SIMPLICITY

^[p. 421] SIMPLICITY

Luke 22:14 - 18; Luke 22:21 - 30; John 13: 31 - 34

I have read from these two gospels in order to bring out the idea of simplicity. Simplicity marked the Lord’s relations with His own as here in flesh and He made it plain that it should mark their relations with each other during His absence. On the mount of transfiguration, as no doubt most here will remember, as the glory scene disappeared He was found alone with them — the three disciples or apostles whom He had taken up with Him to that glory scene. It is said, “And suddenly having looked around, they no longer saw any one, but Jesus alone with themselves”, Mark 9:8. The Lord having returned to His ordinary way — the lowly Man who could be seen at any time in Jerusalem or Judaea or Galilee, He intended that the simplicity that marked Him should mark them. That is what is in mind now, dear brethren, that this simplicity should be with us. It is a product of the Holy Spirit — but primarily a product of the Lord Jesus. He is not here, He is gone to heaven, but the Holy Spirit is here — a divine Person, as the Lord Jesus is a divine Person. Those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit are also simple.

So I have read from Luke and from John. The other two gospels are more official, the one alluding to the assembly, for the only gospel that speaks formally of the assembly is Matthew. His words as to it are unmistakable, they are words of dignity. Matthew and Mark speak of official dignity in the service of the Lord as here in flesh. So, the assembly being the point with Matthew, he does not fail to treat of her in her dignity; of the wayward or lawless believer (a lawless person and yet undoubtedly a believer) the Lord said, “If also he will not listen to the assembly, let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer”, that is, a person unfit for fellowship. Mark on the other hand speaks about levitical service and immediately introduces the Son of God. Again it is a question of the dignity attached to the servants. They are to be regarded accordingly.

But Luke is sympathetic. He may have been a gentile, very possibly he was, and it is possible too that if he were a converted gentile he would carry the suitable comeliness and lowliness in his walk and ways which would befit an outsider called into the fellowship of God’s Son. Luke is gracious. He addresses his correspondent, if I may so call Theophilus, with suitable grace and respect. Theophilus was evidently a man of distinction and hence required to be addressed accordingly. Luke is the man for that in both cases. He writes to the same person, and although somewhat less deferentially the second time, yet he says “O Theophilus”. Luke is gracious and gives us a record of the last passover that is very touching.

So we have in Luke, “And when the hour was come, he placed himself at table, and the twelve apostles with him”. The twelve are said to be with the Lord in the gospels as He partook of the last passover, except in John, who does not record that the twelve were with Him. Luke alone records that they were apostles. I mention all this, not because I wish to speak of the Lord’s supper; I read about the passover in Luke. I read about the Supper in John, but we are not told what supper it was; we are left to assume that it was a family affair. That is what I am aiming at — that we may cling to the family, not the natural, but the spiritual family. It is very encouraging that, as far as I know, all the Lord’s natural relatives were saved, although at first they were very far from it. It shows how we might be ^[p. 423] encouraged to keep an eye on our children, old and young, so that they might be saved. The Lord would set that example before us. If we have children or grandchildren or great grandchildren — some of us have — we should pray that they all may be saved, for God has no less a thought for our children. God would accord everything possible to them so as to encourage them in due time to seek salvation. The salvation of God is sent to the gentiles, and they will receive it. Why not our children? They should be the very first to receive it.

The idea of the passover — the simplicity of it, and the fact that the twelve were there — is what I have in mind now. In all these matters that are depicted in the verses read in both gospels the twelve apostles are there. The point was that the last passover, which developed into the Lord’s supper, should be thoroughly accounted for, attested to, and that all should understand what was said and meant, especially that it was a family affair. Just for the moment I am confining myself to the passover, because that is how the scripture speaks of it: “when the hour was come, he placed himself at table, and the twelve apostles with him”.

I am speaking now of facts relative to these great matters so that we may see how they enter into christianity at the present time. Other things were said to the Corinthians, very many and great things, but in that section the apostle says, “I have espoused you unto one man”, showing that the assembly was in the apostle’s mind, and that it was a practical thought. It was not simply the sisters of the assembly, but the saints of the assembly, brothers and sisters, old and young, were espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ, all pointing to this great fact of the assembly, and how it was in the apostle’s mind when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians.

I go back now to the practical bearing of all this,

^[p. 424] that what was said and done was to be attested in the most accurate way. The twelve in Matthew, Mark and Luke were seen when this last passover was celebrated, out of which the Lord’s supper developed. This would remind us to be accurate in each thought as to it. The scriptural thoughts relative to this great matter must be clear so that we may be accurate, not only in what we say of it, but in what we say to the Lord in it.

I have now one or two further thoughts about the Lord’s supper. The apostle Paul says, “I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me”, 1 Corinthians 11:23, 24. That and what follows as to the cup are the sum total of the actual facts that were delivered to Paul as to the institution and celebration of the Lord’s supper. It is quite plain that it is simple. Its very simplicity is its charm, and we should not add to it. We should be content with the word that Paul gives us. The beautiful word of Paul’s, in which he says that he has received from the Lord the things that I have quoted, should suffice in what we say to the Lord in that matter.

I now go back to the idea of simplicity and how the matter stood as the Lord said to the apostles that He would eat the passover with them and directed how it was to be brought about, what was to be done, and sent two of them to attend to it. He told them about the man who would carry the pitcher of water. And so the passover was to be celebrated. He had doubtless celebrated the passover every time it came round during His blessed life here, but this was the last time. I am speaking of it because it involves so much simplicity as to the Lord’s life and ways. “If even we have known ^[p. 425] Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, 2 Corinthians 5: 16. But Scripture does speak of Him as to what He did when He was here after the flesh. It is clear, however, that as to what the Lord’s supper may imply it is a question of Christ in heaven. He would not celebrate the passover again. He says, “I will not drink at all of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God come”. That would be another matter altogether. In the meantime the passover is in the minds of the three writers, and it is now for us to refer to 1 Corinthians — “Our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed”.

I am speaking of the simplicity that marked Christ. He places Himself at table and the twelve apostles with Him. There they are in position as associated with their Master. The Lord could see at that moment everything that should run down the ages in regard to this matter. Much controversy has happened and darkness has marked many in the so-called celebration of the Lord’s supper; whereas the thing is simple. Then He says, and it often affects me greatly, “with desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer”. These are His own words, and He meant to convey a family scene. That family was to be transferred, it was not to disappear, it was to remain and enter a new order of things. But at that time the Lord Jesus was there and He was expressing His feelings, that He should eat the passover with them before He suffered. The Lord would say, I want this time with you. The whole scene is transferred and could only be so by the Spirit. The Lord went up to heaven and left the eleven here. Mary is there, other women are there, and the brethren of Christ are there. Undoubtedly they are all there. There is evidence that the Lord’s own brethren after the flesh were saved and transferred into the new order of things in which we now have part. In Galatians Paul says, I went up to ^[p. 426] see Peter and spent fifteen days with him. A new order of things is in view, but the simplicity has not left it. I mention that to show you how simple christianity is. “Other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother”, says Paul; Galatians 1: 19. Evidently James was saved, in fact it almost implies that he was an apostle; anyway, he was there.

How glorious the beginning, when, in all humility and simplicity the eleven and Peter were there! Mary the Lord’s mother and other women also, and the brethren of the Lord. The Spirit would speak victoriously of what prevailed after the Lord went up to heaven. The Spirit had not yet come, but all that I am speaking of is mentioned there in Acts 1. What a scene it was! What light and glory were in that upper room! Mary the mother of the Lord, what she could tell! The ground was secured for the Holy Spirit to come in after the Lord went up, and it is said that He was sent down from heaven. It is never said that the Lord Jesus was sent down from heaven, but it is said that He sent down the Holy Spirit from heaven. I am stressing what was there as the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and chapter 2 unfolds what happened. Persons were there from other parts of the world, as if heaven would begin to count in vast numbers; persons to witness a new order of things and yet maintained in simplicity by the Holy Spirit.

We should have it in mind that we are at the end of the dispensation, but the Lord is insisting that the end should be as the beginning. He is working against any deterioration in what there is, but rather increase. There will be plenty of deterioration of this world — the miry clay has come and we have to face it and feel it, but the very greatest thoughts are with us, with the saints. The greatest thoughts from heaven have come down here and do not deteriorate, because the Spirit of God is here. We should learn to be dignified ^[p. 427] in our minds, not in any natural way but in the sense that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God”. These are the things we are dealing with today. I am impressed with the simplicity and the dignity of the whole matter, what is to go up, to be transferred to the scene where Christ is and where we are going. I felt it was necessary to bring all this before you, the simplicity of the Lord’s relations with His saints at the beginning. The Spirit of God came in and found these relations and is maintaining them and carrying them on to the end, and enhancing them. We are supposed to increase steadily in these matters.

There was strife among the disciples which of them should be the greatest. “And he said to them, The kings of the nations rule over them, and they that exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be thus; but let the greater among you be as the younger, and the leader as he that serves”. I want everybody to take that in, and my own soul, too. “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. The Lord of glory was there with His apostles to partake of the passover for the last time. He desired with great desire that it should be so, that He should eat the passover before He suffered. During all that time He was ready to serve any one of them. It is to pass on to us the great matter of what christianity really is. It is Christ, “Christ in you the hope of glory”, Colossians 1: 27. It is a mystery, “Christ in you” meaning Christ among the gentiles, like Joseph in Egypt. He is in us, the hope of glory. Words cannot convey the glory. “For our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”, 2 Corinthians 4: 17.

^[p. 428] We are weighted so as not to be turned over by some trifle; holding on to what we are, what the Spirit of God has made us, because He is in every one of us. “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”, John 14: 17. He remains with us for ever. We must not turn aside, but go along simply in lowliness, serving one another in love. “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. I do not know that I can say anything greater than what I am speaking of now. The devil is set on discouraging us, but all these things are among us. “Christ in you the hope of glory” — that is what Paul says to the Colossians, persons who had never seen his face in the flesh. What is said of them is now said of us.

Now in John 13: 31, Judas has gone out, I suppose meaning that the light drove him out. Light will drive Satan out, so that there is no need for any company of christians to have the devil among them at all; light will drive him out. Judas went out. The Lord said, “What thou doest, do quickly”, and he went out and it was night. He has gone out, never to come back. So we are told here, “When therefore he was gone out Jesus says, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself, and shall glorify him immediately. Children”, (the simplicity of it!) “yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and, as I said to the Jews, Where I go ye cannot come, I say to you also now. A ^[p. 429] new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”. That is the great final matter of what I am saying, and the final matter of John’s gospel and of the Bible. It is the question of love. One who has not love is nothing. He is nothing. I simply am nothing if I have it not, whatever else I have. Christianity is Christ, but the Spirit is here and Christ is in heaven. “A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”. It is the mutual side of Christianity. Whether there were twelve apostles, or Paul, or Barnabas or others, it is “amongst yourselves”. It is to dignify the position wherever we may be dwelling — “love amongst your selves”. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”.

May God bless the word to us!