One Thing
...One thing thou lackest...(Mark
10:21).
...One thing is needful...(Luke 10:42).
...One thing I know...(John 9:25).
...One thing I do...(Phil. 3:13).
Vance Havner - From "My Favorites"
Then I remember that He appeared only to believers. Why didn't He go to Herod or Pilate and say, "Look! You thought you had done away with me, but I'm back!" That wouldn't have been like Jesus. He made Himself known only to His own, and if others are to hear about Him today you and I must tell them.
Talk about a news story! Here is the greatest piece of news on earth! Jesus died and rose again! It is true, He really did it! They buried Him dead and He came back alive! It is the greatest news flash in history, but we Christians have got used to it. We've heard it until we've lost the thrill of it. We've mixed it up with Easter corsages, bunny rabbits, spring bonnets, and colored eggs.
We hear much of the Great Commission, but we have three commissions.
We have a message for a bewildered church.
We have a message for backsliding Christians.
"Go tell his disciples and Peter," (Mark 16:7)...Peter was a backslider, and the Lord singled him out as though he were marked "Special."
We have a message for a benighted world.
We have a third commission, the Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples.
We have a message for a benighted world. And that message is Christ.
He is the Center: "All power is given unto me; Lo, I am with
you." The world is the Circumference. In His interview with
Peter He was the Center: "Lovest thou me?" But there
was also the Circumference: "Feed
my sheep." In geometry we use a compass. One prong
is stationary, fixed. With the other we describe our circle. Christ
is the fixed Center, the same yesterday, today, forever. From
that Center we make the sweep of the whole world as our circumference.
"What the world needs is Jesus," "We've a story
to tell to the nations," and we are out to win them not to
a way of life or even to Christianity, but to Christ.