Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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From a sermon by Preacher Clark at Grandma’s house, June 2, 1968
Taken from Gary’s CD-24, Track 1
In his sermon that day, Preacher Clark said, “I’ve had times I thought I was the biggest failure in the world. Then, I’d think of Jesus, and I’d say, ‘No, I’ll have to give it to him.’ He had no grave; soldiers took his clothes; his own followers scattered.”
Yes, according to standards generally accepted by man, Jesus had to be one of the greatest failures ever. His mother and siblings thought he was insane; he was forsaken by the few friends he had, mocked while being tortured, and crucified without even a place to be buried. Nobody on earth would have traded places with him, for no one would have seen anything in his life but dismal failure.
I am reminded by this of a sign I read while traveling down a country road one day. It said, “When you are down to nothing, God is up to something.” At the end of his earthly life, Jesus was certainly down to nothing. Even if we speak of his physical body, he was down to nothing but skin and bones. But because his faith was in God, his ignominious death was not the end of the story. Because his faith was in God, Jesus’ death was just the beginning of the greatest story ever told.
Put your faith in God, and He will turn your failures into triumph, your sorrows into great joy, and your death into eternal life and peace.