Christ's Lordship over Nature

Archibald Brown
Metropolitan Tabernacle; September 9, 1894
 

"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people." Matthew 4:23

THE Scriptures commence with a revelation of God as creator, and, as he himself makes the revelation, he does not condescend to prove his own existence. The first majestic note, therefore, that peals forth from Holy Writ is this, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' Then, with ever-increasing clearness, the Scriptures identify God the Creator, with the man Christ Jesus.

I would ask your careful attention for a few moments as we work out this preliminary step. It is necessary, in order to the full comprehension of our theme. The Scriptures, I have said, commence with that trumpet note, that God is Creator of all nature, and all the way through Scripture you will find more clearly, and yet more clearly still, that the Creator in the 1st verse of Genesis, is identical with Jesus. It is beautiful to note how you get the two linked together in Old Testament Scriptures. Take, for example, such a passage as you have in the 45th chapter of Isaiah, and the 18th verse. There you have God the Creator: 'For thus says the Jehovah who created the heavens, God himself who formed the earth and made it. He has established it; he created it not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.' If you pass on to the 21st verse, you will see that the speaker is the same. 'But now the Lord, the Creator, says: I am the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior.' The Lord the Creator is now linked by this conjunction 'and' with the predicted Savior. But what says the 22nd verse? It is the same voice that says, 'I created the heavens.' 'Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth.'

There is no one here this evening who needs to be told who is the speaker of that 22nd verse. 'Look unto me' is the language of the Lord Jesus, but then it is the language of him who says in the 18th verse, 'I created the heavens and the earth.'

In that notable 1st chapter of the Gospel according to John, we read in the first few verses, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Without him was not anything made that was made.' But what is the language of the 20th verse of the same chapter? 'Behold the Lamb of God', and that Lamb of God unto whom John the Baptist points is the Logos, apart from whom nothing has been fashioned. The Lamb of God in the 1st chapter of John's Gospel is Jehovah, the Creator, spoken of in the 45th chapter of Isaiah.

Passing on to the 1st chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, and the 16th verse, we read, 'By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things hold together.' Now look at the 20th verse; 'And having made peace through the blood of his cross.' That refers to the same person. Oh, that was the biggest 'make' of all! The 16th verse tells me that he made Heaven and earth, and fashioned all principalities and powers, and holds all things together; but three verses later I am told that the one who does all that is the one who made peace by his own blood upon the cross.

The point that I desire to bring you to and to meditate on for a while is this: that Jesus Christ is Lord over all nature, and Lord over all creation, by virtue of the fact that he himself is Creator.

If there are some here to whom Jesus is little more than a beautiful character and an amiable man, I have no doubt that to such my words may be unprofitable and uninteresting; but I desire to preach that which I believe in the very depths of my soul, that Jesus, who was known as the Nazarene, and who died a felon's death upon the cross, is the eternal Jehovah of the 45th of Isaiah, and the God of the 1st verse of the 1st chapter in the Bible.

I think that you will see in a moment that, if this be so, we may anticipate that when our Lord comes on earth he will manifest his lordship over all nature. Speaking with reverence, I think that we have almost a right to expect that he will do so. If he is Lord over all nature, will he not demonstrate that fact even while he is on earth in the flesh? My purpose is to show you that that is just exactly what he did, and that in our Lord's miracles we have the fact demonstrated that Jesus is Lord over all nature.

The miracles may be divided into three classes. Omitting the miracles of healing, you have nine miracles on nature. Let me mention them, bracketing certain of them together. The first is the miracle of turning the water into wine at Cana of Galilee; and the second, third, and fourth, are the two miraculous draughts of fish, and the miracle of causing the fish in the Lake of Galilee to pick up the 'stater', the piece of ransom money, to pay the tribute which Peter could not pay. The fifth and sixth miracles are the stilling of the tempest, and the walking on the sea. I bracket those together, because they come under the same heading. The seventh and eighth are the two feedings of the multitude, at one time with the five loaves, and at the other time with the seven. The ninth, the last, is the withering of the fig tree.

Now, in all these miracles Jesus demonstrated that he is Lord over nature, and that nature felt that its Master was near when he spoke.

1. You will find that these nine miracles illustrate our Lord's lordship in four respects.

Three of them show that Jesus was Lord over all the processes of nature. I need hardly say that they are the turning of the water into wine, and the two miracles of the feeding of the multitude. Follow me closely. Water left in a jug will never by any law of nature turn into wine. You may give nature ever so long a time, millenniums if you like, but no mere law of nature will bring wine from water. My argument is that, in this particular case, the Lord overrides the ordinary rule of nature. There is no blossoming vine; there is no hanging grape; there is no vintage. He has not even to speak. He simply looks at the water. He wills, and that water knows its Lord, and at his presence blushes rosy red, and is poured out wine.

So was it with those miracles of feeding the multitude; Jesus had no piles of bread by his side, but, as he broke those loaves, they multiplied in his hand. Oh, how careful is the Holy Spirit to tell us the reason why our Lord wrought this first miracle! I read in the 2nd chapter of John, and the nth verse, 'This beginning of his signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and showed forth his glory.' What glory? The glory of being Lord over the processes of nature; the glory of being Master, Jehovah, who has but to speak, and nature at once obeys the behest.

Three of the miracles show the Lord Jesus as Master over the movements of animated nature. They are the fish miracles. There are the fish swimming about in the Lake of Galilee. The disciples have been fishing to the right and to the left, but they have not been able to catch any fish. The Lord wills, and there was not a fish in that lake that did not feel the power of that master will. Now they come congregating all round about the boat.

So was it in the post-resurrection miracle. Jesus said silently to the fish, 'Gather.' Lo, there was a multitude that filled all the nets. Yonder is a finny creature going through the water, and Jesus by an exercise of his will makes that fish go to a particular spot and pick up out of the mud that silver coin that has been dropped.

Brothers, how do you account for it? Simply on the ground that Jesus is Elohim, the Creator, and that he is Lord over all the movements of animated creation. When the fish saw him, even they said, 'Master.'

Two of the miracles show us Jesus as Lord over the elements of nature. They are the stilling of the tempest, and the walking on the sea. The Lord as creator shows that he controls all nature, by making the wind and water do his bidding. He stands in the stern of the vessel, and, looking the storm in the eye, he says, 'Be muzzled!' and the storm knows its Master and puts itself to sleep, and there is a great calm. In the other case the Lord comes to the help of a number of tempest-tossed disciples, and he puts his foot upon the waves. The waves know that they have their Master on them; and he walks as if he were on a marble floor. These two miracles say, 'Jesus is Lord over the elements of nature.'

The ninth illustrates that Jesus is Lord over vegetable life. The fig tree withers up. The Lord has simply to will it; and the sap cries, 'Master', and falls from every limb, and the process of decay flies from branch to branch, and, as that tree stands there withered, its bare arms seem to say, 'The Nazarene is Lord over vegetable life.'

2. A second division of the miracles consists of the wonders which our Lord wrought over demon power. Omitting the case of the woman who was made straight, because it is rather doubtful whether there was demoniac possession or not, we have six miracles of our Lord to show that he is not only Master over nature, but that he is Master over hell's forces too, and that, if winds and waves and fish and vines know his voice to be imperative, not less do the inhabitants of the demon world know the same.

Of course, modern rationalism tries to explain it all away, and says, 'They were not demon possessed. They were simply lunatics. They were not really in the grasp of demon power; they were epileptics.' All I can say, then, is that it is a very remarkable thing that, while the wise men and the learned men, and others that were not lunatics, did not recognize Jesus Christ, these poor lunatics did, for they said, 'You are the Son of God.' If that is a proof of lunacy, I wish that there were a few more lunatics in London.

The fact is that Jesus Christ deals with the possessor apart from the possessed, for he says to the demon, 'Come out of the man, you evil spirit.' To believe that Jesus used words in an unnatural sense is an abomination; and for our Lord to have pretended that he was casting out demons, and speaking to demons, and interrogating demons, when, after all, he knew that he was only dealing with forms of sickness, would (I say it with reverence) reflect grave dishonor and discredit upon him.

Besides, the Lord Jesus said that it was to be one of the proofs of his Messiahship, 'If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come unto you' (Matthew 12:28).

3. But my text shows especially that Jesus is Lord over the physical nature of man. I am not here to say that a miracle always necessitates an infraction of natural law. After all, what is natural law? It is God's ordinary way of working; that is all. It is not necessary to say that God breaks a natural law when he works a miracle. There are doubtless higher laws that he can bring to bear upon ordinary laws.

I read the other day what I thought to be a very good illustration of this point. I cannot, however, at this moment, recall the name of the book in which I saw it. It ran somewhat as follows. Supposing that a cat were to jump onto a piano, and to run along the keys—well, it would make cat music. There is a claptrap of sounds from that piano. But now in comes a skilled musician, and she sits down at the piano, and touches the keys on which the cat pressed its soft paws; and now, how does that instrument speak? Ah, listen! There is the strain of 'Songs without Words'; and now, perhaps, there are some of the majestic airs from Mendelssohn; and, again, how that piano speaks of Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata'! The writer goes on to say; 'I can imagine that cat criticizing, and saying, 'That musician has violated the nature of the piano. When I performed upon it, it did not make sounds at all like those.' It does not enter the poor cat's head to think that perhaps she did most in the way of violating the nature of the instrument. But there was really no violation of the laws of harmony at all. The discord produced by the cat, and the music made by the skilled player, were both according to one and the same law.

A lightning flash leaps out of the black scabbard of the storm-cloud, and the ordinary onlooker, perhaps startled, says, Ah, there is a lightning flash', and to him it is a unique thing, and has no existence apart from its manifestation; but the thoughtful man knows that that lightning flash is only the visible demonstration of an electric force that lies sleeping in every dew-drop, and slumbering in the mist on the mountain side.

Just so, when the Lord Jesus Christ came to poor, ruined, fallen nature, his dear hand was put upon the keys, and there were brought out strange melodies where before there had been nothing but clashing and claptrap; but shall I say that he necessarily violated nature because he brought out such melodies? No. By his own perfect skill he has wrought that which by ignorance was counted impossible. See how this is illustrated by the miracles of healing.

At your leisure underline those important words of the text, 'healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease'. It was necessary that he should do so. If our Lord was to show that he was Lord over all nature, he must give samples of his lordship all round. I have gone carefully through the miracles of healing, and made an analysis of them. See how they come out.

There are two cases of fever those of Peter's wife's mother and the nobleman's son. These are recorded in Luke 4 and John 4.

There are two instances of the healing of leprosy. There is the man who comes, saying, 'Lord, if you will you can make me clean', and there are the ten Samaritans who are healed by a word.

There are three cases of paralysis. You find them in Luke 5:18, Matthew 8:6, and John 5:1. I take for granted that most of you, without opening your Bibles, could tell what they are. The first is the case of the paralytic man who was let down through the roof of the house to be healed by Christ. The second paralytic was the son of the centurion. The third was the man who was lying helpless by the side of the Pool of Bethesda.

There is one case of atrophy. You find that in Luke 6:6-10. There is the man standing in the synagogue; atrophy has done its work, and his right hand is dead. But we read that the Lord said, 'Stretch forth your hand', and, though the command was apparently one which it was impossible to fulfill, the man obeyed. He held forth the withered hand, and the atrophy departed.

There is one case of haemorrhage. It was the case of the woman who pressed through the crowd towards the Savior, and touched the hem of his garment, because she believed, 'If I but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole.'

There were four cases of blindness. They are so well known that I need not specify them.

There was one case of deafness and dumbness combined, in which our Lord, you will remember, put his finger upon the ear, and touched the tongue, and sighed, and said, 'Ephphatha', 'Be opened.'

And there was one case of dropsy.

I jotted these diseases down, and I took the list to a dear friend of mine, a medical man, and said to him, 'Doctor, what do you think of that list?' not telling him at all why I had brought it to him. He ran through it, and he said, 'Well, you have a very complete set there. They cover the field pretty well. Look what you have. There are febrile diseases, skin diseases, diseases of the nervous system, and diseases organic, functional, and local.'

And yet Jesus dealt with equal ease in every case. In no case was anything more required than either a word or a touch. Brain, blood, muscles, nerves, tissues—they all said 'Master' when Jesus stood by. He had but to speak, and, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, every drop of blood, and every nerve and muscle, cried, 'Lord'. Jesus demonstrated that he was Lord over all physical nature.

But, that there may be no possible omission of any form of disease, our text elaborates, and goes not only into minute details, but makes sweeping and comprehensive statements. 'He went about healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with demons, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.'

I have tried to show you that the Jesus who died for us upon the cross, is the God of the first verse of Genesis, and that he has demonstrated his lordship over nature, over the demon world, and over physical disease.

4. Can you tell me what miracles I have left out? Three, and those three tell us—oh, stupendous truth!—that Jesus was not only Lord over disease, but Lord over death. As long as the patient breathes, the physician lingers in the room; but who expects him to remain after the last breath has been drawn? The very idea of his having any power over death would be ridiculous. The last breath having been drawn, the doctor departs and the undertaker comes in. When that subtle thing called 'life' has passed from a man, no human power can tie again the silver chain that has been snapped. The papers tell us that, when the Compte de Paris breathed his last the other day, the attendant physician said, 'Tout est fini.' He spoke the truth so far as all human skill was concerned. With man 'all is finished' when death steps in.

But, oh, look at your Lord and mine. He stands by the side of Jairus' daughter, and her young spirit has hardly departed before Christ's whisper overtakes it, 'Come back again'; and the spirit says, 'Master', and flutters down to earth, and he delivers the living child back into the hands of her parents.

Do you see that little funeral cortege outside the city of Nain? There is one mourner, and she a widow, and as blinded with tears, she follows the bier on which lies the corpse of her only son, she is, at first, hardly aware that the funeral procession has been stopped. But Jesus has stopped it, and, looking death in the face, he says to the lifeless form, 'Young man, I say unto you arise!' 'And he who was dead sat up', and the Lord, the Creator of all, handed him over to his mother.

In the last of these three miracles, Jesus stands foot to foot not only with death, but with corruption; and a sister says, 'Lord, do not have that stone removed. My brother has been dead three days, and by this time there is a bad odor. It is all over. Better leave that corrupting corpse where it is.' But there goes forth the calm mandate, 'Roll away the stone.' He who is the resurrection and the life stands foot to foot with death and corruption; and in the cavern of that tomb I hear this voice ringing, 'Lazarus, come forth!' And he who was dead came forth. O Lord Jesus, what fools we are ever to doubt you! What simpletons we are ever to place a limit to your power! Lord over nature, Lord over all the processes of nature, Lord over demons, Lord over every form of disease, Lord over death.

5. Beyond a doubt, every miracle of our Lord has a spiritual counterpart. In John's Gospel we have the miracles designated as 'signs', and so they were. 'This beginning of signs which Jesus did.' There is a difference between a sign and a mere miracle. 'The miracle is just a demonstration of power, but the sign is that which signifies or, as we might say, signifies something beyond itself. Happy is he who knows how to look at the sign of the miracle.

Am I speaking in this great host to some who are unsaved? Likely enough to hundreds. Look, dear friend. Perhaps you think that your case is so desperately bad that you do not quite see how you can be saved.

You say, 'I am a leper before God. "Unclean, unclean, unclean", is the only proper word for my lips.' True, but Jesus who was Lord over the leprosy of the flesh, is equally Lord over the leprosy of the soul. He can touch you tonight, and say to you, 'Be clean!'

But, perhaps, there is some wild young fellow here who says, 'Ah, mine is a worse case than that; I am more like the case of fever. I have been burnt up with horrible passions and lusts and evil desires. I have a temper that flames like Vesuvius.' My friend, the Lord is Lord over fever. He has but to speak the word, and it shall be with you as it was with the nobleman's son who began to mend at the very house in which Jesus had said to his father, 'your son lives.' The Lord can kill the fever. He can take your hot soul into his cool hands which bear the print of the nails, and you may go forth from this Tabernacle grandly and gloriously saved.

'Ah', says a third, 'I feel that I am a paralytic. I have no power to pray. It seems to me as if I could not say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." You talk about coming to Jesus, but how can a paralytic come?' The Lord has power over spiritual paralysis. With a word he can quicken that soul of your which is afflicted with atrophy. He can say to you 'Stretch forth your hand', and with the word of command shall come the power.

But I think that I hear a voice over yonder saying, 'But I am dead—dead in trespasses and in sins.' Well, man, I am very glad to hear you say, 'I am dead', because I always reckon that, when a man is able to tell you that he is dead, he gives a tolerably good sign that there is some life in him. He is alive enough to be able to feel like dead. If you know that you are dead, that is at least a proof that you are alive to your dreadful condition, is it not? As long as you tell us that you are dead, we shall have hope for you. But know this, that though you are dead in trespasses and sins, Jesus can quicken dead souls.

Oh, young woman, dead in sin; may Jesus take you by the hand and say, Talitha cumi, 'Daughter, I say unto you, arise'; and you shall live. Young man, you who have broken your mother's heart, the heart of her who follows you with her letters and is the chief mourner in the dreadful march of your soul to damnation, I tell you that Christ is able to say to you, 'Young man, arise', so that that dear old mother in the country shall have a letter tomorrow night, or on Tuesday morning, which shall make her poor widowed heart to sing for joy.

Or, am I speaking to some corrupt one such as we often meet with in the East of London? Have you been right down into the dregs of sin and filth? Is your whole life a stench and an abomination. My God is able to quicken you. He can stand at the sepulcher's mouth, and say, 'Come forth!' and at his bidding the flesh that is corrupt shall become as the flesh of a little child.

Oh, brethren and sisters, I have been aiming to show you what a grand Christ we have. He is no mere good-natured and limited man. He is no mere benevolent being who can weep over sorrow and sin, but has no ability to cope with either. He is God, 'God over all, blessed for evermore.' In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth, and the God who created Heaven and earth is the Jesus who made peace upon the cross by his own blood. He is Lord over nature, Lord over Hell, Lord over Heaven, Lord over us! How can we conclude this service better than by rising and singing,

All hail, the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all!