CHRISTIANITY CHARACTERISED BY MOVEMENT

CHRISTIANITY CHARACTERISED BY MOVEMENT

John 1:32-42; John 8:12; John 8:31-36; John 10:24-38; John 21:18-22

I wish to say a word, dear brethren, as to the greatness of Christianity, in which, by God’s grace, we have part, for it is characterised by the fact that the Son of God has come, and then by the fact that consequent upon His having accomplished redemption the Holy Spirit has come. I hope to be able to indicate something of the greatness of what results from these facts, and then further to show that Christianity is a system of movement, for each of these chapters from which I have read brings in the thought of “following,” following the Lord; the Lord walking and the disciples following, which means that there is no such thought as stagnation in Christianity, no thought of being where we were ten years ago. Any such thought as that is foreign to Christianity. It is a system, if one may use such a word, characterised by life and movement. It is important that we should all understand that, because we shall not find satisfaction in the things of God, if we become stagnant, and the way to be preserved from stagnation is to be following, following the Lord.

Well now, we have, where we commenced reading, the witness borne by John the baptist; he says, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him”; that is, upon Jesus. We have previously had in this chapter the great fact stated by the Spirit of God, by John the evangelist, “The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us.” Prior to that we have the personal greatness of the Word. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” These are most absolute statements as to the personal greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ who is spoken of as “the Word.” That He was in the beginning, that He was with God, that He was God, and then it goes on to say, “all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” When we say, He was God, we do not imply, of course, that He has ceased to be God, for Scripture is abundantly clear on that point. Scripture, speaking of Christ as having become Man, says in the epistle to the Romans, “who is over all, God blessed for ever.” So these great fundamental facts as to the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ are to be held, and held, livingly, in our souls, because as they are thus held we shall become increasingly impressed with what has come in in virtue of the fact that the Son of God has come. Think of One who is so great become flesh. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us”; that He who is God should in grace have assumed a condition of flesh and blood so that He might bring amongst men in a way that could be apprehended by them the testimony of what God’s thoughts of love and blessing were for them. It says, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” and the apostle goes on to say, “we have contemplated his glory,” and what He speaks of as glory is a glory as of an only-begotten with a father; that is the kind of glory that they apprehended. It is not exactly what men call glory, but it was moral excellence and beauty that was attractive to the eyes of those in whom God wrought. They discerned in Jesus a peculiar glory as of an only-begotten with a father, and it was God become man that was setting it out; that is the wonder of it, dear brethren, that God should have come in in that way in Jesus, that what He had in mind for men was that sonship should become available for men, and sonship known affectionately, “an only-begotten with a father.”

So John the baptist says, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him.” We might have thought it wonderful that one Person of the Godhead should come down to earth in the form of Man, but then the Spirit comes also, descending and identifying Himself in grace with the lowly Man who was there, indicating that if God was prepared to draw near to man in grace in the Person of His Son, the Spirit also was prepared to come in and fill His place in lowly service; He would identify Himself in grace with that lowly Man who was there in the Person of Jesus. And so He descended from heaven as a dove and abode upon Him. A dove speaks of that which is most sensitive, and the Holy Spirit took that form and abode upon Jesus in order to convey to us that in the Person of the Lord Jesus there was now here on earth as a Man. One upon whom God could rest with infinite complacency. There was not the slightest thing about that perfect Man who was there, the Lord Jesus Christ, that was in any way disturbing to the holiness of God. The Holy Spirit came down and abode upon Him. All this is very wonderful, because what it is leading up to is that redemption being accomplished we are to be brought to have part in the life of that Man. We are to receive by the Holy Spirit of His life, and to be brought into a position of favour and a relationship of affection, in Him. These are thoughts that divine love has devised and divine love and wisdom have carried into effect, so John the baptist says, “He who sent me to baptize with water, he said to me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit,” and he says, “I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.” The Son of God is, I believe, the title which is intended to convey to us the personal pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ. It refers to Him in manhood, but it involves the truth of His Person, as to who it is that was there in manhood, and therefore it is intended to arouse attention, as John says in his first epistle, “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.” That is, He apprehended in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, One come in to bring in the full revelation of God in the light in which He desired to be known, and to bring in conditions of life beyond death in Himself as Man in which we might be given to have part, so that it can be said, “we know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.” Now He says, “he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit.” That is a wonderful thing. The Lord could not do that until He had first accomplished redemption, removing by the sacrifice of Himself all that lay upon men, in order that He might have the right to baptise with the Holy Spirit. I have no doubt that it has the assembly in view, for as to the assembly the apostle says, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, “in the power of one spirit we have all been baptised into one body, ... and all have been given to drink of one Spirit,” 1 Corinthians 12: 13.

It is a wonderful thing that we should be given part in the Holy Spirit. The Lord has the right to baptise with the Holy Spirit and He has done it. Peter said on the day of Pentecost, speaking of the Lord, “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear,” Acts 2: 33. The Lord as Man received the Spirit from the Father, but He received it in order to shed it forth, as it says in Psalm 68, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them,” Psalm 68: 18. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful gift to have received. I wonder whether we all appreciate the gain that is ours in having received the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of life in another Man. What a wonderful thing that is, to have received the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of life in the Man that has been in God’s purpose from the very outset; “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death,” Romans 8: 2. Then He is the Spirit of God, which is to emphasise divine power, that the Spirit of God in us is greater than the flesh and therefore there is no reason why we should be under the power of the flesh, for God’s spirit dwells in us; then He is the Spirit of Christ; that is the character which the Holy Spirit produces, and it says, “If anyone has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him,” Romans 8: 9. Then He is the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from among the dead. I believe, that God in raising up Jesus from among the dead expressed His full delight in that Man. There were millions of men lying in their graves when Jesus lay in His grave, including men who had been great in this world’s history, but God came in and raised up Jesus from among the dead, not Nebuchadnezzar, not any of the great men that had figured at any time in the course of the world’s history. It was Jesus. He raised up Jesus from among the dead and left all the rest in their graves. What an indication it is to us of the thoughts that God has with regard to Jesus, and the Spirit of Him who has done it dwells in us; that is, He is capable of producing in us the same feelings with regard to Jesus, the same appreciation of Jesus that is found with God. The Spirit is also the “Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Think of that, think of receiving such a Spirit. I am only running over this in order that we might get some impression of the greatness of Christianity, and of what it is we have come into, the possibilities of it in virtue of the fact that the Son of God has come, and having accomplished redemption, has taken His place in heaven in the Father’s presence as Man, and then the Spirit of God has come, Christ having baptised with the Holy Spirit.

Now these things coming before us it is evidently contemplated that we should be affected by them and be marked by a desire to enter into what God has in His mind for His people. So it says, “John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked.” They looked upon Jesus as He walked. Jesus was not standing still, He was walking. He was conveying, so to speak, that what He had now come to introduce was to be characterised by movement, so looking upon Jesus as He walked, John says, “Behold the Lamb of God.” What an impression! Those who were godly in Israel would be accustomed to the thought of the Lamb of God. They would remember for instance that in Genesis 22 God called Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac whom he loved and offer him up for a burnt offering. They would understand how God contemplated that there should be something wholly for Himself, that what had come in by sin was only to become an occasion for the fragrance of Christ in devotion to God’s will and glory to come into expression. They would remember Abraham’s word, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” Now here was the Lamb of God. We are intended, dear brethren, to fix our eye upon Christ, the Lamb of God. Take account of what has come in for God, the very existence of sin and what results from it having become an occasion for the devotedness of Christ to come into expression so that not only has God been glorified in regard of all that came in through sin, but there remains the fragrance of the love of Christ, in devotion to the will and glory of God, that fills the whole scene. I believe heaven will be pervaded with the fragrance of the devotedness of Christ. John says, “Behold the Lamb of God,” and two of his disciples hear him speak and follow Jesus. They follow Jesus because they are attracted to Him.

We must be prepared for movement, because as I said at the beginning, Christianity is a system of movement, there is nothing stagnant about it. Jesus turned and saw them following; wherever there is any desire to follow the Lord, and the features of the truth He is bringing before us, the Lord takes account of it. He turned and saw them following and said, “What seek ye?” He would have us say for ourselves what it is that we desire. If the Lord were to ask each one of us in this room, What seek ye? what would we answer? What do we want to know? He says to these “What seek ye, and they said, Rabbi, which is being interpreted, Teacher, Where abidest thou?” You might say, why did they ask that. There was something about the Lord Jesus that made them ask where He dwelt. They evidently wanted to see Him at home. There was something about Jesus that was so attractive that they wanted to see Him in His own sphere. We want to see Him where He is, entirely as He is in circumstances congenial to Himself. He says “Come and see.” How encouraging that we have the Holy Spirit so that we can come and see where Jesus is, where He dwells. The Spirit of God bears testimony to it. The Spirit of God says, “who is in the bosom of the Father.” The bosom of the Father suggests what is receptive and restful, a place of abiding affections. They say, “Where abidest thou?” and He says, “Come and see,” as though He would say, the same place which I am filling as a Man, is what God has in mind for those whom the Father has drawn to Me. He would say “Come and see” to every one of us. John says, “they went therefore and saw where he above, and they abode with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.” Now there is further movement. One of the two who heard John speak was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, and he comes and tells his own brother Simon. There is suggested to us in this, that Christianity is a system of personal intercourse, of knowing those in whom there is any evidence of the work of God and of seeking them out and saying to them “Come and see.” Andrew comes, and finds his brother Simon and says, “We have found the Messias which is, being interpreted, the Christ.” He brought him to Jesus. It is not recorded that he said, Come and see, but it is recorded that he led him to Jesus. Philip said to Nathanael, Come and see.

I believe “Come and see,” is a great word for this present time when there is very little readiness to listen to the word of God, very little interest in the gospel preached, whether it be in the halls, or in the open air, very little ear for it apparently. It looks as though the spirit of apostasy is rapidly creeping over the whole Christian world and there is very little ear outwardly for the gospel, but if there are any showing interest in these things it is a question of being able to say, Come and see. So Andrew brings his brother to Jesus and it says, “Jesus beheld him,” and said, “Thou art Simon the son of Jona, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.” A stone suggests a building. What is in mind is, that of a spiritual house in which God, as revealed in Christ, is to be served, and God is to be served. He has come out in Christ in that way which I have been seeking to set before you with a view to being served in response in the affections which He begets. He has nothing less in, mind for us than sonship, sonship set out in the Person of His Beloved Son. “Ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus,” and “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father,” Galatians 3: 26 and Galatians 4: 6. The Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts involves that God is to be served in the true affection and intelligence of sonship, and He is to be served in a spiritual house, a structure of living stones; that is, of persons, persons with affections, persons with feelings, persons who can respond to God. The Lord looking on Simon said, “Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone.” You are to understand that you are a living stone, an essential part in the spiritual house, and not only are you to understand that you are essential, but you are to be called a stone. If a brother is always silent in the assembly will he be called a stone? Will he be called Cephas, will the brethren recognise him as a living stone? He is a believer, and has the Spirit of God, he belongs to the spiritual house. Is there evidence that he is a living stone? That is what the Lord has in mind. If there are any here who do not enjoy liberty, I would urge you to get to the Lord about it, and to contemplate Christ and follow His movements, to follow Him coming down from heaven freighted with the thoughts of God, and setting out amongst men sonship in a most attractive form, and then going down into death, and then going triumphantly to the right hand of God and receiving the Holy Spirit from the Father, and then shedding forth the Holy Spirit in our hearts, so that we might be brought into this matter in a living and feeling way. God desires living stones, and that is what He had in mind in the revelation of Himself, that there should be those who respond to it in a living and affectionate way.

I believe the first chapter sets forth these things objectively that we may understand what the mind of God for us is, but now in the remaining passages we have read we get the thought of following with something specific in mind. The Lord says in chapter 8, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” In John’s gospel the Lord constantly presents Himself personally to our hearts. He says, for instance, in chapter 6, “I am the bread of life,” intending that we are to understand that we are to feed upon Christ, and feeding in a spiritual sense is a matter of allowing our minds to engage themselves with Christ, and then the affections will follow. It is a question of the spiritual affections being nourished, but the spiritual affections will not be nourished if our minds are not rightly directed. Our minds are to give place to these things, to consider Christ and contemplate Him, to follow Him in His movements, and if we are exercised about these things we shall certainly pray about them. The first chapter should encourage us to do that. In this chapter He says, “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” In verse 31 He speaks to those who continue in His word, which is the same thing as following Him, for the Lord in His word indicates what is in mind for us. He does not say the same thing today as He said a week ago, for He would have us in movement. If He has to say the same thing today as He said a week ago it may indicate that we are stagnant, and it is a serious thing if the Lord has to keep on saying the same thing over and over again. If we are governed by what He says one time then He will have something different to say to us the next time, so the movements of the Lord Jesus are largely indicated in what He says, what His word is at any given time.

The Lord says, “If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” It is a question of believing and the truth setting us free and the Son setting us free. I believe the truth setting us free has in mind our being liberated from every form of the power of sin over us, and the Son setting us free has in mind our being introduced in liberty into the privilege and reality of sonship. He says, “The truth shall set you free.” I believe this is a matter of following up the truth as it is presented in Christ.

I have been referring to the Lord’s coming in and His going into death. We should inquire what the import of the death of Christ is. It is not only that by which we have relief from judgment that would otherwise have fallen upon us, but it becomes the power of salvation from this world. In the light of the death of Christ we are entitled to take account of ourselves as dead indeed unto sin. The world system is characterised by sin, but we are entitled to regard ourselves as having died to it, and having taken up this attitude in our minds in the light of the death of Christ, we find deliverance from the world. We have been committed to His death in baptism. It is part of the truth of Christianity and we are to continue in His word. We are to allow it to have a place in our hearts and minds. It is a wonderful privilege that the Lord has given us, that we are entitled to regard ourselves as dead to sin, and alive unto God. We are now for the pleasure of God in Christ Jesus in a place of unlimited favour. When the Lord says “the truth shall set you free,” they immediately say, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man, how sayest thou, ye shall be made free.” The Lord says, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” Sometimes we are inclined to say that we can do as we like, and we forget that if that is my attitude of mind I am lawless. I am simply doing what suits myself and not what suits Christ. So the Lord says, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant,” or bondman, “of sin.” The bondman abides not in the house for ever. God has no pleasure in bondmen, in that sense. The Lord has died to set us free from the bondage of sin and every claim that is made upon us, in order to bring us into the liberty set out in Him in the presence of the Father. God has nothing less than that for every one of us, so it is a question of following, continuing in His word. So chapter 8 has in mind, as I understand it, our liberation practically from all that would hold us in bondage and our introduction practically into the liberty of sonship.

In John 10 we have following connected with the sheep. It is over against mere profession. In verses 22 and 23 it says, “The feast of the dedication was celebrating at Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in the porch of Solomon.” It was winter, things were cold. The Lord was walking in Solomon’s porch, which I suppose was the porch of judgment; that is to say, the movements of the Lord Jesus have a discriminating effect. They expose those in whom God has not wrought, and they bring to light those in whom He has wrought. The present ministry of the Lord is having that effect in Christendom, exposing apostasy and that which is only mere profession, and bringing to light as characterised by life those who are really Christ’s sheep. The sheep in John’s gospel are not quite the same idea as sheep in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. Matthew and Luke speak of sheep by reference to the propensity of sheep to stray. John speaks of sheep as those who are the subject of divine workmanship, and who have been given to Christ by the Father, and who are marked by certain features instinctive to them, namely, they hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow. It is characteristic of sheep, the true sheep of Christ, to hear His voice and follow, and that is what should mark us. There are, alas, many dear sheep of Christ who are not marked by hearing the Shepherd’s voice and following. They are so entangled in systems and associations that are displeasing to the Lord that they do not know what it is to hear His living voice. There is a place where the Lord’s present living voice is heard, but, alas, there are many dear sheep so mixed up with what is contrary to the truth, in religious or other unholy associations or in their ways, that they are at a distance from the Lord and do not know what it is to hear continually the living voice of the Shepherd, but that is abnormal.

The Lord would have every one of us following with the flock. There is no suggestion of independence or insularity about a flock, and any shepherd will tell you that if a sheep isolates itself from the rest of the flock it is evident that the sheep is sick, so the Lord uses this illustration of a flock moving together as regulated by the Shepherd’s voice and affected by the living food He provides. In chapter 10 the Lord says, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” It is a question of perishing. You remember how the children of Israel fell in the wilderness because they were marked by unbelief and disobedience. The Lord says, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me and I give them life eternal.” That is the result of following the Shepherd. You hear His voice and follow and eternal life is enjoyed. You are constantly in the enjoyment among the sheep of what is living, always sustained in the freshness of eternal life in the midst of all that is abroad in this world. “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” We know something of this, and it comes in in this chapter in contrast to what is merely religious. It is most important that we should be going on listening to the Shepherd’s voice, and in the enjoyment of eternal life, because it is a testimony in the world to the reality of divine things.

Then we come to chapter 21, and still there is the thought of following, and here it is a question of the Lord’s word to Peter. I believe Peter represents the public history of the assembly; by that I mean the true assembly, not mere profession. What is true of Peter is that he undoubtedly loved the Lord. There is no question about that, but he had a chequered history publicly even to the extent of denying the Lord at one time, a most solemn matter, and we have to feel that, not only in regard to ourselves individually, but the unfaithfulness that has marked the history of the assembly. I believe Peter represents that, and yet at the end of John’s gospel he is seen as recovered. We can take courage from that, for the Lord is working in the way of recovery in our day, so that what is proper to the assembly should come into expression in the assembly, and Peter represents that feature. John, I believe, represents the underlying work of God that goes through. He was leaning on Jesus’ breast at supper, and Peter was not so near the Lord as that, but at the end Peter glorifies God by his death. That is something for us to have before us, that whatever it involves we are to finish to the glory of God. The Lord has to say to Peter, “When thou wast young thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest.” The girding himself refers to service, and we sometimes find when we are young and girded for service that a certain amount of self-will and independence enters into it. “But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and bring thee where thou dost not desire.” “But he said this signifying by what death he should glorify God.” Peter was to finish up in conformity with Christ by glorifying God. The Lord was indicating in reference to his stretching forth his hands, that he would die by crucifixion, which we know by history is what actually happened. He finished up in complete correspondence with Christ as suffering for the will of God. He wholly yielded to that will whatever it involved in the way of public reproach. Indeed that is what is before us and it is a question of our seeing to it that we follow the Lord, in view of finishing up to the glory of God.

Now the Lord having said that to Peter, says “follow me,” and Peter turns, showing how constantly the Lord has to remind us time after time of what is essential. He says, “Follow me,” and when Peter turns he immediately sees John following, and he says to Jesus, “What shall this man do,” and the Lord answering says, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee, follow thou me.” That is the last word to Peter recorded on the part of the Lord Jesus, and if we would finish well, as the Lord would have us finish to the glory of God, we can only do so as we set ourselves to follow the Lord, and that involves having an attentive ear to what He is saying in the ministry and giving it its proper place in our souls. May we prepare our hearts to have an attentive ear to whatever He is saying, because whatever the need of the moment is, and whatever He is seeking to secure in His people, the Lord will speak in relation to it. Christianity is a great system of movement. There is nothing stagnant about it, and if we would be in the current of what the Spirit has in mind the great thing for us is to have an attentive ear to what the Lord is saying and to follow it up.

May the Lord give us grace to do so for His name’s sake.