Ministry of Christ

We should notice … in this passage, the almighty power of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see sicknesses and devils alike yielding to His command. He rebukes unclean spirits, and they come forth from the unhappy people whom they had possessed. He rebukes a fever, and lays his hands on sick people, and at once their diseases depart, and the sick are healed. We cannot fail to observe many like cases in the four Gospels. They occur so frequently that we are apt to read them with a thoughtless eye, and forget the mighty lesson which each one is meant to convey. They are all intended to fasten in our minds the great truth that Christ is the appointed Healer of every evil which sin has brought into the world. Christ is the true antidote and remedy for all the soul-ruining mischief which Satan has wrought on mankind. Christ is the universal physician to whom all the children of Adam must repair, if they would be made whole. In Him is life, and health, and liberty. This is the grand doctrine which every miracle of mercy in the Gospel is ordained and appointed to teach. Each is a plain witness to that mighty fact, which lies at the very foundation of the Gospel. The ability of Christ to supply to the uttermost every want of human nature, is the very corner-stone of Christianity. Christ, in one word, is “all” (Colossians 3:11). Let the study of every miracle help to engrave this truth deeply on our hearts.

There is comfort here for all who are really serving Christ, and are yet cast down by a sense of their own infirmity. There are many in such case. They are oppressed by doubts and anxieties. They sometimes think they shall never reach heaven after all, but be cast away in the wilderness. Let them fear no longer. Their strength shall be according to their day. The difficulties they now fear shall vanish out of their path. The lion in the way which they now dread, shall prove to be chained. The same gracious hand which first touched and healed, shall uphold, strengthen, and lead them to the last. The Lord Jesus will never lose one of His sheep. Those whom He loves and pardons, He loves unto the end. Though sometimes cast down, they shall never be cast away. The healed soul shall always go on “ministering to the Lord.” Grace shall always lead to glory.

There is no fence around Him to keep us off; no guard to forbid or warn us away. Any one, every one may come at once to be healed. It is the sick, not the whole, that he invites. It is the leper, the palsied, the fevered, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the devil-possessed, that he bids welcome to. On every side we may approach Him. At any time, and in any way, we may come. Whatever be the length or the deadliness of our disease, we may come. The physician is divinely skillful; the medicine is free; the cure is certain. Health for sick humanity! Medicine for a diseased world! A Physician for a dying race! Such are the messages which we bring. All of them overflowing with God’s great love to sinners; to sinners simply as such. The depths of divine compassion are infinite. So are its heights. God’s pitying love takes in the worst sinner that ever breathed the air of earth. Wide as earth; wide as the bounds of sin; wide as the evil of human hearts; wide as heaven; wide as His own infinite heart; such is the pitying love of God.

He has come to an hospital, a city of the plague, a world where all are sick and dying; both in soul and body. Heavenly skill is his; nay, divine. Medicine is his; love to the sick is in his heart, and the balm of Gilead in his hand. He healed “all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people.” He did so in fulfilment of his divine errand. He did so to manifest his divine fulness and skill. He did so to shew his power and willingness to heal worse diseases. He did so to attract and invite the spiritually sick,—the blind, the deaf, the lame, the leprous, the palsied,—all that are sick, whatever the nature of their disease. He is the great healer still! And we come to Him for health. He is the tree of life, both in leaf and fruit. He beckons us to his shade and healing. Wilt thou be made whole? is his question to each. He wants to be made use of by us. He entreats as a favour that we employ Him as our physician, and that we apply for his medicines. We need not specify them,—indeed, we cannot,—He knows what they are, as He knows what our sickness is. There is not one sick soul here that He is unwilling to heal. Oh, apply;—apply at once!

Jesus the Teacher. He is the great giver of instruction to the sons of men; for He is the word and the wisdom; He is the lesson as well as the teacher. “Who teacheth like Him” who says, “Learn of me.” They who come to Him He calls “disciples,“—men who enter his school, and come to Him for instruction. As such He receives them and deals with them; for He has “compassion on the ignorant.” Not in one thing, but in all things does He teach. He teaches the inner man, for He has access to the spirits of men. He speaks to ear, and heart, and conscience. There is no teaching like his for completeness, for efficacy, and for the moulding of the whole man. He speaks, and we hear. We speak, and He hears. He comes to us; we go to Him. And in this blessed interchange between the scholar and the Master, the great work of enlightenment, renovation, expansion, consolation takes place. Of all teachers, He is the wisest and most learned, as well as the most patient, loving, and painstaking. He openeth our ears to hear and our eyes to see. As He did in Galilee in the days of his flesh, so does He now over all the earth, though at the Father’s right hand.

He is the great healer; the sinner’s one physician. His words are health. His touch is health. His look is health. Nay, his very garments are health ; for as many as touch either Him or them are made perfectly whole. Leprosy, lunacy, fever, blindness, death, possession by Satan, are nothing to Him. In Him all fulness dwells; and that fulness is dispensed by love. There was much here to quench that love, much to repel Him, but He will not be repelled, and his love cannot be quenched, even by the waters of unbelief. He is “mighty to save”—“able to save to the uttermost.” Omnipotence is in his touch, his look, his word. Let us do justice to his fulness and his grace, lest He have to say of us, O faithless and perverse generation.

It is Christ himself that comes before us here; Christ in his life and doings here below; Christ as the God-man, the sent of God, the revealer of the Father; Christ as the sinner’s friend and helper. By looking at Him as He was on earth, we learn what He is now in heaven; our faith gets a soil in which to root itself; a foundation on which to rest. We see Him on earth full of grace and truth; in heaven the same; just such an one as a sinner can approach, and trust, and love; just such an one as possesses all that a sinner needs. Mark these three things here (1.) Jesus the teacher; (2.) Jesus the preacher; (3.) Jesus the healer.

There is comfort in this thought for all who feel a desire to serve Christ, but at present are afraid to begin. There are many in this state of mind. They fear that if they come forward boldly, and take up the cross, they shall by and bye fall away. They fear that they shall not be able to persevere, and shall bring discredit on their profession. Let them fear no longer. Let them know that Jesus is an Almighty Saviour, who never forsakes those who once commit themselves to Him. Once raised by His mighty hand from the death of sin, and washed in His precious blood, they shall go on “ministering to Him” to their life’s end. They shall have power to overcome the world, and crucify the flesh, and resist the devil. Only let them begin, and they shall go on. Jesus knows nothing of half-cured cases and half-finished work. Let them trust in Jesus and go forward. The pardoned soul shall always be enabled to serve Christ.

Verse 1

A voice by Jordan’s shore,
A summons stern and clear:
“Reform; be just, and sin no more:
God’s judgment draweth near!”

Verse 2

A voice by Galilee,
A holier voice I hear:
“Love God; thy neighbor love: for see
God’s mercy draweth near!”

Verse 3

O voice of Duty, still
Speak forth: I hear with awe;
In thee I own the sovereign will,
Obey the sovereign law.

Verse 4

Thou higher voice of Love,
Yet speak thy word in me;
Through duty, let me upward move
To thy pure liberty.

Verse 1

Behold! the blind their sight receive;
Behold! the dead awake and live;
The dumb speak wonders, and the lame
Leap, like the hart, and bless his name.

Verse 2

Thus doth th’ eternal Spirit own
And seal the mission of the Son;
The Father vindicates his cause,
While he hangs bleeding on the cross.

Verse 3

He dies! the heavens in mourning stood;
He rises, the triumphant God!
Behold the Lord ascending high,
No more to bleed, no more to die.

Verse 4

Hence, and forever, from my heart,
I bid my doubts and fears depart;
And to those hands my soul resign,
Which bear credentials so divine.

Verse 1

Behold, the Master passeth by!
O seest thou not His pleading eye?
With low sad voice He calleth thee,
“Leave this vain world, and follow Me.”

Verse 2

O soul, bowed down with harrowing care,
Hast thou no thought for heaven to spare?
From earthly toils lift up thine eye;
Behold, the Master passeth by!

Verse 3

One heard Him calling long ago,
And straightway left all things below,
Counting his earthly gain as loss
For Jesus and His blessed cross.

Verse 4

That “Follow Me” his faithful ear
Seemed every day afresh to hear:
Its echoes stirred his spirit still,
And fired his hope, and nerved his will.

Verse 5

God gently calls us every day:
Why should we then our bliss delay?
Thou, Lord, e’en now art calling me;
I will leave all, and follow Thee.

Verse 1

Behold where, in the Friend of man,
Appears each grace divine!
The virtues all in Jesus meet,
With mildest radiance shine.

Verse 2

To spread the rays of heavenly light,
To give the mourner joy,
To preach glad tidings to the poor,
Was his divine employ.

Verse 3

In the last hour of deep distress,
Before his Father’s throne,
With soul resigned, he bowed, and said,
“Thy will, not mine, be done!”

Verse 4

Be Christ our pattern and our guide,
His image may we bear;
Oh, may we tread his sacred steps,
And his bright glories share.

Verse 1

Did Christ o’er sinners weep,
And shall our cheeks be dry?
Let floods of penitential grief
Burst forth from every eye.

Verse 2

The Son of God in tears
The wondering angels see:
Be thou astonished, O my soul;
He shed those tears for thee.

Verse 3

He wept that we might weep;
Each sin demands a tear;
In heaven alone no sin is found,
And there’s no weeping there.

Verse 1

Did Christ o’er sinners weep,
And shall our cheeks be dry?
Let floods of penitential grief
Burst forth from every eye.

Verse 2

The Son of God in tears
The wondering angels see:
Be thou astonished, O my soul;
He shed those tears for thee.

Verse 3

He wept that we might weep;
Each sin demands a tear;
In heaven alone no sin is found,
And there’s no weeping there.

Verse 1

Did Christ o’er sinners weep,
And shall our cheeks be dry?
Let floods of penitential grief
Burst forth from every eye.

Verse 2

The Son of God in tears
The wondering angels see:
Be thou astonished, O my soul;
He shed those tears for thee.

Verse 3

He wept that we might weep;
Each sin demands a tear;
In heaven alone no sin is found,
And there’s no weeping there.

Verse 1

Ever would I fain be reading,
In the ancient holy Book,
Of my Savior’s gentle pleading,
Truth in ev’ry word and look.
How to all the sick and tearful
Help was ever gladly shown;
How he sought the poor and fearful,
Called them brothers and his own.

Verse 2

How no contrite soul e’er sought him,
And was bidden to depart;
How, with gentle words he taught him,
Took the death from out his heart.
Still I read the ancient story,--
And my joy is ever new,--
How for us he left his glory,
How he still is kind and true.

Verse 3

How the flock he gently leadeth,
Whom his Father gave him here;
How his arms he widely spreadeth,
To his heart to draw us near.
Let me kneel, my Lord! before thee,
Let my heart in tears o’erflow,
Melted by thy love adore thee,
Blessed in thee, mid joy or woe.