even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Parallel Translations
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even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
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how God had annoynted Iesus of Nazareth with the holy goost and with power which Iesus went aboute doinge good and healynge all that were oppressed of the develles for God was with him.
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To wit, howe God anointed Iesus of Nazareth with the holy Ghost, and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the deuill: for God was with him.
Cross-references (37)
Passages linked to Acts 10:38 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed,
- Isaiah 61:1-3 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.
- Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know,
- Isaiah 11:2 Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
- John 3:34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.
- Hebrews 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”
- Psalms 45:7 You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
- John 3:2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”
- Matthew 12:28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come upon you.
- Isaiah 42:1 “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.
- Luke 3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”
- Acts 4:26-27 The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take council together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.’ “For truly, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed,
- Psalms 2:2 The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
- Mark 7:29-30 He said to her, “For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” She went away to her house, and found the child having been laid on the bed, with the demon gone out.
- John 10:32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”
- Luke 4:33-36 In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” When the demon had thrown him down in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no harm. Amazement came on all, and they spoke together, one with another, saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”
- 1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.
- Mark 1:38-39 He said to them, “Let’s go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because I came out for this reason.” He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons.
- John 6:27 Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”
- John 10:36-38 do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’ If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
- John 16:32 Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
- Luke 7:21-23 In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits; and to many who were blind he gave sight. Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you have seen and heard: that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me.”
- Hebrews 2:14-15 Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
- 2 Chronicles 17:9 They taught in Judah, having the book of Yahweh’s law with them. They went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.
- Matthew 4:23-25 Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. The report about him went out into all Syria. They brought to him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, possessed with demons, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them. Great multitudes from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from beyond the Jordan followed him.
- Matthew 9:35 Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.
- Mark 5:13-15 At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. Those who fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.
- Mark 6:54-56 When they had come out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him, and ran around that whole region, and began to bring those who were sick, on their mats, to where they heard he was. Wherever he entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might just touch the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched him were made well.
- Luke 9:42 While he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him violently. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
- 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
- Psalms 2:6 “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
- Matthew 12:15 Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,
- Matthew 15:21-31 Jesus went out from there, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!” But he answered her not a word. His disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away; for she cries after us.” But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, help me.” But he answered, “It is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that hour. Jesus departed from there, and came near to the sea of Galilee; and he went up into the mountain, and sat there. Great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them, so that the multitude wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the injured healed, the lame walking, and the blind seeing—and they glorified the God of Israel.
- Mark 3:7-11 Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples, and a great multitude followed him from Galilee, from Judea, from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, beyond the Jordan, and those from around Tyre and Sidon. A great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came to him. He spoke to his disciples that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t press on him. For he had healed many, so that as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him. The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, “You are the Son of God!”
- Mark 6:6 He marveled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching.
- Luke 7:10-17 Those who were sent, returning to the house, found that the servant who had been sick was well. Soon afterwards, he went to a city called Nain. Many of his disciples, along with a great multitude, went with him. Now when he came near to the gate of the city, behold, one who was dead was carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Many people of the city were with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, “Don’t cry.” He came near and touched the coffin, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” He who was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. Fear took hold of all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited his people!” This report went out concerning him in the whole of Judea, and in all the surrounding region.
- Luke 9:56 For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 38. Jesus of Nazareth. He calleth him a Nazarite…
38. Jesus of Nazareth. He calleth him a Nazarite here, not because he was born there, but because he came thence to execute his office; again, because he was surnamed thus commonly. He saith that he was anointed with the Spirit and power by hypallage. For the power wherein Christ exceeded proceeded from the Spirit alone. Therefore, when as the heavenly Father anointed his Son, he furnished him with the power of his Spirit. Peter saith immediately after, that this power appeared in miracles; although he expresseth one kind only in plain words, that Christ testified that he was endowed with power of the Holy Ghost that he might do good in the world. For it was not meet that the fearful power of God should be showed forth in him, but such as might allure the world with the sweet taste of goodness and grace to love him and to desire him. The metaphor of anointing is usual so often as mention is made of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. It is now applied unto the person of Christ, because by this means he was consecrated a king and priest by his Father. And we know that in time of the law, oil was a solemn token of consecration. The going of Christ is taken for the course of his calling, as if he should say, that he fulfilled his function until the time appointed before. The similitude is taken from travelers which go forward in their journey until they come unto the appointed place; although he showeth therewithal that he walked through Judea in three years, so that no corner was without his good deeds.
Those which were holden of devils. This also was a more manifest token of God’s power in Christ, that he did not only heal men of common diseases, but did also cure desperate evils. All diseases are indeed light punishments wherewith God doth punish us; but when as he dealeth more gently with us according to his fatherly kindness, he is said to strike us with his hand then; but in more grievous scourges he useth Satan as the minister of his wrath, and as it were an hangman. And we must diligently mark this distinction; for it were an absurd thing to say that he is tormented of the devil who is sick of an ague, or of some other common kind of disease; but the alienating of the mind, furious madness, and other, as it were, monstrous griefs, [evils,] are fitly and properly attributed to Satan. And, in this respect, the Scripture useth to call men who are so taken and carried headlong with such madness that they have no hold of themselves, so that they seem to be turned almost into beasts, men possessed of devils.
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Because God was with him. Peter noteth briefly to what end those powers did tend which were showed by the hand of Christ, to wit, that tie might purchase credit among men, who did behold God as it were present; and this was the true use of miracles, as we have said already elsewhere, and as we shall see again hereafter when we come to it. For we must stay ourselves upon this principle, that we diminish the majesty of God unless we embrace and reverence those whom he marketh with the mark of his servants. Therefore, forasmuch as powers [miracles] did plainly prove that Christ descended from heaven, his dignity is placed without the lot of man’s judgment.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This style is taken from an old custom of…
This style is taken from an old custom of the Jews, who used to anoint their Kings and Priests, whereupon it grew, to call them anointed, upon whom God bestowed gifts and virtues.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the…
38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Ver. 38. Oppressed of the devil] The devil complained in the days of Diocletian that he could not give right oracles, because of the Christians. (Euseb. ii.) And those that conspired against Athanasius, cried out, that by his prayers he hindered their proceedings. (Ruffin. i. 33.) The soldiers that went against the Angrognians, told their captain that the ministers of that place, with their prayers, so conjured and bewitched them, that they could not fight.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain God anointed Jesus: it was usual to anoint their…
God anointed Jesus: it was usual to anoint their kings, priests, and prophets, unto all which offices Christ was anointed by his Father; hence called Christ, as in the Old Testament the Messiah.
Of Nazareth: the apostle is not ashamed of this name, though given to our Saviour by way of contempt; he gloried in the cross of Christ.
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With the Holy Ghost and with power; Christ was endued with the Almighty Spirit of God, and with the power of it.
Who went about doing good: all the miracles our blessed Saviour wrought, were works of mercy, for the benefit and relief of those upon whom he wrought them: he could have wrought miracles to destroy and ruin such as would not believe in him, which he was often provoked unto; nay, his apostles would have had him but to permit them by fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans, Luk 9:54, and he would not.
Healing all that were oppressed of the devil: the deliverances our Saviour so often wrought upon such as were possessed of devils, was to show unto them that he was come to destroy the works of the devil, aim to cast him out of the souls of men who were spiritually possessed by him; which also our Saviour did, so that it was a happy calamity for them, which brought them to Christ.
For God was with him; God was with our Saviour,
1. By his might and power doing such miracles.
2. In his extraordinary love to him, Mat 3:17, and always hearing of him, Joh 11:42. And also,
3. God was with Christ ουσιωδως, in the fulness of the Godhead, Col 2:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth,.... And so declared…
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth,.... And so declared him to be the Messiah, that was promised to the Jews, and expected by them; the anointed prophet, priest, and King; who because his parents lived at Nazareth, and he was educated there, and there he chiefly preached and wrought his miracles, he was by way of contempt called Jesus of Nazareth: and him God anointed, with
the Holy Ghost and with power; with the gifts and graces of the Spirit, without measure; signified by the descent of the Spirit, as a dove upon him at his baptism, and is what in Psa 45:7 is called, "the oil of gladness". The person anointed is elsewhere represented as a divine person; as God, and the Son of God, Psa 2:6 but here under his most contemptible character, by which he was known among men, because it was in his human nature, that he was anointed; and this anointing belongs to him, as considered in his office capacity; from whence he is called the Christ, or anointed of God. The anointer of him is God, which must be understood of God the Father, who is the God of Christ, and the same that anoints his people, Co2 1:21 and none but God can anoint with the Holy Ghost; and he it is, with whom Christ is here said to be anointed; who is compared to oil, in allusion to the anointing oil under the former dispensation, used for the anointing of persons, prophets, priests, and kings, and of the tabernacle, and the vessels of it; to the oil that was poured on Aaron's head, which ran down to the skirts of his garments, emblematical of the Spirit poured on Christ, the head, and which from him descends to all the members of his body; and to common oil, both for ornament and refreshment: "power" is added, which is but another name for the Holy Spirit, Luk 24:49. And one particular branch of the extraordinary and immeasurable gifts of the Spirit, bestowed on him as man, was a power of doing miracles: for it follows,
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who went about; the land of Judea and all Galilee; which shows laboriousness, diligence, and delight:
doing good; both to the bodies and souls of men; to the latter, by preaching the Gospel to them; and to the former, by curing all their diseases, of whatsoever sort: he did what none of Adam's sons could do, for there is none of them that does good, no not one, Rom 3:10 he was good himself, essentially and naturally good, and therefore he did good, and he did nothing but good: he knew no sin, he did none, nor could any be found in him; and he always did good, that which was according to the will of God, and well pleasing in his sight; and without him no good is done, even by his own people; they have all the grace and strength from him, by which they perform the good things they do: he is the reverse of Satan, who goes about doing all the mischief he can; and he is to be imitated by his followers, who, as they have opportunity, should do good to all men, especially to the household of faith.
And healing all that were oppressed of the devil; both in body, as "lunatics, epileptics, and demoniacs"; and in soul, such as were led captive by him:
for God was with him; as his Son, essentially, through union to him; and as man, from his cradle to his cross, supporting and assisting him, and with his gracious presence comforting him; and by various instances, showing that he came from heaven, and had a divine mission and commission; which had he not, he would never have been encouraged and assisted as he was, as man, and could never have done the things he did: the Ethiopic version very wrongly reads, "for God was with them";
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain How God anointed Jesus - Particularly at his baptism,…
How God anointed Jesus - Particularly at his baptism, thereby inaugurating him to his office: with the Holy Ghost and with power - It is worthy our remark, that frequently when the Holy Ghost is mentioned there is added a word particularly adapted to the present circumstance. So the deacons were to be full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, chap. vi, 3. Barnabas was full of the Holy Ghost and faith, chap. xi, 24. The disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost, chap. xiii, 52. And here, where his mighty works are mentioned, Christ himself is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. For God was with him-He speaks sparingly here of the majesty of Christ, as considering the state of his hearers.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 38. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth] Here the…
Verse 38. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth] Here the apostle refers to Christ as the promised Messiah; for, as Messiah signifies the anointed one, and Christ has the same signification in Greek, and the Messiah, according to the prophets, and the expectation of the Jews, was to work miracles, Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, and refers to the miracles which he wrought as the proof of it. This delicate, but forcible allusion is lost by most readers.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain How God anointed ... - That is, set him…
How God anointed ... - That is, set him apart to this work, and was with him, acknowledging him as the Messiah. See the notes on Mat 1:1.
With the Holy Ghost - See the notes on Luk 4:19. The act of anointing kings and priests seems to have been emblematic of the influences of the Holy Spirit. Here it means that God impaled to him the influences of the Holy Spirit, thus consecrating him for the work of the Messiah. See Mat 3:16-17; Joh 3:34, “God giveth not the Holy Spirit by measure unto him.”
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And with power - The power of healing the sick, raising the dead, etc.
Who went about doing good - Whose main business it was to travel from place to place to do good. He did not go for applause, or wealth, or comfort, or ease, but to diffuse happiness as far as possible. This is the simple but sublime record of his life. It gives us a distinct portrait of his character, as he is distinguished from conquerors and kings, from false prophets and from the mass of people.
And healing ... - Restoring to health.
All that were oppressed of the devil - All that were possessed by him. See the notes on Mat 4:23-24.
God was with him - God appointed him, and furnished by his miracles the highest evidence that he had sent him. His miracles were such that they could be performed only by God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Now God anointed Jesus of Nazareth--rather, "Jesus of Nazareth…
Now God anointed Jesus of Nazareth--rather, "Jesus of Nazareth (as the burden of that 'published word'), how God anointed Him."
with the Holy Ghost and with power--that is, at His baptism, thus visibly proclaiming Him MESSIAH, "the Lord's Christ." See Luk 4:18-21. For it is not His unction for personal holiness at His incarnation that is referred to--as many of the Fathers and some moderns take it--but His investiture with the insignia of the Messianic office, in which He presented Himself after His baptism to the acceptance of the people.
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went about doing good--holding up the beneficent character of all His miracles, which was their predicted character (Isa 35:5-6, &c.).
healing all that were oppressed of the devil--whether in the form of demoniacal possessions, or more indirectly, as in her "whom Satan had bound with a spirit of infirmity eighteen years" (Luk 13:16); thereby showing Himself the Redeemer from all evil.
for God was with him--Thus gently does the apostle rise to the supreme dignity of Christ with which he closes, accommodating himself to his hearers.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 38. Anointed—Christ, Messiah, both signify the anointed. How God…
38. Anointed—Christ, Messiah, both signify the anointed. How God Christed, Messiahed Jesus, the Nazarene.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 38. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth] It seems…
38. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth] It seems better to take the name “Jesus of Nazareth” as in apposition with the tidings mentioned in the previous verse, making the connection thus: Ye know the tidings, &c., “even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him,” &c. This is the whole scope of what was preached, that Jesus had lived as a man in Nazareth, but yet had been God’s Anointed, the Messiah, and shewn to be so by the mighty works which He did.
healing all that were oppressed of the devil] This is perhaps mentioned as shewing that the power of Jesus was to be not only over physical but over moral evil likewise, and this alone is mentioned because in the healing of the greater, the power to cure the less evil is implied.
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for God was with him] As Nicodemus confessed, “No man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him” (Joh_3:2).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (38) How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth.—In the Greek…
(38) How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth.—In the Greek structure the name stands in apposition with the “word” in the two previous verses—“Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him.” The word “anointed” is used with distinct reference to the name of Christ in Act_10:35, and assumes a knowledge of the facts connected with His baptism, as in Mat_3:16, Mar_1:10, Luk_3:21-22, as the divine witness that that Name belonged of right to Him and to no other.
Healing all that were oppressed of the devil.—The words seem to us to refer specially to the works of healing performed on demoniacs, but were probably uttered with a wider range of meaning, all disease being thought of as the work directly or indirectly of the great enemy. So Satan had bound the woman with a spirit of infirmity (Luk_13:11). So St. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was a messenger of Satan to buffet him (2Co_12:7).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Even Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed him…
Even Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed him for how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. The reference to the anointing (Luk_4:18, Luk_4:21; Mat_1:16, Mat_1:17; Act_4:27) was necessary to represent him as God"s Christ. (see Act_9:22) For the designation, of Nazareth, comp. Act_2:22 Act_3:26 Act_4:10 Act_6:14 Luk_24:20. Oppressed of the devil. This ascription of disease to Satan agrees Job_2:7 and nouv Luk_13:16. The word rendered "oppressed" (katadunasteuome) occurs in the New Testament only here and, Jam_2:6, but, with its substantive katadunastei is found repeatedly in the LXX and the Apocrypha, and in classical Greek, though rarely. A good example of its force is Exo_1:13, and of the substantive Exo_6:7. It means "to rule over oppressively, and by force." In the explanatory addition, For God was with him, Peter teaches what our Lord himself and St. John in his Gospel so constantly do, that our Lord"s miracles were wrought by the power of God. (see e.g. Joh_5:17, Joh_5:19, Joh_5:30; Joh_7:28; Joh_8:28; Joh_9:3, Joh_9:4; Luk_11:20, etc.) The unity of the Son with the Father would be taught later.
The imitable and inimitable in Jesus Christ.
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I THAT IN CHRIST WHICH IS INIMITABLE BY US.
1. God sent him on a mission altogether higher than our own. He anointed him" to be the Redeemer of a world, to be its Savior by suffering and dying in its stead, by revealing truth which it could not possibly have discovered.
2. God dwelt in him as he dues not and could not do in us. He was anointed with the Holy Ghost," and God "gave not the Spirit by measure unto him.
3. He was armed with a power which was irresistible: the "winds and the waves obeyed" him; sickness fled at his touch; death itself was obedient to his voice; the spirit-world owned his presence and yielded to his authority; he "healed all that were possessed of the devil." Our function in the world, our possession by God, our power over the forces around us, this is in striking contrast with the work and present power of Jesus Christ.
II THAT IN CHRIST WHICH IS IMITABLE BY US.
1. We are charged with a holy and benign mission; we are "anointed" to do a good if not a great work in the world. (see Joh_20:21) We are "sent" by our Lord to "bear witness unto the truth," both in word and deed; "to work and speak and think for him;" to "serve our generation by the will of God.
2. We are to be those in whom God dwells by his Spirit (see 1Co_3:16; 2Co_6:16; Eph_2:22)
3. We are to be possessed of spiritual power (Eph_3:16, 19 6:10; Col_1:11)
4. We are to be the sources and channels of blessing; we are to "go about doing good". (Heb_13:16) We may "do good" everywhere and always the smile of encouragement, the look of love, the sigh of sympathy, the touch of kindness, the word of truth, the act of integrity, every manifestation of the Spirit of Christ is "doing good." And all is to be done under the same condition. For:
5. We are to have the continual presence and sanction of our heavenly Father: "God was with him. C.
The great Philanthropist.
went about doing good." The true criterion by which Christianity must be tried is its adaptation to the world"s necessities. The text of Peter"s sermon was Jesus Christ. "We are witnesses" of what he was, what he did, how God testified his authority.
I THE WORLD"S GREAT WANT.
1. Deeds, not words. Failure of all mere human schemes of philanthropy.
2. A benevolence working from a spiritual basis. External reform insufficient.
3. Universality. "All the ends of the earth shall see this salvation.
4. A permanent motive to philanthropy. National, legislative, personal efforts apt to die out.
II THE WORLD"S GREAT RESOURCE.
1. Philanthropy springing out of religion. The deepest springs of humanity touched. The lowest and highest united together. Reverence for the weak a truly Christian sentiment; absent from all heathenism. Destroyed by science unless guarded by higher motive.
2. A Divine hope at the root of all effort. The kingdom of heaven was what Jesus proclaimed. Not relief merely, but restoration.
3. A perfect Example. The character of Christ acknowledged even by opponents to be unique. Its influence on his disciples inexhaustible. The method of Jesus a great guiding facthe went about doing good," not waiting for organization, or merely presiding over others, or sitting on an inaccessible throne of dignity, but doing the work by personal, individual ministration.
III THE TOUCHSTONE OF TRUTH.
1. Apply it to the claims of rival religions. "Doing good.
2. Apply it to the prevalent tendencies of modern society. Philosophical scepticism. Socialistic experiments. Rationalistic criticism. Lowering Christianity to a mere republication of morality.
3. Apply it to individuals. Are we treading in the footsteps of Jesus as he went about doing good? Is there an impelling motive, a generous self-sacrifice, a single-minded simplicity in us, like his? R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth.
Act_10:38
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth.
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The ministry of Jesus
I. Its nature and characteristics. It was--
1. Active--went. He did not sit passively and receive applicants: like many nowadays, who are either indolent, or think it sufficient to satisfy a claim when made, or else are afraid of encountering too many claims.
2. Incessant--about. Not to one place, but everywhere; not in the straight line of duty or circumstances, but in, out, and around. Much of modern charity is partial, and confines itself to deserving cases, or those who have superior claims on the ground of kindred, neighbourhood, nationality, etc.
3. Inquiring--went about. Jesus sought that He might save. Many of the objects of His compassion were those who lay outside the beaten track and had to be found.
4. Practical--doing, not simply speaking, although sympathetic words are helpful: but a little assistance is worth a good deal of pity.
5. Really beneficent--good. It is to be feared that much of so-called charity does more harm than good.
6. Victorious--healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Destruction has often to precede construction. The devil has to be vanquished before good can be done.
II. Its sanction. God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost.
1. This was fore-announced (Isa_61:1-3); and when the prophecy was so abundantly fulfilled nothing but the blindness of criminal unbelief could refuse to see it.
2. This was abundantly given to Christ and claimed by Him.
3. This demonstrated His Messiahship. He was the anointed--
(1) Prophet--to declare mans need. All need is not conscious. Men have to be convinced of the existence of their deepest requirements. How many are bound by the fetters of sin, and yet are senseless to their slavery.
(2) Priest--to provide for mans need. Through His mediatorial work Christ becomes the grand storehouse of Gods riches.
(3) King--to supply mans need. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. He is able to do exceeding abundantly. He received gifts for the rebellious.
III. Its power. Christ was anointed with power.
1. He was equal to every emergency. When the wine failed He turned the water into wine. Those whom physicians gave up as incurable He healed with a touch. When the disciples were in danger of perishing in the storm He rebuked the winds and the waves. When Lazarus was dead He recalled him to life. And all this without delay and without exertion.
2. His power was acknowledged by all: nature, men, devils.
IV. Its reward. God was with Him.
1. Encouraging.
2. Approving.
3. Rendering effectual. (J. W. Burn.)
Who went about doing good.--
The first philanthropist
Here, then, it is necessary to consider to whom St. Peter was addressing himself. Before him stood the centurion Cornelius, probably a few comrades, and certainly some Jews, who on an occasion like this would not have had the largest place in the apostles thought. The persons of whom St. Peter was chiefly thinking were Cornelius and the other soldiers present, above all Cornelius. The band to which Cornelius belonged consisted of Italian levies, and Cornelius, as his name shows, belonged to an old Roman family, and when St. Peter says that our Lord, during His earthly life, went about doing good, he knew perfectly well that such an account of that life would have appeared anything but tame, commonplace, inadequate, to those whom he was especially anxious to influence, because it was so sharply contrasted with anything that they had left behind them at home. For that great world in which Cornelius and his comrades had been reared must indeed have made the men and affairs of Palestine, generally speaking, seem by comparison petty enough--as we would say, provincial. Everything outward at Rome, the worlds centre, was on a splendid scale. The public buildings, the temples, the baths, the public shows, everything connected with the army, everything connected with the machinery and the apparatus of government, was calculated to impress, and even to awe the imagination. But there was one overshadowing defect, in that great world which would have come home with especial force to the minds of the class from which the rank and file of the Roman forces were chiefly recruited. It was a world without love. It was a world full of want and suffering, and the whole of the great social and political machine went round and round without taking any account of this. Commenting on this fact nearly three centuries later, Lactantius, after describing the salient features of heathen life, adds: Compassion and humanity are peculiar to the Christians. Now, isolated efforts to relieve suffering, gifts to the needy, liberality of the orators and the inscriptions, these largesses to the people, these public works, these costly entertainments, as Cornelius and his friends knew well, were not the outcome of love. They were forms of an expenditure which was essentially selfish. The main object of such expenditure was to secure that sort of popularity which means political power. It was repaid, if not in kind, yet substantially. The Roman people, under the system of imperial largesses and entertainments, increasingly hated work. It cared only for such ease and enjoyment as it could wring out of its rulers. It became utterly indifferent to everything in its rulers except their capacity and willingness to gratify itself. In order to do real good, the eye must rest not on what is prudent in, or on what is expected of the giver, but on what is needed in the recipient. And thus mere liberality, if active, is blindfold, while charity seeks out its objects with discrimination and sympathy; liberality has no eye for the really sore places in the suffering and destitute world. Nothing was done systematically in that world with which Cornelius and his friends were familiar for classes or for individuals who could make no return. There was no sort of care for widows or for orphans. And if here and there there were schools, like those under Severus, their main object, when we come to examine them closely, appears to have been to provide recruits for the Roman army. And all this was in harmony with principles laid down by the great teachers of the ancient world, such as Plato and Aristotle. In Platos ideal state the poor have no place, beggars are expelled or left to die, as injuring the common prosperity. In Aristotles account of the virtues, the most promising, from a Christian point of view, is generosity; but on examination, generosity turns out to be a prudential mean between avarice and extravagance. The generous man, we are told, gives because it is a fine thing to give, not from a sense of duty, still less at the dictates of love for his fellow creatures. It is no wonder that, when these were governing principles, there were few efforts in that old world, to which Cornelius had belonged, that deserved the name of doing good. When, then, Cornelius heard from St. Peter of such a life as that of our Lord, and had further, in all probability, asked and received answers to the questions which St. Peters description suggested, he would have listened to a narrative which had all the charm, all the freshness of a great surprise. Those poor lepers, and paralytics, and fever-stricken peasants, could make no return to their Benefactor, and He did not ask for any. And this, Cornelius would have observed, implied nothing short of a new ideal of life and work. The highest and greatest good which He did was done for the souls of men. To have done everything for mans bodily frame and leave his spiritual being untouched would have been a poor and worthless kind of doing good in the estimation of Jesus Christ. The lessons by which our Lord brought men to know and to love the Father and Himself, the pardon which He won for them on the Cross, the grace which He promised them after His Ascension, were His chiefest benefactions. But besides this He did abundant good in the physical, material, social sense. It has been said that Christ our Lord was the first Social Reformer. If by social reform be meant the doing away with all the inequalities between classes, or even the removal from human life of the permanent cause of a great deal of physical suffering, it cannot be said that this description of Him is accurate. He showed no wish whatever in any sort of way to interfere with the existing structure of society. He insisted on Caesars claims to tribute, He prescribed obedience to the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses seat. His real work was to point to truths and to a life which made the endurance of poverty and distress for a short time here so easy, as to be in the estimate of real disciples comparatively unimportant, but at the same time He relieved so much of it as would enable human beings to make a real step forward towards the true end of their existence. If our Lord was not, in the restricted modern sense, the first social reformer, He was undoubtedly, in the true and ample sense of the word, the first philanthropist. He loved man as man, He loved not one part but the whole of man, He loved man as none had ever loved him before or since, He died for the being whom He loved so well. And when our Lord had left the earth the spirit of His work became that of a Christian Church. It, too, after its measure, went about the world doing good. The New Testament guides us through the first stage of the subject. The wealthier Churches of Greece were directed to lay by small offerings every Sunday, so that when the apostle came by to fetch the collection the money might be ready for the poor Churches in Palestine. The poorer members of the Church were regularly supplied with food at the Agape or love feast.
Widows were especially provided for. It would be impossible here and now to notice the various activities of Christian work in the primitive times which followed the Apostolic age. Early in the third century, if not in the second, there were houses for the reception of poor widows; orphans were brought up at the expense of the Church by the bishop, or by some private person. Thus, for instance, after the martyrdom of Leonidas at Alexandria, his boy, who became the celebrated Origen, was brought up by a pious woman who lived in the city, and an excellent man, Severus, is named as having devoted himself in Palestine to the education of all children--they were a considerable number--whose parents were martyrs. In the middle of the third century the Roman empire was afflicted by a pestilence which, according to the historian Gibbon, destroyed not less than half the population. It broke out at Carthage while St. Cyprian was still alive. There was a general panic, all the heathen that could do so fled; they avoided contact with infected persons, they left their own relations to die alone. Corpses were lying unburied about the streets, and there were rogues who seized the opportunity of making horrible profits. Cyprian summoned the Christians to aid him in doing all that could be done. He was everywhere encouraging, advising, organising, helping the sick and dying with his own hands, and each man under him had, and knew that he had, his appointed task. Some of the Christians were anxious to confine their aid to their fellow believers, their feelings against the heathen had been irritated by a recent persecution, and they knew that another persecution was impending, but they received no countenance from their bishop. If, exclaimed St. Cyprian, in a sermon preached at this crisis, if we only do good to those who do good to us, what do we more than the heathen and the publicans? If we are the children of God, who makes His sun to shine upon the good and the bad, and sends His rain on the just and on the unjust, let us now prove it by our own acts, let us bless those who curse us. One class of persons who were especial objects of primitive Christian charity were those who were sent to work in the mines. They were almost naked; they had the scantiest supply of food; they were often treated with great cruelty by the inspectors of public works. We find from the letters of St. Cyprian these poor people were special objects of his attention; he regularly sent them supplies by the hands of a trusted sub-deacon; and he wrote to them continually, assuring them of his sympathy and his prayers. And another work of mercy in which the primitive Church especially interested itself was the improvement of the condition of the prisoners. The prisons in old Rome were crowded with persons of all descriptions--prisoners of war, especially after the barbarian inroads; prisoners for the non-payment of taxes and for debt--subjects on which the Roman law was very severe; prisoners for the various kinds of felony; and, when a persecution was going on, prisoners for the crime of being Christians. These unhappy people were huddled together, it is little to say, with no attention to the laws of health or to the decencies of life, and one of the earliest forms of Christian charity was to raise funds for the redemption of prisoners by payment as a specially Christian form of mercy. Cyprian raised large sums from his flock to purchase freedom for prisoners of war. It would be impossible within our limits to do any sort of justice to this vast subject--the manner in which the ancient Church of Christ carried on, both in the higher and the lower senses of the term, her Masters work of doing good. The most unshowing and unromantic methods of doing good may be the most acceptable. To work at a night school, to keep the accounts of a charity, to get up Sunday breakfasts for poor people, may mean more in the eyes of the Infinite Mercy than to dispose of immense charitable resources, or even to be a great teacher or ruler in the Church. The vital condition of doing good, whether it be spiritual or physical good, is that simple unity of purpose which springs from disinterestedness, and this can best be learned at His blessed feet, who remains the first and the greatest of philanthropists, since in life and in death He gave Himself for us, that whether we wake or sleep we might live together with Him. (Canon Liddon.)
The model life
He went about doing good--
I. Because He was God manifest in the flesh.
II. As the one great aim of His life. The painter or sculptor gives himself up to days and nights of arduous, patient labour, it may be for years, over some favourite piece of art; his soul is inspired, cheered, sustained by the motives which his own genius and the art which he worships supply. The philanthropist pursues his scheme for the amelioration of human misery with an intensity that brooks no delay, with an absorbing interest which robs him of his sleep by night, and fills all his waking thoughts by day. But what is all this devotion to an earthly object compared with the Divine intensity of Christ in the prosecution of His life works and that in the midst of perishing multitudes? His life work was not that of delineating the human form on the glowing canvas, or the breathing marble, but the work of bringing back a lost world to peace, of reproducing the Divine life and the Divine image in the soul of man--not a mere work of fancy, but of faith, not a mere display of genius, but of goodness, not the redressing of a wrong, or the lessening of human suffering, but nothing short of a new creation in the soul that was dark and dead, sunk in trespasses and sins.
III. With a constancy and devotion that never failed. Notwithstanding all the hostility that met Him, He continued with unabated ardour.
IV. To all WITHOUT exception. Like the stream that loves to linger amid its village homes, nestled amid the shadows of mountains, and the embowering foliage of ancestral trees, where there is little to disturb the even tenor of daily life, it was the special delight of our Lord to move amongst the homes of the poor and the lowly, and pour the riches of His grace around their humble dwellings. But like the rill that will not rest from the moment it bursts on its way, but travels onwards to the sea in ever widening course, and passes on through quiet villages and sweet homesteads till it becomes a great river, bearing on its bosom the mart of nations, the blessings of commerce, and making everything glad and beautiful where it flows, the stream of Divine goodness in the life of Jesus, beginning first in the mountain home at Nazareth, amid the village retreats of Galilee, went forth from that seclusion to carry its rich dower of blessings to villages, towns, and cities, and to pour its treasures at the feet of all classes and conditions of men. He was free to all, as the light of the sun, the air of heaven, the waters of the deep, broad river. His sympathies for man and all his concerns were strong, pure, enduring.
V. By His instructions, as well as by His works of healing. These miracles live in history as great, godlike facts, His words live in the heart, and by sanctifying the inner, bless and dignify the outer life.
VI. As an example to His followers in all time coming. (Alex. Wallace, D. D.)
The Christians encouragement to seek and do good
I. Illustrate the view of Christs character given in the text.
1. The kind of good which He dispensed.
2. The extent of good which He thus dispensed.
3. The great diligence which He exercised in doing good.
4. The spirit of compassion with which He did all this good.
5. The unwearied patience and perseverance with which He continued to do good.
II. Application:
1. You are thus instructed and encouraged to seek good from Christ.
2. You are thus instructed and engaged to do good as Christ did. The shortest description and the surest mark of every true Christian is this, to be a doer of good. (James Brewster.)
The life beneficent
There is in this Scripture furnished for life a test, an enterprise, a habit.
I. A test. Christ went about doing good. By precisely this question, whether your life is beneficent, are you to test your life.
1. Test your speech by it. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.
2. Test your amusements by it. Do they do you good in the way of recreating you for better toil; do they exert no harmful influence upon others?
3. Test your business by it. Is the general outcome of your business beneficent; and do you carry it on in beneficent fashion?
4. Test your use of time by this question. Are you putting your time to high and holy uses?
5. Test your position and culture thus: Are you the readier to serve the higher you get up?
II. There is here suggested an enterprise for life. Christ went about doing good. He personally did it--did not content Himself with doing good by proxy. Christ went after the chance of doing good; did not simply wait for the chance to come to Him.
III. There is suggested also here a habit for life. Christ was not intermittent in this matter. It was the habit of His life to go about doing good. Oh for Christians of such pithy pluck that they will habitually keep hold of duty! (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
The benevolent conduct of Jesus
I. The conduct of Jesus. He went about doing good.
1. Jesus did good to the bodies of men. He opened the eyes of the blind; He gave hearing to the deaf; and He raised the dead (Mat_11:5).
2. He did good to the souls of men. The ignorant were instructed y Him in the essential doctrines and duties of religion (Mat_5:1-2; Luk_19:47; Joh_8:2). He strengthened the weak and wavering, and comforted mourning penitents (Mat_5:4; Mat_11:28).
3. Our Lord went about doing good. He was an itinerant preacher. And to accomplish His merciful designs, He frequently visited large and populous places, and places of public resort.
4. The motives of our Lord in doing good were pure and perfect. He was moved by the transcendent goodness of His nature to acts of kindness.
5. Jesus persevered in doing good. It was His constant employment, and He was never weary of it.
6. In all the works, and in all the ways of our Saviour, His lovely temper and amiable conduct shone with resplendent glory. How unlike the renowned conquerors and tyrants of the world, whose glory has been acquired by blood and slaughter!
II. We should endeavour to imitate the conduct of Jesus.
1. That we may do so, let us study the character and conduct of our great Exemplar. To this end we should carefully read His public and private discourses, examine His temper, and weigh His conduct.
2. But those who copy after His blessed example, must have the mind which was in Him (Php_2:5).
3. Having acquired the mind of Jesus, let us endeavour to imitate His conduct. We cannot imitate His miracles; the attempt would be presumption; but we should endeavour to copy His benevolent actions.
4. Let us proceed in these works of love, as the Lord may enable us. More than this is not required; and less than this will not be accepted.
5. This conduct will please the Lord, who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all His works (Psa_145:9).
He blesses us that we may be a blessing (Gen_12:2).
1. In the world, and in the visible Church, we have many bad examples; but we must not follow a multitude to do evil (Exo_23:2).
2. There are a few in the Church who may be followed in some things; but whatever their excellencies are, we cannot safely follow them in all their ways.
3. But we have a perfect example in the conduct of our Saviour; and we are bound by the most sacred ties to walk in His steps (1Pe_2:21). (Theological Sketch book.)
Going about doting good
We have all heard of the celebrated Cook, the circumnavigator who went round the globe. Wherever Cook landed he was noticed by the boatmen to go up away from them a bit, and he was seen to take little packets out of his pockets and keep on going round, throwing them out of his hand and circulating them. He belted the whole world with English flowers. He took packets of our seeds, and at those places where he landed he took care to walk a little bit away and sow some of the seed where most likely it would grow. Hence other navigators have been surprised to find that English flowers were growing where they never could have dreamt of seeing them. That is how we ought to do--get some of the precious seed into your own soul, and carry it with you wherever you go. Have it with you on the trip to the seaside, or even to Switzerland, or have it when you stay at home. Always sow the seed of kindness and true happiness, above all the gospel of Jesus Christ, for in this you will be following Christ, of whom it is written, He went about doing good. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The ways of doing good
(childrens sermon):--When we hear of any great man we always want to know how he lived, and what he used to do--General Washington, e.g., Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Columbus, Alfred the Great, etc. But you may put all great men together, and, compared with Jesus, they are only like stars compared with the sun. Jesus went about doing good because He was so able to do it. He hadnt much money; for though He made the world, when He was here, He said, The foxes have holes, etc. But though He had no money to give away, He could do good in hundreds of other ways. Then, again, He went about doing good to show us how to live (1Pe_2:21). And this is what I wish to talk to you about, viz., four ways in which we should all try to do good.
I. By becoming christians ourselves. True Christians are the most useful people in the world. Many of our houses have iron rods running from above the top of the chimney down into the ground. Those lightning rods carry the lightning off and prevent it from doing any harm. And true Christians are like lightning rods. When God is angry with the wicked, He is often kept from punishing them on account of the good Christians who live among them. You see this in Abrahams prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah. You know how useful the light is. Well, Jesus said to His disciples, Ye are the light of the world. If we were travelling along a dangerous road, the light would show us the road, and how we might keep out of the pits. Now, this world is a road full of dangers. But true Christians see them and know how to avoid them. And if we would be lights in the world, showing people their danger and how they may escape, we must become true Christians. Here is a watch, a very useful thing. The inside is full of works, and in the midst is the mainspring: that makes the watch go and keep good time. But suppose the mainspring is broken, will it keep time? No. So I must take it to the watchmaker, and get a new mainspring. Now, our hearts are like a broken mainspring, and we must take our heart to Jesus, and ask Him to change it; to put a new mainspring in the broken watch of your soul. Then it will be ready to keep time, to do good.
II. By trying to make others christians. Suppose you were travelling through a desert with a company of friends. You have no water, and are almost perishing from thirst. You separate and go in different directions searching for water. Presently you find a spring. You kneel down and take nice long drink. And then of course at the top of your voice you would cry out--Come this way; where is water! And this is just the way we should feel when we become Christians. A little heathen girl was taken from New Zealand to England to be educated. She became a Christian. Before this she was so pleased with England that she didnt care about going back. But as soon as she learned to love Jesus, she said: Do you think I can keep the good news to myself? No; I want to go home and tell my friends there about Jesus. Some time ago an old man became a Christian, and asked himself how he could be doing good. He made out a list of his old associates, which contained one hundred and sixteen names. Some of these were the worst men in the town. He began to pray for these. He talked to them and gave them good books to read. Some refused to listen, and others made fun; but still he went on praying and working for them. And what was the result? Why, within two years, one hundred of them had become Christians too! That was doing good indeed! A Christian gentleman while travelling on a steamboat, distributed some tracts. Many read them carefully. But one gentleman took one of the tracks and doubled it up, and then cut it into little pieces and scattered them over the side of the boat. But one of the pieces stuck to his coat. He looked at it a moment before throwing it away, and found on one side only the word God, on the other the word Eternity. He threw it away; but these two solemn words--God and Eternity--he could not get rid of. They haunted him wherever he went, and he never had any comfort till he became a Christian.
III. By helping the sick and poor. Jesus was always especially ready to help the poor. He told His disciples that whenever they did a kindness to one of His poor He would consider it as done to Himself. And James tells us that true religion consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction. We find poor people everywhere, and children can do good in this way as well as grown-up people. Mary Parsons was a bright, happy little girl, because she was always trying to do good. One day a lady called in to see her mother. This lady had just been visiting a poor old woman eighty-six years old, who lived by herself in a dark, damp cellar. Mary listened with great interest while the lady was speaking, and then she said, Oh, mother, please let me carry her over some breakfast and dinner every day: we have so much left. Mary was so earnest about it that her mother said she might do it. No matter how anxious her little sisters were for Mary to play with them; no matter whether it was hot or cold, wet or dry, Mary never got tired. Sometimes she would read the Bible and sometimes take her dolls frocks and sit down by her side, and chat away merrily to amuse her. And the poor old woman speaking about her one day, her eyes filled with tears, said, Oh, she brings a ray of sunshine with her every time she comes, and it seems to brighten my dark room long after she is gone. God bless her! She is one of the dear lambs of Jesus, I am sure. Now Mary was only eight years old when she began to do this. Is there no poor old woman, or sick and hungry child, in your neighbourhood to whom you can take food from your table that would not be missed?
IV. By being kind to all. Jesus was all the time speaking kind words and doing kind things. Read what He said to the widow of Nain, and what He did for her. Two ragged barefooted boys were going along one of the streets of New York. One was perfectly happy over a half-withered bunch of flowers which he had just picked up. I say, Billy, said he, wasnt somebody real good to drop these ere posies just where I could find them--and theyre so pooty and nice? Look sharp, Billy, mebby youll find something bime-by. Presently the boy exclaimed, Oh jolly, Billy, if here aint most half a peach, and taint mush dirty neither. Cause you haint found nothin you may bite first. Billy was just going to take a very little taste of it, when his companion said, Bite bigger, Billy, mebby well find another fore long. What a noble heart that poor boy had in spite of his rags and dirt! He was doing good in the fourth way that we are speaking of. (R. Newton, D. D.)
The example of Jesus in doing good
I. His great work and business in the world was to do good. What He did, and we in imitation of Him ought to do, I shall reduce to two heads.
1. Doing good to the souls of men, and endeavouring to promote their spiritual and eternal happiness.
(1) By good instruction. And under instruction I comprehend all the means of bringing men to the knowledge of their duty, and exciting them to the practice of it; by instructing their ignorance, and removing their prejudices, and rectifying their mistakes, by persuasion and by reproof; and by making lasting provision for the promoting of these ends.
(2) By good example. And this our blessed Saviour was in the utmost perfection. And this we should endeavour to be. For good example hath a secret influence upon those with whom we converse, to form them into the same disposition and manners. It is a living rule that teacheth men without trouble, and lets them see their faults without open reproof. Besides that, it adds great weight to a mans persuasion, when we see that he advises nothing but what he does, nor exacts anything from which he himself desires to be excused. As, on the contrary, nothing is more insignificant than good counsel from one that does not follow the advice which he is so forward to give to others.
2. Procuring their temporal good, and contributing to their happiness in this present life. And this was a great part of Christs business in this world. And though we cannot be beneficial to men in the miraculous manner that He was, yet we may be so in the use of ordinary means; we may comfort the afflicted, and vindicate the oppressed, and do a great many acts of charity which our Saviour, by reason of His poverty, could not do without a miracle; we may take a poor child and bring him up in the knowledge and fear of God, and put him into a way wherein, by his industry, he may make a fortune, and be able to relieve hundreds of others. Men glory in raising magnificent structures, and find a secret pleasure to see sets of their own planting to grow up and flourish; but surely it is a greater and more glorious work to build up a man, to see a youth of our own planting take root in the world, and to shoot up and spread his branches so that we, who first planted him, may ourselves find comfort under his shadow. And those who are in the lowest condition may do great good to others by their prayers. For the fervent prayer of righteous man availeth much.
II. His diligence in this work. This will fully appear if we consider--
1. How unwearied He was. He was not only ready to do good to those that gave Him opportunity, and besought Him to do it, but went Himself to seek out objects.
2. How self-denying He was. He neglected the ordinary refreshments of nature, that He might attend this work. He was at everybodys beck and disposal. Nay, He was willing to deny Himself in one of the dearest things in the world--His reputation and good name.
3. Consider the malicious opposition and sinister construction that His good deeds met with. For His casting out of devils, He was called a magician; for His endeavour to reclaim men from their vices, a friend of publicans and sinners; for His free and obliging conversation, a wine bibber and a glutton.
4. How cheerfully, notwithstanding all this, He persevered! It was not only His business, but His delight; I delight (says He) to do Thy will, O My God.
Conclusion: The subject will be of excellent use.
1. To show us our defects. How does this blessed example upbraid those who, instead of going about doing good, are perpetually intent upon doing mischief? And those likewise who, though they are far from being so bad, yet wholly neglect this blessed work of doing good? And this too under a pretence of being employed about other duties, They are so taken up with prayer, and reading and hearing sermons, and sacraments, that they have scarce any leisure to mind the doing of charitable offices. Others spend all their zeal about some controversies in religion; and therefore think it but reasonable that they should be excused from those meaner kind of duties, as those who serve the king in his wars used to be exempted from taxes. But pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.
2. To persuade us to the imitation of this blessed example. Let us go and do likewise. The work itself is such that men should not need to be courted nor urged to it. But dwell upon these considerations.
(1) It shows an inclination and desire to have others happy as well as ourselves. Those who are of a mean and sordid disposition love to contract themselves within themselves, and like the hedgehog, to shoot out their quills at everyone who comes near them. But the noblest and most heavenly dispositions think themselves happiest when others share with them in their happiness.
(2) It is the most pleasant employment in the world. This Cato boasts of, as the great comfort of his old age--that nothing was more pleasant than the conscience of a well-spent life, and the remembrance of many kindnesses done to others. Sensual pleasures are not lasting, and leave a sting behind them. But the pleasure of doing good remains, and the reflection upon it afterwards does forever minister joy.
(3) It is to imitate the highest excellency and perfection; it is to be like God, who is good and doth good, and to be like Him in that which He esteems His greatest glory, and that is, His goodness.
(4) It is one of the greatest and most substantial duties of religion; and, next to the love and honour which we pay to God Himself, the most acceptable service that we can perform to Him. It is one half of the law, and next to the first and great command, and very like unto it: in the excellency of its nature, and in the necessity of its obligation.
(5) It will give us the greatest comfort when we come to die.
(6) It is attended with the greatest consideration I shall offer to you--which is reward both in this world and the other. (Abp. Tillotson.)
The example of Christ
I. Look at the life of our Lord as here described.
1. That life was very short, three and a half years at most; but it was long in point of action; it was filled up with works which will stand forever. No one ever made such a mark on the earth as our Lord.
2. Here is one of the great notes that no infidel can explain--Who Christ was, whence Christ came, why Christ did what He did, and left the mark upon the world that He certainly left. Had He money wherewith to bribe the world and make men follow Him? He was poor in every way. Had He power to turn men to follow Him as Mahomet had? His followers were a few publicans and fishermen. Whence, then, the power that Christ had? How account for the effect that He produced on the world? There is no accounting for it all, but on the Christian theory that Christ was God manifest in the flesh.
3. When we look on the life of our Lord, how unlike it is to the conquerors who have shaken the world! Run your mind over the long list--Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, etc. What mark their victories? Death, wounds, poverty, sorrow, ruin. Then turn to the life of that King of kings, and Lord of lords. See the amazing contrast. He brought life and immortality to light; He opened up to men hopes for the present and for the future; the way of peace between God and men. He did good--
(1) To bodies. No disease was too loathsome for Him to show kindness to.
(2) By His words. Think how they have travelled through the world for eighteen hundred years, and wherever they have gone, they have been the comfort and peace of those who have received them. Think how a text, dormant it may be for many long years, has revived when the time of trial and sickness comes.
(3) Continually. Wherever He went He brought blessing with Him.
(4) By His witness against sins and superstitions of the generation among which He lived.
(5) By His patience. When He was reviled, He reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not.
4. Learn here--
(1) The wickedness of human nature. Think for a moment how this wonderful Person was treated.
(2) What constitutes greatness in the sight of God. He is the good man, not who had the highest title and greatest position, and the largest amount to pay for income tax, but he who does the greatest amount of good. Our Lord says, He that will be great among you, let him be as your minister.
II. The duty of christians to follow his example.
1. I doubt whether that is as much looked at as it should be. We seldom look at more than one thing at a time, for men are so occupied. When they first feel their sins they think only of Christ as a Saviour, and they are apt to forget that He is our Pattern and Example. Yet Christ and the apostles ever insisted upon it. We ought to ask ourselves continually, Is there anything of Christ ever seen in my tempers, efforts, conduct, home, business? Am I walking in Jesus Christs steps? Am I, like Him, endeavouring to do good?
2. You and I were never meant to be idle, nor to be always trying to get good for ourselves. Many, however, run from place to place; hear sermon after sermon, are always thinking of getting; but we are not meant to be always receiving; we are meant to be doing for Christ and for Christs cause.
3. Men may say, What can I do? There is always something that everyone can do. There is no one who has not some influence upon some one or other. If you have a single grain of influence throw it into the scale of good, and not into the scale of evil. Parents can do good to their children; masters and mistresses to their servants.
4. To labour for this does ourselves good. Little by little we find graces grow in proportion as we try to exercise them. And it helps forward the cause of Christ in the world. The eyes of many are upon you, and if the watching, envious world sees you a mere idle Christian, thinking only of your own enjoyment, but never trying to do good, the world will think little of your religion. But when they see you walk in the steps of the Saviour, striving to make all around you happy, it sets the world thinking. There is no book or set of lectures, which ever does so much good to sceptics as a Christ-like life.
5. This was the way of the old Christians; their ways and manners made the heathen think. This was the conduct of the followers of old John Wesley. It was part of that wonderful mans first principle to impress the necessity Of doing good. Now, then, what are you going to do? We do not want any drones in our hive; we want everyone that becomes a member of our body to do something for the glory of God, for the benefit of man. (Bp. Ryle.)
Christ our Example
We ought to follow Christ in taking all opportunities of doing good.
I. What are the good works we should do in imitation of Christ?
1. Works of piety.
(1) Internal (Joh_4:24).
(a) Love (Mat_22:37).
(b) Fear (Pro_23:17).
(c) Faith.
(d) Trust (Pro_3:5).
(e) Submission (Luk_22:42).
(2) External; as praying, hearing, etc.
2. Works of equity (Mic_6:8).
(1) Distributive (Rom_13:7; Mat_17:27).
(2) Communicative (Pro_3:27-28; 1Th_4:6).
3. Works of charity (1Ti_6:17-18).
(1) To pity others in misery (Mat_15:32; Mat_20:34).
(2) To pray for their felicity (Luk_23:34).
(3) To supply their necessities (Mat_20:34). Consider--
(a) Without this there is no true religion (Jam_1:27).
(b) By it we imitate God (Luk_6:36).
(c) Whatsoever we have more than is necessary is given for this end.
(d) God, notwithstanding, will repay it (Pro_19:17).
II. What things are necessary for our imitation of Christ in doing good?
1. Exerting the utmost of our power in doing it (Ecc_9:10).
2. Managing all the circumstances aright.
3. Doing it constantly (Luk_1:74-75).
(1) Negative.
(a) Not for the applause of men (Mat_6:1).
(b) Nor to merit anything from God (Luk_18:10).
(2) Positive.
(a) Subordinately for our own safety (1Co_9:24; 1Co_9:27).
(b) Ultimately for Gods glory (1Co_10:31).
III. In what sense are we always to be doing good.
1. So as never to do evil (1Pe_2:22; 1Jn_3:5).
2. So as always to be designing good.
3. So as to embrace all opportunities for doing good (Joh_4:7-8; Joh_6:25).
IV. Why should we be always doing good?
1. We are commanded (Luk_1:74-75; Psa_34:13).
2. We are always receiving good.
3. Our beings were first given, and are now continued to us, that we might always be doing good (Isa_1:2-4).
4. When we are not doing good we are doing evil (Psa_37:27). (Bp. Beveridge.)
Our great example
Who went about doing good.
1. Such was the recollection of one who was amongst the nearest and dearest companions of Jesus. Peter had in recollection the aims and habit not of one day, but of every day.
2. We are living in times when many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased. All classes are restless; the facilities of travelling are inducements to that restlessness. We do not grudge what science has done to annihilate distance and make moving to and fro easy.
3. But here, as elsewhere, are dangers. Facilities for evil may be made out of what God intended only to be facilities for good. Some people, says Pascal, wish to move about the more, only that they may just talk the more. For the mere pleasure of seeing, without the pleasure of telling, would have little force upon many. Let us remember, in these days, when so many of us are about to part company for awhile in the excursions of the summer, that we have a Christian rule to walk by in all our journey--a rule which has its example in Jesus, who went about doing good.
4. The text describes what was the very law of the Redeemers nature. He was shown to be the Son of the living God in the active, unwearied beneficence of His life. Gods providence over this world is active. It is not beneath the dignity of the Almighty to regulate particular events. And the history of Divine interference and legislation is told in these words--He went about doing good. The active beneficence of the Divine Being is concealed from our eyes behind the curtain of matter; but is exhibited to us in the person of Jesus. And I may go a step further. If active benevolence was a necessary feature in the perfect character of Jesus, because of His relationship to His Father, so active beneficence should be a necessary feature in the real Christian, because of his relationship with Christ. And now think a little of His sphere of active benevolence. It took in the whole range of human distress. And His ministrations of mercy were equally to the evil and the good. And the labour was incessant too. His very rest was devoted to the relief of spiritual and bodily want. And yet the humanity of Jesus wanted calm recreations, still retirement, just as yours and mine does. Note, too, another circumstance. We are all ready to be beneficent when we are sustained by large sights, and great occasions; but how was it with our Divine Master? The isolated case, which no eye saw but His own, His mind and heart were as much absorbed in it as if the appeal of a multitude was before Him. Amongst the poorer sort He was always found comforting, healing, feeding, teaching.
5. That we may be Christlike in active beneficence, we must seek more of that faith which works by love, and is careful to maintain good works. This is the only principle of Christian obedience. Having faith in Him, let us adopt Him as our example. Let each one, then, ask himself, Am I living for myself or for my Saviour? Does my faith show itself in works of active beneficence? All have some talent. Only one thing is wanted--unselfish love. If you are converted, you can go and tell others what conversion is. If you pray, you can go and tell others what prayer is. If you have a sick neighbour, you can visit him. You could take a class in the Sunday school; or fill up one of the many chasms in the District Visiting Society. And, my poorer brethren, because you are no scholars, do not think that you cannot imitate your Master, and go about doing good. You may speak a word in season to your poor neighbours, and you may shine as a light in the world. (C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.)
The Saviours active benevolence
He went about doing good--
I. By His miracles, which not only compelled attention to His instructions, and demanded assent to His claim of being Divinely sent, but were all deeds of mercy. Not one of them was a useless or vengeful display of power. His first miracle contributed to the social enjoyment of a festive occasion; and His last was the healing of a man whom one of His own disciples had wounded. Objection has, indeed, been made to two of our Lords miracles on the ground that they were not of a merciful and useful character. One is that by which the demons were sent into the herd of swine. Here, it is said, an injury was inflicted on the owners. But it may be answered that the first and main object was merciful--the restoration of the lunatics to their right mind. Secondly, the injury inflicted was not done revengefully, but punitively. To keep swine was contrary to the Jewish law. The other miracle is the withering of the barren fig tree. But the tree probably stood in the highway, and was therefore no ones property; and on the other hand, the occurrence, was one of great profit to the disciples.
II. By His instructions. In an age when the art of printing was unknown, and when manuscripts could come into the hands of but few, the oral mode of communicating knowledge was the only way in which instruction could reach the multitude. How indefatigably Jesus went about, teaching in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. That His teaching was altogether good His recorded precepts are abundant proof. If He stirred up the people, it was with admiring wonder to hear the words of grace and truth which He spake; it was to repentance and holiness, to faith and obedience, to love and piety.
III. By his example. His conduct was a clear and holy commentary on His words. His life transcended, if possible, His instructions; because it is so much more difficult and rare to live unexceptionably than to instruct wisely. His character was tried in many scenes and under diverse circumstances; and in all appeared pure, like gold tried seven times in the fire. And they who know the power of example, and the efficacy which practice gives to preaching, and the great part which being good is of doing good, will perceive that our Saviours example is an inseparable portion of His benevolence. Conclusion: If the benevolence of His miracles did not make its due impression on the Jews, let us not be likewise insensible to that mark of their truth and divinity. If but few of them were converted by His doctrine, let not us also blindly refuse the proffered light and salvation. If they were not affected by the bright consistency of His example, let us give it more attentive heed ourselves, and transfer it with more exactness to our own conduct. (F. W. P. Greenwood.)
The Life of Christ
Here is the life of our Lord comprehended in a single sentence. Note--
I. The business which our Lord followed. As all ordinary men have their callings, so our Lord had His. It was none of those occupations by which the gains of this world are acquired; it was the holy business of doing good. One part of this was the doing good--
1. To mens bodies. And what a list might be enumerated of His benefactions! How many blind eyes were opened, etc. None applied to Him in vain. None were sent from Him unrelieved.
2. To mens souls.
(1) By His holy ministrations. What a preacher of righteousness was He, and in what a variety of ways did He address the hearts of men!
(2) By His death. Our case was such as all the preaching in the world could not have rectified. We were dying sinners. We wanted a salvation to be wrought for us; and the only way of doing us effectual good was to provide us one. So Christ crowned all His other acts of goodness by the goodness of His Cross.
II. The way in which He carried on His business. He went about. Just as the trader goes about with his wares, and is unwearied in pursuit of gain, so Jesus went about upon the business of blessing man. The great enemy goeth about seeking whom he may devour, and the Great Friend went about seeking whom He might do good to; and literally, for whithersoever the blessed Jesus travelled, He was a traveller on foot. I know not a more striking illustration of our text than is contained in Mat_9:1-38, which contains the story of a day spent by Him.
III. What improvement can we make of the text? Let me ask you--
1. Do you want to have good done to you? If so, behold your Benefactor! He that went about doing good when upon earth, is now as ready to do good to you from heaven.
2. Are you copying His character? Jesus is set forth not as the Saviour only of His people but their Pattern. We may do good--
(1) By our examples.
(2) By our exertions; watching for opportunities of usefulness, and endeavouring to be a help and a comfort, both in spirituals and temporals, to all about us and around us. (A. Roberts, M. A.)
The matchless life
Christ went about, not like a Pharisee, to make a show; not like the Romans, to parade military prowess; not like the Greeks, to display worldly wit and wisdom; but to do good to the bodies and souls of men. During the great work of creation, God, in each step, pronounced it very good; and when God entered upon the work of human redemption He did good, and at its close He exclaimed, with perfect satisfaction, It is finished. He did not go about getting good, or becoming good, but dispensing good. He did good because He was good. By laying emphasis upon each of the five words before us, we shall see their beauty and feel their power.
I. The life of Christ was full of benevolent effort--who went about doing good. How different this from what it might have been! He might have performed miracles of vengeance, as Moses did; He might have come as a judge, to condemn. He remembered mercy, He dealt not with men after their sins. He did good to all, at all times and under all circumstances. His goodness was pure, unmerited, and free. He went about, not to get to Himself a name, not to climb to positions of worldly influence and power, nor to serve His own ends, but to show by His own example the beauty and blessedness of His precept, It is more blessed to give than to receive. The benevolent acts He performed for the bodies of men were symbols and types of what He would do for their souls. In His gospel Jesus still goes about doing good, for Christianity is philanthropic in its spirit.
II. Practical effort--doing. He was no dreamy, sentimental philanthropist, imagining Utopian plans, nor did He spend His life in pronouncing eulogiums upon goodness, and in endeavouring to stimulate others in that direction. He became, not the president or secretary of a society to do good, but He went about doing the good Himself. Societies are good, but they must never supersede individual effort. Christ did good with His own hands--earnestly, heartily, personally, perpetually; not by proxy, but enjoyed the luxury of being His own almoner. What an example for us to go and do likewise!
III. Extensive effort--about. Not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Galilee. His miracles were not performed among a select company, but out and about among all sorts and conditions of men, in secular as well as in sacred places. What an example for the Christian Church; His followers are to begin at Jerusalem, but they are to go out also into all the world. The blessings of Christianity are not to be kept within select limits, or enjoyed by one class. The catholicity of the benevolence of Christ should lead us to regard every living man as our neighbour.
IV. Willing effort--went. God sent His Son, but it is equally true that Jesus Christ came. It was from no compulsion, but from choice. It is interesting to notice how many of the benevolent acts He performed for men were done unsolicited. He went to those who could not and to those who would not come to Him, that they might be blessed.
V. Personal effort--who. When we remember the Deity of Christ, we see that it was the great Creator going about and doing good to His creatures; the Lord of life and glory condescending to attend personally to the wants and woes of fallen men. He might have sent angels, who would gladly have gone about upon so merciful a mission; but He came Himself. (F. W. Brown.)
The model home mission and the model home missionary
Our Lords ministry was a home mission. I am not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Afterwards there sprang out of His home work the foreign mission, when they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel. And herein we see His wisdom, for it will be of little avail to attempt much abroad unless there be a solid basis at home, in an earnest sanctified Church, affording a fulcrum for our lever. When England is converted, then shall she become the great herald of Christs gospel to other lands. We have before us--
I. A model home mission.
1. Christ selected as His great instrument the preaching of the gospel. He would have His followers depend upon the same agency. Other godly efforts are not to be neglected; but first and foremost it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
2. In connection with His preaching we find the Master forming a seminary for the training of ministers. After He had called Peter and John, and others, He at first admitted them, as it were, into His evening classes; for they pursued their ordinary business, and came to Him at fitting seasons for instruction. But after awhile they separated themselves from all the pursuits of business, and were continually with their great Teacher. They learned how to preach as they marked how He preached. He even taught them to pray. Now this has been too much forgotten. When Calvin and Luther exerted an influence over Europe, it was not only through their preaching or writings, but through the young men who swarmed at Wirtemburg and Geneva to listen to the great Reformers teaching, and then afterwards went forth to tell abroad what they had learned.
3. The Master also connected with His preaching and His college the invaluable agency of Bible classes; indeed, the whole machinery of a Church can be found in embryo in the doings of Christ. He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. If any home mission would see its work established, the converts must be trained in the knowledge of the Word.
4. Our Lords mission work did not overlook the children. Our Sunday school work is not only justified, but even enforced, by Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven; and also by His saying to Peter, Feed My lambs.
5. Of late there has been frequently used by evangelists the plan of free teas, breakfasts, and dinners, at which the poorest persons are affectionately exhorted to seek salvation. It is remarkable that this method has been so long disused, because it is, with a small difference, a plan adopted by our Lord. Though many, no doubt, followed Him because they did eat of the loaves and fishes, yet I do not doubt that some who were first attracted by the earthly food remained to eat of the bread of heaven.
6. A mission would also find great strength in imitating Jesus by combining medical aid with religious teaching. Our Lord was a medical missionary. True, we cannot work miracles, but we may do what is within human reach in the way of healing, and so we may follow our Lord, not with equal footsteps, but in the same track. I pray for a closer connection between the surgeon and the Saviour. May there be many who, like Luke, are both physicians and evangelists.
7. Our Lord also associated with His mission work the distribution of alms. A poor man was found in the street one Sunday morning as he was about to commit suicide. Two of our brethren met him, and led him to this Tabernacle, but first they took him to a coffee shop. I had a far more likely hearer in the man whose hunger was relieved than I could have had in the poor famishing sinner. Then, after the sermon, they gave him a good dinner, and so detained him till they brought him here again in the evening, and God was pleased to bless the Word to him.
8. Our Masters mission was carried on very largely through open-air preaching. All over England there are tens of thousands who never will hear the gospel while open-air preaching is neglected. It is altogether a mischievous thing that we should confine our preaching within walls.
9. Our Lord also set an example to home missionaries, in that He had pity on the villages. Small villages are often thought to be too insignificant for the founding of churches in them. But the villages help to make the large towns, and the character of London depends upon the character of village homes.
10. At the same time the Master also gave much attention to the towns.
II. The model home missionary. The success of a work depends very little upon the system; almost everything rests, under God, upon the man. There have been men who, with systems unwise and imperfect, have accomplished noble results, while others with admirable organisations have done nothing.
1. The man who is to serve God as a leading missionary must be a man of teaching power and of personal influence. It is of no use to send out a man who cannot speak. If you want a man to spread the gospel he must be one who can preach. Our Lord had this grand capacity in the highest degree.
2. Our Lord as a missionary fraternised with the people. How many of us, if we had seen a poor harlot coming to the well, would have remained purposely to converse with her? He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, but He was the friend of publicans and sinners. And we must be one with those whom we would bless; we must not be ashamed to call them brethren.
3. Our Lord was a man who could toil. He never preached a sermon without weaving His soul into it. His life was a scene of unrivalled labour. Now, if the Church would see souls saved, the work will never be achieved by agents who are half asleep.
4. For a home missionary we want a man who can pray as the Master prayed. He was as great with God in prayer as He was with man in preaching. If we prevail with God for men, we shall prevail with men for God.
5. And if we are to secure useful men and women we must choose those who can weep. I do not covet that moistness of the eye which is the result of effeminacy, but manly weeping is a mighty thing. Our Lord, when He beheld the city, could not restrain the water floods, His great soul ran over at His eyes. If He had not been a man who could weep Himself, He could not have made others weep.
6. To crown all, our Lord knew how to die! Love of life must yield to love of souls. Christ revealed the great secret when it was said of Him, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. In proportion as a man saves himself he cannot save others.
III. Let us hear His call and imitate Him.
1. It is your privilege to be a worker together with God, therefore keep close to the footsteps of the great Master worker.
2. Remember that before He went to work He was Himself personally obedient to that gospel which He had to preach. He did not bid others believe and be baptized, and neglect to be baptized Himself.
3. This being done, let me say to you, Is there not some department of mission work at home that you could undertake? Most probably you could not do all those things which I have mentioned as having been done by Christ, but you know that young artists will often be instructed by their masters to sketch, not the whole of a great statue, but one single limb, an arm, a hand, or a foot. Just so it shall be enough to teach you service if, being unable to attempt the whole of the great scheme, you will undertake zealously to labour in one department of it.
4. But whatever you do, do it thoroughly, do it heartily.
5. Take one word which is often used by Mark as a motto for yourselves. Mark is always saying of Christ that straightway He did so and so. Now, if you have work for Christ before your eye, straightway hasten to do it. Do something tonight before you go to bed, if it be only the giving away of a tract.
6. There is an all-sufficient power which you may obtain for this service. Our Lord is declared in this very verse to be one who was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. That same Holy Ghost is given to the Church, and that same power lingers in the assemblies of the faithful. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The great Itinerant
The text is an exquisite miniature of Christ. There are not many touches, but they are the strokes of a masters pencil. The portrait cannot be mistaken for anyone else. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon went about destroying. Prophets who professed to have been sent of God have compassed sea and land to make proselytes, but the good which they accomplished none could see. What Peter here draws in words, Gods grace drew, in some measure, in lines of real life in the case of Howard and some other followers of Jesus; still, in the highest and fullest sense, these words are applicable to none but the Master. His is the model, and theirs the humble copy. He did good, and good only: but the best of men, being men at the best, sow mingled seed.
I. Consider him.
1. His object. He went about, but His travel was no listless motion, no purposeless wandering. O man of God, have a purpose, and devote thy whole life to it! Be not an arrow shot at random, but choose thy target. Christs object was doing good: This was--
(1) His eternal purpose. Long before man was formed Jesus was set upon doing good. He did good among the angels, for the heavenly harps owe all their music to His presence. Among the devils there was no room for positive good; but even there restraining goodness bound them down in iron bands, lest their mischief should grow too rampant. On earth, however, was the widest scope for goodness in its largest sense; for that goodness which descends to sin-stricken mortals, to set them upon the throne of glory.
(2) His practical object. His presence in the manger did good, as it cheered both rich magi and poor shepherd with the knowledge that God had come down to men. His childhood did good, for it has become the mirror of childhoods obedience to this day. Ye know how His after life was one practical carrying out of this solitary object.
(3) His official prerogative. He received the name of Jesus, For He shall save His people from their sins. He was named Christ, because the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, etc. Mention any name you please, and you will see that it is incumbent upon Him, ex officio, to go about doing good. Shepherd, Husband, Friend, Lion, Lamb.
(4) His actual performance. He did good in all senses--physically and spiritually.
2. His mode.
(1) He went about. Personally. He might have sent out His apostles to do good in His stead; but when He sent them out, it was not as proxies, but as heralds, whither He Himself would come. The evangelists constantly tell us that He touched the leper with His own finger, that He visited the bedside of the sick, etc. I would that much more of benevolence were performed by men themselves. Why should you not go and give away your guinea lovingly and tenderly? It will be better than letting somebody else pare it down to fifteen shillings, and giving it away coldly and officially. So much depends upon the way of doing good. The look, the word, the prayer, the tear, will often be more valuable to the widow than that half-crown which you have given her. The Saviours very presence did good, apart from the blessings which He bestowed.
(2) He went about with incessant activity. He did not only the good which was round about Him, which was brought to Him, but He went about. He could not be satisfied to be still. Scarcely a village or a hamlet which had not been gladdened by the sight of Him. Oh! the creeping, crawling manner in which some people serve the Lord!
(3) He went out of His way to do good. You must not be content to do good in the regular circle of your movements. Break through the bounds of propriety every now and then, and do an odd thing. That was a quaint expedient of those who brake up the roof to let down a palsied man that Jesus might heal him.
(4) He went far in doing good. The district of Palestine was not very large, but He went to the limit of it. He was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But He went to the verge of it. And I admire the Lords going about not simply for the miles He travelled, but for the space of character over which He passed. It is nothing wonderful that He went as far as Tyre and Sidon, but it is much that He went as far as publicans and sinners. A minister once announced to his congregation, I am going on a mission to the heathen. The good people thought their minister was going to leave them, and felt sad at the bare idea of losing him. But, he added, I shall not be out of town. If you want men who have gone far in sin, great foreigners in that respect, you need not leave London.
(5) No doubt Christs perseverance is intended, for when rejected in one place, He goes to another.
(6) The unity of His purpose is also hinted at. He does not go about with two aims.
(7) And the success is here intended. He went about, and not only tried to do good, but He did it.
3. His motive.
(1) He did good partly because He could not help it. It was His nature to do good. All the good things which God has made are diffusive. There is light; the clouds; air; fire.
(2) His grand motive no doubt is the display of the Divine attributes. He is the manifestation of Godhead. Poor troubled sinner, cannot He glorify God in you? You need pardon: you will be an illustrious instance of Gods grace if He should ever save you.
II. Consider ourselves.
1. As to the past. There are some in all callings who either do positive harm, or at any rate cannot imagine that they are doing any good. Let them repent themselves. But you who are saved, have you done all the good you could?
2. As to the future. The old question comes up, if any man says today, I am resolved to go about doing good--is he able to do it? And again, the reply comes, we must first be good, or else we cannot do good. The only way to be good is to seek to the good Master. Then whatsoever our hand findeth to do, let us do it. Let us not ask for greater abilities. If we can get them let us do so; but meanwhile let us use what we have. Go, thou housewife, to thy house, and from the lowest chamber to the top go thou about doing good. Go, thou teacher, to thy little school, and let thine example tell, and there is range enough for thee. You domestic servants, the kitchen is sphere enough for you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seeking to do good in little ways
Mr. Harvey was riding slowly along the dusty road, looking in all directions for a stream, or even a house where he might refresh his tired and thirsty horse with a good draught of water. While he was thinking and wondering, he turned an abrupt bend in the road, and saw before him a comfortable-looking farmhouse, and at the same time a boy ten or twelve years old came out into the road with a small pail, and stood directly before him. What do you wish, my boy, said Mr. Harvey, stopping his horse. Would your horse like a drink? said the boy, respectfully. Indeed he would, and I was wondering where I could obtain it. Mr. Harvey thought little of it, supposing, of course, the boy earned a few pennies in this manner, and therefore he offered him a bit of silver, and was astonished to see him refuse it. I would like you to take it, be said, looking earnestly at the child, and observing for the first time that he limped slightly. Indeed, sir, I dont want it. It is little enough I can do for myself or anyone; I am lame, and my back is bad, sir, and mother says, no matter how small a favour may seem, if it is all we are capable of, God loves it as much as He does any favour; and this is the most I can do for others. You see, sir, the distance from Painesville is eight miles to this spot, and I happen to know there is no stream crossing the road that distance, and the houses are all some distance from the road, and so, sir, almost everyone passing here from that place is sure to have a thirsty horse. Mr. Harvey looked down into the grey eyes that were kindling and glowing with the thought of doing good to others, and a moisture gathered in his own, as a moment later he jogged off, pondering deeply upon the quaint little sermon that had been delivered so innocently and unexpectedly. (Christian Age.)
The blessedness of doing good
A Piedmontese nobleman, whom I met at Turin, had not long before experienced its efficacy; and his story, which he told me without reserve, was as follows: I was weary of life, and, after a day such as few have known, and none would wish to remember, was hurrying along the street to the river, when I felt a sudden check. I turned and beheld a little boy, who had caught the skirt of my cloak in his anxiety to solicit my notice. His look and manner were irresistible; not less so was the lesson he had learned. There are six of us, and we are dying for want of food. Why should I not, said I to myself, relieve this wretched family? I have the means, and it will not delay me many minutes. But what if it does? The scene of misery he conducted me to I cannot describe. I threw them my purse, and their burst of gratitude overcame me; it filled my eyes--it went as a cordial to my heart. I will call again tomorrow! I cried. Fool that I was to think of leaving a world where such pleasure was to be had, and so cheaply! May many a reader of these lines find in the true romance of London a relief for all hypochondriacal and dyspeptic sorrows. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Doing good as a remedy for seal depression
Richard Cecil went to preach at Bedford Road Chapel, London, and one day a person came up to him about a certain lady, a great professor of religion. He represented that she was quite out of spirits, unhappy and miserable, and that Mr. Cecil ought to go and try and do her some good. He went to the lady and found her sitting by the fire, with her feet on the fender and looking very miserable, with a great shawl on her back, while the sun was shining in at the window. She asked Mr. Cecil to sit down; but he said, I will not sit down; I know what is the matter. Get up, put on your bonnet, and go out and try and do some good. Within a few hundred yards of this very house there are people dying, and persons that want help. Go out and do something, and try and do good in the world. She took his advice, and went out and tried to do some good, and when he called on her two or three weeks after, he found her quite an altered person. Her voice was altered, she looked cheerful and happy, and her low spirits were all gone. She said, Oh, Mr. Cecil, you could not have done me a greater favour than ask me to try and do some good. (Bp. Ryle.)
Doing good
It is said of a certain New England Congregational minister that when he was young, in the college and at the seminary he loved to spend his strength in doing that kind of good which other men neglected--and that remained his characteristic through life. In his parish work he was sure to be after the one sheep which had been given up as lost. Norman MLeod, the great friend of the Scotch poor, was industriously maligned in all quarters, although on the day when he was carried out to his burial a workman stood, and, looking at the funeral procession, said: If he had done nothing for anybody more than he has done for me, he should shine as the stars forever and ever.
Doing good within our sphere
Christ spent His life in doing good within the sphere in which He lived, and to the objects within His reach. Thus He has taught us irresistibly that, instead of consuming our time in wishes to do good where we cannot, the true dictate of universal goodwill is to do it where we can. (T. Dwight.)
Good not to be done by deputy
Not one of the least remarkable features of the present age is, the system of doing those things by deputy which our forefathers did for themselves. Provided a man has plenty of ready money, he may recline on the sofa, or loll in the easy chair the greater part of the day, and still be a most active Christian by deputy. Does his heart yearn to provide for the orphan, or to comfort the widow, to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry? He has no longer to seek them out as of old; he is not compelled to visit the scenes of destitution and misery; he has but to subscribe a few guineas to some half dozen institutions to qualify himself as a life governor; and for the remainder of his days he is freed from the obligations of Christian benevolence, by discharging the mere peppercorn rent of signatures to tickets and proxy papers. Benevolence peripatetic:--Genuine benevolence is not stationary, but peripatetic; it goeth about doing good. (Dr. Nevins.)
A long life of benevolence
Eighty-seven years have I sojourned on this earth, endeavouring to do good. (John Wesley.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 38. “Jesus who is from Nazareth, how God anointed…
38. “Jesus who is from Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.” You see from these Scriptures that Cornelius was by no means a novice in the gospel, but had enjoyed the ample Opportunities of that wonderful Pentecostal age, I trow having frequently heard Peter and the other apostles. His justification is abundantly confirmed in Act 10:34-35: “ . . .Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.” It is only Satan’s counterfeit religion that tells a man he can work righteousness, before he gets it from God in his heart. A man must have a farm in order to work it. Put a farmer on a naked rock in mid ocean, and he will never work a farm. John says: “He that worketh righteousness has been born of God.” Hence we see Cornelius was accepted of God and had been born of God. He was a very enthusiastic leader of a holiness band, not in the experience of sanctification, but gloriously justified and earnestly seeking it. Peter was not sent to get him converted, for he was not only a devout servant of the Lord, but a Gentile disciple of Christ, vigorously pressing on to entire sanctification. Peter’s mission was to preach the gospel of holiness, get him and all of his people sanctified, and admit them into the gospel church, conferring on them all rights and privileges of bona fide membership. Eliminating the cumbrous routine and superfluous ceremonies of Gentile proselytism, an institution recognized and honored fifteen hundred years ago, the Christian Church began all Jews, soon receiving an influx from the Gentile world, destined to increase simultaneously with the depletion of the Jewish element, thus working out a radical revolution and becoming a Gentile organization in a century. As Peter had preached the inauguratory sermon of the gospel dispensation to the Jews, it was equally pertinent that he should do the same to the Gentiles. Hence his revival at Caesarea was the Gentile Pentecost, lifting the flood-gate of entire sanctification and bona fide membership in the gospel church to the Gentile world.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain Seen notes on verse 36
Seen notes on verse 36
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.