Priority One!

“You will be handed over to the courts and beaten in the synagogues.  You will be accused before governors and kings of being my followers.  This will be your opportunity to tell them about me.  And the Good News must first be preached to every nation.  But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry about what to say in your defense.  Just say what God tells you to.  Then it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit” – Mark 13:9b-11 (NLT).

Look at these verses and you begin to understand the missionary mind of God.  He does not think like we think.  We tend to think about dealing with what we must do each day at our jobs or homes or with our children or family.  We are preoccupied with bills or sports or entertainment or fashion or finances or food or pleasure.  God concentrates each day on winning a lost world to Christ so that no one has to spend eternity in hell.  He sees our temporary reality as just that – temporary.  He’s looking beyond the temporary to the eternal and knows that time is short indeed.

His absolute priority is saving the lost.  This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that Jesus here predicts that his disciples would be arrested and imprisoned so that they could tell governors and kings the Good News about Jesus.  Far from seeing such persecution as only trouble to endure, Jesus saw it as an opportunity to seize.  In fact, he tells his disciples just that.  He tells them that when they are accused before governors and kings that this is their opportunity to tell them about him.

Jesus’ disciples fulfilled this prediction before Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 a.d..  Peter and John were arrested and stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin where they used the opportunity to tell these influential unbelievers about Jesus (See Acts 4:1-22).  Stephen did the same thing and was murdered for his effort (See Acts 6:8-7:60).  Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and was brought before several rulers with whom he shared the resurrected Jesus (See Acts 21:26-28:31).  As a result of such boldness, the Good News of Jesus spread to every known nation in that day and time, just as Jesus predicted.  Paul wrote about this when he said, “This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world.  It is changing lives everywhere” – Colossians 1:6 (NLT).  Clearly, Jesus’ prediction (above) was fulfilled in the years prior to Jerusalem’s downfall and the Temple’s annihilation.

Unmistakably, God has no higher priority than reaching lost people to rescue them from judgment and eternal damnation.  While he deeply cares about his followers’ distress and trouble, he cares even more about rescuing people who are hell-bound.  In his mind, there is no contest between the two.  The worst that can happen to Christians is that they can be killed after which their souls go to eternal rest and reward.  But the worst that can happen to lost people is that they will die and spend an eternity in the torments and terrors of hell. 

This is why the top priority for the local church must be the salvation of lost souls!  The world around us is daily sinking deeper into profound darkness.

Just yesterday I read about a new television show called “Desperate Housewives” starring Eva Longoria.  The entire show is nothing but an excuse to display sex and sexuality.  At some time in every episode, Longoria runs around in skimpy lingerie.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Longoria’s character, Gabrielle Solis, is an unhappy housewife who is having sex with a 17-year old neighbor to make up for her empty marriage.  This is pedophilia!  But far from being appalled by Longoria playing a pedophile, America loves it!  After only two episodes, “Desperate Housewives” has become the most watched drama on television with more than 20 million people tuning in. 

Truly, our nation is lost in profound darkness and needs the light of Jesus to shine on them before it’s too late. 

This means that priority one for any Christian or church is to reach lost souls.  Nothing is more important to God than this.  He was willing to let his closest followers suffer arrest and imprisonment to bring the Good News to rulers wandering in darkness.  Even more, he was willing to let his son be crucified to do it.   How much more will he desire for us to do whatever it takes to effectively bring the Good News to those in our sphere of influence?

Praying for lost friends or family members; consistently inviting people to church; sharing Biblical solutions with those grappling with problems; comforting those experiencing loss; deliberately initiating relationships with unbelievers and showing them that you like them; gently and respectfully standing up for righteousness when everyone else is siding with ungodliness – such things can pierce the darkness and make inroads into Satan’s kingdom.

Last year I was substituting in a local High School when I caught a student writing the name of Ellen Degeneres (an avowed lesbian) on a piece of paper.  I made the comment to her that Ellen Degeneres wasn’t a good role model.  You would have thought that I blasphemed Jesus Christ!  The news of what I said quickly spread and I was laughed at and ridiculed by some students.  I never realized what an icon Ellen Degeneres was to High School girls, but I soon learned.   Well,, to make a long story short, I stood my ground when approached by students about it, and lovingly shared Jesus with them if they asked me why I believed what I believed about Ellen.  I know that some did not receive what I said, but some did and the opportunity was too good to waste.  This is only one example of how we can make reaching the lost our number one priority.

The bottom line is that we are in a war and every day is a battle with the powers of darkness for souls.  We must approach it as a battle and determine to fight – Jesus’ style.  God is with us.  He will even give us the words to say as we face opponents of the light.  It will be hard, but in the end, we will win.