One of my good friends with whom I worked at Hyster Company as an engineer many years ago always signed his communications: “So many books, so little time.”  As I was preparing my message for this past Sunday on the doctrine of the Church (ecclesiology), I was struck with the mission which we–the Church–have been given of being Christ’s ambassadors representing Him on this earth until He takes us home.  The Apostle Paul wrote: “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (II Cor. 5:20).  God uses us to take the Good News of the Gospel to others so they too can believe and become members of His Church through faith in Christ–but there are “so many lost, so little time.” 
      God’s main purpose today is building His Church. You’ll recall the conversation that Jesus had with His disciples when He asked them who people said that He (Christ) was, and He then turned to His disciples and asked, “But who do you  say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you,  Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it” (Mt.  16:15-18).  You’ll notice by the tense of the verb, “will build,” that the Church was still future. It would begin at Pentecost when God sent the Holy Spirit to indwell believers (Acts 2). Jesus also prophesied that the “gates of Hades” would not overpower the Church. Since gates were used for defense, it implied that the Church would be on the offensive tearing down the strongholds of Satan as it took the Gospel of Christ worldwide.  
     Before Christ left to go back to heaven, He commissioned the eleven to “make  disciples of all the nations” (Mt. 28:19) by “preaching the Gospel to all creation.” Just before He ascended He told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4).  Then He went on to say, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).   Our “Commander in Chief” issued our marching orders and they remain unchanged.  At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there is an impressive Changing of the Guard every 30 minutes. The scene has been repeated thousands of times for about 70 years with the same verbal exchange as the guard going off duty says, “Orders remain unchanged,” and the new guard responds, “Orders acknowledged.”  Today, almost 2,000 years after Jesus commissioned the eleven and the Church, the Master’s orders remain unchanged. Our orders are still to get the Good News about Jesus to “all the world.”  
     There are about seven billion people in this world for whom “God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son,” and it is His passion that every person in every corner of this planet has a chance to know His Son. His unchanged orders are now in our hands.  The fulfillment of those orders are so overwhelming that it will require the active involvement of every person who belongs to Jesus–every member of His Church. There can be no “spectators,” only active “participants.”  Why?  Because there are “So many lost, so little time!”  Every week a million people in our world reach their eternal destiny–heaven or hell.  We have been sent out to rescue those who don’t know Christ before it is too late, but the time is short. World events indicate that history is rushing rapidly to the conclusion that is prophesied in Scripture. We definitely need to heed the admonition of Paul to “make the most of our time because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16).
       It is a tremendous privilege to be a member of the Body of Christ called the Church, but with it goes an awesome responsibility. We have the very crucial job of rescue work to do. And that “we” includes every believer. Every heart with Christ is a missionary and every heart without Christ is a mission field.  If you know Christ as your Savior, you are His ambassador to help your friends, family members, neighbors, fellow workers, classmates, etc. to be reconciled to God. And there are “so many lost, so  little time!”
  
              Forever His,
 
                          Pastor  Dave