Just after Peter had rebuked Jesus for revealing to the apostles that He would suffer, be rejected by the nation of Israel, and be killed by the chief priests and scribes before He would rise from dead after three days and three nights (Mark 8:31), Jesus taught His followers that discipleship was absolute, demanding even that a man should be willing to lose his own life for Christ’s and the gospel’s sake. It was a tough lesson to hear on the heels of what Peter had just said to Jesus. But the Lord used it as a teaching moment when He then said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
The value of one soul. Nothing comes close to it. Its worth is inestimable. Solomon posited that “He that winneth souls is wise.” (Provs. 11:30) Since the soul is life’s most valuable possession—the only part of one’s being that will live as long as God lives—it is wise to value it as God values it.
George Whitefield, the famous English evangelist, did: “O Lord, give me souls, or take my soul,” he prayed.
John Hyde, a missionary to India known as “Praying Hyde,” pleaded: “Father, give me these souls, or I die.”
David Brainerd, early 18th-century missionary to the American Indians, prayed: “I care not where I live or what hardships I go through, so that I can but gain souls to Christ. All my desire is the conversion of sinners, and all my hope is in God.”
It was the “prince of preachers,” C.H. Spurgeon, who affirmed that “I would rather be the means of saving a soul from death than to be the greatest orator on earth. I would rather bring the poorest woman in the world to the feet of Jesus, than I would to be made the Archbishop of Canterbury. I would sooner pluck one single brand from the burning than to explain all mysteries.”
Evangelist D.L. Moody told of his conversion, which occurred at a time when he was working in his uncle’s shoe store, and when he (by agreement) was attending a Bible class taught by Edward Kimball. Kimball, a humble Sunday School teacher, went to the store where young Moody was working, found him, and put his hand on his shoulder, saying, “I’m concerned for you.” His lips quivered, and he was able to say no more. Moody later thought, “Now this is strange! Here is one who has known me only two weeks, and he is concerned about myself!” It is said that Moody straightway went down to the basement, knelt behind a stack of boxes, and gave himself to Christ. (Preacher’s Magazine)
Sometime after Moody was converted, a Sunday morning in 1856, a congregation of well-dressed people had been ushered to their rented pews in Chicago’s Plymouth Congregational Church. Their serene worship was interrupted on that particular Sunday morning by something they had never witnessed before. In walked a young man, a 19-year-old shoe salesman, followed by a motley group of “tramps, slum people and alcoholics.” The young man led them to the four pews he had personally rented for the visitors. He continued in this ministry of evangelism until the Lord called him into a worldwide ministry. (Selected)
John Wesley understood the value of one soul when he advised young preachers: “You may be elegant, you may be a good financier, yea, you may be in great demand, but if you do not win souls, you are a failure. You are not called to do this or that, but to win souls.”
Are you a member of a church that considers its first mission that of winning souls that can be discipled to win other souls? C.S. Lewis challenged Christ’s church: “He works on us in all sorts of ways. But above all, He works on us through each other. Men are mirrors, or ‘carriers’ of Christ to other men. Usually it is those who know Him that bring Him to others. That is why the Church, the whole body of Christians, showing Him to one another, is so important. It is so easy to think that the Church has lots of different objects-education, building, missions, holding services-the Church exists for no other purpose but to draw men to Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons…are simply a waste of time. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.”
There are now about 8 billion living souls upon the earth. If one person per second walked past a given point, it would take 253 years for the 8 billion people to walk past that point. I recently read that there are 7,402 unreached people groups in the world at present, a people group being a group that shares an ethnicity and a language. The total population of the unreached people groups is 3.27 billion, or 42.2 percent of the world’s population. Of the 7,402 unreached people groups, 3,150 are unengaged and unreached; that is, there is no known Christian presence or planted church where they are living. 66,000 souls pass out into eternity every day with no access to the gospel. (The Titus Ten, J. Josh Smith, B & H Publishing, p.173)
Jesus put an incalculable value upon every one of these 8 billion souls. A survey of 10,000 people conducted by a church-growth group found that of those who come to Christ, 2% had a special need; 3 % just “walked in;” 6% were drawn by the minister; 5% liked the Sunday School; less than 1% found Christ because they attended a revival service; 3% liked the programs; but a whopping 79% said a friend or a relative invited them to attend a service where they could hear of Christ.
Our task is daunting. But, we have God’s assurance that we “shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Let’s get busy in doing that which Jesus placed the highest value upon, that of winning souls. If we do, we shall “doubtless come again rejoicing…bringing (our) sheaves (with us).” (Ps.126:6)
“Go ye, therefore, and teach (disciple) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matt.28:19)
YOU and GOD 