FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
September 8
CHRIST UPLIFTED: ‘BEHOLD THE SON OF MAN’ – NOT THE ‘MAN OF SIN’! (Last of 20 Parts)
“In the interview with Nicodemus, Jesus UNFOLDED THE PLAN OF SALVATION and His mission to the world. In none of His subsequent discourses did He explain SO FULLY, STEP BY STEP, the WORK necessary to be done in the HEARTS of all who would INHERIT the kingdom of heaven.
At the very beginning of His ministry He opened to a member of the SANHEDRIN, to the mind that was MOST RECEPTIVE, and to an appointed teacher of the people. But the LEADERS did not welcome the light. Nicodemus hid the truth in his heart, and for THREE YEARS there was little apparent fruit.
“But Jesus was acquainted with the SOIL into which He cast the seed [of truth]. The words spoken AT NIGHT to ONE LISTENER in the lonely mountain were not lost. For a time Nicodemus did not publicly acknowledge Christ, but he WATCHED HIS LIFE, and PONDERED His teachings In the Sanhedrin Council he repeatedly THWARTED the schemes of the PRIESTS to destroy Him.
When at last Jesus was lifted up on the cross, Nicodemus REMEMBERED the teaching upon Olivet: ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the SON OF MAN be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’
The light from that SECRET INTERVIEW illumined the cross upon Calvary, and Nicodemus SAW in Jesus the world’s Redeemer.
“After the Lord’s ascension, when the DISCIPLES WERE SCATTERED BY PERSECUTION [by the Jews!], Nicodemus came BOLDLY to the front. He employed his WEALTH in sustaining the INFANT CHURCH that the JEWS EXPECTED TO BE BLOTTED OUT at the death of Christ!
In time of peril he who had been so cautious and questioning [in the beginning] was FIRM as a rock, ENCOURAGiNG the faith of the DISCIPLES, and furnishing means to carry forward the work of the gospel.
[Soon after] he was SCORNED and PERSECUTED by those who had paid him reverence in other days. He became POOR in the world‘s goods: yet he faltered not in the faith which had its BEGINNINGS in that night conference with Jesus.
“Nicodemus related to John the story of that interview, and by his pen it was recorded for the instruction of millions. The truths there taught are as important TODAY as they were on that SOLEMN NIGHT in the shadowy mountain, when the Jewish leader came to LEARN THE WAY OF LIFE from the lowly Teacher of Galilee.” – E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 176, 177, April. 1950, PPA.
If you have already been baptized by water immersion, the baptism of repentance, have you experienced spiritual rebirth of the new mind and heart and the fiery, purifying, sanctifying baptism of the Holy Spirit?
Justification is our “title” to kingdom of heaven; sanctification is our “fitness” for it, and finally, the seal of God in the forehead is our “passport” to that “place” Christ went to “prepare for all those who love Him!”
Bless all, NMF