A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1875,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when
the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the
Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said unto them, Peace be
with you." John 20:19.
WE do not wonder that when certain devout Greeks came up to keep the
feast at Jerusalem they said to Philip, "Sir, we would see Jesus." Who
would not want to see Him? Who that has been redeemed by His precious
blood does not long to behold Him? As a child pines for its mother, so
have we been sick with strong desire to behold our Lord! Yet to see the
King in His beauty with these eyes of ours is denied to us for the
present. But the reasons for delay are so gracious that we are well
content to tarry. It is better for us that the bodily Presence of our
Lord should be withdrawn, for otherwise the Comforter would not come
unto us and the Comforter, even the blessed Spirit, brings us richer
gifts than even the personal Presence of Christ could have conferred!
Still, reasons cannot utterly remove longings, and we would still be
glad to behold our Lord. Is it not natural that a soldier should wish
to hear his Captain's voice? At least there is something excusable
about it, if, every now and then, we dare to wish that we could have a
glimpse, even if it were ever so short, of our own Well-Beloved,
altogether lovely Lord. If we could but catch a glimpse of that face
whose brightness outshines the sun, how it would stimulate us! But,
Brothers and Sisters, it must not be. Until He, Himself, shall come, or
till He shall take us up to be with Him where He is, we must be content
with faith and postpone our desires for sight.
So far as the needs of the Gospel kingdom are concerned, the need for
eye-witnesses is over. Apostles who had seen the Lord are required no
more. Forty days of our Savior's tarrying here below sufficed to let a
sufficient number of persons fully assure themselves that He had
actually risen from the dead. And Jesus took great care that there
should be left behind a body of evidence concerning the actual
resurrection of His body which would render that fact indisputably
certain to all candid minds. Probably there is no statement of human
history which is better sustained by evidence than this fact–that
Jesus of Nazareth who hung upon the Cross and died, did afterwards rise
again from the dead!
The time of eye-witnesses is now over. More evidence would be
superfluous and we are now in the mid-ocean of faith. The Lord knows
that sight interferes with faith, and, therefore, He does not give us a
mixture of the two. We do not walk by sight and faith, but, "we walk by
faith, not by sight." To let us occasionally see, would, in fact,
remove us out of the realm of faith and bring us down from the high
position of Believers to the low platform of sightseers. Adieu,
therefore, for a while, O Sight! Yet, dear Brothers and Sisters, there
are spiritual visits from Jesus which are more than sufficient
substitutes for His bodily Presence and these we may still desire and
expect.
Christ may be really present where He is not materially present! There
is a discerning of the Presence of Christ which we must all have,
especially when we come to the communion table, for we are told that he
who there discerns not the Lord's body eats and drinks unworthily.
There is a discerning of the Lord's Presence in the midst of His people
which is essential to the power of our assemblies. I pray that we may
have this, even now, and if we do, we shall not be a whit behind those
who saw Jesus with their eyes and heard Him with their ears! I do not
think there is any privilege which the actual bodily Presence of Christ
could bestow which we may not obtain at this moment by the actual
spiritual Presence of Christ, if we do but exercise faith in Him as
being in the midst of us.
He has said, "Lo, I am with you always," and this is the pledge of
every conceivable good. Concerning this Presence I shall speak, using
the story as told by the Evangelists as a sort of type of that
spiritual communion which I hope we may now realize.
I. Our first point this morning shall be, THERE IS A PECULIAR MANNER IN
OUR LORD'S COMING TO HIS DISCIPLES. You will see, first, that He comes
gladly to them. I am sure He came gladly, for He came so soon and so
often. First, He appeared to Mary Magdalene, then to Simon, then to the
two at Emmaus and then to the 11 at Jerusalem. There are at least four
times in a day in which the Risen One seeks His Brethren. These visits
of His were in different places, somewhat remote from each other. It
was a busy day with Him, this first day after He had risen from the
dead! How true it was after His Resurrection, even as it was in ages
long ago, that His delights were with the sons of men.
He evidently loved to be where His people were. He might have gone away
and spent the 40 days in the desert, triumphing on the scene of His
former conflict. Or He might have surveyed the earth in lonely travel,
but instead He spent His sacred leisure with His people. And on the
first day after He had risen from the grave we have record of no less
than four interviews which He had with His disciples. Remember that on
each occasion He came right willingly and showed Himself freely.
Magdalene, it is true, went to the tomb seeking Him, but He might
readily have remained unknown had He so desired.
I know not where Simon was when his Lord met him, but he, also, did not
find Him as the result of search. As for the two disciples at Emmaus,
they were going away from Jerusalem and evidently were not seeking Him,
yet He joined Himself to their company. And the 11 had met to console
each other, but not to meet with Jesus–that was a matter beyond their
expectation. The doors were shut. No sentinel stood ready to look for
the appearing of the Lord Jesus, but He came to them all of a sudden,
an uninvited guest! I gather from this, Beloved, that our blessed Lord
delights to manifest Himself to His people even now, for we know that
He is the same as always.
After a spiritual manner He is glad to come and sup with us that we may
sup with Him. He is not reluctant to visit the places where His people
assemble. It is the joy of His soul to look those in the face for whom
He shed His blood and to hear their prayers and praises and accept
their offerings. You have not, today, therefore, in the prayer which I
trust you are breathing to Him, to urge an unwilling guest to come
where He cares not to be. You have not to lay hold of Him and constrain
Him, saying, "Abide with us." He will be glad to reveal Himself to you
as He does not unto the world. Jesus comes cheerfully where He is
cheerfully received. He even comes to those who invite Him not and,
therefore, He will surely turn aside and tarry with you who are longing
for fellowship with Him.
He came on that occasion, also, to those who were quite unworthy of so
great a privilege–for who were those eleven? God forbid we should say
a hard word against those honored men, but in reference to their Master
they had not behaved as they should have done. It is written, "Then all
the disciples forsook Him and fled." Among that 11 there was not one
who had stood up in his Lord's defense, not even the man who had leaned
his head upon His bosom. No, one who was not the least among them had,
with oaths and cursing, denied Him! They had not forgotten Him or
renounced His cause, or else they would not have met as they were
doing. But they had all disbelieved the promise of His return, or else
they had not met in fear and trembling as they did that night.
I think some leaders would have refused to acknowledge such followers,
or at best would have sent them cold commands and denied them their
company till they were in a better spirit. Our Master came to His
cowardly, faithless disciples and stood in the midst of them uttering
the cheering salutation, "Peace be with you!" My Soul, why should He
not come to you, though you are the most unworthy of all whom He has
bought with His blood? Though you assuredly have been unfaithful,
cowardly and unbelieving, yet even upon you may His light arise and
into your ears may He speak the peaceful benediction, even as He did
unto the eleven. This ought to be a point of great comfort to you, this
morning, and great incitement to hope that you will obtain the Lord's
spiritual Presence, unworthy though you are.
Note again, the manner of His coming. He came to the full assembly of
the Apostles and their companions, after He had been seen by the few.
That is to say, first one had seen Him, then another one. And then
two–and then the full quorum of the 11 and they that were with them
were favored with His company. I am glad, my Brothers and Sisters, to
know that this morning early, soon after break of day, a few of the
household of faith met under this roof and found their Master among
them displaying His love. I know, also, that a second time, before we
assembled in this upper room for worship, there was in the basement
below another company gathered together, who sought and found our Lord.
And, moreover, one at least is here who saw Jesus early this morning in
his own chamber while privately worshipping.
These are good tokens, my Brethren, for now that we have all come
together, many more than 11, and now that all our hearts are eager
after Him, we shall surely meet with Him! Since the Brothers and the
Sisters say, "We have seen Him
this morning. We saw Him in our chambers. We saw Him as we walled to
the house of prayer. We met Him in the early morning Prayer Meeting,"
this is good news to us and confirms our hope that He will come to us,
also. Yes, Beloved, He will come to the feast! Even now I see Him and
His Presence makes my heart burn within me!
Our Lord came to His disciples when they were met together quietly,
secluded from the world, shut in as much as they could be from its
cares and distractions. The 11 and the more trustworthy Brethren had
appointed this midnight rendezvous for no purpose but that of quietly
considering their condition, cheering each other's hearts and waiting
upon God. They had nothing to buy or sell, or debate upon. They had
laid aside business cares and domestic troubles and then their Master
came. It is a good thing for the saints to be shut in and the world
shut out. I hope we are in that position now. You must not expect Jesus
to show Himself to you if your heart is at home with the children, or
away at the workshop, or traveling to and fro through the earth,
seeking after vanity!
But with the doors all shut about us, even in this great Tabernacle we
shall see our Beloved. If we can but shut the world out we may expect
to feel His Presence and to have Him breathe upon us as He did upon
those of old. Not in the noisy street, but in the quiet chamber, Jesus
comes. Not at the market, but in the meeting. Not in the street, but in
the sanctuary will His gathered people have their clearest sights of
Him.
Having all met together, the next noticeable point as to the Lord's
coming was that they were all thinking about Him and talking about Him.
The uppermost subject was Jesus whom they had followed as their Master
and whom they had seen die–and of whom it was said that He had risen
from the dead. I suppose they prayed together, but I am sure their
prayers all had reference to Him. I do not think they sang, but if they
did, I think they must have selected a Psalm which had an evident
allusion to Him. Some of them may have spoken. I have no doubt Simon
Peter did, but it must have been to tell how the Lord had revealed
Himself to Him and was risen, indeed!
And Magdalene in that quiet assembly may have, again, told of the
vision of angels which she saw and how she met the Master and mistook
Him for a gardener. And now there come in two Brothers, sweating from
their rapid journey from Emmaus, who are just in time before the
assembly breaks up to repeat the same gladsome tidings! Everything that
night was about Jesus, directly and distinctly about Him. There were no
discussions as to doctrines and no questions about ordinances. They
spoke wholly of Jesus who died, Jesus who was said to have risen, and
they said one to another, is it, indeed, so? Thus while all their
hearts and tongues were taken up with Him, Jesus manifested Himself to
them.
Now I hope our Lord will come this morning, for I know some who think
less and less every day of everything but Jesus. They now account a
sermon to be precious or to be vile in proportion as it is full of Him,
and reckon a day well spent or ill just in proportion as they have
spent it with Him. He is the Alpha and Omega, head, front, chief, Lord,
all, yes, All in All to us! And if there are many such present today,
you may depend upon it, Jesus will not stay away and we shall feel the
delights of His fellowship! Still, someone will say, "Perhaps He will
not come here, for there are many barriers and we, ourselves, are not,
perhaps, in the very best condition to receive Him."
Stop, Brothers and Sisters, and ask yourselves–were there no
difficulties then? The doors were shut and the disciples were in fear.
I do not know how Jesus came into the room! Some think He passed
through the closed door by miracle, albeit that his body was
substantial flesh and bone. Others suggest that He opened the door by
miracle and then it closed again. I care not how, but there He was,
though the doors were shut! And I know this, that whatever doors there
may be between my Lord and my soul, though they were doors made of
seven times plated steel, He could pass through them or could open them
to get at my heart when it longs after Him!
Brethren, if there are mountains between you and Christ, behold, He
comes leaping like a roe or a young hart over the separating hills!
Nothing can keep Him back from you except yourself–and if you will
that He should come–He wills to come and is on His way, even now. No
considerations of domestic suffering or of personal pain. No
remembrance of the trials of the week, or even the present temptations
of Satan shall avail to keep back your Lord and Master! Surely you are
aware He can make your soul like the chariots of Amminadab! But perhaps
you are afraid He will not visit you because you have a fear which you
cannot shake off.
So had the disciples, or they would not have closed the doors so
carefully. They feared the Jewish mob which might try to slay them as
they had done their Lord! And though you may be fearing the troubles of
the week before you, the Lord will not despise you for it. Perhaps some
very heavy cloud hangs over your spirit right now. Well, your Lord can
pierce through clouds! Does not the sun look forth from the heavens
though the morning is lowering and dreary? Shines
he not even though the fogs and mists gather about our city? And Jesus
comes, though sins encompass us and doubts and fears and cares hang
thick about our path!
He comes as the dew which waits not for man, neither tarries for the
sons of men. I see no reason why, now, at this very instant, we may not
hear the voice of our Beloved! Blessed Lord, we beseech You to come,
for come You can, as well we know! At favored times I have felt as
though His very shadow were over me, as though the touch of His right
hand were upon me and I heard Him say to me, "Fear not, I am He that
lives and was dead." And why not again? Why not now? There are many
reasons which make us hope that we shall, this morning, behold Him! Let
us look up, and with one hearty cry, "Come, Savior, and reveal Yourself
to us now as You do not unto the world!"
II. Secondly, OUR SAVIOR HAD A PECULIAR MANNER WHEN HE WAS COME, so, if
He is here, this morning, we may expect Him to be here in something
like the following fashion. He stood in the midst of them. He stood,
suddenly stood–where they had seen no one the moment before–He stood,
plainly revealed. He did not flash across the room like a meteor, but
He remained in one position as though He meant to tarry for a while. He
stood in the midst–He took the place which a teacher should occupy,
the position which naturally belongs to the Master and Lord.
I rejoice to think of my Lord Jesus as taking the midst of the circle
when He visits His Brethren. I love the name of Calvin, but I always
regard him as sitting on one side of the room. And I love the name of
Wesley, but I regard him as occupying another side place in the
assembly. There are many preachers in the Church, but not one of them
is in the midst of the family circle of the redeemed. The Lord, alone,
is there–the center of all hearts. Others are present and they shine
with differing lights, but He is the sun! He is the center and ruler of
the system of His Church.
This morning, in addressing you, I stand in body in your midst, but no
doubt my preaching does not consort with the experiences and feelings
of all present. I must stand on one side, but if my Lord will reveal
Himself to you, I am sure we will all give Him the chief place! He will
be the center of all our loves and delights. I would not yield
precedence to you, Brothers and Sisters, in my desire to honor my Lord
as the chief Beloved of my soul, and I feel sure that whatever your
condition, you all agree to magnify Him and are all glad to look in the
same direction, namely, to Him alone. Though our views may sometimes
differ, yet our views about Jesus are the same, and our hearts' best
affections all unite in Him. Well, then, if He is here, this morning,
we shall all feel that we find a common meeting place in Him, that our
confidence is in Him, our consecration is to Him, we belong to Him, He
belongs to us and we are happiest among the happy because He gathers us
all around His loving heart.
When He stands in the midst, the next thing we find is that He speaks,
and His word is, "Peace be with you." The Presence of Christ, this
morning, will be signaled by the bestowal of a deep sense of peace. You
will not be able to tell one another why you feel such profound quiet,
but it will vividly come before you that Jesus loved you from before
the foundations of the world, that your names are engraved upon His
hands, that He has bought you with His precious blood, that you are
near and dear to Him and that where He is, there you shall be, also,
and your souls will feel as if they were more than content. Your
experience will be that of the Psalmist when he said, "My soul is even
as a weaned child."
It is a glad hour when we need nothing more, but are filled with all
the fullness of God! When we can heartily say, "Whom have I in Heaven
but You, and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside You?"
Cares are gone, delight is come, longings are satisfied and desires
fall asleep on His bosom, when Jesus is present! No sound of war is in
the camp, nor voice of them that mourn. The time of the singing birds
is come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. After
observing that our Lord spoke, we next find that He showed–showed
Himself to His disciples. Jesus did not come into their midst to show
them a new thought, a philosophic discovery, a deep doctrine, a
profound mystery, or, indeed, anything but Himself. He was a sacred
egoist that day, for what He spoke of was Himself and what He revealed
was Himself.
What a sight was that for the disciples! They saw the very Christ! They
had seen Him for three years before, but not as one who had been dead
and passed through the sepulcher! And now He stood before them, as the
First-Begotten from the dead. The most conspicuous things He showed in
Himself were His wounds–His hands, His feet, His side. Oh, if my Lord
is present here this morning, the chief object of faith's vision will
be Himself–and the most conspicuous point in Himself will be the
emblems of His passion! The mind cannot contemplate a more blessed
object than the wounds of Jesus–founts of redemption, doors of eternal
life, sources of hope, scale of Heaven!
Look, you saints, look even now to your crucified Savior! As far as He
enables you, come close to Him and put your finger into the nail
prints, and say, "My Lord and my God"! Those sacred scars of His are
the sure tokens of sin forgiven,
punishment borne by the Substitute and the soul forever emancipated
from her slavery! This is what Jesus does when He comes to us in
spirit–He makes Himself more dear than ever by fuller and more
condescending discoveries of His love, so that we know and believe the
love which He has towards us. In so doing our Lord opens up the
Scriptures. He did so to the eleven. Jesus Christ's Presence is always
known by His people by the value and the beauty which they are led to
attach to the Scripture at such times.
The Bible is one book in the dark and another book in the light. Do you
not, sometimes, take up the Scripture and as you read it, feel that it
is like reading any other book, only that it involves a responsibility
which another book does not bring upon you? At such seasons you get no
sweetness out of it, but rather bitterness. But when Jesus takes the
Book, He looses the seven seals and with His finger lights up every
line and bids you look, if you will, through the hole in His hand and
read the promises in that fashion! Ah, how they glow and glisten! Then
the Book talks with you and you detect the Voice to be that of the
Beloved Himself!
There is life in the Lord because Christ is there who is the Way, the
Truth, and the Life–and is, Himself, the eternal Logos, the true Word
of God. Yes, Jesus Christ's Presence never teaches a man to despise
Scripture and look to inner light, or personal revelation–for much of
supposed special revelation is the child of superstition and
conceit–whereas in the Scriptures we have a more sure word of
testimony. The more light a man has directly from the Spirit, the more
he prizes the light of the Spirit in the Word. And the more truly he
gets into communion with the unseen Christ, the more does he delight in
the Truths of God as revealed to him in the pages of Inspiration. May
we know Christ's Presence by that sign and token this morning!
Dear Friends, the Lord's Presence among His followers that day had this
peculiarity about it, again, that then they forgot all their fears. As
He had given them peace with God, so now He puts aside the fear of the
Jews and every other fear which had distressed them. They had been
frightened, at first. They thought He was a spirit, but now, as they
gathered about Him and saw Him eat with them, they gathered around Him
as sheep around a shepherd and they felt at home. I am sure, as they
went to their houses, they had no fears of Jews as they passed through
the midnight streets. And when they reached their doors they felt
joyous and light of heart. Whatever their pecuniary circumstances may
have been, they had no longer any care, for they had seen the Lord!
Jesus Christ's Presence will be known to you this day by the forgetting
of your cares. There is a text in Solomon where he says, "Give strong
drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that are of
heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and renumber his
misery no more." The love of Jesus is that blessed strong drink whose
Presence is the wine of which if a man will drink, he shall forgot his
misery and shall remember his sorrow no more! If Jesus Christ does but
give to the man of downcast spirit, the spiced wine of His pomegranate
by making him feel that He is near him and that He loves him–if He
does but make him conscious that the Redeemer's self is no fiction but
a very present Friend and Helper–then whatever the trial may be, he
shall bear it readily! The cross shall cease to be a load and the road
beneath his pilgrim foot shall become smooth.
Brethren, we cannot enjoy, as yet, the Presence of Christ corporeally,
but I have already shown you that all the blessings which His bodily
Presence could bestow, we can realize if our Lord, after the same
fashion, shall be present with us spiritually today.
III. Now thirdly, THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST WITH HIS DISCIPLES EXCITED
VARIOUS EMOTIONS. These emotions may be excited by His spiritual
Presence quite as readily. At first they were terrified, for they
thought Him a spirit. It is a sad sign of man's depraved nature and of
his gross carnality that the presence of a spirit is the source of
alarm to him. If we were more spiritual than we are, we should not fear
to meet beings of our own order, but should delight to think of the
presence of disembodied spirits and should be glad enough to commune
with them!
Because the disciples were unspiritual they were alarmed and when the
alarm ceased a little, Jesus said to them, "Why are you troubled? And
why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" I suppose they began to think of
their ill conduct to their Master and conscience made them tremble. We
are told by Mark that He also upbraided them with their unbelief and
hardness of heart. In gentle tones He chided them for having been so
unbelieving and they must have felt this, also, to be a source of
troubled thoughts.
Meanwhile they doubted whether it could be the risen Savior. But when
they were convinced by indisputable signs, they greatly rejoiced and
almost at the same time the very vividness of their joy blinded them
into another doubt. Like a
pendulum, they swung from joy to unbelief! After doubt went, they
rejoiced, and then wonder came, and then doubt again, so that they
scarcely knew where they were, they were in such a state of excitement!
John, if you notice, gives a very calm account of it all, for he looked
at it rather from Christ's point of view than from the disciples' and,
having had his head so lately on Christ's bosom, he was, perhaps, more
believing than the rest. Luke's picture of it shows us the contending
emotions at work in the breasts of the assembled Brothers and Sisters,
for Luke was a physician and accustomed to watch symptoms and phases of
feeling. He looked at it from the human side and, therefore, he gives
us a fuller description of the tossing to and fro, the hopes, fears,
joys, sorrows, questions and comforts of the hour.
Well, we will leave the 11 and come to ourselves. Suppose, a moment,
that our Lord were actually to appear among us this morning? I will not
say I wish He would, because we know Him no more after the flesh and
there is no blessing which His corporeal Presence could bestow but what
we have already in His spiritual Presence. But if He were to come, my
Brethren, what would be our state of mind towards Him? I hope we should
not be terrified. I think the most of us who believe in Him would be
more likely to be overjoyed than at all frightened, but I am sure we
should all be filled with the profoundest awe.
The sight of HIM! Our Master and Lord! Should we not, like John in
Patmos, fall at His feet as dead? Would not the bliss of that vision be
too great for these frail bodies? At any rate, we would devoutly bow
the knee before Him and reverently adore Him! And oh what adoration
would we give to the Lamb that once was slain! To that dear and ever
blessed Son of God who has washed us from our sins in His own blood!
Brethren, we would turn this Tabernacle into a temple and this hallowed
hour into a fragment of Heaven's eternity! If our Lord would but come
here and show Himself among us, what overflowing love should He have
from us! How would our hearts melt while He spoke! Brothers and
Sisters, He is here!
Let us give that loving adoration to Him even now! Let us bow before
Him and with prostrate reverence of heart worship the Divine Son! Why
should it not be so? Brethren, may the Holy Spirit lead you into the
depths of devotion now! I have no doubt we should feel a marvelous
degree of serene joy to think that at length we were with our Lord.
When we went home and told our friends who were not here, we would say
to them, "We have had some sweet Sundays, but we have never before had
such a Lord's-Day as this, for He who is Alpha and Omega walked among
us and spoke with us! We forgot Brother Spurgeon–he went back to his
seat and held his head in delight–we thought no more about him, for
his Lord absorbed our attention! The joy we had in seeing Jesus was
worth waiting for."
Well, dear Friends, we shall not have our Lord's crucified body here so
as to feel peace from the sight of our eyes and the hearing of our
ears, but He is here, really. And all the facts which cluster around
His Presence which would be legitimate reasons for peaceful joy, we
have already, for He has died and redeemed us and He has gone into His
Glory! And remember, He is pleading for us and He is coming again to
take us Home to Himself! These are, by His Grace, the fundamental
reasons for peace. We have all the real causes of joy that we should
have if the Man of Nazareth did stand in our midst! Therefore let us be
calmly glad and wholly at rest this morning. God help us to be so!
Surely, also, many would be melted down with deep contrition in our
Redeemer's Presence. Some of us would have to say, "Lord and Master,
have You come to ask an account of our stewardship? We are ashamed to
look You in the face, we have done so little for You." There is one who
might say, "I have been a member of a Church for years, but I have
neither helped in the school, preached in the villages, visited the
sick nor rendered any service whatever. I have eaten the fat and drank
the sweet in the House of the Lord, but that is all that I have done."
Brothers and Sisters, here, before the spiritually present Lord you may
make the same confessions and be humbled on account of them. I wish you
would.
Though Jesus is not here with that dear face to tenderly chide you, yet
He is here, by His blessed Spirit, to gently remind you of your
forgotten obligations. By His wounds and by His bloody sweat, I do
entreat you to be loiterers no longer, but go work in His vineyard and
cease not till life's sun goes down! "Ah," says one, "but if our Lord
were here, I would tell Him my great trouble and ask for His sympathy
and help. I would come to His feet and beseech Him to save my husband
and to convert my ungodly son." Do it, Sister, do it NOW, for He will
hear you as assuredly as if we heard His footsteps in these aisles!
His Spirit, who has put the desire into your soul, is the pledge of His
Presence. Breathe the prayer and expect the blessing and your
expectation shall not fail. I hear another Believer cry out, "Ah, if my
Lord were here before me, I would pour out my glad soul in praise and
tell Him how I love Him! I would kiss His feet and wash them with my
tears."
Do it NOW, my Friend, for though you have not the flesh and blood of
Christ present, yet Jesus in spirit is here and though His body is up
in Glory, yet your tears and thankfulness will reach Him and be as
acceptable to Him as if He were here in body! Even now His heart will
accept the emotions of your soul! Let them flow out before Him as
perfume from the flowers.
"Ah," says one, "if I did but see the Lord I should leave this
morning's assembly feeling that I could now lead a higher life than
ever I had led before. I could not look at Him without saying, 'You
altogether lovely One, I pledge myself to You, for You to live, for You
to die and all I have and all I am shall be Yours forever.'" Beloved,
do it unrestrainedly and unfeignedly even NOW! Do it now, I say, for He
will just as well accept you, looking out from the Glory Land above, as
though He looked down upon you from this platform!
I wonder what the scene would be with some hypocrites who are present,
if Christ were to come. Ah, how they would wish they had never made a
profession of religion! Oh Judas, Judas, how would you bear to see the
risen glory of Him whom you betrayed? Are you here this morning, Judas?
And you, vacillating Pilate, who knew the right but did the wrong–how
will you meet the Man in whom you found no fault but yet condemned to
die? There may be many here who have despised Him, who have reviled His
people and ridiculed His Gospel, albeit that Jesus shed His blood for
the sons of men!
Well, although Jesus is not here in body, yet will He soon come in
Person to judge the quick and dead! And if you dare not meet Him now,
how will you meet Him then? Thus says the Lord, prepare for His advent,
for behold He comes to judge mankind, and woe onto those who shall be
found wanting in the day of His appearing.
IV. The last thing of all is this. Jesus Christ, when He came among His
disciples, LEFT CERTAIN PERMANENT GIFTS which also can be realized by
His spiritual Presence. One of the most precious gifts He left them was
the realization of His Person. Those who saw Him that day never thought
of Him, from then on, as a mere historical person, or a dream, or a
phantom. You have read a great many histories but you have never
realized the persons of history as you have realized your own father
and mother and children. But the disciples must have realized Christ,
for they saw Him and some of them touched Him and put their finger into
the print of the nails.
Now, it is very desirable that we should, all of us, realize the
reality of Jesus Christ as God and Man, and we can do it, this morning,
if He will come and overshadow us with His Presence. There are some of
us to whom Christ has been a world more real than ourselves, for we
have sometimes scarcely known whether we were in the body or out of the
body, when He has been near. But we have always known whether He was in
the body or out of the body. We have felt as if wife and father and
mother were shadows that would pass away–but we have realized the
eternal existence of Christ and have known that He could not pass away.
And so spiritually we have grasped Him more firmly than we have our own
friends and kin.
The most real thing under Heaven to my soul is the Lord Jesus Christ!
Brethren, can you all say that? If you can, then Christ has been
present with you this morning. I do not say that I can use this
language always. Alas, alas, when my Lord has gone, it is not so with
me! But when I know He is near, there is no force that does so
completely constrain me, no impulse that does so utterly hold me
spellbound as the impulse that arises from His Presence, and the
magnificence that flows out of His love shed abroad in my soul. Every
child of God knows it is so and thus it is clear that without seeing
Christ with the eyes, you can obtain the blessing of realizing Him.
Next He gave to them all a commission, He said, "Go you into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature." He has never laid His
hand on your shoulder, my Brother, and said, "Go and tell the Gospel to
poor sinners." He has never touched you, my Sister, and said, "Woman, I
have sent you to bring your companions to Me. Go and tell them of My
love!" No, but He has virtually done it by the commission which He gave
to all His disciples! And He does it powerfully and specially by His
Spirit to many of us whenever we realize His Presence. We cannot sit
down at the feet of Christ without feeling that we must work for Him! I
defy any man to live near Christ and to be lazy! Our Lord walks a smart
pace and if you will keep company with Him you must go His rate. But if
you loiter and linger and waste time, Christ will be on ahead and leave
you to yourself.
I pray Him to commission some of you this morning! I tried last Sunday
morning to call out young heroes for Christ. I do not know whether the
Lord called them out by me or not, but I pray that Jesus would do it!
If today He should appear, the Crucified One, with face more marred
than that of any man–with pierced hands, with side opened by the deep
gash–if He should speak personally to each of you, and say, "My Son,
My Daughter, go and serve Me, from this day, until I come," with what
energy would you go forth to His service, even if it were to the ends
of the earth!
The last gift He gave them was He breathed on them. His breath was the
Spirit of God. This was the first drop of the shower of the Spirit
which afterwards was shed so plenteously at Pentecost. He breathed on
them and though they did not get the fullness of the Spirit, yet they
obtained a measure of it and they became qualified to fulfill their
commission. Oh that He would breathe the Spirit upon us now! No, we
need not ask for it, Beloved, for our Lord has given the Spirit once
and for all to all His people! He has baptized His Church into the Holy
Spirit and into fire–and the Spirit remains with us always–only you
must believe the might which that Spirit bestows upon you.
Oh Brother, oh Sister, I beseech you do not estimate yourself according
to your ability, according to your experience, your learning and the
like, but according to that Divine energy which rests upon you if you
are called of God to service! What are the powers within? They are
feebleness itself! But the power from above is the power of God! Gird
on this mystic belt, this Divine Omnipotence, and if you know how to
wear it by faith, you shall break through a troop and leap over a wall.
"All things are possible to him that believes."
May Jesus Christ, then, may His Spirit be so among us that each one of
us may be conscious of obtaining a fresh anointing this very morning!
And in that strength we shall go forth to new service for the glory of
God. May God bless you for Jesus' sake. Amen.