Character of Jesus

The Meek and Lowly King

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus Leave a comment

…Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. – Matthew 21:9

These people, on a certain day, formed a company, and marched with Jesus towards Jerusalem. On the way, our Lord sent two of His disciples to fetch an ass and its colt; and upon this last He rode into the city. Another crowd, coming out of Jerusalem, met the company attending upon Jesus, and, forming one great procession, the whole multitude marched into the city escorting the Lord Jesus in humble state, and paying Him honor as King in Zion. Upon no stately war-horse but riding upon a colt, the foal of an ass, the meek and lowly King entered the city of David attended by vast and enthusiastic crowds, who strewed the fronds of palms, and the branches of trees, and their own garments in the way along which He rode. Our Lord thus received a right royal and popular reception to the metropolis of His nation…He that was, as a rule, “despised and rejected of men” was, for the moment, surrounded with the acclaim of the crowd. All men saluted Him that day with their Hosannas, and the whole city was moved. It was a gala day for the disciples, and a sort of coronation day for their Lord… Many men live for ambitious ends, but our Lord lived to escape the honors of men. The proud hunt after praise; but our Lord fled from preferment, hid Himself from fame, and shunned the throne which, by descent, belonged to Him…Once the Savior rides in state as a King, but soon He walks down those very streets bearing His cross like a criminal. How soon is the public voice purchased for evil! – C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2196.cfm

The Third Day

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

…and the third day He shall rise again. – Matthew 20:19

Behold Him! Behold Him! His hands are extended and cruelly nailed to the wood. His feet are fastened to the tree, and He Himself is left to bear the weight of His body upon His hand and feet. See how the nails tear through the flesh as the weight drags the body down and enlarges the wounds! See, He is in a fever! His mouth is dried up and has become like an oven, and His tongue cleaves to the roof thereof! Crucifixion was an inhuman death, and the Savior was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” The wonder is, that He could foresee this, and speak of it so calmly. He meditates upon it and speaks to choice familiar friends about it. Oh, the mastery of love, strong as death! He contemplates the cross and despises its shame.

Thus He dwells on it all, and then closes by saying, “and the third day He shall rise again.” We must never forgot that, for He never forgets it. Ah! you may think as much as ever you will of Calvary and let your tears flow like rivers. You may sit at Gethsemane, and say, “Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for my Lord!” But, after all, you must wipe those tears away, for He is not in the grave; He rose again on the third day. O blessed morning!. The first day of the week stands for ever the remembrance of our risen Lord, and on that day, He renews His special communings with His people. We believe in Him; we rise in Him; we triumph in Him; and “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.”

God bless this meditation to you by His Holy Spirit! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

We Must Speak of Our Bleeding Savior

Sherry Character of Jesus, salvation, The Father Leave a comment

…and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him... – Matthew 20:18, 19

The priests, whose office made them types of Himself, and the scribes, who were the official interpreters of His Father’s Book, these condemned the holy One and the just. They count Him worthy of death: nothing less will serve their turn. This the Christ could plainly see; and it was no small trial to come under the censure of His country’s governors. They could not put Him to death themselves. If they dared, they would have stoned Him, and that would have broken the prophecy, which declared that in death His enemies must pierce His hands and His feet. They can condemn Him to death, but they cannot execute the sentence. Yet none the less this iron entered into His soul, that those who were professedly the servants of God condemned Him to die…They delivered Him to the Gentiles. The Master dwells on this. It opens another gate through which His sorrows poured. At the hands of the Gentiles He dies, and for Gentiles He suffered. Beloved, I like to see how the Master notes this point. He makes distinctions; He does not say that He should be condemned by Pilate; but He is condemned to die by the chief priests, and then He is delivered to the Gentiles…O believer, behold thy Lord bound and taken away to the hall of Pilate. See Him delivered to the Gentiles, while His fellow-countrymen cry, “We have no king but Caesar”! They shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” and the Gentiles carry out their cruel demand…These three words follow-“To mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him.”…What dreadful scorning He endured! It was cruel, cutting, cursed scorn. They mocked Him and they scourged Him…We must exhibit the bleeding Savior, if we would make men’s hearts bleed for sin. The cries of His great grief must ring in their ears, or they will remain deaf. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

Betrayed!

Sherry Character of Jesus 2 Comments

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed… – Matthew 20:18 

Note well what our Lord said about his sufferings. “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed.” Stop there: “Betrayed”! It is as though I heard the deep boom of a death-knell. “Betrayed”! “Betrayed”! To die, ay, that is not a word with a sting in it to Him! But “Betrayed”! -that means sold by cruel treachery. It means that one who ate bread with Him lifted up his heel against Him. It means that a man who was His familiar acquaintance, with whom He walked to the house of God in company, sold Him for a paltry bribe. “Betrayed, for thirty pieces of silver! A goodly price, indeed, for the blood of such a friend! “Betrayed”! Hear how He cries: “If it was an enemy, then I could have borne it.” “Betrayed”! It was no stranger; it was no bloodhound of the Pharisees who scented Him out in the garden; but “Judas also, which betrayed Him, knew the place. Betrayed with a kiss, and with a friendly word! Handed over to them who sought His blood by one who ought to have defended Him to the death. “Betrayed”! It is a dreadful word to be set here before the passion, and it throws a lurid light over it all. We read-“The same night in which He was betrayed He took bread.” This was the bitterest drop in His cup, that He was betrayed.

If our churches lose their holy influence among men, write on them, “Betrayed.” What care we for infidels? What care we for those who curse and blaspheme? They cannot hurt the Christ. His wounds are those which He receives in the house of His friends. “Betrayed”! O Savior, some of us have been betrayed; but ours was a small sorrow compared with Thine; for Thou wast betrayed into the hands of sinners by one who claimed to be Thy friend, by one who was bound by every tie to have been Thy faithful follower. “Betrayed”! Beloved, I cannot bear the word. It falls like a flake of fire into my bosom and burns its way into my inmost soul. “Betrayed”! And such a faithful friend as He! So full of love; and yet betrayed! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

For Jehovah’s Glory

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

Saying, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done. – Luke 22:42

On the third day, it would all be over, and the recompense would begin. A few hours of bitter grief; a night of bloody sweat, a night and a morning of mockery, when He should be flouted by the abjects and made nothing of by the profane; a direful afternoon of deadly anguish on the cross, and of dark desertion by Jehovah; and then the bowing of the head, and a little rest in the grave for His body; and on the third day the light would break upon mankind, for the Sun of righteousness would arise with healing in His wings. The light that would come when He should rise would lighten the Gentiles and be the glory of His people Israel…He would shortly afterward ascend to reap His reward in personal glorification, and in receiving gifts for men-yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.

Surely our Lord’s thoughts were all the while upon His Father! He remembered ever the beloved Father to whom He was to be “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” That twenty-second psalm, which might well be our Lord’s on the Cross, is full of God: it is an appeal to God. As our Lord went on His way with the twelve, conversing upon the road, they must have seen that He was in close communion with God. There was about Him a deep solemnity of spirit a rapt communion with the Unseen, a heavenly walking with God, even beyond His usual wont. This, mixed with His deeply fixed resolve, and that stern joy which only they can feel who are resolved to accomplish a great purpose through bowing to the divine will, let it cost what it may. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus was everything to Him, and in all His acts His heart was set upon Jehovah’s glory. – C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

His Suffering Was for Us

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! – Luke 12:50

For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death… – Luke 18:32,33

The thought of our perishing He could not bear: that was not to be tolerated. He would suffer all imaginable and unimaginable woe sooner than desert the cause He had espoused. He was straitened-so He described it-straitened till His labor was accomplished. He was like a man pent up against His will: He longed to be discharging His tremendous task. He had an awful work to do, an agonizing suffering to bear, and He felt fettered until He could be at it: “How am I straitened till it be accomplished!” He was as a hostage bound for others, longing to be set free. He longed to be bearing the penalty to which He had voluntarily subjected Himself by His covenant suretyship. He therefore thought upon that “obedience unto death” which He was determined and resolved to render.

He had an eye all the while to you and to me. While He was thinking of death, He was chiefly regarding those for whom He would suffer. I doubt not that there flashed before that mighty mind the individuals who make up the vast host of His redeemed; and among them there were insignificant individuals, such as we are. Out of His strong love to us, even to us, He determined to pay our ransom price in death: it was part of His solace that He would deliver you and me. “He loved me and gave Himself for me.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

Christ’s Pledge

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him… – Matthew 20:18,19

Our Lord was forecasting His death in all its mournful details. Do you not know that frequently it is more painful to anticipate death than it is actually to die? Yet our Lord dwelt upon His sufferings, even to their minutiae…Our Lord was like a grain of wheat which is cast into the ground and lies there awhile before it dies. He was buried, as it were, in prospective agony; immersed in suffering, which He foresaw. In the thought of the cross He endured it before He felt the nails. The shadow of His death was upon Him before He reached the tree of doom. Yet He did not put away the thought but dwelt upon it as one who tastes a cup before he drinks it to the dregs. After so deliberate a testing, is it not all the more marvellous that He did not refuse the draught? Did He not remember His engagement to go through with our redemption? “Lo, I come”, said He: “in the volume of the Book it is written of Me.” He had pledged Himself by solemn covenant, and in the Book it was written that He would stand in our stead and give His life an offering for sin. From this suretiship He never departed. He knew that the Father would bruise Him and put Him to grief in the approaching day of His anger. He knew that the wicked would pierce His hands and His feet. He knew all that would occur, and He started not back from the pledge which He had given in the council chamber of eternity- that His life should be rendered up as a ransom for many. It were well if we also remembered our vows to God, and the obligations under which we are placed by His great love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm