Author: Danny Hawkes

Three boys are sitting by a river on a very hot day. They decide to have a jumping contest. The winner will be the one who can jump right across the river.

The first two boys jump a similar distance but fail. The third boy doubles the distance of his friends; but is still unable to make it to the far bank.

The last boy was twice as good as the others, yet no one won the contest. They were not good enough to actually get right across the river.

In life the same is true for each one of us. We might be better or worse people than our neigh-bours, but ultimately before God all of us fail. We all fall short of the high standard that God, who is our Maker, demands.

Only Jesus is good enough. He alone can make that jump; not now across the river; but the jump from mankind to God or, we might say, from here to heaven. In offering His life upon the cross He became ‘The Bridge’ for us to cross over from death to life.

Come to one of our meetings and learn more.

To enter the UK you must go through Customs. Anyone found with restricted or illegal goods faces a severe penalty. Diplomats have some immunity and may sail through customs untroubled.

Entering a different country: A heavenly one

Life is like a queue for heaven. Most people see two ways of entry:

Nothing to declare

Many people expect to get to heaven through this gateway. They say, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’ They see nothing in their life that would make their entry to heaven illegal.

They have either not read or ignored the restrictions for entry. These are called the Ten Commandments and they are written in the Bible.

‘Well,’ says the person in this queue, ‘I’m sure I’ve kept them… generally.’

Yet failure to keep them all spells disaster. The Bible says: whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (Jas 2:10).

We have all broken God’s rules. The Bible says: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Therefore no one will be able to stand before God and say, ‘I have nothing to declare.’

Something to declare

People carry heavy bags to this gateway, filled with all the good things they have done. ‘With these,’ they say, ‘I shall enter heaven.’ Jesus met some very religious people who also thought that God would be impressed with them. Yet Jesus tells us even they were not good enough: unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:20).

Only one Man could go through any gateway to Heaven

The Lord Jesus could say, ‘I have nothing to declare’. He was: without sin (Heb 4:15-16). He alone was good. In the Bible He is called: The Lord Our Righteousness (Jer 23:6). Jesus is able to claim diplomatic immunity: He is the Son of God.

Yet when Jesus stood at heaven’s border control, He willingly carried the baggage of others. Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2). In dying on the cross for sinners, He took the severest penalty.

Diplomatic immunity for us

Now we too can claim ambassador status; acceptable to God through Christ. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).

Do you have immunity?

Which queue are you in? Do you say, ‘I’m not too bad’? Or, ‘Hopefully I’m good enough’. Unlike at Heathrow, all will be searched, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10). The only way to pass border control is through Jesus Christ. Repent of your sin and trust Him alone; then you too will have immunity.

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For some, life is the hundred metres…

Tragically over in a flash at a young age…

For others, life is a middle distance race…

Completed before they reach the age of fifty.

Then there are those who seem to go on forever…

Life is a marathon…

We all race against time…

Your watch may stop but the body clock keeps ticking …

When you are young, life is a marathon before you…

Summer holidays seem to last a year; school a lifetime…

The older one gets, the more life becomes a sprint…

Some try to run from it by trying to look younger…

YOUNG OR OLD, WE ARE ALL IN THAT RACE.

Winning gold at the Olympics would be a fantastic achievement, but victory is soon forgotten. When the fame and the ability is gone, what then?

As time goes by, all we achieve in life becomes a distant memory. It is what the Bible calls:

A CROWN THAT WILL NOT LAST!

Let me urge you to enter a different race, for a crown that will last forever. This race is already run by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a race against sin, unbeaten for thousands of years.

And it was a race against death – all conquering.

Try conquering sin…

It is like running a race against a horse.

Try overcoming death…

It is like running against a Ferrari.

Both are impossible! But:

The good news is that Jesus Christ has won the prize; an achievement far greater than gold. He has conquered Sin and overcome death.

When you enter this race you are on the Victory Lap.

All is set… The track is marked out … The stadium is full… The time has come… Your name is called… Will you enter? Will you run?

Will you come to Jesus Christ and repent of your sins? Will you receive a crown greater than gold?

One day the race of life will be over. Your body clock will stop ticking. That will be the finishing line. Will you wear the victor’s crown?

The World Cup Final has gone to penalties. You have put yourself forward to take the first one. You place the ball carefully, mindful that the world is watching, step back a few paces and wait for the whistle… You run forward. The keeper moves to his left, so you calmly slot the ball to his right. To your utter horror the ball skims the post and runs agonisingly wide. You sink to your knees in despair.

The walk back to your crestfallen teammates feels like a death march. All you notice is the relieved looking face of their first penalty taker. He smashes his penalty into the roof of the net. No one else misses. A 5-4 defeat. Back home the nation mourns. The despair will live with you for the rest of your life.

The one thought, ‘If only I could do it again.’

Missing a penalty is nothing when compared with missing the mark set by God. When we fail to live how He commands, for example: when we put anything before Him; when we put ourselves before others, we miss that mark.

All of us have missed it. It is what the Bible calls sin.

It is only through hearing or reading His Word (the Bible) that we begin to realise just how much we always miss that mark.When we start to feel this, a sinking feeling comes upon us: guilt.

We think, ‘If only I could go back and do things differently.’

The Bible says that we will have to answer to God for all our sin. Many people will wish then that somehow the record of their lives could be wiped clean, but it will be too late. The despair will remain with them forever.

But it does not have to be that way. The wonderful Good News is that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. When He was crucified on a cross, Jesus took upon Himself all our guilt, all our missing the target. He took the punishment we deserve, through His suffering and death. He didn’t miss the target, but paid the price fully.

In Jesus Christ you can start again.

Just imagine if you could take the penalty again. You know the keeper is going left; this time, firmly and calmly, you place it straight down the middle… Unfortunately, you don’t get a second chance at the World Cup, but you do with Jesus Christ…. Will you take it…?

The Bible speaks of a king called David, whom it states lived around 1000 BC. There was no other ancient writing outside the Bible that spoke of such a man.

Bible sceptics said, ‘David never lived. He comes from a story made up in the 6th century BC for the Bible. Jews in exile wrote the story of David, a great and powerful king, to cheer a downtrodden people into believing they had a glorious past’.

Then in 1993 archaeologists discovered a stone containing an inscription. Amongst the writing were the words ‘House of David’. What is significant is that this find has been dated to the 9th century BC, at least 250 years before the story was said to have been invented.

Not to be outdone, Bible sceptics said that ‘though David existed he was only a small tribal chief, It was only later that Jews made him out to be powerful.’

Then on 4th August 2005, Archaeologist, Eilat Mazar, discovered the remains of a massive building, which is dated to the time of David and fits with the Bible account of his building for himself a large palace. This discovery throws cold water on the sceptics theory that David, whom they first did not want to believe existed, was only an insignificant ruler. Instead the Bible was once again proven to be accurate with its history.

Archaeology proves the Bible!

Here is the challenge, if it is accurate with its history, should we not consider it accurate with regards to God?

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