You would never know it by looking at the world or most Christians, but we aren’t here to live a pleasant life, make a fair amount of money, and retire in comfort. We are here to be ambassadors of Jesus, His representative in this very foreign kingdom. Our mission is to help bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). If you’ve looked around lately, I think you’ll agree we are a long way from realizing God’s Kingdom on earth.
Things get a little crazier with each passing day, while we wring our hands and wonder what we can do. We pray for peace, unity, and our leaders, while we wait for someone to come along and make things better. All the while, the Church sits quietly by, trying to weather the storm and live to see another day.
Decades of programs and extra-curricular activities have driven church membership numbers up at the expense of nurturing true disciples. The question I’m asking a lot lately is, if the Church isn’t creating disciples, then what is it they are creating? The commission Of Jesus is straight forward: make disciples of people all over the world (Matthew 28:18–20). No matter where we find ourselves, our job is to be making disciples of Jesus. Instead, we’ve created megachurches that entertain us and make us feel like we’re part of something other than Jesus Christ.
A disciple of Jesus is easy to spot because they will act just like Jesus. They will draw people to themselves, but will be at odds with the culture. They are more likely to be an outcast than to win a popularity contest. The message of Jesus brings life but is hard to accept. More will reject it than receive it because they will not be willing to give up living for themselves to serve the King of Kings. We fight so hard to be self-sufficient and free of authority that it feels unnatural to give all that up for a life of service to Jesus. People walk away from Christ or ignore Him altogether because those of us who know Him have not done the job of modeling Him and explaining what it means to follow Him. None of us who profess Jesus as our Lord are without fault here.
Disciples are ambassadors of Jesus. We are to act like Him, talk like Him, and love like Him. The charge of ambassadors is not to expand their territory but to bring a bit of their territory into another. This is a fantastic responsibility. We love Jesus and want everyone else to know Him as we do. We know He is worth giving up everything so we might serve Him. This kind of devotion rarely gets even lip service in churches anymore. It is incumbent on each of us who hold Christ as the pearl of great price to share Him with everyone. And that probably means even those within the churches we attend. Only the love of Christ can cure the woes of this world. As ambassadors of Jesus, it’s time we began spreading that truth.