THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST
[p. 238] THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST
John 19: 1 - 5; Matthew 25: 6; Song of Songs 3: 11
I wish to speak of Christ as presented in the threefold way indicated. He is, of course, presented in many other connections in the Scriptures besides these. He is indeed the theme of all Scripture; and, no doubt, the best exposition of that was by Himself when He walked along the highway to Emmaus with two erring disciples. He began, we are told, “from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”, Luke 24: 27. The exposition thus made is not recorded, but the Spirit of God ever since has been engaged in unfolding Christ in the Scriptures to His people; and it is to the end that He should become attractive to, and loved by, His people.
A touching instance of His presentation of Himself to us is in Acts 1, where, we are told, “He presented himself living, after he had suffered”. The presentation would stress the idea of life as in a risen Man. Life has a great place in the Scriptures first as vegetable, then in fishes, birds, land animals, and also in man, but it is finally presented in Christ, who is risen from among the dead. Never was life seen before like that. Others had indeed been raised from the dead, but not into a new condition. He was risen into a new condition of life, a condition which is to prevail and continue, and into which we are as christians brought now by faith, as we shall be soon in actuality. For we are not only to be conformed to the image of Christ, but to the image of His body of glory — not only a risen Christ, but a glorified Christ, the greatest thought of all.
Now I come back to our scriptures in the order in which I read them. First, Pilate’s presentation of Christ; a very unworthy man to present Him, but still he says, “Behold the man!” to the Jews. This affords an opportunity of speaking of Pilate as representing government. Matthew stresses that and calls him “governor”. John mentions certain things about Pilate which are not in the other gospels. John tells us, too, that Pilate was minded to release Jesus. He represents government as seen in the four monarchies of Daniel. These four monarchies do not include all government, for it was first committed to Noah. Magisterial responsibility was put on him, and that enlarged with Nimrod into a kingdom; the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, the great Assyrian monarchy. Other monarchies, such as the Egyptian, existed before the appointment by God of what are called the four governments, kingdoms, extending from the time of Nebuchadnezzar down to the end of this dispensation, down to the introduction of the rule of Christ. These monarchies are seen in the book of Daniel as existing one after the other until a stone should be cut out without hands and should break them in pieces, fill the whole earth, and remain for ever; that is the rule of Christ, for which we are waiting.
It is not that “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ”, as the A.V. reads in Revelation 11: 15, but rather that “the kingdom of the world of our Lord and of his Christ is come”; it is a kingdom of itself. It is a kingdom, unique, cut out without hands, that is, a divine kingdom, and it breaks in pieces the others, and then fills the whole earth itself and continues for ever. We love the thought of that: “The kingdom of the world of our Lord and of his Christ is come”. That kingdom takes form; the whole creation awaits it and longs for it.
Now Pilate represented these four monarchies and the last of them, the one which still exists in a mysterious way, but will presently come up according [p. 240] to the Scriptures in its last hideous form, and I was thinking of it now, because it had to do with Christ. These monarchies had to do with Christ before He became Man. They had to do with Him in His Spirit. The Spirit of Christ in man was retroactive; it was seen from the outset even before Christ became Man. It is seen in the book of Daniel, in Daniel himself. So that the monarchy under Nebuchadnezzar had to do with the Spirit of Christ, not Christ personally, but the Spirit of Christ in men of faith. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego had to do directly with Nebuchadnezzar, the first great monarch, the head of the great image. He persecuted them, and thus the great matter of conscience came up in the people of God, and it still exists. These three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s image. They said, O king, we have nothing to say about the matter; we cannot and will not ever bow down to your gods! They had a conscience, and they stood by their conscience and suffered for their conscience. The furnace was heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated. The mightiest men in Nebuchadnezzar’s army were used to cast them into the burning fiery furnace, and they were destroyed themselves. These three men fell down into the midst of the fire. It was the Spirit of Christ in these men, the unbending Spirit of Christ in the consciences of believers against idolatry, a good conscience. Conscience is nothing if it is not a good one. I need not follow these men’s interesting story. These men were seen by the monarch in the fire, walking in it, and a fourth walking with them. Not only was the Spirit of Christ there in them, but Jesus Himself was walking with them; the fourth like the Son of God, walking in the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
God supports a good conscience as it has to say to government. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego [p. 241] serve the government in an ordinary sense; they were ministers of the government; they were appointed over the kingdom of one of the provinces in relation to Daniel. They were ready to serve the king in what was legitimate, but not to bow down to his gods; they were not ready to give way to the monarch in all he said. We must serve God rather than men. It is how some monarchs come in contact with Christ in His Spirit. The Spirit of Christ in these men was victorious; that is the point, to be victorious as having to do with governments, serving them legitimately, but not displeasing God to serve them. We must obey God rather than men, be ready to serve the governments with a good conscience, but not to bow down to their gods, nor to do other things that the Lord Jesus indicated should not be done.
Now I want to show how the Lord Himself came directly into relation with the fourth monarchy, the Roman, and how this idea that is set out in Pilate has come down to us, that the monarch presents Christ to his people. He presented Christ: “Behold the man! ... I find no fault in him”, John 19: 6. He was not against Christ; as a matter of fact Pilate was right abstractly. As a governor he had a right judgment of Christ, but he was just a governor and a politician. A mere politician has to give way to the popular wish, as we see in Herod, who wished to please the Jews and put John the baptist in prison. But then they may present Christ to us, too, for the governor of the world became a christian in Constantine. But what kind of a garment would he put on the Lord Jesus? Constantine presided at some of the christian councils, and became an honoured christian. You say, That is wonderful, the king is converted! But is he converted? It is an open question whether Constantine was converted, but then, if he presents Christ to us, what will be the Christ he presents?
[p. 242] What garment would he put on? Who put this garment on Christ? The soldiers, in derision. But Pilate accepted that garment. What had he done just immediately before? He had scourged Him, and yet he says, “I find no fault whatever in him”.
The soldiers derisively crowned Him with a crown of thorns and put a purple robe on Him. Pilate accepted that. So with Constantine; at one time he accepted arianism, at one time he became an orthodox christian by profession; he might give you one idea or garb, he might give a unitarian garb; you cannot trust that. The Lord said to Pilate, Who told you about Me? such men are not often particular about christianity; they may be christians, but they are usually told, they do not go into the thing. In the previous chapter (verse 34) it says, “Jesus answered him, Dost thou say this of thyself, or have others said it to thee concerning me?”. The Lord knew that Pilate did not look into this matter; it would be a mere sideline to him, if he did look into it at all.
The apostle Paul preached before Agrippa, “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest”. It was a matter of no consequence, “And Agrippa said to Paul, In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian”. But did he persuade him? There is no evidence of it at all, and yet he listened attentively to Paul and said, “This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar”.
The Lord is very free to talk to Pilate. He says, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above”. That is what should govern us now. The powers that be are ordained of God, be they pagan, Roman, or christian. The government is one thing, christianity is another, but the government is ordained of God and we are to obey it. We are to honour the king, but we must honour God first, I am only speaking [p. 243] of what the ruler will do. Can I trust that presentation? I cannot trust it; there may be marks of scourging by that same hand. Not a moment ago he has just beaten Him, and yet he says, “I find in him no fault whatever”. It is all confusing, yet the Lord Jesus comes to that man and informs him that he had power from above, otherwise he would have had no power against Him. That man put Him to death. Why? Because he submitted to the popular demand. He relinquished his responsibility because he wished to give way to the popular demand, and what is the popular demand? To put Jesus to death. Instead of carrying on his governmental responsibility and justifying the righteous, he condemned Him. That is what we have to face, dear brethren, in this matter, and yet in the most rigid and permanent way to honour the king, and to do all that he requires us to do with a good conscience; no more, we cannot go beyond a good conscience. If he asks me to do what is contrary, I would have to say to the king, I cannot do that because God is God. That is the position, but it is very interesting to see that this governor (representing the last, the Roman, monarchy) came into direct contact with Jesus, and Jesus conversed with him and he accounted Jesus a righteous Man and yet condemned Him, scourged Him, and put Him to death to please the populace. That is one thing, a matter well worth looking into, in view of our present relations with the governments.
I go on now to Matthew, to call attention to another presentation of Christ. Who does it? At midnight there was a cry, “Behold, the bridegroom”. It is not now the Man, not now the purple robe, not now the crown of thorns put on by a derisive enemy. What deliverance! “Behold the bridegroom; go forth to meet him”. It is an appeal, dear brethren, to us. It has long since sounded out, and since it has sounded [p. 244] out the Spirit of God has been calling attention to Jesus, in His glorious heavenly habiliments, the habiliments of a bridegroom, alluding to affections, “He that has the bride is the bridegroom”. We are not told who the bride is here in Matthew, whether it is the assembly as His bride, or the remnant of the Jewish nation presently. It is a question of the Bridegroom. I would take it the assembly is the bride of Christ as presented in Matthew 25. Ever since that appearance there has been a wonderful unfolding of the glories of Christ, and it is going on yet.
There is no uncertainty here as there was with Pilate. The Spirit of God invariably keeps before us the Person of the Lord Jesus, always honouring Him: “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”, John 16: 14. Pilate did not glorify Jesus; he scourged Him, and yet he said, “I find no fault whatever in him”, utter inconsistency. But there is no inconsistency with the Holy Spirit. The ministry consistently glorifies Christ. Ministry which does not glorify Christ is spurious. Think of the variety of the glories of the Lord Jesus that have been unfolded to us in the past hundred years. If we only had time to look into it and follow the history of ministry, we should see how invariably it keeps Christ’s glory before our souls, particularly His glory as the Bridegroom, so that we might love Him and go out to meet Him, leaving the world behind with all its corruption. Scripture tells us of the virgins who went out to meet Him; but the Bridegroom tarries, as if to test us as it did them, so that they all fell asleep. Let us be on our guard as to not listening to the ministry, and not fall asleep. They all went to sleep, but the midnight hour struck, and the cry went forth, “Behold, the bridegroom”. The word ‘cometh’ should not be there, it is simply the person; His coming is implied. That is, the idea is to attract our hearts, and the next thing is, “Go forth to meet him”. Thank [p. 245] God, many have done it. There may be some here who have not, that is the point of it. He is worthy of going forth to. He is presented as the Bridegroom with all that that means, evidences of affection for His people. He wishes to present Himself, to attract our attention, that we might admire and love Him, and leave the world behind. He comes half the way and more; “Go forth to meet him”.
Paul says we shall go to meet Him in the air. We do not get that here, but the meeting is in the air. What a place to meet the Lord! What power is necessary! He will supply all that power, so that we shall be caught up, “For the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 16, 17. What a meeting! But He is presented in testimony first. The midnight cry is testimony and it has continued ever since, the ministry of the Spirit calling attention to Christ in His varied attractiveness, so that the virgins (that is to say, the assembly) go forth to meet Him. The ministry should be followed by us if we are to have the varied glories of Christ before our souls. Paul says to Timothy, “Thou hast been thoroughly acquainted with my teaching”, 2 Timothy 3: 10. It is really Paul’s doctrine that presents Christ to us in His bridegroom habiliments and attractiveness. He says to the Corinthians, “I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”. An espousal is a contract, it places us under obligation. It is the link between Christ and the assembly.
The Spirit of God in the ministry keeps Christ before us, and the more we see of His glories, the more we shall go out to Him: “Go forth to meet him”. They who had oil in their lamps, those who [p. 246] had the Spirit of God, the genuine christians, go forth. The others essayed to go, but they had no oil. The meaning of the parable is that a certain process has to be gone through as the testimony comes to us in ministry. The process is the oil. Have I got it? I may move to go out presently and find I have no power; I want to borrow from others, and the others say, We have only got what we need ourselves; go and buy. They went to buy, and while they went to do the transaction, the bridegroom came. Some went in with him; the others are left out, a solemn matter! I appeal to anyone here who has not the Spirit of God, to see about it. It is a transaction with Christ; He has the oil. There is the idea of life, take it. “He that will, let him take the water of life freely”, Revelation 22: 17. But then, it is a transaction; you have got to have part in that transaction. Those persons who do not have oil in their vessels do not have a transaction with Christ. The Lord says, “I do not know you”. If you had a transaction with Christ, He would know you. He says here, “I do not know you”. They are left outside for ever. I urge every one here to have a personal transaction with Christ. If you have a transaction with Christ, He will know you and open the door to you, but not to these. He says, “Depart from me”, and they never find a place with Him in the marriage feast.
The final scripture is in the Canticles. This book has been greatly used of God in the ministry since the midnight cry; it is one of the most important books entering into the service of God and therefore ought to be read carefully by us if we are to go forth. The word is in the verse I read, “Go forth, daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart”. What a sight that is! It is a prophetic word. It is a love book, “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s”.
[p. 247] Of one thousand and five this is the only one we have a record of, and it is intended to enrich the service of God, that is, to bring out and develop in His assembly affections for Christ. So in this chapter we have the bride, the Israel of the future or the assembly of today, coming up out of the wilderness. “Who is this, she that cometh up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke?” (verse 6). The feminine speaker is in mind, as in chapter 8: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”. Here she is portrayed “like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant”. Those are figures of what makes her attractive to Christ.
Then we have another allusion to the military men. Christ comes into it at once. Wherever we have the assembly or the Israelitish bride, it is always so. So we read in the next verse, “Behold, his couch, Solomon’s own”. That is another thing altogether. Solomon is soon having the means of rest. Then he has military men: “Threescore mighty men are about it, of the mighty of Israel”. Typically, Christ is seen having the means of rest and having military protection. He must be guarded. The enemy is ready to attack us in the position of testimony, and we must be ready to protect the Lord Jesus. Then we have another thing in this chariot of the wood of Lebanon, a bed or palanquin. This ought to appeal to us as to whether He is the Object of our affections. He must be protected; He must be provided for in all that He needs, but He provides for Himself this palanquin, yet even so the daughters of Jerusalem have part in it. “Its pillars he made of silver, its support of gold, its seat of purple; the midst thereof was paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem”. The daughters of Jerusalem have part in this. I may be a military man supporting the chair, or I may be paving it with love. It is an appeal to me as to what [p. 248] I am doing. Let us provide Him with all that He needs.
Finally, we have an appeal to the daughters, not here the daughters of Jerusalem, but the daughters of Zion. The daughters of Jerusalem pave the chair with love; that is an administrative idea. The saints viewed as daughters of Jerusalem are those who look after the interests of Christ. But the daughters of Zion refer to the eternal counsels. What a stimulus in that as it comes home to me! I was foreknown before the world began, I have my place in relation to Christ as a matter of counsel. “But whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”. That is the basic position we are on, dear brethren, and the daughters of Zion imply that. So we are built up on the basis of counsel to go forth and behold Him. And how? As the Bridegroom, for it says, “Behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart”. I can understand God crowning Him when He comes out from heaven, crowned with many diadems, but I should like to see this one. He is presented in a peculiarly affectionate way. The mother is brought into it. Mary was His mother, of course, but she failed. She was at Cana of Galilee at the wedding, but He was not the Bridegroom then. She rather would use the Lord to do something. That will not do in a wedding feast where He is to shine. She failed there. He said, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”. His mother here is a spiritual thought, and prophetically it is Israel. She is seen as His mother bearing Him in Revelation 12. Now she is seen crowning Him. If it be applied to us, viewed as the assembly, for Jerusalem above is our mother, then it would be the saints collectively putting a crown on the head of [p. 249] Jesus. The daughters of Zion are to go forth and behold Him with that crown. It means, I apprehend, that we are versed in the idea of His marriage and His queen. Psalm 45 is a love Psalm. “Upon thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir”. The Scriptures abound in regard to this marital thought. Here it is an appeal to those who are instructed to go forth “and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart”. All is fresh and full; it is Christ seen in the most delightful surroundings.
Now, dear brethren, He says to His disciples, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see”, Luke 10: 23. If we are to have eyes for those glories of Christ, as we have, we shall see them. The Spirit of God presents them to us. It is a movement forward to see them, to behold king Solomon. The Lord in the ministry is appealing to our hearts, in relation to the eternal counsels of God, to go forth and behold Christ in this glorious way, crowned “with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart”.