Ambassadors

Luke Chapter 17 

Scripture: 

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”  (Luke 17:20-21) 

Observation: 

Concerning the Kingdom of God: is it a place that believers go to or is it a state of being? 

The answer is: Yes. 

The bible says that no one can not enter it unless he be born again. (Luke 18:25-26)  This means to me that it is a literal place with an entrance.  Revelation has lots to say about the New Heaven and New Earth and New Jerusalem. 

And if we have been saved, then it is within us. (Since that is where the Holy Spirit resides.)  

Yet, when Jesus is at the Last Supper and blessing the wine, he says he won't drink of it again UNTIL HE IS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.  (Mark 14:24-25)   

So how can it be a place, but not a place at the same time? 

The answer lies in the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  (Luke 11:1-4) 

God's sovereignty as King, and our adoption into his family - gives us citizenship into heaven - that makes us His ambassadors. (2Cor. 5:20)  That means that our bodies are an embassy, a heavenly representation of his authority on foreign soil, with diplomatic immunity from sin.  (Not that we don't ever sin, but that it we are not prosecuted for it.) "You are no longer your own, you were bought at a price" (1Cor. 6:19-20)  He paid for the right to exercise his authority over foreign ground, (our sinful natures) and every time we submit to his authority in our life, we demonstrate what the Kingdom of God looks like to this world. 

Application: 

I urge you, brothers, to be good ambassadors by living out the differences from the heavenly realm and this one as it is worked out in your own life.  Do it by the submission of your will, to His; by obedience to His authority.  (Mat. 28:18) 

Prayer: 

Father God and Sovereign King, I thank you for adopting me into your family.  I am so thankful for the precious blood of a Savoir Servant, your son, who loved me so much that he made a way for me to be with Him, even though I lived in a hostile country.  Amen!