Wow! Last Saturday we drove down the interstate highway and the temperature registering on the dash of the car read 103 degrees at about 3 in the afternoon. When we drove the same interstate highway three days later the temperature registered 59 degrees at about 3 in the afternoon. Those 72 hours from Saturday until Tuesday afternoon produced several inches of rainfall taking us from drought conditions to a wet start to this month. In the last month, weather extremes have rocked the world with earthquakes to hurricanes to floods to fires to swings in temperature. Extremes are all around us.
Have you seen any extremes in the cultures in the world? Is there war, civil unrest, famine, pestilence in the world? In some of these same places do you see opulence, indifference, luxury and injustice? What about governments and the financial system? Extremes are everywhere.
On the Mount of Olives, in Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus warned his disciples of the extremes they would face in their lifetimes and he prophesied about the extremes that the world would face before He returned as the Triumphant King of the nations. No one except the Father knows when Jesus will return, but it is a certainty that His return is closer today than yesterday. What should we do in light of the extremes we face today?
We must embrace an urgent attitude about sharing the Gospel. The Gospel needs to be on our lips every day. We need to give praise to God for what He has done and as we give Him credit for His goodness, we need to find ways to tell people that repentance from sins and belief in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.
We must decide to disciple a minimum of one person each year. We must ask the Lord to direct us toward a person and then ask that person to join us in a disciple relationship. Then we must sacrifice our time, our schedule, and our study to regularly help that person become more like Jesus.
From the Mount of Olives, Jesus left his disciples after his resurrection to return to His Father in heaven. He gave his disciples the same command two thousand years ago – go and make disciples. Can you imagine this extreme scene as Jesus Christ ascends into the heavens?
One day, there will be a more wonderful scene. It will dwarf the extremes that we see today. Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will return in His greatest glory to claim His bride forever and ever.
In the extremes of today, the stakes are high. The same command that Jesus gave his disciples rings true for those who belief in Jesus.
