INDIVIDUALS AFFECTED BY THE INFLUENCE OF CHRIST

INDIVIDUALS AFFECTED BY THE INFLUENCE OF CHRIST

Luke 8: 35; Luke 10: 38 - 42; 1 Peter 5: 1 - 4; John 13: 23 - 25; Philippians 3: 7 - 14

I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak of the personal influence of Christ upon five individuals: upon the man who had a legion of demons, upon Mary of Bethany, upon Peter, upon John, and upon Paul. The influence of Christ shows itself in the first case in subjection and sobriety, in Mary in intelligence, in Peter in serving love, Peter taking it on and enjoining it on others, in John in restful love, and in Paul in purpose of heart to acquire and take on heavenly excellence, that which is most excellent. I believe all these things should be found in the assembly, but there cannot be anything found in the assembly that is not found in the individuals who compose it, and hence the need that each of us should be concerned as to how far we keep ourselves under the influence of Christ. There is no greater power in the universe than the influence of Christ. It is a great thing, dear brethren, to understand it; it is a most transforming influence that exceeds and ever will exceed all others, the influence of Christ. His influence over millions is tremendous, and eternal in its results, and I believe God effects what He is working out in the saints now, by way of the personal influence of Christ brought to bear upon them by the Holy Spirit.

Now the man in Luke 8 presents the effect of that influence on a man who was in a complete sense under the power and influence of evil. He was possessed by a legion of demons. He thus represents an extreme case, a case that is not intended, so to speak, to be representative of us all, for one would not dare to say that anyone here was under the influence of a demon, far less of a legion of them, but at the same time, he presents an extreme case of a man under the influence of evil, in order to show that, what the Lord can do in an extreme case. He can do in every other case that is less extreme, and every one of us has to recognise that in some degree at least, each one is under the influence of evil until he or she is brought to do with the Lord. But then what comes to light is that not only was the power of evil in that man completely dispossessed, but that he came in an effective and transforming way under the personal influence of Christ, and that is what God intends for every one of us, that we should be brought abidingly under the influence of Christ. It says that they went out and saw the man out of whom the demons had been cast sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and sensible. The idea of sensible here is not so much the idea of intelligence as rather that he was sober, having a sober estimate of himself. Each one of us needs that, dear brethren, for naturally each one of us likes his own will and in some degree or other has high thoughts of himself. With some it may be more pronounced than with others, with some it may be more secret than with others, but I think everyone here will acknowledge that it is natural to us, until we are brought into touch with Christ, to like our own will and to have high thoughts of ourselves. Now, the effect of the grace of God reaching us in Christ is to deliver us from all that. I think one of the earliest results of grace being rightly apprehended is that we are delivered from every element of self-will. We present our bodies, as it says in Romans 12, “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service.” The Lord came in, that that might be secured in every one of His own. He came in, as it says figuratively in Exodus 21, with His body: I am referring to the Hebrew bondman. The Lord would thus, as having taken a body in which He was devoted to God’s will, saying He delighted in it, set out the true idea of a human body held here for the will of God. He obtains His place in each heart to secure that result.

It is a wonderful thing to think how transforming the influence of Christ is; there is nothing so affecting as His personal influence. And as we begin to take account of what Paul says in relation to the Lord Jesus, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant,” it is likely to have a subduing and transforming effect upon us. There is a certain moral excellence, dear brethren, in being here for the will of God, as well as its being our intelligent service, the only right answer to the grace that has reached us. So this man was sitting at the feet of Jesus; he was delivered from the power of evil and in subjection to Christ. But then, as a result of coming under the influence of Christ we become sober. We do not begin to have high thoughts about ourselves, the cross of Christ has its right place in our hearts, and we begin to take account of things in the light of that. We say to ourselves that our old man has been crucified with Him. That is the effect in our hearts of contemplating the cross of Christ, so that high thoughts are written off. There is not only the cross of Christ, but there is the mind which was in Christ Jesus, of which we have been speaking. If one begins to have thoughts of obtaining a reputation for himself, the Spirit of God reminds one of Him who made Himself of no reputation, and God has highly exalted Him. God has given Him all the reputation, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. It is these things presented to our hearts in Christ personally that have a definitely formative, subduing effect upon us. We have sober thoughts, not having high thoughts of ourselves, as it says in Romans “as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.” We are not to think nothing of ourselves, because we recognise that God is working in us and when God begins to work we are not worth nothing! We are intended to work into the divine plan, but we have sober thoughts of ourselves according as God has dealt to each a measure of faith. Now that, I believe, is what is illustrated in the man who was possessed with a legion of demons; they found him sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.

Now with Mary of Bethany what is seen in her is that characteristically she sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His word. The Lord says of her that “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” It is very important, beloved brethren, that we cultivate the habit of listening to the word of Christ, because I do not know any way in which we shall become intelligent spiritually save as listening to the word of Christ. All divine wisdom is in Christ, all fulness is in Him, and the assembly is to derive from Him. Mary had grasped the idea; that is, in its application to us, it is not only that we read the Scriptures and the ministry and attend the meetings, but is it our exercise that the Lord will speak to us in it, that in it we will hear the Lord’s voice, and are we cultivating sober thoughts, so that there is an opportunity for the Lord to speak to us. That is what is so important. The Lord Himself, as having come in as Man to serve God, moved on the principle that His ear was opened morning by morning to hear as the instructed. Luke 10 provides us with certain features which are to be found marking each local company. The chapter begins with the Lord sending out seventy to every city and place where He Himself was about to come. That is, cities and places were in mind, and the Lord was intending that the ministry of the seventy would come under His review as to its effects when He Himself would come to the place to see what results there were. The chapter gives various characteristics that are to be found in local companies, it is stated, for instance, that there is to be the rejoicing that our names are written in heaven. That is we are to rejoice in our heavenly portion, so distinctive, and to praise the Father accordingly, then the spirit of care is to be there. The Good Samaritan took up the man whom He found and brought him to the inn, and took care of him, and then in leaving indicated that any amount of care may be expended upon the saints and the Lord will see that those who do so are repaid. And then there is also the incident as to Mary, which shows that spiritual intelligence is also to be a feature of each local company, sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to His word, and no one is to deprive us of that. Martha was cumbered with much serving. It is a right thing to desire to serve the Lord and we are to be active in it, always abounding in the work of the Lord, which applies to us all, it does not only apply to gift, but is addressed to the brethren, but at the same time as abounding in service we are also to preserve a balance, and to see that our activities of service do not deprive us of sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His word. Only in that way can the intelligence that God looks for in the assembly, be learned.

Now Peter in his epistle shows, I think, how much he had been affected by the way Christ has served. It is worthy of note that Peter as an elder enjoins on his fellow elders, and says, “the elders which are among you, I exhort, who am their fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of the Christ, who also am partaker of the glory about to be revealed shepherd the flock of God which is among you.” He is speaking as a man of experience. He is not speaking as an apostle, though he might well have done so, and he does indeed call himself apostle of Jesus Christ in opening his epistle, but he is speaking as an elder, one who had had years of experience, and I suppose there was no one who had had more experience of the shepherd service of Christ than Peter. He would no doubt carry a sense of it in his soul. It is he who speaks of the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. We well know how the Lord Jesus shepherded Peter. There came a time in the history of the disciples when the Lord said to them, “Will ye also go away,” and Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go, thou hast words of life eternal”? As though he would say, ‘I know where the food supply is.’ He knew how his own soul had been fed, he was not going to be turned away from the Shepherd.

So one of the first things in shepherding is to see that suitable food is provided, and also to see that there is encouragement. How the Lord would encourage Peter! When Peter came forward as he did on one occasion with his confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” the Lord immediately speaks to him and says, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” The Lord encouraged Peter, and there is nothing so encouraging as to bring home to the saints something of the thoughts of divine grace which they have part in. So the Lord would, so to speak, say to Peter, ‘You are blessed indeed, Simon Barjona.’ He called him by the name by which he was known amongst men, but implies, ‘You have something in your heart that the Father has implanted there; you have something that your neighbour has not, it is a sovereign act of God.’ So God has given us an appreciation of Christ. In no other way can it be explained, but that it is God’s sovereign act in opening our eyes to Christ, so we may well encourage one another that we have been thus blessed.

Then the Lord went on to say, “Thou art Peter,” and the Lord would say to every one of us, that if God has wrought in us sovereignly, we are to have part in that system, in that response in the assembly, which God is securing at the present time. So everyone who has a right apprehension of Christ and of the saints may be encouraged on these lines. But then Peter also knew how to be rebuked, for the Lord said to him on one occasion, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” A most solemn rebuke! as though to remind us that if we allow our minds to work, we shall expose ourselves to the influence of Satan. Peter knew what the care of the Lord Jesus was for his soul. As the Lord was in the presence of His persecutors, as they were reviling Him and spitting upon Him, the Lord turned and looked at Peter when he had just denied the Lord for the third time. You can understand how Peter would be affected by the look of Jesus; there was the Lord in the midst of His sufferings at the hands of men, and in the midst of all that, there was no self-consideration on the part of the Lord, but He turned and looked on Peter; the shepherd care of Christ was showing itself in serving Peter. And then when the Lord arose from the dead, how He went after Peter! When Mary of Magdala, and Mary the mother of James and Salome came to the tomb on the first day of the week a young man said to them, “Go tell his disciples and Peter, he goes before you into Galilee,” Mark 16: 7. Then when the Lord Himself had appeared to the two going to Emmaus, they returned to the disciples who were saying, “The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.” I say that in order to convey an impression of the way Peter was affected by the personal influence of Christ, so that he as an elder enjoins on his fellow elders, as one who has himself been shepherded, to shepherd the flock of God which is among them. Thus there is to be no element whatever of self-consideration or self-seeking in it; it is a question of the flock of God, and caring for the sheep in the flock of God requires a spirit of serving love. Peter had taken on shepherd features, and enjoins on the elders to “shepherd the flock of God, exercising oversight not by necessity but willingly; not for base gain, but readily; not as lording it over their possessions; but as being models for the flock.”

This is a most important matter, beloved brethren, for those of us who are getting to be a little older, the older brothers and the older sisters should see the great importance of exemplification. It is one of the most important things in Christianity, the importance of the truth being set out by means of exemplification and the elder ones are responsible to take it on. The younger ones may take it on too, but the elders are especially enjoined to be models for the flock. It is a principle that always holds good. You will remember how Paul dealt with the conditions that existed at Corinth, how in his epistle he brought authority to bear upon them, but authority as from a distance; that is, he would not come in amongst them, he knew that if he came in amongst them, he would have to deal drastically with the conditions that existed, so he remained away, but in order to enforce the authority in a moral way he sent amongst them Timothy, his beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who, he said, “shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly.” Thus Timothy as moving about, would remind them of Paul’s ways, so that there would be seen the power of exemplification, which the Spirit of God always supports. This is illustrated, I believe, in the history of Gideon, for the history of Gideon answers to the history of the Corinthians. It is a question of which man is going to have place amongst God’s people, and the wrong man was there in Gideon’s time. That is, Midian was there with the two kings and the two princes, and it says Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian. They left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass, and by what means were they to be delivered? By the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. The sword of the Lord is the authority of the word of the Lord. It is like the apostle bringing in the Lord’s commandment in his epistle, but the sword of Gideon is the power of exemplification, because Gideon said “look on me, and do likewise.” These two things are always necessary in any local company to meet conditions that are contrary to the truth. On the one hand the authority of God’s word, but on the other hand the power of exemplification of the truth. So Peter is affected by the serving love of Christ, and he enjoins on the elders to shepherd the flock of God, as being models for the flock.

When we come to John, it is the influence of Christ in restful love, because there is such a thing as serving love and there is such a thing as restful love, and both are to be characteristic of the assembly at this present time. It is like Abigail, who, as invited to become the wife of David, said, “Let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord.” That is, serving love, but in view of restfulness. Serving love is what is to characterise us here, but the assembly is also to learn restful love, and we are all to learn it, for God delights in it. He will rest in His love, He will joy over His people with singing, Zephaniah 3: 17. I believe John had learned restful love in Christ for he had companied with the Lord Jesus, as, of course, the other disciples had done, but John especially seems to have been affected by the moral glory that he apprehended in Christ. When I say the moral glory I do not mean the excellence of manhood in Jesus, but rather the glory of Christ as with His Father that John seems particularly to have been impressed with. He speaks of glory a great deal in his gospel. He says “we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father.” That is not according to man’s ideas of glory, but it evidently greatly attracted John as he took account of Jesus, as an only-begotten with a father, and so he goes on to speak to us of “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.” A wonderful presentation of Christ, beloved brethren, for John wrote that by the Spirit of God many years after Christ had ascended, he wrote from that standpoint, the present position of Christ. That is, he presents the idea of settled conditions of love, the Father loving the Son, and the Son resting in the love in which He is as Man, and that, dear brethren, has come into view in Christ so that we might apprehend what our portion is as taken into favour in the Beloved. Not that anyone else but Christ is said to be in the bosom of the Father, but His position in its uniqueness is apprehensible by us. You remember in the first chapter of John’s gospel, certain disciples followed Jesus and He turned and saw them following and said, “What seek ye?” and they said, “Rabbi, where abidest thou? and he says to them, Come and see. They went therefore, and saw where he abode, and they abode with him that day.” Thus they were introduced into the abode of the Son, and they abode with Him. Now I believe John had peculiarly apprehended that, and so in chapter 13 we have John in the bosom of Jesus; that is, he had apprehended, if I may say so, the bosom idea; the idea of restful love, the place where love can be restful. I am sure we need to cultivate restfulness. The first presentation of love in the Scriptures is the love of a father for a son, it is set forth in Abraham and Isaac. “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest.” That is, so to speak, the prime thought how Christ is to be apprehended in sonship as loved of the Father, and it goes into eternity. When we get a sense of the place the Son has in the affections of the Father and the place the assembly has in the affections of Christ, we understand what the Lord said, in John 14, referring to this day, “in that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

So the influence of Christ upon John was seen in the verses read from John 13. He was enjoying love in the bosom of Jesus, and in that position he was absolutely unmoved whatever arose. A serious issue is raised, the Lord says that one of the disciples should deliver Him up. Simon Peter made a sign to John to ask who it might be of whom He spoke. But John, leaning on the breast of Jesus says to Him, “Lord, who is it?” That is, it is not only a question of being restful in love, but you can rely on it, on the strength of it; and so John stresses one thing that will go through, the love of Christ. He says, “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end.” The Lord was taking account of what the world would be in His absence, and He set Himself to love them right through to the end. It is most important, dear brethren, that we should have the sense of that and cultivate it too. There is one thing that will never fail, and that is the love of Christ, and it is a good thing to see to it that we strengthen ourselves in the knowledge of it.

Well, now finally in regard to Paul. The influence of Christ upon Paul was, of course, very great and varied. I do not suggest that what is seen in this third chapter of Philippians was the only result of the influence of Christ upon Paul for it certainly was not, but it is a striking thing that when we come to the epistle to the Philippians we have Paul, who was, I suppose, the greatest of the apostles, and had more revealed to him than any other, and suffered more than any others, as he is drawing near the close of his history, marked by one desire to know Christ, and to apprehend that for which he had been apprehended by Christ Jesus. He speaks of “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” and speaks in the first chapter of our approving the things that are more excellent; it is a superlative expression, because literally there cannot be anything better than what is excellent. He commenced his career as a believer with the light of the glory of Christ, a light above the brightness of the sun. As far as we know he did not know Christ in the days of His flesh, and even if he did he says in 2 Corinthians 5, “yet now we know him thus no longer.” Certainly his history as a believer dated and took character from the light he received of Christ in glory. We have never seen Christ; but Paul had seen Him, and he apprehended in Christ in glory, the full thought that God has in mind for those whom He has taken up in Christ.

May our hearts live for it, as we begin to get some sense of it. What it will be to be for ever free from the hindrance of the flesh, and the limitations of the earthen vessel, with no longer any trace of the conditions in which we are at the present time, but to be found in Christ, wholly suitable to the pleasure of God. We can appreciate it objectively in Jesus, but to think that we are to be like Him, even extending to our bodies. Christ’s body of glory! The apostle is speaking of it as though his heart is filled with what he apprehended in Christ, and he says, “but one thing, forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.” The prize is nothing else than to be found absolutely in Christ, conformed to Him morally and bodily in every way, suitable to the presence of God, conscious of His pleasure in us. So that was the effect upon Paul of the personal influence of Christ. I would urge upon oneself, as I would upon my brethren, that we should look to the Lord to be brought into this. The woman is to be formed in correspondence with the Man, but then in its measure it is to take effect in everyone of us individually, and the means by which it will be brought about, is by keeping ourselves under the influence of Christ.

Well, may the Lord encourage us to do so, for His name’s sake.