Reading 2
John 13: 34-38; 14: 1-3; 15: 15-20; 20: 16-20
A.J.G. We have had before us this morning the Lord always walking in the midst of the assemblies, considering conditions found there, having also in mind that He loves us, that He has washed us from our sins in His blood, and that He has made us a kingdom of priests to His God and Father. It is the great matter that is before the heart of Christ, that His God should be served. He has gone all the way, giving Himself for us so that we should be able to be held under His hand in view of this service. We have also seen in John 4 how the Lord would have to do with each individual so that each should be entirely set free from the domination of sin and all that could keep them from having part in the service of God, the Lord having before Him that the Holy Spirit would become in us the power for that, satisfying our hearts with divine thoughts and producing an outflowing towards Christ Himself and towards God. It is of the greatest importance that every moral question should be settled first for worship must be in spirit and truth, as David says, “Thou wilt have truth in the inward parts”.
We have remarked that in the Lord’s words to the assembly in Pergamos, there were those who held certain doctrines; they did not teach them yet, but the Lord saw what was in their minds and we see that in addressing Thyatira, He says “all the assemblies shall know that I am he that searches the reins and the hearts, and I will give to you each according to your works”, so that the Lord would have us realise that His look takes account of everything. What He says to the woman in John 4 shows that if only we are ready to allow everything to be brought out in His presence, He will lead us to be fully in accord with Him. We have to be held under His influence and it is in this way that the Spirit is free in us. This is what is the basis of the service of God.
But in the chapters we have read this afternoon, we have certain other features which, I believe, are necessary for the service of God, so that we should be in movement together. The first is love in us; it is absolutely essential, for the service must take form in the assembly, and the assembly is a single entity, implying that we must be together, and together in love. God Himself is love in an absolute way and He cannot take pleasure in anything other than conditions of love, hence the importance that there should be love among us, as a commandment of the Lord. He says, “A new commandment I give to you”, and if the Lord commands something, that signifies that it is absolutely imperative.
There is another feature that helps us in the service of God, that is to have in our souls the light of His purpose, for it is in the purpose of His love that He shines in His glory. This is what is presented to us at the beginning of chapter 14. What is necessary for all that is that the power of the Holy Spirit should be fully recognised, for it is by Him that we are led into the knowledge and the enjoyment of all that God has given us. Another point is necessary, which is what we have in chapter 20: the Lord Himself coming in. I believe all that will help us much in the service of God in the assembly. I would not say that these features come in this exact order for I have no doubt that we would be able to know in some measure what the Lord coming in among us is before we know what is in the purpose of God, but these are the characteristics into which we should enter, they all come into the service of God in the assembly. At the beginning of chapter 13, the Lord washed the disciples’ feet, going all round the circle as being One who having laid aside His garments, took a linen towel with which He girded Himself. He put water in the wash hand basin and washed the disciples’ feet and wiped them with the linen towel with which He was girded. He did this knowing that the Father had put all things into His hands and that He came out from God and was going to God. It was in the full consciousness of such a glory that He set before them the example of the love that serves. Each of His disciples was the object of His love. In doing that, the Lord gave an example that must be followed in each locality, and which we must imitate, so that we should be linked entirely together in love.
P.G. Does the feet washing relate here to the Supper, is it connected to the moral conditions of which we have spoken this morning?
A.J.G. I do not know if I would attach the feet washing exactly to moral conditions although one could consider it thus, but I believe that it is set before us as an example of love which would go as far as necessary to bring some sort of refreshment or help, and to bind the brethren together.
P.G. The feet washing would have the object of holding us together morally?
A.J.G. I think it is envisaged that moral conditions have already been considered; now it is a matter of our links one with another, and if love is in activity, asking for nothing, but furnishing, all the saints being together. So that when Abigail comes to David in 1 Samuel 25, her language is, “Behold, let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my lord”. It is in that spirit that she went to join the company; she was not going to make demands; she was going to show her disposition to wash feet. That Spirit will go a long way in binding the saints together. I believe that is very important that we always keep in mind the thought that God is love in an absolute way, and that He cannot rest unless in conditions of love. And so in Exodus, He has called His people to make Him a sanctuary so that He could dwell in their midst, and they themselves had to provide the conditions for this dwelling. The first thing He demanded was gold, and that is actually a figure of the divine nature, the glory of love in expression.
A.R. When the Lord washed the feet of His own, He laid aside His rights.
A.J.G. That is perfectly so; He laid aside His garments and took the attitude of a servant; but then He took His garments again and sat down, so that we should be fully impressed with the glory of this example of love in One who created all things, but who takes such an attitude, serving each of His own and not leaving one out. Now, if we can drink of that spirit, it will produce much unity in our localities.
M.P. Paul himself said that he would love much more even if less loved.
A.J.G. That is what one has said who had drunk so deeply into the spirit of Christ. When the holy city comes down from heaven, from God, it is said that she has the glory of God, not only that she reflects it, but that she has it in a substantial measure; for the glory of God is His love expressed and we are formed in love now so that we should even express the glory of God in that day. The local company is the place where love is developed. In a sense, it is quite easy to love the saints who are far off; there is the love of the Spirit which embraces all the saints, but we have to love our neighbour; one who is actually near to us; it is towards such a one that love is to be expressed.
P.P. What difference do you make between brotherly love and love?
A.J.G. Brotherly love is the love that belongs to the circle of the brethren, because we are all in the family of God. But love is more absolute and works of itself. In our relations one with the other, as brethren, we find what is amiable with the brethren, but love is the divine nature and it acts of itself. That establishes the great love of God, as it is said, “God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us (we too being dead in offences)”, that is to say when there was nothing lovable in us, then love acted of itself.
A.R. So the Lord gives a new commandment, after having expressed love by example.
A.J.G. We have to learn everything from Christ.
So it is said in the first epistle of John, chapter 3: 16, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives”, thus we have learned that from Christ. The Lord commands it because it is necessary. Then we have the Lord in John 14 directing the attention of His own to “my Father’s house”. He speaks of many abodes so that we should have an impression of the great extent of what the Father has, corresponding to what is said in Ephesians 3: “every family in the heavens and on earth” named of the Father. The Lord does not expand on the question of other families, but He concentrates on the unique place that grace has accorded to us, saying, “I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be. And ye know where I go, and ye know the way”. So therefore, He expands on the place that has been given to those of the assembly, a unique place with Christ where He is, and found as being loved by Christ. It is the sense of love that rests upon our spirits, in the words of the Lord, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”.
R.G.W. Why does He say, believe on me?
A.J.G. That is also a very important point. The Lord speaks in a way anticipating His taking His place in the Father’s presence, and He desired that our attention should be concentrated on Himself where He is. It is the fact that He has entered into the presence of the Father as Man that has prepared the place for us, and we learn where our place is in Him; it is according to divine sovereignty, but it is realised by the love of Christ, hence the importance of having a great sense of the love of Christ for the assembly. The Supper would help us in that, week after week, because if we are immersed in the love of Christ, it will then be easy to take our place with Him in spirit.
P.P. Should our hearts be won first, and then our minds would enter into these thoughts?
A.J.G. So it is that John says, “I became in spirit on the Lord’s day”, as we have already remarked this morning. The Spirit is the great power to hold our hearts and our minds practically. He is here for Christ and He is always faithful to Christ.
P.F. It is remarkable that in John’s gospel, the Lord is marked by movements, and Peter remarks on them when he says, “where goest thou?” and in chapter 14, the Lord says, “I go”.
A.J.G. Peter asks the question, “where goest thou?” and he gives occasion for the explanation: “Where I go thou canst not follow me now”. So the Lord comes before us in His glory as the ark of the covenant which went through the Jordan, and then the people could follow. So the glory of Christ comes before our hearts, because the ark going into the Jordan is really a figure of Christ in His movements, revealing to His own all that is in God’s heart and bringing them into it.
In the second part of chapter 14 where we read, the Lord speaks much of the Spirit, the Comforter; He speaks of Him as being the Spirit of truth, and He says that the world does not see Him, but we know Him. We must be concerned to cultivate the knowledge of the Spirit. We have to be affected by the fact of His dwelling in us for ever. He is not incarnate like the Lord, but on the other hand, in grace, He makes His abode in such fragile conditions, such as the body provides. The body may become weaker and weaker, nevertheless the Spirit abides, happy to remain in such conditions. As long as the Lord leaves us here, the Spirit remains, however humiliating the condition of our body becomes. It is something that should affect us, I believe, and which should draw our affections to the Spirit. So the Lord says, “but ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you”. He becomes the power by means of which the full extent of God’s thoughts come before us. The Lord says, “In that day”, speaking of the day of the Spirit, “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. If we weigh all that a little, we will find that there is a great fulness. It is not only that the Lord has His place as Man in the Father’s affections, but when the Lord says, “I am in my Father”, it is also an allusion to the Deity of His Person. In verse 10 of this chapter, He says, “Believest thou not that I am in my Father, and that the Father is in me?”, so that the Lord is pressing us to consider this marvellous position which exists now in the fact that a Person of the Godhead has become Man, and in this condition has taken the position of Son in relation to the Father, so that we should be led by the gift of the Holy Spirit. So it is that He not only says, “I am in my Father”, but also “ye in me”, which signifies that we are not only in His affections, but are united to Him and we live in His life.
M.P. Does “In that day” imply the day of the presence of the Spirit?
A.J.G. That is the important point; it is to emphasise all the marvellous greatness of the present day. The family to which God has given the greatest place is led into the full light. Do we truly realise that we are united to Christ, that we are His body? This is what the Spirit would present to us. That is not only for our satisfaction, but it is what has pleased God in His purpose for man, for the satisfaction of His own desires, and so as to manifest in the day to come the immense riches of His grace. All these things should place God before us because, as we have already said this morning, worship is produced in our finding ourselves consciously in the presence of God, in His character so blessed.
R.G.W. Would you explain, “ye shall know”? In what way do we know these things?
A.J.G. It is the service of the Spirit towards us, the way in which He brings Christ in His present position before our hearts and gives us the feeling of the love of Christ, who would not be content with anything less than for us to be with Him, where He is.
A wife can normally enter into all that in which her husband moves and Christ has loved the assembly and given Himself for it, so that it may be with Him in what He is as Man and in particular in the place that He occupies in His Father’s affections. So in John 20, the Lord sends a message through Mary; He says, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. The Lord associates us with Himself in an absolute way, although He retains His rights, His own unique place. So He says, “my Father” first and then “your Father”, “my God” and “your God”. He has in His mind that we should contemplate Him in His relation with His Father and that we should then understand that love gives us a place there; then that we contemplate Him in relation to His God and that we realise that we have a place with Him there. All that is in view of the service of God, for it is God who is the source of all that is thus put before us; it is He who has ordained everything, it is Christ who has secured it by His love, and it is the Holy Spirit who realises it in our hearts. The Godhead is fully engaged to lead man into the most privileged place in which a creature could be found.
M.P. Why does the Lord say, “I ascend”? He does not say, I am going.
A.J.G. To emphasise this great idea of elevation. So it is said in Ephesians that God has raised us up together and made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, as desiring to emphasise the great elevation of God’s thoughts as to us. It is said in Isaiah 55: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”, so that God presents the heavens to us in relation to the earth as an example to give us an impression of the infinite character of His thoughts as to ourselves. All that has in view to impress us with the blessèd character of God, the love which proposed all these things, and then the wisdom that has brought all about, in particular, the incarnation which is the great expression of divine wisdom and grace.
A.R. Would you explain the differences in the relationships: “my Father and your Father”, and then as to God?
A.J.G. The Lord first mentions the relationship with His Father so that we should be led in to the knowledge of God as Father; Christ’s Father is our Father, and so that we should be able to occupy the position we have the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts, crying “Abba, Father”. Expressing ourselves in this way, we are made conscious of being at ease in the Father’s presence, conscious that He finds His pleasure in us because we are in movement in the same character of affection as Christ Himself as Man. But more, the One who is known as Father is God, and this is the great end in view that men, who are only creatures, should be led to know God in the same intimate way. That only emphasises that God really is love since He has such thoughts for such creatures. In order that men should be led so near, so that this should be possible for creatures, a Person of the Godhead has become Man, never ceasing as to His Person to be God, but so that we should be led into such nearness with Him. His life as Man is communicated to us by the Spirit. I believe that if we stopped to consider this verse 20 of John 14, we would begin to grasp what riches are found there: “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. I believe that shows into what nearness the creature can be brought before God, as near as possible, for we are united to a Man who is Himself God, in this position and loved by His Father. In order than God could have man before Him in an order such as would satisfy His heart, Christ has become Man; now there is in Christ before God a heavenly order of manhood and a Man in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily; this is at our disposal. It is He who is head of the body, the assembly. We can therefore have some idea of the pleasure that God finds in man in considering Christ and the assembly in its fulness with Him. All these thoughts are truly great; they are not determined by some thoughts that might be found in us, and they cannot be limited by thoughts that we may have ourselves, but they proceed entirely from God Himself; and the more we consider them, the more we will be formed substantially in our souls to express worship towards God. What is indeed necessary in reality is to touch Christ livingly.
Having given this message to Mary, and the disciples being assembled together, the Lord came and stood in their midst. The service of God cannot be undertaken suitably if the Lord is not in our midst, taking His place in the midst of the assembly, and then leading us Himself with Him. It is very striking that this passage does not give us a model of the service of God; it is simply said that He showed them His hands and His side, and that the disciples rejoiced having seen the Lord. Then everything is left there. The Lord goes on to send them forth, so that the question of the real service of God is left in the hands of the Lord and the Spirit, and it must take its distinct and living character on each occasion.
A.R. What characterised the occasion was that Jesus came.
P.F. The queen of Sheba had seen the service before seeing the ascent.
A.J.G. Yes. It is very striking that she had seen Solomon’s wisdom; she had first heard speak of his wisdom, and that produced many questions in her heart, and Solomon answered them. But beyond that, she saw his wisdom in the great system that was found under his hand, the house he had built, which would be his own house and which would be an allusion to what the saints are to be for Christ. Then the food of his table, and the deportment of his servants, the order of service; and finally the ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah. But actually what we have here in the Lord’s words, “I ascend” speak of the service Godward in Christ’s hands. I believe that the Lord showed them His hands and His side to give them liberty and power in the service. The hands would be an expression of the way in which love had served them; they had been nailed to the cross, and it is an allusion to the way in which the Lord had gone into death so that all that we were should be finished in His death. His love has served us in that way so that we should be freed in our spirits, that we should be freed from ourselves entirely, to take account of ourselves as being the work of God; that is entirely of Christ. That is what His side refers to for the woman has been brought to man as having been formed by a rib taken from Adam’s side. She was therefore a separate person for Adam’s heart, there was nothing in her that was not taken from Adam himself. This is exactly our position, as being the subjects of the work of God. God only works in us what would be of Christ. The Lord Himself has gone into death so that all that we were according to the flesh should be judged and removed from before God in that death. He would remind us of His love so that we should be freed in our own spirits. That allows us to hold the ground in our souls, knowing that we are entirely worthy of Christ. There is not the least question that He would be ashamed of us. That greatly helps us in our liberty in God’s service.
P.B. Do you not think that the message from Mary to the disciples had been a great encouragement to them all?
A.J.G. I am sure it was an encouragement. It is with the light of all that in their souls that they are met together.
P.B. Mary had seen the Lord first, and then He had spoken to her.
A.J.G. Each first day of the week, we can be assured that all that is in the Lord’s mind. He has given this marvellous light to Mary, one can say, as soon as He had risen from among the dead, as if He hastened to present this light. It is the light that governs out position and which gives fulness to God’s service.
ST ETIENNE
11th November 1952
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’,
September 1953