THE LORD IN MOVEMENT

J. A. Gardiner

John 14: 18–20; 20: 19; 2 Thessalonians 2: 1, 2; Matthew 11: 28–30

In this gospel of John the Lord Jesus is presented to us as in movement. How blessed are His movements! He has moved and taken our beloved brother to be with Himself; He has moved in love and He would comfort our hearts, especially the heart of our beloved sister. He has in mind blessing, and I am sure He has come into the situation Himself to comfort and bless. He promised the disciples here in the verse we read that He was not going to leave them orphans.

He was not going to leave the position bereft of comfort; He was not going to leave them resourceless; He says, “I am coming to you”. He was actually on the move to them. He was thinking about His rejection, thinking about His going to the Father, the greatness of the present day, and He was speaking about it in that day.

He says, “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. Our beloved brother knew that; he knew that in the power of the Holy Spirit of God; He knew that in the power of the Comforter—the other Comforter who has come here to take up His abode in the saints of God, to take up His abode in the people of God—because Christ is before Him. He has come here on the basis of Christ being glorified. It says earlier in this gospel, “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. But now Jesus is glorified and the Spirit of God is here testifying to us that He is in the Father, that is, He is in the Father’s affections. Oh how wonderfully Jesus is in the Father’s affections! He is presented to us in this gospel as being in the bosom of the Father, “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him” (John 1: 18). He has made Him known. The declaration of God, beloved friends, has come from that place of holy love, that place of affection. The Son who is in the bosom of the Father has made Him known.

So then He says, “and ye in me”. Our beloved brother knew that; he knew that he was in the heart of Christ, he knew that he was engraved there; he knew that when Jesus moved in the Father’s presence he was with Him. The names are on the breastplate and on the shoulder-pieces of the Priest. As Jesus moved in the sanctuary, supporting him in his weakness, he knew—our beloved brother who has gone to be with Christ—that he was there too.

Then He goes on to say, “and I in you”, and our brother knew that too. He knew that Jesus was in his heart, he knew consciously that Christ was dwelling in his heart. These are the precious realities of Christianity, beloved, the divine and holy activities of love that were proved and known by our brother and are knowable to every Christian. Every Christian may not be in the gain of them. We have to say how weakly and how feebly we are touching these great matters. That weakness is from our side; there is no weakness from God’s side; there is no stint from the divine side; love in all its fulness, in all its blessedness, flows in the movements of Christ.

So what He has done in taking our beloved brother to be with Himself was an act of holy love; the fulness of His heart of love has entered into it, and His heart of love is towards our beloved sister in comfort to her, and she knows Him well. She has known Him well over these many years and she will prove Him afresh.

I touched on John 20 because there is this precious movement of Christ; it says, “Jesus came and stood in the midst”. This is where our beloved brother knew and learned Christ. He knew and learned Him there at the Lord’s supper—a prime feature of Christianity is the Lord’s supper. The first day of the week, the day on which the Lord rose from among the dead, is the day on which the Supper is celebrated. A great Christian celebration is the Lord’s supper and in it the Lord Jesus makes Himself known, and our beloved brother knew Him thus. So it was nothing strange for him in that sense to go to be with Christ. He had known Christ in resurrection, he had known the Lord Jesus coming in at the breaking of bread and saying,

“Peace be to you”. Oh how precious that is! He has always said that throughout the centuries of His rejection as He has come to His saints at the Lord’s supper. That is what He has said, “Peace be to you”. That was a wonderful movement of Jesus, and He still comes this way; He still says, “Peace be to you”. And so we sometimes sing,

‘‘Tis thus we know Thee as Thou’rt known above

In heav’nly glory—home of perfect love’. (Hymn 84)

These are wonderful, blessed facts, beloved friends, and our beloved brother entered into them in his heart and in his spirit, in his whole being, and let his heart go forth in holy praise and joyful response to Christ’s constant love.

The scripture I read in Thessalonians relates to a very wonderful event, ‘the appointment’, as we sang of it in our hymn (Hymn 398), the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He came into this world as a Babe He came in weakness and there was the evidence of weakness (not moral weakness) as He went through in conditions of weakness. That was external; in Himself there was the power of God, He was crucified in weakness; He did not die in weakness; He went into death in power, and He overcame him who has the might of death; Scripture says that of the devil; he is a vanquished foe. And He rose from among the dead.

Now the scripture I have read was written to comfort the hearts of the Thessalonians lest they should think the day of the Lord was already present. Paul was speaking of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh what a hope that is! What comfort enters into that, beloved friends, and “our gathering together to him”. Oh you think of what that will be when He comes, when His voice is heard; what power there will be in that shout of Christ, the Lord Himself; our brother will gather unto Him. He has known what it was to gather to the Lord, to gather to His name; this will be a gathering to Himself, not His name now, it is a gathering to Himself, all His own, all the redeemed ones from Adam onwards, all the saints of God, gathering to Him.

What an assemblage! What a meeting! What a powerful triumph, beloved friends. It is in the anticipation of this, and in the light of this, and in the knowledge and the enjoyment of this in our hearts, that we proceed to bury our brother today. The grave is not the end; the graves will be opened and the dead in Christ shall rise; these things will happen.

Oh I would appeal to anyone who may not believe this to consider well what the scripture says. What Jesus says in Matthew is a wonderful appeal, if you are feeling burdened, feeling laden. There are burdens. He says, “Come to me”; ‘You move’, He says, ‘I am moving; continually I am on the move; love is always active from My side, and soon I am going to be on the move universally when I come in the air and call My church to be with Myself eternally’. Now, He says, If you are feeling down, if you are feeling burdened, if you are feeling sorrowful, if you are feeling the weight of things, “Come to me”—“Come to me, all ye who labour”—not just some, all who labour and are burdened—“and I will give you rest”.

Oh what a comfort! He will give you rest; rest to your conscience, rest to your affections; you will find life in Him. He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. Oh what a Teacher! What a blessed Master to learn from! Peter says, You will become a living stone; you will find your place in God’s house, and find the blessedness of living in the love of Christ. He says, “To whom coming, a living stone … yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices”, 1 Peter 2: 4, 5.

So the Lord goes on to say, “Ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

So may the Lord help us. May He comfort our beloved sister; she has come to Him, she has known this passage well, and proved it many times, and she will prove it again. The Lord Jesus would appeal to all our hearts if we are burdened, if we have pressure upon us, if we have tension about us, if there is anything that is causing us concern He says, “Come to me ... and I will give you rest”. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Word at the burial of Mr. George Coull, Aberdeen
10 January 1984