Monday, December 29, 2008

Dr Ern Baxter on Jesus' Ultimate Victory

I was listening to a sermon by Dr Ern Baxter while driving back from Brighton last night. It was part of a conference series he gave at Bishop Earl Paulk's church in Atlanta called "The King, the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit". It's a comment on how we view where Jesus Christ is today as so important to the way we live our lives;

"I don't see Jesus Christ as a baby lying helpless in a manager. I don't see Jesus as walking the land of Israel limited by location. I don't even see Jesus walking on the water or performing miracles. I don't see Jesus broken and bleeding and dying on the Cross - I see the Cross as an event on the way to His ultimate place. I see Jesus crowned with glory and honour - ruling the nations in victory!".

It occured to me that John Bunyan may have a point in how he wrote 'Pilgrims Progress'. Remember that Pilgrim met the Cross early on in his journey towards the Celestial City and it truly was an event. It was there that his burden fell off and rolled down into the open and empty grave. Pilgrims life was indeed changed by his encounter at the Cross but he rose up and walked on. It was at the Celestial City that he would meet the Lord Jesus Christ. And just so with us. Jesus died once and for all - we will never again see Him hanging at Calvary. When we see Him finally on that glorious day we will see Him crowned with glory and honour seated at the right hand of God the Father! Let's pray that the eyes of our hearts be opened to get a glimpse of that now - that the heavens split like Stephen and we see Him!

1 comment:

Don said...

Amen, Dan. While God repeatedly takes us back to our *own* cross to become more like Christ - and we learn there to understand the sufferings of Jesus on our behalf - he never makes us "camp out" at the cross. (Just as Jesus refused to approve Peter's desire to build some shelters on the mountain of transfiguration, so they could "camp out" at the site of another revelation of Christ's glory!)

CJ Mahaney himself, at Celebration East 1996, spoke on John's Revelation - it wasn't primarily a revelation of the end-times, but of the glorified Jesus now in heaven. That revelation, CJ said, was the answer to all John's needs and questions, and the message John was to share with the Church: Christ glorified with all authority.