Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
One moment you’re being selected as one of the few men, hand-picked to serve. It’s a complete honor and you humbly accept. Your reputation is without blemish and your commitment to God is obvious. The next moment God is working great miracles through you. A tick later, they are lying about you and you’re being publicly accused of things that could never be true, but you are indicted anyway. Blink your eyes and you’re standing at trial, the charges levied are beyond the pale, outside the limits of acceptable behavior or the judgment of any civilized person. These accusations are only possible because they are being corroborated by false testimony, lying witnesses who have no conscience, and obviously no fear of the Lord. How did you go from being picked for a grand purpose to standing accused before this council so quickly?
Maybe this nightmare will end. The man in charge inquires, “Are these things true?” Ah, finally! Someone wants to know the truth. Does he? At this point, you don’t even need to speak on your own. God promised that when you get arrested and brought to trial because of Him, you need not worry beforehand about what to say; the Spirit will assemble your words. And it happens. For ten solid minutes you give the most lucid defense imaginable. You’re testimony is exculpatory; it’s clear that nothing they’ve said about you is true—you’re acquittal is imminent. You’ve presented everything the man in charge needs to hear to exonerate you. You could rest your defense in that instant, but you don’t. Rather, you seize the opportunity; you look at your accusers, and all the members of the should-be-honorable court; and you tell them without hesitation, “You are the guilty ones. You have committed the crimes I’ve been accused of here, and worse. You murdered the Just One who the prophets said would come. You missed the Messiah because you resist the very Spirit that has inspired my defense today. You are all guilty.”
That does not go over well. What started as a good day is about to end in tragedy. What began as a moment of honor is about to be terminated with an execution. You are dragged out of the court and you are executed in a brutal onslaught. You are smashed with stones until your skull is crushed, your bones are broken, and your blood has spattered over the surrounding dust. And even then, with your last dying words, you ask your dear Lord, the very Messiah these murderers rejected, to let it pass. “Don’t hold this against them; they are just ignorant religious people.” And then you breathe your last breath.
There are moments in life when you must come face-to-face with the purpose for which you were placed here on earth. You have an assignment and you can’t go back to what you were doing before. It’s true, even if in one moment you feel honored to have been selected for such a purpose, and in the next you are being stoned to death. You can’t control everything that happens between the bookends of your life, the dash on your gravestone, be it a few days or many years. But you can control this… Will you say yes!
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