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Jesus in the Field of Human Need— Mark 9.14-29
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CHRIST CHURCH, LONDON.
THE SYNOPSIS
1 I. Introduction.
Time—The next morning after the
Transfiguration.
Place—ln the valley near the Mount
of Transfiguration.
Characters Present —
Jesus.
Peter, James and John.
The other disciples.
The father and his demoniac boy.
Scribes.
A great multitude.
IL Analysis.
1. Jesus’ return to the Valley—l 4-16.
2. The father and his demoniac boy—
-17-18.
3. The failure of the disciples—l B-19.
' 4. The ministry of Jesus —20-27.
i. The boy is brought to Jesus —20.
ii. The diagnosis of Jesus —21.
iii. The father’s appeal—22.
iv. Jesus’ response—23.
v. The father’s confession of faith
and doubt —24.
vi. The healing begun—demon driven
out —25-26.
vii. The healing complete—27.
5. The failure of the other disciples ex
plained—2 B-29.
111. The Lesson.
THE LECTURE.
FEEL tonight as if I must have a
text, and therefore I ask you to
turn to Mark 9:27. “But Jesus
took him by the hand, and lifted
him up; and he arose.”
When Jesus and His three disci
ples rejoined these other disciples,
He found that they were engaged
with a great crowd around them,
I
and the Scribes were asking questions of these
disciples; and Jesus immediately broke in, and
began himself to ask questions of the Scribes,
saying, “Why do you question these disci
ples about?” As much as to say, “I am here
now, if you want to know anything, ask Me.”
Immediately following this, comes a father
and says to Jesus, “Master, I have brought un
to Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit and
I spake to Thy disciples that they should cast
him out; and they could not, and now I have
brought him to Thee.”
And Jesus turns and rebukes the disciples
gently, and then calls to this father to bring
the boy to Him. And the father answers, “If
Thou canst do anything, have compassion, and
help us.”
Jesus reply is a very striking one, “If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth.” As much as to say, it is not
a question as to whether I can or not, it is
whether you can or not.” He immediately
answers Jesus by saying, “Lord, I believe, help
thou my unbelief,” and immediately Jesus casts
the dumb spirit out of his child.
Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., of Christ Church, London
The Golden Age for January 2, 1913.
Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Copyright Applied for.
But that is not all; it is a great deal, but it
is not all. When the dumb spirit left him,
the spirit that had mastered and previously pos
sessed him, he was limp and limber, like unto
a man who was dead; he was helpless, prostrate,
and Jesus I ‘takes him by his hand and lifts him
up.”
The Essential Lesson.
I want now r that we shall consider for the
rest of the time the essential lesson that this
story has to teach to every one of us. It is in
four parts.
First, it teaches us that this that Jesus is
doing in the valley, healing this limp boy, is
the aftermath of the transfiguration, glory.
Now, there are three stages of the transfigura
tion glory and you cannot separate one from
the other. First, the prayer meeting which
was the foremath of the transfiguration glory,
m it they laid the foundation for what followed.
Then the transfiguration followed. Then comes
the aftermath the healing of this demoniac boy.
While the prayer meeting was the preparation
for the transfiguration glory, the healing of the
demoniac boy is the expression of it. We
should always keep these three stages of the
transfiguration in mind, lest we lose the great
lesson it is intended to teach.
There, on the Mount of Transfiguration,
Jesus was revealing to the world for all time
to come, the nature of glorified, perfected hu
manity. He immediately comes now to en
gage in actual, practical, everyday work in the
field of human need. And it is always that
way with every stage of Christian experience.
With every new experience that we get in
Christian life, there is new obligations immedi
ately imposed.
Some of you doubtless, have been to Glas
gow, and perhaps you know that the water of
that city is obtained from Loch Katrine, way
up in the highlands of Scotland. That is
one of the most beautiful lakes in all the north,
indeed, it is one of the most beautiful in all
the world. It has been called by some “a
poem in water.” It has been immortalized in
verse and song until you imagine almost that
it is a piece of transfigured water, changed into
something beyond the natural; and you almost
imagine that, when you stand looking at it.
But you do not get the glory of that lake by
standing there looking at it there upon the
highlands. You get the full glory of that lake
down yonder in Glasgow, where you see it ex
pressing its glory in the field of human need;
when you see it running there to bring blessing,
refreshment and health in the home, in the
place of business, driving the wheels of ma
chinery, down in the hut and the hovel, in the
mansion, in the slums, carrying off the dirt in
the street; that is the glory of the lake ! And
that is the glory of the transfiguration —it is the
work that Jesus did after He came from the
Mount into the valley of human need.
Perhaps some of you have read the legend
of Longfellow’s entitled, “Tales of a Wayside
Inn?” It is a beautiful poem, founded upon
the legend of an old monk, who prayed long
and often that he might have a personal visit
from his Lord and Saviour. He was reward
ed one night, after long prayer, and waiting,
by a visit from the Lord, in the form of a
bright, shining light; and the monk was pros
trated by the brilliance of the light. As he lay
there, rapt in silent ecstasy, holding sweet fel
lowship with his Lord, he heard the toll which
called him to his service in feeding the poor;
but he hesitated to go, he was afraid that if
he left, the light would depart, and would be
gone when he returned. After a while, he
went, at the sheer call of duty to his needy fel
lowmen. Rendering the service he returned
to his room and found the light still there; then
he heard a voice, and the vision spoke to him
and said:
“Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled!”
How true that is in Christian experience, my
friends! How many a man today do we know
who is cold, and indifferent to the call of God,
because he has not answered the call of men.
God has given him a vision of men. He has
given him an experience that is real, and he
has heard the call of his fellowmen for help,
and he has not gone. And since he has not
gone and exercised the experience which has
been given him, he dries up, and the experience
departs, and he is left cold and shuddering and
dead.
I think it was Henry Drummond who called
our attention to the fact that the mountain
peaks are not inhabited by people and homes —
they are never intended for that. The people
live down in the valleys, but the mountain peaks
are intended for vision, and not for life. So
it is with Christian experience. It is not given
us that we may live upon the experience itself,
but that we may use it in the field of human
need. And as we use it He gives us more.
We live by what we use, because when we
use it He gives us more to be used.
Henry Drummond also calls our attention to
the fact that the streams never rise in the low
land, but in the highland. But they do not
stop there! They go forth, and move, and
were they to remain there they would become
stagnant and cause death. The only way for
the stream to keep itself pure, and clean and
wholesome, is to move, and get on, and the
more it moves and the faster it moves, the
cleaner and healthier it is.
So it is with Christian experience. Let no
man think that because he has had a trans
figuration experience that he has reached the
goal. It is not to be reached in the moun
tain of glory, that is to give strength with
which we are to reach the goal in the field
of human need.
It is yonder on the streets, in the city, in
the home, in the hovel, in the hospital of the
sick, all about us where humanity suffers;
there is the place to get the goal.
Jesus never reached the goal of blessed ser
vice on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus
revealed His full glory in the valley, healing
the demoniac boy.
Second, this story indicates to us the char
acter of the need that we run up with in our
service for humanity. In the year 1911 there
was given in New York an exhibition called
the Child Help Exhibit. It was in many re
spects the most wonderful exhibition ever giv
en. Certainly, it was, in so far as the results
that followed. At the entrance to the main
building, where it was held, there was a huge
and beautiful statue by Louis Potter, repre
senting human need, as we see it at every turn
of the road, and especially the need of the
child. This was the figure. There were
three people, and one child. A husband and
his wife, and an old man with long beard. On
the shoulder of each one was a huge burden.
The husband had one hand holding on to his
burden, and the other he had around the waist
of his wife, holding her while she stumbled
under hers. And the old man, half bent, was
trembling beneath his load. All three of these
burdens were touching each other, and formed
a kind of arch, beneath which stood a little boy,
with pinched features, emaciated body, shrunk
en sholders, hollow cheeks and bent back. He
had no burden on his shoulder, but as a matter
of fact, the boy was the one among all the
rest whose burden was the greatest, although
it was not to be seen in the form that the
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