Thoughts from Ryan’s Message August 26, 2016

Ministers of the Spirit

1 Corinthians 4:20 says that the kingdom of God does not consist of talk, but of power. What is it that divides churches? Is it talk or the power of God? Idle speaking and gossip will divide the hearts of men. Therefore, according to Ecclesiastes, let thy words be few. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. The key to activating the power of God is wisdom: believing action according to his Word. When we were born again of the spirit of the living God, we became citizens of heaven. Heaven is the country of our new birth. Not only are we citizens of heaven. Our sovereign Lord has also made us his ambassadors. An ambassador is the highest ranking government official sent by his sovereign Lord to represent his homeland in a foreign country. We are ambassadors for Christ. As ambassadors we are committed to represent our homeland, the kingdom of our heavenly King, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in a world of darkness. God has called us as missionaries to his mission. Our mission is to be ambassadors, wholly dependent upon God. We shall tear down everything that exalts itself against the truth of the Word of God. We shall love our enemies and our neighbors as ourselves. We shall lovingly plead with all people to be reconciled with God. We are empowered with the righteousness of Christ himself, for he who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

To come to the cross of Christ, the crossroads of life, we must give up the rights to ourselves. He who approaches the Lord must do so with a broken and a contrite heart. Pride cannot approach the throne of grace. To come to our Father through the cross of Christ we must offer our “declaration of dependence” on him alone. For he alone is our sufficiency…not that we are sufficient in ourselves, but our sufficiency is in him.

2 Corinthians chapters 3 through 5 says we are Ambassadors for Christ. What is it that makes us ambassadors? What restores our Christian character? What are our credentials as ambassadors? According to chapters three and four, The letter of the Old Testament law of sin and death kills, but the spirit of life in Christ in us gives life. Therefore we are ministers, not of the letter (of the law of Moses) for the letter of the law kills… It convicts of sin resulting in death. Rather, we are ministers of the law of the spirit that gives life. The law of the spirit of life in Christ is more glorious than the glory of the Ten Commandments, the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Everyone who witnessed the giving of the Old Testament law trembled at the glory of the Lord… the earth itself shook when God spoke to Moses. The children of Israel said, “Lord speak through Moses and we’ll obey.” The glory of the spirit of life in Christ is even more glorious than the power of God manifested at Mount Sinai. In Isaiah 30:15 who’s waiting? The people are not waiting for God, rather God is waiting on the people. He’s waiting for his people to repent…to turn from their wicked ways and unto him. God gave them his great and precious promises. Their choice was to follow the Lord and be blessed or follow the way of the world and suffer the consequences. The choice is truth or consequences.

Jesus said, “I am not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” The reason that Jews do not follow the New Testament law of the spirit of life in Christ is because they do not believe that Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Old Testament law. They still believe that they are God’s “chosen people.” The “veil” was over their eyes in the Old Testament and they could not perceive the truth of the word of God. They believed that they could achieve righteousness and perfect themselves by following the letter of the law. They did not realize that they needed a redeemer who would shed his sinless blood on their behalf so that they would become the righteousness of God in him. They expected that the first coming of the Messiah would be as king of kings and Lord of lords to deliver Israel from the oppression of the unbelieving nations. They did not expect Jesus Christ to be born in a lowly stable of a peasant girl. Many of today’s Jews think that Christians are included with the world’s unbelievers who will not come to the aid of Israel when the world turns against them.

God has called us as his ambassadors to love the whole world. However, the whole world hates Israel in the midst of the spiritual battle. In order to love Israel we must love the law of God. According to the Old Testament, the nation that blesses Israel will be blessed. Those who curse Israel will be cursed.

God has called Christians who have been born again to fulfill the law of the Old Testament by living the law of the spirit of God in Christ in us. Therefore love God and love your neighbor. On these two laws hang all the laws and the prophets. God said, if you turn unto me with all your heart and all your soul, you will fulfill the law. Therefore there is now no condemnation who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the spirit of the life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.

As ambassadors, our homes are embassies. An embassy is a part of the ambassador’s homeland in a foreign country. In our embassies, we have diplomatic immunity from laws of the fallen world…the law of sin and death. The embassies of our homes are outposts for the Kingdom of Heaven in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom we shine as lights in a world of darkness.

According to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

As ambassadors for Christ, ministers of the spirit, and representatives of our heavenly homeland, our mission is this: Give ’em heaven!

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael