In 2 Kings 4:1-7 is a dramatic incident from the days of Elisha which has challenged the thinking of every Bible lover. In its appeal to life, it is unsurpassed in beauty. In its expression of God’s care for the minute things of one’s life, it is unexcelled in grandeur.

The story opens with a” … certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets … ” (verse 1) who was in distressing, heartbreaking trouble. Her husband, a prophet of God, had died, leaving her with two boys to care for, and with a debt to a cruel man who demanded payment at the expense of the son’s liberty. It would seem that God had let this widow down; that following the cause of righteousness had brought disaster. No day could have been darker.

The instruction given to this woman is worthy of our mediation,” … thou shalt shut the door upon thee … ” (verse 4).

Shut the door to opinion. Had she gone down the street asking for the opinions of the wise ones, those opinions would have been varied and contradictory; but they would have been unanimous, to follow the prophet’s advice was a foolish thing to do- it would be only a waste of precious time. The good woman would have been advised, “Use what time you have left in trying to refinance your loans.” But she shut the door to opinions.

You, too, will need to shut the door to the opinions of others if you would experience the supernatural manifestations of God, if you would escape the clutching hold of sin and the starving force of carnality.

Shut the door to fear. How filled our lives are with fear! From morning until night, from the cradle to the grave, fear stalks our pathway. We are afraid that we will not be accepted; we are afraid to start a new job; we are afraid move to another town; we are afraid of …the list is almost endless.

Shut the door to fear, and do it now. Look your problem squarely in the face; take one step toward it; you will discover that the closer you get to it the smaller it becomes.

Shut the door to unbelief.  Unbelief said, “The borrowing of the extra vessels was only lost motion.” Unbelief said, “The whole experience of the race is against expecting a small bottle of oil to fill all those vessels.” This good woman closed the door to unbelief, and filled every cup that faith had brought in.

Close your door to unbelief. Believe in God! Believe in the God transcendent, personal, righteous, compassionate; God – big enough for this day of big things; God – powerful enough for your problems and wise enough to get you through life with honour.

Shut the door to everything that is little and mean and vile and selfish. There you will find the flowing oil, the manifestations of God, and the glow of a glorious experience of being closer to our Maker.

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psalms 126:5-6)

Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission tells that when he was a college student he had charge of a man with a gangrenous foot. It was his duty to dress the man’s foot every day. He soon learned that his patient was not a Christian, and had not been in a church for forty years. Such was his hatred of religion that he refused to go inside the church at his wife’s funeral.

Young Taylor made up his mind to speak to this man about his soul every time he visited him. The man cursed him, and refused to allow him to pray. The student persisted in presenting Christ until one day he said to himself, “It is no use,” and was leaving the room.

When he reached the door, he turned around and saw the man looking after him as if to say, “Why, you are going away today without speaking to me about Christ!” Then the young man burst into tears, and returning to the bedside, said, “Whether you wish me to or not, I must deliver my soul. Will you let me pray with you?” The man assented, began to weep, and was converted.

Mr. Taylor says, “God broke my heart, that through me He might break this wicked man’s heart.”

Ask now that the Holy Spirit may give you a tender heart, and make your eyes a fountain of tears, that, with the sympathy of Christ, you may seek the lost and perishing.

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

It is a great thing to remember – what Christians too easily forget-that we are called to the enjoyment of heavenly things, and we live by the revelation of them. God has not introduced grace and His Son and Spirit to make us get along easily in this world (it was not needed) but to bring us to the enjoyment of heavenly things, and to live in them. What characterizes a man is what his mind is on, and then all his ways flow from that.

The apostle says that we ” …in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened ... ” (2 Corinthians 5:4); that is, all we have of this world. The Lord uses it as an occasion of His dealings with us, but He does not take that up until salvation is settled. Redemption being settled, we find difficulties and exercises come in; and the apostle gives us here (and in chapter 12) what the principle and power of his walk were. What we are called to is the manifestation of the life of Christ; our whole life is to be nothing but that God is revealed. We have life, and the Holy Ghost as our power; we are set here as the epistles of Christ, for men to read. While waiting for Christ to manifest Himself in glory, we have to manifest Him in grace.

It is not pleasant to “do well, and suffer for it,” but is not that what Christ did? It is what we have to do in lowliness and meekness. He first gives us a place in Heaven, and then sets us down here to do that. We have the revelation of God Himself in the Person of His Son. He dwells in us, and we in Him; and we know it, for He has given us of His Spirit. Our place before God is settled; Christ is our life. We have the knowledge of God and the power to walk in this world; and, another thing, heavenly things are revealed – the things that belong to the place in which we are. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Corinthians 2: 12). There we are to live and to get the motive that characterizes us as Christians. If that were always so, we should be always really epistles of Christ – in our houses, our dress, in our everyday life, in all the . things that are the expression of a man’s heart. Is Christ the motive in everything we do? If not, we leave Him for some vanity or other. What every Christian has to do is to commend himself” ... to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2), that if they judge him, it should be for consistency.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). That is where every Christian is. The glory of God is revealed in his heart, and he is thus to manifest it in the world, that they should see it in his words and ways. It is a blessed place, but a very distinct and definite one. If Christ is revealed, He has brought in the knowledge of God – all the glory of God, His holiness, His majesty, His love – has shined into our hearts, that we may give it out. That is very simple if that were all, but it is not all. It is God’s way to put this in an earthen vessel. The apostle does not speak here of wickedness, but weakness. We have to get the flesh put down. We know that, but the apostle does not go on that ground here. It is not a question of sin or failure, but of the path of the Christian as such. The first element is, he has the whole glory of God revealed, but in these ” … earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God … ” (2 Corinthians 4:7)-constant dependence.

Great, excellent, and wonderful as the treasure is, He has put it in a place which, to man’s eye and mind and thought, is unfit for it – as to power, I mean. Therefore in your life, even when you are going on right, you get these two elements: all the glory of God revealed in your heart, but put purposely in an earthen vessel, because there is a great deal for us to learn as regards to what poor, wretched creatures we are. Peter says, ” … I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death” (Luke 22:33). Will you? says the Lord; I will see. We all know what it was. You may say he had not the Holy Ghost. No, but the flesh is as treacherous now as it was before the Holy Ghost was given; of course, there is more power to keep it down. We may learn slowly what it is, but learn it we must. It comes out even when we are seeking to serve Christ honestly, as Peter was. It is the thought of God to put the treasure in this vessel that it may learn itself what it is, and we must learn it. We may earnestly and honestly go and preach Christ, and heartily; but if we have not learned ourselves, there is some confidence in self, and we make mistakes. It is lovely to see Moses going down and associating himself with the poor brickmakers; but he had not learned himself, and he killed an Egyptian, and then ran away.

I must keep watching the flesh, for I know what it is. I need to lean on a strength that is not mine, and wait for God’s direction and guidance. By the discovery of my weakness, I know I have no power but in God. Paul had been put down when he was converted, but he had to be kept down that he might know it was not the capacity of Paul, but that the power of Christ might rest upon him. God says, as it were, it is I working in you; cannot I work through your boggling? Oh, then, says Paul, I will keep it! “…Most gladly… will I…glory in my infirmities … ” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Here he says, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed … ” (2 Corinthians 4:8); I cannot see a way out for myself, but I have God, and He is a sure way. “Persecuted, but not forsaken … ” (2 Corinthians 4:9), for God is with me; ” … cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:9). He lived in the consciousness that the Lord was always there, and that he wanted Him. Even in truth and sincerity of heart, we are apt to go on as if we did not want the Lord. If for one instant I do not have Him with me, I am nothing. Where we are seeking to serve Christ, we have to learn our own lesson; but where there is not that dependence, there will be failure. In small things or in great things, we cannot do anything without Him; and we are not to do good in the strength of our own thoughts. We are slow to learn it!

There are two remedies for this. First, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus … ” (2 Corinthians 4: 10). The apostle applies it to himself, and that goes very far, though it is not all. If you applied the cross to every thought that arises in your heart, you would find how many thoughts the cross would crucify. The flesh would never put up a thought at all, for what thought could a dead man put up? Of course, we have to be gentle and courteous as Christians; but the old man has been put to death, and I have to reckon myself dead. Here he is carrying it out every day. I might fear there are many who do not so apply it to every thought and feeling and purpose – who do not so distrust the flesh, and everything in mere human nature. If l let my body live, there is flesh. But he says, I bear” … about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4: 10). In order to manifest Christ always, I need to hold the flesh dead. That is his part in faith. Then comes the second thing, God’s part. “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4: 11 ). However faithful he was, God had to help him. He could not trust him, and He cannot trust you. He puts you through circumstances where the flesh comes out, and then says, “There now.” Paul could say all this trial and exercise was for Christ’s sake. With us, very often, it is for the flesh’s sake.

The fulness of the glory is ours. The glory has shone into our hearts, but He puts it in an earthen vessel because our hearts have to learn what we are. No will can be allowed – no self-stirring, no flesh, no thought from the vanity of this world – nothing that does not suit this treasure. But do not thoughts come into your mind, and are they not allowed there, that do not suit the treasure of Heaven? Things that do not take the form of gross evil, but a quantity of things that are not Christ? Take the day’s conversation: has there been no vanity, no idleness? Is your speech “… alway with grace, seasoned with salt … ” (Colossians 4:6)? If you take up a newspaper and read of the vanities of the world, do you then tum to read of Christ and His glory, and not find your heart dull? If you do not find it out, you may be sure it will get duller and duller. It hinders the preciousness of Christ to you. You have lost power. You do not go and read your Bible and pray with the same freshness. When I apply the cross of Christ, it stops the moving of my heart. The Lord puts me through circumstances that put me to the test.

Are you willing to take this place, willing to be under God’s hand, cleaving to Him with purpose of heart, saying, I want Christ. Are you willing to have your flesh put down? It is singleness of eye. What Satan is doing is to get us to have, if it were ever so little, confidence in the flesh. Do you say, “Let the vessel be dealt with as He will,” in whatever He sees needed, so that Christ may be manifested, whether by life or by death? Is that the desire of your hearts?

1. When you grow bolder with sin, or with temptations to sin, than you were in your more watchful state- then be sure something is wrong.

2. When you make a small matter of those sins and infirmities which once seemed grievous to you and almost intolerable.

3. When you settle down to a course of religion that gives you but little labor, and leave out the hard and costly part.

4. When your God and Saviour grows a little strange to you, and your religion consists in conversing with men and their books and not with God and His Book.

5. When you delight more in hearing and talking, than in secret prayer and the Word.

6. When you use the means of grace more as a matter of duty, than as food in which your soul delights.

7. When you regard too much the eye of man, and too little the eye of God.

8. When you grow hot and eager about some disputed point, or in forwarding the interests of some party of Christians, more than about those matters which concern the great cause of Christ.

9. When you grow harsh and bitter towards those who differ from you, instead of feeling tenderly towards all who love Christ.

10. When you make light of preparing for the Lord’s day and the Lord’s table, and think more of outward ordinances than you do of heart work.

11. When the hopes of Heaven and the love of God do not interest you, but you are thirsting after some worldly enjoyment and grow eager for it.

12. When the world grows sweeter to you, and death and eternity are distasteful subjects.

“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls …” (Jeremiah 6: 16).

“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).

Change is one of the laws of life. Birth, growth, decay, and death are all part of a flow that never ends. No one can escape that fact of change, though some have tried.

Pyramids, that are still the wonder of the world, have been built in order to insure lasting fame. These people have sought to write their names on the page of human history with indelible ink. Yet the pyramids have crumbled and the writing has grown dim with age. We cannot escape the winds of change that blow across the human scene.

One ancient thinker was so impressed with the ceaseless flux and flow of existence that he declared change to be the essence of all things. The only thing that never changes, he said, is the unchanging law of change. Life is like the restless waters of a river: you cannot step into the same river twice for the water into which you stepped the first time has gone on to the seas, and even you are changed, for it is not the same to step into the river the second time as it was to step into it the first time! Still we long for permanence. We instinctively seek the permanent in the passing. We cannot escape the conviction that what is real must in some way be lasting.

When we look at the passing and the permanent, we begin to see something very important, everything does not change. If it did, we would not recognize change itself. The only way we know the river is flowing is because there are trees and rocks along the bank that do not flow. We see change only by comparing it with the changeless.

So we have not only laws of change; we also find changing laws. Nothing has contributed more to changes in the circumstances of human life than the growth of modern science. Yet science has gained its understanding and control of change by the discovery of what is really unchanging.

If and when men go to Mars, a new thing will have happened; but that new thing will happen, if it does, because scientists have discovered principles and laws which are as old as the universe itself laws of energy and inertia which are not created by man but are found at the heart of reality. All of this has great meaning for the kind of men or women we are. Just as in the world about us the scientist gains his understanding and control of change by the discovery of the abiding and the permanent, so we need to meet the changes of life from a point of reference that is fixed and eternal.

Where is the permanent in human life? It is certainly not in external conditions. It is not in political institutions. It is not in the works of men’s hands. It is not in the customs of society. It is in the reality of a divine Person, “O Thou who changest not, abide with me!”

The apostle triumphantly points to “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). All that will hold for time and eternity is an anchor in the Rock of Ages.

God will not change; the restless years may bring

Sunlight and shade -the glories of the spring

And silent gloom of winter hours –

Joy mixed with grief-sharp thorns with fragrant flowers.

Earth’s lights may shine awhile, and then grow dim,

But God is true; there is no change in Him.

-Edith Hickman Dival

Nor does the Gospel of Christ change. It is, as it was, the great good news of redemption and meaning and purpose in human life. The greatest problems we have are not the problems of poverty or race or disease or war. The greatest problems we have come because we are “aliens by birth and sinners by choice,” the moral twist of the human spirit. The beginning of the solution to all human problems is offered in the everlasting Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation.

The good news for people living in a changing world is the old news of the unchanging grace of God. Whatever your past and whatever the circumstances of your present, you can find forgiveness and peace in repentance, prayer, and faith.

Always at hand in the changing ways of life is the cleansing of the heart that goes “deeper that the stain has gone.” We cannot stop with pardon for the past, we must have power for the present and prospect for the future. God’s call to every Christian is not a call to an uncleaned way or will, but a call to holiness. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation” (1 Peter 1: 15).

John saw it clearly, and said it well, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2: 17). Change is real, and we must live with it; but beyond and above the passing is the permanent, and we must live in it. Only in God himself does the heart find its home.

It is impossible for the scriptural observer to watch God’s church today without deepening alarm and even heart-breaking sorrow. The efforts of the Roman priests to rule, and undermine, and destroy; the appalling abandonment of belief in the Word of God; the flippant worldliness of method, walk, and heart; the church divisions, jealousies, quarrels; the open backsliding over which we seem absolutely powerless; above all, our own failure to meet it all with our faces in the dust- we begin faintly to understand Jeremiah when he said, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jeremiah 9:1).

Now observe: Out of this black disaster arises one of the most exquisite privileges of the Christian. The Holy Ghost has drawn a parallel from the revolted people of Jehovah (read Numbers 16:41),“Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition … “ (1 Corinthians 10:10-11). Ponder the scene to which the Holy Ghost thus draws our attention: Moses is the mediator, the type of Christ (Hebrews 3: 1-2), and Aaron is the priest; and we are priests. Priests sometimes have to intercede for priests. The incense is prayer (Psalm 141 :2; Revelation 5: 8). We are priests come up white from the laver, with command over the incense, equipped for the intercessions of God.

Nearly all the great prayers of the Bible are intercessions: Abraham for Sodom; Moses for Israel; Solomon for the temple; Daniel for the captivity; our Lord and Paul for the church.

The action opens with God; ” … the Glory of the LORD appeared” in the cloud (Numbers 16:42). ” … they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” Psalm 42:3). God is here. God is in the world; God is in the cloud; God is among His people; God is not far from any one of us; and God does not leave the consciences of His people untroubled. Instinctively, they tum their faces to the cloud, but God responds with a vision of devouring fire.

This is the purging terror needed by the modem church. We have forgotten the sword in the mouth of Christ. We have forgotten that even on Jesus rested the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11 :2). The awful certainty is that, sooner or later, God is bound to deal with His people. The blessed certainty is that God is in the Holy of Holies, waiting for intercessions. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, “Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces.” (Numbers 16:45).

CHRIST COMMANDS NOT DENUNCIATION BUT INTERCESSION

Mark the tender marvel of it all. 1) The Mediator directs the priest to rush in with the incense. Moses said unto Aaron, ” … Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun” (Numbers 16:46).

Christ commands not denunciation but intercession for the people of God. The Judge is at the door, and Aaron ran (Numbers 16:47). The merely critical spirit ends at last in criticism of Christ. “Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door” (James 5:9).

2) Intercession is the function of a priest. The plague was deserved. The sin of God’s people is rightly punished. But it is for a priest to reconcile God and man, not to estrange them. “Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O LORD … “ (Joel 2: 17).

3) Incense is pounded spice. So heartbroken intercessions are the most odorous on the altars of God. ” … And they fell upon their faces” (Numbers 16:45). (See also Psalm 44:24-25.)

4) Intercession demands a forgiving spirit. ” … the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD,” (Numbers 16:41). It was an unjust, cruel, wanton charge. On the contrary, Aaron might have replied, “The Lord judge between us. If we be guilty, let the plague strike us.” But God’s priest ran into the plague-laden air, careless of life, and braved the still more dangerous wrath of the Cloud for his wanton accusers. This is the Spirit of Christ (Mark 11 :25). We must be great forgivers before we can become great intercessors. If the heart on the throne forgives, shall not this heart in the dust?

INTERCESSION REACHES THE JUDGMENT SEAT

Now observe the magnificent results. 1) The plague was stayed. The people were no worthier, but the prayer was accepted. Two men saved two million. God’s judgments are actually stayed by the intercessions of His priests.

2) Prayer can remove sin, as well as revoke the plague. Let them pray for him; ” … and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5: 15). It is an amazing fact that intercession can reach even to the Judgment Seat. “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge” (2 Timothy 4: 16).

3) Plead blessings on others, and we invoke blessings on ourselves (James 5 :20). In the next chapter, Aaron’s rod blooms alone: he and his house are made perpetual intercessors before Jehovah (Numbers 18:1; Numbers 18:7). In one of his last addresses, Dr. Pierson said at Mildmay, “I say to you with the solemnity of a dying man, that no man has ever yet laid hold on the supernatural power of God as it is possible to lay hold on that power.”

It is the spirit of intercession which produced, in a closely allied incident, one of the most wonderful occurrences in the history of the world. “I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they” (Numbers 14:12). Never before or since has such an offer been made. It was an offer made directly by God Himself. It involved the destruction of all His people, leaving Moses God’s sole representative on the globe. It promised a mightier nation through Moses. It offered him the holiest and most enduring of all dynasties and by far the most wonderful throne in the world, and it involved the transmission of Messiah to Moses line.

Moses was never greater than in this supreme crisis in his life. He, who was tried so sorely as to lose the Holy Land through the infidelities of this very people, is as silent as the grave on the offer. He will never raise his house on the ruins of God’s people. His one cry is, “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people …. “ (Numbers 14:19). Oh, that the very sins of the church, and the anger of God, may now awake such God-like intercession and such Gethsemane intercessors!

Moses casts everything on the character of God, “Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them … ” (Numbers 14: 15-16). Think it either weakness or malignity? Exactly so today God is so identified with His church that for the church to be wiped out would be the death of the very idea of God. We must plead to God when we pray now for the people of God. Moses loves God and the honour of God too much to accept the offer. God’s glory is at stake, God’s repute among the nations, God’s power and grace and love.

Hear the solemn word of Christ,  “And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works” (Revelation 2:23).

But meanwhile, the door of intercession stands opens. God’s heart is just one great sob over a lost world. Our hearts are to be one great sob over an errant church. “O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face … because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses … “ (Daniel 9:8-9). “O my God, incline thine ear, and hear … for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God … “ (Daniel 9: 18-19).

The glorious message of our Saviour’s birth was announced by the angels, when the darkness of night overshadowed the world. Sorrowing hearts found a healing balm when the promised Redeemer came.

The world was again left in darkness when they crucified our Lord, and put out the light. Even those who loved Him were left in the gloom, because they were ” … slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25).

The women who loved Him stood at the sepulcher weeping, and again a heavenly messenger was sent to say to sorrowing hearts, ” ... Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:5-6).

Death laid its cold hand upon the dear Son of God. He ” … died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). He ” … bare our sins in his own body on the tree … ” (1 Peter 2:24). Hallelujah, Jesus triumphed over death and the grave, and as He arose, we also shall rise, and live to die no more!

The final victory will take place when we can look into all the empty tombs where the saints have slept, and cry, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

If you have never done so, put your faith in the Saviour today. ” … he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Text:               Luke 22:7-18

Intro:

I want us to focus on verse 10.

What I find interesting is that the man who was to meet Peter and John was to be bearing a picture of water.

This man could have been bearing something else or involved in a number of activities.

I believe that there are no accidents with God.

I believe that it was no accident that the man Peter and John were to meet would be bearing a pitcher of water.

If we examine the ministry of Jesus Christ  we will find throughout His ministry that water is strongly connected with our Saviour and presents many wonderful pictures and types.

Today I would like us to examine some of those instances where water plays a part the ministry of our Lord.

The Water of Submission – Mt. 3:13-17

Jesus public ministry began with His baptism by John, the Baptist.

Jesus said that He came to do the will of the Father.

Here at His baptism begins a ministry of 3 ½ years that will always be in submission to the will of the Father.

A ministry that will end with Jesus being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

The Water of Miracles – John 2:6-9,11

We see manifested by one of commonest elements found on this earth, water.

Our Saviour’s omnipotence.

The changing of the water into wine showed our Lord to be all powerful.

A power reserved only for the Creator, Himself.

The Water of the Physical Birth – John 3:1-7

Our Lord explains to a religious Jew named Nicodemus how a man can enter into the Kingdom of God.

And it is not by our natural birth, “born of water”

But by the Spirit of God.

The Water of Life – John 4:5-15

Jesus makes a contrast between earthly water that will leave you unsatisfied – with  – living water, the water of everlasting life that satisfies the thirsty soul forever.

My dear friend , Jesus is the only source that you can receive this living water.

He invites all – “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”

If you have never come to the water of life, won’t you come today and be saved.

The Water of Spiritual Rivers – John 7:37-39

Jesus promises to all that believe on Him an indwelling Holy Spirit – “rivers of living water”.

The Water of Humility – John 13:12-16

By the washing of the Apostles feet Jesus teaches us a great lesson on humility.

Jesus through His example of foot washing teaches us how we should treat one another and others.

Just as He came not to be ministered unto but to minister to others so are we to do the same.

If Jesus humbled himself in His service to others should we do any less.

The Water of Sacrifice – John 19:31-37

V. 34 – Blood and Water came out of the side of the Saviour.

Our Lord had poured out His life for us at the cruel cross of Calvary so that our sins could be forgiven.

So, that Heaven could be our home.

God sacrificed His only begotten sinless Son to save sinners from a literal eternal burning hell.

The Water of Cleansing – Ephesians 5:25-27

The Word of God here is pictured as water.

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is doing something to the church right now so she will be spotless then at the marriage of the Lamb – Rev. 19:7-8.

He is washing the Body of Christ with a kind of water which is “by the word”

In the context of the passage, the Word of God is saying that husbands should minister the word to their wives to keep them clean.

A man takes care to keep his own flesh clean and therefore he should minister to his wife.

Just as in John 13 when our Lord washed the feet of the disciples, he was not only teaching humility but also that they should minister the word to each other to clean each other.

We should do the same to each other as members of the body of Christ.

Conclusion:

We have seen in our study the importance of water in the ministry of our Lord.

The Water of Submission

The Water of Miracles

The Water of the Physical Birth

The Water of Life

The Water of Spiritual Rivers

The Water of Humility

The Water of Sacrifice

The Water of Cleansing

“Afterward he appeared … And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:14-15).

In March 1969, people around the world waited with bated breath for the word from Cape Canaveral for lift-off. During the tense moments, the superstitious crossed their fingers and the godless said a prayer. Everybody was caught up in the earsplitting surge of power which hurls a man skyward toward outer space. Suspense did not lesson, and pulse rates did not drift back to normal until four words come crackling over the airwaves – “All conditions are … GO!” Anxiety then gave way to jubilation.

As if their united voices had been needed to help propel an astronaut into orbit, men and women of every hemisphere picked up the chant, and in their own languages and dialects shouted, “Go! Go! Go!” That one syllable seems to summarize the universal emotions and wishes of that moment.

Borrowing from NASA’s electrifying, newly coined phrase of that time, let us apply it to the spiritual realm, “ALL CONDITIONS ARE … GO!” That two-letter word appears no less than two hundred and fifty-two times in the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, with one hundred and fifty-two of the usages attributed to Christ Himself by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Went, the past of go, is repeated three hundred and forty-nine times.

With Jesus Christ, all conditions were … GO! Jesus Himself moved from place to place. The greatest sentence-biography ever written described Him perfectly, “… who went about doing good … “ (Acts 10:38). So it is not to be wondered at that He frequently used the word go to help move others on course. It was a watchword embodying a principle, a guide to action.

” … go work … “ (Matthew 21:28). ” … go after … “ (Luke 15:4). ” … go quickly … “ (Matthew 28:7). Each was His command. His beneficiaries found that they could not be static, remain in equilibrium, or act by mere weight without motion. Go forth, go show, and go call- these kept His hearers in movement. On one occasion He would be heard saying, “Go preach.” On another it was “go teach” or “go tell.” All conditions were … GO!

To a former adulteress, now forgiven, He said, ” … go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). Bystanders at the tomb of resurrected Lazarus were commanded, ” … Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:44). When He dispossessed a demoniac, He ordered the evil spirits to “go,” and then followed through by instructing the redeemed man to “… Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee…” (Mark 5: 19). His disciples He ordained to“… go and bring forth fruit …” (John 15: 16).

The original twelve were commissioned, “… go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). Later Christ appointed an additional seventy, whom He sent two by two into every city and place, which was a larger authorization. “Go your ways … “ (Luke 10:3), He told them, for “… The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few …” (Luke 1 0:2). GO has always been an important part of the GOspel. Merely hyphenate the word, add another letter, and it seems to automatically flow, “GO-spell out redemption to all people.”

As it was before Christ’s death, it was even so after His resurrection. The word was still GO! “… Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations … “ (Matthew 28:19). ” … as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21); then He went away, ” … he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9), but all conditions were still … GO!

Following His ascension, Christ reappeared with the very same words on His lips. He was seen and heard by Saul of Tarsus (turned Paul, apostle to the heathen), saying, ” … go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 9:6).

Quite simultaneously, a devout man, Ananias, enjoyed the same post-ascension visit, the Lord instructing him, ” … go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire … for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth” (Acts 9:11). “… Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles …” (Acts 9:15).

Before and after Christ’s passion, and even following His glorification, all conditions were . . . GO! The message and the direction were the same, whether Christ appeared in person to enunciate them or dispatched an angel with the word.

On one occasion the imprisoned apostles were released by an angelic deliverer, who also commissioned them, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life” (Acts 5:20).

Once again the angel of the Lord was sent, this time to Philip, with the message, ” … go toward the south … ” (Acts 8:26). Having arrived, he was instructed by the Holy Spirit to, ” … Go near, and join thyself to this chariot” (Acts 8:29) (the chariot of the eunuch).

At another time, it was this same Spirit who directed Peter to leave the Joppa rooftop and accompany the inquirers to Caesarea. “… get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing …” (Acts 10:20).

Judging by all the evidence – Christ’s own example: His utterances and commands, both before and after His passion; the repeated post-resurrection commissions; and those post-ascension instructions by Christ, angels, and the Holy Spirit; there is no doubt that from the divine viewpoint and intention, all conditions are still …GO!

The great commission included no time limit. It set forth simply, clearly, and with a note of finality what was to be done; by whom, for whom; by what means; where, why, and for how long. It left no room for shilly-shallying. This command has never been rescinded or modified.

It would seem a mistake of the first magnitude for any follower of Christ to be irresolute or be preoccupied with trifles, when commanded to make this world his parish. To see disciples standing idle in the ecclesiastical marketplaces, saying, “… no man hath hired us …” (Matthew 20:7), when fields are ready for the reaping and the Lord is saying, “… Go ye also into the vineyard…” (Matthew 20:7), is indeed a sorry spectacle.

As long as world evangelization is incomplete; as long as Communism continues to enslave; as long as half of mankind languishes in fear and superstition because of ignorance; and as long as heathens need to hear the truth that sets men free, all conditions are to be regarded as … GO!

By the challenge of red atheism and the horrors of paganism; by the command of Christ, and the right of all men to hear the joyful sound that Jesus saves, we must go. Of hindering things to which we cling, we must let go. Those who stand poised and willing, stymied for lack of aid, we must help go.

ALL CONDITIONS ARE … GO!

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Dr. W. C. Alvarez, a stomach specialist at the Mayo Clinic, says that eighty percent of the stomach disorders that come to them are not organic, but functional. Wrong mental and spiritual attitude throw functional disturbances into digestion. Most of our ills are caused by worry and fear, and it is my experience that faith is more important than food in the cure of stomach ulcers.

In order to keep your commission clean, you must be free from worry and fear. Worry is not merely weakness; it is wickedness. It says God has abdicated, and that we have to hold the world together by our worrying, but the opposite happens. Worriers wreck their world as well as their lives. Worry is sin against God and ourselves. Cast it on Christ and His cross; then you will live by cheer, rather than by fear.

“Be careful for nothing … ” (Philippians 4:6). In other words “stop being worried about anything.”

Someone has wisely said, “If we trust we do not worry, and if we worry we do not trust.” “Trust in the LORD, and do good … and verily thou shalt be fed” (Psalm 37:3).