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... ^[p. 351] I cannot say that John 20 teaches this aspect of the truth (that is, the general aspect of the presence of the Lord with the assembly). First of all we have the dawn of a new day; everything had begun for God after a new order. The disciples had been made to feel the break-up of everything connected with the old order. As to Judaism — man after the flesh under divine culture — its heads and representatives had wholly rejected the Son of God. As to their own little company — one had betrayed Him, another had denied Him, all had forsaken Him. As to Christ after the flesh, He had gone in death; all their associations with Him after that order had come to an end. They had to pass through the travail of soul of which the Lord spoke in chapter 16: 20 - 22, the birth-throes through which an altogether new and blessed joy should be given to their hearts in seeing Him again. The new day dawned in full splendour in His resurrection, but it was by His own service of love as the risen One that its light shone into the hearts of His own. It was in the manifestations of Himself to them that they found the light and joy of that blessed day. Mary may be taken as representing the state of bereavement and sorrow in which the little company of disciples were found at the moment. There can be no doubt that she loved Him, and He had said, “He that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him”, chapter 14: 21. This was fulfilled in chapter 20: 16.

But if the Son of God manifested Himself thus to an individual who loved Him, it was to instruct her as to His new position, and as to the new association. Her individual need was met, but she was also instructed in His mind as to the assembly. He was taking an entirely new place as ascending to His Father, and none could be in association with Him in that new place, save as being of His own order. For this blessed association there must be a sanctified company, one in nature with Him, His brethren, the subject of divine counsels and working, and the result of His own falling into the ground and dying as the corn of wheat from whence alone could spring such a harvest for God, and such is the assembly. Mary was instructed in all this, and made the messenger of it to the others. What we get in this chapter is what I have heard beloved J.B.S. speak of as “the assembly in pattern”. We must learn individually in the history of our ^[p. 352] souls what it is to be of Christ’s assembly before we can really come together in the truth of the assembly. It is the lack of this which causes so much weakness and feeble realisation of spiritual privileges, and of the Lord’s presence when we come together. I judge that individual instruction in the mind of the Lord is of the greatest importance in view of our coming together, otherwise there might be a meeting of believers — happy — perhaps even edifying — without any true apprehension of the wonderful position and privilege of saints as being of Christ’s assembly. In John 20, where we find the Lord’s mind as to His own in its proper fulness and blessedness, the saints are His brethren, and they are in the most blessed associations with Him. This is how He regards them. It is the character in which He claims them for Himself and for the Father. They did not as yet understand what had been effected by His death, but He understood it all. He recognised them as of His own order and as divested of everything that could have unsuited them for association with Himself.

I think it was J.N.D. who said that the disciples were gathered together by the message which Mary carried to them. They learnt by that message that He was risen, and they learnt His thoughts in regard to them. There was a wondrous bond between Himself and them and therefore a wondrous bond linking together the company of those whom He owned as “my brethren”. The effect of this being realised was to bring them together. It was a company actually gathered together, to which Jesus came and stood in the midst. I attach the utmost importance to this. If believers get any idea of Christ’s new place, and the association of His saints with Him, it must lead directly to their coming together. What marks the new company is love one to another, and this necessarily draws saints together. Indeed it is in this way that the company declares itself and gives expression to its existence. We may conceive of the assembly in the abstract and one might add that, in days like these, one necessarily learns the truth of the assembly in the abstract. But the moment the truth is learned it must express itself in a real way. Christ’s company here manifests itself by its coming together. It is delightful to the Lord to see His saints together as loving Him and loving one another. Such a company attracts Him; He delights to come into the midst, and manifest Himself there. The coming together of saints is an essential ^[p. 353] feature of Christianity and peculiar and blessed privileges are connected with it, which cannot otherwise be known or enjoyed.

The Lord’s first word was “Peace”. His presence brings with it an entirely new atmosphere. On their part they had shut the door. They were entirely dissociated from the religious man after the flesh. But whatever the relief of a closed door, it could not compare with the blessed peace of His own presence. When the Lord comes into the midst, bringing the peace of His own presence, there is the foretaste of what will be known, in a future day — “Joy whereon no grief encroaches, Peace where strife shall all be o’er”. Then He showed to them His hands and side. This is very suggestive of the Lord’s supper. John does not give us the institution of the Supper, but he certainly gives us the spirit and vitality of it in setting the risen Lord before us as in the midst of His own and showing them His hands and His side. It is as He shows us His hands and His side that it all becomes great and exceedingly precious to us. “The disciples rejoiced therefore having seen the Lord”. Several individuals had seen Him in the course of that wondrous day, but the climax of all was when, He came and stood in the midst. In the earlier part of the day His service of love had been rendered to one and another, meeting their individual state and exercise with a view, it seems to me, to their coming together as of His assembly in the evening. And His coming into the midst of that company was, I take it, a pattern of how He would come into the midst of every similar company throughout the period that intervenes before the rapture.

But when we come to verses 21 and 23, chapter 20, it seems to me that we get what could not be repeated on any other occasion. What we get in these verses is administrative. It is the inauguration of the new testimony, and the words and actions of the Lord have clearly in view, to my mind, the whole scope of the testimony. It is the initiation of what was then wholly new, but which has subsisted ever since. Of course it began with those present, but I think they must be viewed, in this section of the chapter as receiving administratively from the risen Lord the mission and vitality which was to characterise the whole company of saints during this day. It is the institution once for all of that which abides ^[p. 354] until the present testimony shall come to an end. So that in these verses, we have what marks Christianity as a divinely instituted testimony in life of divine grace in the midst of a world of sin and death.