PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (5)
[p. 37] PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (5)
JT In this section we can notice the prominence accorded to service. We read this morning that Peter’s mother-in-law, being cured of the fever, stood up and served them. It was not a matter of official service under commandment but of the spirit of service. Paul said that he served God in his spirit in the glad tidings of His Son, and we see this spirit in this woman who has stood up and acted on her own initiative. “Forthwith standing up she served them”. The Lord, in His act of healing and in the position He took in rebuking the fever (it says that He stood over her) gives us an idea of His moral dignity. In rebuking the fever and in curing it, He gives us an idea of His moral greatness and power. He serves her, and then, having received the benefits of Christ’s service, she serves them. The benefits of the service mark us, so that we serve without partiality not only those who help us, but others also; Luke says simply, “she served them”.
Rem The proof of moral power in the Lord is seen in rebuking the fever; in this way He sets the vessel free for service.
JT So that, in the service we render, nothing will harm those whom we serve. Paul said to the Galatians, “By love serve one another”, (Galatians 5:13). Love is the most useful thing in service. Luke particularly presents Christ as One who gave no offence in service. Paul amplifies this thought as he says, “I am servant of all”, and he became anything as he served, “I became to the Jews as a Jew, in order that I might gain the Jews; to those under the law, as under law, not being myself under law, in order that I might gain those under law: to those without law, as without law ... in order that I might gain those without law. I became to the weak, as weak, in order that I might gain the weak. To all I have become all [p. 38] things, in order that at all events I might save some”, (1 Corinthians 9:19 - 22). This portion of Luke brings us to official service and shows us the character of service which should mark every believer. It is in the spirit of service that we are qualified for official service, and it is in this way that the Lord can have confidence in us. Before Simon’s conversion, who was to be an eminent servant, there is in his house this example of service; that was to produce a great effect on Simon, seeing especially that it was a question of his mother-in-law.
Rem The Lord’s service in John 13 would be the opposite; He is Servant of all.
EP It is necessary to understand that, apart from the Lord, we can do nothing, although we have the desire to serve.
JT The healing of this woman is followed by a marvellous example of energy in the Lord’s Person: “And when the sun went down, all, as many as had persons sick with divers diseases, brought them to him, and having laid his hands on every one of them, he healed them”. The setting of the sun would be the signal, for one working for wages, to cease all activity, but the Lord continues to work after the sun had set. That shows that the believer’s service is a continual service; one does not stop work and say, ‘I have done enough, let someone else take my place’. If the work is to be done, the obligation rests on me to do it. “Having laid his hands on every one of them, he healed them”. The Lord could have put out His hand and said, Be healed, but He does not do this, He addresses to “every one of them”. Such is the peculiar interest the Lord had in His service. Luke’s gospel gives the impression that the Lord is interested in each one of us, as in chapter 15, “There is joy before the angels of God for one repenting sinner”. Besides, Luke’s gospel is addressed to an individual.
Rem The Lord had prayed before the sun rose,
[p. 39] and He laboured after it had set; it is a long day of service.
JT The crowds seek Him from the early morning, but He is not affected by them although ready to serve them. “And when it was day he went out, and went into a desert place, and the crowds sought after him, and came up to him, and would have kept him back that he should not go from them”. While we serve, there is the danger of being exposed to the influence of those whom we serve; we must be freed from this lest we become partisan. The principle of service is universal not local; one must be ready to serve all. The Lord says then, “I must needs announce the glad tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for for this I have been sent forth”, (Luke 4:43). Much time would be required to visit all the cities, but the Lord places Himself under obligation to visit them all.
ThD Those who work for wages cease work when the enemy comes, but the service of love continues.
JT Jacob has to say that he had worked night and day. He said, “In the day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes”, (Genesis 31:40). He served fourteen years for his two wives and six years for the flock, but he served in love in view of Rachel.
Rem The Lord evidently always had much to do.
GM It says in this gospel of Luke that the Lord spent the whole night in prayer.
JT Yes, we shall see that later.
DF Would you say that service is the concern of every christian?
JT It is incumbent upon every christian to serve all christians. Often we become too ‘local’.
Ques What part do sisters have in service?
JT In the case of Simon’s mother-in-law, we saw what she could do, and too we have seen today what one of our sisters can do here at Tence. What is to be [p. 40] done you are to be there to do. One sister washed the saints’ feet, another brought up children, Lydia opened her house to Paul.
MA Stephanas put his house at the service of the saints.
JT The saints are received and served, whatever their needs.
EP After the meeting, as well as during the meeting.
JT Exactly. The first epistle to Timothy makes provision for the service of the saints. With Anna, we see a spiritual service; she “did not depart from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers”; she “gave praise to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem”, (Luke 2:37,38).
Ques Could it be said that the little captive maid of Naaman affords an example of service? Even in youth one can serve the Lord.
JT Nothing is more edifying than to read the scriptures which speak of holy women, in all the books of the Old Testament.
ThD What is to be understood by “night and day” in the temple? Anna served night and day.
JT “In fastings and prayers” was how she served God, as a priest.
ThD Simon’s mother-in-law served not only the Lord but also those who were with Him.
JT The service of Simon’s mother-in-law was a domestic service, so to say, while Anna filled out the service of a priest.
DF A bed-ridden sister in great weakness cannot serve like Simon’s mother-in-law, but she can serve like Anna.
JT Several of us know sisters who serve like that, bed-ridden sisters, very weak, able to sleep only a little, yet they spend long hours in prayer to God.
EP Have we the thought here of placing ourselves in a state for service?
JT Yes, Simon’s mother-in-law is an example of the spirit of service which should be found in every believer. In the Lord’s example we have an incessant and universal service, but all that leads on to the great servant which the Lord was about to introduce, the apostle Peter. It should be remarked too that the Lord’s visit into Simon’s house did not apparently effect his conversion, which seems rather to come to light in what is said in the following chapter about the draught of fishes, verse 8. The Lord brings in fresh servants, special ones to whom He gives gifts, on ascending to heaven; this is the subject of chapter 5. It is encouraging for those who are in business to see how the Lord can reach them in those circumstances. In verse 3, He gets into one of the ships, “which was Simon’s”. Not by accident does the Lord get into that boat; He knew very well that it was Simon’s.
EP The fishers were washing their nets; that means that we must purify our way of acting, our fishing methods, so to say.
JT “He saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishers having come down from them, were washing their nets. And getting into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, he asked him to draw out a little from the land”. The Lord got into Simon’s boat and used it for a spiritual end; before using Peter personally, the Lord for the moment concerned Himself with the boat, then “he sat down and taught the crowds out of the ship”.
Rem It is good to hear the Lord’s voice calling us, and to accept what He says and to give Him the place He claims.
EP How can one serve the Lord in business?
JT You can put at His service your house, your car, etc.; that does not mean that the Lord wants to use what belongs to men in general, but He wants to have you for Himself. Confidence was produced in Simon by the fact that the Lord had wanted to use his [p. 42] boat for preaching to the crowds. That enables him later to confess the truth, verse 8. So the Lord says to him, not only to “draw out a little from the land”, but to “draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul”; He said this when “he ceased speaking” to the crowds. The Lord worked in Simon to produce a state of soul which would enable him to do what the Lord would command him. Will Simon do what the Lord is going to say to him? Simon was doubtful of the result; however, he says, “at thy word I will let down the net”. When the Lord takes us for Himself, as He took Simon, we have to learn to work according to His instructions and not according to our own judgment; judging from his experience, Simon did not think it was worthwhile letting down the net. Our personal thoughts are of no value in the things of God; the Lord knows all things and we must allow ourselves to be directed by what He says. Salvation involves obedience, as in Simon’s case.
Rem In Acts 10, Peter had to listen to the Lord’s voice, after he had seen the sheet descend from heaven.
JT In John 21 it speaks of “the right side of the ship”; here, it is the deep water — “Draw out into the deep water”.
EP Could you say that Peter let down the net in Acts 2?
JT The “deep water” suggests that there are many fish there. The apostles had to go where the multitudes were; Peter had to have this thought before him as to the gospel net, in what took shape at Jerusalem. He lifted up his voice in the open air; it was not something done in a corner, but in public. What a great assembly there must have been!
Rem And what power was with them!
HB Is there a moral thought to be seen in the fact that He sat down?
JT That He was sitting shows that He was acting [p. 43] with deliberation. He is seated at the right hand of God, and this shows the pains which God is taking with regard to men, it is what the work of God demands.
Rem They sat down too to choose the good fish, in Matthew 13.
JT We see the attitude of the world towards the Lord, when He was on the cross. It is beautiful to see that this was ended by the fact that the Lord sat down at the right hand of God. It says, in Mark 16:19 and 20, “The Lord therefore, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God. And they, going forth, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them”. We can be assured that in watching over the service on earth, the Lord acts with the greatest deliberation and with the greatest care.
ThD Terror had seized Simon: what does that mean for us?
JT It was rather astonishment; Peter was profoundly astonished by what had happened.
ThD He recognised the Lord as his Saviour.
JT He fell at Jesus’ knees. All those who were there were astonished, but only Simon fell at Jesus’ knees; the effect produced was more marked with Simon than with the others. He was conscious that the Lord would pray for him and represent him before God. He did not feel himself worthy of the Lord’s presence; his instinct was truer than his words, as instead of going away he falls at Jesus’ knees, that shows that he was truly converted. He says, “I am a sinful man”, that is, full of sins; his condition as a sinner is fully exposed.
EP This incident is to take away all confidence in our service.
Rem Isaiah is seen in his unworthy state before being sent as a servant.
JT The effect of this marvellous service which the Lord rendered to Peter is that he would no longer [p. 44] have confidence in himself. The Lord said to him, “Fear not; henceforth thou shalt be catching men”. In speaking in this way, the Lord had in view Peter’s service, which was not only to bring light to men, but to catch them; these two thoughts are different from one another.
Ques Could one say that it is the difference between doing the work of an evangelist and being an evangelist?
JT “Thou shalt be catching men”. We have an illustration of that in Acts 3:5-7; Acts 3:11. Having said to the lame man who begged alms, “Look on us”, and commanded him, “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk”, Peter takes him “by the right hand” and raised him up, and then the man holds (by the hand) Peter and John. That indicates fellowship. When the evangelist brings light to someone, that person receives the gospel in order to be brought into fellowship. The principle is plain here; there was association with Peter and the other stones. Peter at first held the man, later the man held Peter and John. How many persons are there here in fellowship in this room? Three years ago, I remember that there were many who sat behind and did not break bread. It is good to come to the meetings, but you are not caught if you are not in fellowship. “Thou shalt catch men”, the Lord said to Peter.
Rem Those who were caught in Acts 2:42 persevered “in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”.
Rem Fellowship is essential.
JT There is the fellowship of God’s Son, the fellowship of His death, the fellowship of the Spirit, the fellowship with one another.
HBx To be in full fellowship, is it necessary to break bread?
JT The breaking of bread is the public expression of fellowship. Many persons sit behind and do not [p. 45] break bread. In the beginning there was “the fellowship of the apostles”; Peter had well laid hold of the thing. Why are there so many persons who have not seized it, and do not take part in the breaking of bread? In Acts 2 no one kept away, and no one sat behind, all were in fellowship.
Rem The Lord sat at table with the twelve; you cannot suppose that some of the disciples wanted to put themselves out of it.
JT We cannot think of the disciples sitting behind on the occasion of the Supper, and not taking part with the Lord. If a brother or a sister came for years to the meeting at Tence without taking part in the Lord’s supper, it would be supposed that they came only because they found something better there than elsewhere.
JP The night when the Lord instituted the Supper, the twelve were with Him, yet others must have known Him.
JT There were others; but this occasion had a special object. The three thousand converts persevered in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.
EP If we prayed more for souls, the work would be more successful. The ‘knees’ of the Lord have been spoken of: Simon Peter, having seen that, fell at Jesus’ knees; that is an attitude of prayer.
JT It says of the hundred and twenty that they “gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer, with several women”.
EP One loves to think that the Lord Himself encourages every service. To serve well, we must be under His direction.