“All power Is given unto ME In Heaven and in earth.”
These seem to me to be the most audacious, the most astonishing words that ever fell from the lips of man. We are told that the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him they worshipped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke unto them saying:
“All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28.18).
Who said these words? A Jewish peasant, a Jewish carpenter. You know what carpenters are. You have seen a great many carpenters. This man was a carpenter—a poor man, had never been educated in the schools. He was educated in the carpenter’s shop. He made yokes and ploughs, I suppose, and helped build houses, and made boxes and chests and doors. And then He took up preaching, and went about among the common people, and some said He was a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners—a man who did not keep good company. Some said He was crazy, and one said He had a demon and some said He was a mover of sedition, and some said one thing and some said another; but the general conclusion among people who were anybody—the Scribes and Pharisees, the prominent men and the chief priests—was that He did not amount to very much anyway.
There were a few people who followed Him—fishermen and tax-gatherers and common people; but here this Man, who we are sometimes told was just like any other man, who has been called an impostor and deceiver— who was finally hung up on a Cross between two thieves, dying for these men—says, “All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth.”
Just think of it, a carpenter says that! A poor preacher, without a pulpit, without a salary, without a parish; a man whom they tried to kill; a man who did not stand well among the better classes of the community. Such a man as that says, “All power is given unto Me”—all authority, all ability, all efficiency, all power!
Did you ever think how much power there is on earth?
There is the power of the wind. Do you know of anyone who can control that? There is the power of the waves. Do you know of anybody who can control or master them? There are the powers of nature; the heaving of the tides; the swelling of the seeds in the earth, the mighty upspringing that clothes the fields with grass. There is the power of the clouds. There is the power of heat in which the strongest iron that ever was forged will melt. There is the power which pours down floods from on high. Why, a centimetre of water falling on one hectare of land amounts to one hundred tonnes and all that power poured out so gently that we do not notice it. We do not understand what is going on. We call it a shower. Think of the millions of glowing orbs that flame through the skies. Think of this world rolling in its mighty orbit. Think of the sun, sweeping on in its eternal pathway. Think of the power that moves these things. Some people do not understand how the sun could be made to stand still. Well, if you will tell me what keeps it going, I will tell you how it was made to stand still. All power in the universe. All power over men; all power over demons; all power over everything.
He did have power to Make Himself Remembered on the earth.
There were hundreds of millions of people living on the earth then—how many of them could you name? There were kings and princes, emperors, philosophers, poets. I do not believe a man here could name twelve persons who lived then. What has become of them? You remember Him? He did have power to keep His Name before the public. The world has never forgotten that. They have tried to persecute it out of sight; but there is no continent where His Name is not known; He is more widely known than Caesar. He is more widely known than Alexander. He is known more widely than Nebuchadnezzar. He is known more widely than Washington. He is known more widely than any man that ever lived since God made this world. He had power enough for that. How many people will know anything about you a hundred years after you are dead?
Curious, isn’t it, that this dead Jew is so remembered? There have been thousands of Jews who have lived and died and the world has forgotten them. He had power to be remembered.
He had Power to be Obeyed
Nebuchadnezzar was a great king. Do you know anybody who cares what Nebuchadnezzar said? Alexander was a great conqueror. Do you know anybody who cares what he commanded? Napoleon was a great conqueror. Do you know anybody who cares what Napoleon did? He changed the map of Europe and the face of the world’s governments—who cares for his commands now? Who cares today for the commands of Jesus Christ? How is it that He who was hung on a Roman Cross two thousand years ago, He who, our skeptical friends tell us, is nothing but a dead Jew and a dead carpenter—how is it that He is obeyed today? There is not a king on earth who has such a sway as He has. There is not an emperor who ever lived that had such a host to bow to His commands.
He had Power to Make Friends
You have been living in this world, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years. How many friends have you made? I don’t mean how many would come and eat a big dinner if you would pay for it. I don’t mean how many would drink as long as your money lasted—but friends. I mean people who would go with you if a policeman walked on the other side. I mean people who would lend you money when you were hard up, and they did not believe they would get it back again? How many would go across the Atlantic to please you if you couldn’t pay their fare? How many people would die for you? It is two thousand years since any man has seen Jesus Christ. Not a man on earth ever heard His voice. Not a man on earth ever clasped His hand. Nobody has His autograph. Nobody ever saw His handwriting. Nobody ever heard Him speak, yet how many friends He has. How many friends have you got?
Friends of every nation, of every clime, of every colour. Friends of every condition—in palaces and huts; in cottages and caves of the earth. Friends delving in mines; friends drying their nets in the fishing boats; friends tilling the soil; friends riding in high places; friends everywhere. Hundreds, thousands, millions, tens of millions. How does He get so many friends? How is it that He who hung between two thieves two thousand years ago has so many friends who never saw Him, who never heard Him, and yet who know Him and love Him; who would lay down their lives for Him; who would go to the ends of the earth for Him; who would give the last dollar they have; who count nothing dear when He calls for them?
You say that He is a dead Jew, do you? I never saw a live Jew who could do that. I never saw a live Gentile who could do that. What does this all mean? It means that “all power is given unto Him.” It means that He has power over the hearts of men; that He grasps them and holds them by a bond which earth can never break.
He had Power to Make His Words Live
Millions of people are talking, talking, talking until they tire everybody out, but nobody remembers a word that they have said. Books have been written and perished. Poems have been written, orators have been recorded, but they have perished; but He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”
He never had a reporter for the Jerusalem Journal or the Galilee Gazette, taking down what He said to print in the next morning’s paper, but His words remain.
He spoke to a little company of disciples on the Mount, and the world still listens to what He said. He told Nicodemus one night how “God so loved the world,” and those words have been ringing through the world for two thousand years. He talked to a few disciples on board ship, and His words have been echoing ever since. Today, in seven hundred different languages, men read the words of Christ. Many of the inhabitants of the earth this day can read in their own tongues the story of Christ and His Cross. The infidel can never root this out. He can scoff and sneer and burn up Bibles, but the “Word of the Lord endureth forever.”
“All Power!”
You have no power over the winds, but He could speak to the winds and they obeyed Him. You have no power over the waves, but He could say, “Peace, be still,” and there was a great calm. You have no power over “all manner of diseases,” but when He spoke to the sick, He healed them. You have no power over evil spirits, but He cast out demons with His word. You have no power over the dead but He called them from the silence of the tomb and bade them live.
And these were only the specimen of what He could do. He raised one dead brother; He is going to raise your dead brother. “All that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth,” for He says, “I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of Hell and of death” (John 5. 28, 29; Rev. 1. 18).
“Go ye into all the world”
Suppose you had a message you wanted to send into all the world. You couldn’t get it out of town without paying somebody for it; and when your money stopped, the message would stop. He said, “I send you forth as sheep among wolves.” He promised them nothing but a cross. “Go,” you have imperial Rome against you. “Go,” you have idolaters against you. “Go,” you have Gentiles and Jews against you. What have you got? A story about a man hung up between two thieves. What do we care about them? To the Jews it is a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness. Christ says, “You go and tell it.” And all through these vast empires where men bowed the knee to heathen gods, today there is not a knee bowed to Jupiter or Mars or Venus, or any of these deities. Their temples are in ruins. Their oracles are dumb. Their priests have perished in the corruption of ages. But this foolishness of preaching that saves them who believe still marches on. Today the words of Christ have gone out to the ends of the earth.
That carpenter who died without a friend, except a few poor, weeping women, forsaken by those whom He had taught, is today acknowledged as Lord by countless numbers among all nations.
Every bank note that you have in your books has a date upon it, and it dates from the birth of that Man. Every cheque you draw has that Man’s birth date upon it. The deed you own your farm by has His birth on it. The note you give, the bond you hold, the contract you make, is not worth the paper you write on until it has that date.
Two thousand years ago A Little Company of a Dozen Persons
sat in an upper room around a table, ate some bread and drank from a cup, and the Master said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” If you had been looking on, and knowing that their leader would be betrayed, denied, forsaken by all, had you been asked, “How often will they observe this?” you would have said, “They will never meet again.” Two thousand years have passed since then, and there has never been a year that some one has not obeyed that command; and today in different lands, in different quarters of the earth, people gather, and with tearful eyes and tender hearts take the cup and break the bread in memory of Him who died on Calvary’s Cross. “All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth.”
You Want to be on the Strongest Side!
Then be on the side of Christ. You want to be on the winning side; you want to be with the noble, the godly, and the good; this is the company you want to be with.
Today we may testify to His goodness; today we may glorify His Name. And it will be something to say in the day of His glory, when the angels shall glorify Him, when all Heaven shall adore Him—it will be something to say then, that in the day when He was dishonoured we stood by Him; in the day when He was rejected we suffered with Him.
-Author Unknown
[Forty years ago a cousin of mine had a printing press in a little building in his back yard in Saskatoon. One of the things he printed was this tract. The name of the writer was not given and I have been unable to find any trace of it elsewhere. I suspect the writer was British, but that is really only a guess. I hope others appreciate it as much as I have.]
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