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If you do believe this, how are you cooperating with the Lord in letting the world know about their amazing redemption opportunity (Romans 10:13-14)? In the movie World War Z, a worldwide zombie outbreak began to take over humanity. Each person bitten by a zombie turned into a zombie.
The Brad Pitt character was supposed to find and secure a deadly but curable disease that makes all those inoculated invisible to the zombies. I am sure the writers of the movie were not thinking of humanity’s redemption story, though it is a running parallel to ours. The deadly disease of sin has bitten and infected all of us. (See Numbers 21:6; Romans 5:12, 3:23.)
Our infection has turned us into Adamic zombies. The only cure is for one man (Jesus) to take our sin infection and defeat it, which He did (2 Corinthians 5:21). Now, every person who is injected by Christ has a rebirth—a new creation. (See Numbers 21:9; John 3:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17.)
One of the most striking things about Brad Pitt’s character was his utter desperation as he pursued the correct pathogen that would save the world. While his story is fiction, ours is not. You and I have been infected by a deadly disease that would have sent us to hell if it were not for the interrupting salvation that came through Jesus. We now own the right pathogen. We know the truth that will set the world free (John 8:32). This reality begs a few questions.
Everybody who does not believe in Jesus will go to hell (Revelation 20:15). The exclusivity of Jesus—there is no other way to God—puts the onus on us to tell the world about the only way, the only truth, and the unique life that will give a person the right to enter heaven (John 14:6).
The Lord left us on earth not to become smarter, wealthier, happier, or more fulfilled primarily. He left us here to pursue humanity so they can hear the gospel message. His last words to us were missional. I’m not trying to be unkind or manipulate you into a reflective guilt trip. But I do see a significant opportunity that the Lord has placed in our laps, and some Christians are too complacent or preoccupied.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).
Our entire lives post-salvation should be about finding people to tell them about Jesus. Why? Because everybody is going to hell. It is so easy to become myopic when it comes to our lives. We can quickly lose sight of Calvary and eternity. We live in the here and now where the cares of our lives can dominate our thinking (Mark 4:19). Spreading the truth about a Redeemer could become a tertiary matter.
It would make no sense if Brad Pitt found the pathogen, which he did, and then inoculate himself so he could live large on the planet while everyone else died under the curse of the zombies. One of the most disturbing things I see with a few believers in the church is how they have flipped Matthew 6:33 on its head.
Rather than seeking what God wants, we can become love-struck by all the trinkets of the Gentiles. We have succumbed to the bombardment of materialism. Our lives are measured and compared to success on earth, not success in the eyes of the Lord (Joshua 1:8).
It is ironic how most of our waking hours can be wrapped around earthly desires when the Lord said He would give us what we need. The reason He said He would provide all we need to live is so we would not spend our waking hours thinking about how to live on earth.
Resting in His provision releases us to spend our time thinking about telling people about Jesus. But like in the days of Babel (Genesis 11:6), when the Lord gives an inch, we take a mile. The Lord offers the provision we need, and we like it so much that we crave more. Before long, our lives are defined by what we want and what we have.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-22).
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. – C. S. Lewis
One of the most useful questions you can ask yourself regarding your kingdom pursuit is, “What do you primarily spend your time thinking about?” A kingdom of God builder cannot stop thinking about how to position himself most effectively in God’s world to make God’s name great.
A kingdom of earth builder cannot stop thinking about how to position himself most effectively in their world for his purposes and comforts. The former is thinking about God and what He wants. The latter is thinking about himself and what he wants. There is no in-between. You are working hard for God, or you are busting it for yourself.
The sports gods, education gods, money gods, and materialism gods are the new forbidden fruit that tempts us to walk away from the Lord (Genesis 3:6). We succumb to Satan’s Plan B. He cannot capture our souls, which is his Plan A, so he captures our minds and our time.
If we believe that Jesus is the only way, it is the pinnacle of selfish hate not to do all we can to let others know there is hell in their future. We should not seek to have it both ways, a worldview that says, “I am a Christian, and I want to have a great life on earth, even if it means I will spend my life making sure my family and I have a great life experience.”
Exclusivity without invitation is pompous and repulsive, but exclusivity with invitation is hopeful. – Jim Thompson
The Lord has two desires for us. Become a Christian, and spend your life telling others how to become Christians while trusting Him to take care of you. My missions professor said, “Let the pagans build the bridges.” His worldview kept him un-entangled from the cares of this life while he spent his days strategizing how to tell others about the experience to come.
One of the more famous of all the C. S. Lewis quotes sums up what I’m saying quite well. Will you read it while asking this question: Is the gospel true: did God come to earth as a man? Will you also make a plan to talk about what Lewis is saying with a friend?
I am trying to prevent anyone from saying the foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say.
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – C. S. Lewis
Peter – “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).
Paul – “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
John – “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).
Jesus – I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).
Who do you believe Jesus to be? That is the question. If He is the Son of God, who came down to save humanity, then you have two choices to make: Will I become a Christian? Will I spend my life telling others about Christ?
It is a mental challenge to think about Jesus as being the only way when you think about people who have never heard of Him. It can be overwhelming. Placing an unfair burden on you is not my goal. First-world people find it hard to think about other people who are not like them. We don’t live anywhere else, we do not know them, and we are not attached to them.
We can live our entire lives without giving much more than a courtesy nod to those who live in other places, who will never hear the gospel message. And because the Lord chose the agency of humankind to tell others about His Son, it’s on us to do so. These lost people will die and go to hell.
It’s possible for someone to hear a message like this and feel overwhelmed, manipulated, or “guilted” into inaction or overreaction. Don’t do that. You cannot participate in every ministry or say “yes,” to everyone who asks you for something. But you can do something. Everyone can’t be a pastor, pro-life worker, or ministry leader. You will have to choose your one thing.
Pick one slice of the Adamic problem and begin working that space for the Lord’s glory and humanity’s benefit. This perspective is what I appreciate about our Mastermind Students. They are preparing themselves for the call of Jesus on their lives. Most of them do not know precisely where their training is going to take them, but all of them are in faith to become equipped for whatever the Lord has in mind.
Unfortunately, much of the Christian church has bought into a two-tier system: those who are in ministry doing ministry things and the rest of us who live our lives. God is looking for regular people who see ministry as all of life rather than a specific job description for religious people.
Whatever time you have left on this terrestrial ball, let us figure out how to position yourself to become a bold gospel proclaimer. There is no other kind of life worth living. Being a missionary for Christ is a biblical success.
Rick launched the Life Over Coffee global training network in 2008 to bring hope and help for you and others by creating resources that spark conversations for transformation. His primary responsibilities are resource creation and leadership development, which he does through speaking, writing, podcasting, and educating.
In 1990 he earned a BA in Theology and, in 1991, a BS in Education. In 1993, he received his ordination into Christian ministry, and in 2000 he graduated with an MA in Counseling from The Master’s University. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).
