“The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to Him. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him. For royal power belongs to the Lord. He rules all the nations.” (Psalm 22:27-28 NLT)
The ultimate goal of the Church is to lead our nation to the foot of the Cross of Jesus, not simply to find salvation, as vitally important as that is, but to lead them in worship and adoration of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Salvation is pointless if it doesn’t lead us to worship. Forgiveness is meaningless unless and until it opens our hearts and lives to the only true and living God. Missing hell isn’t the goal of salvation, seeing Jesus for who He is and investing our lives in making Him known must grow out of our salvation or we’ve missed the point.
In John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life (page 152) he writes: “It is crucial that millions of Christians fulfill their life calling in secular jobs, just as it is crucial that during wartime the entire fabric of life and culture not unravel. But during wartime, even the millions of civilians love to get news from the front lines. They love to hear of the triumphs of the troops. They dream about the day when war will be no more. So it is with Christians. All of us should dream about this. We should love to hear how the advance of King Jesus is faring. We should love to hear of gospel triumphs as Christ plants His church among peoples held for centuries by alien powers of darkness. This is God’s design in world history – that people from all nations and tribes and languages come to worship and treasure Christ above all things.”
Did you “hear” what he’s saying: The goal of the Church – the Christian Faith – isn’t that people miss hell, it’s that they don’t miss King Jesus! People who believe they can attend church, read their Bible, live moral lives, and by so doing receive a crown in glory haven’t understood the Gospel. Or those who believe they can send a quick salvation prayer heavenward with their dying breathe will be grossly disappointed.
The “right words” prayed in desperation for our sake alone doesn’t change our eternal destination, confession which leads to a changed life that’s focus is on Jesus is what will move the heart of God. And someone will surely think of the thief on the cross next to Jesus and ask: “Didn’t Jesus hear his prayer?” Which of course He did, but Jesus alone can interpret the desires of our heart and it’s obviously His call who will join Him in heaven and who won’t; who sincerely desires to be with Him and who’s focus is merely on themselves.
My point is that gathering people to sit on seats in a building isn’t what we’re called to. That can be a good start, but ultimately that may or may not result in true worship of the King of the Universe. The ultimate goal of the Church isn’t to get people into a building, but into heaven where they can worship and honor King Jesus for all eternity.
One day, as David wrote in the verse at the top of the page, “All the families of the nations will bow down before Him.” Or as Paul records in Philippians 2:9-11: “Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.” But that revelation and confession will come too late for many who have sealed their fate while residents of planet earth.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 