John 11: 45 Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. 46 But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.47 Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. 48 If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.”
The religious leaders knew that Jesus had power from on high, but they denied totally believing He was the Messiah. They were scrared that He would have a following that would upset what they had established with their "fake" religious practices and traditions. Practices that brought death not life. They had to stop him and they believed killing Him was the only way to stop the movement of God in His life. Here is what scripture says about this point of time in John 11:53 So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus’ death.
Even though we humans do stupid things, when something real, or as real as Jesus, comes along He changes hearts. Changed hearts mean changed lives and changed lives cause people to give up whatever false thing they have been following and follow the Way, the Truth, and Life. To me, this is a no-brainer. It is also an encouragement to all believers to offer Jesus to a lost and dying world, and point out that He is the only way to heaven! Born-again believers have the greatest message of hope in the world and the greatest power in the universe to drive it. We have to get to the point that we can see the "fake" and then offer the only "real" hope. Jesus is the only way to heaven and this is affirmed in John 14:6 where Jesus says 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
When people are groping in the darkness for a little bit of light for their life, Jesus is the light to light the way for them and we are the light givers. Jesus said this in Matthew 5: 14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
There is a purpose in our good deeds and those good deeds are driven by A True Message and that message has an attraction. Jesus is the attraction and His love sacrifice is the message of hope that a lost and dying world are seeking to find. We are His ambassadors of that truth so the world can find Him. 2 Corinthians 5:16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
I can't add anymore to that truth. Why should I try?
Today's Message,
David Warren
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