From our Sunday service on January 26, 2025, 2 Corinthians 5, Matthew 5, Galatians 2, Titus 2, Colossians 4, John 13, 2 Timothy 2, Zechariah 7, Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 10, Matthew 25, and Hebrews 13. Watch the full message: Ambassadors for Christ on YouTube.
What is an ambassador, and what is his responsibility? Webster’s 1828, the dictionary to use if you want a definition in line with the King James, says an ambassador is a minister of the highest rank employed by one prince or state at the court of another, to manage the public concerns of his own prince, and represent the dignity of his sovereign. The ambassador of Christ is employed by Christ, manages the concerns of Christ, and represents Christ to others. You have to be saved first. God wants you to be His ambassadors.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:20–21
Salt and Light
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that believers are to be the salt and the light of the world. Salt was a preservative, to stop meat from spoiling. If we are the salt of the earth, we are meant to preserve righteousness by carrying the teachings of Christ to those who have never heard them. If Christ just wanted to save people, He could take you to heaven right now. That is not how God chose to do it. Jesus calls Himself the light of the world before He calls us the light of the world, because we have the same mission. He taught the truth, called out corruption, and overturned the money changers’ tables. Now He says, “I’m leaving. I need you to carry on the mission I started.” The only thing evil needs to prosper is for good men to do nothing.
Salt also enhances flavor. John Chrysostom, a theologian from around A.D. 400, said that by saying “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus signifies that all human nature has lost its flavor, having become rotten through sin. The Christian is to bring back a little bit of heaven to earth. Then there is the warning: if salt loses its savor, it has an off-putting taste. If you got a pack of salt from Walmart and it had a bitter flavor, you would throw it out immediately. The Christian who lets bitterness overtake him loses those qualities. In the ancient world, conquering armies sometimes spread salt over farmland to kill the soil. I saw three or four of the church fathers draw out this analogy: the gospel is diminished by a Christian whose salt has lost its savor.
Like a mosquito flies to light, we are supposed to direct others straight to Christ. The light is of God, and we are a reflection of His light. But a city set on a hill cannot be hid, and nobody lights a candle and puts it under a bushel. There is a real risk that we receive the light of Christ and are too scared to shine. If we want the light of Christ to shine, we have to do good works.
The Qualities of an Ambassador
A good ambassador must die to self and place his identity in Christ. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Jesus compares following Him to Roman crucifixion: grabbing your cross and walking yourself to Golgotha. A good ambassador denies himself every day and makes a purposeful choice to do what is hard.
An ambassador cannot be corrupt. Titus 2:7-8 calls for a pattern of good works, uncorruptness, gravity, and sincerity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, “that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.” There are people against Christ waiting to slander the name of God, to post on Twitter or Facebook what you did and why it shows God is not real. How is your testimony at work? Do you gossip about other employees? Do you shift a few numbers in the work logs for a little extra cash because you are a few steps from a bonus? Do you tell little white lies to look better in front of your boss? What’s the first thing people think when they hear your name?
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
Colossians 4:5–6
The church may think you are great. They see you every Sunday. But what about the lost you interact with? Think before you speak, pray before you respond to conflict, and season your words with kindness and wisdom. “Redeeming the time” also means knowing when to speak and when to keep your mouth shut. If they just want to fight, do not fight, and do not give them the ability to say later, “I fought with a Christian today, they were so mean.”
The only way people are going to know that Christianity is real is if we show love to one another. Shortly before His arrest, Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” It is not going to be our church attendance, our tithes, or the words we say about being a Christian. Then Paul tells Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and that no man who goes to war entangles himself with the affairs of this life. John Chrysostom said a spiritual soldier does not sleep on an ivory bed but on the ground, and must not smell of perfumes but of virtue. Basil of Caesarea said the soldier of Christ does not build a home or aspire to possess lands, because he enjoys sustenance provided by the king. We cannot get so distracted providing for ourselves that we sacrifice our ministry. We cannot serve God and mammon.
Loving the Foreigner
This last section is not targeted at any individual, and it is not left versus right but right versus wrong. It is not Democrat or Republican but biblical truth. In 2018 the scientist Stephen Hawking passed away after a long battle with ALS, the one in the chair with the robot voice. I was at Pensacola Christian College, around Bible majors and pastors, and a trend broke my heart. They had confused Stephen Hawking with Richard Dawkins, the author of The God Delusion, and when they heard Hawking had died, they said something along the lines of, “Good, he can rot in hell and know that he was wrong about his atheism and that God is real.” I heard that come from someone training to be a pastor. That is not a word that can come out of your mouth, let alone the mouth of a pastor. The salt has lost its savor.
I had a similar experience in 2019, when the mask mandate came out. I have some immunocompromising qualities, and I am about three times more likely to get sick. In a class of Bible majors, the guy to my right was ranting: “Why should I have to wear a mask to protect those immunocompromised people? Can’t they just stay home and have their groceries delivered? If they die, it’s because they were weak.” I am sitting right next to this man as he talks to my face about me. “I’m an immunocompromised brother. You just told me to my face it’s okay if I die because I’m weak.” When the mandate for the college did come out, he bought himself a mesh mask with holes in it to make a statement, and he sat right next to me sick. God forbid this be the attitude of the Christian.
I have seen another trend of hate toward the foreigner, and I do not want this church to be tempted to fall into it. The news wants you to treat these people as enemies, and as Christians we cannot get entangled with the war and lose our testimony. In my research I found that there are supposedly 400 verses in the Bible calling us to love immigrants, foreigners, and refugees. I thought that number was way too high, so I started counting and found over 70 verses specifically about not oppressing the foreigner. The Old English word for “foreigner” in the King James is “stranger.” In Zechariah 7, God warns, oppress not the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor. They made their hearts as an adamant stone, and God scattered them. God will not bless a nation that oppresses its foreigners. Part of the reason Israel went into captivity was that they treated the foreigners in their nation unfairly.
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:33–34
The word “vex” means to oppress or mistreat. We are supposed to treat foreigners as one of us, not because of a political affiliation or an agenda, but because, as God says, “I am the LORD your God.” They are made in God’s image. Deuteronomy 10 says He loves the stranger, in giving him food and raiment, and we are to love the stranger, for we were strangers in the land of Egypt. Jesus is even more direct in Matthew 25. When we meet Him, one of the things He is going to ask is why we did not care for the foreigner when they needed us. Yes, we have laws in this nation, and yes, they should be followed. But just because somebody breaks the laws does not mean we should break our testimonies. We must not consider these people enemies, because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
We are ambassadors of Christ, called to be salt and light, with integrity, grace, love, and compassion, even in conflict. Remember your calling. God wants you to be His ambassador. Will you choose to be a faithful ambassador today?
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