Matthew-077

 

As I pondered what message the Lord God would have me to share with you today on Christmas Day, I found that I could not think of a better passage than the one that we were going to look at in our systematic exposition of the Lord Jesus’ teaching. We were studying the passage in Mark 10:21-31 last week, but we did not look at the last words of this passage. By the grace of God, I pray that these words will so be imprinted upon your minds that you will remember what we will talk about today, every time we come to Christmas.

 

How much do you want the eternal life God sent Jesus to bring you?

A rich, young man came to Jesus and he had everything that this world had to offer except the one thing that really matters, and that is eternal life. It’s not much good to gain the whole world and to lose your own soul. And this man, being of good judgment and conside­rable intelligence, knew that having two cars, two houses and lots of money in the bank is not much use if you don’t have God’s life. There is not enough room in the grave for two cars and two houses. Besides, they won’t do you much good even if you could get them into the grave.

So this rich man comes to Jesus and says to him, “What must I do to have eternal life?” He is asking a question about what the Bible speaks of as salvation. Salvation is a question about how may I be saved from eternal death—not physical death—and how may I have life eternal? He was prepared to do all kinds of things to keep the law if necessary, but the question was how far was he prepared to go? And the question for you also is: How far are you prepared to go to receive eternal life?

God sent Jesus into the world, and this is what Christmas is all about. Was he sent into the world so that we can sing some Christmas songs? No, the Lord Jesus was born into the world to bring us life. Therefore, this question that the rich young man asks is very appropriate for Christmas because God sent Jesus to be born to bring God’s life to you and to me. The only question is whether his purpose of being born into the world will be fulfilled in your life. This life is brought into the world, but it also has to be brought into your life. If not, God’s purpose for you has not been materialized.

One thing is clear. God is not going to force his life down your throat. He is not going to make you take it whether you like it or not. No, eternal life is far too good for that. If you don’t have the desire to take this life, that is your choice.

However, there are certain conditions which need to be met if you are going to get this life, and these conditions are not as simple as raising your hand, or professing faith in some form or other. We shall also see this in today’s study.

 

God does not give eternal life to the self-righteous

Is eternal life worth having or not? I think that you would regard it as worth having. If not, I wonder why you might be sitting here today. There is no more important question in this world than the question of eternal life.

This rich young man was a very nice man. If the only conditions we need to inherit eternal life are being nice, good, moral, and even being religious, then this young man had it all. He was not only rich, but also religious. He was brought up in the commandments. He was a religious Jew, and as far as being moral is concerned, he was able to say that he had never broken any of the commandments. So if only being good and nice is all that is necessary, then he would have eternal life.

If you are thinking to yourselves, “I’m a moral man. I don’t steal, rob or kill, and I keep the tradition of my fathers. I’m quite a good person, not a bad man. So God should treat me reasonably, and may consider giving me eternal life,” then you have made a mistake that even this rich young man did not make. He knew that even though he had been good in that he had not broken the major commandments, even though he was a nice person, that was not enough. If he thought that were enough, he wouldn’t be asking the question of what else he must do to inherit eternal life.

 

No man ever spoke as Jesus did! Study to understand his teaching!

Today, we will concentrate only on Mark 10:31, the last statement of the Lord Jesus’ reply to this question about eternal life:

You would say, “If ever there was a puzzling statement, there it is! I haven’t a clue of what Jesus is saying!” Let us read the whole passage, Mark 10:21-31.

Here is one of the few places where it is said that Jesus looked at a person and loved the person. He is so privileged, and must be a very lovable person! It’s hard enough for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, but it is even harder for a rich man to get into the kingdom. But why is this? Money can do everything! Surely, it can even buy salvation! If money cannot do it and even the rich, the most privileged people of all, cannot get into the kingdom, then who can be saved? In other words, there needs to be such a transformation that you are able to get through the eye of the needle. That is impossible for man but God can do it.

How do we understand these words? Having studied and meditated and thought and expounded through all these years, I must come to the conclusion that no one in this world has ever spoken like Jesus. I have read the great Chinese philosophers Confucius, Mencius, something of the Greek philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and I have read modern philosophers as well. I have read the great thinkers of this world, and I have to say to you, no man, absolutely no man ever talked like this man, Jesus! Even recently, I have been reading Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, but there is no comparison when you think of the words of Jesus.

I am exactly like the temple police who went to arrest Jesus. When they arrived on the scene, they were so fascinated with Jesus’ preaching that they forgot to arrest him! When they went back to the temple, the temple bosses who were the chief priests—the religious people who have always been the enemies of Jesus—asked, “Why didn’t you arrest him?” They replied, “No man, but no man ever spoke as this man speaks!” How remarkable! (cf. Jo. 7:45-46)

The Lord Jesus said, “But many that are first will be last, and the last, first.” Do you understand his message in these words? Expounding the words of Jesus is like climbing a high mountain, and you must know how to get up there. It takes effort, wisdom, skill, patience, toughness, determination and training to get to the top. Those in training are learning to climb the mountains of exegesis. You dare not slip along the way because slipping could be extremely danger­ous. But when you get to the top, you see this amazing view that opens up to you. You see it all like a great panorama, a vista that stretches away into the distance, breath-taking in its beauty! It’s not only beautiful, but here it also relates to eternal life. This vision of God through his Word is transforming in its power. We return to the question: Are you able to understand what verse 31 means?

When I expound the Word of God, I often feel like the mountain-climber who, having reached the top truly by God’s grace, sees the whole meaning unfold before me. But how do I explain to you what I see? I wonder if you have ever climbed a mountain. Once you have climbed the mountain, and you have seen this amazing view, exactly how are you going to describe it to your friends? Have you ever tried describing a scene to someone? It is so very difficult because it takes your own eyes to see it.

I have climbed the mountains in various places in Switzerland many times, and the view was so breathtaking – the peaks away into the distance, the silver-capped mountains in the sunlight! How do you describe these? It’s so hard to explain to a person who has not seen it. And so when I am expounding the words of the Lord Jesus, the task is how to convey the meaning to you so that you can see it. Or even better, you will say to yourself one day, “If the view up there is so good, I’m going to study the teaching of the Lord Jesus; I’m going to climb those mountains of exegesis and see with my own eyes what it looks like from the top!” If I’m able to encourage you to do that, then that will be the greatest success!

Let us try to understand what “But many that are first will be last, and the last first” means.

 

1. “First, last” has to do with salvation – how to receive eternal life

First, it’s very important to understand that the Lord Jesus is talking about salvation in this passage. It’s plain that the meaning of “first” and “last” has to do with salvation. Clearly, it has to do with how we receive eternal life. This saying of the Lord Jesus occurs in several places. It’s not one isolated saying. These same words occur also in Matthew 19:30 and in Luke 13:30.

So important is this passage in fact that we have discovered it also in the sands of Egypt. When archeologists dug up a place in Egypt called Oxyrhynchus, they discovered a lot of very ancient manu­scripts, now known to us as The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. In Oxyrhynchus Papyrus no. 654, (these papyri had to be numbered since they had no particular name), and logia no. 3 reads:

There are the extra words, “And few shall find it.”

If we consider the words “And few shall find it,” we will see the Lord Jesus was asked in Luke 13:23, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” He then went on to speak about salvation and concluded in verse 30 with: “And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” What does “few shall find it” mean? The Lord Jesus is saying that few will find the path of salvation, because the way is narrow that leads to life. That confirms to us again that “first” and “last” in the Lord Jesus’ teaching has to do with salvation.

 

2. “First, last”: description of the character of our competitive society

Secondly, what we need to notice is that “first” and “last” are com­parative terms, and this brings to us the fact that we live in a society where there is competition. Only in competition, is there a winner and a loser, a first or a last. At one stroke of his insight and the blade of his words, the Lord Jesus strikes right into the heart of our society. He is able to say in a few words what we take a whole message to try to expound. This is the sign of the depth of the wisdom of the Lord Jesus. If you read Aristotle, you will find he is very long-winded. Confucius manages to say many things in much fewer words, per­haps even fewer than Aristotle or even Plato could manage. There is no one who speaks like the Lord Jesus for depth of insight. He exposed in a few words the very nature of our society and this world in which we live.

Surely, you know that this world is by nature competitive. You soon discover that when you go to school that all students are ranked: first, second, third, fourth and last. Or when you get a degree in England, there is a first class honors, second class honors, and third class honors, or just pass. Pass is just the last; it sounds better to say “pass” than “last.” So the whole system is competitive, and sifts out who is the best. When you apply for a job, they look at your degree: A pass degree is not so good. It’s better if someone comes along with a second class honors. Of course, it’s even better if there is a first class honors! “First” and “last” all have to do with the competitive nature.

In running too, everything has to do with first and last. What is the point of running if there is no first and no last? It’s ridiculous that everyone who finishes the race gets a gold medal! The organization will be broke if they have to give out so many gold medals! No, you have to be first, then you get a gold medal, the second gets silver, the third bronze, and you are not in the picture if you come fourth. This whole system in which we live has to do with first, last. Everything is competitive.

Where do you rank? Everyone strives for first. If you cannot make it, hopefully you’ll get the second; if you cannot make it, hopefully you’ll get the third; if you still cannot make that, then you belong to the last. You are among the non-entities of this world, a nobody. No matter which department of life you look at in this world, you cannot escape this categorizing of first or last.

How did you place when you graduated? As long as you can say, “I passed. Let’s not ask too many questions about how I placed or what were my marks.” You would feel that way if you did not get first. But if you were first, you would put that certificate on the wall, and make sure that you put a circle or an arrow indicator at exactly the point where it says “first”, so that when people looked at the diploma, they would not miss it. You can see the whole nature of this world.

Or let us take the company you work at. The big boss is first, then you have the assistant boss or whoever is second, and everyone is trying to climb this ladder. It doesn’t matter if you step on the next fellow’s head, push him down so that you can get up, and again, you push the next one down. It’s the survival of the fittest, the fittest being the first. The others only barely survive and they are the last.

 

“I win, you lose” mentality: rivalry, arrogance, opposite of love

This is the structure of the world. This is the whole society in which we live. In this kind of competitive society, a certain mental attitude of “I win, you lose” develops. It has to be “I win and you lose” because if “I lose and you win,” then I’ve had it! It is so competitive.

Look at even the games we play. Chess has to be “I win” or “you lose,” or else it’s the other way around. So everybody studies every move, thinking carefully how to beat the other person. It’s a competitive society. You have to try your utmost to win and not lose.

Or let us take the sales coming up. If that shop gives a 25% discount, the next shop has a 30% discount. And if this one cuts by 30%, the other one will cut 35%. There is competition and conflict!

Certainly, there are positive aspects to competition. Competition may develop a striving for a certain higher standard of excellence. But it is overshadowed by numerous negative aspects. After all, how many get gold medals in a field of people running a race? Only the first person who gets to the finishing line! So it develops arrogance, and worst of all, it develops an attitude of rivalry, of aggression. It develops a whole attitude towards other people which is the oppo­site of love.

Now that is the point the Lord Jesus is saying to us here. First, you must recognize the nature of the society in which you live. If you are going to enter into the kingdom of God, something has to change because this attitude of your mind in which you and I have been brought up is the opposite of love.

 

The “killer instinct”

I have been in all kinds of competitive sports. I know what it is to compete and to win. I always play to win; I don’t play to lose. Who plays to lose? From childhood on, we develop the competitive attitude, whether it’s in the martial arts, or in the games we play, in the studies that we do. Who goes into a boxing match and sticks out his chin to be knocked out? Surely, you knock out your opponent, and not to be knocked out yourself. We aim to land the right punch, and how pleased we were when we see our opponent flat on the floor! “Number 1, that’s me!” Do you see what happens with this attitude? It develops a killer instinct.

In real life it’s even more bitter. Look at how competition goes into every area in this world. Business is competitive. Either you win or he wins, and wipes you out. It’s a question of fighting with the killer instinct. Two boys fight for the same girl, or three boys fight for the same girl. Or three girls fight for the same boy. The fight of society goes on and on and on.

How can we enter into God’s kingdom with this kind of killer mental­ity, which is “I’m going to knock you down because I must get up”?

 

Class distinction

Then, competition develops into class distinction. The winners be­come the winner class, the upper class. The rich form their own class, and whether the poor like it or not, they are just the remainder, the lower class. This whole world becomes a class society.

The Communists recognize that if you have a society stratified by various classes, there will be class conflict, and class conflict is going to result in all kinds of problems. Hence they would like to have a classless society, but they have not really got to the heart of the problem. Naturally, classes produce conflict, but human nature is such that we cannot abolish the existence of all classes by some legal decree and immediately have a classless society. That is absurdity! Whether you like it or not, human nature is such that it is competi­tive, it has the killer instinct. It’s far too foolish and superficial to think that you can abolish the class system by changing an economic system.

 

God has to change man in his heart to change this society of sin

The Lord Jesus knows that the only way to change this matter is to change man in his heart. It’s useless to change things outside of him when his heart does not change. You can change the economic sy­stem to a socialist system, to a system in which everyone possesses the means of production in some sense or other, but the heart remains the same. The Lord Jesus is telling us here that this is the root.

We have a society in which “first” and “last” is distinguished. But what must happen is that the first must become last, and the last first. What does that mean?

 

3. God changes “me first” to help others be as good or even better

That takes us to the third point. First, we have seen it has to do with salvation. Secondly, we have seen that these words expose the very nature of this society of sin in which we live. Thirdly, these words of the Lord Jesus tell us of a revolution: first become last, last become first. You don’t have to be a great philosopher to see what the Lord Jesus is saying. He is simply saying things must change. The Lord Jesus was a revolutionary if ever there was a revolutionary, because revolution simply means turning everything upside down. The last becomes first, and the first becomes last is a revolution.

Now this revolution is not an external revolution as we have seen. We have seen that the problem of society stems from man’s attitude, from the way he thinks. He has this killer instinct, this competitive instinct to put himself up because his whole philosophy is “me, myself, I.” Everybody else is second, third, fourth, fifth, but “I am first, number one.” I saw a book lately with the title, Number One and How to Take Care of Him. It’s a comprehensive guide on how to take care of oneself and achieve success in life. Unless our thinking of “I am the first” changes,” we cannot change society. Changing society is not done by changing its economic, educational, or scientific system, because that does not affect man’s heart. Something has to happen inside, and the Lord Jesus is saying the first has to become last. Only so will the last again come first. Can you understand this revolution?

Becoming a Christian is nothing if a revolution has not taken place inside his heart. Christianity is about turning man inside out upside down. And only in this way will the whole society be turned upside down. You cannot change the world without changing the people who constitute the world. The Lord Jesus comes to the root of the problem, not at economics or education, but right in the heart of man, in the spirit of man. Now more profound than that you cannot get. His amazing words: “The last will be first, the first, last” mean that unless man is turned upside down, unless we change, this unequal society cannot be turned upside down.

 

Two ways by which the first will become last, and the last first

There are two ways by which the first will become last, and the last, first. Which two ways? Either you choose to become last, or God will reduce you to the last.

 

i) By repentance: Humbly let God change your heart to be last

The first way is the way of becoming a Christian, in which you put yourself in God’s hands and humble yourself before him. That is what the Bible speaks of as repentance. Repentance means a change of attitude, the willingness that although I put myself first before, I am now willing to put myself last. That is the fundamental change of becoming a Christian. If you ever thought becoming a Christian is simply to raise your hand at a meeting and get baptized as a Christian, you haven’t understood Christianity at all. Christianity means a fundamental inner revolution. That is what God sent Jesus into the world for: to bring this revolution inside the man. To be a Christian is to be a revolutionary in the deepest sense of the word. That is some revolution when I am now willing to put myself last whereas I always put myself first before.

 

Trust God to do you justice, to take care of your interests

You will say, “What happens to my interests? What happens to my well-being? People will walk over me like a carpet because I am willing to humble myself.” You must have faith in God, which means that you trust God to do you justice. If you don’t trust God to do justice to you, to talk about faith is absolute rubbish. All of us can say I have faith, I believe this and that. That is not faith in the Bible. Faith in the Bible is to humble yourself in repentance before God for your sins, and you are willing to let him take care of your interests. That takes a lot of faith.

That is to say, you are willing to be honest even though others are crooked. You will say, “They are not playing by the rules, but I am, so I’m bound to lose!” Christian businessmen are in a tight spot there. It’s very hard to be a Christian businessman. If other people are playing foul, you are likely to lose. That is where faith comes in. Faith touches your pocket.

Like the rich young man, when faith touched his pocket, he got scared. I’m not too scared about you asking me to go to church three times a week, but if you say it’s going to cost me money to be a Christian because I am playing by the rules, then I get scared. You need to trust whether God will see you through when you play by the rules and others play foul. You have to admit it takes faith. If you don’t have faith in God, you are going to play foul too.

You are going to find that the moment you humble yourself, you are willing to go from first to being last, you have to depend on faith to do that in every area. It cannot be done without faith. If you don’t have confidence in the living God, you just cannot do it. That is why the Lord Jesus said, “For man it is impossible,” because man cannot do this; it’s against his nature.

We are all trained to be competitive, and become good at what we are doing. I became good at all that I was doing, and I prided myself of my achievement. If it was in the martial arts, I prided myself that I was good at that. If I was in games, I was good at that too. If it was at study, I aimed to be good at that as well. We were all trained with this killer instinct, the instinct to win, and win whether by foul or straight play. Mostly, we hope to play straight, at least it gives our ego an even better feeling: I played the game fairly and I won!

 

Sacrifice: I win when I help another become better and win

No, the Lord Jesus says this whole attitude has to change. I don’t seek to bring down the other person, but I win when I help the other person win. We cannot understand that. What? I win when I help the other person win? I lose when the other wins! That is hard for us to understand, isn’t it? We are to have a whole new attitude of life, a whole new society in which the society is built on the principle of encouraging the other person to excellence. It is in building the other person to excellence that we advance together. It’s not just one wins and all others lose, but we all advance together.

For example, I can take one of two ways in being a preacher. I can aim to be so good at the matter of exegesis and preaching that no one, either now or in history, will be able to excel me. I will keep all the secrets of exegesis to myself. I will become the finest exegete and preacher of all time. If I function like this, I am working with the old “me first” instinct. I will tell you what the results are but I won’t tell you how I got there. I will put a patent on my findings so that no one can steal my findings from me. I will be the best, and no one else will make it after me. I would be thinking in the worldly way if I think like this.

What would be the other way? The other way would be this: Having arrived at a reasonable standard, I will build a whole generation of people who can expound the Word of God to people in the days to come. Which do you think is better?

Or if you are an electronics engineer, or if you are an inventor, which will you do? Would you simply put yourself up as the greatest inventor? Or would you teach others how to do the same thing so that the world will benefit from a whole generation of people equally skilled as yourself? That is the difference in attitude.

But we know how it is in China. If we have certain secrets, we keep it only within a select group. And so often, the secrets of surgery, medicine, and various departments were lost because of the competitive attitude. We don’t want others to know. It’s me and my group only, and we keep it to ourselves.

So becoming a Christian means that we must allow God to change our attitude totally, it’s not just “me first,” but by God’s grace, help others to be just as good, maybe even better than myself. How we desire that we can build the whole church up to this great standard, and not just one person achieve it!

But that takes sacrifice. Are you willing to let others have whatever you have, and bring them up to that level of excellence? That is the question. If you are competitive, you are not willing to do that because that means you will be putting yourself down somewhere along the line. But we must come to an entire change of attitude.

By now, we can see that “first” means the greatest, the strongest, the most successful. “Last” are those who are not successful, who are failures in this world. Also, there are the people who are rich, who have position, so that they are first. The poor with no position are the last. But the Lord Jesus tells us that God wants to change all this. The fundamental change of attitude in our hearts through our own repentance must take place.

 

ii) God’s judgment: He turns you upside down to last with no eternal life

Otherwise, what will happen is that God will change things through his judgment. He will straighten everything out. God is a God of judgment, of justice. There are two places in Scripture that illustrate both of these things:

The first is in Acts 17:6 in which the apostles are said to be turning the world upside down. So drastically changed you will be when the Holy Spirit of God comes into your life, that it is nothing short of a revolution. You know that everything has changed in your life. Are you willing to let God change you? That is the message of Christmas.

Look at the worldly person today, who has the “Number 1” attitude, God has no place in his life. He himself is first. If God has any place in his life, it’s because God is useful to him. He even wants to make use of God. “God bless my business, God bless my family.” God even becomes his servant. And if God doesn’t do what he wants, he will say, “God is useless. I don’t have any time for God because I prayed to him and he didn’t answer my prayer.” In other words, If God serves me, then I will put some money in the offering. I will come to church. If God doesn’t serve me, I have no use for God.” You can see that with this kind of “me first” attitude in the world, you cannot become a Christian. There is no way you can become a Christian because even God is second to you.

Just think of the way you live your life. Does God figure in your life? Not likely. When you think of how your future career is going to be mapped out, does God play any role in your life? No. The only role God will play in your life as a non-Christian, as a person who puts yourself first is namely, the way I have just mentioned: “If God blesses me and helps me to have some success, I will remember God. If God doesn’t give me success, I have no time for God.” With this kind of philosophy, do you think you are going to be a Christian?

If you are not willing to change your “Number 1” attitude that “I am first” so that it comes to the point where even God is number 2, and number 3; if you don’t change your mind to become last and God becomes first in your life, God has no time for you. Let me put it as bluntly as that. You can hope to have eternal life but it’s useless.

 

Are you willing to change: Put God first, and yourself last?

The revolutionary change that you can make is this: Put yourself last, but more positively you put God first. So there is the change in your life. Whereas you were first before and everybody else last, now God becomes first and you become last. That is what a Christian is about.

If you don’t do this, then the second way where the first will become last, and the last, first will take place. God will turn your life upside down at the Judgment because your life is not in order. Whether you like it or not, this is God’s world. God is not going to have a world full of people who have this competitive killer instinct. He is going to say either you change, or I will change you and turn you upside down at the Judgment.

The illustration for this is in 2 Kings 21:13. The prophet tells the very religious people of Jerusalem what God will say to them in judgment for putting him last and themselves first: “I will wipe you clean like a dish, and I will turn you upside down!” Don’t think that you are safe because you are religious. You are not one bit safe until there is the revolution inside your heart. Understand well that your religion will not save you. God does not look at your religion, but at the attitude of your heart. If you are religious like Jerusalem, God will clean you out!

So you will have to take one of these two ways: Either you humble yourself now, or God will humble you at the Judgment. The difference is, if you do it yourself, you will be saved. If it happens to you at the Judgment, you are wiped out.

I beg you to understand the deep things of the utmost importance that the Lord Jesus is telling us here. I have tried to illustrate to you the depth and the power of the Lord Jesus’ words, where he has not only shown what is the malaise of the society in which we live in this world, but he has also told us that we can do something to put it right. We can take an act of faith and humble ourselves. When we are willing to turn our own lives upside down, God will do the rest.

God will transform us when we say, “God, I humble myself before you. Please be first in my life. Forgive me that I have treated you as a tool in the past. Forgive me that I have often said, “God, bless me and I will put some money in the church. Forgive me that I have treated you as a servant rather than as God. Now you will be first in my life and I will be the servant. I will be the lowest.”

Then, there will be this revolution. The moment you say that, God’s power comes into your life and changes you. That is called “trans­formation,” or “being born again,” or “regeneration,” whichever word you like to use. If you don’t do this, then God’s judgment will follow in due time. He will bring down the high and lift up the low. You can be sure that there will be justice in this world.

 

4. The beauty of Christmas: Lord Jesus was first but chose to be last

The fourth thing that I would like to say to you about “first” and “last” is that not only did the Lord Jesus tell us these things but as the greatest teacher of all, he showed it in his own life. Most of us are better at talking than at doing, but not so the Lord Jesus. The philosophers knew how to talk, but what was there to be seen in their lives? But Jesus not only spoke the word of truth, he lived it in his own life. That is what Christmas is about.

God sent Jesus to be born in a manger among the animals, a lowly place that does not smell pleasantly. He was not born as an earthly king in a palace, but was born of a peasant woman in a small village in Nazareth, not even in the great city of Jerusalem. All his life he sought no glory and no excellence. Even when the crowds wanted to make him king, he refused the kingship. He was content to go all the way down to lay down his life, crucified naked, as he was incriminated as a counter-revolutionary against the Roman Empire. No man could possibly go more last than that! Jesus went from the “me first” to the last, so that God would raise him up from the last to the first. “God gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess” (Phil. 2:9-11). The power of God is manifested in a life that is willing to be turned upside down, to go from first to last.

 

5. God’s power is in a life that’s willing to go from first to last

Let me read to you a poem in a Christmas card called “One solitary life,” expressing how he was willing to go from first to last:

This is the fifth point: the power of a life that goes from first to last, that is willing to be changed is unimaginable! It’s a matter of history that all the towering electronic warships that are going out on the sea today, all these marvelous planes equipped with electronic gear, all the satellites in the world, all the great kings and rulers that ever lived, no man has ever affected the progress of the human race as this one man who held no degrees, no official position, who had nothing. His only property was his clothing. He didn’t even have his own grave. That is the wonder of this only perfect man, Jesus! His life is explainable only in terms of the power of God. And the power of God is manifested in a life that is willing to be turned upside down, to go from first to last. You try it sometime, and you will see the incredible power of such a life.

Let us now be quiet before God in prayer.