“JESUS CHRIST IS LORD”
GMcK What we desire above all is to know what God might say to us today. I can say with conviction that His word for us today is, “Jesus Christ is Lord”. We might enquire together about what that means, and the effect it is meant to have. We often read the first part of this scripture in Philippians, which is very wonderful; but today we are concentrating on the last part, God’s exaltation of Christ. He has “granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”. I want to begin with that and to present it as a statement of fact. It is a fact; God has done it. “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. Regardless of my reaction to that, or where I stand in relation to it, it is a fact. God shows in the verse in Philippians His commitment to it, “that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
In the second scripture, it comes into effect from God’s side. He will bring it about in a public way in a day to come at the end of things. We have this reference to “the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ”. “Jesus Christ is Lord” is all about authority. There are other helpful words; subjection comes into it, we regard Him as our Lord and we are subject to Him. Obedience comes into it too, but His side is that He has the authority. God has vested it in Him and that is a fact. There is great blessing in being aligned to it, which we will come on to. God will bring every living thing into acknowledgement of it: “heavenly and earthly and infernal beings”, they will all be brought to it. For us it is more than acknowledgement, because we are meant to come into the blessing of it.
The man in John 9 is cast out, and Jesus finds him and says, “dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?”. It is very interesting that he uses that title. He was open to what Jesus would reveal and he really shows that he was ready to submit to the Lord’s authority. Whatever the Lord would say, he was ready for that, “who is he, Lord”. It is like Paul on the Damascus road, “Who art thou, Lord?”, Acts 9: 5. He knew that he had to come under another authority. If in the first two scriptures we get God’s view of things, in John 9 we might speak about how I come into it as an individual. The background is that the man was cast out; that comes into it. If we are going to be subject to the Lord’s authority, we will have the experience of not belonging here. The Lord is the centre of another world. The man came out of one world and he was introduced to another, and he did Him homage.
John 21 is more the company. We have this fishing expedition and Jesus comes in at the beginning. They do not recognise Him at first. But there comes a point where John says, “It is the Lord”. What effect does that have on us as a company? Suddenly, immediately, everything was aligned for them. We should be like that. We have a tremendous advantage in gathering like this because we have a common object, a common relationship with Jesus, that He is our Lord. John does not say it is our Lord, but he says, “the Lord”. There is an alignment there with everything that God has set out and, for the men in that boat, everything was suddenly clear for them. They were all aligned, that He was “the Lord”. May this be the effect of our gathering that we appreciate the Lord freshly. How clear everything should be for us. There is no debate; there is no difference of opinion. Peter casts himself into the sea; everything had changed for him. “It is the Lord”: Jesus Christ is Lord.
I read the verse in Luke, not really to refer to it directly, but just because it is helpful for us: “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?”. Coming under another authority is the main point. God has put that authority in Christ.
RWMcC It is a very full subject. I like where you have begun with God’s view. “God highly exalted him”. How thankful we can be for that.
GMcK Yes, and to live our lives with the blessed truth of that in our hearts as we look around at the goings on in the world. The nations of the earth are in agitation, but God says, “I have anointed my king upon Zion”, Ps 2: 6. We walk with the light of that in our hearts. Things that go on in the world might get frightening. We might get fearful, but “God has made him … both Lord and Christ”. I have the light of that in my heart.
HTF It is an absolutely unassailable position that He is in. It is as if Paul does not need to say it. This is the word of God; he just makes a statement that He is Lord.
GMcK It is unassailable. There is no power that can come against Him as Lord. We might generally think about those who acknowledge Him willingly, that is a great thing, but it includes everything, “heavenly and earthly and infernal beings”, all being brought into subjection to Him.
DAB The scripture presents it very plainly: Jesus Christ on the one hand, and every other person on the other. Every other person is a confessor at this point. I was thinking you could look at it in two ways: either nobody else could be considered for this position; or like David, everyone else who has been considered has been set aside.
GMcK Yes. It reminds us of Revelation 5: 2, 3; no one was found worthy. The great search was done. God has found One who is worthy, and we should get it into our consciousness that God has vested the entirety of authority there.
DAB I think that is very fine. There is what men have to acknowledge, but it is good to see what God has done. This is not something that is arrived at by popular consent. It is a decision of God’s own supremacy.
GMcK Yes, exactly. There is a scripture in Isaiah 45 that would be good to refer to, “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear”, v 23. It reminds us that God has committed Himself to it. The word shall not return; He will not reverse that. All authority is in Him.
JRW What you are saying would keep us restful at the present time. A scripture came into my mind; there is one of whom it says, “upon his thigh, a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords”, Rev 19: 16. That blessed One has dealt with everything that was adverse, so it would keep us restful.
GMcK “Lord of lords”: He is Lord of every lord. It helps us to understand it, because there are other lords, there are other authorities in the world. Certain authority is given to them in their sphere. There is One who is over it all. Romans 13 tells us, “there is no authority except from God”, v 1. That is an absolute statement, “there is no authority except from God”. That includes every one of those other lords, they wield some authority; we have bosses at work and so on; in a certain sphere they have authority over us, but Christ is Lord of every lord.
JRW That comes out here in the language used - “every”. Nothing is left out, “every knee”, and “every tongue”. In case that is not emphatic enough, Paul says, “heavenly and earthly and infernal beings”. Absolutely nothing is left out. It is almost as though the apostle cannot find enough language to bring that home: “every knee”, “every tongue”.
GMcK Yes, it helps us to see what you are suggesting; it is everything. That is God’s view of things. “For he must reign until he put all enemies under his feet”, 1 Cor 15: 25. That is God’s will and He has committed Himself to it. He has vested all authority there and every knee will bow.
PM Was it always in the divine purpose that this should be so? He purposed, “to head up all things in the Christ”, Eph 1: 10. Did our Lord Jesus give a moral basis for it, Himself? I was thinking of this word, “Wherefore”.
GMcK Maybe you can open it up a bit. It is one thing that God committed Himself to something: it says, “sworn by myself”. Before there was anything else, God had a purpose to do it. But then the thing comes into being. That moral basis that the Lord Jesus gave God to carry things through is essential for us.
PM It was to the obedient One that this authority was given. Adam was given a certain amount of authority, dominion, but he fell from it through disobedience. That all looked on to Christ, the One who was able to uphold everything for God.
GMcK That is helpful. In every step God is justified because of the worthiness of the One that He is exalting.
AJMcK This is “to God the Father’s glory”. Can you help us about that?
GMcK God is glorified in it, because it was His purpose to do it. I was thinking of the way that “all things” are put “in subjection”, 1 Cor 15: 28. The whole kingdom, everything that He has brought into subjection to Himself, Christ gives it to God. Do you think in that way God is glorified through it all?
AJMcK. Is the reason here that God is glorified, that Jesus Christ is Lord? There is what comes by way of response and answer, but I am thinking about what is absolutely true. We have said that God has done this; He is glorified in this, in that Jesus Christ is Lord. There is then the answer and the response that every created intelligence would bring. He is glorified in the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, that there is one Man of whom that can be said.
GMcK He takes everything up perfectly for God. If His authority is exerted, it is all in perfect accord with God’s mind.
DAB It was God’s purpose to glorify Himself in man. Look at the Man He has found! He is morally worthy to be Lord of all.
GMcK What is coming in is helpful, that not only is it God’s purpose, not only has He set out this wonderful plan, but there is One who is morally worthy and has come in and fulfilled it; He is fulfilling it now. There are both things which He has done already, and things that are still to be done; He takes them all up for God. “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand” (John 3: 35) includes the filling out of His will in the final defeat of evil that we get in Revelation 12.
JMB The Name that He has is “above every name”; it is not among other names. It is above every other name. What we have been saying as to the greatness of Christ is above every other.
GMcK There is nothing to follow, nothing greater or beyond. He is the full outshining of God’s thoughts. It is a very affecting reference in Revelation 12, “the authority of his Christ”. There is tremendous power in that which will overthrow every other power.
HTF We have begun to read Matthew’s gospel locally. It is very touching, “thou shalt call his name Jesus”, Matt 1: 21. That is the name here. It is from heaven that it is given; that is where He came from. Joseph was obedient in calling Him Jesus first of all. It is the same definiteness. Divine purpose has been spoken of. It was ‘Jah the Saviour’, Matt 1: 21, note e, reference Exod 17: 9, note d. That was who was there and it was known in heaven who was there.
GMcK We began with that in our hymn -
Peace with God - for Christ’s in glory (Hymn 390).
I was affected by the statement of power in that. We come into that; it is available to us through recognition of the Lord’s authority. That comes into effect in my life. I thought it was good to start with the effect it has in the creation, because it is going to be felt in every corner of the creation. In Revelation 12 there is “a great voice in the heaven”. Maybe that is a link with what you said. In our little sphere it is important that we grasp the effect of Jesus Christ as Lord, but what God sees is the effect of that in the whole of the created universe.
PAG Does the name of Jesus remind us that the authority of His Christ is vested in One who loves us and whom we love? All of this we would take account of with joy, because we see that God is justified in the One who loves us and has saved us and brought us near to God. Our hearts would rejoice in what we see.
GMcK Yes. It is not only in the light of the great power of what God is doing, but it is in Jesus. It is in my Saviour, the One I know, the One I speak to every day.
AJMcK In John 21, it was the “disciple therefore whom Jesus loved”. He says, “It is the Lord”; does that link with what has been said?
GMcK That is a good link, because he was near, he was the first one to recognise what was happening, to recognise the Lord. He had the key.
RWMcC Where we were reading in that chapter in Matthew, it goes on to quote the scripture where His name is “Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, ‘God with us’”, Matt 1: 23. To know something of God being with us, we have to know Him as Jesus, “thou shalt call his name Jesus”. That is how He has come in; that is how God has presented His Man. It is set out here. It speaks about “his Christ”. It is wonderful to see that everything will come into alignment with God’s thoughts. It is the acknowledgement of this blessed One that is really the focal point of that.
GMcK It is good what is coming in, that He is the One who has come near to us. He is not someone you need to be afraid of. That does not reduce the greatness of the authority that He has.
In this scripture in Revelation, Satan is cast out of heaven. The Lord has authority over him, “the accuser of our brethren has been cast out” by “the authority of his Christ”. Satan accuses us, it tells us, “day and night”. He was accusing me this morning. Others will have had that experience as well. He will be defeated by the authority of “his Christ”. He is going to be thrown out; his power is going to be taken away because God has vested authority in Another.
AM Why is it “his Christ”? The title Christ is often linked with the lordship of Jesus; Christ the Lord. Can you help us?
GMcK I would like to know what you say. I was thinking of Peter’s preaching, “God has made him ... both Lord and Christ”. I think it links with my exercise, where we began; it is a great thing to know Him as our Lord, but He is God’s Christ.
AM I wondered whether we see in this blessed One the authority that He has. There is what He has in His Person, of course, but there is the authority that He has morally acquired and what He has been given. He is the One to whom God has committed Himself.
DAB He has committed Himself to Christ to be His testimony. It is not simply that He has told us about God, but He has glorified God, both on the earth and where He is now.
GMcK We are not talking now of a small sphere of my life. All those who are on the earth today are just a small part of what God has done through the ages of time. God looks at the whole spread of it and He puts Christ as Lord over it all. If we think about it, it is the key to everything, even our own wills. We say that we have to come to the end of our own wills and all the exercises of Romans 7, but the key to it is that God has vested authority in another. That means my will has to go. I come under the direction of the will of Another. That is not another subject; it is the same one: Jesus Christ is Lord. For a Christian that is everything. It puts everything into alignment.
DAB That is the answer in Romans 7: “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”, v 25. That is not a name plucked out of the air. Paul has chosen that name for what it conveys, on the lines of what we are saying.
GJR Would you say something about the reference to the blood, “they have overcome him by reason of the blood of the Lamb”?
GMcK It becomes a matter for our affections. We can think of the Lord as One who God has invested with all His power, and the majesty of that, but He is also the One who shed His blood for us.
GJR These accusations of which you spoke are very real, perhaps more real to some than to others. This is the reason given that they overcame the accuser, “by reason of the blood of the Lamb”. I think it is a unique reference. Generally, we think of the blood as meeting God’s claims and of course that lies behind this.
GMcK I could not add to that; I appreciate you bringing it in: it is all based on sacrifice.
RWMcC Does it link with what you spoke of earlier in this chapter regarding “the accuser of our brethren”? You said he accused you this morning; I am sure he has done that for all of us. It is because of the shed blood of Christ that we can overcome that.
The sinner who believes is free,
Can say, The Saviour died for me;
Can point to the atoning blood
And say, This made my peace with God. (Hymn 357)
GMcK That is very fine. If we are accused, there is a blessed answer. There is power in that answer. It is not weakness; it is power.
DAB-w A question that has been running through my mind through the reading is, why does this office exist? I wonder whether this goes some way to answering that. Authority is established over the one that used to have authority over me. That is the power of the blood of the Lamb. Why is there this office of “Lord” over all?
GMcK It is good to grasp in a simple way that God will exert His supremacy. God will be all in all and He will meet every challenge that has come against Him. He has committed Himself to making Himself known in a Man and therefore He sets this office up and installs Christ in it. The objective in it all is to exert His supremacy.
DAB-w It is a most attractive way. It strikes me this office was always there; it needed to be filled. We were speaking about God’s purpose earlier, the way He desired to move. It strikes me that this office of Lord was present there and it not only answers all God requirements, it fulfils all my needs. It meets everything.
GMcK That helps because you see it from God’s view. Then the question comes up about what effect is it going to have in my life; that is our side. From the Lord’s side it is authority, and from our side it is subjection.
PM John said early in the public pathway of the Lord Jesus, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, John 1: 29. Would it be right to say that this blessed One will take away sin that has affected the whole earth right from its beginning. Sin has affected every part of the creation, but here is One who has done a work that is great enough to take it all away, and He will put that work into effect in a day to come. He has also secured men out of it by His precious blood.
GMcK Yes. “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, Matt 28: 18. What about my life then? What effect is there going to be on me?
APG The title Lord is often associated with another title: Peter says, “our Lord and Saviour” (2 Pet 1: 11); “Lord and Christ” you referred to; “The Lord and the Teacher” (John 13: 14) is another; do you think it is a fundamental thing for us? Recognising Christ as Lord, and growing in our appreciation of Christ?
GMcK Yes. It is fundamental and would be the intention for every Christian. We can be saved by coming under the shelter of the blood and believing in Him as our Saviour. If we are to be delivered, then we need to know Jesus Christ as Lord and come under His lordship.
JRW This man in John 9 says, “who is he … ?”. What would you say in answer to that, if someone asked you, “who is he”?
GMcK It would be good to ask us all that question. What does it mean to you that Jesus Christ is Lord? Authority comes in on a personal level which should override everything else. There is something primary about it, in owning Him as my Lord. We often think about what people will think if we do something, what so-and-so will think of me or whether they will know about it, but - Jesus Christ is Lord; this is twenty-four hours a day, every day of my life.
JRW What is in my mind is what Paul says as to “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Gal 2: 20. That lays hold of my affections and the more that it does that, the more prepared and happy I am to accord Him His rights as Lord. I think you mentioned at the start of this meeting that we might all grow in our apprehension and appreciation of Him. I am sure what you are bringing before us would help in that. The more I appreciate what He has done, what He has done for God, what He has done for me, the place that God has given Him, the more I will be ready to accord Him that place in my life. It is quite a challenge, but it is a happy challenge.
GMcK Yes. This man was ready to accord him His rights as Lord. By using the title, “Lord”, he shows he was ready and it says, “he did him homage”.
TJH You say the answer is by revelation. I was thinking that the Lord Jesus asked Peter that question. What was revealed to him was that “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matt 16: 16. Is that in line with your thought?
GMcK I think so. I think all of these things are important - for us to know what it is in our lives individually and in the company, but also to have our thoughts opened up to the largest spheres where He is Lord, because there is no limit to that. It would bring us to homage.
PAG God’s Christ is God’s salvation. We learn that in Luke 2. Simeon was told “he should not see death before he should see the Lord’s Christ”, Luke 2: 26. He says, “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”, v 30. It was a salvation that was prepared. Our salvation lies in acknowledging Christ as Lord. If we want to come into God’s salvation, we do what this man did. “Who is he, Lord … ?”. It says, “with the heart is believed to righteousness; and with the mouth confession made to salvation”, Rom 10: 10. The lordship of Christ covers not only our initial salvation, but our present salvation and it is all as a result of God’s salvation.
GMcK What you say is vital. Salvation in submitting to Him as our Lord.
STE What is going through my mind is glory to God. We have a hymn -
Glory to God we cry:
and -
Glory to God we sing: (Hymn 449).
What you are emphasising is not just the knowledge of this, but the reality of it. What result does it bring? It should bring glory to God. Help me on how that comes out.
GMcK It would be a natural outcome. It supports what was said earlier in the reading that God is glorified in Christ being Lord. When anyone comes into alignment with that and puts it into practice, that is happy for God; there is glory to Him because He is His Christ. That would be the natural end, that there is glory to God in my life.
CCDR Perhaps our difficulty is that we are not prepared to be cast out. The blessing is in being found by Him.
GMcK Maybe we do not talk about separation enough. The background of this man coming into all the blessing of what the Lord was, is that he was cast out. If Jesus Christ is Lord to me, and I am going to come under His authority, then there will not be a place for me in this world: “let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”, Heb 13: 13. It says there, “we have not here an abiding city, but we seek the coming one”, v 14. The Lord Jesus is the Lord of that coming city. If we recognise Him as Lord, we tread a separate path.
PAG Would it help us to see that the time is coming when it will be acknowledged, “that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory”? At the moment that is not acknowledged and therefore one aspect of separation would be that I do not associate myself with something in which Jesus is not loved. I would not join with something where He was not acknowledged as Lord. As far as my responsibility goes, I may have to go to places as part of work or school or wherever, but I would not willingly go somewhere where He was not loved. I am not trying to make a rigid rule, but does that help us? In what I am about to do, is Jesus Lord? If the answer is no, I may be better to avoid it.
GMcK I found something you said to us in Sidcup very helpful. It concerns the kingdom. What you said is that the kingdom is the territory where Jesus is Lord. There is a time coming when God will bring these things into practice in an unassailable way in the world; it is not the case now, but the kingdom exists. There are those, thousands, millions of them, who acknowledge Christ as Lord and they walk accordingly. The kingdom is already, in practice (not just theory), the place where Jesus Christ is Lord.
RJG A place where the might of His glory is known and appreciated.
GMcK It opens everything up for us, even if you think of the blessing of the service of God. It is all opened up that way. You begin by acknowledgment that Jesus Christ is Lord.
HTF This man in John 9 asks a question. Do you think that is evidence of the work of God? The fact that he asks the question is evidence that he was not exerting his own will. The experience had brought him to the end of his own will. That is at the root of this subject we are speaking of.
GMcK That is helpful. There are many Scriptures that we could have read, but that is why I was drawn to this. He says, “who is he, Lord”. He was open in his heart and his mind. He did not necessarily know what the answer was going to be. He put himself in a subject place, “who is he, Lord”. Paul said, “Who art thou, Lord?”. There is another good example of that in Ananias, “the Lord said to him, Go”, Acts 9: 15. And Ananias went. These things are quite simple. It should be a simple thing; it is the Lord’s authority.
PM Is that authority known where His word is accepted?
GMcK I am sure it is, go on.
PM Sadly we have seen in the church publicly only in the last few days that the word of God has been set aside. His lordship is known where His word is accepted - and followed.
GMcK It would raise the exercise with us then, “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?”. Many of “the things that I say” are written in the scriptures.
PM Yes. His word is not just to be assented to; it is to be followed and it is to govern me.
GMcK Yes. Where we began there are powers that will be forced to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, but that is not our position. We are not forced; we love Him. That He is Lord is a wonderful blessing to us. These words, these commandments, they are not things just to assent to: they are things that we follow with gladness of heart.
PM I was thinking earlier of Zaphnath-paaneah, Joseph, “without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot”, Gen 41: 44. That was for the blessing and preservation of life and we find that as we submit ourselves to the Lord’s authority and to His word. It is for our good and blessing - and life is appreciated.
GMcK It says there, “according to thy commandment shall all my people regulate themselves” (v 40); that is the idea of lordship.
RWMcC I was thinking about what the Lord says at the beginning of the chapter about this man: “Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifested in him”, John 9: 3. The Lord goes on to say, “I must work the works of him who has sent me while it is day”, v 4. He speaks of Himself as “the light of the world”, v 5. I wondered if this links with what we are saying. The works of God were manifested in this man. It is like a kingdom thought; he became part of that. Not only did he say, “who is he, Lord”, but he said, “that I may believe”.
GMcK Yes. The works of God were not only fulfilled in him being able to see; they were fulfilled when he did Him homage.
TJH Would those works of God in him be what is spiritual? “Thou hast … seen Him”. Others saw Him too, but they did not see what the man was able to see. Others heard Him, too. We are to have a spiritual view of what we see and hear, in order to own Him as Lord.
GMcK Yes, the work is an inward one. It is a matter of our hearts, our spirits, our whole beings being brought into subjection. We have seen that it is a blessed subjection. It is not something that is onerous, it comes from the fact that He loves us.
In John 21 the effect of Jesus Christ as Lord on the company is what is in mind. In the old feudal system if you served a lord, it overrode everything and it was everything to you. Every sphere of your life was regulated by the fact that you served that lord. And there would be others who served him too; your loyalty and theirs was absolute. In this scripture, things were slightly dysfunctional. The company were a little away from the Lord. There comes a moment where, as a group, everything came into place, because of the realisation, “It is the Lord”.
PSB It speaks about Peter casting himself into the sea. It does not speak about him getting to the land first. It says, “When therefore they went out on the land”; I wonder if you could say something about that. The mention of Lord to Peter triggered an immediate answer, but they all reached land as a company, it would appear.
GMcK Drawing attention to the trigger for Peter is helpful. That was what was in my mind - before John’s declaration, things were not too clear. The whole trip had not been profitable. Suddenly everything was clear and everything was light.
PSB We have mentioned about John recognising the Lord. He knew what it was to dwell in the bosom and upon the breast of the Lord. Do you think each one of us has our place in the company? We are not all the same. We come together and the trigger for all of us is the Lord.
GMcK Yes and it would affect us all at once. It only took one - one of these men said, “It is the Lord”, and everything changes.
RJG He sets it in motion. Everything comes into place as the Lord is recognised.
GMcK How do we recognise the Lord?
DAB Here they recognised Him by His ability to supply, His living word and the provision that came with it. You referred to the feudal system, and the clan system was the same. On the one hand there was unquestioning loyalty, but the one who was lord undertook for his people’s every need. That is the way we can identify the Lord. When we have nothing, we find He commits Himself for the provision of all that we need. Those two things are mutually reinforcing.
GMcK It helps me understand it. Those lords could rely on the people who served them, but then, as you say, they could rely on him too, to provide. That is a great thing to think about, if we apply that to the Lord Jesus. Does that reliance in both directions work? From His side it must do; I could never suggest that it would not. It raises the exercise with me about my loyalty and reliability.
DAB That works in a daily way. You spoke about speaking to the Lord today. Whatever it was you asked for, He will have given by the end of today, and more. Does that make me love Him more? Does it make me more committed to Him, in return? Is that your exercise? It may have been the simplest thing you asked for, but it has that potential.
GMcK Yes, that is good.
ADP I was just thinking about what has been said about supply. The Lord already had “a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it”. He did not need the fish that were caught. He tells them to bring them ashore. There was already a fire laid, and coals, and bread, provision. The supply was there, in Him.
GMcK Yes. His preparation was all in that. What a thing that is for us to think about, that the Lord of all the earth is thinking about what we might need. Just put simply, there is a company here today: brethren have sacrificed a lot to be here, planned to be here. The Lord knew what we needed. Think of Him preparing for us. That is an amazing thing when you think of the high office He has - and yet thinking about what we might need!
PAG The Lord is able to supply anything that is needed. Do you think He also wants us to have something to bring? He says, “Bring of the fishes which ye have now taken”. They only had them because of Him, but He acknowledges what they have. The Lord is very gracious. We feel our weakness and our lack and so on and so forth. Acknowledging Him as Lord gives us something to bring. We can bring that before the Father; He would delight to hear it.
GMcK What a company it would have been on the shore, the Lord at rest with His servants, those who acknowledged His right to be their Lord, enjoying His supply. That brings us to a high level.
RWMcC I was just reflecting; it is not the whole company here; it is not all the disciples. The Lord has something for each of these; Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two others. It says later it was the third time He had manifested Himself. How blessed it is that He comes after us and draws us back.
GMcK He had His eye on them. When Peter says, “I go to fish”, the Lord had His eye on him - and the whole company. It says, “none of the disciples dared enquire of him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord”. If you follow the note, the Greek word is something to do with deep consciousness. That is that they knew. I wonder if that might help us with the exercise. John says, “It is the Lord”. Well, how are we going to know it is Him?
PAG Do you think when we come together on Lord’s day morning and see the loaf and the cup on the table, we see what the Lord has prepared? We could not have prepared that. We might bring prepared hearts to make way for Him and seek to have impressions by the Spirit. We are told, “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, 1 Cor 11: 26. The company is united around one Person, truly coming to that point of being “joined in soul, thinking one thing” (Phil 2: 2), but too “having the same love”. The Lord gives us an object for our affections - and in the loaf and the cup, if there is anything that needs to be set right, we can say it has been set right.
GMcK Yes, it is the ultimate expression of Jesus Christ as Lord, that occasion. There is one Person only who has a particular place there, and that is the Lord, in the centre.
HTF I was thinking of Acts 27 in this context. A local brother here many years ago used to speak of Paul retaining the one loaf. It is food. Paul exhorted them to partake of food. I was thinking also about them all getting safe to land. The result was that they all got safe to land.
GMcK It is good what has come in about the Lord’s supply. There is no break in that line of supply for His own.
Grimsby
11th October 2025
List of initials:-
D A Barlow, Sunbury; P S Barlow, Sunbury; J M Bedford, Grimsby; D A Burr, Sidcup; S T Eagle, Dorking; H T Franklin, Grimsby; R J Gardiner, Aberdeen; A P Grant, Dundee; P A Gray, Linlithgow; T J Harvey, East Finchley; R W McClean, Grimsby;
A J McKay, Witney; G McKay, Manchester; A Martin, Buckhurst Hill; P Martin, Colchester; A D Plant, Birmingham; C C D Remmington, St Albans;
G J Richards, Malvern; J R Walkinshaw, Maidstone.