Jesus In The Midst
Bobby Dockery
Fayetteville AR
9/2/98
Jesus In The Midst
National Geographic is a magazine which proclaims on its masthead that it is devoted to
the increase and diffusion of knowledge. The index of articles which appeared in the magazine from 1947 through 1967 reveals a very striking thing. In that period there were ten articles on J. F. Kennedy and four more on his wife Jacqueline; nine articles on George Washington; eight on Abraham Lincoln; five on Shakespeare. Incredibly, during that same period, there were only two articles which referred in a substantive way, to Jesus Christ! There were also two articles about another man mentioned in the Bible - Darius the Great!
Somehow that list seems badly flawed. It reflects the misplaced priorities of 20th Century life. How can a journal concerned with the
increase and diffusion of knowledge have so little to say about the central figure in world history? Darius the Great means little to our world, but Jesus Christ stands at the center of all human progress. His influence is still felt in every field of labor and learning. For millions He is the Sun around which their existence revolves.
In Hosea 11.9 we find these arresting words:
For I am ....the holy one in your midst. These words find fulfillment in Christ. He is the One who is eternally in our midst. Consider some of the ways this is so.
Jesus Is In The Midst Of Knowledge And Learning. Luke 2.46 says, ...
they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers (doctors KJV)... Jesus is at the very center of all learning; all knowledge; all wisdom. Colossians 1.19 notes that
all the fullness of deity dwells in Him! Christianity is not contrary to reason, nor antagonistic to learning. Jesus is truth; More, He is the truth!
I am the way and the truth and the life. (John 14.6.) How tragic that the
doctors and
teachers in our institutions of learning applaud ignorance and error while refusing to recognize the presence of Jesus in their midst!
Jesus Is In The Midst Of Sinners. John 19.18 notes that when Jesus died, they crucified
two others with Him and Jesus in the midst. Jesus was in the midst of two sinful men, not because He approved of their sin, but in order to save them from it. In a sense those two thieves represent all mankind,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3.23) Christ deliberately chose to place Himself in the midst of human misery–to experience it with us;
to be tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin - in order to redeem us from the curse of sin. He chose to be in our midst!
Jesus Is In The Midst Of Eternal Glory. Revelation 5.6 pictures the Lamb as
being in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders... John is seeking to describe as far as is humanly possible his vision of the throne of heaven. Imagine an infinite series of concentric circles. At the far outside edge are the swirling galaxies, one of which is our own. At the very center of creation lies the throne room of heaven. Looking through the open door of heaven, John sees more circles; multiplied millions of angels; thousands upon thousands of saints; then a smaller circle of twenty-four elders and, smaller still, four living creatures. And the cry goes up,
Holy, holy, holy. At the exact center of all these beings, at the center of the New Jerusalem, at the center of creation, at the center of the cosmos, there is a throne. At the center of the throne is a Lamb, as if it had been slain!
What does this say to us? It says that Jesus is divine; He is God to be worshipped and served. It also says that He has a right to claim a place in the midst of our lives! We may not offer Him a place somewhere on the circumference, on the
back burner. He deserves and demands preeminence! He Who is the center of eternal glory must have the central place in your life!! The only place He will accept is the center!
Does He reign in the midst of your life???
—Bobby Dockery
Fayetteville, AR
