Eph 1391 4/3/91; Eph 104 9/1/85
A. Definition and Description.
1. An ambassador is a high ranking minister of state or of royalty sent to another state to represent his sovereign or country. 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, the cosmic world.
2. At salvation, every believer enters the royal family of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and at the same time he becomes a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. Ambassadorship stems from being in union with Christ, caused by the baptism of the Spirit.
3. Each Church Age believer is royal family of God representing the King of kings and Lord of lords during his tenure on this earth.
4. Therefore, two commissions are given 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. We represent ourselves before God and we represent God before men.
4. Ambassadorship emphasizes that every believer is in fulltime Christian service. However, there are different services.
5. Differences of function depends on differences of spiritual gifts, stages of spiritual growth, historical circumstances (prevalence of positive or negative volition), and environment at any given moment.
6. Common functions and services are all commanded by the Scripture, so there is no confusion between what your spiritual gift demands and those functions which are common to all believers, such as witnessing, prayer, and perception of doctrine. Ambassadorship is the fulfillment of the imperatives of production in the Bible.
7. In addition to the mandates of Scripture, there are many avenues of expressing your ambassadorship, such as utilizing the faith-rest drill and virtue-love as a problem solving device with emphasis on spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem becomes the maximum expression of ambassadorship, a result of consistent residence in the divine dynasphere under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and momentum from metabolized doctrine.
B. The Profile of the Ambassador.
1. An ambassador does not appoint himself. We are appointed by God Himself at the moment we believe in Jesus Christ. God also gives use the power and ability to handle the job.
2. The ambassador does not support himself. The Church Age believer, as an ambassador for Christ, is provided by logistical grace.
3. The ambassador’s instructions are always in written form, so he has no doubt as to what he should do. We have the policies, problem solving devices, instructions, principles, doctrines, and concepts in written form in the Scripture.
4. The ambassador does not belong to the country to which he is sent. Our citizenship and home is in heaven. We are also citizens of a client nation to God.
5. The ambassador does not live in the foreign country for his own personal interest. We live here on earth solely to serve in the interest of our Lord. Therefore, we subordinate all personal interest to the function of our ambassadorship, which includes the attainment and function of the spiritual skills—filling of the Spirit, cognition of Bible doctrine, and execution of the protocol plan of God. Our production skills, which include our ambassadorship, are in place as of the moment of salvation, but are not effective until we develop spiritual skills.
6. The ambassador does not treat any insult to himself as personal. This is the royal ambassador’s function in both spiritual self-esteem and impersonal love for all mankind. We tolerate others and hold no grudges. When you are insulted, treated unfairly, or ridiculed, you have tremendous problem solving devices. You have to have the spiritual strength to use these problem solving devices to leave the matter in the Lord’s hands.
7. When an ambassador is recalled, his recall is tantamount to a declaration of war. This is analogous to the Rapture of the Church. The Tribulation is analogous to the period of war.
C. The royal ambassadorship is specialized and intensified in the gift of pastor-teacher.
1. All communication gifts (evangelists, apostles, pastor-teachers) become critical and specialized functions of the royal ambassadorship because they communicate spiritual truth. This is why Paul said in Eph 6:20, “on behave of which [gospel] I am an ambassador in chains, that in this [proclaiming the mystery doctrine], I might communicate with confidence as I ought to speak.”
2. There is a special need for those who communicate doctrine to do so with confidence. That confidence cannot exist unless they are occupied with the person of Christ and have spiritual self-esteem, because they will be faced with constant negative volition from indifferent people. But with spiritual self-esteem the communicator speaks with confidence no matter what the attitude of his listeners.
D. The Royal Ambassadorship Related to Evangelism, 2 Cor 5:20.
1. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making His appeal through us. We invite you on behalf of Christ: become reconciled to God.”
2. This is the function of every believer who witnesses and is the special function of the believer with the gift of evangelism. We are to witness through verbal communication of the Gospel of the Word of God. We are not to witness only through our lifestyle. That’s cowardice.
E. The royal ambassadorship mandates the function of spiritual self-esteem and impersonal love, Philemon 9. “Yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you, since I am such a person as Paul, the ambassador, and now a prisoner of Jesus Christ.”
1. Virtue-love is the greatest of all problem-solving devices. When your momentum takes you to personal love for God, you now have spiritual self-esteem. With this spiritual self-esteem comes impersonal love for all mankind. This is the giant step in the Christian life.
2. While personal love for God is the function of our royal priesthood, spiritual self-esteem and impersonal love for man are the function of our ambassadorship.
3. Everything the believer does in life becomes a part of his modus operandi as a royal ambassador. Every believer, therefore, makes a pulpit out of his circumstances in every area of life.
4. Your ambassadorship is basically made up of two factors: how you live, and what you say as a result of what you think. In private, you function under your priesthood; in public, you function under your ambassadorship.
F. The royal ambassadorship is related to the angelic conflict.
1. The Church Age believer is not only an ambassador to human creatures but to angels as well. You are a royal ambassador being watched right now. Angels observed our Lord, 1 Tim 3:16. They observe and rejoice over the conversion of one person, Lk 15:7-10. Fallen angels are organized to resist and oppose your ambassadorship and your growth in grace, Job 1:6, 2:1-3; Eph 6:12.
2. The fact that angels are watching you as an ambassador is found in 1 Cor 4:9. “For I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death [last ones into the Colosseum], for we have become an amphitheater to the world, both to angels and to men.”
3. Eph 3:10, “In order that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to rulers and authorities in the heavenlies [angels].”
4. 1 Tim 5:21, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His elect angels to maintain these doctrines without bias; do nothing on the basis of partisan strife.”
5. 1 Pet 1:12, “things into which angels are watching intently.”
G. The Concept of the Believer-Ambassador.
1. While the priesthood of the believer emphasizes the daily function of GAP and advance to spiritual maturity, the ambassadorship of the believer emphasizes the production of the Christian way of life. Each has a different source. As you learn to distinguish between your priesthood and ambassadorship, you will learn to distinguish between the functions of each. The priesthood is the means by which you advance; the ambassadorship is for the purpose of production.
2. This ambassador service can be a function of one’s spiritual gift or obedience to a command of the service-function as taught in the Word.
3. Since maximum production involves spiritual maturity, it is obvious that the attainment of spiritual maturity results in maximum effectiveness in the area of your royal ambassadorship.
4. The filling of the Spirit is an absolute necessity in the function of the ambassador.
5. Any Christian service or works apart from the filling of the Spirit is human good, the enemy of the modus operandi of the royal ambassador.
6. Everything the believer does in life becomes a part of his ambassadorship, for in effect the believer makes a pulpit out of his circumstances. Every believer is in full-time service; this is a decision God made, not one that you make.
7. The Lord uses ambassadors in business, professions, homes, academic life, and in local churches. Your circumstances are your full- time Christian service whether you work in the military, in labor, or in management.
8. In the Roman Empire, many believers fulfilled their ambassadorship as slaves. They were not to break out of this situation. In application, you don’t straighten out society; you serve the Lord.
9. Therefore, believers as ambassadors are the personal representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.
10. Every believer is in the plan of God and lives his life under the principle of full-time Christian service.
11. The vocation of every believer is representing Christ as a royal ambassador. The avocation of every believer is making a living as per Philemon.
12. Paul was as much an ambassador in prison as when he was a traveling missionary. You always represent Christ.
H. The Concept of the Weeping Ambassador.
1. The weeping ambassador expresses the regrets of wrong thinking and the failure of the believer to orient to history. Disorientation to history means distraction from the Christian way of life. Isa 33:6-7, “And He [Lord Jesus Christ] will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. Behold their brave men [army of Israel] cry in the streets, the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.”
a. In this passage, the ambassadors of Israel had made a deal with the Assyrians and assumed they were safe. When the Assyrians prepared to attack, the ambassadors of peace who cut back the military wept bitterly.
b. The ambassadors of peace are doves who despise preparation for war.
c. These ambassadors fail to understand the doctrine that all freedom comes through military victory.
d. Such a person fails to believe that all freedom is purchased on battlefields, not through the empty words of politicians.
e. To maintain that freedom, there must be universal military training, plus the constant development and maintenance of the profession of the military. There must be an officer corps with high standards, an honor code, and higher patriotic motivation.
f. The invader in Isa 33 had found the nation Israel unprepared. The ambassadors told the Assyrians they were setting the pace for disarmament.
g. The doves then are ambassadors to the invading nation. They had depended on peace treaties and had announced disarmament rather than military preparation.
h. They had failed to evaluate history in the light of the Word of God and had failed to apply doctrine to history even though they were believers.
i. Therefore, the weeping ambassador represents the failure of believers to think divine viewpoint in the interpretation of history.
2. Prov 13:16-17, “Every wise believer acts with knowledge of doctrine, but a fool [believer] spreads foolishness. An evil messenger falls into adversity [the law of volitional responsibility], but a faithful ambassador brings healing.” The faithful ambassador is the effective witness for Christ.
I. The Prerequisites for the Function of the Royal Ambassadorship.
1. The person must be saved. Salvation appoints the individual to the status of royal ambassador.
2. There is no appointment to such ambassadorship until the person has believed in Christ. At that point, you are commissioned as an ambassador.
3. Therefore, at salvation the believer becomes a member of the royal family of God and a royal ambassador through the baptism of the Spirit.
4. Ambassadorship automatically enters the believer into full-time Christian service. Rom 12:11 says there are two prerequisites for service of the ambassador: he cannot be negligent in applying doctrine and he must be zealous with reference to the Holy Spirit when serving.
5. The royal ambassador must be fulfilled in the filling of the Spirit. This means alertness with regard to the rebound technique, the grace means of soul control by the Holy Spirit. Only doctrine perceived can be applied to the ambassadorship.
6. So the third prerequisite is the daily function of GAP whereby doctrine is stored in the human spirit and soul.
7. In summary, royal ambassadorship demands salvation, the filling of the Spirit, and the residency of doctrine. Thus, experiential sanctification is its prerequisite.
8. On the negative side, the royal ambassadorship can’t function when the believer is in the devil’s triangle of sin, human good and evil. All service in the devil’s triangle is human good and evil. If we fail to apply doctrine we are in the devil’s triangle.