CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
[p. 34] CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Mark 3:31 - 35; Luke 8:19 - 21; John 20:16,17
I want to say a word about education, and I venture to select these scriptures as indicating the course of instruction which is available. I desire especially to dwell on the last scripture. Mary indicates by the term she uses in addressing the Lord that she was among those who had taken up the course of instruction and had progressed in it. She designates the Lord as He had been known to her; she says to Him, “Rabboni”; He was her Teacher, her Master. Nothing can be more important for us than to come under His instruction. The sun shines, there is a great deal of light: but there is much need for instruction. We get such a term as this, “instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Timothy was amongst those who had been learners; the apostle says to him, “Abide in those things which thou hast learned ... knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (chapter 3:14). In the prophets we have a suggestion that is very solemn. God’s people were “destroyed by lack of knowledge”, (Hosea 4:6). Hosea tells us “we shall know”. Having spoken of the Lord and of returning to Him, the prophet says, “After two days he shall revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight”. He says we shall know God, but there was something more than that: “then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord” (chapter 6:2,3). The secret of this knowledge is in the following.
At the outset of the Scriptures one is greatly struck with the intelligence displayed. Adam gave proof of very great intelligence; every creature of God is brought to him that he might name them. We are not told where he acquired his intelligence, or where he was instructed, but every creature of God was brought to him and he pronounced the name of each, and the name which Adam pronounced upon them [p. 35] has remained; that was its name then, and that name remains. We have not a list given of the names which he assigned, but we are given an example in the naming of Eve which would indicate that Adam had a reason for naming each as he did. If he gave each a name, he would assign a reason for that name. One observes that much is said today, and much assumed, and yet no reason is given for it. We want to be able to assign a reason for things.
I refer for a moment to Eve; Adam assigns a reason for the name he gives her. It is a wonderful incident; a most attractive incident, the first marriage ceremony. Jehovah presents her to Adam, it was a test to the intelligence of the man, but Adam was equal to it; “This time”, he says, “it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a Man” (Genesis 2:23). That is what it is to be intelligent according to God; he can assign a reason for what he says. Adam was a figure of Him that was to come; he displayed very great intelligence, but he was only a figure of Him that was to come. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave names, and in the giving of them He displays not only His sovereign right, but His divine intelligence. He gave names when here, and He never gave them haphazard; there was always a reason.
When we come on to the end, we find the assembly in heaven, and the elders surrounding the throne of God, and what remarkable intelligence they display! These elders refer to ourselves, beloved brethren; putting it very simply, they refer to Christians. They are the result of the divine thought in taking us up; they are the outcome of God’s thought for us in saving us. What does the Lord Jesus think when He takes any of us up, when He calls us by name? He thinks of the possibilities; He gives us a name according to the possibilities, according to the certainties, we might say; for every possibility is a [p. 36] divine certainty with the Lord. He is thinking of these twenty-four elders. He has no lower thought for any of us than that we should be among them. He has twenty-four thrones, and they are to be occupied by men called elders, and what marks them is that in everything they do, and for everything they say, they are able to give a reason. They explain things; if they worship, they tell you why.
How humbling are the occurrences often when we come together to break bread. Why do we say things, why do we do things? Participation there ought to be grounded on wisdom. If you cannot give a reason you are put to shame, you are short of an elder. God measures you; every word is taken account of divinely. God measures the temple and the worshippers. There is that which He will not measure, the court which is without the temple. What a terrible thing to be formally omitted from God’s measuring! I would rather be measured by God, even though it brings out my failure, than be left out as unworthy of measurement. The temple, the altar, the worshippers, all are divinely measured. God has His own standard; the Lord Jesus is the standard, He is the model. These elders were in the good of divine instruction; every one of them had learnt of Christ; they were full-grown; they were not afraid of being measured.
If we speak of the course of instruction, I think it begins with this chapter in Mark. The word “crowds” is used there, it is not disciples. Earlier in the chapter His relatives had, in a patronising sort of way, assumed that He was out of His mind. They were not His enemies, He had enemies, those who said that He cast out demons by Beelzebub, but these were not His enemies, they were His distant relatives evidently. His mother and His brethren would belong to a nearer circle no doubt, but here they were standing without, and they called to Him to [p. 37] come out. How wanting in divine instincts they were! According to nature His mother had a right to call her son, but she lacked in divine intelligence; she was outside His interests. They were standing without; not opposers, but content to be outside.
Well, His mother and His brethren stood without and desired Him to come to them, but He will never join them on these lines. He disowns the relationship, and the crowds are respected. There are those who are around Him inside. I would call your attention to the word “crowd” in verse 32. The multitude encircling Him; there is no natural link between Him and them, but He looks round about upon them. He does not look on those outside. They desired to see Him on natural grounds, but they stood outside. Flesh is incapable of divine culture; nature is incapable of divine culture; but if you come inside you will be where you may be divinely instructed. I want to show you how the education begins. While you stand you are not a learner; you must sit to be a disciple, a learner. John the baptist stood: dispensationally he was right in standing, but he did not come into the Christian instruction, inside. He said, “the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly” (John 3:29); but a disciple sits.
Well, in this scripture we find a crowd sitting; these sitters had begun to take the course of instruction. They are not called brethren, nor even disciples, but a “crowd”, yet see how the Lord honours them! It is a circle you see, a circle around the Lord. Everything for God is on the principle of a circle. Well, the Lord looked round on the circle, He looked upon those sitting around Him. What an attitude that was! They were sitting around Him, and He looked round in a circuit on them, and He says, “Behold my mother and my brethren!” They had come to see that here was teaching from God; they desired to be instructed. They knew very little [p. 38] perhaps, but they were where they would acquire divine intelligence; they were sitting around Him. That is the beginning of the course of Christian education.
Then the Lord says at the end of the chapter, “whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother”. He put the brother first; it is the brother He has in His mind; the Lord was thinking of the brother. What kind of brethren were they? The course of instruction begins in sitting around the Lord, and you are recognised as a brother because you are doing the will of God; it is in that way you recognise the brother. They were using not their hands, that would come later, but they were using their ears, and that is how you do the will of God; it is in listening to Christ. Your hands will come in later and your feet too, but the will of God begins with sitting around the Lord Jesus. It is wonderful to arrive at this position, to be sitting around the Lord listening to His word, doing the will of God; of such the Lord will say, “The same is my brother, and my sister, and mother”. Well, that is how Christian education begins; it shows the will of God carried out by the believer.
Now in Luke 8 the Lord does not look around on any one. What He says there is, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it”. He did not point to them; I fear they were not there. It is a very great thing to say that any company hear the word of God, and do it. It is not a crowd in Matthew, but His disciples, His learners; they were learning from the Lord. In Luke He simply says of such persons as hear the will of God, and do it, ‘They are my mother, and my brethren’. Who? Is there any one on earth today to whom the Lord can call attention in this way? “Those who hear the word of God”. I desire to be [p. 39] simple. God has been pleased to raise up those who have spoken to us the word of God; it has been opened up to us, unfolded to us; God for His own wise ends has removed them from us; it is very solemn. Are there those today to whom the Lord can appeal as having heard the word of God? God is looking for results. He has given to us to hear His word, and He never does anything without a purpose; He is looking for the result in us who have heard. The word has come to us, clearly, simply, but what has been the result? Are there those who not only hear the word of God, but who do it? It is a very serious moment for us. God raises the question with us, What about the doing? As we have received, even so will it be required of us again. So the Lord shows here, that those who hear and those who do, are the recognised brethren of Christ.
In John 20 we reach the highest point of the instruction. In John’s gospel the Lord is more often referred to as Teacher than in any other. He is the great Teacher sent from God. John’s line implies more teaching than any other. All are to be taught of God. Think of God instructing us! What does He speak to us about? The great lesson is how to love. In 1 Thessalonians 4:9 the apostle says, “ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another”. The gospel and epistles of John are all to the same end that we might be taught how to love. First, love itself is known; we are shown what love is, and then further, we are to love. If God takes in hand to teach us, the great lesson is love; and as we learn what love is, we also learn how to love on our part. It is all in Christ; He has shown us what love is. “He laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16), and that becomes instruction to us that we may love. If that is the great lesson we are to be instructed in, we can see that to enter into the truth unfolded in John’s gospel requires more teaching than for any other. Nicodemus [p. 40] in chapter 3:2 says to Him, “We know thou art a teacher come from God”. That is the character of the whole gospel.
Now Mary, in chapter 20, uses the word Teacher, indicating what He was to her; she speaks according to what the Lord Jesus had been to her. If you are a true man you speak to Him according to the measure in which He has been known to your soul. The Samaritan woman, in chapter 4, said He was a prophet; she recognised the prophet in Him; He touched her conscience. She did not even known Him as the Christ; for the Lord’s telling her that He was such did not prove that she knew Him in that way, but she was on the road to it, and He says, “I that speak unto thee am he”. So again in chapter 9 the man is led along until finally he recognises Him as the Son of God. In the house in Bethany He was known as the Teacher; He had taught them love. So when Mary spoke to the Lord she called Him by the name by which she knew Him. Beloved brethren, I would say, Let us call Him by the name by which we know Him, in the assembly; do not be unreal; speak to Him as you know Him. Seek to convey what you have in your soul when speaking to the Lord. Mary did that; she called Him Rabboni, Teacher; He had been her Teacher, her Instructor, and she called Him by that name.
We have the finishing touches of the education in this scripture, and these finishing touches came from the Lord as ascended in principle; He was on His way to ascend. There are things, proper to the new position He is bringing to us; we need to acquire manners suited to the new position. He will make us spiritually refined and fit for heavenly relationships. Psalm 22 is headed, “according to the hind of the morning”; it suggests a hind let loose. The Lord is seen in three positions in it; we have His death and resurrection, and He is perfected; heard from [p. 41] the horns of the unicorns and let go? Where does He go as set free? He thinks of His brethren “I will declare thy name unto my brethren” (Hebrews 2:12). He will give the finishing touches to their education. They are to be His companions in heavenly glory, and they will need those finishing touches.
So in John 20 He comes into the midst of His own in all the dignity and glory of His person as the One who ascends to the Father; “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father”. The message had been sent by Mary, the instructed one; she had the thing in her heart; she could convey it faithfully. She had been instructed in the garden, and He had said to her, “Touch me not”; do not connect the earthly with the heavenly; “I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend”. Was it like a note written? Was it something put on paper? No, she received it into her heart; she could convey it because she knew it; she understood the spirit of it. I have no doubt she conveyed the spirit of it to the disciples as they were gathered together. We want to give out the spirit of things, beloved brethren, it is not just doctrine that will help us, but we want to give out the spirit of the truth. Mary had gathered up the spirit of things in her soul. There had been the interchange of names between herself and the Lord, and then there was the instruction in order that she should understand the new relationships He had brought about in heaven: the new position and the new relationships connected with it. Do you not think she was in the spirit of the thing? I am sure she was.
Then when the Lord Jesus comes into the midst, all that occurred in the upper room was instruction for the new place; His coming in and speaking peace, His breathing upon them, His words, all was instruction [p. 42] for them, that they should take their place as His companions in the presence of the Father. The name of the Father is the completion of the instruction He would give them; they are brought in before the Father in association with Him, and He sings the Father’s praises, the praises of God. In Psalm 22:3 He spoke of God as “inhabiting the praises of Israel”, but now He brings in the praise of the assembly. David’s greatest work was to inaugurate the praise of Jehovah; he arranged the singing of the priests, and God delighted in the praises of Israel. David was the leader of Israel’s choir; he was the sweet psalmist of Israel; his psalms were the outcome of his experience with God. But now the Lord brings His brethren in before His Father and theirs, and in the midst of them He sings praises; He becomes the leader of the choir of His brethren, and He sings praises to His Father.
One hopes that the word spoken may not be fruitless to any of us, that it may not be without profit. The assembly ought not to be just a religious meeting to be got through, it ought to be something for God. It should be the expression of our intelligent appreciation of the instruction of Christ, the expression of our love, for the Father seeks worshippers, and if you get the worshippers you will get the worship.