THE SERVICE OF GOD IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (4)
[p. 427] THE SERVICE OF GOD IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (4)
JT The subject of the service of God, coming before us from the four evangelists, should be regarded as bearing on ourselves, bearing on the service of God as known now and carried on in a measure. In Matthew we have the idea of worship in a personal sense. The magi had in mind to worship the King of the Jews. They were evidently genuine as bringing with them what was required for the service. The priesthood does not arise simply from the house of Aaron but worshippers were coming in from among the gentiles. They were to worship the King of the Jews. In Luke the worship of God among the Jews is being carried on, only the service is conducted by one who is the true priest according to the Jewish economy, but defective in faith. But nevertheless, the service is being carried on according to the principles governing it and heaven intervenes to help. It is another phase of our position. So that we reach in Luke the principle of recovery, divine help coming in, the thought of worship according to God, the service of God as we have it. Persons who are not seen as Levites or priests are really the true priests. This is a point that ought to be taken into account. Their qualifications are seen in their spiritual ability. That is Simeon and Anna.
Now, we have to consider John; how he is introduced into the service of God bears on the present position. It is hardly touched upon until we come to this chapter, and the subject is introduced by a Samaritan. It was one of mongrel race, not only conventionally but religiously, for we are told in the second book of Kings when the ten tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians, five nations were transplanted into Samaria, each having its own religion, but nominally fearing Jehovah.
[p. 428] Now it is out of that that we get the introduction of worship, this woman being of that mongrel condition. There were five nations and she had had five husbands. John also introduces five porches in Bethesda. But the moving of the water was only “at a certain season”.
It is important to notice here the setting of this phase of our subject. The end with the woman is reached in connection with prophecy, the prophetic word, and then the woman speaks about worship. He said to her, “Thou hast had five husbands”, and according to her own report, He told her all things that she had ever done. It brings in self-judgment. Prophetic ministry exposes your condition. The subject of worship is introduced by this woman, but the Lord does not spurn the introduction by her of this deep truth; He speaks about it.
JD The desire of the woman would be the water apart from this question of self-judgment, would it not? But the desire of the Lord is to hear all that is in her heart.
JT The conversation is remarkable. The Lord as seen at the end of chapter 3 has received all things from the Father, as the Son that is loved. So that it is between the Father and the Son; “the Father loves the Son and has given all things to be in His hand.” The Lord is seen in this chapter as on that line, the way of love; He possessing all things from the Father. So that now it is a question of whether we have arrived in the history of the testimony in this dispensation at this basic setting. I think the Lord has helped us greatly as to Sonship and Fatherhood. This chapter brings out the working of it; not simply the family thought but the administrative thought. The two Persons, the Father and the Son operate — the Father, the Source of all and the Giver of all, and the Son, the Blesser and the Administrator. Love between Them operates. He [p. 429] sat just as He was at the well as if to take up the attitude of bringing out something; which happened. We are told that, “Jesus therefore, being wearied with the way he had come,
sat just as he was at the fountain”. And then the question of living water is raised; and she says to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw”. Jesus said to her, “Go, call thy husband and come here”, and she said, “I have not a husband”. Then Jesus said, “Thou hast had five husbands, and he whom now thou hast is not thy husband; this thou hast spoken truly”. She says, “I see that thou art a prophet.” That is the position. She comes to see something. That is the first time she sees anything spiritual. She sees something, that the Lord Jesus, the Person who is speaking to her, is a Prophet.
JD But the Lord says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. Do you judge that what was in the mind of the Lord was that He is the Son who is loved by the Father? “Who it is” would be what is entirely personal. “If thou knewest”. No one knows the Son but the Father, but if she had known who it was that was speaking to her, she would have asked of Him. He puts things on the basis of knowledge of a divine Person. What knowledge have I of divine Persons? That is the question.
EMcA Do you connect this with the statement you made in regard to the third chapter? All things are committed into the hands of the Son. He puts things on that basis; He was giving, He could give her living water: “If thou knewest ... who it is.”
JD The suggestion would be, from your remarks, that we ought to take into our souls that the One who ministers is, in His person, God.
JT Yes, I would say that. “Who it is”, John tells us later that “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).
LS Would that set us at liberty from the spirit of apostasy that is rampant in the world today? It [p. 430] is evidently the apostate circumstances coming forward from 2 Kings.
JT Yet it does not hinder the Lord coming there, nor does it hinder light coming into the Samaritan souls. There were the five nations, five different systems of religion, but nevertheless all of them worshipped Jehovah. It was an apostate state of things, but it is not yet the apostasy which God turns away from. The apostle Paul says that the day of the Lord will not come until the apostasy comes first. That is the total turning away from the truth. God abandons it and allows it to develop into the man of sin. That is the development of sin. The man of sin will exalt himself above all called God or that is worshipped. That is, he is the supreme object of worship. He exalts himself above all that is called God. That settles the matter, that is the finish. God deals with that immediately. The Lord will consume him with the sword of His mouth. That is apostasy in the complete thought of it. But this is apostasy according to 2 Kings because they carried forward their own systems of worship, these five nations, but they also recognized Jehovah, so that it is not apostasy in the ultimate sense. The man of sin will set himself up as a rival of God, showing himself to be God. That is total apostasy, but this is not that. For although they worshipped God according to their own systems of worship, Jehovah is recognized, and God is acting in grace toward it. When we say that apostasy marks christendom, it is not the real apostasy because God is still owned. This woman is an example of the kind of person that we may get. She had the idea of worship. How would it come into her mind? Evidently because she was convicted of her sin. The power of conviction was there in the prophetic ministry.
JD What was official was being slighted in that it was a Samaritan woman, but what He is bringing in is something new [p. 431] in this woman.
JT In the 27th verse it says, “And upon this came his disciples, and wondered that he spoke with a woman; yet no one said, What seekest thou? or, Why speakest thou with her?” That is the official side. They had gone into the city to buy bread. They are not helping at all. The official side is not helping. They are not exactly opposed here but they are in a dangerous position. They are questioning what He is doing. But the woman left her waterpot and came into the city. She is really sincere in this matter. Whatever the disciples think about her, she knows what she is doing. She has light in her soul. The Lord did not tell her to go into the city, but she did it, and it was successful.
“But meanwhile the disciples asked him saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat which ye do not know. The disciples therefore said to one another, Has any one brought him anything to eat?” (verses 32,33). That is, the disciples were ignorant. They did not understand the position. So that the woman represents the service.
HH Do you regard that on the line of need? The woman said, “Give me to drink”. Eternal life is connected with our need, while sonship is connected with God’s need.
JT Eternal life is the subject of promise; sonship is the subject of counsel. Eternal life is our need; sonship ministers to God’s need. It is worth saying again. That would come out, but the position of this woman here as in relation to the disciples is worthy of note. They are questioning what happened. She leaves her waterpot behind her. Why did she do that? The light is that she has discovered that she is a vessel for divine use. Now then the whole question of their position is discussed. The Lord says, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work. Do not ye say, that there are yet four months and the harvest comes? Behold I say to you, Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest. He that reaps receives [p. 432] wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. For in this is verified the true saying, It is one who sows and another who reaps. I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured; others have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours” (verses 34-38). That defines their position. He is telling them they are not inaugurators. The woman is inaugurating something and what they have done is to enter into another’s labours.
BH He is in a position of administration and this passage shows how He is operating. If you have light in your soul, He says, ‘ Come into it ‘. She has learned something.
JD I think I see the importance of what you say. This conversation with the woman is not allowed to be broken into until it is finished. “I who speak to thee am he.” Then the disciples come into the scene. The Lord will not allow any official interference as to who He is.
JT She does not stand around to see what these men are going to say to the Lord. She leaves them and she left her waterpot. Why is that waterpot left there? Why did she not use it? She had learned something; that she was a waterpot.
CT There is no movement until her conscience is reached through the prophetic ministry. This is the power that she sees that causes her to move forward. When He told her that she had had five husbands, she says, “I see that thou art a prophet”. John says, “Come and see”.
JD Spiritual vision is tested in John, beginning with “Come and see”. They would respond to the woman’s invitation if there was any spiritual vision at all. But now she says, “I see.”
RWS Does she still define the whole position? She says, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship”. She is ready to [p. 433] learn.
JT We have often remarked that it was unsuitable for her to bring up this question of worship, but I do not think that it was. The conscience of a man who comes into the meeting and hears a prophetic word is convicted. He is convicted of all. He falls down and worships God (1 Corinthians 14:25).
LS It is an interesting matter that in all the prophets the outcome is worship at the close of their prophetic service.
JT It is very interesting; the principle is addition in the prophets. Take Habakkuk; see what he left in his book; see what a contribution he made to the service of God, and Isaiah too!
HH Do you think the prophetic word exposes the moral condition in view of opening up what is spiritual? This woman says, “I see that thou art a prophet.” She had not viewed the Lord as being greater than all that. I thought the application might be the prophetic word dealing with the moral side of things in order that she might be made free for the worship of God as He is revealed in Christ.
JT That is what the prophetic word is for. The law was the assertion of the rights of God at Sinai. That is for “those who love Me”. Therefore the Mosaic ritual was immediately in strength. The service of God was begun. They were there to serve Him. “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Exodus 8:1). It was a beginning there. The law is given in Exodus 20. Exodus 6 gives the genealogy of the priesthood down to Phinehas. Phinehas has secured for God the priesthood in a living way and Moses and Aaron are reached, the vessels God used to establish His service. “This is that Aaron and Moses, to whom Jehovah said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their hosts” (Exodus 6:26). They are introduced in connection with the service. We know how in the history it broke down and the prophets begin there, all the prophets from Samuel. Samuel is really the beginning [p. 434] of the prophets, and the idea is to call the people back to the service of God so that the law and prophets are until John. Now here the thought is a prophet. She says, “I see that thou art a prophet”. It is to bring in the service of God; the whole point is the service of God. “Let my people go that they may serve me”. The prophetic word here is the point to get at. She sees that He is a prophet.
JD In your address last night you spoke about the Lord having received gifts in Man so that Jehovah might dwell among men. The Lord was making room for a dwelling place for God in the worship of God.
JT The final thought is His service. We shall serve Him eternally, not in apostasy or defection. The true way to secure worship is through the prophetic ministry.
LB Would the example of the ten lepers fit in here? They show what we have already had. The nine go to the priest and show themselves according to the law of Moses, but the tenth man did not go. He sees that the real Priest is the One who cleansed him. He came back to Him.
JMcK He found the fountain of water springing up in him, and the result is that God is glorified.
JT Our becoming a vessel of living water precedes the idea of worship.
LS Why did she bring up the question, “Art thou greater?”. She had something before her of greatness.
JT You understand how she would have these thoughts. “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain”, she says; “Art thou greater than our father Jacob?” The Lord did not discuss that with her that He was greater than Jacob. He got at her soul. He could see the dissatisfaction.
RWS “Our fathers worshipped”. There is public worship and personal worship. The word here is the same as in Matthew 2 where it is a personal matter, but I think it is used in a wide sense here. “Our fathers worshipped”, it is a collective idea, “in this mountain”.
JT I think she had in mind the public worship of God. She said, “Ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship”. It is pretty much the sense in which the other word for public worship is used. It is changeable under certain circumstances. “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father”. I think it is a question of what they had in the Samaritan mountain largely, and what the Jews had in Jerusalem largely. It was the magi in the east who came to worship the Son, It is the service of God in mind.
HH Following up this line, the system of worship in reference to the fathers would include other features that come out later in the gospel of John. Then we have to take account of these other thoughts. Peter corresponds to the woman here. She is a vessel. That is the point the Lord is stressing; living water springing up into everlasting life. That must enter into the worship of the service of God. The Lord says in chapter 12, “While ye have the light believe in the light”. I think that she becomes a son of light in that she left her waterpot. She is a vessel to honour that is usable. Peter has the light in chapter 6 and he says, “To whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. Peter represents experience. It is instantaneous with the woman. The Lord is now the Minister of the sanctuary.
JD The Lord here seems to make eternal life the result of something, the result of “the water that I shall give him”; a well of water springing up. What connection would there be between this and Romans 6:21: “What fruit therefore had ye then in the things of which ye are now ashamed? For the end of them is death. But now, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”. What would be the relation between the two [p. 436] passages?
JT The point here is the actual water of life whereas Romans 6 is the moral side, that is, the question of righteousness, but you reach it on the line of life, through righteousness. “Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”. It is by the principle of righteousness.
HH Whatever the ecclesiastical order, this that is living asserts itself and reaches the proper level in relation to divine worship.
JT Worship came to light in this way. Peter is the continuation of this thought. She is a son of light. Peter is a son of light in that he recognizes the Minister of the sanctuary, the holy One of God.
LS How would you fit John 9 into this?
JT We have already touched on that, and of course, it fits in; the Lord finding one who was a son of light. You can see one after another appearing as sons of light. I believe the man in John 9 is a son of light just when he says, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped Him. The Lord says, “I must work ... while it is day. The night is coming.” It is while it is day. Well, the end is that he believes on the Son of God and he worships. The Lord would bring him to that point to make a way for the one flock and one Shepherd.
HH The word son is used in John. Where it is used as to believers, we are not called sons of God, but sons of light. Is it not of outstanding moral importance, to have this living water that rises to its proper level so that the thing is held in a spiritual way?
JT That underlies the worship of God in our own times. It marks the worship as living. John again is told to measure the worshippers in Revelation. Well, it is not simply those who worship in terms but in a living way. The worship in the systems is largely a question of terms borrowed from the five nations and many more than five, but five is the principle, each with its own profession. Over against that you have the Jews here. Who are these Jews? We want to understand that [p. 437] in the abstract. They are really those who are so in spirit and in heart. Salvation is of them. What have you got? You do not know what you are worshipping. Salvation is of the Jews. Therefore we are dealing with reality from the Lord’s point of view. In Athens they worshipped they knew not what; the unknown God.
HH The woman would be professedly satisfied that salvation was of the Jews. She was looking for the Messiah. The work goes on through this woman. Whatever people think about her, the work goes on through her.
Rem The woman speaks of our father Jacob and she speaks of our fathers worshipping in this mountain. The Lord speaks to her and says that the Father seeks such as worshippers, and having taken this into her soul and responded to the Lord as a Prophet speaking to her, she immediately goes about to seek those to worship the Father.
JT What God has done is to bring in the Father and the Son. The Lord brings her immediately to the one Father and He has need, a very touching matter. God has greatly helped the brethren in regard of the Father and the Son. The Lord has in His mind one Father. That is what He brings out here. We get instruction we do not get anywhere else. He does not say that God is seeking worshippers, but the Father is seeking worshippers. Why should the Lord bring such a wonderful fact before a woman like this? The secret is that she is convicted. She is worthy of it.
Here it is the christian economy that is in mind, but it is the Father that is seeking worshippers. You understand how He tells John to measure the worshippers. The Lord is not here seen as the Minister of the sanctuary. He is in chapter 6. They are all carried forward to chapter 20, “My Father and your Father,” but here we are dealing with the economy, that is the Father and the Son.
[p. 438] EMcA Would the Lord reach as to this woman’s soul the other things she was occupied with? Now God uses what is of the Lord to bring her in touch with what is spiritual.
JT The secret of the uplifting in power is that the water springs up. I need, not only light to worship God, but I need power.
EMcA In your remarks this afternoon, it is in order to allow us to move out of the sphere of the official more, and see that God is moving on the line of what is spiritual. I am to love God with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength.
JT The fountain became a fountain of living water springing up. We need power to reach God. “I have borne you on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4), not simply by light but by power. By making the living water mine, I not only see that I have living water, but power. The Spirit is the power. Christ is the official Minister of the sanctuary but the Spirit is the power. We begin, not only with light, but with the Spirit. So that I say, “Lord Jesus”, by the Holy Spirit. That gives a touch to the meeting.
JD Not only have we the Holy Spirit given us by Christ but we make room in our hearts for the Spirit.
JT He is seen as the Spirit of adoption, you might say the Spirit of the Father. He is here to serve us. That is collateral with the Lord’s own service in chapter 6. In chapter 7 the Lord contemplated personal drinking. “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive”. It is one thing to look upon the Spirit of God as a gift and another thing as having received Him. So that it is the Spirit of the glorified Christ that I have received and that Spirit carries me to the full height, to God in His service, in heavenly [p. 439] places. Hence we are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
LS “God is a spirit; and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. Would you say a word on that verse!
JT That is one of the greatest statements in our subject. We are told that angels are spirits too. We must make greater room in our souls for God as a Spirit. It is the nearest thought you can get to absoluteness in God. The point here is that if we are to worship Him, it cannot be merely in forms or by queries, but it must be on the principle of spirit, not the Holy Spirit, but the word spirit as meaning vital principle; the spirit of the covenant.
JD When the Lord says here, “God is a spirit”, has He in mind the Deity or has He in mind the Father in the Deity?
JT We have to keep in mind that the Father is God. It is a question of the economy into which He has come. There is something introduced that is in keeping with God, so that the truth would govern us, that is the truth of the economy; that truth governs us in our approach to God in worship. The thought of praise is eliminated. It is a question of the state of the saints. Jerusalem is being exposed by the candles.
HH “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27). God would search Jerusalem with candles. God was searching Jerusalem and found nothing for God.
JT The Lord stressed that He is the light of the world. He is dealing with one who is to be a vessel in the new system. The candle of the Lord is the spirit. God has access to you through it. God’s counsel is full of that thought to bring out the sons of light. His desire is that I may be a fully developed person in regard of light. The light is sweet. John is giving you light. This woman got light in her soul. Her movement was in relation to the great movements of the luminaries.
[p. 440] All the way through they are sons of light like the stars moving in relation to the great Centre, so this question of worship is set down in connection with this person.
JD If you live, you are luminous. The life is the light. It is a reciprocal proposition all the way through. If I have got that life, it becomes light in me. At Bethany there were Martha, Mary and Lazarus. They were all in their places in relation to the great Luminary. That would stand connected with love.
JT This woman says, “Is not this the Christ?”. Is that the shining showing that she had the light? He had just told her. But it was not that she believed what He told her, but it was a question of how the light affected her inwardly. The men of the city are affected by her words and they become luminaries. The prophetic ministry produces the living state. She is in the system. Room is made for the Lord in Samaria. He stayed there two days. You would like to know what house He stayed in there. It would be one suitable to Him.
You have a raised man at Bethany. The three of them, Mary, Martha and Lazarus were sitting around the Lord as the Luminary, worshipping Him. “Mary therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment”. The ministry at Bethany comes before chapter 20 which rises to the full height of christianity.
JMcK “The hour is coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father”. The woman goes into the city in testimony, but the Lord is leading them outside of the world altogether. Is that our position now? Her testimony set them in movement so that you come to the great thought of the Saviour of the world; not the light of the Jews, but the light of the world. “But many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him because of the word of the woman who bore witness, He told me all things that I had ever done”.
RWS This is very stimulating that God can operate in such difficult circumstances in making us luminaries. “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).
H This would form a moral basis for the heavenly city. It came down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God.
CT Would you say there are many small lights? “And more a great deal believed on account of his word.”
JT Anyone who gets light will see Christ; he will seek after the Lord. She did not say, ‘ Come here ‘, but, “Come, see a man”.