CHRIST TO BE OUR ALL

I. M. Shearer

John 12: 3; 21: 20–22; Philippians 3: 8, 12–14

Do we have the courage, the honesty, do we have the willingness, to consider—Is Christ our all? It is easy to accept what He has done for us. The preaching includes what He has done for us, but it includes more than that; it is what He will be for us. God said to Abraham, “I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward”—“I am”! So we joined in a beautiful hymn to the Lord Jesus describing His distinctive glories (Hymn 313). That is calculated every time we sing it, to point up that blessed One to the exclusion of all others.

Now I want to say, do we have the courage, and do we have the honesty and the willingness to examine whether it is so, that Christ is our all? So I have picked out these three beloved saints as setting out something of that. It is very much in relation to what we spoke of earlier as to the sustaining of the testimony of Christ at the level on which He Himself maintained it, in glory and dignity and power; for that we must be occupied with Christ.

Well, the first passage is about a dear sister who poured out the ointment; she made everything of Christ. Did it hinder that there was one there who found fault? Did it hinder that there was a betrayer there in their midst? She was undistracted. Oh what a blissful state that is—undistracted! Have you some such experience? Can you remember a time—maybe in the meeting, maybe on your knees—when you were without distraction?

Were the pressures that were bearing on your life at that moment, the concerns of your family, or in your business, so removed from you that you were conscious of nothing but Christ? Can you remember such a time? This is a picture of such a time, someone occupied with Christ to the exclusion of all else. As a result there was a flowing out which He truly appreciated and the benefit of it filled that house. We would have concern, and surely every responsible Christian would have concern, that the heart of Christ be ministered to.

Consider this situation—all Jerusalem was preparing for the crucifixion of Christ. Oh the heartlessness of it! The chief priests and their council were premeditating the false accusation of Christ and the apathy of the nation was blindly supporting them. The weakness of the disciples was going to involve He would be left, the sheep scattered and the Shepherd there alone. That is the scene, and there is one soul who feels it, and as taken up with His distinctive beauty she pours her all out for His pleasure. And one said, ‘Ought not the poor to have been considered?’ Think of what is happening around us in the feverish activity of persons concerned about the poor (and, in their place, let us be concerned for such), but who is concerned as to Christ? Who is prepared to pour out this most expensive ointment, solely for the heart of Christ? Do you not think that is a distinctive movement of heart and soul? It is so distinctive that it is marked in Scripture.

And is it any wonder that the house was filled with the odour of the ointment? Can you conceive, beloved brother and beloved sister, that your devotion and exclusiveness for Christ must have a bearing on the collective position and will be for the benefit of every believer? It may be something secret, something that transpires in your life, something that has gone on in the bedroom, in the office, or out in the workplace, and you have had this blissful experience of being able to minister to the heart of Christ while you were exclusively occupied with Him. I commend that word to you, it is a beautiful word—exclusively occupied with Christ. Something transpires and the whole company benefits. It makes for a good prayer meeting; it makes for a wonderfully powerful ministry meeting:

“These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him”, John 12: 41. It makes for pointedness in our readings; it makes for glory in the service of God; it makes for attractiveness in the preaching. Would that we could present Christ as this woman would, who was so engaged with Him. We read of John the baptist at the beginning of this book; he spoke of the Lamb of God and his two disciples followed Jesus. Think of the beauty of that; what a way to present Christ!

Beloved sisters and brothers, young and old, have you had an experience when Christ has meant so much to you that you have been undeterred by criticisms? Consider that when you are on your knees. I trust you find yourself on your knees regularly, and do not be satisfied until you are in communion, when there is not only something emanating from you but there is something flowing into you as you are with divine Persons. It says of Enoch that he walked with God, and the day came when “he was not”. There was no wrench for Enoch because there was no attachment in him to the scene that he walked in. All his attachments were with God and so it was an easy matter for God to translate him out of this scene. Would it be so with us? How tightly are we bound to matters in this scene—even in the area of what is legitimate? Let us examine these things.

Well, I pass on to John 21. In this case there is a history preceding. Peter had experienced some probings, and we may need to experience some probings. That we come to these meetings for is not just to have a blissfully happy time if there are things to be set right in us.

So Peter had some probings, and then John comes into his view. John speaks of himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Now do you know what that points up? It means that John was enjoying it. It was not just a title, it was not just that he was a disciple of the Lord Jesus, but he was a disciple whom He loved.

You know, we have lots of things to which we are entitled. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies is yours; it is your entitlement, but are you enjoying it? And so, beloved young person, you have a Saviour who loves you. He says, “Suffer the little children to come to me; forbid them not”, Mark 10: 14. He wants the little children to come to Him. He is their Saviour and beloved older brother and sister, He is your Saviour. He is yours! As Mary says earlier in the previous chapter, “they have taken away my Lord”. But all that being so, do you enjoy His love? Are you in the present power of it? You cannot leave your room in the morning enjoying His love and find a ready place in this cold, heartless world. You cannot find great pleasure in His love and then immediately find great pleasure in this earth which is but His grave. And so it is a challenge, another challenge. Are we enjoying His love? If we are finding that Christ is greater than all other attractions it will be because we do know that love. In the words of the hymn writer—

‘Tis the treasure we’ve found in His love

That has made us now pilgrims below (Hymn 139).

Are you enjoying His love? We have great privileges; we have one another; and we have enlightenment—a very great privilege—the light that has afforded us understanding of our true position in these very difficult days. But, transcending all that, we have an active Lover to help us. We have One who will take us by the hand and on whose breast we can lean. It is not that we just lie on His breast but we lean on His breast. It is a firm place, a dependable place, a resort. Do you have a hard question?

Do you want to know the answer? That is the very instance cited here, a question. Who had the answer? So John leaned hard on the breast of his Lover and he secured the answer. Is that not practical?

In the last passage, in Philippians, is the practical side. We have spoken of some beautiful things. You can well afford just to reflect on Christ in His beauty. Spend time on it, as the psalmist says, “I say what I have composed touching the king”, Psalm 45: 1. A composition means you have considered it. You have put it in the very best way. You have considered it, and you have improved on it and it becomes your composition. So spend time in considering this blessed One, “He is altogether lovely”. In another place it says, referring to the shepherd David, “he was ruddy, and besides of a lovely countenance and beautiful appearance”, 1

Samuel 16: 12. There is always something “besides”, in relation to Christ as you think about Him. You will find something further, this will take the place of the temporary pleasures and the transient joys of earth-bound occupation.

Well now, as we come to this passage we see practical consequences in one so occupied. We know what Paul’s history was, and a very dramatic change was involved in his conversion.

Paul could say, “that I may gain Christ”, which involves that something else must go. In Paul’s experience he had to

count things up and put a value on them. Those who teach accountancy do not teach this way of accounting loss—“I count also all things to be loss ...”—nothing salvageable—“and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ”. It is what we have been speaking about as to the woman in John 12—she had gained Christ. She had Him; He was hers. So Paul says, “I pursue, if also I may get possession of it”, that is, the prize. There is something yet to be reached. Energy is involved. And, beloved brother and sister, where are your energies going?

What are you putting your energies into? A fruitless race? A race along with the world, a mindless activity in earthliness? Would that whatever it is that is a distraction could be exposed for our conviction, that we should desist and apply our energies to this worthwhile race. Practically, let us put our mind, our soul and energy into a worthwhile race.

We get another aspect of pursuing in 2 Timothy 2—we referred to that earlier. In that particular passage you will find out you are not the only one pursuing—“with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” means you have companions. What a blessed privilege to have our companions! Look at them all! We are not out in the cold alone; we have like-minded persons. Let every one of us carefully assess all that we have before us in our lives, and the way we conduct them, and compare it with— gaining Christ. Spend some time tonight reflecting and just prove what it is as you become occupied with Him. What a reward it is to have the soul filled with the Saviour’s love, to have the mind occupied with Him.

Now, if the Lord will, we shall come together in the morning (and we should all be presenting ourselves at the Supper; we should be there as self-judged persons) for a calling of Him to mind.

That is what we assemble for, a calling of Christ to mind (see footnote to 1 Corinthians 11: 24). So that we actively and positively think of Him. Calling Him to mind means your mind is engaged, you are thinking about Him and what He did, where He is and what He is, and love flows. We shall arrive perhaps in our experience at what we read in our first scripture, that the odour filled the house—something for Christ, and all sharing in it. May we all get some impression of what is ours to be currently enjoyed in Christ and may we pursue it to its ultimate end that Christ might be our all, for His own glory.

Address at Melbourne
18 August 1984