Day 54 - Mario and the Masses

At the courthouse today, I had the great privilege of sharing the gospel with a group of about 10 men and women. They had been sentenced to perform community service to pay their debts for having committed various misdemeanor crimes. They were waiting for the community service van to pick them up and take them to perform their service projects. As I shared with the group how we've all broken God's moral laws and that our sins have separated us from God, a man in the group, Mario, started making jokes and asking questions in an attempt to be funny. Satan may have meant it for evil, but God uses hecklers like this for good. He actually caused the crowd to be even more attentive the proclamation of the gospel. Some of his questions were actually good ones and allowed me to answer them for the crowd. After I finished sharing, the van pulled up and all of the people loaded on board. We gave them a bunch of gospel tracts not only to read but also to pass out to others. Several had heard the gospel the week before.

Jesus was on a mission and is still on a mission - "to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10)." He calls His followers to join Him in the mission. In my bible time this morning, one of the chapters I covered was Joshua 22. In the first five verses, Joshua commends three of the tribes for faithfully fulfilling God's mission until all of the other tribes had inherited their land and had entered into their rest.

"Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh and said to them, "You have done all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the LORD your God gave you. Now that the LORD your God has given your brothers rest as he promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan."

They did not desert their brothers. They fought the good fight until the mission was complete and their brothers had rest in God's promised land. Only then did the three faithful tribes enter into their rest. The same applies to us today. We have brothers and sisters all around us who may be dying in their sins. Will we desert them by not seeking after them and reaching them with the life-saving message of the Gospel? Or, will we seek them out actively and passionately each day? Will we be faithful in carrying out the Lord's Mission each day until our brothers and sisters around us, those who need to hear and obey the Gospel, act upon and enter into their eternal rest of salvation? We know our salvation is secure. This is not the time to rest. This is the time to be about the Lord's Mission. Our rest will come soon enough.

I noticed that Mario didn't get on the van. I didn't desert him. I pursued him. I asked him if he believed the gospel and if he had repented and trusted in Christ for salvation. We had a long, good talk. He had many "objections" to faith in Christ and Christianity. I patiently addressed each one of them. One included his question, "what about the masses" around the world who don't know the Lord. I encouraged him to trust that God is just and faithful. He will make the right decision with regard to each person's fate. I turned the issue back to his eternal fate, not letting him avoid facing the tough issues that matter for his own destiny. "What about you, Mario? You're hearing the truth. You're hearing the gospel. You know the way. What will you do about it?" Mario finally started to acknowledge the truth. But Mario struggled with having to surrender his life completely to the Lord. Mario still wanted to go his own way. I urged Mario not to waste his eternity on the vanity of the temporal trivialities and meaningless pleasures of this life. He said, "you're sounding like my grandmother." "You've got a great, loving grandmother," I replied. "You better listen to her before it's too late." I also challenged him to begin to follow the Lord and fish for men if he is really so concerned about the lost masses who perishing without hearing the Gospel.

The lost are perishing all around us. We have the knowledge of salvation they need. Will we be faithful and not desert our lost brothers and be about the mission until as many as will receive Him have received Him and have entered into their eternal rest in the security of salvation?