Trip:
Today, I would like you to go with me on a journey to meet a very special person. We get on a bus outside that takes us to the airport and we fly to Cape Canaveral, Florida. We board our space shuttle and away we go. Higher and higher we fly. We make that famous turn and finally we are in outer space. We approach a much larger space ship to take us to another galaxy. You see across the side of the ship that it is called “Encounter”.
As you enter the ship, you are greeted by your host. She shows you to your room. It is a beautiful room with a window view into the universe outside. You ask, “Where are we going?”
Your hostess answers: “We are going across the universe. I promise you, you will love the ride and you will not be disappointed with our destination.”
At warp nine we pass through a black hole and seven days later, we come out on the other side of the universe. Near the Orion. No, we do not go into Orion, but instead we veer left in to a small solar system. We land at a planet near the gates of heaven.
After getting off the space ship, our guide meets us and we are led into an incredible building. This building was built out of white marble with gold pillars on both sides of the entrance. The cracks between each tile were filled with a combination of gold and silver. This is where we are meeting our special guest.
There are a lot of other people in the auditorium. People chattering a way while we wait for the program to begin.
An announcer walks up and introduces our special guest. “Ladies and gentleman, may I introduce Zordak.”
Zordak walks in. He is 20 feet tall and obviously very dignified. You can tell by his eyes that he has been through a lot of battles and has accumulated a wealth of experience. He raises his hands and the crowd quiets down.
Zordak:
My name is Zordak. In our language it means, “guardian”. I am a captain of a legion of angels and I report directly to Gabriel. I am sure you are interested to know some of the things that I’ve done. Well, I guess I can tell you some of them.
Do you remember the angel that was charged to guard the Garden of Eden? Well, that was me. Adam and Eve had just fallen into the temptation of Satan. They had to be removed from their garden home and it was my responsibility to make sure they do not re-enter the garden.
I was also the one that accompanied Jesus and Gabriel. We met Abraham on our way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Gabriel and I went to Lot’s home while Jesus stayed to talk to Abraham. Well, you know the rest of the story…
I was the angel that threw David to the side to avoid Goliath’s spear. Then I took his rock and guided it right to the forehead of Goliath. And I pounded it into his forehead to make sure.
My legion was also assigned to kill the Assyrians when they attacked Jerusalem. We wiped out 180,000 soldiers that night. The hard part was fighting through the evil angels to get to the soldiers. About a third of the Assyrian army was destroyed that night. When they woke up and discovered what had happened, they ran from Jerusalem and Judea.
The War in Heaven:
I was also involved with the Great War in heaven. Jesus led us into battle against Lucifer and his angels. It was really hard to fight against them because they were our friends. They were our brothers and we had communed with them for so long. And now we were on opposite sides.
After the Great War, Satan and Jesus had a conference. At the conference Satan wanted to come back into the fold. He pleaded with Jesus to take him back, but it was too late for him. Jesus knew that Lucifer did not have a true repentant heart. And if He accepted Lucifer back, Lucifer would sooner or later create trouble again. Probation had closed for Lucifer. With tears in His eyes, Jesus told Satan that it was too late for him. He could never enter and be part of the heavenly court again.
It was then that Satan became determined to destroy as much of God’s creation as he could.
I still see some of my former friends. They’ve changed. After 6,000+ years of evil, they are no longer the same. Sometimes, you can still see the longing to go back to the days before the Great War.
Next time you come to visit, I will tell you more about the war.
Birth:
The best job of all was my assignment to be the guardian of Jesus Christ.
Before Michael went to your earth, the Three of Them spent some time together. The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit cried together and hugged each other. This was the first time they would be separated.
We angels were totally awed at our King. Our beloved General was going to become one of you. He was going to stoop down and save you. Imagine if you were to become a rat to save the rats of the world. He told us about this plan during the Great War, but we could not believe that He was actually going through with it. Then Jesus left the presence of His Father, laid down His divinity and became an embryo that grew in Mary’s tummy. He was totally vulnerable to all elements of your harsh world.
Satan tried to harm Mary a number of times, but my legion was always there to keep her safe. We had a number of battles with the other side over Mary and Joseph. By God’s help we won every single battle.
God did not permit us to shield Jesus from all trials and temptations. Oh, believe you me. He had more than His share. We were there to make sure He was not going to be harmed. And guide Him where ever possible.
Do you remember when He was born? I was part of host of angels that announced His birth to the shepherds. In fact, I was on the first row. It was a glorious night. We rejoiced at the birth of our King. It was a celebration that we could not contain. And God allowed us to sing and praise His holy name.
But we could only find the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem. So we showed ourselves to them and announced the birth of the King.
We sang with all our hearts:
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace for those He favors”.
Jesus grew up in one of the worst cities in Galilee. Imagine growing up in the worst part of New York. And yet, He was sinless. There are many stories I can tell you about His childhood, but that will have to wait until you come back.
Temptation:
I was there when Satan temped Jesus. We wanted to go down and help. I pleaded with Gabriel to allow my angels and I to go down and drive Satan and his evil angels back. But Gabriel was under strict orders and we honored those orders. How dare Satan ask Jesus to bow down and worship him. How dare he exhaust himself to the level of a god? But Jesus came through with flying colors.
After the temptations, my angels and I were the ones that helped Jesus. He had fasted in the desert for forty days and forty nights. During that time, He communed with His Father and His Father laid out His life in front of Him. He was now a man and only through constant communion with God the Father did He gained the power necessary to go forward. He was a man with all Adam’s physical weaknesses. Those forty days and nights were very intense. He prayed almost constantly. He wanted to receive as much strength from the Father as He could. He wanted to make sure He was doing the will of His Father.
It was then that He felt the weight of the world on His shoulders. It would grow increasingly heavy as He ministered to the people. He knew that if He failed, everything would be destroyed. In addition to your salvation, He came to demonstrate to all the other worlds and us angels of His love for you. He also showed what Satan’s kingdom is all about.
Ministry:
The next three and a half years went in no time. Jesus performed miracle after miracle. More and more people became convinced that He was their Messiah. But they didn’t really understand what the Messiah was to do for them. They thought that he was going to save them from the Romans and re-establish David’s kingdom on earth. But His mission was to establish God’s kingdom within their hearts.
Once they figured out Jesus’ objectives, many followers left Him. He spent many nights crying to God. He was human. And being rejected by the people He loved hurt Him immensely. God spent many evenings and nights with His Son. God came down and comforted Him and reassured Him that this was the ONLY way.
You have that same right. You have the same right to ask God to come down and commune with you. God will come down and comfort you the same way He comforted Jesus. He will reassure you the same way He reassured Jesus.
Then it was time for the event your Old Testament prophesies and that all of your New Testament reflects on. It was the crucifixion.
As Jesus drew nearer and nearer to the date, His prayers became more and more intense. There were many nights that I spent next to Him. Holding Him up and pleading with the Father along side Him.
He slept very little in the last few weeks of His life. He spent most of His evenings praying. If He was not praying, He was teaching His disciples.
They had so much to learn, and so little time. Jesus wanted to impart as much of His insight, His knowledge, and His experience to His disciples. But they had not opened their eyes and ears to what He was teaching. As a result, most of it just went over their heads.
Last Supper:
Then it was His last lesson before His death. It was going to be their last evening together. He needed to leave them with something very special and He wanted to strengthen their faith for what was to come later that evening.
The air was intense. A lot of evil angels had gathered at Jerusalem and we had an equal number of God’s servants on our side. It was going to be the second face-off. The evil angels had lost the first Great War and they were not about to lose this battle.
Satan had divided his forces into three groups. There were the ones that were assigned to prepare the members of the Sanhedrin. There were ones that were sent to prepare all the inhabitants of the city of David for what was to come the next morning. He also sent his forces to Pilot and Herod to prepare their hearts.
But he left the most important job to himself and his most trusted companions. It was the job of disrupting what was going on in that little upper room.
There were feelings of hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit, pride and every other kind of negative feeling you could think of. The disciples were not in the right spirit to receive one of the greatest lessons.
Then Jesus got up and wrapped a towel around His waist and started washing each of His beloved friends’ feet. As he was doing His work, we rushed in and filled the room with love, joy, hope, peace and unity. Then God Himself descended into that room to fill each and every one of the participants with His presence. It was awesome. Even Judas felt his presence.
Then Jesus took the wine and the bread. It was very simple symbols that they could remember and commemorate wherever God’s disciples worship.
Gethsemane:
The disciples and Jesus left the upper room and started out of the city into the garden of Gethsemane. The evil angels were already there. We followed Jesus and his little band into the garden. You could here the clashing of our forces with the evil ones as we entered the garden. We surrounded each and every one of His disciples and my legion surrounded your Savior. If Satan had a chance, he would have killed Jesus right then and there.
Then God did something that we did not understand. He commanded all of us to withdraw. We looked at Him and asked “Why? We are winning, why retreat.” He said, “You will see my wisdom, but for now retreat. Just make sure Satan does not harm Jesus or His disciples.” We did not understand His command but we obeyed.
The evil angels immediately went to work. They caused all the disciples to become very sleepy. Then Satan himself pressed toward Jesus. By now, Jesus had found His favorite rock and began to pray. Satan placed doubts into His heart. He let Jesus see His past three and a half years of work and how it had failed. Satan showed Him all the people that had rejected Him, and how all those that He came to die for did not want His saving grace. He showed Jesus that even His closest friends and companions were rejecting Him by falling asleep at the time where He needed them most.
We wanted to jump in and drive all those invalids from our beloved General. But this process had to be played out and we knew it.
The Father was so close to Jesus, and yet He was so far away. Satan was given the authority to block God’s love to His Only Begotten Son.
Jesus had to stand-alone. This was a battle till the death between Jesus and Satan. It was the battle of a Champion against another champion.
Jesus felt the departure of the presence of God and He cried to His Father. He also felt the sin of the world on His shoulders. He grabbed on to the rock as though it was His Father and pleaded.
Again and again He pleaded: “Father, please remove this cup from me. It is very bitter. Father…. Father, give me the strength to bare this burden. Please Father, I don’t have the strength to drink from this cup. It is too bitter. Please…”
Three times He went back to wake His friends up. And all three times they did not heed His plead.
Then at the end, He gathered Himself and said “If this is Your will, Thy will be done.”
Then Jesus was taken to be tried by the Sanhedrin. That night of trials was intense. It was a process that Satan used to wear Jesus down for His last chance at the cross. Satan wanted Jesus as weak as possible for His final assault on Him at the cross.
Morning came and Jesus was at Pilot’s court. The evil angels had done their job well and the crowd was prepared. You can hear the crowds cried “Crucify Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him.” And the cry sounded through out the city. Pilot felt pressured to give in.
But there were those in the city that had been healed by Jesus that were praying silently for Him. They did not want Him to die and they did not understand. They kept saying to themselves: “NO, don’t kill him. Don’t kill him. He is just. He is the Messiah. NO. don’t kill Him.”
But it was too late. The mob had been riled up and there was no turning back..
Crucifixion:
After Pilot gave the order to crucify Jesus, He was taken from His presence and paraded through the city. The evil angels were dancing as we were crying. We never thought that Satan would go so far as killing the King of kings. The Ruler of the Universe. It was too much for us to bear and many of us hid our faces from the scene.
We kept looking back at the Father in hope that He would jump in and end this whole thing. But He did not. The whole universe was watching this unfold before their eyes.
Then the nails were driven into His legs and His hands. Bang… Bang… Bang… With each hammer we all flinched. Bang… Bang… Bang… The whole universe flinched. By now all of us had tears streaming down from our eyes. We could not believe what was happening.
Then they raised Him up. The soldiers were very rough and the nails tore into Jesus’ tendons.
Satan once again came to Jesus and impressed upon Him to give up. Jesus was very weak. Satan showed Him his version of the future. How no one was going to follow Him. How His suffering was in vain. He told Jesus: “Go home. You doing this for nothing. Go call to your Father to take you and go home. Why suffer for people that do not want you? Go home.”
Then I noticed the blood was running from His hands, His feet and His head. They rolled on to the wood and dripped on to the ground. Drip… Drip… Drip… It was as though each drop of blood had one of your names on it. This drop is for Mary. This drop is for John. And this one is for Karen. Drip… Drip… Drip… This one is for Juan. Another one for Jason. That one is for Angie. And that one is for Scott… And it kept running. And there was a drop with your name on it. Drip…
Then God withdrew His presence from His Son and Jesus felt the free fall into the depths of hell. He tried to extend His hand towards heaven but there was no one to help him. He kept falling. Heaven and earth seem further and further away. The heavenly light got darker and darker. And He just kept falling…
Satan was there. He said: “See even your heavenly Father has rejected you. Give up and go back to heaven. Why suffer without an assurance. Go home.”
Jesus continued to fall. He was falling into the bottomless pit. And finally… He cried out: “It is finished!” And died.
I cried: “Noooooooooooo!!!”
The angels near me started putting their wings together to shield the rest of the worlds from seeing this terrible site. I too put up my wings.
He was dead ……
There was silence throughout the universe. It seemed like eternity. The unthinkable act had been done. And it was finished….
Resurrection:
On Sunday morning, the dew was still on the ground. Gabriel himself came down to call on Jesus to arise. As he approached the Tomb, the Roman soldiers and a contingent of evil angels were guarding the tomb. They knew that God would come and call for Jesus to arise and they were determined to prevent it from happening. But Gabriel came down with such a force that all the evil angels scattered. The soldiers were so frightened by the bright and glorious light that they ran.
Your Bibles said that he rolled away the rock. Actually, he blew away the rock. With one swing of his mighty sword, the rock exploded into millions of pieces.
The earth shook as Gabriel called to Jesus: “Son of God, Ruler of the Universe, Jesus of Nazareth, come out.”
All of heaven was watching as a great power and light emulated from the tomb. The light was so in tense that even Gabriel was taken back. It was like the creative power that was in Jesus had not been released. The power was so great that the people in some of the other tombs in the surrounding area were resurrected as well. Jesus walked out of the tomb. We started to sing. And all of heaven was praising God for His love and wisdom.
We were so loud that the very pillars in the heavenly court were rumbling. Death had been conquered and all of humanity can now rejoin the rest of God’s kingdom.
As Jesus returned to heaven, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit was at the gates of Heaven welcoming the victor back home. We had a parade and we invited the whole universe to attend. We celebrated victory for at least 40 days. It was one of the best parties I’ve ever been.
In the middle of all the celebration, Jesus stood up and addressed all of us. He said: “The war is won but the conflict is not over. There are still many that need to hear about the good news before we can conclude this controversy. Therefore, go back and work even hard for each and every soul.”
Appeal:
Jesus loves you so much that He was willing to come down to risk His whole universe for you.
Jesus is standing at the door knocking. Would you let Him come in?
He has given up everything for you, why are you still holding back? Your angel, the heavenly Father, Jesus and you know what I am talking about. You have some small love in your heart that you are holding back. Lay it in front of the cross and you will receive so much more. Why are you hanging on to your rags when the Father has a glorious robe for you?
Pray and invite Jesus to come in and cleanse your heart. Pray that he will clean out all those cobwebs that are in there. It is between you and Jesus. It is between you and the Lord and no one else. But you need to ask. He is waiting. He wants to help, but He honors your wish so much that He wants you to take that last step. He has already taken all the rest of the steps to reach you. All you have to do is take that last step.
That blood that he bled is for you. Would you accept Him?
I want to see each and every one of you as you pass through the gates of heaven. I want to be the first to congratulate you and celebrate with you when you walk in through those gates.
We have prepared a great party for you. The greatest choir in the universe will be there. They are already practicing for the event. There will be people form all of the other worlds to throw you the greatest party ever. All of the angels will be there. And most of all, God Himself will shake your hand and give you a big bear hug when you walk in. Jesus will be glorified above all.
There is a very special song that God Himself wrote. It is just for you. You will be the only ones that will know how to sing this special song. It is a gift of the greatest level. Wherever you go, you will be asked to sing this special song. And when you sing, all who hears it will give glory to our God and your Savior.
You will be able to meet us. We will be able to tell you how God has intervened on your behalf. You will be able to see all the battles that have been fought on your behalf. You will have eternity to interview each and every one of us and get a full picture of God’s wisdom …
Well, I need to go now. But please remember that Jesus came down to your earth and died for you. He had your name on His lips when He said, “It is finished”.
