Magnificent Obsession

  What a scene as dignitaries, such as Governor Festus and King Agrippa, seated themselves in all their pomp and royalty waiting for the Apostle Paul to be brought before them.  Paul, a prisoner, is brought before them.  Paul begins his speech, defending not himself but the Christ whom he loved and served.  He uttered a great defence for the Gospel.  This is a gathering not soon forgotten.

  Paul commenced by frankly confessing what he had once been. Paul tells of his past when he sought to eliminate the name of Christ and to blast the Christians out of existence. Paul, then called Saul, a Pharisee, keeper of the Law, believed that he was doing God’s will in ridding the world of the impostor, Jesus.  Everyone knew of Saul’s insane fury against Christianity.  He was on a mission of persecution.  When he could not find more Christians to jail or put to death in Jerusalem, he went to the city of Damascus.  It was as he was entering that city, he had a vision of Jesus.  He was blinded by a bright light and heard a voice speaking to him.  The voice asked Paul, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  Paul responded, “Who are you, Lord?”  (meaning ‘sir’ because Saul did not know him as Lord, meaning master.)  The voice answered, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”  Acts 26:14-15  Paul is told to go into the city and he would be told what he must do.  This is the shattering of Paul’s life.  His whole world of belief is torn apart.  Paul knows now that he was sincerely wrong in persecuting Jesus.  (When Christians are persecuted, it is the same as persecuting Jesus.) God sends a preacher by the name of Ananias to Paul.  God used this man to heal Paul of his blindness. Then, Ananias told Paul, “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”  Acts 22:16   Paul’s conversion took place at his baptism, not at the city gate of Damascus. The vision of Jesus at the city gate was to enable Paul to be an Apostle, being an eye witness of the risen Christ.  Paul commits himself to be a follower of Jesus.  He is sent forth to preach the good news, especially to the Gentiles.  This was his magnificent obsession to serve Christ, to preach Christ to the whole world.

  The response of the royal company before Paul was one of refusal.  Governor Festus told Paul that he was mad, his mind had become unbalanced due to too much study.  King Agrippa became very uncomfortable and responded to Paul by accusing him of trying to make him a Christian.   Agrippa said, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”  Paul replied, “Short time or long – I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”     Acts 26:28-29   The royal company leaves Paul’s presence not accepting God’s Son, Jesus, for the forgiveness of their sins.  How tragic, when heaven’s door was opened and they refused to enter in.

  Note carefully, the Apostle Paul’s magnificent obsession was to persuade people to be Christian.
Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with Me.”  Revelation 3:20   Man is so wonderfully and fearfully made that he may choose his own destiny.  Know that the Bible only makes Christians only.
The thing that will save us is that we be Christian.

  A young black boy stood looking at a giant picture  of George Washington Carver.  He thought of all that that man had done for the Negro race and for humanity.  Finally, he blurted out, “Do it again Lord, do it again.”                Look to Jesus, become Christian. Let Jesus be formed in you.

Palestinian Missourian

  Missouri is the ‘show me’ state.  Peter Marshall calls the disciple of Jesus, Thomas, the “Palestinian Missourian”.  Thomas would not believe unless he saw for himself.  Resurrection from the dead was not a part of the experience of Thomas.  Why should he accept such a thing on the say so of others?

  There is only one proof for a resurrection from the dead and that is Jesus who was killed, buried and then by God’s power came out of the grave, alive.  We believe in the resurrection of Jesus by the testimony of eye witnesses.

  One such witness, that astonishes me the most, is Thomas.  You remember that Thomas was a follower of Jesus. He was an Apostle, one of the chosen twelve. He had traveled with Jesus. He had heard Him speak the Words of God. He saw His perfect life.  My, what a blessing for Thomas and the others who were so close to the Master.  Of course, the crucifixion and burial of Jesus changed everything.  What doubt and gloom filled the life of those chosen ones.  When Jesus rose from the dead by the power of God, He appeared to the Apostles in the upper room in the city of Jerusalem the first Sunday after His crucifixion.  Thomas was absent.  I don’t know where he was.  Probably off doing some business, taking care of his family, maybe off by himself trying to figure all of this out as to what happened to Jesus.  Wherever he was and whatever he was doing, what an opportunity he missed.  When Thomas did join the other Apostles, they all eagerly told him that Jesus was alive, that they had seen Him.  Thomas hushed them to silence and said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”   John 20:25

  Did you ever wonder why Thomas insisted on seeing the hands of Jesus in order to believe that Jesus was really alive?   I want to make three suggestions:
1. Thomas wanted to see hands marked with suffering. Jesus’ hands were pierced by nails. He suffered on the cruel cross of Calvary.
2. Thomas wanted to see hands which were spotless. jesus’ possessed a kind of purity unlike any other man.  “He was tempted as we are tempted, yet He was without sin.”
3. Thomas wanted to see hands marked with service.  Jesus came not to be ministered unto but to minister.  He came not to be served but to serve.

  The next Lord’s Day, Thomas was with the disciples in that upper room.  Jesus made His appearance to them.  He said, “Peace be with you”.  Then, Jesus turned directly to Thomas and answered his every doubt.  Jesus said, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”  Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God.”
Thomas had seen the hands of Jesus and believed.

  The world says to the Christian,  Show us your hands.  We have heard your talk of the Kingdom of God, forgiveness of sin, heaven.  It is what we need.  We want to believe but show us your hands.
Show us hands that suffer for the cause you claim to believe.
Show us hands that are made spotless through forgiveness in Christ.
Show us hands that are willing to serve others in the name of Jesus.
Christians, the world has a right to see our hands.  Show them hands which have been touched by the Master’s hands.

It Really Did Happen

  The city of Jerusalem is silent.  The Passover is finished. The throbbing excitement of the past few days is over.  The cruel voices of the mob to crucify Jesus are still now.  The city sleeps.  A bloody period, it seems, has been placed at the end of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

  But, in the midst of the stillness of Jerusalem, there is one who moves restlessly through the city streets and on through the gate of the city.  It is a woman, bent and frail, her hands are clutched as in unutterable grief and there are tears on her face.  It is Mary Magdalene.  What tragedy Christ’s death was to Mary.  He had done so much for her.  She had lived in open sin and shame but by His love, He had lifted her to a new way of life and to self respect.  Now, all of this is gone.  Jesus was dead. He had died before her very eyes.  She came to the tomb, but to her amazement the tomb is empty.  She knows not who took the body nor where the body had been placed.   As Mary stood in the half darkness, suddenly there was a figure standing in the deeper shadows.  She thought he was the gardener and she said,   “They have taken my Lord away…and I don’t know where they have put Him…  Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary.”  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni” (which means Teacher).  John 20:15-16  Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord.”  John 20:18   
I can only imagine what Mary must have felt.  But, she knew what she saw.  She saw Jesus resurrected from the dead.  She had to share such good news.

  Christ is alive.  How do you know?  Because He lives in your heart.  That is subjective evidence, very personal.  But, there is objective truth.  The resurrection is a historical fact based on reliable witnesses.  Jesus appeared alive, following His death and burial, to many people.  He appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the women, to two men on the road to Emmaus, to Simon Peter, to ten Apostles, to seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee, to over 500 people at once, to James, to the Apostles at the time of His ascension, and to the Apostle Paul at the city gate of Damascus.  Now, these are all matters of historical fact.  What we do with such evidence is a matter of faith.

  I thought of the preacher, William Sangster.  he was dying of cancer. He could get around but couldn’t speak.  He lived with his daughter.  One Easter Sunday, he became very despondent and discouraged. The daughter hardly knew what to say to this preacher. 
Mr. Sangster wrote on a pad, “What a tragedy.  Resurrection Lord’s Day and no voice with which to praise my great Redeemer’s name.”   His daughter could give him no answer. 
Finally, this broken hearted man wrote, “There is only one thing more tragic – to have a voice and fail to praise the great Redeemer’s Name.

  Praise Him who died for our sins, was buried and then rose from the dead. 
                        Because He lives, we can live also.

Death Ends Nothing

  In the quiet Easter morning, you are standing in front of a grave in a garden and you see a stone in the mouth of the tomb, but-the stone is moving, is moving.  God is rolling away the stone, not to let Jesus out, but to let you in.  Suddenly, you hear the angel say, “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.  Come and see the place where He lay.”  Matthew 28:6 NIV     You look and the tomb is empty.  With eyes of faith, you believe,  Jesus has resurrected.  He has defeated death and sin for all who believe in Him.  This is the good news we must hear and accept. 

  Death ends nothing.  How do we know that this is true?
One, there lies within each of us an instinct for the hereafter. We cannot force ourselves to believe that living here for a  short span of time, is all there is to life.   Age after age has treasured this instinct for immortality.
Two, immortality is in our conscience.  Conscience points to a world beyond this world, to a day of reckoning, a time of rewarding.  We believe, if not here, then some where, some day, all things will be settled and settled right.
Third, Our affections hold out for a better home to come.  Love will not allow us to believe that this world is all there is to life.  No one can tell us nor are we able to tell ourselves that there is no hope for our deceased loved ones.
Fourth, our sense of  God causes us to believe in continuance of life in a better home to come.  We cannot conceive of God, who has made all things, to not be able to give us better things to come.  How strange and cruel our God would be to give us this longing and hungering for an eternal home with Him and then not be able to fulfill our fondest dream.
Fifth, God’s revelation of Himself,  through Jesus and the Bible, reveals the truth of life instead of death.  When we come to the Word of God, the Bible, we find no note of uncertainty but a ‘thus says the Lord’ that gives hope to our hearts. The Bible does not teach ‘life after death,’ rather it teaches ‘life instead of death.’

  Jesus came to destroy death by replacing it with life.  Jesus lived through this experience man calls death.  He came back from the dead. Only by the power of God could that be done. But, by doing it, Jesus paid for sin once and for all and took away death’s license to do business.  God, through the resurrection of His Son, Jesus, gives us, who believe, the assurance of life with Him. 

  Certainly, this is difficult for us to understand because we are such earthlings.   Even the early followers of Jesus did not understand.  To their troubled hearts and to ours, Jesus said:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you  And if I go and prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”   John 14: 1-3  NIV  

                          HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY TO YOU

Bad Friday Turned Good

  We call it Good Friday, but there was nothing good about that Friday.  We need to be honest about the crucifixion of Jesus on Friday of 33 A.D.  Crucifixion was considered the most horrible form of death.  Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary gives a description of crucifixion that makes me cringe.  “The one to be crucified was stripped naked of all his clothes. He was laid down upon the implement of torture. His arms were stretched along the cross-beams, and at the center of the open palms the point of a huge iron nail was placed, which, by the blow of a mallet, was driven home into the wood. Then, through either foot separately. or possibly through both together, as they were placed one over the other, another huge nail tore its way through the quivering flesh.”  Then, the ‘cross’ with its living human burden was slowly lifted up and the end fixed firmly in a hole in the ground.  The unnatural position made every movement painful.  Added, was the gradual intolerable pain of a burning and raging thirst.  No wonder Jesus cried, “I  thirst.”  Guards were placed at the foot of the cross so no one could steal the body. Legs were often fractured to hasten death.  In most cases the body was allowed to rot on the cross, or to be devoured by birds and beasts.   Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb.  He was dead.

  Would you call what was done to Jesus, good?  It was bad.  The crucifixion of Jesus was the greatest human tragedy the world has ever known or that earth had ever witnessed.   

  For several hours, Jesus endured the cross.  Finally, Jesus cried, “It is finished.”   What was finished?  All that Jesus came to do in seeking to save the lost.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might bcome the righteousness of God.” 
The good news is that Jesus died for our sins on that Friday on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem.

  A young lad stood looking intently at a crucifixion scene in a shop window.  A man approached , stopped and looked. The boy noticed his interest and said to the stranger, “That’s Jesus.”  The man made no reply.  The boy continued, “That’s the Roman soldiers, they killed Him.”  “Where did you learn that?” asked the man.  “In Sunday School,” came the reply.  The man turned and walked away thoughtfully.  He had not gone far when he heard this young man calling, “Say mister, I want to tell you the rest…He rose from the dead.”  

  That’s it-That’s what makes bad Friday good.   The empty tomb.  God raised Jesus from the dead.  He is alive.  He lives and because He lives, we can live also.    “He that has the Son, has life.”   Christians are not on their way to death, but on their way to life.   Chose Christ and life.