July 1, 2022 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Greetings, friends. What a privilege to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. It’s the best job you could ever have. You know, the Apostle Paul in the Second Corinthians Chapter five talks about ambassadors. He talks about what we are to be like as followers of Jesus. And as we look to the future here and the soon coming of Jesus Christ, as we see the world around us disintegrating in so many ways, God is calling on each of us to truly represent him through his power, through connection with heaven on a daily basis.
We can truly be ambassadors for Christ in that beautiful chapter, the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians. We read there in verse 17 that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV). When you become an ambassador for Christ, you have wonderful credentials. You are a new creature in Jesus Christ.
Verse 18 “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,” (2 Corinthians 5:18 NKJV). Going on now to verse 19, “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19 NKJV). If there was ever a time, my dear friends, where we need ambassadors of reconciliation, bringing people together to focus on the mission that Christ has entrusted to us of lifting up the Lord, His righteousness his sanctuary message, his health message, his three angels messages, and his soon coming pointing people to the climax of Earth’s history.
If ever we needed this Ministry of Reconciliation, it is now. God’s calling you to be part of it because God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And then verse 20 says, Because of all that, because you have been reconciled. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20 NKJV).
What a privilege for you to be someone who brings reconciliation brings people together to focus upon Jesus and His power to truly heal physically, mentally, socially and spiritually, to heal us and bring us into a perfect and wonderful relationship with Him and with each other. And then that last verse in the second Corinthians five, magnificent verse “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV), in Jesus Christ.
What a beautiful explanation of the relationship we have of this righteousness that comes from Christ and that we might be part of this wonderful last-day proclamation. You know, in the spirit of prophecy, in testimonies for the church, volume nine in 19th page, it says “In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light bearers.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9 – Page. 19)
We have that privilege of being light bearers for God, ambassadors for Christ. Then in the seventh volume of testimonies for the church. Page one. 38, it says “Seventh-day Adventists have been chosen by God as a peculiar people, separate from the world. By the great cleaver of truth He has cut them out from the quarry of the world and brought them into connection with Himself. He has made them His representatives and has called them to be ambassadors for Him in the last work of salvation.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7 – Page. 138)
My dear friends, God has called you to be part of the last proclamation of His message to be an ambassador for Him. God bless you as you go forward as an ambassador for the highest authority in the universe. Let me pray with you,
Father in Heaven. Bless each one who has committed himself, herself to you. Use them in a powerful way as ambassadors for you being individuals who will bring reconciliation to difficult situations and point people to Jesus, who is the one who ultimately brings us complete reconciliation. We thank you that Jesus is coming soon and that we will be reconciled through Christ blood to be able to meet Him when He comes in Jesus name, we ask it. Amen.