S. The Living Christ

THE LIVING CHRIST Dr. W. A. Criswell Acts 18:9 01-10-54 In Acts 27:23, you will find an incident in the life of Paul that parallels with this. From this, we have been preaching these last two Sundays. In Acts 27:1-44 the story of the terrible storm and shipwreck of Paul as he was sent a prisoner down to Jerusalem-to Rome from Caesarea. In Acts 27:23 : "For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul… ."

Now, the text in which we have been speaking the last two Sundays, in Acts 18:9-10 : "Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision… ." Do you believe that? "There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying" And, then, the text, in the eighteenth chapter: "Then spake the Lord to Paul by the night in a vision."

Evidently, the Lord is somebody: a personality, an entity, a character. And, evidently, He speaks and He lives and He directs and He guides and He is interested and He is full of the intensest life. Do you believe that? To so many, the Lord Jesus is dead. He is an historical character. They are readily willing to admit His historicity. Like Washington lived, Lincoln lived, or Buddha lived, or Alexander the Great or Napoleon lived, there must have lived somewhere, sometime, a man whose name was Jesus. But, He is dead and He died 2,000 years ago.

Then, there are those to whom the Lord Jesus is at the heart and center of the great religious faith of which we are normally a part. But, He’s far, far away.

There is no conception, there is no sense, there is no feeling, there is no persuasion, there is no consciousness of His being present, of His being active and alive and vitally intermingled with our lives and our destiny.

And, there are many who look upon the Lord as an influence. And, they identify Him and His life like they identify our immortality. We live in the influences that we set in motion in the earth. But, when we die, we die. Our influence will live, like the Lord’s may be alive. But, He is dead.

And, the pertinency of all of those things, and a multitude of others, I could mention like them-the pertinency of all is to de-personalize the Lord Jesus. He is no longer active and vibrant. He is no longer somebody. He is no longer a personality. He no longer lives, as such, like you live now.

But, He has become identified with historical processes, with influences and with memory and with history. But, He is not pertinent and He is not active and vibrant and living with any of the issues of today, with which we actually have anything to do. He is not something Who looks, cares and loves and watches and looks and helps and guides and keeps. He is just something out there indefinable; intangible, but He is not actual.

I have a friend, who is still my friend-though he goes out of the theological world from me-I have a friend who is a pastor in Virginia. And, he’s very liberal. He is the Saturday modern.

And, we were talking about George Buckley’s-the great book, a very fine book, pleasantly written-entitled Prayer. And, the great divine spirit of prayer is this. He says prayer was the same sort of thing for good in this world as though a man had something wrong with his foot, or he had something wrong somewhere else in his body. And, so, the physician gives him a shot in the arm.

And, the circulation of the blood takes that shot in the arm and it goes all the way around and finally gets down to his foot. And, his foot is healed and made well because of the things the doctor did over here.

And, he says prayer is that way. When a man prays, he sets forth good influences in the world and they circulate around and around and around.

And, by and by, they will be answered in the amelioration in which the man prayed, maybe over there, maybe in China, maybe in Hong Kong and maybe in India and maybe some other place.

But, his idea of prayer is that there is not any permanent God, to Whom he actually talked. There is not any actual God up there, Who listens to you and turns things in order that your prayer might be answered, but when we just set forth the influences in the earth.

Now, my liberal friend in Virginia says that’s just great, that’s just right. That’s what prayer is. And, I said to him, "If that is prayer is, there is not any God. There is not anybody to listen to us. There is not anybody that answers. There is not anybody who directs it or has it in its hands. It is just an influence we set forth in this earth. And, that’s all. That’s all."

I could not tell you the number of men, Christian men, pulpiteers, leaders of the denomination, all great drivers in so many areas. That is the way it is in so many other communions: to identify the whole Christian faith and the whole Christian message with social work.

"We work for the Lord Jesus and serve Him by being good to those who need us. We feed the poor. We heal the sick. We minister to those who are in poor health and condition. And, the whole kingdom of Christ is identified with tremendous social movement. That’s the way we serve Him. That’s the way we know Him. That’s the way we love Him. We do it through the people and Christ is identified with the people."

I remember reading a book by Dave Street called The Dragnet. And, everybody said, when it was published a few years ago-and, the whole of that book is that Christ is identified with humanity. And, when you serve humanity, you serve Christ. No, we could go on for hours with stuff like that.

Now, this message tonight concerns the reality and the personality, the somebodiness, like you, of the Lord Jesus Christ. For, the Lord said to Paul in the night in a vision. In the nighttime, He appeared unto Paul and said to him. And, He could speak. And, He knew Paul and He knew what Paul was doing. And, He was driving Paul into a tremendous work. Do you believe that? He was somebody. Now, the thesis of this message is that Jesus is an entity in Himself. And, that He has spirit and He has bones. And, He is a personality, that is, somebody. The Spirit of God is also called the Spirit of Jesus. And, the Spirit of God is in my heart and He’s in your heart. And, the Spirit of God is in this world. And, the Spirit of God is in this church.

But, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus is not the Lord Jesus Himself.

I cannot enter into the mystery of the Trinity and I don’t try. I cannot understand it. I don’t attempt to. Nobody does. But, I know that-that, according to the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, the Lord Jesus is like you are. He has flesh and He has bones and He’s in a place and He looks down on us. And, He can appear to us and He can talk to us. And, someday, we shall see Him as a man, as an individual, as a character, as a somebody.

And, another thing about the Lord Jesus: He always was. He always was the Lord Jesus. He always was that somebody. He always was the Lord God omnipotent. But, He was somebody. He was not ephemeral and intangible. He was like you are. He was a reality. He was a being.

I think-and I’ll give you the Scripture for it-Jehovah, the “I am,” the Yahweh of the Old Testament, is the Lord Jesus incarnate of the New Testament. They are the same character. They are the same individual. In John 8:1-59, Jesus said to them, "Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am."-I heard that before, haven’t you?-“I am."

And, then, Moses was shepherding the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law. He was on the backside of the desert at Sinai. And, as he was shepherding the flock, there was a bush that burned without being consumed. And, Moses stopped and said, "I shall look at this sight." And, he stood there and watched the flames in the bush, unconsumed. And, out of the fire and out of the flame, the Lord God spoke to Moses. The Lord God spoke to Moses. And, He commanded Moses to go down into Egypt and deliver His people.

And, when Moses said, "And what is the name of the God that speaks to me?" The voice came from heaven saying, "I am. You go down to Egypt and tell them the great God, whose name is Yahweh, I am that I am hath sent thee."

And, Jesus said, "Verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.” “I am.” The voice that speaks unto Moses out of the burning bush was the voice Whom we know in the New Testament as the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the same person, the same God.

I have another persuasion in that. In the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of John, in the forty-first verse, after John quotes from Isaiah, he said this, "These things said Isaiah when he saw glory and spake of Him."

Now, from the quotation, I turn to Isaiah. And, the quotation is from Isa 6:1-13. And, John says, "Isaiah said this when he saw the glory of Jesus." So, you turn to the sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah, and what does it say?

You listen to it: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.

Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain covering his face, with twain covered his feet, and with twain did fly. And one cried unto another, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. Who was that? Who was that? Isaiah saw Him on a throne, high and lifted up.

John says, in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel, that Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Lord Jesus that he saw. The Jehovah of the Old Testament, the great "I am" of the Old Bible, in the New Testament is incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ of Nazareth by the virgin.

They’re the one and the same. The Lord Jesus is somebody pre-existent, in the days before the world was made. And, the Lord Jesus is a man. He’s somebody. He’s a character. He’s an entity. He’s a personality. He’s like you.

And, the Lord God said, "Let us make man in Our own image." You were made in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, in time, He’s a man. He’s a person. Incarnate, the Lord Jesus is somebody like you. When you turn through the pages of church history, for hundreds of years the church was involved, and the whole empire was involved in, all theologies were involved, and sometimes the East went to war with the West over it. They were involved in Christological controversy. They were trying to define, to delineate, to describe, to set in a definition, Who Jesus was, in Christological controversy. They were made by men like Arius and Sabellius and Eutyches and Nestorius and Monophysites. And, for centuries, the conflict raged and raged Who Jesus was.

Now, those Christological confronts and those Christological controversies were not only proof in the development of church history, but they go clear back and back and back to the very days of Christ Himself. In the days of the Christian religion, when it was first promoted, it had a tremendous arch-enemy in philosophy, a Greek philosophy called Gnosticism, from the Greek word gnōsis. The English word “gnostic” comes from the Greek word gnōsis.

They were selfish. They were initiated into the mysteries of the theory of knowledge. They were Gnostics-they called themselves-and had a tremendous hold upon the people. And, Gnosticism was the greatest rival of Christianity.

Now, Gnosticism was eclectic. It was not exclusive. It would accept anything. It would accept any philosophy. It would put its arms around anything. So, when Christianity, under Paul and Timothy and John and those men-when Christianity came to be a regnant and a dynamic thing in the history of the world, Gnosticism put its arms around it. It amalgamated it. It began, in its eclecticism, to take the great principles of Christianity and make them a part of the system of Gnosticism.

Now, there were two great systems of that that the apostles met.

One was Docetic, from a Greek word meaning "seeming." And the other one: Cerinthian Gnosticism, from the arch-enemy of the Apostle John in Ephesus: a man by the name of Cerinthus.

Now the Docetic Gnostics said this: "Jesus just seemed to be a man. He was no actual man. He was no actual personality. He was no actual somebody. But, He just walked around here in the days of His life in the earth and He just looked like a man. He just seemed to be a man. But, He wasn’t a real man."

Now, the First Epistle of John was written against those Docetic Gnostics. Look how John starts off: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled the Word of life;

And, goodness, a real genuine man, where His (… life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was by the Father, and was manifested unto us.) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. That book, that epistle-1 John-was written against those Docetic Gnostics, these teachers and prophets who were going around all over the Roman Empire, saying, "Jesus is not a real person. He’s not a real man. He was not a real somebody. He just seemed to be."

"No," said John, "He was as real as you are. And, our hands touched Him and we felt of Him and we held Him and our eyes looked upon Him and our ears heard Him: the Word of life, the Son of God."

Now, Cerinthian Gnosticism. Cerinthian Gnosticism was the thing in Ephesus when John was pastor of the church in Ephesus. And, this was the doctrine of Cerinthus. Cerinthus said He was a man, all right. He was a man, all right-an actual man. He lived and walked, and talked and lived.

He was a man, all right. But, He wasn’t God. He wasn’t God. The Spirit of God came upon Him. They called it sullogō. And, it’s the name. They call it, in Greek, the eon. The eon came upon the Lord Jesus in His baptism-That’s in the Book, in the visitation of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove-The eon came upon Jesus in His baptism. And, the eon left the Lord Jesus on the Cross, when Jesus said, "Lord, in your hands I commend My Spirit." And, Cerinthus said that Jesus was just a man, like any other man. But, He had a special endowment of an angelic power from above. But, He was nothing but a man.

Now, against that, the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John, the Fourth Gospel. And, he started off with an avowal of the deity of the Son of God. Do you remember it? "In the beginning-in the beginning was the Word. And the Word…”-using a Greek philosophical term the: logos- In the beginning was the logos-the Word-and the logos was with God; and the logos was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.

God is saying there that this man, the Son of God, is deity Himself. In the beginning He was. And, He was God: the personality, the entity, the somebody of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, in heaven, resurrected, and in glory, He is still the same Lord Jesus. "Handle Me and see,” said the Lord, “that it is I Myself. For a spirit hath not flesh and bones such as ye see Me have." The Lord Jesus is in a place.

I go to prepare a topos, place, for you. If I go to prepare a topos, a place-like this is a place-if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself… . The Lord Jesus is in a place. He is in the heavens. And, He lives there-a man. He has flesh and bone. Thomas said:

I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. Except I put my finger in the scars in His hands and thrust my hand into His side, I wouldn’t believe it.

And, the next Sunday night, when they were gathered together, the Lord Himself appeared in the midst. A man, just like He was in the days of His flesh, only immortalized, glorified, resurrected. And, He held out His hands and said, "Behold," and He gathered His fingers, and He opened His side and there was a scar in the side, from the spear thrust of the Roman soldiers-the same Lord Jesus.

He lived. He’s somebody. Flesh and bone: He has a body, resurrected, glorified. But, He speaks. And, He speaks, and He works. And, He’s with us, and He helps us. And, He guides us, and He blesses. And, He teaches us, and He sees us through. The Lord Jesus. The Lord said to Paul in the night, saying-He knew it. He was with him. And He helped him. And he walked greatly in His name. And, now, we have a glorious promise from that same Lord Jesus: "Wherever you are, there am I in the midst of you."

He is here. He looks upon. He sees us. He knows and He cares: "And lo, I am with you always even until the end of the age." He works with us. He helps us. He empowers us. He does marvelous things for us, this Lord Jesus.

He’s somebody, just like you’re here. He can be here. Just like somebody can help you, He can help you. Just like somebody can walk by your side, He can walk by your side. This Lord Jesus: somebody, just like you-just like you. And, He works marvelously and gloriously.

There is a very popular picture called “The Robe.” It is a cinemascope-wide screen-and, possibly, you’d have the greatest run of any picture thus far that’s ever been made. In the screen display, in the presentation of those who made that picture, you will find a man’s name William Frankto.

Last summer, we had our big Cotton Bowl campaign, here in Dallas. There was a man here in the city that owned three nightclubs here-owned two in Las Vegas, Nevada. And, after and a moving magnate, he was here in Dallas.

He had three children. It was Sunday. And, the children wanted to go swimming. And, all of the places were closed, except for Fair Park. So, he took his three children on a hot summer afternoon, and went out to the Fair Park. After he had delivered his children, where they could swim out there, somewhere-why, he walked up and down the midway.

He said he got tired of the midway. Didn’t have anything to do and he heard something was going on in the Cotton Bowl. So, he went to the Cotton Bowl and sat down under the shade. It was 105 degrees. He sat down there and listened to that service.

And, to my amazement, Billy Graham made an invitation. You remember it, if you were there. I didn’t think anybody would come-couldn’t imagine anybody responding. That was the most un-promising thing I ever saw in my life: that blazing sun.

Gave the invitation, and the first man who responded to that invitation was this man, William Frankto. Came down out of the Cotton Bowl and, at the front, there he stands. He sold his three nightclubs here in Dallas. He got rid of his nightclub in Las Vegas, Nevada. He’s in Jerusalem now. The United Artists are preparing, within a period of about two years-they are preparing to place on the screen, for the first time in the history of the world, the last story of Jesus Christ. The first thing that had to be settled is the preparing of the film depicting the Lord Jesus. Who was going to be the Christ? Who is going to play the part of Jesus? And, it was finally decided that the man who did it would be anonymous. He would not be named in the picture, nor would he be named in the advertising, nor would he be named before the world. He was going to remain anonymous, as far as any public is concerned: no famous actor, no anybody. We are going to have an anonymous man. Who is the anonymous man? It is the actor, William Spree. He is doing it now. And, in about two years from now, United Artists will present, for the first time, the story of the Lord Jesus to the world. And, where did it come from?

You stand to make-in the presence, the first man who walked out of that Cotton Bowl stand, and stood there in front of that little place where the man preached, was this man, William Spree, who Orson Wells gave the role.

Why, it happens all of the time. It happens everywhere, everywhere. I talked to a man this morning, begging him to come back to the Lord and the church. He said, "So many difficulties lying in the way."

I said, "Come over there at the congregation and look. If I could take time and had the opportunity to do it, I could have men stand up all over this house, all over this house, and tell you stories of the miracles of regeneration that would almost be unbelievable. What you once were and what you once were and what you once were and what you now are."

One of the finest Christian men that belongs to this church, and one of the great consecrated men that I have ever known, came out of the gutter. Came out of the gutter. If you were to see him now, with a big, fine executive job and a lovely family, you would say, "Pastor, you mean he? You mean that man? You mean-you mean he was in the gutter?" I mean, that man was in the gutter. He was in the gutter. That’s what the Lord has done for him. He lives. He lives. He’s somebody. He can speak to us. He walks with us. He talks with us. He empowers us. He makes us able. He gives us wisdom and direction.

And, the Lord Jesus came to Paul in the night and He talked to him. He can talk to you, and He did and He does, just like I could. Just like somebody next to you, the Lord can. He’s somebody.

I cannot close without saying a word of the comfort of that-the indescribable blessedness and sweetness and preciousness of that. I cannot close without it. The Bible, in telling the story of the three Hebrew children who were thrown in the fiery furnace, when the king looked in there, suffered a number. The king turned to those who cast in those three Hebrew children said, "Didn’t we put three in the furnace? Were there not three in the furnace?"

And, the keepers said, "Yes, we threw three men in the furnace."

And, the king said, "But, I see four men, walking free in the fiery flames. And, the countenance of the fourth one and the form of the fourth one is like unto the Son of God." Who was He? Who was He? That was the Lord Jesus, pre-incarnate, the fourth one walking with the three Hebrew children. Who was it that closed the mouths of lions when Daniel was cast in the den of lions? Who closed the mouths of those lions? Whose story is it all the way through? It is the Lord Jesus. It is the Lord Jesus. He’s the one the psalmist was talking about as He said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I won’t be afraid, for Thou art with me.” Thou art with me-the preciousness of the presence, the comfort of the nearness of Jesus. He is with us. Do you remember Ellis Fuller? Do you remember him? Ah, that man! Pastor of the First Church in Atlanta, Georgia; president of the Southern Seminary, and we had him here for two weeks in a revival meeting. Do you remember that? Ah, there are some things and messages and sermons that Ellis Fuller preached here in the pulpit that will stay with me as long as I live. He blessed my life, Ellis Fuller; president of the seminary in northern Kentucky. This is one of the little things that he said that has stayed with me through these years. He had a little boy, and the little boy was taken to the hospital for an operation. The pastor said to the church, "Nobody is to call me or to get in touch with me. Nobody is to know where I am."

He went to the hospital and, being a trustee of the institution, he got a bed. And he put it in the room with that boy and stayed with that son, stayed with the boy; went into the operating room with the boy, and stood there as the antiseptic was administered, and as the operation was done, and then went back into the room with the boy. And he stayed with the boy all day long as the lad came to consciousness. And at nighttime, he pushed his bed right over there next to the boy’s bed, and laid down to go to sleep with his hand on the hand of his boy. And in the nighttime, while they were lying there close together, before the lad dropped off to sleep, he turned his head and said, "Daddy, this is the greatest day of my life." And Ellis Fuller said, "Son, the greatest day of your life? Why, son, this has been the most terrible thing I have ever lived through. I have been so anxious and full of care. Son, the greatest day of your life?" And the boy said, "Yes, sir, Daddy. This has been the greatest day of my life. Daddy, you have been with me all day long."

I am persuaded that the sorrows, and the tears, and the heartbreak, and maybe the despairs, and discouragements, and disappointments, and finally the death that comes into our life are just somehow that we might know the nearness of the presence of Jesus.

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." And it is a great day. It is our greatest day if He is there. And in the night, the Lord’s faith shall call somebody, like you, like you, like you. The Lord Jesus.

Well, let’s sing. And while we sing the song, somebody you give your heart to the Lord; you come and stand by me. Put your life in the hands of God, you come and stand by me; somebody to put your life in this church, you come and stand by me.

"Pastor, here I am, here I come, taking the Lord as my Savior." Or coming into the fellowship of the church-however the Lord shall say it, and open the door, and lead the way, while we make appeal, you come. You come. On the first note of the first stanza, anywhere. Somebody you. "I want to be baptized." "I want to come by letter, or promise of letter, or by faith, or by re-dedication of life." However God shall say and lead the way, would you do it? Anywhere, somebody you, while we stand and while we sing.