Joel and Chuck
Joel Hutchinson was desperate for help. A few minutes earlier, he and his brother had taken off in a small airplane. Their dad was in the pilot’s seat. Now, the 7-year-old Joel was treading water as he watched the plane sink into Lake Erie. He was the only survivor. As he struggled to keep his head above the surface of the water, he started to pray that God would send someone to help him.
God answered Joel’s prayers through a man named Chuck Herndon. When Chuck saw the plane going down, he knew he had to act quickly to save any survivors. He immediately ran to his small boat, rowed 700 feet to the crash site, and was able to pull the boy out the dark waters to safety. He had saved Joel’s life (“The Blade,” Tuesday, May 31, 2007).
Lives are at stake
That night, Chuck was on a mission. He knew that lives were at stake, and he decided to take action. In the same way, sharing the gospel of Jesus begins with a burden for people who don’t believe in Jesus. They’re seeking life on their own terms. They’re settling for less than God’s best. They are searching for purpose, peace, and assurance in all the wrong places, and you know that the truth can set them free (John 8.32 ESV). When you understand what’s at stake for these people, it breaks your heart and motivates you to act.
Apart from faith in Jesus, life is a series of trivial pursuits. We get up each day and go after goals that will ultimately leave us unsatisfied. They promise so much, but they deliver so little. It’s all so futile. It leaves us so isolated.
The Apostle Paul describes the pre-Christian condition in dramatic terms. “In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope” Ephesians 2.12 NLT. It’s a bleak picture.
There’s a kind of life that is really like having no life at all. 1 John 5.11-12 NLT says, “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” Is it unloving to point this out to someone? Or is it unloving not to point it out?
Eternal life and death in the balance
One night, a religious leader went to see Jesus. He was intrigued by Jesus’ miracles and wanted to learn more about Jesus’ mission. In the conversation, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” John 3.16-17 ESV.
According to Jesus, the stakes are high. Eternal life and death hang in the balance. Without belief in Jesus, people perish. Apart from trust in Jesus, people are condemned. This is what motivated Him to step out of heaven and into our world. He endured the cross, paid for our sins, and conquered death so we could be forgiven and restored to fellowship with God.
After you’re saved, you’re also sent. In John 20.21 NLT, the resurrected Jesus tells His followers, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” It’s clear that Jesus expects His followers to share the good news of salvation and hope with the people around them. Life is short; eternity is long. The stakes couldn’t be any higher.
This blog originally appeared at; What’s at stake in sharing the gospel of Jesus? – discipleFIRST and features an excerpt from one of their Student Series book, Reach Your World.