SUNDAY READING.
"WE SEE JESUS CROWNED." Notes of a sermon preached in the Baptist Tabernacle. New Plymouth, by the Rev. A. Campbell Seivewright, on Sunday, March 8. Text: Hebrews 11, 8-9.
The reference here is to a prophecy contained in the eighth Psalm, regarding the universal dominion of man. Th/i contention of the writer of this epistle is that this prophecy lias found its partial fulfilment in Jesus Christ. Mr.ll has not yet reached the summit of his high destiny, but in the crowning of the Son of Man we get the guarantee of ths final exaltation and blessing of the sons of men. In other words, Jesus is the representative of mankind. In the death, in the rcsurrecton, and in the exaltation of Jesus we are privileged to see not only the Saviour himself, but the race that He represents. He "tasted death for every man," thus, in His triumph over death, in the blessings which He secured, and in His ascension we see the triumph, the blessing, and the future glory of all who believe on His name. Jesus crowned at the right hand of the Divine Majesty is th* Divine assurance of our present and fatnre blessing. Jesus crowned, for <" "mple, is tha divine proof of our present acceptance with God. We are "accepted in the beloved," St. Paul assures- us; but what, evider.ee have we that Jesus himself has been accepted? The answer is to be found in the crowning of Jesus at Clod's right hand. We claim no personal merit. God looks upon us in the person of cur representative, and we are accepted in Him. This is true of the weakest as well as of the strongest believer; of the least in the Kingdom as well as of the greatest; of the most *aithlcss as well as of the most faithful. In the matter of acceptance all stand on one common platform because all are viewed, not in tho light of their own personal worth, but in the light of the worth of Jesus Christ. Tims we are enabled to draw near to the throne of God with holy boldness, and in full assurance of faith. We realise our personal short. comings, and unfitness for communion with God; but the remembrance of cur Lord's rotation to God, 011 the one hand, and of His relation to us, on the other, endues us with confidence and while His prevailing name forms our plea before the Divine throne. Noblemen of the highest rank in Spain", in tlie olden days, sometimes received from the Kimr, as a token of honor, a golden key which they wore at the girdle to show that they had a right 'to enter at any time the royal palace. T!k> name of Jesus Christ is our right of entry into the presence of God, the spiritual sesame that secures for us access at a)\ times, the "olden key thai unlocks for' us the way into (he holy of holies. And that name owes its prevailing' rower to the fact that it is the iiamo of the One whom God has crowned. Jesus crowned is the divine proof of our acceptance with God. He is the One who has undertaken our cause; who is our representative before the divine thron... His acceptance, therefore, means our acceptance, ami the proof of I hat acceptance lies in Ilia crowning with glory and honor at God's rinht hand. Jtsus crowned is aiso the divine pledge of our present unfailing blessing. That blessing does not depend upon our faith, or upon our faithfulness. It depends upon the grace of the One who has picked Himself to "supply all our needs according to His riches'in glory, by Christ Jesus." You remember'the pity and the power that ,Te«us displayed in the days of His flesh. Here ih ii poo* leper. His faith is not of 3. very - hiirh order. "Lord, if thou wilt," he pleades. ''thou cans* make me clean." Ho has faith,in the power but not in the love of Jesus; but the Saviour understands, and for His own name's sake.He meets the need of this poor leper. Here ara five thousand men, besides women and children, Many are, there to watch Him in order that they may obtain sufficient evidence on which to accuse Him before the Jewish Sanliedriii. Our Lord is neither ignorant of their attitude 1101 of their errand, yet He has compassion upon them because they are with Him in 1 desert place without fncd. *flere arc two sisters mourning for an only profiler. They have said to Jesus': "Lord, if thou liadst been here our brother had not died." Their, words conveyed reproof, for they had sent, for Jean,-; in haste, and He had delayed His coming. But He understands the keenness of their sorrow, and bears with their unkind accusation. And presently. He restores to them their brother, and comforts them. The blessings that Jesus dispensed so freely in the days of His flesh were not dependant upon the faith, the gratitude, or the inteltr. rjenee of the recipients. They were dependant upon His unfailing grace and power. Thus it is to-day. We may fail, yet God will abide faithful. Our faith and love may grow dim and faint, yet His love and power will remain. For the sake of the One who glorified Him upon the earth His patience, and His gracious power will continue to bo exercised on our behalf. The future looms dark and uncertain before us, perhaps; but whatever it contains for us it contains the sufficiency of His grace, and the "riches of His glory"; for Jesus crowned is the Divine pledge of our unfailing blessing. Jesus crowned is also the earnest of His final triumph, and of our triumph in Him. "We see not yet all things put under him (that is man), but we see 'Jesus crowned with glory and honor." ,His final triumph is sure. For a brief season unrighteousness may seem to prevail; wrong may seem to triumph. Ibut the time must come when He, the One, will reign, whose right jit is to reign. At the present moment iWe are assured that we are on the eve 1 of" a. great crisis. An attack on an uni preeedfentert scale is imminent on the 'Western front, and. many are asking with quivering- lips what will be the 'issue.. Do we-heljeve in the justice of ! our cause? Do> we believe in the final triumph of right over wrong? What, Ittuen,, can be the issue? There may be I .temporary reverses,; who can tell? But |.ffi& final resuHris assured.. To believers m Jesus-Christ, on this point, there can 'ibe- no shadow of doubt; for Jesus crown-. edi at, the right hand 1 of the Divine Ma'jesty is- the djhwxe pledge and earnest; ithat Be will finally and fully triumph |over all that is evil, over all that 13 iwrong. As the poet Lowell puts xti "Careless sesms, the great Avenger;;. history's; pages bat record
One death-grapple in the darkness [ 'twixt; old-'system's and I ;the word;: I Truth for- ever- on the scaffold, wrongfor ever on . the throne, Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within tho shadow, keeping watch above His own." And when the right moment has arrived the shadows shall' be- dispelled, His: !jlory shall he revealed, and" all' ivk-
righteousness shall be overthrown. If we believe in the present exaltation of ! Chr'st, we must believe this. In Worcester Cathedral, Sir Robertson Nicoll tells us, there is a grave with one word inscribed, the word "miserimus." Who was it that died broken-hearted? The ' question was long unanswered. It oven- ■ tually transpired that this sad inscrip. j lion was on the grave of Thomas Mau- j rice, whose 'heart was broken by the j tresty of Aix-la-Chapolle, which extinguished the last hope of the exiled fam- ; ily to which he most faithfully adhered. ' No man need ever go to the grave in dispair of the kingdom of Christ. The time must come what the kingdoms of , this world shall become the kingdoms ; of Cod, and of His Christ. There may j be moments in our experience when, j like the disciples in the midst of tho [ storm, wo may be tempted to ask: "Mas- i tor, parent thou not that we perish?" But the moment shall come when He will arise from His seeming inactivity, and rebuke the storm, and there shall ; be a great calm. Our hope is in the j crovned Christ. Not many years ago the South American States of Chili and | Argentina were on the verge of war. j The clergy, however, as well as the re- j preventatives of the British Government labored earnestly to avert the disaster. They pleaded for some tangible expression of peace on the boundary line, which was in dispute. The result was ; th.e erection of a statue of Chr, twenty- 1 six feet in height, on the summit of the , Andes. In His left hand the figure holds a cross, while His right is outstretched, in blessing. Below are. two tablets. One gives the history of the monument. The other contains these words: "Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than shall the people of Argentina and Chili break the peace to which they have pledged themselves at the feet of Christ the Redeemer." May we not believe that this peace is but a foreshadowing of the final peace that shall yet be, when all nations and peoples shall bow at the feet of the once crucified and now crowned Saviour of men? His triumph, shall then be complete. And His people shall share in that triumph. "We see not yet all things put under us"—tho <rreat divine purpose still awaits fulfilment in its entirety, "but we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor." Is not this sufficient? We are like men standing on some lofty height, looking towards another height in the distance. We do not see all that lies in the valley far below, but we see the distant height and that, we know, is our final goal. And so to-day with rejoicing hearts despite the sorrows that still surge around us; with undiminished faith, despite the severe testing to which that faith is being subjected; with undaunted courage, despite the unknown dangers that still threaten, we continue our journey heavenward and 'homeward because we behold the vision of the crowned Saviour at God's right <
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19180316.2.40
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, 16 March 1918, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,749SUNDAY READING. Taranaki Daily News, 16 March 1918, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.