THE INWARD POWER OF THE ASSEMBLY (3)
[p. 214] THE INWARD POWER OF THE ASSEMBLY (3)
John 15:26,27; John 16:23 - 28; John 17:1 - 5; John 17:26; John 20:19 - 23
Ques To return again for a moment to the close of our last meeting, when we were speaking about fellowship, from what does the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse us?
JT “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Ques Is this cleansing continually needed in view of our fellowship with one another?
JT Quite so, it is the continually subsisting purifying action of His blood.
Ques Is the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ the same as this?
JT It says in 1 Peter 1:2, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of the Spirit, unto the obedience and [unto the] sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”. It is that which we have reached in contrast to the Old Testament economy. Under the law the children of Israel were externally cleansed by being sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifices (Exodus 24:8). Through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ we are cleansed from all sin. We have come to a different kind of blood-sprinkling; it is now different from what it was then. In 1 John 1:7, the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sinful being and also from our sinful acts, but we have also to confess our sinful acts (1 John 1:9). God is faithful and righteous and forgives us the sins which we confess. Sin is always in and around us, but the blood of Christ keeps us in the light of God if we walk in the fear of God and do not let sin work in us.
We had better turn now to the thoughts in the passages read in John’s gospel. The Lord there is moving to the Father and wishes us to follow Him in [p. 215] spirit. On this account He constantly brings the Father before His disciples. He says in John 15:26, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father, he shall bear witness concerning me”. The Holy Spirit was thus with the Father, for He was to go forth “from with the Father”. In John 16:23 - 28 the Lord encourages His disciples and us to pray to the Father. During the days of our Lord’s being here, the disciples were accustomed to direct their questions and requests to Him, but He says in John 16:23, “And in that day ye shall demand nothing of me: verily, verily, I say to you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give you”. “In that day” means from Pentecost onwards, when the Holy Spirit descended. We are thus by the Spirit in the position to pray directly to the Father in the name of Jesus.
Ques Does that day continue until the rapture?
JT Yes. He says in verse 26, “In that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not to you that I will demand of the Father for you, for the Father himself has affection for you”. Those are two different words for ‘asking’. The first word refers to our asking, it is a supplication, a petition. The second word designates the request of our Lord, and that is more a familiar asking the Father, as is the case with persons who are of equal rank.
Rem It is always befitting for us to pray to God in the consciousness that we are beneath Him.
JT I believe that when the Lord was down here, His disciples spoke very familiarly with Him, but as He was going away from them, He tells them that they should demand nothing more of Him, but they were to ask the Father in His name.
Ques What does that mean, “Ask in my name”?
JT It is the way we are to ask. In prayer we are to be before God in all the worth of what the [p. 216] Lord Jesus is. The name of the Lord has worth and power in heaven. If in a bank I show a cheque with the signature of the name of a well known rich man, then I get the money immediately. All our prayers should go to the Father in the worth of Christ. If the Lord Jesus can sign them with His name, the Father will surely grant them.
However valuable all these details may be, still we must keep to our main thought, namely, that the Lord is engaged in making the Father known to us. The gospel of John presents the household, the Father’s family. It says in John 3:35, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. Immediately afterwards this Son is sitting at the well of Sychar and a poor woman comes out of the city to fetch water. He says to her, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (John 4:10). That has reference to the present time. The Son has all things in His hands, and He gives the Spirit to those that ask Him. God is a Giver. John 13 - John 17 deals with what is collective; the Lord is teaching His disciples about the spiritual realm which He wanted to set up here on earth. In John 4 it is a question of the personal condition but in John 13 - 17 of the assembly in its inward power. We are to stand mutually in the full gain of the revelation of God as Father. The Lord attracts our hearts onward when He says, “The Father himself has affection for you”. It always says, “the Father”, not yet “your Father”, as in John 20:17, “my Father” and “your Father”?
Ques What is the difference between “the Father” and “your Father”?
JT “The Father” is a far more extensive thought than “your Father”, for in the coming age “the Father” governs and influences many families in [p. 217] heaven and on earth (Ephesians 3:14,15). The Father is God as He has come forth in grace in Christ. “Neither does the Father judge any one”.
Ques Have we also the Father in John’s first epistle?
JT Yes. “I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father”; “I write to you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13). The fathers knew more than the little children. “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God” (John 3:1). According to this passage the children of God stand connected with the Father. The sons of God are more linked up with the thought “my Father and your Father”, and that is very much deeper, though not so extensive. John, however, does not call us sons except in Revelation 21:7, “I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son”. Sonship is thus bound up with the eternal state, with eternity, while now on this earth we are already children of God (1 John 3:2). So it is very important that we know the Father and taste His love. “The Father himself has affection for you”, says the Lord.
It says then in John 17:1, “These things Jesus spoke, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father”. “These things” are what we have been considering thus far. It is as if the Holy Spirit said, ‘Just consider what has gone before (John 13 - John 16) and then listen to what the Lord prays to the Father’. Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, in order to indicate thus that the spiritual realm over which God is Father, is still upon the earth, but that He as High Priest places Himself on our side when we are in this realm. It is so exceedingly beautiful to see that with the Lord. He had presented to them these precious things about the Father and had told them that they were to pray to the Father in His name [p. 218] and that the Father had affection for them, but now He was showing them how to pray to the Father.
Ques Why are the Thessalonians called an assembly in God the Father (1 Thessalonians 1:1)?
JT That is caressing. The Thessalonians were newly converted. In Luke 11:1, when the Lord was praying in a certain place and one of His disciples wanted to be taught to pray, He said to His disciples, “When ye pray, say, Father”. It is said seven times of the Lord in Luke’s gospel that He was praying, because He is there set forth as a Man dependent on God. When the disciple saw Him praying, he surely thought, ‘I have often prayed myself and have also heard others pray, but I have never heard a prayer like that’. For this reason he wanted to be taught by the Lord how to pray. In John 17, however, the words which the Lord used in His prayer are given. He lifted up His eyes to heaven in order to direct our gaze there also.
Ques Why does the Lord say, “Father” and not ‘My Father’?
JT The Lord speaks to the Father as one divine Person speaking to another, only He identifies Himself fully with the condition of manhood which He had taken up. He asks the Father as Son, that is as a divine Person in manhood, “Glorify thy Son”. It is very striking that at the beginning of His prayer He speaks of Himself in the third person. “Glorify thy Son ... as thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal”. He is the Son in manhood, and not in His deity.
Ques Does He say, “My Father” in view of the day when He could say to Mary, “My Father and your Father”?
JT Yes, that is right. The Lord never prayed with His disciples but He always prayed by Himself, even when the disciples were there listening. He [p. 219] never places Himself on the same level with us. In John 20 He says, ‘My Father is your Father’, and that is still more precious than if the Lord had said that He and we had now a Father in common.
Ques Does He pray in John 17 as Son, that is as a Man?
JT Yes. He always prays as Man, for as a Person in the Godhead He never prayed to another Person of the Godhead, because divine Persons are all of the same rank. But John 17 shows that this praying Man is a divine Person in manhood, for an ordinary man never prays for a place of glory with God. We understand then that He must have precedence over us; He says, “My Father and your Father” and not ‘our Father’ in common.
Ques What does it mean, “that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21)?
JT That is a wondrously beautiful word. It shows on the one hand that the Lord remains in the unity of the Godhead, but on the other hand that He is man dependent on God, for He prays for this.
Ques Does the name “the only-begotten Son” relate to the incarnation of the Lord?
JT It is not until after the incarnation that He is the only-begotten Son. Luther taught that He was begotten of the Father in eternity, but he did not get this false thought from the Scripture but from the creed of Athanasius.
Rem All the disciples heard the prayer of the Lord in John 17, while in Gethsemane only three disciples heard the prayer (Matthew 26:37).
JT It is possible that the three did not hear the prayer of the Lord in Gethsemane either, for when He came back He found them asleep (Luke 22:45). In addition He withdrew Himself from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down and prayed (Luke 22:41). I do not know exactly how far a stone’s throw is, but it was far enough to preserve the sublime [p. 220] dignity of our Lord. We see very beautifully in Gethsemane how the Lord disposed of His disciples. He said as it were, ‘You remain here and three of you accompany Me’, and He then went alone a stone’s throw further. He is a divine Person, who arranges the circumstances. That is very precious for us. He is always in complete control of the situation.
Ques By withdrawing a stone’s throw does He guard His supremacy?
JT He guards His dignity. Also on the cross we see His divine power. Even if He was crucified in weakness, yet He died with a loud cry (Mark 15:37). He did not die as an ordinary man, His cry was unique so that the centurion said, “Truly this man was Son of God” (Mark 15:39).
Rem In John 17 the Lord is bringing His own before the Father.
JT The first five verses of John 17 are a kind of introduction, they stand unique there. From verse 6 onward He speaks then of His own, “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world ... I have made known to them thy name and will make it known” (verses 6 and 26).
Ques What is the difference between “manifested” and “made known”?
JT “Manifested” simply means made open. “Made known”, however, goes deeper, for it also brings us into the value and enjoyment of the manifestation. The Lord has made known the Father’s name to us, in order that the love wherewith the Father has loved Him may be in us.
In John 20 we find thoughts which go still further than those we have been engaged with. There the Lord sends to the disciples the message by Mary, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. Mary conveyed this message to the disciples. The Lord came at even to [p. 221] the disciples who, through fear of the Jews, had closed the doors there where they were. The Lord stood in the midst and breathed into them and said, “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”. That characterises our whole dispensation.
Ques Why had the disciples closed the doors?
JT It is noteworthy that it says “the doors”, it is plural. It is a spiritual thought, meaning the doors of their hearts. It is not said where the room was where they saw the Lord. Indeed it does not even say that the disciples were assembled at all. Several manuscripts do say, ‘Where the disciples were assembled’, but the best manuscripts simply say, “Where the disciples were”. The reason for that is that John in his gospel does not mention the assembly, but he only brings the persons who form the assembly. The brethren of Christ are greater than the room where they are assembled.
In Luke 24:33 they were assembled, and the Lord stood in their midst (verse 36) which undoubtedly represents the local assembly. But in John 20 the word ‘assembled’ is not there, and the Lord stood in the midst, not in their midst. These are spiritual thoughts, which mark the inner side of the assembly.
Rem Every heart was afraid of what was against Christ and on that account the doors of the hearts were closed.
JT The opposition to Christ specially came from the Jews. Religious opposition is always the most dangerous and must be kept out.
Ques Should we therefore be careful in cases of reception?
JT Yes, we should be beware of every kind of leaven. In Matthew 16:6, before the Lord speaks of His assembly He says, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”. We have perhaps left the Pharisees and Sadducees, yet still carry their leaven about with us and bring practices and customs [p. 222] into the assembly which are carried out in the religious systems round about us.
Ques Is the playing of musical instruments in the assembly also leaven, puffing up the flesh?
JT Yes, we should also keep that outside.
Ques Is our position today similar to Exodus 33:7 where we read, “And Moses took the tent, and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the Tent of meeting. And it came to pass that every one who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp”?
JT Yes, we have to do the same today.
Ques What does “the first day of the week” mean?
JT The first day of the week has an important place in John 20. It says in Matthew 28:1, “Now late on sabbath, as it was the dusk of the next day after Sabbath”, or ‘the first day of the week’, see note in the New Translation, “came Mary of Magdala”. In Matthew the first day of the week is simply the day after the sabbath, but in John 20 the sabbath is not mentioned; the first day of the week is brought in as if no day at all had preceded it. Taken spiritually, nothing can have taken place before the first day. Christ and the assembly have the first place in God’s heart, and on the first day of the week they should also have the first place in our hearts. The assembly is no after-thought with God, but it was the first thought of all with God. In John 20 Mary is in the foreground, setting forth the affection of the assembly. The Lord only reveals Himself to us when we are in this state of heart (John 14:21), and seeks to lead us into the spiritual blessings of the assembly. On the evening of that day the Lord came to the disciples and stood in the midst. He stood there as the divine centre of the spiritual universe. We can only understand His standing in [p. 223] the midst in a spiritual way. If anyone is standing, he is prepared to serve.
Ques Does He wish to lead us on into spiritual blessings?
JT Yes. The thought is that this is still nothing final, but that there is still more to come. We should always have this in view in the assembly. Every one who loves Him is always ready to ask Him what He wants to do next. It is a question of our having spiritual flexibility, skill and attentiveness in the assembly, in order to follow the Lord in what He has immediately before Him.
Ques Why was Thomas allowed to touch the Lord, but Mary not?
JT That is an extraordinarily important question. It says expressly in verse 26, “And eight days after, his disciples were again within and Thomas with them”. Thomas therefore touched Him within, in the inner sphere of the assembly, while Mary was not allowed to touch Him outside in the garden (verse 11). The garden is the scene where the Lord has been in His death; it is the outward order of things. We must keep the garden in order, but we cannot touch our ascended Lord there. We may touch Him in the inner sphere, where the Lord can be known in the most intimate way.
Rem When the Lord stood in the midst the first time, He breathed into them. Thomas missed that, for the Lord did not do it again eight days after.
JT Thomas missed the inauguration of the assembly in its inner spiritual side and an inaugural ceremony can never be repeated. Eight days later, when the Lord once again stood in the midst He said, “Peace be to you” (verse 26). You can have that even if you have missed the earlier opportunity.
Rem We all come now into the value of the breathing of Christ on the first [p. 224] occasion.
JT Yes, Thomas is a type of Israel, who later through seeing will come to believe.
Ques What does it mean that the Lord stood in the midst?
JT It is not a local but a spiritual thought. In Luke 24:36, the Lord stood in their midst; that is local and took place in view of our local needs, but in John 20 He stood in the midst, for the whole assembly, seen spiritually, has only one centre. But He stood in the midst, He wanted to lead them further into the spiritual blessings with the Father.
Ques Does that correspond to the tree of life?
JT Yes, that is the thought. It says in Revelation 22:2, “In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, in each month yielding its fruit”. If He presents Himself to us as the Tree of Life in the midst of the spiritual universe, it is to the end that we are also to eat the fruits which He then gives us in such abundant measure. The disciples did this; for they rejoiced when they saw the Lord. In the assembly the Lord would like us also to rejoice. Then He said to them again, “Peace be to you”, that is to say, ‘I am so glad that you are spiritually rejoicing, that I should like to maintain you in it in peace’. Then He says, “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”.
Ques Had the Lord in that way the present testimony in mind?
JT Quite so. The testimony only goes out in a powerful way from those who know the truth of the assembly, and who thus in a spiritual way come in touch with the Lord, the Tree of Life, inside the assembly.
Tarrying with Him before the Father does not make us unpractical but gives us power for service, which we can then carry out in His attitude of love.
Ques What does verse 23 mean, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained”?
JT Forgiveness comes first. In Matthew 18:18, the Lord commits binding and loosing to the disciples, but there binding comes first. Matthew 18:18 relates to the early days of the church, while John 20:23 connects with our days of breakdown. We should keep a forgiving attitude towards our brethren who are still in wrong religious associations and when they get free there, we should not retain their sins any more against them. But there are also those upon whom we have to retain sins, for example the woman Jezebel in Thyatira, who will not repent (Revelation 2:21). Still forgiveness should always be in the foreground with us.