Call of the Crowd

TITLE: Call of the Crowd
DATE:  November 11 2019
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Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.

TEXT: Luke 23: 22-2 – ESV -A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” 23 But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed.

If this story is true ,which it isn’t,  it seems to suggest Satan does not confine his work to people.

Our tale  begins with a spider who kept his web clean in hopes that the attractive conditions would tempt the flies to visit.  One day the spider invited in a fairly-smart fly who, having considered the invitation replied, "As I don't see any other flies in your attractive web, I believe I will take a rain check.”

The fly went about his business. He really was quite content until the fairly-smart fly saw a lot of flies on a piece of brown paper. He was sure it was safe because lots of flies were there. “After all”, he reasoned, “So many flies can’t possibly be wrong.”

He soon joined the others and, sad story that it is, he died with the others.

He passed away, stuck to the brown fly-paper.

Of course, the story isn't true. We know the Father of Lies works on people...

...like the ones who called for the crucifixion of our Savior. Their logic was like that of the fairly-smart fly. They thought, 'So many priests can't be wrong. So many people can't be mistaken." Then they joined in with those who were shouting for Jesus' death.
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But Pilate, should have been different. He was learned; he had political connections; he had advanced himself. Certainly he should have had the insight and wisdom to not go along with the crowd.

You would think. But Scripture is clear... even Pilate was successfully blackmailed to go along with the masses. And because he did Jesus was sent to Golgotha where He died fulfilling His Father’s plan to save us from our sins.

We Christians, who rely on God and His holy Bible for direction in our lives, know that crowds are still shouting. They are still following Satan’s suggestion and demanding Jesus be disposed of.  Amazingly there are many wise and influential people who, like Pilate, do the politically “correct” thing and try to remove Jesus from any position of influence.

These modern crowds are no smarter than our fly, or the mob which called for Jesus' death.

You would think that they would eventually wake up and find that true wisdom is saying, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner." True knowledge is calling out, "Jesus is my loving Lord!"

Look inside Jesus empty tomb and realize He has:

1. Kept the law, resisted all temptations to evil and even conquered  death
2. Fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies about the Savior.

The only Person Who could do such a thing is God’s Son, our Savior, Who deserves our thanks and praise.

THE PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I am saved. Not because of my wisdom. Not because of the crowd. I am saved because You died and rose to set me free. For that great gift of grace, You shall have my unending thanks. In Your Name. I pray. Amen.

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html