THE INFLUENCE OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE
THE INFLUENCE OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE
I have sometimes thought that one cannot rightly understand the assembly if one does not apprehend what the Lord was in the midst of His disciples when here upon earth. I suppose that is the key to the truth of the assembly. The idea which I would express is found in a verse which occurs in the early part of this chapter, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth”. That is, the moment you get the thought of the Word become flesh, of a divine Person having come into the estate of man, another truth comes out, He “dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth”. Here we have, in principle, the beginning of the assembly, for it teaches this great and important lesson, that the pleasure of a divine Person was to dwell among men. He was among them full of grace and truth, and if full there was nothing else there. If you do not see this you will hardly understand the truth of the assembly.
The company in which Christ is pleased to be is not yet in heaven, it is still upon earth. You find that presented in Psalm 22. We have the Lord there in resurrection, and He says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. That is not in heaven clearly. The passage refers to the place which Christ took in resurrection here upon the earth. We get it fulfilled in John 20, where in resurrection His pleasure was to come into the company of His own. He first sends them a testimony by Mary Magdalene, which proves that He is risen from the dead, and when they are gathered together He takes His place among them and says, “Peace be unto you”, and then He assures them in showing them His hands and His side; and [p. 445] His disciples were glad when the saw the Lord. The same thing takes place with us in the Lord’s supper. By the symbols of the bread and wine the Lord brings before us the record of His death, and in the appreciation of His death He is identified to us, the effect being that we are glad when we see the Lord.
The beginning of all this was when Christ came here to earth, and it was that thought which led me to take up this passage. My first point is to call your attention to the contrast between John the baptist and his disciples. I judge that John the baptist represented the old, and the disciples of John the new, and it is very important to observe the distinction; each is perfect in its place. The new has its character and so has the old, but the character of the new is much more blessed than that of the old. You get this indicated in an expression of the Lord Himself. He speaks of the law and the prophets having been until John, and of there being none greater than John, but adds, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Those that went before were not to be made perfect without us; God had provided some better thing for us, as we read in Hebrews 11. That chapter brings before us the different testimonies to faith, but we have come into better things; we have come into the new, while at the same time we have the good of the old.
In regard to the subject before us, I said that John the baptist represented the old, and the disciples who followed Jesus the new. This is seen in that John, in a sense, stands in the distance; he never dwells with Jesus, although he is in relation to Him. John had his place, and that was that he pointed to Jesus. He was the termination of the prophetic line; he was the greatest and last of the prophets, and all that line pointed to Jesus. John testifies, “Behold the Lamb of God”. He came on that line pointing to Jesus, and announcing the kingdom as at hand.
[p. 446] Had there been in that day souls who were really instructed in the prophetic testimony they would have recognised Christ when He came. Jesus came according to the testimony of prophecy. Now, though John the baptist was a voice preparing for Christ, we do not read of John being in the intimate company of Christ. You get a beautiful witness of John a little later on in chapter 3: 25 - 32. I refer to that passage because it is a pretty clear intimation on the part of John himself as to the place which he had. He is not the bridegroom. This is equivalent to saying that he had no title to the bride. But he is a friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth His voice. He had been sent in the way of testimony, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness; Prepare ye the way of the Lord”. Subsequently he is cast into prison and sends disciples to Jesus to ask the question, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” His faith was in a measure obscured in prison, but the Lord vindicates John and challenges the people in regard to him. John was a child of wisdom. Others, too, were children of wisdom, but he was one. He came in the way of mourning, and the people did not lament; Christ came in the way of piping, and they did not dance. People were not responsive to the one or the other. I want now to speak on the contrast to all that.
I have said that when a divine Person comes down here He finds His pleasure in dwelling among men. The disciples of John the baptist leave John for Christ, and rightly so, too, because it proved that they were affected by the witness of John. They were not going to set John the baptist against Christ, and anyone who is affected by the testimony of Scripture will surely give to Christ His true place. He will recognise that Christ must have the one place, and that there cannot be any competitor, neither husband nor wife, nor children nor parents, nor anything. Christ is to [p. 447] have not only the first place, but the one place.
In the case of the two disciples who left John, his testimony had done its work, and now they get a word from the Lord, who says, “What seek ye?” They say, “Where dwellest thou?” and He answers, “Come and see”. Jesus thus encourages them. You never really know a person until you see him at home. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day. This brings out the pleasure of a divine Person in the company of men. It was the beginning of what is said in the earlier part of the chapter, He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. It is not a question here of what He taught them, but rather of His attitude toward them. The disciples got support from Him, for they had to encounter opposition on the part of all around; but, at the same time, they had also all the light that was in Christ; He was full of truth. He was the perfect expression of God among them; all that could be known of God was seen and heard in Him. He was the fulfilment of law and prophets, and His presence had the most profound effect upon those around Him. They had the consciousness at least of what His attitude was toward them.
There would not be much difficulty in dwelling in the company of a person full of grace and truth. No doubt it made the disciples often ashamed of themselves, and the same thing would be true as to us, for we find so little grace in ourselves. There was not simply grace, but also fulness of truth. I understand by truth all that may be known of God.
Now I think in all this you get an idea of the church, and, as I said before, if there be a company to which Christ comes, that company is on earth. In John 14 the Lord speaks of sending another Comforter, but He says also, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you”. He would come to them on earth. The Holy Spirit has come to conduct us in a sense to Christ, but Christ says, “I will come to you”. Christ is in heaven, but His heart is here on earth. He is the High Priest at the right hand of God, but His priestly service is for those who are on earth. Our part now is to be in accord with Him, not learning the heavenly song, but knowing it. He is not ashamed to call us brethren, for the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one.
The beginning of this morally was when Christ came to earth. He separated Himself from His kindred after the flesh, but He found His pleasure in the company of those who had been drawn to Him of the Father. The two disciples are led by the testimony of John the baptist to Christ, but the real secret of their coming was that they were drawn of the Father. Christ was the first to become a true centre on earth. John had no title to be a centre, but in connection with Christ there was the activity of the Father. He was drawing to Christ, the divine centre, and Christ loved those who were drawn to Him of the Father and kept them. At the close of His life (John 17) He says, “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled”.
The disciples of John were wise to follow Christ. John might lead them to a certain point, but not beyond. Prophetic testimony may lead some way, but only to a point. Those who make prophecy a speciality never get on very far. They profess to know a good deal about it, but in truth know very little. The place of prophecy is that of a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts; 2 Peter 1. If the day-star has arisen in the heart, then we have come to the limit of prophecy. The more you know of Christ in glory and of all that God has accomplished there for Himself, the more readily will you understand prophecy. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”. Thus we [p. 449] have the spirit, and not simply the letter of prophecy. Then the great point is to follow Christ. And can you conceive that the Lord has pleasure in the company of men such as came to Him? It is exactly what He had.
I pass on to verses 40 - 42. Here we have clear proof of how much Andrew had been affected by the presence of Jesus. You are often held by an influence that you cannot very well explain. I have known that in regard to saints that I have come in contact with; they were beyond me spiritually. And I would give you a word of advice: seek company spiritually above you. You will be affected by the influence of it. You see the effect on Andrew. Andrew could not have told you much about Christ, but he finds his own brother Simon. He does not tell him much about Christ, but he does something better, he brings him to Christ. That is the best thing which Andrew could have done.
Now Christ is sovereign, and that comes out here in giving to Simon a name; the change of a name on the part of God is always a point of significance. I can make that plain from Scripture. God changed Abram’s name, and it was at the same time that God revealed to Abraham His own name. If God reveals a name of His own it forms the basis of relationship with God. God made Himself known to Abraham as Almighty, and that became the basis of Abraham’s relationship with God. God changed Abram’s name, and the name given indicated what God intended to set forth in Abraham. Simon received another name. The name Peter indicated what was to be set forth in him. It was premonitory of what occurred in Matthew 16. There the name is in connection with the Father’s revelation to Peter. He was a stone for the building which Christ was to build. “On this rock” [the confession of Himself as Son of the living God] “I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. But even at the outset we have brought out in a way everything which was to be established in connection with Christ. God’s centre was here, and everything was to connect itself with that centre.
Now in verses 43 - 51 we come to what is old. You remember the Lord says in Matthew 13, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old”. The association of the disciples with Jesus, and the name given to Peter, refer to things which were new. In Nathanael we have the old things taken up, but the new things have precedence. You get the same principle in Matthew 13. The parable of the pearl gives what is new; and it is, I suppose, in connection with it that the Lord speaks of things “new and old”. Before the old things are taken up the new are introduced. We might, in one sense, reverse the Bible, and put the New Testament before the Old. It has been pointed out that the platform of the New Testament is infinitely greater than that of the Old. The platform of the Old Testament is the world and God’s government; the platform of the New is eternity. The New brings to light what was eternally in the mind of God, and in this connection the Lord changes Simon’s name to Peter; and then in connection with Nathanael we see the establishment of what was old.
Nathanael is a type of the godly remnant of Israel, and the Lord recognised him as such. Jesus says, “When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee”. Why was he a man without guile? No doubt because he had made a clean breast with God; that is a man without guile. Nathanael confessed Christ according to the truth of Psalm 2. He says, “Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel”. There are two lights in which Christ is presented in Psalm 2, “His anointed”, and “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”. Nathanael recognised that the subject of that psalm was there.
Then the Lord points on to the fulfilling of Psalm 8 and says, “Thou shalt see greater things than these ... heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man”. The angels attendant upon the Son of man here upon earth, and communication established between heaven and earth in the Person of the Son of man. Thus Psalm 8 is greater, because it contemplates the complete putting down of the whole power of evil. The Son of man is crowned with glory and honour and all things put under His feet. The moment man took a place, in the Person of the Son of God, at God’s right hand, Satan was in principle cast out, not literally, but morally. “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out”. The divine answer to Satan’s work is this, that man is to have a place in heaven, and Satan is to be cast out. When the church is in heaven Satan will be cast out of heaven. The rights of the Son of man are in abeyance at present, but soon all things will be put under His feet, and then the angels of God will be seen ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
The next chapter brings in the consummation. The marriage scene points on to the restoration of relations between Jehovah and His earthly people. The effect will be the water of purification turned into the wine of joy.
That brings before us the truth of the great centre here, and that wherever Christ came He exercised the most profound influence, even in the presence of His enemies. The officers who were sent to take Him were compelled to say, “Never man spake like this man”. If the Jews would condemn Him, He confounded them; and we find at the close of the gospels that when they tried to trip Christ up He had the last word. That is always so in God’s ways with men, He will [p. 452] have the last word. Wherever Christ is, with friends or foes, He is bound to exercise the most profound influence. He did so with Peter and with Nathanael, and it was because the light of God was there. The fulness of the Godhead was there in Him, and that is the secret of the profound influence which He exercised.
The church has now all the gain of this. It is the pleasure of Christ to instruct His people so that they should be with Him in the confidence of perfect love; that He may lead our souls on in the knowledge of divine goodness. He would have us built up in all divine intelligence and in love. The apostle prayed in Ephesians 3 that we might be strengthened by God’s Spirit in the inner man, that the Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; and what for? “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”. Filled with divine intelligence to apprehend the whole range of divine counsel and glory.
I say one word more: if Christ is in presence, and that is the privilege of the assembly, you may depend upon it He will exercise a profound influence, and no voice will be heard except His. His voice excludes every other voice. It is a great thing to know where He abides, and what His pleasure would set forth in His people, the name that He has put upon us. I would say that name is His own name. I know no other name except that of Christ. The church is His body, and the idea of the body is that in it the intelligence of the Person is set forth.
May the Lord grant that we may be better acquainted with the influence of Christ, and see that He is the centre and head of everything; that we apprehend [p. 453] the new things, and see that the new things have not put the old things out of sight. We look forward to the complete subjugation of evil, and the heaven open, and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.