THE LORD AS SEEN AT THE CLOSE OF THE GOSPELS
[p. 543] THE LORD AS SEEN AT THE CLOSE OF THE GOSPELS
Matthew 28: 16 - 20; Mark 16: 14 - 20; Luke 24: 36 - 53; John 20: 19 - 23
JT I have been thinking of late that when the Lord is pleased to furnish light and instruction to His people, He makes it effective, and that is only as He is seen in relation to it. I thought we might look at the ends of the gospels with this in view. These scriptures are familiar to us, and much used to set out the bearings of the gospels, but the one point that is before us now, is that the bearing of any instruction and light the Lord furnishes to His people is only rightly apprehended as we see Him in relation to it. So these scriptures are serviceable to us for this purpose. Matthew furnishes instruction as to discipleship. We see the bearing of it and the object in it; as the Lord appears in Galilee we get the idea of appointment, and an appointment the keeping of which involved a long journey; and as the journey was taken the Lord appeared, and went forward to show the whole bearing of the instruction of the gospel, as seen carried out in the disciples. They are not called apostles here; it says the eleven disciples, and they are to go and make disciples. The full bearing of discipleship is seen as the Lord identifies Himself with His disciples, for it is not simply that one is a follower, taught by the Lord, but that as such he is influential. He can only be so rightly as he apprehends the Lord in relation to him. That would indicate what I am thinking of in regard of Matthew, that we should see how the bearing of the instruction is as the Lord identifies Himself with it. If it is to be effective in the world in testimony it must be as He is connected with it.
Ques Is that why He says, “Lo, I am with you always”? Is that the thought of Emmanuel being at the beginning and the end?
JT Yes, that passage fully bears out what I have in mind. “Lo, I am with you alway”. The bearing of discipleship is seen in its full effect as He is identified with it.
Ques Is it the thought of fellow-labourers with God?
JT Just so, but the thought is seen in its full bearing and effect as God is with them. So it especially comes out in Matthew, “Emmanuel, ... God with us”. God’s mind in testimony is effective as He is with us. In the creation itself, although working on its own impetus as a clock, it is not so kept going and made effective, except as God is in it.
Ques Would God being with us involve conditions?
JT That is good, and shows that whilst we may be very active, that does not ensure that God is with us.
Ques Have you in mind that power exists in God being with us?
JT Well, the One who is with us has all power in heaven and upon earth. It is not simply that the power is with us, but He is with us. That makes service effectual, and raises the whole question of the Lord coming in amongst His people. Immediately a thing comes in we apprehend it, but He comes in to identify Himself with the teaching and instruction, so that the saints move on and apprehend the Lord in relation to what He presents. The full bearing of the coming world will be when Christ takes things up. So now, on the principle of faith, as He is apprehended in relation to what is presented, it is effective. Hence in the assembly He is seen in identification with what is presented as ministered by Him.
Ques Is that why He is risen here, and not [p. 545] ascended?
JT Yes. He is with you always, so the discipleship is influential; it is “go ... and make disciples”. That is, they have power and influence with them. It makes christianity a living thing, it takes character from Christ in a living way. He makes everything effective as He appears amongst His people.
Ques Would you say we belong to a company who are attracted to the Lord, and where He delights to come?
JT Yes, and as we apprehend this, we apprehend all His communications. In His ministry He was not like a recluse or a monk; what we get with Christ is constant movement; He was constantly teaching, and His movements exemplified what He taught. In that way results are produced according to the pattern presented. Christianity is intended to be characterised throughout by divine incoming. Christ is livingly in the testimony.
Ques Would you say we need to learn to apprehend the sphere of the Lord’s operation?
JT It is His sphere of operation, and I believe all His appearings before He went up, after He arose, were to establish spirituality amongst His own. He does not come in an earthly capacity. He comes in a spiritual capacity. They were to become accustomed to spiritual manifestations; according to John 14 these were to continue, and the continuity would keep Christ in view in a living way, according to pattern. Moses continued according to the pattern shown him; we cannot say what that pattern was, there were specifications, but they would not suffice. It is the apprehension of Christ which enables us to work according to pattern. In Matthew, the idea of appointment involves a long journey; a disciple would undertake that. A disciple is a trained person, a follower; he is a person who has been taught, and takes character from the teacher. The disciples were accustomed to long journeys; the Lord Himself [p. 546] took journeys, so they were able to keep the appointment. The Lord kept the appointment, He never fails.
Ques The journey was not attractive naturally?
JT No, we do not care much for exercise of that kind, the kind that means a long journey. The disciples were willing to take the journey; that is the idea of true discipleship.
Ques Is your thought that the journey is inward exercise, or outward activity?
JT An inward journey now; there are two positions in that respect, Matthew and Luke. In Matthew you take the journey, you agonise before the Lord, and He gives you to understand that if you are to get your message you must get it there. He says, “There they shall see me”. If you seek to get your service from the Lord you have to see Him. Well, you go, and you wonder what it is going to be. You could say many things, give old sermons over again, that is simple; but that is not this. This is how you have to get it from the Lord. You may have your own thoughts, but if you see Him He conveys to you that He approves, and as you begin to minister it enlarges, because he is standing in relation to it.
In Luke there is no journey; He says, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem”. While we tarry we might say to ourselves, ‘Why in the city of Jerusalem?’ Because your soul becomes imbued with the sense of the grace of God which would lead you into such a wicked place, before saying anything about the remission of sins. “Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”. They were to tarry there until the Spirit came down; it is not our exercise or activity but we wait on the Spirit. As regards service, in Luke while you tarry, you would be imbued with a sense of grace, and the Holy Spirit [p. 547] would come to give effect to that, whereas in Matthew you have to take the journey.
Ques Where does the journey end?
JT In the mountain; Matthew 7 gives us the mountain, and the mountain is in this last chapter. Going to the mountain always involves exercise, it would test our strength, and then we need to be sure we find the right spot, so we should be on the alert. Matthew stresses responsibility.
Rem It is difficult to rise to an elevated spot.
JT Ascending requires spiritual energy. Luke comes to the level of men, it is not a question of energy but of divine activity; a person is impressed and imbued with grace. I think Luke is first as to service to men. I should begin with Luke or John today, in dealing with a young soul. It is a great thing to have an outline of what to present, and get the Lord’s approval of it, and then wait to be imbued with a sense of grace. Then you find in the process of delivering your message the Holy Spirit Himself will help you. As you wait before the Lord your soul becomes imbued with a sense of grace.
I think going to the mount as in Matthew means withdrawal from man and his ways; the whole chapter leads up to this, so that the Lord comes up to them, and they worship Him; but some doubted. There were only eleven of them, it was a broken state of things, but they go to the place appointed by Him. Success is certain if He makes the appointment and we keep it. He will not fail. Even the doubting ones do not interfere, they went right on, and He says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”. Even if some doubt — you go right on. You would give the doubters plenty of opportunity to right themselves, but if they do not do so you go right on. In taking the long journey they were not sure what the end was going to be; that is a great test. Even if they had feelings of unbelief in their hearts, when [p. 548] they get to the end the Lord does not say anything about their unbelief. The thing is to go on and disregard your feelings. Unbelief is sorrowful, but that is not the point in Matthew; the thing is to go on. Galilee is the place of reproach, but Matthew emphasises Galilee as over against Jerusalem. Jerusalem is slighted in Matthew always, it fits in with old times, when certain things were held in religious repute, and others in disrepute. Galilee is in disrepute. So in Acts it is “men of Galilee” (chapter 1: 11); there is nothing for the flesh in going to Galilee, the flesh would resent it.
Ques Were the disciples to be marked by what marked the Lord?
JT They were to be going on; even if sorrowful things like divisions happened, as seeking for truth we are to go on. There had been a break in the twelve disciples, there were only eleven, and some of them doubted. It was a weak state of things, but the Lord says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”.
Ques Is Galilee the place where we get our commission?
JT That is the idea. We are set here to make disciples of all nations; that involves great power in the way of influence, and the power comes from the Lord. He says, “I am with you alway”. In the bearing of our commission He is with us; it is all in Christ.
Now in Mark the Lord stresses their unbelief. “Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen”. That is, He is teaching them how to believe an accredited testimony. We must learn that; even although we may not see things, we must learn to believe them. They had accredited witnesses here, and did not [p. 549] believe them. They must learn how to believe an accredited testimony. That is, the ground of testimony that is presented in Mark, is by an accredited witness. We have the testimony of the apostles carried down in Scripture, but there is the spiritual presentation of the Holy Spirit here.
Ques Have you in mind that the Lord, in our day, uses accredited witnesses?
JT Yes. He takes men up and makes them competent witnesses. There must be the exercise of faith in themselves, something is presented to them, and they believe the testimony, and they expect others to believe their testimony. One who does not believe the witness of God makes God a liar. God knows how to qualify witnesses.
Ques Is Matthew the power, and Mark the kind of vessel?
JT Yes. The person who speaks to you expresses what he speaks and you believe on his testimony. Christianity must be on the ground of testimony. “Ye are witnesses of these things”, Luke 24: 48. There are two ideas in witness; one is we are His witnesses, the other is, we can be witnesses because we have seen the thing. These two features come out in Mark; and if I expect others to believe me, I must believe the testimony. It is for me to find out who these witnesses are. The Lord had appeared but they could not believe the persons who had seen the Lord. Then He goes on to show that “he that believes and is baptised shall be saved, and he that disbelieves shall be condemned”, Mark 16: 16. The Lord speaking here would show the full bearing of faith.
Ques Is there anything suggested by he that “believes”, not ‘has believed’?
JT It is characteristic. Not ‘he has’, but “he that believes, and is baptised”. It is faith that believes [p. 550] divinely-given testimony. God never leaves Himself without witness, and it is always the witness of men; here it is a question of believing and being baptised. “He that believes and is baptised”; that is, faith detaches me from the world. Baptism is the public recognition that that believer is detached from the world, and so is able to go into the world with the power of the gospel. That may mean suffering in the world, but the gospel is to every creature.
Ques If the witness is to be effective must it be the preaching of what we know?
JT Yes, if we preach the gospel it must be preached as something we know. If you get your commission from the Lord it is quite evident you are there on His account. Every time we stand up to preach it ought to be in some sense of being a representative of Christ. In Mark it is to be preached to “all the creation”, that is to say, it goes back to Genesis 1. Matthew goes back to Genesis 2, and so does Luke, but in John it is “whose soever”. The commission in John is on the highest level. “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. They are sent with authority to remit sins; the full bearing of that is seen in the Lord. I think it is a question of disciples in John 20. They are not called apostles. They were affected by what had been presented to them, and the Lord comes in to make it more effective, and to make them more effective in it.
They say in Luke, “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon”. That shows they had taken notice of what was involved in the grace of what He had done. The Lord had not done that in any haphazard way; if He appeared to Simon it was with an express purpose in view, it was in grace, the grace that overcomes sin. Peter’s sin was grievous, but the Lord appears to Him in grace. Something has taken place in the way of ministry, and the saints speak of it; the Lord likes that, but He would make [p. 551] it effective. The Lord comes in and shows the full bearing of that. They were saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon”. And the Lord appeared to two on the way to Emmaus; that is restoring grace, and He is made known to them in the breaking of bread. The question is, What are the saints speaking about after the meetings? What they have heard. The Lord likes that, and He would let us see the full bearing of the things ministered to us. They are not ordinary things; “As they were saying these things, he himself stood in their midst, and says to them, Peace be unto you”. It does not say ‘in the midst’, it is “in their midst”, Luke 24: 36. That means He appeared to those people; it is a local position, whereas in John 20 He comes on the first day of the week, where the disciples were, and stood in the midst. That has a much wider bearing than their midst. If we get anything in the way of ministry, and the brethren talk of it and appreciate it, the Lord likes that, and He comes in and gives it its full bearing in our souls.
Ques Would you say the Lord comes in and gives us to see the grace and wisdom in which we should move towards others?
JT Yes. They were to tarry in the city. Then He says to them, “Have ye anything here to eat? And they gave Him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb” (Luke 24: 42). Now if you saw the Lord taking the fish in His hand and eating it, you would see things in a fuller bearing than ever before. No doubt the fish and honeycomb mean something spiritually, but as taken into the Lord’s hands they have a wider bearing.
Ques Would it be the setting for His appearing, that there is something amongst us?
JT Yes, and He would show the full bearing of what we have. When the Lord attaches Himself to the things of God they are not common things — they [p. 552] are very great in their bearing. The middle bar of the tabernacle went right through; we see how things go through from end to end.
Ques Is fish the produce of taking account of ministry?
JT Well, I should say so, and honey would be their part; fish would be divine resource, it indicates abundant resource, and the Lord would indicate its full meaning.
Ques Would it illustrate “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”?
JT It would. Then He opens their understanding to understand the Scriptures. You see what fulness the Scriptures have as He is connected with them. “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name”. He identifies Himself with what is there, hence Luke 24 is christianity from the standpoint of grace. We see its full bearing as He is there.
In John it is in the midst, and the disciples were not doing anything, but the doors were shut; that would indicate a setting when a message has been sent; and as He comes in, the message acquires a fulness it never acquired as given them by Mary. They would see Him in relation to it: “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”. We continue in that relationship; there is only one Father. I think you see things in their full bearing as the Lord identifies Himself with them. “In the midst” means a great spiritual universe, having in its midst everything that is of God, all belonging to Him.
Ques Does it involve the church universally?
JT That is what I thought. I think the gospels all lead to the great spiritual realm involved in the midst, where the message to Mary would be apprehended in its fulness, “I ascend to my Father and [p. 553] your Father, and to my God and your God”. They would be lifted up in that, to a heavenly position and relationship to Him, and they were glad when they saw Him. He says the second time, “Peace be to you”. It is a real established peace; Christ brings in that. Then “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you. And having said this, he breathed into them, and says to them. Receive the Holy Spirit: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them”. That is the ground we are on in John, “whose soever”. He is in the midst now of what He inaugurated and brought into being, and nothing is said as to whether they repent or not. It is forgiveness, and it is left for them to decide whose sins shall be remitted. I suppose it fits in in our times, when we have to do with brethren who by their associations are involved in sin. It is for us to determine whose sins we shall remit, how can we have them in fellowship with us, unless we have power to remit their sins? These are great things; it is “whose soever”. The Lord has such confidence in His disciples in John, that He gives them full liberty in regard to forgiveness; so we do not approach a brother and charge him with evil associations, but we begin rather on the line of forgiveness. It is “whose soever”, whether in the church of Rome, or anywhere else. The Lord has such confidence in His disciples that He says, as it were, ‘whose soever sins ye remit, I remit’.
John’s gospel makes way for our seeking out our relations in the public profession. All christians are our relations. When Jacob went to seek a wife he sought his relatives first. It is a question of relationship, family relationships, so if we approach today on the line of John, it is a question of family relations. We can go a long way with them on that line, before we need to introduce the church. As soon as family relationships are established and our brethren see we [p. 554] can serve them, then they begin to acknowledge obligation to us. I believe many in the professing church today acknowledge obligation. It is a question of establishing family relationship first, so Jacob’s enquiry is for Laban. That is a good start; he might have said it was Rachel he was seeking, but he does not say that. When Rachel comes with the sheep it is as the daughter of his mother’s brother, it is a question of relationship to his mother. He served Rachel, but not as his prospective wife, but as his cousin. She tells Laban, and Laban employs Jacob as his nephew. Things lead on one step after another, until we have our brethren on family lines, we go along with them and speak of the gospel. Jacob serves for a month, until Laban says, “Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou serve me for nothing? tell me, what shall be thy wages?” That is where the church comes in, and as soon as your relations say they are obligated to you in regard of the way you serve, well then you say, it is a question of the church. That is when Jacob asks for Rachel. If Jacob had asked for Rachel at the start, he might have been refused. It is a great lesson to us.