Sermon Central
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The Last Moments Of The Life Of Christ
Contributed by Dr. Odell Belger on Feb 26, 2026 (message contributor)
Summary: Have you ever thought of this, with all the MILLIONS of books that have been written, there are a lot of questions that people are asking that have not been answered.
Illus: The largest library in the world is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., which has over 173 million items as of 2024.
. Such as:
• Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?
• Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
• Why does "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing?
• Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game", when we are already there?
• Why do "overlook" and "oversee" mean opposite things?
• If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?
Our libraries are filled with books. But with all these un-answered questions, I guess we need some more books to tell us the answers to these mind-boggling questions.
When we think of all the many millions of books that have been written, the BIBLE stands out above all of them!
The Bible is referred to in many different ways. We speak of it as:
• God's Word,
• The Good Book,
• The Holy Scriptures ,
• The Sword of the Spirit,
• The Book,
• The Book of Books,
• The Living Word, and
• The Miracle Book.
All these are fitting titles for the Bible, but I like to think of it as our personal library that God has given to us to help us with the questions in life.
For example, the book of Acts is different from all the other books of the Old and New Testament.
One of the unique things about the book of Acts is that it is the only book in the Bible that tells us about the LAST APPEARANCE OF THE LORD JESUS BEFORE HE ASCENDED BACK INTO HEAVEN!
Generally, we know that when someone only has a few minutes left to live on this earth, they choose their words carefully.
For example, if I knew I only had a few minutes left on this earth I would:
• Want my wife beside my bed and I would want to hold her hand one more time and say, “Thank you for being such a wonderful wife and I love you!
• Want my two boys and their families beside my bed.
• Want my friends who have stuck beside me through the good times and bad times and to tell them how much I have appreciated their friendship through the years.
The point I am trying to make is that when we know we only have a short time to be here on earth, we choose our words carefully.
With this in mind, when the Lord knew He would not be with His disciples very much longer before He ascended back to heaven, I believe He chose His words carefully!
We want to focus on those last words He spoke to them.
For example, one of the things He said to them:
I. WAIT PATIENTLY
Look at Acts 1:4-5. We read: “And, being ASSEMBLED TOGETHER WITH THEM, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”
Notice, the Lord is saying they are to WAIT FOR THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY GHOST. The Lord is telling them to WAIT!
I have heard people say:
• I love to fish;
• I love to hunt;
• I love sports;
• I love to read;
• I love shopping at the mall
But I have never heard anyone say, “I LOVE TO WAIT!”
Illus: A common practice for us husbands we do not like having to wait on our wives to get ready.
Humor: I am convinced that the reason women live longer than men is because God knew it would take them longer to get ready to meet Him than us men.
Illus: We men do a lot of waiting. In fact, when our children are born, they give us a WAITING ROOM!
But none of us ENJOY WAITING! None of us!
Illus: Even when we pray for PATIENCE we want the Lord to give it to us RIGHT NOW!
The only people that love to wait is some drivers.
Illus: Now I could be wrong about that because I have noticed some drivers on the highway speed up to pass everyone on the highway so that they can get to the next red light first and wait for it to change green. And when it turns green they rush to the next red light to be first and WAIT for it to change. These drivers seem to love to wait.
It certainly seems like some drivers have this red and green light stuff all mixed up. But most of us know that red means we stop and we patiently wait for it to turn green.
