You don’t live alone. There are men and women, boys and girls around you and next to you. What do you see when you meet them? Do you see them as sinners — sinners because of Adam’s sin, and sinners because they commit sin? Do you see them as miserable, having lost communion with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever?
I am not talking about strangers, but about your parents, your children, your uncles and aunties, your nephews and nieces. Will you do something, anything to save them? Why, everything that can be done should be done! But are you?
“It’s nothing to do with me!” is a common excuse, but is it true? Look at the disciples in the book of Acts, the early church in the New Testament. It is true that there are special messengers/preachers/evangelist, men like Peter and Philip. But it is not true that only the special messengers evangelise.
“Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.” (Acts 8:4) We read of the church at Rome and also the church at Antioch. Who founded these churches? We also read of churches in Judea and Galilee, in Phoenicia and Cyprus. Who evangelised and planted these churches? Not the apostles, because all of them were kept in Jerusalem at that time!
The picture we have of the disciples in those days were people who spoke to everyone and anyone about Jesus Christ. They spoke from a full heart, for they could not help but speak what they know is true. And they have a lifestyle that backs their message up.
What did Jesus say in Matthew 28:18-20? “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Disciples must be taught to obey all things that Christ has commanded. And what has He just commanded? Go and makes disciples!!
Christians, it has everything to do with you. Face it honestly. Unless we make effort to evangelise, we are living in direct disobedience to our Lord. Think Matthew 28:18-20.
WEI En Yi