Garth McKay
John 16: 33 (from ‘In the world’)
This is a fine word, is it not? It is a message from Jesus Himself: “be of good courage”. In your pathway where you are you might need courage. I do not know what you face in your life, what worries and burdens you carry, but I know this, that the Lord Jesus has a simple message for you today, “be of good courage”. That is all I want to talk about, just to add a word of encouragement that we might be strengthened for the pathway that we are on.
We read recently in Corinthians that the word of God comes for three reasons: the first is to edify, the second is to encourage, and the third is to console (1 Cor 14: 3); and I would like to add a word of encouragement, that through these simple words of Jesus we might be strengthened for what we face.
I would like to ask you if you have put a step on the path for Jesus. Are we all conscious of having put our foot on the pathway? We may have asked to break bread, to remember the Lord Jesus, as one young person has done in this place recently; that is a good step on the path. What a thing it is to put a step on the path for Jesus! And He is looking for that, some definiteness, some definite step from you and from me, so that He can see, and the brethren can see, that you have taken a step on the path. And as you do it in faith, who knows what the next step will be? Someone said to me recently, ’The next step is always the hardest one’, but if you do it in faith there is a wonderful message from Jesus tonight: “be of good courage”. It says, “In the world ye have tribulation”; He does not promise that the road is going to be easy. Have you found that already? If you have not found it already, no doubt you will find it, if you are on the road. It will sometimes seem that the road is not easy, but from the glory Jesus says to you and me, “be of good courage: I have overcome the world”. It is a fine word from Jesus, the One who overcame the world Himself; “be of good courage”. Paul speaks about our path, and he speaks about being in a race. I wonder if you are conscious of that, the fact that we need to run. He says there (1 Cor 9: 24) that it is as if we are contending for a prize; that is how he puts it; it is going to take some effort. You have put your foot on the path, as I trust you have done, and it is going to take some effort to be here for Christ. There is a race to be run, and you run it as if you are contending for a prize. It is not that we race against each other, that is not the point, but we run because we want to attain something. Paul says, “forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue,” Phil 3: 13. “I pursue”; I wonder if we have got a sense of that, that we are in a race; there is something to be attained, something to do for Christ. Have you put your foot on that pathway, dear friend, have you done it, and are you conscious of it? As you do, and as you go on, Jesus would say to you, “be of good courage”. Whatever might come up, He says, “be of good courage: I have overcome the world”.
Paul goes on to speak about looking towards the goal, he had a goal. Have you got a goal? You are not going to get far in this race if you do not have a goal in mind. It is a simple thing, if you run a race you have to look to the things in front of you. A young child may be a fast runner, but he has to be taught how to run; you run with your eye on the tape: you do not look to this side or that side, or get distracted by anything else; you run with your eye on the goal, with that goal in mind.
What made you put your foot on the pathway? What made you take a step in faith? Have you got an eye for the goal? Paul says, “for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”, Phil 3: 14. That was the prize for him; what a prize it is, “the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. That is the goal, and that is why we run; we run with our eye on the finish line.
I want you to have a sense of being in this race, and of running. It will take endurance as well. Paul speaks about that too. He speaks about the race-course: we do laps round this course; it is going to take stamina to get on in this race. Mr Alec Craig used to speak to us about the race-course and he told us how we need to go round and round the assembly calendar week by week. These things take stamina; are you ready for that? Recently we were reading one of the parables of the Lord where He speaks about a man who built a tower, and he did not finish it, and the people said, ”this man began to build and was not able to finish”, Luke 14: 30. I wonder if you feel like that, feel faltering in any way? The remedy is to get in your heart these simple words of Jesus. Get to Him. He will give courage whatever it is that makes you falter, when you think you cannot climb the mountain. There are obstacles and sorrows and burdens to carry, and they are not mine to go over, but they are carried by the saints, and Jesus says, “be of good courage: I have overcome the world”. It is a personal message, something for you wherever you are on the road, wherever you are in the race. He knows what you need, and He says to you, “be of good courage”.
And then it speaks in Hebrews 12 about the race “having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us”, v 1. Where are the cloud of witnesses? They are all around you. There are a hundred or more in this room, persons who have given their lives to Christ; they are in the race, and they are all around you. The writer has gone through them in the chapter beforehand, the men of faith, Noah, Abraham and Moses; there they are in the history and more recently too: church history is full of the great cloud of witnesses, all great helps to us, helping us to run. How many millions there are who have had their part in the race, and I want to ask you today if you are conscious of having your part. Are you a kind of bystander, or do you know your part in the race? Have you heard the words of Jesus to us, “be of good courage”?
“Laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us.” Are there things in your life that are entangling you? Are they weighing you down? The writer says, ’lay them aside’; get rid of them. Mr Coates speaks about that; you could be sitting still with a heavy weight in your pocket and you would not know it was there until you started to run, vol 20 p108. So it says, “Let us ... run with endurance the race that lies before us”. Let us get some strength and resolve to do it, to run towards the goal, to have our eye on the tape, “Let us … run with endurance the race that lies before us”. These are simple things, but they are an exhortation, and as we do them we hear the words of Jesus, “be of good courage: I have overcome the world”. It says, “looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”, v 2. There is the key. If we are going to take part in the race there is only one recipe for success and that is a power within, which is the Holy Spirit, and an Object without, which is Christ in the glory. The Spirit’s power is the power for running, power within. It is not something external; it is not outside, it is inside, God-given power of the Holy Spirit, the power to run. I wonder if you know anything about it? If you have a foot on the pathway you will know something of it; it might only be a little, but the power is endless. Have you thought of that? There was no end to the oil that was poured out. It says, ”Bring me yet a vessel”, (2 Kings 4: 6); it would have gone on and on. That is the kind of power that is available in the Holy Spirit, that is the power that is within, but there is an Object without, too, and there is nothing more important than having your eye on Jesus.
This is what you have to do. You need to be taught how to run, looking stedfastly on Jesus; that is the only way that you will succeed. There is only one goal in this race: “Let us ... run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”. He is the Goal, and He is the Object, He is the motive, He is why I run. Ask yourself that question, ’Why do I run?’. Run for Jesus, run for Him, run with your eye steadfastly on Him, never deviating. If you look away, you find you lose strength, like Peter; he walked on the water; an amazing thing, he walked on the water to go to Jesus, but then he looked to the side and he saw the contrary wind and he started to sink and he had to cry out, “Lord save me”, Matt 14: 30. He got his eye off Christ. “Looking stedfastly on Jesus”; that is the only way that we will be preserved, the only way that we will get to the end, to have our eye on the goal, to have our eye on Him; a power within, and a motive without and above. There He is in the glory calling you to Him, calling you to the end of the race, “the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. Have you got the strength for it? Do you feel inspired by it? Will you go in for it? I would urge you to, for Jesus says this word, “be of good courage: I have overcome the world”. How it gives us strength, how it revives us, in the path, to go on another step. I would urge young and old, to go on another step. Maybe only you know what it will cost you, but go on dear friend, go on another step and take courage from the words of Jesus.
As we go on we think of Him and have our eyes steadfastly on Him. We think of Him, the Holy Spirit having come upon Him, being led by the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, tempted of the devil, Luke 4: 2. If you read the account in Luke it suggests that He was tempted throughout the forty days, for the whole time. Humanly speaking, fasting for forty days would bring increasing weakness, and still the devil’s temptations went on and on and on. Have your eye steadfastly on Him, steadfast on a Man there living in complete and utter dependence on God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and suffering these temptations. This was not a demonstration by some kind of superman, as people might think of it. This was Man according to God’s purpose, down here on the earth as we are, tempted as it says in Hebrews “in all things in like manner, sin apart”, chap 4: 15. If you want to have strength for the journey, look to Jesus, look to Him, it is the only answer. I was reading an interesting thing the other day about Martin Luther, very great servant of the Lord that he was, and in the midst of his despair, before his real conversion when he was full of his own helplessness and the terror and fear of God, there was an old monk in the monastery, and he said to Luther ’Look to Christ, it is there you will find grace’. What a thing that was in that monastery, and in the church that was so full of darkness at that time: there was a man there who said. ’Look to Christ’!
There is only one recipe; look to Jesus. And so we see Him there in the wilderness forty days without food. It is the limit of human endurance, (we speak carefully about the manhood of Jesus); it was real, and He was at the limit of human endurance. The devil tempted Him when He was at the ultimate levels of testing; it was no agent of the devil, it was the devil himself, he tempted my Lord and Saviour, he tempted Him in an exhausted state, humanly speaking near to death. He suggested that He could turn a stone into a loaf of bread and Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”, Luke 4: 4. Do you feel as if you are tested to the limit? Do you feel in an exhausted state? Look to Jesus, look to the Man who overcame the world, and overcame the devil; look to Him, and run with endurance the race that lies before you, putting another step forward in faith. Then the devil tested Him about whether He would do homage to him. Would He do homage to the devil? Would He for a moment forsake the claim that God had over Him? Would you for a moment resist God’s claim and accept the claim of another? Would you give up your committal to God? What did Jesus do? Could the devil get an advantage? If you want to know how to take another step on the road, look to Jesus; there is no one else who is worthy of your attention; but this Man is worthy of all our attention, the One who never failed, tempted “in all things in like manner, sin apart”. “Thou shalt do homage to the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve”, v 8.
Finally the devil took Him up to the temple and said if He cast Himself down the angels would come and protect Him. There was Jesus with divine power available to Him; would He step outside of His place in manhood for a moment? He could have done. We cannot do that, but He could. But He would not deviate for a moment from that place of dependent manhood. “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”, v 12. Then it says, “the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time”, v 13. I believe that really means what it says, that through those forty days, including those three temptations that are recorded for us, Jesus resisted every temptation. You might think that He does not understand the modern things that we have to face, but it is not true, the Lord knows, He understands. More than that, not only does He understand but He has won the battles already, tempted in all things means that in principle He met every device of the devil. Everything that the devil can bring against you, Jesus has met already, and the way to run the race is to have your eyes steadfastly on Him and occupy yourself with Him. Every other type of occupation will bring us down in our thoughts; occupation with Him is the only way to run, and having put our foot on the pathway Jesus Himself would personally say to me and you today “be of good courage: I have overcome the world”. The Lord speaks of the devil as the prince of this world, John 12: 31. You can look around the world and you can see him that way: look in a newspaper and you can see the prince of this world, and Jesus says “the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”, John 14: 30. What a worthy Object He is. The devil never got one little advantage over Him. He could get an advantage over me, but there is only one view that will get me through, and that is to have my eyes fixed on my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
He did not only overcome in His life. I was thinking of those words “be of good courage: I have overcome the world”; you could drop the last two words, ’be of good courage: I have overcome’! There was nothing that He could not meet; what is there that He has not overcome? He has overcome everything! Whatever frightens you, whatever worries you, however horrible, Jesus has overcome it; He has annulled “him who has the might of death”, Heb 2: 14. Death is the final thing; a place that was not fitting for Jesus to have been, but for us. He did not belong in death, but He entered it in order to overcome it. So this means that however far you go, whatever tests and trials you might think of, at the very end you have to put death itself, even death! He overcame the power of death - merely by entering it, by being there. The realms of the heavens are His rightful place. It is fitting that He is there, but it takes some thinking about, to think of Jesus going into the realms of death, so that he who has the might of death might be annulled. These things are worth pondering in our hearts. How great Jesus is; how great the things He has done: every challenge has been met, every power overcome. They came to the tomb and it says they saw “the linen cloths lying, and the handkerchief which was upon His head ... folded up in a distinct place by itself”, John 20: 7. It is not like Lazarus. Jesus called him forth, and he was bound with the grave clothes; Jesus is not bound: Jesus broke the power of death merely by being there. That handkerchief folded is a profound thing to me. Many have experienced the desolation of death. Here you see the answer; the answer is look to Jesus, the answer is to have our eyes steadfastly on Him, because the power of death is broken, the handkerchief was folded up. Mr Darby says it was “a resurrection accomplished … with all the composure that became the power of God ... There had been no haste, everything was in order: and Jesus was not there”, Synopsis, John’s Gospel p405. The Scripture speaks of death as the last enemy (1 Cor 15: 26), the ultimate one; Jesus has finished its power for ever. So whatever tests or trials or hindrances or obstacles you can name, there is an answer to them all: Jesus has overcome them, and if there is one thing that will get us through it is to have our eyes fixed steadfastly on him, and to hear His words from the glory, “be of good courage”.
So I would urge everyone, put your foot on the path; do it definitely. Paul says, “I therefore run, as not uncertainly” (1 Cor 9 26); the Lord is looking for definiteness. Take one step on the road for Jesus and He will give you the strength, the power within, the Holy Spirit, and an Object and Goal above, that is, Christ in glory, that we may obtain “the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”.
Another feature of the race is that Christians turn aside and give thanks to God for all that He gives. I would like to mention that too, the opportunity that the service of God gives to give thanks to God. Christians that are in the race turn aside from the race and fill their hearts with heaven. This opportunity is before us tomorrow, the Lord’s day, if we are left here, to turn aside from the race for a while and to give thanks to Him. I was reading Nehemiah, about the wall that they built. The wall was all completed, the towers, and the gates and everything; and it is as if the Lord’s day comes, and Nehemiah brings out the two great choirs, and there they are upon the wall. One choir went one way, and half the princes of Judah and the people, certain of the priests’ sons with trumpets, and so on; he lists them all out, as if he was standing there admiring as they went with their musical instruments to take part in the service of God. And then there is the second choir, that goes in the other direction, and then it comes upon him, he says, “I after them”. It is as though he stood admiring everything for so long and then it almost seems as though he would be left behind; so he says, “I after them”: he went after the second choir, chap 12: 31-38. How do you feel about that? Have you got your part in it? There is a place for you. You would not want the two choirs to leave without you: “I after them”, it applies to you. How do you feel about it? Have you got your place secured? Are you going after the choir, are you turning aside in this race to give thanks to God? They went round the wall they had built and they met and they stood in the house of God and the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off, v 43. That is what we can enjoy as we go along; it is not all about tribulation. The tribulation is very real; consolation is needed, strength is needed, courage is needed: the Lord Jesus says, “be of good courage”. But there is rejoicing to be had, “I after them”. Is that you? Or have you held back? Are you faltering? The Lord wants you in the house of God, He wants you in the choir. So whatever it is that is stopping you, whatever it is that makes you falter, be of good courage, take the words from Jesus Himself and take a step forward in faith. May you do it for His Name’s sake.
Warrenpoint
31st March 2012