Gamaliel – Lee Duigon

Painting from 'The Chosen' Captures Heart of Jesus in ...

Jonathan Roumie as Jesus

For the past several Sunday afternoons, Patty and I have been watching The Chosen, a crowd-funded TV series on the life and ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The actors and writers are largely new faces, to an American audience; but the quality of the episodes is spectacular.

I’m taking home two lessons from this series:

*What Jesus did, and what He taught, were incredibly dangerous–to Him and to His disciples. Everything leads to the Cross. It’s not an easy thing to contemplate.

*Coming from anyone but the Son of God Himself, Jesus’ words would have been crazy-talk bordering on blasphemy. He had to do miracles: His works were the proof that everything he said was true. Remember Gamaliel’s warning to his colleagues in the Temple: he mentioned several false messiahs who’d come to bad ends because their teachings were not true. If Jesus were just another false messiah, then they should just leave Him alone because nothing would come of it. But if Jesus really did come from God, then to oppose Him would have been to go against God.

The acting, the sets, the writing–everything here is quality. By and large, it’s faithful to the Bible. Here and there the writers have had to speculate, to fill holes in the narrative. The producers urge the audience to be guided by the Gospel.

We’re watching The Chosen on YouTube. I can’t help wondering if this TV series is part of an overall revival. God knows we need one.

It’s been going on for over a week now, and shows no signs of letting up: a spontaneous Christian revival at Asbury University, Kentucky. People are there from all over the world.

One party that is not there is our Free & Independent Nooze Media Inc., a subsidiary of Democrats “R” Us. There’s been some nooze coverage, but not much.

Wit you well: if this kind of response were made to some Drag Queen escapade, the media would be yapping about it 24/7.

I’m surprised CNN, MSNBC et al have not risen up in mockery. The revival seems like it would be the natural target for them.

Maybe they don’t know what to say or do.

I am reminded of Gamaliel’s advice to the Temple rulers, in Acts 5: 34-40. They were trying to decide how to suppress the apostolic church in Jerusalem, the first Christians; but Gamaliel, a man of great reputation among them, advised them to let it alone. To paraphrase: he mentioned two false prophets who came utterly to nothing, and told the rulers that if Jesus of Nazareth was just another nobody pretending to be somebody, His movement would fail and die on its own; but if not, if it were the work of God’s Spirit, then opposing and persecuting it would be to be against God Himself. “If it’s from God, you can’t stop it. And if it’s not, it will stop itself.”

We see in later chapters that the more the worldly authorities persecuted the Church, the faster and the greater it grew.

Will they interfere with what’s happening at Asbury?

We can only wait and see.