Don't Let Jesus Slip Through Your Hands

Have you ever caught a rainbow, or held a handful of fog?

**Have you ever been given an opportunity to have something and pass it up only to regret it later because there is no second chance?

Let's take a look today at how we can learn to walk in a way that we don't waste our time chasing rainbows and how we can avoid having the greatest gift of all slip through our hands, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is one gift, that if you let it slip through your hands, you may never get a second chance to have.

When we fix our minds on wordly or fleshly things, we spend our time literally in a fog reaching to grab handsful of it. Now matter how hard we try or how big the container, we can never seem to catch all of the fog that we want, it keeps slipping away from us and vanishing. And if the Lord should call for us, and we have spent our lives in vain chasing the fog, all we can present to him is calloused and empty hands. And we will have lived a life of empty hands, empty promises, and empty hearts.

*Bible gives us instruction in this area by recording how some individuals came up empty handed because they let Jesus slip right through their hands.

JUDAS...perhaps the greatest back stabber of all time. God let him stumble so that He could teach us how to walk. Judas has no doubt been the topic of millions of sermons since he turned his back on the Lord, and he can still help to teach us today.

Matt 26:48-50

48 Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. 49 And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. 50 And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. (KJV)

*When Judas put his hands on the Lord to kiss him, he let Jesus slip through his hands into those of the captors. Judas gave up his chance for a personal walk with the Lord, and never got a second chance. If you are not saved, don't let this happen to you.

*The captors in turn let Him slip from their grasp and missed their chance at knowing Christ.

*From Judas grasp, the coins he had accepted for selling Jesus out fell from his hands onto the ground. He reached for wealth, and it failed him and in selling Jesus out he reached for fame and it failed him as well. Is there something in your life that you are reaching for today that will someday slip away? Could it be possible that in Hell today, Judas is writhing in agony and in the back of his mind he continually hears the jingling of the pieces of silver that he sold out for? Let me tell you bluntly, that sound and that suffering will never cease for Judas. And if perhaps this is the last message you ever hear that tugs at your heart to accept Christ, and you pass it up, you will probably hear it played over and over in your mind as well.

PILATE

*Bible gives us another account of the man who stood face to face with Christ and chose to turn his back on the Savior.

Matt 27:24-26

24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. 26 Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. (KJV)

*Pilate stood face to face with Christ. The text makes it appear as though he could have been convinced of the majesty of Christ. Like too many people, Pilate was swayed by popular opinion. Pilate would not commit his hands to do what may have been bidding at his heart, but, chose rather to release a common criminal to the people. He would have been a fantastic politician by today's standards.

*We can only guess, if the old Roman prison system did not do a good job of rehabilitation, what may have happened to many of those people whom Barabbas now dwelt with.

*Notice that they asked for His blood to be upon them. What further proof do we have that God gave them exactly what they asked for when we see the plagues of hunger, violence, and hatred that run rampant in our world today. We need only watch a few minutes of CNN and we can see how our forefathers let Jesus slip right through their hands.