Jesus Knows How We Feel

We have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.


Scripture: John 4:4

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Well, this is your friend Bob Cook, and we’re back again to share from the Word of God. The only thing that really counts in life so far as eternal values are concerned is what you say either from the Word of God, or in proclaiming it, in sharing it or in obeying it. You build your life on the Word of God and you’ll find that it has some eternal value. Anything else is bound to fail and to fall into decay. “The world passeth away,” said John, “And the lust,” that means desires, “Thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” Hook your life to God’s Word. You’re gonna be eternally significant as a result.

We’re walking around in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John. Last time we got together, we paused momentarily on that fourth verse that said, “Our Lord Jesus must needs go through Samaria.” Now, you look at a map in your Bible, you’ll have one there at the back of your Bible, I think, that shows how the land was divided in the days in which our Lord Jesus lived here on Earth. And you find that Samaria was a kind of a bulge between north and south, and Jewish people had no use for the Samaritans. So that when they journeyed from north to south or from south to north, they would go around Samaria, out of their way actually, but they would go around it. Now, this says, “Our Lord needed to go.” He didn’t really have to, but He had an engagement. He had an appointment with one person who was going to be the key to that whole community.

A small thought here. It often turns out that one person is the key to a situation or to an entire community. You may very well be that person. Have you thought about that? That you could very probably be God’s key to some situation where He wants to work: In a home, in a community, in a school, on the job, or wherever it might be. There was one person and didn’t have a very good reputation either, did she? But she turned out to be the key to that whole community. And our Lord Jesus is looking for people who are key people. You may very well be one such. God wants to use you to unlock the doors to hundreds of hearts. Why don’t you think and pray about that? You’d be surprised how things develop when you begin to pray about being a key person for God.

Well, it said, “Our Lord Jesus came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph.” Now, it says, “Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore being weary with His journey sat thus on the well.” See, there was a big stone coping built around the edge of the well, and He was sitting on that stone coping there. “And it was about the sixth hour,” that’s high noon. In those days they counted the hours beginning from 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 at night, so the sixth hour would be high noon. “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink,’ for His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, ‘How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me, which I’m a woman of Samaria?'” For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

What she actually was saying, as her eyelids narrowed and she looked Him over, was, “Hey, Mister. What do you have in mind? Are you talking about the oldest profession in the world? Is this an invitation to me? What is it?” That’s really what she was saying. “No,” Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.”

David Morkan pointed out to me years ago those two phrases, “If thou knewest, thou wouldest.” When you begin to know something about the Lord Jesus, your heart responds to Him instinctively. While on his first trip to Japan, Dave Morkan was speaking to a large crowd of the dear Japanese people, and many of them of course, most of them had never heard of the living God, nor indeed of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. David is a man who has memorized large portions of the Word of God. And so what he did, he told me, was just to stand up, he didn’t preach, he just stood up when he was introduced and he quoted from memory the 18th, and 19th, and 20th, and 21st chapters of the Gospel of John. And he said, as he finished quoting the Word of God, telling about the Lord Jesus and His death on Calvary, His resurrection, His promise of life eternal, when he finished quoting that long passage of scripture, he said people were coming to Christ. They were in tears. There was real repentance.

This was not the traditional courtesy of the wonderful Japanese people who, then and now, always try to please a guest. This was not the traditional courtesy of complying with a request. This was deep conviction that had settled upon them. “If thou knewest, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” I come to this question then, beloved, how much do you really know about the Lord Jesus? Well, you’ve been to Sunday School, you’ve read the Bible, you may even have taken some courses in a Bible institute or a college, or even in seminary. I’ve talked to some very learned people who didn’t really know the Lord. And so it’s possible for you to have a great deal of information about Him, but not really to know Him. What do you really know concerning the Lord Jesus? Have you really met Him? Do you talk with Him? Do you share anything with Him? Does He speak to you through His indwelling Holy Spirit and through the Word of God?

“If thou knewest thou wouldest.” Do you want to be motivated to serve God better? Get to know Jesus better. You see, Christian service is not pumping up a bogus enthusiasm that will drive you for a while. Far more and far deeper than that. You and I, as we wait in the presence of our blessed Lord, are filled with the desire to know Him better and to serve Him better. If you want to motivate yourself for Christian service, get to know your Lord. “If thou knewest thou wouldest.” I want to go back to that sixth verse of John chapter 4. It says, “Jesus being wearied with His journey.” Remind yourself that our Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly human. He got hungry. He got tired. He cried. He got sorrowful. He knew the sting of sorrow. He slept when He was tired, Jesus did. And of course He died and rose again. He had a physical body. He said, “Touch me, handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is, was and is perfectly human. He’s the man and the glory. There’s one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. As a little child He grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God and men. He knew the sting of poverty, all of that. He knew pain. He knew discouragement. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death,” He said. Jesus is perfectly human, but also perfectly divine. I get a great deal of comfort out of that, don’t you? “We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” says the writer to the Hebrews. Take out the double negative and he’s actually saying, “We do have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”

Doesn’t it get you when people try to cheer you up in a condition that they themselves have never experienced? Or when someone tries to give you advice in a situation where they’ve never had the experience of going through it? That gets you, doesn’t it? Oh yes. But Jesus has gone through it, He knows. The Bible says, “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” He knows the pressures of temptation. He knows what it is to be human. He knows what it is to be tired, and hungry, and sorrowful, and discouraged, and crying and dying. He knows it all. We do have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

As our children and grandchildren have grown up through the years, oftentimes I would find my wife weeping over some problem, some hurt, some illness of a child or a grandchild. And husband-like I would say, “Oh, why do you grieve over that?” Why do you worry over it? Why do you take that burden on yourself?” [chuckle] Husbands say that, don’t they? She would look up at me and say… She’s always patient with me, I’m grateful for that. And she’d say, patiently, “You don’t really understand how mothers feel.” And of course, that’s true, I’ve never been a mother. [chuckle] But mothers take the feeling of somebody else’s woe, their own child, or grandchild, or loved one. They take on them the feeling of somebody else’s woe because they’ve gone through it. Isn’t it true?

Jesus, your blessed Lord, can feel how you feel. He knows. And I’m talking to somebody who this very minute is crying because your heart is broken. And somebody who’s possessed with fear because you don’t know which way to turn. And somebody else who’s been hurt so deeply that you think you’ll never recover to a place where you can trust another human being again. And I want you to know that the Lord Jesus Christ knows how you feel. And the Bible says, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” You’re His concern. Talk to Him. Tell Him about it, and let Him touch you with His nail-pierced hand.

Dear Father today, may we put our trust in this wonderful Jesus who knows how we feel. In His name, I pray. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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