PREACHING
Norman J. Henry
Matthew 27: 35-50; Mark 15: 33-37; Luke 23: 33, 34, 39-43; John 19: 25-30
I want to speak about a Man who never lost any of His qualities. He never lost any of His qualities because these qualities were not given to Him. These qualities were Himself. Every other man receives. John the Baptist says, “A man receive nothing unless it be given him out of heaven”, John 3:27. But the Lord Jesus did not receive His qualities. You might say they were part of Himself. Is that not glorious? The more intense the pressure on Christ, the more His qualities shone. That is how great He was! I want you to think about the suffering of Christ. I do not apologise for reading the four accounts in the gospels of what He said on the cross. You might say, Matthew and Mark are very similar, involving the forsaking, but I took the liberty to read it because if it was written, it should be read. “Every scripture is divinely inspired” (2 Tim 3: 16), and if it is repeated, it is repeated for a reason. God meant it to be repeated, even the same words in different accounts.
What a God He is! He knows His Man, I say reverently. When the people asked for a king, God told them beforehand what kind of person Saul would be. They got what they wanted. God knows every man. They prove themselves to be what they are, wretched, poor and without quality. Now when it comes to Christ, God knew His Man. I say that reverently because the glory of His Person is involved in the gospel. John’s account opens with the glory of His Person, but on the cross, what is stressed is His manhood and the qualities that underlay it.
In the Old Testament, in the types, persons were given certain offices, certain functions and invariably, without exception, failure came in because the qualities were not underlying the office they took. It does not matter who you bring up. Some were remarkably true in certain features but they lacked the intrinsic qualities that we have in Christ. If you go into the presence of God, you will find something of these qualities. Oh that we could draw each other into the presence of God in the gospel today, give a person the sense of the presence of God.
In Matthew and Mark, He addresses God. What He says stands by itself. The forsaking of God was Christ’s alone. You and I had no part in that. We can only worship when we consider what He was prepared to take on. What He says on the cross in Matthew and Mark was “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In Luke, He is speaking to the Father in intercession and He is speaking to a repentant sinner. You and I can come in there. I trust we come in there today as repenting sinners. In John’s gospel He speaks to His own. It was the time of pressure; the qualities of Christ came out. There was no holding back. There was no erasing of it. Our brother spoke today about a thing being wiped out. You could not erase what was in Christ; it was inherent in Christ. It shone in greater intensity. No wonder one said that He was never more delightful to God than when He was made sin. Think of the glory and preciousness of that work of atonement!
Now I am not saying they characterise the books but I want to bring out certain qualities that come out in them. I think in Matthew it is the Mediator. I will tell you why I have taken that up: it was because when it came to the mediator in the type, Moses needed credentials. He needed proof that he was able for it. So he goes to deliver the people at the beginning of Exodus and God deals with them. God says, tell them that “I AM hath sent me …” (chap 3: 14). Moses had the credentials for taking up the whole matter of mediatorship to deliver the people. The people required a mediator, not only because of the conditions in which they were, but the idolatry that came in their pathway. The needed a mediator. And what a heart he had! What does Moses say in Exodus 32 “… Forgive their sin … but if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book that thou hast written” (v 32). Was that not the word, in principle, that Christ takes on here? He is prepared, sacrificially, to be blotted out of God’s book. Have you thought about that, what that means?
I speak of the horror of it. Hebrews says, “Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications and entreaties to him who was able to save him out of death, with strong crying and tears” (chap 5: 7). You might say, He waited for it. Think of what that meant to God! Dear friend, what the three hours of darkness, the time of the forsaking, meant to God, and the Mediator was there, the service of the Mediator. It was not Aaron the priest. It was the Mediator. Moses went up, you remember, in Deuteronomy, and the second forty days he is before God about the sin of the people. What a Mediator we have! He is true to His office. We are told there is one Mediator of God and men: “For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”, 1 Tim 2: 5,6. That proves that He was qualified for His office.
God had His Man. He was true. Matthew sets out the legality of it. It proves how He came in. From the outset, the three fourteen generations, to prove the quality of the Person that was coming in, that could take up everything on God’s behalf. What a Mediator He is. There was no other. Job searched after the idea, but nobody could be a mediator of God and man. Nobody could take that place. Christ did!
Now I come to Mark’s gospel. I want every heart to think more of Christ. God permits the preaching today so that every person will be profoundly affected by His Son. It is not the priesthood of Exodus. That is the side, you might say, of the glory of the priesthood, his garments set out and the priest is set up in a measure of dignity. When you come to Mark, I think the suggestion is the priest of Leviticus. He is taking up the matter. On the day of atonement: God says “And there shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he goeth in to make atonement in the sanctuary until he come out”, Lev 16: 17. The matter was dealt with only between God and Christ. That is all there was. No one could have part in that matter. The same words uttered, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” What a Person! You say whatever happened in the wilderness, you go to the tent of meeting and as sure as anything the priest was there. That is Christ, of course, in type, but the priest was there to take up the matter, to receive your sin-offering. Think of what is possible at the tent of meeting! God says, “There will I meet thee”, Exod 25: 22. Where was that? That was the mercy-seat. That was Christ! And the blood was taken in. How wonderful, the whole work of atonement! Blessed be His name, friend, that in Christ under extreme pressure, His qualities shone all the brighter! The antitype covers all the types.
Now, when you come to Luke 23 – He is speaking to this sinner. He is not here exactly receiving the sin-offering. I think, in principle, He is beside the brazen altar, the altar of burnt-offering, and He is looking out. That is Luke. He is interceding for men and He is looking out, you might say, to the entrance to the court. He is looking out to men. What an Interceder He is! “Father, forgive them”. Earlier He said He could have asked the Father for twelve legions of angels. He took the onslaught of man, the hatred of man, the violence of man. That is what Christ did. You do not get Gethsemane in Luke, but it is still conflict. You have the garden in Luke. I think here He is at the side of the brazen altar. That is where intercession is made for man, at the side of the brazen altar. (He intercedes for the saints at the golden altar). The very basis of God’s approach is seen in the brazen altar. There is no watering down; there is no dilution of God’s attributes. At the brazen altar everything is maintained in integrity. That is the quality of the Person that is there. He is the altar; He is the offering; He is the Priest as well. I think that is beautiful: to see Him interceding here. Separating the gospel from the church may have contributed towards the court not being measured in Revelation 11. That is given up to the nations, but here, of course, in the type, it is all under divine control and the brazen altar is there. The sin-offering was put on that. It must be the excellence of the committal and devotion of Christ. It must be a rock-solid basis that we can tell you today to put your trust in, and that is in Christ.
So as it says, He says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. I suppose the only sin that is not forgiven is apostasy. Judas died the sin of apostasy, but here Christ is looking out, and that is the proclamation today to you the sinner. Forgiveness is offered. Maybe someone here needs forgiveness. You know where you are with God and forgiveness is available. It is stressed in the gospel that your relations with God are vitally important and the offering is there. It is on the altar and the efficacy and acceptability of it is available to you as you repent. You have repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then you come to this repentant man. He lays hold of what is there. “But this man has done nothing amiss”. That is the brazen altar. Christ is interceding for men and he lays hold of it, and instead of getting what he expected, he got paradise. I tell you, friend, you will get far more than you thought you would ever get. I know myself: what I ran for in my need, I found God gave me beyond what I can describe. What a God He is! His heart goes out to you. He knows what you need and He will fill it more than you could ever imagine. That is the God we have to do with in the glad tidings. We spoke today about the heart of God, the feelings of God for man! He does not desire any to perish. Deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom (see Job 33: 24). And it is “with me in paradise”, with Christ, with the Man that was here.
Now, I want to touch a moment on John 19. He is not looking out here; He is looking in. The blood is taken in. In John 19 He speaks to His own. What has He got in mind under pressure of all that lay ahead of Him in death. What we referred to in Hebrews, the “strong crying and tears”, what He was about to endure, the anticipating of it, and yet, concerned for His own. I think there is something of the Comforter in John 19. In this gospel He says, “And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter” (chap 14: 16), and I think as John wrote this, he would say, that was an act of the Comforter. He considered for the feelings of His mother. He did not send her back to the house of His brothers and sisters. It was a precious act of concern and care and comfort for His own. He says, of course to John, “Behold thy mother”, a new relationship. You find new relationships in Christ. Every right relationship comes out of the death of Christ. The only, and strongest link you could have comes out of the death of Christ. I have a link with a brother that I could never have with anyone else. You think of that, a brother or a sister! And now this person, John, it says, “And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home”. What relationships they must have had together! I know, of course, Mary and the Lord’s brethren are found together in Acts, but here it involves spiritual relationships. I think that was in mind. John does not touch the body. He does not touch things that are left with Paul. That is Paul’s light. The mystery of the glad tidings involves the body, as I understand it. John provides the personnel for the relationships. That is what John does, the family. Do you fit into the family? You need the Spirit for that. You need the Holy Spirit for that. The only one basis in scripture to walk a lonely path is leprosy, but you are given the Spirit for the company. In a cold world, a world that will try and rob what you have, you need your brother. You need the twos and threes and I think John provides for that. John’s family, John’s relationships are spiritual.
That is why I said He is looking in now. He is not looking out. That service is done. Where is He looking in – the holiest, the sanctuary, the presence of God? Did we not do that today? Did you have part in the service today, dear brother and sister? Did you have part in that service of going in to the presence of God and having part in divine worship? What a way is open to us and it all depends on what happened on the cross, all hangs on that. The blood was shed there, as we have in John’s gospel, blood and water, and that provides the moral conditions to enjoy the presence of God.
I do not want you to be outside of it. I want you to be wholeheartedly in what the Lord had in mind in what He said on the cross in each gospel, to find your part livingly in your relations with God and with your brethren, for His Name’s sake.
DENTON
24 May 1998