By Warren Olson
Years ago, evangelist Leighton Ford was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was scheduled to speak the following night, but arrived a day early and joined the evening’s crowd by slipping in the back. He was wearing a hat and dark glasses, so no one recognized him.
Sitting just in front of Graham was an elderly gentleman who was listening intently to Ford’s evangelistic sermon. When the crowd was invited to come forward as a sign of commitment to Christ, Billy Graham tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, “Sir, would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you.”
“Naw,” the man responded, not realizing to whom he was speaking, “I think I’ll wait ’til the big gun comes tomorrow night.”
It’s easy to sometimes fall into the mind-set that sharing the message of Christ is a job for the spiritual “big guns” like Billy Graham, while the rest of us are just along for the ride. But the truth is that every single one of us is called to be a representative of God’s Kingdom here on earth.
This is precisely what the apostle Paul was talking about when he wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us… ” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Now, if most Christians are honest with themselves, the biggest hindrance they have to performing their duties as an ambassador is found in a simple, four-letter word: fear. People are afraid that if they share Christ, they’ll be rejected and shamed.
But what’s the role of an ambassador? Quite simply, it’s to move forward the interests of the leader he or she represents. More important than promoting an ambassador’s own reputation is the priority of promoting the one who sent him.
So what does that mean for those of us who are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God in the world? It means we put our own reputation second to making Jesus famous. It means we accept there will be people who reject what we say, and yet we share God’s message of hope anyway because we truly believe life is found in Christ alone.
Wherever you are today, you’re an ambassador for God’s Kingdom. And it’s your solemn duty to promote His Kingdom interests of bringing others to salvation through Christ. Don’t neglect your responsibility of sharing God’s message of hope and love. Embrace your heavenly calling by sharing Christ with those whom God has placed around you!