AUTHORITY, ADMINISTRATION AND DISCIPLESHIP
[p. 228] AUTHORITY, ADMINISTRATION AND DISCIPLESHIP
Luke 22:14; Matthew 26:20; John 18:1
These scriptures are closely related. They are intended to teach us as to the Lord’s service as here in the flesh, pointing to higher levels, namely, those that we have part in by the Spirit; that is, levels in which we are. The disciples of the Lord at the beginning are seen as associated with Him for typical purposes, first, as to authority, second, as to administration, and third, as to discipleship, or following. The Lord is seen in these three scriptures as associated with his disciples in these three relations. He calls His disciples to Him, “whom he would”, it says in Mark 3:13; He made His selection sovereignly for these purposes. He called whom He would, we are told in Mark, that He might send them forth to preach and heal diseases; but also now for these purposes already indicated: that is, to be first of all authoritative in their representation of the Lord. It may seem singular that He should begin with Luke, for his line of things would be more order and comeliness than authority. We might turn rather to Matthew for authority, but Luke is selected for that purpose, and doubtless because he was a man calculated to be gracious. Hence, the Lord selected him, known to be gracious and intended to be gracious, intended to be used to set out order and comeliness but so that the idea of authority should never be lost. And hence, the Lord Himself spoke with authority. That is said of Him, and it is said, too, that He gave His bondmen the authority. They were His bondmen and it might be thought that they should be just servile not only to the Lord but to others and make things common, which is often the case. It is not divinely intended [p. 229] that divine things should ever be common or ordinary; they are not ordinary, they are extraordinary, and this extraordinary feature is intended to be enforced at times, not always but at times, by authority. Luke is selected for two great works. The first is his gospel, as we call it, this one that we have read from, and the second one is the book of Acts. He is the author of both. It is formally said by him that Acts is the second treatise; there is the first and the second one. The first one he said he had written to Theophilus. He had written that one so as to set out the order of the truth of the gospel as it came out in those that were not only with the Lord, but in those that were His companions or fellow-workers in the service. It pleased the Lord to associate certain ones with Him and Luke is among them. He wrote with method, which is important for us as students, but authority is more than that; it is more than method; authority is enforcement of the thing with power, and it is often very necessary.
And so this matter of apostleship is attached to the Lord’s disciples. They are called in this passage I read the apostles. The word ‘twelve’ before it is possibly not in the original. The point is not administration; twelve is administration; but the word ‘twelve’ may be omitted in the original, and evidently in view of stressing the thought of authority. Twelve is administration, and the Lord is not intending to stress administration in this verse, but to stress authority. It is often necessary to do this when things happen that seem to deny it and to set it aside, to negate it. What was in mind was the Lord’s supper, the Spirit knowing, or the Lord knowing well what controversy it would occasion. Nothing, perhaps, has occasioned more controversy as a scriptural subject than the truth of the Lord’s supper, and what has to be used to enforce what is right is authority; and that was needed because of the much discussion [p. 230] and much error, and I may add, alas, much blasphemy as attached to the Lord’s supper; I mean attached to it by evil teaching, an evil system of teaching. One of them modernly is that the supper may be kept in a cupboard or in a box or in a desk so as to be handed around at will, carried to people’s beds of sickness, which is a very dishonouring thing. I am just mentioning that on the way, and what is needed in regard of it is authority. There is no authority for anything like that. What is meant in that is that the saints would stay at home and expect the Lord’s supper to be brought to them, which was never intended. It was never intended to be anywhere else than in the assembly. It belongs to the assembly, and if we stay away from the assembly we can never get it, and that shows how serious it is to stay away from it, to neglect the assembling of ourselves together.
Now, as I said, the matter of authority was undoubtedly in the Lord’s mind. It is simply that the apostles were there. And then, where were they? What position? What posture? I am seeking to lead up to something expressed already today in the idea of settlement or grounding in the position and relation in which the saints are; that we should be not only there, but there at ease, and in comfort, so as to be free to use our minds, and if we are dealing with great matters we are able to take them in, to sit down to do it if necessary. One thing that comes to my mind is that the Lord Jesus according to Mark 16:19, sat down at the right hand of God. He sat down. You say, Well, is He there doing nothing? No. That is not the point. The point is He is taking plenty of time in regard of the great matters that are in His hand. They are all attended to in this wonderful dispensation in which we are, for it is said that the heavens must receive Him, meaning that it is an imperative matter. The heavens are obliged to receive the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, until the time [p. 231] of the restitution of all things. The book of Revelation tells us that when the dragon sought to destroy the little child that was born, the male son, the Lord Jesus — when Satan sought to destroy Him He was caught up to God to His throne, meaning He was securely there. The dragon will never get there to touch Him. He is securely fixed there. He is not simply idle there. He is carrying on this very meeting we are in tonight. It is His business. The Lord makes it His business. The Father has loved Him; the Father loves the Son, He loves Him, not He loved Him, but He loves Him, and has given all things to be in His hand, and among the all things at the present time are these meetings of the saints, gospel meetings, too; meetings for the service of God, of course; meetings for the Lord’s supper. All these are in the Lord’s hands. And as I said, He was caught up to God and to His throne. We read of great personages now just meeting together in conclave, in military and political conclave, taking counsel together and they are well guarded. We are told specifically they are well guarded, which is the divine way. They should be; but how much more, beloved brethren, should the Lord Jesus be well guarded. When Judas and his band came to take Him, they all forsook Him and fled. That is very solemn. But He was able to guard Himself. His would-be [p. 232] captors went backward and fell to the ground. He had already said He could ask the Father and He would give Him legions of angels to look after Him, but He did not do it. He looked to the disciples, but they forsook Him and fled, sorrowful to say. And we are not to say we would not do it. We must not say that. If the disciples did it, let no one of us say we would not do it, because we would be just as capable of doing what they did, whatever it was, in that sense. So that the Lord is able to take care of Himself. When they all forsook Him and fled, the would-be captors went backward and fell to the ground. They could do nothing. Thank God for that. We may be restful in regard of all such things.
And so, as I was saying, He was caught up to God and His throne; and heaven is presently to be aglow with military affairs, but not yet. Heaven is occupied with gospel affairs, with church affairs, assembly affairs, but they are great affairs, greatest of all. The greatest of all are assembly affairs and gospel affairs, and heaven is aglow with these. Heaven is in attention now to what we are saying, and other places, too, where there are like things going on. The Lord is in charge.
Well now, as I am saying, Luke is selected in this matter of authority and it links up with what we have been already remarking as to being settled. When we come to meetings like this we are often late. You will pardon me for alluding to commonplace things, for things are often alluded to and rightly. It seems that the brethren are very thick-skinned in regard to these matters. The brethren do the same again: come in late, and the meeting, of course, is delayed. I go to meetings every week and it is very rare that one sees a meeting open as it should be with order and precision, and hence the matter is put forward. The thought in mind is not reached in time. We read of the Lord loving the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. That means He has more enjoyment in the gates of Zion than He has in our houses. The gates of Zion are the most interesting gates in all the universe to God. There will I dwell, He says; I have loved it; I have desired it, Psalm 87.
Well now, this matter of settlement is what I am aiming at; that is, of composure in settlement; to be what I should be in the abstract sense in the meeting. The meeting is in conclave; the assembly is in function. How can it be if a good proportion of it is on the way to it? It cannot be. It is simply [p. 233] disorder, and hence the need of being settled. So Peter in his epistle urges that, that God would strengthen and establish and settle His people. That is, they should come to this; come to the idea of being settled in the thing, composed in the things of God. We have had today that Israel did not reach it until Sinai. God had to resort to His own authority. You get great things said and done at Sinai that you do not get before. God is impressing His people with His authority and with His dignity and with His greatness and with His grandeur. He says later, I am a great King, in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 1:14, and that is to point out that people are reducing His things to commonplaceness, bringing lame things to God. Think of that! God says elsewhere, If I were hungry I would not tell you, Psalm 50:12. He is so indignant at the treatment He receives at the hands of those who profess to love Him that He says, If I were hungry I would not tell you.
Well now, as I said, Luke is engaged with this matter of authority, and hence it is that the Lord is seen here at a time when He is going to institute His supper; when the hour was come, He placed Himself at table. That is in the order of Luke’s way. The word ‘placed’ belongs to Luke’s order. It is a matter of order, and then we are told that the apostles were with Him. What will Peter say if someone comes in late? He will say something, and all the others would say something. The apostles were with Him. Things are not being allowed to go for nothing, if they are irregular or disorderly. The apostles are with Him. The Lord saw to that. It was no accident. They did not straggle in later than the Lord did, you may be sure of that. There they were. The apostles were with Him; and obviously it was necessary in view of the centuries that have passed of irregularity and, as I said before, of blasphemy attached to this glorious and precious institution we call the Lord’s [p. 234] supper. Right down the ages, almost from the very beginning, with Corinth it says they did not behave themselves properly, so that Paul says, “Do ye despise the assembly of God?” 1 Corinthians 11:22. That is what they were doing. “Do ye despise the assembly of God?” They were eating and drinking, and you might say, carousing, drinking. That is what they did at Mount Sinai; or at least at the mountain; when Moses came down he heard Israel and they were singing. They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. That was a desecration in the presence of God. That is what they were doing. Well, you say, I am rather severe. What I am saying is severe. I do not want to be pretentious or arbitrary or unduly taking liberties, but in truth it is necessary to be severe for the Lord’s sake in matters, and what I am saying requires that I should say these things. The apostles were there. The Lord saw that they were there. They were, as it were, His equipment for that moment. He was going to institute His supper and to introduce into it all that belongs to it in the sense of order and accuracy and regularity and the apostles were all there. That is the idea.
Now I leave that so as to go on to the next point, and that point is in the number twelve. They are the same persons. You might have expected that Matthew would have used that word ‘apostles’ in this position, but no; the Lord used Luke, as if the Lord would say, You may expect Matthew to say that, but I am not going to use Matthew for that point. I am going to use Matthew for another point, and the other point is administration, so that we know what to do. When matters arise, and they do arise constantly and unexpectedly, we fail in administration. We do not know what to do, and if we do not know what to do and are not restful, we shall do what we should not do. We are so prone to do what we should not do unless we are restful, so that the [p. 235] thing is to be sure, to be restful and wait on God. Hence it was that Saul the king could not wait. Samuel had told him to do so-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so, and Samuel says, I am going to meet you there, 1 Samuel 13:8. I will be there. There is no doubt about it, some may say, but Saul could not wait for that. He could not wait for Samuel. He says, I forced myself, 1 Samuel 13:12. What could he do? Could he keep the commandments of God by forcing himself? No, he could not. He did the very opposite. He lost the kingdom by it. You say, That is a very small matter. It is only an item you are talking about, but he lost the kingdom. That is no small matter. So that things that we do, we take on in times of stress and times of emergency. We can do this. Maybe you were among the Presbyterians. They do that. The Episcopalians do this, and presently we do that, or something like it.
Well, you see, Matthew says, Now be careful. You be careful what you are doing. I could name a lot of things that the brethren have done. Emergency has brought them up and they were prompted to do something, and they did something and they did wrong. That was what Saul did. God is God, you know. He says, I am a consuming fire. He is more than that, you know. He does not care about that title, I am sure. I mean to say, God prefers to deal otherwise. But we are in a confused world; we are in a dark Christianity and all kinds of things are being done at man’s will, at the behest of man’s thoughts and devices. And so Matthew is the administrative gospel, and he tells us in the chapter I have read in verse 21, “And when the evening was come he lay down at table with the twelve”. He sat down with the twelve. How often it is we suggest sitting down with the brethren: let us have a cup of tea together. Let us be comfortable. Well, that is quite all right. The Lord meant that here. He sat down. When [p. 236] even was come He sat down with the twelve. One can understand how the Lord will sit down with us in heaven. He loves to have us sit by Him, and revert to old things, ancient things, to things that happened before, the happenings of love, always happy to talk about them. But when we are in the presence of administration and the order of the house of God, and the order of the assembly and what is to be done under these circumstances and other circumstances, then we have no time for mere talk. We should be restful. I believe it is the divine idea here in these positions that we are speaking of, that God has pleasure in us to be restful. He has pleasure in our company, but He has pleasure in us too, in our counsel. He speaks of taking sweet counsel with some, with the betrayer to be sure, but we may be sure that He loves to do it with His brethren; to take sweet counsel together. How many of us have proved it and I hope we shall prove it more, perhaps more than heretofore, for we are learning to prove God in our so-called care meetings, so that when the thing comes up — well, what are we to do? Let somebody lead. God’s way is to do that. A man who has the word of wisdom should be allowed to speak. If he has the word of wisdom let him speak. Let him have plenty of room to speak. Let him give advice. Hushai the friend of David gave good advice to David’s enemies. The advice he gave meant their undoing. Often it is that Satan’s work is undone by a good word of advice. It is not anybody talking; not that we should all not be there as brothers, but if a man has the word of wisdom, let him have room to speak to set out what he has in his mind. Even if he is not local he can do that, because the word of wisdom is a gift from the Spirit to be used anywhere, at any time to promote the interests of God. That is what belongs to Matthew. Matthew tells us that the Lord sat down when even was come with the twelve.
[p. 237] The wisdom of the universe was centred in them; it is centred now, too, where the Spirit is. There are those whom God has fitted to take counsel in regard of the greatest things and to reach conclusions, too, the conclusions of wisdom and love; so that the right thing is done and that thing is helpful. It is edifying; it is assuring; it settles us. I revert back to that word ‘settle’ because we need to be restful; to learn to be restful in the things of God, sit down together and be restful in them. God has in mind that He is to take us in. The word is, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, The place that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling”, Exodus 15:17. It is what God has made for Himself to dwell in. Wonderful! It is akin to Zion, but Zion is only a temporary matter in view of administration here on earth; but it is the place for God Himself to dwell in. That is the idea; the place which He has made for Himself to dwell in. What skill there must be in that dwelling, and then it adds, “The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared”.
Well, you can see how important it is to learn these things, and Matthew would say the Lord has it in mind to teach us these things and to settle us in the provisional time, to place us where we are comfortable, where we are at ease in a spiritual way and where we can talk with liberty and with confidence and where we can understand each other and wish to do it, love to do it. It is the promotion of love, dear brethren, I am aiming at. The pressing for all these things that I am speaking of really has in view the promotion of the working of love which is to go into heaven and be in heaven forever and forever; for what we are going on with now in the provisional period is just working out things, showing how God can help His people who do things in spite of difficulties. Then it will not be in spite of difficulties. The [p. 238] surroundings will all tend to promote and enhance what is being done, but today what is being done is surrounded by all that is antagonistic. The enemy would make the work as hard as possible. God is saying, I will help them to do it. The Lord says in Matthew, “And behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matthew 28:20. Not eternity, but to the completion of the age, while the difficulties last. That all enters into this word ‘twelve’. He sat down with the twelve. Let you young people all think of this, when you think of going out on an evening to see some friend, to spend it with a person that will not do you any good. Think of this. Think of being with the twelve, the greatest persons in the universe, as I was saying, next to the Lord Jesus. They are administrators; they are intended to be. They know what to do when the emergency arises. They take time to do it, too. They do not rush. They sat down. That is the idea. He sat down with the twelve.
Well now, I go on to John. I, of course, wish to speak as John did, as the Lord would tell me to do in John. It is a question of the disciples. They are the persons who are characteristically learners from Jesus. The school is there; not the school of Tyrannus. That is scriptural, too; that enters into what I am saying, but I am speaking of John’s school. The first disciples were disciples of John the baptist. That is to say, they had learned something. They were not raw recruits. They were already qualified for a grade above the ordinary, above number one. We get them in Acts 19. There were there twelve men, we are told, and they really fit into what I have just been saying. They were twelve men, they were disciples of John. They had learned something; just as we do in the schools — if you go from one school to another, well, what grade do you qualify for? Where have you been? What do you know?
[p. 239] Well, the disciples of John knew something. John knew something. John the baptist was an admirer of Christ. Many of the teachers of today are not; far otherwise. They speak terrible things against the Lord Jesus, discrediting Him. They discredit His words. They may tell you that the book of Jonah is a fable and the book of Genesis is a grand poem. They are lies and yet they teach them in the schools. It is most serious, and you young children are listening to them and you are apt to imbibe their thoughts. They are not lovers of Jesus, but you ought to be, and if you want to be one make much of John the baptist. If you have no other teacher than John the baptist, you will make the most of what you learn from him; so that the twelve men were disciples of John and they did not know that the Holy Spirit had come. Well, that is poor teaching, you know. Still, John did not undertake to tell them that the Holy Spirit had come, because He had not come in his day. The fact was that John was beheaded before the Lord Jesus properly entered on His service. Therefore, if the disciples of John did not know the Holy Spirit had come, that is just what you might expect and your class in the new school must be determined in that way. If you do not know about the Holy Spirit you will hardly be fit for more than the first class, the ABC class in Christianity, and you know there are a great many like that. It is really painful to hear the brethren talking sometimes — what they say. But these men at Ephesus, there were twelve in number, and they said they did not even know that the Holy Spirit had come. Paul did not set them aside for that. He did not say, Stand aside; I want persons that I can put into the school of Tyrannus. He did not say that. There was a school at Ephesus, you know. It was a school where the master would demand the truth. They would not be satisfied with John’s teaching, and hence it is [p. 240] that Paul set to work immediately to teach them about the Spirit and he laid his hands on them and prayed for them. These are things to be noted. You say, This is not much. But it is much. And the lack of these things that you think are not much means you are ignorant of many things, and you are not supposed to be as a Christian. Paul says, “I speak as to intelligent persons”, 1 Corinthians 10:15. I love to speak to people who know something. “I speak as to intelligent persons”, he says; and again, “The Lord will give thee understanding”. If you are defective, the Lord will tell you. Ask Him anything. He will tell you. But if there is a servant of His, maybe, and you can get to him, get to him. He will tell you. Ask him. That is how the Lord Jesus would speak now. He has His servants. He has gone up away beyond all the heavens to give gifts to men. He has done all that and has these gifts down here so that you should not be ignorant. That is their work, to teach the brethren.
Well now, as I said, John is a disciple. It is a very good word. The word ‘apostle’ is, of course, a very good word, too. That is Luke’s word. The word ‘twelve’ is a very good one. That is Matthew’s word, but the word John has here is ‘disciple’. Luke’s apostles were sitting with the Lord at the table. That was their honour. The twelve were sitting with the Lord, too, at even. They were going to have a meal, showing how privileged we all are in these circumstances and then John, well, what about him? He is in the garden. You say, garden? Is that Christianity? I do not think it is. I do not think a garden is characteristic of Christianity, but it was characteristic of the Lord to go into one occasionally. He was accustomed to go there. It had meaning in those days. It had a meaning in chapter 2 of the Old Testament. Jehovah Elohim went to that garden in the cool of the day. We have [p. 241] to learn something — link up the garden of Eden with the garden into which the Lord went. I do not say Gethsemane, because it does not appear here. It is not the place of sufferings here. It is the place of comfort, where He and His disciples often resorted, and they are there now. That is why I have read John 18, so as to show how the idea of learning, of disciples, of learners, is seen as connected with the Lord in His ministry down here, in order to teach us now that we should be learners in the right sense and not simply content with being followers of the Lord or known to be believers, as we say; but that we be persons who learn from Him. He says Himself of His Father, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isaiah 50:4. That is the idea, and the apostles would learn that. They would know about it, and they would say, I would like to learn about that.
So it is that John in the first reference to teaching tells us that the learners, the disciples who had already been with John knew something, but they preferred Jesus to John. They left John and came and followed Jesus. They were followers, but they were learners and they call Him Rabbi. In the old country we used to always call the teacher the master. That was the word that was common in my time. The man who looked after the school was the master. That is what they called the Lord. John’s disciples who followed Jesus called Him Rabbi, meaning He can teach them something; but it is not teaching they are after. They wanted to know where He dwelt. That fills out what I have already remarked. It is not only the particular thing in mind but the comfort, the ease, the restfulness, the settlement that belongs to the followers of divine Persons; so that we may know how to behave as there and be contributory as there. So they say to the Lord, John 1:38, “Where abidest thou?” He says, “Come and see”. How the Lord [p. 242] appeals to us in these matters. If you want to know Me, I am worth knowing, but I am ready to be known at My best, and that is where I live. Why not? It is available to us. Where the brethren are is where the Lord is. “Behold, I am with you all the days”. Well, John, He says, I will come to you; I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you. That is another beautiful touch, that there is a circle of people here on earth that the Lord comes to at times, regularly. I do not mean at any particular time, but He says, I am coming to you. It is an open matter, and I want to be there when He comes. I want to go there and hear that Man. “Never man spoke thus”, John 7:46. That is how the Spirit of God would teach us, that you are hearing Somebody that you never heard the like of before. That makes us what Christians ought to be. We learn how to speak by hearing Him. That is what John has in mind, so that the Spirit of God says, “Jesus, having said these things”, John 18:1, they are all put down for us; eighteen hundred or nineteen hundred years ago, and it is there for us to be talking about it tonight. The divine eye looked on to that, and these meetings are of extreme importance to heaven, because they are the making time of the heavenly family. These are the making times of the heavenly family and it is for us to lay hold of the opportunities and be in time. Do not miss them. It has pained me many times. I have been in New York for over fifty years and seen people coming and going, and coming and going, and more going than coming. It is very humbling to say that. People come and they like the meetings and like to listen to the word of God and are happy to be at your house, but off they go and they never come back. It is very humbling, because there is no real appreciation of the thing, the real thing that God is presenting to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit of God is verily here. The Spirit Himself is here to [p. 243] teach us these things, and so, as I said, one is often humbled. They are coming and going and more going than coming, as I said; but these two came to the Lord and said, “Where abidest thou?” And they abode with Him that day, and we are told what hour it was. It was the tenth hour. It was John’s time. I mean, the kind of time that he uses in his gospel. That is another thing to understand: what time or regulation by time may have been used in Matthew or Mark or Luke or John. It is for us to understand. It was the tenth hour. Do work out what hour that was according to our time today, this evening. You can work it out. That is all I had to say and I think, dear brethren, you will not fail to see there is a great deal in it. Especially now as to this matter of discipleship, which means not only that you are learning, but after school-time is over you go to where the Person is, your Teacher. You like Him; you like your Teacher; He is likeable. He is indeed. He is a divine Teacher. As we said, who speaks like Him? We may well say, who teaches like Him? None like Him. He is the great Teacher. “They shall be all taught of God”, John 6:45, and that means that Jesus teaches. He is the Teacher; He is the divine Teacher. He represents God; God the Father is in Him and He in the Father. May God bless these thoughts to us!