul no longer compared his holiness to others. He saw himself as a sinner who was no better than anyone else. In fact in 1^st Timothy (1:15-17) Paul wrote, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Paul saw that at one time he was as a zealous enemy of Christ. Therefore he was the worst of all sinners.  He reasoned that if he could still be loved by Jesus Christ, there was salvation for all mankind. God had completely changed Paul from being an enemy Jesus to an ambassador for Christ.

he was no longer influenced in his estimation of people by their rank, wealth, or office.

Before his conversion he had been, but now he learned to look on them through the eyes of Jesus Christ, and to see them as someone for which Jesus had given His very life. In view of the fact that the Lord Jesus died for all people, and rose again, the effect on Paul was to change his feelings, to give him an entirely new view of people, and just as importantly, he had a very different view of the Messiah.  He no longer viewed Jesus as a conqueror of men, but as a conqueror and King of sin, Satan and death.  Rather than being a person focused on condemnation and destruction of those who disagreed with the Jewish religion, Paul through the inner working of the Holy Spirit had become a new creation.

He saw that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24) Therefore all men lived as he once did, namely as enemies of Christ. Paul understood that all people are freely offered salvation, but each individual has to undergo a change in their hearts. Individually they had to be brought to repentance, faith and new obedience.

 Paul realized that it was not obedience to the Law which saved an individual, but obedience to Jesus Christ brought about by God.  God had to do this by means of the Word of reconciliation, the Gospel as preached to the world. Men had to be changed from enemies into friends by hearing the word of God and by having theirs hearts opened up to believe His word through the Holy Spirit’s workings.

God’s goal and design of all this was, that we might be made the righteousness of God by the One who became sin for us so that we might be justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.  

You as Christians can see what your position is first in regard to Christ, then in regard to men in general. First we see that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not by our own works.

Secondly we see that those who still resist the Holy Spirit remain enemies of Christ by their refusal to accept His forgiveness. Consequently, God makes His appeal through us to get His word of forgiveness, peace and salvation out to all who remain His enemies.

Essentially, as ambassadors, we implore others to be reconciled to God for Christ’s sake. An ambassador represents God with dignity and speaks for His ruler. He never utters his own thoughts, makes offers or promises that are contrary to God’s word, nor does he demand anything other than those required by his ruler.  He represents God and God alone in Christ Jesus.

As Christians we should never act as if we were dealing with sinful people whom Jesus did not love or die for.  The fact is that Jesus suffered and died for all.  Neither should we let people think they are dealing only with our opinions as individual men and women. Rather they should see that we are speaking the true and divine Word to them as representatives of our Almighty and loving God. And so we too live as new creations, recreated as saints and witnessing our faith as ambassadors in the image of Jesus Christ.

As Saint Paul tells you in Romans, (Romans 8:27-29) “And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

In Jesus Name, Amen.