GOD'S WAY IN THE TIME OF THE SPIRIT (2)
A.J.E.W. We can see the distinctive special provision of this gospel for these last days. It has been thought to have been the last book of the canon of Scripture to be written under the Spirit's inspiring. It opens up to us the divine arrangements in love which guarantee all that is of God going through. It comes as a precious touch of divine loving assurance, we might say superimposed upon and added to every other part of Scripture, to bring out in the glory of the Godhead, and in the glory of the Persons of the Godhead severally, that holy arrangement which is to carry through all that that same love has purposed for itself. The whole bent of the book is to extend the assembly's appreciation of what is entered upon by God Himself to secure the great ends that have been before us. We see the unparalleled skill in which the Lord affects persons, the unhurried way that love takes, and the entire provision that that same love has made that its own ends may be assured. This, therefore, is the gospel of the blood and water, involving full provision in Christ's death for guilt, but also the immediate provision for cleansing, that there is that from God's side which meets every question. The Lord's distinctive and special place, as in manhood, is wonderfully touched upon, and we have the great statement which runs through in the gospel, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things to be in his hand", chap 3: 35. I believe that statement is, in a sense, referred back to by the Lord's word here in chapter 1: 4, "Ye believe on God, believe also on me". That is, faith apprehends the Son and what is committed to Him, the Father having, as it says, "given all things to be in his hand." It brings out the Son's peculiar greatness as having the immediate charge of these glorious, fruitful, active operations which "his hand" would speak of, carrying everything through in persons looked forward to in purpose - "marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself", Eph 1: 15 - persons who are in mind to fill out a great extent of the divine pleasure.
J.G.H. Do you think this should have a very stabilising effect on us at the present time, particularly as it stands in relation to the dark background of the closing verses of the previous chapter? We have the element of betrayal in Judas, the breakdown of leadership in Peter, and then the actual absence of Christ foretold. These things find their parallel in our own time but the Lord would draw us over in relation to Himself so that our hearts should not be troubled.
A.J.E.W. How much there was to disturb His spirit! But does He, as He goes forward in this chapter, disclose that disturbance of spirit? That is a test when the saints are burdened. Can we carry the burdens and yet find how the spirit is able to bring us into the best? There is no element of disturbance of the spirit of this glorious Man as He opens up things related to Himself and to God. He refers to the many abodes, and singles out the place that love has determined, the choicest and richest, for those whom the Lord is carrying in His heart at this moment.
E.T. Does the Lord bring this out in Matthew 11: 25, where it speaks about the cities that had not repented? He says "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth", the consolation being that He controls in both heaven and earth.
A.J.E.W. There is an added touch to that in Luke 10: 21, the parallel passage, where it speaks of Him rejoicing in Spirit, "Jesus rejoiced in spirit" . All that was around Him did not disturb His holy relations, speaking reverently, with the Father, "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth".
R.A. Is that why John does not bring in the garden of Gethsemane?
A.J.E.W. That is a very interesting point; He is seen in the most absolute composure in this gospel.
J.G.H. There is a serenity and a certainty that mark Him which really represent a challenge to us in the area of testimony.
A.J.E.W. That is carried forward, even in detail, into His addressing the Father in chapter 17, where the real facts of the situation are introduced. It is a wonderful chapter because the Lord is before us in the glory of manhood in His relations as Son with His Father. Of course, from one viewpoint, He knew all that He was speaking of, and the Father did too, but He goes over it. There is that in His place in manhood that involves a great scope of things which He is contemplating, addressing the Father about it in view of its being carried through. We have often turned to this chapter, and the Lord has often helped us about it, but I am just impressed today with the profound way in which the Son speaks to the Father about those so dear to His heart.
A.B.P. Would it be right to say that, in a sense, we get in John the golden reed that is used in the Revelation for measurement? In the reed used in Ezekiel 43: 13 the cubit is a cubit and a span, the arm and the hand. You have both referred to in John, the arm of the Lord being revealed in relation to the mighty works that Jesus did, then the things that are committed into His hand. I wondered if the golden reed therefore, of Revelation may be seen here.
A.J.E.W. That is, the divine standard of measurement as to man is perfectly before us here. Your reference to Ezekiel is meaningful in another sense too, because that enlarged cubit means that six handbreadths become seven. What is characteristically falling short reaches perfection.
A.B.P. I have the sense that this kind of thing is intended to be tremendously encouraging to us in a day of uncertainty; through the experiences and the pressures, we get an increased measure of things and the appreciation of what God is doing.
S.McC. In relation to what Mr Parker says, the Lord asserts His deity in chapter 18: 5-7 as the opposers advance on Him. "Whom seek ye?" He says; they went away backward and fell to the ground". This helps all the more our understanding of John 17. The Lord saw that it was a moment for the assertion of His deity, "I am he".
A.J.E.W. You mean that the Lord has full rights, as in deity, to assert Himself?
S.McC. That is right. They came with lanterns and torches and weapons, but the Lord asserts His deity; He is the creator of all things. In the light of the counsels of John 17 you can understand why the Lord did that.
A.J.E.W. You can indeed, and what a sense of support it gives us to think of that, how the Lord is perfectly able to assert Himself, being who He is. What a touch of comfort for our spirits!
J.G.H. Do we get a similar thought in chapter 8, where on the one hand He refers to Himself as "a man who has spoken the truth to you", (v 40) and on the other hand He says, "before Abraham was I am" (v 58).
A.J.E.W. The Lord meets those men not just by the assertion you refer to, but He meets them in detail too; He goes over the whole ground and He exposes them. It is a wonderful thing that the Lord renders testimony to those men of a kind which lays bare their whole character and position. He also, as you say, makes that assertion which relates to the glory of His Person; but it is a marvellous thing that really He meets them on their own ground and confounds them in the course of His speaking. The way that John treats things would remind us that the time in which the Lord's manhood was filled out was precious time. But He spends time on certain things. He spends time on those men in the testimony of divine grace, to lay bare the whole legal system, to present the true character of it; point by point in detail. It was full testimony to those men, testimony that was rejected but He rendered it.
J.G.H. Do you not think, if we are spiritually sensitive, we may see the Lord operating on similar lines in our own times?
A.J.E.W. We covet the help of the Spirit to the point where that can be. We have seen it, in a sense; Mr Darby took up persons on their own ground. Think of that book, that long writing, 'The Irrationalism of Infidelity', (Collected Writings, Vol 6), which as we are told was composed in night hours so that he should not give of his best in energy to the compiling of it. He gave of his best to that which was of greatest moment in the course of the truth itself, and used the hours of lesser energy and capacity to present that which took up men on their own ground and confounded them absolutely on it. This is all to comfort us in what the Lord is able to do when the saints, and especially the young people, are beset on every hand with the enemy's subtle activities; this gospel seems specially to meet that.
J.A.P. I was noticing this morning in Revelation 5 that one said, "Do not weep" (v 5) and then he spoke In four ways of the Lord. He says " the lion which is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome", (v 5). It is wonderful to think of that; He was a man and yet deity was there. Yet as a man He died for us. He overcame, and He is with us to help us through now. We need to be encouraged because our families, our local meetings, exercise us all. How are we going to get through? The Lord is prepared for that, is He not, if we only have faith for it?
A.J.E.W. That is it, and in that section the whole principle of sacrifice is touched in "a Lamb standing, as slain". He went even to death - and what a death - and this gospel presents peculiarly the way He went into death Himself. He had authority, as chapter 10 18 records, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again", and He bore His own cross. These things all remind us of what love has taken on, carried through, and completed to the uttermost.
A.B.P. In the sense and in the presence of these flashes of deity glory, is it not touching that He should assure the believers, the disciples, that the place to which He will take them is being prepared by a Man? We hear of the things that God has prepared for those who love Him, but there seems to be a certain touching intimacy in that He Himself is going to prepare that place, as in manhood.
A.J.E.W. And what is the special mark of that place?
A.B.P. That He is there.
A.J.E.W. He is there. That is the point I was anxious that we bring out, that He is there. It is not exactly the sumptuousness of the environment, (the place will befit the glory of the One who prepared it, whatever it is), but the point for the heart that loves Christ is that He will be there. And the point that quickens and lends depth to the expectancy of His coming is that, as He says, "I am coming again and shall receive you to my self". That word 'receive' is very affecting. It adds the touch of holy expectant affection in Jesus to this moment that is so soon to come.
A.B.P. Would it be right to add that His own reception up there as man would be in His mind, too, in relation to it? He was received in glory.
A.J.E.W. "Received up in glory", 1 Tim 3: 16. I well remember beloved Mr Taylor sen referring to the reception He had up there, the way that heaven received Him. And he went on, when he spoke of that, to speak of the Lord's supper. How shall we receive Him?
J.J. What is the difference between Christ receiving us and Christ presenting us to Himself?
A.J.E.W. The presenting us to Himself would perhaps involve the satisfaction of His own heart in completing fruitful labour in love. He presents it. He receives it. The presenting is the climax, the outcome of that service that has gone on all down this dispensation, the washing of water by the word. The Lord has faithfully maintained that, and then He presents to Himself the settled result, no longer within range of any hindering or contaminating thing. The receiving would be more related to the Father's thoughts and the way the Lord Jesus was carrying them through.
D.F. Does not John give us unique touches as to the Lord's manhood? Whilst the glory of His Person is ever before us, the reality of His manhood is also brought out uniquely in John's gospel. So that we read of Him being weary, and we read of Him weeping.
A.J.E.W. We were speaking of the way He spent His time. How long he spent over those He loved in Bethany, according to chapter 11; what time entered into that, and what use of time entered into it! He did not go at once, He waited until the moment was in His mind to move into the matter which He was setting afoot. All that is to keep us in the sense of the composure that fills the great centre of things up there. There is no uncertainty there. There is no disturbance there, and as having that as the centre we may proceed and find help to go through without disturbance here. When I say 'here', I have the assembly especially in mind; there is a realm of composure where we can be in affectionate intelligent relation with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, in the realisation to the root of our experience, that everything is in hand, in the hand of One who is going to carry everything through.
D.F. The first thing He speaks of is the place up there, as if that is assured. We can rest on that, that love will provide all that is needed on the way in the path of the testimony.
A.J.E.W. Chapter 17 therefore fills out what is before us here, because He is looking up there as to the final place. But then, as He speaks to the Father in chapter 17, He is looking down into the scene of things here, and in love making every provision for what transpires. What calculations of holy affection we get in this gospel!
C.F.D. That is really food for your soul. You think of the beginning of this in chapter 13, where this section begins. The Lord seems to be so complacent as to all that is before Him. It says "that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own", then "he came out from God and was going to God". You can see all that fills His holy mind. Immediately He is thinking of those that will remain and their part in testimony with Him, and their part in what is heavenly with Him. Then he proceeds along this line of glory in which, as you are suggesting, He is preparing persons to fill out that which is to be for the pleasure of God.
A.J.E.W. We should seize on that last point and follow it, because the Lord is indeed preparing persons for what befits God in His glory. He is doing it as being Himself at close quarters with them; the love service of feet washing would present that side, that He is not speaking to them from any measure of distance. He is speaking to them as in the simplest intimacy with them, just at close quarters, labouring with these men. Of course, there was one that did not respond at all, the son of perdition. There was such an one, and now how close the enemy's attack has come to the very centre of things. Beloved Mr Taylor sen referred to Judas thus. How close he came to the very centre of everything that was proceeding! We realise in recent sorrows how that has, in a certain sense, taken place again. How close to the centre of things the enemy came!
J.J. And you would say it can happen again.
A.J.E.W. That is to keep us dependent.
J.T.M. John must have been very close to have noted Jesus lifting His eyes to heaven. He cherishes, I suppose in his memory, just what the Lord did.
A.J.E.W. It is very interesting to think of the aged apostle, as he must have been when he wrote this, going back to experiences which were his relatively young manhood. He was in the bosom of Jesus, if we understand things aright, as a young man. Though I will say it with reverence, the Lord was a young man, too. I just say that to quicken the interest and longings and intelligence of younger persons to realise the peculiar moment that we have come to, but the divine guarantees that attach to every moment, and this moment among them.
A.B.P. Just before they went out, just before Gethsemane's garden, just before the cross, with all that preceded it and followed it, the Lord covers that whole matter in one short expression, "And I come to thee". Does that not show how possible it is, if we are with God, to be completely superior to the terrible strain and pressure of things that may surround us?
A.J.E.W. That is a very fine point. Of course, there is another side, and that is that the course of things is to go on in responsible hands. So that Peter uses John's nearness to Jesus to establish the facts as to His betrayal. The situation immediately requires that the point of attack be localised in the company, and that there be with some, at least, intelligence as to what is happening.
S.McC. It is very affecting in that way that, despite the weakness that actually was seen through the chapters in the disciples, he credits them in this chapter with ability to receive things. "The words which thou hast given me I have given them", "the glory which thou hast given me I have given them", and "that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them".
A.J.E.W. It is a wonderful contemplation, because it is the Lord foreseeing the magnificence according to God of this time of the Spirit. He is really bringing out what a time it is in relation to the divine counsels. Can we not just fit affectionately and intelligently into this time of the Spirit, as that which the Lord, in His own speaking with the Father, has perfectly foreseen?
S.McC. The Lord thus contemplated an area in them (not just with them, but in them) where divine thoughts would be effective.
A.J.E.W. That involves the way the Spirit is spoken of as in them - with them and in them, John 14: 17. The touches we have had as to the Person of the Spirit are all endorsed by what we find in these chapters.
C.F.D. Is that borne out in chapter 20 when the Lord comes in? First of all He gives that glorious message referring to "my Father and your Father, and my God and your God", which He had looked forward to in chapter 17, But then, immediately after He comes in and speaks to them, the first thing that seems to be in His mind is the question of the impartation of the Spirit. It was not the coming of the Spirit as in Acts 2, but it was the inward side. You can see how the Lord's mind and affections were operating so that as soon as He comes in and assures their own hearts, saying "Peace" to them, He is immediately thinking about the matter of the Spirit.
A.J.E.W. The breathing in is a matter of such intimacy. It is as if the Lord is not, at that point, proposing to wait tor Pentecost. He wants to give them by impartation from Himself, by way of pattern, the realisation of what the Spirit is, the same Spirit in the power of which He had moved.
J.G.H. He immediately goes on to what is administrative, "whosesoever sins ye remit", and so on. Is there some indication for us that we really have no qualification to take up administrative matters unless it is in the power and in the spirit of the risen Christ?
A.J.E.W. That is a point for us to attend to, and I believe we need to carry that impression, so that administration, where administration is needed of that character, is feelingly carried on.
J.G.H. John puts the matter of remission first, as though the desire of the heart of Christ would be in that direction.
A.J.E.W. We see something of that, going right back to chapter 4, in the way the Lord dealt with that woman. He spent time on her, and He covered the whole situation: but from a certain viewpoint, namely that the Father seeks worshippers, and "they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth" (v 24). That is, the Lord is looking right on to the kind of yield which His own heart seeks from the labours His love sustained; even the complexity of this woman's history in sin is not to stand in the way of that being reached.
J.G.H. Would all administration, of whatever sort, really be with a view to the enhancement of the service of God?
A.J.E.W. Indeed, and the glory of the God who is served in that service. The remarkable emphasis in the ministry of Mr Taylor sen on the service of God in the assembly is to be taken to heart by us. Is the positive, responsive note really sufficiently in our calculations and movements together? There is the prime time of the Lord's supper - and what an occasion it is, and how much it leads into! But is there not room for greater fruitful buoyancy of spirit amongst us in all our relations in the assembly, so that the spontaneity of doxology is more richly and fruitfully for God found amongst us? I often wonder whether even the prayer meetings might be marked more with the responsive note of thanksgiving and praise.
J.A.P. When the apostles addressed God it says they "lifted up their voice with one accord to God, and said, Lord, thou art the God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them", Acts 4: 24. The note to that refers to ‘Elohim, the One who is God'. Does that support your thoughts about the prayer meeting? Perhaps we should reach these things more.
A.J.E.W. There was power there and "the place in which they were assembled shook", it says. We would love to have some such experience as that. It would be a matter of spiritual knowledge and appreciation, but we should get so me sense of power coming in. Mr Taylor sen spoke of Monday night as the "power house".
D.F. Did he not speak of the shake as a 'friendly shake'?
J.J. Could something be said about the various aspects of glory in chapter 17?
A.J.E.W. Well, we have "the glory which thou hast given me I have given them". The Lord touches certain things lightly. He introduces them, but He touches them lightly and does not enlarge on them. We need to know how to touch things lightly, to bring them into the structure of the truth but to see what e Spirit would give emphasis to at any particular time. So the Lord touches that matter, in a sense, lightly. It may be, in the magnificent wisdom of the divine ordering, that this side was to be brought out fully in Paul; that is, sonship in the saints, which is in view here. But the Lord introduces it among the glories of this section, speaking to the Father about it.
S.McC. It is very affecting and interesting that the Lord should speak of glory that is beyond our range, and glory that has come within our range. Perhaps we need to be helped to understand that. The glory of verse 5 is really beyond our range, although spoken of within our range; but then the glory of verse 22 is what we have part in. Then there is the glory that we do not have part in, but we behold (v 14).
A.J.E.W. Then we have in verse 1, "Glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee". Does not that refer to the whole course of this time of the Spirit? The Lord having gone to the Father and the Spirit having come affords a great setting for the Lord to glorify God in the course of what He is doing.
S.McC. I think that is right, and there is a pre-millennial touch here, so that things are condensed in this dispensation of the time of the Spirit.
A.J.E.W. Then we have "And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was". The 'along with', referring as the note tells us to presence and place, is a lovely expression of the distinctiveness of the Persons before us. And yet they are in this glorious matter together.
E.T. I was thinking about John the apostle. The Lord says "If I will that He abide until I come, what is that to thee? " John 21: 22. Does that have a bearing on us? Are we to be representative of John's ministry?
A.J.E.W. It shows the perfect competence of the Lord to retain His hand upon the whole detail of the situation. It is a reference back again to chapter 3, at least in inference, the Father "has given all things to be in his hand". Peter is tending to intrude a little on that. The Lord has His hand on matters all the time. If I may use the word, He is organising the whole dispensation personally. He is not delegating things to any in that sense, although the Spirit has much in His hand, too. The Lord comes in as the great operator from God's side, with full rights and, I need not say, with absolute intelligence as to the whole carrying forward of every thing. I love the thought that the detail of the working of everything is in the hand of the Son.
A.B.P. Is there possibly a suggestion of the "I am" in that? We are controlled by time to a great extent, but He is not. "Before Abraham was, I am", John 8: 58. So that physically He could have preserved John through to the end of the dispensation, until He comes. As the I AM, He could have done that.
A.J.E.W. Indeed and that title affects us too, because it touches what is immediate and present always.
D.F. Does it make us think of reserves the Lord may have? John is a sort of reserve, and there are persons in his gospel that he introduces as a kind of reserve. We would not otherwise have known of Nicodemus, perhaps, but he is brought in in John.
A.J.E.W. That is so. Then we have this wonderful reference to the men: "the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word". The Lord is delighted in having such, indeed He refers to them in verse 13, "These things I speak in the world, that they may have joy fulfilled in them". What a wonderful reference - "my joy fulfilled in them". I suppose it is the joy of being in the flow of the Father's counsels going through to their glorious fruition. That should be our joy, to know something of the Lord's feelings as He carries things through to their completion.
J.J. Is there any link between "That they may behold my glory" and Colossians 2: 9, "in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"? The footnote says 'The fulness or completeness of the Godhead is in Christ, as towards us; and we, as towards God, are complete in Him'.
S.McC. Mr Taylor sen referred to that verse in Colossians as involving what is mediatorial.
A.J.E.W. It is important to see that this glory in verse 24 is expressed in the person of Christ. There is a bringing out of the glory of that Person in His own rights and distinctive place.
S.McC. He said it in the presence of the disciples, and while they could not comprehend it, they could be affected by it, and we should be affected by it.
A.J.E.W. Quite so. That is perhaps a note to conclude on, because this chapter indicates the remarkable way in which the Lord proceeds with this great work of formation in the saints. It is what He imparts to us, what He carries forward in us by the Spirit in the immediateness of His own presence and activity. We have it again at the end, that "He shewed to them his hands and his side", John 20: 20. He says so little, but He shows them so much as if the development of holy affections and intelligence in view of our eternal part and service is really something the Lord carries on in the personal intimacy of His own nearness and activity.
TORONTO
8 April 1972