INFLUENCE
[p. 61] INFLUENCE
John 1: 38 - 42; John 4: 28 - 30; John 11: 19 - 35
These scriptures, dear brethren, are as well known perhaps as any, and better than most. They are very familiar among the saints, but they wear wonderfully well and yield always, and what I desire to deduce from them in this service, is the idea of influence. It is an idea that is prominent in John’s gospel, and one which is of immense importance, both physically and spiritually. It is one of the leading principles of the physical universe, and it is well always to remember in regard of the things that are made, that in them the invisible things of God are clearly seen or apprehended by the mind, and so they become instructive, immensely so. They were always intended to be instructive, but those of us who know God in redemption, and who have the Spirit, understand them best. They were intended from the outset to be a lesson book, a witness indeed, so that the psalmist from whom we get the most intelligent touches in the Old Testament alludes to this, referring especially to the heavens, saying that they “declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19: 1), a strong thought — they “declare”, similar to John 1: 18, in which we read that “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. The idea is that God is brought out to us, brought within the range of our intelligence. Some think that what has happened is that the veil has been drawn aside, and the creature looks in to whatever existed in the Deity, which would make the creature equal, we might say equal to God, as if he could look at God in His infinite essence and relations; the very verse I have cited says explicitly that no one has seen Him at any time. It is not that no one had [p. 62] seen Him, but no one has seen Him; and John wrote that verse long after the Lord Jesus was here and had gone back into heaven. No one has seen Him at any time. Then he adds, “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”; the idea is that He is brought out so that He is to be apprehended by men, and even by angels, for it is said of them that the incarnation enabled them to see God, “seen of angels”, as if it were only then they saw God; they are creatures.
Well now, I only touch on that because of the word “declare”, the idea of declaration in the heavens. They “declare the glory of God”, a very great fact. We look at them constantly. They “declare the glory of God; and the expanse sheweth the work of his hands. Day unto day uttereth speech”. It is not casual. The word “uttereth” is a strong word. It is the idea of something gushing out, indicating the fulness and testimony in the heavenly bodies. “And night unto night sheweth knowledge”. That is another strong word. The thing is shown. It is there to be read by anyone who has eyes to see. And then the psalmist adds, “In them hath he set a tent for the sun, And he is as a bridegroom going forth from his chamber; he rejoiceth as a strong man to run the race”, a beautiful figure of Christ. But there it is in the Psalms all these centuries, thousands of years; there He is day after day, a beautiful figure, bringing in what is most interesting about man, a bridegroom or a bride, “He is as a bridegroom going forth from his chamber”. How much we can read into that, dear friends, as to Christ! Then there is the strength, the energy: “He rejoiceth as a strong man to run the race. His going forth is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof”. There is that which is to be seen and that which is to be felt in the testimony of God. And then we have the further thought: “There is no speech, and there are no words”, that is to say, what we call language. There is a language, “uttereth speech”, but there are no ordinary words in it. And yet the psalmist says, “Their voice is heard”; so someone hears it, this powerful influence that is set in the heavens as a witness for God. Then on the other hand we have the idea of influence on earth, in rivers, oceans, seas, lakes and mountains; all are influential, trees, forests, but particularly rivers, because of their motion. They become peculiarly suggestive of the presence of the Holy Spirit. So we have right throughout the Scripture, the idea of a great influence for good in rivers, and what is the most suggestive and interesting of all is that one of them, a river, went out of Eden, and went out for an express purpose. It was not a mere accident; it was to water the garden. From this it is parted, we are told, into four heads or main streams, and then the names are given. Of one of them it is said that it surrounds a good land, “And the gold of that land is good”. Is that a mere accident that that should be mentioned? No! It is spiritual, it is the flow, and the action of this great influence on earth that brings the gold to light. We often wonder why it is that Asia has not yielded so much for God; Africa has not yielded so much for God. These countries will yield for God, but for the moment it is the West, and God has directed the course of the stream with the utmost intelligence and precision, so that “The gold of that land is good”. What He needs for the assembly, the mighty movements of the Spirit through ministry, the river of God’s grace, as Paul says, “From Jerusalem”, not towards China; there is nothing much to indicate that there was anything in that direction; but “from Jerusalem ... round to Illyricum”, that is to say, from Jerusalem through Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and the [p. 64] countries now called Austria and Hungary, to the Adriatic, he says, I “have fully preached the glad tidings of the Christ”. “The gold of that land is good”; wonderful results were brought out for Go. The bdellium was there too. The Spirit of God says ‘What fragrance for God!’ God knows where to work. The whole field is there; Christ has bought the field, and He knows the part of it to work. He will take up another part later. We cannot assume that any part of the field is useless; God will work it. But the four rivers, the four heads, the influence in them brings out what is there. There is only one mentioned in that respect; what the other three mean will doubtless come into evidence, but in the meanwhile, “The gold of that land is good”. We want to be there, dear brethren. There is gold and gold. It will be remembered that David, in supplying for the house, furnished a hundred thousand talents of gold without saying what quality it was; it was gold and would be useful today for the nations. A very large sum, but he says later, in his affection he had provided other gold, the best kind of gold (1 Chronicles 29: 3, 4). In his affliction he had provided, he says, a hundred thousand talents of gold (1 Chronicles 22: 14), in his affliction through his suffering; but in his affection for the house he provided what is specially refined. It is an important matter, because the principal of refinement enters into the assembly peculiarly, and so we are enjoined to “approve the things that are more excellent” (Philippians 1: 10); excellent things are to be shown, but it is the “more excellent” that enter into the assembly.
Well now, having said all that, I want to show the simple evidence of it in John’s gospel, and I may say here that I and others have often remarked that John is astronomical in his forms of expression; not that he deals exactly with heavenly bodies as bodies, but as he speaks of Christ it is not a question with [p. 65] him whether Christ is in heaven or on earth. He is the same Christ, He is the same Person. On earth, He says, “I am”. If He had said that a million years before, what would He say today? It would be the same, “I am”. He is the same Person and He has the same mighty attraction on earth that He had in heaven, and I wanted to show from the first passage how that attractiveness of Christ is seen, because it is the initial idea. He has been standing in the earlier part of the chapter. John says, “In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know”, referring to Jesus before He entered on His service. He says, “He ... is preferred before me, for he was before me”, John 1:15. Were human appraisements applied, they certainly would have appreciated John as of more value than Jesus at that time, for Jesus had done nothing and John had done much, but John says, “He ... is preferred before me”. He sets forth the great fact without saying who preferred Him. What is the secret? “He was before me”. John makes much of the Person, and so he begins with the well-known fundamental statement, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God”, John 1: 1. So that there is no mistake as to the Person that is before him. And John says, “He was before me”, “He ... is preferred before me”, meaning that someone liked Him better than John. I hope we all do, great and blessed as John was, and great as was the Lord’s own tribute to him — ‘The greatest born of women’. I need not remark, dear brethren, who the Person was: “The Father loveth the Son”. Jesus was the Person. The names He had or name, if He had any, is another matter, but the Person remains unchanged and unchangeable; the clear testimony is that He was liked better than John the baptist, even before He began to serve; and I hope He is liked better by [p. 66] every one of us here, better than any man that ever walked this earth. “He ... is preferred before me”, John says. And then Jesus comes into view. John sees the Holy Spirit coming down and resting upon Him, and he says, “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”. You are told here, as John the evangelist said earlier, “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”; that is what they saw. They saw that through His becoming flesh, “the Word became flesh”. No one, no creature, could see It before. We can see It as Man. No one has seen God, and He was in the form of God before; now He is in the form of man, and He is seen as the only-begotten with the Father. Let us not intrude in the things we have not seen, dear brethren, and say that we can see that that is what has existed. It is the Man they saw, the Person unchanged, unchangeable, but now within their range, so that they can see Him. Let us rest in this. It is wonderful to my mind. “We have contemplated his glory”. Does Scripture ever say that anyone ever contemplated Him in His relation with the Father before? No, Scripture does not say it, and anyone that says it is going beyond Scripture. But now John is standing, having seen the Spirit coming down and abiding on Him. Having seen this, John testifies to it, and now he stands, and Jesus is moving, the most delightful movement ever seen under heaven or in heaven. And John says, “Behold the Lamb of God”, and the two disciples that heard him speak followed Jesus. There was the attraction. He was moving. Was not the freshness and vigour and strength of the strong man coming forth from his chamber as a bridegroom seen there? Yes, it was seen there in those movements. They were attractive to John the baptist, and the Person became attractive to the two disciples, so that they followed. Well now, that is what I have in mind in that passage.
[p. 67] They followed, and Jesus saw them following; that is the point; I am moving as attracted. When He saw them following, He says, “What seek ye?” and they say, “Rabbi” (which is to say, Teacher). They need to be taught. They felt that, as we all ought to do. We need to be taught in these great things from the beginning, so that they say, “Rabbi ... . where abidest thou?” Andrew comes under the influence of the Lord and he goes and seeks his brother; that is, he moves under influence. That is what makes the evangelist. The evangelist really moves under influence, and that gives him power.
These same remarks apply to the passage in John 4. The woman is also, as I said, in a well-known passage, but she had been listening to Christ, and she leaves her waterpot. She had brought it out to fill it with water, but she leaves it; she understood the Lord had been talking to her about water in herself, that is the idea of a spring. “The water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up”. Well, she grasped the thought, and I want you to grasp it, dear brethren, because if we do not we shall not be influential. Proverbs urges us to drink water from our own cisterns, to be independent of men. John 4 makes us independent of all the religious systems around us; there is deliverance. I may go with my can and fill it, but that does not affect me. I am the vessel myself. I carry with me a fountain of living water, which makes me independent. That is what I call deliverance from the religious systems around that man has instituted. She caught the thought, and left the material waterpot, and went her way to the city and said, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done, is not he the Christ?” and they came to Jesus.
She influenced them. Sometimes we hear of sisters coming to our meeting, and sometimes one feels for them, because they cannot answer the brothers in the [p. 68] meeting, but it is well to bring forward what Scripture says about what is available to sisters. Now, here is a remarkable illustration of what one person may be as an influence, not as a preacher; there is no idea of gift or ability in the woman to preach, but she has influence on others. Of course she spoke. It was not a question of preaching or teaching, but of saying certain things that were true, and this particular woman stated facts, which means that she was different from what she was. I cannot influence people for good if I am just natural, if I am just what I always was. Many of us are that. We do not change our character because we have come into fellowship. If I continue what I always was, I do not influence people for good. But there was a change in this woman, a manifest change, and that was the secret of her power. She went to the men and they were affected for good; they were affected towards Jesus, that is the principle. All the lesser bodies point to the sun; that is the principle; they guide in that way. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars (Daniel 12: 3), that is the idea: “turn many to righteousness”. If I turn a person to righteousness, I turn him towards Jesus, like a star. Well now, I pass on to chapter 11, which was what I had principally before me; it is a most interesting passage, and illustrates better than any I know of, what I am speaking of, and again it is a question of a sister or two sisters, showing what sisters can be, and brothers, of course, or believers. What is so striking about this particular passage of Scripture is that Lazarus, as we have remarked, is never said to have said anything to anybody, and yet he is the one on account of whom many believed on Jesus. You see the influence of the man, the effect of the presence of such a man in the community; that is the idea. On account of him, many believed on Jesus. Not on account of a word that he ever taught or spoke, it is [p. 69] the man or the person, what he was. Well now, you see this in these two women. The Lord comes, we are told. The chapter is full of interest from the beginning, every word is full of interest. The most touching thing is that Lazarus is always on the horizon throughout this section, he is always on the Lord’s horizon. So, the first time He came — Lazarus; the second time He came where Lazarus was. He is always on the horizon. He is a wonderful character in Scripture, a risen man, a man who had been dead but who had been raised, the Lord has him in His mind. It says, “Many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother”. But Jesus had come after Lazarus had been in the grave four days already (verse 17). We are told that the distance from Jerusalem to Bethany is fifteen furlongs. “Many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother”. Now, I want you to notice, dear brethren, that these Jews are important at this time. It is because of them that t am enabled to bring this subject into the chapter. They had come to comfort Mary and Martha. It goes on to say, “Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him: but Mary sat still in the house”. Now, what I want to point out, dear brethren, is they come to comfort Mary and Martha both, but when Martha moved, nobody moved with her, she goes alone. Now, some of us complain that we are left alone, perhaps not visited, and why is it? When Mary moves, the Jews move, she does not go alone. Now, there is some reason for this. The reason is obvious, that Mary was spiritual, she was more spiritual than Martha, she had more influence than Martha, and that is the point. So that you see, beloved, it is not a question of the number of persons in a meeting, it is a question of influence.
What power is there in the meeting? It is not that anyone in the meeting, if he or she is a true believer,
[p. 70] is not taken account of. The Lord takes account of the smallest item of the work of God. He must do that. John speaks of Nicodemus, he is the only one that does, and in this very chapter he records that Thomas said, “Let us also go”. There is not much in Thomas’ favour, but John does not leave anything out. He omits nothing. So that I speak thus for the comfort of everybody, that whatever my stature spiritually is, the Lord takes account of it. Even if there be only a seed in me, He takes account of it. These Jews, I have said, began to move, but then He takes account of the spiritual, and nobody will mistake that they are influential, because that is the point, you see. What influence can I exert as a spiritual brother? As a river, what influence is it exerting? And John brings in that side. He brings in the fountain, and he brings in rivers. In chapter 7 he has that in mind.
Well now, here Martha moves, and what has she got to say? “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”, that is to say, she believed the Lord could keep her brother alive, which is always something, and moreover she believed that if He asked of God, God would do anything He asked. That was about the extent of Martha’s knowledge of Jesus, that He could have kept her brother alive, and that God would do anything He asked Him. That was her intelligent apprehension of Jesus. It was not very much, you say, but it was something, maybe as much as most of us, because you know what we say about Jesus has been said before. It was not so with her. There was not a scripture written for Martha to read except the Old Testament, yet she spoke, so that what she knew about Jesus was what she gathered up, and that is really all that matters. Is she capable of more? She is ready to learn. Would to God that all our sisters would listen more and learn. Jesus says, “Every one who lives and believes on me shall never die”. Think of that! He says, “I am the resurrection”, not ‘I will be’, but “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes on me ... shall live”. Is Martha capable of taking that in? Yes, she is. Oh, beloved brethren, let us become teachable! That is the great point with John. The first Pharisees call Him a teacher, showing that that is the point, that we might be instructed spiritually. She is capable of instruction. She has not stopped growing. Martha is not going to be a stinted believer. She was a very quarrelsome sort of person, but she is going to be changed, she is going to be formed. The next chapter shows that she is changed. Yes, she says, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world”. What a flood of light came into her soul! Were we there, we would see her countenance change. She never had such a flood of light, not that she had not come into contact with Jesus, but now she is ready for more light, and God gives it to her. “Lord; I believe thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world”. She said no more. She left Him and went off to her sister. It is a very beautiful touch. She called her sister secretly, not to say, ‘The Lord has met me, and I know more than you do’. No, that is not the idea at all, it is a question of the sister and the influence. “The teacher is come and calls thee”. She makes nothing of herself. Were she thinking of herself, she would stay there and have the glory of meeting the Lord first, and being with the Lord all the time; but she goes for her sister. That is very beautiful. We must think of our sisters. We do not want to leave our sisters behind. Bring our sisters along. If I have got a bit of light, I never conserve it; I may say frankly, I give it to the brethren. You can get more if you do, because the resources are infinite. She got light and she was affected by it, and she wanted to bring her [p. 72] sister into it. It does not say the Lord told her to do it — “The teacher is come and calls thee”. What a mission from one sister to another! John is full of this. The greatest message that ever was carried, was carried by Mary Magdalene to the brethren. It was just carried. She did not teach or preach; just told the brethren she had seen the Lord, and He had said these things to her. And so Mary rose up at once; she had sat still in the house, but the Lord did not go there. Sometimes we assume to be spiritual, and the Lord does not respect us. He does not seem to respect her; He did not go there. Martha would move without a call. The Lord says virtually, ‘I am not going from here’. He respects Martha. Mary has to come to that spot. Well, that is wholesome for Mary. She has to come to the spot where Martha met the Lord, she will never forget that. I think that is the meeting ground publicly. The meeting ground publicly is not a question of the most spiritual person. The least in the assembly is recognised from the public standpoint. When it is a question of approach to God, then spirituality will tell, priestly power will tell, but the apostle says, “Is there not a wise person among you?” if it be to settle matters. So that in the public body, the least in the assembly is not set aside. Every brother ought to be at the care meeting, for instance, because everyone is to tell in the public body, and that is the ground of John 11. The Lord stayed where Martha met Him; that is the position, and the most spiritual comes there; then we soon see the difference. We need not flatter ourselves if we are not spiritual, if we are simple, and we do not understand what is said, but you see Martha did not say that. She believed that Jesus is the Son of God. She is ready for the greatest thing, and while the Lord takes account of the smallest measure, He honours the great measure, so that when Mary moves, the Jews move with her.
[p. 73] Now you see there is a difference. Anyone can see the difference between the two sisters publicly. Martha has no followers; nobody moves as she moves; but as Mary moves, the Jews move, and what the most remarkable thing of all is, when the Lord saw Mary weeping, and the Jews weeping, He wept. Would you believe it that He was actually influenced by what He saw? The Lord puts Himself in that position, in the position of a servant, and He takes account of what happens, whilst knowing all things divinely. He is here in perfect humanity. Mary wept and the Jews wept. He groans. It is when He saw these things, not before. He did not weep or groan when He saw Martha, but when He saw Mary weeping and the Jews weeping, He groaned; that is Jesus. He is capable of being affected, dear brethren, by what He sees in us, by great spiritual ability. He is touched by it: “Jesus wept”. That is the most remarkable statement in Scripture, and it is the outcome of what I am speaking, of the movement of a spiritual sister. It does not say the Jews were believers; the point is they were influenced by Mary. The Lord takes account of any person I influence. If we are moved to come to this meeting, the Lord takes account of that. It touches Him. It is the reflection of Himself. He influences and I influence, because I am under His influence. The influence spreads. If you have come here tonight under influence, it is the spread of influence, and that is what makes meetings effective, the spread of influence. So that, as I said, when He saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping, He groaned in spirit, and Jesus wept.
Well, that is all, dear brethren. There is much more to be said on the effect of the influence the Lord would bring about in us. If we have His influence, we influence others, and that is how the work of God proceeds.