A sad young minister and his wife came to me for counseling recently. After four troubled years of marriage and two children, they were contemplating divorce. She was the saddest looking wife I have seen in years. Her husband, the young youth minister, stood nearby, shuffling his weight from foot to foot, while his teary-eyed wife sobbed out her confession to me.
The most difficult thing in all the world for Christians to do is forgive. For all the talk in the church about forgiveness, restitution, and healing, there is very little of it truly demonstrated. We all like to think of ourselves as peacemakers, lifters up of those fallen, always forgiving and forgetting. But even the most deeply spiritual today are guilty of wounding brothers and sisters by not showing a spirit of forgiveness.
In John 2, Jesus enters the temple for an act that would signal the beginning of his public ministry. (His earlier miracle at Cana, turning water into wine, wasn’t a public declaration.) What takes place next is quite dramatic:
To some readers, the statement I’m about to make will sound bold. To others it will sound obvious. Either way, it’s a commentary on the church I’d rather not have to make. That is, most Christians are powerless.
Consider what “normal” Christianity looks like today in the typical believer. This person is a bit self-seeking, a little materialistic, somewhat consumerist. Most of his daily choices are about improving his life. That includes his spiritual pursuits, from his church groups to the podcasts he downloads to the seminars he attends.
Joseph took the body…and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away" (Matthew 27:59–60).
Jesus had just been crucified and was now laid in a tomb. As a massive stone was rolled to seal the doorway, everyone had a sad sense of finality.
Scripture says a group of women, including Mary Magdalene, was sitting opposite the tomb. Those women must have been heartbroken. I can almost hear the despair in their voices: "What will happen now that Jesus is gone? How do we go on?"
We hear a lot about hope — from politicians, from numerous books, from tapes and other media. But what is offered in each of these messages doesn’t seem to last.
We may get fired up and encouraged by what we hear in such messages. Indeed, we may find ourselves refreshed and hopeful for a season. But what is offered isn’t a fixed, experienced hope, and soon it fades away.
The whole world yearns for a steadfast hope. The inner cry of multitudes around the globe right now is, “Somebody, somewhere, please, give me some hope, something that will last.”
Every Christian claims to trust the Lord. Yet in reality, many of God’s children aren’t ready to face the black storm coming upon the world. Unless we lay hold of a special, unshakable trust in our Lord, we won’t be ready for the hard times, now or in the future.
I want to take you back to one of the darkest days in Israel’s history. On this particular day, a widow stood before three caskets, surrounded by wailing crowds. In that mourning crowd were hundreds of other weeping widows, as well as scores of wounded soldiers, some with their wounds still bleeding.
In Isaiah 51, the Lord delivers a powerful message to all who pursue righteousness. He declares, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord” (Isaiah 51:1). A few verses later, he again calls to those “that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law” (51:7).
I want to make three statements to you about the touch of God. These three points are the heart of my message:
