"With all your answers to human need, if you do not understand the Cross, you will never find the answers to the question of evil, justice, love and forgiveness."
(This is an excerpt from a sermon, based on his book "The Grand Weaver".
Dr. Ravi Zacharias leads Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, which
seeks to reach and challenge those who shape the ideas of culture with
the credibility and the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.)
[...]
Four Absolutes
I am convinced more and more that the Cross, which is the centerpiece of
the Gospel, is not understood by most us, because it is the eternal
counterperspective of God. And when we stand before Him in his presence,
for the first time we will see, touch and feel the Gospel that we until
this point only merely have heard. Something of enormous significance
will take place, when we can see those nail pierced hands and feel that
speer thrusted side.
Two years ago, the United Nations asked me if I would come and speek at
their opening prayer breakfast. This was the second time, I was asked to
speek, so it was fascinating, what they asked me to speek on. They asked
me to speak on "navigating with absolutes in a relativistic world."
Now, that is a tough subject at any hour of the day, and at 6:30 in the
morning, it's not easy. And then they gave me a second condition having
heard me once: "Don't bring too much of religion into it." I said: "I'll
make a deal with you: You're giving me 25 minutes. For 18 minutes, I'll
speak on your subject; for the last 7 minutes or 5 minutes, I'll tell
you why my belief in God answers those questions." They agreed.
For 18 minutes, I spoke on the search for four absolutes: evil,
justice, love and forgiveness. We all want to know what evil is. I said:
"Some of you call some nations evil. What is your basis? You are a body,
questing for justice." I said: "Some of you left your families, you miss
them, because you love them." And I said: "Some of you are gonna blow it
with your ethics and then you're gonna hope, your colleagues will
forgive you." I said: "Evil, justice, love and forgiveness..." They
nodded. I said: "...do you know, the one place in the world and the one
event, where these four absolutes converged?" They sat up. I said:
"They converged on a hill called 'Calvery', 2000 years ago."
When evil, justice, love and forgiveness converged on the Cross, in the
crucifixtion of the Jesus, whom I follow. I said: "With all your answers
to human need, if you do not understand the Cross, you will never find
the answers to the question of evil, justice, love and forgiveness."
When I finished, they were lined up. The president of the UN asked me if
I would come up to his office and pray for him and his entire staff. And
one man from one country came to me, we shook hands and he said: "You
know, my country is atheistic. I didn't want to come here, because I
don't like it out here. So, today I have the answer to, why it is that I
have come here. I would never have believed it, but I came here to find
God."
The Son
[...] Some time ago, I was in Jerusalem, along with the former
arch bishop of Cannebury and four or five others. And we were meeting
with one of the founders of Hamas, Sieg Halal. He had served eighteen
years in prison, muscle bound, hard... In his home, we'd had a sollid
lunch, his son had just been released from prison, he had lost many of
his children. Each one of us were alowd to ask one question and my
question to him was: "What do you think of suicide bombing?" I didn't
like his answer. So, I leaned forward in the smoked filled room and all
of his cohorts around. I said: "Sieg Halal, you and I may never see each
other again, I want to say one thing to you Sir." I said: "5000 years
ago, a man called Abraham, who you know and you follow, took his son up
to a mountain not far from where we are seated. Do you remember that
story? He said: "Yes". I said: "You say, he took his son Ismael. We as
Christians believe it was Isaac." I said: "At this point it really
doesn't matter, so that's not the point, I want to make. He took his son
and as the blade was about to come down, God stopped his arm and said
stop." I said: "Do you remember what God said?" He shook his head. I
said: "God said stop, I myself will provide." I said: "Sieg, very close
to where you and I are seated, 2000 years ago, God kept that promise.
He took his son and this time the blade did not stop."
I said: "Before I leave, I want to say something to you. You and I will
keep offering our sons and daughters on the battlefields of this world
for land and power until we receive the son that God himself has
offered. And when you receive him, we will have to stop offering our
sons and daughters in these war zones, killing and blowing themselves
up."
There was silence in the room. It was the last question. Finished, we
walked outside, he was bidding everybody goodbuy. He came over to me and just patted me on the face like this. He kissed me on both sides of the
face. He said: "You're a good man, you're a good man. I hope I see you
again some day." And the tears were running down his face and he walked
into his home.
Do you know what a message, we have for this world that is so unique?
And now we only hear it, we think about it, we don't understand so much
of it.
When it All Comes Together
Thomas Murton said this about communion: "I left the alter rail and went
back to the pew, where the others were kneeling like forshadows for
unrealities. And I hid my face in my hands in the temple of God that I
had just become. The one eternal and pure sacrifice was offered up to
the God, dwelling inside me; the sacrifice of God to God; Christ born in
me; the new Bethlehem sacrificed in me, His new Calvery risen in me,
the new empty tomb, offering me to the Father in himself, asking the
Father, my father and his, to receive me into his infinite and special
love. Not the love for all things that exist, for mere existance as a
token of God's love, but the love of those creatures that are drawn to
Him in and with the power of His own love for himself."
When you and I commune, Bethlehem, Calvery and the empty tomb converge in that experience, in memorium. When you and I arive at the gates of Heaven, Calvery, Bethlehem and the empty tomb will be embodied before us. I beleive, for the very first time, we will feel the Spirit touched
in a way it has never been touched before.
The metaphor of the home, the materiality of our destiny and lastly, the
magnificence of it all. The magnificence is simply this: that we ultimately come to that presence, where all answers are now consumated and every thread in your life comes together, because you will now know Him as you are known. He will reveal, why every thread was there, why every disappointment was there, why your DNA was there, what role your
will played. And all of this comming together in a glorious consumation
of the magnificence of it all.
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