FOOD PROVIDED BY THE LORD
[p. 165] FOOD PROVIDED BY THE LORD
I have read this chapter because it refers to food, and because of other things, too, but especially because of the food question, and because of the three manifestations of the Lord spoken of in the chapter, verse 14. The first manifestation alluded to is in chapter 20, beginning at verse 19: the second is in the same chapter, beginning with verse 26, and the third is in this chapter. These manifestations are in mind in the chapter being read, because the chapter really deals with the last days, and implies that the Lord intends to show Himself in a very real way to His people in the last days. The word ‘manifestation’ or ‘manifest’ would imply that. It is not simply an ordinary coming to us, as in John 14, but it is a wider thought, and the idea of three makes the more impression. We have the idea of three in a certain sense similar to this in the first chapter: this is in the 21st chapter, but the first chapter gives the idea of three in regard of days, really in regard of the Lord’s gathering. The numeral there runs on to the second chapter, referring to the millennial period. We have to be simple, and, in order to get the true bearing of the numeral as applied to days, we have to begin with the last, that is, chapter 2, and read backwards; but we get the numeral in that way, and how it begins, and how the Spirit of God calls attention to the peculiar gatherings of the Lord at the beginning. We will all remember how the disciples of John left John and followed Jesus, and so the gathering began. The greatest born of women was there, and he had disciples, and two of them left John and followed Jesus, and so the gathering began. There is no one here on earth like John now for the saints to gather to. There are those who draw to [p. 166] themselves, and make disciples for themselves; but the centre of gathering is now the Lord. So the gathering began, and the days ran on to the reference in the second chapter. The same principle applies in this chapter, chapter 21; that is, we really need to begin with the third manifestation, and read backwards, so as to get a clear view of what the Lord had in His mind as He talked with the disciples, and hence what He has in His mind now. It is a time of manifestation, not so much a time of gathering, although there is gathering, thank God. Most of us here doubtless are among the gathered — a very precious fact, a victorious fact, too, that there should be so many in this city or near it, who are gathered among the children of God.
But, as I said, we should begin with the third manifestation, the one I read of, and then revert back to the verses I alluded to in chapter 20, into which certain persons come who are distinctive, and who are to be kept in our minds. I do not intend to pursue the subject of the 20th chapter, although it is one of the most precious in scripture, and especially because of the Lord’s appearing to Mary Magdalene, and calling her “Woman”, and then calling her “Mary”, and then regulating her as to Him, that she was not to touch Him, because He had not yet ascended to heaven. So that we can see that we are now in the time in which ascending to heaven applies. In truth it is a time of going to heaven: it is as if the time had come, the days of going to heaven. We read in Luke of the days of the Lord’s receiving up to heaven. Already the days had come, Luke 9: 51.
And so it is now: the days of ascending to heaven have come; not simply of the Lord Himself, but of our ascending: the days have come, and what days, dear brethren! What opportunities of learning how to go to heaven! You may say, ‘If we die, we shall go there’;
[p. 167] but the point is that the time has come for going to heaven. The heavenly side of things has come, and is being stressed, and the Spirit of God is telling us that the Lord Jesus is about to descend from heaven with an assembling shout. What a day is suggested in that! And the preceding days, as I was saying, may be rightly termed the days of going to heaven.
Well now, I have said all that in the way of preface, and I do not intend to enlarge on chapter 20, but certainly what I have said should be taken note of. Probably some of us have thought as I have said, but I would suggest that the brethren should begin, if they have not already done so, with the idea of going to heaven. The Lord said to the thief on the cross: “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. That applies to many even now. That man had not received the Spirit: Christ had not died: He had not gone to heaven: the Spirit had not come; and yet the Lord said to him, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. The man did not seem to have any doubt about it. There are many who have fallen asleep this very day and have gone to be with Jesus. Do not think I am fanciful or stressing the thing unduly: I am speaking of what is actually true: there are many who have fallen asleep today, and have gone to be with Jesus, gone to be with Him. He said to the man, the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”; and Paul had an addition to that: “To depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”, Philippians 1: 23. The thief did not say that, but the language of Christianity is that: “To depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” — better even than the very best thing here; and Paul had learned to say that, and has taught us to say it too. How often we do say it, and say it victoriously, at the grave’s mouth; and we can continue to say it, until the Lord is pleased to take us to Himself.
[p. 168] But I am now speaking of going to heaven in the principle of it, of learning not only to go to heaven, but learning the Jordan, to cross the Jordan; for the word is very rightly stressed in the prophets: “How wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12: 5. It is a matter, dear brethren, for everyone of us to think of, and especially the older ones; for we are to be taught to number our days that we may acquire a wise heart, Psalm 90: 12. So when the swelling of Jordan is touched, we are victorious: we are not afraid. It is the learning time in that sense. All that we get as to the passage of the Jordan is to instruct us as to this very matter: how we are to go through, and how we are to be victorious in going through. It is a question of testimony, dear brethren, of how we die. We do not say, “man goeth to his long home”, Ecclesiastes 12: 5: we say we go to heaven when the Lord comes; but rather now we go to be with Jesus. I do not know that we should be too free in designating the place we are going to, but rather the Person we are going to. We are going to be with Jesus. It is a real matter, and a real testimony to the truth.
Well now, I have touched on the manifestations, and I wish to speak about this third one, and to show that it involves food. Great importance is attached to food at the present time: it is so physically. I need not say that the food question is one of the most urgent; but now I must not be speaking of that: it is a question of food in a spiritual sense, and this third manifestation is in relation to food, but it is also in relation to seven disciples who were going astray. I say they were going: one says, “I go a fishing”. He did not imply that he was going astray, but we can see that he was, for had not the Lord come in, who can say what would have happened? “I go”, he says, with determination: “I go a fishing”, and the others say, “We also go with thee”. There were six of them [p. 169] besides himself. It is a straying path, but the Shepherd is near by, and with a supply of food ready cooked — as you might say, a hot meal. It is to illustrate the grace of Jesus in the last days. How ready He is to intervene if there is any straying, or any resolve to stray, or to do one’s own will, in defiance of the will of God. ‘I go a fishing’. The Lord was near by, but what was He doing? May we not say that He was cooking the dinner? Where did He get the fish? We need not go far to find out, for He could prove how He could find fish. He controls the oceans and the lakes and the rivers. So that when the time of paying taxes comes we can turn to the Lord as to that, too. The Lord can direct one fish with the taxes that may be needed. I am speaking now of very simple matters, but very practical matters, as to the place that the Lord is to have; for in all these things that we call physical and commonplace, the Lord is not too great nor too far above to come down to them; and we are in them. So the Lord enquired of Peter as to who paid taxes among the Gentiles. It looks to me as if the brethren ought not to be narrow in their education in these matters. What we have all gone through in recent times has involved that the earth has become relatively smaller — not that it is literally so, but it has become better known, and the things in it are better known; and these things are not to be used to add to ourselves, but we are to understand that the Lord is about to come out and put His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the land, and cry like a lion roars. He is about to do that. The fact is that He may have done it in some sense in the way of testimony; but at any rate He has the right to do it, and He is about to do it, to put His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the land. We may wonder why the sea is first. I suppose it involves most. The Lord puts His foot on it first [p. 170] He claims it first. All that is in the sea belongs to Him; and so if it becomes a question of taxes, or any claim on us, any righteous claim or unrighteous claim, we can turn to the Lord. He anticipated Peter, as you remember, in that memorable chapter, the 17th of Matthew. Someone in Capernaum had asked Peter, “Doth not your master pay tribute?” verse 24. Peter said, “Yes”. Well, he did not know what he was saying, which is often the case with us, and we should not be ignorant about these matters, even these matters that are physical, because they concern us and they concern the Lord too. So the Lord waited till Peter came into the house before He raised the question with him; as Aquila and Priscilla were wise, before they raised a question in Apollos’ mind as to things he said which were not just right, they took him to them, they did not make a public show of him; nor did the Lord with Peter, but waited till he came into the house. Hence our Bible readings are occasions when the Lord instructs us as to things that we do not know. There is no reason why we should be ignorant even of any of these material things; they concern us and they concern the Lord. So the Lord says, “Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?” “Of strangers”, says Peter at once: he knew that answer. And then the Lord says to him, “Go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up: and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money” — you will find in it enough to pay what is due according to what you have heard. Peter had heard of the Lord possibly needing to pay taxes, and the Lord liquidates all that matter at once: there was just enough to liquidate the matter.
So the Lord had food ready: “a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread”. The Lord says,
“Come and dine”. I am saying that because it is in accord with what I have said about going to heaven. I am not referring to these material things to drag us down to earth. There is plenty to do that: the rations will do that: they force us to think about what is current. I am speaking now as using the word which John records, the beloved one, the apostle: “Come and dine”; for that fish, those coals, that bread, was all there ready hot for them, and yet they were straying disciples! It is most touching! There may be some here straying, or thinking about it — thinking about going into the world, or marrying or joining in a partnership there, or something like that. All these things are current, and they mean turning away from the truth. These seven brothers — seven apostles (at least five of them were apostles, as far as I can see: probably all were apostles) were about to stray, and they did stray. They went off to fish, following a leader in the wrong direction, going back to his old trade when he should have been following his Lord and Master. So the dinner is all ready. It is very beautiful: the Lord of glory had made it ready. He is not reproving them, though they appear worthy of it. The Lord knows how to deal with souls. They were not far away: there are grades of sinning; and those seven disciples had just taken one step in the wrong direction, just as those of Emmaus had taken one step in the wrong direction, and the Lord followed them up, and brought them back. Here they came back, and so there they came back. It is the Lord’s way. So the Lord is saying now: if there is any tendency with any of you to stray, or if we have strayed the Lord is saying, ‘I do not want to be severe with you’. I want you to understand from this wonderful chapter, an appendix to the gospel of John, that He is easy with us, He is tender with us even if we are only about to make a step astray, so as [p. 172] to intercept us so that we may not make it, so that we may stay in the way. He says, “Come and dine” — not a reproof. There was a good opportunity for reproof, but the Lord knew better; instead of a reproof it is a dinner — not simply something to eat, but something dignified. The whole matter was in His hand, and rightly there, and He tenders the invitation to dine. It is a dignified word. But it is a meal, too; it is food to eat; but how tender the Lord is, dear brethren, at such a time; and it is a time of straying with many, alas! Many have turned aside, and the word comes, as the Lord says, “Will ye also go away?” The answer was by this same Peter, “Lord, 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”, John 6: 67 - 69. What triumph there is, as in Matthew 16, when he was able to say the right word as to who the Son of man is.
Well now, this dinner is what I intended to come to, and what I hope will be used of the Lord to help us as to the tenderness of His solicitude for us for our recovery if we have gone astray, or are about to, or if we are thinking of going astray. How tender He is! As one said, how he longed for the “unrebuking gaze” of the Lord Jesus. Even although there may be cause for it, He knows when the rebuke may be left out, and causes the gaze to be an unrebuking one. And so here: the way of the Lord was perfect: “Come and dine”, He says.
Well, I could have said considerably more about the passage, but time fails, I now want to refer to some verses lower down. The Lord had asked them to dine in verse 12, and He had said to them in verse 10, “Bring of the fish which ye have now caught”. That is, He would say, ‘I want you to be mutual. I want you to understand that I am mutual, and that I can act mutually with you, and that I [p. 173] can help you to do things; but I want you to do them’. That is the principle, and Matthew especially is worked out on that principle. The Lord says there, “I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, chapter 28: 20, meaning, ‘I am ready to work with you on mutual lines, but I want you to do things — not wait on me always, or on the brethren’. The Lord is ready to help us: “I am with you”, He says, not ‘you with me’, but “I am with you alway”. So in this beautiful way He says now, ‘I have got everything ready, but I want you to have part with me in that which you have contributed’. So in verse 10 He says, “Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three; and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken”. Now this is another point that I must touch on, that is the non-breaking of the net; just as we have it in Acts 10 that the sheet was knit at the four corners, meaning that it was secured: there was no possibility of breaking. It was let down once, and twice and thrice, and drawn up into heaven again. The sheet was not broken, and so here: the net was not broken. What I would suggest, dear brethren, is that we have come to the time of the real system of Christianity coming to light and being proved. It is being proved: many of us are proving it every week and every day. Christianity is a real, abiding matter, an immutable thing; it is all going up to heaven. The sheet comes down three times and goes up three times, and goes up for ever. It is the power that is in the system that we may rely on. So the net was not broken here, and we are told how many fishes there were.
We only have one fish in Matthew 17: it did the work; it was all that was needed. We do not need any more. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”, Matthew 6: 34; also, “Give us our needed bread for each day”, Luke 11: 3 — is the principle of heaven — living by the day. I am not seeking to put anyone in bondage, but only to show what a system we have come into, and how real it is, and how this number of fishes is symbolic of what there is in the last days: there are great persons coming into fellowship, persons not yet caught, so to speak, not yet convicted or converted, but they are there, and the Lord knows where they are. “Cast the net”, He says, “on the right side”. That is where they are. It is a question therefore if we want to be in the system, and we should: every person coming into the system and into the blessing should be joining in doing things, like the woman of Samaria who left her water pot and went to the city and did something. She went to the men, and there was a result for the Lord. So here, the idea is that the system is unbreakable: there is no other system in the world like it. The system of Christianity is unbreakable because the Spirit of God is here, here to stay. He goes up with the assembly: He does not take the assembly up, you understand: the Lord does that, but the Spirit is here to stay with us. The Lord said that He would be with us always: He said of the Spirit, “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”, and “... that he may abide with you for ever”, John 14: 17 and 16. But as regards the coming down from heaven and the administration in heaven, it is all a matter which is in the Lord’s hands.
If I had more time I should like to say more about the matter of the unbreakableness of the sheet and of the net, meaning that it is the unbreakableness of the system into which we have come, in which the Spirit is, throughout the dispensation, from the moment He came down at Pentecost till now. He is actively in it, and the system is unbreakable. So we may be sure, dear brethren that all is well.
[p. 175] But then I come to the matter of Peter and food. I was speaking of the food question, and now Peter is to be active in the food matter, and so the Lord says: ‘Before you touch the food matter, I want to touch the love matter’. That is what comes out now, this love matter; and the word comes to me: “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 35. Those in fellowship, those who are genuinely in fellowship, are to be marked by love among ourselves. And so the question of the food and the sheep comes into the Lord’s mind. Of course, they were always in His mind, but I speak of the order in which things are stated. The Lord says to Peter: “Lovest thou me more than these?” “These” would be, I suppose, all the apostles. The Lord would have some persons in His mind when He said that; but anyway, there was enough in His mind to challenge Peter as to whether he had more love for Christ than the others. And so I would say, dear brethren, as to the matter of administration, it is a very urgent matter — the question of love must come up first. Who is worthy of being entrusted by the Lord with administration, and especially with His own lambs and His own sheep, meaning His own young believers and His own old believers: who is to be entrusted with them? This is a most serious matter. Of course we have our care-meetings, and we can thank God for them, because the Lord is with us in them. It is a question of caring for the saints. The word is in the letters of Paul to Timothy, caring for the assembly, 1 Timothy 3:5. That is the word that governs the care-meeting. It is a question of care, rightly used, and who is worthy to have to do with the matter. Well, “Lovest thou me more than these?” I would say that is a challenge to every brother who attends the care-meetings, because I believe the Lord is with us in this particular matter [p. 176] of the care-meetings, which has come up of recent years rather than the thought of eldership. The word “elder” is not used in 1st or 2nd Corinthians, but the idea of care has, I believe, come in to substitute the thought of eldership — although the latter is not, of course, given up at all — far otherwise; but there are very few elders, very few fathers. Hence the young men have to be called on and have to be relied on, to come to the care-meetings, and that should be done. So the question comes up, “Lovest thou me more than these?” That is, the Lord would say, ‘If you call them care-meetings, I admit it, I endorse it, but I want you to understand that it means that love must precede the idea of care; that it is persons who love who can be relied on to care’. So the Lord says, “Lovest thou me more than these”, and it is three times repeated until Peter is distressed. It would be a wholesome matter if we were all to challenge ourselves on the eve of our care-meetings as to this matter of love — loving the saints whether we are true Merarites — because the Merarites were to look after the boards, meaning the saints: the saints are to be viewed as Merarites as caring for one another in our care-meetings.
So the question is of love, dear brethren, and then of food, and that brings up all of us who are ministering. I thank God for the many brothers who are coming forward now to minister to the saints in addresses and readings: God is with them and with us, because now it is not only a question of instruction, but of food — it is the food question; and first the Lord says, “Feed my lambs” — ‘If you say you love Me, then feed My lambs’. They are the young saints, the young brothers and sisters, even the young children. The Lord Himself, dear brethren, took the infants into His arms and blessed them: it is most touching! John does not tell us that, Mark says it:
“[p. 177] And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them”, chapter 10: 16. What did He do that for? Surely to help them, to impress them, to teach them love from the very outset, so that in due course they should come into the assembly. Anyone who is a Christian and who is not characteristically in the assembly is doing something wrong, he is not abiding in the truth, he is not keeping the commandments of the Lord. “If ye love me keep my commandments”, John 14: 15, and the Lord intends the infants as they grow up, the boys and girls, the young men and the young women to be in the assembly. That is the only thing the Lord has in mind — not only that they might be saved from eternal punishment, but be in the assembly now, having part in the service of God.
So it is a question of food. Peter is pre-eminently to be entrusted with the food question, but it is on the basis of love. So the Lord says, “Feed my lambs”, “Shepherd my sheep”, then thirdly, “Feed my sheep”. Someone may say, ‘Why not shepherd the lambs?’ The sheep are the ones who need shepherding — the old people. That is where error comes in; that is where schisms are created; the elder brethren getting disciples to follow after them and creating schisms among Christians. But the Lord says, “Shepherd my sheep”. The onus is on each of us here to shepherd the old brothers, the old sisters — all of us, of course; but the Lord says to Peter, “Shepherd my sheep”. So Peter is well filled with employment, and what an employment! He had already been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom, as you will remember: He was designated as material for the assembly; but he also has the keys, not of the assembly, but of the kingdom of heaven. Peter is entrusted with these, and we see him opening the door to Cornelius in Acts 10. But I am speaking now of the charge of feeding: “Feed my lambs”, “Shepherd my sheep”, “Feed my sheep”; and then to die afterwards, because that is the point. That is the principle of Christianity that if we are worthy of all these, worthy of favour, worthy of honours, worthy of distinctions, worthy of blessings, then we are worthy to die — not only that we are to suffer death, but we are worthy of it. The Lord grants it to us. He granted it to Peter. It was no accident that Peter suffered martyrdom: it was no question of Caesar doing it; it was a question of the Lord. He granted to Peter this great honour of being a martyr. That is open to us now. So the Lord says to Peter here, “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not”. Now another should do it. It is a question of the Lord granting the favour of martyrdom to the brother or brothers who are so honoured as indicated here. May God bless the word to all of us!