John 20:20

John 20:20

The Nature of Christian Worship

Consider:

I. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ amongst His people. We attach to the Deity the idea of omnipresence. The conception is a tremendous one, but it is unquestionably a correct one. There have been individuals men of gigantic mental powers and of untiring activity who have contrived, by the multiplication and adjustment of skilfully ordered agencies, to make their influence felt through the whole of a mighty empire, and, as it were, to be present in every part of it at the same moment of time. But presence by influence is one thing, and presence by person another. And what we believe of the Godhead is this, that in every point of what we call space, God is to be found simultaneously, in all the force of His being and in all the plenitude of His power. There is a difference, however, between this Divine omnipresence of Christ and the kind of presence referred to in the narrative before us. About this latter there is something special. The Saviour, present in the assemblies of His worshipping people, is ready to make His presence felt by them; ready to open communications with them; ready to manifest Himself to them as He is not manifested to the world; ready so to lay His gentle but powerful touch upon their spirits, as that they shall feel that they have been admitted into the very audience chamber of their Father and their God.

II. Christ stands in the midst of His people for the purpose of blessing them and giving them peace. He does not come amongst us to find fault and to call up for judgment. He comes to bless. His language to us is the same as that which He addressed to His disciples of old "Peace be unto you."

III. The disciples rejoiced at the presence of the Lord. In the act of worship the true disciple cares for fulfilment of duty, certainly; for religious emotion, certainly; but chiefly for personal communication with the personal God. It is God God Himself, not merely something belonging to God that he desires to know, to approach, to realise, to grasp, to possess. "My soul," says David, "is athirst for God, for the living God." When the Christian disciple realises Christ in his worship, when Christ has become an actual living personal Presence to him, meeting him, speaking to him, comforting him then he has attained the object of his spiritual desire. And then, like the disciples of old, he is glad when he sees the Lord.

G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit,No. 1063.

The Resurrection of Christ

There is in all nations an irrepressible instinct struggling after immortality. But these blind guesses go for nothing. Reason knows nothing to confirm them. Reason leaves us in perplexity. If Christ be not risen, all other risings are fables. The only light has gone out: nothing has happened this year, nothing last year, nothing this century; nothing has happened in all the centuries of the past to throw light on the Beyond, if Christ be not risen. But, once accept the fact that Christ has risen from the dead, and see what questions of supreme importance it answers.

I. The first question of the present day, the first question of all ages, is this: Who is Jesus of Nazareth? It is a question of profoundest importance. Is He only the Son of man, or is He also the Son of God? In presence of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, it seems easier to get rid of His humanity than of His Godhood. Well, if the Redeemer be Divine; if He is really Emmanuel God with us; if I can look to Him and say, "My Lord and my God" I cannot help being glad. Who can help being glad, with such a Saviour?

II. Another question which the Resurrection answers is this: Is Christ's sacrifice accepted and sufficient the sacrifice that He offered once for all to God? The Resurrection is the answer. It is God's "Yea" to that voice from the cross, "It is finished." The prison doors are opened, and the Surety comes forth not to life merely, but to glory and dominion.

III. What is Jesus Christ to us today? The resurrection declares the unbrokenness of His love and brotherhood. He has not cast aside the robe of our humanity. He wears it in glory; He wears it for ever. He is not ashamed to call us brethren.

IV. What is God's purpose concerning His redeemed? The special revelation of the New Testament is not that of the immortality of the soul, but of a future life resembling the life of Jesus Christ. He has risen from the dead risen, not for Himself alone, but as the first-fruits of them that slept; and He says, "Because I live, ye shall live also."

J. Culross, Christian World Pulpit,March 2, 1887.

References: John 20:20. Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 175; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,9th series, p. 312. Joh 20:20-23. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 502. Joh 20:21. J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Days,p. 185; see also Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. x., p. 82 J. E. B. Pusey, Church of England Pulpit,vol. i., p. 139.