“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
ACTS 1:8
Before Christ died on the cross, His followers were hoping He would restore Israel and set up His kingdom on earth. Upon seeing their resurrected Savior, they hoped He would establish His Kingdom at that moment (Acts 1:6).
As usual, God had a bigger plan. His plan was not to just restore the nation of Israel or establish an earthly kingdom—His plan was to reconcile people of all nations to Himself (Revelation 7:9), and to establish a heavenly Kingdom that would last for all time and eternity. And although He would accomplish it by His power, He planned to use His people in carrying it out.
As we saw in the previous reading, “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,” (Ephesians 2:9). Those works begin with sharing in His “ministry of reconciliation.” As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himelf through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 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 has appointed us, as members of Christ’s church, to be His ambassadors in the world, and to serve as a rescue mission for those who still need redemption. We join God in His work by proclaiming and living out the truth of the Gospel (that is, the good news about Christ’s saving work on our behalf), and serving as His hands and feet in the world.
He has called us to share in Christ’s reconciling work, but He doesn’t ask us to do it in our own power. He has provided an “advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17). His Holy Spirit dwells within every believer, leading us in God’s will, giving us supernatural understanding (1 Corinthians 2:13-14), and strengthening us (Ephesians 3:16) with His power. Through His strength and guidance, we are charged to carry God’s message to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
We are called to spend our lives, both individually and corporately, glorifying God and serving to bring His reconciliation to the world. Christ “has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (Revelation 1:6). As He told us in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
One way we can share the reconciling work of Christ is to share our own story.