PERSONAL AFFECTION FOR CHRIST
J. Harthill
John 1: 35–40; 20: 10–18; 21: 19–25
I want to speak, beloved brethren, about personal affection for the Lord Jesus and how He values it. I believe He values it more than anything with us. I have read these three scriptures because I believe they bring this out. You can see affection for Christ in its beginnings in the first scripture. In the second scripture we see affection for Christ in that great lover, Mary of Magdala, and lastly, in chapter 21, the great affection of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. I believe that one of the main services of the Spirit today would be in relation to personal attachment to Christ, which the Lord values so much.
I want to engage your attention with this great matter, as bearing on us now, from this remarkable gospel. I think we can speak of it as the love gospel and is it not touching to think of it as written by the one who styles himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Right in the first chapter we have, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1: 18. The declaration of God has been by the One who is in the bosom of the Father; that is, in the place of love. When we come to chapter 3 we have, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35. The Lord Jesus said Himself, “but that the world may know that I love the Father”, John 14: 31. Think of these statements as to love—how wonderful, how precious they are as we go on in the gospel.
In chapter 13 we get love’s precious service in the feet washing, a service that is to be continued amongst us, also the comment of the Spirit as to the Lord Jesus that He “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. There is no question as to His love, beloved brethren, and every one in the close of this wonderful dispensation who is in the path of the will of God can be assured of the conscious sense of His love. A brother said amongst us a few weeks ago that we have intelligence; we have been so greatly helped through the ministry of the revival, bringing out in fulness the great thoughts of divine love; but it may be the lack with us is in love, that may be the challenge at the present time for all our hearts. I say it in regard to myself. O, may the Lord Jesus affect our hearts this afternoon more toward Himself!
Think of what is set out in these two disciples as they heard John the baptist speak. We think of John with affection—what a lover of Christ he was! Think of the holy admiration of John as he calls attention to Christ, speaking of Him first as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Then he goes on to speak of Him as the One who baptises with the Holy Spirit, the Son of God. We come then to this third incident where it speaks of John “looking on Jesus as he walked”. O, the walk of Jesus, and what holy admiration there was in the heart of John! Was there ever a walk, beloved brethren, like the walk of Jesus? Think of the moral beauties and the perfection of the walk of Jesus.
Looking at Jesus as He walked he says, “Behold the Lamb of God”. This is the Object for our affections, beloved brethren, and here are five words with the understanding, as has often been said. John’s disciples were attracted and they followed. To me it is typified in the attractiveness of Noah in his position in the ark. The creatures, it says, “came two and two unto Noah into the ark”, Genesis 7: 9. Think of the wonderful attraction as these disciples of John followed Jesus! This gospel is full of the attractiveness of Christ, as He says Himself, “And I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”, John 12: 32. Think of the drawing power of the attractiveness of Jesus as the two followed. He turned and saw them following and said, “What seek ye?” and they said, “Rabbi (which, being interpreted, signifies teacher), where abidest thou?”. They did not address Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, or as Son of God; they say, “Rabbi”. Their desire was to come under the teaching, and to come into His circumstances. The Lord Jesus says, “Come and see”. What an invitations and how He valued their affection. All true life would move to Him, that glorious Man. I think it would set out “Christ everything” (Colossians 3: 11), and the headship of Christ.
When we come to John 20, how full that chapter is, and how affecting it always is. Mary of Magdala, according to chapter 19, was one of the four who stood by the cross of Jesus, three sisters and one brother. I think the emphasis on the sisters, beloved brethren, would set out this great thought of affection for Christ. “The disciple standing by, whom he loved”, is very affecting to every lover of Christ. They stood by the cross of Christ. They were there in the most extreme circumstances. Beloved brethren, we have passed through many things, but love never fails (1 Corinthians 13: 8); love will stand in the most extreme circumstances. Mr. Taylor used that scripture in regard to localities where numbers are few, and what a word it is today, “love never fails”.
In chapter 20 we have Mary of Magdala, and on the first day of the week, very early in the morning while it was still dark, that great lover of Jesus comes to the tomb. She sees the stone is taken away and runs and tells Peter and John, lovers of Jesus. She came and told these disciples and they two ran together. John outruns Peter and, stooping down, he sees the linen cloths lying, but did not go in. It says that Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb and sees the linen cloths lying, and the handkerchief which was upon His head folded up in a distinct place by itself. John then entered in and he saw and believed, but then the disciples went away again to their own home. Think of the wonderful triumph of the death of Christ.
No disturbance, all is in order, but He out of death, the glorious Victor. That is how John presents it, the glory of the Person of Christ who has annulled death and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings, (2 Timothy 1: 10).
Mary remained at the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down into the tomb and beheld two angels sitting in white garments, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Two angels—O, the dignity of it! Think of the glory of the Person who had lain there, how worthy He is to be revered. They say to her, “Woman, why dost thou weep? She says to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. She, turning backward, sees Jesus and He says to her, “Woman, why dost thou weep?”. It was really, beloved, the morning of joy. Christ out of death. “Weeping cometh for the night, and at morn there is rejoicing”, Psalm 30: 5. It was the dawn, speaking simply, of the eternal morning. Mary, however, supposes Him to be the gardener. She says, “If thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away”. Think of such affection for the Lord Jesus, “I will take him away”. We have often thought of that as a reference to loving with all her strength. Jesus says, “Mary”—the personal touch. She now turns round. She had been engaged with earthly things, supposing Him to be the gardener, but now she says, “Rabboni”—‘My Teacher’. Beloved brethren, how we need the teaching! The two at the beginning said, “Rabbi” or ‘Teacher’. What a remarkable gospel this is in its references to the teaching, and we need teaching to bring us into the greatest thoughts of divine love.
So Mary says, “Rabboni”, and the Lord Jesus says, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. How the Lord valued Mary, that great lover of Jesus, and to such love He gives the most precious things. He had committed His mother to John as he was standing by the cross, now He gives to Mary this wondrous message that so thrills our souls, bringing out the full truth of christianity. We used to speak much in earlier days of resurrection ground, but the full truth of christianity relates to ascension. “I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God”, involving association with Him in heavenly places in sonship. Mary, this great lover, gets the message.
How the Lord Jesus valued the personal affection of Mary! It says she came to the disciples and told them that “she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her”. How comely is her behaviour! There was no parading of what Jesus had said to her; nothing to draw attention to herself in that sense. It reminds me of the scripture as to love, that it “does not behave in an unseemly manner”, 1 Corinthians 13: 5. Here is love behaving in a comely, beautiful way.
Now I want to go on to what is said of John in this last chapter, which is, as we have been taught, a kind of appendix to the gospel. The chapter is bringing out the service of the Lord Jesus in relation to His own in recovery. Are we not interested in that?—for we are all recovered persons here, recovered to the truth in its preciousness and fulness. Thank God it is through the personal service of the Lord Jesus. How touching that is! Here we have the third manifestation of Jesus in resurrection, and it is in relation to seven erring brothers. Peter says, “I go to fish”; the others say, “We also come with thee”. That is a party. The Lord Jesus operates in wondrous grace to meet that. O, how we need to see the skill, the amazing skill, of the Lord Jesus, the grace of the position, as it says in chapter 1, “of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. It has been said that that is this chapter, grace upon grace, and have we not known, dear brethren, the Lord Jesus in His wondrous service in recovery?
Then we go on to the adjusting of Peter, the adjusting of the servant, the probing of Peter, to the and that the lambs shall be fed, the sheep shepherded, and the sheep fed. These were the matters the Lord Jesus committed to Peter as he probed him as to his personal affection for Him. The Lord Jesus told Peter what would come when he was old. He would be brought where he did not desire. This He said “signifying by what death he should glorify God”. Think of what Peter was brought to in submission to the will of God, so that.in his death he would glorify God.
It goes on, however, to show us here that Peter was momentarily deflected. Jesus said to him, “Follow me”. Peter, turning round, sees John following. We need to guard against this, beloved brethren. We need to guard against concern about one another in this way. “What of this man?”. A person who is following is safe; we can, in the sense in which this is presented, leave him to the Lord Jesus. Let us go on filling out the part and the place that He has given us; that is the truth at the close of this wonderful gospel of John. It speaks of John leaning on the breast of Jesus. Think of what is available to us, this near place, near to Christ as in His affections. Leaning on His breast John availed himself of what was available there. We can all have that near place, near to Christ. John was preserved; he goes forward, filling out the part that the Lord had given him. Jesus said to Peter rebukingly, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me”. That is a word to us this afternoon, beloved brethren. Let us not be concerned about one another in this sense. Let no rivalry come in. The Lord Jesus is operating against it. What a baneful thing it has been in the history of the revival; let it not come into our localities.
As John is following, he is in his place. John is the reserve man. In his ministry he ‘abides’. John writes for the last days and his ministry is bearing on us now. He is conscious of the place he has; he says, “This is the disciple … who has written these things; and we know that his witness is true”. He was a true follower and a true lover of Jesus, and how the Lord Jesus valued it. The reserve man, that is John’s place, and he goes on to speak of wonderful reserves, that the things which Jesus did, if they were written one by one, “I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”. Sufficient has been written; all that is needed has been written. As John says earlier, “These are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”, John 20: 31. That is the end for which this gospel is written, that we may believe in the divine Operator, in the Son of God, who has brought in a system which abides eternally. That is what every lover of Christ should have before him.
I say again, we are nearing the end of this wonderful dispensation; the Spirit’s lowly, patient service is almost completed. We have been speaking earlier of walking with God and of the fact that “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22: 17. That is the completion of this wonderful dispensation. The bride represents fully developed affections for Christ. Mary of Magdala is a figure of what Christ loves, we may say, above all. His supreme joy as Man is the assembly. How precious these things are, beloved brethren! May we love the Lord Jesus increasingly. How worthy He is of it! You dear young people, think of the attractiveness of the Lord Jesus! O, may you follow, and may you feel in your hearts that wonderful invitation, “Come and see”! May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Peterhead
12 April 1975