MONDAY, APRIL 8
“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”
Luke 10:2-3 (ESV)
FAITH THAT SAVES
In Luke 10 Jesus is sending His followers out in pairs to tell people about placing their faith in Jesus for salvation. He is using people of faith to bring other people to a place of faith. The same faith that saved them was the same faith that led them to want to see others saved.
A preacher was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax one time. Billy Graham was to speak the following night, but Graham arrived a day early. He came unannounced and sat on the grass with the crowd. In front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening attentively to the preaching. When the call came for people to come forward and make a commitment to the Lord, the gentleman did not move. Dr. Graham tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, “Would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you if you want to.” The old man looked him up and down, shook his head and said, “No, I think I’ll just wait until the big gun shows up tomorrow night”.
Many of us are tempted to think that sharing our faith is just for the “big guns” or for the paid professionals. But sharing our faith is part of having faith for all believers. If I believe Jesus is God’s Son and He came to save the world, I should want the rest of the world to know about Him.
When Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful,” He was teaching that there are a lot of people ready to be saved. But the problem was “the workers are few.” Many of us lead good productive lives but we should occasionally stop to ask ourselves “are we too busy to help lead people to saving faith in Christ?” When’s the last time you explained to someone how to be saved? This Sunday we learned that the same faith that saved us is the same type of faith it takes to help see others saved. This week we will dig a little deeper and ask God to give us a faith that saves.
