The Galilean has WON!

If you haven’t worked out the title yet, read on and you will!!!

Yesterday’s theme as church gathered around the Word of God was best summed up by these words, ‘A relationship with God is the most important relationship you can have. Embrace it EVERY DAY!’ This message was forcefully brought home to me later in the “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” NO, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 35-39..
day as I once again sat with a grieving family whose father had just passed away.. An expression often hear at times like these is, ‘I am sorry for your loss’ or ‘so and so has lost their father’ BUT no such thing could be said of the one who has died but who in life has not just heard those words above BUT they have become a reality in their lives and so upon death it is NOT that they are lost, for we know where they have gone and it is certainly not that we lose them for ‘in Christ’ we shall see them again. In his letter to the Romans believers who faced relentless persecution and the constant threat of death he wrote,
Wow are they not powerful words??? 
You see Paul penned those fantastic words assured himself that having been confronted with Christ, and exchanged all his religious credentials and intellectual acclaim and every ounce of self-achieved worth (Philippians 3: 4-6) for the life of Jesus Christ..He gained a whole new life that would last the whole of eternity…HOW LONG IS THAT??? FOREVER!!! 
No wonder that having experienced the reality of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Paul said of all those other things, they were just ‘rubbish’ (Philippians 3: 8) OR as the King James Version renders it and rightly as ‘dung’,  in other words utterly useless, of NO worth or value.

My friend Ian Macleod pens ‘A thought’ on Saturday nights and last Saturday he wrote something powerful, after quoting this verse, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Mark 8:36 and according to the testimony of Paul..........................the answer is EVERYTHING!!!

I urge you to read Ian’s thought provoking word which, with his permission I am adding to the end of this blog..For you see if you are depending upon ALL that Paul ‘once upon a time’ depended upon then you are literally living out your own fairy tale? Because when it comes to the end nothing of that will count and nothing of that will stop you getting to that place where YOU will face that last enemy…DEATH!! That was my own testimony years ago as I tried to go to sleep in a Hospital bed and quite honestly, it literally scared the life out me, that I feared even to sleep…BUT now I know Jesus Christ and I fear neither sleep nor death for HE has conquered death and the fear of death, as Paul once again wrote, this time to the Corinthians believers, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (have died). For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.”……  So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 1 Corinthians 15:20-57                                                                                                  
Victory in Jesus stands at the heart of the Gospel, many think and have you to beleive that when Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished” from the Cross, it was cry of defeat BUT oh No!, it was not, it was shout of victory…and it was only ONE Greek word..”TETELESTI” that declared triumphantly, victory was won, Jesus did it all, paid it all, beat it all, death, the grave sin and Satan beat them ALL..that word shook the world.. ”and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened..” Matthew 27:51-52 ….and can shake your world up still?

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from Glory.                 

 

How He gave His life on Calvary,
To save a wretch like me.
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood’s atoning.
Then I repented of my sins,
And won the victory!
Oh victory in Jesus!
My Savior, forever!
He sought me,
And bought me,
With His redeeming blood!
He loved me ere’ I knew Him,
And all my love is due Him.
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood!

The opening title, “You have won, O Galilean” was said by Emperor Julian, having attempted to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire.
AND HE CERTAINTLY DID!!

You want to experience this victory over your life and over death then you must have a relationship with that same Jesus..Oh yes the one who died on that Cross over 2000 years ago and if that had have been all, well I would never be writing this at all BUT as the Scriptures declared and the hundreds witnessed and testified to (EG ! Corinthians 15: 5-7) "God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held by it.” Acts 2:24. Jesus lives and there is salvation (whereby we are adopted (Galatians 4:5) into HIS family = relationship!) in NO ONE ELSE, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we MUST be saved (only by which can we become Children of God (Romans 8:15-18))” Acts 4:12.

I am conducting another funeral now on Wednesday. I have attended or conducted a lot of funerals, sadly not all of them will be like the funeral on Wednesday.. Most will be in an atmosphere of uncertainty because the person has died with NO testimony of this essential relationship with the living God. BUT when we know, then those who are left behind… oh yes they cry, they know pain because there is the human separation, but as the Bible declares, they do not “grieve as others do who have no hope.”
To those of us who have entered into this vital relationship with God, Jesus has gone before us into heaven and is right now preparing a heavenly home for us, where we will be with the HIM and a great and glorious company of all of God’s people..Note the company is God’s people, NO ONE else will be there..that is why it is hugely important and extremely urgent that, as I finish you  understand what Jesus was saying here, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28.
We always talk about the God of love and He is BUT He is also the God who is Holy and will judge righteously..And if you do not know Him personally, then you should fear Him and fear death for without Christ in your life, you tell me from this verse
WHERE it will ALL end for YOU??? 

Now you know why I am asking you to read Ian Macleod’s word from Saturday that I attach here below……

My mind is set on a verse tonight which I would like to share and give a practical explanation of it in simple terms which we can all understand. And just for info, when Jesus mentions “a man”, it means ‘mankind’ therefore relates to a person, both male and female.
Jesus said, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul” (Mark 8:36)
 When I think of this verse, I do it in this way; a way that is so easy for us to understand in a simple profit and loss ledger.
The debit (D) side is what we will lose at death and
The credit side (C) is what can be gained.
So here we go…
So let’s address the question then. What’s more important to you this evening than Jesus?
You have your relationships and families. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your neighbours and your friends. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your job, your car and your money. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your home and your land. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have your holidays, shops, clothes and your lifestyle. You can’t take them when you die.
You have your dreams, your hopes and aspirations and all the important issues you fight for. You can’t take them when you die - D
You have power, pride, wisdom and good works. You can’t take them with you when you die - D
You have the offer of the Gospel, the mercy of God and the hope of salvation. You can’t even take them – they’re only on offer while you’re here on earth - D
That leaves you with only one earthly component. Your body! You can’t take that either. You’re even stripped of the body that means so much to you – at least for a time - D
 Everything is taken from you. - D
 You go into death with only one living and real element of your being.
Your soul!!
All the things that this world offers you can never make you truly happy. They’re all temporary; they’re fading, perishing and passing away.
Your soul is so precious that it required God in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, to come and pay the ransom for it. (C)
So it leaves the question – Is that all that can go in the credit column?
Just Jesus?
That’s the burning question, and that’s what I leave with you to think about tonight.
Because the more I think about this the more I realise how precious Jesus Christ is and how thankful we all ought to be that He answers our true call for mercy and pardon.
 The only really important thing for all of us is to have Christ at our side and to ensure that he is our personal Saviour here in life and for eternity. His word says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

Thanks to Ian Macleod
(Evangelism Coordinator at Western Isles Free Church Presbytery)

Watch the news tonight. Read your paper tomorrow. Click unto MSN News right now, all you see, all you read is that life is fragile and extremely uncertain..From whatever cause, there is a grim statistic that will include me in the numbers eventually, every hour that passes, 6305 people die in this world!!! 
SO………..“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near (while you have life).” Isaiah 55:6