Released as Ambassadors

Out theme for 2024 is “Possessing the Land”

Last year I preached a series on 1 Corinthians entitled “The Spirit-filled church.

It was about this church in the Gentile world living at the intersection of spiritual reality and one of the darkest places on earth.

A year later, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church again.

Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthian church is to not just be filled with the Spirit, but to release the Spirit.

We don’t just live in spiritual reality, we bring spiritual reality to bear in every situation that we find ourselves.

We carry the Presence of God with us to change the atmosphere wherever we go.

We began by saying that we are released to bring the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Last week we heard that we are released to shine - brighter, bolder and like the stars - forever.

This week’s passage contains some of the most powerful statements about living at the intersection of spiritual reality and the natural world.

As Christians, we should be noticeably different from the world around us, even while trying to blend in.

Paul calls us Ambassadors - citizens of heaven but living in and representing spiritual reality in the world.

We are part of God’’s new creation who are working with Him to transform the old creation.

So let’s learn what is means to be “in the world, but not of the world.”

We represent the Kingdom of God in this world.

We are citizens of heaven.

Most of you know that my first ministry assignment was in Denmark where I lived for almost four years. I learned the language, used public transportation, I spread blue cheese on hot rolls and eat pickled herring and pork liver patte’. Det er lekkert!

But as much as I tried to be like the Danes, I was never really one of them. I didn’t have the same upbringing. Danes are used to thinking as a group. They do everything together. Being American, I was used to thinking as an individual - sometimes I don’t want to do what the group is doing.

The Danes value comfort and a quiet life. I was programmed with ambition- the drive to be successful. When I would share my ideas with my Danish friends, they would be like, “relax, have some coffee and cake, you seem stressed.” I don’t want to hear about your ideas if they make you uptight.

After spending some time there, I can say that some of who I am rubbed off on my Danish colleagues, but they also influenced me. So much so that we still have traditions in our family that go back to our time in Denmark.

What does it mean to you that you are a citizen of heaven?

How does the culture of heaven impact your life here on earth?

Do you find that the way you believe sometimes clashes with the way the rest of the world thinks?

Do you every feel out of place, like even though you live here and speak the language and eat the food, you will never completely belong here?

Paul had talked about enduring hardship and suffering because we have the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

And that even though the world can be a dark place, we shine as lights.

Now he talks as if this world isn’t really even our home - because we have another home waiting for us.

Our bodies are not permanent.

2 Corinthians 5:1–3 ESV

1 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. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

So our earthly bodies are called a “tent” but our heavenly existence is a “building” and a “dwelling.”

What is he trying to say? - our bodies are not permanent.

We tend to think of physical realities as being solid and substantial.

But spiritual realities as being like air - just a wisp of almost nothing.

Paul is emphatically saying that just the opposite is true.

Spiritual reality is more real than even our natural world!

But we know our bodies and we become attached to them.

Many people think that when their bodies fail - that they will somehow simple cease to exist.

Paul has already addressed this in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:35–38 ESV

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

Our physical existence is just the seed of what we are becoming.

Don’t become too attached to it, it’s not going to last forever.

But you will - in an even greater form.

The physical is surpassed by the spiritual.

2 Corinthians 5:4–7 ESV

4 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. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.

The popular conception of death is that is that our body is a container for our spirit.

And that once our body dies, the little spirit inside is released.

Like a little naked bird, having shed the confines of its cage.

It flies away.

Paul would take us back to the image of the seed.

The spirit is not just a part of us, released in death.

It is the real self that emerges through death.

In the seed image, the seed is naked until it takes on its true form.

Only after shedding its tiny shell is it clothed with a greater reality.

1 Corinthians 15:46 TPT

46 However, the spiritual didn’t come first. The natural precedes the spiritual.

The natural comes first, but spiritual reality is greater.

1 Corinthians 15:42–43 ESV

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

Right now, while in your physical body, you have the Holy Spirit living in you.

But just as your physical body is just a tent or a seed.

What you experience of the Holy Spirit is just a deposit.

Your walk with God right now is just a down-payment on what you have to look forward to in eternity.

Some of us have treated our down-payment from God as if that is all we are ever going to get.

We feel like we have to budget our spiritual inheritance.

Lets no get to excited - we want God’s grace to last until we die.

If we get too spiritual, He might take us home early.

When we think or talk like that we show that we don’t get it.

You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

What is we thought of ourselves as spiritual beings first and our humanity as second?

Is that a strange thought?

It wasn’t so strange to Paul:

Heaven is our true home.

2 Corinthians 5:8–11 ESV

8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 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. 11 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.

Heaven is our home and this body is merely a tent.

Earth is not our home - heaven is!

But most us would say - but I have never been to heaven, how is that my home?

My children had never been to Denmark until 2017, after their mother died we took a family trip to Denmark. My oldest daughter was there when she was a year and a half - she didn’t remember it. But there were things about it that felt familiar. All of the kids found things about Denmark familiar - why? Because even though they had never been there - there were parts of the culture that had become part of our home life.

Do you know how I know you are going to be at home in heaven?

Because we have been practicing the culture of heaven in our tents on earth.

You have a deposit of the Holy Spirit right here in your earthly tent.

And what you are now is just the beginning...

We are examples of new creation.

So last week we noted that just as God created light out of darkness - He calls forth the light in us to shine.

And that that light creates life.

When God created the world the earth became alive with all sorts of living creatures.

Genesis 1:20–22 ESV

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

God is still multiplying his goodness on the earth, except this time it is to restore the earth.

Earth has been infected with sin and is cursed.

Death an darkness have spread on the earth.

But what God- is doing in and through his people is just like creation all over again - new creation!

How do we participate in new creation?

New life emerges through death.

2 Corinthians 5:12–15 ESV

12 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. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 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.

Remember what Paul said about the seed?

Before it becomes what it was really meant to be, it has to die.

Only after it dies, can it assume it’s true form.

Crazy! right?

Nobody wants to die.

We don’t even like to think about dying, let alone talk about it.

Paul anticipates that they are going to think he is crazy talking like this.

But Paul comes back with - I don’t care because I’m already dead!

When Jesus died on the cross, my spiritual life changed at that moment.

Try to think outside of time and space - like spiritual beings for whom time is irrelevant.

That one moment in time changed all of history!

Think like you are a time traveller in a story. You go back in time and witness some important event. Except while you are there, you happen to interact with someone you know. Or you do something that seems inconsequential, but it impacts future events and changes the whole course of history. You arrive back in your own place in time to find that everything you once knew is changed by that event.

That is how Paul is looking at his own life through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

That even changed all of history - our lives most certainly included.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

As spiritual beings, we participate in the death of Christ so that we can also participate in his life.

It is the process of death and rebirth by which we have new creation.

In Christ, the fallen sinful world is ending and a new restored world is beginning.

When we view our lives through that one event - everything changes.

We are a different kind of creature.

2 Corinthians 5:16–18 ESV

16 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

So when you think of your life as viewed through the cross, the resurrection and God's eternal plan, it changes the way you see other people as well.

Turn to your neighbor and say, “Is it just me, or is there is something different about you?

Maybe they changed their hair?

Maybe they just look better in fall colors?

Maybe they didn’t do anything except put on a smile?

Do you know what really makes the difference? - Jesus!

When the light shines and the Holy Spirit comes in - new creation is the result!

You become like a new person!

Not just on the outside, but on the inside!

It starts on the inside and changes the outside!

That’s why Paul say “look - behold!” the new has come.

What you see happening is a gift from your Creator.

Jesus reversed the curse by his own death.

He took your sin on his own body and nailed it to the cross.

You are now reconciled to God.

Restored to light.

Restored to life.

Restored, renewed and repopulating God's goodness on this earth.

Paul calls us “agents of reconciliation” - God's ambassadors.

We are changed to change the world.

2 Corinthians 5:19–21 ESV

19 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. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you came across a product or a service that really changed your life.

Made you healthy when you were sick.

Made you wealthy when you were poor.

Made you smart when you were - well- not smart.

Made you life meaningful, well-ordered, and worthwhile.

Would you become a spokesperson for that product or service?

It would be hard not to! - you would want to tell everyone about the thing that changed your life.

That is what happens when Jesus changes your life - you become a spokesperson - an ambassador for Jesus.

You don’t need a title - you just need a testimony.

What has Jesus done for you?

We did this a few years back - I encouraged everyone to practice sharing their testimony.

You should have a long version and a short version.

Be ready to share the short version whenever someone asks you what is different about you.

1 Peter 3:15 CEV

15 Honor Christ and let him be the Lord of your life. Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope.

If they hear you out and want to know more, then give them the longer version.

It starts with simply seeing your self as God sees you.

That begins to change you into His image - who he really created you to be.

As you change, you simply share Jesus with the people who notice the change.

And be sure to let them know that whatever God did for you, He will do for them.

That’s it! That’s the strategy. - do you think you can do that?

We are in the world, but not of it.

You see, people look at us and they think we are just like them.

In a way we are, and in a way we are not.

We are just like them, apart from Jesus.

But Jesus makes all the difference.

It’s time to let them know about that difference!

The time for transformation is now.

2 Corinthians 6:1–3 ESV

1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,

Isaiah prophesied a hundred years before the exile that Israel had become corrupt and would face judgement.

he prophesied the Assyrian invasion and the Babylonian exile long before they happened.

But he also prophesied the restoration of Israel and gave some of the key prophesies which point to Jesus as the Messiah.

When Isaiah spoke of an appointed time for restoration - he was speaking of a time for restoration after the coming judgement.

Isaiah 49:8 NLT

8 This is what the Lord says: “At just the right time, I will respond to you. On the day of salvation I will help you. I will protect you and give you to the people as my covenant with them. Through you I will reestablish the land of Israel and assign it to its own people again.

Paul quotes this promise given to Isaiah and say, “We are living out that promise!” - Now is the time of restoration!

You don’t have to wait for other promises to be fulfilled before this one also comes to pass - its here- this is that time.

We look back at this scripture as people who has been living in the “now” time for generations.

What does this say to us?

I would say it is a “how much more” argument.

If Paul was proclaiming the “now” time - we are in the “its about time!”

There was never a better time to receive God’s grace and participate in his restoration of the world!

We may be getting very close to the “oops, you’re out of time!”

We can re-frame our circumstances.

2 Corinthians 6:4–7 ESV

4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;

When you know who you are in Christ, we have already said that it changes you and it changes the way that you see others - it also changes the way you see your circumstances.

Paul is speaking as a servant of God commissioned to change the world- he is declaring the time for transformation is here!

And what happens to him? All hell breaks loose!

He comes with a powerful anointed message and he gets slammed with opposition.

But when you are a spiritual person, you recognize what is happening - this is spiritual warfare.

We are in a spiritual battle and you have just declared war on the enemy.

The opposition that you are encountering is spiritual resistance to the plan and purpose of God.

So what do you do with that?

Put it in perspective - remember who you are and what Jesus has done for you.

Press in to the Holy Spirit as your source.

Respond to the resistance with the fruit of the Spirit.

Don’t be intimidated by the flesh - recognize the spirit that is behind it.

As a human being, you can help but be impacted by adverse circumstances,

But as a spiritual being, you can rise above them, even turn it into an opportunity to glorify God.

The key is to be able to see beyond the natural to what is happening in the spiritual realm.

Our lives are a paradox.

2 Corinthians 6:8–11 ESV

8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. 11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open.

Paul is giving a list of things that he is facing and saying that, at the same time, the opposite is also true.

That’s a paradox - do you know what that means?

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Paradox

Paradox. Form of expression which seems to be either self-contradictory or absurd, but which at another level expresses fundamental truth. It is often employed to get hearers to think at a deeper and more critical level.

A paradox is living in the tension between two realities.

In this case, it is the tension between earthly reality and spiritual reality.

Our lives, as Christians, are lived in that tension.

We are in the world, but not of the world.

We live our lives, within the limitations of the physical world, but we are really spiritual beings who transcend this world.

We are humans with bodies and an earthly context, but that is not all of who we are.

The more we grow spiritually, the more we realize the ways that we don’t fit in - we’re not really for around here.

We are here on assignment - to represent God to the world.

To live in the tension between heaven and earth so we can help to bridge the gap between heaven and earth.

What that means practically is that we are bringing more of heaven to earth - the Kingdom of God.

We are released into the world as ambassadors.

It is important that we recognize who we are.

Then the world will know who Jesus is!

Questions for reflection:

How do you feel about your body being called a “tent”? (It makes sense that Isaiah would say “enlarge the place of your tent! Isa. 54:2) Have you cared for your spiritual life the way you care for your natural life? When it comes time to exchange the natural body for your spiritual life, will you be trading up?

When Paul says, “behold, you are a new creation,” what are you seeing? How is God transforming you? How does it change the way you see the world around you? How does it change the way you see your circumstances?

You are an ambassador for Christ. How well are you representing Him? How are you partnering with God in restoring the world? How are you navigating the tension of spiritual conflict?