Stovall Weems, a senior pastor at the mega-church Celebration Church in Florida, told his congregation on Sunday that he met Jesus Christ in his home on last week on Good Friday, sporting brown hair and a white robe.
The pastor said that he was surprised by His personality.
For his Easter Sunday sermon, he told the congregation that instead of expositing or explaining the resurrection from Scripture, he was going to tell his own experience with the resurrected Christ.
Weems said in a recording of his church’s Sunday service posted on YouTube:
“I want to talk to you about the experience I had Friday night where I met and I saw our risen Savior.”
Speaking alongside his wife Kerri in an interview format rather than an expository message, the pastor was who was asked questions about his encounter with Jesus said he had never met Jesus like this before.
“The first thing that I was taken back with is like Jesus’ personality. This is how Jesus was when He was on the earth. I heard His voice … the cadence of His voice. I can sense His mood. I can sense His presence like He has a personality. He was fully God but many times we forget the man Christ Jesus. He came as a man so He has His own unique personality so what’s overwhelming is that He was new in that way but at the same time I felt like I’ve known Him forever. I can’t describe the closeness that I felt with Jesus. He didn’t look at me, I never saw the front of his face. He was wearing a white garment. He had brown hair.”
Weems said.
Before sharing what he saw of the Christ in his overwhelming encounter, Weems warned that he knew some people would find his testimony hard to believe.
“Now listen, listen. I understand the consequences that come with making a statement like that, OK? I have been walking with God for 28 years. Our church, Celebration Church here in Jacksonville, we have multiple locations around the world. We’ve been here in Jacksonville for 20 years, nothing like this has ever happened to me. I think the longevity and integrity of our ministry speak for itself. And so I know when people when I heard someone say they met Jesus or they saw Jesus immediately my weird antennas go up,”
he said.
“When this happened Friday night I mean I was really a wreck. Kerri can tell you like I was just kinda sobbing. I couldn’t sleep. This went on into Saturday. Thank goodness you came to church today and not Saturday night because in trying to describe … what I’ve experienced it was just difficult for me to put into the right language. So thank God I have a wife who has a great command of human language,”
he said to cheers from the congregation.
Since he shared his experience there has been a lot of fuss about his story. Some people were quick to say that the story was made up and the query is why would someone make up such a tale?
We hate to pry but there might be several possible reasons. The first is that the individual may be trying to become a part of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a charismatic movement that asserts that Apostles still exist today and, seeing the resurrected Christ is a prerequisite for Apostleship, and so NAR leaders all have their personal testimony of having seen Jesus face-to-face.
Or, this phenomenon often happens when there is strife or inner-turmoil in the church and the spiritual leader is trying to demonstrate their special status as a messenger of God. Or, a book-deal could be in the works, which is often the case.
One thing is for sure, however, we at Hallelujah Magazine cannot justify or refute if Pastor Weems did or did not see Christ face-to-face.
Celebration Church is a member of the Association of Related Churches and aims to lead people to experience a God-First life. Centred in Florida as the home campus, the church has eight different campuses, other locations stretch from Baltimore to here in Zimbabwe.
Watch the video where Pastor Weems says he encountered Christ.
Source: Christian Post (edited)
