ambassadors for Christ everywhere

This is Part 3 of a 4-part message on the Mission of Nakwon EM: being Ambassadors for Christ at home, in the community and in the world as servant-leaders.

In 2 Cor. 5:16-6:2, Paul implores belivers to live as ambassadors for Christ through being reconciled to Him.

This idea of reconciliation is foreign to our world that emphasizes and fosters "just due" and "If-I-don't-like-you-I-don't-have-to-see-or-deal-with-you" mentality.

But Jesus answers Peter who posed the question about how many times a child of God must forgive a brother with a parable about an unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35.

A servant who owed his master far more than he could ever repay in his lifetime goes on his knees begging for time. It is interesting how he never things to ask for mercy by having his debt canceled, eventhough it is so blatantly obvious he can never repay fully.

But the merciful king cancels the entire debt.

Up until this point, we-as believers now set free from our own past sins-can identify with that moment of forgiveness and redemption.

But the story has just begun.

The same servant who was forgiven a million demands a repayment of a debt from a fellow servant who owed him a measly amount which could have been paid in a few months.

How odd that the first servant who was forgiven millions just moments ago would in anger throw his fellow servant into prison that day demanding his debts be paid in full!

How is his fellow servant supposed to pay back anything from prison?

But the tenet of Jesus' parable is here: Hate, anger, bitterness and resentment from being unable to extend the mercy we ourselves received from our Heavenly Father will make us irrational, unreasonable, and oftentimes cruel in ways we do not expect or imagine ever saying or doing under any other circumstances.

You have been hurt. Unjustly. Cruelly. And your soul festers in your anguish of having been so ill-treated - some hurtful words intended to cut to the heart and leave you bleeding...

Once you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, Paul reminds us that we are a new creation. But you are far from perfect.

Yes, your sins are forgiven you - and yet you sin.

You sin by being unable to forgive someone a great wrong done against you.

The secret, Jesus is ultimately saying, to forgiving others is to turn your focus away from the one who has wronged you, to the One who took up the cross because of what you had done.

The fact is, God will never ask you to give more grace to anyone than He has given you.

When you do not forgive, it is not only the one you resent and hate that ends up in the confines of the prison of your mind: You yourself are imprisoned. The Master in the parable ordered the first servant who showed no mercy to his fellow servant be thrown into prison and tortured.

You may wonder at the injustice or the difficulty of such request to forgive so readily when your heart is still bleeding in pain. And the fact is more often than not the perpetrator who has injured you may not even know or bother to ask for your forgivess.

But that's the catch, isn't it?

Romans 5:8 tells us "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

God asks us - no, commands us - to do the same.

Forgiveness is not an option; it is a command. And forgiveness has nothing to do with emotion, but everything to do with will.

When Jesus said at the end of the parable that this is how our Heavenly Father will treat us if we do not forgive our brother from our hearts, He was not referring to some emotion or sentiment.

First, obey. Will yourself to extend mercy they don't deserve, for that is what mercy is.

When we do our part, God will do His.

Just like He did for Corrie ten Boom when years after her release she was face to face with one of the cruel prison guards at the Ravensbruck Concentration camp during World War II where her beloved sister Betsie died of slow painful death.

She extended her hand toward the prison guard's awaiting proferred hand, asking her for a reassurance that, as she had just spoken before the congregation testifying of God's mercy and grace, indeed his sins are forgiven as well.

It took everything within her, but when she obeyed - though she did not want to - God flooded her heart with sense of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Do you desire to be an Ambassador for Christ? Then do not just put on smiles in Church: Live it! At home, first! Most people are near "angelic" at Church, but tragically demonic at home. And sometimes, the hardest thing is to be merciful to those closest to us.

Be Ambassadors for Christ everywhere!

Be reconciled to God through what Christ has done, not by your own efforts; but also be a tool of reconciliation for other people by extending that hand of mercy, remembering always how God in Christ forgave you.

-From September 3rd Sunday 10:00AM EM Service