“ANOTHER WAY”

J. Strachan

Matthew 17: 1–5, 24–27; 18: 1–3, 15–20

In the beginning of this gospel when the magi were enquiring after the little child, Jesus, they came to Herod and he instructed them to search out where He was and to report back to him.

What we find is that after they had honoured Him they were divinely instructed in a dream not to return to Herod and they departed to their own country another way. I think that is a feature that should be understood by us, dear brethren—this thought of another way—especially in this gospel which, as we have been taught, is the assembly gospel. I thought we might see something from this section of the education the Lord would afford His own in view of their part in the assembly—their functioning in the assembly—how He would instruct them so that something of another way would be known by them.

First of all in Matthew 17 we get a view of the Lord in this glorious setting. The Lord said in the end of chapter 16 that, “There are some of those standing here that shall not taste of death at all until they shall have seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom”. Now that would be the Son of man in glorious surroundings. We are accustomed to think of the Son of man in conditions of humiliation, and that is right. He has been in conditions such as those; but then they were going to get a view of the Son of man coming in His kingdom—the Son of man in His glory, in His glorious surroundings—and from that I think they would learn something that would equip them in view of the part they were going to have in the assembly, because the assembly is a very glorious and very dignified vessel, and I think the presentation of the Son of man coming in His kingdom would help them to understand how they were to have part in this wonderful, dignified vessel, the assembly.

One thing I would like to comment about is how He was transfigured before them—“His face shone as the sun”—I think that would be a beneficent shining. The shining of the sun is beneficent. The Son of man in His kingdom is a matter of divine goodness. It is rule; the sun represents the thought of rule, but it is rule in a beneficent sense. What a thing it is to get a view of Christ in that way, the shining of God beneficently. There is resource connected with the sun; men are trying to harness the power that comes from the sun. I hope to show that the matter of divine resource comes into these scriptures. There are wonderful resources connected with the shining of the sun. What power it radiates, power that is beneficent—“There is nothing hid from the heat thereof” (Psalm 19: 6), the psalmist tells us, and we are conscious of that. As we are in the rays and the shining of the sun we are conscious of something that is beneficent, something that is doing us good.

Along with that, “his garments became white as the light”. That is another feature that would enter into the Son of man coming in His kingdom, the way that God operates in the light. There is nothing obscure, there is no darkness connected with the way that God operates. The Lord would communicate what God is, the outshining of God, God operating in the light.

Now, Peter is there and Peter, like most of us, makes mistakes. I think that is intended to be educational, too, dear brethren, because what it brings out is amenability to adjustment. I think that enters into the matter of understanding something about another way, that we are amenable to being adjusted. If our own way is not going to serve divine ends, then are we going to be amenable to adjustment in the light of another way that the Lord would show us, so that we become serviceable? Peter, I have no doubt at all, got the benefit of the adjustment he received here because in his epistle he speaks about this mountain, and there is nothing about Moses or Elias there; it is just about Christ. “Having, been eyewitnesses of his majesty”, 2 Peter 1: 16. See how Peter had got the point of the adjustment! It was a very fine adjustment here. The Father adjusted Peter by calling attention to Christ, showing His thoughts about Christ. He did not say, ‘You have made, an awful blunder, Peter’; what He did was to call attention to Christ, and in the light, of that Peter got adjustment.

Now, really, I think that is how adjustment comes about with any one of us; we get adjustment in the light of what Christ is. We judge ourselves properly only, I believe, in the light of Christ; so the Father calls attention to Christ, and Peter gets the benefit of the adjustment. What He is saying is, “This is my beloved Son ... hear him”. You might say, Was not Moses a great speaker, did he not have great things to say? Indeed he had, and Elijah, too, could recall the people at a time when things were difficult; but the Lord is providing for difficult situations arising and the thing is, we are to hear Him. There is a need, I believe, if we are to understand something about another way, of hearing Christ, hearing this wonderful Speaker, the Son—Moses and Elijah and every other man must go out of sight when the Son is brought forward. No one can be put in comparison along with Christ; He is incomparable.

Who, indeed, will speak after the Son? There is no speaker like the Son, indeed, it is the speaking of a divine Person Himself in manhood, and so the word is, “Hear him”. You see how the assembly, and assembly persons, are going to be equipped if we have ears to hear what the Son has to say. Peter was amenable to adjustment and I think eventually he would get the benefit of what Christ said, what the Son said. That comes out in Acts and in subsequent history, that Peter had got the benefit of this education.

Coming down from—the mountain they had to meet difficult conditions. There was a case there that the disciples could not meet, and they enquire of the Lord why they could not meet it. Well, that is a good thing to do if we find there is some difficulty that seems insuperable, to enquire of the Lord. They enquired as to the reason and He says, it is “because of your unbelief” (Matthew 17: 20). Then He says, “This kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17: 21). I think He just indicated that there was another way. You might say, This method has worked before, but the Lord is saying there is another way this time, and He is indicating the way. You see the benefit of hearing what the Son has to say. He has the answer to the problem.

Then they come to Capernaum, “Those who received the didrachmas came to Peter and said, Does your teacher not pay the didrachmas? He says, Yes”. Peter is saying this without perhaps realising the implications. He is really saying, ‘Christ is just like others, and He pays the didrachmas. He just goes along with what others are doing and He pays the same. If the Jews are doing this, then He will be a good Jew and just do exactly the same’. That is not good enough, because the Son is over the house; He is not under obligation to anyone, and He has something to instil into Peter here that will further his education. It says, “Jesus anticipated him, saying, What dost thou think, Simon? the kings of the earth, from whom do they receive custom or tribute? from their own sons or from strangers?”. You see how He uses the natural idea just to bring the thing home to Peter. So Peter says, “From strangers”, and Jesus says, “Then are the sons free”. He is going to bring Peter into the sense of sonship.

It is the liberty of sonship that He wants to impart to Peter. He is going to have Peter associated with Himself in His thoughts. That is a great matter, dear brethren, because the filling out of the truth of the assembly requires persons in the enjoyment of sonship. It is so great a matter that it requires this, so the Lord is indicating another way to him, the way of sonship, the way of the liberty of sonship. That is a wonderful matter to lay hold of because this is the time of sonship. The epistle to the Galatians greatly enlarges on it. There was a danger of their subscribing to, and returning to, Judaism, and really, in principle, that is just what Peter would have done here, but what the Son was bringing in was infinitely greater than Judaism. Oh to get an impression of what the assembly is, and that it requires for its functioning persons in the enjoyment and liberty of sonship.

Then we have this word which the Lord gives Peter about the fish, “But that we may not be an offence to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when thou hast opened its mouth thou wilt find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and thee”. Firstly what He does is to make the truth perfectly clear that He is not under obligation to anyone. Then He would give Peter to feel that he was associated with Himself In this great matter of sonship, and you see how divine resource comes in again—the resources of the sea this time, and He can control them. The Lord has control of them, and, if another way is being indicated, then the resources are available to go that other way, to fill it out in sonship. So it is a question of the first fish that comes up. It is not a net; it is just the first fish that comes up and that is going to provide exactly what is needed. How accurate the Lord is in assessing what the need is and bringing in the resource to meet it! I think we arrive at that by the way of sonship.

Then the next touch He gives is as to this little child. They were questioning who was the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens, “And Jesus having called a little child to him, set it in their midst”. He would exemplify the kind of thing He has in mind. You see, He is leading up to this matter of the assembly here. Now, normally, if men have a great conference they look for the most distinctive personages they can find. In christianity they are there in the sons, but then their attitude and their deportment is to be this unassuming character of little children.

Now the Lord exemplifies the kind of thing He will have in the assembly by putting this little child in their midst. We have been reminded that all through this section down to the end of verse 20 there is no reference to this little child going away, as if to imply that it was there during that time. Hence while He was speaking about this wonderful, august vessel, the assembly, and the part they were going to have in it, the spirit and character of things that are to mark it would be exemplified in this little child.

We carry these thoughts forward, dear brethren, in our minds in what the Lord says from verse 15 onwards. He says, “But if thy brother sin against thee, go, reprove him between thee and him alone”. It should be noted that it is “thy brother”. Your brother is a very valuable person when it comes to the truth of the assembly. You need someone with you to work out the truth of the assembly. One person on his own cannot work it out. He needs somebody else along with him—“thy brother”. It is a wonderful matter to appreciate the feelings of divine Persons in relation to this. The Lord has spoken just earlier about the Son of man coming to save that which was lost (verse 11). He speaks about a man having a hundred sheep and one going astray and how he would go after it to find it, and then He speaks about the will of the Father—“It is not the will of your Father ... that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18: 14). How the disposition and attitude of divine Persons are brought in, conveyed to us in the Son of man, conveyed to us in the Father in His will. Then there is a person who is valuable because he has been the subject of divine operations. Oh to get a view of a brother in that light!—not just an offender but “if thy brother sin against thee”. So He says, “Go, reprove him between thee and him alone”. Give him all the advantage you can; put him in the most advantageous position you can. That is what the Lord is saying. Then, “If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother”. It is a wonderful thing that a brother should be gained. It is not the divine intent that persons should be lost. That is the whole spirit and attitude of this approach, involving the Son of man coming to save, and the Father’s will. You would glean from that that the idea of loss is not what is in mind. The idea of gain is in mind, that a brother should be gained.

Then, “If he do not hear thee, take with thee one or two besides, that every matter may stand upon the word of two witnesses or of three”. There is a measure of grace in one going, but that may not be sufficient. Therefore additional grace in two or three is brought to bear upon the brother and then, if that is not effective, “If he will not listen to them, tell it to the assembly”. The assembly is the great vessel of divine grace. Thus you have grace in a brother, then in two or three, but the greatest expression of divine grace you can have in the saints is in this wonderful vessel, the assembly. What would be in mind is the securing of the brother. It may be that he will not listen. Well, there is provision for that—“If also he will not listen to the assembly ...”. That is a very serious thing if someone will not listen to the vessel that is the great expression of divine grace. It may be that that could be so, but I think that the whole intention of this scripture is that a brother should be gained, and the arrangement is in view of that. Hence the resources of heaven are brought in in connection with this wonderful vessel.

It implies the dignity and order that belong to this vessel. It implies on the one hand the spirit of the little child, the unassuming, inoffensive spirit that the Lord would have characterise the assembly, and on the other it involves the dignity of persons who know something about sonship, who know something about being associated with Christ. The assembly is a vessel of divine order and wonderful dignity, the most august vessel in the universe. It might come that the assembly has to act in the way of withdrawal, of exclusion. That would be a very solemn thing and that would be the last resort. The last thing you would do, we have been taught, is to withdraw from a brother, the very last thing you would do. If all the resources of divine grace are ineffective, you might have to do that. If it were a matter of public dishonour to the Lord’s name, you might have to do that, but otherwise the resources of divine grace are brought to bear, all the resources there are in this wonderful vessel, dear brethren. Then if it had to come to the point where a brother had to be withdrawn from, you would have to say, ‘We could do no more’—if it came to that point. Then the Lord goes on to say, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven”. So that becomes a very serious consideration as to anything we do in the light of the assembly. I do not say we act as the assembly, dear brethren, but the only light we can act in is the light of the assembly, unassumingly, in the spirit of the little child; but if we do act in that light, it becomes a serious consideration as to whether heaven can ratify what is done. One thing to keep in mind is the shining that is proper to this vessel.

The disciples saw the One whose face shone as the sun, and there is the shining of the assembly. John got a view of the assembly in her shining—he saw the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God (Revelation 21: 10), coming down to bring the influence of heaven to bear upon the millennial world, a vessel capable of bringing the influence of heaven to bear upon the earth below. That is the vessel we have to do with. That is the vessel we are part of. That is the vessel the Lord is speaking about here, although in different circumstances, dear brethren. What is said about her, “Her shining was like a most precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone” (Revelation 21: 11), means that things are crystal-clear, you see; there is no cloudiness, no haziness, there is no ambiguity, everything is clear. It is morally in keeping with the One whose garments were white as the light. That is how it is to be in divine administration.

What I just want to touch on in closing is that there are other resources. The administrative and executive resource is not all that the assembly has. We have been taught that the assembly is never driven to the wall. The Lord says, “Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens” Is that not a wonderful thing—something coming from the Father who is in the heavens because of persons down here asking? And it is brought into the context of the latter days, our days—“Again I say to you”. You may say, How is this workable in a day when publicly everything has gone to the wall? The Lord says, “Again I say to you”. Things are coming down to just two or three, and heaven is interested; the Father who is in the heavens is interested. Is that not a real resource? You might say, ‘We could not do anything else but take executive action’, but the Lord might say, ‘There is another way’. Perhaps there may be another way, by which we can make way for the resources of heaven by asking, using the power of prayer. The resources of heaven are brought into view. He says, “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. There is nothing given up of what belongs to His name. His name is honoured; but the Father is brought in, and heaven is brought in, and there is something coming from the Father who is in the heavens in response to the power of prayer in the saints. So it is coming right down to this matter of two or three—“For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. How He would mark off persons with this dignity, “in the midst of them”—assembly persons, so valuable to heaven!

I think the matter lies, dear brethren, in hearing the Lord, in making way for the resources of heaven, in being ready for adjustment in the way the Lord would indicate—and if we are amenable to His indications we find that the Lord can work something out in this wonderful sphere which He has—the assembly. I feel greatly challenged in myself by what I am saying, but just pass on the thoughts humbly, and trust that the Lord may bless the word.

Address in Edinburgh
12 July 1975