THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTIANITY (1)
[p. 160] THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTIANITY (1)
Matthew 11:7 - 19; Matthew 11:25 - 30
The superiority of christianity is before us in these scriptures, viewed in contrast to general conditions and worked out in relative values. Scripture abounds with comparisons, and all is to bring out the greatness of christianity. With this in view we may consider the Lord’s remarks about John the baptist, who, though not equal to those who form the assembly, serves to illustrate what is in mind.
At this time John was rather under a cloud, but the Lord would not allow this to discredit him, and took occasion of it to bring out his worth. So he says, as John’s disciples left, “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? ... Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”. John’s greatness only serves to enlarge the greatness of christianity, and the Lord calls attention to it.
The end of the chapter shows how the superiority of christianity shines out in the Lord Jesus, though He is incomparable in His own Person. In the greatest pressure He is able to answer and say, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”, and so He becomes a refuge for all of us who are under pressure as we learn the truth set forth in Him.
John represents a great dispensation. He was called in relation to natural birth, according to God’s provisional ways until the coming in of Christ, and there was no one greater than he among those “born of women”. What characterises christianity is that we are “born of God”, but truth is cumulative from the beginning and all is carried down to our own time, so it is important to see what the old dispensation was at its best. John was a young man about to die and the Lord would have his true worth be known. He was really the finish of the old dispensation according to God. So from his time the kingdom suffered violence; persons coming into it must do violence to all their own preconceived ideas.
The kingdom of the heavens is peculiar to Matthew, the assembly being in mind. Now all things are vested in the son and He rules from above. The kingdom of God is the moral side of the matter and is connected with the Holy Spirit down here. The kingdom of heaven is the rule of God on earth; the kingdom of God is the moral sway of the Spirit, a divine Person, below. When Christ was here the kingdom of God was in their midst; now the Holy Spirit is here. We need to be born anew to see the kingdom of God. Matthew deals generally with the kingdom of heaven (though he refers also to the kingdom of God) and stresses that Jerusalem is set aside. Hence in the Acts we have the sound from heaven (chapter 2), the voice from heaven to Saul and the sheet from heaven to Peter, to bring in the influence of heaven, whereas judaism has brought christendom down to the level of earth and made it an earthly thing.
The question raised by the Lord, “What went ye out into the wilderness to see?”, is a practical one, because it relates to our baptism, which, if rightly understood, makes the earth a wilderness to us. Has the thing that we went out to see when we accepted baptism maintained its greatness in our eyes, or has it deteriorated? It is important to have the true idea of greatness in our minds. Of the Lord it could be said, “He shall be great”, but here the thought is [p. 162] extended to others, in order to emphasise the greatness of our dispensation.
John the baptist could say, “There standeth one among you, whom ye know not” (John 1: 26), and, later, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (chapter 3: 30). John the evangelist carries all this forward into christianity, because in John 3 one can hardly determine where the baptist’s remarks finish and the evangelist’s commence. They merge in christian language, showing what a sense John the baptist had of the greatness of Christ.
John was not a “reed shaken with the wind”, a person shaken by every wind of doctrine, for he stood his ground. Nor was he “a man clothed in soft raiment”, such as marks certain ecclesiastical systems. Such things belong to “kings’ houses”, not to christianity. John was a prophet, involving something substantial, one who represents God, and, can bring Him into the souls of those whom he serves. So in John 4 the woman recognised Christ as a prophet when He exposed her history, bringing God into her soul. Matthew makes much of a prophet (see chapter 10: 41, 42), but none was greater than John, who was “more than a prophet”, as the Lord said. John’s personality lay behind his office, and this is developed by John the evangelist in his gospel. He was brought up in the deserts and wore suitable clothes, outside of and apart from the world and its fashions. In all this he is a model for us. Thus he was able to discern the glory of Christ as the Baptiser with the Holy Spirit, the Son of God and the Lamb of God, His personal attractiveness; John 1. The result of his testimony was that his two disciples left him and followed Jesus.
In Acts 18 and 19 we see in Apollos and the twelve at Ephesus persons prepared to move on from John’s ministry into the full light of christianity. They were ready for the greatness of Paul’s ministry. So [p. 163] the epistle to the Hebrews was to lead Jewish christians out by presenting something better, a better covenant, a better hope, and so on. We are not to antagonise persons by belittling what they are in, but to suggest to them something better. Then the word is: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach”, Hebrews 13: 13.
At the end of Matthew 11 we see the Lord in full superiority to the conditions of rejection and pressure. “At that time. Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight”. God is working and the Lord would keep us on the line of God’s work, not depressed by what is happening around us. These babes are doubtless the children of wisdom, but the latter are more than babes, they are developed. In Proverbs 8 wisdom is seen in relation to creation, but now she has children and she is justified in those whom she begets. Wisdom is justified in Christ, but also in the assembly, as Matthew 18 shows. The assembly, as having wisdom, is the administrative vessel now, and this should enter into all our meetings and discussions. Proverbs is peculiarly an assembly book and is intended to augment us in our assembly service. It relates to “the kingdom of the son of his love”, the true Solomon. Chapters 30 and 31 bring out what a brother should be in his attitude of mind. Agur is humble and does not pretend to know everything; no one does. The more you do know, the more you depend on the Lord and on the brethren. Agur says, “Truly I am more stupid than any one; and I have not a man’s intelligence, I have neither learned wisdom, nor have I the knowledge of the Holy”, Proverbs 30: 2, 3. He is like Paul, who could speak of himself as less than the least of all saints. Such a [p. 164] one can compress himself, and recognises his dependence on others; for it is only among the brethren and as dependent on the Spirit that one can bring things out. Agur is asking questions, but what great things these questions bring out! “What is his name?” Deity is before him, bringing us to infinitude and making us feel how small we are. This is a right attitude of mind.
Here in Matthew 11 we have the Father and the Son and what They are doing, and we are to be learners. The Son is revealing the Father to persons, and this makes them very distinguished. Do we know anything of this, the revelation of the Father by the Son? This is special and brings out the personnel of the assembly. The Son has pleasure in making you what you are. For example, in the case of the man in John 9, the Lord heard that they had cast him out and He finds him; he becomes distinguished as cast out by the religious world. The Lord says, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God”. He is seeking to give him more than he already had, “He answered and said, And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? And Jesus said to him, Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he. And he said, I believe, Lord: and he did him homage”. That illustrates what is here, the Lord’s pleasure in revealing the Father. Each one is taken up individually in view of the personnel of the assembly. The Lord would say, ‘I want to make you more than what you are, I want you to know the Father’. Not only are babes taken up sovereignly, but as sons we come individually under the influence of the Son and each receives a distinct impression of the Father. Divine pleasure enters into the new economy, because it is stable and final. It may break down outwardly, but not really or vitally, because the assembly is in view and, as we are told, “Hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”.