The message of the Gospel is revealed in Scripture in many different ways: the Gospel of the grace of God,[1] a ministry of the word of reconciliation,[2] the message of the Kingdom of the Heavens,[3] and a message that the Kingdom of God will eventually cover the whole earth.[4] It is not without notice that much of the focus and language revolve around the particular message of a Kingdom—a Kingdom that is coming. John the Baptist began the message with a strong, “Repent! (wake up and change direction!) for the Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn near!”[5] Quite a wake-up call.
If the message is true (and it is) that this Kingdom is invading our world—a heavenly Kingdom, a Kingdom of God, a unique Kingdom that has a unique source—that message must be carried to all the nations by ordained messengers who truly represent that Kingdom. It is very interesting and revealing that Paul considered himself such a representative with a clear, official message from that Kingdom and its King—that he was an ambassador.
Paul writes to the people of Corinth:
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”[6]
Now note that Paul said that “we are ambassadors,” not “I.” We’ll return to this thought, but we’ll mention right now that the message is not individualistic: an “I.” No, it assumes a corporate or community aspect: a “we.”
The New World Dictionary gives us the meaning of the word ambassador: a messenger or servant, usually the highest-ranking diplomatic representative appointed by one country or government to represent it in another. Note: It is not merely representing that government or kingdom to another country but in another country. Why use this language?
For example, the Embassy of the United States in Israel is considered the sovereign territory of the United States in Israel, not the sovereign territory of Israel. The ambassador and all the personnel of the embassy are citizens of the United States, actually on sovereign US soil, and they represent the totality of what the United States is and stands for. The analogy should be very clear—if Paul, and we, are ambassadors of the Kingdom of the Heavens (the Kingdom of God), we are sovereign citizens of that Kingdom and must be true and accurate representatives of that Kingdom, not with a message or culture and lifestyle of our own but with a transparent portrait, that “God [is] making His appeal through us.” Paul goes on to implore the believer, on Christ’s behalf, “to be reconciled to God.”[7]
But we need to reach back into time to understand the broad story of how and why there are separate nations and trace the history leading up to the message of the Gospel of this Kingdom and its message of reconciliation. We begin all the way back in Genesis 11:1–9, the story of the city and the tower of Babel. At that time the whole earth had one language and one speech—the same language and the same words! The passage goes on to reveal why the city and tower were being built when the people say amongst themselves, “[C]ome, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
The Lord’s response was to come down from the Heavens, saying, “[N]othing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord dispersed (scattered) them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.”[8]
It was at that time that God, in the very next chapter of Genesis (chapter 12), turned to a single individual as the focus of His attention, intending to come back to His mission of bringing ultimate reconciliation to all the nations, never losing His original plan that “in you [Abram/Abraham] all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[9] Many centuries later, a “sent one,” an “apostle,” an “ambassador” named Paul, in the Areopagus of the Athenian city-state in Greece spoke these words:
“And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us… the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”[10]
Throughout the entire Old Testament, again and again, God declared through His prophets that He would turn His attention back to the nations to bring blessings to them through the nation of Israel as He promised to Abraham. He would come with a message of repentance, a message of reconciliation, and a message of ultimate inclusion in His coming Kingdom. So the story of the New Testament, as we began this article, is the “good news” of the grace of God, containing a word and ministry of reconciliation, culminating in a Kingdom over all the Earth. Hence, there is the need of ambassadors to announce that transition!
One of the clearest verses in the Bible regarding the timing of this coming Kingdom, which consummates at the return of the King of that Kingdom, is Matthew 24:14, which says, “And this Gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Please note, this Gospel of a coming Kingdom is to be preached everywhere—the whole world—as a witness to every nation, meaning every ethnic group. The ones who bring this “proclamation” are the ambassadors of that Kingdom who are true and accurate representatives, a corporate witness to the very nature and heart of the Kingdom with a message from the King they serve. Together as communities, they are embassies, planted in the midst of the nations in many cities and towns, being clear and transparent portraits of the Kingdom that will have sway over the entire Earth.
There is much more to this ambassador/embassy picture that needs to be flushed out and understood. Much of that is revealed in the context where Paul uses that word a second time as he describes himself as “an ambassador in chains.”[11] Obviously there is some serious resistance to the reconciliation message—Paul is in prison for announcing that coming Kingdom! That resistance is not only coming from the earthly rulers of the nations, for the context of Paul’s status as “enchained ambassador” is the end of a significant window into the opposition from the principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the Heavenlies! We’ll have to take this up in the days ahead. Just know that we carry forward, as living witnesses, the message of reconciliation given to us by the King of a coming Kingdom.
Greg Parker is a long-time member of a local church in Kent, Washington, USA, serving that community with his wife of 43 years as a teaching elder and missions leader. He has been privileged and honored to serve with and support FAI in their role to make famous the name of Jesus in the unreached areas of the Middle East.
[1] Acts 20:24
[2] 2 Corinthians 5:18
[3] Matthew 3:1–2
[4] Daniel 2:35,44
[5] Matthew 3:2
[6] Genesis 11:1-9
[7] 2 Corinthians 5:20
[8] 1 Corinthians 3:18–20
[9] Genesis 12:3
[10] Acts 17:26–31
[11] Ephesians 6:20
