HEAVENLY ADMINISTRATION
HEAVENLY ADMINISTRATION
Matthew 17:1-8; Matthew 17:22-27
I had in mind that we might get help in this chapter as to how we are to take our place in the assembly according to the divine mind. The thought I had before me especially centres round the transfiguration. This chapter comes in between the introduction of the assembly by the Lord and its relation to the kingdom; chapter 16 is the assembly, and chapter 18 the kingdom. Chapter 17 gives us the heavenly character and the capacity to enter into the assembly, in order to have part in it. Unless we understand our part in what is heavenly, we shall not act according to heaven in the assembly. The assembly is that which is heavenly in the sense of dominance for good. It is said of the Lord, “His face did shine as the sun”. It is heavenly light in the sense of supreme dominance for good. The sun shines on the evil and on the good. Unless we are in accord with that principle, we shall not be able to deal with good and evil in the assembly.
The sun rises day after day, month after month, year after year, century after century, and shines in its power, regardless of what goes on on the earth. The Lord shines upon us in that dominant way, and He intended that Peter, James and John should shine correspondingly in the kingdom. Coming down from the mount they had to meet the power of Satan, but they were not equal to it then. Later in the Acts, when dealing with what existed at Jerusalem after the Lord ascended to heaven, they were superior to the power of evil. On the day of Pentecost, Peter showed that he had profited by this experience.
[p. 309] They had been eye-witnesses of His majesty when they were with Him in the holy mount. They were made superior to the evil, and had been constituted by the Lord to administer during His absence. The Holy Spirit had come down from heaven in keeping with this wonderful shining of Christ, and He was available at Jerusalem. The evidence of heaven’s bounty was there administratively. God was acting from Himself, in spite of the state of Jerusalem.
Matthew is peculiar in this presentation of the transfiguration, because he wanted to insist on the character of the heavenly administration. We learn thus how to rise above evil and to administer good, otherwise we shall be overcome by evil. If a brother trespasses against me, I am to seek to gain him. Peter inquires of the Lord how often he should forgive his brother; and the Lord says, “Until seventy times seven”. Peter’s inquiry and the definite number given by him — “Until seven times” — show how little he had so far profited by the lesson of the transfiguration. I believe the Lord intends Peter to be a model both negatively and positively to all those who have part in the assembly. The history of Peter as given by Matthew brings out the mixture which is found in every one of us. On the other hand, he confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and on the other, he would turn the Lord aside from the path by which alone the assembly could be brought in. And here, in the presence of this light. Peter says, “Let us make here three tabernacles”. In chapter 16 we see, in Peter, the flesh on which Satan acts in us; he was the instrument of Satan in endeavouring to turn the Lord aside from the only path in which He could glorify God, sin having come in. In that light he would bring the Lord to the level of Moses and Elias. Then again, he would limit the grace that marked the kingdom of God; nevertheless, he was typically the material for the assembly: “Thou art Peter”, the Lord said to him. Thus, in Peter we see what the Lord has to deal with in every one of us. Finally, Peter denies the Lord with oaths and curses. So that, if we learn ourselves, we see ourselves in Peter, and we are horrified at what is in us. This lesson has to be learnt before we can take part in the assembly. You see the two things running on together in one person; on the one hand, the unmistakable work of God in the soul, and on the other, the tendency to oppose what is of God. What a work has to be wrought in each one of us so that the Lord may have in us a vessel for His use in the assembly! As Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am”. Perhaps we have not fully realised that God has taken us in hand to have part in that privilege.
Now the principle of the assembly is to come down; this is opened up in the Acts. In chapter 2 we have a sound from heaven; in chapter 9, a light from heaven, in chapter 10, a sheet from heaven, so that in Revelation 21 the city comes down from God out of heaven. Heavenly grace comes down. Here it is as He descended from the mountain. He who descended is the same also who ascended. He descended first into the lower parts of the earth. We see, therefore, that the whole conception of God with regard to the assembly is that it comes down. The gifts have come from a Christ who has gone up, but who first descended; therefore they — the gifts that are here — should be characterised by the grace of the One who gave them. Apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists — all are for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, so that the principle of going down should mark the servant. In taking our place in the assembly, we are to be in heavenly grace and dignity. Thus the assembly is morally lifted above the religious systems of the world. If evil has to be dealt with in the [p. 311] assembly, it has to be done on the principle expressed in the sun. There must be rule in the house of God, that is, rule for good, and that involves the refusal to go on with evil; but we must never act maliciously or punitively; we have to learn to act like God in the assembly.
Peter is asked a question in verse 24. I have to answer questions if I belong to the assembly. If someone asks me, ‘Does your Master pay tribute?’ I say, ‘My Master is in heaven; He does not pay taxes’. I know what to say if I am asked. When the Lord asked, “Whom do men say that I am?” Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. The Lord says, that is a revelation; that is not merely the result of faith in an objective truth: it is a revelation; “Flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. I must learn to be governed by the light given. Hence, Peter having been on the mount, should have been able to answer the question, “Does your Teacher not pay the didrachmas?” But he was not yet governed by the light. He did not have in his soul the sense of the greatness of Christ, he put his Master down to the level of other people. The tax was for the service of the temple. The Lord gives special light for the moment, but the general principle of my being is that I have light and that I walk according to it.
Now Peter has to be instructed again on this point, so the Lord anticipates him. “What dost thou think, Simon? The kings of the earth, from whom do they receive ... tribute? From their own sons or from strangers? Peter says to him, From strangers. Jesus said to him, Then are the sons free”. Peter had just been hearing from the excellent glory, “This is my beloved Son”. Why did he not bring that light into his answer? In answering, we should be governed by the light vouchsafed to us. We can [p. 312] never admit that the Lord is on the same level as others. Peter would have brought Him down to the level of Moses and Elias on the mount, and now again he brings Him down to the level of others of those who pay tribute. But the Lord says, “Then are the sons free”. The delightful thing is He says “the sons”, not ‘the Son’. He would use the ignorance of Peter for his blessing and ours, and in order to enforce this principle, He directs him to go to the sea and to cast a hook and to take up the fish that first comes up, and adds, “take that and give it to them for me and thee”. The truth of His own Person was brought to light; obtaining the stater indicated creatorial power — that He had power over the sea. One is greatly impressed with the greatness of the power of Christ. One’s soul is bathed in the light that shines in that Person. We see Him on the mount in the excellent glory, then below in the power that He has over the fish of the sea. No one could count the fishes. We can count the mountains, but no one can explore the depths and count the fishes. “This great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable”, Psalm 104: 25. One hook — the first fish that comes up. If it were a net he might take a hundred. The unerring way in which the Lord reached that one fish should greatly impress us with the greatness of the Person. Peter would be impressed with this; it was the Lord’s intention that he should be so. Peter had been a fisherman himself, and the Lord had made him a fisher of men, so he must have been greatly impressed with the knowledge of the Lord of that one fish.
Then there is the piece of money in the fish’s mouth; there was that which would enable the Lord to adjust things in relation to men here. But the sons are free. The epistle to the Romans corresponds with this. The truth in that epistle sets us free and enables us to enter into our portion; it teaches us [p. 313] how to be adjusted in going through this world, in a manner worthy of God. We have the Spirit of sonship in Romans, but Ephesians is the opening up of sonship, and the state proper to it. In Galatians we are on the same level as in Romans, but there it is a question of recovery. The relationship of son is one thing, but the place of it is another. In Romans and Galatians we are told that we are sons, but in Ephesians we learn that the place of sonship is heaven. There we are said to have been predestinated unto sonship through Jesus Christ to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That statement is preceded by the fact that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. It is in the power of that that we come down to have part in the assembly. “If thy brother sin against thee ...” You come down from heaven, and you see your brother according to his true relative value.