CHRIST THE CENTRE

CHRIST THE CENTRE

One has felt, dear brethren, for some time that the Lord’s interests call from every heart a complete committal to Him. I believe the sense of weakness and lack of power of which we are all often conscious, arises largely from the way we are reserved in our committal to the Lord. One is conscious of the need for oneself of again and again looking through the door that is opened in heaven, to take account in one’s spirit of what is seen through that open door, viz., that the Lord Jesus Christ is the centre of everything in heaven, so that apprehending that in one’s soul there is created the desire to be in accord with heaven. Nothing could be a greater privilege, nothing could be more pleasing to God, than for us here on earth to be in accord with heaven. I think we will all see at once that that must be the greatest possible position we can occupy — to be actually down here on earth, but to be here in accord with heaven, so that what is true in heaven is true on earth.

I think you will see, dear brethren, that what exists in heaven is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the centre of everything there; that all the activities of heaven find their centre in the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Lamb that was slain. So one desires that, for a few moments, we might take account of how the Lord Jesus, once He appears, takes the central place in everything because of His own moral greatness and glory.

What happened at the outset was that, under the influence of the serpent, self became the centre of man’s life. We all know it, we all feel it, we all have to judge it, but the natural heart finds everything revolving around self. It may take various forms; it may take the form that the Spirit of God calls the love of money, around which one’s life simply revolves. It becomes the centre of life. In another case it may take the form of what the Apostle speaks in Timothy as love of pleasure; or it may be that there is the love of this present age; but, behind all that, Satan has secured that self in some form or other has become the centre of human life. What I would like to show with the Lord’s help is that once the Lord Jesus comes into view, then, to every intelligent heart He must become the centre of everything. So we find at the beginning as He entered this world it says there were a multitude of the heavenly host, and what they say shows clearly that the great theme and centre of their praise and all their words is the Lord Jesus Christ. “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in men” (Luke 2: 14 — N.T.), they say, and “this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.” Their eyes, their faces, their hearts, centred on the Babe. “This shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” — outcast in this world, indeed; but the centre of praise of the multitude of the heavenly host.

Then we see the Lord Jesus at the age of 12, and where do we find Him? Mary says, “Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.” He was found in the midst of the doctors, or the teachers, although but 12 years of age. There they see Him, right in the centre of the teachers. How did He get there? By moral power, by the right of what was there in Him. The teachers all sat around Him, wondering at His understanding and His answers. Every teacher took up a seat around Him, even at the age of 12. Wise, indeed, were they; true teachers were they, dear brethren. If a teacher does not sit around that blessed Centre he is not a teacher, according to God. They found Him in the midst of the doctors, it says, at 12 years of age.

We move on in our thoughts of His sojourn in this world. The Lord is in a certain place. It says, “They come to Him and say, ‘Thy mother and Thy brethren without seek for Thee’” (Mark 3: 32). It says He looked round about, and says, “Behold My mother and My brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother and sister and mother.” It says He looked around in a circuit. He was in a certain place, and everyone who desired to do the will of God came and sat around Him, with Him in the midst. A right position, dear brethren, for everyone who desires to do the will of God. Everyone who has the slightest desire in his heart to do the will of God sits around with that blessed One as the centre for his heart and life.

If we turn in our thoughts to the end of the life of Jesus we will find that, because of the perfection of His blessed Person, because of the way He, in an unqualified measure, maintained the rights of God. He became the centre of the whole power of evil. The whole of the powers of evil, of darkness and sin, at Calvary were centred entirely on Christ.

They had sought to attack others. Cain, who was of that wicked one, slew his brother, Abel, and Pharaoh sought to have Moses put into the river, because he was fair to God; and the Lord says, “Which of the prophets have ye not persecuted and slain?” But the powers of evil never had a centre for their hatred against God until the Lord Jesus Christ appeared. If Revelation 5 gives a door open in heaven for us to look through, Calvary gives us a door to see just the opposite view. So it says in Psalm 22, “Bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” The door in heaven shows us Him as the Lamb in the midst of the throne. We look down beneath the moral depths of evil, and we see that same blessed Lamb of God in the centre of the strong bulls. It was just exactly as if a lamb was in the centre of bulls, with all the ferocity and hatred which they represent. The cruelty of the powers of evil was arrayed against Him who is the Lamb of God, finding expression through human hearts, as the Lord says in that Psalm, “They pierced My hands and My feet”; finding expression when it is said, “For My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” — bulls in Bashan. Then the Lord says again, in that wonderful Psalm, “Dogs have compassed Me.” Dogs! A dog represents that which is utterly unclean. Think of the uncleanness of the powers of evil finding a centre to express their uncleanness upon in Christ. “Dogs have compassed Me.” Then the Lord says, “The assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me.” The centre of the counsels of the wisdom of hell was the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. His right place is in the midst of God’s assembly. He says of that dark moment, “The assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me.” They took counsel together, it says. Scripture speaks of the wisdom that is from above. The Apostle says, “This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish” (James 3: 15). All the wisdom of hell was seen in the counsel of the assembly of the wicked. They said, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2: 3). He is the centre of the attack of all the powers of evil expressed in that Scripture. The bulls, the dogs, the assembly of the wicked — all find their centre in hatred, in persecution, in dark counsel against Christ.

Then, dear brethren, just to get before our souls a little clearer how He must in every way be in the midst, we find Him — in John 20 coming up out of the grave, standing here in resurrection power. There are hearts together that love Him. On the Lord’s Day morning they met, and it says, “Jesus... stood in the midst.” He came in and took up His own blessed place there — the only place He could have. Now we follow Him to where He is today, and, looking through the door opened in heaven, we see this — that in the midst of the throne, and in the midst of the living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain. Our thoughts and our hearts are directed to the Lord’s place in heaven, right in the centre of the throne. The throne represents the rule of God — God’s blessed rule. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,” and it is the centre of divine rule. In the very centre of it stands the Lamb that was slain. If there is a soul in this room who professes to be under the rule of God, the test of it is this — is the Lamb in the midst? Is Christ in the centre of that rule that you profess to be under? If He is not, it is the rule of the king of the bottomless pit, and there is nothing between. Between the throne of God and the Lamb in the midst, and the throne of the angel of the bottomless pit there is no other rule over men’s souls. Let me ask you to which throne are you subject — the throne of God with Jesus in the midst, or the throne of Apollyon, whose name is Destroyer?

Then it says, “In the midst of... the living creatures... stood a lamb.” One of these living creatures was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. They represent the four great heads of creation. They are living creatures, and, as such, they represent the whole creation before God. What we see in heaven is that the whole creation finds its centre in Christ. I know that is not admitted on earth. I know if you move in the creation here you do not find that recognised, but you do in heaven, for, under the influence of Christ, the creation recognises God — God’s place is maintained in creation by Jesus the Lamb that was slain being in the midst of the four living creatures.

The apostle Paul, in the epistle to the Romans, is thinking of the Creator. He opens his epistle by saying that he is the bondman of Jesus Christ — that the centre and object of his life of service is Jesus Christ. He has not written many verses before he says this: “The Creator who is blessed for ever, Amen.” He said that, dear friends, as being in accord with the four living creatures that surround the throne with the Lamb in the midst. That is to say, as we are maintained under the influence of Christ we shall take our true place in the recognition of the Creator.

You might have said, “Paul, you are further on than that. You have been brought into the blessed kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ — you are one of His subjects.” You might have said to him, “You know the wondrous place of sonship before God, yet you speak about the Creator.” He says, “The Creator who is blessed for ever, Amen.” He did not serve the creature more than the Creator. He served the Creator. It says on the ship that he took bread and gave thanks. (Acts 27: 35.) He contributed the praise and thanksgiving of the creature to the Creator, who is blessed for ever. That is one result of Christ being in the midst of the four living creatures. He directs from creation the thanksgiving that is due to God, the Creator.

Then we see Him in the midst of the 24 elders. These 24 elders are those who have proved that they can be trusted with the Lord’s interests. They are those who had experience in what is due to God, and they sought to maintain it. They are those who are divinely intelligent as to what God is doing. Everyone of such has the Lamb in the midst. That is to say, that Blessed One is the centre of their service as elders. All the care which they had for the Lord’s interests arose from the fact that they had the Lamb in the midst. They were perfectly delivered from having themselves as a centre. They were not seeking to further the Lord’s interests because of anything in themselves, but because of the Lamb as it had been slain; and what is seen in heaven is to be maintained, dear brethren, in a living way here on earth.

Then we find round about the throne was a great number — many angels, it says, numbering “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands,” and they, too, have a centre in Christ. They are the servants of God. Every servant of God finds a centre in Jesus. Innumerable though they be, He is great enough to be a centre for their service, as was manifest when He was here, for it says, “Angels ministered unto Him.” “Ye ministers of His which do His will.” Dear brethren, one would like to suggest that we look at that, not only literally as they were, but as representative of the thought of service. Service that is of any value in heaven has Christ as its centre.

One would love to think that every heart in this room desired to take up some service for the Lord, for it says,

“His servants shall serve Him.” If we are going to do it in that day, surely we should begin now. Do not let us think that service belongs to just a few. It belongs to all. Do not let the sisters think they are outside of it, for the Apostle says, “I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the Church.” “A succourer of many, and of myself, also” (Romans 16: 1-2) — one of those blessed servants of the Lamb. Again he says, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks.” Note, dear brethren, Priscilla is first. She is the sister. She took the lead in staking her own neck in devoted service to Christ.

The path of service in many, many — ways is open to every one that loves the Lord, but to be effective, to be acceptable to heaven, the Lamb as it had been slain must be in the centre. So, dear brethren, when the Lord Jesus Christ appears anywhere, that is the only place He can have. We think of the blessed moment when He is coming. The apostle says, “We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him” (2 Thessalonians 2: 1). We might feel, as many a heart has felt, pleased to leave this scene of sorrow,

suffering and death, but the apostle says, “Our gathering together unto Him.” He is to be the centre of that wondrous gathering soon to come. When He appears on earth, when He comes to take up His rights, as it says, “When the Son of Man shall come in His glory,” it is said of that kingdom that, “To Him shall the gathering of the people be.” In the coming day on earth once a year all the nations will come up to Him. All the peoples, the heathen as we know them now, what is left of Christendom, the dark conditions of Africa — every one of the people representatively coming up yearly to Him as the centre of gathering.

Then we pass beyond time into that scene of eternity where the pleasure of God is ministered to, where the paradise of God is found, where the questions relating to good and evil are finished with. We find in the very centre of the paradise of God the tree of Life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ there in manhood, to minister from that blessed paradise eternal pleasure to the heart of God.

Eve said to the serpent that, “of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it.” The question of good and evil is so great to the creature’s mind that we inevitably think that it is the centre of everything, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil never was in the midst of the paradise of God. It was the tree of Life that — God put there, and when the question of good and evil is settled — settled for ever, settled in our souls in exercise before God — we wake up to this blessed fact — that the tree of Life is the centre of the paradise of God.

Now, dear brethren, I believe this, and a great deal more lay on the apostle Paul’s soul when he wrote these words we have read. He was thinking of the saints as contributing to the Lord’s interests here on earth, and so he says to them that “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who, though He was rich, yet, for your sakes, He became poor, that ye, through His poverty, might be made rich.” He wanted them to spend — he wanted them to use their resources for the interests of the Lord, and how would he secure it? By putting Christ in the centre of their souls. He says, “You know how He gave, how He spent everything.” He says, “He was rich — you know He was rich.” Rich, dear brethren, beyond speaking, unsearchably rich He was. He had everything that was worth having. He had the unclouded favour of God as a man. This refers to what He had as man; it does not refer to when He was in the form of God; but it was as man that He was rich. One of His treasures was this — He had the unclouded favour of God. Never a cloud between God and that blessed life here. His tongue never spake evil, His lips no guile. He had a right to life and good days — a perfect right to it. He had, dear brethren, as to His own precious body a right to live. The claims of death as the wages of sin and the judgment of God had nothing whatever to say to Him. He was exempt. Many a man in this world would part with his fortune to secure proof from the power of death. The Lord had it inherently as a man on earth, and He had much more that we cannot speak of now; but the apostle sums it all up when he says, “He was rich; but for your sakes He became poor, that ye, through His poverty, might be made rich.”

Calvary again, dear brethren, is the expression of the poverty of Christ. Instead of the unclouded favour of God, He is forsaken. What He has is the darkness and distance. Instead of the blessing of God shining down upon Him, He is in the place of the curse. Instead of a throne to which He was entitled, He has a cross. Instead of life and good days, He goes down into death. “Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death,” and so the prophet says in Daniel, “He is cut off and has nothing.”

The apostle says, that is how He gave, that is how He spent. He did not withhold anything for your sakes, and now, he says, it is time for you to spend. With such a centre for your heart, it is time, the apostle says to the Corinthians, for you to begin to spend, and then he refers to himself. He had followed the spending of Jesus. The Lord could say, “I have spent my strength.” He had spent everything, and became poor. The apostle’s heart had followed it. He had become enthroned in his affections, and he says, “Of a truth, I am ready to spend and be utterly spent for your sakes.” He could say that, for he says, “We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4: 2). “I am ready to spend and be utterly spent for your sakes.” What for? For present gain, for a reward here? To secure even the love of the brethren? No! He says, “The Lamb as it had been slain is the centre of my heart. Under the influence of His spending I am ready to spend,” and he held back nothing. He spent not only his time, his days, his strength, his money — for he did that — as he says, “These hands have ministered to my necessities and to them that were with me” (Acts 20: 34). Think of that — the great apostle speaking of working with his hands! What for? To meet his own needs and the needs of those who were with him. There is Timothy, his often infirmities, the weakness of his body. Paul must care for Timothy. There is Trophimus to be ministered to, who was left sick. He says, “These hands ministered to my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20: 34-35). So he says, “I am ready to spend,” and then he says, “and be spent,” or, in the New Translation, “be utterly spent.” It often is not hard to spend a little money for the Lord’s interests, to spend, perhaps, a little time for the Lord’s interests; but the apostle says, “I am ready to be spent.” How many of us stop when we, ourselves, are to be spent, not only to spend, but to put ourselves altogether into the treasury of God. He says of the Macedonians that, “‘They gave not as we had hoped” (or “expected,” rather, it means); “but,” he says, “first gave their own selves to the Lord” (2 Corinthians 8: 5). They put themselves in the box, so to speak, they gave themselves unto the Lord.

Dear brethren, the Lord’s interests in our day at the end call for complete committal to the interests of Christ. Our hearts, our time that is available, our money, our homes, ourselves, under the blessed influence of the Lamb that had been slain, with Him in the midst of our affections. The Apostle could commit everything to Him without one single reserve. What power, what support, what pleasure to heaven to see a man living his life on earth exactly corresponding to that scene in heaven where the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, in the midst of the living creatures, and in the midst of the elders and the angels. The apostle lived entirely in accord with that scene for the remainder of his days, when once, that blessed Person became enthroned in his heart.

One only just had the desire to say that, that the Lord Jesus Christ, because of His own intrinsic worth, must be the centre of everything in the universe that is according to God.

May the Lord grant that each one of us, from the youngest to the eldest, may come under the influence of the love of Christ, for the apostle says, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” He says that is how it is done. We are bound, but bound by the bands of a man, by the cords of love. We are bound and constrained to live for Him who died for us and rose again.

May the Lord encourage every heart in that direction! I am sure we all feel how continuously that scene is a challenge to our life and ways; but if we catch a glimpse in living power of the Lamb in the midst it will help us in a practical way to conform to it on earth.

W J. H.
Melbourne, 21/4/1927.