NEARNESS TO CHRIST
P.Martin
John 17:24-26;19:25-27; 20:10-17; 21:19 from “And having” - 22
I desire to draw from these passages, beloved brethren, and say a word about nearness to Christ. When the Lord Jesus came in into manhood, it says in the prophet, “He is despised and left alone of men”, Isa.53:3. “Left alone of men”. As far as men were concerned, He was a lonely Man; how much He must have felt that. The One who was none less than the Creator of the universe, the One who had given being to everything, and yet coming into manhood, He was left alone of men. In His coming, He had in view, especially in John’s gospel, that He was going to go to another world. The scripture says, “knowing that ...he should depart out of this world to the Father”, and “knowing …that he came out from God and was going to God”, John 13.1,3. That was the character of the movements of the Lord Jesus in John’s gospel; He was going to another place. In those movements of divine love, and in the way in which He served His own, He had in mind that they should have part with Him in another world. We have been touching something of that world in these meetings. I found confirmation in the meetings that have preceded this one, because the Lord Jesus, in speaking to the Father in John chapter 17, was not only asking that we might share the place that He has, but that we might be with Him. We often quote this verse in chapter 17, “I desire that where I am they also may be”, but that is not the full quotation. He said, that they “also may be with me”.
“With me”. He came in, beloved brethren, to secure men from one world, these men that the Father had given Him, and to take them out of this world into another world in which He would be the Centre. The Father has given much to Christ, as we see in John 17. He has given Him authority. He has given Him glory; there is glory that we do not see or share, but the Father has given Him glory that we can share. He also gave Him the Father’s name (John 17:11) in order that it might be made known. Think of the fulness of what was given to Christ, but the Father also gave Him men out of the world, men that were in divine purpose, persons who had kept company with Him. The eleven had kept company with Him; they had seen Him in a path of suffering, in a path of rejection by men. They had watched Him in those lowly footsteps, even serving them as He laid aside His garments and took the wash hand basin and served them. They had seen Him in that lowly character. But when we come to chapter 17, He is speaking to the Father, not of these men as accompanying Him in the scene through which He was passing, but now He was speaking of the longing that was in His heart that they should be with Him where He is.
What a wonderful thing was in the heart of Christ; “that they may behold my glory”. There was a moral glory in the humility of the movements of Jesus, there was moral glory in His obedience, for “he learned obedience from the things which he suffered, Heb.5:8. There was a moral glory in His dependence. Beloved, there are myriads of glories that belong to Him, but He said here to the Father that He longed that His own might be with Him where He is to behold the glory “which thou hast given me”. One could not enumerate the aspects of the glory that have been given to Christ, but the impression that it leaves on one’s soul is that in the scene into which He was passing, and in which He longed for His own to be with Him, they might see Him as the One who was distinctive in the Father’s affections, distinctive to the Father. He has myriads of glories that we behold, but which we could not share, glories that are His, and His alone. In that sphere, He says, ‘I long that they might be with Me and that they might behold them’, “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”.
We know little about what was there before time, but one thing we do know is that love was there. There were three divine Persons, known to us now as the Father, and as the Son and as the Holy Spirit. They did not have those titles then, but what we do know is that love was there. What a scene! That love required that it should make itself known to hearts like yours and mine, dear brother and sister, and to secure our hearts and hold them in the realm in which divine love is at home. That is what the Father had in view, and what the Lord Jesus had in view, in coming into this scene; that He might secure men and fill their hearts and hold them in the scene where that love is at rest. What an answer to the suffering pathway of the Lord Jesus. The Father glorified Him in raising Him from among the dead, when all else lay in death. That was a selective resurrection from among the dead, the Father finding His delight in raising Christ. He had found His delight in every moment of His pathway. It has been said in relation to the oblation, that everything that the Father longed for in man, He found it in Jesus and nothing was there that did not please Him. What perfection, what excellence! All that was there in that lowly pathway of perfection was carried through death, as the hymn writer says,
‘All brought through death to shine eternally’
(Hymn 229)
He is there in the presence of the Father, and He says, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory”.
Someone may say to me, ‘Well, of course we are waiting for that’. So we are, in its fulness, and when we see Him, we shall be like Him. We shall be in bodies of glory like His own body of glory; what a triumph that will be, that we who have borne the image of the one made of dust will bear the image of the heavenly One (1Cor.15:49). But I believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit, as having come from an ascended Christ, is to give us a glimpse of the place that Christ already has in the presence of the Father, and to give us the assurance that that place is ours now. You may say, ‘I am waiting for it for when I die’. Why wait till you die? Why wait for the inheritance? An inheritance has been left to us and the desire is that we should enter into it now. We have the earnest of our inheritance in the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that we might experience currently the glorious things that centre in Christ in the presence of the Father as the One who is crowned with glory and honour. I say to my own soul, and maybe to those here who are younger than I am, ask the Holy Spirit to give you an impression of the current glories of Jesus. He will love to do it! Ask Him. You might ask, ‘Does it work?’ Try it! This room is full of persons who have asked the Spirit, and who have been given impressions of the Lord’s glory that fill their hearts and make them well forth like the writer in Psalm 45. “My heart is welling forth with a good matter: I say”, not what someone else has written, but “I say what I have composed” (v.1). That is the result of the Spirit manifesting in your heart something of the glories of Jesus.
In chapter 19 there were persons who were with Jesus in the most testing moment of His pathway here. These verses bring out the public aspect of the believer’s path. I know that from another aspect, the testimony is to a glorified Christ, and so it is, but the public position is that of standing by the cross. The place of the believer is to stand by the cross. John knew that. He says earlier that there were two malefactors who were crucified with Jesus. John tells us that one was on “this side” (John 19:18), where John was standing. Where are you standing tonight? There were many groups of persons at the cross. Every group of humanity was represented there. It says prophetically of our Lord Jesus in Psalm 22, “Many bulls have encompassed me; Bashan’s strong ones have beset me round” (v.12). I suppose they were the Pharisees and the doctors of the law. Then He said, “For dogs have encompassed me” (v.16). Think of what feelings were in His heart as He said that, “For dogs have encompassed me”; they were the Roman soldiers. We know from the gospels that the Roman soldiers were there; they parted His garments, they stood watch. The centurion stood watch. That man had led his soldiers against the enemies of Rome, and now he received a commission to guard the Saviour hanging on the cross. How empty the world system is! Then there were passers-by – I suppose they were going about their business. It says that they mocked.
Which group are you in, dear friend? Are you standing “this side”, where John stood, and these women with him? You may say, ‘Oh well yes, I am a believer, so I am standing there’. Do you look like it when you go to work on Monday? Do you look as if you are standing by the cross? Do you speak like it? Peter did not stand by the cross. Morally he was not standing by the cross when he stood by the fire in the house of the high priest (Mark 14:54). Not only did he deny the Lord, but he denied Him with swearing and curses (Mark 14:71). If I am not standing by the cross, the refinement of spiritual language will be lost, and I will take on the language of the world. But John stood there, and the Lord Jesus saw him, and these women, standing by the cross. What a comfort that must have been to Jesus. It was because John was standing there that he was given something. It says, “Jesus therefore, seeing his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved”. Has He seen you standing by the cross, dear friend? He takes account of everything. He knows if I am standing by the cross. He saw John standing there. In the moment of His greatest suffering, He says to His mother, “Woman, behold thy son”. It was that kind of person that He could commit His mother to, someone who was standing by the cross. Then He said to John, for we know it was John, “Behold thy mother”. How safe His mother would be as cared for by someone who was standing by the cross. “And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home”. I believe that John’s home would have been characterised by the demarcation that the cross makes between the world and the scene of eternal life.
Paul said, ”far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”, Gal.6:14. It was not the Romans who crucified Paul to the world; it was Paul who did it. Why did he do it? Because it was the cross of Jesus Christ; the One who loved him, delivered Himself up for him, gave Himself for him. Paul says in principle ‘that blessed Man has ended the world as far as I am concerned, and for me, the man that finds his place in the world and belongs in the world, has to be put to death’. So Paul says, “through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”. That is what Paul arrived at; the world was crucified to him. The Lord Jesus is not now on the cross actually, but the moral bearing of the cross and the word of the cross are to be carried with us as we go through the scene of testimony. I might add that it is to be carried into our houses, because the household of the believer is different to the household of the world. You remember the Israelites in Egypt; they were different, they had light in their dwellings. That is what is to mark the household of the believer.
In chapter 20, we have Mary standing by the tomb. Peter and John had gone away to their own home. John believed; it does not say that Peter believed, but it says that John believed and went back to his home. But Mary, it says, “stood at the tomb weeping”. Think of this woman standing there alone. The Lord Jesus came and found her there. The Lord Jesus will find exercised souls, He always does. If I am not in exercise, He may come and prompt my conscience and my affections, as He has done often, but where there is exercise, He cannot stay away. That is what happened with Mary. Dear brethren, you may have received something in the meetings we have had today, and you may take it away in your soul. It may only be a snippet of what we have had, and that is probably true for most of us. But if it remains with you, and you pray about it and speak to the Spirit about it, and ask that what came to you as light might be formed in your soul, I can assure you that the Lord will commit Himself to that and strengthen you in it so that you might be drawn nearer to Him. How faithful He is. The disciples were not here at the tomb, but how faithful He was. Here was a woman standing by the tomb, and He said to her “Mary”. He was going to open up to her that the order of life in which she had known Him was now finished. That life had been laid down. So He said to her, “Touch me not”. He did not say, ‘Touch Me not, for I have died’. He said, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended”. She was not going to have a part with Him as the Centre upon the earth even as risen. The Lord has not given us a Centre that is now on the earth. In those forty days during which He moved among them in resurrection, there was a certain mystery in these movements of the Lord Jesus, but He was not going to remain their Object upon the earth. He was going to be their Object as the One who was ascending to the Father and opening up to them relationships that were theirs, and in which He Himself distinctively had a part in His own relation with the Father. I like what Mr. Doughty says in his hymn:-
‘But on resurrection’s morning,
To Thine own Thou didst declare
That Thy Father was their Father,
And His love they now might share’.
(Hymn 117)
How wonderful that here on this resurrection morning, He speaks to this woman who was so drawn to Christ and had Him in her affections to the exclusion of everything else. He told her what He was going to do – He was going to ascend to the Father, “to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. They had heard the Lord Jesus speak of the Father in the circumstances in which they had been, and in which He had been. He had spoken to them of the Father’s provision and of His care, and that remains. You can speak to the Father about your circumstances, for He knows about them and enters into them, and provides for us. You can even speak to Him about your circumstances, and the desire that you have to be present at the weeknight meetings, and the Father will enter into that. If He sees real exercise, He may, in His grace, provide you with a way in which to be present at the weeknight meetings. Some of us have proved these things, it is not a theory.
But He was not speaking of such circumstantial things here. He had spoken of such things so perfectly and so fully before this, but now He was speaking of another order of relationship in which everything is centred in another world. And the Father, the One who had affection for Christ, was going to have affection for those who are Christ’s, and was going to glorify them; “but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”, Rom.8:30. How wonderful, dear brethren, that our portion is where Christ is! Our portion is not where He was. He came to where I was and entered into the circumstances in which I was, only sin apart, in order that I might enter into the circumstances where He is, and might share the Father’s love. Jesus says “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them”. As ascending to the Father, He is to become the object of our affections, and we are loved with the same character of love with which the Father loves Him.
This is beyond the meeting of our need. What divine Persons have in view is not only the meeting of our need, although that is essential. If there is anyone here who is still a sinner without a Saviour, dear friend, I would say to you that the Lord Jesus is right near you, available to you to call upon while He may be found. But the Lord Jesus is not speaking to Mary here about the meeting of her need, He is speaking of the Father’s heart and the longings that the Father has that there should be men like Christ. How wonderful! What a privilege to be given the gift of the Holy Spirit; the Spirit that is in Christ where He is glorified is the same blessed divine Person that is in us. How great is that divine Person! How fresh and how full are the words that He is imparting; “but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”, John 16:13. Think of the communications that are coming from another world, a world to which we belong. The Spirit is serving us at present to occupy our hearts, not only with the world above, but with the One who is the Centre of it and who is there as glorified.
Now in chapter 21; if we are enjoying that world, we are to be here in testimony following Jesus in this world. There is a moral order in these chapters. All the Scriptures have a moral order. It is interesting to trace them. I have no doubt as you read your Bible in the morning, and perhaps in the evening too, you see a certain moral order in what you read. And that becomes enlightening to you, does it not? It gives you a certain joy in your heart that you have received something that no one else has told you, but you have got it for yourself. Do not let it go. And do not let the practice of reading your Bible go, because you might miss the next unfolding. So here Jesus was speaking in this moral order to Peter, and He says to him, “Follow me”. Peter had gone astray. We know that. He was like us all. “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”, Isa.53:6. Peter had gone astray, but in the Lord’s grace He was going to recover him. So He said to Peter, “Follow thou me”. Three simple words. Each of us here, even the little children, can understand those words, ‘Follow me’. For Peter, it would mean that he was going to follow the Lord Jesus to death. We have not yet come to that. Our brother has spoken of the rapidity with which the apostasy is spreading through the western world, and which has taken on a violent character. We do not know, if the Lord leaves us here, what may be before us. But the Lord knows, and we can leave that with Him; our responsibility is to follow Him. So Peter followed the Lord through the scene of the testimony. He followed Him through the light that the Lord Jesus gave to the apostle Paul. Peter writes at the end of his second epistle of the intelligence given to him, “as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him, as also in all his epistles”, 2 Pet.3:15. You think of Peter taking that up and following what the Lord Jesus was doing.
What light has been opened up, dear brethren. We may have become accustomed to it. We are brought up in households where the truth is known. I say this for myself; would that it was spoken of more in our households. In the 1800’s, persons began to be exercised as to their part in the church; the Church of Ireland, the Church of England, the churches in Switzerland and elsewhere. They came home from work at the end of the day, maybe had a simple meal, and out came the Scriptures. They searched the Scriptures. That is something that some of us could do more; search the Scriptures. The Scriptures became light to these persons, and the Lord guided them, and they followed Him. You may say, ‘I thought they followed Mr. Darby’. No, they did not. They followed the Lord, although the Lord used men and gave them light. In the Reformation, the Lord used men and gave them certain light, and persons received light. Where that light dimmed with many was that they followed a person. But the Lord has given light; He gave light to Paul as to the Lord’s supper, and in wondrous grace that has been preserved. I was speaking to someone not long ago, and I asked them if they had the Lord’s supper as Paul presented it; one loaf, one cup. And although those persons had known the light, they had to say ‘No, we do not have one loaf’. How sad. Something had been brought in for convenience, so they had to say ‘We do not have one loaf, and we do not have one cup, because of hygiene’. That is not what the Lord set on. There is a responsibility on you and me to follow what the Lord has set on. “Follow thou me”.
We have spoken of household baptism. You can read in the book of Acts that not only the jailor but others in the book of Acts were baptised, and their houses. That is where baptism belongs for the believer who is the head of a house; in the house. You may ask, ‘Why?’ Well, the believer says, ‘Not only do I want to go out of sight and hold myself for Christ, but I want everything in my house to be in keeping with the death of Christ’. I find that searching, but that is what a believer who is rightly exercised would do. Peter also found that the truth that Paul gave as to the assembly was precious. He said, “as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him, as also in all his epistles”, 2 Pet.3:15. We have been called to have a part in the truth of the assembly, “which is His body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Eph.1:23. You may say, ‘We are half a dozen in our local meeting’. But that is not what I am speaking of, although it may be represented there. What we have been called to is to have a part in the assembly which is Christ’s body, “the fulness of him who fills all in all”. What a dignified company! What a dignified body we have been called into. I could not belong to another body because I belong to that dignified and glorious body which is the expression of all that Christ is as a Man, a glorified Man. And therefore I belong to that body. How glorious He is, and we have a part with Him.
This was the word to Peter, “Follow thou me”. Peter said, ‘Well, there is John, what about him?’ I am often like that. Maybe someone else is in my mind, and I say, ‘It is alright the word coming to me, but what about him?’ The Lord said, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me”. A report went out among the disciples which was not accurate, and John was very careful that there should be witness. He was careful that there was witness at the cross as to the blood and the water. He wrote “And he who saw it bears witness”, John 19:35. There was the need for witness here, because a wrong report had gone out. I just leave that word, because often things get spread among us that may not be true. Paul said “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every matter be established”, 2 Cor.13:1. If we do not do that, dear brethren, we shall disrupt the working out of our heavenly portion in the circumstances in which the Lord has placed us.
May He help us. It is the Lord’s desire that we should be with Him. It is His desire. He has feelings, you know, He has longings in His heart. He wants our company. I marvel at that when I think of it, that the One who in His own person is self-sufficient, for divine Persons are, has come into circumstances whereby divine Persons have been made known as wanting our company. He wants yours today, dear friend, how ever young or old you are. He was young once, you know, He was young. He would like your company and He would like mine. May He have it in the scene where He is; may He have it at the cross, in the public sphere where we are; and may He have it as being available for Him to unfold heavenly glories to us so that we might move here in dignity in the testimony until He come, for His name’s sake.
Address at Kirkcaldy
10 August 2013