END ZONE FAITH, CRACKER JACKS, AND SNAKE BIT HUMANITY

END ZONE FAITH, CRACKER JACKS, AND SNAKE BIT HUMANITY

DOC LYNCH

Even if you're not a big football fan you've seen it.

Right behind every goal post, up in the crowd, a plain sign or banner with "JOHN 3:16" written on it.

Even if you are not a believer, it has made you go get that bible you knew was hanging around the house somewhere and made you look it up.

Mission complete. Success.

People have had their lives changed just by reading one scripture. Mine was.

If we are going to lift up Jesus to the modern world, John 3:16 is good.

There is more if we want to stay in context. It just doesn't all fit on a placard for people to read within the seconds of exposure it gets on National tv. Not to mention how the networks labor to give it even less exposure. They don't like Jesus harshing the Sunday football mellow. Or Monday. Or Thursday.

How about this one?

John 3:14 (AMP) – "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must [so it is necessary that] the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross]."

I don't have time here to go into the snake on the pole reference. Read Numbers 21:9 from the OT. Call it homework.

Suffice it to say that the bronze serpent on the pole saved lives when people looked at it for healing.

Jesus was lifted up on a "pole" so that those who looked at it would live.

John 3:15 (AMP) – "In order that everyone who believes in Him [who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him] may not perish, but have eternal life and [actually] live forever."

So, 2,000 years later we are still doing that. All along the way people have been doing that.

John 12:32 (AMP) – "And I, if and when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw and attract all men [Gentiles as well as Jews] to Myself."

This has got to mean more than the one fateful day He was nailed to the Cross. The way I figure it through reading the bible, and even some external historical accounts, there was but a handful of people who were actually present around the Cross that day. Let's even be generous. Let's say there was 100 people there.

Not really enough to warrant even the prophetic element from Jesus in speaking of His impending sacrifice.

No, He was bringing us way past that one day.

He has brought us up to now even as the calendar continues to "move forward".

While the blood has long since soaked into the ground, it must remain efficacious for man to be saved today.

John 3:16 in the End Zone has to stand for more than the mere minutes that Blood was running.

John 3:16 (AMP) – "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life."

It does. Stand for more than minutes of a bleed out, that is.

If the world was a box of Cracker Jacks, we (believers) are the prize.

That's why we must obey Jesus and continually "lift Him up".

It's a simple task really.

Just make Him central to everything you do.

It's simple because it only takes a flip of what we have been accustomed to.

We've had no problem making ourselves central to everything.

Just flip it upside down.

Oh, don't worry, in only the way Jesus can do that, He has made it so that we still come out on top.

"The first will be last, BUT the LAST shall be FIRST".

Weird , huh?

He puts us first when we make ourselves last.

I'm Pastor Doc Lynch from Revival Life Church, 21 Executive Center Drive, New Milford, CT 06776.

I think it is a travesty when we have to strain to find Jesus in a weekly sermon only to be left disappointed. In the rare occasions where Jesus might be central in today's modern era church setting, it is also a travesty when people would say, "All he ever preaches on is Jesus." I'd be happy to wear that accusation on a sign pinned to my back if necessary. How about you? If you agree, than I can assure you that the message of Jesus Christ is central here at Revival Life, and He is lifted up each and every week. We have our "Jesus Lifted Up" meeting every Sunday morning at 10:00. I think you would find it somewhat refreshing.

Believing with you for all your Godly desires to be fulfilled today!

Be REVIVED!

~Pastor Doc Lynch~