In St. Mark we are only told that the two sons of Zebedee came, asking for the first places in the kingdom. St. Matthew's account shows that the request originated with their mother. It is natural that a mother should dream of a great future for her children. The mother's ambition is an inspiration for her training of them. In the present instance it seemed to overstep the bounds of modesty. Yet when we consider all the circumstances, we shall see that there was something really grand about it.
I. THE DARING REQUEST.
1. Its selfishness. This is the first thing that strikes any reader of the narrative. On a mother's part it is not so selfish, however, as if the two brothers had come alone. Yet there is a family selfishness. Moreover, the brothers shared in their mother's request.
2. Its naturalness. These two disciples belonged to the most intimate group of the friends of Jesus. Possibly the request was only that there might be a continuance in heaven of the privilege already accorded on earth. We know that one of the brothers, St. John, sat on the right hand of Jesus on earth (John 13:25); it is not at all unlikely that St. James sat on the other side of the Master. If so, the request is for the continuance of a present privilege. Will Jesus, when in glory, abandon his old friends? or will he own the fishermen and honour them in proportion to their present privileges?
3. Its faith. This daring request was made just after Christ had spoken of his approaching death. The gloomy prospect might have checked the hopes of the most ardent. Nevertheless, Zebedee's wife is sure that Christ will triumph and reign in his glorious kingdom. In full view of the greatest approaching disaster, she speaks of the division of the spoil after the ultimate victory. Here is a marvel of faith!
II. THE SEARCHING QUESTION. Jesus answers the request with a question. Only they can receive the heavenly privileges who attain to them in the right way. Are the two brothers prepared for this?
1. Prayer is often offered in ignorance of what it involves. These simple people had little conception of the road to greatness in the kingdom of heaven. We may seem to be uttering most harmless requests, yet we know not what we ask. Therefore prayer should be submissive. It is well to leave our prayers to God's discriminating judgment.
2. They who would reign with Christ must suffer with him. It is vain to think of sharing the final victory if we will not share the previous conflict. The two brothers assent to the condition. In doing so they atone for much of the selfishness of their request. They had their grand destiny of suffering. St. James drank of Christ's cup in being the first martyr apostle; St. John in enduring longest, and in suffering exile and other hardships for his Lord's sake. There is no escaping this condition, although it may assume various forms.
3. The ultimate destiny of souls is with God alone. It is not for Christ to settle on grounds of friendship or favour. It belongs to the awful and mysterious counsels of God. Here we see the secondary rank of the Son compared with his Father. Yet the main lesson is not one concerning the nature of the Trinity. It is to teach us to renounce even the highest selfish ambition. That cannot help us. The future is with God. - W.F.A.
Then came to Him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons.
Christ does not put aside the granting of places at His right and left hand as not being within His province, but states the principles and conditions on which He does make such a grant. Again, our Lord does not put aside the prayer of His apostles as if they were seeking an impossible thing. He does not say, "You are asking what cannot be." He does say, "There are men for whom it is prepared of My Father." He does not condemn the prayer as indicating a wrong state of mind. He did not rebuke their passion for reward. They should have the reward if they fulfilled the conditions.
I. The principle, THAT SOME WILL BE NEARER CHRIST THAN OTHERS IN THAT HEAVENLY KINGDOM. Varied degrees of reward are prepared by God. They asked for earth; Christ answered for heaven. Heaven is a place. the corporeality of our future life is essential to the perfection of it. Christ will wear for ever a human frame. That involves locality, circumstances, external occupations. But if we stop there we have no true idea of the glory that makes the blessedness. For what is heaven? Likeness to God! Love, purity, fellowship with Him; the condition of the soul. Hence heaven can be no dead level. All will be like Jesus; this does not exclude infinite variety. Perfect bliss belongs to each; but the capacity to receive may differ. Does not the idea of endless progress involve that variety in degree. There are those for whom it is prepared of His Father, that they shall sit in special nearness to Him.
II. These words rightly understood assert the truth, which, at first sight, our English rendering seems to make them contradict, viz., THAT CHRIST IS THE GIVER TO EACH OF THESE VARIOUS DEGREES OF GLORY AND BLESSEDNESS. "It is not mine to give, save to them for whom it is prepared." Then it is thine to give it to them. To deny this is to destroy all the foundations upon which our hopes rest. There is nothing within the compass of God's love to bestow of which Christ is not the Giver. We read that He is the Judge of the whole earth. He clothes in white robes. Christ is the bestower of the royalties of heaven.
III. THESE GLORIOUS PLACES ARE NOT GIVEN TO MERE WISHING, NOR BY HERE ARBITRARY WILL, but a piece of favouritism. There are conditions which must precede such elevation. Some people imagine the desire enough. Our wishes are meant to impel us to the appropriate forms of energy, by which they can be realized. When a pauper becomes a millionaire by wishing that he were rich, when ignorance becomes learning by standing in a library and wishing that all the contents of the books were in its head, there will be seine hope that the gates of heaven will fly open to your desire. Does your wish lead you to the conditions': Some of heaven's characteristics attract you. You wish to escape punishment for sin; you would like rest after toil; do you wish to be pure? The happiness draws you? does the holiness? Would it be joyful to be near Christ?
IV. THESE GLORIOUS PLACES ARE GIVEN AS THE RESULT OF A DIVINE PREPARATION. The Divine Father and Son have unity of will and work in this respect. There is a twofold preparation.
1. That is the eternal counsel of the Divine love "prepared for you before the foundation of the world."
2. The realization of that counsel in time. His death and entrance into heaven made ready for us the eternal mansions. Faith in Christ alone, the measure of our faith, and growing Christ-likeness here will be the measure of our glory hereafter.
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As in the heavens there be planets that roll nearer and nearer the central sun, and others that circle further out from its rays, yet each keeps its course, and makes music as it moves, as well as planets whose broader disc can receive and reflect more of the light than the smaller sister spheres, and yet each blazes over its whole surface, and is full to its very rim with white light; so round that throne the spirits of the just made perfect shall circle in order and peace — every one blessed, every one perfect, every one like Christ to begin with, and becoming like through every moment of the eternities. Each perfected soul looking in his brother's shall see there another phase of the one perfectness that blesses and adorns him too, and all taken together shall make up, in so far as finite creatures can make up, the reflection and manifestation of the fulness of Christ. "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us" is the law for the incompleteness of earth. "Having then gifts differing according to the glory that is given to us" will be the law for the perfection of the heavens.
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Nor can such a place be given by mere arbitrary will. Christ could not, if He would, take a man to His fight hand whose heart was not the home of simple trust and thankful love, whose nature and desires were unprepared for that blessed world. It would be like taking one of those creatures — if there be such — that live on the planet whose orbit is furthest from the sun, accustomed to cold, organized for darkness, and carrying it to that great central blaze, with all its fierce flames and tongues of fiery gas that shoot up a thousand miles in a moment. It would crumble and disappear before its blackness could be seen against the blaze.
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As one who precedes a mighty host, provides and prepares rest for their weariness, and food for their hunger, in some city on their line of march, and having made all things ready, is:. at the gates to welcome their travel-stained ranks when they arrive, and guide them to their repose; so He has gone before, our forerunner, to order all things for us there. It may be that unless Christ were in heaven, our brother as well as our Lord, it were no place for mortals. It may be that we need to Lave His glorified bodily presence in order that it should be possible for human spirits to bear the light, and be at home with God. Be that as it may, this we know, that the Father prepares a place for us by the eternal counsel of His love, and by the all-sufficient work of Christ, by whom we have access to the Father. And as His work is the Father's preparation of the place for us by the Son, the issue of His work is the Father's preparation of us for the place, through the Son. by the Spirit. "He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God."
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Zebedee's two sons are following Christ, but following half unconsciously for a personal reward. Christ's answer is not for these seekers of office only, not for place-hunters in our day only, but for all men who would think of being Christians for a compensation, in whatever form we give that compensation shape. Christ's answer introduces the doctrine of Divine rewards. Is not one of the main reasons why Christian faith exercises such an imperfect power among men that, they misapprehend the sort of advantage they may expect to get from it?
I. THERE APPEAR TO BE THREE PRINCIPAL DESIRES WHICH DIRECT ATTENTION TO RELIGIOUS TRUTH —
1. A want of personal comfort.
2. The want of moral guidance, or a rule to act by, and is of a much higher grade than the first.
3. The want of giving and loving — of giving to the Lord what the soul feels belongs to Him — affection and gratitude, etc. It is a spiritual aspiration. It does not stop to inquire about advantages. It is the desire of a harmonious and affectionate union with God in the reconciling and forgiving spirit of the Saviour.
II. These three different wants SPRING UP FROM DIFFERENT PLACES OR FACULTIES IN OUR NATURE.
1. The first comes from a mixture of natural instinct and shrewdness — self-interest.
2. The second comes from the region of the conscience. It refers to a law, etc. — obedience as, obedience — duty as duty; second only to the life of love.
3. The third originates in the soul — its love, trust, gratitude. This is the Christian religion. Out of these three fountains flow three sorts of religious life, as distinct from one another as their sources are.
III. THE REWARDS GOD PROMISES TO THOSE THAT DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM, DEPEND, IN EACH CASE, ON THE MOTIVE AND SPIRIT IN WHICH WE SERVE HIM.
1. Religion will never yield its true rewards to those who seek it for the sake of its rewards.
2. If sought to obtain relief from sorrow, etc., God may lead the soul on, through this half-selfish state, into serving Him for some more disinterested affection. But such will fail of any glorious reward.
3. God will reward every man "according to his works" — in the-line of his works, in the kind of them — love for love, etc.(1) In this honourable quality man's Christian service is not disconnected from his best acts in other lines of life. Legitimate in Christianity. Its universal sentiment is love. All its apparatus is to educate us to that mark. This is the distinctive ministry, which the Christian revelation brings: in Christ this is embodied.(2) The same principle must be applied to die desire of going to heaven as a motive to religious endeavour.(3) We come up at last to those acts of true religion which are done in the faith of the heart; and here we reach the highest view of the Divine rewards, simply because God has made these to be their own reward. They are rewards in kind. They are large just according to the spirituality of our lives, the zeal of our worship, the strength of our faith. They are interior, not visible. They are incidental, not sought. They are of nobleness rather than of happiness. He rewards us sometimes only by setting us to the performance of larger and harder tasks, etc. When he would give His greatest reward, He gives Himself, the Holy Spirit, in His Son. The brave and lofty hymn of Francis Xavier: "My God, I love Thee, not because," etc. Of our Christian religion the badge is a cross — even as self-forgetfulness is the spirit, love is the motive, disinterestedness is the principle, faith is the inmost spring.
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I. CHRIST HAD CUP AND A BAPTISM.
1. Christ had a cup. This cup contained the death which, as our Redeemer, He had to die. Its ingredients were, all that He suffered. The time during which He drank it — His lifetime.
2. Christ had a baptism. The baptism of the text was alluded to, when He said, "I have a baptism," etc. It anointed Him and set Him apart to His priestly and kingly offices.
II. BELIEVERS PARTAKE OF THE CUP AND THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.
1. In many particulars, the cup and baptism of Christ were His own — and peculiar.
2. Yet the experience of believers sufficiently exhausts these words. Scripture testimony. The events of Providence.
3. The sufferings of believers, a cup. Because, punishment by the world. Because, death to the flesh.
4. The sufferings of believers a baptism. Because, they are purigying. Because, they are qualifying.
5. The sufferings of believers are the cup and the baptism of Christ. In many particulars — the same. They are inflicted on Christ — in believers. They are acknowledged by Christ.
6. That, which to Christ and His people is but a cup, is to the wicked an exhaustless ocean.
III. THE OFFICES AND HONOURS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM ARE DISTRIBUTED BY HIMSELF.
1. As the cup and baptism of Christ were succeeded by glory to Him, so they are to His people.
2. Some of the moral glory of heaven visible even amid the sufferings of earth.
3. The sufferings endured here prepare and fit for the high employments of heaven.
4. The fitness having been acquired, the dignities are given by Christ. He bestows that which He purchased.
5. This fulfils the promise, "He shall see of the travail of His soul," etc.
IV. CHRIST GIVES THE HONOURS AND DIGNITIES OF HIS KINGDOM TO THOSE FOR WHOM THEY HAVE BEEN APPOINTED OF THE FATHER.
1. This brings out the place occupied by Christ in the arrangements of the plan of redemption.
2. It brings to light the original source of redemption.
3. It shows the perfect security of the believer.
4. It illustrates the order of God's procedure.
5. It furnishes a proof of the unchangeableness of God.Conclusion.
1. If you are believers, you shall drink of Christ's cup, and be baptized with His baptism.
2. But you shall not suffer till prepared — fitness for suffering provokes persecution.
3. Your sufferings shall be —
(1)Limited — a cup.(2)Purifying — a baptism.(3)Joyous — Christ's.(4)Honourable — a crown.()
Ambition is an instinct of our nature, and capable of good. The request of Zebedee was right, though no doubt mixed with ignorance. Jesus did not reprove her desire, but stated the stern conditions upon which such honours were to be attained. Court and pray for great things.1. In your inner life and personal character.
2. Take a high estimate of the work you have to do for God in this world. 3. Do not think it wrong to strive for a high place in heaven.
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sons: —I. It had reference to a glorious TEMPORAL KINGDOM. This request showed some faith in Jesus, for He had announced His death. We must not indulge dreams of worldly honour.
II. The ANSWER which Jesus gave to this unseasonable request —
1. Our Lord declared their ignorance.
2. As Jesus knew they meant the end without the means, He asked them about their fidelity.
3. They answered as men of courage without hesitation or delay.
4. The final answer Jesus gave to their ambitious prayer.
5. The highest place in heaven is most to love God.
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"While admitting the potency of the prayer of faith, it is not to be supposed that every petition which may be presented will be complied with: —1. God in His Providence ordinarily acts within fixed laws, and with these He rarely dispenses. A high place in the kingdom of the future will not be an arbitrary gift, but the result of the course pursued here.
2. The important thing for us is attention to our duty, and leave the rest to Providence.
3. No envious speculations can assist our progress heavenward.
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Ye know not(1) of what sort My kingdom is — viz., a spiritual and heavenly one, not carnal and earthly;(2) because ye are asking for the triumph before the victory;(3) because ye suppose that this kingdom is given by right of blood to those who seek it, whereas it is given only to those who deserve and strive.()
A prayer for things not lawful begs nothing hut a denial. The saints have their prayers out, either in money or money's worth, provided they bring lawful petitions and honest hearts.()Was there ever a more unseasonable request, than for them to be suitors for great places to Him, when He had but now told them He was going to be spit upon, scourged, condemned, crucified? Yet there was this good in it; they by it discovered a faith in Him, that notwithstanding all this He should be exalted and have a kingdom. But how carnal are our conceptions of spiritual and heavenly things, till we are taught by God a right notion of them!
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I. These two disciples sought the place of the two malefactors.II. They requested, so to speak, something which had only existence in their own imagination (worldly honours in the kingdom of Christ).
III. They sought something which, in its higher import, had already been given away — perhaps to themselves, perhaps to others — viz., special degrees of election.
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Christ, like a good and wise physician, first drank the draught Himself which He was preparing for His own. He underwent His passion and death, and so He became immortal and impassible; thus teaching His own how they might confidently drink the draught which produces soundness and life.()
It shall not be so among you. The Church and the world have different spheres. As every other association or body, so the Church has its appropriate organization, corresponding to its nature. The plant would die if it were subject to the conditions of the crystal; the animal, if to those of the plant; man, if to those of the animal; and the Church, if to those of the world. Or rather, the plant has burst through the conditions of the crystal, and passed beyond it, etc.; and the kingdom of heaven through the conditions and forms of this world.()
There is a heathen story which tells that once a man asked for this gift — not to die; and it was granted to him by the Fates. He was to live on for ever. But he had forgotten to ask that his youth and health and strength might last for ever also; and so he lived on till age and its infirmities and weakness were weighing him down, and his life grew to be a weariness and a burden to him. Existence (for it could hardly be called life)was one long torment to him; and then he wished to die. He wished to die, and could not. He had asked for a thing which he was totally unfit to enjoy, but he had to take the consequences of it when it was once given. It was a curse to him, not a blessing.The notion of rank in the world is like a pyramid; the higher you go up, the fewer are there who have to serve those above them, and who are served more than these underneath them. All who are under serve those who are above, until you come to the apex, and there stands some one who has to do no service, but whom all the others have to serve. Something like that is the notion of position — of social standing and rank. And if it be so in an intellectual way, even — to say nothing of mere bodily service — if any man works to a position that others shall all look up to him and that he may have to look up to nobody, he has just put himself precisely into the same condition as the people of whom our Lord speaks — as those who exercise dominion and authority, and really he thinks it a fine thing to be served. But it is not so in the kingdom of heaven. The figure there is entirely reversed. As you may see a pyramid reflected in the water, just so, in a reversed way altogether, is the thing to be found in the kingdom of God. It is in this way: the Sen of Man lies at the inverted apex of the pyramid; He upholds, and serves, and ministers unto all, and they who would be high in His kingdom must go near to Him at the bottom, to uphold and minister to all that they may or can uphold and minister unto. There is no other law of precedence, no other law of rank and position in God's kingdom. And, mind, that is the kingdom. The other kingdom passes away — it is a transitory, ephemeral, passing, bad thing, and away it must go. It is only there on sufferance, because in the mind of God even that which is bad ministers to that which is good; and when the new kingdom is built the old kingdom shall pass away. But the man who seeks this rank of which I have spoken, must be honest to follow it. It will not do to say, "I want to be great, and therefore I will serve." A man will not get at it so. He may begin so, but he will soon find that that will not do. He must seek it for the truth's sake, for the love of his fellows, for the worship of God, for the delight in what is good.()
Mothers should be cautious about seeking places of honour for their sons. Doing this, they seldom know what they ask. They may be seeking the ruin of their children. It is not posts of honour that secure happiness or salvation As the purest and loveliest streams often flow in the retired grove, far from the thundering cataract or the stormy ocean, so is the sweet peace of the soul; it dwells oftenest far from the bustle of public life, and the storms and tempests of ambition.()
Ambition is like the sea which swallows a]l the rivers and is none the fuller; or like the grave whose insatiable maw for ever craves for the bodies of men. It is not like an amphora, which being full receives no more, but its fulness swells it till a still greater vacuum is formed. In all probability Napoleon never longed for a sceptre till he had gained a batton, nor dreamed of being Emperor of Europe till he had gained the crown of France. Caligula, with the world at his feet, was mad with a longing for the moon, and could he have gained it, the imperial lunatic would have coveted the sun. It is in vain to feed a fire which grows the more vivacious the more it is supplied with fuel; he who lives to satisfy his ambition has before him the labour of Sisyphus, who rolled up hill an ever rebounding stone, and the task of the daughters of Danaus, who are condemned for ever to attempt to till a bottomless vessel with buckets full of holes.()
People
David, Jesus, Zabdi, ZebedeePlaces
Jericho, Jerusalem, JudeaTopics
Command, Desire, Grant, Kingdom, Reign, Replied, Says, Seated, Sit, Sons, Speak, Wilt, Wish, WouldestOutline
1. Jesus, by the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, shows that God is debtor unto no man;
17. foretells his passion;
20. by answering the mother of Zebedee's children, teaches his disciples to be humble;
29. and gives two blind men their sight.
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Matthew 20:21 5786 ambition, negative
8302 love, abuse of
Matthew 20:20-22
5719 mothers, responsibilities
Matthew 20:20-23
1270 right hand of God
5882 impartiality
Matthew 20:20-24
7025 church, unity
Matthew 20:20-28
2060 Christ, patience of
5937 rivalry
Matthew 20:20-31
5554 status
Library
February 2. "And Whosoever Will be Great among You, Let Him be Your Minister. And Whosoever Will be Chief among You, Let Him be Your Servant" (Matt. xx. 26, 27).
"And whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant" (Matt. xx. 26, 27). Slave is the literal meaning of the word, doulos. The first word used for service is diakanos, which means a minister to others in any usual way or work: but the word doulos means a bond slave, and the Lord here plainly teaches us that the highest service is that of a bond slave. He Himself made Himself the servant of all, and he who would come …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth Nearest to Christ
'To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of My Father.'--MATT. xx. 23. You will observe that an unusually long supplement is inserted by our translators in this verse. That supplement is quite unnecessary, and, as is sometimes the case, is even worse than unnecessary. It positively obscures the true meaning of the words before us. As they stand in our Bibles, the impression that they leave upon one's mind is that Christ in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
The Servant-Lord and his Servants
'Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.'--MATT. xx. 28. It seems at first sight strangely unsympathetic and irrelevant that the ambitious request of James and John and their foolish mother, that they should sit at Christ's right hand and His left in His kingdom, should have been occasioned by, and have followed immediately upon, our Lord's solemn and pathetic announcement of His sufferings. But the connection is not difficult to trace. The disciples believed that, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
What the Historic Christ Taught About his Death
'The Son of Man came... to give His life a ransom for many.'--Matt. xx. 28. We hear a great deal at present about going back to 'the Christ of the Gospels.' In so far as that phrase and the movement of thought which it describes are a protest against the substitution of doctrines for the Person whom the doctrines represent, I, for one, rejoice in it. But I believe that the antithesis suggested by the phrase, and by some of its advocates avowed, between the Christ of the Gospels and the Christ of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Blind Bartimeus
Mark 10:52 -- "And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." When the apostle Peter was recommending Jesus of Nazareth, in one of his sermons to the Jews, he gave him a short, but withal a glorious and exalted character, "That we went about doing good." He went about, he sought occasions of doing good; it was his meat and drink to do the works of him that sent him, whilst the day of his public administration …
George Whitefield—Selected Sermons of George Whitefield
Delivered on the Lord's Day, on that which is Written in the Gospel, Matt. xx. 1, "The Kingdom of Heaven is Like unto a Man That
1. Ye have heard out of the Holy Gospel a parable well suited to the present season, concerning the labourers in the vineyard. For now is the time of the material [2841] vintage. Now there is also a spiritual vintage, wherein God rejoiceth in the fruit of His vineyard. For we cultivate God, and God cultivateth us. [2842] But we do not so cultivate God as to make Him any better thereby. For our cultivation is the labour of the heart, not of the hands. [2843] He cultivateth us as the husbandman doth …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament
On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xx. 30, About the Two Blind Men Sitting by the Way Side, and Crying Out, "Lord, have Mercy On
1. Ye know, Holy Brethren, full well as we do, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Physician of our eternal health; and that to this end He took the weakness of our nature, that our weakness might not last for ever. For He assumed a mortal body, wherein to kill death. And, "though He was crucified through weakness," as the Apostle saith, "yet He liveth by the power of God." [2870] They are the words too of the same Apostle; "He dieth no more, and death shall have no more dominion over Him." …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament
Divine Sovereignty
We must assume, before we commence our discourse, one thing certain, namely, that all blessings are gifts and that we have no claim to them by our own merit. This I think every considerate mind will grant. And this being admitted, we shall endeavour to show that he has a right, seeing they are his own to do what he wills with them--to withhold them wholly is he pleaseth--to distribute them all if he chooseth--to give to some and not to others--to give to none or to give to all, just as seemeth good …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856
The Private Thoughts and Words of Jesus
"And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, 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: and the third day he shall rise again."--Matthew 20:17-19. YOU HAVE THIS SAME STORY in Matthew and Mark and Luke, a little differently told; as would naturally be the case …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891
Particular Redemption
I begin this morning with the doctrine of Redemption. "He gave his life a ransom for many." The doctrine of Redemption is one of the most important doctrines of the system of faith. A mistake on this point will inevitably lead to a mistake through the entire system of our belief. Now, you are aware that there are different theories of Redemption. All Christians hold that Christ died to redeem, but all Christians do not teach the same redemption. We differ as to the nature of atonement, and as to …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858
Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday
(From the Gospel for the day) In this Sermon following we are taught how we must perpetually press forward towards our highest good, without pause or rest; and how we must labour in the spiritual vineyard that it may bring forth good fruit. Matt. xx. 1.--"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard." THIS householder went out early at the first hour, and again at the third and at the sixth hours, and hired …
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler
Augustine 354-430 -- the Recovery of Sight by the Blind
I. Ye know, holy brethren, full well as we do, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the physician of our eternal health; and that to this end we task the weakness of our natures, that our weakness might not last forever. For He assumed a mortal body, wherein to kill death. And, "though He was crucified through weakness," as the apostle saith, yet He "liveth by the power of God." They are the words, too, of the same apostle: "He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him." These things, …
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume I
The Historical Books of the New Testament, Meaning Thereby the Four Gospels and the Acts...
The historical books of the New Testament, meaning thereby the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, are quoted, or alluded to, by a series of Christian writers, beginning with those who were contemporary with the apostles, or who immediately followed them, and proceeding in close and regular succession from their time to the present. The medium of proof stated in this proposition is, of all others, the most unquestionable, the least liable to any practices of fraud, and is not diminished by …
William Paley—Evidences of Christianity
The Johannine Writings
BY the Johannine writings are meant the Apocalypse and the fourth gospel, as well as the three catholic epistles to which the name of John is traditionally attached. It is not possible to enter here into a review of the critical questions connected with them, and especially into the question of their authorship. The most recent criticism, while it seems to bring the traditional authorship into greater uncertainty, approaches more nearly than was once common to the position of tradition in another …
James Denney—The Death of Christ
Ci. Foretelling his Passion. Rebuking Ambition.
(Peræa, or Judæa, Near the Jordan.) ^A Matt. XX. 17-28; ^B Mark X. 32-45; ^C Luke XVIII. 31-34. ^b 32 And they were on the way, going up to Jerusalem [Dean Mansel sees in these words an evidence that Jesus had just crossed the Jordan and was beginning the actual ascent up to Jerusalem. If so, he was in Judæa. But such a construction strains the language. Jesus had been going up to Jerusalem ever since he started in Galilee, and he may now have still be in Peræa. The parable …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Cii. Bartimæus and his Companion Healed.
(at Jericho.) ^A Matt. XX. 29-34; ^B Mark X. 46-52; ^C Luke XVIII. 35-43. ^c 35 And it came to pass, as he drew nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging: 36 and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. [Jesus came from the Jordan, and was entering Jericho by its eastern gate. As the crowd following Jesus passed by, Bartimæus asked its meaning and learned of the presence of Jesus. Jesus on this …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
The vineyard Labourers.
"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, and said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. …
William Arnot—The Parables of Our Lord
Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome.
IT pleased God, to whom all his works are known from eternity, to prepare Gregory by a twofold process, for the great and difficult work of the guidance of the Western Church, then agitated by so many storms. Destined to be plunged into the midst of an immense multitude of avocations of the most varied character, he was trained to bear such a burden by administering, until his fortieth year, an important civil office. Then, yielding to a long-felt yearning of his heart, he retired into a monastery, …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places
The Blessing of Being with Good People. How Certain Illusions were Removed.
1. I began gradually to like the good and holy conversation of this nun. How well she used to speak of God! for she was a person of great discretion and sanctity. I listened to her with delight. I think there never was a time when I was not glad to listen to her. She began by telling me how she came to be a nun through the mere reading of the words of the Gospel "Many are called, and few are chosen." [1] She would speak of the reward which our Lord gives to those who forsake all things for His …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
Why Men do not Attain Quickly to the Perfect Love of God. Of Four Degrees of Prayer. Of the First Degree. The Doctrine Profitable for Beginners,
1. I speak now of those who begin to be the servants of love; that seems to me to be nothing else but to resolve to follow Him in the way of prayer, who has loved us so much. It is a dignity so great, that I have a strange joy in thinking of it; for servile fear vanishes at once, if we are, as we ought to be, in the first degree. O Lord of my soul, and my good, how is it that, when a soul is determined to love Thee--doing all it can, by forsaking all things, in order that it may the better occupy …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
The First Last, and the Last First
"But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first."--Matthew 19:30. "So the last shall be first, and the first last."--Matthew 20:16. WE MUST BE SAVED if we would serve the Lord. We cannot serve God in an unsaved condition. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." It is vain for them to attempt service while they are still at enmity against God. The Lord wants not enemies to wait upon him, nor slaves to grace his throne. We must be saved first; and salvation is all of grace. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891
Christ's Resurrection and Our Newness of Life
The idea that the grace of God should lead us to licentiousness is utterly loathsome to every Christian man. We cannot endure it. The notion that the doctrines of grace give license to sin, comes from the devil, and we scout it with a detestation more deep than words can express. "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" On our first entrance upon a Christian profession, we are met by the ordinance of baptism, which teaches the necessity of purification. Baptism is, in its very …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891
The Compassion of Jesus
THIS is said of Christ Jesus several times in the New Testament. The original word is a very remarkable one. It is not found in classic Greek. It is not found in the Septuagint. The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists themselves. They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one. It is expressive of the deepest emotion; a striving of the bowels--a yearning of the innermost nature with pity. As the dictionaries tell us-- Ex …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 60: 1914
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