Praying 'til Pentecost - Day Five

"Jesus said, 'Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.' Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, 'You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep." Matthew 28:10-13

Fear and false rumors have always been obstacles to a great movement of God. Satan is a liar, and those who spread falsehoods and undermine the truth in any form or fashion are under the influence of the evil one.

Recently a malignant reminder of the relentlessness of false rumor has surfaced in our community. Tracing down the source of a lie is more difficult than staying on mission with the truth. The fact of the matter is you just can't keep throwing rocks at every barking dog and still get to town. To cut to the chase, Satan lies, and he has influence on enough people to keep his lies alive. His purpose in lying is to discredit, disprove, discourage or at least delay the people who are on mission for God.

It interests me that the two women were on their way to deliver the truth to the disciples and Satan immediately started lying. He can do nothing else. It is who he is. Matthew's account reads, "Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city..." (Matt. 28:11)

Ron Dunn was often quoted as saying, "Good and evil travel down parallel tracks and usually arrive at the same time." That is exactly what happened when the truth about the Risen Christ was being delivered to the disciples. Satan placed it in the hearts of the elders of the Sanhedrin to conspire against the truth by concocting a story that simultaneously maligned the guards for dereliction of duty and accused the disciples of grave robbing. Stooping to the use of a bribe to seal the deal, the elders of Israel promised to protect their co-conspirators if the governor ever found out the truth. The Scripture records, "This story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day." (Matthew 28:15)

What was the response of the women? They delivered the truth in spite of the lies that were being spread about their message. What was the response of the disciples when they heard the truth? "The eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated." (Matthew 28:16)

In other words, they took the high ground. They did not call on the elders to retract their story. They did not have a news conference to alert the city that rumors were being circulated about them. They did not take their offense to the governor. They had seen first hand how much justice Rome was capable of handing out. They obeyed their orders, went to the mountain, and waited for the Risen Christ to show up.

The women did not delay in delivering their message, and the eleven did not hesitate to meet up with Jesus. This is huge. The devil loves to intimidate by false reports and false accusations. His purpose is to put the messenger on the defensive and delay the delivery of the message. He knows the truth better than anyone, and he knows he has no defense against the power of it. His only alternative is to get Christ followers so wrapped up in setting the record straight that they forget their message and their mission.

Thank God the early disciples did not spend all their time chasing down false rumors. They got over their fear, and faithfully delivered the great news about the Risen Christ. They put themselves in the right place at the right time to have an encounter with Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) Thank God these two women and the eleven did not put their time into stopping the rumors, but put their trust in the Truth.

The message of the Risen Christ that we share today is a direct result of faithfulness of those who chose to stay on mission and deliver the message. May we be found faithful to do the same in the face of opposition from the "father of lies."

GMillerLight4U

Praying 'til Pentecost

"Until the day when He was taken up to Heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father promised, 'Which, He said, 'you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.' " Acts 1:1-5


Back to basics is a common theme that is repeated often in many disciplines of life. One of the great stories of Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, comes to mind. He would gather his team, veterans and rookies, each year at training camp and review the basics of the game. His first session would begin with him standing in front of his experienced athletes and holding out a football in front of them. He would say, "Gentlemen! This is a football!" Lombardi built great teams on good players who knew the basics, and carried out their assignments with precision and passion.


John Wooden, basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins, who led them his teams to an unprecedented string of national championships had a different approach, but a similar emphasis. Coach Wooden would gather his team on the first day of practice and have them take a seat on the bench. He would instruct them to take off their shoes and socks, and then he would hand them a brand new pair of socks. He would then instruct them on how to put on a pair of socks so that their feet would not become blistered by wrinkles or misplaced seams.


Years ago I heard a seminar leader coin the phrase, "The way you come on is the way you go on." The significance of his point escapes me, but the accuracy of the statement is spot on when it is applied to the way Jesus approached ministry.


Jesus introduced the constitution of the Kingdom of God to His followers with the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes were the preamble to the precepts that Jesus would lay out for entrance into this Kingdom. When Jesus returned to spend 40 days walking and talking with His disciples, He went right back to basics. What Matthew's Gospel records in chapters five, six and seven become the reservoir from which Jesus draws. Luke's account in Acts says that Jesus came back to review with His followers what He taught them from the beginning about the Kingdom of God. Jesus was not forming a secret society, but mobilizing the company of the committed with a solid background in what their message would be as they became witnesses of the Risen Christ.


The Kingdom of God is built on the cornerstone of the Risen Christ, but as we return to the Beatitudes we learn that the citizens are called "blessed." What Jesus taught in Matthew 5:2-12 established the criteria of the principle of paradox that would mark the uniqueness of this Kingdom. Things are not always as they seem.


People who think less of themselves and more of others are valued the highest. Those who mourn are merely on their way to comfort. Humble people are heirs to all that God has. Holy hunger leads to spiritual fulfillment. On and on the lessons unfold until the citizenship papers of the Kingdom are stamped with the authenticity of transforming people from victims to victors.


For the next 50 days, pray that the Risen Christ will awaken in you a desire to be filled with all that The Promise of the Father has in store for you. Do not settle for entrance in the Kingdom by the skin of your teeth. Allow your life to be saturated by the Presence of the Holy Spirit. When the early disciples received the Holy Spirit, and He took up permanent residence in their lives, they were transformed from victims of circumstance to overwhelming conquerors.


The last words of Jesus on the cross were, "It is finished!" Remember, He is not on the cross, and the tomb in empty. The best is yet to come.


GMillerLight4U