THE HOUSE OF GOD (1)
[p. 483] THE HOUSE OF GOD (1)
John 1: 35 - 39; John 2: 13 - 22
JT I believe it will be found that the thought of the house of God is worked out in each of the gospels according to the point of view of each writer. John has it in view, I believe, but as is usual with him he assumes the thing is there without naming it formally. He does name the house in chapter 2, “my Father’s house”, referring to the material structure at Jerusalem, which now has to be regarded as a past institution, and then he also speaks of the Father’s house in chapter 14, but that is regarded as future. So that the house in its present form is not formally named by him, but nevertheless the thought of it is worked out in a very definite way, and as is usual in his gospel there is a peculiar application to our own times. In His house we know we have the thing, the house of God, but we cannot point to anything that represents it formally; hence we have to be content with the enjoyment of it in obscurity without claiming it officially or formally, and so he begins in chapter 1, verse 14, with the reference to the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. That is, I think, something that has to be understood as having a present bearing. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father)”, so that from the outset the house becomes a matter of apprehending Christ as having come to dwell amongst men, and whether we have learned or contemplated Him, because with John it is a question of acquaintance, not with a system, but with divine Persons and the persons with and in whom God works.
JF Being in connection with divine Persons there could be no change in any sense in what is presented.
JT The ravages of time and man’s will and Satan’s power cannot interfere with the Persons.
CCE Will you please carry on the idea of God dwelling among His [p. 484] people?
JT John has that in view. The Word is ‘tabernacled’ among us. Although He came to His own they received Him not. Nevertheless He found a way of tabernacling and you can understand the force of that now, notwithstanding the very great departure there is. The Lord knows how to find a place in which to dwell, so that the subject there contemplates the state of our souls as to whether we apprehend that the Lord Jesus can dwell, notwithstanding the most adverse conditions. Chapter 14 shows how divine Persons can come in and dwell where the commandments and the word are kept.
WP Does that answer to the faithful men in Timothy?
JT 1 Timothy is in accord with Luke, where things are in order. 2 Timothy and John run parallel.
JS Does John dwell more on the family than on the structural aspect?
JT It is from the standpoint of the family. We have often remarked that the Lord sent Peter and John to prepare for the passover, and I think that this gospel is the family side, which stands, notwithstanding that the structural side may have been wrecked. As has often been remarked the Lord did not disclose to Peter what John would do. He says “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” John 21: 22, and that is in keeping with the word earlier, “He himself knew what he would do”. He reserved John so that there should be a revival at the end and the enjoyment of the things that they had at the beginning without any pretension to the official or formal aspect of them.
JF You can contemplate the family apart from the place. I was thinking of what Stephen says, Jacob went down to Egypt with all his kindred — seventy-five souls, Acts 7: 14. Wherever they moved the family links were there.
JT Jacob sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac, as coming down into Egypt, meaning that he apprehended Christ risen; Abraham is not mentioned. It is not a question of the great patriarch to whom all the promises were made. There is a change so that he sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac, meaning Christ risen from the dead, and then [p. 485] you have a formal recognition by the Spirit of God of all the children and grandchildren of Jacob because there is a turning to Joseph. In Genesis 37: 2, it says: “These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph ...”. None of the others are taken account of, but now that Jacob has turned towards Joseph and they are all restored as a family, the Spirit of God takes account of them all; that fits in with what we have here. It is a question of the Lord personally. “We have contemplated his glory”, John says. Jacob had tidings brought up of the glory of Joseph and that is what dominates that section. Everything now hinges for us on our recognition of the Lord.
H Do we contemplate Him as here on earth or in heavenly glory?
JT We contemplate Him as He is now. We cannot contemplate Him otherwise. We contemplate His glory as of the only-begotten of the Father. That is the key to the gospel. You see the Lord in His place with the Father and then the next thing is “Where abidest thou?” Where testimony has become effective it is in regard to the Person, that is how things stand nowadays.
CCE Where He dwells makes a house for us.
JT We begin to find out the house by coming into acquaintance with the Lord.
AAE How would you distinguish between God dwelling and where He dwells?
JT We shall reach that presently, for the moment it is initial, how a believer at the present time comes into the light of the house. It is a gradual development. We shall see in chapter 8 that the Son is over the house. The Son abides in the house for ever. In this chapter it is the Son in the bosom of the Father. We have to begin with the apprehension of the Son and His place with the Father, and we shall see later the thought of the house and His place in it. That opens up the place for us to come into it.
JF Is that why he mentions this first?
JT This dominates what follows. “John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” Now you come to a [p. 486] ministry that instead of drawing around itself directs to Christ.
H Was it that which gave the two disciples the desire to know where He dwelt?
JT John conveyed in his remark that there was something very attractive in the Person and they profited by that and sought to know where He dwelt.
JS The family idea was in the mind of God before anything national came in.
JT It is a primary thought and it is the ultimate result of all His operations.
JS Would you say that up to the time of the deluge God dealt with families, and here the Lord is presented as recovering the family idea.
JT Joseph is a type of that. There are four different features of recovery. Joseph is the last and it is the family which God began with. The family is restored and set up again in relation to its head.
CCE We find that the final eternal state takes account of the family.
JN Would you say the three divine Persons suggest the family thought too?
JT The Father and the Son suggest it.
JN Quite agreeable with the thought of God’s nature, love.
JT “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham”, Acts 7: 2. God intended to set out in Abraham the great patriarchal idea. The first mention of love you have is Abraham’s love. It is attributed to Abraham. “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest”, Genesis 22: 2. There we have the answer of the appearing. He appeared to our father Abraham.
JN Our fellowship is with the Father and the Son.
WP It is not so much in touch with a system as with the Person. Is that the thought we get in verse 37? They got in touch with the Person.
JT Yes. “Where abidest thou?” We have nothing said as to where it was. It is a question of going and seeing.
JN You have to get the Person before you get [p. 487] the house.
JT If this had been at Pentecost the house could have been pointed to as a concrete thing, but John does not present it from that point of view. It is a question of your coming to a Person and finding out through Him where He abides. It is not public now.
JS It says they abode with Him.
JN There is no place you can point to today.
JT It is a very humbling thing. It shows how far away we have got from what existed at the beginning.
CCE In the beginning of the Acts you could point to the place. “The Lord added to the assembly”, Acts 2: 47. There was that to which He could point.
JT There was that there to which He could add.
JN A great house carries the thought of ruin with it.
JT Anything else is contributory to the thought of the family. If there is government, rule, or administration, all tends so that the family might be protected and dwell in peace and love.
JN So that the Father should have His portion in that house.
JT It dominates everything that follows. That is the high altitude of divine thought, so that always we have a drop down to the level of discipline and the kingdom and government, but it is all to culminate in the idea of the family established permanently.
JS In the family idea you would not introduce anything in connection with ruin.
JT In the next chapter the Lord lifts the idea from the level of the material building of Jerusalem to that of resurrection. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2: 19), but He spoke of the temple of His body. The word for ‘temple’ used by Him is not the same word as is used earlier. The employment of that word directs the spiritual mind to what there is; without referring to it formally or officially, it is His body. You are still in relation to the Person but the idea is spiritual and it is developed elsewhere, in Corinthians and Ephesians. It is kept in relation to the personal body of Christ, and hence there is consequent upon this an understanding by the disciples of [p. 488] the Scriptures. They believed the Scriptures and the things which Jesus said, showing we have the place of light, and having the light of the temple we understand the Scriptures and all that He said; that is not connected with the saints as the temple, but with the body of Christ, so that we are still in relation to Him.
JS The body was there, and in the resurrection the unfolding took place.
RB The light here is connected with His personal body.
JT The idea is introduced and you can begin by yourself with the Lord before you realize that the saints are His temple; we come into the light according to Corinthians and Ephesians, otherwise we should not have what we have today. Recovery lay in some person, or persons, coming into the apprehension of Christ, because it is from that standpoint that everything is seen. You work out the thought of the temple and come back to it in the thought of the saints. You cannot find the saints unless you have the Lord. You work things out from the Lord, and you find the saints through Him.
CCE The temple is only to be found in the Lord in John 2.
JF Now that outward ruin has come in, the light is regained by coming in touch with Christ personally.
JT Otherwise the ruin would be irretrievable, but in returning to the Lord, everything is there, so that He transfers the thought of the temple from the material building, that He had just cleansed, to His own body in resurrection, and what I understand is that I am elevated from the level of what is external on to the platform of resurrection, outside the range of man’s mind altogether. That is our position if we have light at all; we are outside the range of man’s mind. Not even the disciples came into it until after He was risen. There is nothing in it for the flesh.
JF The believer cannot really understand the Scriptures aright until he reaches the Lord in resurrection.
JT That is exactly how it stands today. The light that has come in has been on these lines. However clever men may be in research and learning, it is all outside the range [p. 489] of the temple. The simple believer comes into it because of personal attachment to Christ as in chapter 14.
JS There must be the coming in by him as in chapter 1, coming to see where He dwells, before the believer can come into the light of the temple in chapter 2.
JT John is occupied with Him personally. He looked at the Lord as He walked. There was interest in John and hence his testimony was effective. We have to begin with Him risen, and I think this is to shut out man.
RB Does it not make it intensely spiritual?
JT It shuts out man, however clever he may be. The Lord had cleansed the temple; He brought in a testimony in the scourge as to what he will do for Israel by and by. It was His Father’s house. “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up”, The disciples learnt the bearing of that passage. It was well that the Jews asked for a sign, because the sign really shut them out; it goes on to say that, although many believed on Him at this particular time, He did not commit Himself unto them. Man is utterly untrustworthy, although even he may seem to believe, and the sign that the Lord gives is to shut man out in his religious mind and ability.
AAE What is your thought as to the cleansing of the temple coming at the beginning of the gospel? In the other gospels it is nearer the end.
JT It is to complete the subject of the third day, the millennial day. The cleansing of the temple is the completion of His work amongst the Jews as a testimony. The sign which He gives is to shut them out religiously.
CRB The natural man cannot understand the things of God.
JT Samson is to be in possession of the riddle. The Philistine giants, great as they were, could not answer it. It is wonderful what they discovered and effected by their minds, but they could not answer the riddle until he disclosed the secret. We should not disclose the secret. If you do you let the Philistines in. Christians have a secret which will be unfolded in the resurrection.
JN How do you disclose the secret?
JT By bringing the truth into the range of man’s [p. 490] natural capability. We must not disclose the hidden wisdom which Paul speaks of in Corinthians.
JF Do you think a believer having acquired the knowledge of the Lord risen is used of the Spirit to interpret divine things himself? The words “being interpreted” are continually used by the Spirit. Do you think the man himself gives the interpretation?
JT The enemy obtained possession of the secrets in the beginning and wrought the undoing of the assembly publicly. The Lord’s sign here involves a secret: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. They did not take that in, nor did He tell them. The Spirit of God tells us in this gospel, but He did not mean them to know.
AAE You do not refer to the public testimony.
JT No, that is another matter. If you take this as it stands what could they say about it? They asked for a sign and he says “Destroy this temple ...” They begin to talk about the forty-six years it took to build. Their minds were on the material fine and the Lord does not enlighten them. The Spirit of God puts it down for us, and His disciples had the benefit of it after He rose.
H It is remarkable that they remembered about the third day, and went to Pilate (Matthew 27: 62, 63).
JT His disciples had forgotten it, but the Holy Spirit brought it back again. We are not told that they believed this at the time. But after they received the Spirit, who would bring all things to their remembrance, they “believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken”.
WP Has the Lord in view in this that He might have us here for His pleasure and that there may be return for God?
JT I hope we shall see that, but do we understand this sign? There is often an undue effort to bring down God’s things to the range of man’s mind and that is to undo our position. The gospel is to all but there is the mystery of the gospel.
GN In another place He gives them the sign of the prophet Jonas (Matthew 12: 39).
JT Three days and three nights in the heart of the [p. 491] earth, that is another point of view; it is His death. Here it is raising up the temple because I think He wants to shut out man in this development of the house. Man’s mind is to be shut out.
JN It says that we must not give that which is holy to the dogs.
JS Would you say the difficulty in apprehending John’s gospel is that we are slow to apprehend that there must be fight by divine power, that God must come in in divine power.
JT The Lord clears the ground in this chapter. He gives a sign which man cannot understand but which the believer understands. After He was risen the disciples believed the Scripture and the word. As they apprehend Christ risen they understand the Scripture.
JF What was found in Him was the oracle of God, the wisdom of God and the glory of God. If all that is to be permanently maintained here it involves a new order of man in resurrection.
JT For this you need new birth as in the next chapter. John is most sweeping in the way in which he shuts man out from the very beginning.
JS Could you illustrate how we can disclose the riddle?
JT By bringing it down to the range of man’s mind. Theology takes the ground that man can know about God. The very term is a denial of what we have here. The knowledge of God is outside the range of man’s mind, and that is what the Lord begins with in regard to this great subject. The sign is to shut man out. The Holy Spirit tells us He spoke about His body. The great secret in this gospel is attachment to Christ and if we do not know things it is because of our lack of love. It is very beautiful to see the two disciples following Him. He would bring out what was there. They were very definite: “Rabbi ... , where abidest thou?” It is that definiteness which God appreciates amongst us.
JN Is the whole system a question of divine affection?
JT If you love the Lord you will be kept and come [p. 492] into the light.
JF How is that love to the Lord indicated?
JT By coming into the light of His Person. John the baptist was impressed; he furnished John the evangelist a model, a man of like passions as ourselves, in whom to present the truth. There was never a man who had a greater opportunity of making much of himself than John; the Jews sent to him and intimated plainly enough that they were willing to give him the place of the prophet. He would be recognised by the leaders if he was prepared for it, but he is true and refused to take any place at all. He says “I am the voice of one”, and later, “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”, and then on the morrow, he stood, meaning that his work is done. The Son of God is on the scene and he says, “Behold the Lamb of God”. His heart is impressed with the Person and the others are impressed. I think that he passed on to his disciples the sense that he had of the greatness of that One and they began to be attracted to Christ; I think the evidence of that is that they wanted to know where He abode and that they abode with Him that day.
H Is there anything in ‘that day’?
JT That was the day of John’s testimony. It had nearly expired but there were two hours left of it. It would be like the overlapping period in the Acts out of which the assembly, as we have it, was developed.
H Would you say a little more in connection with affection for the Lord, in personal touch with Him? John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, did not know at the time of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Paul says He loved me. Our affections for the Lord are because of what he has done for us.
JT Paul based his remark on the death of Christ. He loved me. The knowledge of the Son of God involves He has a personal interest in me. It is an individual matter. John learnt it by personal contact.
CRB Affection for Christ was a result.
JT We love Him because He first loved us.
RB John the baptist said “Behold the Lamb of God”, John the evangelist “We have contemplated his glory”.
JN Is it not because of the contact?
JT It is. In chapter 9 Jesus found the one that they had cast out. There is personal interest on the part of the Son of God in every one of us. He watches our circumstances and at the opportune moment discloses Himself to us.
JN Nicodemus was attracted to Him by some wonderful power.
JT Nicodemus connects Him with God, showing there was a moral element in him that was not in the others. The others would not go beyond the man, and made much of the things He did. That is unitarianism. He was here on God’s account.
Le R. Is not our love towards Him sustained more by what we find in Him than by what He has done for us?
JT The testimony of His love is in His death, but He sustains you after you know Him (Song of Songs 2: 6). The more you have of it the more you see that love is a question of persons.
JF The end of this chapter shuts out all doctors of divinity on that line.
JT It clears the ground for the work of God in chapter 3. We have to learn that. The Philistines could never have answered the riddle if they had not ploughed with Samson’s heifer. The professing church is false. The responsible body is false; it has disclosed the secret.
JN It must have been provoking to the ruling men that they were shut out.
JT It is well to be in possession of the riddle because you can always silence them, and lay them under tribute so that they are in a position of disadvantage. If you get these men on their own ground they will have the best of it, because they have devoted their time to it. It is their profession, but if you bring the riddle in, all their learning counts for nothing because it is the secret of God. The secret of the Lord is with those that fear Him, not with those that study.