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NOTES OF READINGS AND ADDRESSES, LONDON, MAY, 1922 - READING (1)

JT What I had in mind arises somewhat from the introductory remarks of the evangelist. It is said that many had taken in hand to give an account of the things believed among them; evidently there had been much given out, but his narrative is intended to be authoritative, as of one accurately acquainted with all things from the outset. He had in view, among other things, to call attention to the order and comeliness which marked the ministry of the grace of God at the outset. It occurred to me there was a parallel, in a much more obscure way, of course, at the present time. The Lord has helped, and many have been in service and much has come before us, and I thought that perhaps this gospel would help us at this juncture as showing what marked the Lord externally first of all, and then those whom He appointed to serve at the beginning. Besides in our Lord Himself, a certain grace and dignity marked all those who were called into service; indeed, the house of God, which this evangelist takes account of more than the others, was also marked by that outward adornment to which I refer. That may suffice, perhaps to indicate what is in view.

The thought was expressed by some that we could not undertake to go into the book in any exhaustive way, even if we touched on the various subjects in it. The idea was to take it up in five sections with these thoughts in view, so that what is before us now is the section covered from chapters 1 to 4, in which we see how the Lord entered on His service.

FHB Would you speak of the testimony and ^[p. 2] of the suitability of the vessel to whom the testimony was committed?

JT Yes; so that the narrative begins with drawing attention to certain antecedents, first of John the baptist, then of the Lord Himself. God never begins in an instantaneous way, there is always preparation; so we get a priest and his wife of the daughters of Aaron introduced, reminding us that in drawing near to man there would be sympathy with man. Indeed, the fact that the gospel is addressed to an individual bears out the same thought, because a communication from one individual to another necessarily carries more sympathy than a communication addressed in a general way such as we see in the other gospels. It is as if God would address each man separately.

JS What was your thought in regard to the priest and his wife of the daughters of Aaron as bearing on the subject?

JT A reminder that the communication would be on sympathetic lines. Compassion and sympathy were to characterise a priest; Hebrews 5: 2.

AMH Are you suggesting that this spirit of sympathy should be one of the features that should mark the vessel?

JT Yes. This gospel tells us that after praying all night the Lord appointed His apostles, and then it says He descended with them to a level place; He would descend to the level of men. The early introduction of the priest indicated that God was approaching man in a sympathetic way, and the persons brought into view were in accord with this.

ENH Have you the thought that all that came out afterwards in the twelve, and in the seventy, and in the house of God generally is set forth, first in Himself as a pattern — the obedient, dependent Man as a sample of the kingdom; not only preaching it, but presenting it in ^[p. 3] Himself?

JT Yes; He wrought Himself first. The beauty and grace which marked His service are seen before others have part in it.

Ques Would you say a little more as to what was before your mind with regard to sympathy?

JT I think the narrative being addressed by one individual to another would imply that. Luke takes account of Theophilus’ state of soul; he needed to be assured, or made certain, of the things he had been instructed in; and then the mention of Zacharias and his wife — the priestly family — and he serving in his course, suggests sympathy. He was not merely an official priest, he was righteous, serving in his course and offering incense.

DLH I should like to ask, with regard to the word ‘vessel’ that has been used once or twice, have you the thought of the individual vessels — every saint of God — or of the assembly?

JT Both. One has to arrive at the assembly through the understanding one has of God in the way He deals with oneself.

EJMcB I have thought that was largely the reason why this gospel was presented to an individual, that he might become personally sympathetic with the operations of God in a corporate way.

JT It seems as if God would impress upon us at the outset that He is interested in each of us; this is a very affecting thing. I do not think that ministry can be effective unless the one who ministers is in sympathy with those to whom he ministers.

JS What is the force of the fact that he was serving in his course and offering incense? Is it in contrast with the official priesthood?

JT Serving in his course would show that he recognised not only the primary thought of the priesthood as given by Moses, but what it was as taken up by David. David took up priesthood in a ^[p. 4] new way. By him the priests were divided into twenty-four courses.

PL In view of the yield for God?

JT Yes. The first book of Chronicles enters into it; we have a record there that goes back to the beginning — to Adam. Now Luke is aiming at that, and the Holy Spirit gives us these touches to show how the thread of the testimony was preserved. Luke links up the testimony from the beginning in referring to 1 Chronicles.

JRK Do you mean to imply that the priesthood is brought in early in this book in order that we might see that on the one hand there is a link with God, and on the other a link with man in sympathy?

JT Yes. That would come out in Zacharias; he was serving in the order of his course and offering incense, which was according to the custom of the priesthood; and the people were in prayer outside. That was a remarkable feature. In however few the thread of the testimony was, it was there, and it is called attention to in a very remarkable way by Luke so that we may see the antecedents of what we have presented in Christ, and, later, in the apostles.

PRM Then we get angelic sympathy too in Gabriel and the heavenly hosts?

JT Just so: “I am Gabriel, who stand before God”. He is brought in to show, among other things, how sympathetic heaven was in what was transpiring. We may say that the dignity and intelligence of the heavenly host were represented in Gabriel. The service of God was being carried on by Zacharias. Things were maintained not only according to the primary institution of priesthood, but according to its highest conception in the Old Testament, as represented in David.

JRK So that if the kingdom is established as suggested in David, it is established on priestly lines.

JT ^[p. 5] It is not only the establishment of the kingdom but of the service of God; that was the great thing in 1 Chronicles — the service of God was set up; and the courses of the priests and the courses of the Levites were to that end. You might say priesthood was there in its highest form.

Ques Would the praying company outside carry your thought as to sympathy in connection with the interests of the house?

JT Quite. It is not a question of how many were included, but the thing was there. Matthew gives us another picture altogether. Luke takes up what is for God, and one’s exercise is that we might see what was at the beginning in this respect, so that it might have its bearing now. Indeed, the Lord would have us to be affected by what was at the beginning as recorded in each of the gospels.

AMH You think then that Luke presents two sides — the Vessel of God here and all that is of God presented to men in Him, and also the gathering up of what is for the service of God?

JT Yes; and he emphasises the order and comeliness that marked all. Another feature is that you feel you are in close touch with heaven throughout; there is a certain heavenly spring in all. Gabriel comes in here and announces his name. In the next chapter there are no names of angels mentioned, but Gabriel in announcing his would be representative of the order of things in heaven, for we may be assured that in the dignitaries there everything is in perfect order. We know from Ezekiel, too (chapter 28: 12 - 14), what personal ornamentation marked angelic dignitaries. If rightly apprehended, the house of God is in close proximity to heaven; there is very little between heaven and the house of God. The first time the house of God is mentioned in Scripture it says it was “the gate of heaven”; thus the testimony is in connection with what is positively attractive ^[p. 6] from the outset.. We can hardly read the record of it without finding it attractive.

Ques Does this opening portion of the gospel give us the positive assurance that what God had set up in all its moral features was maintained by Himself in spite of the national breakdown?

JT Yes, it does; and it ought to touch our hearts that we can be maintained in a broken day in the full height of priesthood according to its primary institution. The reference is to David’s day, not to that of Moses.

JS Is what you are saying historically illustrated in the antecedents of Paul before going out in service? He went first to Antioch. Here we have the antecedents of the Lord before moving out in ministry.

HD'AC It was “that holy thing which shall be born”, and therefore all the surroundings had to be holy and heavenly. There was nothing outwardly glorious and palatial; outwardly things were little, but wonderfully holy.

JT Quite; and there is a reminder of the wealth of heaven. Although outwardly small yet there is spiritual superabundance. You get Elizabeth as she is, very comely. At the outset she hid herself five months — a very fine example of comeliness. As Mary’s voice falls on her ears the babe leaps in her womb, and the Holy Spirit comes upon her, and she cries out. Then we have Mary’s contribution marked by a wealth of intelligent enjoyment, then Zacharias himself joining in: a wonderful chorus of appreciation of what was there from hearts that were genuinely affected.

JS Does it suggest the state of the saints in the appreciation of Christ prior to the ministry going out? Is that how it applies to us?

JT That is the thought.

JRK Would you say we have the introduction ^[p. 7] of the kingdom here in the Person of the Lord Himself, and that all the attendant circumstances would suggest the character of the kingdom that is coming in? The kingdom will be manifested by-and-by, and all these various elements will appear — the house of God connected with heaven, and a system of things which will be quite according to Christ.

JT Yes. What we are occupied with is the service of God; that which is affected by heaven and its results God-ward, so that the wealth that is there is reflected.

EJMcB Your thought is that the kingdom comes in more incidental to that?

JT Well, it does. The kingdom is a means to an end; 1 Chronicles is to show how the service of God was set up under David, and this gospel corresponds.

MWB Will you say a little more as to priesthood in David, as to why it reaches its height there?

JT I think David acts typically in the capacity of head. He is not told exactly what to do, although it does say that he had the pattern of the house by the Spirit; but it is not “Thus saith the Lord”; it is not the Lord speaking to David, but what David does; it is what was done by one who was continually affected by God. He sat in his house and considered that he dwelt in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of Jehovah was under curtains, and the word was, “Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee”. That was the thing, what was in his heart. Then the message comes to him from God through Nathan, and it discloses what was in the mind of God for him and for his house. But the ark was the great thought of David’s life, “Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood. I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord,

^[p. 8] an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”. That is what he had before him, so that what he sets up is in keeping with that.

The author of the first book of Chronicles shows how the thread of the testimony was carried through, because he begins with Adam, showing that everything is preserved and all is now in the hands of David. I think the writer, whoever he was — probably Ezra — besides being inspired, was in full sympathy with the mind of God, and so would delight in the thought that everything now is in the hands of one who loved God and who had it in his heart to serve God. The whole book shows how true David was, and how intelligent he was in what he did; I think that the twenty-four courses would imply that he carried both dispensations forward; he took up what was in the previous one and connected it with what was in his own.

Rem We are not isolated; what we are going on with is what was at the beginning.

EJMcB I was going to ask whether you had in your mind as to the twenty-four courses that the priesthood was on a basis that was not so much connected with the wilderness conditions and its needs, but with the service of God at its height.

JT I think so. What came out in the wilderness under Moses is not ignored. David valued that, but then there is a new order of things under him — a kind of forecast of our own day. David’s service is typical of our own time, and the reference to it here in Luke 1 is very significant. It shows how the thread of the testimony is preserved. The one who writes the record of David’s service reaches right back to Adam. Now in Simeon, who was not of the priestly family according to flesh, we have the change to the spiritual priesthood; he is the true priest in the sense that he is governed by the Spirit, and he says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant ^[p. 9] depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. All is now handed on, so to say, to Christ. There is a very great correspondence between 1 Chronicles and Luke.

JRK Would you say that the kingdom reached a climax in the establishment of the ark on mount Zion, and everything flowed from that in the service of song that was appointed?

JT Quite. In Chronicles you have the priest, and not only that but you have in David the subjective response to what is presented on the part of God; he is the sweet psalmist of Israel.

PL So that if the official system passes over to Christ in the house of God, He must, being greater than the house, adorn it and add to it in the grace and glory of His own manhood as in heaven.

JRK Say a word as to the difference between the grace added in the Person of Christ and the ark as established on mount Zion.

JT The ark was God’s glory; it represented what was of God and for God, so that David in dancing before it showed he was more than a king; he was a priest, he was clothed with a linen ephod. It was necessary to be clothed with linen, for it was a priestly undergarment, but it was very suitable in one of royal dignity that he should put it on, because the wearing of it tends to reduction, and sobriety, and to the removal of natural feeling. In dancing before the ark he recognised what the ark represented; he had heard of it, but now he had found it.

JBC-l Luke himself not only got the truth of the house of God as it affected the saints, so that he speaks in the way of household affections, but he got it directly from Paul, and thus he had it in a sympathetic way.

JT Yes; I think his companionship with Paul enters into the narrative; not that it affects the inspiration of the gospel, but it affects the vessel ^[p. 10] employed; it brings in a heavenly touch. He, being a companion of Paul and observing his manner, would be qualified to write such a gospel. It has a heavenly touch that you do not get in the others.

The second chapter brings in the heavenly host in a very striking way. They are full of sympathy, and it is sympathy out of heaven; they are sympathetic with God.

The shepherds were abiding without, keeping watch by night over their flock; they were without shelter, and were affected by their interest in their flocks, “And lo, an angel of the Lord was there by them”, as if to intimate that heaven takes note of this spirit of keeping watch over the flock at night and abiding in the field.

HFN Are not Simeon and Anna a development of that spirit?

JT Yes. The chapter goes on next to the announcement, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”. The angel announced something that he called “good tidings of great joy”; one is impressed with the fulness of the thing, the wealth that is in it. Then suddenly a multitude of the heavenly host was with the angel; heaven was thus brought very near in sympathy with God and with man. Then the shepherds go to Bethlehem to see this thing which had come to pass. Now Simeon would gather up all that in his service. I think he represents what is in view in this gospel, the spiritual nature of things; it had been revealed to him by the Spirit that he should, see the Lord’s Christ, and he came by the Spirit into the temple and took the Babe up in his arms.

HFN Is that the spot where we begin to touch what is connected with heaven? If the shepherds represent what is without, does Simeon in the temple represent what is within?

JT Yes.

PL ^[p. 11] The shepherds in that way answer to the separate character indicated in the badger skins, and Simeon to the rich furnishings of the tabernacle within.

JT The angels are the instructed ones up to this point. The light comes from them. They instruct Zacharias and Mary and the shepherds, but now we have the light through a man, Simeon. The Holy Spirit was upon him. He is representative of what is to be the result; the evangelist is aiming at showing this. He is in the temple by the Spirit, and taking the Babe in his arms, he conveys the mind of God there: “A light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. Christ was God’s salvation.

Simeon is a typical priest, not of the order of Aaron, but, in a practical way, such as we have now. It is a question of being spiritual.

Rem He has no claim to the priesthood apart from that.

JT No, nor have we; nor has any one today any claim to it.

PL In Romans 1 it is the glad tidings of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The apostle says, “Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son”. This is priestly service.

ENH I suppose the Lord would have us all to be Simeons and Annas — that is, consecrated priests with our hands and hearts filled with Christ.

JT The great thing is to get an apprehension of Christ by the Spirit. Simeon has an apprehension of Christ by the Spirit, and then speaking of Him in a general way comes out in Anna. She spoke of Him to all who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

Rem Simeon gathered up what the shepherds heard and saw and presented it to God.

JT He had it by the Spirit; that is the point ^[p. 12] with him, and it is suggestive of the new thing that was coming in.

FHB What would mark a spiritual man is appreciation of Christ.

JT Right apprehension and right appreciation of Christ would qualify for ministry. Anna is the counterpart of Simeon — she spake of Him.

Ques Would that constitute the spiritual house in figure?

JT It constitutes you a right minister. If you minister, you must first apprehend Christ by the Spirit, and then appreciate Him by the Spirit, as Simeon did.

JS What is the link between her being a widow and being aged and speaking of Him?

JT The widow state prepares for Christ. As seen in Anna, widowhood implies that all natural hopes are abandoned and Christ is all.

JJ Is the thought of priestly sympathy carried on in the twenty-four elders in Revelation?

JT I think so. What we see in them is experience, but what we have here is the light at the beginning of things; how you get an apprehension of Christ in a spiritual way, and then you speak of Him. How do I speak of Him?

Ques Is your thought that the preacher is a development of the priest?

JT Quite. You could not speak rightly of Christ unless you had an apprehension of Him in some sense as Simeon had. Christ is apprehended in the temple.

HFN Are all these elements gathered up in the anointed priest?

JT Yes; that comes out in chapter 4.

Ques Would they bring in an atmosphere in which the preacher would come ^[p. 13] out?

JT Yes.

Ques How do you regard Mary in connection with these exercises?

JT She represents holy maternal instincts. It is right to leave her by herself; I do not think she represents any one else. She is the mother of our Lord and no one else can ever have that place.

JBC-l Do you think Luke presents all these features in a household atmosphere, in the affections that would move along that line? Simeon took the child in his arms. The understanding of the truth of “God manifest in flesh” is not enough. You see in Simeon the affection that laid hold of the truth.

Rem He spoke of Him as in his arms.

HD'AC The Babe is not put back into Mary’s arms; He is left there in Simeon’s. The natural has to give way to the spiritual.

JT Luke leads up to a spiritual priesthood, and his gospel ends with a company of priests in the temple, and Simeon is a representative of them, I think. One has to know what it is, speaking reverently, to take the Child in his arms. Simeon represents that intelligent affection; he had things by the Spirit — it was a spiritual action.

Rem There was a satisfied heart: “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation”.

MWB Have we got the two sides you have been speaking of in connection with the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel — sympathy in Jeremiah and the spiritual side in Ezekiel?

JT That is very interesting. The second chapter brings out additional thoughts as to Christ. He now becomes a test. Taken out of Mary’s arms, He is personally detached, and thus He becomes a test. He acquired His own personal place afterwards and became a test to all. Mary sought Him among His kinsfolk and acquaintances; that is not where you will find Him now. You will find Him in the temple;

^[p. 14] that is the point. There is perfect beauty in all that relates to Christ; He is always in perfect keeping with His circumstances.

JRK If we have a due appreciation of Christ according to this gospel, is it not in the apprehension of Him as expressive of what is in the heart of God “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”?

JT Yes.

WCG Would Acts 20 support your thought? Paul pours out a priestly heart in addressing the elders of the assembly at Ephesus. Luke was present with him then.

JT Yes; I think it is important to bear in mind that Luke was a companion of Paul, and a witness of the truth as it took form in the apostle. You see how the Lord comes out in this chapter; all the people having been baptised, it says, He was baptised, but He is marked off by heaven on the occasion of being so.

HD'AC He had just joined “the excellent of the earth, in whom is all my delight”.

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