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JESUS

E.C.Burr

When John wrote his epistle he says "it is the last hour", 1 John 2: 18, and I seek to inquire now as to the character of things that John brings before us in the last hour. For this I look at the end of his writings. If we look at the ends of the writings of Paul he ends nearly every one with a reference to grace in some, way or another: "Grace be with you" (Col 4: 18), "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit", (Phil 4: 23), "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all", 2 Cor 13: 14. Paul closes his letters with the desire that grace may be left upon the brethren. May it be left upon the brethren. As we go away from this occasion according to the will of God on the Lord's day, may there be a sense of grace upon the brethren. May there not be anything as it were stirred up. May we know what the poet says:

Drop Thy still dews of quietness

Till all our strivings cease,

Take from our souls the strain and stress

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

That is by Whittier who I think is an American poet. But let it be, beloved. We may speak of things that relate to conflict but let us go away with rest in our souls and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with our spirit.

But John does not conclude his writings with references to grace. In fact he does not close his first epistle with anything in a certain sense; he just stops writing: "Children, keep yourselves from idols". And you turn the page thinking John would have something more to say, but he has nothing more to say: that is his letter. What you will find in the conclusion of John's writings is Jesus. I could have read the last verse of the last chapter; it is Jesus - the world could not contain the things that He did. If you go to the book of the Revelation; "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star", chap 22: 16. If you go to the end of his first epistle - the second and third epistles are kind of love notes, one sent to a sister and one to a brother, just little notes full of substance - he refers at the beginning of the last chapter again to Jesus; "Every one that believes that Jesus is the Christ" (v 1), and "he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (v 5). It is to me as if John's heart was so full of Jesus that it must break through. The brethren will remember how in beloved Mr Darby's writings there comes a point when he just writes, O Jesus, Jesus. Think of that!

I therefore seek help from the Spirit to say a word to the brethren about Jesus in the context of the last verse of chapter 20 and the verse in chapter 21 that I have read. But I suggest, brethren, that we might in our spirits pause for a moment and ask ourselves, What have I thought about Jesus today?

Room for pleasure, room for business,

But for Christ the crucified -

Not a place that He can enter

In the heart for which He died?

Has that been true of brethren today? Have you any room for Jesus? Just go back over the day and ask yourself, Have I today had any room for Jesus? I know you have been occupied with one thing and another - so have I - but have you any room for Jesus? John would say, There is so much in my heart about Jesus that it will break through in everything that I write. Paul does not say much about Jesus by that Name. That remark may surprise you but you will not find that it is the Name Paul uses most. "Him that is of the faith of Jesus" in Romans (chap 3: 26), "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow" in Philippians (chap 2: 10) and no doubt other references that I cannot just offhand recall. (The epistle to the Hebrews has several references to Jesus). But John is full of Jesus and he, as I say, writes for the last hour; he writes for us, and he writes for us about Jesus. Now I just ask the brethren again, Have you had any time for Him today? If we are left here tomorrow I urge you to make time for Him tomorrow, be like John and have Him so much in your heart that something about Jesus must come out.

In the verses that I read in chapter 20 two things are said about Jesus; "these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God", and John looks on to a consequence of that: "believing ye might have life in his name". I know that I do not have to introduce Jesus to anybody here. I do not have to tell you who He is, I do not have to tell you what He has done.

Jesus!, my Saviour, Shepherd, Friend,

Thou Prophet, Priest, and King.

Is it not all true to us all? But just dwell on it for a moment that John has written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. In his gospel he had set this out in a person with whom Jesus had to do. The Lord heard what they were saying about Him and about baptism and He went and sat as He was at the well, but He did not, I think, sit there exactly as the Lord, He sat there as Jesus. And what came out of that interview - one of the longest interviews He had with any individual in the Bible - is that it leads a woman to this; "Is not he the Christ?", that is, she had some impression that there was a Man there who was different from other men, a Man who could speak to her about her sins, but would speak to her at much greater length about the Spirit, and the Father, and God. And she says, "Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?", chap 4: 29. Beloved, have you had that interview and found Him to be the Christ, the Man that God has set up above every other man? We speak about the saints and we view them as an anointed company, a company in which the Spirit is able to bring out divine counsel and divine wisdom; but there is one Man who is the Anointed. As we well know, the title "the Christ" has a great deal to do with His relations with the nation of Israel because in the other language it means the Messiah. If you look back through the Scriptures you will find that the Messiah must be the Son of God, you cannot escape it. It is not an ordinary man, no man can claim to have that place. Look at Psalm 2: "And I have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness... Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee" (vv 6 & 7). The glory of what God has brought in in Christ in relation to the nation of Israel, and all their hopes so far as there is what is of God among them - what glory there will be in the day when Israel acknowledges its Messiah. What a wonderful day for them! What a day for us to see that nation on the earth acknowledging their King coming to them, they will look upon Him whom they pierced, but they will find that He has come to them meek and lowly and bringing salvation and that will be their portion from Him.

But if He is the Christ, He is more than what belongs to Israel, more than Israel's King, more than Israel's expectation. Does not the prophet say "The desire of all nations shall come", Hag 2: 7? Think of that! That is what the Christ will be, what Jesus will be, the desire of all nations and He will come. And when He comes He will satisfy the desire of every living thing. What a great thing it is to be able to serve in any company where there is any degree of satisfaction in Jesus! We get occupied with sorrow and with administration and with problems and all that kind of thing - and in many senses rightly - but is your soul not satisfied with Jesus? If He is the Christ He is the Man whom God has chosen for every man, to bring blessing to every man by way of satisfaction, not just by way of salvation but to bring satisfaction into every heart by way of what He is in Himself; the Christ - Jesus to be fed upon, to be the nourishment of our souls, to be looked at as the one Man whom God has chosen above every other man. What dignity! What glory! What an answer to His rejection! I well remember it being said that the world goes on as if Christ was not rejected: we should not do that but go through this world in the light of the fact that Jesus has been crucified here. And it was Jesus who was crucified, His own blessed Person - Jesus. As you contemplate the cross you see over it, This is Jesus. Is your heart not moved by that, to find there the Man in whom God has found His rest and will find it for ever, the Man that brings rest into souls, the Man who says "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest"? He says "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", Matt 11: 28,29. What it is to find that Jesus is the Christ!

Now there is a cause for finding that Jesus is the Christ. If you look at the last chapter of John's first epistle you will find that he who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God; that is to say, it is as the result of divine workmanship in you. This cuts at the root of merely intellectual assent to what Jesus is; it is the result of divine workmanship that one appreciates the Christ. Let me just encourage you, beloved brother or sister, young or old, that, if you believe in Jesus and your sins are forgiven and it is the substantial conviction in your soul, it is a token that God has worked in you. Now cling to that. Do not look around for other explanations of the work of God. You may have exercises in working it out into result but it is a sign that God has worked in you. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ it is a sign that you are begotten of God.

But consequences flow from that; he that loves Him that begot loves him that is begotten. Therefore a consequence of believing that Jesus is the Christ is, without using the expression in any narrow sense, that you love the brethren. The result of loving Him that begot, that is God, is that you love him that is begotten, because you are all in the same family and are all bound together by the fact that you are begotten of God. What relationships! Some rejoice in their natural relationships, some find new natural relationships. If I could just illustrate this, babies are born to one's brother or sister and you find you are in a new relationship; it may take a little while to get used to it, but there it is a new relationship. But have you become accustomed to this blessed relationship that springs out of the fact that you are begotten of God? Think of the family of God, think of it represented here this afternoon. As you look round you cannot see it - all, of course you cannot, but the family of God is represented here.

Now if I may go on in 1 John 5, the consequence of that loving is that you keep His commandments. Scripture is very consistent, it does not put everything into one verse, but if you follow it through you will find that the reason you believe that Jesus is the Christ is that God has worked in you, and if God has worked in you and you are begotten of God, then you love the others who are begotten of God. But then there comes a test, you keep His commandments. That is what John goes on to, the family of God keeps the commandments of God. If we wish to have unity, beloved - and who does not? - let us remember that the family of God lives by the commandments of God "and his commandments are not grievous". It is a great thing to find them. I suppose when we have families, sometimes they think our commandments are grievous. They say, Why do you want me to do that? But even in our natural families the children sometimes come to it that the commandment was best after all and as they look back they say, It may have been trouble for the time but now I see it should not have been grievous. And the divine commandments are not grievous. The effect of keeping His commandments is that family relationships are preserved. If you want disorder in the family let everybody do their own will; if you want unity in the family of God let there be a keeping of the commandments of God. All these things run together in 1 John 5, step by step you can work it through - divine workmanship, you love God, you love one another, you keep His commandments - and thus the divine family is preserved in its unity and integrity; and, beloved, I could almost say - I would not say it without qualification - that there is no other way. I think that if there is another way, when you looked at it you would find that it was working out again through these same channels, and if you apply these channels to another way you will find that you have to go through the same kind of experiences and relationships. Beloved, let us learn what it is, as believing that Jesus is the Christ, to find family relationships in affection and obedience and there we shall find the unity which is intended to mark the children of God. "See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God".

Now John in his gospel goes on further: "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God". Now there is something fresh, the Son of God. You might say that this whole gospel is about the Son of God. Of course it is, it is what John is really telling us about. Paul tells us what the consequences of His being known in sonship are for us, that we are taken into favour in the Beloved (see Eph 1: 6). But John brings this out; "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God". This involves very deep things for us - that God has been made known in this blessed Man who is Himself the Son of God. He came into that position but God has made Himself known and He has made Himself known in His Son. And when John and the other disciples watched Jesus they said it is like an only begotten with a father (see John 1: 14). What we can see there is Somebody setting out sonship. But what He was setting out was the reality of what sonship in relation to God is: the Son of God; how blessed! What a wonderful thing to contemplate! As we know, chapter 9 - the other great landmark in John's history of the Lord's dealing with individuals - brings a man to this, that he was talking to the Son of God: "dost thou believe on the Son of God?... And who is he... that I may believe on him?... Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he" (vv 35-37).

Beloved, when did the Son of God last speak to you? Can you remember? Did the Son of God ever speak to you? It was Jesus that spoke but it was the Son of God, and what He is communicating as He speaks to you is the blessedness and fulness of what there is in relation to Himself.

'As the Man of all Thy counsels,

Who the universe will fill':

that is the Son of God. And there He is, "Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he". Have you never found the refreshment of conversation with the Son of God? It is outside the world, outside all its hostility, outside every difficulty - communion with the Son of God, how blessed and how deep! And it is just Jesus. We gather up the titles He has in His Person and in His offices but behind it all is Jesus, just Jesus; "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God". Have you believed on the Son of God? Wonderful things it does for your soul when you think of what He is in the excellence of His Person - unable to divorce His deity and His manhood, the two things inseparable but never confused - it is Jesus and He is the only Being in the universe of whom those things can be said, that He is God but He is Man, and He is the Son of God. What opportunities for getting to know Him better in the depth of what He is in His Person! Think of Paul: "the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me", Gal 2: 20. Have you arrived at that point that it was Jesus who delivered Himself up for you but it was the Son of God, as excellent a Person as that? You wonder that as Christians have sought in the past to say things about His Person, the question has arisen, Well, who died on the cross? You have that profound answer that the Man who died was God. As I say, the reality of His Being is inseparable but never confused. And there He is, the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me. But He did more than that; He opened up the place where He is known as the Beloved, the centre of the Father's affections, the Man in heaven as the One in whom all God's thoughts centre and the One to whom we are drawn and in whom we find our own place. Did you not sing the hymn with some enjoyment?:

Son of God, with joy we view Thee

Of God's love the object meet;

While, Lord Jesus Christ, 'tis through Thee

All our blessing is complete. (No.161)

What, beloved, are your personal relations with Jesus? They are something greater than every administrative question. Sometimes you talk or write to one and another, and you get all the current history of what may be going on here or there, but have you any room for Jesus in your letters, in your conversation, in your telephone calls? Putting in parenthesis for the moment the desire that we have that every current assembly exercise should be resolved to God's glory, would you not feel charmed if you had a letter that said, Today I thought this about Jesus and this is what I got when I spoke with the Son of God and He with me? What blessedness! How much better than everything else! - things that are more excellent which we have in communion with Christ. One does not leave the exercises aside: who could? But beloved, do we not want more of Christ?

More about Jesus would I know,

More of His grace to others show,

More of His saving fulness see,

More of His love who died for me.

But the chorus is, More, more about Jesus. Would you not like that, beloved? Why is there not more conversation amongst us about Jesus? Why is there not more room for Him, more ability to speak on His things and about Him?

But the knowledge that He is the Son of God also has consequences according to 1 John 5: 5; "Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Have you ever thought of that? You may have problems in the world, and who does not? There is a need among us for sharpening up our sensibilities as to good and evil. There is a need, if I refer back to what I have said, for more attention to the commandments of the Lord in relation to a number of things, but there is a need for overcoming the world. Beloved, the world and its elements are in us all and they appeal to us all and they draw us all away and you find evidences of it, you might say here, there and everywhere among us. Years ago certain things were said to be the bane of every local assembly. The things which were then spoken of exist today, they have not been eradicated; they were mixed marriages and the radio (for the radio now read TV) - those things have not been eradicated. But "Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Why? Because that believer has another world; he has something more, something different, something where the Son of God is for God's pleasure now and eternally, and he finds his rest and satisfaction in that world where Jesus is, as the Son of God, filling everything to the delight of the Father as He will fill it for ever, and filling it to the delight of every heart that believes in Him. If you want to overcome the world cling to Jesus as the Son of God. Ask yourself these old simple questions; Would Jesus do that? Could I imagine Him here or there or wherever it is? And if you have any hesitation about the answer then you do not go there. The Son of God would not be there. In John 9 He was outside everything, and attractive outside everything; he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God is he that overcomes the world. And there you are, keeping the divine commandments and believing on the Son of God, and you are preserved in relation to the world where the Father has sway. The Father is over against the world, and Satan is over against the Son, and the flesh is over against the Spirit. The world is opposed to the Father but he that overcomes the world is he that believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

The consequence of this in the gospel is "that believing ye might have life in his name". Now does that not set you forward invigorated? Does somebody feel the need of stimulation? Different things stimulate different ones of us, some of us are stirred up no end by problems, but do you not feel stimulated by having life in the name of the Christ, the Son of God? And you can be here for Him, you can be here in a sense as His representative in the power of His Spirit because you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you have life in His name; that is to say, as you live it is He that is seen. As you live here people would be able to say, I saw something of Jesus today. Where did you see it? O, I saw so-and-so, and I saw somebody who had life in His name because he believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. These are the things to be coveted, beloved brethren. One thing that is needed amongst us, if I may venture to say so, is life in His name. It lifts us from the routine and from the ordinariness to which we so easily descend; and life in His name is something that needs to be ministered among us and the saints will respond to it. One thing I have the greatest confidence in in the present day is that what is in the body of the brethren will always respond to the Lord and His leading. May we minister to that, beloved. May we not minister to controversy and that kind of thing but may we minister to the body of Christ which will always respond to what is so excellent in Him as the Head.

Now I just add a word in regard to the verse I read in chapter 21 because there is this to be added; He is the Christ, the Son of God, but He is the Lord - "It is the Lord". And it was Jesus. It says "Jesus manifested himself thus"; but whilst they were out fishing at the sea of Tiberias - we all know about these men who went away fishing - here was Jesus and suddenly one of them said "It is the Lord"; not exactly that it is Jesus but it is the Lord. The last chapter of John's gospel is the Lord, the Lord, the Lord; Jesus is Lord; and it is about men who came to realise that it was the Lord. He could command creation - they could not draw the net for the multitude of fishes, and the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter "It is the Lord". Think of that! He was really submitting himself to the dominion of Jesus under that title Beloved have you confessed that Jesus is Lord? I do not mean just in a routine kind of way; your life will confess more than your words do. "It is the Lord". There He was, Master of creation; there He was, Provider for the saints, in a moment of weakness, a time of departure, a time of sorrow. Beloved Mr Lyon used to speak about this chapter as night, nakedness and nothing. But it was day and there was clothing and it was fulness because the Lord was there and the Lord was Jesus. Paul said "Who art thou, Lord? And he, said, I am Jesus", Acts 9: 5. And we find that just in a few moments, as Lord He puts everything right - cures the state of each of these men who had gone off fishing. "I go to fish": O, is the Lord in the fishing? No. Beloved, if you want to go somewhere else just ask if the Lord is with you where you are fishing. You may toil all night and catch nothing and you will be ashamed when you come home and you will be rather wet and miserable if you fish where the Lord would not have you fish. But when He is in command it is the Lord, a hundred and fifty-three great fishes and the net does not break; it is all brought safely to land because it is the Lord.

Then there is another thing that has to be learned; He puts everybody right and with the utmost gentleness. Has every one submitted to that gentleness with which Jesus puts them personally right? Then they have to learn that He is in charge of His servants; that is what the chapter closes with. After this would Peter and John go fishing again without His direction? No. Would they do anything without His direction? No. The Lord has direction over His servants; and anyone who serves the Lord and is not in communion with Jesus as Lord in His service will find that he is wet and miserable in the morning and he has caught nothing. Beloved, let us be sure that we are with the Lord in our service. We hear a brother, for instance on a Tuesday night, say, What I had in mind to say was... (we all do it) but the saints want to hear what the Lord had in mind to say. He is in charge of His servants. Let us be sure, beloved, in all our activities, in our inviting of servants, in our sustaining servants in a meeting - who would be at a meeting and fail to support the brother who was serving in it in the truth? It would be unbrotherly so to behave - the Lord must be over it all, He must give direction and unless He has given the direction we shall again have night and nakedness and nothing. But when He does you are no longer a fisherman, you are a shepherd. That is what Peter found, he was a shepherd and he was under Jesus as a Shepherd but he knew Him as Lord. "Lord, and what of this man?" What answer would you expect to that question? You address Him as Lord and you say, What of this man? And you get the answer that you will always get: "What is that to thee? Follow thou me". He is in charge of His servants; it is the Lord but it is Jesus.

Well, beloved, I trust I have not been too long, but I just would wish to leave some impression on the saints that would if necessary draw us back to Jesus, and that the brethren might be sustained in revival in relation to the Christ, the Son of God and the Lord and find that whatever title He has out of those it is Jesus just the same. 'Our joy is full - we have Thee, Jesus, still' (hymn 229).

PLAINFIELD

28 May 1982

THE CHILDREN OBSERVED

I often wonder how many people who observe wild life and who write and read books on nature study realise that they themselves are being watched with far greater interest by the very Creator Himself. Job, who was an evident student of creation, spoke to God as "Thou Observer of men". If you read this phrase without the last letter it becomes 'Thou Observer of me', and shines a strong light into both your conscience and your heart. But all is in view of blessing. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, when hiding in the midst of the trees of the garden of Eden - perhaps behind the tree of life which was in the midst - were seen by God. But the solemn question, "Where art thou?", was not just a call to judgment; it was rather an expression of grief that the man so highly favoured did not respond to the heart that had so favoured him. It expressed a longing on the part of the Creator for communion and not for condemnation.

Many students use a microscope to reveal hidden details of the object under observation. The word of God acts upon us in the same way morally and reveals even the thoughts of our hearts and the intentions that give rise to them. No doubt the word of God is firstly the Scriptures but many other things may have the character of His speaking to us. Even a dumb sheass speaking with man's voice was used to expose the folly of Balaam's thoughts. Unconverted persons who have been saved from imminent death by drowning have said that at such a time the whole of their responsible life Godward has flashed across their minds. Many, in God's grace, have been converted by this means.

Those who study the heavens use a telescope to make their object appear nearer. In reading the parable of the wealthy father and the spendthrift son one has the feeling that the father had a kind of telescope always trained on his sinful son in the far country. By this means he was quick to discern the first sign of repentance. But more even than this, he was able to cover the distance and welcome the returning one. Surely there is in the Bible no verse other than Luke 15: 20 with as many as seven verbs of decisive and powerful action! The slaying of the fatted calf, like the death and shed blood of Jesus, met the requirements of justice and the father said "It was right that we should make merry and rejoice". Are you of the party?

J.C.Evershed

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