As ambassadors for Jesus, we invite people to receive and respond to this Good News covenant.
“16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NLT
The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this guidance to Corinthian Jesus-followers. Notice the emphasis on how we view others, how we view Jesus, and how we view ourselves. This is an “eternal perspective” and value system. We recognize God’s passionate purpose, in the “Jesus Movement”, and receive this “message and ministry of reconciling people to God,” in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21.
Ambassador – appointed messenger, to function as a representative of a ruling authority,
“We serve as those who have been delegated by Christ. Our work has been specially assigned by Christ.”
The appeal: “Please make peace with God, the Ultimate King.”
Jesus’ Good News bringing in people from every nation/ethnicity: John 3:16, Acts 1:7-8, 10:9-16, 1 Corinthians 1:9:19, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Galatians 3:27-29, Ephesians 2:19, Philippians 3:20-21
How can we faithfully respond to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21? Aka…
What does it mean to represent Jesus to those around us (as an ambassador)?
- Personal interaction with Jesus Christ as Savior.
- Deep consideration of the essential characteristics of Jesus.
- Allowing the message of Jesus to change our lives.
- Responding with wholehearted devotion to Jesus.
- Becoming more like Jesus in our essential characteristics.
- Considering the values and culture of those around us.
- Privately praying for specific people in our lives.
- Preparing to share who Jesus is and what Jesus has said.
- Prepare to share what salvation means to you personally.
Toward Point 6: Considering the values and culture of those around us. “become all things to all…to win more people…” – 1 Corinthians 9:19
Cultural Apologetics – a missionary encounter between the people carrying the Gospel and whatever culture it is that they are trying to reach
“Renewing the Christian voice, conscience, and imagination so that we can become compelling witnesses of the Gospel in today’s culture.” – Cultural Apologetics by Paul M. Gould
“Christianity has an image problem. While the culture we inhabit presents us with an increasingly anti-Christian and disenchanted position, the church in the West has not helped its case by becoming anti-intellectual, fragmented, and out of touch with the relevancy of Jesus to all aspects of contemporary life.
The muting of the Christian voice, its imagination, and its collective conscience have diminished the prospect of having a genuine missionary encounter with others today.
Cultural apologetics attempts to demonstrate not only the truth of the Gospel but also its desirability by reestablishing Christianity as the answer that satisfies our three universal human longings—truth, goodness, and beauty.
In Cultural Apologetics, philosopher and professor Paul Gould sets forth a fresh and uplifting model for cultural engagement—rooted in the biblical account of Paul’s speech in Athens—which details practical steps for establishing Christianity as both true and beautiful, reasonable and satisfying.” – Cultural Apologetics by Paul M. Gould
Such as addressing the perceived barrier of agnostic/atheism “science > God and God’s purpose”
Kalam Cosmological Argument:
- Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore, the universe has a cause.