By: Dale Weckbacher
Romans 14:11
For it is written:
"As I live, says
the LORD,
Every knee shall bow
to Me,
And every tongue
shall confess to God."
NKJV
Every Christmas we go through the happy holidays vs. Merry
Christmas debate. At issue is the word
Christ in the name for the holiday. The very
mention of God in anything offends atheists but add to that the name or Jesus
Christ, and everyone with the exception of followers of Jesus Christ are
offended. So why the fervor over a man
that ministered on earth 2000 years ago and who only ministered in the small
country of Israel?
1)
Jesus claimed to be the Son of God (John 10:32)
– Jesus claim that God was His Father in John 10:32 caused a division between
Himself and the Jewish religious leaders of His day. In fact, it was Jesus claim to be the Son of
God that led to the High Priest demanding Jesus crucifixion (Luke 22:70-71).
2)
After His crucifixion, Jesus following and influence
continued to grow – Even after Jesus ascension to heaven, His following
continued to grow until the Jewish leaders and government were threatened,
stating in Acts 17:6 that those that had turned the world upside down, meaning
those following Christ and preaching the Gospel, were coming into the
city.
3)
Unable to stop the spread of the Gospel, the
Roman government began martyring Christians – However, even this could not stop
the spread of the Gospel.
The government and religious leaders of the time of Christ
and the early Church did everything they thought they needed to do to stop this
threatening movement. They killed the
leader of the movement only to have Him rise from the dead causing more to
follow Him. They threatened the Apostles
spreading the word with imprisonment hoping this would discourage them, causing
them to return to their previous professions.
Finally, when all of this failed, they began killing followers of Christ
believing this would finally stop the movement, only to see believers scatter
spreading the Gospel around the known world.
We must ask why a group of mostly humble and simple men and
women become so zealous about their belief that they would risk their lives
defending these beliefs. The answer I
believe lies in that these men and women witnessed the risen Lord. Even though they did not understand it when
Jesus was with them, after he arose from the dead, they must have remembered
him telling them this is exactly what would occur.
They also witnessed Bible prophesy coming true before their
very eyes. They would have recalled
Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, which graphically describe the death by crucifixion
Jesus endured. They would have known
that the writing of these scriptures happened before the perfection of the
practice of execution by Rome as described in these two scriptures. This means that what they saw and wrote about
was a prophetic vision. However, were
these visions from God? To answer this
question we must go to the biblical method for proving a prophetic vision is
from God found in Deuteronomy 13:1-3, which tells us that if what the prophet
says comes true, it is from God. Fortunately,
we now have the benefit of being able to look back and understand that what
David and Isaiah prophesied about was the death of the suffering servant without
ever witnessing a crucifixion. For many
this is proof enough that Jesus is Messiah.
However, some need additional proof for even today
conspiracies abound claiming Jesus did not die but was drugged , passed out (1) or his body was
stolen (Matthew 28:13-15). If the
evidence of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 were all the evidence there was to Jesus
being Messiah, Jesus’ claims could be disproven but there is more
evidence. (2)
Jesus came from the same city as Micah 5:2, Bethlehem Ephrathah. Granted many people were born in Bethlehem
but how many suffered a brutal death by crucifixion because they claimed to be
Messiah. In addition, if the body of
Jesus were stolen, we would think someone threatened with death for their
belief in a fraud would have produced the body or the tomb containing the body
of Jesus.
Almost 2000 years after Jesus ministered on the earth, the
church continues to exist and thrive, and even today, people face death for
their belief in Jesus Christ and yet refuse to renounce their faith. It seems anyone looking at Christianity from the
outside and seeing the zealous manner in which people cling to their faith in
spite of threats would have to admit there must be something to Christianity. This zealous faith means people either are
crazy or provides evidence that belief in Jesus as Messiah has much credence
and provides them with hope in these chaotic times.
This is the final post in the series on empowered evangelism
and as such I want to close by issuing two challenges. To those that have not made the decision to
make Jesus Lord of their lives, I encourage you to pray this prayer with me.
Dear Lord Jesus. I
know I have sinned and the wages for my sin is death. I now repent of my sins and ask for your
forgiveness. I know you arose from the
grave and now sit at the right hand of God the Father. I now make you Lord of my life.
If you prayed that prayer please feel free to leave a
comment to this post so we can pray for you.
Nobody will call you and you will not go on any list we simply want to
pray for you.
My second challenge is to those who have already made Jesus
Lord of their lives. These are chaotic
times and many people we meet every day are living without any hope. We have what these hopeless people are looking
for and must become empowered to share the Gospel with them by,
1)
Living lives worthy of our high calling as
children of God
2)
Sharing with them, not preaching at them, about
what Jesus means to us and what he has done in our lives.
The harvest is indeed ready but we need more
harvesters. If you want to be one of the
harvesters, please let us know by leaving a comment to this post.
My God richly bless you all.
1. Christian Worldview Press. Did Jesus Survive
the Crucifixion. christianworldviewpress.com. [Online] christian
Worldview Press, July 15, 2013. [Cited: April 27, 2015.]
http://christianworldviewpress.com/did-jesus-survive-the-crucifixion/.
2. McGee, Matthew.
Evidence that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. www.matthewmcgee.org. [Online]
Matthew Mcgee. [Cited: April 27, 2015.]
http://www.matthewmcgee.org/evidence.html.
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