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Ever wonder how a Jewish Carpenter's kid could grow up and change the world? This is simply unfathomable when you consider that Jesus was despised and rejected by the governing religion in the region as well as the pagan religion and government officials of the Roman Empire. This ultimate outsider recruited fishermen and ordinary people to follow him - one would turn on him and betray him, and the rest would go into hiding after his death. Speaking of his passing, he died as a criminal in the most humiliating way that enemies of the state could be executed - crucifixion. 

Yet he changed the world. Period. No armed takeover of the Roman Empire. No calls for holy war. Just the clear message of value in human life, dignity for both men and women, blessedness of children, submission to service as a greater force than the quest for power, and a right standing with the Creator of the universe. It was a new covenant between God and man. It was a way to be clean and whole. 

It explained what Greek mythology could not. It answered the questions of the philosophers and stoics. It was the fulfillment of the Jewish faith. It was reality and truth invading a worldview full of myth and fantasy. 

It was the Son of God become man to take the sins of the world on himself. 

It started a revolution that began with the most vicious persecution. But it transformed the lives of the poor. Then the tradesmen. Then the wealthy. Then the culture. Then official recognition in the year 313. 

And the rest is history. The flame has continued to burn. It may have gone through seasons of compromise by sinful men, but its Words tell us of the sin in the human heart that would be capable of historical and biblical misapprehensions and tragedy. Those Words still burns hearts, saves souls, and transforms people today. 

And it all started on the cross, when one carpenter was crucified as a criminal. 

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