I am responsible to save people. I should share the Gospel because it is good news for all men. People must get saved. I am just responsible to share the Gospel. At times, people might get saved but the outcome is not my concern. As soon as I make the outcome my reason for sharing, rather than the simple obedience to Jesus to tell others, I have stepped into Holy Spirit's role. Jesus said that if He was lifted up, He would draw all men to Himself. Just to avoid confusion, the following verse shows He was talking about His being killed on the cross. While we are to share the truth. It is Jesus that is drawing men to Himself. Our job is just to be newsmen that report what we have seen, heard and experienced in Christ.
I am responsible too point out all the sins that separate lost people from God. People are not lost because they sin. They sin because they are separated from God and it is their natural state. Nobody goes to hell because they lied or stole, killed or gossiped. Sure, all of those things are outside of the will of God for them but that is not what separates them from Him. They do those things because they are separated from Him and those things, or at least some of them come naturally. Our desire for control and independence are what separates us from God. The author of Hebrews said that we cannot please God apart from faith. (Heb 11:6) Convicting the world of sin is Holy Spirit's job. Our job is to point people to faith in Jesus and His desire for relationship with them. Their specific sins are a secondary issue to their fallen nature.
(There are times were are to confront those in the Church about specific sin but that is as God gives us wisdom .We are not confronting from our offense. We are just letting Him speak through us the words that He has already said to those who have not heard it when He spoke to them.)
I am responsible to do a lot of things and serve people so they can see what it looks like to be a hard working follower of Jesus. I am called to serve but not for these reasons or in the way that showcases my hard work. I am to walk with Jesus as He walked with the Father. When I walk with Him, He will reveal His activity and invite me to join, just as He did the disciples 2,000 years ago. He is still at work and I am just here to be the physical manifestation of His love in ways that people can see Him. After all, our best efforts fall short of meeting the needs but He is sufficient in every way and He allows us to be there with Him as He works through us so we can experience His presence and others can see Him.
I am responsible to know everything, to be able to answer every question. If I can't, I look foolish. The reality is that nobody knows everything. God only reveals to us the things He needs for us to know. He allows us to search out other things but not so we can be affirmed by knowledge. He actually created us to need one another and he uses our lack of knowledge in some areas to make us dependent on others. Our need for one another creates a bond, a bond that he intended since the beginning when He created Adam and Eve differently. Their differences, when combined created a whole. The two shall become one flesh. Apart, they would both come up short. God said of Adam that it was not good for man to be alone and today, that is still true. I can't know everything but I was never supposed to.
If I am not supposed to save everyone. convict everyone, be a slave to everyone's needs or know everything, what am I supposed to do? I think that two commands of Jesus to His disciples answer that question for us today. First He said follow Me and I will make you fishers of men (Mt 4:19) and then He told His disciples to go and make disciples (Mt 28:19-20)
The first part of this is that we are called to become disciples. A lot of people want to reduce that to way less than it is. To many, being a disciple is just about gathering all of the information that they can. They believe that all they need is a good knowledge of Scripture but if that was true, Jesus would have made the Scribes and Priests His disciples. They would have had a head start. Instead He chose uneducated fishermen, a tax collector, and an anti Rome protestor. He did not just give them information but He gave them 3 years of His life. They saw all He did and heard all He said. They understood that He did nothing apart from the Father's plan. He lived moment by moment by entering in to the activity of His Father and did not do or say anything more. A disciple is a person that learns by living with and walking side by side with the master as He teaches.
Second, He called us to make disciples. Many have said that was just for the original 12 but both Jesus and Paul refute that. In Mt 28:20 He told the disciples to teach their disciples to do all He had commanded them. They were to make disciples of the whole earth. Paul, in 2 Tim 2 told his disciples to teach others all that they had learned from him and that those people were to continue in perpetuity. Disciples making disciples is God's plan for all believers for all time. It goes beyond all the activities we think of and creates relationship. We are to live life with people in a way that they come to understand how they are to walk out this life of faith in Jesus.
Some think it is arrogant to expect people follow them but Paul said in Phil 4:9 and 1 Cor 11:1 to follow his example. To do and teach the things they had learned from him. Paul understood that the Kingdom was like a family. In his day, a son would work with and under his father to learn the family trade. Then they would teach their sons in the some way. To be a disciple is to be an apprentice. You work alongside the master until you have mastered your trade. Once you are a master, you look for your apprentice. The kingdom is passed down from generation to generation and it is to continue this way until Jesus returns.
We are called to be disciples who make disciples. We are to live a life of submission to God and His purposes as we have been taught by those who discipled us. We have seen the example of their lives and how they brought glory to God as they walked in humility. The end result is that Jesus is seen and glorified and we get to stand back and marvel at what He was able to do with our short 50, 60, or 70 years. We are just a blip on the screen in the big picture but if we become disciples who make disciples, we can see Jesus change the picture for millions into eternity.
By the way, unlike the picture above, we don't draw the attention to ourselves. A disciple of Jesus will always divert the attention back on Him because they know that He is the one that ultimately deserves all the attention and all the glory.
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