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"... 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. 5, Sep. - Oct. 1974 |
EDITOR: Mr. Harry Foster |
[ifc/81]
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MAN OF GOD (1)
Alan L. Barrow
Reading: 1 Timothy 6:3-16
THE phrase 'Man of God' occurs quite infrequently in the New Testament.
So far as I can discover it is only used on two occasions and they are
both in Paul's letters to Timothy. Elsewhere in the New Testament it is
not found, except that Peter describes those who were responsible for
writing the Old Testament as 'holy men of God' (2 Peter 1:21). This is
a reference back and surely enough, when we come to consider the Old
Testament, we find that the phrase 'man of God' occurs frequently.
There were well-known prophets who were described as men of God; there
were virtually unknown prophets who appeared on the scene and then
disappeared but who were also called men of God. David was referred to
as a man of God, particularly in relation to his music, his capacity of
providing a vehicle of praise for God's people. And then Moses was
described as "the man of God". So we see that in the Old Testament many
were so designated, and in some cases considerable emphasis was placed
on the title. In the New Testament, however, the phrase is hardly used
at all.
Now what does this mean? Surely not that men of God are of less
importance now. There must be some reason for the particular stress
which is found in these writings to Timothy. It is possibly due to the
fact that Paul had a very close relationship with Timothy. He knew the
family. He and Timothy had worked together and travelled together for
quite a long time, and had shared much adversity. There seems every
evidence that the apostle regarded Timothy as something of an
investment for the future, and so gave a considerable amount of time
and attention to this next generation servant of the Lord. Having
observed Timothy under a variety of circumstances and been associated
with him in their working for God, he naturally was very concerned for
him and for his spiritual success. The close relationship between the
two men is indicated by the fact that Paul wrote to Timothy as "my true
child in the faith". It seems likely that the younger man found Christ
as a result of Paul's visit to Lystra. The apostle addressed him as
"Timothy, my son" (1:18) and added weight to his exhortations by
saying: "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you ..." (6:20).
We are not surprised at the personal element, for this -- unlike most
of the others -- was a very personal letter. In the second epistle Paul
referred to his acquaintance with Timothy's childhood, as though
everything to do with him was a matter of ultimate knowledge and
concern to the writer. To such a man, under such circumstances, the
apostle wished to stress the importance of being 'a man of God'.
This is not a term which we would think of applying to ourselves. We
never refer to ourselves as men and women of God. This may be due to a
very proper modesty, but it may also be because we feel that it should
be an exceptional title, reserved for someone who is quite unusual.
This might have been true in Old Testament times, but it should not be
true today. Could the phrase be rightly applied to us? Could Paul write
to us and address us as men and women of God? I suggest that it will be
a profitable occupation to look closer into the implications of the
title, seeking to discover what are the implications of being 'a man of
God'.
GOING back to the Old Testament we note that the man of God was
primarily a prophet, which means that he was a man with a job to do. He
seemed to come into some situation with a task assigned to him and, so
far as I know, he always fulfilled that task. I cannot find a single
instance of a man described as 'a man of God' who failed to do the job
assigned to him. So naturally he was a man of determination, one who
had an air of purposefulness about his movements and actions. There is
no sense of drift associated with the Old Testament men of God; they
did not wait around needing some sort of entertainment or amusement to
keep them going; they never seemed to be bored. Whether the man of God
was a public figure or whether he was quite unknown, he was moved by a
clear appreciation of what he was called to and what he was meant to be
doing. He did not unduly concern himself with what other people were
doing: he knew what his own particular job was and he got on with it. [81/82]
It is true that Christ was not described as a 'Man of God', partly
because He Himself is God but chiefly because His self chosen title
"the Son of man" covered all that we are now to consider. His title was
unique, and rightly so, but He is to us a true example of the kind of
man God requires and so from Him we may learn something of how a man of
God behaves. His was certainly a life of purpose. It is inconceivable
that He should have spent a single day seeking amusement or needing
entertainment. As He moved about, morning by morning and afternoon by
afternoon, He always knew that there was something to be done for God;
people to be met, needs to be dealt with, situations to be faced; for
Him every moment was one of purpose. Of course He enjoyed refreshment,
and one might even say recreation. I would suggest, though, that He
never felt in need of entertainment.
If I am asked what is the difference between entertainment and
recreation, I would advance the explanation that everything depends on
the end in view. Entertainment seems to me to be an end in itself,
entertainment for entertainment's sake. Recreation, however, is not an
end in itself but is meant to equip a man better for the demands and
challenge of the work which he is called to. The very same thing could
be entertainment (and therefore somewhat dubious) or recreation which
would be most commendable. As we know, Christ had periods of
recreation, periods of refreshment. He did not drive Himself
relentlessly just for the sake of keeping on. On the other hand, with
Him it was never a case of looking round for something to occupy His
time, as though there were nothing important to do. What would be sheer
entertainment for some might well be recreation for others, the whole
point being the purpose 'behind what is being done. Is it to equip
those who are concerned with God's service, to freshen them up for that
service? Or is it because they cannot think of anything else to do and
have no purpose to govern their behaviour? Well, the man of God has a
purposeful life to live, and in that sense there can be little doubt
that -- modesty apart -- we should all be marked out as men and women
of God.
It has occurred to me that there must be a reason for the title being
'man of God' and not 'man from God'. This may be
possibly because the prophets came not just as those with whom God had
entrusted a message which had no relevance to their own character. They
did not just come with words from Him. Rather is it God's way to have
embodied the message in the man. The man was the message. Indeed if the
message is to be rightly understood it seems necessary for God's
purpose that it must be enshrined in human life. This is, of course,
the principle of the incarnation, for as a Man Christ embodied the
message which He brought to earth. We can have our teaching, our
convictions, have all the facts and all the rules, but they will be
very cold and unhelpful if they are not enshrined in people in whom
those principles are seen to be working. So God has His prophets and
His priests, and pre-eminently He has His Christ in whom can be seen
the living reality of what it is that He is saying to us. And He has us
all. His 'saints', those who are set apart to be men and women of God
in this sense, that we enshrine and illustrate the message which we
bring. It may be right to suggest that we are bringing people a message
from God. Are we not called ambassadors for Christ? Yet even so, it may
be asked if we have a right to a hearing, and the answer lies in what
we are as well as what we say. It is those who themselves embody their
message who can truly be called men and women of God.
THE man of God should "follow after ... godliness" (verse 11). We might
naturally suggest what he should aim at would be the possibility of
leadership in the church of God, the ability to make his mark by
preaching in power, prevailing in prayer, studying his Bible or other
similar activities. In fact these would be legitimate ambitions, but
the stress of the apostolic appeal touches something more fundamental.
He is to aim at godliness. It is worthy of note that the thought of
godliness occurs time and again in these letters to Timothy and Titus,
and then only again in 2 Peter. Not that the rest of the Bible fails to
indicate this important quality, but it seems that in this letter there
is a special concentration on the need for godliness. By the time that
he wrote these words to Timothy Paul had had much experience of
spiritual matters. He had seen Christian churches founded; he had seen
them flourish and he had also seen them fail or flounder. He had seen
individual Christians start well, and had also seen some of them come
to near disaster. At this stage of his life, therefore, and with only
two more pastoral epistles to write. [82/83] he
must have had a clear perspective of the needs of the churches as well
as of individual Christians. It is interesting to note that it was also
in his final epistle that Peter made this same emphasis on godliness.
1 Timothy 2:2
In this verse we find that godliness -- or the need for it -- provides
a reason for praying about our circumstances. The argument seems to be
that we should ask God for the kind of governments and rulers which
will provide an environment which is helpful to a life of godliness. It
surely does not mean that too much importance should be devoted to the
quietness or peaceableness of our surroundings, but rather that we are
to welcome and pray for everything which can be used by God to further
this most important aim of godliness. It is the godliness and not
peaceful conditions which is to be the real objective of our prayers.
The passage goes on to speak of the women folk and how godliness can be
expressed by them (verse 10). Here again the main concern is not on the
outward but on the inward, not on rules and regulations concerning
dress but on the godly character of those concerned. God is just as
concerned to have women of God as men of God, and calls for the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which He values so highly. Both by
prayer and by behaviour we are to seek to deal with anything which can
obscure true godliness.
1 Timothy 3:16
According to this passage the tremendously important secret of true
godliness is revealed in the person of Christ, so that right at the
heart of this letter we are given this concept, that the very essence
of the idea of godliness is to be found in the incarnation. Christ came
to show us what God is like. "Manifested in the flesh." In the life,
death and glorification of the Man Jesus, we can see the quality of
character which is called godliness. The mystery of godliness had to
wait a long time before it was disclosed, since only in the person of
the Lord Jesus could it be fully revealed. Now we are instructed as to
the real godliness of man as God meant him to be, and in the Man Christ
Jesus we are shown how we ought to behave ourselves in that household
of God which is the Church of the living God.
1 Timothy 4:7
Here we are told that we should train ourselves in godliness, stressing
the effort involved by a comparison with bodily training. We live in a
day when in any sphere concentrated training is regarded as absolutely
vital. You will even meet people running round the block at all hours
of night or day, seeking to prepare themselves for some contest, and
the whole matter is regarded as proper and reasonable. Why should we be
less devoted in seeking to be spiritually 'fit'? Surely in this matter
of godliness we ought to make use of the same sort of discipline and
ordered planning. The man of God does not regard godliness as a hobby
but as the prior commitment of his whole life.
1 Timothy 6:3
Godliness is also a test which may rightly be applied to teaching. It
is useless to put emphasis on 'sound words' merely as orthodox
teaching. They must be backed by that 'orthodox' Christian living which
is shown in godliness of life. The words of our Lord Jesus were
substantiated and confirmed by His manner of life, and it was He who
warned us to test every would-be prophet or teacher by enquiry into the
way they live as well as the words they speak. Paul had no hesitation
in saying that it is impossible to accept teaching which is not being
made valid in the life of the teacher.
1 Timothy 6:6
"There is great gain in godliness with contentment." In going on to
remark that as we brought nothing into this world we shall not be able
to take anything out of it, the apostle implies that there is something
which we can and will take with us into eternity, the great and lasting
gain of godliness. Godliness is not just a quality of character but it
is a relationship that we have with God through Christ. It is this
relationship which we must develop, an ever growing maturity in the
matter of trust and love. Hence the argument that this is something
worth disciplining ourselves for, something worthy of all our attention
and effort, since it is the only wealth which we will be able to
carryover from this life into the next.
I hope that I have established my point, that as he looked at the
Church situation and at his [83/84] fellow
workers and fellow believers, he came to the conclusion that it was
most important that they should put godliness above all else. He loved
Timothy greatly and could speak frankly to him, and so he made his
appeal: 'O man of God, aim for godliness'. If he felt like this about
the Christian life then, I wonder what the apostle would think today of
the current vogue among many Christians which seems to be more
concerned about show and entertainment than about solid godly living.
So much effort and so much money is spent that there is almost an
industry being built up for the purpose of entertaining Christians. We
are not here to be entertained: we are here to pursue godliness. In any
case we are not so concerned with what Paul would think as with what
Christ thinks of this claimant need for Christian entertainment. He who
was incarnate godliness here on earth calls us to be men of God, women
of God. A right sense of modesty will prevent us from adopting such a
noble title, but we must accept that this is our calling, and seek
grace from God to pursue it and to encourage one another to be men of
God.
----------------
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
"It came to pass ... that the disciples were called
Christians first at Antioch." (Acts 11:26)
Harry Foster
EVEN a superficial reader of the book of the Acts would notice that a
new phase of divine activity began with the introduction of the church
at Antioch. The apostles seem to have recognised this fact for, when
they heard the news of what was happening, none of their number went to
the city, but they sent Barnabas. He did not return to report. It seems
evident that he realised that God was doing something new, so that when
there was a need for further formation and development by the ministry
of the Word he did not call in any of the apostles but went rather to
Tarsus, determined to get the help of the one man who could be adequate
for such a job.
Saul's original vision was not being fulfilled. He was the man who had
received the revelation of this worldwide purpose of God long before
these events at Antioch, and Barnabas seems to have decided that he was
the one man who fitted into the situation. How right he was! It appears
that it took him a little while to discover just where Saul was, but it
is unlikely that he had much difficulty in persuading this new apostle
to share in this exciting development among non-Jews. They went down to
Antioch together, thrilled to have a part in something which was
obviously a divine intervention and which promised so much.
As the days passed the promise was fulfilled. Even the frivolous
citizens of Antioch felt the impact of it all, and they reacted by
coining a new name for the people of God. "It came to pass that the
disciples were called Christians first" in those thrilling days of new
beginnings. In other words it had become apparent to all onlookers that
what was happening at Antioch was a distinctive work of Christ. It
casts no slur on the apostles and the Jerusalem church to say that
until this time the casual observers had not realised the unique effect
of the cross, thinking doubtless that these 'Nazarenes' were but just
one more of the many sects of Judaism. The main body of Jews had, of
course, strongly repudiated Jesus Christ from the first, but even an
unpopular new sect, if it is nothing more than a sect, will eventually
become respectable, as the history of Christendom proves. If such a
movement is only characterised by outward forms it may be resisted, but
in the end it will be accepted as one of the many. Folk saw the
Pharisees and Sadducees, the Essenes and the Herodians and the rest,
and they could be excused for thinking that the Nazarenes were going to
be added to the list. At Antioch, though, it became clear that this was
not to be. This movement was something so entirely new that they gave
it a nickname -- Christians. The fact that Luke sees fit to record this
innovation suggests that he regarded it as something of real importance.
Having regard to the power and glory of the Lord experienced in
Jerusalem, it may sound [84/84] almost like
sacrilege to talk of God doing a new thing only ten years after
Pentecost. But God is always having to do new things, and it is not
necessarily a criticism of the Lord's servants in Jerusalem to remark
that this time He acted quite apart from them. None of the twelve
founded this church. Not even one of the seven ordained deacons had a
part in it. The church was born as a result of the witnessing of
unnamed persecuted believers. We are not told how it was that they came
to share their faith with non-Jews. It was one of those things that, to
use Luke's words, "came to pass". It was the Holy Spirit. That is why
there was such an immediate, spontaneous and glorious result.
WHEN Barnabas arrived he was not impressed by the outward shape of
things, the orthodox teaching and the right procedure, but what made
him so happy was to see the way in which the grace of God expressed
itself in the lives of these new converts; these men were so obviously
filled with the Spirit of Christ. It was not he who called them
Christians; though he might have done so had he thought of it. No, it
was the name which had become current in that city famed for its
nicknames, but it was partly due to the fact that there was no other
label which could be applied to them. It is not necessarily a good
thing when a work of God can be classified or distinguished by human
names. If we see what Christ is, we should be lifted right out of mere
earthly groupings. It was as if their neighbours said of those Antioch
disciples: 'This is not another religious sect to be added to the many;
this is something new, something different'. And it was. Something had
happened at Antioch which gave new impetus to God's worldwide purpose,
and it happened because some people there had become captivated by
Christ.
You may ask, was not it Christ whom they preached at Jerusalem? Was He
not preached by the twelve, by Stephen and Philip and others? Yes, but
it seems that in spite of Christ's teaching and the so-called Great
Commission, it took something quite new at Antioch to demonstrate the
universality of Christ's kingdom. What came spontaneously into being at
Antioch and was moulded and nurtured by the ministry of Saul and
Barnabas, was a fuller revelation of the vast meaning and wide
implications of the person of Christ. It may have been right for the
early disciples to meet in the temple and remain associated with its
worship; it was probably necessary for Peter and John to bestow the
Jerusalem mark of authenticity on the first church of the Samaritans;
but clearly the time had now come for the Holy Spirit to release the
ministry of Saul, the man who had vision and commission for a full
expression of Christ among the nations. The danger was that the
heavenly body of Christ should become earthbound by reason of
everything being centralised in Jerusalem. God broke out afresh at
Antioch to make known the fact that the Church is not a branch of
anything here on earth but an expression of the living Christ among men
whose only name and description could be 'Christ-ones' or Christians.
It is most important that this simple distinctiveness should be
maintained. This does not mean that we should be exclusive, an error
into which some of God's most earnest servants have fallen. They were
distinctive at Antioch, but most emphatically they were not exclusive.
The very next verse tells us of how visitors came down from Jerusalem
who were not despised or suspected by the church at Antioch. On the
contrary they were welcomed, given a place and asked what message they
had from the Lord. One of the Jerusalem prophets told them by the Holy
Spirit that the saints in Jerusalem were about to enter a period of
great suffering. A famine was coming which would be disastrous enough
for Jews in general, but especially severe on those who had turned from
Judaism to Christ. The response of the church at Antioch was as prompt
as it was generous. Everyone, according to his ability, sent what he
could to provide for these needy Jewish brothers in the faith. They
opened their hearts and their pockets, and what was more they sent
their best men -- Barnabas and Saul -- to carry their gift to
Jerusalem. So when we talk of distinctiveness we do not mean being
exclusive in spirit or in behaviour. We only mean that we cannot and
dare not, copy others, but must seek to allow the Holy Spirit to do His
new work in His own way. There is no 'mother-church' on earth: our
mother is in heaven (Galatians 4:26).
THE real significance of the name Christian is that it applies to those
who are Christ-centred. It was just a frivolous nickname at the
beginning, and only appears in the New Testament with a certain sense
of opprobrium. Nevertheless there is many a true word spoken in jest
and many a caricature which draws attention to [85/86]
features which really exist; so the people of Antioch had good reason
for the tag which they coined and placed on the disciples. As they met
them, saw their lives and heard what they had to say, the one thing
which impressed them was that this was a community which made
everything of Christ.
Barnabas encouraged them to do just this. When he had come and seen the
gracious work which God was doing in their lives, he exhorted them
"that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord". His
ministry was in the power of the Spirit and resulted in encouraging
this Christ-centredness. We notice that they did not start to call
themselves Christians. They were not self-conscious, they were not
trying to be anything special, they were just cleaving to Christ. They
were not trying to be different from or better than the churches in
Judea; they were not thinking of themselves or of their church, but
determined to give heart devotion to Christ.
It is very striking that no mention of any miraculous expression of
power, no story of signs and wonders, is made in connection with these
Christians. Did they speak in tongues? It is not mentioned, so we do
not know. Did wonderful healings take place there? They may have done,
but if so it did not occur to Luke or to the Holy Spirit to mention
them. What is told us is that for a whole year Saul (as he was then
called) and Barnabas devoted their teaching ministries to lead them on
in their knowledge of Christ. These ministries had most blessed
results. They were not spectacular, they were not sensational; they
consisted in steady, regular, Spirit-anointed teaching and grounding in
divine truth. In so many movements which are called revivals this has
been a conspicuous and serious lack. There is plenty of noise and
excitement, but neither time nor patience for attention to the
systematic exposition of the Word of God. But at Antioch the essential
function of a Spirit-given ministry was to establish the believers in
Christ, to enlighten them more and more about the meaning of Christ.
ON the return of Saul and Barnabas from Jerusalem this work of ministry
continued and was also shared with others. Its tendency was all
Christward, all calculated to establish a fuller and deeper vision of
the Lord among them, until at last the day came when this ministry of
Christ could be released into all the world. According to Acts 13:1-2
the guidance came while the servants of the Lord were gathered together
in priestly ministry to Him. They were not planning a missionary
movement, formulating schemes by which the gospel could be advanced
among men, but were waiting upon God in a priestly way. This seems one
more indication of how Christ-centred this new church was, since its
leaders gave priority to ministering to Him. Impatient onlookers might
have complained: 'What on earth are those men doing, shut up to God in
that way? These are men of gift, men with a call. Why don't they get
busy and move out to the task? The thing to do is not to question but
to read on to the end of the story and find what wonderful and
widespread results through Barnabas and Saul came from those sessions
of united prayer. The first business of any church is not to plan for
what can go out to men but to concentrate on what goes up to God. On
that basis the Holy Spirit will attend to the sending out, and do it so
much more effectively -- and even rapidly -- than the most consecrated
men could ever do. These 'Christians', who made so much of Christ,
proved to be very fruitful in the end. Indeed 'ministering to the Lord'
will often prove to be the key to real fruitfulness. It is impossible
to be in close contact with Christ without having a heart burden for a
needy world.
This very name suggests the worldwide nature of their view and outlook.
The idea of Christ, the Messiah, is purely Jewish. The actual word,
Christos, is the Greek way of describing Him. The particular noun for
'Christian' seems to be a Latinised form. So here we have Romans,
Greeks and Jews all condensed into a name, and a nickname at that. But
what a nickname! Without knowing it, the people who coined it were
hinting at the universal range of this new work of the Holy Spirit at
Antioch. And with the world in view the time had come for the Holy
Spirit to speak. "Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to
which I have called them" was what He said, as J. N. Darby's
translation shows. The time had come -- God's time. I have no doubt
that for Saul it had been a long time coming -- as it often is. For
this was not his call. He had long known the work assigned to him by
his Lord, to go out into the nations "to open their eyes, and to turn
them from darkness to light ..." (Acts 26:18), but it appears that the
Spirit needed such a church as that of Antioch before He could proceed
with the sending of His servant. Barnabas [86/87]
may well have shared this sense of divine call, but even the two men
would not act until the Spirit's moment came. They had to wait. While
they prayed they waited. While they taught they waited. While they
witnessed in Antioch among an ever-growing church they still waited.
When they undertook the commission of carrying help to Jerusalem they
were still waiting. And then while they shared with other brothers the
holy task of 'ministering to the Lord' the Holy Spirit spoke the word
of release. "Separate me now ...".
When the church sent these two men out, they recommended them to the
grace of God (Acts 14:26). Somehow one always met the grace of God when
dealing with these Christians. Later on Barnabas broke with Paul, and
the apostle took Silas with him as they set out again and on this
occasion, too, they were commended to the grace of God (Acts 15:40).
The New Testament tells us surprisingly little of this vital and
fruitful church. No epistle to this church has ever survived, if one
was ever written; and no hints are given as to their formation or
procedure. Two things are stressed. They were Christ-centred. And among
them was an abundant flow of the grace of God. Do we need to know more?
Is not this a sufficient disclosure of how it all began?
AS a matter of fact two more things are reported about Antioch, and
both of them tell of serious difficulties. This is not surprising for,
while Satan may tolerate and even patronise what is only nominally
Christian, he bitterly hates the real thing. So there were two
outstanding incidents of a very sad character which took place at
Antioch. But what strikes me about the two quarrels among the apostles
is that even these were not petty and mean, but were of large
dimension. That difficulty with Peter over the distinction between Jews
and Gentiles which is described in Galatians 2, and that quarrel
between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:39) -- at least they were on a big
scale, unlike the small and despicable wrangling at Corinth where every
little person was having a little quarrel with some other little
person. That was because so many of the Corinthians were self-centred.
The church at Antioch, however, was facing spiritual issues in the
light of a vast world situation, and that no doubt explains why they
met the full antagonism of the devil.
Peter seemed all right at Jerusalem and elsewhere, but somehow when he
got to Antioch he was betrayed into a subtle work of Satan which for
the moment was too much for him. He had to be openly rebuked. That must
have been a sad day for all concerned. In a sense it challenged Peter
and the others as to the validity of this name of 'Christian'. Thank
God that His grace triumphed in them, as it did in Paul, but nothing
less than grace could have triumphed over such a subtle dividing work
of Satan. The other matter was more personal, or so it seems. According
to your temperament you may take the side of Barnabas or side with
Paul, but at least it is good that they were arguing about getting on
with the Lord's work and did not allow the disagreement to prevent them
from doing that. One must believe, too, that the sovereignty of God so
overruled that in the end the result was greater gain for Christ. Was
Barnabas right about Mark? Well, Mark made good in the end. Was Paul
right? If he was, then perhaps it was the shock of his rebuke which
stung Mark into a new spiritual position. In any case the Lord was
glorified all round -- and that is the one concern of a Christian.
Surely the helpful lesson of those two conflicts at Antioch is that it
was the outward-looking vision which saved the church from disaster.
Although the clash with Peter was most disturbing, it was the appeal to
the love and cross of Christ which saved them from having any division
or partition in the church. And although a sharp contention between the
two men whom the Holy Spirit had so signally called at the beginning
must have been a very painful episode in the church's history, the fact
remains that Barnabas went on with his service, and Paul was sent on
his, and there was no partition in the church. How different it was at
Corinth, where whole groups were mutually antagonistic, claiming to be
Paul's party, or that of Apollos or Peter! Their trouble was that they
were prone to look inwards and tending to concentrate on making their
church something special. Those at Antioch, however, were saved by
having concern only for the name and glory of Christ. First of all, and
in spite of temptations to move off this ground, they were Christians!
That was how it all began, and that is what the Spirit is wanting to do
in our day. A master-stroke of Satan has been to debase the name of
Christian. This is done by those who have never had a personal
experience of new birth, but have some [87/88]
association with a religion. More subtly, however, it is done by making
this simple name and relationship to appear insufficient, so that other
names of people, places, doctrines or experiences are used to
distinguish a group of God's people. We need another Barnabas to visit
our churches as the "Son of Consolation" visited Antioch, and we need
him to challenge us with the same Spirit-given exhortation that with
purpose of heart we should cleave to the Lord!
----------------
THE LAST GREAT SERMON
[THE SERMON IN THE UPPER ROOM]
(Some thoughts on John, chapters 13 to 17)
2. CHAPTER FOURTEEN -- THE SPIRIT'S INDWELLING
Roger T. Forster
IN the thirteenth chapter we saw the two significant acts of washing
feet and offering bread across the table as a sign of friendship even
to His enemy, by which the Lord Jesus demonstrated something of the
great love of God to all who will open their eyes to see it. We notice
too that on the Thursday night before his crucifixion, when the Lord
Jesus was using the last hours of His earthly life to prepare His
disciples for the future, that there was a kind of fulfilment of what
John had written in an earlier part of his Gospel about the Lord Jesus
'tabernacling' amongst men. There is a sense in which in chapter
thirteen we find ourselves in the first court of the old Jewish
tabernacle and see the laver of water being applied to the feet of the
disciples. In that symbolic act the Lord Jesus indicated the way in
which He would wash away sins by the work of the cross. In that outer
court the sacrifices were taken and eaten by the servants of God, and
so it was that the Lord offered bread to His disciples in the upper
room.
This next chapter takes us on from the outer court where spiritual
things could be seen by all into the second court, into the 'tent'. In
the days of the Jewish economy when men used to worship God in the
tabernacle or in the temple, this was called 'the house of God', so we
find that chapter fourteen opens with the statement by the Lord that He
was going to prepare a place for His own in His 'Father's house'. From
this point right through to chapter sixteen it is as though the Lord
Jesus was introducing His disciples into the second court of God's
place of dwelling, which is of course Himself. So He spoke of preparing
an 'abiding place' in Himself, a place where men can come and live in
the inner tent, in the very house, in the very heart of God. And in
order for this terrific experience to become possible, He reiterated
again and again that it was essential for Him to go away from them. It
was just as though someone would pass from the outer court and hide for
a moment inside the tent, and then come out once more in order to
introduce others into the place which He had prepared for them inside.
"I will come again" He said, meaning that He would return to take them
in with Him to those heavenly abiding places of the Father's house
where they were henceforth to live.
In the course of this chapter there is no section of more than five
verses which does not contain this promise that He would go away and
then come back to them again. It was as though in that upper room the
Lord Jesus was conveying to His disciples that the purpose of His going
away in death and return in resurrection was to make it possible for
them to go right into the house of God and dwell in that house for ever
and ever. The psalmist spoke of this in the 23rd psalm and he also
expressed his desire to live in the house of the Lord where he could
behold the beauty of the Lord and enquire in His temple, delighting in
the presence of the Lord for ever and ever. This chapter shows how the
Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for this new 'life-style' which
was to be theirs, this new realm of existence which was to be brought
in by the Christian dispensation. It was to consist of living in His
house, being a part of His tent, dwelling in the very body of the Lord
Jesus Himself. And in order to enable the disciples to grasp how this
was to come about, He began to introduce them to the Holy Spirit, since
after He had gone away and come back it was not the resurrection itself
[88/89] which would bring them into
the new sphere of existence but His Spirit, the other Comforter, who
would come and dwell with them. The three chapters which give us the
great narrative of the upper room sermon in which the Lord Jesus was
seeking to introduce His disciples into the inner life of the house of
God, make mention four times of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who was
going to take His place.
ON the first occasion He said to them: "If you love me, keep my
commandments; and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
comforter that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of
truth, which the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, it
does not know him; but you know him, for he dwells alongside you and
shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you"
(14:15-18). Then again He introduced this 'called alongside one', this
Comforter: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you ..." (14:26).
On the third occasion He dealt with the matter of entering into the
house of God and abiding in Him, and for this they would need the
Comforter. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you
from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the
Father, he shall witness of men and you also shall bear witness,
because you have been with me from the beginning" (15:26-27). And then
on the fourth and last occasion in this upper room narrative, the Lord
Jesus brought them face to face with the Holy Spirit. "Nevertheless I
tell you the truth; it is expedient that I go away, for if I go not
away the Comforter will not come to you, but if I depart I will send
him unto you. When he is come he will convict the world of sin, of
righteousness and of judgment; of sin because they believe not on me,
of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more, of
judgment because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many
things to say to you but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come he will guide you into all truth, for he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak,
and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and will show it unto you" (16:13-14). Four times then
the Lord Jesus introduced this Other Self, this Spirit who was to come
from the Father, this 'other presence' who was coming to take the place
of Jesus. It was most important and the Lord Jesus took very meticulous
care to see that His disciples grasped the significance of the Holy
Spirit. He has the same care for us.
Just before He introduced the Holy Spirit for the fourth time the Lord
Jesus, upbraiding His disciples a little, said to them: "But now I go
my way to him that sent me, but none of you asks, Where do you go?"
(16:5). You might argue that Peter had asked that question a little
earlier, in the 13th chapter. Had he? Yes and no. Peter had truly
asked: 'Lord, why can't I follow You now? Why can't I go the way You
are going?' But he was not really asking where the Lord was going, but
only voicing his concern that the Lord Jesus was about to be lost to
them. Peter was one of those who had -- almost literally -- burned his
boats. He had put everything behind his back, sold himself out for
Christ and declared that he was going to follow Him to the ends of the
earth, to die for Him if needs be. Having given up everything for his
Lord he was aghast to hear Jesus say that He would go away and leave
them. This is rather parallel to Thomas's question: "Lord, we know not
whither thou goest; and how can we know the way" (14:5). In His reply:
"I am the way ..." the Lord sought to reassure Thomas that he was not
going to lose his Master, but to continue in the way with Him. So in a
sense Thomas and Peter did not really ask the Lord where He was going.
What they were most concerned about was how they were going to manage
without Him. The Lord upbraided them to try to help us to ask this
question as to the true significance of His leaving the earth. The fact
is that by going away through death and the ascension which followed
the resurrection, the Lord Jesus was able to give the Holy Spirit who
would not only fill the gap that Thomas and Peter feared, but give them
quite a new experience of His presence. The Holy Spirit was more than a
substitute for the presence of Jesus here on earth: He was the
completing and perfecting of the significance of that presence in a new
sphere of spiritual experience. To be a Christian in the twentieth
century is to be at home with God in a way which the disciples could
never have known while Christ was still here on earth. It is far more
satisfactory and fulfilling now, for the Holy Spirit makes God's
presence an inward reality all the time. Do we believe this? Has the [89/90] past week proved it? Have we enjoyed the
thrilling experience of being at home with God moment by moment, have
we proved the nearness of His presence, the support of His wisdom and
strength? Have we found that when we witness of Him that He witnesses
too? In a very pragmatic way the Lord is at work now, as He convicts
the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment by means of His
Spirit who lives in us, His people. The Lord Jesus now completes His
presence with us in a way which He could never have done if He had not
first died, risen again, ascended to prepare a place for us in the
Father's house and then introduced us into that house by the Holy
Spirit.
NOW this word 'Comforter' is perhaps not the best word to use. A
comforter can sometimes be a thing, but the Holy Spirit is no 'thing';
He is as personal as Jesus Himself. We get the word from Wycliffe's
translation of the Bible, and its meaning was more robust in those
days. There is another version which uses the term 'Consoler', but this
might suggest that, like the disciples before Pentecost, we are
miserable because we do not have the Lord Jesus with us and so have to
be consoled by a substitute. The Spirit of God, however, is much more
than that. Far from merely consoling us because we lack the literal
presence of Jesus He is with us as able to give us much more than just
consolation for what is absent, namely a fuller experience of God with
us. Others have suggested the word 'Advocate' because the Greek word
can mean this, somebody in the law courts, like a solicitor or a
barrister; someone who will plead with our hearts and advocate the Lord
Jesus to us. This has some truth but it still falls short of the real
meaning if we are thinking of a court scene in our own hearts and of
the Spirit convincing us and pleading with us.
There are different ways in which this word 'paracletos' can be
rendered, and for myself I think that it is best summed up in a little
phrase: 'A friend at court'. To the Greeks it meant this, for although
in our case a solicitor may act for us without being our personal
friend, this was not true for them. For them a friend at court was one
who would stand by them in the witness box, whispering encouragement in
their ear, bringing back to remembrance any important point that they
were in danger of forgetting, and even offering to share their
testimony because of personal involvement in the case in hand. The
Greek took more than a mere solicitor with him; he took a friend whom
he had called alongside to stand with him in his hour of trial,
difficulty and need. This is exactly the function of the Holy Spirit,
for He has come alongside to be 'a friend at court' for disciples in
every age.
Outside, of course, there were the authorities looking for the Lord
Jesus. It was dark. Judas had gone out to betray Him. Soon there would
be armed guards, searching around the streets to find where Jesus might
be hiding. Soon they found Him in Gethsemane and, with a clash of
violence, carried him away. It was a hostile world which lay outside of
that upper room where Jesus was teaching His disciples. It was a
hostile world that was going to put Jesus on trial, and He was to be
taken violently away from them. The time would come when in their turn
the disciples would also be put on trial. How could they ever face such
an ordeal without their Leader to stand by them? The answer is that
another Comforter would come, another and yet the same Friend to stand
with them in the court of this world. He would be with them, whispering
in their ears and close to their hearts, holding their hands, as it
were, in their moments of great need. He would convince their accusers
with arguments which they themselves could never have been able to
invent.
It may seem remote from the idea of disciples being at home with God to
talk of their being on trial before a hostile world, but in fact it is
all part of the same thing. It was by the house of God that the Jews
were able to be a witness to all the nations. The Gentiles would come
up to Jerusalem, look at the temple, recognise that it was the house of
God and from it get some impression of what God is like. So it is that
to be a part of God's house now means that we stand as witness to the
world around, and for such a purpose we need the Holy Spirit. The Lord
said that this was why He would come. This means that to be involved
with the Spirit is to be sent as a witness, so one moment we are
sitting down enjoying God in His home and at the same time you are
being sent. And when you are being sent, you are at home with God. Some
people are not at home with God because they are not being sent, and
some are not being sent because they are not at home with God. If we do
not spend time at home with God we shall never be sent. If we are not
willing to be sent, then we fail to enjoy the blessings of being home
with God. [90/91] It is not a matter of choosing
between one or the other, for both must be true.
WE are told that the Spirit of God was to come so that we should not
feel orphans in this hostile world where we are seeking to express the
house of God. From His place in us, the Spirit would minister the
fatherliness of God to those who otherwise would be exposed like
orphans. In the days of the Lord Jesus orphans -- like widows -- were
the prey of all sorts of evil men and suffered much injustice. The Lord
assures us that He will not leave us exposed in this way, but will
comfort us by not allowing us to stand alone before the judges and
juries of this hostile world. Had the Lord remained on earth, then
tried believers in South America or China would have had to wait for
Him to come to them in their place of need, but this other Comforter
dwells in them, so that they are not orphans, they are never alone. The
Spirit of God has come to be fatherly towards those who would otherwise
have been as orphans. This is His first operation.
But secondly He is also a Reminder, a Remembrancer. Even if I had
memorised the whole Bible -- a useful enough thing to do -- I would
still need the Lord to remind me of how each part applied at any given
time. I need the Comforter, the Friend at court, so that when I speak
before the world my words may have the impact which His would have
done. If the Comforter does not help me in any given situation, I may
say something which Jesus taught, but it may not be just those words of
His which are calculated to convince. They may not understand how what
I quote applies, it may seem to belong to some other age and not fit in
with this present moment. Only this Friend at court can take the things
of Jesus and so bring them livingly to my mind that there is an
up-to-date application of truth to my own life.
Thirdly the Holy Spirit is given for the purpose of witnessing. The
Holy Spirit was there when Jesus died, and He was there when Jesus rose
again, so that when I testify of the death and resurrection of the Lord
Jesus I have the Holy Spirit to corroborate this testimony. They are
not only my words. 'Witness' means 'to know together with', so that it
is not only I who speak about the Lord Jesus but the Holy Spirit who
gives the testimony. If I am left to myself I am afraid. Who is going
to believe my testimony? Who is going to be convinced by my lame words?
Nobody, unless the Holy Spirit presses home the truth with His own
personal testimony to Christ. But the wonderful truth is that He
witnesses when we witness, and so there is power and effectiveness in
what is said.
Fourthly it was promised that the Holy Spirit would convict the world
of sin, righteousness and judgment. If I wish to convince the judges
and juries of this world, I need something more than my own ability. I
do my best; I explain what I have learned from the Word of God; but
that in itself is not sufficient: only the convincing power of the Holy
Spirit is capable of making men know that they are sinning by not
believing on the Lord Jesus. To convince men of righteousness because
Christ has been accepted by the Father, to convince men in a world like
this that their world has already been judged, who but the Spirit of
the living God can do such a thing? We cannot do it, but He has been
given to us so that when we preach the gospel we can do so with the
power of the Spirit sent down from heaven. When we go out to testify of
the Lord we can count on the presence of the Holy Spirit to confirm the
words with signs following. Who is going to believe that a peasant from
an obscure part of the Roman Empire who only lived until he was
thirty-three and only preached for just over three years, whose death
is hardly recorded by secular historians except in one or two police
records -- who is going to believe that He is the Son of God? Who is
going to believe that His death is God's answer for the salvation of
men? Only those who have the truth pressed home to their hearts and
consciences by the mighty Spirit of God. Who, save those who are so
convinced by the Spirit, will believe that in Christ God has made
provision for a new earth and a new heaven? We need the Spirit utterly
and completely if we are to make any sort of case to the world of
unbelief.
In conclusion we marvel at the wonderful experience which the
indwelling Spirit offers to all Christians. He is the one who provides
God's friendship, His fatherliness, His understanding love. He is the
one who, in an age which is always declaring that it does not and
cannot understand, comes to teach us the truth and to bring to
remembrance Him who Himself is the truth. He is also the one who comes
to reinforce and make [91/92] effective our own
assertion that by God's grace we know the reality of the one of whom we
witness. And lastly, He comes to convict men who would not otherwise
know of their own sinfulness because they have not believed in Jesus,
of the free gift of perfect righteousness in Christ Jesus and that the
world's ruler is doomed through the cross. As I look around at the
chaos everywhere I feel that it is impossible to bring home the truth
to men's hearts, and then I realise that God has made full provision in
sending forth His Spirit. The Comforter has come. We have a Friend at
court in this world. So we can go forth in the same confidence which
was displayed by those first disciples who so gratefully received His
promised presence.
----------------
THE LORD'S ASSEMBLY
T. Austin-Sparks
Reading: Exodus 35
THIS and the following chapters give us a comprehensive representation
of Christ as tabernacling among His people; they are a typical setting
forth of the body of Christ, the Church; and they are a most valuable
disclosure of the spiritual principles of the life and service of the
people of God.
But before we deal with the contents of this chapter we must remind
ourselves of the background and setting of what we have in view, and
this can be stated as one of those breakings into this world by the God
of glory which mark the history of His dealings with men. Reading back
we find God descending from heaven, breaking through to the mount, and
meeting His servant at a place midway between heaven and earth to
disclose His purpose concerning this world. The glory of the God of
Israel so fell upon Moses that he brought it down out of the divine
presence and had it reflected in his face as he acted as a mediator
between God and man. Then the purpose of the breaking through of God's
glory was seen to be the setting up of His testimony on the earth. He
revealed that He proposed to have an instrument here for His own
self-manifesting. This was His purpose, to have a vehicle for
displaying His glory here on earth. The tabernacle was, of course, only
a type. The reality is in Christ. For the moment, however, we seek to
get help from the type, and so consider this mediator of the divine
glory, radiant of countenance, as he makes his first utterances to the
people.
The Assembly Constituted upon the Sabbath
"And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel,
and said unto them, These are the words which Jehovah hath commanded
that ye should do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh
day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to the
Lord: whoever doeth any work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall
kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day." We
remember that what is in view is God's testimony here on earth, to be
constructed and constituted in a tent of meeting, and the first words
in connection with this is that the only ground on which it can be
constructed is the sabbath. That was because the sabbath represented
the end of the works of God and the entering in by man into His
finished work. Only a man of rest can build the house of God. Later on
we find that Solomon was able to build the temple because he was such a
man of peace whereas his father, David, had been forbidden to do this
work because he had been a man of war. The vessel of the testimony can
only be constituted on the ground and principle that those who have a
part in it have come definitely and finally to rest in the perfected
works of God. We know that every testimony for the Lord here on earth
has to face a fierce conflict. The only hope of triumph for all such is
that before they even go into the battle they have perfect rest as to
the full and final victory of Christ, with perfect assurance that God's
end has already been secured.
One of the enemy's most successful activities against the testimony and
those who bear it is to bring about unrest and a lack of assurance
concerning the Lord. He has many ways of producing such a condition of
uncertainty: introspection, self-occupation, false accusations,
feelings of the soul or doubts in the mind. All manner of means [92/93] are used to upset the restful, confident
assurance of faith in relation to the Lord. A principal one is fear,
but there is nothing which will so quickly and utterly paralyse the
servant of God as fear. In this connection we are told: "And in nothing
affrighted by the adversaries". The great adversary works hard to get
us unsettled and affrighted, which means that we are not spiritually
enjoying God's sabbath. In principle the sabbath is a state rather than
a period of time; it is a spiritual condition of heart rest in the fact
that God has reached the end of an His works and has nothing more to
do, having secured everything finally in His Son. We need to apprehend
the completeness of Calvary's work, for without such an assurance we
cannot build for God. If we are fretful and worried about our spiritual
life, our acceptance, our standing or our fellowship with God, then we
are debarred from practical participation in building for God.
It is noteworthy that only one aspect of the sabbath is here mentioned.
Elsewhere many other things are said about the prohibitions of the
sabbath, but here the only one specified is: "Ye shall kindle no fire
throughout your habitations on the sabbath day". The Holy Spirit knows
exactly what He means by singling out this one matter. What is His
intention? Well, so far as I can see, the kindling of fire in the
habitations represents looking after one's own comfort. It is as though
God was saying that those who were going to constitute His testimony
must set aside all personal interests and self-consideration. "If thou
turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thine own pleasure
on my holy day: and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of the
Lord honourable; and shalt honour it, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure ... I will make thee to ride upon the
high places of the earth" (Isaiah 58:13-14). To know what spiritual
ascendancy is, to be on the uplands with God, means first of all to
have entered into God's rest in His completed work and then to cease
from personal and selfish interests.
The Assembly is for God's Pleasure
As we move on into the chapter we see what a good state of affairs
prevailed among the people. The whole assembly moved in response to
God's pleasure. It is tremendously impressive to note the recurrence of
the word 'willing'. A willing heart, a willing spirit, everyone whose
heart made him willing, everyone whose spirit stirred him up -- all
this represented a glad response to the opportunity to please the Lord.
He did not command, but made His desire known, and that was enough. In
another place the Lord commanded to bring offerings, for sacrifices
were needed when it was a question of fellowship with God, but here God
simply expressed His intention of establishing a testimony among them
and appealed to their desire to bring pleasure to Him: "Whosoever is of
a willing heart, let him bring ...". It was a beautiful thing that
there was such a spontaneous movement of the people's hearts to meet
this desire of His.
I think that we need to recover this feature in relation to our
testimony for Christ. It is sad that we sometimes tend to regard the
matter as somewhat onerous, a requirement which is so hard to meet that
we almost groan about it instead of counting it a joyful privilege. In
the New Testament we recognise Paul as a prominent worker in this
matter and as one who paid a very high price in his work of
church-building, yet we get no hint that it was burdensome to him, but
just the reverse. When he was imprisoned in Rome and superficial
observers might have been inclined to pity him, he was able to exhort
the Philippians to keep on rejoicing all the time. His experience was
that if he was sorrowful yet he was always rejoicing -- "rejoicing in
hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instantly in prayer".
Above all we think of our Lord Jesus, who was Himself the embodiment of
God's testimony here on earth. The doing of the will of God was for Him
a matter of intense anguish, and yet He affirmed: "I delight to do thy
will, O my God". So there were two experiences taking place at the same
time, a consciousness of the costliness of pleasing God and yet a glad
and willing delight in ministering to the Father's satisfaction. It
seems that although the sufferings were terribly real the sting was
taken out of them by the assurance that a great and wonderful purpose
of God was being achieved by means of them, so that the sacrifice
brought deep pleasure to the heart of the Father.
We see this principle in the case of the Israelites. They brought all
sorts of precious things, sacrificing their treasures, because their
hearts were moved with love of God. I can imagine that when all the
requirements had been outlined by Moses, the gold, the silver, the
brass, the precious stones and the costly materials, the people might
well have doubted whether they [93/94] could
spare their treasures if they had not felt a heart-response to God's
call. They would perhaps not have known what they had got or, if they
had it, they might have forgotten where it was and decided that it was
inconvenient to search it out. It is surprising what excuses we can
find if our hearts are not in a matter. Happily they were moved by
willing hearts, so that all the material came from their affectionate
gratitude. It is wonderful what we can discover that we have in the
Lord Jesus when our hearts are aglow for Him and for the Father's
satisfaction. People whose hearts are cold will always feel that they
have nothing to give to the Lord. To the Corinthians the apostle said:
"In everything ye were enriched in him", but it takes love to discover
what those riches are and to make them available in the assembly of
God's people. In times of worship you will not have to scour through
your Bible in an attempt to discover some passage of Scripture which
will be a suitable contribution. If your heart is aglow to the Lord you
will always have something spontaneous to offer in the hour of worship,
and with that glowing heart you will discover that you are richer in
spiritual possessions than you had thought, and so you will always have
something precious to give.
Features of Christ in the Assembly
If we consider the numerous and various materials we find that everyone
of them is typical of Christ. There can be nothing satisfying to the
heart of God apart from the Lord Jesus. The gold, silver, brass and
fine linen, all these things represented some aspects of the person and
work of Christ. Find the person who is full of love to the Lord, one
whose heart is burning and throbbing with love for Him, and you will
meet someone who always has something to convey to you of the
preciousness of the Saviour. Such a one is always seeing the glory of
the Lord from a different angle and so able to present a different
facet of His beauty. This delighting in the Lord made the testimony
grow. Before there was any outward expression there had to be an inner
response of willing hearts. All outward ministry must be the result of
an inward state of heart towards the Lord.
In this case there was such a generous response that they brought more
than was required and had to be called to stop giving. How wonderful if
that symbolic response of old could have a spiritual realisation in our
day! The fact is, of course, that every child of God has in Christ an
abundance of resources for ministering to the heart of God. "In
everything ... enriched in him" is to be true of us. We need more love
and willingness of heart to make us discover our riches and then
release them for the building of His Church. The assembly is set up as
a testimony on earth by the bringing together of individual heart
exercise and appreciation of the Lord Jesus. The assembly really is not
just a congregation, not just the coming together of people for
services, meetings, conventions, etc., but the bringing together of
individual heart exercise in the appreciation of the Lord Jesus in such
a way that the Father can see His Son's features expressed in human
lives. That is the true nature of assembly life. One can bring the gold
and another the silver, and yet another the brass. Some bring fine
linen, some blue, others scarlet and others purple, so that as each
brings his own apprehension and appreciation of the Lord Jesus and all
are united together in the assembly, the Father can look down and see
the various features of His Son. That is the testimony of Jesus on
earth: that is Christ tabernacling among us. As each one follows on to
know the Lord in private, personal life history , so new discoveries
are made of the virtues and values of God's Son, and these are brought
together in assembly life. When we have made such new discoveries of
the grace of Christ we can come together with other children of God and
speak and sing together of what we have proved experimentally in a
living way and so we become a collective and corporate representation
of the house of God.
I imagine that the Israelites went back to their tents to search out
the materials which were required, eager to see if they had some of the
treasures which their willing hearts prompted them to offer to the
Lord, and that they then gathered together to cooperate in shaping and
preparing them. This means that they were willing to work with the
materials which others had brought. Not only did people vary in what
they could contribute but they also had different work to do with the
materials after they had been gathered. They needed one another and
they worked together. Even a Bezaleel, specially called and anointed
for his task, could not have carried it through without the materials
donated by others. And if the women had not done the spinning and
weaving, Bezaleel's work would have been without purpose. In the
assembly, the Holy Spirit depends upon a spirit of willing and loving
cooperation among God's people. [94/95]
There seems to be a special lesson in the work of the women, for their
weaving involved the bringing of things together and binding them into
a whole. It is so easy to tear things apart, to pull things asunder and
to shred apart instead of embroidering together. We can do this by
gossip, by criticism, by letting our tongues run away with us. I am
afraid that we are all guilty of such behaviour at times, and it brings
weakness into the assembly. There is so much constructive work to be
done, spinning and weaving even what other people have contributed, so
we should give ourselves to this kind of activity and beware of Satan's
temptations to put strains on our relationships and so weaken our
testimony. The Holy Spirit can only do His work and perfect the
testimony as each one takes personal and individual responsibility,
working together toward the common end of God which is the
manifestation and glorifying of the Lord Jesus.
----------------
POSITIVE THINKING
Harry Foster
"Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
honourable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me,
these things do; and the God of peace shall be with you."
Philippians 4:8-9.
YOU can never be sure that it is the God of power who is with a man.
There are powers which are just natural and a man's apparent success
may be due to them. In fact God's power is often hidden, so that a
spiritually powerful man may seem quite weak. You can always know,
however, when the God of peace is with a man. That is something which
cannot be hidden or mistaken. And God's peace is an essential basis for
true service. The old sabbath was the seventh day. When you had done
your job you rested. The Christian sabbath is the first day: you can
only go out and face the week and the work before you as you know the
real presence and support of the God of peace. Clear instructions are
given as to how we may know this miraculous peace in an age of strain
and tension. To have the God of peace with you is not accidental. It is
the result of obedience to two divine injunctions which are to be found
in this chapter.
The first is that we must pray about everything and do so with
thanksgiving (verse 6). The second recommendation is equally important
for those who would enjoy God's peace. If I may put it into a
contemporary phrase it is just this -- think positively! If you do
this, says the apostle, the God of peace will be with you. It is
tremendously important that our mental attitude should always be a
positive one. It was by practising such behaviour that the apostle
found that the God of peace was with him. It must have been evidently
the case for he could not very well have written as he did if his
readers had been able to point out that he was only theorising and that
when he was really up against it, put to the test, he betrayed unrest
or tension. Nobody could charge him in this way, for the God of peace
was obviously with him. Then he went on to urge the Philippians to
follow his example, since it would work out in the same way for them
too if they took care to think positively.
CONSIDER how he could have been preoccupied with more ugly thoughts.
After all, he was in prison at the time. He must have been cold, for he
asked for his coat. He must have suffered deprivation for he begged
that his parchments should be brought to him. He was where he did not
want to be, and repeatedly spoke of his bonds. This indicates a most
uncomfortable experience, it means that a man is tied up and prevented
from free movement. He could have brooded on these circumstances. Being
a sensitive man, he might even have spent his time blaming [95/96] himself for precipitating them by going up to
Jerusalem against the advice of his best friends. Or he could have
blamed others, as we are so prone to do. It was James who requested him
to go into the temple to help the men who had made a vow, and that was
what sparked off the trouble which ended in the Roman prison. Well, if
he had let his thoughts fasten on such matters he might have been
dealing with facts, but he certainly would have lost his peace. We all
find that when we start blaming others, or even ourselves, we get
bogged down with the gloom of condemnation, and of course the God of
peace has no intention of sharing that with us.
It seems that when Paul wrote this letter, grievances were in the air.
He wrote of people, even Christian workers, who were filled with envy
and strife. We gather that things were being said of him which were
unkind and even untrue. He might have centred his thoughts on his
grievances and the bad way in which he was being treated. His thoughts
might have been true but they would have been far from honourable or
lovely. He could have allowed his mind to dwell on the selfishness and
carnality which marred so much Christian witness. "All seek their own."
This, unhappily, was a true statement, but notice how Paul passed over
it in a few words while enlarging appreciatively on both Timothy and
Epaphroditus (2:21-30). In this way he gave minimal attention to what
was ugly, though true, and maximum space for recording lovely acts and
noble lives.
"If there is any virtue ...". Well, as Paul looked round his prison, he
could not see any virtue there. Even as he looked at many of his fellow
Christians, virtue seemed to be conspicuously absent. How then could he
get his thoughts occupied with the good, the beautiful and the
inspiring? Only by looking away from all else to the Lord Jesus. He is
full of virtue, and worthy of all praise. "All seek their own" -- that
is ugly, so I will think rather of Him who never failed in that way but
who left heaven and came to earth in a lovely spirit of
self-forgetfulness. Think on Him. Or think about this same spirit as
found in His disciples. Think about Timothy -- so devoted and
self-forgetful. No doubt even with Timothy, Paul could have considered
features of his life which were open to criticism, but he chose rather
to remember the things of good report. Think about Epaphroditus, and
see that others also appreciate Christlike features in this good
brother. And if we draw attention to those two difficult sisters
Euodias and Syntiche, we find that while Paul is well aware of their
dissonance and concerned about it, he is also careful to record the
good things about them. We tend to say some good things about people
and then with a damning 'BUT ...' to finish off with something sour. No
wonder the peace of God is so lacking. Paul was not unaware of the
clash of personalities; his 'But..." however, was one of loving
appreciation. And the God of peace was with him.
HOW positive the Lord Jesus was in all His thinking. He met the woman
who was bowed down, and His immediate thought was not 'Oh, what an
ugly, misshapen person' but 'She is a daughter of Abraham'. They came
to the man born blind and the disciples tried to get Him to give His
opinion on the dark cause of this affliction, but He reproved them and
said that this was an opportunity for the works of God to be seen. What
a transformation resulted. It was a miracle. And every time we bring
comfort and love, instead of condemnation, it is a miracle; though
perhaps not so sensational as His. And when we do it, we get the
presence of the God of peace as a kind of bonus. People seem so
hopeless! Then I had better read again how the Lord Jesus met a
hopeless case, Zacchaeus, and instead of joining in the general
condemnation of his ugly life, claimed him as a son of Abraham and
asked to spend the day in his home. Do you think that there would have
been such a remarkable change in the life of the tax-gatherer if Jesus
had stood under the tree and preached a fifty-minute denunciation of
selfishness and malpractice? No, the man would have withdrawn into
himself and hardened his heart. The God of peace entered that Jericho
home and the God of peace moved on with Christ, the One who always
thought positively.
When the Lord first saw Simon, He did not tell him that he was an
unreliable type who was going to give a lot of trouble, but He said:
"Thou art Peter', a rock. Of course Peter was not a rock -- far from
it. The Lord, however, was going to make him a rock and so was thinking
already of what would be, in the will of God. If only we could think of
one another in such positive terms. At the end of His earthly ministry
the Lord looked round on the disciples concerning whom He could
honestly have said: 'You are the men who have constantly misunderstood
me and [96/97] caused me many heartaches'.
Instead of that, what He actually did say was: "You are they who have
continued with me in my temptations", as if He were thanking them for
their support. We shall get to love people better if we thank them for
what we find of Christ in them instead of gossiping about their faults
and failings. That is a point worth thinking about.
ARE not our gatherings together on the first day of the week specially
designed to get us rightly focussed on positive thinking, with our eyes
on the Lord? Is it not meant to be the chief function of church
gatherings to help us to think on the pure and lovely? Yet it is a sad
fact that not seldom do the people of God find their worst experiences
of trouble and tension in the sphere of their church life. This is due
to the schemings of Satan. There is plenty of scope for negative
thinking among believers, plenty of opportunity to fasten and focus on
personal features which displease us. The Lord sees them better than we
do. He sometimes has to speak frankly about them. But He does not brood
on them -- He looks at His people with the eyes of grace. And so He is
the God of peace. And if we can learn to look at them through His eyes
we too will have the peace which comes from Him.
What was true of the Lord Jesus became true of His apostles, as we see
so clearly in the book of the Acts. We pass from Stephen to Peter and
then to Paul, and we have to admit that the God of peace was with these
men. This was no accident. It was a miracle, but it was a miracle which
resulted from their concentration on the virtues and praise of Christ.
They not only thought of Him in His sacrificial love, they thought of
Him in His ascended glory and as they concentrated their thoughts on
Him, even in prison, under violence and in the face of death, the God
of peace was with them.
Let us think of the coming again of the Lord Jesus. That is a matter of
good report; that is something lovely; and it is both true and
honourable. The news media will do their best to get you thinking about
the bad reports, the unloveliness and the distortions of truth which
abound in our day. We cannot ignore what is going on. We must not be
indifferent to earthquake victims or to wicked oppression. If, however,
we focus on these things, if we allow them to take possession of our
thought life, we shall find that the God of peace seems very far away,
and our souls will be in a constant ferment. The Lord Jesus has given
us instructions as to how we are to cope with the bad news which
reaches us. He told us that when we hear of these things coming to pass
we are to lift up our heads, for they all portend the return of our
Lord in glory. This is not escapism. The coming of Christ is not just
for our relief but for the righting of wrongs and the bringing in of
the kingdom of everlasting righteousness. This is the hope of the
world. This is God's answer to men's need. Think on this.
The words "discerning the things that differ" (1:10) in the Authorised
Version is more correctly rendered: " Approving the things that are
excellent". Wherever there is a true Christian there must be something
of Christ. Discern it as different from earthly values and approve it
as being excellent in God's sight. Look for what is of Christ in your
assembly, in your fellowship; fasten on it; keep it always in mind;
offer the Lord your praises for it. If you do this you will have found
the secret of the constant presence of the God of peace.
----------------
WHY GO ON PRAYING?
[Selected]
"And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood
before the Lord: and he looked toward Sodom ... and lo, the smoke
of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." Genesis 19:27-28.
ABRAHAM'S dawn visit to the hallowed spot overlooking the plains of
Jordan must have brought a deep sense of disappointment to his heart.
On the previous day he had met the Lord face to face on that very spot.
He had been taken into the divine confidence and, with a fine mixture
of bold faith and deep humility, he had pleaded for Sodom to be spared.
He had been obliged to return to his tent at Mamre without any
conclusive promise from the Lord, and may well have wondered if there
had been any use in praying about such a matter. He was, however, a [97/98] man of great faith, so he made an early
morning visit to the place of prayer to discover what answer had been
given to his earnest pleadings.
All those who have suffered the pain of having no apparent answer to
their prayers will realise with what disappointment and dismay he must
have looked out across the plain only to be confronted with a dreadful
spectacle of fiery destruction. We are not told how he felt -- some
griefs are too tragic for words -- nor are we told how long he gazed in
despair at the fury of that vast furnace. Did he go back to his tent
feeling baffled and rejected? Did the tempter whisper words of
unbelief, as he often does to us? Was this perhaps the beginning of
that age-old question: 'Why go on praying'? We do not know.
One thing we do know, though, and later on this same information must
have reached Abraham and silenced all his doubts. It was that Lot was
safe. He had not been involved in that fatal holocaust. He himself had
not contributed anything to his deliverance. In fact he had done his
utmost to impede the heavenly rescuers. Nevertheless he had been
delivered and spared. And the inspired chronicler assures us that this
was simply and solely the result of Abraham's apparently unanswered
prayers. "God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the
overthrow ..." (verse 29). The miracle of mercy was all attributable to
Abraham's influence with God.
Why go on praying? Because the Bible abounds with promises and examples
of the fact that God is the rewarder of them that seek Him diligently.
Let us never give up, even though there may be no evidence of any
response from heaven and even if -- like Abraham -- we look out on to a
prospect of seemingly unrelieved gloom. It may have taken time before
the patriarch had any idea that his prayer had been answered. In our
case we may never know here on earth. But one of the joys of our bliss
in the glory will be to discover how after all 'God remembered'. He
always does. - Selected
----------------
WHAT IS HIS NAME?
17. JESUS
Harry Foster
THE simple name Jesus, without any addition or title, appears almost
six hundred times in the Gospels. When the writers thought of their
Lord it was always the name Jesus which instinctively came into their
minds. The theme of their story was this vivid personality, Jesus. Not
that the apostles ever addressed Him in this way. No, for in spite of
His great humility He had a dignity which precluded any such unseemly
familiarity. Neither then nor after His resurrection did any disciples
talk to Him in this way. When, however, they thought of or talked about
Him, they revelled in the rich simplicity of the name Jesus. It had
been used in its Hebrew form in Old Testament days (Hebrews 4:8), and
it was common enough in Palestine in New Testament times (Acts 13:6),
but for them there was only one Jesus. This is still more true of us
today. Only in certain Roman Catholic areas would anyone ever think of
naming their son Jesus.
The name was chosen in heaven. Since it was decided before Mary's child
was conceived (Luke 2:21), we presume that the eternal Son Himself
selected this from among all others as the personal name by which He
wished to be identified. In due course instructions about it were given
to Joseph, who was responsible for the actual naming of the Infant
(Matthew 1:25). There had been other babies whom God had named before
their birth, notably Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:9)
and John the Baptist (Luke 1:13). These were all outstanding figures
and their names had spiritual meanings, as indeed had the names of many
other Bible characters. This name, however, was in a class of its own.
It marked out its owner as the divinely appointed Saviour from sins
(Matthew 1:21). Others might have borne the name: He alone could
fulfill its meaning.
But even 'Saviour' can be a formal title, [98/99]
whereas the force of the personal name Jesus is to link us directly
with the Man. The warm personality, the understanding sympathy and the
distinctive individuality of Jesus meant everything to His first
disciples. As the angels assured them at the moment of the ascension,
it would be "this same Jesus" who would come back to earth again in due
course (Acts 1:11). Meanwhile by faith they could 'see Jesus' in His
heavenly perfection (Hebrews 2:9). And we all agree the rightness of
the divine decision that it is Jesus whom the whole universe shall
worship (Philippians 2:10).
There was a special way by which He was distinguished from others
bearing the same name while He lived here on earth: He was called
"Jesus of Nazareth". It was partly true, for He had been brought up in
that town; it was partly misleading, for He had not been born there and
might better have been known as 'Jesus of Bethlehem'; and it was partly
malicious, for Galilee was held in contempt by most Jews and the
Jerusalem leaders were glad to use Nazareth as a smear. It is typical
of the Lord that He made no attempt to disclaim this denigrating
description. Indeed He did the opposite: He so ennobled the title that
His followers enthusiastically gloried in it (Acts 4:10). The Son of
God had taken up this common name, with its sneering allusion, and had
made Jesus of Nazareth to be the name above all others.
The risen Christ was ready enough to use this description personally.
"I am Jesus of Nazareth" was His reply to the astonished enquiry of
Saul of Tarsus (Acts 22:8). In a world where men lust after great
swelling names and boastful titles, the great Son of God was content to
be known simply as Jesus of Nazareth.
And at the conclusion of John's overwhelming discovery of the glory and
triumphs of his wonderful Lord, the apostle must have been strangely
steadied and comforted by the reminder: "I Jesus have sent mine angel
to testify unto you these things ..." (Revelation 22:16). For John and
for us there is so much that we do not understand. But we feel
contented and relaxed when we realise that not only our destiny but
that of the whole universe is in the hands of that dearly-loved person,
Jesus.
----------------
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
THREE IN ONE
Harry Foster
'UNCLE JOE' asked Fred one day, 'can you explain the Trinity to me? I
know that there can only be one God and yet we also know that He is
three persons. How can that be?'
'Shall I tell you what happened to me once in Amazonia?' was the only
reply he received to this question. To Fred this seemed as though for
once his uncle had no answer to his question and was trying to change
the subject, but he was too polite to say so, and in any case he liked
to hear missionary stories from Uncle Joe, so he just said: 'Yes,
please', and waited for the story.
His uncle explained that in his early days among a Red Indian tribe he
had many difficulties in learning their language because there were no
books and no teachers to help him. The only thing to do was to have a
notebook ready and to write down the words as he was able to learn
them. But this was not as easy as it may sound.
There was a time, for instance, when he pointed to one of the men of
the village and asked a boy who was standing by what the man was
called. 'He Ru', answered the Indian lad, so Uncle Joe wrote that down.
But he wanted to make sure that he was right, so he asked an older man
if the other man's name was really He Ru. The old chap shook his head
to deny this, and then went on to tell Uncle that the man was called He
Ra-ira.
Had Uncle Joe been able to speak their language fluently he would have
asked for an explanation, but he could not do this, so the only check
he could make was to appeal to yet another man -- a young one this time
-- and ask him what the man in question was called. To his surprise and
dismay he received yet another different reply. 'That is He Muripari'
the third man explained.
'Now Fred', said Uncle Joe, 'What do you think I felt like with three
different names for the same [99/100] man?' Fred
was sharp enough to know that this story was somehow connected with his
own question about the Trinity, but he could not see how, nor could he
understand the three different names for one and the same man. 'Did you
ever find out?' he asked his uncle, and was told that later the facts
became plain and Uncle Joe realised what had been happening.
'He Ru', he explained to Fred, 'simply meant "my father", while He
Ra-ira meant "my son". In the first case I had asked the man's son and
in the second I had spoken to his father. So quite truthfully one said
that the man was his father and the other than he was his son.' 'And
what about that third word?' asked Fred. 'Muripari?' enquired his
uncle, 'well that just means "friend". The other man was his friend. As
a matter of fact one of our first hymns used this word, when we made an
Indian version of "There's not a friend like (the lowly) Jesus".'
How could one man be three? Well, that man was father, son and friend.
'It is a poor illustration of a wonderful truth, Fred' said his uncle,
'but at least it does suggest how one and the same person can, in a
sense, be three people. And certainly we can know God as Father, we can
know the Son as our Saviour, and we can know the Holy Spirit as our
Companion and Friend.'
The next thing to do was to find a verse in the Bible which speaks of
God in this threefold way, so Fred's uncle showed him the words of
Jesus in Matthew 28:19 -- "baptising them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". Then it was Uncle Joe's turn
to ask a question.
'Although Father, Son and Holy Spirit are mentioned' he enquired, 'what
do you notice about their name?' 'Why' said Fred, who had never noticed
this before, 'it does not say "names" but just name'. That is, of
course, true. You can verify it in your own New Testament. So we have
the marvel and the mystery of what men call the Trinity -- the one name
of Saviour and Friend. We cannot expect to understand this with our
minds, but if we are true Christians we know the Father, and the Son of
God and the friendship and presence of the Holy Spirit.
----------------
RECORDED MESSAGES by the late T. Austin-Sparks
Our friend Mr. Alec Brackett has prepared cassettes with messages which
Mr. Austin-Sparks gave at Honor Oak and elsewhere. He will be glad to
make these cassettes available to any who wish to get the help and
inspiration which they bring. Particulars of these and other tape
recordings may be had on application. The address is: "THINGS THAT
MATTER" 30 Western Road, URMSTON, MANCHESTER M31 3LF. [100/ibc]
----------------
[Inside back cover]
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"HE WHO CALLS YOU IS UTTERLY
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