The Lordship of Jesus.
I. OUR RESEMBLANCE TO THE DISCIPLES IN USING THE NAME. These men called Jesus "Lord," and were known as his helpers and agents. As long as Jesus remained in the flesh there was no difficulty in looking upon him as Master. All their doings had been sufficiently easy, consisting, as they did, for the most part, of outward actions. But in due season the visible Master became the invisible, and one by one the first servants also died away and went into the invisible. Thus generation has succeeded generation, ever getting further and further from those first days when the visible Master stood among his servants, appointing their tasks. But we have not yet lost the habit of using the Master-name. We also say, "Lord," and Jesus might well ask what we mean by using the name. Is it to be a mere title of honor, with the recollections of power and duty that first caused it to be given emptied out of it? Or is there a real mastery and a real service still? We cannot say, "Lord, Lord!" too often, if the saying helps in serving and in bringing others to serve.
II. It may be we resemble the disciples in using the Master-name without knowing from a deep experience WHAT IT IS TRULY TO HAVE JESUS FOR MASTER. Empty compliments do Jesus no good, any more than mere names of abuse do him harm. The first disciples did not become the true servants of Jesus just because of what they did for him in the days of his flesh. Only when Jesus had passed through all those experiences which put him at God's right hand did his disciples really comprehend what Jesus wants from men, and what men can do and are bound to do for Jesus. The Lordship of Jesus is a spiritual thing, and has to be spiritually discerned. This is emphatically a matter in which none of us is to be taken on his bare word. We are not the servants of Jesus because we say we are or think we are. The service truly acceptable to him does not lie in a quantity of talking or even of doing. With Jesus, quality goes before quantity, and where there is quality, quantity never fails. Character and inward life,—these constitute the richest service to Jesus. Jesus expects every one of us to do much for him, but it is by being much. Jesus does want our service, our best, fullest, heartiest service, and he will not leave us in any doubt as to whether we are doing just what he wants. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, and where the Holy Ghost is there must be true service.
III. THE SERVICE IS ONE CONDITIONED BY OUR PRESENT LIFE. We are here in the flesh. Our fellow-creatures in need can see us, but they cannot see Jesus. We are to furnish bodies through which the spiritual Jesus can bless mankind. We are even to do greater works than Jesus did in the days of his flesh. Preaching the gospel of spiritual salvation and renewal to sinners, with demonstration of the Spirit and of power, is a far greater work than the resurrection of Lazarus. This makes our obligation, our privilege, and our abundant opportunity. As long as there are sinners in the world there will be no lack of opportunities for serving the Lord Jesus. We have each to find our own opportunity. Doing what lies nearest us is our wisdom. Because it lies nearest us we are more responsible for it than any one else. We serve as the lighted lamp serves, and it is not expected to give light to those a mile away.—Y.