PRIORITY NUMBER ONE



PRIORITY NUMBER ONE

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9

{PP} Ill. What is 750,000 miles long, reaches around the earth 30 times, and grows 20 miles longer each day? Give up? Here’s the answer: The line of people who are without Christ.

{PP} Ill. When William Booth signed the guest book for King Edward the 7th he summed up his life’s work. “Your Majesty” he wrote “Some men’s ambition is art. Some men’s ambition is fame. Some men’s ambition is gold. My ambition is the souls of men.”

By virtue of the fact that you and I are Christians, evangelism automatically becomes a part of our lives. You may not be a licensed or ordained minister; you may not even have a call on you life to be a minister, but all of us are called to be evangelist in some way or another. We are to tell people about Jesus. We are on a rescue mission with eternal consequences. {PP} Your pulpit may be at work; your pulpit may be on the river or at home but each of us has a pulpit—a place where we can tell people about Jesus.

We as Christians have for too long been concerned with minor things. We have become more concerned about buildings than souls; we have become more concerned about grass cutting than souls; we have become more concerned about carpet, fund raising, what we wear to church, what somebody has said about us, if somebody is in our seat, etc. and forgot about souls. {PP} There are people in the world, right around us that are lost and on their way to hell and for some reason that doesn’t stir us anymore. {PP} We have lost our passion for souls. We are passionate about a lot of things but not about souls. We are passionate about the clothes we wear; we are passionate about politics; we are passionate about seeing that our children get a good education but we are not passionate about souls. If we were as passionate about souls as we are these other things, can you imagine how many people we could lead into a personal relationship with the Lord.

{PP} We have forgotten that people without Jesus are lost. Until we recapture the lostness of humanity we will not regain that passion for lost souls that Jesus had.

The reason for our sluggishness and unconcern for lost souls is because we don’t see humanity as lost. We may say that we believe humanity is lost but we don’t act like it. We act like lost people who are convinced that they have plenty of time; we think we have plenty of time to witness to them and tell them about Jesus when tomorrow might be their last day on earth. You might put off a lot of things but I plead with you, don’t put off telling someone about Jesus; don’t put off building a relationship with someone so that you will have the opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

Many lost people think that they are too good to go to hell; many Christians think that way, that surely God wouldn’t send that person to hell because they do so many good things. Besides, they are young, I’ll tell them about Jesus later.

What about children? We don’t witness to them because we think they are too young to understand and that Jesus wouldn’t allow a child to go to hell anyway. One of the most dangerous teachings of the church is that you don’t have to worry about the soul of a child until they get a certain age. But let me ask you, what is that magical age when a child can accept Jesus as Savior? We don’t need to play around with this thing called the “age of accountability.”

Many times we don’t witness because we are praying for God to send someone else to that person, not us.

{PP} God needs to restore in us a vision of the lostness of humanity and stir us up and let us know that it is not just our brother or sister who is responsible to be a witness or evangelist, it is also our responsibility.

{PP} [If people are lost outside of Christ, and if faith in Jesus Christ is the only avenue of redemption, what could possibly be a higher priority than spreading the gospel as far as we can and as fast as we can, to everybody we can?] Anything the church does that is not directly tied to evangelism is not unlike rearranging the furniture while the house is on fire!

The first priority of any church should be making it hard for anyone to go to hell. We have made it easy because we haven’t challenged the lost with the message of the gospel. We haven’t confronted them with the reality of hell.

One of the most important issues today is that you and I need to see that people without Jesus are lost and on their way to hell. We need to see that the only way they can be saved is to believe in Jesus and the only way they can believe in Jesus is if someone will share Jesus with them.

Acts 4:12 – “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

According to this scripture, there is salvation in no one else and no other name given that can redeem lost souls other than Jesus.

Listen closely to the words of a Japanese exchange student studying in America. “I thought Christianity was important in this country, but now I know it isn’t. After all, I’ve been here for a year, and no one has talked to me about Jesus.”

Leighton Ford tells the story of a prison chaplain who tried to share the gospel with a condemned man. After listening to the minister’s appeal, the prisoner replied, “Do you really believe what you say, Chaplain? If I believed your gospel were true, I would crawl across England on broken glass to tell men about it.” Surely the urgency of our witness will measure the reality of our beliefs. So I ask you, do you really believe that humanity, all of humanity is lost and if so what are you doing about it?

Have you ever thought about where that co-worker will spend eternity if they die? Have you every thought about where that aunt or uncle will spend eternity if they die? Have you ever thought about where that grandmother or grandfather will spend eternity if they die? Have you ever thought about where that teenager will spend eternity if they should die? Have you ever thought about where that small child will spend eternity if they die? What about that husband or wife, that dad or mother? When is the last time you thought about the judgment of God in relation to these people? When is the last time you contemplated that some of these people could spend eternity in hell?

{PP} You and I must believe that all humanity, every man, woman, boy and girl is lost without Jesus. If we don’t believe that then we want be very passionate about seeing people saved. There is no urgency for us if we don’t believe that people will go to hell without Jesus.

Scripture does not leave us with any doubt as to the final destiny of those without Christ: 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says, “(7) …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, (8) in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (9) These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

{PP} The Westminster Confession says, “But the wicked, who know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power.”

The most often quoted verse in the Bible clearly presents humanity’s only two options: perishing or having everlasting life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

As Paul thought of his own people being lost, he wrote, “I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart” (Romans 9:2). The word “great” implies that he had enormous or mega sorrow for them.

The reason evangelism is not a priority is because we don’t have a broken heart like Paul. We don’t have that “great sorrow” or “continual grief” in our hearts for the lost. The harvest is immense and ready to be gathered by those who have sown in tears. “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6). The crown of rejoicing awaits those who win souls. Listen to Daniel 12:3 – “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”

Jesus spoke often of the terrible place of torment for those who were not reconciled to God. He told the story of an arrogant, wealthy man who, in hell, screamed and pleaded for just a drop of water. The man cried, “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). Jesus said there would be those who would go “into the everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41) and “into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46).

The destiny of those outside of Christ is no laughing matter. God is not desirous that anyone perish. Look again at Calvary. See God’s Son as He hangs on the cross. In history’s most awesome moment, He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Your sins, my sins, the sins of the entire world were in that moment smashed on Him. The literal meaning of Isaiah 53:6 is “the Lord has caused to land on Him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus Christ was separated from the Father so that we might never need to be separated. Jesus, being infinite, suffered in a finite period of time what we, being finite, would have suffered for an infinite period of time.

{PP} Paul cried out, “Necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). {PP} John Knox pleaded on his knees, “Give me Scotland or I die.” Hudson Taylor, as a young man in England, cried to God, “I feel that I cannot go on living unless I do something for China. {PP} [Robert Arthington could not go overseas but, through sacrifice, helped send others. He lived in a single room, cooked his own meals, and gave over $500,000 to missions. At the end of his life he wrote, “Gladly would I again make the floor my bed, a box my chair, another box my table, rather than that men should perish for want of the knowledge of the Savior.”]

Late one night a concerned lighthouse keeper watched as a violent storm erupted at sea. Suddenly the seasoned keeper saw the faint SOS of a ship in distress. Instinctively he turned to his young apprentice and commanded, “Let’s go!”

Horrified, the apprentice retorted, “But, sir, if we go out there, we may never come back.”

The old keeper of the lighthouse paused and put his hand on the young man’s shoulder, “Son,” he responded, “we have to go out. We don’t have to come back.”

No one doubts that there is great peril in penetrating the final frontiers. But that is not the issue. What matters is that people are perishing. We have to go out. We don’t have to come back. We are on a rescue operation for the souls of humanity.

{PP} William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army, once remarked, “Most Christian ministries would like to send their recruits to Bible College for five years. I would like to send our recruits to hell for five minutes. That would do more than anything else to prepare them for a lifetime of compassionate ministry.”

In a way that is what I want to do tonight.

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