UNITY AND POWER
D A Burr
John 17:9-11, 20-23; 2 Samuel 23:13-17; Matthew 18:15-20
I have carried an exercise to speak to you about unity and power, and to relate them to the desires of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus has the most intense desires, which are the expression of His love. He desires the things that His love claims, and because He has a claim to them, He is jealous about them. Jealousy is not the same as envy. Envy is when I want something that belongs to somebody else, but jealousy is about what belongs to me, and especially about what I love; jealousy is especially awakened if my claim to what I love is either neglected or questioned by somebody else. Paul wrote to the saints at Corinth that he was jealous for them “with a jealousy which is of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”, 2 Cor.11:2. He served with an urgency and emphasis that was born of his understanding that they were the objects of Christ’s special love.
This passage in John 17 is a very striking one with much teaching in it, and I want to draw your attention to what the Lord Jesus said about the unity of His own. It is very striking that there are five references in this passage to the oneness of His own. There is one in the first section we read, and then He kept coming back to the matter in the later verses we read, that He desired that His own should be one. He made it clear that that desire was not only related to those whom He had kept in the Father’s name, whom He was about to leave, but was to encompass all believers; and therefore it encompasses ourselves. This chapter is a prayer, and we know that the Lord never failed to pray according to the will of God, as indeed we should not either. We can therefore reckon that the things which the Lord Jesus asked for in this prayer were according to the will of God. We learn from other scriptures that what the Lord Jesus was speaking about here touches what is at the very heart of the purpose of God. He was asking the Father to bring into practical manifestation, in the world that He was leaving, what had hitherto been kept in mystery, a secret that God had kept through ages and generations. Jesus asked for something the like of which had never been seen before, and will only ever be found in the company of His Christian disciples. Whatever their natural characteristics or origin or experience or temperament, He was asking that they should be one. Paul wrote of it, that there should be “a joint body”, Eph.3:6. Barriers that had hitherto existed in measure in God’s ways were to be removed, and something was to be established here which answers to the desires that the Lord Jesus expresses in His prayer, and at the same time fulfils a public testimony to the purpose and counsels of God.
Every single person covered by this prayer is covered by the Lord’s own desire that, when the Spirit came, they should be united to Him, and that this should lead to them having a bond with one another that united them together in a glorious vessel that would be His counterpart – His wife in testimony and His bride in the coming day of display. What a glorious and wonderful thing! The Lord Jesus did not say very much to the Father about any of that here, but He and the Father knew exactly what the Lord had in mind. This was something on which divine purpose and counsel had dwelt, no doubt, on many occasions. The truth of it is unfolded in the teaching we have in the epistles. The practice of it and the realisation of it were also manifested in the early days of the Christian company, as we read of it in the book of the Acts. I do not want to go further into the detail, but rather to point out how fundamental the Lord’s prayer in John 17 is in relation to the fulfilment in practical testimony of the purpose of God. That is what the Lord was asking for.
I want to say a word about what He asked for, and who He asked. He did not ask that the disciples might find it in their hearts to stick together. He did not ask that the disciples might find common ground on which they could form some kind of corporation here that unified the Christian testimony. What He asked for is only achievable in divine power, and the request He made is therefore that the Father Himself would act. He did not ask the Father if He would see that it was done, but that the Father would do it Himself. I only say that to draw attention to the greatness of what the Lord has in mind. It lies beyond the imagination – and beyond even the most well-meaning calculation of sincere believers – to achieve what the Lord Jesus has in mind, but there is Someone who can, and it is to that Person He appealed, His Father. How was He going to do it? The Lord Jesus spoke to the Father in the liberty of sonship about how it was going to be done. They were to be kept, He said, in the holy Father’s name. I wonder sometimes, when I am exercised about the unity of my brethren and my own part in that, how much that desire enters into my thoughts. But if this unity is to be realised or achieved – if it was ever to be realised or achieved – then it would be in the holy Father’s name. We might all agree that holiness is something that we are not as scrupulous about as we might be. We may be concerned with appearances, and will do a lot to maintain them. In the present circumstances in which we are, dare I say, we will do a lot to maintain the appearance of togetherness. But that is not what the Lord Jesus asked for here. He asked for something that would have to be secured by acknowledgment of and faithfulness to a holy Father’s name.
And then, the Lord Jesus goes on – again in the liberty of sonship – to explain to the Father, in the presence of His own, why He was asking for these things. He gave two reasons, and they are very precious. The first was that the world might know that the Father had sent Him. It might be thought that there were other ways in which He could have achieved that: a voice out of heaven, for example, or even the resurrection. But that is not what the Lord proposed here. He proposed that there would be a testimony to a world that was about to reject Him utterly, that the Father had indeed sent Him, that He was not an imposter, that He was the Father’s only Son sent to do the Father’s will, and to walk in the pathway of it and to accomplish His work. The testimony to that would rest, not simply in some general way in the beliefs and profession of His own, but in their unity together. Then He asked that the world might also know that the disciples were loved as Christ Himself is loved. We spoke in the reading about rewards. What a precious thing that is; that where unity exists among the people of God, there is to be a testimony to the nature and depth and strength of the Father’s love, and that it would be towards His own, found here together, in the same way as it had been towards Christ Himself.
How did the Father answer this prayer? I am assuming that everyone recognises that He did. The first answer to that question is that He sent the Holy Spirit. The Father did not move the matter out of divine hands. I think it is a very precious thing to see how important and crucial is the mission and the service of the Holy Spirit. We were speaking elsewhere about the part the Spirit plays in our being born anew. It is very easy to say I was affected by a preaching, or by something I read. But that was not something out of the blue. Something went on in your soul that was not entrusted to anyone other than the Holy Spirit of God. That is true of everyone here, and it is true of every believer. Everyone who has answered to the gospel, everyone who has put their faith in Christ, has been the object of the prior personal service of the Holy Spirit of God. Now think of the scale of that. Think of the millions who are the Lord’s. Think of the rate at which, even in this evil world, people are coming to Christ, largely unseen by us. It is all the personal work of the Holy Spirit of God. He also has this other mission as sent by the Father, to secure an answer to this prayer of the Lord Jesus. So, in meeting that request for unity, there was a manifestation of the power by which it can be secured. What a wonderful thing that is, that the Father has found in the Person of the Holy Spirit not only the means of securing unity – for we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body, that is how the great divine perception can be turned into practical reality – but the same Person by whom we are baptised into one body is Himself the power to maintain the unity thus created, so long as He is not grieved. What wonderful things these are!
Now there is another way in which the Father will answer this prayer. The Lord Jesus is coming in glory, and when He comes in glory, all His own will be with Him; as we sang (No 421); they will be together. There will not be a shade of variation. The world may scorn the state in which things are now, but it will not be able to scorn then. There will be no room for cynicism or sarcasm about the Christian profession in that day. It will be, as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, our gathering together to Him, “we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him”, 2 Thess.2:1. It is what the Lord Jesus had in mind in referring to those who would believe through the apostles’ word, “that they may be perfected into one”. A process has been going on over time, and when the time comes to unveil what the Spirit has been doing, it will be in a gathering together to Christ. The Lord Jesus will have His public answer to this prayer. The pentecostal days have already been a very wonderful manifestation of this prayer being answered. It says “the heart and soul of the multitude of those that had believed were one”, Acts 4:32. It was not simply that they met in one place, or they signed up to some common creed, but the heart and soul of the multitude were together. I think that is put in a way which emphasises their diversity. They were not all the same, but the multitude was as one, and the world was afraid. They could not deny this testimony to the truth and power of the ministry of Jesus. Here was something among His own, assembling together, and gathering out of the world in His absence in rejection, that was so united in such a new way, such an unprecedented way, that it was undeniable to the world. The world did not know about the prayer, but there was something that they saw which was an answer to this prayer. The company at first assembled from within the city of Jerusalem, with thousands of inhabitants of Jerusalem joining the Christian assembly in that city. Then the testimony spread to other parts of the country of Israel, and then beyond, and Jews and Greeks were formed into one. What Paul wrote of doctrinally actually happened, and its practical manifestation was in the way in which they cared for one another, the way in which they shared the teaching and experiences they had, and the way that they rejoiced in the addition of others in different places and of different kinds to themselves. It was a wonderful, unforgettable manifestation at that time which was in truth a display of what had lain hidden in the secret of the purpose of God until the Lord Jesus was on high, and this prayer that He made came to be answered.
Now, I have been speaking about the past, and the future, but what about now? It is easy to say that everything is broken up, believers no longer agree, the power might seem to have gone, and it does not seem possible now, in the day in which we are, to experience this kind of thing now. But if that is really what we think, then what we are saying in effect is that the deepest longings of the love of Christ will, for the time being, go unanswered. It does not seem to me that any lover of Christ could contemplate tolerating a situation like that. How could we? Especially as the power which God sent, which the Father sent, to bring it all to pass, is still here. There will be no new power to secure this in a coming day that could not be drawn on and experienced now. My impression is that we owe it to the Lord Jesus, not simply to stick together, or just to find some mutual common interest which binds us together, but to think about this prayer and the way the Father has chosen to answer it; then to apply ourselves in our exercises in fellowship with one another to see if it is possible, even in the limited conditions in which we are, that there could be some answer with which we might be associated to the deep and repeated longings of the heart of the Lord Jesus Himself.
This is something for which, as Paul wrote, He gave Himself. “Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered Himself up for it”, Eph 5:25. Think of the cynical comments of the high priest, who said that one should die for the people – and the inspired writer adds, “that he should also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad (John 11:52); then think of the great unifying power that there is in the death of the Lord Jesus, and what has flowed out from it. I believe the Lord Jesus would challenge our hearts. He would have those who serve to entreat for Christ. Is it possible to have unity among His people who know and have the light of His desires; is it possible, with the Spirit’s help, to express some answer to Him for His heart’s satisfaction? Is it possible? Do not let any of us say there is not the power for it. There might not be the power to hold the world enthralled as there was at the beginning. That is not the same thing as saying there is not the power to hold on to a unity among the people of God on the basis on which the Lord Jesus spoke of it here. It is the only power. We have a lot of associations with one another, family ties, and there are common interests that we have with people we walk with. We like doing things together, we enjoy one another’s company, and that is something that we can enjoy. The Lord Jesus, beloved, deserves more. He desired that every single one of us should commit ourselves to use the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to provide something that answers to His desires among us.
I come to this passage in Samuel. One of the things we say about the difficulties of the present time is that they are associated with the last days. We are very ready to agree with the apostle who said that the last days will be difficult (2 Tim.3:1), and we would agree that one of the most difficult things in the last days is to maintain unity. In a sense, the picture painted here is rather like the one we paint of the last days; David was in rejection, and the Philistines occupied Bethlehem. That is a bit like the public situation now. What is Philistine is indulgent; it is more interested in art and the expression of man’s mind, not necessarily in an uncouth way, but in a cultivated way, a civilised way, but it speaks of what blocks the access that Christ would have to what He most desires. That is like the public position in the last day. I could have read in Chronicles, but I read in Samuel because it gives us another way of looking at the last days: the last days are days of harvest, and what is the characteristic of the harvest if it is not gathering? Is that not the point of the harvest, to gather things in? Isaiah speaks of God as the gatherer of Israel (Isa.43:5). He is interested in the harvest. So it is one thing to have your eye on the difficulties – we might think that, as we have scripture for saying things are difficult, we should accept that. They were difficult days here, but there was a harvest. It was the time of harvest, and in the time of harvest you need people who have the spiritual desire and energy to gather, and in doing so to satisfy the longings of David. I suppose he had four hundred men with him. According to this scripture, he did not have the whole army of Israel at this stage, but he had four hundred men, and no doubt they were all around him in the cave of Adullam waiting for something to do. I expect most of them thought that the situation was too difficult; maybe if they could have had reinforcements, they might have thought of taking on the Philistines. But there were three men who did not think like that, just three. Could you be one of them? They are not named, are they? It often used to be said that, if names are not given in Scripture, one of the people could be me.
What gave them the power to do what they did? Two things gave them the power. One was that they wanted to satisfy the desires of David, and the other was that they were together. So whatever might be said about the others, here were three people in a broken day, when things were very difficult and dominated by the Philistines, who were united. Their unity was because of this, that at all costs, and sparing nothing, they would satisfy the expressed longings of David. It might have seemed likely that that they would be defeated by the Philistines, that they would not get anywhere, but they succeeded. Something gave them enough power, and there were two things that gave them that power. One was that – cost what it may and with no self-consideration whatsoever, they would satisfy the express longings of David; and the other was that they would do it in fellowship with one another. And, beloved, surely, we could do something like this? Surely we could satisfy the expressed longings of Christ. His prayer in John 17 was explicitly in the hearing of His disciples; it gives us His expressed longings. Even when the Philistines appear to have overrun what is for the heart of Christ, surely with the harvest upon us, it must be possible with divine resource alone, and out of love for Christ, to answer to those longings?
In Matthew 18 we could say we see such mighty men in action. We are not now talking about getting water from the well in Bethlehem; we are talking about a person who has offended. Sadly that happens and it is a terrible intrusion into the unity of which I have been speaking. It is something for which the person concerned would carry a very heavy responsibility for being the cause of such a thing. The Lord does not suggest that someone might have stumbled him or anything like that; he is presented as the occasion of this offence. It might be out of neglect or a failure to understand it, but the Lord contemplates one who – perhaps by his own selfishness – has intruded into something precious, the like of which there has never before been on earth for the heart of Christ.
So the Lord speaks of a brother who feels what is due to Christ, and who rises up to meet this matter, not by excluding the person immediately, but by seeking to gain him. What a work that is! How can it be done? The Spirit will give the power to do it, but the motive power is a deep conviction about what is due to the Lord Jesus in relation to the unity of His people with whom I am identified. The brother is first to go on his own to see if he cannot rally this person and have him come back into the company. He may succeed; what a happy thing that is. It is not easy, but he may succeed. But if he does not succeed, he is to draw in reinforcements, other people like himself. It is like these men who went down to the gate in Bethlehem; each of them was able to find other like-minded people who would come with them in their enterprise. Here this brother who has tried and failed is to bring in reinforcements, others like him, who agree on earth concerning this matter. How do they agree? You might say that they would agree the brother was wrong. Maybe they would. But they would agree that the desires of the heart of Christ must at all costs be righteously satisfied. That is what they must agree about, and they are then to go and see this brother together. And if they fail, then they are to bring in the greatest force that exists on earth for this purpose, the assembly of God itself.
The most powerful force to answer to and carry the interests and desires and claims of Christ on earth is engaged in this matter. You might think that the brother who has offended is insignificant. No, he is not. The whole assembly is brought into this matter to see if he can be gained. One of the memorable things I will carry all my life is the day I went to an assembly meeting for a brother who appeared to be quite recalcitrant. We waited on him for fifteen minutes without saying anything, and the brother was gained – not by the people who had been to see him, not by the people who spoke in the care meeting; but he was gained by the assembly. What a wonderful thing that is. He had a taste of the unity that he was on the very brink of giving up his part in.
Then the Lord said in Matthew 18, “Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter”. The Lord Jesus is not giving us carte blanche to have private party ideas about what is going to be done among the brethren; He was talking about people who can be trusted to act in His interests. He was talking about people who can be trusted to respect and honour and carry out His desires. He was talking about people like the mighty men, and He said that where such agree, as the mighty men had agreed, then the Father Himself will deal with the matter. In John 17, He put this matter into the hands of the Father. He does not exactly say that the Spirit will deal with it; He says the Father will deal with it. He says that it shall come to pass to you “from my Father who is in the heavens”.
I think it is a very touching thing, beloved. The Father is certainly engaged, very engaged, with the desires of the Lord Jesus, very engaged with the practical expression in the present time of the purpose of all eternity. Here the Father is presented as moving in relation to a practical matter of administration, not only so that the will of God might be done, but so that the heart of Christ should be satisfied. We often say that this is for a broken day. Maybe – it works in a broken day anyway; but it has been pointed out that these people to whom verse 20 is addressed might be the same people who took up the matter in the beginning. The two might be the brother who offended and the person who went at first to see him; or they might be the two who went to see him and failed; or they might be the two who went and the offender; or they might be the three who had tried to help him. The offender might not be included, but I would like to think he would be somehow. But there are three who started off with an offence for which a brother was responsible, and they end up gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. That is the kind of place to which the Lord Jesus loves to come. Beloved, surely He does not need to wait until all His own are together before He has the liberty to answer to the desire to come among His own?. And if He comes, surely He would expect to find among us some answer to His expressed longings and desires, even if the furnishing of that answer was at some cost to ourselves.
Well that is all I have to say, beloved. I commit the word to the Lord, in His Name.
Address at Glasgow
24 August 2013