PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (7)
[p. 55] PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (7)
JT Priesthood and service have occupied us, in the gospel of Luke. We have considered service in a general sense in chapters 4 and 5. The full thought of service is seen in the choice of the apostles, as well as in their names. We spoke yesterday of Levi who made a great entertainment for the Lord in his house. Although it says that he left all, nevertheless there remained to him the means of showing great hospitality to the Lord, and in his house there were just those people whom the Lord would have loved to meet there. It is said that “there was a great crowd of tax-gatherers and others who were at table with them” (chapter 5:29). A question is raised about the disciples of Jesus, who did not do things like other people, even like the disciples of John. The Lord said to them, “Can ye make the sons of the bride-chamber fast when the bridegroom is with them? But days will come when also the bridegroom will have been taken away from them; then shall they fast in those days”, (verses 34,35). We see here that it is the presence or absence of Christ which regulates our conduct. So long as He was here, the disciples had no need of memorial, of the Supper, which was in view of His absence.
Ques At the end of chapter 5, what is new is brought forward. Can one say that the Lord Himself presents what is new and that from that moment all is made new?
JT Even John the baptist did not introduce what was new; the presence of the Lord Himself is required for that. After all the marvellous service of chapter 5, we have the thought of the bridegroom, and of the incomparable joy which He gives, and then what is new in contrast with what already existed. In the bridegroom’s company, we are entirely outside what is old, like sons of the bridechamber. A new order of things is inaugurated.
PL [p. 56] The bridegroom introduces what is new, so that everything which is new is presented to us in an attractive way in love.
JT The man is, so to say, at his happiest day; he is a bridegroom. The disciples were entering with the Lord into that order of things, enjoying not only the compassions of God, but the whole love of God. The new order of things develops from that point. The sons of the bridechamber were not exactly objects of affection, but they were within reach of affection; they were not servants of the bridechamber but sons. They had to understand that they were in that sphere and were to be there in an intelligent way as sons. All these new things cannot be put into old moulds. New wine must be put into suitable vessels; so believers in the light of Christ do not adopt old religious customs; the customs must be new and in accord with what is new.
DF What do you understand by “new skins”?
JT Two things are stated as being new: “a new garment” and “new skins”. Skins suggest the thought of death. What was old was characterised by death typically, but what is new by the death of Christ, and this implies the work of God in us with reference to the death of Christ. The garment refers to the old system of priesthood, largely characterised by the garments. “No one puts a piece of a new garment upon an old garment, otherwise he will both rend the new, and the piece which is from the new will not suit with the old”, (chapter 5:36). It is not a question here of a “patch of new cloth” but of a “piece of a new garment”: this would be adding part of the new priesthood to the old. Luke’s gospel shows us the new garments of the priests. We see in christendom that they take a piece of the new garment and put it on the old one. So the new garment is spoiled and the piece taken from this garment does not suit with the old. That reminds us that we should carefully avoid all that is old, in that sense, as old local customs. In the great [p. 57] religious systems, one finds a little of the new placed on the old garment and that is not at all suitable; thus the new garment is damaged.
PL It says, “Remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49), garments quite new from heaven.
Rem The natural man does not like what is entirely new, and is attached to what is old.
EP Can one say that in Acts 15 they tried to put something of the new garment on the old one?
JT Exactly. You see that it is only a piece of the new garment which is put on the old one; there is the idea that the old garment will be embellished by what comes from the new garment.
EP The enemy is very clever; he always tries to produce a mixture. That is why persons are often deceived by what exists among christians.
PL “He has made the first old”, the first covenant; “but that which grows old and aged is near disappearing”, (Hebrews 8:13). Has God done that at the cross? It seems to me that God made the first covenant old at the cross.
DF Would you say that the garment represents what is external, while the wine in the skin what is inside?
JT Luke makes much of the garment, while John is concerned about wine; the two things go together. Priestly clothing without wine in the skins would not mean much to God. As Mr. L. was just saying, the disciples had to remain at Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high.
PL They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, which is what the wine represents.
JT John the evangelist speaks of living water and of the blowing (of the wind). A very beautiful link exists between what we are internally by the Spirit and what we are externally by the garments. Skins are right to contain liquids: what the Lord has introduced here [p. 58] must be preserved in suitable vessels. All is new; garments are new and the skins are new differing absolutely from what existed before. That precedes what is brought forward in chapter 6. In chapter 6 is the inauguration of the spirit of liberty, the spirit of adoption. It says that the Lord was going through cornfields; “the disciples were plucking the ears and eating them, rubbing them in their hands”. It does not say that the Lord did anything; “he went through”. The disciples were free to take the wheat, which shows that the disciples were entering little by little into the sphere of liberty which marks the kingdom of God.
NKM What is the meaning of “the second-first sabbath”?
JT No doubt it is an allusion to the Lord’s service. The first sabbath meant something to the disciples, now they were getting the gain of the second.
Ques Would you say that the first sabbath gave old and legal thoughts? With the second sabbath the Lord introduces new thoughts.
JT The Lord’s ministry on the first sabbath at Nazareth has some meaning for faith. Jesus was accustomed to go into the synagogue on the sabbath day; He recognised fully what belonged to the sabbath day under the old system. His ministry showed that God was operating, even in olden times, in a sovereign way, as in the case of the widow of Sarepta and of Naaman. Jesus said, “Verily I say to you” (Luke 4:24); He was announcing the truth. Here in Luke 6 He acts in liberty and the disciples understand it, and they follow Him too.
Ques Why does Jesus speak of David?
JT In order to justify the disciples in what they were doing. David acted in liberty. Having been drawn near by Christ, one acts in liberty. The disciples were acting very simply; they were rubbing the ears in their hands, they were acting with discrimination. It [p. 59] does not say, as in Matthew, that they were hungry, but it is simply a matter of what they were doing. In a meeting, the state of the brethren can be judged by what they do. The disciples were plucking the ears, rubbing them and eating them; the Lord had not told them to do this. We are brought into a realm where we act according to instructions learned: we are “wisdom’s children”.
PL Have we these thoughts at the end of the epistle to the Hebrews? We are come “to Jesus” (Hebrews 12:24). The soul is close to Jesus, then in chapter 13, the saints act by spiritual instinct, not by commandment; they are given to hospitality and bear witness to love. At the end of the epistle, our brother Timothy is set free from the old, to be introduced into what is new.
JT Christianity is introduced by what the disciples were doing; the old economy was characterised by what one had to do. The law of Moses commanded what had to be done. Now we see here the beginning of christianity, even before there were the New Testament Scriptures. The gospels and the Acts draw our attention to what has been produced in a living way. The Acts, written a long time after these events took place, shows how these matters were produced. In christianity it is not a question of a list of precepts; christianity is produced in persons, and then the actions of these persons are brought forward. The Scriptures have been given to us because these persons have disappeared, but the divine idea is that of a living system set out in persons.
EP Is it for that reason that Paul had so much power in writing to the Galatians, delivering them from the old garment, so that they should put on the new? The new garment is brought in in Paul himself.
JT He presents himself in Galatians 2:20 as “crucified with Christ”, and this is set out in what he was doing. The Pharisees were saying to him, What you do is different from what we are accustomed to do.
[p. 60] It is a matter not of what one says, but of what one does.
Rem The disciples were rubbing “the ears”, which shows a personal energy in connection with life.
EP In reading the Scriptures, one is not content with what is on the surface; one reads them with a desire to get the sense and the truth.
JT The disciples were making the corn as clean as possible to eat. The time was just coming when the wheat would be harvested and the sheaves presented to God. Fifty days after, they would bring out of their houses baked loaves, speaking of the death of Christ. Faith is simple, that is the principle, it makes use of what there is. It may be that we are depressed because there are no gifts in our locality, but what does David say to Ahimelech? He asks him, “What is under thy hand?” and David makes use of what was there at his disposition, under the hand of Ahimelech. There was at that moment, only “holy bread”, the shew-bread. Then David asked, “And is there not here under thy hand spear or sword?” There was only the sword of Goliath, the best, as David says, “There is none like that”, (1 Samuel 21:3,4; 1 Samuel 21:8,9). The apostle said in writing to the Corinthians that he feared lest by any means they should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ. Simplicity means that I make use of what is at my disposition and that I make the best possible use of it.
PL Faith appropriates what love supplies.
JT The Lord brings out that He is also Lord of the sabbath. Then we have the man with the withered hand, and all that leads us to the choice of the apostles verse 13. The man having a withered hand was not suitable for service, but there will be in this man a vessel entirely available for service: “Get up”, said Jesus, “and stand in the midst”. He was imperfect before, but the Lord wants to make us understand that He must have a whole vessel. He says to the man, “Stretch out thy hand”. And he did so and his hand [p. 61] was restored as the other. The man now will have the use of both his hands; God can never be served with only one hand.
EP It speaks of “lifting up pious hands” in 1 Timothy 2:8; this cannot be done if one has only one hand.
Rem It seems to me that Satan tries to captivate men in their individual position, and if he cannot do that, he binds them in their collective position, but the Lord can deliver them.
GM What is the reason for this healing taking place on another sabbath day?
JT In doing this, the Lord sets aside very definitely the old system, and in this vessel He introduces something quite new. In the old system there was not a perfect vessel for the service of God. The Lord generally acts in this way, as He did in the case of the woman bent together, who could not lift up her head, in chapter 13. The vessel could not be perfect while the woman was bent, the vessel must be straightened morally to look up to God. The work is in view which brings a man to have two hands free for the work of God.
PL “Your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless”, (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
NKM You are insisting on the necessity of having the two hands.
JT Yes, so as to act as God acts. He has, so to speak, worked with both His hands, and Christ, too, laid His hands on the woman who was bent together (chapter 13:13).
PL It says in Romans 10:21, “All the day long I have stretched out my hands”.
JT I think that the man who uses only one hand serves in relation to light only; the greater part of service in the religious organisations which surround us is on that principle. The two hands give us the complete thought in relation to what God is doing. Light is essential, but light in the vessel is necessary too.
[p. 62] Rem Jacob placed his right on Ephraim’s head, and his left on Manasseh’s head.
JT “The heart of a wise man is at his right hand”, (Ecclesiastes 10:2).
NKM Does that show that we should act contrary to nature?
Rem We cannot act against nature if we have not two hands.
PL Jacob crossed his hands. He would not have acted in this way according to nature in order to bless his grandsons.
JT Following on the healing of the man with the withered hand, we read that Jesus “went out into the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God”. It is not enough that I can use my two hands, it is essential now that I look to the Lord to direct me and strengthen me in my service. It says, “when it was day he called his disciples”. We should note that the instruction which had preceded was to enter into the disciples, those whom He had called. They were all called, having two hands, but the choice is another thing from the call.
PL We have that thought with Saul of Tarsus; he is called, and he says, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10). That is not all, for the Lord tells Ananias that he is “an elect vessel” (Acts 9:15) for Himself.
JT We should not forget that whatsoever our hand finds to do, we should do it with our might. We should be levites. “He called his disciples”; that means that I am at the disposition of the Lord, but I must wait to be named by Him. They are not all chosen; Jesus chose twelve from them. It is a humiliating matter for those who are not chosen, but Jesus returns later to them. He chose the twelve and named them apostles. Luke concerns himself with the kingdom of God where God’s grace is sovereign, but no one more than Luke recognises authority.
EP From the way in which the twelve are called,
[p. 63] can we conclude that we should look for a special call? In this case, we should perhaps have to wait a long time.
JT It is a question here of the sovereign rights of the Lord to choose, while in the Acts we see Philip, for instance, who goes out to preach without having received a special mission.
PL To illustrate that principle, Paul preached the Son of God at Damascus, whereas he only received his call at Antioch.
JT He had been qualified a whole year at Antioch without being called.
Ques What had you in mind in saying that the Lord would come back to the others later?
JT There were seventy others, who represent the general principle of responsibility and perfection, which covers all our dispensation with regard to service.
Rem One is not perhaps called all at once, yet one can express devotion to the Lord.
EP On the principle set out in Matthew 12:34, “of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”.
JT The Old Testament helps us as to the details connected with service. Moses had at his disposition twenty-three thousand levites at one time — a great number! Later, David had thirty-eight thousand of them, and all were named for service. That shows how numerous are those whom the Lord uses, and He has had to work for each one of them.
NKM The call here is something special, is it not?
JT According to this chapter, we see in man service in its supreme character. There were many disciples and twelve were chosen from them after a night of prayer. What quality of servants that night of prayer must have produced!
Ques Why does it say of Judas: “who was also his betrayer”?
JT In all that He did, He had in view the fulfilment of the Scriptures.
PL The Lord calls Judas His intimate friend.
JT All that which was fulfilled must be in accord with the thoughts of God.
Rem We would never argue about the choice of the Lord if we thought that it had been preceded by a night of prayer.
EP The shortcoming of Peter (and of others) did not come from the Lord, but the vessels had been formed by Him.
GM In Peter, Judas and others we see what man is capable of, even after having been chosen by the Lord.
JT When the flesh is present, it must show itself.
Rem No one was more honoured than Judas.
PL In all the sorrows of his path of rejection, David gathered material to build the house of God, and it says that he dedicated vessels for the house of God. We see here these vessels in the apostles.