“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:20
What an amazing word picture to describe us as followers of Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5:20. We are ambassadors for Christ. Think about an ambassador. I was invited recently, along with others from our church, to an embassy by the ambassador of that country. So here’s a representative of that country who lives in this country, in the United States, yet he is from another country and he’s a representative from that country here. In fact, when you go into an embassy, say, for example, a US embassy around the world, I can go in any US embassy, and when I walk in that embassy, I am on American soil. That land belongs to the United States.
Christian, you represent Jesus and have the privilege of calling others to trust in Jesus and become citizens of a heavenly kingdom.
That’s what an embassy is and the ambassador is the one who represents that country there. So now we have this picture in 2 Corinthians 5:20 of us being ambassadors for Christ, meaning we are representatives of Jesus Himself. Jesus, who is at the right hand of God in heaven, has sent you and me to represent Him wherever we are in this world. That will change your perspective on where you are right now. Do you realize you, right where you’re serving, you are a citizen of a heavenly kingdom and you are a representative of a heavenly King?
He has sent you to that city where you live. He sent you to that community. God sent you to that neighborhood. He has sent you to that office, to that job. He has sent you to this or that place today where you will find yourself or where you find yourself right now. And He has sent you there for a reason.
2 Corinthians 5:20 Teaches A Task to Represent Jesus
You’re an ambassador for Christ, that God might make His appeal through you. What do you mean God might make His appeal? God is drawing people to Himself. This is what he’s doing all over the world today. God is drawing people to Himself. He is drawing people to relationship with Him. He’s saving people from their sin, drawing them to forgiveness. He is saving people from their sin, bringing them into relationship with Him. Relationship that will last forever, eternal life. So this is why Paul says, “We implore you on behalf of Christ.”
This is what an ambassador for Christ does. He implores people on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. So I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you today. Implore somebody to be reconciled to God. You are a representative of King Jesus. You represent Jesus and you have been given the task of calling others, imploring others to trust in Jesus and be reconciled to God to receive eternal life and become citizens of a heavenly kingdom.
Prayer To Be Faithful Ambassadors For God
You get to do that today. I get to do that today. We get to call people to become citizens of a heavenly kingdom and have an internal kingdom. God help us to be faithful to do our tasks today. Make us faithful ambassadors today, we pray. God, we pray that You’d help us to implore others, to urge others, to invite others to be reconciled to You today. God give us compassion. Give us boldness to share the gospel, we pray. Make your appeal through us today.
Oh, what a thought, God, that You make Your appeal through us. So do it today, oh God, we pray and we pray the fruit of our work as Your ambassadors would be more men and women coming into Your kingdom, coming to know and enjoy You as King. God, please make us faithful ambassadors for Christ and we pray that You would send out ambassadors where the gospel has not yet gone.
Prayer For Ambassadors for the Badara People in Sudan
God, we pray for the Badara people in Sudan, almost a million of them. No followers of Jesus among the Badara tribe. Please send some ambassadors there, oh God. Please send some ambassadors to that people group and thousands of others where the gospel’s not yet gone. We offer ourselves to You even as we pray that. God are You leading one of us to go to the Badara tribe in Sudan? I pray that Your spirit might send one of us specifically to that tribe as your ambassadors. Help us. Help us to be faithful ambassadors right where we live and wherever You might lead us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
