CHRIST AND THE ASSEMBLY
J. Mitchell
Genesis 2: 18–25; 2 Corinthians 11: 1–3; Acts 13: 1–3
I feel, dear brethren, that a word on the great thought of Christ and the assembly would not be amiss. It is a well-known theme, especially to those of us who are older, but I think we need reminding of it and our younger brethren need to be instructed in the greatness and glory of that to which we are called to have part. Lately I have thought appreciatively of the sovereignty of God that has brought us into the light of His greatest thoughts. That we have been selected for this should give us to value these thoughts and exercise us that the great truth of Christ and the assembly should find its proper place in our affections. There is much to occupy us in the world in which we are, and much to take up our time, and I am not unsympathetic with that. It is a concern that time is becoming scarcer and scarcer; the enemy is very active to occupy us with material things and other things, necessary as they are in their place. What the Spirit would like to occupy us with is the great thought of Christ and the assembly, so that it might govern our lives. We are here for a very short period. It may not appear so to younger brethren. But I can assure you that the older you get the more you will see that time is very brief: Yet in this brief period of time that God has given to each one of us, He is seeking to work out in you and in me His great thoughts as to Christ and the assembly which will fill eternity.
Now that must be something of tremendous importance, and I trust it is not just something that you might think of only occasionally, maybe on a Lord’s day. It is what ought to govern your life every day of the week, indeed I would almost go so far as to say every moment of your living. We have to fulfil righteousness of course, and the young people have to go to school, but I am seeking to attract you in your affections to God’s great thoughts for you, that is that we might be formed in the features that are proper to the assembly so as to be for the heart of Christ. That is a wonderful thing, when we think of who He is in His Person, for He is God, as the scripture says, “who is over all, God blessed for ever”, Romans 9: 5. Yet in this glorious arrangement of love He has come into manhood, and in manhood His desire is to have the assembly for Himself. That should appeal to all our affections. It is sorrowful to think of what has happened publicly in that which ostensibly belongs to Christ! That ought to generate a holy, increased desire with every one of us that, as far as we are concerned, we shall yield to Christ what He is really looking for, that is assembly formation and affections.
Now I have read in Genesis because in the history of time you cannot go back earlier than that. As to the eternal existence of God you can go back before that. One old brother used to say in his simple way as to John 1, ‘Christ was in the beginning before the beginning began’.
The eternal God existed long before time. We cannot find words to describe eternity, but He existed in eternity. Whatever men may say, whatever teachers may teach at school, let us get that clearly into our minds, that God existed in eternity before time ever came in. But as far as time is concerned we go back to the beginning of Genesis, where it says, “Jehovah Elohim said, It is not good that Man should be alone”. God was expressing His feelings. He looked on everything that He had made and saw that it was good and He said so, and yet here He expresses His own feelings, “It is not good that Man should be alone”. It is not that He said, It is not good for Man that he should be alone, but He said, “It is not good that Man should be alone”. The divine thought was unfulfilled without the woman; typically, in its fulness it required the assembly. He said therefore, “I will make him a helpmate, his like”. You think of the wonder of that, this vessel built by God, as the hymn-writer says, to be a helpmate, His like. Later in these verses in Genesis, Adam says effectively, ‘It is myself all over again’; that is what the assembly is, it is Christ over again in feminine character as answering to the thoughts of God.
It says in chapter 1, “male and female created he them” (Genesis 1: 27). That was what was in the divine mind, and the thought of male and female, in Christ and the assembly, will go right through into eternity. I wish to attract your attention to it, so that it might become, if it is not already so, the most important thing in your life.
It says, “And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim had formed every animal of the field and all fowl of the heavens, and brought them to Man, to see what he would call them”. It indicates the intelligence of Man as a creation of God. Later he was spoiled with the incoming of sin but I do not go into that. At this time what was in evidence was the beauty of what Man was in the mind of God, prefiguring our Lord Jesus Christ who was to come into manhood. Christ is the glorious Man who was in the divine mind. God brought all the animals to Man to see what he would call them. What intelligence there was in that beautiful creature that God had created, so whatever name he gave to each animal and fowl that was its name. God never had to correct a name. That shows the glory and beauty of the Man. It is intended to direct our hearts to Christ. That glorious Man was in God’s mind. I take it He is loved by every one in this room, and that every one has a place in their hearts for the Man Christ Jesus; that is God’s Man. God’s ideal. Everything that He ever cherished, He found in that Man. When Christ came into manhood, God had, for the first time in fulness, what He had ever had in His mind as to man. The beauty of Adam as man created by God is brought out in this passage, but it is all to bring on to view the greater and more glorious beauty of Christ as a Man. He, of course, is not a creation.
Then it says, “as for Adam, he found no helpmate, his like”. Firstly God said, “It is not good that Man should be alone”, but at the end of verse 20 it says, “he found no helpmate, his like”. In all these animals and fowls that came to him, Adam had admired something in each that was of God, and he was able thus to name them, but he “found no helpmate, his like”. Then it says,
“And Jehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Man; and he slept”. That refers to the death of Christ. It does not refer to His atoning sufferings, or to the settlement of the moral question. There was no moral question to be settled here. This was before sin ever came in.
The moral question, of course, had to be settled. Christ was great enough to settle that, but that is not the point here. His death was in order that His assembly might be brought out of His death, so that the assembly has its origin in the death of Christ. If you belong to the assembly, your origin is in the death of Christ. That should help us in many matters that come into our individual histories.
Beloved brethren, I appeal particularly to the younger ones, that is where your origin lies, that is where you came from. Your beginning was in the death of Christ. I know that we need to work out moral things in our own souls, but I am speaking about what was in the mind and purpose of God before sin ever came in. It is wonderful to think you were at that time in the purpose of God, “And Jehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Man; and he slept.
And he took one of his ribs and closed up flesh in its stead. And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that he had taken from Man into a woman; and brought her to Man”. Think of what that must have meant to Adam! He says, “This time it is bone of my bones”, there is something completely different now. It is a great thing to lay hold of the divine thought as to matters over against man’s thoughts. The divine thought will go through and no one can ever change it. God never needs to amend what is in His mind. He is going through with what has been in His own mind from before sin came into this world. He brought the woman to Adam, and it produced marital language in Adam. He says, “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this shall be called Woman”. That shows how near you are to Christ.
We can well rest on that, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. It is a vessel entirely suited to Him, which is of Him and like Him. That is the vessel, dear brethren, in which we have part. Think of what it is to have part in a vessel that is entirely of Christ, and is entirely like Christ! It owes nothing to the scene in which we are; it owes nothing to the world as a system. It is entirely of God, it could only be God’s thought, it is His glorious conception, and we have been brought to have a part in it. I appeal to you to grasp that the assembly is the greatest thing in the universe, outside of divine Persons. In these days there is a tendency to make little of the assembly. There is a great range of things in Christianity, and I do not wish to make little of any of them, but the greatest thing of all is the assembly. Let us get that clearly into our minds, and let us be thankful that we have been brought into the light of the assembly. Sad to say, not every Christian knows about the assembly; you talk to persons about the Lord and you may find a joyful response. You are thankful and rejoice in that. But if you speak about the assembly you may find that they do not know anything about it. Let us value what is in the divine mind for those who belong to Christ. It is the greatest thing in this whole universe outside of divine Persons themselves. The word to the overcomer in Philadelphia is, “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11. Do not let anyone rob us of the best. Mr. Stoney pointed out that when a tree begins to die the evidence of death commences at the top. That is when persons go away, the greatest, the most heavenly thoughts are lost first. Departure is from the top and comes down till finally the whole thing is affected by it.
He says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh”. I might just say a word of encouragement on that. We live in a day when the marriage vow is thought nothing of in the world, it is set aside almost completely. Thank God that we have been preserved in an area where the marriage vow is held in its sanctity, and held in relation to God; let every one of us be encouraged in that. When you come to Paul, he adds, “This mystery is great”, Ephesians 5: 32. It is not that it is a great mystery, it is that the mystery is great, it is a great matter, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”. I say to our younger brethren, especially those who may be looking for partners. Make room in your thoughts and intentions for the working out of the truth of Christ and the assembly. That is the great matter to govern you. Other things have their place, and it is not my intention to say anything as to these, but keep before you the great matter of Christ and the assembly. God has graciously given us to set it out in our marriage relationship. Do not forget these matters.
Let your exercises be governed by the great truth of Christ and the assembly. There are various types of the assembly in the Old Testament. You have Eve here, which is the assembly in the mind of God before sin ever came in. Then the next type is Rebecca, and there are certain things added in relation to Rebecca that do not come out so much in Eve.
The first thing is love. It says in chapter 22 of Genesis, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac” (Genesis 22: 2). That is the first time that love is mentioned in the Scriptures—that is the love of the father for the son. Then in Genesis 24, Abraham makes his servant swear that he will take a wife suited to the one that he loves. In type it brings out that the assembly is the love gift of the Father to the Son. That is very beautiful; think of the assembly in that connection! Then at the end of that chapter it says, “Isaac led her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her”. There is nothing mentioned about Adam loving Eve. I am not saying it was not there. I should think there was a vacuum in Adam’s affections which all these animals and fowls could not satisfy. There was not one of them that he could really love. But when the woman came onto view Adam used marital language, the language of love. When you come to Rebecca love is more extensively spoken of. The love of Christ for the assembly is a wonderful matter and also the reciprocal love of the assembly for Christ.
Another thing that comes onto view is the servant. The servant has a lot to do with the securing of the bride for Isaac. These things are well known, but our younger brethren need to be instructed in them and have them in their minds and on their spirits. The servant comes on to view, typical of the Spirit. How beautiful the types of the Spirit are in that chapter! At one point when Laban comes out, it says the man, that is the servant, was standing by the camels by the well. The servant, who is a type of the Spirit, is securing a bride for Isaac. Isaac never saw his bride until the servant brought her back. Abraham was able to entrust that great mission to his servant, who knew what was in Abraham’s heart in relation to his son, and thus able to discern what would be suitable to the heart of Isaac. As we think of the Spirit’s operations in our day, beloved, what a day it has been, stretching on for nearly two thousand years, while the Spirit is securing a bride that is absolutely suitable to Christ. We need to think more of and be grateful to the Spirit for all His precious service to us, in forming features of Christ in us, so that we can form that vessel that is to be for the heart of Christ, the vessel that He cherishes and loves.
Paul, at Corinth, in a certain sense represents the Spirit. He says, “I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”. Now I speak a little to the older brethren. I would like to arouse some element of jealousy that is of God in your heart. In our
local settings we have our exercises, and sometimes these exercises become something of a burden. O, the need of persons who have the jealousy of God, persons who, under the hand of the Spirit, can be used so that the saints in our localities might be espoused, as it says here, “unto one man”—not two, but unto one man—and presented a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul’s task at Corinth was not easy. There was much there that would militate against the chaste virgin to Christ, and maybe there are, in every one of our localities, things that are militating against the assembly as a chaste virgin to Christ, (not for Christ, but a chaste virgin to Christ).
That is what he laboured for, and I trust that there are men in each locality who have that jealousy, that burning passion, if I may use the expression, in their hearts, to present the saints in the local meeting a chaste virgin to Christ. How pleased Christ will be at the rapture when He will have the assembly for Himself, for the first time complete. We should be concerned that the features that will rejoice His heart on that day are seen now. In however many or however few it may be, the Spirit of God will labour and secure what is precious to the heart of Christ, and what can minister to His heart, before the rapture. Christ has the heart of a Man and, as seen in Adam, there is a void there. Let us be labouring, beloved, that every one of our localities may have this character of the chaste virgin to Christ.
That is what Paul laboured for. The Corinthian situation was not easy. There were difficulties there and the Corinthians looked so unlike the assembly. If you read the epistles through it seems that way, and yet he can address them in the first epistle as “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”, 1 Corinthians 1: 2. That is a different setting from what we are dealing with, and I do not go into it except just to point out that Paul could address them that way, he held them as the assembly. We need to hold our brethren locally in the light of the assembly.
It involves hard labour, and it involves that we are marked by this jealousy, “For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God”. If things came in that were contrary to the chaste virgin to Christ, Paul would feel it much. He says in this very chapter, “Who is stumbled, and I burn not?” (2 Corinthians 11: 29). Think of what was in the inwards of Paul in relation to the assembly at Corinth. Let us, take on something, beloved, of that kind of service that would feel things inwardly if they are out of accord with a chaste virgin to Christ, and labour in order that there might be recovery to that. In Genesis 24, at the end of that journey, there was a conversation between the servant and Isaac. The servant told him all things that he had done (Genesis 24: 66). What joy there will be for the Spirit when His labours are over and Christ has the assembly for Himself. In the meantime He is desirous of forming a vessel that is suited to Him.
I come to Acts 13 because you see there the working out of things in a locality. It is a very interesting locality, and there is much to learn from it. There is not time to go into it all, but those at Antioch were secured through the tribulation that took place on the occasion of Stephen (Acts 11: 19). The death of Stephen is very affecting, the kind of his death, and the brethren were scattered abroad. The enemy thought that he had achieved much in the death of Stephen; in the same way as he thought he had achieved much in the death of Christ, but it only furthered the work of God. So persons are secured at Antioch through the gospel, and the report comes to the ears of the assembly in Jerusalem, and they send Barnabas, a son of consolation, down to them. Barnabas sees the need of Saul and he went away to Tarsus to seek him out. Think of the unjealous spirit there was in Barnabas who could discern what the need was, and went away to Tarsus to seek out Saul who could meet that need. He brought Saul to Antioch, and they were there for a whole year, teaching a large crowd. But in chapter 13, it is not a crowd but “the assembly which was”; the word “there” is not in the original, although it is given in brackets in Mr. Darby’s translation. It is not a question of the location of the assembly, it is the assembly which was, a concrete result, the assembly is there in a wonderful way as a formation.
So it says, “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11: 26), that is they were Christ-like persons, and the Spirit of God can record the assembly which was. It tells us what marked that assembly, there were prophets and teachers. Now these are two characteristics that are absolutely necessary in our local assemblies; prophetic ministry and teaching. The teaching, if I might be permitted to say so, is perhaps more needed today than it ever was, because of the awful currency of bad teaching abroad. So it says there were prophets and teachers and it tells you who they were. Barnabas comes first and Saul comes at the end. Think of these men working together happily in the prophetic ministry and in the teaching in view of the welfare of the assembly there! It is a very beautiful picture. Let us examine matters in the light of the Scriptures; let us see how we stand in our own localities as to this matter of prophets and teachers. It says, “they were ministering to the Lord and fasting”. To minister to the Lord is the proper function of the local assembly. The local assembly is not for your good or my good; it is not for you or me or anyone else to bring in our own point of view. It is there for prophetic ministry and teaching, and the result is that there is a company of persons ministering to the Lord. How beautiful it is to think of the assembly for Christ. You can almost see what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11 worked out at Antioch. They were espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ.
It also says they were fasting. I do not have much experience of that so I cannot say very much about it. But clearly they were concerned to deny even what was legitimate in view of the assembly in expression in that place. The remarkable thing about it is that “as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said”, the Spirit spoke. We are not told the way in which
He spoke, but there was liberty in that assembly for the speaking of the Holy Spirit. It raises the question with us all whether there is liberty in the local assembly for the speaking of the Spirit? Has there been that ministering to the Lord and fasting? The denial of what is legitimate gives the Spirit liberty; it is as they were doing that that the Holy Spirit spoke.
These are exercising matters, beloved, but let us hold to the great truth of the assembly; the assembly worked out in our localities, the greatest thing we can ever have. Let nothing come in to hinder or obstruct the working out of and the functioning of the assembly in our places, and let there be liberty for the Holy Spirit to speak. His authority was recognised at Antioch; that is very remarkable and affecting, and yet why should it be remarkable? It was normal that the authority of the Holy Spirit was there—“Separate me now Barnabas and Saul”—
there was no demur. What the Holy Spirit said was accepted. It says, “Then, having fasted and prayed, and having laid their hands on them, they let them go”. There was a company of persons entirely subject to the Holy Spirit; the Spirit had free and unobstructed way in that locality. The question comes down as to whether He has free and unobstructed way in our places. May the Lord bless the word to us for His name’s sake.
Address at Redbridge
8 March 1997