This episode deep dives into the calling of every Christian believer to live as a royal ambassador for Christ. Rick Hughes eloquently guides listeners through the responsibilities and privileges this entails, from the importance of humility and unity in faith to the role of evangelism and personal testimony. Whether you’re seeking to strengthen your own faith or discover how to effectively share it with others, this episode is a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice.
Welcome to The Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flotline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, you have a cordial invitation to hang around, stick with me. Just a few minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, all done without any types of manipulation. We don’t try to con people. We’re not trying to hustle money. We’re not going to try to sell you anything, not try to get you to join up. We just want to give you some good news. The good news is that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, redeemed you and me out of the slave market of sin. Thus, our debt to God has been paid, and we are now free from the penalty and the power of sin. If we receive Christ as our Savior, we in effect accept the offering that he made on our behalf, the free gift of compliments of the grace of God. Ephesians 2.89 says, For by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It’s the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast about it. It’s a heck of a way to start a radio show saying all of that, but here’s the main bottom line. Are you sick of living like you’re living? Are you tired of being the person that you are? Would you like to start your life all over again? You can. The Bible says, if any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away, and all things become new. You can have a clean slate today. By receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can begin a new life, a spiritual life. a unique life that God has ordained for you in eternity past, and a wonderful way to live that you can live without worry, you can live without guilt, you can live without shame, you can live without fear. It’s a wonderful life called the Christian life, but it starts with faith alone in Christ alone. That’s why Titus says in 3, chapter 3, verse 5 and 7, not by works of righteousness, which we did, But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord, that being justified by his grace, freely by his grace. We would be made heirs according to the confidence that we have of eternal life. What a wonderful thing to know Christ as Savior, to begin a new life. That happened to me when I was 22 years old. I was sick of myself. I was sick of living the way that I was living. I was sick of the spotlight in my head that would show me all the goofy things I’d done. I’d try to go to bed at night and there was no peace. I didn’t really know God. I didn’t think about God. But finally, someone took me to a Bible study and I heard about God. And I heard the claim that Jesus Christ died for me, took my place on the cross, was judged in my place. And that if I would trust him, I could have eternal life. I didn’t know all the complications or the ramifications or everything that would take place, but I did it. I prayed. I asked him to save me. And I didn’t feel weird. I mean, nothing funky happened. No lights blinked. No angel showed up. But it happened just as I was told that it would happen. And my life has never been the same since then, excuse me. So what happened is I became a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can do that also. You can be a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you like to do that? Would you like to be his representative in the devil’s world? Recently, while listening to my pastor teach a series on the life of Christ and It’s been quite a series. It’s well over a thousand hours he’s been teaching on this right now. I came to consider what it means to be a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s what I’d like to share with you today. Notice some of the points that I read as I go through John 17 and read a few verses. This is where the Lord Jesus Christ is praying. He’s praying for his disciples, and you’re going to find out something else. He prayed for you in this passage right here. In John 17, beginning with verse 6, he said this. This is, as my pastor says, a didactic prayer or teaching prayer, but The disciples are learning. As he’s praying, they’re learning. And he said, I have revealed to you, Father, those whom you gave me, but gave me out of this world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. This is the first key thing. Obedience. And you can’t be obedient if you’re arrogant. Arrogant people are not teachable. It takes some humility to be teachable. And these men had to learn humility the hard way because they were very competitive with one another. They were a group of fishermen, tax collectors, et cetera. And they had to learn, the Lord Jesus Christ taught them some hard lessons about humility. But if you can understand that his mindset was a mindset of humility, he humbled himself, made himself of no reputation. Philippians 2, 5, 6, 7, right there. You understand what he expected from his disciples. It wasn’t about a popularity contest. It wasn’t about fame. Who’s the most impressive in the bunch? It’s about who could be the biggest, greatest, most wonderful servant. And the Lord Jesus Christ was that servant. He came to serve us and he serves you by providing eternal life free compliments. so he says they have obeyed your word in verse 7 john 17 coming up now and they know everything you’ve given me comes from you verse 8 for i gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them so listen carefully anything the lord jesus christ said came from god the father He didn’t conjure up words on his own. He was repeating the words of God the Father. And as he repeated the words of God the Father, they came through God the Son, and the disciples believed it. And what you’re going to see in a minute is God still speaks like this, except instead of speaking through God the Son, now he speaks through the Bible, the canon of Scripture with these men recorded for us. So he said, they believed that you sent me. And he said, I pray for them, verse nine. I’m not praying for the world, but for those you’ve given me because they are yours, verse 10. All I have is yours and all you have is mine and glory has come to me through them. I, verse 11, will remain in the world no longer. But they are still in the world, that’s you and me. And I am coming to you. So Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name. So there’s power in the name of God the Father. As a believer in Jesus Christ, we are members of the royal family of God. And the Bible says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. What do we need to be protected from? Well, the Bible says the devil goes around like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. We need protection from the strategy of the devil. And Ephesians 6 tells you how to do that. Put on the armor of God so you can stand against the strategy of the devil. And the whole study about the armor of God is about you staying filled with the Spirit, using the faithless drill, learning the promises of God, and these are all part of the flatline in your soul. So he asks the Father to protect them by the power of his name. then he went on to say the name you gave me so they may be one as we are one and here my pastor made it clear to me that they’re praying for unity while i was with them i protected them and i kept them safe by the name you gave me none has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so the scriptures could be fulfilled but i am coming to you now but i say these things verse 13 while i’m still in this world so they may have the full measure of my joy within them. Verse 14, John 17, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of this world any more than I am of this world. And this is true of you too. If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, your citizenship is in heaven. And how did you become a Christian? By believing the word of God. How did you hear the word? It came through the apostles who recorded it and wrote down what Jesus Christ said. Well, where did Jesus Christ get these words? From God the Father as he gave them to him. There it is. I just read it to you. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one, that’s Satan and his minions. And then verse 16, they are not of the world, but even as I am not of the world. Verse 17, chapter 17, John, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Verse 18, As you sent me into the world, I sent them into the world. For them I sanctified myself, or set myself apart, that they too may be truly set apart. Now listen to verse 20, John 17. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. How did you come to believe in Jesus Christ? Well, you heard the word of God. How did you hear the word of God? It was written down and recorded by someone and quoted to you. Who wrote it down and recorded it? The apostles. And now it became the canon of Scripture, and now you have the Bible, and this is how God speaks to you, through the recorded words of Scripture. So my prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. You hear it? For those who will believe in me through their message. He’s looking in eternity future. He’s looking to see you. You’re going to be saved. You’re going to accept Christ as your Savior. You’re going to believe in him through the message the apostles recorded and wrote down and preserved for you in the canon of scriptures. How about that? Verse 21, that all of them may be one. In other words, unity. Not scattered about, says what the devil loves to do, is he loves to cause division and create divisiveness. Father, just as you’re in me, I’m in you. May they also be in us so that the world would believe. You sent me. No competition. No one-upmanship. All one. Same mind, same goal, same identity. That’s the way we’re supposed to be, Christians. So here’s some principles. One, this prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ was a teaching prayer for the disciples because they learned what was coming and what to expect. Two, in verse 20, he said, I pray for those who will believe in me through their message. That’s the fulfillment of the Great Commission given in Matthew 28, 19 and 20, where he told them, go ye therefore teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So there’s their marching orders. There they had their commission. You, as a believer in Jesus Christ, have two royal commissions. You have been commissioned twice. We are commissioned as a believer priest, and we are commissioned as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. We are his personal representatives in the devil’s world. You are, think about this for a minute now, you represent Jesus Christ. The way you dress, the way you talk, the way you live, the way you do things, you are his representative. So, you gotta remember this. As a royal priest, we represent ourself before God. We are believer priests. We don’t have to go to another priest. We can pray directly to God the Father. We don’t need someone to intervene for us. So when you bow your head and say, Heavenly Father, I approach your throne in the name of Jesus Christ, your anointed Son, bingo, you’re right there. We have a priesthood. We don’t need someone to sacrifice an animal on our behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ has already been sacrificed. We represent ourself before God. But then on the other side of the coin, as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are royal ambassadors. That means that we represent God before man. One of them is us representing ourself before God, the royal priest. The other, as a royal ambassador, is us representing God before man, man who’s lost in sin, man who’s lost in darkness. We are the one who reaches that person. This second commission, the royal ambassador, requires us to communicate the gospel, the good news, And it must be in a language understood by the recipient. So you have to talk to people. This is why you’re here. As his personal representative, he is counting on you and depending on you to represent him to a lost and a dying world. This means that all believers, me, you, your pastor, we are all in full-time Christian service. granted we didn’t appoint ourselves we were appointed by God and granted we don’t support ourselves we’re supported by God but our instructions are in written form recorded by the Apostles straight from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ who sent them and it’s pretty simple we don’t belong to this country to which we’ve been sent our citizenship is in heaven That’s our country. That’s our home, Ouranos, heaven. We are Americans, those of us that live here, birth by birth, we’re proud to be an American. This is not my home. I’m passing through. The Bible says I’m a sojourner. I’m passing through on my way to glory, on my way to the promised place. But while I’m here, I am to tolerate others, hold no grudges, have the spiritual strength to stay the course until God calls me home. And 2 Corinthians 5.20 gives me my commission. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. That’s my royal commission. Yours too. As though God were making his appeal through us, you and me. We invite you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. You and I are ministers of reconciliation. That means we give the good news of Jesus Christ to those who come into our periphery. To say that I witness through my lifestyle is a coward. I witness through my lifestyle. I don’t preach to people. That’s a coward. If you’re not willing to give the gospel straight up, you’re a coward. It doesn’t mean you have to preach to everybody you meet, but you could at least give them a track or something. We’ll talk more about that later. But every person you meet is an opportunity to escort them into heaven, into God’s grace. So your ambassadorship is made up not only of how you live your life, but what you say. In private, you function under your priesthood, your believer priest. But in public, you function under your royal ambassadorship, the personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you say, I’m a Christian, you are the personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. Church-age believers like you and me are not only ambassadors to human creatures, but angels are keeping an eye on those things that are going on down here as well. You are a royal ambassador. You’re being watched right now. Angels observed our Lord in 1 Timothy 3.16. They observe and rejoice over the conversion of just one person in Luke 15.7 and 10. And then fallen angels, who you know as demons, are organized to resist and oppose your ambassadorship and your growth in grace. This is seen in Job 1.6, in Job 2.1-3, in Ephesians 6.12. We’re at war. There’s a spiritual war going on. So Christian service, that’s you doing something for God. Christian service related to your royal priesthood, which includes prayer, giving, the execution of the protocol plan of God by learning, thinking, and solving problems. That’s the priesthood. Christian service related to your priesthood. That’s you representing yourself before God. You are supposed to pray. You’re supposed to give. You’re supposed to live the protocol plan of God. And the only way you can do it is to learn it, think it, and Live it. But then on the other side of the coin, your royal ambassadorship. Christian service related to your royal ambassadorship includes evangelism. It includes witnessing. It includes administration in the local church with you functioning in your local church, maybe as a deacon or administration on the mission field or some function in a Christian service organization. A Christian service related to the laws of divine establishment is a wonderful way as an ambassador for Jesus Christ. If you serve in the military, if you serve in law enforcement, if you serve in government, that’s a wonderful way to represent Jesus Christ, God’s anointed son. It’s awesome. So 2 Corinthians 5.19 says, to witness the fact that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Have you ever thought why people go to hell? Why they spend eternity in the lake of fire? Is it because they’re bad sinners, they’re drunks, they’re immoral, they’re adulterers? What’s the reason? No one goes to hell because of their sins. Their sins have been paid for. Their sins were judged on the cross. All sin was poured out on Christ. I’ve told you the Bible says, he that knew no sin was made sin for us. People go to hell and spend eternity in the lake of fire because they reject Christ as Savior. he that believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life and he that believeth not the wrath of god abides on him already if anyone goes to the lake of fire it’s because their name is not recorded in the leon’s book of life not because they’re sinners but because they rejected forgiveness they rejected the opportunity to be saved they rejected christ as savior I mean, Jesus was clear. This is the will of the one that sent me that you believe in me whom he has sent. And he said, if I’m lifted up, I will draw men to myself. You must lift him up. You must proclaim his name. Not obnoxiously. You must literally. Give the Word of God as an ambassador. You stand for God. You are a personal representative of Jesus Christ. You have been sent here for a mission, and that mission is to lead someone else to Christ, to give them the information so they can have eternal life also, not for you to sit on it and say, well, I witness with my lifestyle. Again, that’s a coward. Listen, anybody can be a good person. Anybody can have a moral lifestyle. Just because you live a moral lifestyle, that doesn’t impress people. You know as well as I do, as soon as you open your mouth and begin to talk about Christ, that you’re gonna be alienated by certain people. And that’s fine. That’s the way it’s supposed to happen. Jesus said, I didn’t come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword. Father will turn against son, son will turn against mom and daughter. I mean, it’s all in the Bible. So why do you think it’s supposed to be real easy if you talk about the Lord Jesus Christ? If you identify as a royal ambassador, Do you not know what’s going to happen? You’re going to be ostracized. You’re going to be attacked. You’re going to be a target. If you have a business card, what does it say? John Doe Professional Services. Put on the bottom of that card, next time you reprint it, an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Put it on your card. Give it to people. Don’t be ashamed of it. It’s the most unique calling in the world. You have been called to stand beside Christ. You have been called to represent him. You have been sent into the devil’s world with a royal commission. Go, therefore, and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many Christians are so self-absorbed, they never even come close to living the Christian life. They don’t even get close to it. They don’t even know what it means. They just go through the ritual of religion without no reality to it. Ritual without reality is totally meaningless. There has to be reality to what you do, like communion. So many churches offer communion once a month, once a quarter, two or three times a year, and it’s just a ritual with no reality because people don’t even understand what they’re doing. They couldn’t name any doctrine associated with the bread, and they couldn’t name any doctrine associated with the cup. They just eat it and drink it and say, okay, I’m remembering Jesus. It’s a lot more than that. It’s a test. It’s a test of what you can remember. Many Christians are so self-absorbed, they never take the time to learn anything. Yeah, I got my ticket to heaven. Yes, I’m saved. Yes, I’m going to go to church. Every Sunday morning, I’m always there. I always give my tithe. I’m a good Christian. I don’t drink, dance, smoke, chew, or hang around with those that do. Yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. But what about the plan of God? What about growing the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? What about study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth? What about take my yoke and learn from me? My yoke is easy. My burden is light.” what about if you love me you will keep my mandates and they’re not grievous first john 5 3. see each individual you meet is an opportunity for you to extend the grace hand of god in fellowship he’s waiting and you can invite them and introduce them to your savior the lord jesus christ if you’re not confident in what you’re supposed to say then give them a track I mean, my goodness, I have a little small tract called Happiness. We give them away by the hundreds. Put it in their hands and say, if you take time to read this, let me know if you have any questions. Would you please take a moment to read this? They may throw it away. I mean, that’s okay. We’ll print some more. But if one of them takes time to read it, you’ve at least given him an invitation to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ without you saying anything if you’re not confident in what to say. If you’re not confident in what to say, sometimes it’s because you don’t know how to say it. So maybe one out of 100 will eventually respond, but at least you offered the good news. Personal witnessing is one category of Christian service as part of your royal ambassadorship. The Holy Spirit will take your words, the words you say, and he will act on them But he only uses what’s accurate. He doesn’t use what’s inaccurate. So if you tell someone if you want to be a member of the royal family of God, you got to quit drinking and quit smoking and quit cussing and quit going to R-rated movies, that’s not how you get saved. It’s believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. It’s John 3, 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is an opportunity for you to have a new life in Christ. an opportunity for you to be somebody, for you to actually be somebody, not just a number on your driver’s license, but to be a royal ambassador of Jesus Christ, his personal representative in the devil’s world. That’s what you’re called to be. It’s an awesome responsibility. It’s an awesome opportunity. It’s an awesome privilege. Put it on your card. Put it on your mailbox. A royal ambassador of Jesus Christ. What a privilege to lift up the name of Christ and see people be drawn in to him. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention. And I hope this is meaningful for you. If you have a question, you can always contact me through our website, rickhughesministries.org. Until next week, same time, same place, please come back.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
