Powerful Rev. Billy Graham sermon video segments and transcript snippets

Last updated on 26th Feb 2018

Billy Graham Tribute: The Most Important Moment of Your Life, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OADLU5bzDfc, around 31 minutes. The video has segments of a very powerful sermon by the Late Rev. Billy Graham when he was young and very energetic.

Given below are some very powerful words from this video of Rev. Billy Graham. Note that I view Jesus Christ as a Divine figure but I view other figures from other religions like Hinduism (e.g. Rama and Krishna) also as divine figures (I am a Hindu). So there is a slight difference between my beliefs and Rev. Billy Graham's beliefs as shown in the transcript snippets below. But I deeply respect Rev. Graham's belief.

From around 2:55

.. inspite of our disobedience, inspite of our sins, God loves us. That's the thrilling thing about it. And God loves every person in the whole world with a love that is beyond our comprehension. And God proved His love by giving His son on the cross. If you ever doubted God's love, look at the cross. Because God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. That's the greatest illustration of love in the whole world, is the cross. Because God is saying from the cross, I love you. I love you. I love you. You and I were saved by the cross. Our Lord loves us so much that He gave his only son to die on that cross. Now love is not feeling. You say, I feel I love Him. It is not feeling. Love is doing. Love is a verb. God did something. God gave His love. God commended His love to us [in that], while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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From around 07:30

The question that our generation of young people on the campus are asking today is who art thou Lord? Who is Jesus? Why cannot we escape Him? Is he just a revolutionary hero [or] is He something more? He only lived 33 years. He never travelled more than a hundred miles. He never had any formal education and yet 2,000 years later, an entire generation is talking about Jesus Christ. Some say that He was a madman. Some of the people of His day said He was mad, said He was a maniac. Was He?

There are others that said He was [a] revolutionary. He [had] come to lead a revolution. Was He a revolutionary? In the sense that He changed men's lives, He was. But He never led a revolution against Rome. He never led a revolution against the existing authorities. As a matter of fact, some of them tried to get Him to and some of them thought He was going to, and when they found out that He was building a spiritual Kingdom, they were no longer interested in Him.

And when they tried to tempt Him about that He said bring me a coin and He said whose pictures [are] on that coin? They said Caeser. He said all right. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's and the scripture says they [quit asking] Him questions. They didn't know how to answer that.

Or was Jesus an establishment man? Some people say that He represented the status quo. You know actually we don't know what he looked like. We don't know whether He had a long beard or not. Those are just pictures that artists have painted. We think he did. We don't know  whether He had long hair or not. He probably did because [for] the people of that day, that was the style  but we don't know.
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From around 9:57

What was He? That's the question. Jesus Christ, who are you? Who is Jesus? We can't escape it. We try to run from Him but there He is. He keeps popping up everywhere. Our greatest philosophers write about Him. Our greatest historians write about Him. Our greatest poems and plays are about Him. Our greatest architecture is about [Him. And its] all filled with paintings and pictures about Jesus. You go anywhere and you will see images and art and much of the music has to do with Jesus. [They?] can't escape it.

Well, we know some things about Him. We know he was a man. Jesus was completely human. He was representative of man, because the Bible says He was identified, He was numbered with the transgressors. We know that He was hungry. We know He got thirsty. We know He got tired. We know that He had the joys of friendship. We know that He wept at the tomb of a dead loved one. We know that He had all the characteristics of a man and yet, very interestingly, the Bible says that He never committed a sin.

In fact, He stood in front of the people of His generation and He said, I have never committed a sin. He said, have any of you, my neighbours, ever seen me commit a sin? They couldn't say a thing. Wouldn't that be something for a man to come along thirty three years of age and say, who of you have ever seen me commit a sin? Well, I'll tell you if I said that, all my team would jump straight up and say, I have. My wife's here.

All of us are sinners. But Jesus was tempted in every point [..]. He went through every temptation you have ever been through. There isn't a trial or a testing or a temptation that Jesus has not been through before you, and He resisted them and overcame them all. Everyone. He was a man just like you.

But He was more than that. He claimed to be the unique, only begotten, incarnate son of God. In fact, He claimed pre-existence. The scripture says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Before time began, He existed.

He said before Abraham was, I am. I am in eternal existence. No wonder they got angry. No wonder they threw stones at Him. No wonder they tried to kill Him. And no wonder they eventually did crucify Him. He stood and said I am God!

Was He? Was He who He claimed to be? The son of the living God?
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From around 20:30 in the video, Rev. Billy Graham says:

And don't you black people [referring to African-Americans and Africans, I guess] ever forget one thing. The man that helped Jesus carry that cross was a black man. [Applause]. And don't ever forget another thing. Jesus belongs to Africa as much as He does to Europe and Asia. He was born in that part of the world that touches Africa, and Asia and Europe.

And Jesus was not a white man like me. Nor was He as black as some of you. We don't know what the colour of his skin [was] but it must have been a dark colour like the people of his day. Because he was a man like them. Don't ever say it is a white man's religion or a black man's religion. It is a world religion. He belongs to the world. [Applause]
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Around 24:59

Who art thou Lord? Jesus Christ, are you who you say you are? This is the question that everyone of you today are going to have to answer. Who is Jesus?

If Jesus claimed to be God knowing He wasn't God then He is a liar. And we will have to say, Jesus you are a liar. You are a fraud and a hoax and the biggest fraud in the history of the human race.

Or if Jesus thought He was God and did not know the [difference?] then he desperately needed mental health. He needed several psychiatrists.

The third alternative is that He was who He claims to be - God in the flesh. I believe that the evidence is overwhelming that He is who He claims to be - the son of the living God. But I cannot prove it scientifically.

But I can prove it by the lives that He transforms every day. I can prove it because in my heart I don't say, I think, I hope. I say, I know.
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[I thank Late Rev. Billy Graham and have presumed that he (and his heirs) will not have any objections to me sharing the above transcript snippets from their video, on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]