One of the highlights of my trip to Israel and Jordan more than thirty years ago was the afternoon we spent in Caesarea, a seaside port with an artificial harbor that was constructed by King Herod about ten years before Christ was born. The Roman procurators (or governors) of Judea resided there because the area was far safer there than living in Jerusalem. In 1961, a huge amphitheatre was uncovered from beneath its sands and in it was discovered a Latin inscription bearing the name Pontius Pilate, proof that Pilate lived here during his OWN governorship. But it was ALSO in Caesarea that Paul remained imprisoned for two years while waiting for his trial to proceed, a trial in which he was accused by the Jews of being, FIRST, a radical who was causing trouble throughout the Empire; SECOND, of being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes; and THIRD, that he had attempted to profane the Holy Temple. However, because he was a Roman citizen, he could not be tried by the Jews but only by Roman authorities. This would mean transferring his trial to Rome where he’d then be allowed to present his case before Caesar himself. While preparations for his journey to Rome were being made, Festus--the Roman governor over the region--seized the opportunity to hear Paul for himself. Therefore he arranged to have him come and present his case before both him and King Agrippa of Judea. 

While touring the amphitheatre at Caesarea, the same one that was discovered in 1961, I stood directly in front of the ruler's box- in the exact spot where Paul would have addressed Festus and Agrippa. Standing in his footprints, I imagined myself as the great apostle, delivering that well-known defense of his faith, the powerful account of his conversion on the Damascus road which he never tired of repeating. Then I climbed up into the box where Festus and Agrippa would have sat patiently listening to Paul and there I imagined Festus saying, "Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad," and also Agrippa’s comment, "Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?" In those few short moments, I felt as though I had been transported back in time two thousand years and that I was present in that amphitheatre MYSELF that day, witnessing one of the most extraordinary speeches ever given.

St. Paul took every opportunity to witness to his faith, and he did it by sharing a simple story of what God had done in his life. Where he was once an over-zealous Pharisee, presiding over the imprisonment and deaths of countless Christians, he had now become the church's principle advocate and defender. Paul was doing what Peter had instructed in his first epistle when he wrote, "...always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you." The hope that God had placed in PAUL’S life--just as he had in PETER’S--is the very same hope that God has placed within OUR'S. Just as he had for THEM, there was a time when Jesus Christ approached US and knocked on the door of OUR heart, and WE responded by opening it and inviting him in with the result that YOUR life and MINE have never been the same SINCE! 

It was said of Tom Phillips that had it all: a wonderful wife, great kids, a beautiful home, more money than he'd ever imagined. By the age of forty, he had become president of Raytheon Corporation, an electronics manufacturer and defense contractor and the largest employer in all of New England. By any measure, he was a great success. But something was missing in his life. He felt a terrible emptiness inside- a large hole that robbed him of sleep and made him feel worthless and powerless to do anything about it. While on a business trip to New York in June of 1969, he learned there was a Billy Graham Crusade in Madison Square Garden. Out of curiosity and perhaps out of a sense of hope, he went to the crusade. There, he heard the massive choir under the direction of Graham's long-time music director Cliff Barrow. He listened to George Beverly Shea sing his signature theme song, "How Great Thou Art," and Ethel Waters' inspiring rendition of "His Eye Is On the Sparrow." Finally, Graham stepped up to the microphone, and in clear simple language, he spoke of the amazing love of God as demonstrated in Jesus Christ. That evening, Tom Phillips discovered how God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him would receive the fullness of life- both then and forevermore. He learned of a God who loved him with an everlasting love, a Heavenly Father who promised he would never leave or forsake him. 

At the conclusion of his message, with the choir singing "Just As I Am," he responded to the evangelist's invitation to come forward and for the first time received Jesus Christ into his life. As Phillips said, "What Graham said that night put it all into place for me. I saw what was missing, the personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the fact that I hadn't ever asked Him into my life, hadn't turned my life over to Him. So I did it that very night at the Crusade." Also in attendance that night were a couple of sixteen-year-old brothers from central N.J. One of them was quick to go forward to re-dedicate his life to God while the second brother sat on his hands, glued to his seat. Unmoved and unpersuaded, he--like King Agrippa—maintained the attitude "Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?" Nothing he heard that night convinced him there WAS a God much less that he NEEDED God in his life.

That same year, 1969, Richard Nixon began his first year as President. One of the new members of his staff was a young lawyer from Massachusetts, Chuck Colson. Colson was an energetic and ambitious man who had an impressive resume and seemed to succeed at everything he put his mind to. Within months, he was already developing a reputation as the one person people went to to get things done. Before long, however, he began developing ANOTHER reputation- as Richard Nixon's "hatchet man," the one who handled the President's dirty work. By his own admission, his devotion to Nixon was total and he would do just about ANYTHING to make sure he was re-elected. By 1973, that same intensity and devotion caused him to end up front and center in the greatest political scandal in American history, a scandal involving extortion, bribery, and obstruction of justice at the highest levels of our government. The press called it "Watergate." Although not DIRECTLY involved in any criminal activity, he found himself becoming the lightening rod for all kinds of charges and accusations. In a matter of months, this man who had once been the President's chief legal counsel, a high-flying Washington lawyer with his own chauffeur, now saw nothing but black desolation. He felt lonely, empty, rudderless, afraid. "Was this all there was to life?" he asked himself. "Was this the view from the top?"

By August of 1973, everything had come to a head. He had resigned as a member of the White House staff where massive firings were under way and was facing indictment by the Grand Jury. On the night of Sunday, August 12, he drove from home to visit an old friend and speak about all the emptiness in his life. That friend was Tom Phillips, the SAME Tom Phillips who four years earlier had stared his OWN emptiness in the face. Tom spoke of the "big hole" in his life, one he found that nothing could fill. He had to come to the realization that "all the material things in life are meaningless if a person hasn't discovered what's underneath them." After sharing with Chuck his story and how Jesus Christ began the process of helping him to put his life together again, he read some scripture and then prayed with him. As Tom spoke, Chuck was reminded of how everything he had done in life had been for more influence, more power, more praise, and more money. In those brief moments, he began to see himself as he had never before- and the picture was pretty ugly!

When Colson got into his car to leave, he started to cry uncontrollably. Then from deep within the core of raw emotion that enveloped him came the sensation that water wasn't only running down his face but coursing through his entire BODY, flooding it with a sense of cleansing and cooling and relief. He had no idea what it meant to "accept Christ" but he sensed a presence and a power unlike any he had ever known. He prayed: "God, I don't know how to find you, but I'm going to try. I'm not much the way I am now, but somehow I want to give myself to you. Take me! Take me! Take me!"

The Chuck Colson that pulled out of that driveway was now a much different man from the Chuck Colson who had pulled into it only a few hours earlier. He had spent a lifetime single-mindedly dedicating his energy, intellect, and talent to getting ahead- to making a reputation for himself; to becoming financially secure; to building his business, providing for his family, and protecting the President. Now had begun the journey toward using that same rare and remarkable energy, intellect, and talent in the service of Jesus Christ.

On that very same night, August 12^th, about the very same hour that Chuck Colson was pouring his heart out before God in a driveway in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, there was yet ANOTHER miracle in process. Hundreds of miles away in a church in Western New York, a young man of twenty, the SAME young man who four years earlier had hardened his heart in that Billy Graham Crusade--the SAME service that Tom Phillips had received Jesus Christ in--was ALSO hearing the Spirit of God speak to HIS heart. He began to think about his life in ways he never had before- how he had constantly belittled his twin brother for his sincere faith; how he had become contemptuous of his parents and other family members for their blatant “ignorance”; and how he found himself gradually losing his way in life, getting involved with a group of persons who loved to live in the fast lane and far too close to the edge. He TOO got down on HIS knees and prayed perhaps the only REAL prayer he had ever prayed in his life. Struggling to get the words out of his mouth, he said, "God, I don't even believe you exist...but if there IS a God, please help me." Well God heard that young man's prayer, and by the time he got up off his knees, he knew something mysterious had happened to him, that he was somehow “claimed” by someone/something and that his life was now no longer his own. He was not only convinced for the first time that perhaps there really IS a God but he felt that his life would never again be the same, that this was the beginning of some kind of new adventure. Before that week was up, he was already making plans to enter the Christian ministry.

My friends, by now you've probably guessed that the young man who forty-five years ago this summer laid aside his pride and asked God for help was none other than me. I find myself amazed when I think of how I was present at the same crusade the night that Tom Phillips surrendered his life to God. But where he was ready to accept Christ as his personal Lord and Savior, I WAS NOT; where he had opened up his heart to God, I SHUT HIM OUT. But God never gave up on me. Patiently, lovingly, God CONTINUED to walk with me and talk with me and tell me that I was his own. And then, on the very same night that Tom Phillips led Chuck Colson--one of the world's most powerful men--to become as a little child, that SAME God exercising that SAME love drove ME to MY knees and helped me to surrender MY life to him. Like Tom Phillips, like Chuck Colson, I can GLADLY say that my life has never been the same! For the past forty-five years, I have told my story HUNDREDS of times- from pulpits, at small dinner parties, to single encounters. People always seem curious as to how I became a minister, and each time I am asked becomes yet another occasion to talk about how I was dead but then by the grace of God I became alive, of how I was blind but then I could see. 

But you don't have to be a minister to have such a testimony- ANYONE who is a child of God, ANYONE who has ever had an encounter with Jesus Christ possesses a very SIMILAR story. Think of all those persons who after a chance meeting with him were never again the same whether it was the blind who were given their sight, the lame who could then walk, the lepers who were made clean, or the demoniacs who were finally delivered. Like the woman at the well or old Zachaeus or blind Bartimaeus, they never stopped talking about the new life they had discovered once they had met this man. More than heal their infirmities, he had healed their hearts and made them feel loved, in fact, made them feel HUMAN once again. 

But we TOO have such a story; we TOO share that very same hope- a hope which God has placed within US. As I have indicated by the title of this morning’s sermon, I believe there are really FIVE gospels, not four. We certainly know of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John- but how many of us are aware that there is yet ANOTHER gospel, a FIFTH one, and it concerns our OWN personal adventure with the Lord. Yes, YOUR name and MINE is on that fifth gospel, and as members of Christ’s body--the Church—each of US bears a responsibility to witness to that SAME hope, that SAME joy by sharing this Good News with those around US as WELL. As children of God, Christ calls us to "defend the hope” that is in us with whomsoever God may bring our way, with persons in need of the same love and hope and peace and joy WE, by God’s grace, now experience. The truth is that EVERY DAY, we find ourselves given MORE than enough opportunities to speak of what that grace means to us. And if we are truly convinced that it is THE most important thing in our life, then the difficulty should never be in opening our mouth. Rather, it would be in keeping it SHUT! Let us pray...

Gracious God, by your love and your grace, you have called us to yourself, incorporated us into your body--the Church, and provided each of us with an incredible story to tell- one involving our redemption and transformation. Now give us the confidence to share that story with others who may also need to hear it. Help us, like Peter and Paul and the rest of your saints, to be able to "defend the hope” that is within US, that others too might learn and experience that SAME love and peace and joy that only YOU can provide. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.