THREE ASPECTS OF SERVICE
[p. 174] THREE ASPECTS OF SERVICE
Luke 19:28 - 35; Acts 9:3 - 6; Luke 4:38,39
I would like to show from the three passages I have read, three aspects of service.
The first is in connection with the young. The Lord has need of the young, of all the young ones. The colt in Luke 19 gives us the thought of a young one under authority, the child of believing parents. There are several such here today; your parents have prayed much for you since your birth; they have lived in piety and brought you where you could hear the word of God. Now the Lord is saying, I have need of you. This incident is recorded by the four evangelists, but each of them puts it in his own way, according to the particular side of the truth which his gospel presents. According to Luke’s teaching, it is a matter of the Lord’s need, He needs the young ones.
It says that as the disciples were going, the owners of the colt asked, “Why loose ye the colt?” And they answer, “Because the Lord has need of it”. Perhaps you are saying, “I have need of the Lord”; actually you have need of Him and your parents, too, have need of Him on your account. They cannot hope to keep you under their control all your life; they need the Lord if you are to be saved. The Lord knows this and comes to meet you to answer to your need: “Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, (1 Peter 2:24). He has done this so that your conscience may be purified. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, (1 John 1:7). Then, too, He has ascended to heaven and sent the Spirit, so that you may have all that is necessary now for your salvation in the present and in the future. If the Lord is to make use of you, you must be in the gain of these things. The Lord will not make use of us if we are not in the liberty of sons, “Loose him, and let him go”. If the truth of which we are speaking comes into your soul,
you will be in liberty. “Loose it and lead it here”, we read in Luke. If it be a matter of older people, it is possible to let them go, as it was for Lazarus. In contrast to that, the young man in Luke 7 was given back to his mother, but here the thought is of being brought to Jesus.
What a great result there would be from these meetings, if someone were led to Jesus for His service. He has need of you, there is a great need of servants in this world. How beautiful it is — to be led to Jesus! It is not here a question of salvation for a young man — typically he is already a believer — but of being brought to Jesus for service. “And having cast their own garments on the colt, they put Jesus on it”. That shows affectionate consideration, older brethren taking care of the young, and this service is meekly accepted. The older brethren are glad to see the young ones having part in the service. There is no jealousy; on the contrary, they put on them their own garments, something of their own personal character.
“They put Jesus on it”. Jesus is not here personally now, but His testimony is here and it has to be carried. The older brethren are glad to see the young saints carrying it together with them. What greater honour could be entrusted to them? We are getting near the end of the present dispensation; the Lord would wish that His testimony be carried in triumph to the end. For that, He has need of the young; He has need of them as also of the garments — the experience of the older brethren.
No one, it states, had ever sat upon the colt; that is a great thing, a young man who has never been under the yoke of the world. “No child of man” suggests that the Lord will not use human culture in His service. We are to learn everything inside, that is, in the circle of the assembly. We can learn in our parents’ house, but we must regard it all in relation [p. 176] with the assembly, and this means that current religious means are to be rejected. In this connection, the garments of the disciples seem to suggest that the elder brethren convey to the young ones all that is possible about the place Christ occupies. Everything is at the disposition of the young ones so that they may be able to serve the Lord.
In Acts 9, we have another aspect. Saul represents a young man doing his own will under the control of Satan. He had left Jerusalem but the Lord Jesus met him on the Damascus road and stopped him in his foolish course. Light from heaven shone into his soul. It may be that someone here has done his own will and is still doing it. You may have a special reason in coming to this meeting, but the Lord wants to cause light from heaven to shine into your soul. Saul asked the Lord what he was to do; you may have the desire to serve the Lord and not know how to do it. It would seem that everything necessary was secured from this encounter on the Damascus road, but although much was accomplished, much more remained to do, much more than had already been done. The Lord has need of workmen, of workmen who say, “Here am I; send me”, (Isaiah 6:8). Saul said, “What shall I do, Lord?” You say, ‘I will ask the Lord that, too’, but no, the Lord said, “Rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, (Acts 22:10). If anyone is seeking to serve the Lord, and asks Him how, he is sent to the brethren who will tell him what to do. That does not mean that we are to take orders from the brethren. When the moment came, Saul was sent by the Spirit, but a considerable number of years passed between his conversion and that time. He had much to learn in the city before he could be sent. If a young brother or young sister is desirous of serving the Lord, he or she must learn the way to do it. The levites did not take up service until they were twenty-five years old, and another [p. 177] five years had to elapse before they could serve fully. If we take account of Paul’s history, we shall see how much he had to learn — there is, truly, much to unlearn. He was a proud young man, who had full confidence in himself. Like him, we have much to learn and much more to unlearn. If our service is to be effective, we must go through exercises like this. He was blind for three days, how humiliating! Humiliating circumstances are necessary for us, for what humiliates helps us. He was led by the hand; that, too, is humiliating. Think of a young man like him, blind and having to be led by the hand through the streets of Damascus, then into a house which he did not know. What an experience! However, the Lord was watching over this young man, for He was going to make of him His greatest servant. Who can tell what the Lord will do with us, if we are subject to His will? He made a great servant, too, of Peter.
The Lord sent Ananias to Saul, and he said to him, “Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit ... and he saw, and rising up was baptized ... and he was with the disciples who were in Damascus certain days. And straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God”. You see by that, dear brethren, with what tenderness the Lord was watching over His servant, and how significant were the words “go into the city”. He was several days with the disciples. Young brethren, keep near the brethren, be with them as much as possible, value their ways of instructing you, for their influence will be for your information. So Saul went into the synagogues and preached that Jesus is the Son of God. The Lord can entrust to you a service which no one else has and which no one else can do like you.
Finally, another thought is brought out with Simon’s [p. 178] mother-in-law, (Luke 4:38). The Lord entered into Simon’s house as He was going out of the synagogue. The synagogue is not a place where one is formed for service. The Lord then enters into Simon’s house and his wife’s mother had “a bad fever, and they asked him for her ... he rebuked the fever; and it left her; and forthwith standing up she served them”. That is the third aspect of service, and is of great importance. Here we can notice the state of her who is to serve and also the relation in which she is. According to Mark 1:29, Andrew was there too; Andrew, Peter and his wife and his wife’s mother were living in the same house. These details are not given so that happiness should reign, although if all were led by love, it could have been a happy house. But it is evident that there was irritation, the mother-in-law had fever. She certainly could not serve well; experience was not lacking, but for the moment she was not serving at all, surely a matter for sorrow. One often hears of family quarrels and someone says then, ‘I shall not say any more in the meeting’. You are so carnal in your mind that a quarrel deprives the Lord and the saints of your service — we must watch that.
Being a mother-in-law, this person has both age and experience; she is accustomed to serve, but now she is incapable of doing so. What is to be done? They ask Him for her. Go to the Lord, He will do what is necessary. One sees, on one’s travels, that many difficulties exist and it may be that there are more than one sees. It is absolutely essential that we call upon the Lord about this fever. Notice that the Lord stood over her and that the fever left her. We read also that He took her by the hand; other evangelists suggest that some help is necessary. Luke says that the Lord stood over her, making us think that a head was lacking in that house. Think of the dignity of Jesus as He stood over a feverish woman! The consciousness of authority [p. 179] was to fill her soul; He will come to assert His authority, if there is need for this. He rebuked the fever, but not the woman, there was not occasion to rebuke her.
We should go to the root of things. A bad fever represents the flesh in its heated activities, and the afflicted person is without control. The Lord therefore rebuked the fever and finally she served them as someone who is ready to do what has to be done, what contributes to the Lord’s interests. The word says, “Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might”, (Ecclesiastes 9:10) She served them; all who were in the house got the good of her service. How great her deliverance was! She had had to cease her activities for a time, and now she is available to fill out fully her service.
May God help us as to these thoughts; they have their importance in our localities.