"SAYEST THOU THIS THING OF THYSELF ... ?"
“SAYEST THOU THIS THING OF THYSELF ... ?”
John 18:34; John 1:45; John 4:28,29; John 6:67 - 69; John 9:17
The gospel of John bears on the last days. This is stamped on it throughout, and so this answer or inquiry of the Lord from Pilate bears on our day too, in which much is given out that is heard from others: “Sayest thou this thing of thyself ... ?”. There is great light, thank God, and much writing — there is much to write about and there is much to speak about. John’s gospel fits in with this, for it says that if all the things which Jesus did were written, “even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written”; John 21:25 so that there is plenty of substance and plenty of matter too for conversation amongst the people of God. It is right surely that we should transmit to one another the things that we know, according to what marked earlier believers, of whom we read they “spake often one to another”; Malachi 3:16 indeed it is not only right and of God and profitable, but imperative that the saints should thus converse. I do not suppose there will be any writing or discourse in heaven, but there will be holy converse, and this holy conversation begins now on earth. We are made accustomed to it now as being of the family of God, for we speak often one to another. As of old, too, God has His part, for it is said, “He harkened and heard”, Malachi 3:16 and so God has delight in it.
The features of the new man which are delightful to Him appear, as the saints thus dwell together in holy conversation, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, and singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, and even speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. All these things are delightful to God but then dear brethren this [p. 66] inquiry by the Lord from Pilate bears much on our position as to what we say. Are we simply retailing what others have said? It is right, as I said, that there should be writings, for it is according to God; it is the next best thing to speaking, and if you cannot hear a person speak, the next best thing is to read what he says; and that is of God.
But then this inquiry of the Lord bears on us, as I have said, for it is not written as a mere item of historic interest. It is that; but God never confines Himself to mere historic records. The Bible is not history; so much could have been written that is left out, and therefore what is written has to be noted as of great value and as bearing upon us not in a historical way but in a moral way. If, as I said, books that could fill the world have not been written, how valuable must the one be that is written, though relatively small. Every word of it is pure gold, so to speak, whether spoken to a Roman governor, or to a Jewish high priest, to a thief on the cross, or to a Pharisee or a Sadducee. Every word recorded from the lips of Christ is pure gold tried in the fire. As the psalmist says, “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times”, Psalm 12:6. “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver”, Psalm 119:72.
And so this inquiry of the Lord refers to me in what I am saying to you now: “Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?”. The Lord would help Pilate. John’s account of His intercourse with Pilate shows very great consideration on the part of the Lord for the Roman governor. He recognised him in his official place, as being there of God. He says to him, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above”. John 19:11. The Lord says nothing at all to Herod, but He answered Pilate and spoke to Pilate — indeed said [p. 67] more to him than Pilate asked for. Pilate says, “Art thou a king then?”. Jesus answered, “Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth”. John 18:37. Had Pilate taken that in he would have seen that the Roman system was not according to God. The Caesars were not all born kings; they usually acquired the position. The divine thought is that the king is born, and the Lord would instruct Pilate; and it is written for us that we might understand kingship. And so the wise men said, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”. Matthew 2:2. They were in the mind of God.
But Pilate had asked Him, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” John 18:33 and the Lord says, “Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?”. Had I asked Mary Magdalene if she had said it of herself in calling Him Lord, or did someone tell her that, or did she hear Peter or John saying it: ‘No’, she would reply, ‘I did not hear Peter say that, or I may have heard him say it, but I have found it out in my own soul’. She had companied with the Lord, she had observed Him, she had come under His authority and influence, and so she had discovered that He was greater than David. And so also did the blind man outside Jericho, who said, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me”. Mark 10:47, Luke 18:38. Were someone to ask him, ‘Did Peter or John tell you that?’. ‘No’, he would say, ‘I know He is the Son of David’: that is, he said it of himself. It was the outcome of light in his own soul. And so with Nathanael — he said, “Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel”. John 1:49. It was the result of light. Where did the light come from? Direct from the Lord. The Lord had said, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee”. John 1:48 “Believest thou?” He believed. What did he believe? That He was the Son of God, that He was the King of Israel. Philip had spoken to him, but he did not tell him He [p. 68] was the Son of God, for as yet with Philip it was Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. Nathanael discovered it by light from the Lord; he had to do with the Lord. And so in many other instances. But what in regard of Pilate? Others told him of Jesus.
Now, beloved, you can see the bearing of this. You want to be able to say things of yourself, whether you speak to God, which every true believer does, or to others. The publican in Luke 18 first speaks to God, “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner”, Luke 18:13 and even that he said of himself. He was convicted. And so as you receive the Spirit you cry by the Spirit, “Abba, Father”. If you say no more, God is delighted with that. You are saying it of yourself, you are saying it as a result of light in your soul, you are saying it by the Spirit. There is power in it and unction, and there is refreshment in it for all who hear, but nevertheless you are saying it of yourself.
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, and so we cry, “Abba, Father”. So if you preach the gospel, what you say you are to say of yourself, as the apostle says, “I believed, and therefore have I spoken”. 2 Corinthians 4:13. When you believe, it is not what another brother says; it is a question of light in your soul in connection with God. You apprehend something — you apprehend God in Christ, you apprehend the significance of the death of Christ, and the cleansing value of His blood. “I believed”, the apostle says, “and therefore have I spoken”. It is what you apprehend on the principle of faith that you speak of yourself, and not more than that; and then if you speak to the Lord’s people (and I know well enough what a bearing this has on oneself) the exercise should be to speak of yourself, that is to say, to speak of what you believe — of what you apprehend in relation to God in Christ and what God is in Christ in relation to the saints. The gospel [p. 69] is what God is in Christ in relation to all men; the ministry of the new covenant is what God is in Christ in relation to His people; and the ministry of the mystery is what God is in Christ in relation to the assembly. We have to apprehend these things if we are to speak of them. And so this word comes in as a test, “Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?”. Everyone who speaks has to answer that question in his own soul as before God.
Now I want to show you in these scriptures I read examples of this, and I select Philip because I take him to be among the first, if not the very first of the examples, although I might have cited John the baptist, for he indeed is a sort of ideal of John the evangelist. He records certain features of the baptist that convey to one a divine idea of service. A man who in his ministry is approached by the leading religionists of the day, as in our time by such as the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Moderator of the Assembly in Edinburgh, or of the Methodist Conference, is greatly tested. It is as if all these combined were to send a message to one of us knowing that he is serving the Lord and make proposals to him as the leading servant of the day. Thus it was that these sent from Jerusalem messengers to John to ask him if he were the Christ. There was sufficient power in his ministry to enable him to assume that, and he would have been received and popularised. It was a tremendous test for him — a tremendous appeal to his pride, but he says, ‘No, I am not the Christ, or that prophet’. ‘Why!’ he says, “In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know ... the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose”. John 1:27.
In the presence of an invitation to become a great religious leader — the greatest of his day — to be taken in by the great religious centres of the world — to be acknowledged as such, John says, “No”. Then they inquire, “Who art thou?” “What sayest thou of thyself?”. He said, “I am the voice”. John 1:23 You [p. 70] see he had a true estimate of himself on the one hand, and on the other hand, a true estimate of Christ. These are features that will keep you balanced — a sense of the greatness of Christ and of your own nothingness — that without Him you can do nothing.
Well, that is John — as it says, “He confessed, and denied not”. John 1:20 John the baptist, as an ideal servant, brings Christ forward and he dismisses himself with these words, “He must increase, but I must decrease”; John 3:30 he disappears in that glorious confession.
But to refer to Philip. He had been found by the Lord, and he found Nathanael. He is not a baptist, he has as yet no special commission, but he has just been found by the Lord, and he would find another. We have thus in him a type of the young believer. If the Lord has found you, you have to find another. Finding is not a question of gift — of ministry, it is simply a question of finding, and so Philip finds Nathanael. It was his own movement — his own desire. And then he says to Nathanael, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”. John 1:45. It was just a young believer like many of you here. The Lord had found him; yet he knew something about the Old Testament. It is well that children should be taught to read the Old Testament, for when they come to serve the Lord it will prove of great value. When you are seeking to find another to bring him to Christ, the Old Testament scriptures will then be of great service to you in seeking to enlighten him.
Philip, therefore, is the ideal for a young christian, while John is the great ideal servant for an old christian, for it is when we are long on the way in service that our pride comes up and we wish to be something. Often when a man acquires a reputation,
[p. 71] he lives on it, and assumes that he should be heard now because he spoke with power some years ago. You have no title to be heard now simply on that ground, you are entitled to be heard only as you speak by the Spirit. John is the model for the old servants, but Philip is the model for the young.
The Lord had no sooner found Philip than he sets out to find Nathanael, and what he said to him was of himself. Philip speaks to Nathanael with beautiful intelligence, saying, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write”. John 1:45 Moses is worth listening to, and so are the prophets. You see thus how the Old Testament helps one in his testimony of Christ.
In chapter 4 there is another instance of one who spoke of herself — this time a woman. I have been thinking lately that we do not value the sisters sufficiently, nor do they themselves sufficiently value the place that they have with the Lord and the service that belongs to them. The New Testament abounds with evidence of the service that may be rendered by them. But then, too, a sister must speak as of herself; she has to speak from her own light and faith. This woman, it says, “left her waterpot”, which means that she had become spiritual. There was not the slightest reason why from the literal point of view she should not have taken that waterpot back full of water, but the fact that it is mentioned that she left it is to call attention to her spirituality. The Lord had said that the living water should become in her a fountain of water, and she had laid hold of the thought and so left her waterpot. I do not see that any sister can be of help unless she is spiritual. I do urge spirituality upon the sisters, and it is to the end that they might see the service that is available to them.
I would cite Deborah, a remarkable type of a woman whom God uses. She was the wife of Lapidoth,
[p. 72] which means that she was the wife of a man who had light. There is significance in that. Many of our sisters have husbands who have light, but they must not live on the light of their husbands or they will not be of any use in the service of God. Deborah dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah; that is to say, she had acquired spiritual victory on her own account. It was her own palm tree. She dwelt under that, and hence it says Israel came up to her for judgment. I am afraid of anyone acquiring a reputation so that people seek them out — they that are sought after and visited. I am afraid of that because the flesh can hardly stand it; yet it is possible, and with Deborah it was so. They came to her; there is no effort on her part to force things on people — they came to her. I think she is a model for every sister. She dwelt under her own palm tree and her spiritual power among the saints was recognised.
So this woman of Samaria had begun to be spiritual. She has left her waterpot and she went her way into the city and said to the men, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”. In this she shows that she had been in contact with Christ, she had heard Him, He had searched her, and she had judged herself.
One of the men might have said to her, ‘Someone told you that’. ‘No’, she says, ‘I have found it out for myself; He has told me all things that ever I did’. Is not that forcible testimony? It is so, and it is within the range of every sister here to tell simply and humbly what she has discovered in her own soul, and God will use it. The Holy Spirit tells us of four women, daughters of Philip, who prophesied. It does not say they were prophetesses but that they prophesied. If they bring God to your soul, what can you say? There was forcefulness in the words of this Samaritan woman and the men of the city were moved by it [p. 73] Now in chapter 6 Peter is a representative of those who minister the word. It is the only passage in this gospel, I may say, in which the official title or name is used. They are usually called disciples, here they are called “the twelve”. They are not called apostles in this gospel, but this is the nearest approach, and I think it is to call attention to those who are specially employed in ministry. In all that I have said about Philip and the woman of Samaria there is no question of gift at all, but now when you come to the twelve it is a question of gift. The Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?”. At the moment there was a great drift away from Christ. The spirituality of His ministry in this chapter turned many away. They could not accept what He was saying. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him”. Spiritual ministry is sure to antagonise carnal people, even professing believers.
Sometimes those who minister drift along with the people, but Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. He said this of himself. It is remarkable evidence of his apprehension of the Lord in relation to ministry. It is a question of the “words of life eternal”. He says, “To whom shall we go? thou hast words”. It is not here what is written, it is what Christ has. Peter was so in relationship with Him, so near to Him, that he was at the very foundation of things. He has the words; it is a question of what is livingly in Christ. It is a question of being at the source of everything. The Lord had the words. The question of eternal life has been a subject of debate among the people of God. What we get here is the solution — the words of it. Eternal life is not publicly manifested today, but the “words” convey the divine thought, and Peter recognises here that the Lord had them, and then he says, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. It is the past continuous tense. To have part in the ministry we must apprehend Christ in that character — the holy One of God. Ministry must be in holiness.
I turn now to the case in chapter 9 — the blind man. He above all others in this gospel illustrates what I am saying. He has been plied with questions and he gives his own account of the Lord. There is something said about him that is not said about any other in the same sense, that is, that he is “of age”. “That we may be no longer babes” Ephesians 4:14 is what I would say to young believers. This man is of age; he is grown up; he will answer for himself. You want to arrive at the state of soul in which you can answer for yourself, and then you will answer according to what you have found the Lord to be in the apprehension of your soul. “What dost thou say of him?”. He said, “He is a prophet”. He had discovered in his soul that much — that the Lord is a prophet, and then when pressed later, he says, “Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes”. If you want to know what I think of Him, He is of God, that is what I think of Him; and they cast him out. You may look out for that. But if you witness faithfully what you know of Christ, saying it of yourself, and are cast out, the Lord will find you. He found this man and made Himself known to him as the Son of God.
I felt the importance of this word on this occasion because, as I said, there is so much that is helpful to the Lord’s people in circulation, but while learning from what you read be sure that you get the thing in your soul, and do not speak of it because someone else has said it, but because you have received it on the principle of faith, and so have it as light in your own soul.