Sunday, July 22, 2018 – Ephesians 6:20
Your Royal Ambassadorship, Pt. 1
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
Our passage of study, Eph 6:20, is one of two places in the
NT where the term “ambassador” is used. The other is 2 Cor 5:20. Other passages like 1 Peter 2:9, speak to the role of ambassador, but these two
passages are the only ones that directly identify it. Therefore, since we do
not often come across this term, we need to spend a little time understanding
it and its application to our lives.
Every believer is entered into the
Royal Ambassadorship of God at the moment of their salvation. It is one of the
40+ things we receive on the day of our conversion. It is a position that God
has sovereignly chosen for us and bestowed on us. It is not a choice of our
own, other than the fact that you chose to believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
On the day that you did, you were ordained as a Royal Ambassador for Christ and
entered into your Royal Ambassadorship.
The
Greek word for Ambassador is the PRESBEUO, πρεσβεύω, (pres-byoo'-o), that means,
“an aged person, elder, be an ambassador, or be a representative (for
someone).” It is used in classical Greek
to denote the activity of an official envoy of a ruler or government who
legally represented the authority responsible for sending him. It is similar to
the Noun PRESBUTES or the Adjective PRESBUTEROS that means, “older man,
ancestor, elder, presbyter.”
In fact, it is part of
the PRESBUS family of words that relates to elders or those in authority,
especially inside the Church. It is where the Christian denomination
Presbyterian got its name, which also signified its organizational structure of
elders in the local assembly, rather than the hierarchical structure of the
Roman catholic church or the protestant English Episcopalian church.
PRESBEUO, πρεσβεύω,
Verb; “Act as an ambassador,” 2 Cor
5:20; Eph 6:20.
PRESBEIA, πρεσβεία,
Noun; “Embassy, ambassador,” Luke 14:32;
19:14.
PRESBUTEROS,
πρεσβύτερος, Adjective; “Older man, ancestor, elder, presbyter,” used many
times in Scripture.
PRESBUTERION,
πρεσβυτέριον, Noun; “Assembly of elders, presbytery,” Luke 22:66; Acts 22:5; 1 Tim 4:14.
PRESBUTES, πρεσβύτης,
Noun; “An old man,” Luke 1:18; Titus
2:2; Philemon 1:9.
PRESBUTIS, πρεσβύτις,
Noun; “Elderly woman,” Titus 2:3.
SUMPRESBUTEROS,
συμπρεσβύτερος, Noun: “Fellow elder, fellow minister, co-pastor,” 1 Peter 5:1.
The earliest mention of political
“ambassadors,” called messengers or envoys in the Bible, are found in Num 20:14; Josh 9:4; Judg. 11:17-19.
The Hebrew
utilizes the Noun TSIYR, צִיר that means, “an ambassador, an envoy, or a
messenger.”
Also Malakh מַלְאָךְ, “messenger;” LITS, לוּץ, “interpreter.”
Also Malakh מַלְאָךְ, “messenger;” LITS, לוּץ, “interpreter.”
Definition
and Description.
An
ambassador is a high ranking minister of state or of royalty sent by one country as its long-term representative to another
country to
represent his home sovereign or country. An
ambassador is an official envoy who represents a foreign sovereign, providing a
link between his host country and the country he represents. Ambassadors work
to build relations and develop policies that favor both the host and the home
of the ambassador. An ambassador is appointed by the leadership of those he
represents and is given authority to speak on their behalf.
By
analogy, we are spiritual aristocracy as members of the Royal Family of God,
and Christ is the King who has sent us into a foreign country; Satan’s cosmic
system – the world.
At salvation,
every believer enters the Royal Family of God through adoption by means of the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and at the same time we become a representative of
the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. Ambassadorship results from the fact that we are
in union with Christ, caused by the Baptism of the Spirit, cf. Rom 6:3; Gal 3:27. Therefore, every
Church Age believer is part of the Royal Family of God representing the King of
kings and Lord of lords during our time on this earth. Therefore, two commissions
are given to the believer at salvation: the Royal Priesthood, which is a part
of the equal privilege of election; and the Royal Ambassadorship, which is a
part of the equal privilege of predestination, 1 Peter 2:5-9. As such, we represent ourselves before God and we
represent God before men.
Ambassadorship
emphasizes that every believer is in fulltime Christian service. Yet, there are
different services. Differences of service depends on differences of spiritual
gifts, stages of spiritual growth, historical circumstances (prevalence of
positive or negative volition), and environment at any given moment, 1 Cor 12:4-6.
1 Cor 12:4, “Now there are
varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5And there are varieties of
ministries, and the same Lord. 6There are varieties of effects, but
the same God who works all things in all persons. 7But to
each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
Our spiritual
gift is a specific gift given to each of us that we use distinctly for the common
good of our generation. But there are also common functions and services
related to our Priesthood and Ambassadorship that the Word commands us to
participate in, such as witnessing, praying, learning God’s Word, assembly
together faithfully, etc., so that there is no confusion between what your
spiritual gift demands and those functions which are common to all believers.
Ambassadorship is common to all believers; it is not just the title for
Pastors, evangelists, or missionaries.
In addition to
the mandates of Scripture, there are many avenues of expressing your
Ambassadorship, such as utilizing the Faith‑Rest life and Impersonal Love as
Problem Solving Devices with emphasis on your spiritual growth. Even though you
are an ambassador from day one of your salvation, it is not until you grow
spiritually that you are able to exercise your position. Spiritual Self-Esteem,
the first stage of spiritual adulthood, results in the maximum expression of
your ambassadorship, which is a result of consistent residence inside of God’s
Power System under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and momentum from
metabolized Bible doctrine in your soul.
In 2 Cor 5:20, Paul speaks of
himself and others as “ambassadors for Christ,” commissioned by their sovereign
King to engage in the ministry of reconciliation. As official representatives,
they spoke, (as we should also speak today), with the authority of God to the
extent that when they spoke the message of reconciliation, it was as though God
himself was doing the talking.
Similarly, in Eph 6:20, Paul
described himself as acting as an “ambassador in chains,” the imprisoned
representative of Christ. This image conveys both the risk involved for the
emissary of God, and the oneness the ambassador has with the message he is
speaking.
An ambassador must walk a very
fine line. He lives in one country, but he is responsible to another. He must
represent the message of a leader who is not directly present. He must also
embody the character of his home country, following laws and customs that are
not necessarily known or even welcome in the host nation. All while respecting
the laws and customs of that host.
The
Bible contains no finer characterization of the exalted and spiritual nature of
the believer’s vocation as the representative of Jesus Christ, the King of
kings, and Savior of the world, Mal 2:7.
Malachi 2:7, “For the lips of a priest should preserve
knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the
messenger (MALAKH) of the LORD of hosts.”
Stopped here - To be continued on Tuesday, 7/24/18
This verse confirms the solemn
responsibility and high calling of the priesthood in the OT. In applying here
this term, “messenger of the Lord,” the priest is made aware of the awesome
responsibility that, just as angels and prophets, he is to be a spokesman for
God. (Many times in the Old Test. MALAKH or “messenger” is used with YHWH that
indicates the “angel of the Lord.” Only here is this term applied to a priest,
KOHEN. As such, our Ambassadorship goes hand-in-hand with our Royal priesthood,
1 Peter 2:9.
In 2 Cor 5, instead of a nation, Paul is an ambassador of the Kingdom
of God. Unlike modern political ambassadors, Paul did not originate from the
“nation” he represented. He had to be adopted in, through Christ’s sacrifice,
and then he had to undergo a change of perspective. He was no longer a citizen
of the world and he no longer saw things as a citizen of the world. He saw
things through the perspective of a citizen of the Kingdom of God; he was a new
creation, vs. 17.
If we are to represent Jesus to
the world, we must first belong to the Kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of
Satan’s world and self. We must live by the standards of our new King, even
though we are temporarily away from Him, vs.
6-9. Most importantly, we must accept that this earth is not our home; our
home awaits us, “eternal in the
heavens,” vs. 1, even if we are
imprisoned and abused by our host country, Eph
6:20. In addition, ambassadors must spread His message: that everyone is
welcome to have such a relationship with God.
Paul’s work as ambassador, as is
ours, was to spread his Ruler’s message to his host nation. That message was
reconciliation. God wanted to be personally reconciled to the people Paul lived
with. In a way, Paul was asking his hosts to commit treason against the kingdom
of the world and pledge citizenship to the Kingdom of God. They could then
follow in Paul’s footsteps by becoming an ambassador for Christ in their own
lives, just as we have become. It starts with a change in citizenship.
I am convinced that many of us
have misunderstood our ambassadorship and our ministry. We think it is clocking
in and clocking out, either as a paid employee or as a volunteer. But God has
something radically different in mind. He wants us on call in every conversation
and in every interaction.
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