The Jesus Effect!
(The following includes some paraphrases from John Ortberg's book, Who Is This Man?)
Greetings church family!
Have you ever thought about the fact that, normally, when people die, their impact on the world begins to decline? Reputations of people like Socrates, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great reached their zenith near these men's deaths. Jesus, however, reversed this trend. His impact was greater one hundred years after his death than it was during his life. After 2000 years, he has more followers than ever before.
Many ancient rulers built cities named after them. Alexander the Great named a city Alexandria. Augustus Caesar named a city Caesarea. Jesus' mission was not to build great cities and name them after himself. Yet 2000 years after his death, we have San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, and San Antonio. These are all cities named after people who completely dedicated their lives to the gospel mission of Jesus Christ. You can't look at a map without seeing Jesus' influence.
Other regimes tried to establish their importance by centering the calendar around their existence. During the French Revolution (in the late 1700s) the French altered the calendar by denoting the years with Roman numerals, with 1792 being year I. Also, instead of 7 day weeks, they tried to create 3 ten day weeks every month, with the tenth day of the week as the day of rest. The USSR, from 1929 to 1940, changed to either 5 or 6 day weeks. Both of these regimes had the intent of eradicating any Christian influence from their society. Jesus never set out to have a calendar centered on him, and yet we live in the year 2024 - which is 2024 years after his birth.
For all that Jesus did for humanity spiritually, we must not ignore what he did historically. We live in a world where Jesus' impact is immense even if his name is unmentioned. This Sabbath, as we continue our "Follow Me" sermon series, we will take a deeper look at elements of that impact - more specifically Jesus' impact on women and on the sick and diseased. May God bless you with a wonderful week as we prepare for Sabbath's message, entitled "The Jesus Effect."
Remember, God is for you, God is with you, and God loves you!
Pastor Chris
