Tokens of His Compassion - Part 6 — Leonard Ravenhill

Christ’s Moral Majesty and God-Created Character

His teaching. The Pharisees were ashamed of him and embarrassed. So the Sadducees, so the priests. And yet he stands up in the middle of a feast with more than a thousand people in the temple, clothed on in moral majesty.

He went and read in the scripture there. Well, when he was even twelve, he read there and listened on the front seat. I believe there he had a moral majesty. In other words, he had a God-created character.

Jesus as the Bread, Water, and Light of Life

In the seventh chapter, with all the murmuring there, he's not embarrassed to say, you poured out water every day. And he stands in the place where the priest has stood and he says, listen, you come unto me.

I am the water of life. He said he is the bread of life. He says he is the light of life. Do you think they took that sitting down kind of thing? Who does he think he is? He is the bread of life. If you eat of him, you have life.

He is the water of life. If you drink of him, you don't thirst again. He is the light of life that will guide you. He makes all these stupendous claims of things that we can't live without. We can't live without bread.

We can't live without water. We can't live without light. And we can't live without God. Without Christ, you can exist. And again, there are no alternatives to Jesus Christ. The only wise thing I know H .G. Wells said was that there's a God-shaped blank in all of us.

I think he borrowed that anyhow from Augustine. Miss Augustine says we'll never be satisfied until God takes up his abode in us. You and I are supposed to be the, that God is supposed to be in residency in our beings.

Jesus’ Prayer Life and the Cleansing of Character

I didn't read the verse. I'm going to read it here. John 18 verse 1. When Jesus spoke these words, words of wisdom and comfort in the seventeenth chapter, he went forth with his disciples over the book Kidron where there was a garden into which he entered and his disciples.

And Judas also which betrayed him knew the place for Jesus often resorted there. If you want to know the prayer life of Jesus, you'd have to read this account of the gospel given by Luke. Luke says he was in the river being baptized and as he was praying the Spirit descended upon him.

Luke says he was on the mount of transfiguration and as he prayed. If you want a new personality, I'll tell you this, the only way to get it is to have a prayer life. Because you can't pray and be unclean.

You can't pray and have a grudge. You can't pray and have bitterness. We blame the devil so often. Most of us sabotage our own prayers. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? The man that has received the decree?

The man that wears his collar backwards? The man that has priestly garments? The man that stands behind an ornate desk with stained glass windows? No! A man can be plowing a field and ascend into the hill of the Lord.

He that hath clean hands, that's our relationship with the world, and a pure heart our relationship to God. Again those old Methodists used to sing a great hymn, No Condemnation, Now I Dread. Oh, I was going to read a verse from here, I've forgotten it now.

Christ’s Intercession and the Sacrifice of Gethsemane

I don't know whether Charles Wesley based this on this John 17, but I like it. He says, Arise my soul, arise, shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands, and my name is written on his hands.

He ever lives above for me to intercede. He's on the way to do this through this garden. His all-redeeming love is precious blood to plead. His blood atones for all our race and sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds he bears, two in his feet, two in his hands, one in his side. Five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary. They poor effectual prayers they strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, he cries.

Now let that ransomed sinner die. The father hears him pray, his dear anointed son. He cannot turn away the presence of his son. His spirit answers to the blood and tells me I'm born of God. My God is reconciled, his pardoning voice I hear.

He owns me for his child I can no longer fear. With confidence I now draw nigh, and Father, Abba, Father cry. Made possible only because of this. Jesus who knew, pardon me, Judas also which betrayed him, knew the place.

For Jesus often resorted thither. I'm going to suggest to you, disagree if you like, that Jesus had to approximate up to this horrible experience he was going to have in Gethsemane. Again, I say you'd have to read Luke to find the prayer life of Jesus.

He's praying as the dove descends upon him. He's praying there on the Mount of Transfiguration. Come on, in a quick, don't answer audibly. How many people were there on the Mount of Transfiguration? Six, you've got it.

The Father’s Assurance and the Chosen Vessel

Six. Peter, James, John, Jesus, Moses, and who else? Elijah. Who did God speak to? To only one person, Jesus. We say, sing a lovely American hymn, Blessed Assurance. You know, God gave assurance to Jesus in his pilgrimage in all the crisis periods.

And there on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father answers from heaven or calls from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. If I die conscious, I don't know whether I will or not, but if I die conscious, I'd like to die conscious of the Lord saying to me, this is my beloved Son.

I have a very dear friend who says his one ambition in life is to hear God say, you are my beloved Son. Not a son, but the Son. In other words, you're a chosen vessel unto me. How many miniature Gethsemane's do you think there have been?

Jesus’ Prayer for His Disciples and the Unity of Believers

Jesus has prayed for his disciples. He's prayed for himself in the first five verses of the seventeenth chapter. Verses one to five, he prays for himself. Verses six to nineteen, he prays for his disciples.

Verses twenty to twenty-six, he prays for the world. Read it and emphasize how many times as you read it, I have kept them in thy name. He has prayed for unification for them. That's about the most common thing used out of this chapter.

Everybody sees it. Jesus prayed that we all may be one. He did not. Not in the way you think of it. What did he pray for? That they may be one even as we are one. It's vertical before it's horizontal.

Charles Wesley again gave us that lovely children's hymn. I used to sing it to my mother's knee every night till I was about ten years of age. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child. Take my guess from, is it 2 Peter where it says, Peter talks about the gentleness and meekness of Christ.

You see, in these days we think gentleness means softness. And we think meekness is weakness. The very opposite. Jesus was meek but he got angry.