THE DISCIPLES' POSITION REGULATED BY CHRIST'S
THE DISCIPLES’ POSITION REGULATED BY CHRIST’S
Matthew 5: 1 - 12; Matthew 8: 18 - 27; Matthew 14: 22 - 33
JT The strenuousness of the instruction is in mind in Matthew. Among other things, it requires that disciples should be regulated by the Lord in any position He takes up. In chapter 5 He goes up to the mountain, and, having sat down, His disciples come to Him; they move according to His movements and position. Then in the next scripture read, He entered into a ship and His disciples followed Him — that is, they move again as He moves. Finally, He compels the disciples to go on board a ship, as if He would keep the matter going; if we take up the attitude of being governed by His movements. He would exercise His authority to keep us on this line. The times are difficult, they are strenuous and perilous, and they are becoming increasingly so, so it is thought that the consideration of these scriptures would help us in pursuing as we began.
First, the Lord opened His mouth and taught, we are told. In chapter 5 the crowds were in mind, as if they were hindering, so He went up to a mountain. Again, in chapter 8, seeing the crowds, He commanded to depart; and He dismissed the crowds again, according to the third scripture read. So that throughout withdrawal from the crowds is contemplated. The special thoughts the Lord has in mind require the withdrawal from what might influence us adversely, for crowds such as are contemplated in Matthew are more or less indifferent — they may be interested or they may not. Certainly the influence of crowds does not promote spirituality, although we may have to serve in a crowd.
The first scripture indicates the gain of being governed by the Lord in His movements. So, having [p. 95] opened His mouth, He taught them — and it is all blessedness. He speaks of blessedness all the way down to verse 12 — nine times. That should be a very good start for us as showing the gain of being governed by the Lord’s movements. He begins with the poor in spirit, that they are blessed.
Ques What would be the evidence of being poor in spirit?
JT It would be that one finds no sustenance in what men find sustenance and enjoyment in. The Lord was supremely that — poor in spirit as regards the world. As poor in spirit you would not find sustenance in anything you have here.
JM What connection — do you make between discipleship and bondmanship?
JT They run together, but, in the former, teaching is the general thought. It is worth while; they are choosing the good part and the Lord is assuring them and confirming them in their choice, in coming to Him, in speaking of blessedness. He does not say they were all these things, but He comes to them at the end — “Blessed are ye when they may reproach and persecute you, and say every wicked thing against you, lying, for my sake”. They were persecuted — hence, “Blessed are ye ...”
CH Are these the features that are to mark us in the present aspect of the kingdom?
JT Yes; these are the qualities that are blessed. It points to the intrinsic features of the kingdom, and they cannot be overcome, because in the very worst that can be done to you there is blessedness.
Ques Is the thought, if we are to be divinely instructed, we are to be where He is, a moral position?
JT Quite so — here moral elevation.
CH Would David set forth one who was poor in spirit in a special way? He speaks of the poor man in the [p. 96] Psalms.
JT Yes, I was thinking of that very word; undoubtedly it is the Lord Himself in Psalm 41: “Blessed is he that understandeth the poor”. According to Luke 6: 20, the disciples were thus regarded as corresponding with Him.
Ques Would it be right to say that, if we are to be in the gain of bondmanship, discipleship is the way to it?
JT I think so. It refers to the mind a good deal. You come to Christ through the gospel and you see it is worth while; there is something in this, not simply relief for your soul, but something for your mind, and general outlook. Chapter 4, of course, is basic to this: how the Lord was in the wilderness, how He overcame the devil, how the light sprang up; and how He called two sets of brothers, how they moved at His call. Then the wonderful power there was in Him; He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom and healing every disease, and “his fame went out into the whole of Syria, and they brought to him all that were ill, suffering under various diseases and pains, and those possessed by demons, and lunatics, and paralytics; and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judaea, and beyond the Jordan”. Then He goes up into the mountain — that is an inkling to faith that there is something to be learnt in moral elevation, involving strenuous movement, for He has to go up the mountain, and His disciples come to Him. I think the Lord takes account of that; His disciples come to Him, and, having opened His mouth, He began to talk of blessedness. At the end He virtually says, You have part in this too, so that it is not something beyond us. It may be a matter of persecution, so that there is nothing for the flesh at all, no incentive at all; it is repulsive to fleshly feeling.
[p. 97] Ques Would the verses in Isaiah bear on this? — “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the report? Them that are weaned from the milk, withdrawn from the breasts? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little”, Isaiah 28: 9, 10.
JT Yes, in the sense of detailed instruction. The passage refers to teaching suitable to children, those in view being in a low, sottish condition; there was a testimony, “But they would not hear”, and it took a judicial form (verse 13).
FWW It is like Matthew 11. He first says, “Come to me”, and then, “learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”.
JT Just so, only here He is not calling attention to Himself yet. Later He says, “I say to you” — but here it is blessedness that He speaks of, and blessedness that attaches to certain qualities whoever has them. So, whatever you have in this sense He appraises it and encourages you in the sense that it is something of value.
Ques Would one’s spirit stand very much in the same relationship to discipleship, as the mind does to bondmanship? If your spirit is not pure you may turn away.
JT Yes, I think so. The spirit is the first-mentioned as part of the being — “your whole spirit, and soul, and body”, as if the spirit comes first. The mind is connected with bondmanship in Philippians 2. God had been working and the qualities mentioned here as occasioning blessing, are the fruit of His work. These qualities are honoured here; we all need to come into this blessedness. Maybe we are missing it through not taking sufficient account of the qualities that exist in us. Possibly there is a little more in us of the work of God than we had thought of,
[p. 98] and perhaps we do not rest enough in what God has done in us. The epistle to the Romans, being analytical, helps us as to these qualities, if we have any of them, for we may as well take account of them in their true value as the work of God. The mind and spirit are both called attention to in Romans, but the mind particularly — “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. I have found my feet through the analysis of Romans 7, and I am enabled to take account of what I have and to move on.
Ques Is that the spiritual mind?
JT The first thing is to see what the faculty is that God has given me. I am determined that I can employ it and dominate it and that it is to serve the law of God, not any other.
Rem Paul in Corinthians speaks of our having the mind of Christ.
JT The mind of Christ is a great thought, it is the thinking faculty. The mind is often used in a moral sense, but the faculty has to be taken account of by itself. Through analysis I come to see that I can employ it and dominate it, so that eventually I “prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.
CH Is that why the Lord says, “Blessed are ye ...” as though He would give them credit for being able to enter into the persecutions?
JT Yes. He puts it on you, that it is when you are persecuted — “Blessed are ye, when men shall ... persecute you”. Suffering in loyalty to Christ, you come into this blessedness.
Rem The persecution would come when you are setting forth these features that you have been taught.
JT Yes, “And all indeed who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”, 2 Timothy 3: [p. 99] 12.
EG It is remarkable that persecution should follow the thought of peace-makers being called the sons of God.
JT Quite so.
Ques Is the faculty of the mind referred to in Colossians 3: 2 — “have your mind on the things that are above”?
JT Just so, you have power over it. It is a great matter to reach that, that you have power over your mind.
‘No infant’s changing pleasure
Is like my wandering mind’, (51:2)
said a great servant. We all have to accept that, but it is a great thing to control the mind, to shut out certain things and allow other things.
JG You helped me greatly in your remark that we should keep control of our minds.
JT It is what is pointed out, I think, as to Abraham; he scared away the birds — those evil thoughts or powers that would damage him — spoil what he was doing.
The next point in the passage read in chapter 8, is the extension of the Lord’s authority. It says, “Jesus, seeing great crowds around him, commanded to depart to the other side”, for He was staying in a particular place. Spirituality wanes in such circumstances; even after meetings such as this, we are apt to speak of things that have no value at all spiritually. Holiday-making combined with the service of God is also fraught with danger. I am only saying this to be practical; we are apt to lose what we have gained unless we are on the alert, and the Lord sees this and commands to go to the other side, to take up another position, a new set of exercises. That is, you never can relax spiritually without letting the enemy have an advantage, and he will rob you of what you have gained. So “seeing great crowds around him” — that would emphasise more what [p. 100] we are saying, they are around Him. He had done what He intended to do in the place, that was finished; we are told, “when the evening was come, they brought to him many possessed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were ill” — that work is finished. The Lord has something else now to take on — He commanded to depart to the other side. And then we have two men: the first says, “Teacher, I will follow thee whithersoever thou mayest go”, that is, I am not behind any of the disciples. “And Jesus says to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven roosting-places; but the Son of man has not where he may lay his head”. That is, one may think he is quite up to the mark; but the Lord will give you further tests; He has not where to lay His head — are you ready for that? Then another says, “Lord, suffer me first to go away and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead”. These are two remarkable tests at this point. The second request seems very reasonable, but these reasonable things brought into christianity are dangerous. This man who speaks as not behind any disciple illustrates how we may be affected by ministry. All he had to do was to act on the Lord’s command to go to the other side; that is the moral position, it is a question now of doing what the Lord would have us do. Great services are being carried on; the Lord is doing things in pieces and He has finished this bit, now He is preparing for the next. If you have not got this in your mind, the enemy will get in. We must not let our minds be at a loose end.
FI So Peter exhorts us to gird up the loins of our minds.
JT Quite so.
Ques Will you say again what you said as to the first man saying, “I will follow thee”?
JT Well, he was taking the ground that he is not behind anyone; he said, “Teacher, I will follow thee whithersoever thou mayest go”. That was the ground he was taking. The Lord’s answer would show that he was saying a little too much.
Ques Would all this suggest self-complacency and self-importance, and an absence of definiteness, which would be great hindrances to discipleship?
JT That is part of the teaching. The Lord is very considerate of us, and He knows what is behind what we say better than ourselves. It is a serious undertaking, for the point is discipleship, that you are in accord with the Lord, that wherever He goes, you will go.
Rem So the man in verse 19 was marked by self-confidence, and the other by a lack of definiteness.
JT “Suffer me first to go away and bury my father” was a demand of nature, but the urgency of discipleship excluded even this, and the Lord, as sacrificing everything, must be the Judge.
JM In the third case, Luke 9, we have one who wanted to return to say good-bye to his people.
JT Yes. These two incidents in Matthew suffice for the teaching in view. The Lord went into the ship and His disciples — the characteristic ones — followed Him. You want to be there, making no remarks about it; the point is to follow.
CH Are these adjustments necessary to us if we are to be the true followers?
JT I think so, you feel how they challenge the heart; you want to be really what the teaching requires — a disciple.
CH Is it peculiar to most of us, too much forwardness or too much backwardness?
JT Yes. His disciples followed Him, and the passage says, “the water became very agitated on [p. 102] the sea, so that the ship was covered by the waves; but he slept”.
Ques Would you say that would be normal christianity today — following the Lord in faith?
JT That is the thing — do it, it is the doing of the thing. So Acts 1 says, “things which Jesus began both to do and to teach”. Then our scripture says, “having arisen, he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men were astonished, saying, What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” The point is, what we learn and what all in the ship get, as a result of a move like this. The men in the ship are learning. The word “men” is not the same as the word “disciples”. The men in the ship are brought into the matter. The effect of the testimony is widening; those who are in the testimony of God ought never to be narrowed up, there ought always to be some widening out of things. Even if people are not sharing in the thing fully, they are affected; all that are around us ought to be affected by what is happening if true discipleship marks us.
Ques Are those referred to here especially those that came by the way?
JT That is it; then the thought arises that disciples are made (Matthew 28: 19).
AWR Would this be a test for us in the midst of the present political situation in the world? At the present moment there seem to be storms arising, and disciples are tested.
JT Quite so, and there should be more than we began with coming out; a continual enlargement of thought, even if numbers are not increased. People who come in contact with true disciples are affected, that is the idea, there is a testimony going on. You would say that?
[p. 103] Rem Yes, indeed. I was thinking a disciple would not be very serviceable if he cannot go on when the Lord seems to be asleep.
JT Just so; disciples should know that all is well. “The Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine”, Psalm 78: 65. In Samuel’s day the ark was taken, the glory departed, they were being tested, and no doubt Samuel’s constitution was being built up, as many others in those days, and God came in, He “awoke”, He thundered on the Philistines and discomfited them, but the men of Israel completed the work, pursuing the enemy beyond Beth-car. Here the men in the ship inquire, “What sort of man is this?” It is a new kind of man and that is what is needed — a new kind of man to carry on. He had commanded to go to the other side.
Rem The experience of the disciples in Matthew 8 and the result of it, as stated in verse 27, would correspond with the exercises set out in Psalm 44: 22 - 26 and Psalm 45: 2, “But for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, Lord? ...” The discipline goes on, and God appears to be asleep; but the cry goes out from the heart to wake Him. The result is in the experience detailed in Psalm 45 — an intelligent apprehension and appreciation of Christ and of the assembly; also ability to speak of it.
SR Is the thought that we should be restful in circumstances out of our control? The disciple is not above his master, but as his master.
JT I think so. And knowing the Lord, I expect Him to come into any stormy circumstances I may be experiencing. I have learnt the Lord in that way, and I am expecting Him to come in and quell the storm; and He does that, even in regard of international [p. 104] commotions, as we look to Him. The Lord comes in. He comes in and makes a way for us.
CH Is this not a good exercise developed in the men — “What sort of man is this?”
JT I thought that. The apprehension of a new kind of Man sprang up in these men — at least that is the opportunity for them.
CH Do we not get occupied much with ourselves, but the exercise is, What this Man is?
JT Yes, so you are now occupied with Him. In chapter 14: 33, as we shall see later, “those in the ship came and did homage to him, saying, Truly thou art God’s Son”.
GCS Walking on the sea is moral superiority to it.
JT Yes; superiority to circumstances effected by the devil. We are living in difficult times, and they are becoming more and more so. Chapter 14 contemplates a troubled sea, yet the Lord walking on it.
JM Will you help us as to what the disciples represent as having been compelled to enter a ship and go over, and the Lord remaining to dismiss the crowds?
JT This is introductory to the assembly, in connection with which the Lord specially undertakes for us. Sometimes the crowds are attractive; it says, there were five thousand men, besides women and children — a large number. I suppose we should take that to heart, for we are apt to attach importance to big meetings, and the like; “immediately”, the passage says, “he compelled the disciples to go on board ship, and to go on before him to the other side, until he should have dismissed the crowds. And having dismissed the crowds, he went up into the mountain apart to pray”. That is, He performed two services; He dismissed the crowds, which would mean that out of crowds of people evil might rise — even if people have been ministered to by Christ — [p. 105] if they do not remain under His control, evil may arise. Stress is laid on the dismissing of the crowd: and then He went up to pray. He could pray below, but He goes up to pray, alluding, I suppose, to His position above now in relation to the assembly.
FI So that we might rise to the height of His greatness in being able to speak of Him as Son of God.
JT That is the lesson here. It is “those in the ship” — they are not called “men” here as in chapter 8 — they say to the Lord, “Truly thou art God’s Son”.
Ques Would similar features be seen in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego? They were in the fire, and there was one like the Son of God there.
JT Just so — “the fourth”. Here the disciples were “tossed by the waves” — corresponding somewhat with the position in the furnace. The Lord joined them, walking on the sea, and He joined those in the furnace.
CM Is the little ship a wrong place for us now, or do the two thoughts go on together?
JT I suppose the ship was the Jewish position, and then there is the leading up to assembly position. The circumstances are not to be altered. Then they rejoin the ship, which would point to the end of the assembly period, I suppose. Those in the ship spoke to the Lord and told Him that He was the Son of God. That is remarkable; I am sure the Lord loves to hear such a confession as that from us — not simply that the disciples do it, but the people in the ship do it — there is a widening thought. The Lord had put them into this position for their education. We need to be subject to the Lord. He has the very best thing in mind for us, that we are going to have part in the assembly.
WB What answers to the troubling of the sea today?
[p. 106] JT Well, it is what the enemy would cause as against the saints as in the position indicated.
Rem This is not a sudden squall; such a wind is blowing all the time. There are occasions when special occurrences happen, of course.
JT “The wind was contrary”, which is to be expected. As we are placed in any position or circumstance by the Lord, the enemy will oppose.
Ques Verse 32 says, “When they had gone up into the ship, the wind fell”. What would that suggest?
JT Well, these adverse circumstances will come to an end. But the Lord walking on the water is in complete superiority to these adverse circumstances, and the assembly was to join Him there, as seen in Peter. This is the great lesson here.
AWR Until we arrive at the knowledge that He is God’s Son and are in the light of His present position, are we not liable to regard this as an apparition?
JT Yes. This idea of phantom belongs to the realm of superstition. This is education for the assembly now, as I said, but the position of the remnant is also in mind. Then the homage to the Lord — it is a very great matter that people come to speak of the Lord Himself and call Him the Son of God. The Lord in compelling them to enter the boat, had all this wonderful experience and education in mind. It was entirely His own thought. The boat represents a known accommodation in adverse conditions of the testimony, but walking on the water is a wholly new experience and depends on faith as apprehending Christ. Peter says, “Lord, if it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters”. His faith was weak, but he moved to Christ under this command.