THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT
[p. 296] THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT
2 Corinthians 5: 5; 2 Corinthians 6: 6; 2 Corinthians 13: 14; Nehemiah 12:27 - 31; Nehemiah 12:38 - 43
JT We have three distinct subjects in these scriptures that have been read in the second epistle. The first is what we have been wrought for, resurrection, a change of our bodies so that what is mortal is swallowed up by life, a very great subject bearing especially on a great many others. The second subject is a minister; Paul appears in this way throughout the letter, and he is manifestly one of God’s ministers. The Holy Spirit mentions Himself in a number of features; some thirty-seven such features characterise the apostle; One of them is the Holy Spirit who allows Himself to be mentioned in that way in relation to God’s minister. Finally there is the subject of fellowship, culminating in the fellowship of the Spirit. How enlivening, and beautifying and strengthening is the thought of the Holy Spirit mentioning Himself in developing this subject! So the ideas that we considered in chapter 1, the anointing, the earnest and the sealing, are here in relation to this great work of the swallowing up of what is mortal by life. All that is a matter that is to be taken hold of. But we have the idea of the earnest, that God has wrought us for this selfsame thing and has given us the earnest of the Spirit.
HG Is that power to anticipate the joys now of what we will realise in full in the future?
JT Yes, it seems to me that that is in the mind of the Spirit in acknowledging Himself. God has given us the thought of the Spirit. It is the earnest of something. Mortality is swallowed up by life.
HG Mortality is swallowed up in victory in another epistle. Here it is swallowed up by life, which is a much stronger [p. 297] view.
JT Quite so. It means that it has that effect in a normal person.
JB Mortality would refer to that which is subject to death, not that which is dead.
JT Quite so. It is a word which comes to me as peculiarly comforting to those of us who are advanced in life. There are parts of Scripture that are intended for young people; those of us that are advanced in years can keep this word in mind when we begin to realise that the outer man is perishing, yet our inner is being renewed day by day.
JB The redemption of the body is looked forward to in Romans 8 and is akin to what this looks forward and onward to.
JT While the scriptures corroborate one another they rarely repeat themselves. This epistle has a distinctive viewpoint. It begins with the idea of a fragile vessel in which a treasure is. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels”, (2 Corinthians 4: 7), and then the idea of mortality follows, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body”, 2 Corinthians 4: 10. That is in answer to the body’s evidence of dissolution. You clothe yourself with the life of Jesus. We are not to appear in a lifeless apathy, but whilst acknowledging what we are physically, we are to put on this beautiful garb of the life of Jesus in which there never was any decline or anything like it. The Lord did not live to be an old man; He was a young Man when He died. His whole being was life. There was no taint of death at all in Him, no corruption or decay. He was a Man altogether His own kind. There was no other man like that.
HG “The life also of Jesus”. Is the thought here that that life may be manifested?
JT Quite so.
HG It is a wonderful thing that although naturally you are going down, spiritually you are ever [p. 298] coming up. You are renewed like the eagles in that sense. It shows such wonderful possibilities that you do not need to fall into decline spiritually at all.
JT Something like that was in the close of David’s reign in 1 Chronicles, that is the side you just mentioned. There is no evidence of weakness, whereas in 1 Kings, he is just a weak man. In 1 Chronicles he stood on his feet and addressed his princes nobly and energetically.
HG Full of days is what you get there. The inward man is renewed day by day.
JT It would look as if God gave him strength and stimulation in the thought of Solomon entering in as king. He stood up on his feet and made that wonderful speech in 1 Chronicles 28. You like to see that at the end. You would like to have that in mind for yourself. God gives you strength and renews it like the eagle’s. The inner man is renewed day by day. “While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen eternal”. The process goes on while we are looking at the things that are not seen. If I am looking at the grief and my weakness in life, that does not help me to get renewal.
HG Beholding His glory would transform us.
JT That is it.
HG There is every encouragement to the spiritual in this epistle.
JT And then there is resurrection as we speak of it. The change of body is put on such a high plane. The apostle does not simply bring out the power of God as in the first epistle, chapter 15, but brings out, on the one hand, our nakedness, and on the other hand the building we are coming to, “A building from God ... eternal in the heavens” and “our house which is from heaven”.
WB Is it personal here? Is the house an individual thought?
JT Well, I think so. But it is mentioned in that way. It is one idea. It is for all but each has his own house. The way it comes about, of course, is that the man comes out of the grave by the power of God. It is on a higher plane here, “eternal in the heavens”.
JB It is a wonderful thing.
HG The glory here is a very high level of glory.
JT There is no question of resignation or death for him. We can well understand the need of the Spirit as the earnest in the light of the facts at Corinth. How am I going to fill the house from God, eternal in the heavens? How am I going to fill it?
LES But first mortality is swallowed up in life.
JT Yes. A wonderful change. That element of mortality for life. There is an element of corruption in life.
WB I have been thinking all through these meetings that that verse, “That, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2: 24) is the thought of righteousness dwelling. We have had the washing in one of our meetings and writing in another. Now we have the eternal character of the house from heaven. I connected it all with that verse in Peter. What strikes you is the house you are to have.
JT Yes, and that you are formed for that thing. We have been wrought for that. There is a definite thought in that. Then in the end He gives us the Spirit as the earnest which is very precious. You have some idea in the earnest of the Spirit, of filling the possession. God has wrought you for this. He is down here as the earnest. You get that so that you know how you are to fill your possession. Adam’s existence began with the breathing of God into him, but he had no substance at all before that. But we have an existence before we get that body, we are [p. 300] told about it now. We are going to come into a wonderful house eternal in the heavens, and God has wrought us for it. It is not to be a matter of light and theory, but the Holy Spirit is a witness, and I can then occupy that.
JB Is this personal body to be looked upon as a real tabernacle house?
JT The allusion is to the changeableness of our personal condition. Tabernacle means that it can be taken down. God begins very early sometimes to take down the tabernacle. When you begin to lose your teeth from old age, God is just gradually taking it down. But then He has got another tabernacle, “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”.
HG We have not a single qualification naturally for that new house. It all has to be brought to us in a spiritual way. I suppose that the more spiritual a man is the less abrupt the thought of the change.
JT “He that has wrought us for this very thing is God”. He is working in us according to the full thought of His mind. Then the coming in of the earnest, I think, is to make its entering in somewhat tangible to us, somewhat intelligible to us.
LES To “desire for departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better” (Philippians 1: 23), would depend on that, the earnest of the Spirit.
JT Exactly. Even that was better than this personal existence. Think of the house when you get into that. Being with Christ in a disembodied condition is much better than being in our own personal condition. The Holy Spirit gives us very little about the eternal condition, but He does open this up to us.
It is a final touch of His purpose. Then our house from heaven comes in, to bring out that what comes out is really a heavenly body. “A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. We are already [p. 301] formed in heavenly character by the work of God, but our heavenly bodies are not yet visible.
Rem What does the apostle mean in Philippians when he says he has a desire to “arrive at the resurrection from among the dead”?
JT It is a matter of experience, that he might touch the experience in his soul.
JB I suppose he would need to have the earnest of the Spirit to touch that.
JT Yes, you can only get that by the Spirit. He says, ‘I do not reckon that I have attained’. As a matter of light he could speak of it as risen with Christ. “I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3: 14), which goes beyond resurrection. Resurrection was not his goal, heaven was his goal, and that corresponds with what we have got here, “A building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. We are to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. It is from heaven and out of heaven but its place is eternal in the heavens. It does not belong to the earth, but to the heavens.
EZ It is a wonderful thing to have definite formation, and to know that spiritual formation is taking place in these bodies of humiliation.
JT Yes, it is going on all the time. God is very patient in the way He works. But He works, and works, and works. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. It is the workmanship of God, and the work goes on, but the great end in view is to form us for “this very thing”.
Rem I was thinking of the earnest referred to in Ephesians. There is no need of repetition in Scripture, but it brings in “the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of his glory”, Ephesians 1: 13, 14.
JT [p. 302] That is the fullest thought, really; it is the great general thought of God. But here He is dealing with the body, heavenly bodies that we are to have. What a fine thing for all the brethren, what a fine thing for all of us! The old men and old women will be sitting in the streets of Jerusalem by and by, old men and old women with staves; and children will be playing in the streets; of what will these old people be talking? They would be looking back, and would be speaking a good deal of what they saw which the children did not see. They saw the Messiah coming in at the inauguration of the millennium. It would be very interesting to these people. The Lord would keep our interest up and more than interest as we advance, moving ahead into the things that are not seen, these wonderful things that apply to us personally. Am I going to be equal to it? So the Holy Spirit mentions Himself.
LES Would you say a word about being unclothed and clothed upon?
JT Unclothed means dying; “found naked” is somewhat different, and alludes to the possibility of a man being among the Corinthians who was not converted; in that day he would be found naked without any covering before God.
HG Like Adam in his sins.
JT Exactly. Adam was found that way. We should not be unclothed, we are not looking for dissolution, but for clothing upon, the change to the heavenly body, to be like Christ.
WB It says here we desire not to be unclothed but clothed upon. That is a reference to death.
JT The ultimate desire of the christian is resurrection.
WB The christian does not need to die.
JT That is right. The apostle says “to be with Christ”, but that is another matter. He presents here death swallowed up of [p. 303] life.
HG We do not know very much about the disembodied state, anyway. It is a mystery as far as we are concerned.
JT Yes, we are with Christ, and we are restful in that. We need not dwell much on chapter 6, but there is a good deal that can be said on the fellowship of the Spirit. It is a word for ministers, as to many things in themselves that are paradoxical. There are thirty-seven or thirty-eight things, extraordinary things that mark the apostle. The Holy Spirit allows them to be put in.
HG This is the most difficult thing in the whole list to me: “Commending ourselves as God’s ministers ... in the Holy Spirit”. Would it suggest holiness and spirituality and power?
JT Yes. A man is noted as a minister. The Holy Spirit is suggested to me in that man. “Our glad tidings were not with you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit”.
JB I suppose Stephen would be an example of this.
JT He was full of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is mentioning Himself this way in the list of things. In wonderful humility, He is allowing Him self to be listed in these especially. A minister should live so that he has the impression of a divine Person about him and around him and in him. So that the Lord said to His disciples, “Ye are witnesses of these things”. Well, if they are witnesses of them, they could speak of them. But He says they would not be in it until “I send the promise of my Father upon you” and “ye be clothed with power from on high”. How changed they would be! I see Peter in the first chapter of Acts and he speaks well, and speaks with remarkable intelligence as to what should be done, but he could not say anything about the Holy Spirit. In the next chapter, I see there is something different. Peter is certainly there but there is Someone else [p. 304] there. I think that the idea of divine Persons accompanying saints is suggested strikingly when Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fiery furnace and was astonished as he gazed at the three men whom he had ordered to be placed there and saw another One. Is that other One seen in my experience and in my ways? He is like unto the Son of God. I think that the testimony requires that Another is seen besides the minister Someone else is to be seen.
HG I was thinking of that scripture, “and we are his witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit also”, Acts 5: 32. His name is coupled there with that service.
JT Well, that is pretty much the same thing. The Holy Spirit was to be a distinct witness. We are witnesses, but the Holy Spirit also was witness. But when He bears witness without the twelve, it is a witness of His own selection. In Acts 10, Peter is preaching and the Holy Spirit says, ‘I am not going to use you here. I am coming Myself’. And from then on, I think you get the difference between the Spirit Himself and the twelve, so that Paul comes. But what we want to make clear is that there is another Person here in testimony and that He should be seen in my ways. Then Paul wanted to make clear that the Holy Spirit is here. I can apprehend Paul standing up to speak, and you can see how the Holy Spirit came in. It was evident in his service.
JB Is there the same connection in Colossians in regard to the Holy Spirit?
JT Quite so. It is manifest in the Spirit. But a minister should have it clear before him that there is another Person.
LES Would what Jehovah says in regard of Caleb be suggestive of this? “He hath another spirit in him”, Numbers 14: 24.
JT Exactly. That was similar to the commendation of Joshua by Jehovah Himself, “A man in whom is the Spirit”, Numbers 27: 18.
HG How does a man give evidence that he has the Holy Spirit with him?
JT Well, in view of ministry, there are always two thoughts that I keep in mind. The first is that for ministry we go to Galilee to meet the Lord “There shall ye see him”, Matthew 28: 7. There is only one Person who can help you in each need, and one goes there to get the help. It leads to spiritual exercise before you serve. You make it clear that you cannot serve unless He gives you something. He does give you something but perhaps He only gives you an outline. The Lord says in Luke’s gospel, “Ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”, Luke 24:48,49. Now they were not supposed to do anything; they just had to stay there. The application of that would be that when a man stands up with his message, the Holy Spirit comes in and gives it form and character. Then the brethren say, ‘There is help there’. It is not only what he is saying, but there is something else there besides. That is where the Holy Spirit comes in. These are very practical things in ministry.
The expression “of God” seems to be characteristic of these letters; we have, for example, “The assembly of God”. The use of the word “communion” here brings our mind back to the use of it in chapter 1:9, where we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, and then in chapter 10, we have the communion of the blood of Christ. Here we have the communion of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, it is “of” in these two epistles. In John it is “with”. The first is that it is the dignity of fellowship over against freemasonry, etc. You could not get anything greater than the fellowship of God’s Son in regard of dignity.
‘Of Him’, not ‘with Him’, gives character to it. We have the fellowship of His death and now the fellowship of the Spirit. “Fellowship with” is in John’s epistle; the apostle had fellowship with the Father and the Son in the testimony. The word denotes partnership. So that in these letters it is not that we are in fellowship with the Son or with the Spirit but it is the character of the thing. It is the fellowship of God’s Son, the fellowship of His death, and the fellowship of the Spirit.
JB He brings in the Godhead here, does he not? The love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the communion of the Holy Spirit. I was thinking of the wonderfully high level of it. What a wonderful thing it is to be characterised by the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit! What could be greater?
JT I thought we might, in closing, amplify a little the thought of fellowship as indicated in Nehemiah, because the fellowship of the Spirit means the part He has and that I enter into it. Some come into fellowship, as we say, but it is not just that. In Nehemiah’s day they were dedicating the wall. Some may look for a little truth from the brethren that they could not get elsewhere, but they never dedicate the fellowship. I refer to the wall; it is symbolical to me of fellowship. It is that by which evil is excluded and the good is preserved. When people begin slipping away it is noticeable even in their language; their words prove it. It is never ‘we’ but ‘they’. We begin to see that it means that they are not in fellowship or that they are leaving it; they find that they have never come into the dedication of the thing. It is worth while dedicating, committing ourselves willingly.
Rem You have to contribute before you can receive the benefit of it.
JT Quite so. Well, if one comes in and recognises [p. 307] the Spirit, in what He is doing, he drinks into Him, and he begins to see that there. The Spirit is here all the time.
HG The great thing to recognise first is the brotherhood, there is nothing official. You are brethren first. Some have been received back as servants.
JT Quite. I have noticed that more in Great Britain than here. Here too also, however. We have the kinds of gates mentioned here. One of them is the dung gate; another is called the prison gate.
There are a number of gates mentioned. As I come into fellowship, I may have to use some of these gates.
There is no gate called the Levite’s gate. One does not come back as a Levite, that is to say, as a minister. He comes in through the dung gate, that is he becomes very small. Then there are these two choirs. In verse 31 it says, “And I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great choirs and processions, on the right hand upon the wall towards the dung gate”. That is a reminder. In verse 38 it says, “the second choir went in the opposite direction upon the wall”. Now Nehemiah says he was after them, but the first company or choir is said to have had Ezra the scribe before. This is for the dedication of the wall, and one possibly wonders how much part we have in this. Earlier we get the idea of the building of the wall in chapter 3; now we come on to the time of dedication. Have we any part in these two companies, one led by Ezra the scribe and the other followed by Nehemiah?
Ques Why do you think Nehemiah did not lead the second company?
JT He was a good example for us. How can one lead if one cannot follow?
HG “All that Jesus began both to do and teach”. That is a good example to follow.
JT Then a man like Nehemiah is an example of [p. 308] one going out and one coming in. He is ready to do things. He was superintending all and doing it all out of sight. He was not pushing himself forward but the dedication was going on; in truth it makes full room for the Spirit.
LES What is the idea of the dedication?
JT Having completed and proved the thing, they were committing themselves happily to it. Many are disappointed.
HG The universal fellowship?
JT Exactly. One goes that way and one this way and they meet in the house of God. It is the universal thought, a divine meeting place in the house of God. This is a word for our young people; we were speaking about the old people, but this is the word for the young people. The dedication means great happiness. I am personally satisfied with the wall. It is a fine undertaking and it has proved itself to be what it was intended to be; I am made to drink into the Spirit and I am merging around with my brethren dedicating the wall.
WB It is termed a broad wall in verse 38.
JT That is a suggestion. It was not the broad way. It is the wall from which you can have a good view.
Rem A broad wall would be a good strong wall.
JT Yes, there could be a lot of brethren on that wall. They would not have to walk in single file.
HG Voices are blended together in harmony.
JT Yes. In Ephesians we have, “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves ... singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord”. The saints by the Spirit come into the rest of heaven. You get that in heaven. We learn to sing in part now. You feel that these dear brethren are trained spiritually. Take a man like Ezra, whose genealogy is traced as a true priest. A man like that sets his heart to know the Lord. How befitting it was for the Holy Spirit [p. 309] to be in a man like that! He is not seeking the place, but the Holy Spirit was putting him forward, and in chapter 8 we see him as a spiritual man in the recovery who acquires the confidence of his brethren.
JB It is fitting that a priest should lead in a place of that sort. Nehemiah was more of a prophet.
JT Yes, of course, he was the governor. In chapter 12 we have a list of names up to verse 36, and then it says, “with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe before them”. What a high level they reached here! I believe it is in the recognition of the Spirit. You reach a high level because David is really the highest level reached in the history of Israel, “the musical instruments of David the man of God”; it would be hard to find a finer expression than that. Then Ezra the scribe goes before and leads them. We are not in the fellowship in an irksome sort of way; we are happy in it in the highest sort and order of music; “the musical instruments of David the man of God”.
LES It is good for the young people to recognise the dignity of the place. The women and the children enter into it too.
JT “And the singers sang loud; and Jizrahiah was their overseer”. The overseer is another thought. What a fine testimony there was! “The joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off”.
Rem No captivity there. The harp was not on the willows.
JT You could sing there. The highest kind of musical instruments. You had such a leader as an overseer. One who could see that things were right. The joy was unmarred by anything incongruous.
LES “Walk about Zion and go round about her; count the towers thereof”.
JT You do so in spite of all that is suggested in the gates, in the dung gate, the prison gate and the rest; you might say, too, that the sight of the prison [p. 310] gate is rather casting a gloom over the scene, but I doubt if you could have these two choirs without it. If you have not a prison you have a lot of unharmonious elements. They would hinder the choirs.
Rem The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.
JT It ought to appeal to the young people. This dignity that is seen is especially for young people. There is nothing for the flesh, nothing to mar the holy joys of the Spirit in the dedication of the fellowship, and then in meeting in the house of God, the two choirs meeting together in the house of God. How much does God know of that?
HG Standing still in the prison gate would be for solemn contemplation. It would just check us up in a wholesome way.
JT Yes, indeed.