What killed your God?
Two things make Christianity unique: the virgin conception of its founder Jesus, and His resurrection. But there would have been no resurrection if there was not first a crucifixion. The Cross is an intriguing place a mystery that few understand. It is indeed a meeting place of opposite things. It is a meeting place between love and hate, light and darkness, offense and forgiveness, between pure evil and good, between rejection and acceptance. The Cross became a meeting place between sin and righteousness, life and death!
The Cross reminds us of the triumph of life over death, light over darkness. It is the place where pure evil is overcome by the greatest love on earth! And hope began to emerge from hopelessness!
When He arose, the restoration of the dignity of the pinnacle of God’s creation was complete. The empty tomb became the seal of the enemy’s defeat and humiliation!
Text: Luke 23:44 -24:1–12
Jesus displayed a remarkable attitude throughout His arrest, trial and crucifixion. He saw His predicament as an opportunity, not a problem.
Your pain indicates that all is not well. It is also an opportunity for a miracle. Jesus saw the Cross, as painful and malicious as it was, as an opportunity to redeem mankind; an opportunity to serve God and do His will. He also saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate the unconditional love of God.
His attitude shows the victorious nature of endurance and patience. He modelled all truth He came to preach. He prayed for His enemies and all those who were persecuting Him, asking for forgiveness for them – making excuses for them. He demonstrated how passion conquers pain. He showed how purpose is more powerful than persecution.
Many messages
We can talk of the supremacy of the will of man over the adversities of life. We can preach a whole day on how people can celebrate you today and vitiate you tomorrow. We can preach on the loneliness of a man abandoned by his friends and associates. We can certainly preach on the agony of a mother. We can also preach on how God the ultimate leader, practices the Law of Timing. He knows when and how to move. He is never late or too early. He is always on time. He knows when to strike the iron – He knows when it is hot enough to strike. He made pregnancy in rats to last a few weeks, 9 months in humans; 20 months in elephants. The sermons are endless.
But what bothers me is how affliction tends to numb our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and paralyse our will. How affliction tends to make us forget important things. They completely forgot that the Lord said He would rise again on the third day. Either they forgot or they did not believe. For the Bible says they were perplexed when they could not find the body of Jesus at the tomb. How terrible experiences tend to kill our God, making us lose confidence in Him!
You might blame them but I don’t. They believed He was the Christ – the Messiah – God in human flesh. He proved it. He walked on water, healed the sick and raised the dead. He was simply untouchable. Who can kill God? He was their God, their hero, their anchor!
But when they arrested Him, tortured and killed Him, they became confused. Some ran away, those that followed, followed from a far. Today some change church when they cannot figure out why God appears to be silent over their case.
It is one thing to arrest Him but when they kill your God; I wonder how many of us could have continued to hang around!
Have you ever been in situations where it appears as if your God is dead? You were so sure you could not be touched. You did the right things, prayed the right prayers, fasted long enough, confessed and quoted all relevant Scriptures but at the big moment, heaven just fell silent! Those events just killed your God. The impressions you had for years just died! How can you remember other promises or even believe them?
They came with spices to preserve their dead God.
Many have preserved God at the point of their failure. If He couldn’t help me when it appeared His reputation was on the line, how can He ever be able to help me again they ask?
The rulers challenged Him, the thief on the cross challenged Him, even the Roman soldiers – yet He did nothing.
Your landlord challenged you and said let your God provide you with money when you begged him in the name of God for more time.
You left compromising to do legitimate business and now you are suffering.
Their God died! A dead God is unable to help anyone. He was in the grave, silent and unhelpful!
God is not concerned about winning a battle; He is concerned about winning the war.
They bowed to the angels. When you think your God is dead, you bow to anything promising. When you think your God is dead you bow to anything that appears standing or shining. People who compromise are those who feel disappointed in God and in life.
It took the preaching of angels to make them believe that He was not dead. For Thomas, he wanted to put his finger in the nail print. What will it take for you to believe again that your God is not dead?
Still On Course
From Gethsemane through the trials to the
Cross, He was still on course. People may mock you but…you are still on course. You may be lonely, hated by enemies or even close friends, or abandoned by long time associates but you are still on course. The enemy may appear to be winning but you are still on course.
DEEPER THAN YOU KNOW
While they thought their God was dead, He was in the bowel of the earth confronting their enemy and dealing with the root of their failure, defeat and poverty.
A good doctor knows that symptomatic treatment is no treatment. We fail because we are superficial. Your God is going deeper than you know. Surface solution is no solution. He will not just deal with your trouble; He will deal with the root of your trouble!
You think you need a husband, a job, a breakthrough but there is a witch to confront, a coven to destroy! There are ancestral altars and curses to deal with. There may be a habit to eliminate, a weakness to strengthen, a character issue He wants to deal with first!
After this He emerged with an announcement of victory.
The resurrection of Jesus embarrassed His enemies. God is getting ready to do something that will put your enemies to shame! No stone can stop your breakthrough! No stone is big enough to stop the Rock of Ages! No battalion is a problem for the Commander of the army of the Lord!
After He resurrected He showed Himself to many. You will see your God again in action in your life!
Matthew 28:11–15 tells us Satan gave a large sum of money to finance a lie. We ought to give larger sums of money to finance the Truth. Tell it to the whole world, my God is alive! Bishop Dr Charles Olowojoba is the General Overseer of Dayspring Bible Church Worldwide with HQ in Abuja, Nigeria & President, Dayspring Christian Ministries Int’l.