CHRIST IN HEAVEN THE CENTRE
[p. 425] CHRIST IN HEAVEN THE CENTRE
In these addresses I have endeavoured to bring before you “the creation of God” - the new order. The first was man’s new position with God; the man that was driven out of Eden, the prodigal, is now through grace enjoying the festivities of the Father’s house. The second, the new position which the people of God have upon the earth, was altogether outside of the Jewish fold and the religious order inculcated there. The third was the new ministry, the ministry of Christ in John 13 and 14 for His own during His absence, the preparation for testimony. The fourth was the new power, the Holy Spirit come down from heaven in a twofold way; sent by the Father, and sent by the glorified Christ. This evening I come to the next, which I call the new centre, or as another has named it, the new metropolis. If I can present it to you according to its greatness, you will find that everything now is determined from this centre. It is from heaven, the right hand of God, that everything of God must come. Stephen says, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”; that is the new centre. The first point is that everything now must come from the Lord in heaven. The more you study it the more you will find that this is true. Paul’s gospel comes from heaven; he says, “I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ”. It is evident the mystery comes from Christ in heaven.
If you do not apprehend the new centre, you cannot understand Christ’s interests at the present time. Stephen set forth, from Abraham down, that man was a failure; and now he charges the Jewish nation, “Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, ye also”. Stephen is the first witness. He is for us a pattern man.
First, you must lay hold of the simple fact that Stephen sees Him where He is. He is altogether apart from the earth; there is no longer any connection with the religious order on the earth. The great practical work in the soul of a believer is to loosen him from the earth; not merely from the world. In Luke 14, one man went to his land, another to his oxen, and another to his wife; there was nothing morally wrong in any of these, but they all belonged to the earth, the wrong place. If you are really true to the right place, other things will be subservient and in their right place. It may be alleged, If I have to make so much of heaven, how can I attend to my duties here? The answer is, You will attend to all to which God has called you a great deal better, because in every ordinance of God you would have divine guidance and support. The example for a husband and wife is Christ and the church; they are not referred back to Adam and Eve. If a wife understands the relation of the church to Christ she will behave rightly to her husband. And if the husband understands Christ and the church, he will understand how to behave to his wife. The highest circle, the one of the deepest interest to Christ Himself, is the only one to guide you in your greatest circle of interest here. It is very striking that if you want to behave yourself in the circle of interest nearest to your own heart naturally, you have to learn Christ in His highest interest. And if you do not apprehend Him in His highest circle, you are defective in your own. Hence the more heavenly you are, the more you are associated with Christ, the better you will be in the details of all your duties here. It is the man of the greatest power who does the smallest thing best. Even a man’s handwriting is characteristic of his ability - a particular faculty, though he has not universal ability. A man [p. 427] of divine ability is not only good at one thing, but he would be good at anything which was his duty.
Now let us turn to Matthew 22: 44: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool”. I ask you to consider this. Are we impressed by the fact that our Lord has left this earth? How little is our personal attachment to Him! He has been refused here. Would you like to be great where He has been refused? Here it is, “Sit thou on my right hand”, as in Psalm 110, “till I make thine enemies thy footstool”.
He has gone from the earth, but He has sent down the Holy Spirit. “He shall testify of me”. If you read the early chapters of the Acts, you will find that the disciples in chapter 1, as they gazed up into heaven, are rebuked, “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven”. And as you read on, you find Peter and John imprisoned, and then all the apostles. Thus it was made manifest that they will not receive the Lord from glory; already they had refused Him on earth; “by wicked hands” He was “crucified and slain”. This is referred to in Matthew 22. Now you get a further thing. They refuse the testimony of the Holy Spirit; hence Stephen says, “Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit”. They commit now nationally the unpardonable sin. There is no repentance for the nation; never. There is repentance for the individual. Saul was at the stoning of Stephen, standing by. The new centre is now opened out, even in the new place where Christ is. There is no further offer to Israel; they have sent a message after him, saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us”.
Now you see that the new centre is from our Lord, rejected from the earth, but set down in the highest place in glory. It is from Christ in heaven that the mystery of the body was revealed. It is important to [p. 428] see this, because there is often a confusion in our minds between the house and the body. The house was announced when Christ was rejected by His own on earth, as you find in Matthew 16. His body was revealed consequent on His rejection when offered from glory. You have to apprehend that Christ is now at the right hand of God. Stephen is first instructed in this. This fact is the testimony now. Stephen becomes the herald of this new era, the centre from which everything now emanates. All place for the religious man upon the earth is over; everything now must come from heaven.
The servant we find is first instructed; a very important principle here. Before Stephen suffered, he was instructed in the new order of things, and he in a moment apprehends the change, even that the seat of government is changed from Jerusalem to the right hand of God: a change of the utmost importance. Christendom has fixed the seat of government at Rome, the seat of the Roman power, the very power which was given to Noah, and descended to Israel, and when Israel forfeited it, it was given to the gentiles, who, in the person of Pilate, crucified Christ. Christendom has sought and courted this power; but eventually the nominal church will be cast out of Christ’s mouth, then the beast (Rome) will carry the harlot. The first failure of the church was losing sight of the new centre in heaven. The new era is from the Lord in heaven, and the new power is the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. Could anything more fully betray the strange fatuity, the deceitful influence, which swayed the church, than that Rome should be fixed upon as the seat of government, and that the secular power should be sought for and accepted to support the church, instead of the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from an exalted Christ, to connect us with Him in that place?
Now Stephen, the servant, is prepared. The Lord [p. 429] never sends anyone to war at his own charges. You may be sure that if the Lord would send you on any service for Himself, He first leads you into blessing to fit you for it. You find that this is true in the history of every servant of God. Paul, as far as I see, was caught up to the third heaven before he went to Jerusalem. I am contending for this principle, and I can see that the worth or usefulness of the servant depends on his being conducted into a conscious knowledge of the truth he is to minister. Stephen was brought into the power of the new order; the new line is now open, and he has travelled it. The heaven was never opened to you till now. The Forerunner has entered it. A place has been prepared. Stephen is in advance of John 14, for he is conducted to the place prepared: “being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven .. “. he was carried by the new power to the new metropolis. Therefore Paul can say to the Colossians, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”, where Stephen saw Him. That is the new centre. Christ’s death has opened the way for you; there is nothing more to be done to open the way, it is open; but you have to travel it by the Spirit of God, and hence every one in the Spirit of God is over Jordan at the time. I do not say that he has accepted Jordan; that is another thing. When you accept Jordan you renounce this place; you are out of it, before you die out of it. Stephen was out of it before he was cut off. It is not that a man is loosened from everything on his deathbed before he is cut off. No; but you accept that you belong to heaven, and that you have died with Christ, and that morally you have been loosed by association with Him.
“Being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus”. Now turn to Ezekiel 1: 26: “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne,
[p. 430] as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it”. That was the vision to Ezekiel when the glory was about to retire from the earth. The perverseness of Israel was so great that the glory was removed from them. Ezekiel sees the retiring glory. In the brightest spot of the retiring glory he sees the figure of a man, and that man upon a throne. Remember that it was on account of the wickedness of Israel that the glory was going away. Stephen sees the glory of God, and Jesus, the Son of man, in the highest place. And now, having reached the new centre, having been borne to it, he is prepared. The servant, who comes from Christ in glory is prepared for the opposition here.
Now Stephen turns round to his audience - it was not a mob, it was the council, the great religious body - and he announces to them the fulfilment of Ezekiel’s vision. He says, I see the Son of man - he does not say Jesus - “I see.. . the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”. Was that an outrage to the feelings of the religious under the law? Weigh the statement. How could it be offensive to men who boasted that they were God’s people, to whom His word was given? You might have expected them to say, What a majestic thing, we are delighted to hear it, the Son of man in heaven! But instead of this, the statement evoked their worst hatred. “Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord”. The devil’s work - “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer”. Do you think the religious world has changed? Do you think you would get a better reception if you were to insist upon it to the religious world that there is a Man in heaven, and that is the Man for christians? “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”. We are the one or the other. Thank God,
[p. 431] I trust every one of you delights in the assurance that it is true. But, alas! to this day the religious world rejects the idea of a Man exalted in heaven; it prefers a man flourishing on the earth. In 2 Timothy we read that all in Asia had turned away from Paul, where he laboured most. Why did they refuse him? Because he insisted that christians are called to a heavenly position. And my desire is that you should find association with Christ in heaven, by the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 3 you get the actuality of your association: “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”.
Now I would ask you to seek the things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. If you have true affection for the Lord, you will seek Him where He is; you will go there at all costs. The Spirit of God leads the heart, really learning, to inquire, Where is He? Mary Magdalene was in true affection for her Lord when she said, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. In John 1 the disciples following the Lord, said, “Where dwellest thou?” Would not each of you like to be where Christ is? Are you satisfied with the prospect of being with Him when you die? I have shown you that you have died with Him; if you accept this in faith, you are led by the Spirit into association with Him. Though union had not been revealed to Stephen, yet he is in the power of it. He does not know it as a truth, for often we are in the sense of a grace before we have the authority of the word for it. Stephen had found his Saviour in the place where the Saviour is. Can you conceive anything more satisfying to your heart than to find Him where He is? True affection could not otherwise be satisfied. Take for a pattern Peter in Matthew 14: he sees the Lord walking on the water - above all earthly power, and says, “If [p. 432] it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water”. What induced Peter to desire this? He desired to be with the Lord, and you are better off than Peter; Peter had not the power to go, but you have the power to go - every one sealed with the Holy Spirit has the power. The Holy Spirit has come down from the glorified Christ, and if He has come down to this place where everything is incongruous to Him, surely He can bring you up to the place where everything is in accordance with His mind. You see in Peter that he had affection that longed to join the Lord. Now that is our lack, we fail in the affection that longs to join Him. Here the church of Ephesus failed - “thou hast left thy first love”. First love is not satisfied without company; favour will not satisfy it; company is indispensable to first love. Ephesus is unblameable as to doctrine and works, but they had left their first love. Mary Magdalene had first love, she was satisfied when she knew where He was.
Well, I cannot impart a spiritual idea, I can only present it to your conscience; but as soon as the conscience bows to it, the Spirit of God will lead you into it. May nothing be more attractive to you than His company. May you in your heart say with Ruth, “Whither thou goest, I will go”. If you love the Lord, I believe the Spirit of God will satisfy that affection, because it is an affection created by Himself. If you realised union with Christ, I could not ask you to be attached to Him. I could not ask a hand to be attached to the head. It is its own interest and joy to be so.
Now we must look at the unrelenting nature of the opposition to Stephen’s announcement. They “stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city” (the city was their metropolis), “and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. I press [p. 433] earnestly on your attention the bitter persecution which awaits you if you testify here of the Man in heaven. Do not be surprised at the way Stephen was treated; as you are faithful you will be treated in a like way. The more thoroughly heavenly you are, from affection to your Lord, the more you will be opposed as Stephen was, especially by the religious man, the man who regards the law as the rule of life. Any one in any way seeking perfection in the flesh is bitterly opposed to a Man in heaven, because a Man in heaven must be a man after an entirely new order. Hence Israel, represented by their council, kill Stephen; for his testimony absolutely superseded all carnal religion. In a later day we read, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me”. All the saints in Rome deserted Paul when he stood before the Roman tribunal. But he can say, “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the gentiles might hear”.
I turn you now to Psalm 22. In this psalm you learn how our blessed Lord encountered every oppression upon us, and He was superior to all. So that every man of God who is associated with the heavenly Saviour finds himself here in Christ’s superiority. He realises the fulfilment of Joshua 3: 10, “And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites”, etc. You get the same truth set forth more fully in Ephesians 1 and 6; namely, that you can predicate from the effect of the power on yourself that you will be superior to all your opposers. You become acquainted in chapter 1: 19 with the power for your own benefit, before you understand how that power will make you superior to every antagonism in chapter 6: 10. This is typified in Joshua 3: 10. The power of God which opened the way over Jordan is the same power which will [p. 434] drive out all the nations. Thus in Ephesians 1: 19 the power that took you up to heaven is the same power that gives you superiority over all your foes. I do not ask you to be occupied with the opposition; I press on you that you should have conscious knowledge of His power, by which you are borne over everything into His presence. And consequently you can face all the opposition. You know that you have been raised above every obstacle here; hence the power which has been so effectual for yourself will enable you to withstand the force of the enemy. When you know association with Christ above everything, then you will be able to withstand everything. Therefore we read in Ephesians 6, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” - the very words that are used in chapter 1: 19. The power is first toward you. In chapter 3: 20 it is in you, and in chapter 6: 10 it is from you. It could not be from you if it were not first for you, and in you. You can judge of the nature of the power from this deliverance vouchsafed to you. Turn again to Psalm 22; you read there all the Lord encountered for us. The first verse describes His drinking the cup of judgment. He has borne the judgment that you should go free - you triumph in His triumph. The next is, He was a reproach of men, the despised of the people - He was above it. The third, the bulls of Bashan, the magnates of the people, beset Him round. He was above them. It is very affecting to see Him upon the earth superior to all that is contrary to God. Then next we read, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death”. The Lord encountered everything against us, and was superior to all. Stephen consciously knows Christ’s power; by Christ he is superior to everything here. If all the heroes of the world were joined together in one, Stephen would be a greater. When Stephen encountered the dogs, he knew experimentally the triumph of [p. 435] Christ. Then next the lion, Satan. And lastly, the horns of the unicorns - death itself. It was necessary for the witness of Jesus in heaven, the heavenly Man, to die here; submitting to everything, but superior to all. And now he consigns his spirit to Jesus in heaven. Surely he is a brilliant example of the grace of God. In man’s extremity, he rises to the greatest moral height; he overcomes evil with good. Thus the witness of the new order, of the heavenly Man, expires.
Well, beloved friends, only the Spirit of God can lead into this association with Christ. The Lord grant that you may not rest satisfied with listening to my attempt to explain it to you, but that each of you may go to the Lord, and seek from Him that He would unfold to you the depth and blessedness of the fact that He is a Man in heaven, and that your heart may be so set on association with Him; and because this is so real and great to you, that you are prepared to encounter all the opposition here from the religious world; because as His sufferings abound in us, so also do our consolations by Christ.