EXPANSION

EXPANSION

J. S. Ephgrave John 4: 19 - 24; John 20: 14 - 18; Revelation 3: 12 - 13; Revelation 21: 5 - 7 The thought of expansion is in mind. Those present at the readings will recall an observation that it is necessary on our side to start at the bottom and to go upwards. It is that remark that has served to help in taking this line tonight. It would be unsuitable, in view of all that has come before us, to go outside the writings of John. He is never, so far as I know, presented in any of his writings apostolically, although he was an apostle. He refers to himself in the apocalypse as a brother - a delightful word. He indicates himself in his first epistle unquestionably as a father; in the second and third he refers to himself as the elder, but in the gospel narrative he is before us as a lover. The whole trend of the ministry in the narrative is the securing of lovers, and developing in them the power to love more. I venture to say, the more that takes place with us the more happy and easy we shall find our part in the responses which are proper and essential to love’s circle.

I wish to make a remark first of all about chapter 1, and the usage of this precious term, “The Word”, so that none of us may get astray in our thoughts as we speak of Christ. I refer to the first verse of the chapter, “the Word was God”, feeling it is essential that that should be carried with us at every turn in the narrative. Then the fourteenth verse says, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth”. This term “the Word”, is peculiarly connected with the circle of lovers. I think I am right in saying that Luke and John refer to it peculiarly as appreciating the preciousness of Christ as coming into circumstances where He could dwell among certain persons in a certain way. “Dwelt among us” - the “us” is the circle of the lovers. There are other terms used by persons outside this circle: I might refer to the questions of the synoptic gospels - Matthew 13: 35, “Is not this the son of the carpenter?” - a term of belittlement, with no love behind it. Mark 6: 3, “Is not this the carpenter?”; and Luke 4: 22 “Is not this the son of Joseph?” They are all interrogations of belittlement, outside the circle of the lovers. One is concerned that we may all consciously locate ourselves within this circle, so that we have no need to say, “Is not this” - but we may link on with those who said, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth”.

In chapter 2, there is no respect paid to Him - scarcely patronage. Chapter 3 brings in a certain element of patronage, but little outside that. We come now to this woman to whom reference has been made, but in relation to whom one desires to say something, in order that Christ in the tenderness of His ways in wooing grace would lay hold of her in a suitable way, that she might be numbered among the lovers, for that is the end in view, and I would suggest that this is a beginning at the bottom. Many of us I believe have been guilty of an endeavour to begin at the top. God alone can do that - as He must do, for if we are to be secured He must come down, come down to where we are, and this He has done in Jesus. So this dialogue proceeds, and what comes to light is most affecting; that the Lord Jesus, He who is earlier said by the lovers to be the Word - the Word was God - He is found here in quest of this person, content to accept the appellation “a Jew” - a very limited term for anybody, but how much more so for One so glorious as He. He did not contradict the woman when she brought the name forward. Neither when she brought in the terms “mountain” and “Jerusalem” did He assume in His language to be anything outside the name she had accorded Him. This is an important matter, a matter that was enquired into this morning. There is a scripture which speaks of Him, that “If ... he were upon earth, he would not even be a priest”. “For it is clear that our Lord has sprung out of Juda, as to which tribe Moses spake nothing as to priests.” That explains to me why the Lord Jesus, great and glorious as He is, was free to come to the level of this woman’s word “worship”. Had He employed the other word, it would have betrayed something outside the tribe of Juda. The Lord did not in His circumstances here ever assume to what belonged to the sacerdotal circle. But oh, how much else comes into view, dear brethren; so that He in the presentation of matters to the woman is not exactly emphasising a system. He says, “The hour is coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father”. Why does He say that? For our sakes: as the writer says at the end of the book, “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”. These things are written for us, and this particular term is to emphasise to us the fundamental necessity of known relationship before we can intelligently enter into matters pertaining to a system. I believe that is why John in this gospel does not refer formally to the assembly, but constantly urges the blessedness of relationships which are essential to its operations. This term, the Father, is one that the woman had never heard before in that mountain, and probably it was never heard in Jerusalem. The Lord takes her right away from both and touches something as to the elevated character of relationship in this word, the Father. “The hour is coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father”. He then says, “Ye worship ye know not what; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews”. He keeps to her own language in order to attract her outside a system, false in its character of course, and to make her heart move in the direction of relationship. I believe, dear brethren (and I say this particularly for those who are growing up amongst us - youths and maidens and young men and young women - for with the modern course of schooling it becomes naturally easy to adopt terms) the basic essential is known and enjoyed relationship. If I may say it reverently, no one could ever be moving here below like Jesus moved in the undimmed joy and satisfaction of His own relationship with the Father, and He is just making this suggestion to this woman at the bottom in order that she might be attracted in this direction. He goes further, and He says, “the hour is coming and now is”; as much as to say, you can begin at once. What a word that is. If anyone has not begun at this point, the Lord would say to you, as He said to her, “The hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth”. Thank God for the thousands of them that are doing it day by day. Yes, day by day, because worship in this sense is a daily matter. Would that we knew more about it - an attitude of reverential character to the Father day by day. Oh, how attractive it is. The Lord says, And now is. Would you not like to come into this? Would not you like to have a beginning right here at the very bottom? This word “worship” is largely connected with the bottom. It is a word suggested, I believe, in one of the hymns we sang this afternoon - prostration of an inferior in the presence of a superior. Think of the greatness, the supremacy of the Father, and then the Lord suggests the supremacy of God, and lays it open that we might have a beginning there on these lines in spirit and in truth. Notice the words He uses. “The hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers. God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. I am safe in saying, that a beginning on this line, at the bottom, would save us from many a pitfall in the mere use of technique and formula. What does the woman do? Does she speak about a system? No, she speaks about a Man - the evidence, I believe, that the truth in so far as it was presented to her had laid hold of her, and she delights to trace it to the Man who brought up before her in powerful measure the whole course of her long history, and she had it out in His presence and she had nothing more to say to it. This is the Man, she says, for me. “Is not he the Christ?” I have a feeling that this is rightly the bottom for all of us. Thank God for those who have begun there,

and for those who have emphasised to us, as they have sought to serve us in the ministry, the great necessity of a beginning there.

But, as I said, expansion is in mind, and I come to chapter 20, and one is concerned that what is said about it may be suggestive in this direction. Oh, how Mary felt the loss of her Lord. One might say, she felt His absence. Do we feel it? Do we really feel, dear brethren, the way that Christ has gone out? She missed Him, and yet she needed teaching. If one may say so, the key-word in chapter 4 is connected with what is prophetic, because it has largely to do with the conscience. Chapter 20 is linked with teaching, and involves the affections and the mind. We must never divorce these - never. There is a danger sometimes of doing this. The woman, when she is finished with the angels - they do not seem to be able to help her - makes a partial turn and she sees Jesus, but does not know it is He. The Lord was pleased with that movement, even though it was not full. Teaching is a gradual matter; learning, alas, with most of us is exceedingly slow, but I am not prepared to say it was slow with Mary, for she learned a tremendous amount in the course of one day. It is a problem sometimes as to whether some of us learn anything. She says to Him, “Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away”. Now, I say brethren, the Lord was pleased with that remark, because it showed she was prepared to move, and He says, Mary. Now she turns right round - we might say with her back even upon angels - and her face (I say this reverently) looking straight into the face of Jesus. And what could she see, but this inexpressible love which pervades the circle of the lovers. Why does the Spirit say, Mary said to Him in Hebrew? There was another person who used this term, but it does not say he used it in Hebrew. My own impression is that it links on with this principle of expansion. It suggests the language of one who is prepared to move further. Yes, prepared to move further, and still needing help to do it. Who is to give it to her if it is not the Object of her affections? See how expanding all this is - you might say compressed into a very few verses - but it suggests to us that if we are ready for teaching, if we are ready for expansion, it is the easiest thing in the world to have it. Many deplore the fact that they find themselves cramped, and there is no reason for it, no reason at all.

The Lord says, in effect, it does not come this way. Mary. You must let Me alone, you must not touch Me, but you must go to the circle of the lovers, for they need expansion as well as you, and you will get more as you find your place amongst them. He then gives her this message as we had it this afternoon, “Go to my brethren”. That is a remarkable statement. Many are in danger of analysing these expressions, “My God and your God”, without embracing in the holiest of affections and subjection, the grandeur of the statement, “My brethren”. Jesus claims us at the level of His own kindred, so that in a certain way all that is His is ours. I say, in a certain way; there are things which are His and not ours, but He is asserting here that what is His in the blessedness of these wonderful relationships is to be ours; it is ours. “I ascend to my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God.” If we were expanded in relation to this, could we afford to reduce Him to the level of a creature, and never think of Him in His Own essential relationship and position? The thought is foreign to any lover of Christ. We need expansion in this direction, for it is love that is asserting itself in relation to His kindred. Think of ourselves here, every one who loves Christ; He would claim us and own us as His own kindred, in view of our sharing and enjoying with Him as far as is possible what He has Himself. Does not that make matters attractive to us? This is not the bottom, dear brethren, oh no! There is no time in the shortness of the period allowed for a meeting like this to deal with the stages. You might say that the Lord Jesus is about to go to the top, and as He is doing that He is asserting this great matter. It is the answer I believe to the teaching of the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying, but not now in a figure but in love’s assertion. I wonder sometimes if we really receive it. We need the Spirit to enjoy it; do not let us overlook that. Nevertheless the assertion is made by Jesus Himself, and it stands, whether I enjoy it or not. Thank God the Spirit has taken His abode in us in order that we may enjoy it. As we make use of the Spirit in relation to the enjoyment of this precious setting, we shall find it very easy to fit ourselves into the service of the system connected with Christ in glory, for once our Lord terminates the condition of flesh and blood, He takes up His place as the great Priest who has passed through the heavens, and the whole matter of system service then begins to develop. I say again, our part in service in that way, in its liberty and freshness, is dependent on the measure of our joy in our normal relationships in this holy circle of love.

I come now to this touch in Revelation. The Lord is addressing the assembly in Philadelphia at the level of love - not correction. The more we enjoy our place in love’s circle, the more we shall appreciate the matter of expansion, and so the Lord speaks, as He does, to the overcomer in Philadelphia of this very principle. He had never said anything like this before. It comes into expression here with those who are enjoying love’s circle and are to be expanded in it, because of what is to accrue to God, for our association with Christ, while it goes right through and abides eternally, has in view something distinctly for God Himself. Because these brethren were in the joy of this association, they were empowered to keep His word and not deny His Name. Now He says, “He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God”. This word temple is the shrine. In the days of His flesh, our Lord kept His place, and is not referred to as in the shrine at any time, but as having gone up; everything is open to the saints. When He speaks of the shrine in the days of His flesh it refers to the temple of His body - the greatest mystery to the Jews, the religious people, but not to His lovers. “He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God”. This word pillar not only suggests stability, but ornamentation, and it just seems to indicate that expansion involves ornamentation in the service of God. We use the word refinement, and that enters into it. Then He says, “I will write upon him the name of my God”. He is directing them on the principle of expansion, towards finality with all that it involves - to “Go no more at all out”. How wonderful it is! “And the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God”. How delighted the Lord must have been with an assembly from this viewpoint to present such matters. This is within our reach. The great end in view is God Himself. The Lord says, “My God”, and we are to understand that this was always before Him.

Now He says, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”; as much as to say, this is to circulate amongst all the saints. It is to find a place in Edinburgh, where we are tonight, and by way of our being here, into all the places where we come from and where we move in relation to the truth. It would be a poor thing if we left these meetings with no sense of expansion. It would be a waste of time, a waste of money, and may I say a waste of the Spirit’s service to us here. Expansion does not belong to any but creatures, and it is peculiarly essential in the department of creation to which we belong. We need to encourage one another, and this is what the Lord, the Holy and the True, is seeking to do as He addresses Himself in this way to the overcomer in the circle of enjoyed affection and relationship. The more we enjoy the circle and the relationships that are proper to us, the more we shall be ready for expansion.

I want to observe now this last passage. We might say, Who is the speaker? The allusion is to Him that sat upon the throne, and several allusions in the chapters find certain creatures addressing Him who sat on the throne as, “Our Lord and our God” (4: 11): “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb.” The chapters are extremely interesting, as the living creatures burst forth in chapter 4 at the marvel of God’s pleasure in creation; in chapter 5 - “Thou art worthy ... because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God” (a wonderful circle of persons, yes), “made them to our God kings and priests; and they shall reign over the earth”. There is yet another circle whose ascription is completely to the Lamb, and still a wider one whose ascription is to Him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. Oh, how wonderful, dear brethren, the thoughts of God are.

These circles widen out. The greatest expansion is in the inner one, and that is the one to which we belong, because we have been redeemed to God by the blood of the Lamb. I wonder if we really treasure that? Do we really treasure the matter of our being brought back to God, and what is the reason? That we might serve Him in this intimate way - priests to our God. I venture to suggest that He who sits upon the throne is a back allusion on that line, and now He is speaking. And to whom does He speak? He first of all speaks in a general way, and then He speaks in a personal way to him that overcomes. The allusion to Him who sits upon the throne is to help us to see the necessity, whilst we are still here, to overcome, even though we have the knowledge of what the end will be. The present time is not only the time for expansion, but it is the time for overcoming. So far as I understand, expansion is very closely allied to overcoming. I say that with a certain amount of care, but I believe it is right. “He that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” And He says, “to me ... Write, for these words are true and faithful ... I will give to him that thirsts of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son”. I feel this allusion to thirsting and the fountain of the water of life freely is to help us to see that the power for expansion and overcoming for us lies in the Spirit. And the final touch - “I will be to him God”. What are we to say about it? Are we to say it is something else, or, simply accept the veracity of the Spirit’s language, “I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son.” That is now, dear brethren, in the joy of expansion. These things can be touched, and I believe the Spirit’s primary urge with us at the present time is in this connection. Let us understand we can never rightly touch the zenith of the matter if we are not prepared to face the moral issues of the gospel and have our beginnings as suggested in the 4th of John.

I trust what has been said may be of some encouragement to all our hearts, and a stimulus to us to set ourselves, with the Lord’s help and the Spirit’s help, in this positive direction.