HOW LOCAL CONDITIONS ARE IMPROVED
[p. 126] HOW LOCAL CONDITIONS ARE IMPROVED
Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1; John 11:5; John 11:20-28; John 11:39,40; John 12:1,2
What is in mind is to show how local conditions may be improved, so that among the people of God divine circumstances in any place may be bettered. David had in mind to make divine circumstances better in his day. He had greatly improved them already according to the early part of the second book of Samuel and the first book of Chronicles, but in 1 Chronicles 17 he proposes to make them still better. That is an example for us, for at best in the localities where we are set there is great room for improvement in every instance. God is pleased to go along with what there is, limiting, of course, His forbearance, for there are things He cannot allow, but He goes a long way with His people in their localities, in spite of conditions which are unsuitable to Him.
The addresses to the assemblies recorded in Revelation 2 and 3 show that the Lord takes account of what is favourable and what is not. These addresses were to the intent that there might be improvement. In the last address the Lord counsels persons, who are not at all in accord with His mind, to buy from Him. They were saying in Laodicea that they were rich increased with goods and had need of nothing, but the Lord said they were poor, and blind, and naked. He is ready to give, or even to sell, so that conditions should be better. If they would not accept gift the Lord was prepared to sell. There is no other remedy for these matters but to turn to the Lord. He is ready to give, but if you prefer to buy, He is ready to sell. He counsels that you should buy from Him. There is no gain in going elsewhere; you must come to Him. You may go to this brother or that [p. 127] brother, which is right up to a point, but if you would be fully furnished with what is necessary you must come to Jesus, and if you are not ready to receive, He will sell, He is ready to give anything that is needed; He is ready to provide white raiment, eye-salve, and gold.
Well, now I take Martha and her village as representative of what I would like to convey. I take Martha to convey the thought of local conditions; It is a village and it is to be improved in Martha. The Lord comes three times to the village, in each of these Martha is seen. Martha received Him into her house the first time. On the first visit the Lord rebuked her, and of course this would be to improve her condition; on the second visit He instructs her, also to improve her condition; and on the third, He comes, and she shows the improvement. He sees the result of His dealings with her, indeed with all the family in Bethany. They were all right in relation to this visit — Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. The point is really the improvement in the conditions in Bethany, and that largely lay in what the Lord effected in Martha.
Bethany was a locality in which God had something. In each locality God would have something which He can call His own, as in Corinth; “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. He had in that wicked, gentile city that which He could call the assembly of God. In speaking thus, it may be added that we are fitted for the testimony down here, as well as for our eternal portion, according to the counsels of God. If He has set us in a town or city, we are to represent Him there. The heavens represent Him. They declare His glory and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. That is, they display God in that way; He made them for that purpose, and so He prepares us to represent Him in the place He has set us. So in our eternal portion everyone will be in [p. 128] his right place, and each fitted in relation to the others. We are all to be together, and we are to love one another. Ephesians shows that the saints in a locality have love, not only for the local saints, but for all the saints. God “has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”. A great thought is that we all go up together. Everything is with a purpose and there is not the slightest discrepancy in the result, but there should be something in the way of representation here, and also something that the Lord can come to, happily and freely. The Lord does come — not corporeally, of course, but in a spiritual way.
Now I take up Martha for this purpose. It is hard to leave out Mary, for they are always seen together. What the Lord says to one He says to both, we may say. They have the same advantage as regards ministry. Martha heard the same things as Mary, but the results are not the same. Mary began to be acceptable to the Lord earlier than Martha. She made a choice — Mary had chosen the good part. There is no evidence that Martha chose, she had no time, she was taken up with many things. Some are so busy that they do not choose what is divine at all. God also chooses; His sovereignty means that He chooses. He had made up His mind about us beforehand, as we learn in Romans 8; He foreknew us and “whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” Romans 8: 29, 30. In answer to that process the feature that He likes in us is definite action, and among the things He looks for is choice, making a choice. Perhaps some of you here have never thought of that. I do not say a general choice, but a choice in some detail, in some definite [p. 129] thing. Mary made a choice, and she was sitting down, enjoying and profiting by the thing she selected. It bore in the right direction, and the Lord likes that and commends it.
Well, Martha was cumbered about much serving. I may further say here that, in comparing the two sisters, Martha seems to have been the householder. We are not told the name of the village here: it is called “a certain village”; and Martha was the householder. She was, as it were, the leading brother in the meeting. She was the one that looked after things, and she would receive the Lord. She received Him into her house. Of course the leading brother will receive the Lord; but we have to bear in mind that the Lord is not here personally, so we have to receive Him through the brethren. Every leading brother would professedly make way for the Lord, but Martha did not treat her sister properly, nor did the treat the Lord properly, although she received Him. Our attitude to the Lord may be seen in the way we treat the brethren. She says to Him, “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me”. She implied that the Lord was not right; she rebuked Him. “Dost thou not care?” She is implying that He was negligent. She thought He would say, Mary, get up and do something. So the leading brother may be disappointed that he is not justified when the Lord comes in. The Lord does not come to justify him. He may bring up something that shows he is not just right; in fact, if I am expecting to be justified in anything I am sure to be disappointed. I knew of a brother who expected to be justified when a ministering brother, as we say, would come round, but the Lord disappointed that. It would do one more good to be condemned.
The Lord said, “Martha, Martha”. The Lord called her twice; this implies that she had acquired a certain place in the Lord’s mind, she was in His mind for blessing, and something will come in for her good. Her name is down for blessing — it may be through rebuffs, reproofs, knocks, but the list is there, and her name is on it for blessing. In Matthew 5 the disciples came to Jesus and He began with blessing for certain classes of people. God has blessing in His mind for certain classes of people, so Martha is marked out by being called twice by the Lord. She is coming into great things. The first thing to be noticed here in Luke is “a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha” — it is the idea of a locality and one responsible in it. The Spirit of God begins with Martha and not Mary.
Well I want to come on to John to show how the betterment came about. The village is never lost sight of. Take the city in which we are, since the time God began to work in it, it has never been lost sight of. God has in His mind every locality in which His people are, and He wants to improve what He has in it; not to improve the town, but to improve what is of Himself in it. That is always what is in God’s mind. David is the great example of this — he expressed to Nathan his desire to improve the divine circumstances here.
Well, John 11 keeps the village in mind, and Martha and Mary, and Lazarus. We do not get Lazarus in Luke, we do get a Lazarus but not this one. He is added in John, because if the circumstances for God in a town are to be improved, a brother and two sisters in it are better than two sisters only. This is a comfort to us in our day. So that if local conditions are to be improved, there will be personal addition; an increase in quantity as well as an increase in quality. What is needed generally is increase in quality. Increase in quantity without increase in quality is a doubtful advantage. We come to John and we find a certain man, Lazarus of [p. 131] Bethany, is sick. This sickness is not unto death, it is for the glory of God. It is a severe illness, it means death, but it is not unto death, that is, death is not the final end, but resurrection; for resurrection is where the glory of God is seen.
The first thing we get here is, “Now a certain man was sick ... Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha”. The town is emphasised again. Doubtless what is stated indicates the judicial ways of God with His people. His judicial dealings are always in accord with His love. Discipline is the result of God’s love, but, mark you, it was “for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it”, that this man lay sick.
The next thing I call attention to is verse 5: “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus”. Martha is mentioned first. At the beginning of the chapter Mary is clearly the principal one in the Lord’s mind. She is specially drawn attention to. “It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick” (verse 2). She has the chief place among the three. In the three mighty ones mentioned in connection with David, there is one that is greater than the others. Mary is the chief one here; you cannot alter that; but Mary is not my subject, it is Martha. The Lord has something in mind when He mentions Martha first. Mary is spiritual; she is never easily irritated. She is not mentioned in verse 5 except under the heading of sister. It is sometimes a good thing that a sister who is perhaps thought to be spiritual — and who indeed is spiritual — is not brought to notice, but Mary will not mind that, for she has plenty of capital. She is not petty, nor irritable because another is more noticed than she.
Now it is said that Jesus loved Martha, and when Jesus came (verse 21), Martha spoke to Him. I go on from that to point out what she needed in the way [p. 132] of instruction. She is, I may say, not very concerned about doctrine, and yet it is very necessary. Now, sisters — you will pardon me for saying it — are not generally interested in doctrine. They often ignore it sad to say, and are not concerned about it. Lydia was very attentive to doctrine. The Lord opened her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul, and, dear sisters, we all need to attend to the things spoken by Paul. Well now, Martha needed the doctrine and we cannot have good local conditions without good doctrine. When Jesus came, Martha said, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”.
The Lord could have kept him from dying, but Lazarus being dead enabled Him to open up what she needed to know. He would teach them much from it all, and, dear brethren and sisters, we are very deficient in teaching. We need to pay heed to the teaching of the apostles, particularly Paul: all the apostles’ writings of course, but especially Paul’s; Lydia listened to Paul. One from whom we have profited much said, ‘Do not forget John; but cleave to Paul’. Paul had the heavenly side of the truth, and he gives us the assembly.
Martha said, “But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee”, verse 22. That is, she knew He was a godly Man — perhaps, in her view, even more than Man; and she believed God could do for Him what He asked; but we shall never get on in our souls unless we have a clear grasp of the deity of our Lord. From this point of view Jesus needs not to ask, for He can do all Himself, and so He says to her, “Thy brother shall rise again”. How much could be put into that! She says, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day”. She was an orthodox Jewess, believing in a general resurrection, and some of us are like that, and thus practically on Jewish ground.
[p. 133] We may speak of what the brethren hold — which just means that you have an orthodox creed of your own. Jesus says, “Thy brother shall rise again”, and then He brings out that marvellous truth: “I am the resurrection and the life”. I am. What a word that was! Are we ready for the truth about the Son of God — ready for something fresh — ready to take in things now in a new and living way, our souls open for the truth about Christ? so that if a neighbour asks what you are going on with, you can say something definite and living that you have learnt about Christ. The Lord has in mind a betterment of conditions in the locality, so He makes this marvellous statement. Are we ready to take in something great now? He says, “I am the resurrection and the life”. Martha may have heard great things, but evidently she had not heard this before. The Lord works in a wonderful way. He allowed her brother to enter into death in order to open up to her what she needed. Further it says, “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die”. Put into the language of the first epistle to the Thessalonians that word just means what we have in chapter 4: 16: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first”. Then the further statement in John 11 that “whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die”, means what 1 Thessalonians 4: 17 teaches us, “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”. That is what happens when the Lord comes. Those that live shall be changed. As the apostle writes to the Roman believers, “He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you”. Romans 8: 11. Now, is Martha ready for all this? Are we ready for it?
Fifty years ago God brought up the great subject of eternal life. Of course, it had been taught from the outset, for it is, and ever will be, an outstanding feature of the truth. It is through it we have the victory. Here the Lord says, “I am the resurrection and the life”. The great truth is that He is the resurrection and the life. The opposers said that eternal life was a person and thus beclouded the truth, but in emphasising this great truth of eternal life, we are to make clear that it does not affect the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ it is not to affect in our minds the truth as to His deity. Scripture says, “He is the true God and eternal life”. He is it as Man. He is the eternal life but He is more, He is the true God. So He says to Martha “Believest thou this?” Just to make it a creed is to impair the truth. A living Person is it. How little we really believe! I often challenge myself before the Lord, as to whether I really believe the great facts of christianity. Do I really believe? Let us challenge ourselves. Do I really believe these great realities? Therein is the victory! No local conditions — political, social, or otherwise — can overcome me if I believe these things. Martha says, “Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world”. That is her faith, but why did she not wait for more? The Lord had not stopped. He will not break off as long as we are attentive. Still, she had taken in much of the great things the Lord had spoken to her. By going to Mary she shows clearly that her sister had a distinctive place with her.
So she calls Mary, and Mary went out and came where Jesus was. The Lord then commands the stone to be rolled away, and Martha said, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days”. Then the Lord said to her, “Said I not unto [p. 135] thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” When the stone had been rolled back Jesus “cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth”. She saw the loved one come forth. Think of that, that she should really see the glory! He came out in answer to the power of the voice of Christ, saying, “Lazarus, come forth”. Think of the glory involved! What a local brother he will be, and what a local sister Martha will be after such a sight!
That is all I have to say, except to point out that the Lord comes again to Bethany, and things in the family all fit. “Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment” (Chapter 12: 1 - 3). There is now a great change — a great improvement in the state of things. Indeed the scene is perfect from the divine point of view, except for Judas, who lifts up his voice against Mary. There is just the one jarring note, as Judas interrupts: “Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” And as Judas criticises Mary, we can understand how Martha would say, I am sorry I criticised Mary. How she would feel ashamed to think how she criticised Mary; she would own that Mary had been right all along. Thus, when Jesus came six days before the passover to Bethany, the conditions in the place were most pleasing to Him. Certainly, we may assume the Lord never enjoyed Bethany better before, and it can only be by [p. 136] improving conditions that there can be happy circumstances for God to come in. Chapter 12 shows that His object was reached; the glory shone, and they were all in the good of it, and they know what to do; Martha served; Lazarus sat at table with Jesus; and Mary anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair.