Christ is Victor
July/August 1998 Vol. 11, No.4
Darkest Night Precedes Brightest Morn
Mark 15:39-47
There were certain people who followed Jesus to the
grave. They had the privilege of seeing what happened to Him right upto the end. They were Mary Magdalene, Mary the
mother of James and Joses, and Salome. They
loved Jesus and were devoted to Him. I think the mother of Jesus would
have been taken home away from the scene by that time. It was too much
for her to see her Son whose birth was announced by angels, --her wonderful
Son, to die a criminal’s death.
Joseph of Arimathaea made a
bold decision to go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus. He was clear
of the blood of Jesus. He did not agree with the decision of the
Sanhedrin. Very few people could have done what Joseph did. Pilate
was surprised to learn that Jesus was so soon dead. The Centurion who was
stationed at the cross handed over the body to Joseph of Arimathaea.
Joseph bought a long piece of fine linen cloth. It must have been
very costly.
Nicodemus also came bringing
a hundred pound weight of spices, to keep the body from putrefying. They
did not know what great service they were rendering. It was their darkest
hour. The sun which gave them light till now was suddenly darkened. In their darkest hour they did not forget
their duty to Jesus.
Faith is the habit of looking to God. When the
subconscious is relieved of all sin, we get to the place where we always think
hopefully—even under the worst circumstances. This is only possible
for Christians. Oh! The wailing at Hindu
funerals. This was their darkest hour, yet Joseph and these women
had some kind of hope. It was the darkest hour for the disciples
too. They were all sitting together in a room. Their darkest hour
had come. Their hopes were shattered. It is wonderful how they
faced and came through that hour. Those who know Jesus develop the capacity
to stand with hope in the darkest hours of their lives. To know Jesus and
to know Him as the Lord of life is the greatest thing.
Death is vanquished. The last thing that God is
going to remove from this world is death. Do not think that death will
always be here. During the thousand years of Jesus’ reign, there
will be no death. Death and sin are conquered. A Christian must
believe that death and sin will be conquered in his life. How Joseph of Arimathaea must have rejoiced when he saw Jesus on the
throne in Heaven and remembered the service that he had rendered to Him.
You will never rejoice in anything at the end of your life but in the service
you render to Jesus like Joseph who served Him in that darkest hour.
People invited Jesus to dinner, when He was famous and
acclaimed. But at this hour when Jesus was killed like a criminal, Joseph
valued that bruised and lacerated body. Kings and great warriors receive
great honour at the time of their burial. There
was no one to pay such homage to Jesus here. The faith of Joseph was a
wonderful faith. He did not expect anything like the resurrection.
If people knew He would rise on the third day and receive great glory, many
would have done Him honour. But Joseph did Him honour when he did not know about the resurrection.
Sometimes when you are straining every nerve and serve God, it appears like a
thankless job. People criticize you, your dress, your actions and
everything about you.
Jonah was three days in the fish’s belly. Jonah
2:2-4. "And said, I cried by reason fo mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me;
out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest
my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep,
in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows
and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight;
yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." 7th verse "When
my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD…" There will
come times when our souls faint within us. In our desperate condition let
us look again to God. Where else is there hope? Jesus used the case
of Jonah as an illustration of His death. Jesus was three days in the
grave. He was in the darkest place. He went to hell, where lost
souls dwelt. But there was nothing to hold Him down there. The
Father raised Him again from the dead.
The mystery of Christian life is the life-giving
principle in the darkest hour. When temptation is very hard upon you, do
not forget to utter the name of Jesus. At the worst moment of your life
cry unto Jesus. As Joseph was serving Jesus there must have been some
faint hope in his heart. For ten years I served in this City of
Your youthful life will stand as a witness.
Victory should be yours in your youth. The victory in your youth will
have a great influence on all your life. Get victory over the flesh and
in your spirit. Christ’s body was bruised for you. One day
you will wear a body that cannot be touched by sin. You will enjoy
Heaven. Abraham will be there but Judas will not be there. Blind Bartimeus will be there, but the Pharisees who troubled Jesus
will not be there. Lazarus will be there but the rich man will not be
there. This was the darkest night but it led to the brightest morn.
---Late Mr. N. Daniel
The Forgetful Saint
Saint John Cantius was an
extremely clever man. So clever, in fact, that he was the head teacher,
or professor, in charge of a college for training priests at
But fond as he was of reading and study, nothing gave
the Polish saint more pleasure than to go on pilgrimages on foot during the
long summer holidays. Best of all he liked to visit cities like
But clever though he was,
John Cantius was also very absent-minded and
forgetful. When his mind was busy, thinking of all the sacred places he
had seen or was about to see, he would often forget almost everything
else: what date the term at college was due to begin, or where he had put
his money.
His friends were naturally anxious for his safe return
from his long pilgrimages. In case he should lose his money, or get into
difficulties, they used to sew some gold pieces into the lining of his cloak
before he set out from
Now it happened on one of his pilgrimages that John Cantius was attacked by robbers. They took all the
money they found in his bag: then they asked him if he had anything else?
"No," replied the saintly professor, in his usual absent-minded
manner, "nothing else, nothing at all."
So the robbers left him, and went on their way over
the brow of a hill and out of sight.
Scarcely before John Cantius
remembered: those extra gold pieces sewn into his cloak lining! Oh,
dear! What a shame and what a terrible thing! Here were poor men,
so desperately in need of money that they would stoop to robbing travellers, and he, a follower of Jesus Christ, had told
these poor men a lie! He must act at once to put matters right.
A few minutes later the astonished robbers heard
someone running down the road after them. It was John Cantius.
"Stop! Stop!"
he was shouting, "I find I’ve got some more money after all! I
forgot to give it to you!"
You will be glad to hear that this story had a happy
ending. Those robbers were not such very wicked men, really. They
were so touched by the open-handed goodness of the Polish saint that instead of
accepting the extra gold coins he wanted to give them the robbers insisted upon
giving him back all his money.
If ever anyone should say to you that the teaching of
Jesus takes a great deal of living up to, just tell them this story from the
life of St. John Cantius. For all he was so
forgetful, he remembered to act in the spirit of what Jesus commanded:
"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you… To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and
from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your coat as
well." Luke 6:27-29, R.S.V.
---Selected
Not Afraid to die!
In the early days of the first
world war, a young English soldier sat right in the front line in a
place of extreme danger, calmly reading his New Testament, which had become
increasingly dear to him in the terrible days of fighting.
A young officer passing along the trench glanced at
the book and stopped. "Why waste your time over such a worn-out book
as that?" he jeered. That is no book
for a red-blooded man to read." The young soldier looked steadily
into the officer’s face. He held up the little Testament and said
quietly but earnestly: "This little book, sir, has taught me not to
be afraid to die." With a sneer the officer left, but he had not
gone far when there was a terrific explosion behind him. He whirled
round. A shell had made a direct hit on the parapet in front of the young
soldier, and the explosion had buried him beneath tons of debris. Rushing
back, the officer and others dug for the buried man, but they reached him too
late.
As they lifted out the lifeless body, the officer
noticed the little Testament lying on the ground. Without a word he put
it in his pocket. Day after day those last words of the young soldier
haunted him: "This little book has taught me not to be afraid to
die." Finally, he felt impelled to read the little book for himself to find out what in those worn-out pages could make
a man unafraid to die.
Months later, when on leave in
---Selected
A Master Fisher of Men
Mr. J. Bosinger of Coonoor, who died in 1906, 85 years of age, and who came to India in 1847, as the first Industrial Brother of the Basel Mission, having spent more than sixty years in India without a furlough, told me much about Mr. Hebich whom he knew intimately for more than a decade, having sometimes accompanied him on his mission tours. In answer to my question concerning the stability of Hebich’s converts he replied:
"The majority of them proved themselves true Christians, many of them having also become great soul-winners. Mr. Hebich knew how to sound the deepest depths of men’s hearts. He would give no peace nor rest, until they had made a full surrender to Jesus.
"His method with men often seemed harsh, but then he would say, ‘I must first kill them with the hammer of the law, before I can comfort them with the Gospel.’ Let me relate to you an instance of his way of dealing with men:
"One day we were out taking a walk, and we came to an engineer’s bungalow. ‘Come,’ said Mr. Hebich, ‘let us call and see this man.’ I reluctantly entered the house of the gentleman, for I was a stranger to him. As soon as Mr. Hebich saw him, he said, ‘I have called to tell you that you ought to be ashamed of yourself, for disgracing your God and your country by your sinful life.’
"The gentleman replied, ‘That is none of your business!’
"Mr. Hebich then shouted in a loud, almost angry voice, so great was his zeal: ‘That is my business. As a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, I must denounce all sin and unrighteousness. I have now called to demand of you, in the name of our Righteous Judge, that you repent of your sins.’
"This denunciation made the engineer very angry. ‘Leave my house, Mr. Hebich!’ he shouted, ‘I did not ask you to call, and will not listen to your violent tirades in my own house!’
" ‘no, never,’ the old man replied, ‘I will not leave you, until you confess your sins and beg God’s pardon on your knees for leading such a disgraceful life. You are a bad man, and ought to be ashamed of yourself. Get down on your knees and confess, or you will go to hell, to the devils whom you serve. I will not leave you, until you hear my message!’
"Then the man jumped up in a rage and said sarcastically: ‘If you don’t leave, then I will!’ Ordering his boy to have his horse saddled, he left us without another word, and soon we saw him riding away at a furious gallop. Then we left the house.
"I felt annoyed at Mr. Hebich’s abruptness and remarked to him: ‘Now you have spoilt all by your hard words. It is not necessary to break down the door, if you would enter a house.’
The old man only smiled and said, ‘I have fastened a hook in him that he will not get away from.’
"He was right. Before he called to see such men, he would always spend much time in prayer for them. Only when he had the assurance of victory in prayer, the witness of the Spirit, would he call to see them, but then he came as a victor.
"Three days after this stormy visit to the engineer’s bungalow, the gentleman wrote Mr. Hebich a chit: ‘Dear Mr. Hebich, for God’s sake come to see me at once! I have not slept a wink since you were here. I am all undone. I can find no peace nor rest. My conscience condemns me. I am in hell. What must I do to be saved?’
"Then Mr. Hebich brought Jesus to the man and the man to Jesus. Soon the engineer saw Jesus on the cross, and could believe that the bleeding Saviour had with His own precious blood also washed his sins away.
"This engineer, in after years, proved by his pure, consistent, humble life that he had truly repented of his sins, and that he had become indeed a true disciple of Jesus."
---Selected
Flashes from the Field
Family Day Meeting in
How quickly a month has gone by since the Family
Day in
Quite a number of people gathered at this big
Recreation Centre near
In
Although Thursday and Friday were working days and
the traffic in
It was unfortunate that
In
Our Sunday services is
slowly gathering swing and our brothers are faithfully labouring.
Amongst those who attend our meetings are people from mainland
In
While the shifting sands of
Rodney and Andrea who have a
big job bringing up four children, have a longing heart to glorify God.
One can get rather lonely and isolated, ‘down under’ as
One woman in fact said to me upon my enquiring after
her husband, "He is in the bush," by which she meant that his work
place was out in the Australian outback. One lady expressed her deep
disappointment over her divorced and remarried pastor, who seemed to have no
conscience about getting some of his people to do likewise, especially if he
found that they were divorced. The truth which Jesus preached that to
marry again, when there is a living partner, is adultery, is something people
do not want to know, as it restricts and restrains their wild nature too
much. It is hardness of the worst order and affects one’s
relationships. This long week-end from Friday to Monday
It was a joy to see some of our regular radio
listeners to our Sunday evening broadcasts, at the retreat. Other radio
stations are getting interested in our broadcast. So please pray much for
this little work and our hard-working team in
ARE YOU CONTINUING TO PRAY FOR
---Joshua Daniel