“I Jesus”
“I JESUS”
I believe that the Lord would take occasion to give us a fresh impression of Himself at this time. We read in the first chapter of the Acts of “all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day in which he was taken up”, as though that characterised the movements of the disciples when they were with Him in the days of His flesh, that He was all the time coming in and going out among them, and doubtless leaving an impression of Himself on each occasion. That is what we should look for, beloved brethren, on every occasion of our being together, that the Lord would seal it with some fresh impression of Himself.
I have read these verses in Revelation in order that the way the Lord presents Himself, using in each case the personal pronoun, “I”, might leave its mark upon our spirits. He says first of all, “I am the first and the last, and the living one”. What glory fills our hearts as we think of our Lord Jesus! “I am the first and the last”, He says, a title of Deity, a title appearing in the prophet Isaiah. It is the Lord whom John knew so well, who laid His right hand upon John, who says to him, “I am the first and the last”. It is the impression we would carry of the One whom our beloved brother knew so well and served so well. He would say to us all, “I am the first and the last”, the One to whom we owe everything, the One who gave Himself for our sins. Our beloved brother is indebted to Him, as we all are, for that great act of love. He would say, “I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead”. Wondrous grace! The Lord would touch us in that way. Our brother, for the moment, is having to experience death, but not as Jesus tasted it. No one else has tasted it as Jesus tasted it. He says, “I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages and have the keys of death and of hades”. What a touch of victory! What lies behind the victory is the grace with which He who was “the first and the last” became dead. Think of who He is, identifying Himself with the position in which we all lay, in order that we might never taste it as He tasted it, and that He might have the right to bring our beloved brother and every one of us out of death into life eternal, and an eternal portion with Himself.
We can understand how John would be moved. He knew indeed the Person of Christ, but he would be moved as he heard these words, “I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”. The whole matter is in His hands, and He has taken our beloved brother, in the right and power that belong to Him, to find his portion even now in His presence, in the joy of the love of the One who could say such words as these.
Then in the last chapter, He says, “I Jesus”. Less than forty-eight hours before our beloved brother was taken, our sister who was attending him asked him what he would like her to read to him, and he said, “I Jesus”. She read it and said, ‘Shall I finish the passage?’ He replied, ‘No, that is enough to fill eternity’. That gives us an impression of what Jesus was to our beloved brother’s heart, truly the hidden man of the heart, and that gives us the explanation of all that he was in his life here. Our brother who has spoken has referred to his faithfulness and consistency in the testimonial position, but where is it learned save in Jesus? It is learned in Him. Our brother has referred to the love that belongs to the family, the love and the gracious spirit that marked our brother. Where is it learned but in Jesus, the One who laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself, and going down washed their feet? John had had his feet washed. As John wrote those words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1: 1), he would say to himself, ‘and He washed my feet!’ That is what He did and it was in Him that our brother learned the spirit that marked him.
Now He says, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and offspring of David”. He is the root of David. All that David was as a man after God’s own heart he had really derived from Christ by the Spirit of Christ working in him, and all our beloved brother was as a man, delightful to God and delightful to his brethren, he had equally learned from Jesus. “I am the root and offspring of David”. The One who has all the rights, who is about to come, “the bright and morning star”. That may well be the comfort of our beloved brethren, our beloved sister, the sons and their families. What a joy it is to see the faith of our beloved brother continued in his sons, and we may trust and feel assured, in his grandchildren too. That is God’s way. He would have the impression of faithfulness passed on from generation to generation, and we can rejoice if we see it in this case, and so the Lord presents Himself as the One who is “the bright and morning star”. He is the hope of the hearts of His saints, especially at a time of sorrow like this. May the Lord bless us with a fresh impression of Himself upon our spirits at this time, for His Name’s sake!
HOVE
25th June 1953
At the burial meeting for Mr Harry F Nunnerley
From Words of Grace and Comfort, 1953
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