Jesus, the Hope of the World

“Only the Lord Jesus can redeem the soul that is steeped in guilt and shame. This baggage weighs us down until we accept Jesus’ gift—the gift that liberates souls from sin’s power.”
― Billy Graham, The Reason for My Hope: Salvation

From our archives, the Billy Graham classics.
And now before the message, here’s a song from George Beverly Shea Lord my God.
When I am off, someone consider all the words I hand in me.
I see the star. I hear the rolling thunder, my power through all.
So you never this. And when I think that God his son not staring sent him to die.
I scarce can take it. Is that on the cross?
My burden loudly burying and die to take away my sin.
There you say the scene right tonight, I want to talk about Jesus Christ.
I want to ask the question, who is Jesus?
Many of us have crosses in embossed on our bibles or on our carrying around our neck.
But we don’t really know Jesus.
You know, when you fly into Brazil to Rio de Janeiro, there’s a great big statue of Jesus.
It’s a landmark of Rio day and night. It stands 130 ft high.
It’s 130 ft from Fingertip to Fingertip with his arms outstretched.
Someone has called this in this country the year of Jesus.
One of the networks recently ran a mini series on Jesus.
My daughter has written a book called Just Give Me Jesus.
There’s a movement among teenagers that asks the question, what would Jesus do?
Almost everybody has heard of Jesus. But millions don’t know, really know who he is.
They don’t have him in their lives and in their hearts and the world today is looking for Messiah to come and save us.
Many years ago, the prophet Ezekiel said, I searched for a man among them, but I found none.
In other words, God was searching for someone that he could put his hand on and bless and use and he couldn’t find anybody that was willing to totally surrender and commit their lives to him.
The world today, if you read the newspapers and watch the telecast news, telecast is rushing madly toward I think Armageddon tonight in the Middle East, they’re battling again over the same things they’ve battled for hundreds of years.
They’ve had meeting after meeting and truce after truce and treaty after treaty and promises made by all around, but somehow they can’t quit their fighting.
You see, man as a moral failure.
God is our only hope God’s plans.
God’s plans are already formed and are clearly stated in the scriptures and that is right hand in heaven sits a man who was despised and ignored and rejected by men when he came to earth the first time and who is still rejected and ignored by the majority of the human race.
God has pledged that he will be the future world ruler.
He will put down all rule and all authority and power.
There’s coming a day when every knee will bow to him and every tongue will confess his name.
This year 2000 ad the calendar we use each day dates back to the birth of Jesus.
We can’t get away from him.
Our generation cannot escape Jesus over the years, so many plays and books and operas and movies have been made about Jesus in March and April, both Newsweek and US News and World Report magazines had cover stories about him in its science and ideas, cover story, us news carried the title.
Why did Jesus die? Why is there so much interest in Jesus today?
Is that the question you’ve asked, who is this person who has done so much to transform human history than any man that ever lived?
He only lived 33 years. His longest journey was less than 100 miles.
Is he just a folk hero or a revolutionary or he is who he is he who he claimed to be the son of the living God, who is this person that demands, we call him son of God and follow him even to death.
We know he was a man, he was completely human. He was the representative man.
He was the all out man. He was identified and numbered with the transgressors.
The scripture says 83 times in the New Testament, he’s called the son of man.
There are many places in the Scriptures where we are reminded of his humanity.
The Bible teaches that he was hungry.
The Bible teaches that he was tired in the back of a boat. He was asleep.
He knew the joys of friendship. He was misunderstood and despised.
He wept at the tomb of a loved one. He had to fight temptation and endure disappointment.
He claimed to be the unique Son of God before the world ever was or before the human race ever existed.
He said in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
And Jesus said before Abraham was I am with these words, Jesus set self aside from every other person that ever lived.
In other words, Jesus said before Abraham was born, I always am the eternal present.
There’s no past with Jesus and there’s no future with Jesus.
It’s all and they have a present and he’s speaking to you tonight and he’s speaking to all of us collectively and individually in Colossians, one it says for by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or Principalities or powers.
All things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him, all things hold together.
This whole stadium would fly to pieces were not for the fact that he is the thing that holds it together.
Peter’s statement in Matthew 16, 16 thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
When he came at Bethlehem, that was not his birth or his beginning.
He had already already already existed. That was his incarnation.
When Jesus came to Bethlehem, it wasn’t the place of his origin, it was his incarnation and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
You know, it’s interesting to me that Jesus never apologized for sin.
He challenged others to prove any error in his thinking or in any thing that he ever did.
How do we explain Jesus from every other individual that ever lived?
How do we explain Jesus from every other person?
What is the basic cause of hate and greed and lust and war today and racial injustice and racial division.
Jeremiah said, gave the answer.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it.
King David said in sin that my mother conceive me. I was born in sin. Said David.
He said I was shaping in inequity.
The Bible says in Matthew 15, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness and blasphemies.
I think we need to do something about guns, but that’s not the real problem.
The real deep problem is in our hearts, thought of the heart, perceived evil thoughts and murders and adulterers and thefts.
And blasphemous. All of these things come from the heart of men and women.
How do you explain Jesus his authority?
No one ever spoke as this man spoke, says John seven. He forgave sin.
No other prophet had ever forgiven sin. Mohammed didn’t attempt that. Buddha didn’t do that.
No one else in history has ever said your sins are forgiven.
He also had authority over nature when the sea was bawling and the storm was raging, he just held up his hand and said peace be still and the sea quieted down and the storm stopped.
He had authority over disease.
Every sick person that ever came to him by faith and he touched, he healed.
But what about his death? Different than any other person that ever was? You?
See, Jesus was executed. He was a criminal.
He took our sins. He became sin for us. Who knew no sin.
Can you imagine a person being the embodiment of sin? That’s what Jesus was on the cross.
Isaiah 53 says, God hath laid on him the iniquity of us all in 1st Peter 2 24.
It says who his own self bear our sins in his body on the tree.
Micah says that all of our sins are cast into the depths of the sea.
I was reading today about that lake in Russia. That’s the deepest water in the whole world.
Thousands of feet down. Our sins are buried in the depths of the Sea.
The scripture says because of what Christ did on the cross, he became sin for us.
He was executed for you. He took your judgment and your hell, you won’t ever have to go to hell.
You don’t ever have to go before the great White throne judgment if you’re in Christ, but everybody else will.
The Bible says that there’s coming a day when he’s going to judge the whole world and you will stand before God at the great judgment.
Hundreds of you that are here tonight and you won’t stand with a great crowd like this tonight.
You say, oh, we’ll have a good time when we get there. No, you’ll be alone.
You’re going to stand before God alone and give an account of what you did with Jesus and how you lived your life.
And many of us are going to be terribly disappointed and we’re going to scream for mercy, but it’s gonna be too late.
The Bible says that we will call for the rocks and the mountains to fall on top of us and hide us from Him that sits on the throne, but we can’t.
And the crucifixion of Christ is a stumbling block to many people because it’s foolishness.
The Bible says to those that perish many will accept the teaching of Christ when he says, love everybody.
But they stopped at the cross, at the cross is where you have to come before you can really know Him.
And you have to confess that you’re a sinner and you have to repent from sin.
And the word repentance means that you turn that you change.
You’re going one direction in your life and you’re willing to go another.
You say, but Billy, I don’t have that ability.
I’ve tried to change, I’ve tried to do better but I can’t. No, you can’t.
But God will help you if you submit to him and say, Lord, I need your help.
I need your help. Even to repent.
I need your help even to have faith, to believe the kind of faith that I must have.
What about you? And then there’s his resurrection.
The Bible says that they took him out and they buried him after his death.
But on the 3rd day, he rose again and he’s alive tonight.
When some of the disciples went out to the tomb where he was buried, there were two men, there, two angels that said, why do you seek the living among the dead?
He’s not here. He’s risen. Jesus is alive.
And the thing which inspired the disciples to go to the whole world with the Gospel is the resurrection.
We’re talking about a living Christ that can come into your life and heart today and change you and change your family and change your neighborhood and change Nashville and change middle Tennessee and change all of the whole country.
If we are letting from the Bible says that if thou shall confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
We shall be saved. You have to believe that he not only died but that he rose again.
That’s one half of it. one half is that you repent.
You come and say, oh, Lord, I’m a sinner. I’m sorry that I’ve sinned.
Please forgive me and help me to change.
But then you have to live the life and they are the resurrected Christ as they are through the Holy Spirit to help you live the life after you’ve come to Christ.
If Christ has not risen, then he’s not God.
And the tremendous force in history is unexplained.
The Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus was persecuting Christians and killing Christians.
He hated Jesus. And one day there was a blinding light and he fell down on his knees and he knew it was Jesus.
And he said, who aren’t thou Lord in acts the 9th Chapter?
And this is the question you must answer. Who is Jesus? That’s the question of our generation.
Who is Jesus? Jesus claimed if Jesus claimed to be God knowing that he was not, he was a deceiver.
If he thought that he was God and didn’t know the difference. He was a maniac.
Jesus was whom he claimed to be God manifested in the flesh, think of it, the mighty God that created those stars and those planets and this whole universe and holds it all together.
He is the one that wants to come into your life in your heart tonight in a new way.
Or you might be a member of the church.
You might have been confirmed and baptized and all the rest, but deep down inside, you’re just not sure.
You’re not certain that you are ready to meet God.
You’re not certain that you’ll escape that great judgment.
You must face the question that pit asked.
What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ, Pilate, washed his hands tonight.
You can wash your hands and leave and leave the stadium and go back to the old life and nothing has happened.
But Paul was fearful. He was trembling, he was astonished, he was amazed.
But he asked the right question, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
And Jesus said unto him, arise and go and that’s what Jesus is saying to you tonight.
Up in those stands and down here on this loyal stand a rise and go get up out of your seat and make a new commitment to Jesus and make certain that your sins are forgiven.
You see, this may be the only chance you will ever have.
The rest of your life is tonight.
You may not be able to come back to these meetings this week.
You may never have another moment quite like this when the Holy Spirit has spoken to you as he’s speaking tonight.
And Jesus says, and Revelation 3 20 behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I’ll come to him and fellowship with him.
Jesus is knocking at your heart’s door tonight. He wants to come into your heart.
He wants to change your life.
He wants to have an impact in your community and in your family and in your life, he wants to give you peace and joy that you’ve never known before.
He wants to forgive all your sins and he wants to give you assurance that if you died tonight, you’d go to heaven.
You can have that assurance tonight before you leave here.
And I’m going to ask you to do something that may be very difficult for you to do.
But when Jesus died on that cross, he was dying for you because he loved you.
And he’s asking you to come into open your heart to him tonight.
And if there’s a doubt in your life about your relationship to Christ, you get up out of your seat right now and come and stand in front here on this beautiful stadium floor that they’ve put down.
If you’re with friends or relatives, they’ll wait on you and come and stand here and I’m going to say a word to you and have a prayer with all of you and give you some literature to help you before you in your life in the week to come.
You get up and come right now.
Men, women, young people, hundreds of you just get up and come and stand here.
That’s all by that act.
You are saying to God, I do open my heart to Jesus who died for me and who rose again and who’s alive tonight.
And he’s knocking at my heart’s door. I can sense it.
You get up and come, we’re going to wait on you right now.
If you’ve come with a group, they’ll wait on you.
If you’ve come in a bus, they’ll wait. There’s plenty of time.
This is the most important moment in your life. Don’t miss it quickly.
From the up in the top stands, you get up and come, it’ll take you a little time.
It’ll take you 4 or 5 minutes.
So come, we’re going to be here to pray with you and to talk with you and to help you.
Now, while you are still coming, I want to say a word to all of you that will be watching by television and you can make your commitment where you are, wherever you are, you may be at home.
You may be in a hotel room. I don’t know where you are but God is speaking to you.
You make your commitment or you can call that number that you see on the screen and that somebody is ready to talk to you right now and have a prayer with you and we’ll send you the same literature that we’re going to give to people here tonight.
You can make your commitment, you make it.
Now, if you just prayed that prayer with my father or if you have any questions about a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would just call that number that is on the screen.
There’ll be someone there to talk with you, pray with you and answer those questions and remember God loves you.
If you would like to commit your life to Jesus Christ, please call us right now.
Toll free at 18777724559. That’s 1877772 45 59.
Or you can write to us at Billy Graham one, Billy Graham Parkway Department C Charlotte, North Carolina 28201.
Or you can contact us on the web 24 7 at peace with God dot TV.
We’ll get the same helps to you that we give to everyone who responds at the invitation on behalf of Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Thank you for watching and thank you for your prayers.
You’re invited on a journey of discovery at the Billy Graham Library.
Retrace Billy Graham’s path from Humble Farm Boy to international ambassador of God’s Love through multimedia photos and memorabilia.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love tour, the restored Grand family home place, browse roots at a bookstore and have a meal at the Grand Brothers Dairy Bar.
Enjoy special exhibits, events and seasonal activities for the whole family. Admission is free.
So come walk this journey of discovery at the Billy Graham Library.
We are to wait for the coming of Christ with patience.
We are to watch with anticipation.
Scripture says Christ is coming when you’re least expecting him coming as a thief, he said be prepared, get ready, prepare to meet thy God.
Are you prepared?