- Persuaders, Ambassadors, Reconcilers

Persuaders, Reconcilers, Ambassadors

II Corinthians 5:11-6:2

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Last time we thought about how we can begin to talk about our faith without having to resort to insensitive techniques. Jesus’ words, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” are a great guide. What do people like having done to them?

We named five things:

Make friends
Pray
Make it obvious you are a Christian
Bring your Christian and not-yet-Christian friends together
Learn to tell your story

This is our last look at Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth. It is a complicated passage, and we could spend weeks on it. Instead, we are going to focus on just three words – words that Paul used to describe his ministry.

I hope this will be useful, challenging and a bit of a relief!

You see, when it comes to telling your friends about the Lord you are not alone in this task. God has given you a whole community with which to share this job – the church. In this community there are some especially gifted individuals… persuaders… reconcilers… ambassadors. You may be one of them!

Some are persuaders (11-15)

Take a look at this passage, the detail is important. Paul is writing a letter, and he is terrified of loosing his friendship with the Corinthians. This little passage is complex and it flips from one subject to another. But there is one passion on his heart that overwhelms everything – getting people to follow Jesus and keeping them close to Jesus.

The church Paul is writing to is in some danger of drifting away, they have been mesmerized by professional speakers with a dodgy message (12b). So Paul’s teaching about evangelism is interleaved with his appeals to his friends to get themselves sorted out.

When he says, “We try to persuade men…” the we in that sentence is Paul and his team of evangelists. He is trying to persuade the Corinthian Christians that he is the real-deal, and accredited messenger of Jesus himself – an apostle [1] . But this gift, the gift of persuasion, is a vital tool in reaching out beyond the church to the world around us.

There is a great example of this in Paul’s life. After years of hardship and persecution Paul was finally arrested and put on trial. His first hearing was before a Roman governor called Porcius Festus (great name!). For the second hearing, Festus recruited a local King to hear the case with him – his name was Agrippa. Paul used the opportunity, not to defend himself, but to preach the gospel. Festus was especially affected by this and at one point interrupted Paul, “Paul, do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul’ answer was a very polite, “Yes!” [2]

That is a persuader at work!

A persuader is someone who is good at making the case for the Christian gospel; someone who is good at answering people’s questions and who often sees people come to faith through his or her ministry

Not all of us are persuaders, but we do have some in this church. That is why it is important to bring together our two circles of friends, Christian and not-yet-Christian. When people meet persuaders, they get a clearer account of the gospel and what it means.

Some of us are reconcilers (16-19)

If I said that most people are in a state of war with God would you think that I was exaggerating? I don’t think so; we resent his claim on our lives, and his desire to be our Father. We would rather have him on our terms, not on his – that makes us his enemies. That doesn’t mean we are nasty of anything, it just means that we want God to keep himself to himself, like any decent Englishman should.

I heard a great illustration of this on the Steve Wright show recently. Steve had been to the some American R & B awards and was really irritated by the winners who took a moment to thank God for their success. “I don’t mind them being all religious”, he said, “I just wish they wouldn’t bring it up in public, it’s embarrassing!”

Whether your enmity towards God is fierce, like Richard Dawkins, or tame, like Steve Wright, this is why Christ came, to reconcile us to God.

Think of Christ on the Cross – that is what people would do to God if only they could get their hands on him. Well, we got our hands on him and that’s what we did. But our rebellion backfired on us, that is what verses 18-19 are about. God’s passion for you led to him actually becoming human, actually dying on a cross. That is how much he loves you.

This is so important that Paul explains it again in verses 20-21. When Jesus died, he died as a sinner – even though he was totally innocent. When I accept this gift of reconciliation, I have new life and a fresh start (17)

Each year about 250,000 Britons go missing, most of them end up as down and outs or suicides, but a significant number fake their own death and start out again in a new location. There is even a book you can use to help you, “How to disappear completely and never be found” by Doug Richmond, if you want to do a good job, he reckons it’s going to cost you about £16,000. These are ordinary people, with no mountain of debt or a string of murders to run away from… why do they do it?

Someone who did this explained his decision to a journalist from The Observer: “People do it because they have had enough. It tears you heart out to throw everything in the bin and start from scratch, but I was longing to slip out of my old identity and start again as an honest and decent new man free from my past mistakes”

Faith in Christ gives you a new life without having to blow £16,000 on a fake passport and National Insurance number (17) – it’s free!

This is what reconcilers do – they help people back into a relationship with God. If you are driven by Christ’s love for you and others (14)… you can be a reconciler too.

Some of us are ambassadors

An ambassador is a very high status occupation; you represent the government of your country – it is as though you are the president or the king. So when you speak on behalf of your government, people ought to listen!

We have seen that Paul was a persuader; that he was a reconciler; but now he tells us that he is an ambassador for Christ (19b-21). Once again, he is appealing, as Christ’s personal messenger, the Christians in Corinth.

Read verses 1-2 of chapter six and it is almost as though he is telling the Christians to get converted again!

A few years ago I read a book by an American Christian called Jim Wallis. It was called, The Call to Conversion [3] and it was one of the most challenging books that I have ever read. Wallis was addressing born again believers who had accepted Christ as Saviour, but had failed to follow-through by learning to follow the example of Christ in the way they lived their lives, particularly in their actions towards the poor and powerless. Wallis talked about the Christian life as a big conversion – in which you trust Christ and are saved – followed by many little ‘conversions’ as you realize the implications of being a Christian.

Read Paul’s words again with this idea in mind, and they make powerful sense! Your eternal salvation is settled, but what else do you need ‘saving’ from? What is the next ‘little conversion’ in your life?

Christians need ambassadors. An ambassador is someone who can present you with this kind of challenge, he or she is speaking from the Lord and we ought to respond.

But people who are not-yet-Christians need ambassadors, too. And all of us here can fulfill that role. How can everyone here be an ambassador?

Think about what ambassadors do. All ‘round the world Britain’s ambassadors are working hard; but they are not making speeches, or visiting presidents; they are building networks. They make friends, do introductions; they always know how to work a room! This can be you, you can be an ambassador!

Mission Impossible

The Mission Impossible movies always begin with the same scenario – Tom Cruise gets instructions from his boss, there is some secret mission that cannot be achieved by anyone else, and it is so dangerous that the IM team can refuse to accept the assignment. The words are always the same, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…”