PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (4)
[p. 29] PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (4)
JT At St. Etienne we considered the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel; I think it will be profitable to consider the following chapters. What is to be noticed in this period of the life of the Lord Jesus is His long secret history. The early chapters present Him to us as Babe and young Boy; He is now presented to us as Man. We have seen that Mary represents the history of the believer’s soul in connection with Christ. She kept all the things said of Him, pondering them in her heart, (chapter 2:19). She was astonished at what was said of Him; Simeon had told her many things, particularly that a sword would pierce through her own soul, and at the end of the second chapter we read that she kept all these things in her heart, (chapter 2:51). A certain incident took place when Jesus was twelve years of age, which is given to us, but many other events had taken place which are not mentioned. All that was, so to say, within the reach of Mary, and she understood it. Jesus grew under the notice of His mother who pondered in her heart the things said about Him. She had the opportunity of contemplating the graces which developed in Jesus, and instead of Him having to learn from His mother, it was His mother who learned from Him. So the development of a believer is in connection with the things which concern Christ; the believer’s secret history is bound up with what he sees in Christ. Mary represents the secret history of the soul; what we learn in secret will be what will shine in us. At the age of twelve, the Lord could say to His mother, “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” Our hearts are enlarged when we see that the Lord was occupied in His Father’s business.
In verse 23 of chapter 3, Jesus began to be about thirty years of age. It is written that “Jesus himself was [p. 30] beginning to be about thirty years old”. He is then presented as being fully aware of being identified with the human race, and what marks Him is seen in verse 21, “Jesus having been baptised and praying ... the heaven was opened”. What Mary had heard of Him and what she had seen in Him was to be fully confirmed by heaven at that moment. “The heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him; and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. All therefore that Mary had seen in Christ and had heard about Him is now confirmed by what she heard from heaven. When we are in heaven, we shall understand what heaven thinks of Him, but it is a question of what we already understand of Him down here.
It could be said that in this section Luke presents the Lord in the most attractive way for the heart of man. His human perfection shines, He prays, and heaven speaks to Him, then following that, we learn that “Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old”. This glorious Person whom heaven presents is on our side, Jesus is for us. God’s thought is to have His good pleasure in men, but they must be brought into correspondence with that glorious Person.
I just show the brethren what is on my mind; we are having a reading, and we want all to take part.
Ques Can we say that every child should be like Him, subject to its parents as He was to His?
JT In baptising a believer’s house, the perfection which is in Jesus is in view, so that when the children reach the age of twelve they may realise that Jesus is their model.
Rem We can be encouraged by the thought that Jesus was subject to His parents, although He was not understood by them.
JT The young believer will know that God’s claims are to be preferred to any others, preferred even [p. 31] to the claims which their parents could have over them, and if these claims are understood, or at least accepted, the child’s duty is to be subject to its parents. The continual growth of Jesus is striking, He grew up before Jehovah as a tender plant out of a dry ground; so too the young believer grows as he recognises his responsibility before God. It may be that he has a long secret history, but like John the baptist, there will come a moment when the believer will have to witness that he has had to do with God; he will have learned to pray.
Rem It is said of John the baptist, “The child grew and was strengthened in spirit; and he was in the deserts until the day of his shewing to Israel”, (Luke 1:80).
Rem Aaron’s rod was hidden during the night, that is during the whole time of its growth.
JT Evidence of growth was there.
Rem The showing is according to the secret history.
JT By his manner of life, when the secret history is over, he is seen as a witness of the faithfulness of God.
EP Growth continued for thirty years, and the devotion seen at the beginning was evident constantly. The Lord Jesus was devoted to the service of God; He recognised God in every action, continual praise was in His heart.
JT The result of secret history is most interesting. The Lord said, in the gospel of Matthew, that the believer should enter into his closet and pray in secret. “Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who sees in secret will render it to thee”, (Matthew 6:6). We must have a public history in connection with our brethren, but we shall not shine in public, unless we have been secretly with our Father. To enter into one’s chamber and pray in secret means that one has touched the most holy place; one has the privilege of [p. 32] entering the most holy place by the new and living way. At first, on entering my chamber, I do not see the Lord Jesus, but I see Him on entering the most holy place. So it is that I put on His character and become like Him down here.
Rem “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”, (2 Corinthians 3:18).
JT Secret history is very simple: you enter your chamber and pray to the Father in secret, you soon understand what the holiest means, and then you come out and attach yourself publicly to the brethren. God will show that we have had to do with Him in secret, and He will reward us openly. All this was seen in the Lord Himself when He prayed; He had identified Himself with the remnant, so that heaven shows what it thinks of Him. The Holy Spirit descends and abides upon Him, and then the voice coming from heaven says, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. This word is addressed to Him, “in thee”; in another gospel, it says, “This is”, (Matthew 3:17) but here it is, “Thou art my beloved Son”. If you are conscious of being pleasurable to God, it matters little what men think of you.
EP In reference to the Lord Jesus, what difference is there between the seal and the anointing?
JT By the seal He is set apart as belonging to God; the anointing means that God commits Himself to Him, so to speak; God approves Him as His representative down here. The same thought applies to us, as believers; God has anointed us and has sealed us, and more, He has given us “the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”.
GM Is the first verse of chapter 4 linked with the last verse of chapter 2?
JT Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit; that is another thing we have [p. 33] to contemplate.
EP Do we pray enough to be full of the Holy Spirit?
JT That is how the spiritual character is maintained amongst the children of God. In this passage, the Lord comes before us; He is exceedingly attractive to us and to the heart of God. Such is the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ. The epistle to the Ephesians gives us the measure: “And be not drunk with wine, in which is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks at all times for all things to him who is God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, (Ephesians 5:18 - 20). Instead of being drunk with the things which the world can offer you, “be filled with the Spirit”.
Rem The example is perfect.
JT What characterises him who is “full of the Holy Spirit” is firstly that he does not go into evil; he does not himself combat evil with his own strength. Jesus was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, tempted of the devil”.
Rem It was not His personal choice; He was “led by the Spirit” there.
JT He taught His disciples to pray in this way: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, (Luke 11:4). The Lord has met evil, and we see how He was led of the Spirit in the wilderness.
GM That shows us His perfection.
JT Yes.
JP As the Lord says, “The ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”, (John 14:30).
JT Not only has a divine Person met the devil, but a Man.
JP “In that he himself has suffered, being tempted”, (Hebrews 2:18).
JT He was led of the Spirit in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil forty days. We are in this [p. 34] way in the presence of a Man approved of God in His combat with the devil, striving against him with arms suitable for a man, the word of God, the first thing it is important to have. We have the Spirit and the word.
Rem We learn in this passage how the enemy should be faced.
JP We can say that the devil put all the temptations to the Lord Jesus which he has put to the human race from the beginning.
JT In verse 13 it says, “And the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time”.
GM Is the fulness of His perfection expressed during those forty days of temptation?
JT It is a complete testing time.
JP In Matthew there are “forty days and forty nights” (Matthew 4:2); the enemy allowed no rest to the Lord.
JT In the first place he attacks Him in connection with His needs as Man, He was hungry, humanly speaking. The enemy works as he is accustomed to act with men, as knowing them and as knowing their weak point, and he attacks them where they are likely to be overtaken. In such times we should watch very particularly. The Philistines proposed to attack Samson in the morning, but Samson arose “in the middle of the night” (midnight) (Judges 16:3), and carried on his shoulders the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts “to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron”. We become invulnerable according to the measure of our dependence upon God. “When I am weak, then am I strong”, (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Ques Does verse 13 imply that there were other temptations of the Lord?
JT There are three temptations, but in verse 13 it says, “every temptation”. “Having completed every temptation, the devil departed from him for a time”. Jesus was obedient even unto death. Later the devil was to return to the attack with other weapons; in Luke [p. 35] we have physical or bodily circumstances, and political and religious, the kind of circumstances through which the enemy seeks to attack us.
Rem We have that in embryo from the beginning.
JT In the garden of Eden, Adam aspired to be God. Here we see the enemy’s effort to place one truth over against another in order to neutralise it. The Lord was truly Son of God, but He was Man, and so the question was to know what man should do. Now man’s food is every word of God: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”. Elsewhere it says, “every word which goes out through God’s mouth”, (Matthew 4:4).
Rem It is quite natural to eat when one is hungry; it is then that temptation comes, for it is a question of not eating on the enemy’s suggestion.
GM Adam and Eve were not hungry, yet they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree and fell.
JT It is remarkable to see that the first point of attack is in connection with food. The enemy uses political circumstances in the same way to tempt the people of God. As he travelled with Paul, Luke understood the movements evident in the Roman world; he saw the attraction of political honours. The second temptation does not perhaps offer to us so much attraction, but the third comes very close indeed to us. There is the danger of coming under spiritual or religious ambition.
Rem I am tempted to do something remarkable in what is spiritual, to the sole end that someone else praises me.
JT It would be a great exploit to throw oneself down from the temple; it would attract public attention.
Rem Many servants have been tempted in this way, and being tempted, they have not refused it.
JT Following this temptation, Jesus Himself walks in the power of the Spirit on the ground where He can serve God and men. In verses 14 and 15, it says, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee;
[p. 36] and a rumour went out into the whole surrounding country about him; and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all”. In serving the Lord, we must not excite those who have religious prejudices. The Lord was accustomed to go into the synagogue, trying to help those who were there; He does not attack the synagogue. What was there when the Lord was present: had never existed before; His conduct, the way in which. He read, the grace with which He spoke, were all different from what had been before. We see that the Lord maintained the truth in the synagogue at Nazareth, but at the same time making it attractive by the grace of His Person. That is a basis of what we must be to make the truth known. It is said of Paul and Barnabas that they entered together into the synagogue, and so spake that a great multitude believed; they were in the synagogue according to the example of Jesus.
Rem Then too, from their conduct before the tribunal, they recognised that Peter and John had been with Jesus.
JT It does not say whether there were some conversions that day, but admiration was provoked. It is not only a matter of what we preach, but also of how we preach. What was in the synagogue was shortly to be manifested — a spirit of murder. In another synagogue (verse 33) there was a man with the “spirit of an unclean demon”. We see what is the real idea of the synagogue; then “rising up out of the synagogue” He went out of it into the house of Simon. From this point, in this gospel, the believer’s house is in view. What the Lord did not find in the synagogue, He found in the house of Simon after having cured the bad fever of his mother-in-law.
Rem So it is in the Acts, when the synagogue is left, immediately the houses of the believers are seen.
JT The believer’s house comes into view when the synagogue is set aside.