The Ministry You Didn’t Know You Had
What does it mean to truly live as an ambassador for Christ? This message from 2 Corinthians 5:11–21 explores the urgency of the gospel, how being made new in Christ reshapes your identity, compels your life, and sends you with a mission of reconciliation into a broken world.
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The Ministry of Reconciliation
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[a] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[b] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ambassadors for Christ: Living the Compelled Life
This is a weighty passage of Scripture, and it is easy to miss that. This is the kind of Scripture that does not just inform us. It confronts us, it reshapes us, and it sends us. What the Apostle Paul does here is a Holy Spirit smackdown. This is a word reminding the church of some things that she is not living into, that are part of her design.
There is an urgency with what Paul shares in this passage. He says in verse 11: “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” He is reminding the church that everyone will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ.
This is why he uses the word “therefore,” knowing these realities. We are all living accountable lives. Paul is saying, “I have seen enough, I know enough in God to know that eternity is real, that the judgment seat of Jesus Christ is coming and it is real.” Because of that, Paul articulates that he cannot stay silent about these realities.
Here is a kingdom axiom: A life that knows God cannot stay silent about God.
The question we could ask: what kind of fuel burns in a believer’s heart that enlightens one’s heart and mind, and will in this way? I am going to break that down into four categories.
1) The Compelled Life
First, Paul describes what we would call the compelled life. This is true for every believer. We should be living compelled lives. This is why Paul says in verse 14: “For the love of Christ controls us.” Some translations say “compels us.” Both are accurate translations.
Notice that he is sharing that there is a velocity at work in his heart. There is a velocity of the love of God at work in the life of a believer that compels and even controls them. Note that it is not a control coming out of guilt, not out of obligation, not out of religious routine, but note specifically it is the velocity of the love of Jesus Christ burning in the heart of a believer.
That word “compels” or “controls” in the original language carries the idea of being hemmed in, pressed in on every side. But that pressing and that hemming is the purity of the love of God. The love of God burning in you, the love of God burning through you.
When I was reflecting on these passages, I could not help but think about our persecuted sisters and brothers in Laos, in China, and other parts of Asia. My mind went back to the last time I was in Laos, meeting secretly in an upper room. “How many of you have been in prison for your faith?” Half the hands in the room went up. “How many of you have loved ones who have been martyred for following Jesus Christ?” Five or six hands went up in the air. Why do they press forward in suffering and lifting the name of Jesus Christ? Because God’s love compels them.
I think about time in China with the underground church and three men I deeply admire who have led movements there. The only one that I have not spent time with is Brother Yun, who has written a book called The Heavenly Man and tells the story of the faithfulness of Jesus as he is in and out of prison, as he is persecuted, as he is physically beaten, how he perseveres, how the love of Christ compels him.
When I stand with sisters and brothers in the underground church in China and bring up the name Brother Yun, things fall silent. Someone will break the silence and say to me, “Paul, you must understand, there are thousands of Brother Yuns in China.”
Or I think about our last mission to Asia with a team from the Christ Church family last November, and a young lady with cotton in her ear. When we asked why there was cotton in her ear, she said, “Because when I was sharing the gospel, a grown man took his hand and struck me across the head and busted my eardrum.” Yet she is faithful, compelled to continue to share the love of God through Christ. She was not and is not deterred by the suffering. The love of God compels her.
I was in a meeting last week in Atlanta, and there was a gentleman there from the persecuted church. He said to us in that meeting room, “Please listen to us from the majority world church. Please let us teach you what God has revealed to us around sharing His gospel, around the pulses of prayer that are necessary to be the people of God and live into His design.”
The Apostle Paul is saying: I do not preach because it is my job. I do not serve because it is expected. I do what I do because Christ’s love has taken hold of me in such a way that I cannot live for myself anymore.
What about you? What compels you, believer? What controls you, Christian? Is it comfort? Is that what you choose over living out your faith? Your security? Is it success? Is it approval, what other people think of you? Or is it the love of Christ?
The text makes it plain and clear. Verses 14-15: “He died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
You have been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus. You are not your own anymore. This is what the Word of God says about us. I am not naive. I know that rubs against the grain of culture, because everything around us says: live your truth, follow your heart, live your best life, build life your way. But the gospel says something different. You were bought with a price.
2) Living as a New Creation
Paul shifts the lens when he says in verse 17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Do not rush past that verse because it is familiar. This is much more than poetic language. This is a description of spiritual reality. He does not say that because of Jesus in your life, you simply got improved. He does not say that you just got cleaned up. He says you became new. Jesus said you must be born again (John 3:3). You must be born again to see the kingdom of God, to enter the kingdom of God.
Paul describes in this verse that your identity is no longer rooted in your past, believer, not in your failures. Your identity is not in your wounds, your disappointments. Your identity is not in your success. In fact, not even in your success.
About nine months ago, I quoted Elizabeth Elliot in a sermon. Here is the quote: “The secret of joy is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”
In knowing Jesus, there is fruit. The Bible describes fruit that emanates from knowing Jesus. One of those expressions is the joy of the Lord. Joy is a deep-rooted state of being that stems from God, rooted in your relationship with God in Christ. Happiness, on the other hand, is dependent on favorable circumstances. Certainly, we wish favorable circumstances for all people, but God is declaring that something deeper is available to the believer.
But here is the tension. Many men and women have received Christ, yet they are still living the old version of themselves. And because of that, they are not living in the joy of the Lord and the contagion that you bring to people out of joy in the Lord.
Many remember an old movie called Hook, starring Robin Williams as Peter Pan. The premise of the movie is that Pan has forgotten about his old life in Neverland. He is married now in the real world, and he has two young children. Hook decides he is going to seek revenge against Peter Pan, and he kidnaps his two children. There is a scene in the movie where young Jack, Peter Pan’s little boy, looks up to Hook, idolizing him. In fact, he is even dressing like Hook. As he begins to dress like the captain, young Jack forgets who he really is.
Some have forgotten who they really are because they have lost sight of whose they really are. And because of that, they are living a distortion. You are saved, but you are thinking about yourself in distortions. You are saved and redeemed, but you are still thinking like you are stuck. You are redeemed, but you are still walking in shame or fear, or you are walking by sight rather than walking by faith as the Lord has instructed you. You are new in the Lord, but you are still thinking and even talking like your old self has the final word.
The Apostle Paul says no. No. Something decisive has happened to you. You put your faith in the person of Jesus Christ. The old has passed away, not partially, not occasionally, but passed away. The old is gone.
The question becomes: are you living out of who you were, or are you now living your new life in Christ?
3) A Ministry of Reconciliation
As a new creation, are you embracing living into a ministry of reconciliation?
This is where this word turns outward. Paul says in verse 18: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Do not miss that. You were reconciled to God, but you were also assigned. Being reconciled to God is unto something. This is not just about your personal salvation. This is about your public mission. God did not save you to sit. He saved you to represent Him.
This is why verse 20 says: “We are ambassadors for Christ.” An ambassador does not speak his or her own opinion. They represent the authority and message of another kingdom. Which means that when you step into the workplace or your neighborhood or your family dynamics, you are not there just by accident. You are sent.
Here is the message you are sent with, according to God’s Word: “Be reconciled to God.”
Daryl’s Story
His name was Daryl. He had moved into Cynthia, Kentucky, where I was serving as a student pastor. He had moved into the community in the fall and was new at the high school. A young lady in our student group who had determined to live an ambassador-style life built a relationship with him or tried to. He did not say much. But she wrote him a note and said, “Daryl, I know you are new at the school. You are new to the community. Here is when our youth group meets. I want to invite you to come and be part of it. If you need a ride, call this number. Our family will come get you.” She put that on his desk.
He showed up at the youth group. The entire time, he never spoke a word. Week two went by. Did not say a word. Week three, four, never a word. It was really strange. So, finally, I picked up the phone and called the high school guidance counselor. I said, “Look, there is a new young man in our community. I do not know anything about him. Here is his name. Do you know anything about him? He is not talking.”
She said, “Paul, Daryl, and his family had to move to the community quickly. He is in trauma. His father was under their house, touched a live wire, and was electrocuted. He had a heart attack and died on the spot. Daryl found him under the house.”
Now I understand why Daryl was not talking. About the fifth or sixth week, Daryl got up to walk out of the student group as it ended, turned, faced the student group, and spoke for the first time. He said, “Deandra, I want to thank you for inviting me to this youth group, and I want to thank all of you for being so kind. This has made more of a difference in my life than any of you can imagine.” He turned, and he walked out.
I got a phone call a few days later from a personnel manager in a grocery store, a member of the church. “Paul, we are looking for some young people who can bag groceries who are really good with people.” Daryl ran through my mind. I explained the situation, and we got him down there for an interview. They hired him.
A few months later, Missy looked at me. “Honey, we have got to make a diaper run.” I ran to the grocery store to pick up diapers. I was getting ready to walk out of the grocery store. There were three registers open, but only one line. It happened to be Senior Citizen Day, where you get a discount on your groceries. Three registers were open. I walked up and looked up, and there was a lady I know from church. Her name was Mabel. I walked over. “Mabel, what is going on? Why is there only one line?”
She looked at me so prim and proper and said these words: “Oh, we all want to go through Daryl’s line.”
When Daryl would take the groceries of senior citizens to their car, he was intuitive enough to know that senior citizens, many of them are some of the loneliest people in the world, and he would say something like this: “I know what it is like to be lonely too. I lost my father last summer. But you see that steeple over there? Those people invited me into their community. And I have come to know Jesus Christ and the joy of having people who are close to you. And I want to share that with you because while God has not taken the pain away, there is a comfort that I know whereby my life will never be the same.”
Deandra was an ambassador. Daryl was an ambassador.
It is impossible to truly know God and not talk about Him. It is also impossible for all of us as the people of God not to be living into a divine appointment with a mission filled all around us.
“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” Acts 17:26
That means the fact that we are alive in 2026 is not our idea. God orchestrated it. But it also means that the boundaries of our dwelling place have been determined by God. You may think it was your idea to get a job in Memphis, Tennessee, or somehow it is just coincidental that you were born here and you have lived here all your life. May I remind you: you, according to the Word of God, are in a divine appointment living where you are. What does God desire of you? You are the salt of the earth. You are His ambassador.
The world is fractured. Relationships are broken. People are carrying guilt and anxiety and confusion, and most of all, distance from God. Heaven’s strategy is not a program. It’s people. Heaven’s strategy is you.
Your Purpose and Your Mission
Sometimes I get in conversations with Christians, and I say, “Tell me why you are here,” and they will say things like, “I am here to love God and love Him with my heart, soul, mind, and strength.” I say, “That is a good answer. Is that all?”
I remind you that you have both a purpose and a mission. Your purpose is to love the Lord God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Your mission, according to Jesus, is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. That is your mission: to serve as an ambassador.
What did Paul say his purpose was? “My purpose is to know Him. I want to fellowship with Him even when I suffer for Him. That is His purpose.” But what is his mission? He said it: “To make Christ known where He is not yet known.” He is an ambassador.
You have a purpose to love the Lord God, to glorify God, but you have a mission as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
There are two things you cannot do in heaven. You cannot sin in heaven, and you will not carry the message “be reconciled to God” in heaven. If you cannot do those two things in heaven, what do you think God is leaving you on this earth to do?
4) The Great Exchange
Finally, Paul takes us to what we call the great exchange. Paul closes with one of the most profound words found in all of Scripture in one verse: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
This is the gospel in one sentence. Jesus, who knew no sin, perfect, holy, righteous, became sin for us. He did not just carry it. He did not just observe it. He became sin. That is exactly what the text says. Why? So that you and I would become the righteousness of God.
That is the great exchange. He took our guilt. He took our shame at the cross. He took our judgment at the cross. And in return, He gives you a gift. He gives you righteousness. He gives you forgiveness. He gives you new life. It is not something you have earned. It is something that you receive.
When God looks at you in Christ, He does not see your past. He sees His Son.
Where This Lands
Here is where all this lands:
If you have been living for yourself, Jesus calls you to surrender. The love of Christ compels you.
If you have been stuck in your past, the call is to believe God for your new identity in Jesus Christ.
If you have been silent, the call is to embrace your assignment as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
If you have never received reconciliation, the invitation is open: be reconciled to God through the love of what God has done in Christ.
This is not casual. Paul the Apostle shares this with fervency. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Therefore, be sobered by what the Word teaches. These are eternal matters. That is why Paul uses this urgent language: “We implore you on behalf of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). That is strong. That is urgency. That is love that cannot stay quiet.
Do not just admire what the Word says. Respond to it. Do not just hear about reconciliation. Receive it. God loves you like that. Do not just receive it then. Carry it. Because you are, whether you realize it or not, an ambassador.
TL;DR
The love of Christ compels us to live no longer for ourselves, but for Him.
In Christ, we are not improved—we are made entirely new.
God has reconciled us and entrusted us with the mission of reconciliation.
Through Jesus, our sin is exchanged for His righteousness.
