Category Archives: Jesus

The one question we have for Jesus

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Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him…. And he questioned Him with many words…. (Luke 23:8-9).

Someone asked Larry King, the legendary television interviewer, if he could sit across the table and interview one person in all of history, who would it be.

“Jesus Christ,” answered this man who is Jewish.

“And what would you ask him?”

“I would like to ask Him if He was indeed virgin-born.  The answer to that question would define history for me.”

To be sure. That answer could change everything.  As it has for many a person.

So with the resurrection.  Answer that in the affirmative and everything else falls into place.

Many people asked questions of Jesus…

In the Gospels, we find people asking one question of the Lord Jesus, then going their way.  We have to wonder if through the years, as they reflected on their single moment with Destiny, this one touch with the Divine, they didn’t regret the shallowness or superficiality of their request.  Here are some…

–The disciples of John asked why they had to fast, but Jesus’ disciples were not required to.  Matthew 9:14.

–The tricksters asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” that they might accuse Him.  Matthew 12:10. It’s not a bad question, although they didn’t care for the Lord’s answer.

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It all starts with listening.

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“When He entered Capernaum again after some days, it was reported that He was at home. So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and He was speaking the Word to them” (Mark 2:1-2).

Everything starts with listening.

Everywhere the Lord Jesus went, people flocked to hear Him.  They covered hillsides and blanketed lakeshores.  They packed out synagogues and homes, so intent were they on every word coming from those divine lips.  “Never man spake like this man,” they said (John 7:46).

People of our generation prefer to speak than listen, to argue rather than to hear and believe. They want their wisdom reduced to sound bites, to bumper sticker phrases.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” says Paul in Romans 10:17. Faith in God is given to those who will hear His Word.

Really hear it. Not just register it or record it, and not just scan it. Take it inwardly and digest it.  Think about it, treasure it in our hearts, and meditate upon it.

You want faith? Want to know if God is real and Jesus is everything He claimed?  Interested in checking out the Christian faith? Perhaps you are tired of seeing people slam Christianity while others glorify it and have decided to see for yourself?  Good.

Start with the Word. The Holy Bible. Get into it and listen for God’s voice.

He makes you a promise: “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.  I will be found by you…” (Jeremiah 29:13-14).

I will be found by you.

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Why Christians make so much of Jesus

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Jesus Christ was the First. The Most. The Best. The Last. The Everything.

Scripture ransacks the human language looking for superlatives enough to give mankind some kind of idea who this Person was who was born of a virgin, lived without sin, taught us of Heaven, and died in our place.  His resurrection and ascension forever secured His place in the history and thought and conversation of this small planet.

Earth has never seen another like Him.  He is unique.

Christianity and the Christian life are all about Jesus.

Regardless of what they tell you, the Christian faith is not about love.

It’s not about morals and doing good.

The Christian faith is not about helping one another and be ye kind and see you in church.

Love and morals and doing good, helping one another and showing kindness and attending worship are the byproducts of the Christian faith when done right.

But the Christian faith itself is all about one Person and One Person Only:  The Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the only Savior. He is the only sin-offering. He is the one and only mediator between God and man. He alone reveals God the Father to us.  His is the only Name by which we must be saved.

Jesus.  It’s all about Jesus.

The disciples said to Jesus, “Show us the Father and that’ll be enough for us!”  He answered, “Have I been so long with you and you still don’t know who I am?”  He paused for effect and said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” (That’s John 14:8-9.)

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The resurrection of Jesus: The Ultimate Game-Changer

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“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (I Thessalonians 4:14).

If Jesus really did rise from the dead as Scripture claims and as Christians hold, then nothing is the same and everything has changed forever.

The reason Christians are positively giddy about the Easter Event–the resurrection of Jesus–is that in walking out of that tomb and leaving it forever empty,  He broke the stranglehold in which death had held humanity.

We are free.  We are free forever. We are free to live forever.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

Everything stands or falls on whether Jesus rose from the dead that first Easter Sunday morning.

The resurrection of Jesus was Heaven’s imprimatur on Jesus’s ministry, the Father’s validation of Jesus’ every claim, eternity’s “amen” to Jesus’ promises, and convincing evidence that Jesus Christ is everything He said He was.

Prove that He did not rise, that His body is still lying in some grave somewhere, and you will have put a stop to the entire Christian movement.  Thereafter, the few remaining followers of the Man of Galilee would form themselves into a Jesus Memorial Society. Not long before they stopped meeting altogether, they would quit writing “Man of Galilee” and “He” in all caps.

Even the most notorious atheist, adamantly opposed even to the idea that Jesus could have risen from the dead, would concede that if indeed it did happen, it was a game-changer from that moment on.

The ultimate game-changer.  Nothing would ever be the same.

A new reality. That’s what it was.

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The missing element in the Christmas story?

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I sat in the congregation listening to the Christmas sermon.  Something was missing and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

The minister had selected one aspect of the Christmas story and read a text supporting it, then brought his sermon on that subject.  His points were properly related to the text and no doubt most people left the worship center satisfied they had been spiritually fed.  It was only later that something occurred to me, what was the missing ingredient in that morning’s service.

The worship leader and musicians and the pastor all drew our attention back to that night in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, and they did a fair job of opening the text, explaining its message, and praising the Lord. But they omitted one major element as far as I could tell.

They forgot to give us the “so what” of the Christmas message.

They failed to drive home the continuing aspect of this most wonderful of all events in the history of our world.

He’s still alive.  He is with us.  He is Lord of the here and now. 

They told us He was God and the Son of God. They reminded us of the prophecies and told how they were fulfilled. They gloried in the appearance of the angels and we sang the same song they did, although presumably not as well or as big.  We praised and loved and enjoyed and worshiped. But then…

We left with the understanding that that’s all there is, that it was a history event and “wasn’t that wonderful!”.

They failed to tell us the “So What” of Christmas.  They omitted the lasting and eternal difference that this earth and its inhabitants have lived under ever since the Incarnation.

1) Jesus was born in Bethlehem, yes–but He is still alive and among us.

Even though this is historical and fixed to a date and time and place, it’s far more than that.  The church is not a Jesus Memorial Society. Jesus Christ is alive and He is in this place and we are His children forever.

Immanuel translates to “God with us.”  Present tense!

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Seven of Jesus’ most amazing statements

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“Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46).

I once owned a book with the wonderful title of 657 of the Best Things Ever Said.  It would not surprise you to know that most of those famous quotes are just plain silly.

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it surely must be true that the list of “best things ever said” is also arbitrary.  Depends on who’s speaking.

With one exception.

Literally hundreds of millions of people across this world agree with the judgement of those early temple soldiers that “No one ever spoke like Jesus.”

Our Lord spoke a solid one thousand mind boggling things never heard before on Planet Earth, all of them surprising and wonderful and memorable. And, let’s be honest, many who heard Jesus also found His words provocative, offensive, and even blasphemous.

When Jesus stood to preach, no one was bored.

May I direct your attention to Matthew chapter 11, verses 21 through 30?  Now, Matthew 11 is pure gold.  A mother-lode for sure.  This treasure trove deserves far more attention than it has usually received.

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Looking for Mayberry, as well as the Garden of Eden

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(This was originally posted on my website in 2012.  I decided to repost it here and not tweak or update it.  Bear that in mind. I was living in New Orleans at the time, retired for three years.)

Pastors are always looking for sermon illustrations. See if any of this works for you.

TWO FUNERALS.

This week, C-Span televised the funeral of South Dakota statesman former Senator George McGovern, who had run for the Presidency in 1972 and lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon.

Whenever there is a funeral of a national leader on C-Span, I try to watch as much of it as I can. The fascinating part is hearing stories from colleagues, some of whom are often well-known in their own right, tales from earlier years, stories that never made it into newspapers.

This funeral was held, I believe, in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church of Sioux Falls. I did not watch the entire service, so my observation is not about this funeral specifically.

Pagan funerals–in our culture–look back; Christian funerals look ahead.

It’s that simple. The pagan service will celebrate all the good the subject did in his life while ignoring any unsavory parts; the Christian service may indeed bring in some of the accomplishments from his lifetime, but mainly looks forward. As the Apostle Paul said, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day–and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (II Timothy 4).

Something else about George McGovern intrigues me. In World War II, he flew bombers over Germany. He was a full-fledged American hero and thus entitled to all the trappings of macho-ism (machismo?). But the American public never saw any of that bravado from him as a senator, politician, and candidate for the highest office. In fact, he came across as rather nerdish.

And, by a strange coincidence, so did George H. W. Bush (our 41st president). In World War II, he was a fighter pilot who on one occasion had to parachute from his stricken plane. And yet, in one of his campaigns for the presidency, Newsweek magazine ran a cover with his picture and the words: “The Wimp Factor.” (Wimp? The man jumps out of planes to celebrate his 80th birthday? He is anything but a wimp!)

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This guy thinks he has found a contradiction in Scripture that disproves God

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“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend wrote something  about the Bible’s authenticity on her Facebook page, causing someone else to leave a caustic reply..

After each statements the fellow left, all of them shallow and several insulting, my friend patiently responded with kindness and reason.

But nothing worked. Her “commenter” was determined to nail her to the wall.

He had found a contradiction in Scripture and knew this was the (ahem) unholy grail, the proof, the nail in the coffin of Jehovah God.

What was his “contradiction”?

“In one place the Bible says an eye for an eye and another place it says turn the other cheek.  What do you say about such a contradiction?”

I wondered if this guy was serious.  Any teenager in church could answer that.

Just so easily does this guy dismiss the living God, the Creator of the Universe.

Even if the Lord had such a fellow as that on His team, He wouldn’t have much.  HIs ignorance is shallow and doubtless his faith would be just as worthless.

Before commenting on the subject of contradictions in the Word, let me respond to that guy, just in case any reader needs to know how those two scriptures line up.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” was given to Israel as a principle for assessing punishment for crimes (Leviticus 24:20). This formula was light-years more lenient and merciful than the standard used in pagan countries–and to this day, in some backward nations–that dictated a life for an eye; a limb for a tooth.

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Who gave you the authority to do this?

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My journal tells of this little incident at the local pharmacy.

Saturday night, stuck in the checkout line at the local Rite-Aid, I became involved in a little incident.

The checker was ringing up the purchases of a man about 40 years old who had a small child with him. On the other side of the checker, near the front door, stood an older man, perhaps 75 or 80, who was trying to get her attention. “Ma’am,” he kept saying, “Is it all right if I take this out to the car to show my wife?” He was holding up some item from the store. The checker was giving her attention to the man and child in front of her.

Finally, the customer at the checkout snapped at the older gentleman, “No! It is not all right to take that outside!” The old man was flustered and said, “She’s in the car. I just want to see if this is what she wants. I’ll be right back.”

“No, sir!” said the younger man. “You’re not allowed to take things outside you haven’t paid for!”

The older gentleman said, “Well, what if I leave my umbrella? I’ll be right back.”

“No!” the young man said. “Leave your drivers license.”

Meanwhile, those of us in the checkout line were silently watching this scenario and fascinated at the way the customer was bullying the man at the door.

Finally, the older man said to the customer, “Are you a manager of this store or something?”

The younger fellow said, “No, I’m not. But I know how these things are done!”

I’d taken about all of this I could. From the back of the checkout line, I called out to the old man, “Sir! You may ignore the customer. Do what you have to do!”

The younger man turned and stared at me contemptuously, took his child by the hand, and stalked out.

As he exited the door, the manager arrived and took care of the older gentleman. The woman in front of me turned and said, “Who in blue blazes did that fellow think he was, talking to that old man that way?” I laughed and agreed that he was definitely a buttinsky.

When I got home and told me wife this little tale, she–filling the role of a wife so neatly–said, “And who did you think you were, rebuking him like that?”

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