“When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.”
1 Corinthians 9:21-23 NLT
There was a film released some years ago about a catastrophic event that would hit the world in which we live, an apocalyptic situation in which the US Army was instructed to do what they could to “save some”. In a sense, we pilgrims, too, find ourselves in a similar situation, with the world in which we live facing the End Times, which increases the urgency to tell people about Jesus and do what we can to “save some”. Not everyone will respond to the Message of Christ, but just in case, we must look for opportunities to set before people the gravity of their situation. In Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Jesus gave His disciples an answer to a question about the end of the world. Matthew 24:3, “Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?”” These two chapters would be grim reading for those who do not believe in Jesus, but such people most probably would not have a Bible on their favourite bookshelf in any case. But as we read down Matthew 24, we see many of the signs happening today that Jesus talked about, signs that are brought to a crescendo with verse 30, “And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”. In verses 37-39, Jesus said, “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realise what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes”.
In Genesis 6:9, we read, “This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God“. God used Noah in two ways. The first was the witness regarding the building of that boat. He built it on dry land in a world that had never experienced anything like what was to come. Imagine the conversation with people who had probably never seen a boat and asked Noah what it was for. To be told what was about to happen made no difference, and the response that Noah received was probably one of ridicule. He was perhaps labelled crazy and shunned by those in his society. It took a great deal of faith to build that boat, as it was large and not something that could have been completed in a short time. In fact, the Scriptures seem to indicate that it took one hundred years to build. The second was that God used that boat to save all the animals and Noah and his family. Today, many dismiss the story of Noah as a fable or even a falsehood, despite evidence of a primordial flood all over the world, as documented in geological and fossil records.
Paul wrote that he tried “to find common ground with everyone, doing everything [he] can to save some”. In our imaginations, we can picture Paul driven by the fear and expectation that Jesus would return very soon, putting an end to the world as he knew it. Thankfully, God, in His grace, has delayed the return of Jesus. Romans 11:25, “I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ”. How many is “the full number of the Gentiles”? We don’t know, but we discern the times. We see some of the signs that Jesus warned His disciples of in Matthew 24, and conclude that His return is closer now than it was two thousand years ago. Jesus said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had asked Him for a miraculous sign from Heaven to prove His authority, “ … You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow; red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times!” (Matthew 16:2-3). The “signs of the times” are with us, dear fellow pilgrims, and we must wake up and do what we can to “save some”.
We start with our friends and families, persistently praying for them, sharing the Good News, and even begging them to make the right decision for Jesus. Where they will spend eternity is too important a decision to leave to chance and hope. God is full of love and grace. He is patient and kind, and is always ready to receive a repentant sinner into His family. In Heaven, we can just imagine a huge counter, continually ticking up as new Christians are born again, always getting closer to the time when God will say enough. To all those who say that a God of love would never send anyone to hell, we turn again to John 3:16, where we read “… whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will inherit eternal life”. We note the terrible alternative to eternal life, which is perishing. There is no other possible place for mankind. And so we pray, and pray, and keep on praying, that God will have mercy on our generation, on our family and friends, with the hope and expectation that we, through God’s grace and mercy, will “save some”.
Dear Heavenly Father. We name our friends and family before You today, that You will draw them to Yourself as we share the wonderful Good News about Jesus. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 