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Jesus As They Saw Him (Part 1&2)- LMPT series-001 ||Ravi Zacharias #ravizacharias #letmypeoplethink | Apologetics Network International | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Jesus As They Saw Him (Part 1&2)- LMPT series-001 ||Ravi Zacharias #ravizacharias #letmypeoplethink
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if you've got your bibles please turn
with me not to the text of my message
but to the backdrop of a message i want
to bring to you
john chapter 2
and i'm going to read the miracle of
cana in galilee
and that was jesus's miracle of the
conversion of water into wine i'm going
to use that as a backdrop read for you a
few words and then enter into the message
message
and the third day there was a marriage
in cana of galilee and the mother of
jesus was there and both jesus was
called and his disciples to the marriage
and when they wanted wine the mother of
jesus saith unto him they have no wine
jesus saith unto her woman what have i
to do with thee mine our is not yet come
that wooden translation reads to
pungently what jesus is really saying to
her is woman i don't think you really
understand the timetable under which i
am operating and it is interesting that
he went ahead and performed the miracle anyway
anyway
almost as if to say that i am operating
on a timetable that god wants me to
operate when his brother said to him are
you going to come to the passover he
said not yet and a few moments later he
went jesus was moving in a certain time
span and when the fullness of time was
come he was born into this world so he
was listening to a different drummer
verse 5 his mother saith unto the
servants whatsoever he saith unto you do it
it
and they were set there six water pots
of stone after the manner of the
purifying of the jews containing two or
three fur skins apiece
jesus saith unto them fill the water
pots with water and they fill them up to
the brim and he saith unto them draw out
now and bear unto the governor of the
feast and they bear it when the ruler of
the feasts had tasted the water that was
made wine and knew not whence it was but
the servants which drew the water knew
the governor of the feast called the
bridegroom and he saith unto him every
man at the beginning that set forth good
wine and when men have well drunk then
that which is worse but thou has kept
the good wine until the last this
beginning of miracles did jesus in cana
of galilee and manifested forth his
glory and his disciples believed on him
it is fascinating to read this passage
of scripture two thousand years ago
and then to read a letter to the editor
after the jim jones saga in guyana you
remember what happened it is one of the
most hellish things ever perpetrated
upon man where this one individual with
a messianic complex proclaimed himself
to be the messiah of these several
hundred people
and i have two cassettes in my study as
a matter of fact in the light of the
freedom of information act in the united
states those tapes were available and it
is the live conversation on the last day
when jim jones finally orchestrated that
mass suicide may i say this to you
keenly aware of the words i am using i
have never on tape ever heard anything
more hellish than those two tapes it is
one of the worst things i've ever heard
when the man in all kinds of trances
moves into profanity in a voice that
almost sounds unearthly and much more
hellish than anything else and he
screamed out at those people
whom he by now had filled with fright
one man was literally begging him to let
him go and jones refused to at the
threat of a gun these are the last two
or three paragraphs let me read excerpts
for you
jim jones are screaming in hysteria at
this point and he says let's get going
we tried to find a new beginning but
it's too late lay down your lives with
dignity don't lay them down with tears
and agony and the crying in hysteria is
uh building to a crescendo in the
background stop this hysteria it's just
something to put you to rest
keep your emotions down children it'll
not hurt if you keep quiet i don't care
how many screams you hear death is a
million times preferable than to spend
more days in this life i call on you to
quit exciting your children mothers stop
this nonsense hurry my children hurry
quickly quickly no more pain no more
pain all you do is take a drink and go
to sleep have trust in me you have to
step across this world is not my home
and in the words of one commentator and
so ended the symphony that he conducted
orchestrating the death of nearly a
thousand men women and children
probably the most irrational letter to
the editor in the time magazine after
the guyana incident read this way i do
not know why the christians are so upset
with what jim jones did
did jesus do anything different to jones
jones claimed to be the messiah listen
to the following jesus claim to them me
the messiah listed the following i don't
see any difference between the two and
the last ones who ought to be
complaining ought to be the christian
folk you know in philosophy you take a
course that is called a formal and a
fundamental fallacy in logic and there
are many many formal fallacies one of
them is this just because two things
have one thing in common does not
necessarily mean they have everything in common
common
my brother has ears elephants have ears
therefore my brother is an elephant you
see that's the logic jesus claimed to be
the messiah jones claimed to be the
messiah therefore they both are the same
gandhi was a political leader hitler was
a political leader therefore they are
the same charles manson seeks a
following mother teresa seeks a
following therefore they both are the
same it is only the individual who has
not looked at the bible
with an honest heart who is the one who
has rejected the messiah when i go in to
listen to students on university
campuses ask their questions most often
they can't even ask meaningful biblical
questions because many of them have
never read it
they have read about it they have an
opinion on it they have never really
read it
and i want to present to you the message
entitled jesus as they saw him
i want to look at the life of jesus in
three different categories
it was the physicist helmholtz who said
if you want to understand the nature of
the eye you must understand the
properties of light
if you want to understand the nature of
the eye you must understand the
properties of light and the other day i
was sitting thinking about this whole
business of how people view things
differently and i came to the conclusion
our biggest problem is that we look at
life with our eyes rather than through
our eyes
we look at life with our eyes rather
than through our eyes the eye is the
instrument to see
not the instrument to define value
the definition of value comes elsewhere
you look into the mirror but you go to
the faucet to wash your face and what we
very often do is look with our eyes and
defined with our eyes and hence the term
materialists we define ourselves as
material beings from beginning to end i
want to look at jesus from three vantage
points and if you don't know him
personally please do yourself a favor
please do yourself a favor try and
reject my style try to blind yourself to
the approach i am taking only try and
weigh out whether what i'm saying to you
makes sense or not
so often we reject a message because we
want to reject the messenger if you can
somehow do it i want you only to hear
the message and i want you to see what
it is i'm trying to say to you
the first aspect of jesus's life i want
to see him in the essential nature of
his person the essential nature of his
person who was he in essence
jean-paul sartre the french
existentialist philosopher who has made
existentialism very very popular what
does existentialism really mean
existentialism if defined
philosophically sounds more confusing so
let me define it most rigorously so
nobody knocks me for it and then
popularize the definition where it
really says existence precedes essence
what it means is what i do
determines who i am
what i do determines who i am in other
words the word of god tells me
to behave a certain way because of who i
am existentialism reverses it and says
on the basis of what you do you can
define who you are so you see if i want
to define life a certain way i act a
certain way and it is really got the
definition the wrong way around
jesus's essence was the fact that he
claimed to be the son of god claimed to
be equal with god and i want you to see
him in two thoughts there in the
essential nature of his person
number one he was perfect in purity
number one he was perfect in purity
if i were to ask would you please write
a definition of purity i think you'll
have a very difficult time the reason
for that is this it's the same way if i
said to you could you please define nothing
nothing
you cannot define nothing because
nothing by definition partakes of something
something
when you use the word nothing you're
really saying no thing
thing
and so nothing is defined as the absence
of something and that is exactly the
problem we have with the word purity too
if i say to you i am a pure individual
you will go away assuming there are some
things he doesn't do there are some
places he doesn't go there are some
thoughts he doesn't think there are some
habits he doesn't espouse you will
define my purity in terms of the absence
of something and legitimately so
let me have you focus your attention on
the scene
there's a man living on top of mount
tabor in the mind of this particular
writer using his imagination and the man
is calling himself elian he pretends to
be a hermit living at the top of mount
tabor and he says as hermits we are
accustomed to seeing visions and
dreaming dreams he says but when i woke
up this morning i was going to see
something that was not a vision that was
not a dream it was something that jolted
me into reality i was standing behind
the tree this morning when four
individuals jesus
peter james and john began to quietly
make their way up to the top of the
mount for those of you ladies and
gentlemen who've been to israel you will
agree with me that the top of mount
tabor is one of the most beautiful
settings in israel topographically it is
striking you stand on top of the
mountain and you look in one direction
you see the sprawling valleys of megiddo
you look in another direction on a clear
day you'll see the spires of nazareth
you look in a third direction you'll see
the calm and the lovely waters of the
sea of galilee you turn around and you
look at the fourth direction you see the
tender and the gentle curves of mount
hermon snow-capped for so much of the
year and as you look around all of this
and a quiet cathedral stands atop mount
tabor today i was picturing with this
man imagining himself to be elian what
really happened
jesus peter james and john gently making
their way to the top of the mountain and
elian is watching them he says jesus was
talking to them instructing them in many
ways then jesus left the three disciples
moved to the top of the mount all by
himself and he says all of a sudden the
body of jesus began to glow with an
incandescent radiance a whiter white the
human mind could not conceive and as the
body began to glow whiter and whiter and
wider suddenly the heavens were rented
too and i saw two figures descending
into the presence of jesus and i had
barely enough strength and breadth in my
body to cry out the names of moses and
elijah but no more had these two men
descended when i fell prostrate onto the
dust of tabor all i had seen was moses
and elijah descending jesus's body
beginning to glow and as i fell face
down into the dust of the earth suddenly
i heard the voice of almighty god
reverberating through the valleys below
crying out this is my son listen to him
when i think of jesus ladies and gentlemen
gentlemen
i think of that transfiguration scene
and if i were peter
i would have done exactly what he did
with jesus and many times i feel that
way turning on a television program for
a few moments watching a fellow being
interviewed mentioning the name of god i
said who is this fellow and then he
starts talking about the reason most
people fear death is because the
christians have caused that fear he says
i don't believe in any of that i'm not a
humanist i'm a deist those are the kinds
of boys i'd love to take on in a debate
who only know
how to slam something never know how to
defend theirs who only know how to break
eggs they never know what to do with them
them
slam slam slam jesus again to blame
christianity again to blame blame
everybody you see but don't blame
ourselves and he said and the problem
with christianity is they have infused a
morality into this world that is more
condemnatory than exaltative and then he
goes on to say this he says and that is
terribly selfish who told him that
when you see this when you hear this
when you travel around and hear of the
broken homes see the young children with
no homes to go to think of the broken
dreams broken lives think of all of
these places where political ideologies
are destroying human life somehow you
pine within your soul the way peter
pined within his soul when he said to
jesus let's stay here
let's stay here
i don't want to go down from this
mountain again and the reason was peter
was privileged to see the
transfiguration of our lord and ladies
and gentlemen i want to tell you
something the purity of man is the
absence of something the purity of jesus
is the presence of something
you with me
the purity of man is the absence of
something the purity of jesus is the
presence of something and many a times
as i start writing one of my chapters in
the book on worship is the god whom we
worship and language becomes exhausted
concepts become beggarly and i find
myself just desperately trying to nudge
at the truth i like what one philosopher
says about the gods of the greeks and
the gods of the mediterraneans he says
this it is true of the greek religions
that it is not a fact
that the gods abandoned the people
because the people became so depraved
but the people abandoned their gods
because their gods became so depraved
when you read homer when you read
aeschylus when you read many of these
writers or you go on to read socrates
and plato and aristotle you begin to see
a kind of a plea from these thinkers
won't you get the concept of deity at
least unmingled with dirt and unmingled
with impurity how we play a game in
front of other people and i want to tell
you as soon as we behold jesus face to
face we'll find out what purity really is
is
when i look at my life i think of
augustine and by the way augustine was
one of the greatest minds that ever
lived and he ran and ran and ran and ran
from god till finally through his mother
he was marvelously converted
and augustine says this at one point
i placed myself behind myself all the
time you took me from behind myself put
me in front of myself
i saw myself and was horrified
and then he goes on to say this you know
i was sharing this with my daughter one
day and even she came to grips with this
idea it fascinates me how those little
minds can come to grip with such
profound thoughts i was talking about
augustine this way one of the great men
of god and i said you know what he said
once honey because she was asking me a
question about why there are some good
people who do such bad things
and i was saying i said i was talking to
her about augustine and i said listen to
me carefully now siri and see if you
understand what i'm saying i said what
augustine said was that there are two
kinds of loves within me there is a love
which loves the good there is a love
which loves the evil there is the love
which loves the good there is the love
which loves the evil and augustine says
and the best thing i can say about
myself is that there is a third kind of
a passion that looks at both of them
there's a third kind of a passion that
looks at both of them i have a love
which loves the love that loves the good
and i have a hate which hates the love
that loves the evil
if you follow me there's a passion
looking at both of them one loves the
good one loves the evil and the best
thing i can say about myself is that i
love the love which loves the good and i
hate the love which loves the evil and
that tiny little girl says daddy that's
exactly the way i feel sometimes i want
to do good things i want to do bad
things and there's something within me
and when you look at your soul when you
look at your will when you look at your
ambitions when you look at your goals
when you look at your dreams things are
almost never as they appear to be
things are almost never as they appear
to be and some of you may be close to
other people who haven't got the
faintest clue how impure your life is
there's something wonderful about the
fact that you can bring your impurity
and turn your face towards the living
god because when you look at god you're
looking not at the absence of impurities
you're looking at the very presence of purity
purity
there's a second quality about his
essence number one perfect in purity
number two he was a model in charity he
was a model in charity
i will often say this to young couples
who come to me to ask some questions on
future relationships etc i always say to
them there is never
any reason to be unkind
unkind
there's never any reason to be unkind
you can be strong you can be tough you
can be very very severe in the things
you're saying but you don't have to be
unkind in what you're saying
and i look at jesus i don't know how
many of you have ever read of what
lepers really go through
arthur me in his children's encyclopedia
describes the story of joseph damien one
of these missionaries who served amongst
the lepers
one day some boiling hot water fell on
his feet and it took him about 30
seconds to suddenly realize he had no
sensation on his foot and as he walked
up to the audience that day all lepers
sitting in front of him he normally
began with my fellow believers today he
began a sermon with my fellow lepers and
then broke down and wept and recognized
his body was now crawling with that
hideous disease that was destroying him
a few years ago i was speaking at a
leprosarium at the tip of the sahara
desert i don't think there's more of a
beleaguered looking people than them and
i remember as the missionary was taking
me through to speak in this auditorium
suddenly the missionary said i'll be
back in just a moment and turned around
and i was about to turn the knob of the
door leading me into the auditorium and
i backed off for a moment i didn't want
to touch the knob out of fear as to
whether that kind of a leprosy could
spread or whatever illegitimately
illegitimate was my reaction to my
embarrassment i remember because i was
wearing a jacket my elbow was covered i
turned the knob and moved in that way
and then as i stood in front of these
people with worn out extremities almost
monkey-like faces and no digitals
sitting there almost an embarrassment to
their own lives and to humanity and you
see the smiles on their faces as you
preach them and so on you can think back
of jesus's day in the rabbinic laws you
would never come closer than six feet to
a leper and on a windy day a rabbi would
never come within a hundred feet of a
leper you can see synagogues today in
israel where there are cubby hole-like
sections in the synagogues without with
doors that backed off into a different
area they were reserved for lepers to
come in late and leave early imagine
yourself one of them people would throw
money at you nobody would ever dream and
come and talk to you in any meaningful
significance to your value no wonder
they'd sit at the corners or streets and
cry out for somebody to toss their arms
their way
no rabbi would ever forgive himself if
he stumbled over a leper that leper
would have been a man who was castigated
and done away with for touching somebody
as pure as a rabbi jesus went out to the
leper and if you read the gospel of mark
the gospel of mark is the gospel of
touch jesus reached out looked into the
eyes of the leper talk to him and
probably for the first time in memory
the leper sees somebody reaching out and
touching him
michael green says
this was not a different kind of a man
this was a different kind of a god
i think of the whole issue of the woman
with the issue of blood
12 years she'd had it even longer maybe
the bible tells us that if she had seen
every physician if you read the talmud
the talmud tells you how many different
kinds of cures there were and in the
levitical laws a woman with that kind of
an ailment was untouchable every piece
of furniture she touched became unclean
think again why did she do this jesus is
walking through the center of town
thronging masses are reaching out to go
out and touch him
why in the name of reason does an
unclean woman have the courage i
strongly suspect because she believed
that jesus would never condemn her for
it she would have had to push aside
people who if they knew what her
difficulty was would have been ruthless
with her physically trying to maim the
girl for having touched them she pushes
her way through the crowd reaches out
and just touches the hem of his garment
he turns around and says who touched me
and out of no fear in her heart she
looks at him and says master i did and
he says daughter great is your faith go
back you are well again i believe with
all my heart
jesus's hands were amongst the most
powerful aspect of his ministry he
reached out and touched somebody
my dear friend jesus wants to reach out
and touch your life he wants you to be
picked up by him in his tenderness take
you by the hand rise you to your feet
again he wants to reach out and put the
arms of love around you to give you that
significance that even a tiny little
baby needs that is unable to converse
linguistically somehow when those arms
are put around that child and gradually
the fidgeting stops and the body begins
to relax and within moments that child
is asleep come unto me says jesus all ye
that labor and are heavy laden and i
says he will give you rest jesus was a
preacher the rabbi sat down and taught
jesus stood up and preached jesus in
mark 1 38 says let us go to the next
towns that i may preach there also he
was a proclaimer he was a student he
knew rabbinics he knew the languages and
he would use it very very powerfully he
had the style and the stance of a
prophet he used his stung like a weapon
to carve out people before their eyes so
they can see themselves and i like the
way jesus uses words
ladies and gentlemen there is a massive
difference between the use of fine words
and the fine use of words there's a
massive difference between the use of
fine words and the fine use of words and
by the way i believe words are more
a good word is better than a thousand
pictures i'll demonstrate that for you
it won't take me more than a minute listen
listen
w e sangster the british preacher he
says he was at a garden party and then
he says this
i just picked up myself a glass of punch
when all of a sudden out of nowhere this
dainty but bulbous woman ballooned
towards me
can you draw that
if you do do you know what you'll do i
don't know what you do this dainty but
bubba's one ballooning towards you you
will force your view of reality in one
way by that picture upon me but when
sangster says this dainty but bulbous
woman ballooned towards me my
imagination goes to work and i do with
it what i choose the picture forces me
to think in one way listen to pg
woodhouse that uh writer describing his
sidekick james bringing in a reluctant
visitor he says he brought in this
reluctant and scrambling visitor and
shoveled him into my apartment shoveled
him in
you can't draw that
and if you think you could draw both of
those i dare you to draw this
the credit is given to alexander pope
talking about the conversion of water
into wine i want to tell you this is a
masterpiece listen
he says the conscious water
saw its master
that beautiful the conscious water
saw its master and blushed
words passion reality
words are reflective of reality and when
the right words are used reality is
clutched at and it changes the entire
dimensions of your life jesus in his
preaching used powerful words he
described the pharisee he said you
strain at a gnat and you swallow a camel
he said you garnish the sepulchers of
the prophets after you have stoned them
he said you scour the whole earth to
look for one convert and then make him
twice fold damnable for hell his words
were powerful but do you know what he
did in his preaching he did two things
jesus as a preacher in his preaching
forced people to see themselves as god
sees them he forced people to see
themselves as god sees them have you
seen yourself as god sees you you look
out into the world today and think of
all of the freedom we are pining after
all of the things we are craving after
we think of technology technology has
freed us i can turn a dial and enter
into experiences foreign to myself
industries freed us i can pick up my
bags move from one city to another find
another job education has freed my mind
and in some cases my conscience medicine
has freed me from disease and another
instance freaked other people from life
my chemistry has changed us and in some
ways it has even affected our emotions
psychiatry has set us free you go on and
on and on and yet one writer describes
us as homo porter batus restless man
intoxicated with a sense of freedom he
has never had before restless man
intoxicated with a sense of freedom he
has never had before jesus shows you as
you really are
and what jesus says is this when a man
lives for himself no matter how powerful
the nations are when a man lives to
indulge and exploit and abuse his
freedom when a man thinks he has nothing
good to do except live for himself jesus
exposes that man as a liar as a cruel
self-centered individual and he
describes you and me as those who are
lost in the shackles of sin unless he
himself comes to rescue us
jesus in his preaching reveals to you
who you really are but much more than
that jesus reveals to you who you ought
to be
jesus reveals to you who you are to be
this is such a difficult concept in the
heart of what i want to say to you that
if you do not follow what i'm saying i
think you will miss what i think is the
most important aspect of this message
in my office there is a parchment and
where i sit behind my desk now i can see
that it is beautifully penned in the
last year nothing no one quote and i
read an awful lot of them memorize an
awful lot of them i'm talking about
those outside of the word now
no quote has wrestled in my mind more
than this particular one so many times
i've said to my wife i said you know
honey one of these days that quote is
going to burst forth into some truths
that i have never dreamed of before i
feel i'm touching the tip of an iceberg
if only i can get to the core of what it
is i'm trying to say please listen to me
jesus christ continually contradicts us
in the way we experience ourselves as alive
alive
and he compels us to radically redefine
what we mean by life he encounters us
the way he encounter the disciples on
easter sunday they were the ones marked
out for death those who had survived him
were really the dead either dead one was
really the living let me explain that to you
you
i was preaching in a tiny little village
in a country and in a village better
unnamed so you don't misunderstand me
they were all illiterate people sitting
in front of me with smelly dirty
unwashed clothes
there was one woman in there without one
tooth inside her mouth her face looked
so marred and scarred and she was an
elderly woman i don't think there was a
fraction of a portion of skin on her
face that was unwrinkled she'd squat
there in front listening to the message
every day the simplest truths of the
gospel going through an interpreter
and one evening she came and said to the interpreter
interpreter
i want to take this jesus into my life
then i'd see her smiling from ear to ear
night after night through the meetings
on the last day she came to the
missionary to the interpreter and myself
she was carrying a dirty bundle of
clothes on her head and i want to tell you
you
all her worldly belongings were in that
tiny little dirty smelly bundle if you
got within two or three feet of her you
could get the aroma of an unwashed body
in unwashed clothing
earrings heavy bringing the earlobes
down almost to her ears
and she came over clutched the hand of
the fellow who'd been doing the
interpreting for me and says
would you please ask these two men
if somebody can take a picture of me
with both of them i would greatly
appreciate it
the greatest day in her life was when
she found jesus and she said the second
greatest thing is i want to picture with
these two gentlemen
i have that picture at home now brethren
that dear woman standing next to me if
it had been permitted culturally i would
have done it i wanted desperately to
reach out and put my arm around her to
see that fragile bag of bones standing
there going back to a shack that
probably would be washed out by the
first rainfall that monsoon time and as
she stood in the middle there and that
picture was taken and i brought it home
and that smile all across her face i
want to tell you this if i took that
picture to an average humanist an
atheist a secularist pragmatist whatever
he would look at the face of that woman
look at the personality of the woman and
say that woman is basically dead
and then
i show him the picture of bertrand
russell with all of his degrees all of
his brilliance all of his mathematizing
and philosophizing using his brilliance
to knock out the foundations of belief
in god from every other person he talked
to and yet a man who lived a promiscuous
lifestyle so that even when he received
his knighthood the king said the quality
of his life betrayed him an awful lot
and yet when i read his books and read
his degrees and read his professorial
status and one of the most brilliant men
that's ever lived in the eyes of the
secular humanist today bertrand russell
is alive that woman is dead and i want
to tell you if you understand what i'm
driving at right now in the eyes of
jesus that woman is alive and russell is
dead jesus christ continually
contradicts you in the way you
experience yourself as alive and he
compels you to radically redefine what
you mean by life he encountered you the
way he encounters the disciples on
easter sunday they were the ones mocked
out for death those who had survived him
were really the dead he the dead one was
really the living that's why the pascals
that's why the augustines that's why the
edwards that's why all of the great
thinkers men like luther calvin zwingli
polycop ignatius origin you go back
through history some of the greatest
minds that ever lived bent their knee to
him one of the most brilliant eloquent
men was a fellow called malcolm
muggeridge he who ruthlessly used his
pen to attack christendom make a mockery
in the shambles of christianity suddenly
discovered jesus encountered jesus
receive jesus and then in one of his
books he pens these words we look back
upon history and what do we see empires
rising and falling wealth accumulated
wealth disbursed revolutions and
counter-revolutions first one nation
dominant and then another shakespeare
says he has spoken of the rise and fall
of the great ones that ebb and flow with
the moon he says i look back upon my own
fellow countrymen in england once upon a
time dominating a quarter of the world
most of them convinced in the words of
what is still a popular song that the
god who made the mighty shall you make
them mightier yet i have heard a crazed
cracked austrian proclaim to the world
the establishment of a german rice that
would last a thousand years an italian
clown announced that he was going to
stop and restart the calendar to
coincide with his own assumption to
power a murderous georgian brigand in
the kremlin acclaimed by the
intellectual elite of the world as a
wiser than solomon more enlightened than
ashoka more powerful there than marcus
aurelius himself i have seen america
wealthier and in terms of military
weaponry more powerful than the rest of
the world put together so that had the
americans so desired they could have
outdone a caesar and an alexander in the
range and scale of their conquest all in
one lifetime all in one lifetime all
gone with the wind hitler
hitler
and mussolini dead
remembered only in infamy
england part of a tiny island off the
coast of europe threatened with
dismemberment and even bankruptcy
stalin a forbidden name in the regime he
helped found and dominate for some three
decades now a forbidden name out there america
america
haunted by fears of running out of the
precious fluid that keep her motorways
roaring and the smog settling hitler
mussolini stalin
power of america england in all of our
glory where are they today you tell me
you tell me where are they
where are the hitlers who are going to
establish a rice for a millennium where
is mussolini who is going to restart the
calendar where are all these great
murderous brigands who tried to dominate
the world through power or ideology or
whatever all of these gone and muggerage
says out of the discarded props of all
of these civilizations there stands the
towering figure of jesus with his
counter perspective that it is not in
living but it's dying it's not in
receiving but it's in giving it's not in
being pardoned but it's in pardoning and
somehow he reverses all of our values
and i am saying to you this jesus for
2000 years has been the butt of ridicule
of thousands of writers they have not
been able to dislodge him the bible is
still the best-selling book in all the world
world
that jesus
can change your
life thirdly and very quickly
number one the essential nature of this person
person
number two
the definitive nature of his ministry
number three
the efficacious nature of this provision
how does he do this
number one
he ministers to me
in my suffering
he ministers to me in my suffering
ladies and gentlemen you don't have to
live long to know sooner or later you're
going to contact suffering
i want you to look at the cross for a moment
moment
and tell me this if you read the double
day publication of the shroud of turin
where many many scholars i'm not saying
i agree with their conclusion many
scholars believe the shroud of turin is
a crowd of jesus i'm not saying it is
what we do know about that shroud is
that it was wrapped around a person who
was crucified nails and hands nails and
feet a mark on the side and marks on the
head and when they tell you what
crucifixion really was it tells you that
a roman fellow called the lichtor who
was trained in the art of persecution
muscles bound there with a huge whip
would come with an approximate distance
of the person to be scourged and jesus
was scourged they take the body the
clothes of the body of the individual to
be scared his body was bent tied into a
stump of wood jutting out of the ground
wrists and ankles tied to that stump and
then the roman lector would pour that
whip onto his body and peel out flesh
and blood with every whipping matthew
says by the time they'd finished
scourging him and took him to the cross
he hardly had enough strength left and
he says this they all sat there and
watched him
and jesus says in his word that for this
very cause he came into the world so
that he could die for your sins and mine
are you going to make a mockery of that
and say i don't believe it or by faith
and the reason of the resurrection are
you going to respond and say all right
preacher that jesus has spoken to me
his ministry to you through suffering
and i want to tell you some of the
struggles i've been through
some of the physical disabilities i've
picked up owing to the heavy onslaught
of travel and the pressure within your
body and some of the loneliest moments
i've been through i can still say if you
gave me all the options in the world to
be anything else
i wouldn't want it because i know
that deep within me lives this christ
and i am completely at peace with
gratitude with him within me which is my
final thought his ministry to you
through suffering his ministry in you
through indwelling
his ministry in you through indwelling
you can ask me ravi are you pure and i
say no sir
but somebody in me is
ravi are you compassionate
in many ways no
somebody in me is
can you preach with power no but there's
somebody in me who can in other words
this jesus comes within you and doesn't
only change what you do he changes what
in closing i would like to read this for you
you
it's a sermon written by a fellow who
entitled what pilate said to gaius one
night it's marvelous i'm just going to
take excerpts of this
so please listen as i read this to you
what pilate said to gaius one night some
years after the crucifixion a writer
using his imagination
it suddenly closed in on me gaius the
impact of how trapped i was
the proud arm of rome with all its boast
of justice was to be but a dirty dagger
in the pudgy hands of the priests
i was waiting in the room gaius i used
for court officially enthroned with
cloak and guard when they let this jesus in
in
well gaius don't smile at this as you
value your jaw but i've had no peace
since the day he walked into my judgment
hall it's been years gaius but those
scenes i'll read from the back of my
eyelids every night you've seen caesar
haven't you when he was young inspecting
the legion his arrogant manner was
childlike compared to the manner of the
nazarene he didn't have to strut you see
he walked towards my throne arms bound
with a strident mastery this jesus did
and a kind of a control that bites very
audacity silence through him for an
instant and left me trembling with an
insane desire to stand up and salute the
clerk began reading the absurd list of
charges the priestly delegations
punctuating these with the palm rubbings
the beard strokings the eye rollings and
the pious gutturals by now which i had
learned to ignore but i more felted
gaius than heard it i questioned him
mechanically and he answered very little
but what he said and the way he said it
it was as if his level gaze had pulled
up my naked soul right up into my eyes
and was probing it there and the voice
kept saying in my ears why you're on
trial pilot and that the man wasn't even
listening to the charges you'd have
sworn he had just come in out of
friendly interest to see what was going
to happen to me and the very pressure of
his standing there had grown unbearable
when a slave rushed in all a tremble
interrupting court bringing a message
from claudia she had stabbed at the
stylist in that childish way that she
does when she's distraught don't judge
this amazing man pilot she wrote i was
haunted in dreams by him this night
gaius i tried to free him from that
moment on i tried and i'll always think
he knew it i declared him out of my
jurisdiction being a galilean but the
native king herod discovered he was born
in judea and sent him right back to me i
appealed to the crowd hoping that they
would be his sympathizers but caiaphas
had stationed agitators to whip up the
beast that cry for blood and you know
how in this town here any citizens loves
the blood of another person just after
breakfast and screams for another's
blood i had him beaten gaius a thorough
barracks room beating i'm still not sure
why to appease the crowd i guess but do
we romans really need any reason for
beatings isn't that the code for
anything we don't understand well it
didn't work guys the crowd roared like
some slathering beast when i brought him
back if only you could have watched him
they had thrown some rags of mock purple
over his pulp and bleeding shoulders
they jammed a chaplain of thorns down on
his forehead and it fitted it all fitted
guys he stood there watching them from
my balcony flame from weakness by now
but royal i tell you not just pain but
pity shining from his eyes and i kept
thinking somehow this is monstrous this
is upside down that purple is real that
crown is real and somehow these animal
noises the crowd is shrieking should be
praised and then kaifas played his
master stroke on me he announced there
in public that this jesus claimed a
crown and that was treason to caesar and
the guards began to glance at one
another quickly and that mob of
spineless filth began to shout hail
caesar hail caesar and gaius i knew i
was beaten and i gave the order
i couldn't look at him
then i did a childish thing i call for
water and there on the balcony i washed
my hands of that whole affair but as
they led him away gaius i did look up
and he turned and looked at me no smile
nobody just glanced at my hands and i'll
feel the weight of his eyes on them from
now on but you're yawning guys i've kept
you up and the fact of the matter is
you're in need of some rest on some
holidays claudia will be asleep by now
rows of lighted lamps line her couch she
can't sleep in the dark anymore no not
since that afternoon you see gaius the
sun went out when my guards executed and
that's exactly what i said i don't know
how i don't know what i only know that i
was there and though it was the middle
of the day it turned as black as the
tunnels of hell in that miserable city
and while i tried to compose claudia and
explain how i'd been trapped she railed
at me with a dream and she's had that
dream ever since when she sleeps in the
dark some form of it that there was
still been a new caesar and that i her
husband had killed him
oh we've been to egypt to their seers
and magicians we've listened by the hour
to the oracles and the musty temples of
greece chattering their inentities we've
called it an oriental curse that we're
under and we've tried to break it a
thousand ways guys but there's no
breaking it except and even that
it might not just see but you know why
i've kept going gaius deeper than the
curse is the haunting driving certainty
that he is still somewhere near and that
i have some unfinished business with him
and that now and then as i walk by the
lake he's following me and much as that
strikes terror guys i wonder if that
isn't the only hope you see if i could
walk up to him and this time salute and
tell him that now i know that whoever
else he is he was the only man worthy of
his name in all judea that day tell him
i know i wasn't trapped that i trapped
myself tell him here is one roman who
wishes he really were caesar i believe
that would do it guys wouldn't it i
believe he'd listen and know i meant it
and at last i'd see him smile
yes quiet tonight
not a breeze stirring guys
good night you'd better run along no no
would you please waken the slave outside
the door and tell him to bring me my
cloak my heavy one please
i believe i'll walk by the lake yes it's
dark there guys but i won't be alone
i really haven't ever been alone
not since that day
the conscious water saw its master and blushed
blushed
you can hear all the summons you want to hear
hear
you can read all the books you want to read
read
you will never find out what we are
talking about
until you experience jesus
if you don't know him sir if you don't
know him madam
would you take the courage and say
i'm willing to put my hand in his hand
i want him to live within me would you
do that
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