Building Gospel Bridges Talk 3

0:00 I wonder if the name Mandy means anything to you or what it conjures up for you. For me, I've got a cousin called Mandy that I've only seen a few times because she doesn't live in Ireland. I also think of a quite scandalous episode in the 1980s with a Mandy and a certain member of the Rolling Stones, best not gone into. But be honest with me, who first of all heard Mandy and thought Barry Manilow? Come on, hands up. Shame on you. Those of you that didn't put your hands up, because you did. Although, someone rebuked me earlier.

0:39 We hear this. Someone who watched the first service and who actually came to the second service, so it mustn't be that bad, actually, this morning, said, what do you mean, Barry Manilow? That's a Westlife song. I mean, seriously. Not telling you who it is, but their initials are Sarah Hegarty. In recent years, another Mandy has been in and out of political favor. His real name is Peter Mandelson, often referred to as Mandy. He came to prominence as one of Tony Blair's key strategists and eventually became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

1:17 He then disappeared under a bit of a cloud, but he has now reemerged as the UK ambassador to the United States of America, which is an intriguing position for him to hold, given his less than complimentary remarks about the current US president in days gone by, when he called him a danger to the world, not going to go down that road this afternoon. But I'm sure his first encounters with the said gentleman must have been rather uncomfortable. Actually, an ambassador is likely to find themselves uncomfortable now and again because of the job they are called to do. But usually it's not because they've been careless with their words. Usually it's because the place they are called to live is often very unlike the homeland they are called to represent, especially in its values and customs. And that's certainly very relevant for us when we try to come to terms with the fact that part of our role, if we're Christians, is to be ambassadors for Christ in the world. So we're going to read part of a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth a long time ago, where he talks about being ambassadors for Christ. And we find it in 2 Corinthians 5, and we'll read from verse 11.

2:39 And Paul writes, Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, as some say, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.

3:32 So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against him. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

4:21 We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There is so much in there, but we're going to zero in on that idea of being an ambassador. And see what it means for us today and how Paul's instructions to the Corinthians might help us think about how we go about it in our own context. And maybe the simplest place to start is understanding what an ambassador is. Basically, an ambassador is an official who lives in a foreign country and represents their own country's interests there. And already, we should be starting to consider how we view life here. Indeed, in the preceding lines of this letter, Paul has reminded his readers that our bodies are actually just earthly tents and that we have an eternal home in heaven at home with the Lord.

5:38 In other words, living as Christians in the world, we really are inhabitants of a foreign country. Our home is somewhere else. And even if we only considered that side of being an ambassador, it asks us significant questions about our priorities, how we spend our time, our money, our energy, our values. But the role of the ambassador goes way beyond merely living in a foreign country. Their job is to represent their home country's interests in that place. And that's where things get really interesting for us. we got this real challenge about being ambassadors for Jesus in our world. And my hope for the rest of our time today is to try and find some helpful advice from Paul on how we can do that.

6:27 And it's by no means a simple set of instructions, and it definitely isn't an easy calling. But Paul has got some good guidelines for us, I think, that might help. Before we look at some practical advice, I think, however, that we need to really grasp the reality that as ambassadors for Jesus, we are living in a country that is foreign. Even traditionally Christian, Great Britain and Ireland, we're living in a place that is increasingly foreign to followers of Christ. You know, a lot of us are reading through this Storybearer book that Phil Knox, who was with us last week, wrote. And Phil mentions in the book that one of the key conversations we need to have is a conversation with our culture. And we need to stop kidding ourselves that the culture around us today is genuinely Christian. If we try to speak in Christian language to a non-Christian culture, we will not be understood.

7:37 And this actually may be easier for Christians in other places to understand. Because most Christians around the world live in contexts where there never has been a Christian culture. That they don't have to deal with the shock that we have to deal with. It comes as more of a shock to our system. When in fact, our culture today probably resembles more the kind of situation that Paul was writing about in Corinth. And the good thing about that is that we can take heart from it and learn from what he shared with them. And so to do that, I just want to look at four things that might point us in a helpful direction. We'll do it very quickly.

8:21 They'd all need unpacked. And maybe those of you in home groups will want to discuss it during the week. I'm just going to throw out a few seeds, a few things to get you thinking. And the first one is this, the kingdom, or more correctly, the king that we represent. You see, no ambassador has the freedom to head off on their appointment and suddenly represent their own opinions or ideas. If they did, they'd very soon be hauled back home and given a good dressing down. Indeed, just a couple of weeks ago, Mandy was rebuked by a UK government minister as it was made clear to him that comments that he had made were not government policy, and he didn't have the freedom to state them. Now, Paul draws our attention to some things that we need to consider when it comes to being ambassadors for our king.

9:11 And foundational to them is this. He starts with in verse 11 with this. Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord. And actually, if we go back a verse, Paul even had written this, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Fear of the Lord, standing before the Lord to give an account of ourselves. But listen, we're not talking here about the kind of cringing fear that you would have before a tyrant ruler, you know, and you wouldn't know how they were going to react. We're talking here about an appropriate posture towards our king, God himself. And in some ways, this is a really basic issue.

10:06 And because it's so basic, we might be tempted to skip over it, but we can't. If God is God, as we say he is, if Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, then our first posture towards him has to be one of honor and respect that is due to him. The Bible word for it is fear. And we need to acknowledge that he is God and I am not. So many of our problems come when we decide that our opinion, our judgment takes precedence over what God's wisdom is. But as Christ's ambassadors, we don't get to have that privilege. however that's only one side of the story the other side of it is encapsulated in this verse for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died the Christ who calls us to be his ambassadors calls us to be driven not by fear of him, not by fear of judgment, but to be driven by his love for the people around us.

11:35 It's not a message of power and control. It's a message of love. Christ's love compels us. Every interaction we have with the world around us should be compelled by the love that Jesus had for the world, the love that made him lay down his life. When I think about this and how I measure up to the challenge, I'm not sure I come out of it very well. I've been thinking how much of my interaction with the world, even when I think I'm applying my faith perspective to the world, how much of it is compelled primarily by the love of Christ and how much of it might be compelled by my anger or my frustration at how things are turning out. And I'll give you an example. The last few weeks have been globally significant.

12:45 And as we've watched these events unfold through Ukraine Russia and the US. There have been some disturbing things. That episode in the Oval Office, I don't know how it made you react, but I didn't react very well to it. And I got a slight problem in that I work mainly with Americans. And we discussed this, and I'm not sure that I could honestly say that how I responded to what I saw was compelled by the love of Christ for the world. And yet, as an ambassador, that's the posture that he asks me to take. We're called to represent our king, and our king's posture is one of love for his lost world.

13:42 And that carries us into the second piece of advice from Paul. And it's around the message that the king has asked us to bring to the world. Listen carefully to how Paul puts it. God gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sin against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. This is full of significance. Let's go back to what I said about this not being a Christian country anymore and how we've struggled to come to terms with it.

14:18 I'm sure like me, you have looked at some of what goes on around you, some of the values and attitudes that have become mainstream, and you've probably just despaired at what you've seen. Or maybe you've been as bewildered as I have been when you listen to some of the stuff that public figures come off with. Like locally here, Someone who stood up, public figure, rightly so, saying we need to campaign on the issue of violence against women. It's becoming a blight on our society, rightly so. And the same person saying, don't ask me to define what a woman is. Campaign against violence against women, but I'm not going to get into definitions about what... That's just rubbish. That's just complete nonsense.

15:09 So often we're shocked. We're surprised, we're angered, we're confused at what we see going on before us. That's actually our problem. We shouldn't be shocked. The shock is only because we got lulled into the false expectation that our culture had embraced Christian ways, but it hasn't. And it never has. Why do I say that? Well, I say that because look at the message the king has given us to share, A message of reconciliation.

15:44 If our message is reconciliation, it can only be relevant because something has gone wrong. Something is broken. Reconciliation only makes sense in a context of brokenness, be it relationships, communities, nations, or whatever. Back 2,000 years ago, Paul was telling Christ's ambassadors that the message they were given was reconciliation to a broken world. and it's the same today. And the key reason is in the last verse, it's sin. We're broken. The relationship that God created us to have with him is broken by our decision to go our own way.

16:31 And it not only breaks our relationship with him, it causes havoc among our relationships with each other. A key part of us being able to share this message is realizing that things are awry. Stop being shocked and stop expecting a world that doesn't claim allegiance to God to behave any differently. But that message of reconciliation brings with it not just the message that things are broken. it brings with it the greatest hope we could ever have. That because of what Jesus has done, God is not counting people's sins against them. I need to hear this message above all other messages because I'm only too aware of my own failures and my own brokenness. And our world needs to hear it.

17:30 It's interesting also in story bears, it comes up now and again. people who think that I'm too bad. I've ignored God for too long. He wouldn't be interested in me. And yet the message they need to hear is that God does not want to count their sins against them. We need to get this message across to people that God has made a way for our sins not to count against us. However, even as I think about that, I think about the personal challenge of that message. Because in the same way that I know my response to the world isn't always compelled by the love of Christ, I'm also sure that often my response to the world has been very far from not counting their sins against them.

18:24 Indeed, I'm pretty sure that too often my response is the exact opposite, that I do hold their sin against them. And I'm not quick to speak God's message of forgiveness. Or if I do, I might be tempted grudgingly to preach that God will forgive them, but don't expect me to do it. And then that leaves me with the awkward truth that I'm supposed to be an ambassador of the king, not myself. And I'm supposed to represent that message of reconciliation. and indeed that message of God not holding people's sin against them segues right into the next piece of guidance that Paul gives us about being ambassadors and it's about the language we use listen listen to these words all from that passage in Corinthians we try to persuade others we regard no one from a worldly point of view as though God were making his appeal through us we implore you you pick up on the language that Paul uses because it's language that represents a key posture for an ambassador ambassadors have absolutely no authority in the foreign land to make the laws they can't tell people how it should be they can't protest.

19:54 All they can do is appeal to a different way. And the language of appeal and imploring is very different to the language of protest. And yet I wonder too often, is our interaction not only not compelled by the love of Christ and not from a posture of seeing reconciliation and sins forgiven, but very often from a place of protest or of anger and even despising those around us. And yet Paul seems to suggest that's not to be our way. We do not behave in worldly ways. We do not look at people from worldly perspectives. We are to be different. Actually, in practical terms, ambassadors won't last if their actions involve public protest.

20:50 Can you imagine Peter Mandelson standing outside the White House with a banner of protest against President Trump? He'd be deported. Just like that. Influence gone. I think navigating these issues is really tricky for us. It's one of the trickiest things we've got to face in our world. And I know for sure I don't have all the answers I'd like to have. But I do wonder, are we too quick to protest and too slow to implore?

21:22 We have laws enacted today, even in Northern Ireland, that I find abhorrent. But how do we react to that as ambassadors in a way that represents appeal instead of protest? That is compelled by Christ's love, not by my anger. Take an issue, a sensitive issue like abortion, that I feel really strongly about, have done for a very long time. But I'm challenged by this. Do those who speak with the loudest voices against it also provide the most social care for those who in desperation think it's their only option? Or do we just throw stones from a distance? Intriguingly, with someone at the first service this morning who works for an organization called Open, and they provide crisis pregnancy care for those in that situation not knowing what to do, and even for those who have been in that situation in the past, if that's an issue that's relevant to you, please speak to Jill Campbell, who's down here, or David Merce.

22:37 They know about it. But we can't just shout and throw stones. That's not the language of appeal. Do our actions speak loudly as an appeal, as an expression of Christ's love? And furthermore, the type of language that Paul uses here, seems to imply nearness, not distance. The language of protest is almost always shouted from a distance, whereas persuasion, imploring, and appeal only really happen close up when we actually get to know people and get near to them. In some ways, it's the language of weakness, of becoming a servant, as opposed to the shout of strength, truth bombs lobbed from a distance at people we actually don't want to know. As ambassadors of Christ today, we don't have the luxury of hiding away behind the walls of an embassy, as detached as possible from our world.

23:45 And that point has come across already many times in our series on building bridges. These instructions from Paul very much point to getting up close with people around us and seeing what God might do as we come alongside, compelled by his love with the message that God's heart is to reconcile, to forgive, to restore and renew. And sadly, that's not always the language we see on placards when Christians decide protesting is the way to go. Compelled by the love of Christ, carrying a message of reconciliation, speaking the language of appeal from close up. All of this is what it means to be an ambassador of Christ. There's one final point, though, I think, that Paul makes that is really important. See, in governmental terms, being appointed an ambassador is a high honor. It comes with a significant amount of privilege and wealth and prestige, and there's a lot of pomp, And it would be very easy for an ambassador to get a bit carried away with their status.

24:58 And whilst being appointed an ambassador for Christ is the highest of honors, the very last thing it should do is bring us a feeling of personal pride. Indeed, it requires the exact opposite. Personal pride is maybe the greatest hindrance to being compelled by Christ's love and carrying a message of reconciliation. Listen to what Paul wrote. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

25:40 The old is gone. The new is here. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ. That last little phrase. We need to let it sink in. We have no room for pride. We can't look at the world around us with a sense of smugness and decide who should or shouldn't be a recipient of God's love or who should or shouldn't hear God's message that he doesn't want to count their sins against them. We've no place to be compelled either by anger or self-righteousness.

26:21 Why? Because we too were in the same place. We've been enemies of God, following our own wisdom as opposed to his. And we too, if we're Christians, had to be reconciled. We had to be made into new creations. and when we're slow to reach out to the world with a message of God's love and forgiveness it's because we have forgotten that we also needed to receive that love and forgiveness for ourselves. Christians have a really high calling as ambassadors of Christ. Actually he has risked his reputation on us.

27:11 his church. We haven't always lived up to it well. I know though that I'm deeply challenged by what it means to represent God. Over the last few months, I've been reading some scripture passages and it's just been weighing heavily on me. And it's intriguing that Chris had asked me to do this particular talk because it just tied in with what was burdening my own heart, which is how huge a responsibility it is to present God to the world around us and how quickly we get it wrong. And as we close, I want to give you a biblical example of this. I'm going to read to you four statements about God from the Bible. And as I read them, I want you to think about whether they're true or not.

28:07 Okay? So we're finishing now. so you can wake up. First one, he performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. Second one, dominion and awe belong to God. He establishes order in the heights of heaven. Number three, the mysteries of God are higher than the heavens above. Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.

28:32 And number four, how great is God beyond our understanding? The number of his years is past finding out. Okay, are they true? That was a question. Questions demand an answer. It wasn't a rhetorical question. Are they true? They are.

28:52 Okay, we're happy to say they're true. Do you know who said those things? They were all statements of truth that you've said is true. Spoken by the friends of Job, who was an Old Testament figure. and these were friends who came along supposedly smart enough to work out why he was experiencing all these bad things in his life and they tried to explain with their great wisdom what God was up to and yet despite making those statements of truth do you know what God said to them? What do you hear this? I am angry with you because you have not spoken the truth about me. do you know what that shows us that we can know truth about god but we can completely misrepresent him to the world when we draw our own conclusions or when we speak with more certainty than we should about what we think is his will or what he's doing

30:04 and as Christ's ambassadors we must not make that mistake we must only speak the message that we are sure he has given us to share how do we do that? here's how I think we can do that we be compelled by Christ's love we carry above all The message of reconciliation and forgiveness. We speak from nearby with the language of appeal, not protest. And we remember that we ourselves also need that same reconciliation and forgiveness. Let's pray. Lord as we as I stand here and we sit here we are just so thankful that the loudest and clearest message you want to get across to us is the message of your love the message that you do not want to count our sins against us and that you want us to be reconciled into relationship with you.

31:33 Father, those of us who have been in that place for a long time, we thank you that again today we get to remember that that's the source of everything. And Father, maybe for others today might be the first time they really grasp it. Father, we pray that for those of us who call ourselves after Christ, Christians, May you equip us to be better ambassadors for him. May we be compelled by his love, not our anger. May we carry within us the message of reconciliation and forgiveness that this world needs to hear. May we draw close by people, not condemn them from a distance. and may we never forget that we need your love and your forgiveness day in, day out in Jesus name Amen