Word of Salvation – Vol.05 No.07 – February 1959

 

Abide With Me

 

Sermon by Rev. A. I. de Graaf on Matthew 26:36-46

Liturgy:

Votum
Hymn 80:1,3
Ten Commandments
Hymn 48:3
Scripture Reading and Text: Matthew 26:36-46
Prayer
Offerings
Hymn 383 (tune 100)
Sermon
Hymn 455
Prayer
Hymn 434
Benediction
Hymn 464

 

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

“Abide with me…!!!”

There is something in that hymn, which sounds like the cry of a frightened child in the night.  A cry for his mother, his father.  Cries for fear and grief.  And from the deep, dark sky there COMES the answer: Fear not, here I am!

There COMES light in the darkness, there ARE Father’s arms around us.  When we cried, there was ONE who heard, and there WILL BE one who hears, when we cry …always.

Because once, it was cried in the deepest darkness by Father’s dearest child, but then the light stayed out; ONE was alone, that we should no more be alone; ONE, who loved, loved… till the very end.

Brothers and sisters, we are here this morning to hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That we might be comforted in our sorrow and fear, but at the same time also admonished when we too easily fall asleep.

We hear Him pray: “Abide with Me” and it remained silent, there was NO answer, we hear Him ask US: “O abide with Me…  but we left Him alone, and therefore, we now may call, “abide with Me” and it is answered.  But indeed we MUST keep on saying “abide with me”, for without Him it still is night.

There once, long, long ago, was a time that, “Abide with me”. was NOT cried by children in the night.  Because then these children were NOT alone.  They had a Father whom they loved, Who loved them.  Who always was very close.  And they had each other, and UNDERSTOOD each other.

Adam and Eve, a married couple who really were happy.

Their song of love was a hymn to God, and the birds took it over from them under the warm sunrays by day, and in the silver moonlight in the nights.  There was harmony, there was music.

When God’s children awoke in the night, the stars were telling it: “Father is still there, and look, there’s your wife! … there’s your husband!”   No reason for fear, sleep on, my child!

But at that terrible moment, that these two stretched out their hands to grasp the forbidden fruit, at the terrible moment that they wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil, and listened to the voice of the Prince of Darkness, there came a NEW and UNKNOWN word in their vocabulary, a word full of fright and terror: the word LONELINESS.

From then on children cry in the night for their mother, but mother does not really know why.  She’s a stranger.

From then on a man and a woman being married look at each other and in between them there’s a gap without a bridge.

From then on there are the SHIPS that pass in the night.  One moment you see the other’s light, and you THINK that there’s sympathy, there are some to help you, but they leave you alone again, alone in the darkness, is there anyone whom you can trust?

From then on children cry to their Father in heaven, ABIDE WITH ME!

But does He hear?  CAN He hear?  MUST He hear and come, and draw the curtains and say, look, Here I am to help you?

O, there is DARKNESS in that word: LONELY.

We do not want to be lonely, but we are, amidst other people who do NOT love us!  We do not want to be lonely, but we are, even if we switch on all the lights and make the noise of thousands of crooners and even if there is not a moment of silence – if the radio goes on, playing and playing… there is the cry of the children in the night: ABIDE WITH ME!  Don’t leave me alone, I am afraid, Lord, I am afraid!  For death must come, and there is the devil for whom I opened the door!  A thousand things to be afraid of are on my doorstep and the MORE noise I make, the more surely I know that I cannot push them away from me!

When Adam and Eve stretched their hand out to take that fruit, to strike God in His face, and to say “farewell” to their Father in heaven, they said farewell to the Light, the warmth, the life, they said farewell to their happy home, and to one another!

O, we know it too well.  We do know the night.  We know what it is, to cry out, “Abide with me…!” and it remains silent!

Or do we?

Do we know the night as HE does, who CAME, as GOD’s ANSWER, on Christmas Night?  For the curtains WERE drawn, to let HIM through!  HIM, whom I preach unto you today, HIM, the dear Son of God, who had not done sin, and who did not know evil, and who came to bring STRANGERS back home.

If ever anybody knew what loneliness was, it is He.  If ever anybody has CRIED with all His heart, “Abide with Me!” it is He!

If ever anybody has felt the TERROR of the night, it is He.

For that’s what He came to do: to bear OUR punishment, OUR loneliness, OUR night, to cry out, “Abide with Me…” without answer, in order that we, when we call upon God in the night, might hear His voice, and be comforted; might find the curtains drawn, and heavenly sunshine pouring in.

– – – – – –

There He goes.  With His disciples.  After a life of doing good in a strange world where He COULD NOT feel at home, after a life in which He healed the sick, and raised the dead, but was moved to tears by the ruins of our happiness, and WE OURSELVES ruined it…..!

He had had His last meal with those who were His chosen ones.  The faithful few who were with Him.

And now He goes with them, out into the night.  Eleven disciples are with Him.  Number twelve, is out on business.  His name is Judas Iscarioth.  He is out to sell His Master, to leave Him alone!  And Jesus knows!  But around Him are the others.

“Lord”, one of them said: “if all the others leave thee I will abide with you, do not worry.”  ‘Yes Lord..,” the others said, “you can trust us too!”

And if ever, then NOW Jesus NEEDS that.  For there he comes, the Prince of darkness.  And there He comes, God, His Father, but now a Stranger.  A stranger who asks Him to ANSWER for the sin of the world.  God comes to ask His Son, who became like us, to answer for the fact that we have killed each other by thousands and millions while He in His Law said “Thou shalt NOT!” – to answer for the fact that we hated one another, pushing one another away out of our homes and out of our lives, letting children starve in the street and letting our sons be torn apart on our battlefields… while He in His Law had said: “Thou shalt not!”

He had to answer for the fact that we made the temple of marriage to a pool of filth and a hearth of silent hate, in which children grow up burdened for a lifetime with disgust about the relationship of man and woman which once was called holy, while He in His Law had said: “Thou shalt not!”

He had to answer for the fact, that members of the church give their songs to God but keep their money for themselves and thus both steal and lie at the same time, while He in His Law has said: “Thou shalt love ME above all….!”

He had to answer, He had to bear, He knew WHAT was coming, “…and he began to be sorrowful and sore afraid!”

After a life of loneliness, to be the Loving Holy one in a world full of selfish egotists like we are, this was going to be the end.

The Cross, the answer He had to give to God, to a strange God Who hated our sin!

The answer He had to give, for the thousands of ways we offended him and one another.

And at that terrible moment, He says to the three most faithful of His disciples, boasting Peter, John and James, “Please, abide with me!”  Do not leave Me alone, now!  Keep awake with me, for I am afraid, I am SO afraid!  He who did SO much for them, at last asked them to do something for Him.  To keep awake, for ONE HOUR.  To abide with Him!  Because the Father was going away from Him.

The Father was going away from Him who had OUR SINS on His shoulders.

“Abide with Me,” Jesus cried!  But God had to leave Him alone.  So much God hated what Peter and John, Hitler and Stalin, you and I did, to trample His Holy law under our feet; Jesus bore on His shoulders, the white fields of graves of our young men killed in war, the tears of a wife whose husband took another one, the night of those who loved their money more than their Lord, and the fright of those, whose life was wrecked by the tongue of their neighbour, the cry of thousands of children in the night, and the flaming wrath of God about all this… He who created us good and after His image, and now asks: ANSWER WHY we became the servants of the devil.

The devil!  And he’s there, too!

And when Jesus goes back, to see whether Peter, John and James have stayed awake with Him, He finds them asleep, just like God has been waiting for His men to serve Him, but they let Him down time and again.  When Jesus then realises that this Peter is going to deny Him instead, and that the footsteps of Judas are approaching to give Him the murdering kiss of betrayal, then the devil is there and asks: Those are the ones YOU are going to die for…?

People who love themselves only, who pay you back with stripes, blows, a cross?  Are THEY worthwhile to suffer for as no one ever has suffered?

They, who sit in churches, but cheat their Lord with their songs they do not mean, or forget the other day what they have promised on the one?

O, the devil is there!  And Jesus, knowing what is ahead of Him, cries out: “Abide with Me!” Lord, Father, let this cup pass away from Me!

And He goes to His disciples, men like you and me, and He asks them with tears: “watch now with me, do not leave me alone, for I am afraid, ABIDE WITH ME!

Brothers and sisters, THEY DID NOT.

Peter did not; John did not; James did not; and you did not; and I did not.

Stay awake with Him, watch and pray with Him, share His terror FOR OUR SAKES.  WE DID NOT!

We slept while HE fought for OUR freedom!  WE slept whilst HE in the deepest night PRAYED THE HEAVEN OPEN FOR US.

“Father, not as I will, but Thy will be done!”  THY WILL BE DONE!

That was Jesus’ victory at last!  Thy will be done.
And what is the will of the Father?
That there would be children on earth, crying in the dark, who would not perish, but have everlasting life!

What was the will of the Father?
That we, whenever crying to Him, “Abide with me!” forevermore would find the curtains drawn back and the sunlight beaming in.

That was the will of the Father, that songs would sound FROM THE GRAVES, and that new men and new women would praise Him on a new earth!

That the devil be thrown out, and that “heaven’s morning should break and earth’s vain shadows should flee”, that we, people like Peter, people who have sinned SO much, who even could not stay awake with Jesus ONE HOUR, in life AND in death, should have the comfort of being no more their own, but belonging to their faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, Who with His precious Blood was to fully satisfy for ALL THEIR SINS, and to deliver them out of the power of the devil!

That they be given back the song;
I fear no foe, With Thee at hand to bless;
And if there still are tears, they’ve no more bitterness!
Where is death’s sting, where, grave, thy victory??

He cried it out, and that was the will of the Father, HE, IN OUR PLACE cried it out UNHEARD and UTTERLY LONELY, “Abide with me!” that no child in the dark evermore would pray THIS in vain!

There was ONE who remained faithful, while WE let Him down.
Faithful, even unto death, the shameful death of the Cross!

Has it ever been so clear to you and me, how He stood there, alone, in your place and mine?

And after having sweated blood, in terror and in anguish, WON, won back Father’s love for sinners coming home?

Shall we, whenever singing “Abide with me!” realise that we can sing it through Him, who sang it in vain?  Shall we, hard-hearted die-hards, at last be shameful?  Shameful to tears for what we’ve done to Him,… and yet… that UNTO US such love was given?

Brothers and sisters, THIS Jesus stands ready to help You, too.
But He also stands ready to listen.
He wants to hear the thankful song of your heart.
Showing, that, as far as YOU are concerned, NOT ALL THIS WAS IN VAIN.

He stands at YOUR door, and knocks.
And whosoever opens his heart unto Him, will have, yes, to KEEP ON saying “Abide with me!” for without Him still it is night and always will be night.

We have to keep on saying: “Abide with me”, but never- more, then, without an answer.

Do YOU know that?

Amen.