Three young guys were headed to the video store to rent some porn for a wild weekend party they had planned. They had the booze, drugs, food and now to finish off their list they were renting some real raunchy porn. On the way to check out one of the guys jokingly picked up the “Jesus Movie” and said to his buddies, “Hey after watching all of this porn we’ll need to watch this”. They all laughed and rented the Jesus movie with all their porn just for a joke.
They got to their apartment and as two of the guys were getting the drugs ready one of the guys picked up the Jesus Movie and put it in the video machine and hit play. At first the guys were laughing at the movie but all of a sudden it began to capture their attention. The story of Jesus so moved those three guys they watched the entire movie. As the movie credits were playing they sat in silence knowing they wanted to know more of this Jesus. When the movie stopped and the TV switched to the Satellite to their amazement there was a TV Preacher saying, “If you would like to know Jesus Christ as your personal savior just kneel where you are and say this prayer with me. Those three guys dropped to their knees in front of the TV and invited Jesus Christ into their hearts and lives.
The next morning those three young men showed up at church right as we were calling people forward to the altar for prayer. Up came three guys with long black trench coats, tattoos, piercings, spiked hair and black finger nails. Didn’t they know this was a pretty conservative church and the person they were going to for prayer was the former police chief who had a not so nice attitude toward punky youth? I watched as they approached the altar area and thought will there be a scuffle at the altar this morning. I could see the former police chiefs face turning red with anger as he began to talk to the boys. All of a sudden I saw him begin to weep as the boys were telling him the story of the previous evening and how they had prayed with the TV preacher and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. They proceeded to tell him that the preacher had said they could be baptized in the Holy Spirit and they said they had come forward so they could receive all that Jesus had for them.
I stood in amazement as that former police chief laid his hands on each of the young men and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” and almost immediately they began to speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit fell on them. They were never the same from that day forward. Those three young men had been searching for a few hours of pleasure in sin but instead found Jesus, salvation, forgiveness, eternal life, joy, peace and purpose for their lives. Last I heard two of the three had gone oversees to serve in some type of missions.
I thought of this story a few weekends ago as we had a missionary who visited our church and told us a story from a Muslim City where there was not one believer and where it is against the law to talk of Jesus. One day a Muslim girl was scanning the satellite for a movie to watch when she came across the “Jesus Movie”, she had never heard of Jesus. She watched and was in awe of this Jesus. At the end of the movie on the screen it said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock”. She thought Jesus could be at my door. She ran to the door and to her amazement there was a brilliant blinding light. She said, “Are you Jesus?” A voice from the light said yes and he talked with her for a short time. They he said, “You need a Bible. She didn’t even know what a Bible was. After Jesus left she thought where can I find a Bible. At the end of the movie there was a phone number to call. She called the number and said, “I have just seen Jesus”, the person on the other end of the phone said, “yes isn’t it a great movie.” She told the story of going to the door and meeting Jesus. The counselor on the phone realized she had had a miraculous encounter with Jesus. The young woman asked what is a Bible? The counselor told her they would send her a Bible which was the word of God. Once again Jesus showed up where no one expected and a life was changed. No one is unreachable to Jesus. “For God so Loved the World”