3124. Real Contact With Jesus

A Sermon Published On Thursday, December 24, 1908.

And Jesus said, “Someone has touched me: for I perceive that power is gone out of me.” {Lu 8:46}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3020, “Good Cheer from Grace Received” 3021}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3124, “Real Contact with Jesus” 3125}

   Exposition on Lu 8:26-56 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2593, “Welcome for Jesus, A” 2594 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Lu 8:41-56 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3529, “More Room for More People” 3531 @@ "Exposition"}

1. Our Lord was very frequently in the midst of a crowd. His preaching was so plain and so forcible that he always attracted a vast company of hearers; and, moreover, the rumour of the loaves and fishes no doubt had something to do with increasing his audiences, while the expectation of beholding a miracle would be sure to add to the numbers of the hangers-on. Our Lord Jesus Christ often found it difficult to move through the streets, because of the masses who pressed against him. This was encouraging to him as a preacher, and yet how little real good came out of all the excitement which gathered around his personal ministry! He might have looked at the large crowd, and have said, “What is the chaff to the wheat?” for here it was piled up on the threshing-floor, heap upon heap; and yet, after his decease, his disciples might have been counted by a few scores, for those who had spiritually received him were very few. Many were called, but few were chosen. Yet, wherever one was blessed, our Saviour took note of it; it touched a chord in his soul. He never could be unaware when power had gone out of him to heal a sick one, or when power had gone out with his ministry to save a sinful one. Of all the crowd that gathered around the Saviour on the day of which our text speaks, I find nothing said about one of them except this solitary “someone” who had touched him. The crowd came, and the crowd went; but little is recorded of it all. Just as the ocean, having advanced to full tide, leaves very little behind it when it retires again to its channel, so the vast multitude around the Saviour left only this one precious deposit,—one “someone” who had touched him, and had received power from him.

2. Ah, my Master, it may be so again this evening! These Sabbath mornings, and these Sabbath evenings, the crowds come pouring in like a mighty ocean, filling this house, and then they all retire again; only here and there is a “someone” left weeping for sin, a “someone” left rejoicing in Christ, a “someone” who can say; “I have touched the hem of his garment, and I have been made well.” All of my other hearers are not worth the “someones.” The many of you are not worth the few, for the many are the pebbles, and the few are the diamonds; the many are the heaps of husks, and the few are the precious grains. May God find them at this hour, and his shall be all the praise!

3. Jesus said, “Someone has touched me,” from which we observe that, in the use of means and ordinances, we should never be satisfied unless we get into personal contact with Christ, so that we touch him, as this woman touched his garment. Secondly, if we get into such personal contact, we shall have a blessing: “I perceive that power is gone out of me”; and, thirdly, if we do get a blessing, Christ will know it, however obscure our case may be, he will know it, and he will have us let others know it; he will speak, and ask such questions as will draw us out, and reveal us to the world.

4. I. First, then, IN THE USE OF ALL MEANS AND ORDINANCES, LET IT BE OUR CHIEF AIM AND OBJECT TO COME INTO PERSONAL CONTACT WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

5. Peter said, “The multitude throng you, and press you,” and that is true of the multitude to this very day; but of those who come where Christ is in the assembly of his saints, a large proportion only come because it is their custom to do so. Perhaps they hardly know why they go to a place of worship. They go because they always did go, and they think it is wrong not to go. They are just like the doors which swing on their hinges; they take no interest in what is done, at least only in the exterior parts of the service; they do not enter into the heart and soul of the business, and cannot enter. They are glad if the sermon is rather short, there is so much the less tedium for them. They are glad if they can look around and gaze at the congregation, they find in that something to interest them; but getting near to the Lord Jesus is not the business they come for. They have not looked at it in that light. They come and they go; they come and they go; and it will be so until, eventually, they will come for the last time, and they will find out in the next world that the means of grace were not instituted to be matters of custom, and that to have heard Jesus Christ preached, and to have rejected him, is no trifle, but a solemn thing for which they will have to answer in the presence of the great Judge of all the earth.

6. There are others who come to the house of prayer, and try to enter into the service, and do so in a certain way; but it is only self-righteously or by profession. They may come to the Lord’s table; perhaps they attend to the ordinance of baptism; they may even join the church. They are baptized, yet not by the Holy Spirit; they take the Lord’s supper, but they do not take the Lord himself; they eat the bread, but they never eat his flesh; they drink the wine, but they never drink his blood; they have been buried in the pool, but they have never been buried with Christ in baptism, nor have they risen again with him into newness of life. To them, to read, to sing, to kneel, to hear, and so on, are enough. They are content with the shell, but the blessed spiritual kernel, the true marrow and fatness, these they know nothing about. These are the many, go into whatever church or meeting-house you please. They are in the crowd around Jesus, but they do not touch him. They come, but they do not come into contact with Jesus. They are outward, external hearers only, but there is no inward touching of the blessed person of Christ, no mysterious contact with the ever-blessed Saviour, no stream of life and love flowing from him to them. It is all mechanical religion. Of vital godliness, they know nothing.

7. But Christ said, “Someone has touched me,” and that is the soul of the matter. Oh my hearer, when you are in prayer alone, never be satisfied with having prayed; do not give it up until you have touched Christ in prayer; or, if you have not gotten to him, at any rate sigh and cry until you do! Do not think you have prayed, but try again. When you come to public worship, I beseech you, do not rest satisfied with listening to the sermon, and so on,—as you all do with sufficient attention; to that I bear you witness;—but do not be content unless you get to Christ the Master, and touch him. At all times when you come to the communion table, consider it to have been no ordinance of grace to you unless you have gone right through the veil into Christ’s own arms, or at least have touched his garment, feeling that the first object, the life and soul of the means of grace, is to touch Jesus Christ himself; and unless “someone” has touched him, everything has been a mere dead performance, without life or power.

8. The woman in our text was not only among those who were in the crowd, but she touched Jesus; and therefore, beloved, let me hold her up to your example in some respects, though I wish that in other respects you might excel her.

9. Note, first, she felt that it was of no use to be in the crowd, of no use to be on the same street with Christ, or near to the place where Christ was, but she must get to him; she must touch him. She touched him, you will notice, under many difficulties. There was a great crowd. She was a woman. She was also a woman enfeebled by a disease which had long drained her constitution, and left her more fit to be on a bed than to be struggling in the seething tumult. Yet, notwithstanding that, so intense was her desire, that she urged on her way, I do not doubt with many a bruise, and many an uncouth push, and at last, poor trembler as she was, she got near to the Lord. Beloved, it is not always easy to get to Jesus. It is very easy to kneel down to pray, but not so easy to reach Christ in prayer. There is a child crying, he is your own, and his noise has often hindered you when you were striving to approach Jesus; or a knock will come at the door when you most wish to be retired. When you are sitting in the house of God, your neighbour in the seat before you may unconsciously distract your attention. It is not easy to draw near to Christ, especially coming as some of you do right away from the office, and from the workshop, with a thousand thoughts and cares about you. You cannot always unload your burden outside, and come in here with your hearts prepared to receive the gospel. Ah! it is a terrible fight sometimes, a real foot to foot fight with evil, with temptation, and I do not know what else. But beloved, fight it out, fight it out; do not let your times for prayer be wasted, nor your times for hearing be thrown away; but, like this woman, be resolved, with all your feebleness, that you will lay hold on Christ. And oh! if you are resolved about it, if you cannot get to him, he will come to you, and sometimes, when you are struggling against unbelieving thoughts, he will turn and say, “Make room for that poor feeble one, so that she may come to me, for my desire is for the work of my own hands; let her come to me, and let her desire be granted to her.”

10. Observe, again, that this woman touched Jesus very secretly. Perhaps there is a dear sister here who is getting near to Christ at this very moment, and yet her face does not betray her. It is so little contact that she has gained with Christ that the joyful flush, and the sparkle of the eye, which we often see in the child of God, have not yet come to her. She is sitting in that obscure corner, or standing in this aisle, but though her touch is secret, it is true. Though she cannot tell another about it, yet it is accomplished. She has touched Jesus. Beloved, that is not always the nearest fellowship with Christ of which we talk the most. Deep waters are still. No, I am sure that we sometimes get nearer to Christ when we think we are at a distance than we do when we imagine we are near him, for we are not always the best judges of our own spiritual state; and we may be very close to the Master, and yet, for all that, we may be so anxious to get closer that we may feel dissatisfied with the measure of grace which we have already received. To be satisfied with self, is no sign of grace; but to long for more grace, is often a far better evidence of the healthy state of the soul. Friend, if you are not come to the table tonight publicly, come to the Master in secret. If you dare not tell your wife, or your child, or your father, that you are trusting in Jesus, it need not be told as yet. You may do it secretly, as he did to whom Jesus said, “When you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael retired to the shadows so that no one might see him; but Jesus saw him, and noted his prayer, and he will see you in the crowd, and in the dark, and not withhold his blessing.

11. This woman also came into contact with Christ under a very deep sense of unworthiness. I daresay she thought, “If I touch the Great Prophet, it will be a wonder if he does not strike me with some sudden judgment,” for she was a woman ceremonially unclean. She had no right to be in the throng. Had the Levitical law been strictly carried out, I suppose she would have been confined to her house; but there she was wandering around, and she needed to go and touch the holy Saviour. Ah, poor heart! you feel that you are not fit to touch the skirts of the Master’s robe, for you are so unworthy. You never felt so undeserving before as you do at this moment. In the memory of last week and its infirmities, in the memory of the present state of your heart and all its wanderings from God, you feel as if there never was so worthless a sinner in the house of God before. “Is grace for me?” you ask. “Is Christ for me?” Oh, yes, unworthy one! Do not be put off without it. Jesus Christ does not save the worthy, but the unworthy. Your plea must not be righteousness, but guilt. And you, too, child of God, though you are ashamed of yourself, Jesus is not ashamed of you; and though you feel unfit to come, let your unfitness only impel you with all the greater earnestness of desire. Let your sense of need make you all the more fervent to approach the Lord, who can supply your need.

12. So, you see, the woman came under difficulties, she came secretly, she came as an unworthy one, but still she obtained the blessing.

13. I have known many staggered by that saying of Paul’s, “He who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself.” Now, understand that this passage does not refer to that unworthiness of those people who come to the Lord’s table; for it does not say, “He who eats and drinks being unworthy.” It is not an adjective; it is an adverb: “He who eats and drinks unworthily,” that is to say, he who shall come to the outward and visible sign of Christ’s presence, and shall eat the bread in order to obtain money by being a member of the church, knowing himself to be a hypocrite, or who shall do it jestingly, trifling with the ordinance; such a person would be eating and drinking unworthily, and he will be condemned. The sense of the passage is, not “damnation,” as our version translates it, but “condemnation.” There can be no doubt that members of the church, coming to the Lord’s table in an unworthy manner, do receive condemnation. They are condemned for doing so, and the Lord is grieved. If they have any conscience at all, they ought to feel their sin; and if not, they may expect the chastisements of God to visit them. But, oh sinner, as for coming to Christ,—which is a very different thing from coming to the Lord’s table,—as for coming to Christ, the more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the better! Come, you filthy one, for Christ can wash you. Come, you loathsome one, for Christ can beautify you. Come utterly ruined and undone, for in Jesus Christ there is the strength and salvation which your case requires.

14. Notice, once again, that this woman touched the Master very tremblingly, and it was only a hurried touch, but still it was a touch of faith. Oh, beloved, to lay hold on Christ! Be thankful if you only get near him for a few minutes. “Stay with me,” should be your prayer; but oh, if he should only give you a glimpse of himself, be thankful! Remember that a touch healed the woman. She did not embrace Christ for hours on end. She only had a touch, and she was healed; and oh, may you have a sight of Jesus now, my beloved! Though it is only a glimpse, yet it will gladden and cheer your souls. Perhaps you are waiting on Christ, desiring his company, and while you are thinking the matter over in your mind you are asking, “Will he ever shine on me? Will he ever speak loving words to me? Will he ever let me sit at his feet? Will he ever permit me to lean my head on his bosom?” Come and try him. Though you should shake like an aspen leaf, still come. They sometimes come best who come most tremblingly; for, when the creature is lowest, then the Creator is highest; and when, in our own esteem, we are less than nothing and vanity, then Christ is all the more fair and lovely in our eyes. One of the best ways of climbing to heaven is on our hands and knees. At any rate, there is no fear of falling when we are in that position for—

   “He that is down need fear no fall.”

Let your lowliness of heart, your sense of utter nothingness, instead of disqualifying you, be a sweet medium for leading you to receive more from Christ. The more empty I am, the more room there is for my Master. The more I lack, the more he will give me. The more I feel my sickness, the more I shall adore and bless him when he makes me whole.

15. You see, the woman really did touch Christ, and so I come back to that. Whatever infirmity there was in the touch, it was a real touch of faith. She reached Christ himself. She did not touch Peter; that would have been of no use to her, any more than it is for the parish priest to tell you that you are regenerate when your life soon proves that you are not. She did not touch John or James; that would have been of no more good to her than it is for you to be touched by a bishop’s hands, and to be told that you are confirmed in the faith, when you are not even a believer, and therefore have no faith to be confirmed in. She touched the Master himself; and please, do not be content unless you can do the same. Put out the hand of faith, and touch Christ. Rest on him. Rely on his atoning sacrifice, his dying love, his rising power, his ascended plea; and as you rest in him, your vital touch, however feeble, will certainly give you the blessing your soul needs.

16. This brings me to the second part of my discourse, on which I will say only a little.

17. II. THE WOMAN IN THE CROWD TOUCHED JESUS, AND, HAVING DONE SO, SHE RECEIVED POWER FROM HIM.

18. The healing energy streamed at once through the finger of faith into the woman. In Christ, there is healing for all spiritual diseases. There is a speedy healing, a healing which will not take months nor years, but which is complete in one second. There is in Christ a sufficient healing, though your diseases should be multiplied beyond all bounds. There is in Christ an all-conquering power to drive out every ill. Though, like this woman, you baffle physicians, and your case is considered desperate beyond all parallel, yet a touch of Christ will heal you. What a precious, glorious gospel I have to preach to sinners! If they touch Jesus, no matter though the devil himself were in them, that touch of faith would drive the devil out of them. Though you were like the man into whom there had entered a legion of demons, the word of Jesus would cast them all into the deep, and you would sit at his feet, clothed, and in your right mind. There is no excess or extravagance of sin which the power of Jesus Christ cannot overcome. If you can believe, whatever you may have been, you shall be saved. If you can believe, though you have been lying in the scarlet dye until the warp and woof of your being are ingrained with it, yet the precious blood of Jesus shall make you white as snow. Though you are become black as hell itself, and only fit to be cast into the pit, yet if you trust Jesus, that simple faith shall give to your soul the healing which shall make you fit to tread the streets of heaven, and to stand before Jehovah-Rophi’s face, magnifying the Lord who heals you.

19. And now, child of God, I want you to learn the same lesson. Very likely, when you came in here, you said, “Alas! I feel very dull; my spirituality is at a very low ebb; the place is hot, and I do not feel prepared to hear; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak; I shall have no holy enjoyment today!” Why not? Why, the touch of Jesus could make you live if you were dead, and surely it will stir the life that is in you, though it may seem to you to be dying! Now, struggle hard, my beloved, to get to Jesus. May the Eternal Spirit come and help you, and may you yet find that your dull, dead times can soon become your best times! Oh, what a blessing it is that God takes the beggar up from the dunghill! He does not raise us when he sees us already up, but when he finds us lying on the dunghill, then he delights to lift us up, and set us among princes. Even before you are aware, your soul may become like the chariots of Amminadib. Up from the depths of heaviness to the very heights of ecstatic worship you may mount in a single moment if you can only touch Christ crucified. View him over there, with streaming wounds, with thorn-crowned head, as, in all the majesty of his misery, he dies for you!

20. “Alas!” you say, “I have a thousand doubts tonight.” Ah! but your doubts will soon vanish when you draw near to Christ. He never doubts who feels the touch of Christ,—at least, not when the touch lasts. For, observe this woman; she felt in her body that she was healed, and so shall you, if you will only come into contact with the Lord. Do not wait for evidences, but come to Christ for evidences. If you cannot even dream of a good thing in yourselves, come to Jesus Christ as you did at the first. Come to him as if you never had come at all. Come to Jesus as a sinner and your doubts shall flee away.

21. “Indeed!” another says, “but I remember my sins, my sins since conversion.” Well, then, return to Jesus, when your guilt seems to return. The fountain is still open and that fountain, you will remember, is not only open for sinners, but for saints; for what does the Scripture say? “There shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem,”—that is, for you, church members, for you, believers in Jesus. The fountain is still open. Come, beloved, come to Jesus anew, and whatever are your sins, or doubts, or heaviness, they shall all depart as soon as you can touch your Lord.

22. III. And now the last point is,—and I will not detain you long on it,—IF SOMEONE SHALL TOUCH JESUS, THE LORD WILL KNOW IT.

23. I do not know your names; a great number of you are perfect strangers to me. It does not matter; your name is “someone,” and Christ will know you. You are a total stranger, perhaps, to everyone in this place; but if you get a blessing, there will be two who will know it, you will, and Christ will. Oh! if you should look to Jesus today, it may not be registered in our church-book, and we may not hear about it, but still it will be registered in the courts of heaven, and they will set all the bells of the New Jerusalem ringing, and all the harps of angels will take a fresh lease of music as soon as they know that you are born again.

   With joy the Father doth approve

      The fruit of his eternal love;

   The Son with joy looks down and sees

      The purchase of his agonies.

   The Spirit takes delight to view

      The holy soul he formed anew;

   And saints and angels join to sing

      The growing empire of their King.

“Someone!” I do not know the woman’s name; I do not know who the man is, but—“Someone!”—God’s electing love rests on you, Christ’s redeeming blood was shed for you, the Spirit has accomplished an effective work in you, or you would not have touched Jesus; and Jesus knows all this.

24. It is a consoling thought that Christ not only knows the great children in the family, but he also knows the little ones. This truth stands firm, “The Lord knows those who are his,” whether they are only brought to know him now, or whether they have known him for fifty years. “The Lord knows those who are his,” and if I am a part of Christ’s body, I may be only the foot, but the Lord knows the foot; and the head and the heart in heaven feel acutely when the foot on earth is bruised. If you have touched Jesus, I tell you that, amid the glories of angels, and the everlasting hallelujahs of all the blood-bought souls around his throne, he has found time to hear your sigh, to receive your faith, and to give you an answer of peace. All the way from heaven to earth there has rushed a mighty stream of healing power, which has come from Christ to you. Since you have touched him, the healing power has touched you.

25. Now, since Jesus knows about your salvation, he wishes other people to know about it, and that is why he has put it into my heart to say, “Someone has touched the Lord.” Where is that someone? Someone, where are you? Someone, where are you? You have touched Christ, though with a feeble finger, and you are saved. Let us know about it. It is due to us to let us know. You cannot guess what joy it gives us when we hear about sick ones being healed by our Master. Some of you, perhaps, have known the Lord for months, and you have not yet come forward to make an affirmation of it; we urge you to do so. You may come forward tremblingly, as this woman did; you may perhaps say, “I do not know what I should tell you.” Well, you must tell us what she told the Lord; she told him all the truth. We do not want to hear anything else. We do not desire any sham experience. We do not want you to manufacture feelings like someone else’s that you have read about in a book. Come and tell us what you have felt. We shall not ask you to tell us what you have not felt, or what you do not know. But, if you have touched Christ, and you have been healed, I ask it, and I think I may ask it as your duty, as well as a favour to us, to come and tell us what the Lord has done for your soul.

26. And you, believers, when you come to the Lord’s table, if you draw near to Christ, and have a sweet season, tell it to your brethren. Just as when Benjamin’s brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain, they left Benjamin at home, but they took a sack for Benjamin, so you ought always to take a word home for the sick wife at home, or the child who cannot come out. Take home food for those of the family who cannot come for it. May God grant that you may always have something sweet to tell when you have been impacted by a precious truth, for while the sermon may have been sweet in itself, it comes with a double power when you can add, “and there was a savour about it which I enjoyed, and which made my heart leap for joy!”

27. Whoever you may be, my dear friend, though you may be nothing but a poor “someone,” yet if you have touched Christ, tell others about it, in order that they may come and touch him, too; and may the Lord bless you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Other sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon this Miracle:—

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1809, “May I?” 1810}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2018, “Cured at Last!” 2019}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2019, “She was not Hid” 2020}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3020, “Good Cheer From Grace Received” 3021}

{See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3124, “Real Contact with Jesus” 3125}

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