John 21: 24-25
I was touched in the hymn we sang together by the fact that we could say of Jesus ‘of Thee we ne'er would tire’, Hymn 447. How many things He did! It just came to mind as we were singing of these wonderful things that He did. Think of that woman in Luke 7. He says, “Her many sins are forgiven”, v 47. Surely we could put ourselves in that place, those whose sins have been forgiven. That is one of the great things that He did, in some ways the greatest, because it involved His death and suffering, it involved the abandonment and all that it was for the Lord Jesus to be forsaken of God on the cross! That was one of the things He did.
He healed the blind man (Mark 10: 50-53). That is another thing that He did. How wonderful that one who had been living in a world of darkness should come into the joy of light, and the first person that that man saw was Jesus. What a thought that, like ourselves who were in darkness morally, when the Lord touched him the very first thing that came into his vision was the glorious Man who had met his need and brought light and joy into his life.
Then there were also those who were bereaved. Think of that family at Bethany when their brother died. It was hard to accept, was it not, that he had died? Even the disciples found it hard when the Lord said, “Lazarus, our friend, is fallen asleep”, but “Jesus... said to them plainly, Lazarus has died”, (John 11: 11, 14). What a bereavement that was, and who could find the answer to it? It is another one of the things that Jesus did: He raised Lazarus, and brought peace and joy, and a kind of life that had never been known before, into that household. How many things Jesus did!
Think of the lepers He healed and persons He met in their infirmities. Even late at night when everyone else had gone away and it was time to go to bed, time to sleep, He was still working there, even at night. It says that they came to Him and He healed them all (Matt 8: 16; Mark 1: 32, 34). What a wonderful Person Jesus is! That is just the simple touch that has come to me as we have been singing that hymn,
Jesus, of Thee we ne'er would tire!
(Hymn 447)
How many things He has done! How great He is! What a wonderful Person we know! Can that not fill our hearts, dear brethren? Because He is going to fill our hearts, fill our lives, and fill our souls eternally. Think of that eternity itself! It says in the verse that we read that the world itself cannot contain the things that Jesus did. What has He done in your life? What has He done in my life? Think of the ransomed myriads who will fill eternity. They will all be able to tell you about things that Jesus did to them. I think eternity itself will be filled out with the recounting of these wonderful things. John says, “I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”. This earth, this world, is not all that big really. We maybe think it is a big place, but when you look at the universe in all its immensity, this tiny world is not all that big. But even if you could imagine I have sometimes thought of this, though it might seem facetious to say it but if you could imagine this world with books and books and books piled up over the whole face of this earth, how many millions of books would there be piled up on the face of this small planet? And yet the things that were written in them would not be able to contain the things that Jesus did. What a wonderful Person Jesus is! That is just a simple impression that I have, but I would like to leave it with the brethren:
Jesus, of Thee we ne'er would tire!
There is just so much in that blessed Person that He will fill eternity!
May He fill our hearts now!
Edinburgh
10th April 2007