Why Is Jesus So Fascinating?, Part 2

When we think about Jesus and His ministry, lots of words come to mind. Amazing. Phenomenal. Spellbinding.

Yes, all good choices. But according to Chuck Swindoll, there's one word that seems to capture His ministry best. And it's this one. Fascinating. Chuck selected this word because, quoting him now, incredible. Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck will continue his brand new teaching series called, Compelled by the Cross.

In this study, he'll answer the relevant question, why is Jesus so fascinating? Your plan, fulfilled to perfection, prophesied centuries earlier, was fulfilled just as you had arranged it. You always keep your word.

Your promises are sure. We, to this day, rely on them. We thank you for each one.

You've told us, fear not. You've often mentioned the importance of praise. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.

That is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to your name. And so today, we pause to give you our praise. Looking back over our lives, we must accept the fact that you have sovereignly led us all the way.

Even those things that at the time didn't make sense worked out for good to those of us who love you and are called according to your purpose. Remind us of that today for those going through difficult times. May praise be on our lips through this week. May we often pause and remember all that our Savior endured for us. Then as we gather together at the end of the week, may we pause longer and enter into the agony and suffering that He went through for us. And then hours later, may we stand and give you our glorious praise for the victory won at the open tomb when your Son was marvelously and miraculously and bodily raised from the dead. Give us a renewed hope that those we have lost today, we will see again, that you will reverse the irreversible.

You will do what only you can do and no one else. We pause today to give you thanks for that. May you be pleased, our Father, with our lives through this week. May we bring honor to you as we do what is right, as we love kindness, and as we walk humbly with you, our God. Minister deeply today in all our lives as we return to the scene that took place along the road from Jericho to the great city of Jerusalem and then as our Savior entered in. Hear our hearts today as we pour out our praises for the many things you have done for us, including this time of worship.

Thank you. We praise your name. These things we express through Christ, our Savior and our Lord. All God's people said, Amen.

You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Bible with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures Studies by going to insight.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled, Why is Jesus so Fascinating? We began at Jericho, according to Mark, 10, 46.

There's a blind beggar by the road. Oh, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And he says it repeatedly, repeatedly. But Jesus does the unpredictable.

He stops. He says to those around him, bring him here. They brought him to Jesus. And here is Bartimaeus. Standing before the one. In whom he believes.

What do you want me to do for you? And I love his I love the warmth of his answer as it's revealed in the in the New Living Translation. My rabbi.

I want to see. Jesus simply says to him, go, you're healed. You're healed. You have sight.

And from that moment on, the man is with full sight. We read that he followed Jesus down the road. Jesus tells his disciples, some of them, to go get this colt and to bring it. And they bring this donkey.

Again, the unpredictable. Who would have expected anyone to come into his triumphal entry on the bare back of a donkey colt? Why, when Romans came back from battle and they had won the victory, they came back in full regalia, riding in a golden chariot pulled by four steeds or maybe on their warhorse. A red cape over their shoulder.

Maybe still wearing the helmet from battle. Getting all of the attention and and all of the praise and expecting it. Jesus rides in on the back of a donkey colt. Maybe you haven't taken the time to study it, but when you do, you find that this didn't just just happen. You realize it had been prophesied 10 centuries earlier. In Psalm 118, 25, 26, you read Hoshiana means, oh, save us now. We read it as Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

10th century B.C. And then in 520 B.C., Zechariah the prophet wrote, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming. He is just and endowed with salvation.

There he is. But what a sight. I mean, I thought about it and I realized that Jesus being a man riding a donkey colt, his feet must have been dragging along the road as he's riding along in this in this lowly fashion for entering the city. And the people are praising him and they're waving their palm branches and and some of them are throwing their coats on the road before.

This animal is it's walking along, carrying the savior. Savior comes in and the people are screaming and shouting their praises and must have been earsplitting as they shout their praises. And and as you would expect, the Pharisees were nearby and they took issue with all of this.

Luke 19 covers it in an interesting way. They they don't want they couldn't tolerate the praises being given to one they saw as a false Messiah. And so they rebuked him. They said to him, tell your followers to be quiet, not to give you praise. This is one of the great in your face moments that Jesus had in his life. He said to them, why, if they didn't give me praise, if they kept quiet, these rocks would burst into cheers. It is the first reference to a rock concert in all of literature right there. And but but seriously, the rocks would cry out that silenced the Pharisees, which wasn't easy to do.

And he meant it. And guess who the most exuberant cheerleader was among all the praises of the people, Bartimaeus, following him all the way from Jericho to this place of praise in Jerusalem. He was about to miss one moment of this in the life of his savior. What an unpredictable way to enter the city, but exactly as was prophesied.

Riding on the back of a donkey. I thought a lot about Jesus. Fantastic ministry. I thought especially about how he often did the unpredictable to accomplish the incredible. So I've asked myself this past week on several occasions, why did they do that? Why would he choose an unpredictable route to take to accomplish something in someone's life?

There may be many reasons, but one that I've landed on seems to make sense. We all have blind spots. We have areas of our lives we're not aware of. And sometimes it takes someone else to point them out. As we grow up, it takes our parents. And good parents are good because they care about things in their children's lives that need attention. And we often work with our children in their growing up years to make sure they get that corrected.

When we get older, you know what happens? Well, not for everyone, but for many, we get married. I love doing wedding ceremonies and looking into the faces of these innocent brides and grooms and thinking, you have no idea what you were in for. And I don't mean that. I believe in marriage.

I believe in the joys of marriage and the challenges of marriage and all that goes with it. Not everyone is called to that, I realize, but for those of us who are, we really have the privilege of a built in individual in our lives who knows us better than any other person on earth. They're qualified to point out those things. We ultimately become better people. Every mentor I've had has earned the right to be a mentor by pointing out a blind spot or more than one in my own life. It's hard to hear him at times because it's a little embarrassing to realize we've been going through life, not aware of of this particular area. Jesus did the unpredictable often to make people aware. We're just we're just as blind as Bartimaeus, though it isn't with sight. It's blind to things in our lives. And the Lord comes along and and lifts the blindness and we see.

As we've never seen before. You know, that's what happens at Salvation. Some for the first time, literally for the first time, realize how sinful they really are. And until you come to that place. Do you reach out for a savior?

Then you say. Lord, I'm lost. Without the hope you give, I'm going to stay blind.

In fact, the scriptures refer to the blindness of unbelief. All this led me to a very interesting true story that I'd not seen before. The principal architect of the Holocaust was a Nazi named Adolf Eichmann.

You've heard the name. He devised such evil and brutal plans that many thought of him as a monster. Apparently, in Eichmann's life, there wasn't a Jew that deserved breath in his lungs or her lungs. Throughout that Second World War, he was responsible for the deaths of so many thousands, millions of them. Tragically, when the Second World War ended, he escaped and was in hiding for years. There was a judgment at Nuremberg, you'll remember, but he was absent from that. Though there was a man who testified against him who had been sent to Auschwitz.

Back when he was much, much younger and he was there to tell his story. But what was interesting is that finally Eichmann was captured and brought to justice in 1961. He appeared in the courtroom and the man who had testified against him, Jehiel De Nure by name, was able to look at him for the first time in 18 years since he went to Auschwitz. What is interesting is that he walked into the courtroom, stopped short, as he saw the Nazi for the first time, and he began to sob and he collapsed on the floor of that courtroom. The judge hammered his gavel and called for order in the court and they carried the man out in a heap. What was it that caused him to collapse? Was he overcome by hatred, shock, fear, horrid memories? What was it?

It was none of those things. Talk about the unexpected. He later explained all at once he realized that the one who had sent so many to their deaths was just a man. In his words, De Nure's words, I was afraid about myself.

Listen to this blind spot being lifted, opened. I was afraid about myself. I saw that I am capable to do this. Deep within, I'm exactly like he.

The reporter he spoke with later offered this subsequent summation of De Nure's terrifying discovery. Eichmann is in all of us. Horrifying statement, but depravity is in all humanity.

Hear this. Through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world. Think of it as pouring sewage into an otherwise clear and beautiful stream. Sin entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed upon all men and women. For all have sinned. The same nature in Eichmann is in your life, my life, everyone's life.

Now, obviously, it doesn't work itself out like it did in his life, but it comes out. And for many, it's the hardest thing on earth to admit to. Why?

Blind spots. And we come to the realization, as that man did in that courtroom, only the gospel can change this heart of mine. I cannot do it on my own. I cannot attend enough worship services at a church. I cannot learn enough about the Bible.

I cannot clean up enough of my life. I cannot go through religious motions or rituals or any of the disciplines of spirituality to earn my way to God's favor. My sin has blocked that pathway. The only way I can make it is through the cross of Christ. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God through him. Unless we see our hearts as they really are, we'll never know eternal life with God. And that self-discovery often takes the unexpected to accomplish the incredible, to bring us to our knees, to make us aware that we need the Savior.

And without him, there is no hope. That, by the way, has also been my privilege over these many years, to announce the hope there is through Christ, to one congregation after another, to one body of people after another, to one individual after another. I find those most ready to receive it are those who have had a work of God in their lives that has brought them to their knees, and they realize the lostness of their souls.

And you may be one of those individuals today. You may have said in a service like this, half your life, but never ever before turned your life over to Christ. I urge you to do that today. Bow with me, will you? Just sit where you are and close your eyes.

Search your heart. I'll not linger here needlessly, but I do want to pause long enough for you to come to terms with this. As you look back over your years, do you find a time when you came to terms with your own sinfulness and turned your life over to Christ? You remember when that occurred? Maybe you can't name the date or give the full details, but you remember that you did that? If you can't remember that, quite likely you haven't yet come to Christ.

I urge you today, put it off no longer. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through him. He who has the Son has the life.

He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The only way your blindness can be removed is through faith in Christ. Christ alone by faith alone. Let me help you. Follow me in this simple prayer.

Dear God, I am lost and I am blind and I long to have my sight. I want to know you and so I trust in Christ as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for the gift of eternal life. Thank you for forgiving my sins. If you have prayed that prayer and want to begin to grow in your walk with the Savior, contact us.

Get in touch with us. Let us know of your new, brand new decision that will lead you to a new walk with Christ. We're here to help you go there as you make your journey from earth through death to heaven. Thank you, dear Father, for the privilege of once again declaring the good news of Christ your Son.

Thank you for making these stories in the Scriptures so simple anyone can understand them. A blind beggar by the road, a body of people giving praises, the opportunity to turn our lives over to Jesus. We're so grateful, Father. Reach the heart of those today who've never trusted in you. And before this day is over, may they have made that decision that will begin the most incredible journey they've ever taken through life. In the name of Christ, I pray this.

And everyone said, Amen. This is Insight for Living, and we've been taking an in-depth look at the question, Why is Jesus so fascinating? You know, I can't think of a better way to prepare for your celebration of the resurrection of Jesus than hearing these brand new messages from Chuck Swindoll. The six-part series is called Compelled by the Cross, and you can learn more about this ministry and this series when you go online to insightworld.org slash studies. Did you know that Chuck wrote an in-depth book about the final week in the life of Jesus?

It's called The Darkness and the Dawn. If you're looking for a meaningful way to heighten your celebration of Easter, this book is the perfect choice. The subtitle is Empowered by the Tragedy and Triumph of the Cross. You know, that's the grand irony of the cross.

Yes, his death was tragic, but at the cross, Jesus unleashed his triumph over the grave. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to celebrate the resurrection in a fresh and meaningful way. To purchase a copy of Chuck's book, The Darkness and the Dawn, go to insight.org slash store. This daily program is made possible because people like you give voluntary donations, and we're especially grateful for our regular monthly givers. We call them monthly companions of grace. Through your gifts, you're providing a constant source of reliable Bible teaching for people who've come to rely on Chuck's daily presence.

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