The officers who were sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees to arrest the Lord Jesus came back with this report: “Never man spake like this man”. They heard the Saviour declare on that last great day of the feast: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” These were extraordinary words for any man to utter and the officers were constrained by them not to fulfil the command of the chief priests and the Pharisees to arrest Him. The report the officers brought back was a true one and is one that all will have to acknowledge who hear the voice of this One.
He spoke as never man spoke for He was the Holy One of God. What proceeded from His lips proceeded from sinless lips. He was holy, harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners, neither was guile found in His mouth. He ever spoke the words of truth and soberness. His word was with power. He spoke with authority and not as the scribes. Men could not but take notice of this. What He said was not acceptable to all men. It was not acceptable to the carnal heart of man. There was often a division because of Him when He spoke. Some believed the things which He spoke and some believed not. Yet “never man spake like this man”.
He who spoke so as to impress the officers sent to arrest Him was none other than the God-man Redeemer, God manifest in the flesh. He was very God of very God, yet truly man, God and man in two distinct natures but in one person. Is it then to be wondered at that never man spoke like this man? He was the Son of the living God and yet the Daysman, the Kinsman-Redeemer who was to redeem His people from all iniquity. Here was the great Prophet of the Church whose coming
Moses predicted. So it was the words of God He made known, making known to men the will of God for their salvation. With such a message to declare how could men say aught else of Him but this — “never man spake like this man”.
What a Sabbath day it must have been in the synagogue of Nazareth when Jesus stood up to read the prophet Isaiah and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” How arresting it must have been for the people assembled as He closed the book and gave it to the minister, and sat down and, with the eyes of all that were in the synagogue fastened on Him, began to speak. What words had He to address to them? Was it to tell them of a Saviour who was to come, a promised Messiah who would yet appear? No, but to declare before them all: “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Had any rabbi previously ever spoken such words or any reader of the Scriptures? Surely not, for none could declare as He could now declare that this Scripture was fulfilled in Him. “Never man spake like this man.” And not only was this Scripture fulfilled in Him but all the Scriptures found their fulfilment in Him who was the Messiah that was to come.
Never man spoke like this man in all the words that proceeded forth from His mouth. None could say as He did: “I am come a light into the world that he who believeth in me should not abide in darkness.” None ever spoke as He did when He said: “I and my Father are one.” None ever spoke as He did when He uttered the ever memorable seven sayings from the cross or, when in His agony in the garden of Gethsemane, He uttered these solemn words: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.” On the Cross there was wrung from His lips the pathetic heart-rending cry of dereliction: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Surely “never man spake like this man”. After His resurrection from the dead the two disciples on the way to Emmaus had to say: “Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked with us by the way and opened to us the Scriptures?” — for “never man spake like this man”.
So, too, in the experience of the living soul, when Christ speaks to their soul they have to say: “The voice of my Beloved” — for “never man spake like this man”. And what is His parting message to His disciples? It is: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid.” Never man spoke like this man to the tried and tempest-tossed hearts of His people and He assures them: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” He sealed the pardon of sin upon their hearts in a day of His grace, saying, “Thy sins which are many are forgiven thee”. And they could say “My Lord and my God” for “never man spake like this man”. Only this man had power on earth to forgive sins and He it is who now has power in heaven to seal pardon on the souls of poor needy and seeking souls by His spirit.
When He brought His people into the banqueting house and His banner over them was love, then they could say: “Never man spake like this man”. And the time is coming when He will bring them into His banqueting house above. “The Master is come and calleth for thee,” was said to Mary and that was enough for her. She hastened out to where He was. So it shall be with each of His people when this is fulfilled finally in their experience — “the Master is come and calleth for thee” — this will be enough for them. They will arise and go into the marriage supper of the Lamb and they shall never go out and their testimony of Him eternally shall be: “Never man spake like this man.”