The Savior Resting in His Love
(No. 2720)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 31, 1901.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON.
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, EARLY IN
THE YEAR 1859.
"He will rest in His love." Zephaniah 3:17.
ONE of our sweetest hymns commences with this verse —
"How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith
in His excellent Word! What more can He say than to you He has said,
You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?" Well might the poet have put
that question if he had risen up from reading this third chapter of the
prophecy of Zephaniah! O people of God, open your ears and your hearts
while Jehovah thus speaks to you by the mouth of His ancient Prophet,
"Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with
all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your
judgments, He has cast out your enemy: the King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of you: you shall not see evil anymore. In that
day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear you not: and to Zion, Let not
your hands be slack. The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty;
He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest in His
love, He will joy over you with singing." The words are very simple,
but the promises they convey are so weighty that the verses roll along
like the triumphant periods of a jubilant poem! The Truth of God, even
when told in the simplest words, is very much akin to the loftiest
poetry and I might, without the slightest hesitation, declare that
there never was any poem composed by human intellect which could match
for a moment, in the sweetness of its notes, the succession of precious
promises which God here proclaims in the ears of His chosen ones!
We cannot, on the present occasion, enter into the wondrous depths of
the promises here revealed. We would need, indeed, a long period of
time before we would be able to explain them and, possibly, the whole
of life will scarcely be sufficient for us to fully realize these great
Truths of God in our own experience. We will, therefore, at once turn
to the few words I have chosen as my text, "He will rest in His love,"
and we shall consider these words as referring to the Lord Jesus Christ
and as relating to His Divine and matchless love which He has
manifested toward His people in the wondrous works of Grace which He
has accomplished for them and in them.
"He will rest in His love." This short sentence is capable of several
interpretations and each view we take of it has in it something
extremely delightful.
I. Here is, first of all, THE DOCTRINE THAT CHRIST WILL ALWAYS STAY
FAITHFUL TO THOSE UPON WHOM HE HAS SET HIS HEART'S AFFECTION.
The love of human beings is a fitful and flickering flame. It may be
set, for a season, with apparent constancy upon a certain object, but
you can never tell how long it will remain steadfast. However firm,
however true and however fervent it may seem to be–and even may
reallybe–yet trust it not so implicitly as to come under that ancient
sentence, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his
arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord." Trust not too much to any
friend whom you may have! Put not all your confidence in any man, for
the best of men are but men at the best, and the firmest of men are
subject to the infirmities and the frailties of their race!
But God's love is no flickering flame! It does not flare up for a
little while, like the crackling of thorns under a pot, and then die
out in darkness. It is not to be set forth by the image of a fool's
mirth which lasts but for a little season. It begins, it waxes
vehement, it diminishes not, but it grows from strength to strength
till what seemed at first to be but a single spark, becomes a mighty
flame–and what was a flame becomes like the beacon lights of war, and
what was but as a beacon becomes as the sun itself, in the fierceness
of its heat and in the majesty of its goings!
There are some who teach that Christ's love may be set upon a man and
yet that it may afterwards be removed from him. Where, then, remains
the comfort of God's people if their teaching is true? But, thank God,
it is not true, for the promise of the text is that Jesus "will rest in
His love." If their doctrine is according to the Scriptures, where is
the value of Christ's affection at all? In what respects can He be said
to stick closer than a brother? How can it be true that many waters
cannot quench His love, neither can the floods drown it? If these men
are right, must not the Apostle Paul have been wrong when he declared
that he was persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor anything else in the whole of creation should
ever be able to separate the saints from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus their Lord? Shall we imagine that the Apostle was mistaken
and suppose that this erroneous teaching is the Truth of God? Shall we
turn away from the positive testimony of Holy Scripture and believe the
lies of men in its place, especially when that Scripture is itself so
full of consolation to God's people that if it can ever be proved to be
untrue, they may put their hands upon their loins in agony of woe, and
go to their graves full of misery and despair?
But, Beloved, you know right well that Jesus Christ's love, when once
it has engraved your name upon His hand and His heart, will never allow
that name to be erased! You believe and you believe aright, that he who
has a portion in the heart of God has an eternal portion! He who can
claim for himself a share of the Father's love, of the Son's
redemption, and of the Spirit's care, need never be afraid that all the
thievish hosts of Hell shall rob him of his Divine inheritance. For
look here, Brothers and Sisters, what is there to separate you and me
from Jesus Christ's love, which has not been already tried?
Can sin ever make Jesus cease to love me?f so, He would have ceased to
love me long ago. If there is any iniquity that I can commit that would
divide me from Christ's love, I think that I would have been separated
from Him long before this, for, in looking back upon my own life, I am
compelled, with shame and confusion of face, to fall upon my knees and
confess that He has had a thousand reasons for thrusting me out of
doors if He had chosen to do so, and He might have framed millions of
excuses if He had resolved to blot my name out of the Book of Life. He
might have said, "You are unworthy of Me and, therefore, I will be
unmindful of you."
Further, if Christ had intended to cast us away because of our sins,
why did He ever take us on? Did He not know, beforehand, that we would
be rebellious, and did not His Omniscient eyes see all our sins and
detect all our follies? Are we ungrateful? He knew that we would be.
Are our sins extremely heinous? He knew how heinous they would be. He
could foresee all–every spot that was to be upon us, was upon us
before His Omniscient eyes when He chose us. Every fault that we would
commit was already committed in His estimation. He foreknew and foresaw
all, yet He chose us just as we were. If He had intended to abandon us
and cast us away, would He ever have accepted us at all? If Jesus meant
to divorce His bride, foreknowing all her faults, would He ever have
married her? If He determined to cast away His adopted child, since He
knew that child's unfaithfulness, would He ever have adopted him? Oh,
think not, Beloved, that Christ would have done all that He has done
for nothing, that He would have come from Heaven to earth and have even
gone from the Cross to the grave, and allowed His spirit to descend
into the shades of Hades on a bootless errand! Would He not have
started back and said, "I know My bride will prove to be unworthy,
therefore I will not marry her"? But since He hasmarried her and has
put the red ring of His own Atonement on her finger, and has been
faithful to her, what shall ever cause Him to divorce her? What can
ever induce Him to cast from His bosom her whom He died to save? It
must be true that, "He will rest in His love," for He has hitherto
rested in it, though He has had much to mourn over in His chosen ones.
Our sin, then, has not divided and, we believe, never shall divide us
from the Savior's love. What remains? Will sorrow ever separate us from
our Savior? Can tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword separate us from the love of Christ? No,
for all these things do but make the Savior manifest His love to us the
more. If Christ loves His people well in prosperity, He never loves
them any less in their adversities. Do you believe that
Christ loves His children when they are arrayed in purple and that He
will forsake them when they wander about in sheepskins and goatskins,
destitute, afflicted, tormented? If so, you know not the heart of
Jesus. He loves His people well enough everyday–but if He sees them
stretched upon the rack and about to die for His sake, if it is
possible, the infinity of His love must then surpass itself! Well said
the Apostle, when he had mentioned all these sufferings and pains, "No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved
us."
Sin and sorrow, therefore, are perfectly incapable of tearing us from
the heart of Christ, for He must, "He will rest in His love." And this
Truth of God will seem all the more plain and clear if we just pause a
moment and think of our relationship to God the Father and to God the
Son. Is not every Christian, God's child? And did you ever know a true
father who hated his own child? You may have known such a father, but
it was not fatherly for him to hate his own son. Have you known a
father who has cursed his son and driven him from his home–and
declared that he was not his child? You may have known some men of that
kind, or you may have heard of such unnatural creatures, but, mark you,
the father's curse could not make his child not his child–he was still
his father's son, even when he was cursed by him. Not even the foulest
words that ever came from the most embittered heart could ever take
away that child's right to call that man his father–a child is a child
forever if he is once a child–and a father is a father forever if he
is once a father.
Now, Beloved, in the usual course of nature, we find that men will do
anything for their children that they possibly can. Here is a poor
creature, born into the world nearly an idiot–it has not its right
senses–it is nearly blind and deaf, and its parents know that even if
they can bring it up, it will always be a trouble to them. Yet you see
with what studious care the father and mother endeavor to save the poor
child's life. While others say, "If it were to die, it would be a happy
release," both father and mother feel that they would be losers by its
death. "Ah," said one good old divine, "if a father could have a child
that had lost eyes and ears, and feet and hands and though he could not
breathe in a natural fashion, though he could not feed without some
extraordinary means for the digestion of his food–even then his father
would do his best to keep him alive–and so surely shall it be with
that great Father who, when He speaks of Himself, and of us, always
puts His Fatherhood far higher than ours, as Christ did when He said,
'If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good
things to them that ask Him?' And I may truly say if an earthly father
does not wish to lose his child–if he would endeavor to save his
child's life though it was loaded with ten thousand diseases–how much
more shall our Father who is in Heaven see to it that none of His
little ones shall perish, but that every one of them shall be
preserved?" Do you not see that because we are God's sons, we are,
therefore, Jesus Christ's brothers and, "He willrest in His love"?
But there is yet another thought, for we also have a relationship to
Christ and, therefore, "He will rest in His love." We have never yet
heard of a man who hated his own flesh. Strangely wicked as it is, we
have heard of men who have hated their flesh in the mystic sense of the
marriage tie and who have driven their wives from them with all manner
of brutality and cruelty. She whom the husband promised to cherish and
to nourish, he has driven away, yet he has never thus treated his own
flesh. The man may have become cruel and unnatural towards her who is
his own flesh by marriage, but not towards his own literal flesh. Now,
Jesus Christ has taken His people into such a connection with Himself
that they are nearer to Him even than the wife is to the husband–they
are as near to Him as our own flesh and blood are to our own head. What
will not a man do to save his hand, or the least member of his body?
Would he ever cease to care for even the feeblest portion of his frame?
No, men are generally careful enough of their own flesh and blood–much
more, therefore, will our Lord Jesus Christ protect the members of His
mystical body, for we are His fullness, the fullness of Him that fills
all in all. And will Christ lose His own fullness? Shall His body be
dismembered? Shall the head become a bleeding head, and the trunk
become a corpse? Shall any one member be left to die, to burn, to be
destroyed? Oh, no! As surely as we are brought into this relationship
with Christ, so surely are we saved beyond any danger! This is one
meaning of the text and most consolatory to the tried, tempest-tossed
child of God.
II. I think, however, that there is another very sweet meaning to
it–that is, CHRIST HAS LABORED IN HIS LOVE AND HE NOW RESTS IN IT.
Let me draw a picture for you. Here is a man who loves his hearth, his
home, his country, and his Queen. The sound of battle is heard in the
land, so he girds his sword upon his thigh and marches forth to defend
all that is dear to him. He fights, he struggles–his garments are
stained with blood–and he is wounded. It is love–love of his own
safety, of his family and of his country that has made him fight so
bravely. And now that the deed is done, he comes back to his home.
The foe has been swept from the white cliffs of Albion and the land of
liberty is still free–Britons are not slaves. The man retires to his
house and you see how quietly he sleeps, how joyously he sits down
under his own vine and fig tree, none daring to make him afraid. With
what joy does he now look upon the faces of those whom he has defended
and upon the home for which he has fought! What satisfaction does it
give him to know that the honor of his country is still unstained and
his land is still the home of the free! Now he rests in his love–that
which made him fight, now gives him joy–that which impelled him in the
day of battle to do great deeds of heroism is its own sweet reward! Now
he rests because the battle is fought, the victory is won and he,
therefore, rejoices in the very love which once caused him to labor.
Now see the Lord Jesus Christ laboring in His love. Love fetched Him
from His Throne in Heaven. Love disrobed Him of His glories. Love laid
Him in Bethlehem's manger. Love led Him through this weary world for 33
years. Love took Him to Gethsemane. Love oppressed Him till He sweat
great drops of blood. Love made Him the great Standard-Bearer in the
fight. Love made Him stand erect, the focus of the war, when the storm
gathered round His brow and every arrow of the foeman found a target in
His heart. Love made Him–
"Calm 'mid the bewildering cry, Confident of victory."
Love made Him bow His head and give up the ghost, that He might redeem
His people from their sins. Now He is more than conqueror–He rises to
Heaven and He rests in His love! Oh, what a wondrous rest that is! If
rest is sweet to the laboring man, how much sweeter to the bleeding
Man, the dying Man, the crucified Man, the risen Man? If rest is sweet
after toil, how sweet must be the rest of Jesus after all the toils of
life and death, the Cross and the grave! If victory makes the soldier's
return joyous, how joyous must have been the return of that conquering
Hero who has led captivity captive, and received gifts for men! Truly
does our Lord Jesus "rest in His love."
Do you not see that the very thing that drove Him to labor now makes a
pillow for His head? That which made Him strong in the day of battle
makes Him joyous in the hour of victory? And that is the love which He
bears to His people, for, lo, as He sits down in Heaven, He thinks
within Himself, "I have done it, I have finished the work of My
people's redemption. Not one of them shall ever perish. No drop of the
hail of God's vengeance can fall on them, for it has all fallen on Me.
I have been smitten, I have borne the curse and, now, they cannot be
cursed, they are delivered." And then His holy mind roves on in
meditation, "I have taken away the curse, and I have given them the
blessing. I have brought many of them to know and love Me and, in due
season, I will bring all the rest. They shall come that are ready to
perish, for I must have every one of my blood-bought sheep with Me
forever. They shall be blessed on earth and, by-and-by, I shall have
them where I am and they shall feed in these rich pastures. They shall
lie down where the wolf cannot come and where desolation cannot enter.
The time shall come when I shall have their very bones resuscitated,
when their flesh that has lain in the dust, shall live again to be with
Me–and so shall they all, every one of them, body, soul and spirit
regain all the inheritance that they had lost and, with all that double
portion which I have gained for them, share the spoil, and wave the
palm, and be more than conquerors through what I have done for them."
This thought gives sweet rest to the Savior who once labored here below
and who, now, in Heaven, "rests in His love."
III. I find that Dr. Gill gives this as one of the meanings of the
text, for he is always noted for giving a great variety of meanings to
a text. And, sometimes, nobody knows which is the true one. When he is
going to explain a passage of Scripture, he says, "It does not mean
this, it does not mean that, and it does not mean the other." Probably
nobody ever thought it did mean anything of the kind! After he has
mentioned several things which it does not mean, he mentions some that
it maymean, and then, last of all, he tells us what it actually does
mean! He says our text means, "HE SHALL
SOLACE HIMSELF IN HIS LOVE."
There is something very sweet in love. Whether it is sweeter to be
loved or to love, I know not, but, certainly, when the two experiences
meet together, they are like two noble rivers which have flowed through
a rich and fertile country and then combined to make some great lake,
or inland sea–then are they broad waters indeed. Now Christ sees our
love–the love which He has put into us meets the love which He has
poured out towards us–and in both of these He finds a sweet solace. He
solaces Himself in love–this cheers and comforts Him. Some men, when
they would be cheered on earth, drink the wine which stirs their blood.
Some men find comfort in company and the noisy, thoughtless talker
makes them glad. Others, when they would be solaced, turn to
books–these are their joys. Others, when they would be satisfied,
rattle their gold, look over their mortgages, their estates, their
bonds and things of that kind. And there are
some men who in this world have nothing sweeter for solace than the
love of those who are near and dear to them. The man who loves his home
and his family, and finds his little earthly Heaven around his own
hearth is one of the happiest men I know. Treasure that thought for a
moment–and think of Christ as taking delight in His family.
I never yet heard that Christ rests in His power. He has great
power–look what He has done. He has built the heavens. He has
stretched out the earth and He upholds the clouds with His might. But
He never rests there. I know, too, that He has great wisdom–He knows
all things in the ages past, in the time present, and in the centuries
yet to come. He can unravel mysteries and foretell all things, yet I
never heard that He rested in His wisdom. There is a great crowd of
angelic spirits, always waiting in His courts above and He, as King,
sits in the very center of them all. And before Him principalities and
powers cast their crowns–but I never heard that He rested even in
their homage. No, our Lord Jesus Christ is like the man who loves his
family–He rests in the midst of His own beloved ones–His spouse's
bosom, the place where He hears His children cry, where He listens to
their prayers, the door at which He receives their thanksgiving and
bestows His blessing, the house where they wait on Him and He waits on
them, where they commune with Him and He communes with them–that is
the place where He rests! He rests in His love, in the midst of the
objects of His love– there it is that He finds His own eternal
satisfaction, the solace of His heart.
Is not that a sweet thought? It has ravished my soul, while turning it
over, to think that Jesus Christ should ever find His rest among the
poor sons of men! Long ago it was said of Him, "His delights were with
the sons of men," and now that is His rest, too. Oh, how pleasant it is
for us to know that our Lord will not sleep anywhere but in the house
of His Beloved and beneath no other tree will He recline but beneath
the trees of His own right-hand planting! It is very easy for me to say
of Christ, "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
Beloved among the sons," but it is surprising that He should ever say
the same of me! I can say of Him, "I sat down under His shadow with
great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste." But it is amazing
for Him to say the same of me, or to turn to some poor saint and say to
him, "O Soul, you are weary, but you are My rest, and I am your rest.
You are sick, but you are My health, and I am your health. You are sad,
but you are My joy, and I am your joy. You are poor, but you are My
treasure, and I am your treasure. You are nothing, and yet you are My
fullness, and I am your fullness!"
Oh, what a host of precious thoughts we can meditate upon here! We have
started a whole covey of sweet things and we might profitably stand
still and admire them. It is not merely one sweet thought, but many
that are included in this one precious Truth of God, "He will rest in
His love." He never rested till He found that all His love was given to
us and He will never completely rest till all our love is given to Him!
IV. The Hebrew conveys to us yet another idea. In the margin we read,
"HE WILL BE SILENT IN HIS LOVE."
Why is this? What can silence have to do with love? One old divine
thinks that Christ means, by this expression, to say that His love is
so vast that it can be better heard by His saying nothing than by His
attempting to express it. What a great deal Christ has said, in the
Scriptures, about His love, and yet listen, O spouse of Christ, the
love that He has not spoken is ten times more than anything He has yet
said! Oh, yes, there is much love which He has brought out of the
treasure house and given to you, but He has much more like it in that
Divine heart of His. Some drops of His love you have already received,
but those bright clouds on high, those storehouses of His Grace contain
treasures of which you have never yet even dreamed! When you read one
of the promises, you say, "Ah, this is indeed precious!" Yet, remember
that what our Lord has revealed in His Word is not a tenth of what He
has not said! He has said many rich things, but there are still richer
things. He has not said them, He cannot say them because they are not
sayable, they are unutterable, they cannot be declared–at least, not
at present. When you get to Heaven, you will hear them, but you cannot
hear them here.
You know that the Apostle Paul said, when he was caught up to the third
Heaven, he heard words which it was not lawful for men to utter.
Perhaps he then heard more of the Savior's love, as though Christ said
to him, "I tell you this, but you must not tell it to anyone else–it
is not lawful to utter it down below. I have made you a great vessel
and you can hold this Revelation, but as for the rest, they are only
little vessels–do not tell them anymore, it would burst them. Do not
expose them to too great a heat of love, it would consume them–they
would die if they knew more–they cannot understand more. I have told
them so much of My love that if they only understood all I have told
them, they would not be able to live on earth–their hearts would burst
for joy and they would be obliged to flee to Me above. Therefore I tell
them no more, for they cannot bear it."
So that, you see, there is great preciousness in this rendering, "He
will be silent in His love," as if He could not say it, therefore He
would not try to say it. He would just leave it alone. One poet, after
praising God with all his might, finds that he can go no further and
winds up thus– "Come, then, expressive silence, tell His praise." That
is just the meaning of the text, as if Christ would say, "I have said a
great deal, but My people cannot understand. I will say no more. I
shall only now say, 'Come, then, expressive silence, tell My love.'"
There is, however, a meaning that is, perhaps, even more correct. "He
will be silent in His love," may mean that He will be silent about His
people's faults. From the connection of the text, it looks like this.
"The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy:
the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of you: you shall
not see evil any more." It looks as if He meant to say He would be
silent about their sins. There stands Christ in Heaven today, pleading
for His people. Listen! He says nothing to accuse them. Satan may
accuse, but Christ never will. The good that His people do is
magnified, multiplied, perfected and then presented before the Throne
of God–but as for the sins of His people, He has cast them behind His
back and all He says concerning those sins is this, "I behold no sin in
Jacob, neither iniquity in Israel; My anger is turned away from them; I
have blotted out like a cloud their iniquities and, like a thick cloud,
their sins."
Sometimes love makes a man silent. If you hear anything said against
one whom you love and you are asked, "Is it not so?" you say, "Well, I
am not compelled to bear witness against one whom I love and I will not
do so." You know that our law does not demand of a wife that she shall
give evidence against her husband. And, certainly, the Lord Jesus
Christ will never give any evidence against His spouse–"He will be
silent in His love." If He were called upon and asked, "Has Your spouse
sinned?" His declaration would be, "I am the Sin-Offering on her
behalf. I am her Substitute. I have been punished in her place. I can
say, 'You are all fair, My love, there is no spot in you.'" There will
not be a word of accusation from Him! She says of herself, "I am all
black." He will not deny it, but He will not affirm it. He says, "There
is no spot in you" and He goes on to say that she is all fair in His
sight.
O glorious silence! "He will be silent in His love." So I am inclined
to believe it will be at the Last Great Day, when the books shall be
opened. Christ will read out the sins of the wicked recorded against
them, but, as for the sins of His people, "He will be silent in His
love." I sometimes think that it will be so, though I cannot speak with
authority. "No," He will say, "upon you be the curse–you who lived and
died without washing in My blood in the fountain opened for sin and for
uncleanness. But as for these, My people, they have had their sins
blotted out and I will not read what is obliterated. I will be silent
in My love."
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE24.
Verses 1-4. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the
morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they
had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone
rolled away from the sepulcher And they entered in, and found not the
body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much
perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining
garments. Brothers and Sisters, they might have been much more
perplexed if they had found the body of Jesus there, for then His
promises would not have been fulfilled and all their hopes would have
been blighted forever! Unbelief is often the mother of needless
perplexity. The Resurrection of Christ is plain enough to us now, but
to those who had seen Him die and whose faith was so very weak, it was
a cause for perplexity that they could not find His dead body. They
meant to embalm it. They had brought sweet spices with them for that
purpose. It was well that it was in their heart, although it was an
unwise and needless project. Yet I doubt not that the Lord thought
those spices were very sweet and that He accepted them because of the
love they represented and, sometimes, you and I, in our ignorance, have
tried to do for Christ what He would not wish to have us do, but He has
understood our motive and accepted our intention, albeit that there was
a mistake lurking behind it.
5-8. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth,
they said unto them, Why seek you the living among the dead?He is not
here, but is risen: remember howHe spoke to you when He wasyet in
Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of
sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they
remembered His words. It is well to know Christ's words, even though we
often forget them, because we could not remember
them if we had not once known them. Even though our leaky memory lets
so much run through, there will be enough remaining in the soul to come
back with great sweetness, by-and-by, in some time of special need.
Thus, those holy women, who had often ministered to Christ, "remembered
His words."
9-12. And returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things unto
the eleven, and to all the rest It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and
Mary, the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which
told these things unto the Apostles. And their words seemed to them as
idle tales, and they believed them not Then arose Peter, and ran to the
sepulcher. He must go and see for himself, impetuous spirit that he
was. So he "ran to the sepulcher."
12. And stooping down, he beheld the linen cloths laid by themselves
and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. Thus
that notable day wore on. Christ had risen, but His people had not
risen to full belief in Him–they were still in the grave of distress
and doubt, though their Master had left the grave of death.
13-15. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village
calledEmmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And
they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it
came to pass, that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus
Himself drew near, and went with them. Where two, whose hearts are
right, and whose talk is heavenly, keep company with one another,
Christ is very likely to make a third! Sometimes, when He does not come
to one, He reveals Himself to two, as He said to His disciples, "If two
of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask,
it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven. For where
two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst
of them." And often, when two Believers agree in communion, there is a
sweet magnetic force about their fellowship which brings the Savior to
them and retains Him in their company.
16. But their eyes were restrained that they should not know Him. Oh,
these eyes of ours! They let us see a great deal that we had better not
see, but there are some things which we might almost die to see, which
we see not. I doubt not that often, spiritual beings are about us, but
we do not discern them and, certainly, the Master Himself oftentimes
draws near, yet our eyes are restrained and we do not see Him. This may
even happen at the Communion Table–we may see the signs and symbols,
but see not Christ, the signified and symbolized One. It is ill when it
is so.
17-25. And He said unto them, What manner of communications are these
that you have one to another, as you walk, and are sad? And the one of
them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said to Him, Are You only a
stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days? And He said unto them, What things? And they
said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a Prophet mighty
in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief
priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have
crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have
redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since
these things were done. Yes, and certain women also of our company made
us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; and when they found
not His body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of
angels, which said that He was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had
said: but Him they saw not. Then He said unto them, O fools. I feel
sure that He said that word very gently–not as you and I might say it,
in a pet. Yet, truly, as we read the story, we cannot help feeling that
they were very foolish and stupid. Their own tale convicts them. So no
wonder Christ said unto them, "O fools"–
25, 26. And slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken:
ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His
glory? And beginning at Moses–At the very Pentateuch–
27. And all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself We may well wish that we might have been
there. What a privilege it was for those two disciples–a walk and a
talk combined! But what heavenly talk–all concerning Himself! I know
that you, dear Friends, never relish a discourse unless Christ is
foremost in it, but when Christ is the only Subject, and even Scripture
itself is made subordinate to the display of Christ, then are you well
content!
28. And they drew near unto the village, where they went. And sorry, I
have no doubt, they were to do so. One would like to walk on to all
eternity with Christ thus talking by the way!
28-30. And He made as though He would have gone further. But they
constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and
the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them. And it came to
pass, as He sat at meat
with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to
them. That was the old sign, well known to them and to Him–that
blessing and breaking of the bread.
31. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out
of their sight I t is sometimes so with us– we have just recognized
our Lord, and, lo, He is gone!
32. And they said, one to another, Did not our heart burn within us–
Oh, blessed heartburn!
32, 33. While He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us
the Scriptures? And they rose up the same hour–They could not stay
away from their fellow disciples–they must tell such glorious tidings
as they had, so "they rose up the same hour."
33-36. And returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered
together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen,
indeed, and has appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done
in the way, and how He was known of them in breaking of bread. And as
they thus spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them. That is
usually His way–while we are talking about manifestations of Christ in
the past, He often comes again among us and gives us a new revelation
of Himself.
36-41. And said unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified
and frightened, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And He said
unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I, Myself: handle Me,
and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see I have. And
when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet. And
while they yet believed not for joy–That is a singular combination. At
first, they believed not for grief–but now the pendulum swings the
other way–and they believe not for joy! There is a kind of unbelief
that is begotten of excessive delight. We know something to be true and
yet there comes the recoil and the doubt, "Surely it is too good to be
true; can it really be so?" See how Jesus convinced them that He was
not a spirit–"while they yet believed not for joy."
41. And wondered, He said unto them, Have you here anymeat?"Anything to
eat?"
42, 43. And they gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
And He took it, and did eat before them. That was proof positive that
He was still composed of flesh and bones–a real Person–and no
phantom.
44-51. And He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which
were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the
Psalms concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they
might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the
dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you
are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of My
Father upon you: but tarry you in the city of Jerusalem until you are
endued with power from on high. And He led them out as far as to
Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to
pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up
into Heaven. He went away in the act of blessing, and He has never left
off blessing His people from that day to this.
52, 53. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great
joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.
Amen.