THE PRESENT ACTIVITIES OF JESUS
E.M.Walkinshaw
Luke 24: 45-49; Acts 2: 32-36; 9: 17; Revelation 22: 16, 17, 20 ,21
I want to speak about the wonderful activities of Jesus after He was raised from among the dead. I think we should understand that, as raised from among the dead, Jesus has been active, He is not quiescent. He is sitting on the Father's throne, and in the book of the Acts a man sees Him standing; and all these passages of scripture give us an impression that Jesus is intensely interested in men, and His interest of course reflects the interest of God in men. So God is interested in men, all men, because He is still God our Saviour "who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth", 1 Tim 2: 4. How great God is! and His desire is expressed and made known to us. The passage from which I quote speaks of "the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all". How wonderful that is! What a work was accomplished by Jesus! He "gave himself a ransom for all", that is that the purchase price was sufficient. Of course we could never say that all would come into the gain of it. Nevertheless, in the wonderful expression of the attitude of God towards men and His interest in them, it says that "the man Christ Jesus... gave himself a ransom for all". We can rejoice in that because we can therefore preach the gospel to all. One has often felt that we do not have to put persons into categories and wonder if they come within the class to whom we could preach, or whether when we meet any particular person we could speak to him about the gospel. We can fall back on the wonderful interest of God in men and His desire that all men should be saved; therefore we can preach to all.
So the gospel is still being preached; it is for sinners but also for the saints, because I am sure that we all need to get a deepened impression of the interest of God in men and that in turn will make us more evangelical day by day. We may not feel that we can preach, and of course sisters do not preach, but where Jesus and His present activities are cherished in the heart I think we can speak to persons, and I find I often fail to take advantage of opportunities to speak with individuals that I meet day by day. So you could have the spirit of an evangelist. The more we understand the present interest of God in men and the wonderful present living activities of Jesus, the more we shall reflect them here in the testimony. So God would help us in this. The Lord Jesus here in this first passage says "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem"; this is after He has been raised from among the dead. How wonderful is the preaching of repentance! not, as another has said, that repentance in itself is exactly a part of the glad tidings, but apart from it you could never come into the gain of the good news. It is very touching, and we can always be reminded of it, that it began at Jerusalem, the very city that had rejected Him, outside of whose gates He had been crucified, and yet the preaching was to begin there. Elsewhere it says, "God... enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent" (Acts 17: 30), change their mind through self-judgment. It is more than a mere change of mind, or just that I change my opinion (because I might change my opinion from one philosophy to another) but it is an acknowledgement through self-judgment and condemnation of myself and the justifying of God - repentance, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So repentance is to be preached, and the remission of sins. I wonder if it has come home to us how great that is, dear friends! I think at times we do not value sufficiently that our sins have been forgiven for His Name's sake. I wonder if we here appreciate Him sufficiently. The preaching has reached us, and I doubt not that all of us here have repented towards God and put our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore can appreciate the forgiveness of sins; but what is so delightful is that that preaching is still going on through persons who themselves have repented and who know the forgiveness of sins through the precious work of Jesus.
Then the Lord Jesus says "I send the promise of my Father upon you". Now this is something else He is going to do. I have often thought of the Lord Jesus as active. I must confess that at one time I had almost thought of Him as sitting upon the Father's throne quiescent, but He is not like t hat. So here He says that He was going to send the promise of the Father, that was the Holy Spirit, and when He went on high He did it. We have these two great blessings and I trust we all have them; and if we have, we still need to be increased in our appreciation of them - the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It has been said that they are the two things that we actually have substantially at the moment. How great they are! So when Jesus went on high, as Peter says, "Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear". How wealthy God is! What a giving God! Think of that woman to whom Jesus said "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water", John 4: 10. It says that He "poured out"; the word 'pour' always impresses me with the wealth and greatness of what God has given, and I think we could say that the desire of the Lord Jesus is that every believer should receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and be in the gain of His presence. That becomes a great exercise. I might claim, as some do, that I received the Holy Spirit twenty, thirty, forty years ago, but am I in the living freshness of His movements which are all in concert with the present movements of Jesus? Am I listening to what He is saying? Do I understand that by His power the Lord Jesus is bringing living communications of His word to His people? These are the present activities of the Lord Jesus. It is a very solemn thing to miss them. You look back in the history of the recovery, and we meet brethren who are attached to those who I suppose have not really been in touch with the living communications of Jesus for many, many years. You get an impression of what has been missed and it makes you feel that you want to be in touch with the Lord in what He is doing at the present moment; and part of what He is doing, if I might say part of it, is bringing before men this great preaching of the gospel, having in mind that they should come into the Christian circle, into the assembly, into the knowledge of the truth, and the knowledge of the assembly and the experience of it, because it is "the pillar and base of the truth”, 1 Tim 3: 15. Well when Jesus received the Holy Spirit, the promise of His Father, Peter says "he has poured out this which ye behold and hear", and I think of the many who came into blessing through that activity of the Lord Jesus. We can look into history and see what He has done, and the question might be raised as to what the Lord is doing today. I think His work is very extensive, and anything that is His work is His work. We can thank God for any person that is converted because, if a person is converted, the Lord has done it; it is not that we do it, it is the Lord that has done it, and the wonderful extent of the present work of this blessed Man impresses us.
Now in chapter 9 we find that He is ordering and directing. He has already met Saul, appeared to him in the way in which he was going in his murderous mission, and a light shone round about him out of heaven and Saul heard a voice "saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest''. It is the same Person, not speaking of the glory or the power or might that ha d bee n given to Him, not drawing Saul's attention to the fact that He had been exalted, but just speaking of Himself as Jesus, still active in grace towards such a man. In another place it is so touching, as I expect you have noticed; Paul says that He said "I am Jesus the Nazarean", Acts 22: 8. What marvellous grace to appear to such a man on such a course and bring him into blessing! Many others since, of course, but this person, the first of sinners, was brought into blessing through the personal activities of Jesus. Then Jesus gets in touch with one of His servants, Ananias, who evidently was close to Him and could be directed to go to this man. You may say that Jesus is going to very great pains for one soul; this is what He does, and I think He has been active in bringing persons into blessing ever since. So Ananias accepts the direction. First of all he is not too sure; I suppose his heart was not quite fully in concert with the heart of the Lord Jesus, but Jesus says "Go", and he comes and says "Saul, brother". That must have meant a lot to Saul, "Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me". Saul said to Jesus "Who art thou Lord?"; and now Ananias says "the Lord has sent me, Jesus t hat appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit". Now I think that in the announcing of the glad tidings God has in mind that persons should be filled with the Holy Spirit. We have often been told, and it is very testing, that to be filled with the Holy Spirit is normal Christianity. I think God would help us that we might be exercised to give increasing place to the Holy Spirit so that we might touch what might be called normal Christianity and be filled with the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful thing that is! It is so customary for us to hear the gospel, the terms of it are so usual that we hardly grasp its significance and its glory and its greatness. Its centre is Jesus and He Himself is active in it, but I feel that sometimes it becomes almost commonplace in its terms. It certainly does to men, and men have turned away from it; but does that alter the attitude of God? Has it altered the present activities of Jesus? Never! His activities are still going on in blessing despite the hardness; and whatever man's reaction to the preaching and to the grace of God, the testimony of His grace still goes on, and I think that is reflected in the present activities of the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit through his people.
Now I read in the last passage because again we have a reference to the activities of the Lord Jesus, I suppose we could say towards the end. He says "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star". Very soon there is going to be the activity of the Lord when He comes to take up all His rights. For the moment I could hardly say it is postponed but it is held while the wonderful dispensation of grace proceeds. How wonderful to have that Star in the heart, the harbinger of the coming day! In spite of all the darkness that exists, the apostasy, the ruin, the turning away, He is the Root of David and the Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star. How wonderful to think of Jesus like that! This brightness is to be in our souls; the Lord would bring it to pass in our souls. Then "the Spirit and the bride say, Come", as though almost at the end there will be an emphasis on it. I do not doubt there has been an appeal to the Lord Jesus, Come, for a long time. Whenever you may read it or listen to it - "The Spirit and the bride say, Come" - they say "Come" to Jesus; they are looking, we might almost say, for His next movement; the next vibration of the power of God I think will be when Jesus comes to take us to be for ever with Him. We can tell men about the coming of Jesus. What we could say about the rapture would be another matter, but we can speak to them about the second coming of Jesus. In fact we were reminded only last evening in our conversation that many believers are being stirred up, they are thinking about this, about the coming of the Lord and the conditions which indicate the nearness of His coming; and think of our being able to be in concert with the Holy Spirit! We have often been reminded that it is not the Spirit in the bride, it is the Spirit and the bride; in other words the bride is in concert with the Holy Spirit in saying "Come", they say it together. We know not how near the coming of the Lord is but we are looking for it; but before His coming is referred to His Person is referring to "I Jesus"; and "I Jesus" is resting I believe in the affections of those that love Him. How near we are to the event itself we have to leave with Him, but there are indications not only publicly in the world but in the sensibilities of the saints. Then it says "And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely". It is as though this wonderful invitation does not cease, so to speak, until the last moment. God's gospel preached, the Person of Jesus preached, the blessings of God for men, the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit available to men until the last moment when the dispensation of grace closes. It will close, it must close. It has often been said that God has lengthened it out. I think we can understand using that term; Peter speaks of God's longsuffering, "not willing that any should perish", 2 Pet 3: 9. He desires that all should come to repentance and live, but the dispensation will finish and the judgment must come; as one man of God said, judgment is His strange work but it is His work nevertheless, and in due time that must come. So in the glad tidings there is a warning. If there is the greatness of the privilege of listening to the gospel and receiving the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ, there is also the solemn responsibility of refusing it. Then Jesus testifies Himself: "He that testifies these things says, Yea, I come quickly". It has been noticed before that He does not say 'I will come' but "I come", almost, speaking reverently, as though He is on the way; "I come quickly", and the answer is "Amen; come, Lord Jesus". Now it is very clear to me that persons who do not enjoy the forgiveness of sins and who have not received the Holy Spirit would hardly say "Amen; come, Lord Jesus". Thank God I think we are all among those who have received the forgiveness of sins and have received the Holy Spirit, and therefore in answer to what He says we say "Amen; come, Lord Jesus". Are we all saying that? May we all be more in the brightness of it, listening to what He is saying, taking note of what He is doing, so that in concert with the Holy Spirit we may say to Him "Come", and yet almost simultaneously be saying to men, "Come... he that will, let him take the water of life freely".
Then finally, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints". Now that is active, grace is operating. You notice how Paul frequently says "Grace and peace to you, from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ", as though there is a constant active flow of grace continually from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is all known I am sure in the power of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord encourage us all, dear brethren, that the truth of the Lord's present activities may lay hold of us so that we may be more with Him in them and become more evangelical in knowing what it is to speak to souls about the Lord. I know it is hard when people are so indifferent. At one time you could speak to persons and maybe find an interest, and at times of course many years ago if you preached on the street you would soon have a crowd; nowadays people are apathetic. It has been well said that it is the age of the atom, and it is also the age of apathy. How to put those two things together is very difficult to understand, but there it is. When all these things surround men, the dangers, the rising of corruption and violence increasing in the earth, yet there is apathy towards God's gospel. Let us not be apathetic but let us cherish it, dear brethren, and let us carry Christ and carry the glad tidings more in our hearts day by day. May it be so for His glory.
BARNET
28 April 1974