In this sermon, the preacher discusses the four Gospel endings and the last glimpses they give of Jesus. He emphasizes the divine purpose behind the different perspectives presented in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The preacher highlights the importance of knowing Jesus in all four ways, as the risen Savior, the one who gives signs and miracles, the one who speaks with authority, and the one who loves and forgives. The sermon encourages listeners to deepen their understanding of Jesus through studying the four Gospels.

My dear friends, our Bible reading this morning will be decidedly different from those on the preceding mornings of this week, but I am persuaded that what I want to bring to you this morning is of utmost importance to every one of us. Let me just quickly say a word of affectionate thanks. I want to thank those of you who have written such kind and sympathetic and appreciated letters. Thank you in his dear name very much. Now, as the best of you to my theme this morning, let me invite you to read with me the final paragraph in the Gospel according to Matthew. Have you brought your Bible or have you committed next door to the unpardonable sin and come without it? I hope you all have your Bible, the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 28 and the paragraph beginning at verse 16. Here it is. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain, a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. I'm sorry about that, but I'm glad of Matthew's frankness. It is a remarkable note of genuineness, don't you think? And when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Therefore go ye and disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name, singular, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you every day. That's the Greek. Lo, something to cause surprise, blessed surprise. Lo, I am with you every day, even to the end of the age. Amen. This is the last glimpse which Matthew gives us of our dear Savior before his ascension to heaven. That fact alone gives it a special interest, but it becomes even more captivating when we take it along with the last glimpses of Jesus at the end of the other three Gospels. There is a real value in studying the four Gospel endings correlatedly. It is intriguing and greatly rewarding to review side by side the four last pictures that they give us of our dear Master before his withdrawal from earthly visibility. Some time ago I was in the home of a dear Christian man, a very well-to-do man, whose wife had recently died. On a cabinet in the main room of his home there was a gold-embroidered, quadrifolding photograph of his lost loved one. He explained to me that those four photographs gave to him just those characteristic expressions which were dearest to him. No single one of them was enough in itself. Sometimes this one, sometimes that one spoke most to him, but each one of the four in its own way brought back to him a flood of affecting memories. Now I look upon it as a mark of the divine considerateness toward our human frailty that God has given to us, not just one portrait of our dear Lord, but four in those wonderful memoirs which we call the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. This enhances the sheer interest of their data and memorabilia. The historic basis facts of our Christian faith are presented to us by means of four wonderful pen sketches in which, although there is a sovereign divine control and guidance of the pen, there is no swamping of the penman's individuality or idiosyncrasies. How different is Matthew from Luke? How different is Mark from John? How different is each one of the four from all the other three? The four memoirs thus become at once humanly interesting as well as redemptively informing and endlessly full of fresh surprises to those who examine them continuously and prayerfully and observantly. Each one of the four Gospels portrays our Lord in its own aspected way. In Matthew he is distinctively the son of David. In Mark he is equally distinctively the son of toil. In Luke he is most noticeably the son of man, and in John he is unmistakably the son of God. In Matthew he is emphatically Israel's king. In Mark he is just as plainly Jehovah's servant. In Luke he is the race's ideal. In John he is the incarnate word. Now Matthew was a Jew. Mark was part Jew and part Gentile, as his two names John and Markos indicate. Luke was a Gentile, as again the name Lukas indicates. John transcends all such ethnic or racial distinctions, writing as the senior elder of the earliest Christian brotherhood. Now corresponding with those personal and racial differentials, Matthew writes primarily, though not exclusively, for the Jew. Mark writes primarily, though not exclusively, for the Jew and the proselyte Gentile to the Jewish faith. Luke has an entirely Gentile audience primarily in mind. John writes primarily for the Church, but in the ultimate and larger sense for the whole world. Matthew puts the emphasis on what Jesus said. Mark puts the emphasis on what Jesus did. Luke put the emphasis on what Jesus felt. John put the emphasis on who Jesus was. Matthew says in effect, the promised one is here, see his credentials. Mark says in effect, this is how he worked, see his power. Luke says in effect, this is what he was really like, see his nature. John says in effect, this is who he really was, see his Godhead. Now these characteristic differences between the four Gospels can easily be overstated. They are degrees merely in emphasis and degree, not in essence or substance. These characteristic differences between the four Gospels should not be and never need to be overstated, but neither should they be overlooked, for they are really there, and they are there for a very important purpose. One of the most fascinating occupations is to go through the four Gospels, observing how they differ in their incidental emphasis. You see, in their testimony to our Lord Jesus, the four Gospels are essentially one, but in their presentation of him to our human mind and need, they are distinctively four. For instance, Matthew ends with the resurrection of our Lord. Mark goes a step further and ends with his ascension. Luke goes a step further and ends with his promise of the soon coming Holy Spirit. And John goes further still and finishes with our Lord's promise of his second coming. Now how obviously it is in keeping that Matthew, the Gospel of the mighty Messiah King, should end with that triumphant finale, his breaking of the power of death and his rising in resurrection victory. And how evidently fitting it is that Mark, the Gospel of Jehovah's self-effacing servant, should end with that loveliest and loveliest of all the servants of Jehovah, exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high. And how sympathetically in keeping it is that Luke, the Gospel of our Lord, spirit-anointed humanity, should end with our sympathetic Savior's promise that the Holy Spirit should soon come upon the disciples. And who needs to be told that it is supremely in keeping that John, the Gospel written specially for the Lord's own, should end with our Master's promise of his second coming. It's all so naturally incidental, but not one bit of it is accidental. It's all divinely purposeful. So now, dear friends, with these differentials in mind, I want us to look at the four Gospel endings and the last glimpses which they give to us of our adorable Master. Are you ready? Now, I read the final paragraph in Matthew's Gospel, so now turn with me to the last paragraph in Mark. Hurry up. The Gospel according to Mark, chapter 16, and I think it will do if we read from verse 15. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the glad news to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be judged. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly things it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. So then, at the end of Matthew, the Lord is risen indeed. But at the end of Mark, he is not only risen, he is working with them, under working miracles. Now look at the final passage in Luke. That is Luke chapter 24, verse 46. And he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, that repentance and remission of sin should be proclaimed in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany. And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he was blessing them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. So if at the end of Matthew he is really risen, and at the end of Mark he is actively still participating, at the end of Luke he is sending on his disciples the enduing Holy Spirit. Now look at John's final paragraph. It's such a well-known passage I think we needn't read more than from verse 20. John chapter 21 at verse 20. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who had also leaned on Jesus, dressed at the supper, and had said, Lord, who is he that betrayeth thee? Peter, seeing him, and you know you nearly always say the wrong thing when you get your eyes off Jesus. That's just what Peter did. Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus said to him, if I will that he carry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then this saying went abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die. But Jesus had not said to him, he shall not die, but if I will. If I will that he carry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifies of these things, and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. So then, beloved fellow students of the word, at the end of Matthew, our Lord is risen indeed. At the end of Mark, he is working miracles. At the end of Luke, he is enduing with the Spirit. And at the end of John, he is foretelling his return. This is the fourfold Christ of the gospel ending. One, risen to save. Two, living to heal. Three, sending the Spirit. Four, coming again. But now look at those four paragraphs again in relation to our Lord's followers. The last thought in Matthew is that of our Lord's abiding with us. Lo, I am with you every day. The final thought at the end of Mark's gospel is that of our Lord's co-working with us. The Lord working with them. The last emphasis in Luke is that of our Lord's equipping us, tarry until ye be endued. And the last thought at the end of John is that of our Lord's exhorting us. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Look at those four gospel endings again and derive further comfort. The last emphasis in Matthew is that of our Lord's assuring us. Go and preach everywhere and hear the underlying reason. All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth. The Lord assuring us. At the end of Mark, the final emphasis is that of our Lord conferring the work of his disciples. The Lord working with them and conferring the word with sign following. At the end of Luke, the last underlining is that of our Lord's empowering us. Until ye be endued with the power from on high. And at the end of John, the parting word is that of our Lord's exhorting us. Follow thou me. Well now friends, what is the upshot of all this? It's just this. These last glimpses of Jesus at the end of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John tell us what our glorious, wonderful Jesus the Lord wants to be to his people, to you and to me. Right on to the end of the present day. Matthew, risen to save. Mark, living to heal. Luke, sending the spirit for coming again. Friends, that is the Christ of the gospel ending. And so this morning, I want in Christian love and true concern to ask you, do you really know Jesus in that fourfold way? Do you? If not, why not? And if not, don't you wish you did? Well now, let me have a peep at the watch. We're in real trouble this morning. If ever I needed to put a maximum in a minimum, it's now. To begin with, do you really know him as he appears at the end of Matthew's gospel, that is, as the risen Savior? I am not asking do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead. I take it that as a Christian believer you do. And in any case, as we all know, there is no fact of history more solidly and unanswerably substantiated than the well-documented fact of our Lord's bodily resurgence from that Syrian grave. But it is one thing to believe in the historical fact of his resurrection, and a decidedly different thing to know him personally as the continuously risen and present Savior who companions you every day in your deepest consciousness or subconsciousness. Do you know this precious, precious living Savior, not only as an occasional visitor to your mental awareness, but as one who continually abides deep in the deepest awareness of your being? Now we are meant to know him like that. Amid the busy, complicated absorptions of the day, for most of us, the upper part of the mind cannot be concentrated on spiritual, or biblical, or religious matters. But it is possible, delightfully so, to carry with us amid all the complicated happenings of every day, it is possible for us to carry with us an uninterrupted subconsciousness of his indwelling. Do you know him like that? You see, despite all the troubles which beset us in our mortal flesh and in this present sojourn on earth, our Christian life was meant to be a heavenly-minded, sunlit, victorious, immense walk with a living Savior who continually whispers in our heart, no, I am with you, I am with you, I am with you. And when we know him like that, oh, what a difference it makes. Burdens become lighter, and crosses become easier, and problems become less vexing, and disappointments become less discouraging, and irritations become less annoying, and adverse circumstances become less worrying and less wearing. Nay, more, that's all in the negative. It isn't just that life's troubles hurt us less, they become transformed into spiritual triumphs through our ever-present, indwelling companion. Wrecking and fuming, grousing and resenting, are supplanted by the joy of his sharing his life with us. Loneliness ceases to appall us, persecution ceases to affright us, nervous fears and gloomy forebodings fall away in the light of his dear presence. The wilderness blossoms as the rose, we have songs in the night, and streams in the desert, and springs in the valleys, and sighings become singings, and weights become wings, and burdens become blessings, and trials become triumphs. That's meant to be the Christian life, because that's the kind of Savior we've got. That's meant to be the Christian life, because that's the kind of Savior we've got. Well, I'm asking, do you know him like that? As the risen and ever-abiding Savior who gives you real power to conquer your temptations and lifts you on eagles' wings over the depressing things? If not, don't you wish you did? Isn't this the wistful language of your heart? That I may know him. Ah, I long to know, not just a Christ of pardon years ago, nor even reigning on a heavenly throne, too high and distant to be really known. I long to know him closely, this is how, alive and in the ever-pressing now. A living one within my heart this hour, communicating his all-conquering power, who now no longer lives from me apart, but shares his resurrection in my heart. Oh, friends, what a dear, dear, wonderful Jesus he is, isn't he? Say yes, but now further. Do you know Jesus in the way that he appears at the end of Mark's gospel, as the one who heals the sicknesses of the soul, and the distempers of the mind, and the disordered desires of the heart, and the stresses of the spirit, and the ailments of the body? Do you? If you ask me, Sir, do you believe in divine healing for the body? I answer unhesitatingly, assuredly I do, for I seem to see it with unmistakable clearness taught in the church epistles of our New Testament. Also, in 1965, I was ill. Apparently my public ministry had come to an end. But on three mornings in the hospital, as I was coming back to consciousness, the Lord met me and healed me. And I have better health than I ever had. Some of you are wanting me to go into detail, so I won't. It would take too long, and it might draw attention to me instead of to him. So you must take my word for it. My wife is here, and she knows that I'm telling you the careful truth. So if you ask me, do you believe in divine healing for the body? I gratefully answer, I do. If you ask me, do you believe in divine healing as certain present-day faith healing movements teach it? I answer courteously, I do not. I believe that there are peculiarities of exegesis in the matter, however well-meaning and sincere they may be, are erroneous. We should be very careful to preach to the outside public all that the New Testament commissions us to do so, but no more than that. Let me tell you what I believe are the principal constituents of the message which we are intended to put over to men and women in general. I believe in a blood-bought pardon for sin, in a heavenly Father's gracious forgiveness. I believe in justification by faith, in regeneration by the Holy Spirit, in reconciliation through the atonement of Christ, in new life and power communicated to converted sinners, in new fellowship with God, and the pledge of heaven in a blissful yet-to-be. I believe that all those are constituent elements in the message which we are commissioned to preach in the name of Jesus to the outside world, but I respectfully deny that healing for the body is a part of that gospel which we are to proclaim to the indiscriminate, promiscuous public. Now, I'm on Filey platform, and the last thing I would ever do would be to exploit a personal opinion on a precious common platform like this, but I'll give you my personal view. Of course, you have every right to disagree with me. We're still in a democratic country, aren't we? And I don't mind your disagreeing with me so long as we have a clear understanding that at any point where you disagree with me, I'm right and you're wrong. And now, after that touch of exemplary Christian humility, I'll say what I was going to say. Are you listening? As the scriptures plainly indicate, bodily healings and other supernatural abnormalities, even to the raising of the dead and other astonishing things, were originally for a sign, Greek word semion, for a sign to the nation Israel at the beginning of the present era. When the nation Israel for the second time rejected Jesus as Messiah during the suspense period covered by the acts of the apostles, the further offer of the kingdom was withdrawn. Then, as the ecclesia, the church became revealed as the long-hidden mystery or sacred secret which God had pre-designed for the present age, the temporary sign miracles to Israel dropped away. You can see that for yourself in the later chapters of the Acts. That, however, does not mean a withdrawing of our Lord's power to heal to heal among his own blood-bought believing people who constitute the true ecclesia, the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. But it does mean a withdrawing of bodily healings as a sign to Israel and to the outside world. Now, listen to me carefully. I am no hyper-dispensationalist, nor do I want to speak with any kind of dogmatism that would seem irritating. I'm simply speaking to you as your brother in the Lord and as, I hope, a careful student of the word. And I want to say this with as much clarity and emphasis as I can. In this present age, the promised messianic kingdom is not any longer being offered to Israel. The promised messianic kingdom will come in when our Lord returns in Second Advent Empire. This present dispensation is that of the church, the out-called ecclesia. Healing for the body is included in our Lord's provisions for the true church through the Holy Spirit. But those gifts operate, and nothing is more clearly taught than this in the New Testament, they operate within the true church. They are not part of the church's message to the public promiscuously. If you can show me where they are, I will revise my thinking and preaching at once. But I have an idea you'll find it rather difficult. Now, I need not commit myself to any dogmatic generalization, but I believe that many of us Christian believers might know our Lord Jesus far more than we do as the healer of the body. Mind you, I do not believe that divine healing for the body was ever meant to be a substitute for sanitary habits and hygienic living and healthful diet. There are all too many of us who by unhygienic living or eating bring sickness on ourselves and then wonder why God has sent it. There are those who go forward for healing in big public meetings and then go right back to living in ways which contradict the laws of health and engender further illness. If we will persist in letting our staple daily diet be cookies and coffee or tea and toast, if we will persist in always being on wheels and scarcely ever on legs, if we will persist in always grinding at it without adequate periodic rest, if we will persist in ignoring health precautions and in violating common sense health laws, then we must not be surprised if the poor maltreated body hits back with unstrung nerves or 20th century ulcers or maybe worse complaints. God forgives us, but nature never does. Take that. Divine healing for the body was never meant to be a continual interference with normal bodily processes or a repeated suspension of natural cause and effect, so that Christians may disregard health rules without paying the penalty. Can you stand a bit more? Say yes. Yes. What a lot of in-village you sound. Yes, I'll add a little bit more and I'll send the bill in at the end of the month. Oh, I'm sort of trembling from stem to stern now. After some of the things I'm going to say, there'll be an uproar. You'll be calling for my immediate martyrdom. Well, here I go to the stake. If we will go through our childhood and youth and adulthood eating white flour and white sugar and white rice and other bleached foods, if we will keep going against the mosaic diet law, devouring over much animal fats and hog flesh and flesh with the blood in it, if we will keep feeding on foods which are artificially refined, adulterated, devitalized or otherwise commercialized with poisonous chemical preservatives and additives, then when we get into our later forties, fifties, sixties, is it to be wondered at that our systems have become badly toxic? And then we begin to fall prey to the wretched degenerative diseases which are pathetically fashionable nowadays. We Christians ought to know what to eat and what to drink and the laws of health, and for the Lord's sake we should be at our best. Now, of course, there is a right and proper place for medically prescribed drugs and medicines in cases of physical crises, and thank God for our medical profession. But apart from that, if we will keep taking sleeping pills and tranquilizers and aspirin tablets and other sedatives and whatnot until they become a habit with us, is it to be wondered at that we become victims of functional and organic diseases which we were never meant to have and never needed to have? I sometimes think that some of us, some of us Christians, need saving almost as much from the druggist as from the devil. Hmm, and I'll tell you something else while I'm on this line. I do not believe that any of us, after about the age of fifty-five, have good general health unless we have tranquil and happy minds. There's nothing better for the nervous system or the general health of our physical organism than a brain and a mind and a heart filled with the Holy Spirit and flooded with the love of Jesus. It's the best thing, the best health tonic for the human system. Why, haven't you found as I have? You know, Mr. Glegg, I've always found that when my own prayer life is rich and deep and satisfying, I've always got more vim and vigor. Hmm, my, I've been brave, you know, this morning, haven't I? I come back now to this. If, however, you and I as Christian believers are walking prayerfully with our risen Savior and are honoring the physical body as being now a temple of the Holy Spirit, then I am sure we may look to Jesus as our Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. In this matter of divine healing for the body, I believe that our minds are intended to be not so much upon healing as upon health, and not so much upon healing as upon the healer, our Lord Jesus. Also, I believe that instead of always thinking of healing as some isolated act, we should think of our Lord Jesus, our indwelling Savior, as our continuous health, our health of spirit and mind and body. For as any psychologist or pathologist or physiologist will tell you, the health of all three is bound up intricately together. If these things are clear in our minds, and if we are living in sincere consecration to Christ, then I think, and only then, then I think we may say with the late A. B. Simpson, I take thee for my mortal frame, I claim my healing in thy name, and all thy risen life I claim, thou dost undertake, and I take. And now very briefly, because so far I've behaved well, I've had you out to the tick of the clock, and I don't want to break the record. Now let me ask you, do you know the Lord Jesus as he appears at the end of Luke's gospel, that is, as the heavenly enduer? Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, carry ye until ye be endued with the power from on high. We know what a transformation that endurement by the Holy Spirit wrought in those first disciples. Well, they were the divinely designed pattern of what was meant to happen in you and me. We may not be called to go before kings and councils, as some of that early band were. We may not be slashed by sword, or given as a prey to the beasts in public amphitheaters, as some of them were. But if you and I are to live the sanctified life, and to overcome the world, and to bear a telling witness for Christ, then we need that same endurement of power, just as did those first stalwarts of long ago. Christian disciples, have you had that supernatural endurement? Have you? If you are not quite sure, then I suspect that probably you have not. Because when it really falls upon us, we know it, and at this point I can easily be misunderstood. Oh, listen with both ears, and let me say this as earnestly as I can. So many seem to think that being filled with the Holy Spirit is a matter of emotion, that he brings about a kind of volcanic eruption of ecstatic emotion. Oh, no, no, no, no. Far more often, when the Holy Spirit really monopolizes us and infills us, he registers the reality of it through the intellect, through the thinking part of the mind. The Christian life is not lived in the emotions, it is lived in the will. You see, our human constitution is intellect, or reason, and then volition, or free will, and then emotion, or feeling. Now, which is the true order of precedence? I should say that the intellect is meant to be king, and the will is meant to be the prime minister, the executive of the crown, and the emotions are meant to be loyal and obedient servants. And when you allow the emotions to take things in hand, they tend to run amok, and then you are in pathological trouble. The true order is, one, intellect is the king, and two, free will is the prime minister, and three, the emotions are meant to be obedient servants. Now, you see, the emotions are the least predictable part of us. They are the most mercurial, the most changeable, the most volatile. What's the word I want? Here it is. They are the most superficial part. Do you think the Holy Spirit comes to do his deepest work in the shallowest part? Common sense says no, but in some way or another, when you and I come to that post-conversion crisis of a total yielding to the dear Son of God, when the Holy Spirit has the unobstructed possession of us, he fills us, and when he does, he registers it somehow in our consciousness, and give overlooking just for sensory excitement and emotional upsurges. I would recommend you get your eye off that. Too much of that is not good for the nervous system. But when the Holy Spirit really fills us, there's a new consciousness of God, and Jesus becomes a luminous reality to the mind, and there's a God-given peace and stability and joy. There's an atmosphere about the personality which is eloquent for Jesus all the time. I'm asking, have you got that? Are you living in that? Has Jesus really got you, and have you given him chance to fill you with that power? If revival is going to come to Britain, it's got to start with the Lord's people. We've got to have a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit, and we've got to have such a quality of life that all the time and everywhere we go, even when our lips are not speaking, it's recommending him. Don't you agree? Well, oh, I'll have to leave all that out. My, my, my. Oh, we're all right. Don't you start grumbling. Finally, do you know Jesus as he appears at the end of the fourth gospel as the returning master? I'm not asking, do you believe in the second coming? There's nothing more clearly taught in the New Testament than that our Lord is coming again in spectacular splendor, as David's greater son and heir, to occupy the throne of David and to reign in universal empire. And don't you seem to see all around us the predicted precursors of that coming today? I believe his coming is probably nearer than the most sanguine-minded among us is daring to think. No, I'm not asking, do you believe in the scripturalness of his promised return? I take it that you do. But are you living in the anticipated thrill and glow of it? Has the Holy Spirit made that a vital power in your mind? Try to be all with saying those things that you'd like to be saying when he comes. Try to be always doing something or other that you'd like to be doing when he comes. Always try to be in those places where you would like to be found when he comes. Don't you think that would make a lovely motto? I do. Well, my affectionate apologies, Mr. Chairman, if for once I've gone over just a few minutes. I'll never let it happen again till tomorrow morning. Well, that's it. One, risen to save. Two, living to heal. Three, enjoying with the Spirit. And four, soon coming again. Hallelujah, what a Savior!