By: Tom L. Childers
Church Resources Director at Freed-Hardeman University
In the Freed-Hardeman University Church Resources Newsletter, “Beyond Belief”
Dated May 15, 2004 – Vol. 3. No. 8

“BETTER THAN THE MOVIE”

Over thirty million Americans have seen the movie, The Passion of The Christ. Last week, my 29-year-old son and his friends came by the house after seeing the movie. They were notably stunned and could hardly talk about it. This is the normal reaction of most Christians who have seen the movie.

Tuesday night, April 13, [2004], I witnessed something that was more profound than the movie about the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life. At the Strickland church of Christ near Corinth, Mississippi, an 85-year-old preacher walked into the pulpit and held his audience spellbound for over forty minutes. I have heard preaching for over 50 years, but, in my opinion, “never a man spoke like this” (at least not in my lifetime).

V. P. Black raised the question: “What do you think of when you see a cross?” His eloquent words painted pictures of how horrible sin is; the depth and height of the love of God; and how sinful man crucified the only perfect man. Brother Black, unlike the movie, devoted a fifth of his sermon on the impact that the resurrection of Jesus has had on the world.

Brother Black did it all with words—words spoken without any notes and all true to the Bible. May we never lose sight of the fact that God’s Word is the most powerful thing in this world to reach the lost and to build up the church (James 1:21; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 1:16).

It was one of the most remarkable presentations I have ever heard. He did have one visual, and he did not even know it. Behind the baptistery where Brother Black spoke was a stained glass window with a large cross in the center. As he began his sermon, the rays of the evening sun filled the entire window. As Brother Black offered the invitation, the sun was then shining only at the foot of the cross.

Someone has said, “When an older person dies, it will be like a library burning down.” When that day comes to Brother Black, it will be so very true. I urge you to hear this man preach when you have the opportunity. And please pray that God will send us many more like him.

[Note: The Strickland church of Christ is located at: Central School Road, 13 County Road 218, Glen, MS 38846. We thank the Strickland brethren for sending us the tapes of Brother Black’s Gospel Meeting with them on April 11 through 14, 2004. We wholeheartedly thank Brother Black for his permission to transcribe the tapes from this Gospel Meeting, and for allowing us to upload these sermons onto our web site. His comment to us was, “I trust that it may do good.” —Jean Burch, Co-Webmaster of giftofeternallife.org]