THE ACTIVITIES OF THE GODHEAD

John 16:25-28; Luke 24:33-36; Romans 8:22-28

It will have been noticed that, in each of these passages, the Persons of the Godhead are referred to distinctly – "the Father himself", and "he himself” (the Lord), and "the Spirit itself": one in purpose, but each distinct. These references come in in relation to what They are to the saints. That should affect us, dear brethren, to think of the Godhead, the whole Godhead, and we speak with deepest reverence, the whole Godhead personally being involved in our welfare. God has many agencies at His disposal to carry out His will. He has legions of angels, the Lord had His disciples, He had His apostles, God has had His prophets since time began. We know a few of them, but how many agencies God has at His disposal, to effect His will. But there are things that are not left to any agency, but which God Himself personally deals with and I have been very struck with this verse in John.

The Lord was about to suffer and to die and He speaks to His own about the Father. In the next chapter He speaks to the Father about His own. The next chapter is remarkable for the extent to which the saints feature in communications between divine Persons; we are to take comfort from that. We are to draw from that, dear brethren. How precious to God are those that have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. The Godhead is particularly interested in such, so that the conversation between the Son and the Father in John 17 relates largely to Christ’s own. But in chapter 16 He is speaking, not to the Father but to His own, and preparing them for His departure. He says “I came out from God. I came out from the Father and have come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father”.

It struck me on Lord’s day how solemn it is to be in the scene that Christ has left. We often speak of Him as being cast out, “cast away indeed as worthless by men” (1 Pet.2:4), cast out by man. There is that side of it, the public rejection of Christ, and that rejection is now felt by the saints in His absence. But there is more than that. The testimony having been rendered, God having been declared and glorified, Christ’s work here was completed and He has left the world. He has left it and we are in that scene, and the question therefore is as to how we are going to get through in the scene that Christ has left. He spoke to His disciples about the Father; He spoke to the woman in John 4 about the Father seeking worshippers. He spoke constantly about the Father in order that they might come to love Him and to trust Him and depend upon Him, and in that context, you get this touching reference that “the Father himself has affection for you”. I think that is immense, dear brethren, to think that we should be the objects of the Father’s affection, and that on account of having affection for Christ. I just draw attention to that. The Father is supreme in the economy of love, “one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all”, Eph.4:6. Such a One has affection for those who have had affection for Christ. How blessed to be the objects of the Father’s affection, to be conscious of it. How blessed to be delivered from fear and anxiety and the seeking of support elsewhere, because we have such a One who is “able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think” (Eph.3:20), and is able to “supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”, Phil.4:19.

When we come to the Lord, there are many references that are specific to Him. He “made by himself the purification of sins”, Heb.1:3. He did that work by Himself because there was none other great enough to do it, and Peter says, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet.2:24. I think the apostles had a great sense of that. What a work it was, because of the One who did it. But I draw attention to this section, because it was in the context of some unbelief. Two had gone away, then He had made Himself known to them. They had returned and they found a company “saying”; a remarkable thing – “they found the eleven, and those with them, gathered together, saying”. They were all saying the same thing, they were professing the same thing, that “The Lord is indeed risen” and yet, when He Himself stood in their midst, it says that they were “confounded and being frightened, supposed they beheld a spirit”. It is one thing to profess it but it is another thing to be in the gain of it. The two who were going to Emmaüs had had an experience with the Lord and they came back and found the company saying these things, and they came into that company as contributors; they had something to contribute to that company. They had had to do with the Lord on the way and “they related what had happened on the way, and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread”. What a contribution to bring into that company! You say, well, they were marked by unbelief in going away, but the Lord had served them in grace, and now they are coming back into the company with a substantial contribution to it, and it is as that was being said that “he himself stood in their midst”.

It raises the question with us all as to whether we discern that. We speak of the Lord coming in, particularly when we talk of the Lord’s supper. Is that just something that we know as a matter of teaching, or is it something that we can discern? It says, “he himself”; one would desire for oneself to be increased in the faith of it, because I think that it is very regulating. You see, if we sit in a company in which the Lord Himself is present, what an effect that, as discerned, should have on every person present. They were “confounded” and “frightened” and so there was a disturbed state of things here, which is what we may often find. The enemy creates conditions that cause disturbance and distraction, but the Lord serves in His grace so that their hearts are still and He is able to open things up to them before He departs, and finally He departs in the spirit of blessing. But the great point in the chapter is that it was “himself”. One who had been publicly seen to be crucified and buried was in the midst of His own. What joy for His own heart. He anticipated it, “in the midst of the assembly” (Heb.2:12), and as He comes among His own, He must be predominant; indeed, I am sure we would all agree that in every gathering this blessed One should be pre-eminent. It was not an apparition, it was not imagination, it was not a spirit, it was the Lord Jesus Himself and He “stood in their midst”, He stationed Himself among them “and says to them, Peace be unto you”. They were going to be left in a scene of sorrow, as we are, but they were not going to be left without power coming from on high, and the headship of Christ, and also the indwelling Spirit, which we get in Romans 8.

The apostle speaks of the general conditions of the whole creation, “the whole creation groans” and there may be times when we groan, we may feel the pressure of things but we are part of a groaning creation, a whole creation affected by the incoming of sin. Think of the groan that goes up to God from the creation. Man’s inhumanity to man, violence, warfare, ever more evil weapons devised to destroy and to maim and to kill – what does God think about that? What pressure is exerted, not only upon man but upon the lower creation too, unable to articulate its feelings but nevertheless a groan going up. God is a faithful Creator and He cares for all His creatures, life in all its manifestations, and so the apostle says “we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit”. You might say, we have been very blessed with that, but we are still part of a groaning creation, and he says that “we also ourselves groan”. There was reference last night to prayer, and even inarticulate prayer. A groan is that, a groan is really an inarticulate prayer, where feelings are so deep and so great that they cannot be put into words and the suffering, the agony of the feelings is expressed in that way. God hears it and He hears it as a prayer; it comes up into His ears.

It is a remarkable thing to look through the Scriptures and see what God hears. He says right at the beginning to the first murderer, “thy brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground”, Gen.4:10. Think of God hearing that. It cried out: the monstrous character of what had been done cried out for righteous vengeance. God heard that cry. But the blood of Jesus speaks “better than Abel”, Heb.12:24. It does not call for vengeance. The shedding of Christ’s precious blood has resulted in the blessing of myriads. But God hears these things, and the apostle says, “even we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we also ourselves groan in ourselves”. It might not be out loud, others may not know it - although there are sorrows and burdens that are carried and that can be seen, and I am sure we desire to enter sympathetically, as far as we can, into the suffering of others – but there is what is not seen, groaning “in ourselves”. Nevertheless, God is taking account of it, and in the pressure the apostle says, “we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting”. “As is fitting”: I am sure we would all desire to present a prayer to God that is fitting, that is suitable. In the pressure of it, there are our own feelings mixed up in it and what we would like in the way of relief, perhaps. How can I pray in such conditions so as to be fitting? And in that context it says, “the Spirit itself”, that distinct Person of the Godhead, equal in Godhead glory with both the Father and the Son, “makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered”. It is an extraordinary expression; to think of the Spirit of God entering, in a sympathy greater than that of any of us, into the sufferings of the testimony. The Spirit and the bride at the end of the Bible say, “Come” (Rev.22:17); the Spirit is longing for the return of Christ and the completion of His work here, as the saints are too, and our Lord Jesus is waiting the Father’s word, but meanwhile the Spirit has taken up His abode in us and He makes intercession for us in the midst of suffering, “with groanings which cannot be uttered”, and “he intercedes for saints according to God”.

I just bring these simple thoughts before us, dear brethren, for our comfort and encouragement, that no less than each of the three Persons of the Godhead is active in relation to those that belong to God. The Father Himself has affection for us. He is the One from whom everything originates and emanates. He controls the scenes behind which He is. And the Lord Himself would make Himself known to us in increasing reality, particularly, I think, as the dispensation draws to a close. And while we wait for its close, we have in us One who sympathises with believers as they feel all that is brought against God’s testimony here, and is interceding that we might be maintained in the power and grace of it until the Lord comes.

May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Given in a meeting for ministry, Maidstone

17 January 2023

Roland H Brown