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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/norman-crawford/the-perfect-manhood-of-the-lord-jesus/
I want to read maybe six or seven verses. If I tell you why I'm reading them, it may make us appreciate them more as we do look at them. I have been thinking very much of the true humanity of the Lord Jesus.
Lord say, I tried to speak about the one who is truly God and yet became truly human. I want to read these verses and they are amazing verses since they tell us of the Lord Jesus being truly a man, a sinless man, a holy man, a man who is truly God and yet a man.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 4, verse 2 of Matthew 4, when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungry. The Lord Jesus, who made heaven and earth, was actually hungry. John, chapter 4, the Gospel of John, chapter 4, this is a very familiar passage to us.
Verse 6 of John, chapter 4, now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour. The one who never slumbers or sleeps was weary.
Mark chapter 4, again please, back in your New Testament, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, verse 37, and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he, our English Bible doesn't have the emphasizing pronoun in this verse, but it is there, and he himself was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.
And they awake him and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased. And there was a great calm. John, chapter 11, as you well know, this is the shortest verse in the Bible, verse 35.
Jesus wept. Would you look at John 19 just for a moment, seeing you're in the Gospel of John, chapter 19 of John, verse 28, after this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith I first.
Back again to Matthew, I'm taking you back and forth in your New Testament, Matthew 26, verse 38. Perhaps verse 37 we should start at, he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
Then said he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. That means it was a sorrow that it would have produced death. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Can I read a simple Gospel text, Romans, chapter five?
I believe this is one of the greatest texts in all the Bible. I'm certain I won't get much disagreement on that. Verse six, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his, that is, his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
I think that this is a subject that has amazed me. I am not sure I can do it justice, but we have read of the Lord Jesus being hungry, being weary, actually sleeping in a ship in a storm, weeping, thirsting, being full of sorrow, but a far greater wonder than all of this, he truly died.
That's what really impresses me about these scriptures, that this is the Lord of creation, the Lord of life. He is the depository of all wisdom and all life, and he was here as a man, and his manhood was real.
I think there is much here that I can hardly grasp. Astute from highest glory down to Jesus of Nazareth, so despised, rejected, treated with scorn and contempt, mocked and spit upon, and yet he is the Lord of all transcendent, the life-creating Son to worlds on him dependent.
I am amazed that the one who made the cattle on a thousand hills should ever be hungry. Was he really hungry? Oh, yes, it's genuine. The one who had all wealth and all power was truly hungry, and Satan's temptation was to turn these stones into bread.
The Lord Jesus never performed a miracle for himself, I mean for his own ease, for his own comfort, to meet his own needs. He never did. It was always for the needs of others. What a lesson that is for us.
I think we're all guilty. We get very occupied with our own particular circumstances, our own needs, and sometimes that overshadows our care about the needs of others. The Lord Jesus never failed in that.
Never for his own need did he ever perform an act or say a word only for the needs of others. He actually walked and was weary. That staggers my mind. He could move from earth to heaven. How long did it take?
Have you ever thought about that when the Lord Jesus ascended, when he went up and the cloud received him out of their sight? How long did it take? Well, I think there's a clue to that in what Paul tells us about being caught up.
He wasn't only caught up to the clouds, Paul was caught up to the third heaven. How long did it take? An hour, a day, a week, a month, a year? You know, when men talk about the distances of the stars, they talk in millions of light years.
But when Paul was caught up to the third heaven, it was instantaneous. It happened so suddenly that he didn't know whether he was on earth or in heaven. I often wonder when loved ones leave earth, do we understand that at that very moment they're in the presence of the Lord Jesus?
The distance between earth and heaven is not what we sometimes think. So he who descended from the highest glory down to this world actually walked on earth and was wearied with his journey. Laboriously, step after step through that rough country, the Lord Jesus walked until he came to Jacob's well and sat down on the well because he was weary with his journey.
It's most amazing, isn't it, that the one who is God over all should have humbled himself to have walked and be weary. We read in Mark's gospel, to me, one of the most amazing stories in all the gospel records.
It says the ship was full of water. No wonder the disciples thought they were going down. The ship's full of water, it's not going to stay afloat too long. And yet he was asleep on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship.
The Bible tells us that he will not suffer thy foot to be moved because he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. And yet as a man, he actually slept in the storm. And Peter and the other disciples learned the lesson that day.
Peter never forgot it. How do I know Peter never forgot the lesson? Because in First Peter five, he wrote, he cares. You see, in the boat, Peter said, do you not care? Carest thou not that we perish? Peter learned a lot different.
He learned that he truly cares. He knows and he loves and he cares. And he was asleep and they woke him up. Amazing that he was such a man, a real man. What does that mean to us? Actually, why am I even speaking on this?
Why is this so important? Because as a man, he experienced all the trials, all the difficulties of this life. He knew them all. No wonder, then, that we have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He was in all points tempted, like as we are, sent apart. He was a real man and he walked the road down here and he knows every step of the way. That's a wonderful comfort to us because we have been reminded from the beginning of our meeting tonight that he is our guide.
He leads us. We follow the shepherd. My sheep hear my voice and I know them. That's a wonderful fact. I know them. There's not one that he doesn't know and they follow me. I hope we really are following him, that we know what it is to truly follow the shepherd because he's a tender shepherd.
That day in the home in Bethany must have been an amazing sight because actually Mary and Martha knew who he was. They said when he arrived on the scene, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died.
You know, that to me was an amazing revelation to her. She understood that death could not abide his presence. No one ever died in the presence of the Lord Jesus. Did you know that? And no death ever remained when he appeared on the scene.
Even on the road when he met the widow with her son who had died, that death could not abide his presence. And so Mary and Martha were understanding of who he was, and when they looked up into his face, Jesus, what a tender savior.
Did he not know he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead? Why would he need to weep under those circumstances? I believe the weeping of the Lord Jesus went far beyond. The death of the brother of Mary and Martha.
I believe the tears were the tears for man's lost condition, for the ruin of humanity, for the death that sin had brought. And the Savior wept. I cannot tell you that he weeps still, but his heart is unchanged.
He is Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. And on the cross, the Savior thirsted. And in the garden, his sorrow. And this impresses me deeply. That verse in Matthew 26 is actually strengthened, perhaps in the Mark 14 passage, that the sorrow the Savior endured in Gethsemane would have caused death to any mere mortal.
To you, to me, to the strongest person who has ever lived. It was a sorrow that would have caused death. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even to the length of taking my life. But it couldn't take his life.
He had to write it down for himself. And this is the greatest wonder of all to me. This one who was the Lord of life, who gave life to everything that is, that he should have died. What an amazing fact.
You see, God could not die. It would be absolutely impossible. But the man who died is God. He became a man, a true man. He came into true humanity. The one purpose of it, that he might die. That's why he came.
That's why he had to be a man. Because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. And this blessed Savior, through death, as we read in Romans 5, through death, he has brought life to us.
He truly died. It wasn't just an outward evidence of death. The Lord Jesus truly died on the cross. I think perhaps one of the greatest truths I know is that Christ died for me when we were yet without strength, when we were utterly helpless, when we could do nothing to save ourselves.
I have noticed very much in recent weeks that there are many who profess salvation who really have a mixture. It is what Christ did and their faithfulness. If they remain true to him, I just heard that today, as a matter of fact.
They have to remain true to him. What is that? That's Christ and. That's Christ plus. That's not salvation. When we were yet helpless is really the word that is used in Romans 5 and 6. When we could do absolutely nothing, he did it all.
I don't add anything to it. I'm not worthy of any of it. Christ died for the ungodly one. I was saved perhaps as much as a year when I was at a conference in Toronto and it was a very solemn searching gospel meeting.
One of the preachers, and he was one of the most powerful preachers I ever listened to, his name was Mr. Benjamin Bradford. And I think I ever heard a man preach the gospel with more power. And I tell you, you could have heard a pin drop in that huge audience.
There must have been about 3000 people there in the Massey Hall in the city of Toronto, downtown in Toronto. You could have heard a pin drop. And I began to search my own story step by step. Did I really have Christ?
Was I really saved? Did I really trust him alone? It was it was a time of deep searching. I've never forgotten it because this is the verse that came to me. When I was yet helpless, Christ died for the ungodly.
What a blessing it is to know that he could actually die. He became so completely a man, so perfectly a man, so sinlessly a man that he could actually die and Christ died. Well, thank God he's alive. He lives.
I think that the resurrection is the most easily proven truth in the Bible. Do you accept that? There isn't another fact in all of scripture that can be more plainly proven than that he's alive. Every part of that resurrection, every detail of it is verifiable.
So much so that Acts chapter one tells us it was by many infallible proofs that he rose from the dead. And so he died, but he lives. And this is the great wonder to me. And this is my reasoning for these scriptures.
There's a man in heaven. There is one man in heaven. You're going to ask me, ask me, what about what about people in the Old Testament who didn't die and that sort of thing? I believe there's just one man in heaven, a man who is there as the first fruit, not fruits, not plural, singular.
First Corinthians 15, Romans 15, the first fruit of resurrection. And because he lives, because he's alive, we shall live also.