GLAD TIDINGS TO THE POOR
E.C.Burr
This section brings out a description from Jesus Himself of the work that He was doing. At this particular point in His service here John sends enquiringly from the prison to hear whether He was the Christ or were they to wait for another. What Jesus says, as will readily be noticed, reflects what He had read from Isaiah in Luke 4 as to the nature of His service. In Luke 4 He went into the synagogue and received the roll of the book and unrolled it until He came to the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor" (v 18), and as He went on through those verses He came again to the question of the preaching: "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord". Here the first things that He speaks of as to the blind and the lepers and the deaf and the dead have in one sense all passed. James helps us to understand that these things, save for the raising of the dead, are not wholly to be excluded in the present time. "The prayer of faith shall heal the sick" he says (chap 5: 15), and there are cases known to be extant in which it is claimed, as a result of prayer and even of the laying on of hands, that specific cases of healing have taken place. That epistle would lead us not to deny that it may be possible for the blind to see and the deaf to hear and lepers to be cleansed. In this present day of advanced medicine lepers are not easily cleansed, but James would allow that those things may happen. The dead are not being raised at the present time, the day will come for that; the gospel has a lot to say about the day when the dead will be raised. But one thing does remain: the poor have the gospel preached to them; that remains. I would like to say, beloved, let it remain, let the poor have the gospel preached to them. This time on the Lord's day is announced for the preaching of the word of God but the special character of the word of God that enters into this time is the preaching of the gospel.
I read the first verse of the chapter because it distinguishes between teaching and preaching; it says, "when Jesus had finished commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in their cities". There are perhaps few occasions in which we feel more that we have been taught than when the reality of the gospel has been announced to us and it has effected something fresh in our souls. So teaching enters into this time, but what the time is characterised by is that poor have glad tidings announced to them. The very words that Jesus uses here suggest as He speaks of the poor - no doubt speaking immediately of people who had not much in this world's resources - the idea that they were people in need. You do not customarily speak of the rich as implying need, although in relation to the preaching of the gospel there is no distinction of rich and poor, both are presented in regard to the preaching of the gospel as in need, and that is the direction Jesus points to in regard to the preaching - that the poor have glad tidings announced to them. Think how much it must have mattered to Him to send this word to John. You might have thought that it would be sufficient to have spoken about the blind and the deaf and the lepers and the dead; after all there was an enormous public testimony in that. If a man is in prison (and sympathetic as we may feel in regard to John, he is questioning, almost wondering what his life of service has been about) what message would you send him? Well, you would say people are having their eyes opened and lepers are being cleansed and deaf are hearing and dead being raised. Will not all this confirm you John? But Jesus says "and poor have glad tidings preached to them". It seems to me that He adds that for a purpose, drawing our attention to the fact that there are persons who can be spoken of in one sense or another as poor, people in need, people who need their deficiency to be made up from outside themselves, people who will be thankful if their need is met. Therefore one is impressed that it is essential in the preaching that the case of men and women as they are is taken up and the glad tidings that meet their state ministered to them. One hears occasionally at the preaching references to what are spoken of as 'the facts of the gospel' as if the preacher perhaps ought to mention them, whatever he may mean by that expression, and then get on with the preaching. But the very purpose of this meeting relates to what is assimilated in that expression 'the facts of the gospel'. It is not so much for the development of advanced truth or for teaching but to meet the needs of the poor, to meet the need of souls, to meet the need of people who are without God and without hope in the world; it is for that purpose. It is to meet the need of persons who in the day when God finally makes a reckoning with them will have either to show that they have absolutely nothing and therefore they are condemned by God because they are before Him with no refuge in respect of themselves or their sins, or on the other hand who will be able to say with confidence that they know they are perfectly secure.
The necessity of preaching the gospel to the unconverted would strike us all, but there is also the necessity of maintaining the preaching of the gospel to the saints, to those who have believed it for years, to those to whom it may be even more real than it is to the preacher; the essentiality of preaching the gospel remains to the present day. As I said, out of the things that Jesus sends a message about to John, as far as ordinary experience goes the one thing that is left is that the poor have the gospel preached to them. That is to go on. Brethren will remember that Mr Darby speaks about it, saying that if brethren ceased to be evangelical they would die out; and what right has any of us, on the occasion provided for the preaching of the gospel, to be anything other than evangelical? One of Paul's most evangelical epistles is that to the Ephesians. There are references there to the death of Christ and the blood of Christ and our offences, transgressions and sins, and grace, mercy, and the great finality of what the glad tidings preached to the poor brings persons into, that there is that in which God can be served unto all generations of the age of ages. Paul's most triumphant level is that of the preaching of the gospel.
I say again, the one thing that remains of the Lord's own description of His service is that the poor have the gospel preached to them. Therefore, beloved, it behoves us to consider what enters into the gospel preaching, what is the gospel preaching about? What quality and qualification enters into the preaching of it? As far as the preaching of the gospel is concerned little qualification is called for in the preacher. Of course he would need the ability to speak, but it is clear from Paul's epistle to the Galatians that he does not need to be able to speak especially well, he does not need to be able to speak as an oracle, he needs to be able to speak so that he can be understood. Paul says in Galatians "that in weakness of the flesh I announced the glad tidings to you at the first", chap 4: 13. Paul may have been describing his general condition or, as we might discern from what follows in verse 15, he may even have had some defect in his eyesight, but it is "in weakness of the flesh I announced the glad tidings to you at the first". He did not come to announce the glad tidings to the Galatians in great strength, vitality and power, he just came along as a man who believed in the gospel more than he believed in anything else and who overcame the weakness of his flesh in which he announced the glad tidings at the first. Of course, according to what Paul says to the Romans, the preacher needs to be sent, that is to say he has to have a word from God, and if he comes from the presence of God with a word, then it will meet whatever need there is in the company, because God sees the need far better than any preacher can see it. We may think that we know but we do not know people as God knows them. If God sends the preacher He will give him the word to meet just the condition of those that are there. He knows the condition of the poor, He knows in what respect you and I are poor. He knows whether we need revival in the great foundation truths of our whole standing with God, He knows whether our hearts need to be revived and drawn out again after Christ because of the great love with which God loved us and the great love with which Christ laid down His life for us. He knows whether we need to have our eyes pointed forward and upward in regard to divine things, He knows just what the present state of our poverty is. If any think that they are rich, let them just compare themselves with the riches of God's grace and, full though we may be, we will find that in comparison with the divine fulness we must always regard ourselves, relatively at least, as poor. We are never in a condition when we do not need the gospel preached to us.
If we think of what there is to be announced in the gospel we have to begin with God Himself, with One "with whom we have to do", Heb 4: 13. We have to do with God. Every day, every hour of every day, every minute of every hour, there is a God with whom we have to do; it is good to remember that. Not many of us here this evening are little children but it is good to bring up little children in the sense that there is a God with whom they have to do - One who has a right to call us to account, to seek into our motives and our objects, to seek into our lives and our history, the detail of what kind of persons we have been and are, and whether (which is almost the fulcrum of the glad tidings) we are in a fit state to dwell with God. That is what the gospel is about. It would strike some people that that was not saying very much; they would treat it airily or lightly (people in the world would treat almost any serious thing lightly at the present time), but having to do with God is a thing that very quickly will solemnise a man or woman. People speak about going to heaven when they die and quite a lot of them would be most unhappy there because, if the possibility could be envisaged of their being there apart from the work of Christ, they would be there conspicuous as in their sins. There is no way of bring happy in heaven apart from Christ, and there is no way of being happy in your relations with God apart from Christ. It is unsatisfying and in the end disillusioning to treat the question of the God with whom we have to do as if it was optional. Having to do with God will expose to a ma n just the kind of man that he is. That is why so many people do not like to retain God in their knowledge; they seek all other kinds of things when, if they would only face the God with whom they have to do, they would find that every moral problem of their soul was resolved and they would be happy and at peace. Jesus says at the end of the chapter "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls". That is what the preaching of the glad tidings to the poor brings about - rest in the soul. What the gospel is calling people's attention to is the necessity of their having to do with God and facing that issue squarely, not turning away from it (although we may well fear in the presence of God) but finding that the presence of God exposes to us just what we are. But the God with whom we have to do has Himself taken account of our condition and, as Paul says in Romans, "He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all", chap 8: 32.
The preaching of the gospel cannot effectively be announced unless there is reference to God coming in in Christ, displaying here in perfection in manhood the attitude of God to men. He was taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain but He was dying for our sins. The preaching of the gospel has hardly begun if the work that Christ did on the cross as dying for our sins is not brought home to souls. He was not there on account of anything in Himself, save in the sense that He longed to have men in His company, and therefore He gave Himself to provide a basis for God in righteousness on which He could have others like Himself in His own environment. He died, not on account of anything that was in Him, but for our sins. Paul, in speaking of the glad tidings in 1 Corinthians 15, does not begin with the incarnation, although that is essential, but he says "I make known to you... the glad tidings which I announced to you... that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures (vv 1, 3). That is the preaching of the gospel to the poor. Paul goes over it step by step. He tells the Corinthians that Christ died for their sins, and that is what the preacher tells you this evening, and that is what the preacher should always tell you. "And that he was buried" - the preacher should tell you that, that Christ was buried in order to take out of God's sight for ever not only the sins that we have committed but the whole constitution of man which is characteristically sinful and can do nothing but sin. Also "that he was raised" - a touch of triumph comes into the preaching. Paul says in that chapter that "if Christ be not raised... ye are yet in your sins" (v 17). "But now", he says, "Christ is raised from among the dead". What a glorious thing that is! I recall once being at a reading on that chapter and the brother who was going to stand up and read the scripture said 'How much shall we read?'. The brethren looked down the chapter and estimated they would get to verse 19. The brother that was going to read said 'We cannot leave the brethren there, most miserable of all men, we must go on to the next verse'. So he read "But now Christ is raised from among the dead, firstfruits of those fallen asleep". The preaching of the gospel according to the beginning of that chapter brings in not only that Christ died and was buried but that He was raised; as He Himself said in regard to His body: "in three days I will raise it up" John 2: 19. As Paul explains in Romans: "raised for our justification", chap 4: 25. Much enters into that. We cannot get away from these fundamental elements of the gospel: that God came into man's condition in Christ, sin apart, and in that condition Christ perfectly displayed the disposition of God so that men might have confidence in God and in the preaching of the gospel that would flow once Christ was raised from amongst the dead; and then that at the end He was taken and crucified and slain, and on the cross when He had died His blood was shed - a soldier pierced His side and forthwith there came out blood and water. Our minds reflect upon the scope for many preachings in the blood of Christ: if you preach about something else you would bring in what the blood of Christ has secured for God, and if you preach about the blood of Christ you would also be able to touch on the other aspects of His death and of His being buried and being raised. Paul goes over that step by step in Corinthians. It enters into the preaching of glad tidings to the poor. None of those many preachings could be detached from the basic elements of the gospel, with the way in which God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses to them, a chapter which goes on to say "Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him", 2 Cor 5: 21. As Paul goes over this he speaks of our being raised, which involves our justification, being made perfectly suitable for God. I suppose it would be right to say that justification makes you fit to have the best robe on; the best robe is not justification in itself but God puts it on what is already fit for Him. Christ is raised for our justification, and then He ascended. Paul does not in that chapter speak about the ascension of Christ, but he says He was seen. He was seen by Cephas and by five hundred brethren at once, and then last of all He was seen by me, Paul says. Although none of us could take a place alongside the apostle PauI (something that can safely be said because the Lord says he is an elect vessel unto me), yet there is an experience available to us, an impression of a glorified Christ having meant something special to us. He appeared to Paul in a way that may not have been corporeal; but the purpose of it was to give him some distinctive impression of Christ glorified; and as we believe in Him, the Lord Jesus would give each of us some special impression of His glory that binds us to Himself for the rest of our lives.
So the Lord says the poor have the gospel preached to them. Of course the gospel leads people on into the depths of God, and these things that I have been speaking of are calculated to draw the soul out after the God who has not spared His own Son, and after Christ who gave Himself for us. They are calculated to affect us in a way that wins us: Mr Stoney says that the heart is won by His humiliation. They are calculated to bring the Person of the Lord Jesus before us to make the gospel real to us. What He was really saying to John is that I am still here and going on with My service, I am still doing the work that the Father gave Me to do and, apart from these outward signs, I am preaching the gospel to the poor. How attractive that is! This is a chapter of great stress, great anxiety, John questioning who He was, the cities in which His mighty works were done setting Him aside, scarcely any response anywhere, yet Jesus says "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight". Jesus is standing there alone with rejection all round Him. Even as you listen to Him saying that to the Father your heart is drawn out to Him again and you reflect that He is in that condition in rejection in order that He might ultimately become your Saviour. This is what the preaching of the gospel has to do with, the state of men and women, the need of souls; it has to do with the preaching of a God who has known the need of souls perfectly and has provided what perfectly meets the need of the poor. It is very blessed and affecting to think that this remains. I say again let us see that it does remain.
There are many depths into which we are led, even if we begin with the preaching of the gospel to sinners. In Luke 15 the young man had taken the benefit of what the father had to give to him and he was away in a far country; eventually when he came to himself he came back to his father. In its application he could only come back because the shepherd had gone out. I think that is another thing that Mr Stoney said or perhaps it was Mr Darby, that the father could not have come out if the shepherd had not gone out. We see in the way in which those things are bound together that because the shepherd had gone out the father could come out. There is much scope for the preaching of the gospel in relation to the father's house, what the music and dancing may convey, what the best robe and the sandals and the ring may convey. Have those things any real substance for us if we are left in doubt as to whether we have any righteous entitlement? But the righteous entitlement is that the shepherd went after it until he found it. Going after it involved the incarnation and the rejection and the cross and the grave, and it involved rising again; then there was ground on which the father could run out when somebody returned. I value that expression, it was because the shepherd had gone out that the father could come out; it helps us to understand the preaching of the gospel to the poor, that the side that belongs to the shepherd is essential if what belongs to the father is to have a substantial basis in our souls. The more truth we know, beloved, the deeper we get into it, the more danger we are in of detaching ourselves from our roots and thinking that there is a level of the truth that is above the preaching of the gospel; and that is just not true, because the gospel to the poor will always be related to the work of the Lord Jesus. As it is preached week by week it will grow in the affections of the saints, they will become more and more attracted to it. Why is it said that in every division the real issue is the Person of Christ? If the Person of Christ had been kept before the saints in the preaching, maybe some issues would never have arisen. If the reality of what He had done, the way He went, His rejection, of the attitude of the world to Him; if the way the truth is in all these things had been maintained before the saints on the basis that they were the poor to whom the gospel had been preached, would we then take a lofty attitude and critically say this or that about doctrine that related to His Person? Or would we not have our eyes thankfully opened to some fresh glimpse of the glory of the One who came into man's condition in order to die? I remember once, when a beloved young brother was taken to be with Christ, being at the Supper the next day and thinking that there was one Man who came into the world to die; everyone else has come into the world to live, one Man came into the world to die. The preaching of the gospel to the poor attracts the heart to the Man who came into the world to die. Now, as He Himself says, He became dead and is alive to the ages of ages. The gospel to the poor attaches them to Him in a world where every need of every soul is satisfied, where there will always be more to fill each soul as it assimilates what it has already been satisfied with. The objective of the preaching is to engage souls with things that relate to the foundations of their spiritual lives. The necessity in the present day, even if everybody present already believes on the Lord Jesus and is saved, is that the glad tidings should still be announced. Many of us here preach, and I venture to urge upon all who preach, not just ourselves, that they should not confine the work of Christ to some brief statement about the facts of the gospel but that the work of Christ and the reality of who He is and what God is should be dwelt on so that the souls of the saints become more and more built up, buttressed by refreshment in the truth that they have known, the truth that in one sense has made them what they are, has given them a foundation on which what they are may be built. So the preaching of the gospel to the poor should not die out among us, not be substituted by teaching or anything else, because the Lord has over the whole history of the recovery confirmed the saints in having a special meeting tor the preaching. Let the gospel be preached!
I just have these impressions beloved. If the Lord leaves us here let all of us who preach look to our preaching, that we are preaching the gospel. It is the one thing that remains. I cannot open people's eyes (in fact the man in John 9 says since the world began it had never been heard of; since Jesus did it I suppose one could still say it has never been heard of). I cannot cleanse lepers and I cannot make deaf people hear, and I certainly cannot, nor can you make dead people wake up, unless you apply that morally; but one thing that we can still do is to preach the gospel to the poor. Let us not give it up, for His Name's sake.
CROYDON
12 December 1975