This morning, I want to remind
us all of something which is very blessed and very comforting
and very encouraging to the people of God if we pause and contemplate
the truth behind what I'm about to share with you. I think that it is something
that all believers in their various life's experience will come to
a greater or lesser extent to appreciate. But I want to state
it clearly this morning, just so that we are reminded and refreshed
that these things are available for the people of God to experience
and to enter into and to hold as we go through our life's experience. And in a sense, it's a very simple
thing. But I think upon reflection, we will realise that it is also
a deep and very important thing. And here it is. Our saviour,
Our Master and our King, the Lord Jesus Christ is gentle and
kind and tender hearted to his people. And that's it. That's what I want to say. That's
what I want you to know. That's what I want to leave with
you this morning. This fact. that our Saviour is
kind and gentle and loving and gracious and merciful and tender-hearted
to his people. In all his ways, in every dealing
with us, in everything that he puts us through, in everything
that we have to face, in everything that we have to endure, in every
trial, in every trouble, in every circumstance of life, in the
weightiness of our responsibilities, whatever they may be, our education,
our family responsibilities and duties, our workplace challenges,
our financial obligations, in all of the various things that
afflict and affect us in the outward world, the Lord Jesus
Christ, in bringing these things to us, is gentle with us and
tender-hearted. He's good towards us and kind. And in our inward man, in the
inward man of the soul, in our heart, in our life's experiences,
where we are growing in grace and in a knowledge of the truth,
the Lord is kind to us. And he is gracious in all of
his ways, in all of his dealings with us. He is all these things,
these qualities. flow from him and his demeanour
and his character to his people whom he loves. He loves us. So much so that the Apostle Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 1, he speaks of the meekness
and the gentleness of Christ. the meekness and the gentleness
of Christ. Those are qualities that we all
should endeavour to emulate. Let us fashion ourselves after
our Saviour to the best of our ability. Let us seek to copy
Him. Let Him be our example. Let us
be as the Lord will enable us. Let us think on these things
about being meek, Meek with one another, not soft, but meek,
humble, gentle in our dealings one with another. For this is
the character of our Saviour towards us in every way. In Luke chapter 13, there is
a beautiful little picture. Verse 34, and it speaks of the
Lord as he likens himself to a hen, a hen that gathers her
brood under her wings. And of course, if you've ever
seen the young chicks, whether it's maybe out in the field with
the ducks or the pheasants or the grouse or a hen in a farmyard,
whenever there's a danger, maybe there's a buzzard flying over
or an eagle. and the little hens will run
to their mother and what does she do? She opens her wings and
she covers them up and they nestle in there, they get underneath
her feathers and there she protects them. She drops her head and
she covers herself and you could pass right over the top and never
notice that she was there. I remember A story once I heard
as a youngster, I may have repeated it here, but it bears repetition
and it's just about this picture of the hen. And it was a fire
that had taken place in the barn. And the fire had raged through
and consumed the straw. And there were chickens, there
were hens in the farmyard and Little bit later, as the farmer
was going through, he noticed a pile of ash on the ground and
he gave it a kick. And off fell the charred remains
of the mother hen. And underneath, still alive,
were the little chickens. She had covered them up. She
had given her life for the protection of those little chickens. And
the Lord Jesus Christ describes himself as a hen that would gather
her brood under her wings. Such is the gentleness, such
is the goodness, such is the loving kindness, such is the
tenderheartedness of our Saviour to us. He encourages his people
as a loving father nurtures his children. a loving father. Now some of us might have the
testimony that we can look back on fathers that weren't overly
loving to us. Well then let that be a contrast
to your life. He protects his church as a new
husband cherishes his bride. He attends to our needs like
a dedicated wife cares for her old man. I love to see these, sometimes
men can be cantankerous. Sometimes they can be, I don't
know, maybe they've had a lifetime of being. the boss in their own
little domain. Maybe they were in charge at
the yard or they were supervisor in the office or something and
they still speak to their wives as if they're some little kid
that needs to go and make the tea or collect the post or do
some menial task. And it's lovely to see these
women just taking it and going and serving their old men. And
I think to myself, wow, you old codger, you, you, you, you know,
you need to appreciate that woman. And the Lord deals with us like
that. We're so willful, we're so, we're so, high-spirited,
strong-minded, whatever it is it might be, and we think that
we've got rights and we've got demands that we can make, and
the Lord is so gracious to us, overlooking our short-temperedness,
our difficult attitude. Kindly, gently, Never to hurt
us. Never to hurt us. The Lord doesn't
want to hurt us. He loves us too much. Always
to help us. Never to bruise. Never to break. Always to lift up. the downcast
and the downtrodden, always to bind up that one who has been
cut, that one who has been hurt, always to pour in the oil and
the wine, the healing balm like the good Samaritan to those who
had been so badly abused there by the thieves and the robbers. Jesus doesn't do tough love. He does gentle love. He does
sympathetic love. He does kind love. And I want to show you just a
little example from the book of Matthew this morning. I want
to show you a lovely picture of the gracious attitude of the
Lord Jesus Christ to his people. and a manner, as it were, of
acting and dealing with them that speaks of his knowledge
of our frailties and his desire both to comfort us and to excite
us in his service. Because we are walking with him.
We are going through this pilgrim life with him. He is our captain. He is our leader. He is the one
in his kingdom. He is king. And as he leads us
and as he brings us on, he doesn't do it with a whip. He doesn't
do it with a boot. He doesn't kick us along the
road. He's not trying to beat us to move forward. He's leading
us. He's encouraging us. He's speaking
tenderly to us to bring us along with Him. This is the Saviour. This is the way He deals with
His people. So we're going to read in Matthew
28 a few verses, just a few. Right at the end of Matthew,
28th chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ has been crucified. He's
risen from the dead. He has spent time with his disciples
and he has told them that he wants them to leave Jerusalem
Remember we talked about the relative places? Down, Jerusalem
was in Judea, and he wanted them to go up to Galilee, and there
he was going to meet them. He was going to meet them on
a mountain in Galilee. And then he was going to be taken
from them in his ascension. We don't know the name of the
mountain that he met them on. It doesn't matter. Had it mattered,
we would have known. But he went to meet them on a
mountain. And this is what we read. Verse
16 of Matthew chapter 28. Then the eleven disciples went
away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped
him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. There you are. That's just a
short passage. The 11 disciples are here spoken
of. It's these 11 that are in mind.
And the scriptures tell us at other times, in Paul's writings,
for example, that there were many more people, sometimes hundreds,
that witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ around this time. But it seems as if at the moment
in Matthew's narrative, it's the 11 that are in view. And
I stress that point for this reason. They worshipped him, but some
doubted. Okay, this is the 11, because
Judas is dead. Judas has already taken his life. And the disciples, the 11, were
told to meet the risen Christ here on this mountainside. and it was an appointed place. It was a place that they had
been told about and a place that they travelled to in order to
meet the Lord. They were obedient to his instruction. And when they came to him, we're
told that he saw them and they saw him. and their reaction in
seeing him, because they had travelled some distance, their
reaction in seeing him in that place that was appointed, that
they had travelled some distance to, was to worship him. Now I'm not sure exactly how
he manifested himself to them there. It may simply have been
in that resurrection body. It may simply have been that
he looked in many respects like the saviour that they knew. Or
it may be that there were other aspects of his appearance there
that caused them to worship him in the way in which it is here
presented to us. When they saw him, they worshipped
him, but some doubted. I don't know about you, but I
find that quite an amazing statement that Matthew has recorded there.
Think about what we've just been through with these disciples. They have heard the closing days
of his ministry and they have seen him arrested and slain. They have watched as he was crucified,
and they were party to the resurrection, and in multiple occasions saw
the Lord Jesus Christ, had him speak to them, had the opportunity
to put their fingers into the nail prints of his hand and put
the hand into the hole that the spear had cut in his side, and
they shared a meal with him. They had been in his company
repeatedly during this time. But now they come to this mountainside
and we're told that they are doubting. Some of them doubted. How many of them doubted? I don't
know. I don't know. Was it one in 10
or was it 10 in one? I don't know what it was. But
we are told that some of his disciples doubted. What was it
that caused that doubt? What was it that troubled their
hearts at this time? I can't imagine that they were
doubting that this person that they were seeing here was Christ. I can't imagine for a moment
that they had any doubt that this was the Lord Jesus Christ.
They had seen him repeatedly, they had been in his presence,
we've just talked about that. Nor can they have any doubt that
he is still risen. He's alive. We know he's alive.
They had heard it. They had heard it from the women
at the grave. They had heard it from the travellers
on the road to Emmaus. There may have been some legitimacy
to doubt on those occasions. Well, you know, we've heard something.
We've heard something pretty amazing. We've heard something
said that some of our company have seen the Lord Jesus risen
from the dead. But this is the 11 we're talking
about. They were there in that room
when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to them. While the doors were
locked, they sat with him, they heard him. They knew that this
was the risen Christ. He explained everything to them.
So what's this doubt? Thomas, the doubter, was a convinced
man. So who was it that was doubting?
They worshipped Christ when they saw him. They worshipped him. What did they do? Did they bow
down? Maybe they did. Did they cry
hallelujah? Were they full of joy that here
he was at the appointed place, at the appointed time, at their
journey's end? They found the one who was their
heart's desire. They worshipped him. There was
joy in their approach. So did six of them bow down and
worship him and five of them stand with doubt in their heart?
What was going on here? They must have known his identity.
They must have known his lordship. They must have known his divinity. This was the Christ, the son
of the living God, the only one worthy of worship anywhere. The angel says to John in the
book of Revelation, stand up, don't you worship me. There's
only one lamb to be worshipped. And yet doubt had entered at
least some of their hearts. Some of the hearts of these men
had doubt. And I suspect that that doubt sprang from the dawning realisation that the Lord was about to make
a change and things were not going to be the same anymore.
I think that it was the change that was about to happen and
the realisation of that change that caused these people to have
their doubts. They realised, had they not known
it before, that the Lord wasn't going to establish an earthly
kingdom. In fact, it appears that their
travelling from Jerusalem to Galilee to meet him on this mountain
was exactly the opposite from what they would have done had
he been about to establish an earthly kingdom. He would have
done it in Jerusalem. He would have shown himself to
the Roman soldiers. He would have shown himself on
the steps of the temple. there in that city where still
there was so much excitement and enthusiasm because of the
Passover and because of the feasts and because of the number of
people there, there would have been the amazing evidence of
a raised Christ to galvanise the people and lead them on to
that kingdom that he had spoken so often about. But the Lord
was, as it were, if that was a screwed up tight bottle waiting
to pop, the Lord had very gently unscrewed it and allowed all
of that enthusiasm to dissipate. He'd taken them from Jerusalem,
the centre of that fervour, all the way back to Galilee, onto
the top of a mountain. Something was different. Some
change was taking place. And the Lord, as he spoke to
these people here, was undoubtedly causing them to realise that
he was about to leave them. They had heard about him leaving
them, but then he had been crucified, and then they'd got him back
again. Was he back to stay, or was he telling them something
else? And it was this, I believe, that was starting to rise in
their hearts and in their minds about the fact that the Lord
was in fact going away and he was going to leave them. He was
going to return to his father. He was leaving them behind. And their distress at his death,
that had been assuaged by his resurrection, now returns. and the thoughts of their heart
give way to this question, what's going to happen now? What's going
to happen now? And I think that's a situation
that many of us find ourselves in from time to time. We trust
the Lord, we do, we do, we worship him. We have learned of Him. We have been taught of Him. He
has spoken to us. He's revealed Himself to us.
He's shown us something of Himself. And we've believed Him and we've
trusted Him. We worship Him even as the true
God. We acknowledge and recognise
who He is. We are His people. He is our
God. And yet we struggle with the
practicalities of the tasks before us. We struggle with the uncertainties
of what the future holds. We struggle with feelings of
inadequacy that we're not going to be able to handle these things
properly. We think to ourselves, the task
is too great. The challenge is too much. This
is too big for me. I'm not the person I'm pretending
to be. I'm not the person I aspire to
be. And I don't know whether I can
handle this situation. And we get challenged by these
day-to-day engagements with the world and involvements with the
world, like these 11 men on a hillside in Galilee, with a huge, huge
task being set before them. Three years they'd spent together,
these men. some of them many years before,
they were cousins, they were brothers, they were friends,
they were workmates, they'd served together in fishing boats for
decades perhaps. They knew one another. They were
never going to see one another again. You realise that? They were never going to see
one another again. Maybe one or two did. Maybe as
they went out into all the world to preach the gospel, as they
did, they were obedient to that commission. There were a few,
like Peter, that seems to have stayed around amongst the Jews,
and John we hear about. James, he's going to lose his
life very soon. But what about the rest of them?
They disappear off the face of our scriptures. We never hear
of them again. After that time at the beginning
of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, where they are all together in
that room and the Holy Spirit falls on them, and they are filled
with the Holy Spirit, They fulfilled the commission, the task that
the Lord gave them and they went out into all the world, maybe
never to see one another again. They travelled by boats, they
travelled by donkey, they travelled on foot, they took a coat and
they took a staff and they walked. And they carried the message
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. Is that a challenge? Is that
a huge thing to contemplate? Is that something that might
send a shadow of doubt, anxiety across our mind and into our
heart? Now, I'm not suggesting that
you and I are apostles because we're not. And theirs was a special
task And they were peculiarly equipped to fulfil that role
that they were given. But it would be impossible to
imagine that they weren't daunted. They weren't to some degree overwhelmed
at the implications of what it was that was being set before
them. Perhaps the surprise ought to
be not that some of them doubted, but that all of them didn't doubt.
That's maybe the surprise that we should be looking at this
morning. So here's my point. Look at what the Lord does for
them, and look at what the Lord says to them. These men, these
11 men, they weren't They weren't orators, they weren't university
men, they weren't high financiers, they weren't the intelligentsia
of their age. These were just ordinary men
into whose hand the Lord Jesus Christ was committing the worldwide spread of the gospel
and the establishment of his church in a public way. And observe with me, if you will,
how truly gracious were the actions and the words of the Lord Jesus
to confirm these who were strong in their faith, the ones who
worshipped him, and to remove the fears of those who doubted
the weakened faith. because the Lord Jesus Christ
speaks to this group of people as a group of 11, those who worshipped
him and those who were doubting. That confusion of emotions that
were in their hearts at this time were addressed by the Lord
in the simple way in which he approached them. I think if it had been me in
that situation, I would probably have exhibited some frustration
with these men. I would have said, come on guys,
have you not been through all these things with me? Have you
not seen all the things that I've been doing? Have you not
seen that I'm raised from the dead? Do you not think that with
power to do all of these things, that it's all going to be all
right? What are you doubting for? And I could have been quite
short with these men, realising what was happening. If I ever get short with you,
remind me of the gentleness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And likewise, The Lord says to them in verse
18, You know what? We invariably
go to the last couple of verses of Matthew and talk about the
Great Commission. I'm not going to do that today.
Other than simply in passing. recognised that this was the
great challenge that was set before these people. But I think
the more important point about this whole discussion, this whole
meeting and the appointment that was being kept here is this little
phrase that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to these men. All power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And I want you to hold
on to that little phrase. I want you to think about that
phrase because I want you to realise that that's true. That's
the truth. All power was given to the Lord
Jesus Christ, whether it was the power in heaven or the power
on earth. He came to those disciples and
he spoke to them. And these are the words that
he spoke. He came and he spoke words of
power and encouragement to the hearts of those that he loved. There was no rebuke there for
their unbelief. There was no reprimand for their
doubt. Just kindness. Just gentleness. just tender heartedness towards
them in that moment of the dawning realisation of what it was that
was being set before them and the challenge that they would
have to face and rise to and the work that would have to be
done and the loneliness of the path that would have to be trodden
by each of these individuals as they fulfilled that great
expansive work of preaching the gospel to the world. When the Lord calls his people
to follow him, he enables and he provides for their every need. It is Christ himself that drew
near to these 11. He didn't send an angel to do
his bidding. He came to them and he spoke
to them tenderly, affectionately, comfortingly. He comes to us
and he stands beside us. He comes close to his people. He overshadows us. He sends us
through the word of his gospel to those who have spiritual eyes
and ears to see and hear. He shows us by the granting of
a taught scribe. an educated preacher, someone
who has been instructed in the things of the gospel, a householder
with charge over his household. He speaks to us, he draws close
to us, and he comforts us in these moments. And this is where
our boldness finds its source. Here he came to the apostles
and he said, I will never ever leave you. Philip, you're going that way. Bartholomew, you're going that
way. Thomas, Peter, John, I'll never leave you. I'm going
with you. As you go into all of these different
countries, if you go into all of these different regions, all
of these different ways, as you carry that message, I am going
to be with you. Your fellow disciple will not
be with you. Your friend, the apostle, will
not be with you, but I will be with you. Lo, I am with you always. even
unto the end of the world. People have asked, what does
that mean? Is it the end of time? You know what, I think it's a
nice thing to think about, that it's the end of their journey.
Wherever it took them in the world, right to the very ends
of the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ would be with them as
they went to fulfil that great work. And he says an amen at
the end of it. We've spoken about that. That
means, so let it be, depend upon it. I, the eternal word, have
spoken. I have declared it. And really, actually, certainly,
and surely, I will be with you forevermore. But before the Lord
said those words, he spoke these words. He said, all power is
given unto me in heaven and earth. And as if to say, I want you
to know this, disciples, I want you to know this, U11, that even
before I tell you what it is I'm calling you to, I am going
to send you into the world to represent me. You're going to
be an ambassador for me. You're going to carry my message
to the ends of the earth. I am sending you to preach to
the world. But before, I want you to know
that what has happened has provided you with every resource that
you are ever possibly going to require. Because of my success
on the cross, because I have accomplished all that I was sent
to do, All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Now that's an amazing statement
that the Lord Jesus Christ made right there. And he spoke that purposefully. He spoke it to the encouragement
of his people. He spoke it as the first thing
that he said to them at this appointed meeting that he had
spoken about multiple times while he was still alive and that the
angels had spoken about. If you go and meet him in Galilee,
he'll be there like where he told you he would be. And this
precious statement, this precious word, not that the Lord Jesus
Christ lacked any power beforehand, as the divine Son of God, He
was always God. He always was. Nor was there
ever any limitation on how He ruled and upheld and maintained
creation, which was brought into existence in all of its magnitude. and was sustained by the power
of his word. But a change had occurred. The
fulfilment of the Lord Jesus Christ's covenant obligations
as mediator of his people. The fact that he had become substitute,
the fact that he had become surety for his people had won him his
prize. He had done what was committed
to him and he had earned and achieved that end, that goal,
that purpose. He had secured his bride. He had gained his people and
his church. And now all that remains was
his preachers to go out and gather them in. All that remained was
for them to take that message of his success, of his win, of
his prize, and go out and lay it before the multitudes of this
world. that by the power of the Holy
Spirit, applying that message to the hearts of individuals,
the elect would be called out from all the nations of the world
and brought into a knowledge of Christ as their King and Saviour. Now that wasn't going to be a
speculative task that were given to these men that might or might
not succeed depending upon whether or not some individuals had a
will for it and other individuals didn't. Now he is making a statement
here about all power being given to him on earth and in heaven. All power is given to Christ
for the fulfilment of that which he had gained and won. There
wouldn't be one single individual that he had died for lost. He would get them all. And that's
what he's telling his disciples here. No one will not be reached. When I send you out into the
world with this commission, there's not an individual will not be
reached with this message. that isn't going to come and
hear that gospel and believe it if I have died for them and
they have been placed into my hand. None of the elect would
fail to be gathered in. And I think that that is a lovely
picture of the gentleness of Christ and the care of Christ.
and the willingness and the kindness of our Saviour to deal with the
anxieties of these men. Do you see how gracious He was
in speaking these words to their hearts and in their ears, these
frail, feeble souls? How kind He was to their doubts,
how gentle with their fears, how tender to their needs. He commissions and he empowers. He sends, but he goes with them. He equips and he instructs to
accomplish and to complete his will. Go ye therefore and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. There's a breadth of vision here. All nations have to be taught.
We have to have a view that looks beyond our immediate circumstances. And that's a good thing for us
to retain even in these days, a desire to see this message
taken out and placed before others. And there's no restriction. Why
is it that there's no restriction made? Why is it that it's the
whole world? because the Lord's people are scattered amongst
the whole world, all the nations. And that new song that will be
sung in Revelation 5 verse 9 says, thou art worthy for thou was
slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation. That speaks of a
particular and a definite redemption. It speaks of an atonement that
accomplished its end. Thou hast redeemed us out of
all of these nations. And then the gospel went out
and harvested them all in. And the Lord committed that task
to these 11 men, who in turn committed it to faithful men
down through the generations. And that is still the way that
the Lord gathers his people through the preaching of the gospel into
the Church of Jesus Christ today. This great redemptive work speaks
of the grace and the glory of the triune God. the majesty on
high, Father, Son and Holy Ghost all involved and therefore all
acknowledged in the baptism. of those who were being brought
into the Church of Jesus Christ, a witness, as it were, to the
cleansing and renewal and the resurrection, and a testimony
to the faith and the successful work of our Saviour on the cross. The Father sent Him, committed
a people into His care. The Son came willingly and died
for them, and the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of that
great transaction to the hearts and lives of His people. But I want to return in closing
to the kindness of the Saviour in this matter. Because what
he's saying to these disciples is this, because I have all power,
because I now rule in heaven and earth over my kingdom, over
my church, because the absolute success of this work of gathering
is assured Therefore, go ye and preach the gospel. This is a
winning task. We're not going out to fight
for the kingdom. We're going out to gather in
the prize because the fight has already been won. Christ did
it all. Power is given to him. Right
is given to him. Authority is given to him. As the mediator, as the God-man,
he now has all of that glory, all of that power vested in him. He is the head of his body, the
church, that he should give, he says elsewhere, eternal life
to as many as were given him. John 17 verse 2 is where that
verse is found. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him or given to him in that covenant promise
and purpose. And yet it is by these weak,
frail, sinful creatures, people like us, that he gives and grants
that experience of grace and life. These doubting, fearful
individuals carried the gospel to the ends of the earth. And by the church and the preaching
of the gospel within the church, the lost and the wandering sheep
of Christ are gathered in. and yet it is always a mix of
worship and doubt. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
made perfect in our weakness. By a poor, weak vessel, in a
thousand individual instances, the grace of the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ flows. Like a perpetual oil, remember
the oil that flowed and flowed and flowed as long as there was
a vessel into which it could be poured. Like a perpetual oil,
it flows in the preaching of the gospel to the healing of
the nations and the gathering in of his people. What am I going to say? I'm not
up to that. I'm not able for that. I'm not
equipped for that. But the Saviour says, all power
is given unto me in heaven and earth. The message of the gospel,
it's too old fashioned for a modern generation. It's too inadequate. It doesn't answer the problems
of a new generation. All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Well, the church is too weak.
We're too small. We don't have the critical mass. We don't have the momentum anymore.
We're feeble and we're full of trouble and we're full of confusion.
But all power is given unto Christ in heaven and in earth. Nothing
stands before him who already has won the battle. He has carried the day. He has
defeated his enemies and ours. We will have that prize. This is his vindication. This is his kingly crown. We are his kingdom. Once he sent his 11 apostles
and today he still sends his people out with this message.
He still sends his church into all the world as his representatives
and as his ambassadors to a lost generation. We go not in our
own power, And not in our own authority, but we go in the power
and authority of that one unto whom all power in heaven and
earth has been given. Our Saviour does not need to
shout at us. He does not need to batter us.
He does not need to coerce us. But softly and tenderly and gently,
He speaks comfort to our souls. He says, all power has been given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go, and lo, I am with you always. Behold, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen.