"THE LORD HAS NEED..."
“THE LORD HAS NEED...”
Matthew 21:1 - 7; Mark 11:1 - 7; Luke 19:29 - 35; John 12:14
These scriptures speak to us of the same incident from four different points of view. It is to be noticed that in the first three passages read, it says, “The Lord has need ..”.
In coming to the Lord Jesus we have been occupied above all with our own needs; it is what can be observed throughout the gospels. The Lord has always responded to the needs of those who come to Him. If there are any here today who have spiritual needs, the Lord is here to answer to them! It says, on the occasion of a certain incident in His pathway down here, that many came together to hear and to be healed; the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Your needs can be met on the principle of faith, without your leaving this room. But, as I have already said, “The Lord has need ..”.
You will notice that in Matthew, Mark and Luke it says, “The Lord has need of it (or them)”. He had need then of a colt, the foal of an ass. In the first passage He has need of the ass and the colt; Matthew puts it that way, according to the point of view of his gospel, having the intention by the Spirit, of speaking of the assembly. It was that of which the Lord had need, as it is written, “It is not good that Man should be alone”, (Genesis 2:18). Jehovah said, “I will make him a help-mate, his like”. It was the same with Isaac; Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son. These two men, Adam and Isaac, are typical of the Lord Jesus as having need of the assembly. Matthew alone of the evangelists formally mentions the assembly, and for this reason he makes much of the rejection of Christ by Israel. The nation rejected its Messiah, and so He seeks another wife, for Israel had been a wife for [p. 181] Him. He was truly Jehovah, He who had brought Israel out of Egypt, and who, by covenant, had entered into marital relations with them, but Israel had broken the covenant, and therefore He had come in humble grace to them.
In this gospel, the Lord is presented to us as Emmanuel, God with us. That is the God who had, in the Old Testament, escorted Israel, He is there now to fulfil all the promises that He had made to them; but the Jews refused Him, so He finds the assembly.
He compares Himself with a man seeking goodly pearls; He found one “of great price”. This is a type of the assembly, and this passage should be read in the light of these remarks. It is in Matthew’s gospel that the Lord said, “on this rock I will build my assembly”. If He is to build an assembly, He must have persons, so according to this gospel, at least two are necessary for an expression of the assembly in a locality.
The Lord would say to each one in this room, and especially to those of this village, ‘I have need of you’. He has need of each christian in this locality; He has need of you for many reasons, but He needs you, so that there may be here some little expression of the assembly for the satisfaction of His own heart. Is there a christian here who would like to refuse to Him what He is seeking? Notice that the Lord said to His disciples, “Go into the village over against you, and immediately ye will find an ass tied, and a colt with it”. That speaks to us of christians who have not gone into the world but are held governmentally.
As He approached Jerusalem, a village Bethphage, and the mount of Olives are mentioned. It was not accidentally that the Lord entered into the city by way of the village at the mount of Olives; He knew very well that the ass and the colt were tied there. Really at that moment no place was so full of spiritual suggestions as that district. The immediate proximity [p. 182] of Jerusalem was full of reminders of what God was towards His people. David had honoured it, and then Solomon had built its temple, many others who had loved God had served Him in that district; happy and glorious reminders in profusion attach to it. In this way these two animals would indicate to us what there is so very advantageous spiritually in a surrounding giving us the idea of christians, old and young, together in one place, kept there under the government of God, but of whom the Lord Jesus has need now. Are there not some like that here in this audience? Some young ones, perhaps, whom the authority of their parents has kept from going into the world, some aged ones who have been kept by governmental circumstances? But the Lord has not yet received what He wants from you. He is your Creator, but He is too the One who has redeemed you. He has rights over you, and that is why He says now, ‘I have need of you’. He will have need of you in heaven, but He has need of you in this village today, so that there may be some element of the assembly.
It is a question in this passage of the Lord’s need as to the assembly. There are only few gatherings which answer to the Lord’s heart in this great country. No one could be more filled than He with tender love towards the two or three in a locality who respond to His heart. Although few in number, they are like green oases in the middle of the surrounding barrenness. He would like to perfect each little meeting so that the verdure, so to speak, becomes more and more luxuriant, so that His eye can rest with more satisfaction on each little gathering. If, as I have already said, the gatherings are few in number on this plateau, it is His thought to increase them; for that He has need of two, in different places, for there cannot be fewer than this to express the assembly.
In this gospel, He says, “If two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may [p. 183] be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”, (Matthew 18:19). How important it is then that there may be found two, in prayer, of those who belong to the assembly, for where there are such, what they ask will be done for them by “my Father who is in the heavens”. The passage continues, “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. So you can see the Lord’s object at the present moment, He is seeking material to increase the number of the gatherings; that is why He says of these two, “The Lord has need of them”.
Another thought presented here is that He is to be carried, that is to say, presented in testimony by these ‘two’ in a living way, for we read that when the ass and the colt were brought to Him, He “sat on them”.
Having said that about Matthew, we will go on now with Mark. If the Lord has material for a local company, the two or three are really gathered together unto His name, there are conditions for the assembly. Now for the maintenance of these conditions, the Lord needs servants, so that, in Mark, mention is made only of the colt.
Mark tells us that at the sepulchre of Jesus there was a young man clothed in a white robe, which is an allusion to service. The Lord has need of a young man who will serve in purity; in his service he is, so to say, at the open sepulchre of Jesus. Jesus is no longer there; He is risen from among the dead, He has gone to heaven, He is seated at the right hand of God — that is what Mark tells. The disciples preached everywhere, which is exactly what Jesus wishes; He wants the colt for service. We must understand the incident from Mark’s point of view, and he tells us that the colt was brought to Jesus and He sat on it. The thought is that the testimony of Jesus is to be carried in a living way, and too (according to the passage read in chapter 16), in a pure [p. 184] way, for the young man was clothed in white. This service is to augment what we have in Matthew, for a gathering of two or three to the Lord’s name should be increased, by the preaching of the gospel and the ministry of the word amongst the saints.
I have no need to tell you, dear friends, that the Lord has need of such servants in this district. The Lord has provided for them special ones who come from a great distance, but He desires that each gathering should be maintained by persons who belong to it. The Lord has in view, in Mark, one brother or several, one sister or several, who have at heart that what is for Him is to be maintained.
For the encouragement of all, I shall say that if you take to heart what He has need of, the Lord will say to you, ‘I will make use of you’. When David went to Ahimelech, the priest, he said to him, “And now what is under thine hand?” (1 Samuel 21:3) If the Lord came to Faussimagne or Bronac or to Tence, He would ask, ‘What have you here?’ We must make use of the most possible that we have in our respective localities. The Lord would say to a brother or a sister who realises the local need, ‘I will make use of you’, for the Lord wants such. He will not fail to make use of those who are available to Him.
In looking at the passage in Luke, we should, as in the other two, take account of the incident from the point of view of the writer. Luke is concerned about the priesthood of Christ; that is why he commences his gospel with a mention of a priest and his wife, and finishes it showing Jesus lifting up His hands and blessing His own, a priestly action, beautiful in the highest degree. Aaron, in the Old Testament, was to bless Israel saying, “Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee; Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee; Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace”, (Numbers 6:24 - 26).
[p. 185] As the Lord lifted up His hands and blessed His own, He was “carried up into heaven”, (Luke 24:51) as if heaven was greatly delighted with this Man and this Priest. We are told that He has gone to heaven: “For such a high priest became us, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens”, (Hebrews 7:26). Luke presents to us, dear brethren, a priest blessing His own here, then carried up into heaven where He is always living to intercede for us. Think of the greatness of that expression, “always living”! let every christian here take that word to heart! Having such a High Priest, let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help, (Hebrews 4:16). No one should be burdened, having such a High Priest; it says, “let us approach ... with boldness”. In the greatest sorrow or affliction, “let us approach ... with boldness ... that we may ... find grace for seasonable help”.
Luke is a doctor, as you know; it is remarkable that he is called “the beloved physician”. Speaking generally, doctors are professionals who work for recompense, but this one is called a beloved physician, as though qualified for writing this beautiful gospel which he has put together in language of touching care. As the believer becomes affected by the spirit of this gospel, the Lord would say, ‘I have need of you’, so that one affected by priestly sympathies, instead of criticising or complaining, would wonder how to be serviceable to his brethren. “If even a man be taken in some fault, ye who are spiritual restore such a one”, (Galatians 6:1); that is the subject here, dear brethren, for the Lord has need of such persons. He has need of them to bear Him in testimony in the same way and the same spirit of the one who said, “I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls”, (2 Corinthians 12:15).
In John’s account nothing is said about the colt [p. 186] being tied, in fact, John tells us less of this incident than the others. We read, “Jesus, having found a young ass, sat upon it”. John does not refer to anyone being sent to bring this colt, it is as if the Lord had to say, ‘I have no one’. John has his eyes on the last days, when servants had failed the Lord Jesus. The great hierarchical system of christendom exists as a witness to the fact of the failure of all the official servants. If there are amongst them true christians and they are the means of conversions, it is simply to add to their system. No sect, no denomination of christendom can give what the Lord has need of. Each denomination is concerned with its own building up, whereas a true servant of Christ thinks of conversions as material for the edification of the body of Christ. John’s account implies that the servants have been unfaithful to the Lord; John tells us that the Lord found the colt Himself. How encouraging this thought is, dear brethren, that even if the most devoted amongst us fails, the Lord will find Himself what He has need of, and it is what He is doing today.
John, too, presents the Lord Jesus as being very badly treated. His gospel recalls that “He came to his own, and his own received him not”, (John 1:11). He speaks to us of the Lord Jesus sitting alone at the well of Sychar; when His disciples were in the city, no one had stayed with Him. How often that is our case! He sat just as He was, dear brethren; He was wearied with the way He had come, but none of His disciples was there. In another writing of John, the Revelation, we see Jesus walking in the midst of the assemblies. Now He is outside; the doors are shut and He knocks. How badly treated He is! Could it be that some amongst us are doing the same, shutting the doors of our hearts against Him? John enlarges on such a wrong attitude to the Lord on the part of those who owe all to Him, but he presents, too, the Lord Jesus as always active, even at [p. 187] this moment. He is walking in the midst of the candlesticks; He is standing, He is knocking; but here He Himself finds that of which He has need. How humbling that is for us, if the Lord has to find for Himself what we should have provided for Him. Am I holding back something which He would like to make use of? He will find it elsewhere, He will go elsewhere to obtain what He needs, but see, what an opportunity I have missed!
He who has come into His service would not wish to give up, for anything in the world, the privilege of serving Him or of meeting His needs. It is said of Rebecca that Isaac was comforted by her; in the same way the saints are to come into the assembly, as adorned in this way for His own satisfaction.
He is here today to tell you that He has need of you; do not refuse to Him that of which He is so worthy!
The Lord has need of you!