Articles
Lost Opportunities
If you had bought 100 shares of Wal-Mart stock when it was first offered at $16.50, it would be worth over $12 million today, and you would have had a dividend payout of over $400,000 in fiscal year 2015. But I'm guessing you didn't. [I didn't either, since I was only six years old at the time.] If you had bought 100 shares of Southwest Airlines stock when it was first offered at $11, it would be worth a little over $1.5 million. I'm guessing you probably didn't do that, either. [Again, neither did I, and because I was just nine years old at the time.] "Missed opportunities," some would say.
Quite often, we miss out on profitable investments simply because we don't know what the future holds for such investments, and we are not willing to take the risk. Those who do are rewarded — and sometimes they suffer huge losses; not every investment is a Wal-Mart or Southwest Airlines. Missed opportunities are not exclusive to financial investments, though.
Sometimes, we miss out on first edition books because they sold out before we could get one; we miss out on limited edition collectibles for the same reason; we miss out on specials at our favorite restaurant because we showed up after the 'early bird' cutoff time, or because the coupon expired. On a much larger scale, maybe we miss out on investing in a house and the market experiences a boom. On an entirely different level, maybe we missed out meeting that one who could have been a potential spouse because we were just too shy to ask.
Missed opportunities.
Now, let's get to the point: Maybe you are one who has heard the gospel story, or maybe you've read your Bible and you've seen it with your own eyes, but you haven't done anything as a response to what you have read. Maybe a friend or family member has tried to teach you about God's plan for your salvation, but you dismissed it, thinking it is not really that important to you right now, and it's something you'll think about when you get older, or have more time, or when you're married, or when you're settled into that new location or new job or new family or...a hundred other things that come first.
When Jesus came to this earth and after He had begun going about teaching and working great miracles, many people who heard of Him and His words and work sought to see and hear Him. Once, in fact, it was said, “Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased” (John 6:2). Not only did Jesus continue healing people, but it was at this time He fed over 5,000 people with “five barley loaves and two small fish” (John 6:8-13).
But some who had witnessed this great miracle apparently were there for only the food, and not the teaching. Later, when Jesus departed, they went around the sea as they followed Him and asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” (John 6:25). But Jesus knew why they followed, saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (John 6:26, 27). They persisted in demanding He do more miracles, producing more food (John 6:28-31), but Jesus sought to direct their minds on more important things than mere food.
Jesus then taught them more, urging them to seek the bread from heaven, and told them that if anyone ate of this bread, would “live forever” (John 6:32-51). When He taught of the need to partake of His body and blood in order to have this eternal life, some said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” (John 6:52-60). When He told them His words “are spirit, and they are life” and how some would not believe (John 6:61-65), we find “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (John 6:66). While He did indeed speak "hard sayings," they turned away from the very source of eternal life, something Peter and the other disciples understood (John 6:68, 69).
But what about you? If you have read or heard taught the words of Jesus and the inspired writers, you have heard those same words of eternal life; what have you done with what you have heard? It matters, for Jesus said, “whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock” and, “everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matt. 7:24-27). Are you wise, or are you foolish?
Not everyone who heard Jesus when He walked this earth listened and heeded His words. So great was His rejection at Jerusalem that when Jesus came into the city for one of His last journeys, He would look out over the city and declare with great sadness, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:37), right before He predicted its great fall and destruction.
When the apostles would later preach the word of God, His plan for our salvation, some would be “filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 13:45), to which Paul would say, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46).
Missed — no, lost — opportunities.
But what about you? You now have an opportunity those people in Jerusalem missed, and will never have again. Right now, you have an opportunity to continue hearing what God says, and choose to follow those words. Right now, you have the opportunity to investigate the claim of Jesus and what the inspired writers said about Him by reading the evidence and the eyewitness testimony, and you “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30, 31).
Right now, you have the opportunity to respond positively to God's offer of forgiveness and salvation, as did those who first heard the gospel preached in Jerusalem, and who asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). You may read and obey the words of Peter, who told them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). Those who rejected the message of Jesus and the apostles no longer have an opportunity to obey, but you do. For you, it doesn't have to be a missed opportunity or, worse, a lost opportunity.
One day, you and I and everyone who has ever walked this earth will stand before Jesus Christ in the final Judgment, and “each of us shall give account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:10, 12). If we have heard and obeyed the word of God, we will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matt. 25:21). If we reject those words now, we should know they will then judge us (John 12:47, 48), and we will hear, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matt. 7:23). What a sad day that will be.
But it doesn't have to be a lost opportunity. If you are willing to obey, it could be the opportunity of a lifetime. —— Steven Harper
