WORD AT A BURIAL
P. Martin
This scripture came forcibly to me as we were travelling to this occasion and, following our brother’s reference to it in prayer, perhaps the Lord would draw our attention to it at this time in relation to the two desires that were before Paul. He says, “I am pressed by both, having the desire for departure and being with Christ for it is very much better” and, one might say simply, the desire to remain for Christ in the testimony. The Lord might help us just to look briefly at these two points.
Our sister is now with Christ, which is very much better. She has experienced the Lord’s own personal touch. He took her Himself. But the Lord will take all of us personally. The Lord knows those that are His: He has knowledge of every one who belongs to Him. At His coming—those of us who are left till then—He will know every one whom He takes to be with Himself. It says that “the dead in Christ shall rise first”; that privilege is theirs. “Then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 19. This, beloved, is “very much better”. Being with Jesus is better than anything.
Later in the epistle, speaking of his own exercises, he says, “if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead” (Philippians 3: 11) and I believe it right to say that he knew in his own experience what it was to live with Christ; but he also awaited the coming of the Lord for him. And we await that, beloved; if there is anything that we await in this scene it is the Lord’s coming, when He shall come Himself, “the Lord Himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 16. Every blood-bought saint will hear that shout—He will come into the air and every blood-bought one will hear it, both those that are living and those that are dead—one shout, that is all that is necessary, and all shall rise to meet Him in the air.
What a moment that will be! We shall be among them—those of us that are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and our sister also. She has had the privilege of going to be with Jesus now. We might say weakness led up to it, but that was only brief—thank God for that—but the Lord Jesus took her; that was what happened. That was the main thing, that He did it Himself. And we have that desire before us, we the living who remain, to see Jesus face to face.
What a moment that will be! We have already referred to it in this place this week, the joy of seeing the face of Jesus. Think of that face which expresses, and will express eternally, all the fulness of the knowledge of God Himself, and we shall see it there in Jesus. It says, “His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face”, Revelation 22: 4. How blessed that will be, beloved, that we shall see the face of Jesus. It may be today. We shall be with Him, and “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3: 2.
Our sister awaits that. She will have a body of glory like to the body of glory that Jesus has, as it says, “Who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory”, Philippians 3: 21. We shall all have a body of glory like to His body of glory. How blessed that will be, beloved brethren, that all that is past, the sorrows, the cares, the pressures upon these weak and failing bodies will be over, but there will be a body of glory like His own body of glory. You can understand Paul saying that to be with Christ “is very much better”. Not that we look for the change merely from our point of view, but what we do look for is to see the One that we love. Paul loved Him, and he could say this from his heart that to be with Him would be “very much better”—better than anything else he could think of; there is no comparison with it.
But then he had the desire to remain in the flesh, that he should be here serving the interests of Jesus; serving Jesus in glory, but also serving His interests here upon earth. He was pressed to remain for their sakes. May the Lord encourage us to be here as those who have the desire that, whilst we remain, it shall be in view of serving Christ in relation to His interests here. Our sister served Him; she served Him well; not, of course, in the way of public service, but she served Him, which is the main thing in anything that we find to do. Let us do it as unto the Lord, and do it with our might. She served Him; but we are left to serve Him. If I may say so, there is one less left to serve Him in this place. We are left to serve Him. I feel the word keenly for myself, that whatever it may be that I find to do, the main thing is to serve Him, to do it as unto the Lord.
Paul did not have his service before him—what governed him was the affection that he had for Christ, and he wanted to do all that he could for Him in relation to His interests here, to give joy to heaven, joy to Christ, in the time that was left to him. I have no doubt that when Paul wrote this to the Philippians he was becoming old. He says, “I am pressed”. How much can I say in my own soul that I am pressed both to be with Christ and to serve Him, to be for Him, here in the testimony, until the time when He comes to take us all? He will soon come. His coming is assured. There is no doubt in regard to the coming of Jesus, so may the Lord encourage us to serve Him.
Paul says, “It is more necessary for your sakes”. You might say, Well, Paul, how long are you prepared to remain? He does not say how long. He just says, “to remain”. I think he had in view the completion of the work of Christ at His coming and he was prepared to serve in view of that. He was prepared to serve what was faithful to Christ and “to remain”, however long that might be, “for your sakes”.
Well, I just draw attention to these two things. May we find our part in them both, beloved, to be pressed by both, to desire to depart to be with Christ, which is “very much better”, but until that time to be pressed in relation to the service of our Lord Jesus here in His absence, to do what we can for Him. The Lord Jesus says of one woman, “What she could she has done”. Mark 14: 8. How the Lord must have appreciated that; but He appreciates what is done for Him now, and may we find our part, as living here, in serving Christ, so that, as Paul could say—and we might perhaps have some experience of it—“For for me to live is Christ”. That is, beloved, the result I would like in my own soul.
We saw features of Christ in our beloved sister and, while we would not draw undue attention to them, I think the Lord would draw attention to them in view of their being developed in us in an increasing way until He comes. May He encourage us, for His name’s sake.
Walton-on-the-Naze
6 November 1973
Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 4QY, England Printed by High Speed Printing Limited, 43 Conduit Street, London, W1S 2YJ