PURSUIT OF HOLINESS PART 4

IV] WHAT WAS The Savior's endurance and joy:

There are two ways in which the history of Bible saints ought to stimulate our faith and courage.

This purpose they serve when presented to our minds as examples.

They prove that the truths which the Bible teaches are not airy fancies or musty theories, which cannot be reduced into practice, and shrink from the fiery tests of every-day life.

The force of example is a thought which long ago has been coined into a proverb.

The ancient Romans were accustomed to place the busts of famous ancestors in the vestibules of their houses, in order to remind young people, as they passed to and fro, of the noble deeds of those ancestors, and fire them with the laudable ambition to excel in wisdom, goodness, and valour.

The life of a hero has been known to colour the spirit of an age.

The life of Napoleon Bonaparte has kindled the love of military glory in many a youthful heart; the touching story of Howard’s labours has moved many a man to deeds of charity and kindness.

A. CONSIDER THE SEVERE ORDEAL, THROUGH WHICH HE PASSED.

The atoning sorrows of Christ came from several sources or directions.

1. Strange as it may appear, much of the pain and grief came from human malice and opposition.

I say strange, for one would have concluded that all the sympathy and help of men would most certainly be enlisted on His side, as soon as they were told that to save their souls was His gracious object.

2. Another element in the sufferings of Jesus was the malicious opposition of the devil and his angels.

As a Divine Being, of course these rebellious creatures were subject to His power and could do Him no harm. But in condescending to assume human nature, and undertaking to work out the plan of salvation, Christ voluntarily exposed Himself to the power of these malignant spirits.

3. But the chief source of the Redeemer’s suffering was the wrath of His Father.

As the fire which consumed the sacrifices laid upon Jewish altars came down from heaven, so the holy fire that consumed the sacrifice offered upon the altar of Calvary descended from God the Father.

But although the Father’s wrath was not vindictive in its nature, and rested not on personal but public grounds, it pressed with fearful weight upon the Saviour.

With the smile of His Father shining into His soul, and lighting up therein an abiding summer, Christ could have braved any trial to which He might be summoned without a moan or murmur.

But why those shrinking s in Gethsemane from the task that was assigned Him?

“If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.”

That cup contained ingredients so bitter that none but God could have compounded them.

B. CONSIDER, AGAIN, THE SPIRIT HE DISPLAYED.

It is true He did not covet suffering.

He made no virtue of endurance.

His courage was apparent through the whole course of His public life, but not with such a splendour of manifestation as in His dying hour.

Some plants when pressed display more of their colours, and diffuse more of their fragrance.

The diamond when broken into splinters glitters all the more; and despite the dishonors that gather so thickly around the Cross of Emmanuel, the lustre of His courage burst through the gloom, and shone with unwonted power.

And if you seek the highest pattern of serene patience and fortitude, it is to the sufferer that hangs on the Cross of Calvary we point you.

C. CONSIDER, AGAIN, THE MOTIVE WHICH SUSTAINED HIM.

“Who for the joy that was set before Him.” (J. H. Morgan)

Despising the shame

The shameful Sufferer

D. THE SHAMEFUL SUFFERER.

The text speaks of shame, and therefore before entering upon suffering, allow me to say to say a word or two about the shame.

Perhaps there is nothing which men so much abhor more than shame.

We find that death itself has often been preferable in the minds of men to shame; and even the most wicked and callous-hearted have dreaded the shame and contempt of their fellow-creatures far more than any tortures to which they could have been exposed.

It is well known that criminals and malefactors have often had a greater fear of public contempt than of anything else.

In the Savior's case, shame would be peculiarly shameful; the nobler a man’s nature, the more readily does he perceive the slightest contempt, and the more acutely does he feel it.

The eye that hath faced the sun cannot endure darkness without a tear.

But Christ who was more than noble, matchlessly noble, something more than of a royal race, for Him to be shamed and mocked must have been dreadful indeed.

Besides, some minds are of such a delicate and sensitive disposition that they feel things far more than others.

He loved with all His soul; His strong passionate heart was fixed upon the welfare of the human race; and to be mocked by those for whom He died, to be spit upon by the creatures whom He came to save, to come unto His own, and to find that His own received Him not, but actually cast Him out, this was pain indeed.

1. And behold the Savior's shame in His shameful accusation.

He in whom was no sin, and who had done no ill, was charged with sin of the blackest kind.

He was first arraigned before the Sanhedrin on no less a charge than that of blasphemy.

Could He blaspheme? No.

And it is just because it was so contrary to His character that He felt the accusation.

Nor did this content them.

Having charged Him with breaking the first table, they then charged Him with violating the second: they said He was guilty of sedition; they declared that He was a traitor to the government of Caesar, that He stirred up the people, declaring that He Himself was a king. What would you think, good citizens and good Christians, if you were charged with such a crime as this?

Ah! but your Master had to endure this as well as the other.

He despised the shameful indictments, and was numbered with the transgressors.

2. Christ not only endured shameful accusation, but He endured shameful mocking.

When Christ was taken away to Herod, Herod set Him at nought.

The original word signifies “made nothing” of Him.

It is an amazing thing to find that man should make nothing of the Son of God, who is all in all.

3. He endured a shameful death.

But this is the death of a villain, of a murderer, of an assassin—a death painfully protracted, one which cannot be equalled in all inventions of human cruelty for suffering and ignominy.

Christ Himself endured this.

Remember, too, that in the Avior's case there were special aggravations of this shame.

He had to carry His own Cross; He was crucified, too, at the common place of execution, Calvary, The place of the dung.

He was put to death, too, at a time when Jerusalem was full of people.

It was at the feast of the passover, when the crowd had greatly increased, and when the representatives of all nations would be present to behold the spectacle.

Was ever shame like this?

E. His GLORIOUS MOTIVE. What was that which made Jesus speak like this?—“For the joy that was set before Him.”

F. I WILL TRY AND HOLD THE SAVIOR UP FOR OUR IMITATION.

Christian men! if Christ endured all this merely for the joy of saving you, will you be ashamed of bearing anything for Christ?

Are there any of you who feel that if you follow Christ you must lose by it—lose your station, or lose your reputation?

Will you be laughed at if you leave the world and follow Jesus?

Oh! and will you turn aside because of these little things, when He would not turn aside, though all the world mocked Him, till He could say, “It is finished.” (C. H. Surgeon.)

G.Despise the shame!

Learn the practical wisdom of minimizing the hindrances to your Christian career, pulling them down to their true smallness.

Do not let them come to you and impose upon you with the notion that they are big and formidable.

The most of them are only white sheets, and a rustic boor behind them, like a vulgar ghost.

You go up to them and they will be small immediately!

“Despise the shame! and it disappears.”

And how is that to be done?

In two ways.

a.Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem.

Hold fellowship with God, and live up beside your Master, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable.

b. Another way is—pull up the curtain, and gaze on what is behind it.

The low foot-hills that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from the plain, as long as the snowy summits are wrapped in mist, but when a little puff of wind comes and clears away the fog from the lofty peaks, nobody looks at the little green hills in front.

So the world’s hindrances, and the world’s difficulties and cares, they look very lofty till the cloud lifts.

And when we see the great white summits, everything lower does not seem so very high after all.

Look to Jesus, and that will dwarf the difficulties. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Is set down on the right hand

H. Jesus enthroned

I. Let us look at the fact here presented to us—or at

THE POSITION ASSIGNED TO JESUS CHRIST.

He is said to be seated “at the right hand of the throne of God.”

A place at the right hand of any person in authority and power is employed by the Sacred Writers to represent a position of high honour.

It may be that you have a tendency to look chiefly to the Cross of Christ.

You may be yourselves the children of sorrow, and often in affliction.

Your own cross may be exceedingly heavy; it may tremendously oppress you; and your temperament and your natural disposition combining with your circumstances may lead you to look chiefly at the Cross of Christ.

Believe that your Lord died and was buried; but do not keep your eyes fixed on the Cross and on the sepulchre, for He is not on that Cross anymore

He is not now in that sepulchre.

And you in your thoughts of Christ, and in your feelings about Christ, are not to be merely crucified with Him, and dead with Him, but you must be risen with Christ, your affections being fixed on Christ as above.

He dwells in the midst of the highest manifestations of Deity.

He is worshipped in heaven with God—as God.

His name is associated as no other name with that of Jehovah.He has Divine authority; and He has also Almighty power.

Although distinct from Jehovah, He is and He appears to be one with Jehovah—one as an object of reverence, of fear, and of love—one in His administration of universal government.

Thus is He seated “at the right hand of the throne of God.”

II. NOW SEE THE USE WHICH WE CHRISTIANS ARE TO MAKE OF THE KNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS IS IN THIS POSITION.

1. Here is a fountain of joy from which Christians may drink sacred pleasure.

Jesus is set down at the right hand of the throne of God—

then His work of atonement is finished;

then His sacrifice is accepted;

then His humiliation is terminated;

then His sorrows are for ever fled away.

We joy in this for His own sake.

The Cross of Christ was a real cross to Him.

When He is said to suffer, He did suffer.

His soul was really troubled, and His spirit was exceedingly sorrowful.

And now that He wears a crown, He feels to wear a Crown.

But we may joy in this also for the Church’s sake—for just as Jesus carried the Cross to bless the Church, so does He wear the crown to bless the Church.

And we may joy in the coronation of Jesus for the sake of our individual well-being.

We who trust our Saviour have a personal connection with His Cross; and we have a personal connection with His crown.

And further, we may joy in this fact for the world’s sake. He has ascended on high and received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell among them.

2. But here, too, is a motive to patience, and much help in cherishing patience.

The course of the disciple is in some respects parallel with that of the Master.

Like Christ’s, it is a fixed and definite course.

And it is a course in which there are many hindrances to be laid aside and sorrows to be borne.

But it is a course to which there is an appointed goal, and a course in which the goal as a rule may be seen.

It is a course, further, which makes large demands upon patience.

Hence the injunction “ to run with patience the race which is set before us.”

But now, just see how the position of Jesus bears upon the cultivation of patience.

Jesus is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Once He was running His race on this earth: now He is “set down.”

Now He has no need of patience—He is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.

And if you run, if you wait, if you be patient, you will one day sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is seated on His Father’s throne.

3. And there is just one other thought which we would suggest to you.

No forerunners helped Jesus—not one.

He had not a being to look to who had run in any respect a similar course, and reached His goal—not one.

There was the Father above Him, but the Father had not become man.

He had not been a man of sorrows.

There were angels ministering to Him, but no angels in the skies had attempted to do what Jesus had come to do. (S. Martin.)