Christ's Ambassadors

Colour

I’m not really much of a photographer, although that doesn’t mean I don’t give it a go. You see, I’ve got a half decent camera, and the shots I take aren’t too bad. That is, if you’re not comparing my shots with someone who actually knows what they are doing.

But then there are those who really are good photographers. My parents have at least one photo book from Ken Duncan. Ken Duncan is regarded as one of Australia’s best landscape photographers, and I understand is also a Christian who lives on the Central Coast.

Now when you look at his photos, you see these bright contrasting colours. As you gaze at one of the photos, it is like you are transported into another place - almost an idealized place. You see, he’ll take a scene, often something quite simple like a few trees. But then he’ll wait for the right time. For example he might go early in the morning when there is a mist and the sun is shining through, and the resulting picture is just amazing.

Then you go back to my photo and by comparison they look lifeless. There is no vibrancy in the colour. They just aren’t comparable.

Now sometimes life can be a bit like my photos. It has it’s moments, but basically, its just a bit dull.

But then, sometimes we see life through a new lens. This lens doesn’t cut out the hardships of life, but it gives it beauty.

And it makes the world of difference.

I want to suggest that when you become a Christian, we can see a similar change.

Sure you see the world around you before Christ in your life, but a transformation happens when we allow Christ in, and the world is a different place.

Now, if I slightly change my earlier analogy of the photos to that of a computer or TV screen, you’ll know that the quality of the picture in a screen can vary significantly from one to the next. But, here’s the thing. Your eyes quickly adapt.

Whether it’s low quality or high quality, after a while you just accept whatever you’ve got as is. And it’s not until you compare what you’re watching to something else that you realise the difference.

A similar thing can happen going from the life of a non-believer to that of a believer. You see, we can forget what it was like without our eyes opened to the ways of the Spirit.

And it is actually this aspect that I want to focus on this morning.

You see, as I’ll explore from the passage before us this morning, we’ll see Paul urging us to spread the good news. But the basis for spreading this is because of what God has done for us.

And so, if the basis for spreading the good news is that we recognise how much better the view is behind the lens God gives us, then the big question for us is: how in the world do we get back that sense of great beauty which God has for us?

We sing the song - “I once was blind but now I see”, but how we do avoid that truth simply dropping off view?

Because I want to suggest, that once we re-capture that reality, then it won’t be a question of: should I be involved in evangelism or not? It will instead become a matter of: I just can’t help sharing because what I’ve got is so much better than what most people have. (And just to be clear - I’m most certainly not talking about material possessions here).

Paul’s Conversion

Now as Paul writes this second letter to the Corinthians, I suspect that he is being very much shaped by his own conversion.

If you’re not familiar with Paul’s conversion, you can read about it in Acts 9. And to see just how much this story shaped him, you can read about him re-telling this conversion story in full again in Acts 22, and then a further time in Acts 26.

So let’s do a very quick re-cap.

When we first meet him, he is referred to by his Hebrew name which is Saul, but I’m going to call him by the name we’re more familiar - Paul, which is actually his Greek name.

His first mention has him giving approval to the stoning of Stephen, who was being stoned due to his outspoken faith in Jesus.

You see, Paul considered this new group, that was referred to as the Way, as some sort of threat to the Jewish way. And he wanted it stamped out, and he did all he could to that end.

So much so, that he was on his way to a city called Damascus in order to seize some of the members of “the Way”, but he ended up having the most amazing experience.

A light from heaven flashed around him and as he fell to the ground he heard a voice speaking to him. It was Jesus.

Paul met the risen Lord Jesus and it changed everything.

Interestingly, for the next three days he was blind - but at the end of a three day period, he had another amazing experience. A believer by the name of Ananias, placed his hands on Saul’s eyes - immediately, something like scales falls from his eyes and he could see again.

For Paul, this metaphor of once being blind but now being able to see, actually happened in a very real and literal sense.

This experience stayed with Paul, and I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that it coloured everything he did.

Corinthian context

You see, over the last two weeks, I’ve spent a little time looking at the context in which Paul is writing to the Corinthian church.

What I’ve described is a church located in a city which was in the middle of a busy trade route, and therefore there was no end of people coming and going. And while this provided for a fertile place for the spread of the gospel, it also had the danger that there were too many influences involved. Consequently, they lost sight of what was the real gospel, and instead turned to experiences like speaking in tongues.

Using language we saw in the previous chapter that we looked at last week, they were blinded by the gods of this age. They loved prestige and power.

But this was not the way of the gospel.

And so I can imagine Paul looking at this church which has made Christianity into a nice experience.

The problem is, this is not what Paul’s eyes were opened to see.

If life was just about chasing after a nice experience, then he could have done that before.

So let me tell you now - you don’t need Christianity just to have a nice experience. These are available in lots of places. You can have a nice experience going on a bush walk.

Rather, when Paul had his eyes opened he could see things from a spiritual perspective.

What does that mean? Well it doesn’t necessarily mean that he could literally see angels and demons.

What it does mean is that he started to see things differently.

In the passage that we had read to us earlier, Paul started with the words: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view”.

His actually referring to his new way of seeing things.

The worldly way is the old way of looking. It judges people on any number of things.

It is a very easy thing to do. You see someone - and you make assessments. They’re stuck up. They’re lazy. They’re too full on. They’re a bit weird. Keep away from him, his no good at all.

But when you take off this old way of looking, and put on the new, people are very different.

What we begin to see is what Christ has done in their life.

If they are in Christ, then what we see is a new creation.

The old has gone, the new is here!

Now sometimes we can reduce Christianity to a bunch of cliches, so it’s perhaps worth unpacking this a little.

“The old has gone”: the old way was the way we tried to do things in our own strength. When you used to think that we could prove ourselves just by trying harder. When we thought that we were clever enough to figure out this journey called life. But in this old way, we just ended in frustration. Because we constantly failed. We’d take one step forward, but felt the world kicking us two steps back.

Some of you listening might remember that old way. Some of you might still be living in this old way.

But when you’re in Christ this has been changed. It’s not that you suddenly achieve everything you want. That way of thinking actually belongs in the old way. Rather you recognise that we can’t do anything in our own strength, but we can have Christ working through us. And rather than us thinking that we are clever enough to guide ourselves through life, in the new, we recognise that God’s way is so much better. And here’s the thing - in the new way, because we view things in a different way, we no longer see suffering and hardship as a fail. We see it as part of a journey.

And this is largely what Paul is trying to get at throughout this second letter to the Corinthians and what I’ve been highlighting in this short series.

Suffering is part of our journey. As I explored last week, it is not something to be ashamed or embarrassed about, it is something to show the power of God in our life.

Reconciliation

Now there is something else that happens when the old has gone and the new has come. That is that the thing that was blocking us from being with God has been lifted.

That thing is that nasty little word called sin. You see, essentially the old way, which really boils down to the self-focussed way, is routed in sin. And sin is not compatible with holiness.

But in the new, Christ deals with our sin. It’s not that we sin no longer - we are after all still living in this world. But the penalty for that sin has been paid.

And so, and this is the best part, we can be reconciled with God!

This is what is important. Not whether whatever your doing is spectacular or gives you that emotional high. But whether you can stand before God and say, I have been redeemed by Christ, and so I stand free.

The feeling of reconciliation

Now, I’ve spoken about this idea of not just running after the emotional high - but that’s not to say there isn’t a feeling that comes with the reconciliation we receive.

Rather than that warm fuzzy feeling, I want to suggest that the feeling Paul was much more accustomed to, was the feeling that comes with being free.

It’s that feeling of guilt being lifted. Sure that might turn into a warm fuzzy feeling, but it is so much more.

If you’ve ever done higher level studies than you’ll know the feeling of constantly having this feeling of a shadow over you. I’m talking about the constant pressure of assignments and essays. You hand one assignment in, and then the next is due. But it all culminates at exam time.

But there is this feeling you feel the moment you walk out of your last exam. It’s a feeling of freedom. I believe that starts to come close to what Paul is talking about in verse 19 when he says that God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ, and, “not counting people’s sins against them”.

For Paul, this is all about freedom. Freedom from the bondage that comes with the old way. And this wonderful release that comes with the new.

Ministry of reconciliation

It is only after Paul spells out for us this that he then adds at the end of verse 19: “and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation”.

Essentially what he’s saying is that because your eyes have been opened, you now have an opportunity to open the eyes of others. Its not so much that we do the opening of the eyes of others, but rather that God wants us to be involved in the process. He wants us to share with others this wonderful hope we have.

But this is where it becomes so important for us to get this the right way around. Sometimes we can get this guilty feeling that we’re not involved in evangelism enough.

But it shouldn’t be this way.

Example of John Dickson

I remember quite a number of years ago now, I read a book on evangelism by John Dickson, and I was struck by a story he told in the introduction.

He spoke about when he first became a Christian. Once he became a Christian it was like a light switch went on and he just naturally told everyone he knew about Jesus.

But then he said how his new church noticed his instinctive ability for evangelism and so put him into an evangelism course - and while he was careful in the book not to be too disparaging of the course, but he said it was then he realised why people didn’t like evangelism.

I suspect the apostle Paul would have been able to relate.

If you put him in a class where you told him the main points of the gospel and how you should approach people - I suspect he would get frustrated at how you can make something that should be so natural into something artificial.

Recapturing the colour

At the start I asked the question, how do we get back this sense of amazement at what the gospel does, and the I believe the answer will come as we start to appreciate the colour that the gospel brings.

And to do that, we need to gaze upon it. Meditate. Dwell in it.

You start to make your whole life about the gospel. That might start strange if you’re not used to it, but once you live it, it makes sense. It can happen as you give thanks to God constantly in your life. It can happen as you consider how God is working throughout your life, in both the big life direction type moments, and in just the everyday, like always having food on the table.

And as we gaze on the blessings God gives us, you start to get to the point where when you speak to someone, you don’t have to consciously think - ‘now, how can I put God into this conversation’. Rather, God will naturally come into your conversation.

Ambassadors

In this way, we become ambassadors for Christ, which is the language Paul uses at the start of verse 20.

As an ambassador, you are representing God.

But being an ambassador shouldn’t be a chore. It should be a delight.

And as we live our lives as ambassadors, we can be involved in the process of seeing this ministry of reconciliation continue.

We can allow others to move from the old way into the new.

And it is the most wonderful thing to actually see this process happen.

Conclusion

It is really easy as Christians to become so used to the new creation in us, that we forget the beauty of the change.

In fact, the real sad part about it is that we can become so complacent in the new way that we fall into old habits. Even though it is in the new that we find freedom, we have this strange tendency to move back to the old way where there is bondage.

And this is why it is so important that we spend time actually dwelling on all that God has done for us.

Taking time out to just sit in the presence of God.

To feel him. Touch him. Even taste him - a sense that we will get to do in just a moment.

And as we do, we will naturally become ambassadors for Christ. People who just want to spread the good news and to put colour into the lives of others.

Let me pray...