3/2/2015 9:46:40 AM
Stopping Point
There is an end or a stopping point to almost everything we do or experience in this life. We are creatures of time, of starts and stops. We stop working at a certain time and at a certain age. We stop going to school at a certain time and a certain age. We stop playing. We stop exercising. We stop sleeping. We stop living on this earth. We even stop confessing Jesus and sharing the Gospel. Did you read that right? There is a time when we stop living Jesus’ Great Commission to make disciples of all nations? Yes.
Listen to Paul’s words to the younger apostle Timothy:
In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:13-16
In his concluding words of his first letter to Timothy, Paul encourages him to keep living his faith and to continue to confess that Jesus is the Lord and Savior. He even uses Jesus as an example, speaking of his testimony before Pilate that he is the King of Jews, but also his greater kingdom is not of this world. Jesus could not deny who he was, nor should Timothy.
There was no stopping Jesus in his goal of saving this fallen world. Paul had shared that earlier with Timothy when he said, This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.
1 Timothy 2:3-6
Could you imagine if Jesus would have stopped in his quest right before he began his public ministry? Could you imagine if Jesus stopped in the Garden of Gethsemane and said, “this is enough”? Could you imagine if Jesus would have stopped in his passion when the Jews said, “come down and prove who you say you are”? We can’t imagine nor could Jesus.
There was no stopping him until the sins of the whole world were paid and until death was swallowed up in resurrection victory. There was no stopping him because Jesus knew exactly what we would have received for our sin; our disobedience, complacency, lawlessness, hostility…. It would have been eternal hell, eternal separation from God and his love…without stop.
There is a stopping point to our earthly confession of Christ and living the Great Commission. The stopping point is as Paul said, not until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since we are creatures of time, not only have we become use to stopping points, even more so, we look forward to them. But as God’s children through the gift of faith, as the heralds of the good news of free and full salvation in Jesus, our stopping point in sharing the Gospel and bringing others to faith through the Means of Grace is not until the end of this world, until the appearing or return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Practically speaking, this means that we do not stop as individuals and as a congregation in our witness; we do not stop in our verbal confessions, we do not stop in being stewards of God’s blessings, we do not stop in using and sharing our resources, we do not stop in looking for new ways to share the Gospel, (for example, adding more worship services or building new buildings) we do not stop striving to bring another, and another and another to God, who wants all people to be saved.
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit did not stop in the saving of your soul. We do not stop confessing and sharing Jesus until our last breath is breathed on this earth or until the great and glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Keep Christ First!
Pastor Chris Christenson