THE LIVING ONE
David A Brown
I had an impression as to Christ being the Living One. We sang hymn 151 at the beginning of our occasion together and verse 4 begins with:
Our Lord, our Life.
As I sang that hymn and these words, the challenge arose in my affections, ‘Is Christ really my life’? Is this glorious Man that we have read of in Luke and Revelation merely a historical Person, or has He a living influence and a living impact in and on my life?
You think of how the Lord Jesus came in as a blessed Man. It says at the beginning of John’s gospel, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, chap 1: 4. He was the true Light and He came in amidst the darkness and it says, “and the darkness apprehended it not”, v 5. The Light of God was shining in a blessed Man and that light became life to those who received it. I have been thinking recently as to this matter of what and who we receive. Have we really received the Lord Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives to make the things that we believe in real? Or are divine things merely held as head knowledge with us? Is Christ a living Man to us and is He the One who fills our gaze?
These women whom I have read of in Luke 24 were real believers but they had forgotten what had been said to them by the Lord Jesus.. They came bearing aromatic spices to embalm the Lord Jesus. They expected to see a dead Man in the tomb. But the Lord Jesus is a glorious living Person and it is my desire that He might fill our souls with His life. It speaks in scripture (Eph 4: 18) of those who are “estranged from the life of God”. Christ brings the life of God into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. May we all breathe in the atmosphere of heaven and be living witnesses to the blessed truth of what we believe.
We have already heard tonight about the reality of Christianity being expressed so that we might be a witness by the Spirit to the living character of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read on Lord’s day in John 15 where the Lord Jesus is speaking as to the Comforter coming “whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father, he shall bear witness concerning me”, v 26. How was that going to be achieved? That was not just for the disciples but would also go forward into our day. We are to witness to a glorified, risen and living One through the power of the Holy Spirit. Are we indeed witnesses? Are we able to express our living appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives?
These women came with aromatic spices which they had prepared beforehand and found the stone rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. When they entered the tomb “they found not the body of the Lord Jesus” but “two men suddenly stood by them in shining raiment”. What a witness they rendered to the fact that Christ was no longer there. He had broken the power of death and had risen as a glorified and blessed Man. He had risen up from that grave! Believe in a glorious Man who is greater than the power of death! It says that He “has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility”, 2 Tim 1: 10. . That is the blessed Man I believe in!
Do you believe in the truth of a living Man, a Man who is here for us? How true are the words which we sung?
Our Lord, our Life, our Rest, our Shield,
Our Rock, Our Food, our Light.
Think of all these wonderful descriptions of the blessed Lord Jesus. What does He mean to you? The scripture says, “And as they were filled with fear … they said to them, Why seek ye the living one among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke to you, being yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise the third day”. That is quite a test to me. The women forgot this important message that He must rise the third day. So the Spirit brings the currency of the speaking of heaven into our souls as we are together at a time like this. He would bring impressions into our minds and into our affections. When the Lord Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit came here and indwelt human vessels. That is a wonderful matter to consider. He indwells the assembly and He communicates what is transpiring in heaven into human hearts such as we are here in this room tonight. May we live in the vitality and the living character of what is proceeding in heaven, through the power of the blessed Holy Spirit.
In Revelation, John is on the isle of Patmos and he is all alone there. Some might think it a time for despondency or for depression or for becoming overcome with circumstances. What does the scripture say? “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”, Rev. 1:10. What an overcomer John was. I believe he was an overcomer because he was one who knew the preciousness of the love of the Lord Jesus personally. John knew what it was to lean on His bosom and here he is in one sense in these circumstances. I am aware it is in a judicial setting because of the way it speaks of the Lord in “a garment reaching to the feet”, and so on, v 13. But I think there is something special about verses 17 and 18 in this chapter. “And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead”. No wonder he fell at his feet as dead because he was not used to seeing the Lord in this way. “And he laid his right hand upon me”: that is the right hand of power. We have already spoken about the touch of the Lord Jesus and it is a wonderful thing to experience the personal touch of Christ in your life. John would never forget this experience with the Lord and it would colour his ministry; it would colour his writing. And it also gives a vitality and a spiritual energy and vigour to this Revelation which he wrote, the Revelation of John. How wonderful it is. It says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last”. So the Lord would say, “Fear not”.
Circumstances might be against us. The Lord would come in and put His hand upon us and say, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one”. Is that not a wonderful comfort to the soul? He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what is going to happen. He knows exactly what our course is going to be. How wonderful it is, therefore, just to commit ourselves into the hand of the Lord Jesus. Commit ourselves to that One who is “the first and the last, and the living one”.
John fell at his feet as dead. How he must have been totally overwhelmed by the situation that he was in and yet the Lord puts His hand on him and says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one”. What a transition, the transfer of living power from that blessed One into John. The Lord Jesus says, “I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages”. He does not say, ‘I died’, or ‘Behold, I die’, but “I became dead”. That shows the power of the Lord Jesus, my Saviour and your Saviour, over the power of Satan and over the power of death.
There are many persons who are going through difficult circumstances, difficulties in health and so on. We hear of them and pray for them regularly and I would say as a comfort for them: “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages”. I was thinking of Joseph and how he worked in order that he might come near his brethren and impart to them something of the life that was in him as speaking characteristically of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord would come near to us and impart His own personal touch in life. John would be a witness to this experience that he had. The Spirit would enable us to witness for Him as we are not to be persons who keep things to ourselves. I think it is good when we can express the characteristics of the One in whom we believe, a witness here in this dark world to what Christ has done for us. And then He says, “and have the keys of death and of hades”. He has the power over everything that Satan can contrive.
In our quieter moments, how wonderful it is just to go in and sit in the presence of Jesus. To sit in His presence and to learn from Him. Ask Him to impart to your soul something of His glory and love and of His knowledge of the Father. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a greater impression of that One who fills and adorns heaven. These things are very real and important in our lives so that we are maintained as witnessing for Christ. The need is for faithfulness. I think John was one who was faithful; faithful to the end. He was a reserve man. Mr J N Darby said we must cleave to Paul but not forget John, see eg JT vol 78 p389. John was a family man and expressed life; therefore you could write across John’s gospel ‘The Living One’.
What does scripture say at the end of John’s gospel: “but these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing ye might have life in his name”, chap 20: 31. How true that is: we might have life in the name of the Lord Jesus. I think John writes with life in mind, that we might be imbued with the heavenly life that our brothers have been speaking about.
May these things be for the encouragement of every soul in this room for His Name’s sake.
Word in ministry meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland
11th February 2025