Article December 21, 1940 Issue

What Jesus Knew

LAUNCELOT CECIL STUDDERT KENNEDY

DOWN the centuries thinkers have wondered and yearned to know what it was that Jesus knew which enabled him to face the world of his day with unparalleled confidence and authority. What was the knowledge which enabled him to give to his faithful students, who had but begun to discern what their great Master knew, these arresting commands: "Preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils"? In short, men are still asking, with an ever-increasing longing to know aright the answer to the age-old question, "By what authority doest thou these things?"

With spiritual conviction and on the basis of positive, unchallengeable demonstration, Jesus said to those who discerned and believed what he taught, "If ye continue in my word, . . . ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free;" and, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do." Such were his stirring commands and his reassuring promises.

After the close of that amazing three-year ministry of Christ Jesus, healing works were done by the Master's immediate disciples and by later followers, according to authentic records. Thus is the arresting record of Truth's advance established. But the scoffer may say: Equally authentic records reveal the lamentable fact that these mighty works of which you speak continued in human experience for only a few hundred years after the ascension of Jesus.

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