Page 14 - April 2016 Issue 302

14 THE NEW COUNTESTHORPE HERALD
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE CHURCHES
OUT OF THE ASHES
APRIL 2016
On February 6th, 1958 a chartered plane carrying most of the members of the Manchester United football team known as the Busby Babes crashed on take-off from Munich in Germany. With so many of their star players lost, some despaired over prospects for the club’s survival.
Yet today out of the ashes of that crash Manchester United has come to be one of the best known and most successful football teams in the world. Fittingly, the man who rebuilt the team survived the crash - Sir Matt Busby.
Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus of
Nazareth was attracting a lot of attention
in the Judean countryside. He was a
worker of miracles, a teacher and preacher
who proclaimed God’s kingdom. He got
alongside others. He genuinely cared
for the poor and disenfranchised. His
fame spread rapidly. Hundreds, if not
thousands, of people started to follow
him, listen to his every word. Here was
an individual destined for greatness. He
brought something different from the
Roman Historian Josephus in his Antiquities wrote;
“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah.”
Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 §63.
But just when they all thought change was around the corner, Jesus was arrested on trumped-up charges and was subsequently crucified and then buried in a borrowed garden tomb outside the city walls of Jerusalem. This caused many of his followers to despair, to give up all hope. They too were in a state of utter shock; Jesus their Messianic leader had been crucified and was buried in a tomb. All their dreams and hopes for the future shattered, all hope had gone. But their despondency evaporated on that first Easter morning when they found the stone had been rolled away. Jesus had risen! Listen to the account of Roman historian Josephus once more:
“And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.”
Garden Tomb
This historical event for many people puts everything into perspective. No matter how bad things become in our world or in our lives and everything might literally crash around us - even our own death is inevitable - yet there is still real hope, all because Jesus was raised from the tomb. Both sin and death, which ravage our world and our lives, have been conquered. So please do remember that, even out of the ashes, something far more beautiful can arise in your life, if we will only trust the Author of our lives.
This is the Christian’s solid foundation to life and death and with it brings a real tangible hope, often in the midst of our own despair and troubles. The Bible says, “To those who mourn in Zion - I will give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”
Isaiah 61:3.
May you, out of your own ashes, come to know and experience this real hope.
Pastor Aubrey Vaughan Baptist Church
CoutHerald150_Layout 1 23/03/2016 09:44 Page 1 Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 §63. dead orthodoxy of religion.
Honest Reliable Helpful Responsible
Here Ready
to help you
We’ve been around a remarkably long time but we remain committed to providing traditional first class service and highly competitive mortgages and savings accounts
Call into see us at:
69 Station Road, Countesthorpe
Tel: 0116 277 8384
Open Mon - Fri: 9am - 1pm; Sat: 9am - 12 noon
28 Blaby Road, South Wigston
Tel: 0116 278 6152
Open Mon - Fri: 9am - 4.45pm; Sat: 9am - 12 noon
Modern savings Traditional service
The Society is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority. The Society's registration number is 206043