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“YE KNOW HOW I WAS WITH YOU”

I have a very simple message, beloved brethren, about this word of Paul’s in his last address to the elders in Ephesus: “Ye know how I was with you”. This was Paul’s last recorded public service as a free man. We get his letters after this, and many of them were written from prison in Rome, but this is the last service that he rendered as a free man. He had come to Ephesus earlier; Acts 18 records his first visit which was very brief, and then he came back and remained there for two years, as the scripture tells us in chapter 19. The public opposition to Paul’s service to the Lord there was very great. On every hand it was resisted, and to such an extent that he had to separate the disciples from the synagogue and take up his teaching of them in the school of Tyrannus. The opposition continued, although Ephesus was the place where the greatest truth came out – in the place where there was continual opposition publicly, and hardship. Paul said at one point, “I have fought with beasts in Ephesus”, 1 Cor.15:32. I wonder what that meant, but he faced hardness of heart, as the scripture records, and disbelief and evil speaking. At one point there was almost a riot after the sons of Sceva called up evil spirits in opposition to the truth (Acts 19:14), but it says also that “the word of the Lord increased and prevailed” (v.20). What a wonderful testimony was rendered in Paul’s service at Ephesus!

But now he gives his last word to the Ephesians. Paul is not actually in Ephesus at this point; if you look at the map you will find that he came to a place called Miletus and he called over the elders of Ephesus to him, and he gives this word that we have read. I do not propose to go into the detail of it but what I wanted to draw attention to was “Ye know how I was with you”. I do not know the detail of what occupied him, except that he says that he had “not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”, and “I am clean from the blood of all”. In the circumstances that prevailed at Ephesus, you wonder at the way in which Paul served there. They loved him; they fell upon his neck, “specially pained by the word which he had said, that they would no more see his face. And they went down with him to the ship”. What faced him now was the journey back to Jerusalem. As going back there, he faced imprisonment, then that long journey across the sea and shipwreck, then Rome and the experiences in Rome which we know a little bit about; and finally – although we do not have the detail – his death. So this was his last public service to the Ephesians. He did not speak in detail about all that he did there in service, but he said, “Ye know how I was with you”. That word “how” is what I want to touch on – the importance not only of ‘what’ our lives are but ‘how’ they are lived.

I remember reading somewhere that the ‘how’ is Christianity. Christianity is not a word you find in the Scriptures, although it is an expression that we use quite frequently. It does not just define doctrine, although it involves doctrine, but Christianity involves not only the doctrine but the way of life, the way that the effect of doctrine comes out in the lives of men and women. The doctrine is to be adorned (Tit.2:10); involving the greatness of the testimony to it. It is not the degree to which I know the truth but the way in which that truth becomes a reality and an expression in me. Of course, the way in which the ‘how’ comes out is to be an expression of Christ in the believer’s life. It is wonderful how Paul speaks of it here; he speaks of tears and temptations, plots of the Jews, and how he had not held back from teaching “you publicly and in every house” – what a service it was!

I find it challenging – not the ‘what’ but the ‘how’. How is Christian life to be lived? We are thankful for the doctrine and thankful for the teaching. We need it, and in relation to the will of God we shall prove how important the doctrine is, but even greater in a certain sense at the present time is the expression of it in the lives of men and women, the impact that it has upon them. How it had changed Paul! Think of what he was; it is striking that he had taught them “publicly and in every house”. I thought about Paul’s early life before he was converted, when he went from house to house, going into the houses of believers and dragging them out for punishment and prison (Acts 8:3). Now here he is in his last service to the Ephesian saints, and he reminded them that he had taught them “publicly and in every house”. He was not dragging them out to their death then. What was expressed in his life, in his teaching, in his work, were features of the One who had become his Saviour, and the glory of that One who, he says, “has loved me and given himself for me”, Gal.2:20. What a way Paul had come, from being the first of sinners (1 Tim 1:15). Think of that earlier life of Paul’s, what he had been, the expression of hatred that he had allowed to surround him, whatever part he played personally in that persecution which we read of in the early chapters of Acts. He said himself that the disciples were dragged out from the houses and before the tribunals, “and when they were put to death I gave my vote”, Acts 26:10. He joined in with others who were killers of the saints, but he says “mercy was shewn me because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief”, 1 Tim.1:13.

Here Paul was at the end of his public journey; he had gone from house to house with the fulness of the counsel of God in his heart. He had been with them, sharing in their temptations and their hardships, and shedding tears with them. There is a lot involved in these words, “tears, and temptations, which happened to me through the plots of the Jews”. I think it is a big test for us at the present time – how we express what we hold as truth and doctrine. I suppose for most here, there would be very little dispute as to the truth that has come to us by the Holy Spirit, but, beloved brethren, sometimes we are tested by how we live that truth. How are we going to live? Paul had seen in Stephen a man who not only had the truth but exemplified it in his life. What do you find in Stephen? There was something luminous, there was something that glowed in Stephen; it says that as they looked on his face, it was “as the face of an angel”, Acts 6:15. There was something there in that man who not only had the truth and held the doctrine but who exemplified it in his life. They stoned Stephen, and, as they stoned him as he was praying; “he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”, Acts 7:60. What wonderful things these are! It says they “laid aside their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul” (v.58). Later in his writings, Paul says that he was there “when the blood of thy witness Stephen was shed” (Acts 22:20); it seems to have had a profound effect on him. So here we have him speaking about the tears and temptations experienced in his walk, and I feel that I need help about how to walk. How is my life, beloved?

The scripture in John speaks about the Lord Jesus in His walk, and that is a very affecting thing. We had a brother locally who said to us when we were young men – if you do not know where to start, start with Christ! If you have a subject that you cannot cope with, start with Christ. If you want to know where to start, start with Christ. This scripture in John 1 is a lovely scripture, describing the early part of the public walk and life of the Lord Jesus. Earlier it speaks of John the baptist seeing Jesus coming to him and saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, John 1:29. Nothing could change that, beloved! Jesus was to be the sacrifice; the great basis for God to bless men was in that One who came here sacrificially to take away the sin of the world. John is recorded as having said that. Then the gospel writer says, “Again, on the morrow, there stood John and two of his disciples. And, looking at Jesus as he walked”; it does not speak there about the sin of the world, it says of John the baptist, “looking at Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God” (vv.35,36). Another little touch from ministry – it has been said that the second look was admiration¹. I encourage the young brethren to read the ministry because there you find little gems like that! Think of what the walk of Jesus was. This second reference was not exactly to His sacrificial walk, His sacrificial path – that is referred to earlier – but here it is what He was in His walk. What a walk it was, the way that Jesus went, His great activity. He never ceased in His movements: He moved by the sea, He moved in Galilee, He went to the mountain, He met the woman at the well of Sychar, He met the man at the pool at Bethesda. Jesus knew what it was to move, and He never ceased to move in John’s gospel. He went to a marriage, He went to the occasion of one who had died. Everywhere that the feet of Jesus went, He carried the fulness of what is of God with Him. Who could ever measure what it was when at the death of Lazarus, it says, “Jesus wept”, John 11:35. That is the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept”.

So when John the baptist looked on Jesus as He walked, there was a drawing power about it. It was how He walked, how He was here. The glory of what He brought was not preached from some great cathedral, or some lofty speaking place. God had come down in all the brilliance and love that you see in John’s gospel, and Jesus had come here and moved around and then He must needs pass through Samaria (John 4:4); that was a dangerous journey, but He went there. How the love of God moved in situations that defied the wisdom of man to know how to move. So John the baptist, “looking on Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the lamb of God”.

I have in mind the walk of the believer, and we are to be affected by the way that Jesus went. There was nothing selfish in what He did; there was kindness and grace in everything He did. That man at the pool at Bethesda – all those years he had lain there, always missing the blessing, until a Man came to him and says “Wouldest thou become well?”, John 5:6. That is how God has come down; the love of God radiated in the way that Jesus walked, in the way that He went. It is a very affecting thing. I am exercised about my walk, and perhaps you are too. You may be able to say that you have a comprehensive knowledge of the truth and the Scriptures, and thank God for that, but there is to be a correspondence in my life and in all of our lives with these great truths that we hold. They are not just to be held as information, they are to be held as causing formation. That is something to think about. If I hold truth in my mind but there is no reflection of it in my life, it brings in a weakness in relation to the testimony that should be shining out. The testimony to God is the testimony of Jesus.

We have a reference in Thessalonians to how we should “walk and please God”. I wanted to touch briefly on these chapters because they are very precious. The scripture in Thessalonians says, “For the rest, then, brethren, we beg you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, even as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk and please God”. I am exercised about my walk, and I trust everyone here is. The Thessalonians were a wonderful company of saints. It is not an epistle that brings out great new levels of teaching, but it rather brings out the character of what Christianity is. There was something quite remarkable about the assembly of Thessalonians, as Paul speaks of it “before our God and Father”, 1 Thess.1:3. It was not about the degree of teaching which they held, because they were a young assembly. From what we read, I do not think that it seemed to be a very large meeting. It might have been quite small, but there was a remarkable testimony going out from them. That testimony went out, not so much as a result of their knowledge, because they still needed help about various truths, which is one of the things which we see in the epistle, but what was there was a remarkable outgoing of the effect of the way in which God had come out to them.

Paul writes in the first chapter, “For our glad tidings were not with you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance; even as ye know what we were among you for your sakes: and ye became our imitators, and of the Lord, having accepted the word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia: for the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is towards God has gone abroad”, vv.5-8. There was some expression of the truth that they held, “so that we have no need to say anything ... how ye turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to await his Son from the heavens” (vv.9,10). That was the brightness of the Thessalonians’ testimony: they became models for the flock, not so much in what they knew but in what was expressed in their lives. That is the import of the assembly at Thessalonica, that is my impression of it.

A little earlier on, Paul says, “remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labour of love, and enduring constancy of hope” (v.3). Faith, love and hope; these are things written about by Paul to the Corinthians, three great bases of belief in the believer – faith, love and hope. But here it is “your work of faith”; in other words it became operative in them. What is your faith, what is mine? You may say, Hebrews gives us the definition (Heb.11:1). My impression is that it is light from God that has shone in your soul. It is His sovereign action that no one else could do; He has opened up a way into your soul and He has shone His light there, and that is why you become exercised. That light becomes all embracing; faith becomes the basis of your life. It has been said that light becomes law to us². The believer’s life is galvanised, not any more by man’s will, or by the wisdom that we find in the world around us. But here faith is not only light. You have faith, thank God for that, thank God for every one here who does. But what about the work of faith? It is as if that very thing, faith, as the scripture says, “has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Cor.4:6. But what God has done in my heart has been done with a view not only to it remaining there – thank God it does – but He has put it there with a view to its shining out, and there is a work connected with faith. All the light of Christ – the light of the Spirit, the light of all the truth as it has come to us, each blessing which has come through the gospel – has shone in our hearts, and it is intended that this “work of faith” should become operative in me.

Then Paul refers to the “labour of love”. The “labour of love” is work. I do not know what I can say about that, but it was seen in Paul at Ephesus. He loved them there and his service was not appreciated by many of those who were there, and even less so at a place like Corinth, to which he says, “if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved”, 2 Cor.12:15. What service there was, what precious things these are, beloved, as to how we should walk and please God. Paul the apostle was an educated man, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3); he was one of his protégés, but he counted it all as filth on account of Christ (Phil.3:8), and that became the motivating force in his life. Paul spent his life as a Christian in gaining Christ. He wrote about the fellowship of His sufferings and being conformed to His death (Phil.3:10). He was shipwrecked, he was stoned, all these sufferings, and he could say that he bore in his body the brands of the Lord Jesus (Gal.6:17). What things these are, and what a “labour of love” we see.

Then this last one; the “enduring constancy of hope”. Let us endure, beloved! Somewhere in the ministry, I remember reading that one of the rarest things amongst the people of God is hope. Let it burn brightly! This is what Paul expressed to the Thessalonians. Let the prospect, the blessed prospect of the coming of the Lord, burn brightly. May we be helped in these things, beloved brethren, in the “enduring constancy of hope”. It is a simple thought, but I would seek that we might be exercised not only in relation to the ‘what’ of Christian life, but the ‘how’. I think the word Christianity expresses the greatness of all that has come from God, seen supremely in Jesus and then in expression in the lives and walk of believers.

I just finish with this lovely section in Romans 12: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God …”. This is an opportunity for every one of us, young and old, to present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. What an opportunity for believers at the present time to yield our bodies to God while we are living, “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”. And then Paul goes on to speak of various things which God has given. As we said in the reading, most of the truths of the epistle to the Romans apply to us as individuals, but I think here in chapter 12 we get the beginnings of the coming together of the Christian company. We get this reference to “one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”. This is not the full teaching of the assembly; we have said about this epistle that it just touches on that teaching, while other epistles fill it out. This is not the fulness of Paul’s teaching about the body of Christ, but as Christians we have one hope and one salvation and are drawn together, “one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”.

Then there is this long list that I read out, and I found it very testing when I read it. It speaks not only of various things that are to occupy us – “he that teaches, in teaching” – but “he that leads, with diligence”: that is how it is done, is it not? Then “he that shews mercy, with cheerfulness”; again that is ‘how’, and then “Let love be unfeigned; abhorring evil; cleaving to good: ... as to honour, each taking the lead in paying it to the other”. All that is about how we are to do these things. So you could go on down the list, “Rejoice with those that rejoice, weep with those that weep. Have the same respect one for another, not minding high things”. Do you find it testing as you go down the list? As I think of what my life is, what representation is there of God that is coming out by the Spirit in me, in the life of the believer? It is the ‘how’. It is a list that tests me; “Have the same respect one for another, not minding high things, but going along with the lowly: be not wise in your own eyes: recompensing to no one evil for evil”. These things would test most of us, but this is what is set out in the Acts, in those who yielded their bodies a living sacrifice.

I remember reading that this chapter is like the boards of the tabernacle which was made in the wilderness. The boards that comprised the sides of the tabernacle were huge. These boards were nearly five metres high, and maybe three quarters of a metre wide – for the older ones, fifteen feet high, and about two and a half feet wide. Think of that! They were covered in gold and they had two tenons at the bottom which sat in sockets of silver on the bases, and they were to be the walls of the tabernacle. We have been taught that the tabernacle was God’s dwelling, the place where He dwelt. Of course, He does not dwell now in temples made with hands (Acts 17:24), but these types are suggestive to us. God’s house now is in persons, and it is a spiritual idea; “to whom coming, a living stone … being built up a spiritual house” (1 Pet.2:4,5). The suggestion is that these boards represented individual believers set together as the walls in the structure of God’s house. It involves persons. The weight of them must have been enormous. The Levites would take the tabernacle down and they had to carry it through the wilderness, and then when the cloud stopped, they erected it again. How many persons it would have taken to lift one of these boards – they were immense, they were valuable, they were weighty! Think of how God regards every saint! And here they all are in this chapter in Romans, and this is the fitting of them together.

If you go to Exodus, you find how these boards were made, not only were they covered with gold but they had two tenons at the bottom, like feet on the bottom of each board and they sat in two sockets of silver in each base of silver. It is suggestive of the individual believer in the wilderness, that each one should stand individually. The sockets of silver were what each board rested in; it suggests the redeeming grace of Christ that has come in, and the saints are to be regarded thus. How precious these things are. In the middle of each board there was a ring of gold, so that when the boards were set up there was a bar that again was made of wood covered in gold. The bar was fed all the way through the ring on one board and then through that on the next board and the next, and joined them all together. That is like Romans 12. This all sounds very good, but the Levites were putting this tabernacle together in the wilderness, and while we may think of the wilderness, the desert, as being nice and flat, it was not! It would be uneven; they would stand the boards up and sometimes one board would not be in line with the others, and sometimes we find that, beloved brethren. We find that sometimes we have to work in patience to be adjusted so that the bar can be put through. The bar would suggest the uniting bond of the Spirit. Are we ready for that, beloved? Are we ready for all that is involved in providing for the house of God in the wilderness? How are we going to do it?

Paul says, “Ye know how I was with you”. It is a simple word, but I commend it to the brethren. The model, the pattern, is the walk of Jesus. May we be encouraged for His name’s sake.

Address at Grimsby

5 October 2019

Ron D Plant

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