I
love eyewitness testimony that stands the test of time, testimony that
withstands the attempted suppression and persecution of the ruling authorities throughout the
first 300 years of the early church. If this was just a story, men
would not have so willingly suffered torture and persecution to uphold a
lie. They would not have clung to it over and over again with their
very lives. Sure there have been men of other faiths who have died for
their beliefs, but they did so for causes that lack the overwhelming
credibility that the gospel of Jesus Christ offers.
This morning I was reflecting on the
book of John, written approximately 30-60 years after the resurrection,
by a man who was actually there, not a hundred, five-hundred, or a thousand years
after it happened with no other witnesses to corroborate his story. John
has 3rd party backup, lots of it! (See Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the writings of
Paul, James, and Peter. There are even other 1st century historians from non-biblical sources
such as Tacitus, Josephus, and Pliny the Younger who were not
even sympathetic to the Christian movement who could not deny that something was shaking up society in the 1st century Roman empire.) There was something different
about Jesus and his followers that made an immediate impact on the world and it is still changing lives over 2000 years later. Take a minute to digest this Word that is Jesus
Christ...
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things
were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. In Him was life
and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.... He was in the world
and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He
came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to
those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John
1:1-5, 10-14
