An Hour
AN HOUR
I wish to speak, dear brethren, of the thought of an hour, which comes in each of these three passages: first of all, “your hour and the power of darkness” (the Lord is speaking to His enemies, and He says, “this is your hour and the power of darkness”); then in John 13, “his hour”—“Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father”; and then finally in John 17, “the hour”—“Father, the hour is come”..
The idea of an hour in Scripture is a point of time, or a period of time characterised by one thing, sometimes carrying with it the idea of great concentration in that period of time; and that is what is in mind, I think, in this first passage where the Lord says, as His enemies come to take Him, “this is your hour and the power of darkness”.
We are living in days in which the power of darkness is increasing, but it is a great comfort to know that the Lord has in His own Person, and in the perfection of the dependence which marked Him, faced the whole matter of the power of darkness. It was concentrated into an hour—“this is your hour”, He says, “and the power of darkness”. It is a great comfort to know that whatever may develop yet in the world, even before the assembly is taken, in the way of the power of darkness, the Lord has already met it in perfect dependence on God, and therefore is in a position to sustain the saints as they face it and as they go on in the presence of it. Not that we ever have to face it as the Lord faced it, but He has faced it in order that He might set an example to those who may be found on the earth in the testimony at a time when the power of darkness is particularly felt. It will not be felt in the fulness of its power while the assembly is here, while the Spirit is here, for He restrains, He keeps things in check; and yet a certain measure of darkness—and I think we may say the measure of it is increasing—is allowed while the assembly is still here, that features in the presence of it that were set out in perfection in Christ might be developed in the saints as they continue in the testimony of grace till the Lord comes.
What is remarkable and characteristic of Luke’s gospel is the way the Lord in these closing moments—this hour when the full weight of the power of darkness was brought to bear upon Him—maintained the grace which is characteristic of this dispensation, of which He Himself was the most blessed exponent. We remember how wonderfully the grace of God set forth in Jesus is portrayed in this gospel from beginning to end, and here in this closing hour characterised by the power of darkness—I am not referring, of course, to the forsaking of Christ on the cross; that is touched very lightly in this gospel; we get it in its full expression in Matthew and Mark, but touched but lightly in this gospel—but here in this gospel the Lord is presented as maintaining the testimony of divine grace although feeling the weight and opposition of the power of darkness from without. And we have to face the position, dear brethren, that in our day there is a great power in Europe that has formally adopted atheistic teaching, and it is not only a question of the power that that nation may exercise in the political field, but of the spread of its influence amongst men; so that darkness in the refusal of the light as to God, the darkness that consists in ignorance of God, is rapidly increasing in the world, and it is in the presence of that, the power of darkness, that the truth as to God has got to be maintained, and the grace of the dispensation, of which we ourselves are such an example—for the saints composing the assembly are those who know to the full the riches of divine grace—is to be set forth, and therefore we are to be concerned that we may learn how to go on to the end in the presence of the power of darkness, not surrendering the truth, but through grace maintaining the grace that is proper to our day.
And so you will remember that according to Luke’s gospel, when His enemies came to take the Lord Jesus, one of His followers (for Luke does not name him) took a sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, and, according to Luke’s gospel, the Lord said, “Suffer thus far”, and He put forth His hand and touched his ear and healed him. A wonderful expression of grace! Wonderful light shining in the presence of darkness! The power of darkness was there, but the light of divine grace was shining in Jesus.
And then when later on, before the high priest, Peter denies Him, the Lord Jesus turns and looks on Peter. Grace was operating, and grace operated so effectively in that look of Christ that Peter went out and wept bitterly. It was the beginning of recovery brought to pass in his soul by the maintenance by the Lord Jesus, in the presence of the power of darkness, of the grace of God.
And then later we know that as He was being led to the cross, and there were women following Him, wailing and lamenting Him, He turns. He had turned and looked on Peter and now He turns and looks on those women, and He says, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over me, but weep over yourselves and over your children”. The Lord was feeling for them, not preoccupied with His own sufferings, great though they were and felt intensely with the holiness proper to dependent Manhood, but at the same time He could turn and say, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over me, but weep over yourselves…” He knew what was coming upon them, and thus He expressed the tenderness of His feelings for those who were around, again maintaining, as I say, in the presence of the power of darkness, the glorious light of the grace of God.
And then further we know—these are features peculiar to Luke’s gospel—how on the cross He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. The power of darkness was evident in that scene in those about Him who were reproaching Him and taunting Him; the leaders of the people, who should have set an example to them of what was right, being foremost in all that they were allowed to bring to bear upon the holy spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ; and He says, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.
Then, as the dying malefactor turns to Him and says, “Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom”, the Lord said to him, “Verily I say to thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”. What light was shining! It was the light of God, the light of divine grace, that had come out in Christ, being maintained by Him in perfection, right through to the end, in the presence of the power of darkness.
Well, now, what is the power of this, dear brethren? We may see it in Jesus and admire it in its holy perfection, but these things are recorded in order that we too might take on features that are equal to standing in the presence of the darkness that is increasing, and will increase in the world on every hand, and that the representation of God might be maintained in perfection until the Lord takes us.
And so in this passage we have read, giving us the scene in Gethsemane—though in Luke’s gospel it is not called Gethsemane; Matthew and Mark call it Gethsemane, which means “Pressure”, but Luke’s gospel is emphasising that though the pressure was there and was perfectly felt by the Lord, yet in a sense the scene in Gethsemane according to Luke is presented to us as a pattern which we can in our measure take up too. And so the Lord emphasises in the first instance prayer. I think you will find that in these few verses, from verse 39 to verse 46, there are five allusions to prayer; either by the Lord Himself praying or Himself enjoining it on His disciples. “Why sleep ye?” He says finally, “rise up and pray that ye enter not into temptation”. It was on the mount of Olives. The mount of Olives, of course, was the resort which the Lord had to His Father, and for us it is the resort we may find in the Spirit’s power to heavenly scenes, for we have always access to Christ in heaven and to the Father known in Him. That is one of the most happy, blessed results of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, that we have always access to a scene outside this one and a known love in that scene; the love of Christ and the Father’s love, both alike as the resort to which our spirits may go.
And so the Lord retires to the mount of Olives, and it says, “when he was at the place he said to them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and having knelt down he prayed, saying, Father, if thou wilt remove this cup from me:—but then, not my will, but thine be done”. A beautiful combination of perfection in the circumstances that existed; the liberty to ask that the cup might be removed from Him, only governed by this, “not my will, but thine be done”. A blessed example for us, dear brethren! If we are faced by circumstances of particular testing, perfect liberty to ask, if such were God’s will, that the conditions might be altered or might be modified, but always regulated by this, “not my will, but thine be done”. It is a question of going through to the end; as governed by the will of God, and of having a perfect example before us, before our eyes, in Jesus, especially when we come to this point where the power of darkness had to be felt and things had to be maintained in the presence of the power of darkness. “This is your hour and the power of darkness”.
Up till then there had been restraint. The Lord says to His enemies, “When I was day by day with you in the temple ye did not stretch out your hands against me”. That is to say, up to that point there had been restraint; the enmity was there but it was restrained. The enmity against God is in the world, the enmity against the testimony is in the world, but it is under restraint, thank God! Indeed it will be under restraint while the assembly is here, “there is he who restrains now until he be gone”. At the same time I do not doubt that God will allow a greater measure of darkness and of opposition to the testimony to develop before we are taken, in order that features corresponding with Christ in the closing moments of His testimony here may be developed in the saints while we wait for Him.
And so the first matter is prayer, perfect liberty, but governed completely, unreservedly, by the will of God, “not my will, but thine be done”.
And then there is angelic ministry. Wonderful grace that the Lord who Himself created the angels should here be seen as receiving ministration from an angel! “An angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him”. It reminds us of the resources that we have. All the angels of God are “sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation”. We may not be able to see them, we may very often not be conscious of their ministration, but here it is. The Lord is here in holy dependent Manhood, in His Person, as I say, entirely independent of angels who were His own creation, but in grace, as having entered into Manhood that He might set an example of dependent manhood for His people, He is here seen as receiving the ministration of an angel. “An angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him. And being in conflict he prayed more intently”. What wonderful words they are! It may be, if we had not had them in scripture we would hardly have dared to use them—the thought of the Lord praying at one time more intently than at another time. “And being in conflict he prayed more intently”.
We have been referring to the epistle to the Colossians in the course of these readings, and how Paul set an example of being in conflict. He speaks of the combat that he had for the saints—and it is real combat. If we are to take on, dear brethren, the heavenly truth, the reality of the assembly as being the body of Christ, the great truth of the mystery—if we are to take it on in any degree of power, how much there is to be overcome, and it involves combat; combat not such as the world would take account of, but combat in prayer: “being in conflict he prayed more intently”.
We know from the book of Daniel how there are spiritual agencies at work that will act in opposition to the prayers of the saints—we are allowed to see that in the book of Daniel—and therefore we are to understand that if we are committed to God’s will and are desirous of seeing that will taking form in a practical way in the saints we may have to take up this idea of combat: “being in conflict he prayed more intently”.
One is very conscious of one’s small measure in these things, but they are here before us in the word of God, that we may take them on; and Paul gives us an example of one who accepted combat, and then he points to a local brother at Colosse, Epaphras, who also took up in his measure combat for the saints. He found power to take up combat for the saints in three localities, Colosse, Laodicea and Hierapolis. Paul—great man that he was in the service of God—was able to take up combat for all the assemblies. There is difference in measure but the same thing in principle, which is to be taken on by those who love the truth and who love the saints, who are the subjects of the work of God.
And so Paul in writing to the Ephesians urges them and us to give ourselves to the matter of prayer. He says, “praying … with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”, and in Colossians he says, “Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving”, but his word in the epistle to the Ephesians is very comprehensive. He says, “praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”. That is the character of prayer that the apostle is enjoining upon us, speaking of perseverance in it too, showing that there will be influences brought to bear upon us that would tend in the direction of making us give up. It might be even just physical weariness or what not, or pressure on our time, but he says the important thing is to persevere, “with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”.
And so it says here, in regard to our Lord being in conflict, “he prayed more intently. And his sweat became as great drops of blood, falling down upon the earth”. Wonderful words—showing the perfection of the Manhood which our Lord had taken up, capable of feeling of the most intense kind; and these things are recorded for us so that in our measure (though the measure be small) we may take up these things as identified by the grace of God with His testimony in the closing days.
And so we read that, “rising up from his prayer, coming to the disciples, he found them sleeping from grief”. How the Lord must have felt that in His spirit! What little power there was with the disciples for sympathy with Him in these matters which He was going through! He was facing the power of Satan at this time. It was not here the judgment of God, He was in holy blessed communion with His Father here, the communion was not cut off until the three hours of darkness came, which, as I have said, Luke treats of very lightly. But here the Lord is in communion with His Father, but in the presence of the whole weight of Satan’s power bringing to bear upon His spirit what would be involved in His going through to the end with the will of God, and He is facing the whole power of darkness.
And so the Lord says, “Why sleep ye? Rise up and pray that ye enter not into temptation”. It is a question of the resource we have in prayer, first of all for ourselves, that we may not enter into temptation, and then for the saints and for the prosperity of the work of God.
Well, now I pass on to John chapter 13, where we read of “his hour”. It says, “Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. Now John’s gospel, which we are now dealing with, does not, as we know, exactly present the Lord as being cast out; it presents the Lord rather as moving in His own right and dignity and power, and so He departs from the world.
In the 16th chapter the Lord says that when the Spirit shall come “he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe on me; of righteousness, because I go away to my Father, and ye behold me no longer”. “I go away to my Father”. I understand the meaning of that is that there was no room in the world for the righteous One, and hence the Lord leaves it. He leaves it as a thing, a system, that is exposed and morally judged. “I go away to my Father”. “Of righteousness, because I go away to my Father, and ye behold me no longer”. That is, He was leaving the world by His own act, deliberately leaving it, because it had no room for the righteous One; it had no room for righteousness as set out in Him.
But then “his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father”. His hour. It was a moment, a point of time. The time had now arrived for this, for the Lord to take His place in the Father’s presence; as He says in the next chapter, “I go to prepare you a place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. How wonderful the words of Jesus are in the gospel of John! What dignity there is in them! What irresistible power! You might think there was no opposition to Christ at all, sometimes, from the way He speaks. He just moves straight forward, pursuing a course according to divine ordering, right to the end. So He says in chapter 14, “I go to prepare you a place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”.
These are words well known to us, dear brethren, but I would commend it to the saints to carry them constantly in our minds, because they give us an increasing sense of the way we are bound up with Christ and the way He holds the assembly in His affections. The very expression of His—not, I will come again, but “I am coming again”, as though it was present to His mind and heart, has its own appeal. “I am coming again”, as though it was present to His mind and heart, has its own appeal. “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”.
We could hardly have simpler and more definite expressions of His present feelings of affection for the assembly than that, and it is well that we should carry them in our minds, because it helps to deepen in our souls the sense of the way that we are bound up with Christ.
Well now in chapter 13, “his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father”, but then His own were to continue in the world. The Lord had been in the world, He knew what its character was, He knew all the elements that were at work in the world in opposition to the truth. Indeed, John in his epistle says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked one”. You could hardly get a more definite condemnation of the world as a moral system than that, that “the whole world lies in the wicked one”. And it is in that world that we are, or rather we are in the world in which that moral system is and gives character to the world itself. “The whole world lies in the wicked one”.
Now the Lord was going to depart out of it, but His own were in it. That is the whole point, that His own were still in the world, and it says, He, “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. That is what is connected with His hour having come. It is as though it is presented that the love of Christ is now called into special play. He had loved His own which were in the world, but now they are to be left in it and He is to depart from it, and that occasions the calling into play of the love of Christ in a peculiar way, that He would love them to the end.
Well now, what a comfort that is! Whatever arises, we can always rely on the love of Christ; that stands as a rock; we can always rely upon it. But then the Lord proceeds to take a wash-hand basin, and to take water, and to gird Himself with a linen towel, “then he pours water into the wash-hand basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which he was girded”. It says, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and was going to God”—knowing that—in the consciousness of all that dignity and glory, He “rises from supper and lays aside his garments, and having taken a linen towel he girded himself: then he pours water into the wash-hand basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which he was girded”.
He is setting the example of how love operates. He loves right through to the end. But now it is to be taken on by the circle of His disciples, the circle of the brethren. He goes round the whole circle. That is clear, because it says, “He comes therefore to Simon Peter”. Then it says, “When therefore he had washed their feet, and taken his garments”. So that He goes round the whole circle with a wash-hand basin, which He carries Himself, Himself girded with a linen towel prepared to wash their feet, every one of them, “and to wipe them with the linen towel with which he was girded”. It is an example of love which is to continue throughout the whole period of His absence. It is that by which the saints are fortified; it is that by which they are preserved; it constitutes the company called “his own”, a company called “their own”. You will remember in Acts 4 when the apostles were threatened they came to “their own company”. There is a company here on earth that is characterised by the service of love, the service of love learned in Christ and now practised amongst ourselves. For it is in our localities that we have those provided by God, amongst whom and in the service of whom we are to learn how to love.
Well now, how important it is that this service should be continued! It is a question of what is linked up now with “his hour”. “His hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. And set an example! He says “I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also”.
This matter of love operating unceasingly among the saints is a very great preservative. We are in the world, the world from which Christ has departed, left it as a judged thing, but in this world we have this resort, not only the resort we have in the Spirit to the Father and the Son, but also the resort we have in the affections of the saints.
Well now we come finally to this matter of “the hour”. It says, “These things Jesus spoke, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come”. It is an expression full of feeling, “the hour is come”. I believe, speaking reverently, we may say it was an hour, a period of time, characterised by one thing, that had long been looked forward to by the Father and the Son, and now He says, “Father, the hour is come”. I believe it refers to this whole period of Christianity, the whole period characterised by the presence with the saints of the Holy Spirit, in which all the most precious thoughts of God are being opened up and in which power is being found to answer to them for the pleasure of God. What an hour it is! What a concentration there is in it! How much there was for God in the early days of the apostles when the Spirit was in undiminished power! How much there was for God when Paul came on the scene with his distinctive heavenly ministry! How much there was that was wrought out in Ephesus and Antioch and Philippi! And now, dear brethren, we are living in the closing days of this favoured period, the dispensation the like of which has never been before and will never be again, in the ways of God. We are living in the end of this period, and the Spirit of God is recovering the truth and is recovering the saints to it, and there is, in some degree at least, an answer to divine thoughts capable of ministering to the pleasure of the Father and the Son, and, we may say, the Holy Spirit too.
And so the Lord says, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee; as thou has given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal”. What was in mind was the giving of the Holy Spirit. It is in the reception and the presence with us of the Holy Spirit that we know what life eternal is. The Lord was looking forward to that day. There had never been a day in which the Holy Spirit was given without measure, but the Lord having gone on high and having been glorified, He received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, and poured it out, as Peter says, on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit given without measure, and in the Spirit given without measure there is the capacity now to take in the fulness of the thoughts of God and to answer to them for the pleasure of God. What a day it is! What an hour it is! “Father”, He says, “the hour is come glorify thy Son, that they Son may glorify thee”. It is a question of Christ glorifying the Father by giving the Holy Spirit, so that the vessel, the assembly which is the fulness of Christ, may take on divine thoughts and answer to them in the liberty and power of the Spirit; and so these things are to be known and maintained in the presence of the opposition that is encountered in the world; and so the Lord brings forward the thought of eternal life.
Of course, all that we enter into in the power of the Holy Spirit in relation to the things of God is things that are connected with eternal life. That is to say, they are eternal things. Paul says, “we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen eternal”, 2 Cor 4: 18. The more we live in and enjoy unseen things, the more we are getting the gain of eternal life.
But then there is another thing. Eternal life is a great preservative in the presence of the world, a very great preservative. One has already referred to the Christian circle and the love that is there. You remember how when the angel was sent to open the prison doors where the apostles were imprisoned, he told them to go and stand and speak in the temple “all the words of this life”. What was this life? It was the life that was being enjoyed among the saints in Jerusalem, a life that was victorious. They were completely separate from the world around and completely superior to it, “this life”, and that is what is enjoyed by us in the measure in which we touch eternal life. And it is a great preservative here, as we are going through a world of evil.
But then when we come to the close of the chapter the Lord voices His desires to His Father. He says, “Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me”, corresponding with what He had said in chapter 14. He does not say this of any other family, “that where I am they also may be with me”, but now He is saying this not to us but to His Father, in order that we may get an impression, as we take account of the Lord in communion with His Father, of how deep and real His affections are for the saints, and how He is considering for the Father, that in the saints thus loved by Christ there should be developed an answer to the Father, in full consonance with His most precious thoughts.
And so the Lord says, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. A glory to be beheld, not to be shared but to be beheld, to be beheld in nearness to Him. The actuality of it, of course, is as yet future, but I suppose we may know something of it in the power of the Earnest when we are together in assembly—the blessedness of beholding the unique glory of Christ, loved in His Person, before the foundation of the world. For there was love before the foundation of the world, between the Persons of the Godhead; it must be so, for God is love. But now we are privileged to take account of One who in His Person is One of the Godhead, and as such loved before the foundation of the world, before our eyes and hearts in manhood and glorious Sonship, in order that we might be brought in alongside of Himself, His own glory being unique.
This is His glory; it is a glory which, in a sense perhaps, we might link with the expression, “the Christ”, the One to whom is committed the bringing in of all the pleasure of God, and who impresses it with His own character and His own features, and sustains it in His own life. What glory attaches to Christ! And we are privileged to behold it, to behold it in nearness to Him, to behold it in One who is the Beloved of the Father, for He says, “thou lovest me before the foundation of the world”. And we behold this glory, given to Him by the Father, as those who are in nearness to Him.
But then there is one thing more. He says, “I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”. How wonderfully near we are brought to the Father and the Son! How wonderfully near! All is in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the three Persons of the Godhead are engaged in this matter. Indeed I believe that as we behold the glory given to Christ, we get an impression of the glory of what we speak of as the economy, the divine arrangement between the Persons of the Godhead so that all the thoughts of God regarding man might be brought in and established, and that there might be ability amongst such men, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to respond to them worthily of God.
I believe we get an impression of the economy and the glory of it as we behold the glory which the Father has given to Christ, but now He works it out in the full development of it, you might say, He says, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them”. You may say, Is that possible, that we should love Christ with the love with which the Father loves Him? It is possible. You may say, Surely in small measure? Well, be it so, but there is a question how far you can limit what the Holy Spirit can bring in; but, still, let it be so, it is only in measure, it must be so, for we are but creatures, but still there it is, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them”. It is what the Father’s Spirit can bring to pass. The Father’s Spirit has taken His abode in us in order that we might be capable of having the Father’s own thoughts and the Father’s own feelings in regard to Christ, so that we might be brought into the closest possible affinity of mind and heart with the Father Himself. No one but God Himself could have conceived such a thing; no one but God in His blessedness would ever have desired such a thing. But there it is. “I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them”, but then also He says, “and I in them”. Christ Himself in the saints, for the Father’s pleasure!
What pleasure the Father finds in finding in us some measure of ability, in the power of His Spirit, to think as He thinks and to love as He loves! But then also there is the power in that self-same Spirit, in the character of the Spirit of God’s Son, to feel as the Son feels towards the Father and to respond to the Father with the Son’s response, even as He says, “Abba Father”.
Well dear brethren, these are great matters; they are matters connected with this wonderful day, what the Lord calls “the hour”—“the hour is come”. You can think of the feeling with which the Lord spoke of it, the satisfaction He feels in this present time when the Spirit is active among the saints, and when it is possible for us to touch something of these holy and great matters of which we have spoken.
Yet it may be that we have got to face something of the power of darkness, but what will be our support in it is the love of Christ which never fails, on the one hand, and then the outlet we have in the Spirit’s power to all that is proper to the assembly, where we may know something of the blessedness of God revealed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and have part already in the response to Him in which He finds pleasure.
May the Lord bless the word to us, for His Name’s sake.
EALING
18th May 1959
From ‘Some of the Salient Features in the History of Joseph’, being meetings with Mr Gardiner in Ealing from 16-18 May 1959
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