August 4, 2002
They still call it the Easter miracle in Tanzania. It was Easter Sunday for the Ibuga Christians of Western Tanzania. In one village, a large crowd had gathered to worship. Many came out of curiosity to hear about a God who conquered death. While they were singing and praising God, they didn’t know the danger that awaited them. At that moment, a crazed mother lion was stalking their village, not killing to eat, but just killing every living thing in sight. She killed several goats, cows, and a woman with a small child.
Then she turned toward the singing worshipers. When they saw her standing ready to charge, the crowd froze in fear. The village preacher shouted, "Pray, people, because we’re worshipping a living Lord. The God who locked the lions’ jaws for Daniel is here today!" Then he turned to the lion and said, "You lion, I curse you in the name of the living Lord Jesus Christ."
That day had been partially cloudy, but with no storm. Suddenly, a lightening bolt struck the lion, and she immediately fell dead! The tribal pastor ran over, jumped up and down on the carcass, and used it as a platform for his preaching. Before he could give an invitation, 11 people came forward immediately to be saved as did many others in the hours that followed. (1)
For many of us life is filled with troubling experiences and thoughts. The disciples didn’t know what to make of the crucifixion, the tomb, and the emptiness. Everything had been turned upside down. For three years they (thought) had poured their lives into Jesus and His coming kingdom. It was like a crazed, stalking, lioness had devoured their plans and dreams.
What went wrong? Is this all there was? Why did it end like this? The Living Word -- Jesus -- had an answer for them. He rose from the dead to live forever, and to give us eternal life too. He still has answers for our troubles.
After the resurrection Jesus appeared to his band of followers. The scene is almost comical. The disciples were standing in a room, talking about Jesus. Suddenly, Jesus is standing right there. These disciples of AD 33 had never watched Star Trek. "Beam me in, Scotty -- Poof!"
In the understatement of all time the Bible says the twelve were unsettled. But Jesus says, Why are you troubled? Why do you doubt? (Believe me, had we been there our troubled spirits would’ve been scattering like three year olds in a Halloween "spook house.")
Jesus calms them and gives a magnificent two-pronged invitation. He tells them to examine Him (He’s no ghost); and then He says, "experience" Me.
Examine Me
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me..."
Luke 24:39 (NIV)
When Jesus said to look at his hands and feet, he was inviting the look of study. His disciples needed to know it was the same Jesus they had known. They needed to verify that what Jesus had said had really come true. All the prophets predicted the triumph of Messiah. Jesus had been dead -- now he was alive!
This was too good to be true! The disciples must have felt like Abraham when the angel told this hundred year-old man he was going to be a daddy; or like the father of that little girl Jesus had raised from the dead. It’s just too wonderful to believe it was happening! I felt that way years ago when the prettiest blonde-headed girl in the world said "yes, I’ll marry you." She was classy, and beautiful; I was the clumsy guy with two left feet and no common sense. It couldn’t be that she said "YES"! I wanted to get a notary so she couldn’t change her mind.
The world wants proof about Jesus these days. In April 2002, the well-respected Oxford University philosophy professor Richard Swineburne used a broadly accepted probability theory to defend the truth of Christ’s resurrection. He did this at a high-profile gathering of philosophy professors at Yale University.
In a New York Times interview, Swineburne said, "For someone dead for 36 hours to come to life again is, according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable. But if there is a God of the traditional kind, natural laws only operate because he makes them operate. Swineburne used Bayes Theorem to assign values to things like the probability that God is real, Jesus’ behavior during his lifetime, and the quality of witness testimony after his death. Then he plugged the numbers into a probability formula and added everything up. The result: a 97 percent probability that the resurrection really happened. (2)
We also must study Jesus. Too many of us have coasted through our spiritual lives because we do not examine Jesus; we do not study our Bibles to let God speak to our hearts and learn more of Jesus. A newly retired couple bought a motor home. As they were traveling down the road in their new toy the husband became tired and asked the wife to take over. She was nervous, having never operated anything larger than a VW. However, after the husband’s brief explanation of where everything was, she took over while he napped. She put the vehicle on cruise control, and it worked perfectly.
After an hour of straight driving she got up to go to the bathroom. When the wreckage was cleared away, she explained to the Highway Patrol officer that she thought cruise control was like the automatic pilot on airplanes. Spiritual cruise control will get the same results.
Jesus also told the disciples to "touch." He wanted them to have a physical, reassuring experience. That is impossible today. Jesus is in heaven. But He has not left us without the comfort of that touch. He provides that in the fellowship of His body, the church.
One of the reasons that the electronic church cannot substitute for the real one is the absence of the touch. When the body is healthy and operative, there is no other place in the world to be. There you are loved, accepted and made welcome. There you are employed for the sake of the kingdom. There you call it "home."
You’re invited to examine Him, touch His body. How? Hang around for a number of weeks. See if the love this church fellowship (His body) isn’t as genuine as it looks. Examine Him. But Jesus also bids us to go further:
Experience Me
"...and see." Luke 24.39b
It is one thing to examine, or touch Jesus . . . it is quite another to have Him touch you! This is a progression of experience. On the one hand we are invited to check Him out. "Taste and see that the Lord is good" says the Psalmist (34.8). When we do examine, or touch the Lord to see His goodness, a wonderful thing happens -- we begin to understand this invitation, and we are confronted with the choice to receive Him as our Lord.
Borrowing from the 23rd Psalm we could turn the phrase and say that Only those who call the Shepherd ’Lord’ can truly call the Lord ’Shepherd’.(3) When you invite this examined Lord to be your Lord, you experience Him -- He touches you!
What do you experience when Jesus touches you?
His Companionship
I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts.
Psalms 119:63 (NIV)
Knowing the companionship of Jesus means you don’t ever have to be alone again. Are you lonely? Let Jesus touch you. Others have experienced the companionship of Jesus in the darkest moments of life.
I met Dr. Charles Allen in a seminar in Florida. He was teaching in Billy Graham’s pastor’s school in 1983, prior to the Orlando crusade. Dr. Allen is the retired pastor from First Methodist Church in Dallas, and a well-respected author. He had written a book after the death of his wife entitled You Are Never Alone. Pastors know many things. One thing they don’t know is any special exemption from suffering. Dr. Allen’s testimony was that it was only the companionship of Jesus that kept him from losing his sanity, and helped him sense the will to live and continue! You can know His companionship and, you will also know…
His Compassion
[God shows] …love to a thousand generations of those who love me
and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:6 (NIV)
From the parable of the Good Samaritan, to the cross of Calvary, there is no questioning the compassion of Jesus to those who are in need. His love and help are never dependent on your merit. None of us qualifies for anything but Hell. Without the grace of God there would be no compassion. Are you oppressed and troubled? Let Jesus touch you. Experience His companionship, His compassion, and…
His Confidence
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;
no one can snatch them out of my hand.
John 10:27-28 (NIV)
What Christ has done takes the doubt out of life. It takes the scary unknown and sends it packing. The card game of hearts defines this concept. In that game, only the suit of hearts, plus the queen of spades, can affect the score. Each heart counts one point against you, and the queen of spades counts 13 against. However, if you can capture ALL 13 heart cards, and the queen of spades, you turn 26 points against you into 26 points against all the other players. It is a hard thing to do. Somebody always keeps count, and will try to get at least one heart to spoil your run. The strategy is to save a few big cards (King, Ace, Queen) for the end of the game.
Once in a while a player will get a good enough hand to guarantee he takes all the hearts. When that happens, and all the hearts are taken, and safely in your stack, it doesn’t matter what your "enemy" players have saved for the end of the game, aces, kings, queens -- they may take a hand, but there will be no hearts in them. The "point" cards are all gone. The game is over, you just play out the hand. Their aces and kings become meaningless.
Beloved, that is what it is like to have Jesus touch you. When you accept Him, Jesus protects your heart. All Satan’s "ace" and "king" accusations become meaningless. The game is over, Satan just doesn’t know it. All the "point cards" of sin are gone!
And, one day, when God has declared the game to be officially over, Jesus will come back again, and all of Satan’s accusations, all his attacks will be meaningless -- because Jesus said so!
Do you want peace?
Do you want someone to shoulder the scary side of life with you?
Do you want those troubling thoughts and experiences to begin making sense?
Examine Jesus, Experience Jesus!
This is His invitation to you. He is waiting with his companionship, his compassion, and His confidence for YOUR invitation to come in!
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(1) Dr. Thomas Lovorn in a sermon, "7pm Easter 29AD quoting "The JESUS Film, Campus Crusade, SermonCentral.com
(2) Group magazine (July 2002); submitted by Van Morris, Mount Washington, Kentucky
(3) Adrian Rogers Love Worth Finding (Nashville, Broadcast 7/6/94)
