For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. - 1 Corinthians 15:3
God not only cares about how many people will be in the choir singing praises to the Lamb, He cares from what people group they came from too.
They sing a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
and they will reign on earth.” - Revelation 5:9-10
John himself was overwhelmed -
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.- Revelation 7:9
Most of you will remember Nate Saint as the team pilot for the group of five who went to bring the gospel to the Auca's. He was martyred along with the other four. On December 18th, 1955 a few weeks before his death, he wrote this Christmas Letter to his friends and family --
“As we weigh the future and seek the will of God, does it seem right that we should hazard our lives for just a few savages? As we ask ourselves this question, we realize that it is not the call of the needy thousands, rather it is the simple intimation of the prophetic Word that there shall be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him that we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Auca prison for Christ.
As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.
Would that we could comprehend the lot of these stone-age people who live in mortal fear of ambush on the jungle trail . . . those to whom the bark of a gun means sudden, mysterious death . . . those who think all men in all the world are killers like themselves. If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich.”
Many of us make a big thing out of those who do not believe in hell. But we are missing the greater shame - that we who do believe in hell make so little effort to keep others from going there.
For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
But
how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are
they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they
to hear without someone to proclaim him? And
how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written,
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” - Romans 10:13-15
I am afraid that we have assumed that God has multiplied our assets so we can keep them, when in fact He has multiplied them so we can distribute them.
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.- Matthew 10:8
The dead do not hear the gospel - to allow people to die or suffer is unconscionable. On the other hand, people who do not hear the gospel cannot go to heaven, so to feed them is right but to neglect to share the gospel is wrong.
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