Philippians 1: 12-22; Judges 8: 1-3; Philippians 2: 1-11

THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST

J.A.P. We might think in these passages of the Spirit - "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ", and, in chapter 2, the ''fellowship of the Spirit". The setting in chapter 1 is for the Christians in Philippi in view of the testimony, known in conditions of limitation. Paul refers to "my bonds" implying that we would have to recognise, in one sense, that the testimony is in limitations in the governmental ordering of God in His ways, and this introduces great and severe stress. The apostle sets out in himself the spirit in which we can go through in regard to the gospel and the present testimony. The gospel itself is not limited, but there are the conditions which are humbling to us in every locality; and where accepted from God, power is available to come in through the supplication of the saints. Indeed the time in which we live may, as the apostle says, ''turn out for me to salvation". That is what is to be arrived at, that the circumstances in which believers find themselves, as taken up with God, will turn out for salvation, for them and for the testimony. So we are not chafing and allowing our spirits to be vexed. King Ahab was sullen and vexed in his spirit (see Kings 21: 4) and that marks Christendom; they want the vineyard but it lies in the fruitfulness of the assembly. Persons in the assembly are not vexed but are finding an answer from God as to matters through which they are passing. There is reduction, and there are humbling matters in the recent testimony of brethren which will remain with us outwardly for the rest of our days. The answer is the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, which is a current matter. John’s ministry involves the Spirit in the current sense (although we did not read from John this morning the brethren will helpfully keep John in mind in our inquiry). The Spirit of Jesus Christ is what was see in the Lord in the gospels, how He met things, how He went through. It is not exactly Jesus Christ’s spirit here; it is the spirit of Jesus Christ, that is the Man who was here in testimony as the gospels show and it is to be reflected in us. The “fellowship of the Spirit" is how that worked out when Paul first came to Philippi.

The scripture in Judges was read to show how the Spirit of Jesus Christ worked out in Gideon in a very difficult situation among his brethren. In Philippians we get "each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves"; that is the spirit in which Gideon salvaged the position in his relations with his brethren in Ephraim, speaking of them as better than himself: "What have I done in comparison with you?".

J.C.E. Paul was concerned, according to the first chapter, that “in every way … Christ is announced”. That was the objective. But then it has to be worked out individually. The announcing needs to be answered to by us, and hence the Spirit of Christ is needed.

J.A.P. That is helpful, and amidst very great stress - "my bonds". Others were making for envy and strife and contention and tribulations; they are the conditions in which the testimony is at the present time. The resource for the Christian is the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. What is in mind involves the local collective idea - ''work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", (chap 2: 12) - and Paul's concern was how this should work out collectively in the midst of very great stress; he is showing how the Spirit of Jesus Christ comes in to help.

E.C.B. What Paul is looking for is salvation in the circumstances and not from them, is it not? He was not exactly asking or supplicating or relying on the Spirit to bring him out of prison, but he was looking for salvation in the circumstances. You get a certain sense of this in relation to Jesus: "Father save me from this hour. But on account of this have I come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name", John 12: 27. That is salvation in the circumstances.

J.A.P. That is good. I thought we might see therefore how the Lord was in the gospels. Mr Stoney helped us in saying that support is greater than relief, which is what you are seeking to say, I think.

R.T. Is the anointing like the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, coming into these very circumstances to give us power in them?

J.A.P. Yes. "He that ... has anointed us, is God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts", 2 Cor 1: 21, 22. It has been said that when the Spirit came upon Christ, the Economy was in the testimony - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What power marked the Lord Jesus as Man as by the Spirit! Maybe you have more to say about that.

R.T. The anointing comes into the suffering position. The anointing oil was sprinkled on the altar seven times (see Lev 8: 11). The idea of the anointing gives power to go through without chafing, as you say, and provides something for God in the midst of it.

J.A.P. Yes, and you get in this passage "your supplication"; that relates to our spirits, the spirits of the brethren going through this distress with Paul.

H.A.H. Does the reference to salvation link with what Peter says: "receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls", 1 Pet 1: 9? As you say, and as the note in Peter points out, it is not temporal deliverance but soul salvation that is in mind.

J.A.P. Hebrews helps us also - "so great salvation", chap 2: 3. It is Christianity really, involving faith and the Spirit.

I thought we might specially dwell on the Spirit and the Lord Jesus in the gospels, the Spirit of that Man, how He met things. I came to me during the night that the wealth of heaven is available to us to strengthen and succour the position, the substance being the or Jesus Himself.

D.J.H. It is amazing that it is the same person, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who was here with that blessed Man and is in the testimony with us now.

S.D.K.R. ln the oblation the fine flour was mingled with oil and frankincense was put on it.

J.A.P. That is good. The anointing is a mysterious matter in regard to the Lord Jesus, the Spirit coming upon Him; it is unique in that sense in Him, what went up to God in His life here in view of His death. The hymn alludes to the Spirit as the power of His hand (No.300). You wonder at these things, the Lord Jesus as a dependent and humble Man, and then, "Wherefore also God highly exalted him"; it is what He was in setting out the grace of the dispensation.

D.A.B. It is a capital S here, the Spirit of Jesus Christ; that is the Spirit, the Person.

J.A.P. Yes, I thought the emphasis was on the Spirit.

D.A.B. Do we need help to see the evidence of the Holy Spirit as a Person in the gospels, and then also to be able to see Him more in the brethren?

J.A.P. Yes; so the gospels help us. What was referred to - "on account of this have I come to this hour" - is how the Lord went through things as a man. In Matthew the Lord says "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth" (chap 11: 25); that was His spirit when all was against Him. His ministry had been refused in Capernaum and in the other places, and the Lord Jesus committed that to His Father. Then He speaks of being meek and lowly in heart, as if to say this is to say this is the way we are to proceed: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me" - entirely opposite to what we are naturally.

D.A.B. The part that the Holy Spirit had is emphasised in relation to the temptations. Jesus was "led by the Spirit in the wilderness" (Luke 4: 1), and in one passage He "drives him out into the wilderness", Mark 1: 12. I wondered if we might see the movements of the Holy Spirit also in other sections - for example when Jesus went into Judea again, whether we see there the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

J.A.P. Yes. The temptations have to be examined because the Lord went through certain things and showed us the way; but none of us here would like to go into areas of temptation where we should not be. "Lead us not into temptation" (Matt 6: 13). But the Lord Jesus went into the temptations as led by the Spirit and He brought in the word of God to meet it. That is another thing. Our brother has spoken about the power of the anointing, and added to that is the Scriptures. The word of God coming in in the glad tidings helps the brethren through the difficult circumstances we are in at the present time.

E.P. That word in Romans 8 is encouraging, that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit (v 16). I wonder whether it shows the definiteness of the link between the Holy Spirit and our spirit.

J.A.P. Very good. It has been said that our spirits are the highest order of our being and relate to God. A brother wrote to me the other day as to our brother Mr Deck's home going, that he was a brother of a good spirit; it is not to make much of anyone but it is very difficult when you are going through stressful times and tribulation and discipline to maintain your spirit; and thus the prayers of the brethren and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ sustained Paul in these bonds.

E.P. So we have a very helpful word from David in Psalm 37; ''fret not thyself" (v 8). When you fret it is your spirit that is fretting inside you.

J.A.P. That is right. So Ahab was vexed. The man Naboth stood for his vineyard and said I cannot give up my father's inheritance. We are not to give up our fathers' inheritance: he lost his life over it. Ahab was vexed and that is what marks Christendom at the present time; but what is to mark the Christian and the preachers and those who testify to Christ - the sisters too – is that the Holy Spirit can be drawn upon, the supply of the Holy Spirit.

D.E.R. So the setting of Philippians 1 is of a militant apostle in the testimonial sphere. He is set for the defence of the glad tidings and as in that He would be conscious of the supplies there are in the power of the Spirit to see him through in relation to the defence of the testimony.

J.A.P. Yes. You might think, when the apostle was locked up in jail, that the gospel would stop. It rather turned out to be for salvation. These contrivances of the enemy to bring in limitations, if accepted from God, will turn out for salvation for the brethren. He has His own way of spreading the gospel.

D.E.R. And if the enemy seeks to come in like a flood the Spirit can ever be counted on to raise the banner, raise the standard, when standards are dropping.

J.A.P. Well, the standard I think is in the Spirit, and He is called the Spirit of truth. That Christian in Bedford, John Bunyan, they locked him up but he preached the gospel from jail and his writings are extending into this day. What a spirit, what a right spirit that man had according to the light he then had!

W.H.S. It is said that, if he was allowed out, he would preach the next day. He was in prison twelve years because of the preaching. We had ministry a month ago in this city somewhat on the same line as to Philippians and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Do we get the supply in answer to supplication?

J.A.P. I think firstly it is here in the gift of the Spirit.

W.H.S. We know the truth of the gift of the Spirit, but some of us may feel a bit short on the supply.

J.A.P. The gospels are the supply, it is the supply from that Man. He is in heaven now, so our testimony is to have a heavenly character. It comes from that Man in heaven. That is what Stephen apprehended in his preaching.

E.C.B. In this verse the supplication and the supply are two distinct things. There are the prayers of the brethren on the one hand, but then the Spirit 'is always willing to come in. He comes in from Himself according to what Jesus says in John's gospel.

J.A.P. That is right and very good. So it says in Romans 8, referred to already, that "even we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we also ourselves groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption, that is the redemption of our body" (v 23). That ought to be a comfort to all who are going through a little frailty, that it is part of the limitations; we may chafe under that but the Spirit comes in to help us in these conditions of humiliation.

P.M. Peter says "ye have share in the sufferings of Christ", and then, "If ye are reproached in the name of Christ ... the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you", 1 Pet 4: 13,14. Is it in view of the testimony going forward in the same dignity in which it went forward when the Lord Jesus was here?

J.A.P. Very good. That is my concern, that we may not get under the pressure, whatever it may be. The details in your life may be different from those in mine and in your locality, but the heavenly standard is to be maintained in the power of the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That is the current matter. All of the Holy Spirit, speaking reverently, is here since Pentecost. The supply is here too. Zechariah 4 - the tubes emptying the gold out of themselves - may suggest how the brethren help one another to be spiritual.

P.M. In verse 20 of Philippians 1 the object is that Christ should be magnified in the apostle's body, as if there was something formed in him through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ which was the reflection of Christ Himself.

J.A.P. Yes. I have been very encouraged to read again the history of the Reformation and to see how those men went out of the world, their bodies being smitten and burned, yet praising God as they went out. We would like, before the coming of the Lord, that there might be this kind of manifestation amongst us, in spite of the severity of matters, even between brethren sometimes.

C.H.J.D. I was enjoying the thought, not only of the spirit but the feelings of the Man in heaven. Paul speaks in Philemon of the bowels of Christ Jesus. The references in the passages read are Jesus Christ, the Man as He was here, but that Man has the most beautiful inward feelings of support for us.

J.A.P. Are you suggesting to us that the anointed Man is more what that Man is in heaven at the present time?

C.H.J.D. The same Man with the same feelings; and we need more inward feelings ourselves.

J.A.P. Quite so; and as we look into the gospels, how firm the Lord Jesus was as to the truth. We know the grace of our Lord Jesus, but then it says, "Be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord", 1 Cor 15: 58. His firmness in the gospel with the enemy is all part of what we are saying, but it is in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

C.H.J.D. So the gospel is a victorious matter from beginning to end. We need to be alerted inwardly a s to nothing for God being lost; in the gospel it goes through victoriously.

J.A.P. That is right. Mr Darby said that love of souls soon grows cold, and I am wondering whether we do not need more suitable gospel tracts as well as energy in the public area to speak of Christ as we are led in the matter. Paul's concern in the prison here was not himself. His concern was that the fellowship they had with the glad tidings from the first day should continue.

E.C.B. Is the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ connected in us with confessing Jesus Christ come in flesh? The supply of the Spirit is not intended to have just an inward and private effect. It is intended to work out in demonstration, which the word confession suggests.

J.A.P. That is good, and is part of the exercise in looking at this chapter, that it is the Spirit seen in testimony in the saints. We have brethren in this city and in every locality with whom we used to walk; these sorrows have come about, and it is a critical time how wisely and discreetly to manifest the glad tidings in these broken conditions.

E.C.B. Then do you not get the thought "I, if I be lifted up ... will draw all to me", John 12: 32?

J.A.P. Yes, we should keep to that.

E.C.B. That is what was just referred to, that Christ should be magnified.

J.A.P. Exactly. But then people say to you, Are you one of those brethren that preach down on the street, are you with those Christians that do so and so? We are in a very critical time like Gideon. The tribes were not in unity publicly. Paul said to Timothy that God has given us "a spirit ... of power, and of love, and of wise discretion", 2 Tim 1: 7. That is how we are going to move through these difficult times before men.

E.C.B. If you are asked the questions you suggest, the answer is the confession of Jesus Christ come in flesh. You do not have to answer directly every question that is addressed to you.

J.A.P. No, you can answer the questioner. The Lord answered the person, and our testimony is Jesus Christ come in flesh, and we hold to that. If our testimony about the Lord is in the Spirit then no one can deny that.

E.P. I think Mr Darby said that the book of the Proverbs shows the way through the labyrinth of this world, and I noticed that in chapter 15 the proverb is "A soft answer turneth away fury; but a grievous word stirreth up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright" (vv 1,2). These words of wisdom help us in situations in which we sometimes find ourselves, for example with other believers.

J.A.P. Great wisdom is needed at the present time. I think wisdom is to find what is right with another believer and seek to link on with it as far as we can.

L.W.B. In Colossians you get "Walk in wisdom towards those without, redeeming opportunities. Let your word be always with grace, seasoned with salt, so as to know how ye ought to answer each one", chap 4: 5,6. We need help to preach the word in the open air. Do you think we ought to encourage younger ones and ourselves to do that?

J.A.P. When I was a boy in Brooklyn I can remember Mr Taylor leaning on the post box while the young men preached in Nostrand Avenue. He did not himself then preach in the open air but he did in his younger days. We were also saying at home that Mr Darby said in his writings how he was very concerned whether he had ability to speak in the open air, and Mr Raven said that too. Not all have that ability but it is a wonderful thing to be able to say a word tor Christ before men.

L.W.B. You can lift up your voice and say, Look to the Lord Jesus and be saved.

J.A.P. So what has been brought before us as to wisdom is very good. "She raiseth her voice in the broadways" (Prov 1: 20) and is saying certain things. Then also you get a woman saying wrong things (see Prov 2: 16). That is what is in our cities, all over the billboards, the wrong things, but then Christians stand up with a supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and testify to the Saviour at the right hand of God.

D.J.H. Do you in any way connect this with what John says: "of his fulness we all have received", John 1: 16. Then he says, "grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ".

J.A.P. Very good indeed. We have referred to John's ministry and it is a very great subject to bring in, but that is the essence of what we have been speaking about. The One who was here declared God; He revealed the Father to men. "Of his fulness we all have received" would involve the Spirit, I think.

D.J.H. The Spirit was identified with Him in a unique way because of who He was, but it was as He was here as Man.

J.A.P. Exactly, and the conditions here anticipate what we are now in our own time where there are cleavages among Christians; Paul speaks about people announcing the glad tidings not purely. There were persons with the light and maybe the terms of the gospel whose purpose was to arouse tribulation; but whatever it is he says, "What is it then? at any rate, in every way, whether in pretext or in truth, Christ is announced". We are in a day in which many are announcing the terms of the gospel, and how are we to act in those circumstances?

L.W.B. We are to go on rightly in vitality, do you think, preaching the word of God.

J.A.P. We need therefore the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and to see how the Lord met things in the gospels Himself.

B.W.W. Do we see in "whether in pretext or in truth, Christ is announced; and in this I rejoice, yea, also I will rejoice" that, despite all the circumstances, he will go on rejoicing in the preaching? That should be something for us to experience. He speaks in this epistle quite a bit about rejoicing. Is that to strengthen us even if there are difficulties?

J.A.P. That is right: "Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice", chap 4: 4. We all need that. In these difficult circumstances the Spirit is anticipating our own day in chapter 1 of Philippians, and how Christians ought to behave.

B.W.W. Which Paul himself demonstrates in what he says here, that whatever the opposition, he will go on.

J.A.P. Yes, and he was not occupied with his own discipline in the ways of God. "Shall tum out for me to salvation" - that is where the victory is, that we might see the circumstances that God has ordered, maybe through our own failures, but as taken up with God and humbled by it, it turns out to salvation.

P.J.H. The glad tidings are food for the saints and very nutritious, because the Spirit is evident in them. Mr Darby has a note somewhere which says, 'The Spirit which is in Christ dwells in us and is the living power of the new life'. That is present power on high and in testimony.

J.A.P. The supply is here; we will not need to talk of supply in heaven; it is coming in through that divine Person, beginning with the anointing; and we are anointed.

R.T. There is a very dependent and brotherly spirit in the way in which Paul writes. He is not writing as an apostle but in bringing their supplications is showing that he is dependent on the saints; the saints have a contribution to make to this.

J.A.P. That is good, and he was very touched by the assembly giving in Philippi, the brotherly expression from the brethren there to him in all his need. Assembly giving is not only giving but receiving; Paul received what the brethren gave him. Giving and receiving: what do you say about that?

R.T. It brings in mutuality. Paul as an apostle might have thought things were dependent on him, and he might have asserted his authority many times, but he links here with the brethren. Things are going through with the brethren, not independently of them.

J.A.P. Very good. I noticed today that in Acts 16, where Paul came to Philippi, the last verse says that he saw the brethren. It is the first time the expression is used, "having seen the brethren", that is Lydia, the jailor, and all the brethren there, and at the end of the chapter he says goodbye to the brethren. That is just what you say, there was mutuality in Philippi.

D.E.R. The apostle here is concerned that Christ should be magnified in his body, as though there is as much testimony from what a person is as from what they say. The saints are marked by being holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, as Christ was Himself. So there is the manifestation of Christ here in their life as well as in what they may say.

J.A.P. We too have been saying that lately; the neighbours watch us going to the meetings and then they watch whether we are consistent with that.

D.A.B. Paul refers to what would be worked out in his body, a vessel for the Spirit, just as when Jesus was here, His body was a vessel for the Holy Spirit.

J.A.P. Yes, and the Lord Jesus sets that out, as the hymn says: 'Holy vessel of God's pleasure in His service day by day' (No.30). I would like to be like that.

D.E.B. I was wondering about Mr Taylor's early ministry as to the pouring out of the Spirit initially and once - no second outpouring. There was conflict as to that. Could you help us as to that and then this side of the current supply?

J.A.P. Well, Peter quotes in his preaching: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh", and says that "these are not full of wine, as ye suppose, for it is the third hour of the day", Acts 2: 15,17. Then he brings out the fulness of the Spirit coming in, that these men, Peter and the eleven, were drawing on the supply of the Spirit.

D.A.B. I wonder if there is a connection between Mr Taylor's earlier ministry just referred to and his closing ministry as to the Spirit known objectively, that He is here in that way.

J.A.P. He has come. Do you not think that this thought of supply is good? Maybe we have not thought of that so much.

E.C.B. What has been drawn attention to was in my mind earlier, because there is no question of supplicating for the Spirit, the Spirit is here; and is not the supply connected with such thoughts as the river and the well and the fountain and the spring? The question, to use a very conventional expression amongst us, is what room we are making for Him?

R.T. In Elisha's day it says, "Bring me yet a vessel"; the vessels ran out but ''the oil stayed", 2 Kings 4: 6,7. Would that type help us? The supply is there; the need is in the vessels.

J.A.P. Very good, and that was in the widow's area which is what we are at really - the limitations and the sorrows that have come into the testimony. I wanted also to add, in relation to what has just been said, that in Philippi there was the river, the great wealth that strengthens any nation. The river of God strengthens the assembly. Sisters were found there, and the connection between the prayer meeting and the gospel is very important, I believe. We might think about that, too, more than we have.

D.A.B. Recently we were being helped to see that after Pentecost every reference in the Acts to persons receiving the Spirit finds them in the company of people who already have the Spirit that is, in that sense, they are brought within the circle where the Spirit already. For example, Paul received the Spirit in the presence of Ananias, a man who already had the Spirit. The Ephesians received the Spirit in the of presence of Paul who already had the Spirit, and I wondered if we get a similar thought here, that the supply of the Spirit is here and it would have kept Paul in touch with the company.

J.A.P. Quite so.

E.C.B. You may want to refer to your other scriptures. The immediate context of the reference to the supply of the Holy Spirit is to produce stability in the brethren, is it not? It is not only so that they may preach, but it is to bring about stability in them, and thus the sense of salvation. We have said a good deal about the preaching and so on, for all of which we need the Spirit, but unless we have that stability in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ we shall not be effective in it.

J.A.P. That is right; and we cannot leave out the sorrows that have come in among brethren and then that it was Christian brethren that damaged Paul. It is not our thought to dwell on that, but they were nominal Christians who were arousing tribulation for this servant - a very serious thing that any would do that - and Paul is meeting the matter I think, in the power of the Spirit.

I thought that the scripture in Judges helps us as to how Gideon in the type met a difficult matter that arose among the brethren; so what we are speaking of this morning is not only in relation to the gospel towards man, but the supply of the Spirit in regard to our relations with one another. It says ''Then their spirit was appeased". This is a wonderful conclusion to Gideon's service. A brother referred to the word of wisdom, and we will come to that later in Philippians 2 if time permits, that each takes account of what is in the other. Gideon brings all this forward, he rises to a wonderful type of a Christian, meeting a difficult matter among the brethren with wisdom and discretion.

D.E.B. Was this a characteristic of Gideon? He did not have to stop and think and say, how am I going to deal with this? He was such a man that the spirit of Christ, you might almost say automatically, was able to meet the situation, because that is how he was characteristically.

J.A.P. Yes, that might be, although I find in my own experience that I do have to stop a minute and seek to be the Christian I should be sometimes. I think that would be the experience of all of us, that we are learning I trust to have more wisdom with one another without giving up anything that relates to righteousness.

H.A.H. The sorrowful contrast to this is in chapter 12 when the same people contended with Jephthah and there were forty-two thousand of them slain.

J.A.P. I have often prayed that I might be faithful like Jephthah because God used him and he was in the faith line in Hebrews 11, but I would like to have the wisdom and grace of Gideon.

E.C.B. Does not the scripture in John 1, referred to earlier, bear on it: ''for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace"?

J.A.P. Very good, we need that in our spirits. So the spirit of the brethren was appeased toward Gideon, and that is what we should arrive at in fellowship meetings, that the spirits of the brethren are greatly strengthened and encouraged, because our spirit relates to God and in a certain sense to one another.

E.C.B. That then is how the fellowship of the Spirit is known.

J.A.P. That is what I thought we should see in Philippians 2, when Paul came to Philippi, how he brought the brethren into fellowship. We often dwell on how the jailor was converted but he was really brought into fellowship, and I had not noticed until this morning that the last verse of Acts 16 says he took leave of “the brethren" - that is what Luke called them - that would be the jailor and his house and the sisters by the riverside; they become brethren. They have come into the fellowship of the Spirit.

E.C.B. I have often thought that, in Paul's closing words in second Corinthians, where he is having to revert to the sorrows that were in the locality, he says “the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" as if the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit would keep things right in the place.

J.A.P. That is good, and he left the brethren with a sense of blessing. If we have come into a locality or we serve them in any way, that is how we leave the brethren - with a spirit of blessing.

C.H.J.D. Do we need to remember more that the person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, indwelling us and in the assembly is exactly like Jesus. It has been said that if the Spirit had ever become incarnate, He would be exactly like Jesus. Do we need to recognise that the indwelling Spirit brings out in the brethren the features that shone so, beautifully in that blessed Man when He was here?

J.A.P. Yes; so the Spirit here draws on that through Paul: "each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves"; and it comes to me that the Lord Jesus drew attention in the gospels to something good in many persons. It says about the young man that "Jesus ... loved him", Mark 10: 21. He said to Simon: "Seest thou this woman?" (Luke 7: 44); the widow, too, gave everything (see Luke 21: 2). The Lord defended Zacchaeus too. Now if He drew on the good in others, how much more should I do that, find something in someone that I can say is more excellent than myself.

C.H.J.D. And the unexpected glory of the work of God so suddenly appears. Even the centurion overseeing the crucifixion of Christ, when he saw that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, said, "Truly this man was Son of God", Mark 15: 39. What a marvellous testimony so suddenly rendered in a man that was converted!

J.A.P. Well, that is part of the discretion and wisdom that we should have now, to see the good in people, to see the good in other Christians. If a person is saying what is right, "Truly this man was Son of God", you could say Amen to that. The Lord wondered at another man and said, "Not even in Israel have I found so great faith", Luke 7: 9. The Lord is showing us the Spirit of Jesus Christ, how He himself too account of God's work in others, and He magnified it before the unbelieving and the opposers.

D.J.H. He says to a woman, ''Thy faith has saved thee", Luke 7: 50. He does not say, My power has saved thee. Do you think also that Romans 16 is an example of Paul on this line, the list of persons there and what he says about them, even as to some that they were in Christ before him? He always finds something that he can commend.

J.A.P. Very good.

J.C.E. It is remarkable that these considerations lead Paul to write such words as he does about the Lord Jesus: "did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself". He brings Christ forward in a new and living way.

J.A.P. I thought that was how the fellowship of the Spirit works among the brethren, how it worked when Philippi first came into view, and the repentance of the jailor and his house. Those of us in households need to keep repenting. Things were very distressing when the jailor would be almost driven to take his life. We should not just keep that out of our reckoning, that terrible feeling. One of the prophets asks God to take his life (see 1 Kings 19: 4). In the exercises through which we have passed and may pass, such thoughts could come into the mind of anyone. So Paul says, "Do thyself no harm". That is the word to help us in going through a terrible crisis. The glad tidings are unfolded to such a one, and then the greatness of the Person, as you were saying. I would like help on verse 6.

E.C.B. "Subsisting in the form of God": I sometimes think Paul has to use what words are available to him because he cannot describe things in precision as to which he had only impressions by the Spirit; and who is to say what the form of God is? That expression occurs in the Old Testament (see Num 12: 8). That was the condition the Lord Jesus was in, for He was God: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God", John 1: 1. The contrast is with Adam and then the blessedness of what He was in His manhood, having come into it.

J.A.P. I thought that was where the fellowship of the Spirit is to be enjoyed here today, and I think it is, and will lead us tomorrow in the service of God. We have to bow in the sense of the greatness of this One who emptied Himself. Why did Paul use that expression? Maybe we all need to come to that - "emptied himself" - not that we can do anything in the way the Lord did. Mr Darby says the note: 'I have no doubt all this is in contrast with the first Adam. The history of the second man is that he made himself of no reputation (or emptied himself) in becoming a man'. Now we are on to the highest level in which we are able, in some sense, to follow knees, we want our tongues to be in the service tomorrow, to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father's glory. I believe that feature should come into the service of God as well as other matters.

E.C.B. It is connected with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, that "he must reign" (v 25). Every knee will bow.

E.P. You spoke about the disconsolate prophet, Elijah. God says there are fourteen thousand knees, seven thousand people, that have not bowed to Baal.

J.A.P. You might say that those people were very simple but one thing they were clear about was idolatry, they would not bow to anyone but God. There are many like that today, they love Christ even if they do not have all the light, but they are not bowing the knee to the god of this world.

E.P. Our God virtually says to Elijah, Remember, you are not alone!

J.A.P. It is the fellowship of the Spirit, and Elijah in type came back into it too.

 

LONDON

17 August 1991

 

Key to initials (London if not otherwise stated)

D.A.Burr; D.E.Burr, Redbridge; E.C.Burr; L.W.Burton, Kingston; C.H.J.Davidson, Dorking; J.C.Evershed; D.J.Hutson; H.A.Hutson; P.J.Herbert, Newport; P.Martin, Colchester; E.Palmer; J.A.Petersen, Plainfield; D.E.Remmington, St.Albans; S.D.K.Roberts, Croydon; W.H.Shephard, Bedford; R.Taylor, Barnet; B.W.Ward