Previously, we established that Christ decisively defeated the fear of death, sin, and death itself. With these victories, Christ returned to His disciples as the great King of all of heaven and earth. From this clear position of authority, Christ then commissioned His disciples to go into the entire earth and continue the process of reconciling all things to Himself.
Christ is King and governs over His Kingdom. There are five essential elements for establishing a king and his kingdom. These include:
- A King
- subjects or people the king rules
- territory over which the king rules
- laws and ordinances which establish the order of the kingdom
- the embassy of the kingdom.
In our case the King is Jesus. He rules over heaven and earth and is rightfully Lord over all the subjects on the earth. The Ordinances of the Kingdom are the laws of the Kingdom (we will examine these in a later blog). This leads us to ask, “What body of people are the embassy of Christ’s kingdom?”
An embassy is the “official residence and retinue of an ambassador.” An ambassador is the “diplomatic emissary of a ruler in the court of another.” To say it differently, the ambassador is the envoy who represents the king and the order of the kingdom.
The Apostle Peter highlights this concept in 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV):
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Likewise, the Apostle Paul speaks of us being ambassadors of the King. As His ambassadors, we are to be a channel of His message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20-22 NIV):
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
If we are His ambassadors, then what is the embassy of King Jesus? It is nothing less than the ekklésia, the church. Jesus announces this in Matt. 16:18: “And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church [ekklēsia] and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The church exists to represent the interests of the King and His kingdom here on earth and to enculturate her surrounding cultures with the culture of the Kingdom of God. Too often the church becomes inwardly focused and has the mentality that it exists for itself. This can manifest in churches organizing around the institution, the people in the church, or the pastor.
However, Christ created His church to exist for others, those outside the church. The church is to be the eyes and ears of Christ to see and hear the needs in the community; to be His hands and feet and heart to minister to those needs; and the mouth to speak the Gospel of the good news of Christ and His kingdom. We are to see ourselves as governors or shepherds over the people and cultures of our communities, taking careful stock of where people have needs, where we need to marshal resources, and where we need to defend the community from evil.
Who are the ambassadors of the King? We are! We are commissioned to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called (us) out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 ESV).
The church is called to be the embassy of the kingdom of God and those of us who are members of the Body of Christ are His ambassadors here to represent our King’s interests to the nations of the world.
The church is God’s intended body commissioned to transpose the kingdom down to earth. We are to behold and understand, at least in part, the nature of His Kingdom as revealed to us through the Holy Spirit and Scripture, and we are to live based on that reality, manifesting it here on earth.
As stated earlier, in Matthew 16:18-19 (ESV) Jesus speaks to Peter and says upon the rock He will build his church.
The word Jesus used here, which is now translated “church”, is ekklésia. In the cultural context, the people of the day would have understood that the ekklésia was a civil governing body, not a religious body or a building.
The word is derived from the Greek word “ek” meaning “out from and to” and “kaleo” meaning “to call.” Thus, the ekklésia means to “call out from and to.” This is referring to the people called out by Christ from the world’s system (e.g. materialism, wokeism, evolutionism, Shintoism, Animism, Hinduism) and into His kingdom. The church is the assembly of God’s “called out ones,” brought together to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God to our neighborhoods, cities and the world.
The word church is used in three very different ways. The first, the one we are most familiar with, is the local body of Christ. This has two expressions: the Sunday church gathered for corporate worship and equipping, and the Monday church, scattered all over the city to the workplace and public square.
The second is more regional, the “church in the city” where the local churches in a city work collaboratively to bless the city. The third is the universal church composed of all believers from all times.
Note that if we take our cues from our Lord’s description of us to Peter, we are to be on the offensive not the defense. We are to follow Christ to the very Gates of Hell and Hell’s gates will not stand against the onslaught of the church. In addition, there is the concept of governance at the gates of the city. These things will be discussed in later blogs.
The church is the embassy of the Kingdom of God, giving new meaning to the exhortation in Romans 12:2 in which Paul says,
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Our minds must be transformed from thinking like the world to those of ambassadors of Christ. We are to think as citizens of Heaven while living here on earth, acting from a Biblical worldview and principle.
His ekklésia is to be the instrument tasked with bringing His kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Just as the word was made flesh in Christ, the word is now to be made flesh in the body of Christ, His ekklésia.
The early church understood this far more than we do today. They knew they were to live their lives in the reality of the things they knew were true and to create systems and institutions that reflected the reality, principles, and virtues of the Kingdom of God.
Moment for Reflection:
- Stop for a second and think… do you go about your daily work, life, relationships keeping this commission in mind?
- Do you see yourself as an ambassador of the King, representing His interests everywhere you go? If so, how do you see that playing out in your various daily contexts? If not, why not?
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