I started going to church at the age of 16. During my time as a teenager, I heard dozens of sermons. I must confess that I don’t remember too many of them in particular. But one thing that does stand out to me in special clarity is a story my pastor relayed of a time shortly after he got married.
The pastor stood at the pulpit and drifted to a scene that had taken place early in his married life. He and his wife had gotten into a discussion shortly after he had done something upsetting. She said to him, “You live as though God doesn’t exist.”
Now, I don’t remember what the sermon was over that day. I don’t remember what the Bible passage was or what was preached.
But I do remember that quote.
My pastor, whom I viewed as one who had always been Godly and mature, had just given an account of when his wife called him out for acting as though God isn’t even real. He had even been in full-time ministry at the time. And it made me think.
It still makes me think.
It makes me think because, all too often, I catch myself living as though God were not real. I make decisions without consulting Him. I say things that oppose His heart. I believe things He wouldn’t want a person to believe. I find myself being faithless.
When I look into my heart, I often see a garden full of thistles and weeds – full of selfish desires, of anger, and of ungodliness.
‘My God has a lot of work to do, doesn’t He?’ I say to myself.
In these moments, I am tempted to despair and to give up hope. How can God use me for His work when I fail Him so frequently? How can He even love me? I search my own heart and find that I would lack the patience and the love to put up with such behavior.
If it were not for God, I would be left in my misery.
But it is also in these moments when I am reminded of who God is. I am gently reminded that the God I serve is far greater, far stronger, and far more powerful than my ability to live as though He’s not there.
In 2 Timothy 2:11-13, we read:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
Read that again.
When we fall short – and we will fall short, make no mistake – we can draw encouragement from this passage. When we catch ourselves living as though God isn’t real, or as though He doesn’t really care and won’t really do what He says He will do, we can look to that last section of the passage.
When we catch ourselves being faithless, we can take counsel here.
‘…If we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.‘
Just look at the pattern we see.
A — “If we have died with Him… we will also live with Him.”
B — “If we endure… we will reign with Him.”
C — “If we deny Him… He will deny us.”
D — “If we are faithless… He is faithful.”
Throughout this entire block of scripture, we see a pattern.
If we do good, something good will come. If we do bad, something bad will come. You can see that in lines A, B, and C. In A and B, the doing of good results in the receiving of good. In C, the doing of bad (denying Jesus) results in the receiving of bad (being denied by Jesus).
But what about in D? What if we are faithless?
We would expect that Jesus would also be faithless, based upon the pattern. But that’s not what we see.
Instead, we see that Christ remains faithful in spite of our faithlessness. Why? Because he cannot deny Himself.
Wow.
Even in our darkest moments – our times of faithlessness and wandering – Christ stands faithful. He is steadfast. He is above and beyond our ability to hinder Him. As Jesus said in Luke 19:40, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
In other words, Christ will bring about His will and His Kingdom in spite of our failure.
Do you ever catch yourself praying and longing after Christ, yet still falling prey to sin? Do you ever catch yourself praying fervently one hour, then living as though God isn’t there the next?
I know I do.
There are times when I let the world take over, when I let my own desires run the show. I get uptight, overwhelmed, feeling as though I must do it all, for everything rests on my shoulders. I lose sight of God as the clouds of life roll in.
But then I am reminded – gently, sweetly, and firmly – that the Lord is in control. And it’s ultimately up to Him. Far from letting me drift in my sin comfortably, this gentle reminder brings me back to Him.
As Paul Washer is fond of saying, ‘There are no great men of God. There are only weak and pitiful men of a great and merciful God.’
You see, all the goodness we have comes from God. We have nothing good apart from Him. Every good and perfect gift comes down from Him. The very fact that you’re alive and breathing is a testament to His mercy and His power.
You cannot do anything apart from Him.
And be rest assured, dear reader, that it is only because of God’s direct intervention that we can build His Kingdom. Nobody goes out and singlehandedly builds God’s Kingdom. No one is a spiritual superman or superwoman. No one has it all.
Every man and woman you see that serves God is serving Him because of His power – not theirs.
Every time you see Christ shine through someone, it’s because He is bright enough to blast through the clouds of their fallenness – not because they are just “such good Christians.”
When we are unfaithful to Him – when we forget Him, when the cares of the world sweep over our lives like the tide sweeps over a beach – He remains faithful. He must remain faithful. He is unmoving and unwavering.
So be assured, dear reader, that our God is real. He is more real than the world you see around you, and in the end, only His will and His power will count.
He is more than enough to overcome your weakness. He is more than enough to smash down the stronghold of your sin and bring you into fellowship with Him.
Jesus will bear you on, and He will see to it that His good work in you is brought forth to completion.
Many today deny the existence of Hell, but the Bible portrays Hell as a real place of punishment. Here’s why we should teach on it.
For many centuries, the existence of Hell was a given for Christians around the world. But recent movements in the Church have challenged the idea of Hell.
A Pew Research Survey conducted in 2014 found that a substantial portion of the American populace – 58% – still believed in Hell. A similar survey conduct in 2007 returned a figure of 59%. Many denominations and churches still include Hell in their official doctrine.
Clearly, the doctrine of eternal punishment is still alive and kicking. More than half of Americans claim to believe it. Roughly 7 in 10 Americans identify as Christian, meaning that a majority of American Christians must still believe that Hell is real.
But in truth and practice, the doctrine of Hell is losing influence. And it’s losing influence quickly.
This is a problem.
The Importance of Believing in Hell
Before I begin, please let me say this: I am not here to shame or guilt anyone. I am not yelling at you or condemning you if you don’t believe in Hell. The work of a Christian is not to condemn, but to deliver the Gospel. The work of a Believer is to obey God’s Word and to make that Word known to others… in its entirety.
This is why belief in Hell is important.
Belief in Hell is important because the Bible talks about Hell. It is an integral part of the Gospel. Jesus Himself references Hell many times in the New Testament. He tells us that it is a place we most certainly do not want to go.
Revelation also talks about the Final Judgement, where it is very clear as to the fate of those whose names are “not found recorded in the Book of Life.” It tells us that the unsaved will depart to be in the “lake of fire” which was originally prepared for the devil and the devil’s angels. This is none other than Hell.
Those age-old images of Hell being a place of blazing fire and acrid smoke do not come from a vacuum. The Bible is rather clear in its portrayal of what happens to those who die without Christ.
To deny Hell, you see, you must deny certain portions of Scripture. You have to claim that the lake of fire is either metaphorical or that it doesn’t really exist. You also have to work some pretty serious gymnastics around much of what Jesus said. There are theologians today – popular theologians, too – who claim that Hell is simply a Western (or even American) invention.
But this is not the case. Scripture proves it. Has Hell always been correctly understood? Absolutely not. But there is no denying that it exists.
Additionally, Hell is central to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save people and give them eternal life. He often spoke of repentance and salvation, urging people to place their faith in Him.
Finally, Jesus died a horrific death on the cross for the penalty of our sins. His death was among the ugliest imaginable. He was not painlessly executed, nor was He quickly executed. Instruments of death such as the gallows and the guillotine can be seen as incredibly merciful when compared side-by-side with the crucifixion death of Christ.
Christ came, lived, ministered, suffered, died, and rose again for a purpose.
There are many today who claim that Jesus was a “good teacher.” But if He was only a teacher, why was He killed? And why was He so assured of its necessity? Plenty of people have been killed throughout history for causes they believed in, but Jesus’ convictions were startlingly different. He did not die solely because of what He believed in; He died because He knew in advance that He must die!
His mission was His crucifixion.
The gravity of what Christ did is made even greater – infinitely greater – by the fact that He was the Son of God. Christ was Himself a member of the Holy Trinity. He was God in His own right. While on Earth, Jesus had every right to call upon the strength of ten thousand angels and have them execute justice on His behalf. He had every right to put to shame His opponents, His persecutors, and His murderers.
But He didn’t.
Why?
Because His death was necessary. Without the willing death of Jesus, there is no salvation for people like you and me. Our salvation is so important to God – and so mind-blowingly expensive – that it took the literal slaughtering of God’s only Son to accomplish it.
And therein lie the questions.
If there was no threat of Hell whatsoever, then why did the very Son of Almighty God Himself hang on a cross for six hours in pure agony? If eternal punishment and torment were not the fate of sinners dying outside of grace, why was Christ’s death necessary?
The truth is, Christ’s death was necessary because sin is a big deal and Hell is real. Any of our sins – small and great, visible and invisible – are capable of sending us there. Without Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice, we are literal and metaphorical toast. We would be plunged directly into Hell at the final judgement, sinners without mercy being separated from God’s goodness forever and ever.
This is a central, core doctrine of Scripture. The Gospel is so sweet because sin is so horrible and Hell is so terrifying. When we stop preaching and teaching about Hell, the urgency of the Gospel message is diluted. Without Hell, Christ becomes nothing more than a good man who gave His life so that we could be enlightened, successful people.
I’m sorry, but if there is anything Christ is not, it is merely “good teacher” or “ticket to prosperity.”
When we deny the reality of Hell, or even fail to touch on the subject from time to time, we are effectively reducing the significance of the Gospel. Does not the Gospel stand in such sharper relief when considered against the backdrop of Hell? Christ did not die to make you rich, happy, healthy, or otherwise prosperous. He didn’t die to offer you ‘enlightenment’ or ‘spiritual release’ in this life.
Rather, Christ died because God loves you. Your sin will send you to a place of eternal punishment known as Hell. If you die in your sins, you will perish apart from mercy. You will be subject to the full justice of God, which demands eternal payment.
But Christ died so that you would not have to experience Hell. He died to keep you out of that eternal lake of fire. That is why He came, died, and rose again. Christ satisfied the justice of God, and it is only because of His sacrifice that you are declared totally righteous in the sight of God.
Final Thoughts
To sum everything up, belief in Hell is important for two primary reasons:
The Bible teaches on it, and the Bible is infallible and inerrant
The Gospel’s urgency depends upon sin and Hell
Denial of Hell is symptomatic of a broader trend of denying (or otherwise running from) fundamental truths of the Bible. While denial of Hell will not make you unsaved – again, I firmly believe that there are many saved Christians out there who either deny Hell or are unsure of its existence – to deny Hell is to deny a bedrock reality of the Bible. Christ spoke openly on Hell, and Revelation teaches on its reality. For the serious Bible scholar, there is no getting away from Hell’s reality in Scripture.
Indeed, a conclusion that I have come to is this: orthodoxy is orthodoxy for a reason. Hell is orthodoxy. It’s an established and broadly-accepted doctrine in historical Christendom. Many theologians whose minds far outstrip my own have thought, wrestled, prayed, studied, and come to the conclusion that there is a Hell and it is eternal.
Hell is real. It’s eternal. It awaits all sinners who die without the blood of Christ. This is uncomfortable, but true. It does not go over well to the unsaved masses of our culture.
We live in a society that is viciously anti-judgement – even though our society does hypocritically judge – and Hell is God’s judgement. Naturally, therefore, people don’t want to hear about Hell. Churches built upon being “seeker-sensitive” will oftentimes avoid Hell. To preach on Hell is to turn away potential congregants.
Additionally, it is becoming increasingly popular in the contemporary age to go against the grain of established truth. You hear things such as, “What’s true for you may not be true for me.” And while there is a grain of truth to such an idea, this relativism should never be applied to issues of theology or Scripture. Denial of Hell is a slippery slope down which many have already slid a great deal.
If one denies Hell, it is only one more step to deny God’s wrath. If one denies His wrath, it is only one further step to deny His justice. If one can deny His justice, it is only one more step to deny the need for a Savior.
And if one denies the need for a Savior, he or she can effectively deny Christ and therefore Christianity.
As Believers, we ought to aim to confront Hell not as a frightful fantasy, but as a weighty reality. The idea of Hell compels action. There are people out there who are on their way to eternal destruction. Sinners who die without Jesus don’t merely cease to exist or go to a less-good afterlife; they go to Hell. They are stuck there for all eternity, and by then, it’s too late.
This is why evangelism and witnessing are so important. Why go to all the trouble of witnessing to others? Why go to the trouble of spreading and sharing Christ? Just so that someone can be enlightened and live a good life?
I submit to you that the sweetness of the Gospel and the urgency of spreading the Gospel stem at least partially from the reality of Hell. This fundamental truth of Christianity is important, and is necessary to a better walk with the Lord. If you’re in a ministry position, it is important that you teach others about Hell. It is important that this doctrine does not go silent.
For our sake and the sake of those who have yet to know Jesus, we must acknowledge and deal with the truth of Hell.
Jesus is Lord. What does this phrase mean? In this article, we’re taking a look at the lordship of Jesus Christ, and what it means for our lives.
Jesus is Lord.
We hear that phrase often; it’s painted on roadway signs and plastered on church marquees all over the nation.
But what does it really mean?
Philippians 2:9-11 tells us,
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. [Philippians 2:9-11, ESV]
Not only is Jesus Lord, Scripture tells us that there will come a day when every person will assent to His lordship.
Clearly, the lordship of Jesus is important. It’s fundamental to who He is, and how He relates to us as human beings.
Here are three aspects of Christ’s lordship over our lives.
1. Jesus is Sovereign
Jesus Christ is God. He is a member of the Trinity, which consists of three separate persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Each is separate, yet also God. They are different, yet the same. The Trinity is a mystery which has been pondered by theologians and scholars of the most brilliant sort for thousands of years. I would venture to say that no human being has ever had a perfectly correct understanding of the Trinity.
The best we can do is approximate.
We can know that there is a Trinity, yet still be unable to fully grasp the nature of the Trinity. It is a mystery that will remain partially hidden to us until we go to be with the Lord.
But I digress. Jesus is God, which means that He is sovereign.
What does “sovereign” mean? From Merriam-Webster, the term ‘sovereign’ is defined as follows:
Possessed of supreme power
Unlimited in extent; ABSOLUTE
Enjoying autonomy; INDEPENDENT
In other words, sovereignty goes beyond merely being “powerful.” A person is sovereign if he or she possesses absolute, unequivocal, unchallenged authority and independence.
Throughout much of the Middle Ages and into the Enlightenment, kings and queens in Europe were often referred to as “sovereigns.” Today, independent countries are referred to as “sovereign nations.” This means they have unchallenged and absolute authority to govern the lands within their borders.
Sovereignty is exclusive. It’s pre-eminent. It’s paramount. If someone or something is sovereign, it possesses the highest possible level of authority.
Jesus, therefore, possesses the “highest possible authority.” Let’s ponder that statement for just a moment.
Today, we have sovereign nations. The United States is a sovereign nation. No other nation – not Mexico, nor Canada, nor Russia, nor India, nor any other country – has the right to govern territory within the American border.
That right is exclusively reserved for the government of the United States.
The government has charge over the land; therefore, it is the highest authority in the land. But does the government of the U.S. truly own the land? Furthermore, does the government own the people?
No.
Can the government compel anyone to do anything it wants? No.
Even if the U.S. were a totalitarian dictatorship, like North Korea or the now-defunct Soviet Union, it would still be imperfect in its wielding of power.
Why do totalitarian states set up prison camps?
Because people tend to disobey. Even the most powerful and far-reaching governments the world has ever created cannot enforce perfect obedience on their people.
Thus, the “sovereignty” of any person or any government will be imperfect. It won’t be truly absolute. A king may declare himself sovereign, but he can be disobeyed. He can be attacked by other kings. His authority does not extend perfectly to the furthest reaches of the earth.
But Jesus’ authority IS absolute.
Jesus, being God, is the Creator of all things. Nothing exists that was not created through Him (John 1:3). Therefore, Jesus’ sovereignty is true sovereignty. It’s absolute.
Try as you might, you cannot escape His might.
You can float out into international waters and be free of national government. You can build a rocket, fly to Mars, and declare yourself free from all authority in the world. Odds are, the world will not be able to seriously challenge you from your new perch.
But try as you might, you can never escape God’s grasp. Go to the depths of the ocean, and you’ll find Him. Fly to Mars, and you’ll find Him. Launch yourself to another solar system at the speed of light, and once you arrive, you will be no further from the grasp of God than when you started.
Jesus is sovereign. His authority is absolute. It is based on His ownership of all things.
Nothing – yes, NOTHING – exists apart from His direct creation. Every star you can see, every planet you can visit, every mountain peak and every valley and every prairie you can walk through – all was made by His hand.
He owns all things, including you. You can’t escape Him. You cannot challenge Him. His authority is supreme, never-ending, and all-encompassing.
Jesus is sovereign. This is the basis of His lordship. As the late S.M. Lockridge so eloquently put it, “His lordship is based on His ownership.”
S.M. Lockridge on the lordship of Jesus Christ
2. Jesus is Just
We have established that Jesus, being God, is all-powerful. Nothing exists apart from Him, and nothing is outside the scope of His rule and reign. This is Jesus’ sovereignty.
But what about the character of Jesus Christ? Throughout history, we have seen examples of sovereign rulers and sovereign nations that have abused humanity to extents hardly imaginable.
We have examples of genocide, of mass murder, of exploitation, and of horrendous injustice. The character of a sovereign person or government is crucial. Is Jesus a “just king” or an “unjust king?”
The answer: He is just. In fact, there is no authority more just than His authority.
Jesus is fair. He is just. He is righteous, correct, and perfect. He is infallible. He is the cornerstone upon which all notion of equity exists.
True justice does not exist apart from Christ.
What do I mean by this?
I mean that Jesus sets the rules, and He enforces the rules as they ought to be enforced. It’s as simple as that.
Christ is just. He invented justice.
Any concept that we have of justice is just a reflection – and an imperfect one at that – of the true standard set down by our Lord.
At the end of time, all men and women who have ever lived on the earth will be called forth to give an account of their lives. Hebrews 9:27 and Romans 14:12 guarantee this. It’s also talked about in 2 Corinthians 5:10 and Revelation 20:12.
Everyone – male and female, Jew and Gentile, believer and unbeliever – will stand before God and be judged. And this justice will be perfect. There will be no attorney, no jury, and no painstaking gathering of evidence. All the evidence will be held in God’s hands, because God sees and knows everything perfectly. All thoughts and all actions will be laid bare.
And His sentencing will be perfectly just.
There will be no abuse of power. There will be no corruption. The judge, the lawyer, the plaintiff, and the criminal of this life will stand before Christ as equals. Christ is the perfect judge, the “Judge of judges” if you will, and His sentencing is perfectly correct.
Some people will be sent to eternal damnation (Revelation 20:11-15), and others will be sent to eternal life (Matthew 25:46).
What determines one’s fate? It is not his or her actions in this life. Rather, it’s this: did that person repent of his sins and believe upon Jesus?
Herein lies the most wonderful aspect of Jesus’ justice: He freely gives pardon. We are all guilty apart from Him, but if we turn to Him and believe in Him – trusting Him for forgiveness – then we receive forgiveness. We are declared ‘innocent.’
There are men in this world that have done despicable things which no human court could ever forgive. There are men who have murdered, abused, and slaughtered. Many of these men have been sentenced to life in prison or even death.
But let’s just say that the worst of the worst – a killer, a rapist, an abuser – leads a life of crime and is then sentenced to death for his atrocities. Yet right before his execution, he repents of his sins and believes upon Jesus.
That man is going to Heaven.
There are also men who have done great deeds, who have given to the poor and made the service of humanity the entire thrust of their lives, who will be judged and found guilty by God. Why? Because they never repented and believed upon Jesus.
This is the most perfect aspect of the justice of Jesus. It doesn’t work like our justice. We judge based upon deeds – and we should, because society would fall apart if we didn’t – but God ultimately judges based upon one thing: have we given our trust to Him?
Apart from Christ, we stand condemned. With Him, we stand absolved.
This brings us to the third aspect of Jesus’ lordship:
3. Jesus is Good and Merciful
We need not fear, because Jesus is merciful. And He is good.
Ponder this for a second: the Creator of the universe, the ultimate and supreme authority, is a good authority. He’s the best possible authority. We could not have asked for a better God and a better Savior.
Up to this point, we have shown that Jesus is sovereign and that Jesus is just. But Jesus is also merciful, and He is full of love.
This great power – a sovereign king, a just king, far above our ability to comprehend – freely offered His life for our salvation.
Allow me to be blunt, and to ask a question: who in your life would you die for?
If you’re like most people, you might say that you’d die for your kids. You might say you’d die for your spouse, your siblings, or your best friends. Perhaps there is nobody in this world that you would die for.
My point is this: people don’t die for those they care nothing about. Speaking as a typical human, I would not be inclined to die for a random stranger. I would not be inclined to die even for an acquaintance.
But what about an enemy? What about someone diametrically opposed to me? Would I die for such a person?
If someone were to come to you, spit on you, and tell you how worthless you were, would you turn around and sacrifice yourself for that person?
My guess is no. We would have a tough enough time not fighting back. We would have a tough enough time simply holding our tongue and being civil in return. I doubt we’d be filled with such genuine affection for that person that we would freely offer to die for them.
Where am I going with this? Well, Jesus showed His ultimate mercy for us in that He died for us. But Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6-8).
In other words, He died for His enemies. Those who are without God are against God, and those who sin are sinning against Him. When Christ came to the world, He was hated and spit upon and driven out of cities. He was ultimately captured, beaten, mocked, and murdered.
Yet what did He say during his crucifixion? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).
That’s right; He was showing sacrificial love to the very men who drove nails into His flesh.
Few of us could imagine even coming close to such a display of sacrificial love and mercy. And we’re humans. We’re flawed. We’re imperfect, and we have all done things that are deserving of punishment.
But as for Jesus? He was the only person who ever lived a perfect life. And He was also the only person who ever offered His life in genuine love for those who hated Him. He deserved that the world would die for Him, but He flipped the narrative and died for the world.
This is mercy. This is love. This is the most tangible, visible, marquee-flashing-on-the-side-of-the-road sign of Christ’s mercy and grace.
He is good. He is merciful. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly just, and impartially merciful. He is entirely good and complete in love.
This is our Savior and our Lord.
How We Respond
The very nature of Jesus’ lordship demands that we respond. We cannot simply file this away in the back of our minds. We cannot pass ‘go’ and collect 200 dollars.
Jesus is worthy of our time. He is worthy of our respect.
And He is Lord.
Therefore, we must submit to Him as Lord of our lives. We must not only acknowledge His lordship in thought, but we must actively submit to Him in deed. Scripture says,
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. [1 John 5:1-3, ESV]
From this, it is clear that we are called to obey God’s commandments. Our first and foremost response to the lordship of Jesus ought to be love, and love for God is keeping His commandments.
There is a lie creeping into the culture – and even into the Church – that we do not have to submit to Jesus. This lie is very widespread. And it is damaging. It is damaging to the faith, to the Church, and to those who believe it.
To put it bluntly, we must submit to Jesus. It is absolutely necessary and absolutely imperative.
We are to come to Christ on His terms, not our own. We are to come to Him with a listening ear, a willing spirit, and a humble heart. We are to come to Him reverently, for He is worthy of all our respect and all our worship and all our honor.
The idea that one can simply believe in Jesus for “life insurance” so that they don’t go to Hell when they die is horribly incorrect. That’s not Christianity; it’s a product of the Western consumer mentality.
Remember: Jesus is all-powerful. He is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-loving. And that same Christ died for you. That same Jesus Christ died for your personal sin.
What must we do in response? Treat Him as holy. Honor Him as set apart and in a tier all His own. We must submit to Him and take His yoke upon us. Scripture assures us that His yoke is easy, and that His commands are not burdensome.
Not only has our Savior been incomprehensibly merciful towards us, He continues to be so in that He is not burdensome. His yoke is easy! His commands are not unreasonable! He is deserving of all our obedience, and it is not unreasonable and impossible to obey Him.
Today, dear Believer, I encourage you to submit your life ever the more fully to Jesus. We all have areas in which we are not fully surrendered to the Lord. We all have areas which we want to wall off from Christ and declare, “Mine!”
But only trust Him; submit fully to Him. Surrender yourself more and more fully to Christ. He is worthy of it. Christ loves you more than you could ever know, and He desires that you would simply lay down your ambitions, your strivings, your desires, and your fears to embrace Him.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to one monumental task: sharing the Gospel. This is one of the most important calls in all of Scripture.
Jesus is the most important person you will ever know and follow. Everyone and everything else pales in comparison to Him.
Do you know the owner of the company you work for? Do you know the mayor of your town? How about the governor of your state? What about the president or vice president of the United States?
Do you know the Queen of England?
Do you know the Pope?
If you answered, ‘Yes’ to any of those questions, then you know one (or more) pretty important people.
Yet knowing any one of them – or even all of them – pales in comparison to knowing Jesus Christ. In fact, imagine you had a time machine that allowed you to freely travel to any time and place in history. Let’s also imagine that it’s your goal to become personally acquainted with every ruler the world has ever known.
If you succeed in your goal, and you personally know people such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, and Winston Churchill, then you would still know nobody who comes even close to Christ.
Knowing Jesus is everything.
If you truly know Him, you will lack nothing. That is a fact. It is presented to us in Scripture. Psalm 23 tells us, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Jesus Himself says (in John 4:13-14), “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
If you know the Shepherd – that is, if you know Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God – then you will lack nothing. You will be filled to the brim with a “living water” that satisfies everything you need.
Does that mean you’ll be free from desires and wants? No. Does it mean you’ll get everything you want in life? No. But it does mean this: if you know Jesus Christ, you will never lack what you need.
He will supply to you all that is needed in your life.
Sharing the Gospel: a Necessity in the Christian Life
It is necessary to share the Gospel. If you’re a believer, this is something you should – and need – to be doing.
Why?
Because Jesus is everything. Because He is Lord. Because others – your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow countrymen, and fellow human beings – need to hear about Him.
They need Jesus. Without Jesus, they will die. That’s blunt, but it’s true.
A person will perish without Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can redeem us.
Do you know the Lord Jesus? Do you truly know Him? If you do, then you have “springs of living water” welling up within you. You have the Gospel within you!
Translated directly, Gospel means “Good News.”
If you have the good news of Jesus Christ, then you are told (in no uncertain terms) to share it.
This is called the Great Commission. We read in Matthew 28,
And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." [Matthew 28:18-20, ESV]
If you’re a Christian, you have probably heard the Great Commission preached on and talked about many times. In fact, the Great Commission is preached so often that, for many, its “impact” has worn off.
‘Yeah, I know. Go and make disciples of all nations. Got it. I’ll drop a check in the offering plate for 50 dollars and support the missionaries over in east Asia.’
Too often, our comfortable Western Christianity leads us to simply sit back and throw money at far-away missions. It leads us to put cash in the coffer to prop up nameless faces in distant lands, while we ourselves sit back and discuss who leads the NFL in rushing yards.
Now, is it bad to support missions by giving money to them? No! Absolutely not. It is necessary. Vital. Many forms of missionary work cannot go on without financial support.
We should be supporting foreign missions with financial gifts and time spent in prayer. That is important.
But here’s the rub: when we believe that we’ve done “our part” by simply depositing a monthly check and then walking out the door to go watch football or eat dinner on a Sunday afternoon, we’ve missed the point of the Great Commission entirely.
The Great Commission – the command by our Lord to share Him with the world – does not stop with giving money and expecting a select fraction of Believers to carry out the hard work of witnessing, discipling, and leading others to Jesus.
Re-visit the words of Matthew 28. Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”
Jesus doesn’t directly tell us who is supposed to “go,” but the grammar of the sentence reveals that for us. What Jesus uses here is called an “implied you.”
If I say, “Go to the store,” I’m not telling you who is supposed to go. But I don’t need to. If I’m directing the words at you, then I’m implying that you should go to the store.
That is an implied you.
We have one of those in the Great Commission. Jesus is essentially saying to His disciples, “YOU Go… and make other disciples.”
Are you a disciple of His? If so, the Great Commission is aimed at you.
If you’re a disciple of Jesus – that is, if you know Him and follow Him – then the words spoke in Matthew 28 are words for you.
Jesus’s command is this: You know Me, so go share Me with others.
Share Jesus with people of all nations.
I think we too often have it in mind that the Great Commission is about packing our bags and moving to Africa, where we live for three years in a hut in the jungle.
Could it be that? Yes.
But allnations includes your nation. It includes your neighbor just as much as it includes those on the other side of the world.
Sharing the Gospel is not only for the small sliver of the Church that is called to move overseas. It’s for you and me, wherever we are.
If you’re a disciple, you need to be making disciples. You and I cannot get away from this.
A Call to Action
As I bring this to a close, I recognize that there is so, so much more that could have been said here.
I could have written about how to share the Gospel. I could have analyzed the Great Commission line by line. But that is not what I felt laid on my heart.
What I felt laid on my heart is this: we need to share the Gospel! It’s important. It is necessary.
I myself am as at fault as any one of you reading this. Do I share the Gospel? Do I witness to my neighbors and friends and co-workers and fellow citizens?
No. I don’t. I feel heavily convicted of that.
The truth is, I am afraid. So are many of you.
We’re afraid of rejection. We’re afraid of what others will say. We are afraid of persecution, of the biting words of angry men and angry women who hate God and want nothing to do with Him.
And that fear is natural.
But it must be overcome.
Whether we’re loud or quiet, extraverted or introverted, bold or timid, we’re called to share the Gospel and make disciples.
We’re called to this whether we’re young or old, rich or poor, sick or healthy.
The call to share Jesus Christ does not change depending upon your status. All disciples – that’s me and that’s you, if you know Jesus Christ – are called to make other disciples.
But we’re afraid, and that stops us.
How can we be un-afraid?
Well, just read on to the end of the passage in Matthew 28. Jesus says, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
You see, our fear is real. We fear being shut down, spit on, cursed at, rejected, and alienated. We fear burning bridges or offending friends and family with the Gospel.
Our fear is real. But at the same time, it’s also an illusion. Why is that?
Because Jesus Himself promises us that He will always be with us.
I can guarantee you this: if you witness to others, you will be hated for it. Many people will not like you. It will be uncomfortable. It will be difficult. You will lose friendships.
But Jesus will draw nearer to you than you ever thought possible. Remember how He gives living water to all those who follow Him?
Go out and share the Gospel to His glory, and see what happens with that living water. Jesus will not forsake you. He will not leave you. There are stories all over this world of men and women who were put through the worst ordeals imaginable for the sake of Jesus Christ.
These are people who were jailed, tortured, beaten, hated, and even killed. They literally gave their lives for the sake of Jesus.
But guess what?
Of those who lived to tell the tale, not a single one of them has ever – EVER – said they regretted it. In fact, the presence of Jesus Christ was sweeter and more real to them in their darkest day than at any other time in their lives.
When we share the Gospel for the glory of Jesus Christ, we may lose relationships. We may be hated. If we live in a nation that actively persecutes Christians, we may even be jailed or killed.
But Christ will not forsake us. He will draw near to us.
Finally, imagine this: let’s say that you witness to a hundred people, and ninety-nine of them hate you.
But one receives the Gospel.
How sweet is the rejoicing in Heaven over that one person! That is a soul saved for all eternity, and God worked through you to accomplish this.
To bring this to an end, my challenge to you and to me is this: let’s get out there and share Christ.
Let’s proclaim the Gospel boldly, no matter who we are or what our personality may be. Let’s make disciples, acting as soldiers for Christ in a warzone. Let’s do battle in the trenches, relying upon Christ the whole way to transform others and bring them into the Church and into eternal life.
Let’s do this to the glory of God, because we are called to give our lives in service to Him.
Today’s culture is selling you something. It’s written all over the commercials you see on TV. It’s in books, it’s in songs; it’s in movies and shows. It is the driving force behind almost every popular movement that springs up, dominates the airwaves, and then dies down again. It saturates our academics and forms the foundation of our commerce.
It is all-reaching, and no matter who you are or where you live, there is no escaping it.
Do you know what it is?
It’s selfishness.
We live in what is perhaps the most self-centered culture the world has ever known. Commercials bombard us on a daily basis with the promise that we can “have it all.” Self-help books peddle the idea that the only way to be happy is to ‘learn to love yourself.’ Business ethics have largely gone by the wayside, and the preferred method to get ahead is to be the one who pushes everyone else down in a ruthless climb up the corporate ladder.
The phrase used to be, “Nice guys finish first.” But in recent times, that’s been replaced by the far more sinister, “Nice guys finish last.”
Indeed, the world’s teaching is that the one sure way of getting ahead in life is to focus entirely on you. How often have you heard people say that they’re “going to focus more on me?” How often have you been told that you must “love yourself, no matter what?” Or what about this one: “Your only responsibility is to yourself?”
Let me ask another question: is this a right way to go about life, or is it dreadfully wrong? If we go to the Bible, we’ll see the answer provided to us as clear as day.
We will start with a visit to 2 Timothy 3, concentrating on verses 1 through 5.
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
That’s quite an indictment on these men and women. Nearly twenty different words and phrases are used to describe their conduct, not one of which is positive. Now, note also that verse 1 contains within it the phrase, “in the last days.” On this topic, the MacArthur Study Bible commentary states,
“The word for “times” had to do with epochs, rather than clock or calendar time. Such savage, dangerous eras or epochs will increase in frequency and severity as the return of Christ approaches. The church age is fraught with these dangerous movements accumulating strength as the end nears. The last days. This phrase refers to this age, the time since the first coming of the Lord Jesus.”
Following from this, it’s clear that we are indeed living “in the last days,” and have been for nearly two thousand years. However, as the time of Christ’s return draws nearer, the severity of sinfulness and deceit will increase, giving rise to an era marked by increasingly selfish, dominating, calloused, and unloving individuals.
Sound familiar?
Moving on, James 3:16 gives us another (much shorter) passage on the vices of selfishness.
“For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
Once more, we see another fundamental force of our culture outlined in this text. How many times have you felt a hot surge of anger when someone else got what you thought you deserved? We all feel this way at times – I certainly have – but many people in today’s world are allowing this type of behavior to define them. We are taught by prevailing cultural wisdom that jealousy is good, and that it’s perfectly healthy – even expected – to have selfish desires that nearly control your life.
Yet the Bible tells us that wherever jealousy, wherever hardness of heart, wherever self-seeking, self-centered ambitions exist, there will be consequences. Such is our society today – a culture filled with selfishness and envy, a culture where revenge is looked upon as a virtue. It’s a society wherein parents are subservient to children, abusive spouses are ubiquitous, and minor disagreements are met with furious retaliation.
It’s all the horror and darkness in this world that causes many an idealist to look out the window and muse something like, ‘We humans are terrible. We ruin everything we touch. We wreck the environment and oppress the weak, and we just carry on like nothing is wrong.’
Indeed, to the one without Christ, there is no hope. We live in a dark world, a world filled with selfishness and injustice and sin, and that’s not going to change, at least not for now. But for those who have Jesus, there is hope. There is hope overflowing, hope that never ends, hope that abounds to the ends of the earth.
You see, God is not mocked. He is not caught by surprise. He knows our predicaments – every one of them – and yet He chose to send His only Son to die for us that we might have life, and that in that life He might have the ultimate glory.
He came to testify; He came to die, He came to be buried and then triumphantly rise again to the glory of God, having dealt sin a mortal blow. On that cross, Jesus Christ gained a resounding victory over death. He put Satan to utter shame. He destroyed the works of the devil. When He arose, He got up with every bit of power He possessed – which is to say, all the power there ever has been or ever will be – and He spread His arms wide.
He told us, in John 14:6,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
What a promise we have in our God! What an amazing Lord He is, that He would leave His place in heaven to humble Himself to the point of death on a cross.
With His sacrifice, God opened the door to Himself. He opened the door to eternal life in Him, to peace in this life, to abundant love in our hearts. But what He also said was this, in Luke 9:23 –
“…If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Today, most are familiar with the idea of salvation by faith alone – this is known by the Latin term Sola Fide – but comparatively rarer in teaching is the material found in Luke 9:23. Quite simply, to follow Jesus, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross day-by-day, and follow after Him. This isn’t optional. It isn’t an add-on, or a side activity. Following Christ requires one thing – your entire life. All you are, all your dreams, desires, faults, flaws, failings, and talents, belong to Him if you wish to follow Him.
Thus, I ask you: who do you live for? Modern culture teaches us that the highest purpose of life is to live for you. The Bible, on the other hand, teaches the exact opposite: to truly live, you must live for Christ. In Galatians 2:20, the Apostle Paul makes an incredible declaration of faith and surrender to the Lord,
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
These are not the words of a man who begrudgingly served the Lord Jesus. Paul speaks his praises without reservation, without inhibition. His writings are full of reverent obedience and heartfelt joy towards God, and towards the Son who brought him out of a life of sin and into a life of eternal significance.
Paul was content wherever he went. His joy and faith lied in Jesus, and Jesus Christ never failed him. Jesus never failed any of His apostles. He never failed any of His followers. He is the great shepherd who lays down His life for the flock, and who came to earth to serve the lowest of the low, that He might ascend to the highest of the high.
Christ, the suffering servant, the one who paid it all, now sits at the right hand of God. And He will never fail. He cannot fail! It is no more possible for Him to lose than it is for fire to become ice, or for the sun to become the moon.
But to truly know Him, to truly receive Him, we must surrender to Him. We must abide in Him. We must “take up our cross” and follow Him.
This will mean forsaking some of our own desires. It will mean giving up some of our perceived “freedom” to act in whatever way we want.
It will mean that we no longer live for us, but for Him. All those ideas about “focusing on me” or “being responsible only for myself” will be thrown out the window. Our idols, whatever they may have been or are, must be exchanged in favor of the One who is truly worthy of our worship and admiration.
Lay down your life and live for Christ. He is the only One who cannot fail, and the only One worthy of all praise and glory. He is the greatest friend you can ever have, the strongest king, and the closest of all brothers.
