Let me start by saying that I love our pastor! I love his teaching style, he takes the Bible verse by verse and just teaches straight from God’s word. RARELY does he do topical sermons, he’s been teaching out of the book of Luke for something like 7 years (when we came to the church in October, 2010 he was in Luke 12, yesterday he was teaching from Luke 23:7-12. And God’s timing is so amazing! For a while now I’ve been struggling with something, and yesterday, God addressed this for me through Pastor Ron and His Word.
The verses that God used to address this are Luke 23: 9-11.
He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegent robe, the sent him back to Pilate.
The context of these verses…..this is the 5th (of 6) trial that Jesus went through in the hours leading up to his crucifixion. This trial was before Herod. During John the Baptists and Jesus’ ministries and through this trial Herod showed that he went from having some conscience, to a guilty conscience to no conscience. Here’s what Pastor Ron pointed out yesterday….this was the WORST of man, man was accusing, trying and eventually executing an innocent man. A man that had done NOTHING, and even though Pilate found him innocent of any actual crime TWICE and Herod found him innocent once, Pilate still ordered his execution. While this few hours shows the WORST of man, it shows us the BEST of God!
Here’s where this sermon helped me yesterday….where I’ve been struggling with what is to me the worst of man(kind) (not by the world’s standards, but to me it’s been the worst), God has shown His BEST! He is always faithful to prompt one of my family members or friends to call or text or just show up in the kitchen/bedroom/laundy room/backyard…wherever to encourage me when I’m at my low points through this struggle. While the struggle is not going to go away this side of Glory, God is showing me HIS best through it! And I am so thankful!
Do you have a similar testimony? Has God been able to show His Best through the worst of man in your lives? I’d love to hear your stories……
