Stretch Forth Your Hand

This message was delivered by Jack Hayford from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral. It was aired during the Hour of Power program on Hong Kong's ATV World Channel on 15 August 2010.

Today, I want to talk to you about Jesus speaking to a man, saying, "Stretch forth your hand."

Before I read the text, I want to share that this is a celebrative weekend for me. I already mentioned to Bob (Dr. Schuller), when we were conversing privately before the service, that my birthday was just this past Friday and so I'm celebrating my 76th birthday with a visit to the Cathedral. And that makes it special for me. That wasn't intended to evoke applause, but I welcome anything I can get at my age. In just a couple of weeks, Anna and I are celebrating - and please don't applaud this too because I don't want to wear you out - our 56th anniversary and Friday. The number of grandchildren and great grandchildren now number nine, with the ninth born this month. There's a word they use for people who have great grandchildren: Old.

Mrs. Schuller greeted me, as I arrived today, and she asked me if I was going to read some birthday cards today. Some of you may be familiar with the fact that, on occasion, I do that. And I have two cards for you today hoping, Dr. Schuller, that the second one will pass muster here as acceptable. The first is okay. The first one features Maxine, who's the character, an older lady on the Shoebox cards who always has a cynical attitude and a sarcastic remark. On this card, on the front, Maxine says, "Well, at least at your age you haven't lost any of your faculties. But your student body is long gone." My son sent me another birthday card, and I do forgive him for this card, I hope you'll forgive me for announcing it to you. The front of it says, "Happy birthday. A question for you at this time of your life: Do old men wear boxer shorts or briefs? Depends." Well, your laughter is a comfort to me.

On this birthday weekend for me and on this wonderful day in which we have been celebrating the grace of God - the songs we have sung together and the music we just joined in on singing, including one of the most remarkable hymns throughout the ages of Christendom, "Amazing Grace." Then, with the amazing testimony of Kristen Jane Anderson, I am blown away by the choreography of the Holy Spirit to bring together these things to address us, and then for me to get to speak what I believe is Jesus' words in light of these things.

They're taken from the 12th chapter of Matthew. I want to tell you what surrounds the text and then I want to read just two verses. But in the 12th chapter, beginning in verse 9, the Bible describes Jesus coming into the synagogue. As He came into that gathering, there was a group of spiritual leaders, at least they were called spiritual leaders, whose purpose was to criticize Jesus at every opportunity because they perceived Him as breaking the law of God, especially when He did anything good on the Sabbath day. By their definition of God's Sabbath, which is intended for the fulfillment and benefit of humanity, they had created a list of laws that were so ludicrous. This is no joke, it's a fact, but you could not cut your fingernails on the Sabbath because they believed that would violate the God's law regarding not doing any "work" on that day. And, if a man were claim God did the healing on the Sabbath, they would believe he was lying. They believed it would have to have been some being other than God that healed the person. They, of course, attributed to Jesus satanic works when He healed. Having raised the question, Jesus answered them, "Who of you would not, if one of your animals on your farm fell in a ditch, go out on the Sabbath and drag it out." And then Jesus makes the obvious conclusion when He says, "Man is more valuable than an animal. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

And He turned to a man who was there, who had a withered hand. And this is what took place. "Turning to the man, He said, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the other. And the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him." It's so incredible that their desire after the phenomenal healing miracle was to say angrily, "We want to kill this man." It tells us the ridiculous ends to which human religious structures, out of control, missing the heart of God, can move to the place that they are so blinded as to impose their own regulations at the expense of human well being. In contrast to this, everything about God and His person expresses such gentleness and love in Jesus' action. And it's not only in the mercy of the healing, which is beautiful in its own right, it's in words that speak something to us timelessly. I'd like for you to hear this morning, wherever you are, whatever you're facing, whether here in the Cathedral, wherever you're located in any place around this world as you hear this message, that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to address you this morning and say, "Stretch out your hand." I want to talk about the implications of that.

I will never forget the day that this boy walked into my classroom. I was in the 3rd grade and in walked this boy who I would come to know through the growing years, though he never became a close friend because we were in large schools. He was a new student and there's usually a certain pause with everyone watching and studying this person, but there was something more than a pause because we could see he had an obvious disability. One arm was normal - his right arm. His left arm was about ten inches long. We went all the way through high school together and it never grew any more than that as the result of, obviously, a severe birth defect. He never grew that arm any further, and whenever I read this passage, I think of that man, that boy, that kid I knew in high school. He eventually became a very muscular athlete. He ran in track. He was capable in sports. He even played basketball and it was interesting to watch him. Though he didn't make the team, he would practice playing, dribbling the ball very well. He could take that ball, slip it under that tiny little arm, and then navigate the passing off, as may be the case. The way that he navigated his disability was meaningful to all of us who grew through those years with him. But his arm still never grew. It remained as we first saw it when he walked in as the new kid in school.

There are people who learn to navigate life very well with something that is withered in them. Or, there are things that have happened that have withered and life doesn't seem to be traveling very well at all. And it's into this kind of situation that Jesus speaks because He is not only the Lord of healing of a withered hand, but He's the Lord of calling us to stretch forth beyond whatever it is that would limit or restrict us. If there is anything that's true of the love of God toward us, it's that we would be able, by reason of His love, to reach further than we could ever reach before. It's His heart for you; it's His desire for us. We heard Kristen's story. And, my, how marvelously, at the price of the loss of her legs, she's learned to reach further than she ever could before. And, as we gather here this morning, I'm wondering about any of us that are here, who may think that "if they only knew what I've faced," we could hear a testimony as dramatic as the one we've heard. And still, somehow, feel that "Yes, that's marvelous but will the Lord do that for me?"

I don't know of anything that fills the heart of anyone who ministers the word of God any more than the desire to help people come to recognize there is not a word in this book that does not speak to you, to me. That it includes the words of hope, words of promise, and the words of power to bring about whatever that promise contains.

And inherent in these words that Jesus spoke to that man that day is His word to each of us here in this room or tuned to this broadcast. He says to you, "Stretch forth your hand." I've often wondered how His voice sounded when He said that. I think we're inclined to think that it would have been rather thunderous. "Stretch forth your hand!" Something melodramatic about it. But, when you come to a person that has lived with something that has withered, they don't need to hear the thunder, but they do need to receive the power. And the power is spoken in tenderness and grace. And it's the grace that this text goes on to describe. It quotes from the prophet Isaiah and it speaks, first, of the Lord Jesus, Himself, the Messiah. It describes Him coming as a servant. Oh, that God would serve our need. He comes to meet us where we are and to serve us. The God of the universe. I can even imagine Jesus on one knee before the man, saying, "Stretch forth your hand." Reaching toward the withered limb from where He may have been seated, not simply speaking from a distance, but coming close to the man and saying, "I'm here for you. Stretch forth your hand."

It also says that "The power of the Holy Spirit would be upon him," and that's the spirit He has poured forth upon His people. All who will open to Him, it's by the Holy Spirit He draws us to Himself. It's by the Holy Spirit He's given us His word. It's by the Holy Spirit He breathes into our moment and He says, "Stretch forth your hand. Stretch it forth."

Then it describes Jesus in two graphic descriptions. The first one, as Matthew sites the prophet Isaiah, describes the Savior who'd come and was evidenced in this encounter. He says that every time He encounters human need, He will come and will "not crush a broken or bruised plant. Nor will He extinguish a smoking wick of a candle." The picture is describing our human condition in different ways. One: things that crush us, things that press in on us.

Near our home the other day, I was on a walk and I saw a garden bed near the sidewalk where a car had accidentally backed out of the driveway and gone over some beautiful flowers and they were absolutely crushed beyond any use. They would have had to be replanted. I came back two or three days later walking that same way and there were brand new flowers in there because a gardener had come and dug out and thrown away the crushed ones, and put in replacements.

What this text says is that's not what the Lord does. He comes to us where the broken things are beyond imaginable recovery and, by His power, is able because He's Creator. Describing a flower, He will bring it back to fragrance. Describing a plant, He'll bring it back to fruitfulness because as Creator, He does not have to say, "I'll throw this away, and start over and take time to grow this," but He has the ability to meet us in a phenomenal moment.

With Kristen, that moment was a sudden cry out to God and singing "Amazing Grace," even in the wake of having discovered the price of the horrible decision she'd made earlier. But in that moment, she was met by God, and we've seen the fruit in her testimony. And as we are here together this morning, the Lord is saying this is your moment, "Stretch forth your hand." And in a few moments, I'm going to ask everyone in this room to extend your hand in front of you at any point it may apply, in your behalf or for someone for whom you deeply care. When you wonder if it's hopeless and your faith withers as to whether there can come recovery for you or for them, the Lord says reach in faith and lay hold of the promise for their answer, not only your own.

The last figure that is given is the smoking wick. All of us have had something smoking -a log in the fireplace that is nearly out, the embers still encrusted within the log with smoke coming out and it's just aggravating. Or a candle that continues burning and smoking and we put them out because they annoy us. And God is saying no matter how burned out things may be with you, it is not an annoyance to Me. No matter how bound you are, feeling your own futility or helplessness or the incapacity to come boldly to God, He says reach to Me.

I'm going to ask you to extend your hand out right where you are. Just straight out in front of you. And I'm going to ask you to reach out with your left hand if you are left-handed and with your right if you're right-handed, so it's an immediate representation of something that is so personal to you. I'm going to ask if you would just take that hand, at whatever point, and say, "Lord, I will not let faith or hope or expectation wither. Whatever doubt would cause me to draw back in, I choose to stretch forth my hand." And I'd like for you now to stretch it up about head high now.

Father, I pray that You'd reach and take every hand. What You have begun with this act of faith, take it on to full completion as with the man in the synagogue. Be praised this day, even as hands rise with acknowledgement that You are able to restore what is beyond repair and to bring what has been burned out with the breath of Your spirit back to glow, through Christ our Lord.

And we'll say a loud "Amen!" And may we say a "Hallelujah!" Praise Him now with me, if you will. God bless you.

© Copyright Hour of Power 2010. This message was delivered by Jack Hayford from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power, July 18, 2010.