Authorized to Speak for the King
by Chuck Lehman
The Greek word presbeuomem is translated “ambassador,” literally, one who is authorized to speak for the King! I really love the way the New Life Version paints a vivid word picture of Paul’s imploring us to be Christ’s ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 5:20! We are Christ’s missionaries. God is speaking to you through us. We are speaking for Christ, and we ask you from our hearts to turn from your sins and come to God.
Our “job” as Christians and the Church, is to be ambassadors, an envoy for the King, emissaries from God and missionaries to this dying, sin-filled world we live in. According to Romans 1:8-16, there are three things needed for us to have the heart of a missionary; first is a deep concern for others. This level of concern could ultimately be the question, “How concerned are we for our friends, acquaintances, family members and coworkers about their relationship with Christ?”
The second necessity for a missionary’s heart is personal responsibility for those who don’t know Christ. “Are we under personal obligation and compelled to share with others about Christ?” And thirdly, a missionary’s heart requires a strong belief in the power of God to change the life of those we care about; “Do we believe in that wonder working power?”
So how is our missionary witness played out in our everyday life? Is it our Sunday preaching we are so good at? No, on Sunday, we are often only preaching to the “saved crowd!” To fulfill our missionary, ambassador calling, we do this through our witness and testimony daily…what we say and how we live.
Louie Giglio in his book “The Air I Breath,” gives us a Biblical definition of worshiping and living for God as follows: Worship is our response to God for who He is and what He has done by what we say and how we live. Simply put, God reveals Himself and we respond! What we say and how we live is our worshipping witness to nonbelievers!
Sadly, all too often the witness of Christians and the Church has driven many people away from Christ! We are always speaking for a king; for what king are we speaking? People watch professed Christians to see if what we say matches with how we live – the hypocrisy meter. Simply, are we who we say we are? Are we genuine and unfettered or a bunch of hogwash?
My eyes were opened to this sad truth that ripped at my very heart on 08/19/2018 in the third sermon in the series called One Life” at our church, Mount Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, Indiana. (Find the sermon series HERE). One Life was built upon these platforms:
Build Friendships
Discover Stories
Discerns Next Steps
Build the Kingdom of Heaven and Decrease the Population of Hell, by being a missionary ambassador
The series started out exposing the fact that for many years, the church thought they could lure the lost to come in through all we had to offer! That tactic has failed miserably! The message demonstrated that The Great Commission said, “GO!” Be missionaries! Be My ambassadors to the lost world!
The second sermon in the series was by Lee Strobel (author of The Case for Christ), former atheist, now Christian due to the evidence for Jesus. He spoke of his “unexpected adventures” through his willingness to hear God’s prompting and be a missionary for Christ.
However, it was the third focus in the series that crushed me. I was truly heartbroken to hear previous believers say the church itself had driven them away from Christ! In the third message, Pastor Chris Philbeck brought four self-professed unbelievers on stage to be interviewed honestly and openly. There was no condemnation of any answers.
Chris first asked the four, “Where would you place yourself on a scale of one to ten, with one being there is no God, and ten being ready to accept Jesus?” There were a variety of answers, one man said, I was a 10 at one time but now 1, others answered 4, 2 & 3.5!
Next, he asked, “Were you raised in a Christian environment?” One said, “Yes, we were in church 3 times a week.” The next answered, “Yes but sporadic attendance.” The next two said, “Very involved…3 times per week” and the last added “Weekly involvement as well as a Christian school influence.” Multiple even said they were on the worship team at one time.
The responses to the next question, “What changed?” caused my jaw to drop in disbelief. The answers cut me deeply as a long-time, church-going Christian! “The people of the church” was the overarching answer! The answers ranged from focusing on money, to judgment of dress and reading materials, hanging out with non-Christians, and piercings and tattoos to being asked to step down from the worship team due to the previous mentioned items.
The Church is driving people away from God by our actions instead of our love of people! I am not saying we need to accept their sins, just love people first, establish relationships with them, and in time we can earn the ability to address the sin! According to those interviewed, the church is more noted for what we are against than what we are for…the LOVE of Jesus!
Listen to how those interviewed expressed what they had experienced with Christian witness previously; “judgement, assumption and condemnation.” Pay attention to the complete antithesis outcome they desired: compassionate discussion, not monologue, to be looked at as a person, not a project. We are called to listen and love!
How many times have we discouraged potential believers by wearing our church logo shirt and blasting the big box store worker for his/her slow service or items not in stock? We need to remember; every act we do is a witness…either for God or against Him!
In this post-Christian culture where God’s truth no longer shapes culture, we need to believe God’s truth STILL can alter the course of culture. We need to live with the battle cry: “I want to be the greatest Christian encounter people have ever had…not just “us” in the church, but the world!”
