Tokens of His Compassion - Part 3 — Leonard Ravenhill

Joseph and Mary Lose Jesus in Jerusalem

43 says, when they had fulfilled their days, they returned to, and, to, return. The child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew of it. That's the most incredible story in the New Testament.

Incredible why? That they'd been given the privilege of escorting Jesus out of a womb right to the cross, to the tomb, womb to the tomb, and they lost Him. I thought they'd have had a bodyguard there day and night.

Losing Christ Through Religious Distraction

When did they lose Him? They lost Him immediately they came out of church. Just like you'll do Sunday morning, you'll have forgotten the sermon before you've gone a hundred yards out of church. Particularly if the Cowboys were playing.

I think that's the greatest religion in Texas, football. They lost Him. Why? They supposed He was in the company, and He wasn't there. Remember the Resurrection morning? She supposed it was the gardener.

She thought He wasn't there, and He was there. They thought He was there, and He wasn't there. Some people think if you build a gorgeous church and put stained glass windows, have a big pipe organ, and all the trimmings, that the Lord is there.

Not so. Not necessarily. They supposed He'd been in the company, and they sought Him among their kinfolk, and they turned again. After three days, you know you do pretty good if you backslide and you make a recovery in three days, you're doing pretty good.

Of course don't backslide anyhow. They lost Him and rediscovered Him in three days. Where? In the temple. I imagine they searched every room, it was an enormous place. One part was the upper room, there were other rooms.

Rediscovering Jesus in the Temple

They sought Him with despair, and His mother went to bed, what do you think she did the first night? What would you do if you lost a twelve-year-old boy? Cry yourself to sleep? Do you think it would justify?

Do you think you'd do it the next night too, and the next night too? He's not here. Or maybe those men that, you know, come every time down by the pool of Ceylon selling goodly pearls, they've taken Him away, stolen Him.

Finally they found Him where? I imagine Joseph pushing the door of the sanctuary open saying, He's there. Where? Isn't it amazing a twelve-year-old boy is up on the front row asking the wise heads questions?

It says hearing, does that imply He answered? Hearing and asking them questions. If you don't have a twelve-year-old, you haven't yet discovered how ignorant you are. Oh heaven, you people need to pray for extra wisdom, I mean your boy's going to have a computer, you don't know what that means anyhow.

It's like buying your husband a sewing machine for Christmas. I would have loved to have been eavesdropping to what questions he was asking. They'd be very wise questions, I'm sure of that. Do you think those wise heads ever forgot that youngster?

Say, that's the boy that came in the temple that day and had us all puzzled and embarrassed us. I wish they'd lose him. I felt like that about some church members too, but go from that incident to another incident just as embarrassing, more embarrassing, in the fourth chapter.

Jesus Reads Isaiah in the Synagogue

Verse 16, as his custom was, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Why? That wasn't his job. It was the rabbi, or the chief rabbi, or one of the best of the priests. They delivered up to him the book of the prophecy Isaiah, and he found a place.

He found a place, I like that. He wasn't going to read anything, you know, that would not mean anything, so he wrote from the 61st chapter. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Do you wonder it closes the verse by saying, and the eyes of everybody there were upon him?

I don't know what his voice was like, I'm sure it was majestic, maybe it was even at that day like the sound of many waters. What did he say? The Spirit of the Lord, verse 18, is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

Christ’s Authority to Heal and Deliver

Something they didn't do. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering the sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised. You know, that upsets a lot of people today.

Oh, they're saying one pious phrase, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You mention healing, they think you're an idiot. Well, I happen to think that Jesus isn't crippled. I happen to believe that Jesus Christ has more power and authority now than he had in the days of his flesh.

And he had dominion over death, he had dominion over lunatics, he had dominion over palsy. Do you wonder he embarrassed them? Oh yes, they said very piously, you know, they read the thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, when he is come, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, then shall a lame man leap as a harp, the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

He didn't read it, he did it. So he embarrassed them. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. You know, there's no greater thing this side of eternity. I'm sure, Paul, you believe in that too. Then a man can say, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

The Spirit of the Lord and the Cost of Ministry

I won't give you two hoots for all the degrees that preachers have. You can have thirty-two and still be frozen anyhow. I'm glad money can't buy this. There's no man can lay hands on you and give you the spirit of wisdom.

I don't believe so. You can't buy it. You can't get it by climbing the intellectual ladder of education, getting some great degree in a university. God Almighty doesn't happen to read diplomas, and I'm not facetious in saying that.

If you're going to be a preacher, covet this, whatever it costs you. If you have to fast one day a week, if you have to miss two nights in prayer, so what? When I was in my twenties, many times I wouldn't go to bed for three or four days.

Stayed in the church after Sunday night service. Went to church Saturday night, had a street meeting until midnight. Went to the church, wrapped up in a cloth and lay at the side of my books, my library there, to wait on God.

Some of you have read, I'm sure, old Dr. Jowett. He was a good Englishman, of course, but anyhow. He coined a phrase I've thought of thousands of times, you have to bleed to bless. You have to bleed to bless.

If the Son of God couldn't be a real true blessing, as God wanted without bleeding, how can we? He came to do the will of his Father. A century back in Scotland, there were three famous brothers. Andrew, I think, one was Andrew Bonner, and the other was, what was he called?

Horatio Bonner. He wrote this lovely hymn, Go labour on, spend and be spent, thy joy to do the Father's will. It is the way the Master went, should not the servant tread it still. Toil in honour, and in thy toil rejoice, for toil comes rest, for exile home.

The Urgency of Reaching Those Without God

Soon shalt thou hear the bridegroom's voice, the midnight cry, behold I come. Men die in darkness at your sight. I don't care if you live and work in one of the most fashionable up-to-date computers.

The men across the other computers die without God and without hope as much as the heathen up the Amazon. It's much more stirring to see stark naked people and Indians, isn't it? Dying in some rotten, uncivilized country.

People in the Waldorf Astoria are dying without God tonight. They can't spend their millions. People in Washington trying to solve problems for the world can't solve their own marriage problems. Can't solve their own drinking problems.

The Gospel’s Mission to the Broken and Captive

Can't solve their own gambling problems. We're led by idiots. This world will never be put straight till the Prince of Peace does it, you can be sure about that. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering the sight of the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,.