|
=====================================
The
Hope of Jesus Christ
-
by Michael Sparr
=====================================
Many of you have seen Mel Gibson’s film, “ The Passion
of the Christ “ by now and have experienced the suffering and
commitment of our Lord and Savior’s “reason for living”
as it were during the final twelve hours of His humanly life, leading
up to His crucifixion. Many of you have, during that two-hour period,
felt disgust, witnessing the events that were portrayed on the big
screen of the most cataclysmic events in human history. You felt
a bonding with our Lord and Savior and suffered right along with
Him as you witnessed, and felt, the humiliation and loneliness of
public scorn. Of being spat upon by those very people He loved,
the cruel and unjust tortures and scourging that occurred by the
Roman guards and seeing the pleasure they derived out of torturing
the Lord Jesus. The sport they got out of watching Him suffer. It
makes you want to separate yourself from humanity and yes apologize
for the cruelties that were dished out, by our fellow “humans”.
But for those of you who watched, who have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, probably kept rolling the words over and over
again in your minds, He did this all for me… “HE DID THIS
ALL FOR ME!”
In spite of the cruelty and abuse Jesus experienced He never lost
track of His commitment and purpose in what He was doing. He knew
well before hand what He would have to experience and yet He chose
to obey the Heavenly Father, His God, and strive forward into His
appointed task. Remember, yes, this was (and is) the Son of God
and could call upon hosts of angelic armies to come to His aid at
the drop of a spoken word, but He was deity in human form and had
all the frailties and weaknesses of any of us. Still, He obeyed
the will of God, His Father in heaven, and willingly allowed Himself
to be taken captive knowing the events that would take place following
His captivity and that it would lead to the finality of His suffering
death on the Cross. These events that would fulfill the prophecies
and redeem mankind for all eternity. And it was ALL, because He
would rather sacrifice Himself for us rather than to live without
us. That is love. That was and always will be the ultimate act of
love because His blood completely redeems us and cleanses us of
our sin, for all time. His blood, The Lamb of God, in a final blood
sacrifice to God. God sent Himself to earth in human form as a sacrifice
for our sin because He loved us more than any of us could possibly
imagine and wanted us to live with Him in eternal heaven. He died
in our place so that we wouldn’t have to. Behold, The Lamb
of God, Jesus Christ. He who was completely sinless and innocent
as a living sacrifice for our sin. All of our sin, past, present
and future. By His blood and His suffering and death on the cross
we are free from death and separation from God, forever, if we but
believe in Him and who He is. He is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, gave up His life and died on the Cross
that day two thousand years ago in order to put a closure to our
separation from God. But the story is not over there. Jesus was
lowered down from the Cross and His lifeless body was laid down
and sealed in a stone tomb near Golgotha, the place of His crucifixion.
He laid there in death for three days. He descended to the depths
and destroyed Satan and the power he held over us. And on the third
day an angel came down from heaven and rolled the stone away from
the tombs entrance and our Lord was resurrected from the grave by
the power of Almighty God. He rose again to give us everlasting
life!
Jesus lives! He was risen from the grave and walked and talked
with many people, even huge crowds, and spoke to His disciples encouraging
them and promising them that He would always be with them. (He would
always be with us!) Until the Day of His glorious return when He
would come back for His church, us, and we would then join Him in
the skies transformed forever into our eternal bodies. Praise the
Almighty living God!
After Jesus had shown Himself to many people in order that they
would believe, He ascended to Heaven and sits with God at His right
hand and intercedes for all of us who are in Christ Jesus. He is
our Savior. He is our Redeemer and Intercessor; and He is the Lord!
So where are you in life right now? You don’t need all the
answers to make a thoughtful decision and claim that you believe
in Jesus. Come to Him by way of faith, don’t wait for all the
facts to come in. Respond to Jesus! Everyone including intellectuals
comes to Jesus the same way. Through their heart. Begin here in
your journey with Jesus and pray:
“ God, thank You for what You have done for me. I believe
You sent your Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins instead of me.
I believe Jesus rose again to give me everlasting life. Please forgive
me for my sins. I’m sorry I’ve done those things and I
repent of that way of life. Please give me a new and clean heart.
I ask You to come into my life. Jesus, fill my heart with Yourself
and teach me to do everything You want me to do and to follow You
all the days of my life. I pray this believing in what Jesus did
for me. Amen.”
If you prayed this and meant it from your heart you are now “
born again “! Welcome to the family, brothers and sisters!
You are now “ in Christ” and the Holy Spirit will begin
to work on your spirit as you grow in Christ. You are a “New
Creation” and Jesus Christ lives inside of you! May God richly
bless you in the days to come as you begin your journey in Christianity.
Find a good ‘Bible-based’ church of your choice and begin
to fellowship with other believers who will lift you up and help
you grow.
----
|