Ambassadors of Reconciliation
by Rev. Kirby Williams
Paul explains God's initiative through Christ to move His church from reprobation to reconciliation to relationship and ultimately to ambassadorship.
Text: 2Cor 5:18-21
Date: 03/22/2026, the Combined service.
Series: "Your Word is Truth"
Description:
As our short series on who we are as the church of Jesus Christ continues, we will return to the fifth chapter of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians where Paul defends his ministry and apostolic authority; and at the same time continues to help us define who we are as a church. We will add two designations this morning. First, that we are the church of the reconciled-- reconciled to God through Christ. We will discuss in great detail what it means to be reconciled and the incredible process whereby a reprobate at enmity with God is granted intimate relationship with Him. And then, we will explore the amazing result of reconciliation when the very people who are reconciled become the ambassadors of reconciliation. We will find in this short passage a compressed version of the battle plan for the expansion of the Kingdom of God, and the preservation of the invisible church in all generations. We will celebrate God's glorious plan of reconciliation, whereby a group of reprobates are made righteous in order to be reconciled and restored and ultimately to have relationship with God-- and then sent into the darkest corners of this world as ambassadors of reconciliation.
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I. Introduction
II. Exposition of the text, 2Cor. 5:18-21.
A. Context
B. From Righteousness, to Reconciliation, to Restoration to Relationship!
1. A church of the reconciled, vs. 18-19.
a. The ministry of reconciliation, vs. 18.
i. God's proactive sovereignty in reconciliation.
1) Defining "all this".
2) The Source of "all this".
a) Recognizing the source.
b) Recognizing the sovereignty of God.
ii. God's work through Christ.
1) Through Christ, Col. 1:15-18; John 1:3; Heb. 1:2.
2) The process of reconciliation.
a) Noticing the pronouns.
b) Defining "reconciled".
(1) Looking at the grammar.
(2) Finding the right perspective, Gen. 3:15, 23.
c) How this reconciliation DOES NOT occur.
d) How the reconciliation DOES occur.
3) A concept Jesus clearly taught, Luke 15:4-10.
iii. The ministry.
1) Looking at the pronouns again.
2) Defining "ministry".
3) Putting the words together, Matt. 28:19-20.
4) The gift of God.
b. The battle plan of the Kingdom, vs. 19.
i. Noting the grammar.
ii. Reconciliation in Christ.
1) The explanation.
2) A reconciliation "in Christ", John 10:38, 14:10,11,20.
3) What Paul IS NOT saying, Rom. 1:8, 3:23; 2Cor. 5:10.
4) What Paul IS saying.
iii. Removing the impediment.
1) The cause of the separation, Isa. 64:6.
2) The point of separation, Matt. 22:37-38; Hab. 1:13.
3) Closing the breach.
4) The declaration of righteousness.
iv. The commission and the message.
2. The ambassadors, vs. 20.
a. Looking at some words.
i. What the "therefore" brings forward.
ii. Revisiting the pronouns.
iii. The meaning of "ambassadors".
iv. God's appeal.
v. The meaning of "implore", Luke 5:12.
vi. Revisiting "reconciled".
b. The work of the ambassadors.
i. The declaration of ambassadorship.
ii. Paul's urgent plea.
3. The Gospel, vs. 21.
a. The path to relationship.
b. The urgency of reconciliation.
III. Conclusion, 1Pet. 2:9.
