THE TOUCH OF JESUS
J. Strachan
Mark 5: 22, 23, 35–43; Luke 13: 10–17; Matthew 20: 29–34
I would like to say something tonight about what
can be effected by the touch of Jesus. God made the creation; He created everything, as it says, “He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”, Psalm 33: 9. That was God’s power in creation. There is a testimony all around us as to that. But, you know, when He wants to reach men, He does not simply do that by His power, He gets alongside us. He came near to men in the Person of Jesus, His beloved Son, and He actually touched persons.
He did not stand a long way off and do things by His power. He could do that; He could do things at a distance and effect things by His word, but the wonder of it was that He came near to men in the Person of Jesus and touched people. The Lord Jesus Christ is no longer here, but the same character of things is operating today. God is drawing near to persons through the glad tidings. Peter says in his prayer in the beginning of the Acts, “give to thy bondmen with all boldness to speak thy word, in that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal”, Acts 4: 29, 30. God is stretching out His hand to heal persons, and He is doing it by the word, brought near to us by persons like ourselves. How wonderful that is. God in His grace getting alongside of men, even by means of their fellow-men, so that the healing touch of God in Jesus may be brought to us. It is something that should affect us. Where maybe we have gone on without God, we should be turned to God. Where we have gone on missing the blessing God has for us, we may get the blessing. Where we have gone on with problems and difficulties, we can get them all solved by the healing touch of Jesus coming to us in the gospel.
It has been made possible by the work He has accomplished, the work of redemption. He not only went about here healing persons and doing good, but He went to the cross, and He accomplished the work of redemption when He suffered and died and His precious blood was shed. Paul says, “Christ died
for our sins”, 1 Cor.15: 3. The whole matter that had caused the difficulty between God and men was taken up by the Lord Jesus and resolved at the cross. All was resolved to God’s glory, so that God could be free to come out and unfold His heart to men, and unfold His ways in blessing. Christ was buried. He lay there for three days and three nights in the grave; then He was raised from among the dead, He was caught up to heaven, He was glorified, exalted; what a place Jesus has been given in heaven! It is from that place that the gospel comes. It is from that place that healing is coming for men. It is from Jesus glorified that blessing is flowing to men tonight, to persons such as you and I, just ordinary people. God is not taking up specially the high and exalted persons in the world; the gospel is for them as well, of course, but it is for everybody; God is interested in the ordinary people of the world, and such can have the greatest blessings. One lady of high degree said that she was thankful for the letter ‘m’ because it says, “not many high-born”, 1 Corinthians 1: 26. It does not say,
‘not any’, but “not many”; that let her in. Anyone can come into the blessings that God is offering tonight in Jesus; He desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. What a heart God has! It has been expressed in Jesus and that is why I read these scriptures.
First of all we have a young girl, just twelve, whose father was concerned about her because she was at extremity. He says, “My little daughter is at extremity; I pray that thou shouldest come and lay thy hands upon her so that she may be healed, and may live”. It is right for parents to be concerned about their children, not only as to physical and material things, but also as to moral and spiritual things. He was concerned that she should live. And, you know, this is put down in the Scriptures
for us not just on account of natural life. It is something more. This little girl was at extremity, and there are many people like that, at extremity. They are needing a touch from God to make them live. That is the only thing that will make persons live according to God—
not just to live a natural life, but to live in relation to God. People live without God in this world and without hope. God wants them to live in relation to Himself. This man had right feelings, but what he realized was that this girl needed a touch from Jesus. Everybody needs a touch from Jesus. Parents need to realize that, that their faith will not do for the children. It needs a direct living touch from the Lord Jesus for the children. That is important for young persons to realize too, that you need a living touch from the Lord Jesus.
“While he was yet speaking, they come from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying. Thy daughter has died”. There was no hope—apart from Jesus. He says to the ruler, “Fear not; only believe”. Fear not! Faith may be tested; the faith of parents may be tested, but do you believe that what Jesus has done for you. He can do for your children? So He put them all out; He only allowed Peter and James and John and the father and the mother to go in with Him. There is this crowd, you see, and they are causing tumult, weeping and wailing greatly.
Human sentiment will do nothing to bring about life, nothing at all. We make much of human sentiment sometimes but it will never make anybody live according to God. What it needed was that Jesus should come into the situation. So He comes where the child is lying, “And having laid hold of the hand of the child, he says to her, Talitha koumi, which is, interpreted, Damsel, I say to thee, Arise”. Here was the touch of Jesus. Here was the voice of Jesus. Here was the voice of the One who will cause the dead to come out of their graves.
Here is the voice of One who can make persons who are morally dead live according to God.
What a wonderful thing, in a world where persons are marked by moral death, that He can cause them to live. Oh, there is a touch and a voice here, and there is a word for this girl herself, “Damsel, I say to thee, Arise”. It is a wonderful thing to get a word from Jesus for yourself. We speak about the Lord giving someone a touch, and that is all it needs, just a word, a word for yourself. Saul of Tarsus got a word for himself, “Why persecutest thou me?”, Acts 9: 4. Think of the grace of that! He was persecuting the lovers of Christ, going on the way to Damascus to accomplish that very mission, and the Lord in His grace arrested him. Well, He would give us a word personally. We have a gospel preaching; someone is speaking and everybody hears it, and that is fine so far; but Jesus would maybe address someone in the room personally, as if there was no one else present, just yourself and Jesus, and you are conscious that He is speaking to you. If so, do not turn your ear away, just listen.
Feel His touch. He Himself is giving you a touch, as He did this girl, because it says, “And immediately the damsel arose and walked”—dead one moment, and alive and walking the next!
It is interesting that she not only arose, but she walked. That is important because the believer should “walk in newness of life”, Romans 6: 4. What a wonderful thing it is that someone should believe in Jesus, trust in His finished work, and “walk in newness of life”. You now walk in a different way from the way you used to walk. You walk in a way that will please God. Think of the triumph of that; a young person, twelve years old, and at the voice of Jesus, at the touch of Jesus, she is caused not only to rise but to live, live in relation to Him, and to walk here in a way that is pleasing to
God. God can do that through the gospel; He can do it by the touch of Jesus.
Then He charged them that something should be given her to eat. Such life needs to be sustained. For our bodies we need physical food day by day, and a young person like this, being brought to life by the touch and voice of Jesus, needs something to sustain her spiritual life. God has provided plenty of food for believers; what is written in the Scriptures is food for us. Make it your occupation; these four gospels, and the other Scriptures; they are food; you can occupy your mind with them; you can occupy your affections with them, and you will find that they bring life into your soul.
Now in Luke 13 there is a woman who had been hindered by a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. She was bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up. She was there in one of the synagogues. Eighteen years she had been affected by this, and orthodox religion could not do anything for her. It will not do anything for you either. What is needed is a living contact with Jesus. So she comes under His notice. I do not know how often she had been in the congregation in that synagogue, and maybe she had not been much noticed, but Jesus was there that day and it says, “seeing her”; He misses no one; He misses nobody in this room this evening. He sees every one of us. Then He called to her. Oh what a thing that is!—the voice of Jesus calling. We want to be alert for it. It is not just coming to a preaching of the gospel formally but it is where we are going to hear the voice of Jesus. If we are going to hear anything at all, that is the voice we want to hear. Then He says to her, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity”. What a word came to her that day! Eighteen years she had been affected; think
what a relief it would be to hear this voice, “Thou art loosed from thine infirmity”, sent together, perhaps self-occupied, she could not lift herself up. God made man upright. He did not mean him to be bent together, looking down, and self-occupied; God meant man to be upright.
Then it says, “He laid his hands upon her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God”. Notice that; He was so near to her, He touched her. God has come near to us in His word, you know, and He would give us to feel that the healing touch of Jesus can be experienced by us today. So immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Think of a person being made straight and glorifying God! That is the whole point of our life, that we should be here to glorify God, not just to please ourselves. God would set us free from everything that might bind us. There were persons that complained about it, and He had to say to them, ‘You think about your ox or your ass; if it needs to be taken out and watered, you do that, but because I want to do something for one of My creatures, you want to stop Me’. What a rebuke that was! Here was a woman who meant so much to God and they would hinder what the Lord Jesus would do. He says, “this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years”. Satan had done it; think of that; here she was, apparently just physically bowed down, but the Lord pinpoints the thing. He says,
‘whom Satan has bound’. There is a power operating in this world that puts men in bondage, but the Lord Jesus came here to undo the works of the devil, to set persons free who all their lifetime were subject to bondage through the fear of death. What a Liberator Jesus is. One who can impart life, One who can liberate persons and set them free. It is a wonderful thing to come into liberty in Christianity; it is a system of liberty.
Orthodox religion is a system of bondage. Christianity is a system of liberty, and there is a wonderful Liberator who is active in it.
So He says, “ought she not to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” He could use the sabbath day; He was Lord of the sabbath. He was in control of it; He is in control of everything, and He says, “this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham”. That meant that she had faith. Those in the lineage of Abraham are persons who have faith. I say to you. Have you faith? Have you faith in the Person who can set you free from your sins, through whom you can have forgiveness of sins because of His finished work? Have you faith in Him? Have you faith in His blood? Have you faith in His work? Have you faith that He can set you free from every element of bondage? There was faith in this woman. God means persons to be straight and dignified, to be here for the purpose of glorifying Him, and for that we need faith. “The just shall live by faith”, Hebrews 10: 38. It is a wonderful thing to be a person who has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and lives on that principle, walking through this world on the principle of faith; not on the principle of sight, governed merely by what is material, but on the principle of faith in this Man, a Man who is unseen to us at the moment, but is the Object of faith.
Now I want to refer to these two men in Matthew 20. They were blind and they were sitting by the wayside. They heard that Jesus was passing by. The Lord Jesus is passing by tonight and it is a matter of seizing the opportunity that you have. You may never have another opportunity to hear the gospel. The Lord is coming for us, for those who are believers. Some people will die before then; even young people die; that girl of twelve died. But Jesus is passing by, and it is a
matter of seizing the opportunity. These blind men did. The crowd rebuked them; there may be those that would say, ‘No, no, not for you just now; just wait a bit’. Maybe someone would put you off, but do not be put off. It says, “But they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David”. They were urgent to seize the opportunity that was within their reach, “They cried out”. Think of their feelings, that here was the opportunity within their reach and they might never have it again. “Jesus, having stopped, called them and said.
What will ye that I shall do to you?” He stopped; the One that has so much to attend to, yet He is ready to stop. Here He was on the way to the cross and He stopped. He stopped because of the cry of these two blind men. He is ready to stop at the cry of anyone who needs Him.
And He says, “What will ye that I shall do to you?” How near He comes!
These men reply, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened”. They needed their sight. There are a lot of people who need to have their eyes opened. The gospel is for that. Paul preached the gospel to open people’s eyes, to enlighten them. God would enlighten persons. Satan would keep people in darkness, but God through the gospel would shine in His grace, enlightening persons, shining with the light of a glorious Saviour in heaven, shining into the hearts of men and women. The same God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine in creation, is shining into the hearts of persons now. It says, “Jesus, moved with compassion”; notice that; oh the feelings of God, moved by the need of His creature man! Well, these two blind men receive the touch of Jesus. “Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes had sight restored to them”. What a thing it is to get a touch from Jesus that enlightens us, causes us to see things in relation to Himself. It is a wonderful
thing to see things in relation to our Lord Jesus Christ, not just according to men, to see that God has exalted Him to the highest place in heaven. The One who is despised, refused and rejected here has been exalted to the highest place, and He is there a Prince and a Saviour available to everybody. So we need to have our eyes opened to see how God has shone towards us in the gospel and that there is a Saviour who is ready to stretch out His hand to touch us and heal us and cause us to see.
The result was that “they followed him”. It is a wonderful thing to be here in this world as followers of Jesus. It is not popular, I know. It is not popular to follow a Man who has been cast out and refused and rejected here. But there is such recompense for those who follow Him. They will prove wonderful blessings—the forgiveness of sins, justification by faith, peace with God, the assurance that everything is settled. You can have the gift of the Holy Spirit, shedding the love of God abroad in your heart, and enabling you to live here with a living link with a Man in heaven. Then we have the prospect that we are going to be with Him. How wonderful that is, that our portion is to be with Christ and to be with Him for ever, when He comes for all His own. What a wonderful moment that is to look forward to! Think of the hope the believer has, and not only that, but he has a present inheritance because, through faith in Christ Jesus, we are made sons of God. Think of the dignity that is thus conferred on followers of Jesus. Then, because we are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The result of that is that we are able to cry, “Abba, Father”. Think of persons here in this world who are in the position of knowing God as their Father. That is what is open to followers of Jesus; therefore it is worthwhile taking a path that is despised and under reproach, because there are wonderful blessings for those who follow Jesus. That is what His touch is able to do, to bring us into life, to set us free, to give us to see, and to follow Him. May the Lord bless the word.
Preaching at Colchester
11 October 1987