|
"... reaching forth unto those things which are
before ...
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
"
(Philippians 3:13-14)
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| Vol. 3, No. 1, Jan. - Feb. 1974 |
EDITOR: Mr. Harry Foster |
[ifc/1]
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HIS SHEPHERD CARE
J. Alec Motyer
Reading: Psalm 23
THE fact that the Lord is my shepherd carries with it the rather
unflattering description of me as a sheep. But that is what I am. Now,
so far as the shepherd is concerned, what would you say was the chief
virtue of a sheep? What does the shepherd want to see? I think the
answer must be that he wants restfulness, relaxation, submissiveness,
acceptance of His will. He wants to know that when he leads his flock
to a place, there it will be and there it will bide, until He leads it
somewhere else. He wants a sheep with an even, equable temperament, not
boisterious but relaxed under his hand.
Now we must be careful about Bible descriptions, since not one of them
is the whole truth. A Christian is a sheep, but a Christian is also a
soldier, and he is an athlete, a farmer and a bride. None of these
descriptions is the whole truth, but it is important to realise that
each one of them is part of the truth all the time. This analogy of the
sheep, then, is meant to be part of the truth all the time in our case.
Always we are meant to be characterised by restfulness, submission to
God's will, accepting everything that He says. We may be engaged in the
bitterest warfare against sin and Satan, as good soldiers of Jesus
Christ, but part of the truth is that we should always have peace and
rest in the midst of the warfare. And the purpose of this psalm is to
show how it can be part of the truth all the time that, as the Lord's
sheep, I may be of a restful and trustful disposition. The sheep here
described is completely satisfied. He has three words of glad
testimony: "I shall not want" (v.1); "I will fear no evil" (v.4) and "I
will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever" (v.6). This is the voice
of contentment, the voice of assurance and comfort, the voice of
inward, unworried confidence. Can we be like that at all times? Let us
consider five supports which this psalm gives us by truth which can
hold the faltering step steady, come what may.
1. The Lord Himself in person attends to every need
I find the whole of life in this psalm. There are the contrasting
experiences of life in rest and in activity; the contrasting elements
in the inner and the outward life; there are life's troubles and life's
happinesses; there is the fellowship of friends at the table and the
presence of enemies all around. Then we notice the allusions to various
times. There is the past tense (v.5 R.V.), the present tense, and the
future (v.6). Every moment of day or night, we are somewhere in Psalm
23. We are either resting or moving; either contemplating or busy on
our pathway; either in trouble or in joy; either with friends or with
enemies; and the whole time we are accompanied by our wonderful
Shepherd. All the time, in every circumstance of life, there He is, and
the greater the need the closer and more real is His presence.
Halfway through, the psalm suddenly changes from 'he' to 'Thou' and
this change takes place in the valley. There is a time-honoured
translation here: "the valley of the shadow of death", but death is
only part of life's darkness. The true translation should be: 'the
deepest darkness of all'. Not just death, but deep darkness, and when
the deepest darkness comes, then the 'He' changes to 'Thou'. He guides
me, but when darkness comes He moves right alongside. Nebuchadnezzar
said: 'How many men did we throw into the furnace?' and all those
fawning, flattering courtiers of his answered: 'Three men, O king.'
'But,' said he, 'I see four men loose in the middle of the fire and the
fourth is like the Son of God.' The Lord Himself in person attends to
every need.
2. The will of God gives purpose to life
Have you ever met a person in the sudden onset of trouble who has not
said to you: 'Why has this happened?' And God very rarely answers that
question, 'why'. The reason is He holds the answer back because it
would not help us if we knew: His medicine for the soul is not an icy
spoonful of logic. We face the agonies of life, and what makes double
anguish is that things offend our sense of logic. We cannot trace the
pattern behind what has happened to us. The scriptures say: 'I am not
concerned with your logic: I am only concerned with His logic and His
wisdom. It is of no concern whether or not you can understand your
pathway, the great thing is that it makes sense to Him.' The will [1/2] of God gives purpose to life. The two great
problems of life are in this psalm. First there is the problem of
happiness, of contentment, of ease. Do I hear you asking me where is
the problem in that? Ah Christian, Christian, is it not a mystery that
a holy God should give you even one moment of peace? It is in His
infinite forbearance and mercy that He provides such happiness for us.
The other problem is that valley of deepest darkness. There is the
onset of that horrible thing which blights our life and takes away our
happiness and mars our home. So there are the problems of happiness and
pain, and there is one common link which holds them together: "He
guideth me in the paths of righteousness." Righteousness is a word
which has one single meaning all the way through the Bible. It is true
that you have to adapt the way in which you translate it, but it has
one single meaning -- that which is right with God. So we are speaking
of paths which make sense to Him, paths in which there is no mistake
and no error, paths that are right.
Satan will come to us in our moments of anguish, and will prompt us to
ask: 'Where did I go wrong?' That is a moment when you need the very
strong support of such a psalm as this. Your effective answer to all
such questioning must be to affirm: 'My Father has not gone wrong. He
never goes wrong. He leads me in paths that are right with Him, and He
will never stop doing that, for He does it for His own name's sake. He
does it because He is the God that He is, and He will never change.'
3. Provision is independent of circumstances
There was a time when David was fleeing from Absalom, and for all that
David knew, Absalom was already pursuing after him. All that David
could do was to make his best speed to get away. "And it came to pass,
when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah
of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and
Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, and basons, and
earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and meal, and parched corn, and
beans, and lentils, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and
sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with
him to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and
thirsty, in the wilderness" (2 Samuel 17:27-29). "Thou spreadest a
table before me in the presence of my enemies." It was not a convenient
time to have a party, but the party was provided. We will not go into
any situation where we can say that God cannot provide for us there, or
that it is impossible for Him to help us then. There can be no such
circumstances. The Lord will always have His ministers. The noble army
of Barzillai the Gileadite did not perish when that man died.
Consider the basis on which this abundance is provided: "Thou hast
anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over." There is an anointing
in the past which is a guarantee of provision in the present. Because
God has anointed us, then there can be no lack at any time. For us that
anointing is the blood of the Lord Jesus and the gift of the gracious
Holy Spirit. Will our heavenly Father anoint us with the blood of His
Son and the presence of His Spirit in order to forget us? No, that is
something that He will never do.
4. The protective covering is utterly sufficient
Many years ago I used to be an officer at a boys' camp. One year I had
five of these youngsters to look after. We had one of the nicest tents
that it was possible to have, a ridge tent, with a ridge seven feet
high, so that one could walk upright into it without even stooping. One
night I came across the camp site. It was pouring with rain and the
boys were supposed to be in bed, but when I entered I found these five
small objects mopping down the inside of the tent with towels. They
started to explain to me that the tent was leaking, and by the time
they had done their mopping it really was leaking. They had gone into
the tent, lit the lantern and noticed that the inside of the canvas on
the tent was glistening with moisture. Wrongly supposing that this must
be dealt with, they began to mop down the tent. Fortunately by the time
that I got there they had only had time to mop down one side, so we
still had a dry side to sleep under. But if only they had left it
alone! It was entirely sufficient, but it had to be trusted and not
tampered with. So it is with divine protection. It is utterly
sufficient.
See where our Protector is: "He leadeth me ..."; then He is out in
front, the pace-maker and the pathfinder. "Thou art with me." Where is
He now? He is alongside, He has come to join me. "... shall follow me."
Where is He now? [2/3] Why, He is out behind; He
is my rearguard. So He is in front, alongside and behind. I must give
up mopping the canvas. The protective covering is sufficient. All I
have to do is to trust Him to keep out the rain.
"Thy rod and thy staff ...". Now I do not know whether there is any
difference between a rod and a staff. I do know, though, that so far as
the Hebrew words are concerned these mean exactly the same thing, for
the words can be used interchangeably. They do not signify different
objects in the Hebrew. Some commentators want us to believe that one is
the hook for guiding the sheep and the other is the club for hitting
lions over the head. I do not know. But I do know this, that when the
Bible says a thing twice, it means completeness. So this to me means
that my Shepherd is completely, fully equipped to deal with every
situation. So, dear fellow sheep, why not relax and let Him be your
protection?
5. The longest way round is the shortest way home
"I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." What could this verse
have meant to David? There was no house of the Lord in David's day; it
had to wait for Solomon to be built. David was expressly forbidden to
build such a house. And even if there had been one, David had no chance
of living there for ever , since it was reserved for the priests and
only they could enter it. What David was talking about was not some
house down here on earth, but the eternal house up there in the
heavens. This psalm seems to change half way through. It starts with
the shepherd and the sheep; and then it changes to the pilgrim and his
companion; and it ends up with the host and his guests. There is a
'table' and a 'house'. Beloved, there is a time coming when travelling
days will be done, then "we know that if the earthly house of our
tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal, in the heavens". And He is going to bring us
there. Through all the ups and downs of our experience; through all the
fluctuations of our love to Him; through anything and everything, He
has gone on to prepare a place for you and me, and where He is, we may
be also. Those who have Him as Shepherd will not want and need never
fear.
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THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
CHAPTER 7
CLOSING SCENES
T. Austin-Sparks
IN 2 Kings 13:14-25 we read of the closing scenes in the life of
Elisha. There are three instances which are a very fitting conclusion
to the life of Elisha in the light of the spiritual meaning of his
life, namely that he represented the power of resurrection life. His
story all the way through was one of testimony against death in various
and numerous forms, and here at the end we see how wonderfully that
testimony was maintained. Life was triumphant over death right through
to the last.
Elisha as an old man was on his bed in great weakness and soon to pass
away. The king of Israel came to him, and he lifted himself in his bed,
calling the king to bring his bow and arrows and to put an arrow in the
bow. Then the prophet placed his hands over those of the king, they two
drew the bow to its full extent, and the arrow sped from that bed
through the open window. The life of resurrection was in that arrow,
for the arrow of the Lord's deliverance means triumph over death. Then
came the command to the king to smite the ground with his arrows. He
did this three times and then stopped, which filled the man of God with
wrath. There was still much more energy in the dying prophet than there
was in the living king. Elisha was the embodiment of energy to the end,
breathing life and energy in spite of great human weakness.
The mortal sickness was only one aspect of his being; there was another
sense in which the testimony to life triumphant over death was
maintained even when the human vessel had [3/4]
gone. Even when Elisha's body was dead and in the tomb, we see that
contact with that body brought life. It was a marvellous conclusion,
full of significance and spiritual value. Nothing could more aptly fit
into his whole testimony. It might have been a disappointment if some
tragedy had overtaken him or if he had simply disappeared from the
scene. This did not happen. The triumph of his testimony was that it
continued right through this life and beyond. The resurrection life of
Christ outlives its vessels; it does not end here, but goes on. We
close these studies by emphasising three lessons which we can learn
from the end of Elisha's story.
1. The Arrow of the Lord's Deliverance
It was a question of victory over the enemy. And it is part of the
Lord's purpose to give full and final victory over every foe. That the
king of Israel only entered into this in a limited way was his own
fault. The Lord provided for much more than that, as we shall see. From
the divine standpoint provision is made for the full and final
overthrow of the Lord's enemy.
Although for the time being, because of the limited appropriation of
the king who was representative of the Lord's people, the prophecy may
be postponed as to its full realisation, nevertheless the arrow of the
Lord's deliverance has been released, and ultimately the Lord's people
will have a complete and full deliverance. Prophecy makes this certain.
This arrow of deliverance was the arrow of a prophecy, the fuller
expression of which may be found in the other prophets, such as
Ezekiel, with his vision of the valley of dry bones. In that vision
there was depicted the triumphant activity of the Lord's people, and
their ultimate standing upon their feet as a mighty army. But the arrow
of the Lord's deliverance foreshadowed the ultimate full triumph of
God's people over the last enemy: "The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death." The guarantee, the earnest, the title deeds of the
final triumph over death is the fact that resurrection life is already
given spiritually to the Lord's people.
The last enemy will be overcome in the Church, the body of Christ, by
the power of His resurrection. The Church has long been entering into
the spiritual values of Christ's resurrection life, perhaps knowing all
too little of it because of its lack of faith, but assured that in the
end it will be realised to the full. The Word of God makes that quite
plain; it is to be in the Church, the body of Christ, that the last
enemy will be destroyed and death finally cast out.
The earnest of the fact that this will be is in the truth that Christ,
already triumphant over death, is resident within His body. In
Ephesians 1:17-21 we are told that "the exceeding greatness of his
power", the power by which God raised Jesus from the dead, is to result
in universal authority. Resurrection life contains the very power by
which death shall be fully and finally vanquished, so that the Church,
the body of Christ, will come to the place where the Head already is.
Later on we read the words: "... according to the power that worketh in
us" (Ephesians 3:20). What power is this? "The exceeding greatness of
his power ... which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the
dead ...". It is resurrection power, and by it there is to be "glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and
ever".
Let us repeat, then, that the last enemy, death, is going to be finally
and fully overthrown in and by the Church, on the basis of the
resurrection life of the Lord Jesus operating within. For this reason
there is the necessity for us to learn to live on the basis of
resurrection life now. This explains why the Lord takes pains to bring
us to the place where only His risen life will meet our need. It is the
explanation of the constant application of the cross to cut from under
us every other basis of life save the life of the Lord.
This brings us to an interesting and significant point in the story of
Elisha on his death-bed. When the king of Israel cried to Elisha: "O my
father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof" (2
Kings 13:14) did he mean that he was expecting Elisha to go the same
way as Elijah? Did he think that Elisha was about to be raptured?
Elijah had gone up into heaven amidst the shouts of Elisha: "My father,
my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof", so
celebrating Elijah's victory over death. It is as though the Holy
Spirit were suggesting that even if there was not the same form of
victory over death in Elisha's case, yet the same words applied aptly
to him. He came within the category of those who conquer death and are
not conquered by it. Not that there was so much difference. If Elijah
was raptured outwardly, Elisha was raptured inwardly, but in [4/5] both cases it represented an expression of
complete victory. What is rapture? It is glory. And, so far as the
principle and basis of rapture is concerned, which is the power of His
resurrection, it holds good whatever may be the outward form of its
consummation.
Was not Paul as truly raptured at the end of his life as he had hoped
for at the beginning? He had earlier written: "... we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up ..." but towards the end of his
life he came to see that such was not to be the manner of his going,
and he wrote quite frankly: "... I am already being offered, and the
time of my departure is come", knowing then by what method he would go.
But spiritually, in his inner life, he was as truly raptured at the end
as he had hoped to be at the beginning. In his case it was not defeat,
not the mastery of death, but glory. He could go through in perfect
confidence and complete triumph; he could go through with a shout of
victory. Although the executioner's axe was about to be lifted to sever
his head from his body, he could exclaim in triumph: "the chariot of
Israel and the horsemen thereof"!
But there was something more. Paul had two phases of resurrection in
his heart and in his faith. Firstly he had resurrection inwardly. The
power of resurrection was at work in him all the time, so that death
was being transcended in all its workings. In his spirit he was always
above death. But in the second place, Paul had his heart and his faith
set upon a specific form of its outworking in what he called uniquely:
"the out-resurrection from among the dead". Paul's desire and ambition
was not just to attain unto the resurrection from the dead. You have
nothing to do to attain to that resurrection, provided you are saved by
faith in Christ. The fact that you have eternal life is the guarantee
that you will be raised from the dead. The Lord Jesus made it perfectly
clear that He would give eternal life to those who believed on Him and
would raise them up at the last day. But Paul spoke of the
out-resurrection from among the dead, and if Philippians 3:10 means
anything at all, its language does seem to indicate that this is not
just the general resurrection which is a gift, but something which is a
prize. A prize is always something worked for, striven after and which
may be missed, and Paul confessed that this was a matter which extended
him to the full.
2. The Smiting on the Ground with the Arrows
The one arrow of deliverance leads us to the other arrows. Elisha did
not leave things with the releasing of the one arrow, prophetic of full
and final deliverance, but instantly proceeded to instruct Joash to
take the arrows and smite upon the ground. This Joash did, but he only
smote three times and then stayed. Elisha asked him why he stayed, why
he accepted less than he might have had, why he did not go the full way
and possess the whole at once. He grieved that the king had fixed a
lower measure, instead of exerting himself for the full expression of
divine victory. This fits in with what is stated in Philippians 3,
namely that the measure of victory and glory will depend on faith's
appropriation of the power of His resurrection. This is not dealing
with the matter salvation, but rather with God's full thought as to the
purpose of salvation. Unlike the king who only smote three times, we
find in this chapter that Paul speaks of himself as smiting, and
smiting, and smiting again: "... if by any means I may attain to the
out-resurrection ...". He was a man who did not stay short of the full
purpose of God. Paul himself says in another place that in the
resurrection there will be different degrees of glory, just as there is
one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of
the stars.
This presents a great challenge to us. It suggests that there is
something which may be lost, not in salvation but in the measure and
positions which the Lord would have us occupy and enjoy but to which we
may not attain. The Word of God points out that the generation of
Hebrews which fell in the wilderness failed to reach God's purpose for
them. When we view this whole matter in the light of God's own need --
"His inheritance in the saints" -- and when we view it in the light of
what it has cost God and His Son, it becomes a sin to be satisfied with
anything less than God desires. The Lord Jesus did not endure all the
great sufferings of Calvary just to get us out of hell and into heaven.
There was far more than that bound up in His cross.
3. The Revival of a Dead Body by Contact with Elisha's Bones
"... as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and
stood up on his feet." This story makes plain the fact that the power
ministered through Elisha did not come from him [5/6]
personally but was indeed the miraculous power of God. It also reminds
us that the spiritual reality of being identified with Christ in His
death is not some negative and gloomy experience, but is the way by
which new life is ministered to others. When by His Spirit the Lord
Jesus brings us into a further measure of the meaning of His death, His
purpose is always that we may enjoy a new measure of His resurrection
life. The two things go together. It is death unto life: it is loss
unto gain. The death and the loss concern that which will in any case
have to go and is of doubtful value even while it remains, whereas the
life and gain are eternal and have in them all the values of God. So
Paul could hail conformity to the death of Christ with joy. To him it
was not a mournful matter of self-pity but the glad shout of a victor.
He suffered loss so that he could experience "the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord". Such knowledge excels everything
that can come to a man in this world; power, popularity, position,
possessions. It is the knowledge of the power of Christ in the fullness
of His resurrection, leading on to a place in the throne with Him.
(Conclusion)
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THE BREAKING OF BREAD
Roger T. Forster
THE Church of Christ moved triumphantly forward into this dispensation
as the believers "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and
fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42).
These four things are means whereby men and women who have come to
Christ always find rest, help, gift and power to continue in His way.
We are now to consider the breaking of bread or the Lord's table.
There are only six New Testament books which mention this matter,
although both Peter and Jude seem to make it clear that the early
Church did not just take a morsel of bread or a sip of wine, but made
the occasion one of feasting together. At the end of such feasts of
fellowship they would presumably break bread together and say that they
were doing this in remembrance of the Lord Jesus who held them together
and made them one. Then they would pass round some wine and say that
this reminded them of how much they owed to the Lord's death. So their
feasts would conclude with fresh worship of the Lord.
This, of course, laid it open to possible abuse. Paul had to reprove
the Corinthians because they tended to draw together in groups, some
enjoying their rich food, others having to be content with their poor
food, and some being left out altogether. The apostle said that such
people would do much better to eat at home. So generally believers
throughout history have not prefaced the Lord's table with a meal, but
have met together in a more formal way to eat a small portion of bread
and drink a very little wine. This has its own perils. To the first
believers there was nothing ceremonial about what they did; its modern
equivalent would be much more like cutting a slice of bread and taking
a drink of milk or tea. The whole point was that the Lord Jesus had
taken the elements of ordinary, daily life, and then put into them that
bit extra of spiritual significance that only He could. But over the
centuries something mysterious and far removed from daily life has been
introduced, with special qualifications for those who administer the
religious rite, and special procedures which they must follow and even
special places reserved for this observance. The Lord Jesus did not
give it to us for this purpose. He gave it, not to make some
extraordinary, out-of-this-world performance, but to bring the things
of God right down into the realm of daily life.
There follows a further peril, namely that of ascribing some
'sacramental' or magical efficacy to the elements. 'Sacrament' is not a
Bible word. Sometimes those who use it have the erroneous idea that
their mere swallowing of these specially administered elements has a
spiritually beneficial effect, as though it did not matter whether the
recipient had a heart estranged from God or a life of disobedience to
Him, or no personal relationship at all with Christ, so long as he had
received the 'sacrament'. As though this in itself had any value or
importance! Some even go so [6/7] far as to
worship the bread and wine, as though it were God. They are seemingly
ignorant of the truth that in actual fact the Lord Jesus did not employ
the word 'is' when speaking of the bread and the wine. What he said,
literally translated, was 'This My body', 'this My blood', meaning:
'This represents what I am, My body' and 'This represents My blood'; so
that if you take what they stand for, if you take Me, then you know
true life.
The third peril is connected with the communal aspect of the feast. Of
course the bread and the wine are symbolic of our community. Those who
sit around the table are a family. If friends come and sit down with
them, then it is as though they have been invited to join the family.
This is true, but it is not limited to any special group, but is
symbolic of the totality of the whole family of God. Too often people
have said: 'If you do not belong to our particular denomination, then
you cannot partake of "communion" with us. If you do not see things as
we see them, then you have no part nor share in our community. You may
be a child of God, but you must keep away from our bread and wine. If
you have not followed our procedure, or if you are in association with
Christians whom we disapprove of, then do not come to us, for we will
not give you a place at the Table.' In this way the Lord's Table is
used as a weapon of separation; it keeps people at a distance as though
saying: 'We are special people, and only if you are linked with us and
nobody else can you eat our little bits of bread and drink our sips of
wine.' So it is that people misguidedly build up their own select
societies, something which the Lord Jesus certainly never meant to
happen.
THE phrase, 'breaking of bread' denotes an action which was quite
common and ordinary. Whenever Jesus had a meal, He would take the
bread, lift up His eyes to heaven and thank the Father; after which He
would break it and pass it round. Although the circumstances were most
unusual, the action was the same when Paul, "took bread and gave thanks
to God in the presence of them all: and when he had broken it he began
to eat ..." (Acts 27:35). Until this, the others had fasted and were in
a state of despair, but they were encouraged to share in the food and
to hope for the deliverance which Paul had prayed for and been
promised. So the breaking of bread was a common act at a common meal:
it was never meant to be something separated from ordinary life. I
myself have been in places where there was no building for a formal
service and with others have broken bread and drunk wine at the end of
a meal. The whole atmosphere has become solemn and very wonderful, as
we have passed from ordinary mealtime fellowship to remembering the
Lord and worshipping Him. After all, Christianity is something to do
with living here and now for the Lord; it is to do with the harsh
realities of everyday life, and is not just a kind of escape into a
mystical, make-believe world.
It is, of course, a feast. God calls us to taste of His rich provision
for us in Christ. It was a feast at the beginning, the feast of the
Passover. For over a thousand years before Christ the Jews had known
this as one of their great festivals. Large numbers would flock into
Jerusalem, leaving their work and homes for seven days, and would mix
together in glad rejoicing, praising God for the fact that they were
His people and were gathered to enjoy Him and for Him to take pleasure
in them. The Passover feast reminded them of the night of their
deliverance as a nation; they had been captives in Egypt but God had
brought them out. So for some 1,200 years, in picture-book fashion and
by means of visual aids which could easily be understood, the
Israelites were really being prepared for the great Passover sacrifice,
when the Lord Jesus would give Himself so that men could feast on Him,
not merely for seven days but for all the days until He comes again. So
it is that we are told that "Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for
us" (1 Corinthians 5:7).
SOMETIMES we describe this as a 'communion', which is a good name, for
it emphasises fellowship or communion. No Christian is ever expected to
break bread alone, and indeed it is generally agreed that solitary
eating is not a healthy exercise. Spiritually it is certainly not
acceptable, being contrary to the whole concept of our calling to be a
new community. It is a beautiful consequence of our appreciation of the
fact that the bread represents our Lord's body. The first disciples ate
bread which spoke of a body soon to be on the cross, to be buried,
resurrected and then ascended out of their sight. In future they would
take the bread to remind one another of that wonderful [7/8]
body which they could no longer see but only remember. As they did so,
however, the Holy Spirit would remind them that since Christ lived in
each one of them, they were His body. The Church is the body of Christ.
We are one people and, as a body needs each member, so those who take
the bread declare their oneness with Him and also in Him. What a pity
that people now describe their sectional Christianity as their
'communion'! There can only be one communion as there is only one Table.
The Bible uses the phrase, the Lord's Table. It is His feast. He
supplies it; He makes the provision; and He is personally present. On
that last supper night, when the disciples were gathered around, it was
Jesus Himself who took and distributed the bread. When we gather and
are welcomed to a Table which is not that of some special church or
human connection, but is truly the Lord's Table, then there may be some
brother who gets up and hands the bread for others to distribute, but
this is simply a convenience of procedure which need not obscure the
fact that it is really the Lord Jesus who calls us to the fellowship of
His body. He is present, and He is in charge. At the beginning, I spoke
of the larger meals which the believers shared. These were called the
'agape' or 'lovefeast', and it was in this spirit that they finished up
with the Lord's Table and especially remembered Him.
IN the various accounts of that last supper, we find different stresses
in the various Gospels. Mark records the Lord as saying: "Take, this is
my body ..." (Mark 14:22 R.V.), and so reminds us that every time we
break bread we are accepting what God gives us in Christ. So we take
His gift and give Him thanks. Matthew adds a further point by
recording: "Take, eat ..." (Matthew 26:26). In this way the Spirit
stresses the inward nature of our acceptance. We are taking more than
forgiveness, more than peace; we are taking Christ and allowing Him to
be assimilated into our lives. As food becomes part of us so the Lord
Jesus associates Himself with our inner life; we continue to feed upon
Him. Luke goes further; his record says: "Take this, and divide it
among yourselves" (Luke 22:17). The Lord never meant this to be an
individual act, but one in which we share and distribute, in helpful
fellowship. Such help is most important. Some may come to the Table
with heavy hearts, either because of the pressure of circumstances or
because of a sense of having failed the Lord. Some may not have praised
the Lord much during the past week, and may not even feel like praising
Him as they sit at His Table. Others, however, may be full of praise,
full to overflowing, and this can bring inspiration to the downcast and
release some new energy of praise in them. So it is not only the bread,
but thanks or prayer or a hymn which provides the means for one to
serve and help the other. We are to take the Lord not just for our own
good but to distribute to others in helpful fellowship.
It may be surprising to find that John's Gospel makes no mention at all
of the actual Last Supper in this way. Chapters 13 to 17 cover this
episode but it is never once recorded that Christ did what the other
Gospels say, taking the bread and saying: "This is my body" or taking
the wine and saying: "This is the blood of the new covenant". John does
say that the supper came, and also records how the one who ate bread
with Him also lifted up his heel against Him, reminding us how Judas
took the bread and the wine and then, as it were, kicked the Lord and
then went out to betray Him. Why does John not follow the pattern of
the other three evangelists? The reason is surely to lay emphasis on
the person of Christ. It is not the Table, the bread and the wine, not
even the atmosphere of the meeting which matters most; it is the Lord
Himself. So it seems that John deliberately avoids anything which might
be made into ritual, stressing the actual, real Christ who is Himself
in the midst. It is as though the Lord said: 'I am here, your bread,
giving Myself to you and applying the efficacy of My shed blood.' It is
the Lord Jesus who matters, not just the supper but Himself. In this
way the four Gospels give us help in our spiritual walk with Christ, a
walk which is not reserved for a special hour of a special day, but
which should be everywhere and all the time.
THE breaking of bread is mentioned three times in the book of the Acts.
In Acts 2:42 it is closely linked with prayer, for one cannot eat the
bread and take the cup without praying. Mostly we tend to do this in
silence, worshipping Christ in our hearts, as though our spiritual
mouths are busy assimilating more of Him even while our natural mouths
are eating the bread. There are sometimes those who cannot contain
themselves; even as they eat they use their mouths to speak the Lord's
praises. Mostly, [8/9] however, we tend to do
what Paul calls 'making melody in the heart unto the Lord'. The
important thing is that our praise should be truly unto Him. In verse
44 it tells us that: " All that believed were together and had all
things common, and sold their possessions and parted them to all as
every man had need. And they continued with one accord daily in the
temple, and breaking bread from house to house they did eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart." So another characteristic of
the Table is joy. Joy because we know the presence of the Lord and are
thrilled to have Him with us, giving us a new revelation of Himself.
How joyful they were when Christ appeared to them in resurrection and
actually ate and drank with them (Acts 10.41)! They were so happy that
they could hardly believe. They did not try to understand; they simply
accepted the fact of Christ's presence and rejoiced to have it so. That
is just the spirit in which we should come to the Table. Both prayer
and joy are parts of true worship.
It is notable that the third time in which this matter is mentioned we
are told that it was in an 'upper room' (Acts 20.8). This enhances the
idea of remembering the Lord, for it was in an upper room that they had
first broken bread on that Passover night. This was far away from
Jerusalem, away in what is now Turkey, but Christ was as truly with
them as He had been with the first disciples on that dread night. The
Jesus who had been incarnate, who had gone out to shed His blood for
them on the cross, this same Jesus was truly present with them now, by
the Spirit. They remembered that the crucified Jesus had risen from the
dead, and was in the power of that resurrection now. He had ascended
into heaven, and yet He was with them now, and so the upper room was
like heaven itself. And they reminded one another of the certainty of
His coming again, and remembered Him even as they waited for Him to
return. So the upper room seems to stress the fact that this is not
just a time for praise and joy but also for sharing together the
reality of Christ's presence, and keeping active the hope of His
coming. This challenges us. We can never treat the Lord's Table
lightly. You can come as a sinner, but not if you imagine that sin is
of little importance and can be allowed to remain uncleansed. It is not
just that a man with such an attitude does harm to others, but that he
harms himself. Some Christians were weak and sick in Corinth for this
very reason; they were offending the Lord and doing despite to His
body. Every man should first ask himself: 'How do I stand with God? Am
I truly loving my brethren? Do I really want to go the way of the will
of God?' Thank God that after such an examination we can still be
welcomed by the Lord, for the Table was made for sinners, provided that
those sinners acknowledge their wrongs.
IT is possible that a sinner may come to Christ for the first time if
he comes in true repentance. I was personally present at a breaking of
bread at which a free invitation was given to 'all who truly love the
Lord'. A non-Christian young man was present and as the elements were
passed round he realised that he could express his faith in Christ by
taking the bread and the wine. He did so, and was truly converted. I
know personally of other such conversions which have happened at the
Lord's Table. Over 150 years ago something of this kind happened at
Cambridge to an undergraduate named Charles Simeon. I do not think that
it is an overstatement to say that much of the blessing among
undergraduates at Cambridge from that day to this comes from the
streams of God's grace which began with Charles Simeon and his
preaching in Holy Trinity Church. It was in that very church that I
first saw what it meant that Jesus had died for me and later I had the
thrilling privilege of going back to preach the gospel to students in
that same church. Countless undergraduates have found Christ there
through the years, as a veritable stream of divine power has continued
to flow among Cambridge men and women. It all came from one man's life
and began when he realised that the university rules of those days
insisted that he should take communion on Easter Day. He was appalled
to make this discovery, knowing himself to be utterly unworthy to do
any such thing. He felt that Satan himself was as fit to attend as he
was, and immediately began to enquire how he could get right with God.
Under deep conviction and almost in despair, he reached Holy Week and
was reading a book about the Lord's Supper which referred to the divine
provision of an offering for sin. He asked himself if God had provided
an offering on to which he could, as it were, place his burden of sin,
and finally came to see that every provision for the penitent sinner
was made by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He tells how on the
Wednesday of that week a glimmer of hope shone into his heart, and as
the [9/10] days went on he was encouraged to
hope in God's mercy until, on Easter Sunday morning, he awoke with a
heart full of assurance and faith in the risen Saviour. He continues:
'From that hour peace flowed in rich abundance into my soul, and at the
Lord's Table in our chapel I had the sweetest access to God through my
blessed Saviour'.
The Lord's Table should always be a challenge to us; it should make us
examine ourselves in the light of God's holy presence; it should be an
occasion of the sweetest access to God through our blessed Saviour. We
come not to the elements of bread and wine but to the living and
all-sufficient reality of Christ, who is the bread of life.
----------------
WALKING IN A STRAIGHT PATH
(Studies in the epistle to the Galatians)
3. SPIRITUALITY
Harry Foster
OUR consideration of chapter 3 will centre on the matter of
spirituality. By this I do not mean what is often called spirituality,
that is refinement or other-worldliness, nor merely the presence of the
Spirit in a life, but rather what is expressed by Paul's own words to
the Galatians: "If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also
walk" (5:25). The Galatians had eternal life, so they lived by the
Spirit, but they had been duped into departing from the upright path of
the gospel and were not walking by the Spirit, so they were failing in
this most important quality of life, spirituality.
Firstly, though, we must remark on the rather surprising fact that it
is only in the third chapter of this letter that the Holy Spirit is so
much as mentioned. Paul had written a great deal about himself and his
own experiences, and he was a man of the Spirit if ever there was one.
He had introduced into his narrative two other men, Peter and Barnabas,
who had elsewhere been specifically described as "full of the Spirit".
It may seem hardly credible that until now he had failed even to allude
to the Holy Spirit. But why should it be? What would have been
unpardonable would be if he had failed to make reference to the Lord
Jesus. There was no fear of that, and so far he had spoken twenty times
of Christ before he referred to the Holy Spirit. This suggests to us
that the main emphasis of the spiritual man is Christ Himself. It is a
feature of the Spirit's gracious presence that He does not draw
attention to Himself but centres us on the Lord Jesus.
At this stage, however, Paul clearly felt impelled to call the
attention of his readers to their resolute need of the Spirit's power
and authority, so he set to work to disabuse their minds of any idea
that they could become spiritual by their own efforts. We will try to
follow through his reasoning. In the last verse of chapter 2 we find
what appear to have been his final words to Peter. The import of these
seems to be that if you can do the will of God in your own strength,
then it is a pity that Christ died. If any man can find a way by human
efforts to reach man's true destiny, then it is a tragedy that the Lord
Jesus shed His blood to make that way. We know what Peter would respond
to that. In chapter 3 Paul began by saying essentially the same thing
to the Galatians. Christ became a curse for us so that we might receive
God's promise of blessing (v.14). Anybody who imagines that this
blessing can be obtained other than by the free gift of the Spirit is
really implying that it would have been all the same if Christ had not
been crucified. The Galatians were 'foolish' but whether they were 'so
foolish' as that, depended on the heed that they would give to this
letter.
THE Galatians had been born of the Spirit. The same God who sent His
Son to die for sinners had sent the Spirit of that Son into the hearts
of believers, so that they could rightly claim God as their Father
(4:6). So they had "begun in the Spirit" (v.3). We are not left to
guess how this happened. When he first visited them, Paul had been
enabled to preach the gospel so graphically and so effectively that it
was as though they had actually seen Christ dying on the cross for them
(v.1). Paul does not merely say that he explained to them the meaning
of [10/11] the cross, but that they had had a
personal and revolutionary encounter with the crucified Saviour as they
listened to his preaching. Would to God that there were more preaching
of the gospel like this in our day! It is not only the doctrine of the
cross that men need but the Spirit's communication of the power of that
cross through the preached word. On that occasion the Galatians were
privileged to have such a messenger and such a message. They looked to
Jesus; they opened their hearts to Him: and He came into them by the
life-giving presence of His Spirit.
It is important to notice that Paul took it for granted that the
Galatians had received the Holy Spirit (v.2). He never for one moment
suggested that having received the Lord Jesus they should now receive
the Spirit as a subsequent act. It is true that they were most
unsatisfactory Christians, and that Paul had grave questions about them
(4:20), but nowhere is there any indication that he doubted their
indwelling by the Spirit. When they heard the gospel message, they
received Christ. You become a Christian when Christ enters your heart.
But how can He enter your heart when He is at the Father's right hand
in heaven? Surely only by the Holy Spirit. There is a sense in which
the Spirit of Christ is Christ's other Self. He is, of course, a
person, just as much as the Lord Jesus is a person. He is such a
wonderful, divine person that He has not left the Father by coming to
us. He lived in Jesus throughout the years of the earthly ministry, but
He did not leave the Son at the ascension or at Pentecost. The Spirit
is with the Father, He is with the Son, and He is with us if we have
eternal life.
WE are not only told that the Spirit had given eternal life to the
Galatians but also that He was actively working among them. It seems
clear that signs and wonders had been witnessed among them, and that
these were continuing (v.5), though how many of the Galatians were
actually gifted in this way we do not know, for Paul's statement only
mentions what was happening 'among' them. They were no strangers to the
presence and powerful working of the Holy Spirit, and yet it seems that
they were in danger of taking 'spiritual' things into their own hands,
wrongly imagining that their own efforts and ideas would lead them
along the road of God's will to their final goal. Spirituality,
however, involves an ever-growing dependence on the Holy Spirit -- it
demands not only life but walk, the walk of faith.
And faith is the key to this whole matter, as it is the key to the
letter. That is why we find such emphasis being given to the word
'promise'. This is a lovely word, for it shows us God's desire to send
His Spirit to be our guide and helper. We saw in chapter 1 that it
brought pleasure to the heart of God to reveal His Son in Paul, and now
we notice that He finds pleasure in giving us His Spirit. He does not
say that if we study more, or pray more, or agonise enough, we will be
rewarded by the Spirit's presence. No, the Holy Spirit is not a prize
but a promise. The Jews new, of course, that Abraham was the man who
had the promises, but in their case they had many erroneous ideas as to
what those promises involved. To us the promises are all included in
the one marvellous promise of the Spirit. So do let us throw off those
tensions and disputations which are so often associated with the
subject of the Spirit's fullness, and let us be filled with joyful
expectation that God is well able to implement His promise to us in
Christ. The condition, clearly, is faith on our part. You Galatians
began by trusting Christ, you proved God's miraculous power by trusting
Him; now get back on to the straight path of simple trust and you will
move on towards spiritual maturity. You have been deceived into
trusting men, trusting things, trusting theology, trusting yourselves.
Trust Him! If you submit yourselves anew to the Scriptures you will be
appalled to realise your own hopelessness, but you will also find that
you can trust God for the fullness of His provision in Christ (v.22).
The Spirit has come not only to give us life and not only to bestow on
us gifts but to make us heirs according to the promise (v.29).
SO we see that to walk in the straight path of the gospel we must learn
to walk in the Spirit, to be led by Him. What is the truth about the
Holy Spirit? Well, the truth is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21), so perhaps
we should turn back from this letter to the gospel story and focus our
attention on the experiences of Jesus. He began His public life of
walking in the will of God at Jordan. And it was then that in a visible
way the Holy Spirit came upon Him. Luke tells us that this happened
while He was praying. What was He praying for? Surely it was to be
guided in the will of the Father, as seems evident by the fact that we
are at once told how He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness. He
had been [11/12] born of the Spirit; for thirty
years He had lived by the Spirit; and now in a more definite way He was
to be led by the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit. His prayer was
answered. Even the observers were able to see the visible expression of
the Holy Spirit coming from the Father to the Son, and John tells us in
his Gospel that the Spirit not only came but stayed. The other Gospels
tell us in what form He came -- it was "like a dove".
We are expected to take note of this dove-like appearance of the
Spirit. What did it signify? Undoubtedly that there was something
gentle about this descent of the Spirit. We remember that for the
disciples the Spirit came with "a sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind" (Acts 2:2). Some people evidently need that kind of
visitation, but it seems that the Lord Jesus was not one of them. To
Him the Spirit came in unostentatious gentleness. But probably there
were other reasons for this form which the Spirit adopted. Might it not
be connected with the directness as well as the gentleness with which
He proposed to guide the earthly steps of the Lord Jesus. Doves are
members of the pigeon family, and homing pigeons are remarkably skilful
at finding their way home without any guides or signs. Without outward
indications or helps, they fly in a straight path, and in this are
typical of the directness of the Spirit's movements. In Ezekiel's
prophecies we are given a description of beings who provide a living
expression of God's movements, and it is said that they had "straight
feet" (Ezekiel 1:7), but they also had "straight wings". The only way
to have straight feet for the path of God's will is also to have
straight wings. That path is not marked out by external, legal
guidelines and signposts but by the inward urge and government of the
Holy Spirit. The living creatures in Ezekiel are said to have gone
straight forward. And the Lord Jesus always went straight forward,
because the Spirit so led Him. His path did not appear straightforward
to the Pharisees; it did not seem right to His own family; there were
times when it did not seem sensible even to His disciples; but it led
accurately and unerringly to the divine goal. Those who are led by the
Spirit in God's straight path must be prepared for misunderstanding,
sometimes even by those who are closest to them, but they can find
comfort by looking off unto Jesus who has walked that path before them
by the enablement of the dove-like Spirit.
How did the Spirit lead Christ? He led Him by the way of the cross. He
was really leading Him to the glory, but the way to glory is always the
way of the cross. This is why He was first led into the wilderness to
meet with fierce temptations. We are told that there He suffered
(Hebrews 2:18). It is always suffering to say No to self and Yes to the
will of God. But we are also told that He emerged from those
temptations full of the Holy Spirit's power. It is always like this.
The Spirit leads us to an experience of the cross which is painful to
our flesh but, if we accept it, the result is a new release of His
power in our lives.
IF Peter had taken less notice of the Judaizers and kept his Lord in
mind, he might not have made that dreadful mistake at Antioch. Seeing
that Jesus spent two days in Samaria, it is most likely that He ate
with Samaritans there. That whole story is a wonderful example of how
Christ walked in the Spirit. The cause of His journey into Galilee was
the fact that publicity minded people were drawing attention to the
larger numbers coming to His baptisms than those who were going to
John. We are not told that the Lord had any special revelation from
heaven that He should leave Judea. He did not need it. Enough that the
gentle Spirit should make Him sensitive about self-advertisement, for
Him to come at once to such a decision. Again we are not told why "He
must needs pass through Samaria" (John 4:4). Most Jewish travellers
took the longer road on the eastern side of Jordan. Was this the result
of some special guidance given to Him, or was it just because the man
of the Spirit will not waste his own time (and God's) by unnecessary
conformity to human conventions? In any case the two days which Jesus
saved by taking the shorter route were well spent in His stay with the
Samaritans. If there were a settled time for Him to arrive in Galilee,
then He reached there on time, but He did so having used the days so
much better than by taking the customary circuitous route. It was more
costly. It involved tiredness and thirst. But we are never to expect
that walking in the Spirit will be the easy or comfortable way.
I have already suggested that Jesus may well have eaten with the
Samaritans. He certainly ate with some most unlikely people, though
whether the unrighteous or the self-righteous were the most repugnant
to Him is left to our conjecture. He did not allow Himself to be
governed by [12/13] personal likes or dislikes
-- He walked in the Spirit. Peter, however, was unspiritual enough to
recoil from eating with some of his own brothers and sisters in Christ.
Thank God that he responded to Paul's challenge by putting this matter
right. And he did it where we all get put right, that is at the cross.
For it is a mark of the man who is being led by the Spirit that he is
constantly coming back (and down) to the cross. Right through His
earthly life our Lord had to keep saying 'No' to His own wishes and
preferences in order to respond to the direct, though gentle, voice of
the Spirit. In the end the Spirit did actually lead Him to the cross
and there enabled Him to make His unique sacrifice (Hebrews 9:14).
SO it was that the Lord continued in the straight path of the will of
the Father right to the final climax of spiritual maturity. This is
God's goal for us all. The Corinthians and the Galatians needed to know
-- as we do too -- that spirituality is more than witnessing striking
operations of the Spirit or exercising His passing gifts; it means
lasting conformity to the will of God in terms of character. This is
the path, the straight path of the gospel. But how can we keep to it?
It is a well-known fact that a human being cannot walk straight, but
will go round in circles if left without landmarks to counter this
natural tendency to veer away from the straight line. Well, we have
landmarks to help us, for we have the perfect example of a
Spirit-filled life in the Gospel description of our Saviour. But more
-- much more -- than this, we have the same Spirit who led Him, who is
able and willing to lead us. With the Word in our hands and the Holy
Spirit in our hearts, we too may become spiritual people and make good
progress in the straight path of the gospel.
----------------
FOLLOWING THE LAMB
6. DIVINE DIMENSIONS
Reading: John 1:45-51
Poul Madsen
NATHANAEL was not an attractive person, but he was sincere. To some
extent his heart was filled with religious prejudice. Philip was wise
not to enter into an argument with him but just to say: "Come and see".
This is the only answer which can overcome religious prejudice, but to
use it one must have something to show. If you have nothing, then it is
useless to invite people to give you their attention. Philip had found
reality in Jesus. Unless you have this vital knowledge of Christ you
can never effectively ask people to come and see. Philip invited
Nathanael so convincingly that by his few words he was able to overcome
the other man's prejudice. Philip could be trusted, he was truthful;
and that is why he was able to remove the prejudice of Nathanael.
Sometimes I wonder whether we are to blame when sincere people remain
prejudiced. Is it due to some lack on our part?
Jesus saw Nathanael coming. Now Nathanael's heart was no different from
that of other men, and was included in Jeremiah's diagnosis that the
heart is deceitful above all things. Nathanael was no better than the
rest of mankind; his heart was also deceitful; yet Jesus described him
as an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile. How could the Lord use
such words about a man who had been speaking so contemptuously of Him?
We notice Nathanael's prejudice, but the Lord Jesus said nothing about
this prejudice. Surely this was because Nathanael was ready to bring
his prejudice out into the light. He did not cling to it; he was
teachable. Truth meant more to him than his own ideas, and so he was
objective and allowed the truth to penetrate his prejudice and his
deceitful heart. This is what it means to be without guile. He was not
without prejudice; he was not without deceit; he was not without sin;
but truth meant more to him than everything else. I think that many of
us would have said: 'Behold a man full of prejudice', but the Lord did
not speak like that because He knew Nathanael's sincerity. He made no
reference, therefore, to his deceitful heart, his weaknesses or his
sins, but he spoke of him in positive terms.
It is a very remarkable thing that the wonderful words of Jesus did not
make Nathanael feel [13/14] proud. In fact they
did the opposite. When you speak in faith the words of love, people are
made to feel smaller, but when you speak words of criticism they react
with strength and become bigger. Nathanael had met a Man who knew him
fully, so he asked how Jesus came by this knowledge. Jesus spoke a word
of truth and love, so Nathanael felt that he wanted to know Him, and so
he asked Jesus how and when He had come to know him. Jesus answered:
'Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree. When nobody
else could see you, I was watching. When you thought that you were
quite alone, I was there.' It is always like that. Whatever a man does
or even thinks, he does in the sight of God whose eyes are everywhere.
Jesus had read Nathanael's thoughts, He had seen his longings, He had
felt his sincere desires.
As Nathanael was under the fig tree it seems possible that he was
studying the law. He was sitting quite alone. studying the law and
longing for light. Then Philip came and answered his problems by
saying: "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the
prophets did write." There was another Philip later on, and he was sent
to another man who was studying the Scriptures, the Ethiopean eunuch,
and this Philip also solved his problems by telling him about Jesus. If
anyone seeks, he finds; and the Lord finds him. Jesus the Truth met
Nathanael who was looking for the truth.
NATHANAEL must have been a humble man, for love of the truth is a mark
of true humility. We must not think that humility means just giving in
to people. Oswald Chambers once said: 'Whenever a man tells you to bow
down, keep your neck as stiff as possible.' Humility is not a weak
thing; humility is love of the truth, truth at any cost, truth whatever
anybody else thinks. This humble man, Nathanael, was full of prejudice
but he loved the truth, and so he was able to see in a moment who Jesus
really is, and said: 'Thou art truly the Son of God.' He gave a
tremendous testimony. All his prejudice had gone, and truth had taken
its place. It was not flesh and blood which had given him this
revelation, but it had come from the Father in heaven. Nathanael went
on to say: "Thou art the king of Israel." Jesus had called him a true
Israelite, and as such he recognised Israel's true king. It is an
inescapable principle that light received and obeyed always brings more
light. A well-known Danish hymn by Grundtvig says:
Light that is followed leads to more light,
Light that is hidden only leads into night.
This is true. Nathanael followed the light that he had. It started with
his being willing to investigate. In Philip's company he took the first
step out of darkness into light, and in that light he saw the Lord
Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel. And what did this lead
up to? The promise that he should see greater things than these. To him
who had, more was given, and he was given the promise of greater
things. It is always the same for all of us. There is always more, and
those who accept it find that it leads to even more. We must never stop
on the way: there is always another step forward.
As we study carefully the words of the Lord Jesus we find that He used
for the first time His special introduction: "Verily, verily ...". This
is a way by which the Lord stresses the great importance of what He is
about to say. His was an authority greater even than that of Moses. He
led Nathanael from Moses to Himself, and then He passed from His
individual promise to Nathanael and spoke in the plural -- ye -- to
make him representative of many who would also share this experience of
the opened heaven. By His use of the word "hereafter" He indicated that
it was not possible at that moment for Nathanael to appreciate all that
was involved. Clearly Nathanael and the others were going to have an
experience which would correspond to what Jacob had known at Bethel.
THE story is told in Genesis 28, for there we read of how Jacob saw the
ladder from earth to heaven and the angels of God ascending and
descending on it. We need to realise that when Jacob had this vision he
was at the point of despair. He was experiencing the results of his
folly and deceit. He had lost everything. He had become a stranger. He
had a stone for his pillow. And that was where he saw the heavenly
ladder, in the dreadful place where he was isolated and at the end of
his resources. There was a much more dreadful place at Calvary, for
there the Lord Jesus experienced in all its fullness the utter
desolation which is the result of man's sin. There on the cross, a
stranger to heaven and rejected by earth, He even lost His very life.
For Him not a stone for a pillow but [14/15] a
tree. And that cross has become the ladder, the top of which reaches to
heaven. Jacob said that it was a dreadful place, and so it was, but he
also said that it was the gate of heaven, so we can well understand the
Lord's use of this story to reveal Himself to Nathanael as the divine
ladder. It reaches from the depths of despair to the gates of heaven.
These are the vertical dimensions of Christ crucified: this is the way
by which the sinner, Jacob, in the depths of despair, can be lifted up
as Israel to the heights of communion with God. Then there are the
horizontal dimensions. From the place where Jacob saw the ladder, the
living power of God spread to the west, to the east, to the north and
to the south. No other ladder could have such dimensions, reaching to
the very ends of the earth. There was indication also of another
dimension -- that of time. God said to Jacob: "In thee and in thy seed,
shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 28:14). So we
see Christ's dimensions, from the jaws of hell to the gates of heaven,
from lonely despair to everlasting blessing to all corners of the earth
and throughout all generations. No wonder the Lord Jesus told Nathanael
that he would see greater things! He would see something of the
greatness of Christ and His cross.
Jacob did not see an actual house. He sensed the amazing dimensions of
God's purposes and became aware of the spiritual reality of the house
of God. So it is that whenever we perceive something of the divine
dimensions of the Crucified we know that we are in the house of God and
at the gate of heaven, though we may not understand much of what it
means. Nathanael certainly did not understand much about the house of
God at that time and the Lord did not use the phrase, for He wanted His
hearer to experience the reality of the house of God before he received
teaching about it. There was to be a 'hereafter' in the experience of
Nathanael. He, too, was to be reduced to total despair. When the Lord
was being crucified, everything was dark and he was one of those who
ran away, with a heart full of despair. That was indeed a dreadful
place, for he had nothing more to rest on -- not even a promise. Like
the others, he was quite alone; they were strangers, they wept;
everything had gone and they felt that there was no room for them in
heaven and no place for them here on earth. Then there came the Easter
morning, and later the upper room where the heavens did open and the
Spirit brought them into the reality of having the Lord Jesus as
everything. They knew then that His kingdom extended over the whole
earth and through all generations, and in Him they found the ladder
which lifted them from the actual depths of human despair to the very
heights of heaven. Seeing Jesus, they experienced the house of God.
They loved Him -- how could they do else -- and they followed and
obeyed Him. It was the gate of heaven. Outsiders saw in them something
of the reality of God's house. They were a new humanity, a new people,
with an authority which was not artificial, a power that could not be
explained, and a fellowship that was not arranged, not even planned. It
all resulted from seeing the Lord in His divine dimensions, and
everything else assuming its proper proportions.
WE see that here the Lord called Himself not the Son of God but the Son
of man. He was referring, of course, to the title given Him in Daniel
7. That chapter tells how this Son of man came to the Ancient of Days
and it proceeds to give the divine dimensions of the Son of man:
"Dominion was given to him, a kingdom, that all peoples to the west and
east and north and south, all nations and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and
which shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14). This is the Son of man. He
is the ladder with those divine dimensions. He is the house of God. For
this reason we read: "And the kingdom and dominion and greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the most
High" (verse 27). It was given to Him (v.14): it was given to His
people (v.27). The seed of His travail inherit together with Him. These
are the dimensions of the ladder. Jacob saw the ladder, but he realised
that the Lord and His people in some mysterious way belong to one
another. He saw the Lord, and spoke about "the house". It is always
like that. With your eyes on the Lord, you can speak about His Church.
The Lord and the Church have tremendous dimensions, to the north, to
the south, to the east, to the west, to all generations; and some day
the Lord and His Church will be given universal dominion which will
last for ever.
"Hereafter"! There is always a "hereafter". There may be a "hereafter"
for you, too. Nathanael had seen much, and yet there was [15/16]
much more to see. You may have seen much, but there is still much more
for you to see. We have already said that God is a God of repetition,
but it should be added that every repetition should involve
enlargement. The one thing which will hinder such enlargement is
prejudice, that is, being bound up with your own ideas and dominated by
them. The ideas may to some extent be right -- "Can any good thing come
out of Nazareth?" In posing that question Nathanael was saying
something which was partially true, but he needed to be taught that it
was not the full truth, for one good thing did come out of Nazareth.
However much we may know, we are limited, and if we hold on to our own
ideas too much, we may miss the fresh light which God wishes to give
us. So let us turn our backs on all that has been in the past, even on
our good experiences and blessings, and let us turn to the Lord in a
fresh way and say to Him: 'You have promised, Lord, that to him that
has, more shall be given. I have something, Lord, but I believe that
You want to give me more. Give me Your own dimensions.' And the Lord
will do it. He Himself will be the answer to your questions about the
Church. God's purposes will be realised by Christ being all, in us all.
----------------
WHAT IS HIS NAME?
13. IMMANUEL
Harry Foster
"THOU shalt call his name Jesus ... they shall call his name Immanuel
..." (Matthew 1:21 and 23). Isaiah had prophesied that they would call
Mary's infant Immanuel, but there is no evidence that anybody ever used
this name during the earthly life of Jesus. Joseph called Him Jesus, as
he had been commanded to do, but we have no means of knowing how much
he understood of Matthew's identification of the child as the
virgin-born Immanuel of Isaiah's prophecy. Yet if people did not use
the name it is clear that the spiritual reality was appreciated from
time to time. There were moments when people sensed that in meeting
Jesus they found themselves in the presence of God.
Peter began his history as an apostle with an abject confession of his
own sinfulness which only the holy presence of God could have provoked
(Luke 5:8). When a man was raised from the dead, those present
exclaimed that God had visited them (Luke 7:16). What made the squad
which had come to the garden of Gethsemane go backward and fall to the
ground when Jesus confronted them with the words: "I am he" (John
18:6)? Was it not a momentary awareness of divine majesty? They sought
Jesus of Nazareth, and they met the great Immanuel. They fell back in
dismay; but others knelt in worship. The Lord Jesus had insisted to
Satan that God alone must be worshipped (Matthew 4:10), yet He did not
demur at the worship given to Him by the man born blind (John 9:38) and
others. Indeed He clarified the position to the rich young ruler who
knelt before Him and called Him 'good', by explaining that the only
valid way of so describing Him must be to recognise Him as truly God
for: "... there is none good but one, that is, God" (Mark 10.18).
Reference to Isaiah's prophecy may explain why men never used the name,
for the circumstances of the early life of this Immanuel were gloomy in
the extreme. The background of the sign given by God to Ahaz was that
the child would be born into the famine conditions of a land devastated
by war (Isaiah 7:14-16). Spiritually this was fulfilled in the case of
the child whom Joseph called Jesus. The prophecy was fulfilled; the
virgin bore her Son; but God's appearance in incarnation was made
confused and sombre because of His people's sin. God was with man
indeed, but He was here to share man's misery and to bear the
consequences of his departure from his creator. No man realised it at
the time, but in fact God was with us, with us in all the shame and
degradation of human folly and sin.
After the cross came the resurrection, and then the true glory of
Immanuel was made evident to all believers. In Christ, God is for us
and God is with us. Thomas began the happy testimony with his: "My Lord
and my God" [16/17] (John 20.28), and from that
day to this, Immanuel -- God with us -- has been linked with the saving
name of Jesus in the grateful praises of all believers. The Lord Jesus
gave added emphasis to the encouragement and comfort of this name of
His when He told His disciples to go into all the world, backed by His
universal authority, and added: "Lo, I am with you all the days ..."
(Matthew 28:20).
So Matthew's words have proved true -- "they shall call his name
Immanuel". We count ourselves happy indeed that we shall know Him
eternally by this marvellous name.
----------------
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
BIBLE ON THE MOON
Harry Foster
THE moon is dry and airless. This means that matter does not decay up
there. The instruments and flags which the astronauts left behind after
their various visits will still be there at any future time when man
may land there again. As a matter of fact nobody plans to land on the
moon again, so it seems that the different human articles left there
will remain for ever unused and undisturbed.
Two years or so ago, when Apollo 15 landed its commander, David Scott,
and another astronaut on the moon, they finished their assignment and
when they blasted off again they left behind a Bible. So there is a
Bible on the moon. It is interesting and rather wonderful that the Word
of God should have been honoured in this way but, apart from the
curiosity, there does not seem to be much value in their action. In
some senses that Bible is a wasted message.
We are not told that God loved the moon, but we are told that He loved
the world. God did not send His Son to the moon, but He did send Him to
this earth of ours. God has not given any life to the moon -- it is a
completely lifeless planet -- but He made provision for eternal life to
be given to those who live on the earth. So there is a sense in which
we may say that God has no message for the moon, and therefore the
Bible deposited there is really a wasted book.
Not that this matters. There are so many other copies of God's Word in
the earth that just one may well be spared as a relic to be left on the
deserted surface of the moon. The sad thing is, though, that this is
not the only wasted Bible. How many more copies of this wonderful book,
with its thrilling message of love, are just as neglected as though
they were lying up there among the moondust. Nobody opens them. Nobody
reads them. Nobody seeks light from God from their pages. Nobody makes
use of them to receive the message of life through Christ the Saviour.
A Bible on the bookshelf, a Bible in the attic, can be just as closed
and powerless as that Bible on the moon.
It was an English Bible. In China and in Russia they cherish the few
Bibles that there are, because it is difficult, and sometimes almost
impossible, to obtain a copy. Why, in some of those countries, one page
of the Scriptures is treasured and valued beyond everything else that
the owner possesses. We English people have so many of them that we are
apt to despise them. Perhaps if the Word went round that there was only
one Bible and that was lying on the moon, men might be more anxious to
recover and read it. It is interesting to realise that even if every
copy of the Word of God were destroyed down here on this earth, there
would still be a fadeless, fresh copy stored away on the moon.
But it should not be stored there so far as you are concerned. And it
should not be stored in the church or in your bookcase only. It should
be stored in your heart. For this is not like any other book; it is a
life-giving message from God. The psalmist tells us what he had done
with his Bible: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart" (Psalm 119:11) and
he tells us why he had done this: "... that I might not sin against
thee." The Bible keeps us from sin. But more than this, it tells us of
God's remedy for sin which is the sacrifice of Christ our Saviour. [17/18]
What have you done with God's Word? Have you left it as a dead museum
piece, like the Bible on the moon. It need not be so. You do not have
to be blasted off into space and journey a long way to find God's
message of love. All you have to do is to open your heart to its living
message and find how willing the Lord Jesus is to come into your heart
and stay there with you.
----------------
AGAINST THE TIDE
The Story of Watchman Nee
Eric Fischbacher
THE name of Watchman Nee was little known in the Western Christian
sphere until Angus Kinnear, publishing first in India, brought to it
the first of a series of books carrying the name. These were not direct
translations from complete books in Chinese, but selections culled from
various sources and compacted into highly readable volumes which
rapidly came to the fore in a competitive field -- not simply for their
immediate appeal, but for their practical contribution toward a fuller
understanding of the Christian life. Many have found real help in their
personal lives through study of the ministry of this outstanding
Chinese Christian, and not a few of these must be curious to know more
of the man and his story.
For this reason Against The Tide, The Story of Watchman Nee,
has been produced and it is appropriate that Dr. Kinnear who brought
the ministry to us here, should now shed some light on the man himself,
and his contribution, under God, to the Church in China.
The book begins with a fairly extensive account of his family origins
and highlights the importance to a young life of Christian family
influence, both directly and indirectly through Christian friends. His
mother was not without fault in her dealings with this highly
intelligent and sensitive son, yet his conversion through the preaching
of evangelist Dora Yu owed something to his mother's own experience
with God, and her obedience to His commands. Surely this holds a lesson
for those of us who as parents bear a deep responsibility before God
for the right beginnings of our children -- our own personal
relationship with God must play a major part.
He came to a personal knowledge of Christ while at school and his
concern for the sharing of the Good News was immediately evident.
Laying down the pen at the end of the day's lessons he and his friends
would take the Bible and go out into the surrounding villages to preach
the Gospel. Holidays were similarly employed and one can see at this
early age the compulsion in the man to communicate. He admits that from
these early years he loved to preach but there can be little doubt that
the urge, and evident gift, had its origin with God 'who would have all
men to be saved'. It was not all talk. The record shows that Watchman
and his friends were building at that time a platform of real
experience and practical knowledge of God, and the account of how the
rain came is a good example of this. He was not simply a man with a
message; he was to be a servant of the Living God, bringing evidence of
the reality and power of his Master.
The account of his progress goes on. He gave much time to intensive
study of the Scriptures -- surely a sine qua non of Christian
service. It was his habit in his regular reading to go through the New
Testament several times a month. The influence of Miss Margaret Barber
and her library was absorbed into his lively and receptive mind, and
like Paul he shut himself away from time to time in a small hut by the
river, giving sufficient opportunity for these influences to become
integrated into his own particular circumstances and style. He began to
write -- a small paper entitled Revival, consisting of Bible
expositions -- and this no doubt laid some of the ground work for later
writing published in book form.
His progress was then interrupted by a serious, life-threatening
illness which forced to a halt the increasing spiritual activity in
which he was becoming engaged with his friends. The work [18/19]
of God's Spirit, however, in his inner man was if anything accelerated
by this apparent catastrophe, and it is a classic example of the kind
of basic experience which the Apostle Paul found so hard to accept at
first -- the thorn in the flesh. It was perhaps in this experience of
weakness that he found the strength that sustained him not only through
the years of expanding work, and highly effective church building, but
also through the long years of confinement in a Shanghai prison. This
illness, 'nigh unto death', seems to me a highly significant factor in
his story.
Various Western missionaries working in the area came into association
with Nee; some became strongly drawn to him, deeply impressed with his
gifts, and growing indigenous work; others regarded him as a threat to
the established mission scene, a 'sheep-stealer', enticing the best of
the flock into his own part of the fold. There is no evidence on his
part of any strong anti-missionary feeling -- rather he took the view
that God had given him a work to do, and he must apply himself
positively to it. He was too occupied with the problems of a young and
growing church to take time for negative criticism of other Christian
workers. Despite a war situation with its fragmentation of the country,
its interruption of communication and curtailment of travel, the work
spread rapidly, and assemblies on the simple lines developed in
Shanghai sprang up all over China.
He did take time however to visit Britain again, and deepen an
association with Mr. T. Austin-Sparks, the editor of A Witness and
A Testimony , the predecessor of this magazine. Many known to the
writer of this review, including his father, were privileged to meet
Watchman Nee at this time, and he spent a number of months in relaxed
fellowship with believers in England and Scotland, and also in
Scandinavia.
There were now some two hundred full-time workers in a rapidly
expanding work, and the financial needs led Nee into what would appear
from the account to have been an ill-advised excursion into the
commercial world. The establishment, with his brother and other
colleagues, of pharmaceutical laboratories, was misunderstood by many,
although there is insufficient information to judge the implications of
it all. His brethren felt on this evidence that he had abandoned full
spiritual commitment, looking for a foothold also in the material
world, and at length, to avoid further misunderstanding and conserve
unity, he abandoned the project to others.
The political changes in China, with the Communist army advancing from
the North, brought Nee now into an intensive programme of teaching and
training, preparing the believers for harder times. Special conferences
for leaders and workers were convened, and serious thought given to the
way ahead. Priority was given at this time to memorisation of Scripture
-- how many are still living in the value of this inspired emphasis? He
was still free to travel even to Taiwan and Hong Kong where he laboured
to establish the work of the Lord. Many urged him not to return to
China, but 'I have children inside the house', he said, 'and if it is
crashing down I must support it, if need be with my head'. So he
returned to Shanghai, and then followed the inevitable accusation
meetings, his own arraignment and imprisonment, and the gradual
throttling of the external life of the church.
The book is an exhaustive presentation of the life and times of
Watchman Nee, and yet the reader is left with the impression of the
personality and nature of the man as a hardly traceable thread through
great movements in China, political and spiritual, with which he was
involved. Perhaps this is only to be expected of this man of God who
was counted worthy to suffer twenty years in prison for Christ's sake,
and who penned on the fly-leaf of his Bible the most moving words in
the book -- 'I want nothing for myself; I want everything for the
Lord'. [19/20]
Contrary winds, rough seas and fierce tempests seem to be the
inevitable experience of the Church of Christ. Whenever the Lord sets a
course for His people, there is no lack of satanic opposition against
it. It was enough for Jesus to propose to His disciples that they
should go to "the other side of the lake" for a hellish storm to menace
their boat, a storm of such magnitude that it frightened even the
experienced sailors in the apostolic band. (Luke 8:22-25.) Equally, if
the apostle Paul was on his way to fulfil a divine commission in Rome,
then it seemed inevitable that a violent storm should threaten to drown
him. (Acts 27:20-25.) In both cases the diabolical attack was
frustrated, for Jesus really is Lord of all, but the striking
difference in the two stories is the contrasting reactions of the
disciples who were involved in the storms at sea.
In the Gospel story we read that the hearts of the disciples were
filled with panic. "Master, master, we perish" was the faithless cry
which so deeply disappointed their Lord. The very cry was full of
contradiction. If He is indeed Master -- the one who stands over -- how
could they possibly perish? But then, there is nothing so illogical as
unbelief. Of course Christ is Master. He soon proved that. But what a
pity that they had reacted to the storm with such abject unbelief!
"Where is your faith?" It was lying almost stifled under their load of
selfish fear. Like some people in our day, they only prayed for
themselves. 'How does it affect me,' they ask; 'why doesn't the Lord do
something quick to relieve me?'
When the apostle Paul was in a storm -- a much worse one -- he also
feared, but at the same time he trusted. He too prayed, but he forgot
himself in his sacrificial prayer for others. He was surrounded by a
large number of men who had lost all hope, and most of whom did not
know how to pray for themselves. He knew that his life was hid with
Christ in God, so had no panic about himself. His personal concern was
connected not with safety but with the fulfilment of his God-given
mission to testify before Caesar. He was re-assured about this, and
then, as a kind of royal bounty, he was told that God had granted him
all that sailed with him. His prayer had clearly been directed towards
the needy men around him. Some were friends, some were enemies, but he
prayed for them all, and God wonderfully answered his prayers. "I
believe God", the storm-tossed apostle was able to affirm, and they
could all see the reality of his triumphant faith, just as they all
shared in the value of his intercession.
Today we seem to find ourselves in a tempest-stricken world. Whether we
are to be granted emergence into a God-given calm, or whether the ship
is to be splintered on the rocks, we do not know. Time will show this.
But our business meanwhile is to know how to pray in such conditions.
And our prayers should not be the selfish cry of panic: "Master,
master, carest thou not that we perish?" but rather the prayer of those
who so believe God that our tempested fellow passengers may find
salvation through our prayers and through our steady witness. - Selected
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