READINESS FOR CHANGE

C.R.Byng

Luke 9: 28-36; 13: 10-13, 16, 17; Philippians 3: 20, 21

These scriptures relate to our being ready to be changed. We all naturally tend to settle down, but we would understand that God is always active to bring in change, that is change for the better. What we sang about was what comes into our experiences as to how we sometimes change and that is not always for the better. But God is always acting to bring about change for the better. All that God does at the present time is related to the final transformation of which we read in Philippians 3. What a matter that will be, beloved brethren; when we leave this scene of change for ever we are going to be with the Lord always. God in His wonderful grace and goodness is constantly bringing in matters which help us to be more prepared for the final change. We may sometimes find in the goodness of God in our circumstances that things have arrived at a point where we would like them to remain as they are. Then perhaps to our surprise suddenly God brings in some change. We are to be steadied in the abiding assurance that any change that God brings in is for the better, for it is always related to some enlarged appreciation of the greatness of Christ.

So where we have read in Luke 9 the Lord had spoken, about eight days before, of the coming of the Son of man in His glory and that there were going to be some who were to see the kingdom of God. Then He selects three. The sovereignty of divine selection always tests us. We might say, Why Peter, John and James? That was the Lord's sovereign matter. There is nothing national in that nor anything affecting a particular meeting, it is divine sovereignty. He goes up into a mountain to pray. There is not the immediate display of His glory, He goes up as a dependent Man to pray. But then as He prayed it says "the fashion of his countenance became different". The Spirit of God in Matthew and Mark tells us He was transfigured; here the Spirit in His wisdom uses a different word, "became different”. They saw what appeared to be a change. It was not of course that Jesus Himself changed; they saw a fresh glory. One of the divine titles is "the Same"; "he that draws near to God must believe that he is", Heb 11: 6. Jesus always is the great I AM. But in the Spirit's own gracious working we have fresh impressions of the glory that is there, some fresh understanding of a particular glory, whether it is official or personal or moral glory, some change that comes, not in Jesus, but some change that comes in us. So as the fashion of His countenance became different and His raiment white and effulgent, what an effect it should have had on these three men. What an effect some fresh appreciation of the glory of Jesus is intended to have upon us so that we become more in accord with the particular glory which shines out in Jesus on any particular occasion - "transformed according to the same image from glory to glory", 2 Cor 3: 18. What a word that is in Corinthians: “looking on the glory of the Lord".

That is what these three men were intended to do. They were sleepy to start with, not far removed from the experience of many of us, but then "having fully awoke up they saw his glory". This was a remarkable occasion: when the glory of Jesus personally shone out. It was divine selection in bringing up Peter, James and John, and also in causing Moses and Elias to appear in glory. We might perhaps wonder why it was not Abraham and David; Moses and Elias were selected. If divine selection chooses someone for a particular service, in the ways of God that servant is morally formed for that particular occasion. Divine sovereignty is always justified in what it does. And so Moses and Elias had been qualified for this privilege of appearing in glory on this mountain. What men they were in their generation we may say representing the law and the prophets. Moses was a man who was "very meek, above all men", Num 12: 3. It was a meek man that qualified for this experience of being with Jesus. And both had had prolonged experience in relation to the mountain of God. This was really the mountain of God, where Jesus was. Moses had had at least two periods of forty days and forty nights on the mountain with God. "Come up" says God "to me into the mountain, and be there" (Exod 24: 12) and there he was for forty days and forty nights, and did not eat or drink. What an experience! but he had been prepared for such an experience. And then breakdown came in in the camp. Was everything over? The mountain of God remained unchanged despite the sorrow in the camp, and the man Moses went back for a further period of forty days and forty nights. That was part of his preparation for this mountain experience. Elijah had a journey of forty days and forty nights to the mount of God (see 1 Kings 19: 8). You might say he went to resign his commission, but when he came to the mount it was the voice of God that spoke to him. They were men whose departure stands out as being remarkable. Of no other man, as far as I recall, was it said that Jehovah buried him, except Moses (see Deut 34: 6). He was told to go up into a mountain and die. Earlier he had been told to come up into the mountain and be there, but then later in God's inscrutable timing the word was "Go up into this mountain... and die", Deut. 32: 48,49. But then what a privilege! Jehovah buried him and entrusted that secret to no man. No man to this day knows where Moses was buried. But then think of the departure of Elijah, he "went up by a whirlwind into the heavens", 2 Kings 2: 11. These were moral experiences in qualification for the appearing in glory of these two men on the mountain. God had a long way ahead in mind in preparing these two men for this experience.

He was preparing Peter and John and James too. And if we have an experience with Jesus on the mountain top and receive some fresh impression of the glory of Jesus, it is to bring about a change in us so we are prepared for something the Lord may have in mind for us about which we know nothing as yet. As far as physical strength is concerned, we receive the strength we need just one day at a time. If we are still here, we shall need strength for tomorrow physically; we do not have that strength today, we receive the strength for tomorrow on the morrow. But we are prepared spiritually beforehand, sometimes a long way before. God may prepare a brother or sister days or maybe years before the need arises which God had in mind. Every impression we receive of the glory of Jesus is preparing us for something.

What a preparation this was for the three disciples! How quickly the need for change came in! Peter's suggestion of three tabernacles really signified that he did not think that things were under divine control. It was as these two men were departing that he suggested they would provide two tabernacles for them so they could stay. But the divine time had come when Jesus was to be found alone, when the appearing of those men in glory had fulfilled its purpose. Peter had not got the point that those two representatives of Old Testament experience were there to bring out the pre-eminence and supremacy of Jesus. What a suggestion it was to make three tabernacles; one for Jesus, that was surely right; it is always right to prepare a dwelling place for Jesus whether in the local assembly, or in our households, or in our own hearts. But we would not place Moses and Elias alongside as though they were about the same. An enlarged appreciation of Jesus will preserve us from making too much of any man. Thank God for the vessels that God has used and the vessels that God may be using at the present time, but no servant is ever to be compared with the perfection and beauty of Jesus. Jesus stands in all His own supremacy. How often we need change on this matter! How often we are governed adversely or favourably by some other person! Jesus stands in His own supremacy, and we become changed into accord with that. Jesus went up to pray. Let us be found as those who make more time to pray. Our judgments about matters are to be fluid. We may have some impression or judgment about a brother or sister, which may be favourable or adverse; let us see if we are thinking as Jesus thinks. He may confirm our judgment or He may adjust us. If there is a basis for our being concerned as to some one's spiritual enlargement and help, then let us start praying and interceding urgently for greater signs of vitality and life to come to light, so that we can say, "What hath God wrought", Num 23: 23. I may have the impression that I am absolutely right and this is the right thing to say or do. The more sure I am, the more need to see whether the Lord's judgment is what I have arrived at or whether He is viewing the thing in the grace and love of His heart in a different way. He does not regard things as fixed; He is working to bring about transformation. And how do we come into that? By going to the mountain top to pray. The Father's voice was heard. Divine timing comes in here. Let us always be ready for the inscrutability and perfection of divine timing. It says in verse 33, "And it came to pass as they departed from him"; and Peter did not discern the accuracy of timing. In verse 34 it says, "But as he was saying these things, there came a cloud". That was the perfection of the timing of the Father. What a word this was! "This is my beloved Son: hear him". The Spirit of God says it was a voice.

We may say it was the Father's voice because He refers to "my beloved Son", but we would say it must have been the Father's voice because no one else could speak in this way. It is a little like John 21; when the disciple whom Jesus loved saw that great catch of fish in the net he said "It is the Lord". He had an impression that no one else except the Lord could do a thing like that. And that is what a priestly person will always be on the lookout to discern - the things which the Father would do, or the Lord would do, or the Spirit would do. We learn to understand the ways in which the Father and the Son and the Spirit are pleased to move, so we discern that something must be the Father's voice. There was no word of rebuke here. The Father draws attention to the greatness of Jesus. And that is the basis on which change for God comes about; the Spirit of God is pleased to give us some greater impression of Christ as the Head of the assembly and of His headship functioning in every local assembly. On the mountain top we have some understanding of what the Lord is doing, and what the Father is doing, and we begin to be affected. Who of us can say what impact this had on James? It would be seen in the fact that the Lord saw that he was one who could be taken early out of the testimony. What a privilege it is to die in fellowship, to die in the Lord! Oh let us pray, beloved brethren, urgently for persons who at the moment are not in the joy of fellowship, that they may come back into fellowship. What a sorrow, to die out of fellow ship! We need sovereign grace and mercy to be kept in fellowship and if the time comes to die, to die in fellowship. James was prepared to depart.

What an impression John had; he has hardly begun his gospel under the direction of the Spirit when he says "we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father", chap 1: 14. No doubt there would be a direct touch of his own experience on this mountain top. Peter, when he preaches, preaches Christ glorified. What an impression in his soul! He does not bring out a reference to this mountain of God in his preachings, but lying behind them you can see that he speaks of Christ glorified with a sense in his soul of the supremacy of Jesus. When he writes his first epistle to the brethren in dispersion he brings out the solidity of what God was doing, the great rock on which the assembly was being built by Christ; then in his second epistle, as he realises he is about to depart, his burden is to leave the beloved brethren with the stabilising impression of the experience he had on the mountain top, so he speaks of the majesty of Jesus and of the voice being uttered by the excellent glory "Such a voice", he says, as though the impression had increased with him through the days of the years of his life. He had this abiding impression that what the saints must lay hold of, and he had to use diligence to see that they did lay hold of it, was the supremacy of Christ in relation to every matter. He does not refer to the word "Hear him", as though he has the impression that if he brings that view of the glory of Jesus before the brethren, they will hear Him. But he had to have this word: "Hear him". How fully these three men would have been changed and brought into line in their measure by the Spirit of the living God, with what they saw in Jesus! As we resort to the mountain top increasingly, we shall have grace indeed to know what it is to live there with Jesus. How many problems would never arise. Another has said that nine tenths of the problems that worry us never disturb Jesus at all. But if there is something that concerns Jesus, we are to be concerned about that. And if there is something which the Lord is not concerned about, we can leave it. How easily we become obsessed with something, whether it is related to the past or the future, and the Lord is not concerned about it at all. We are to leave these things and be concerned with what the Lord is doing in His own skill and His own perfection in timing, and what the Father is doing in relation to the extension of the interests of Christ.

When we come to Luke 13, this is not on the mountain top; this is in one of the synagogues. This is down on the plain, in a religious atmosphere. A woman was there who had a spirit of infirmity. I think the Spirit of God was peculiarly affected as He caused Luke to write about this woman. He uses an expression which I believe He only uses in Scripture in this particular section, "a spirit of infirmity" - not exactly an infirmity but "a spirit of infirmity", "and she was bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up". Are there not many like this? Some of our brethren (they are our brethren) are still in religious systems of one sort or another, still gathered in relation to some particular man or other and having a spirit of infirmity. They are not able to lift up their heads freely to God and have part in liberated praise and worship, and yet desiring after what is right. They are not wandering away in the wilderness but in the synagogue seeking what is right, and yet bound for eighteen years. There may be some, the Lord would know, even in this city who have been bound for eighteen years, or may be bound for eighteen months. The Lord had His eye upon this woman. In verse 11 the Spirit's comment is "lo". But then the Lord says Himself in verse 16, "lo, these eighteen years". Both the Spirit and the Lord draw attention to the fact as though we are to consider this woman marked by the spirit of infirmity. But then the Lord takes account of her, calls to her, speaks to her, lays His hands upon her and immediately she is made straight. What a spirit of infirmity can mark some persons, and perhaps in some measure most of us know at times what it is to be marked by it. We become a little bit depressed and then the Lord comes in and brings in this touch of strengthening. It corresponds with the word in Colossians, "strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory" (chap 1: 11) - another unique expression. I believe " the might of his glory" is the divine answer to the "spirit of infirmity". It is the might of the glory of Christ shining in that brings in the power and the strength; not the glory exactly nor the riches of His glory, but the "might of his glory", As occupied with Jesus in all His greatness, we are assured there is a might there which is able to overcome every obstacle and difficulty. We are to be alert in expectation of what the Lord is doing in the might of His glory. We speak of one locality and we pray about another locality, and things seem to go on in numerical weakness week after week. The Lord brings in change and a beloved sister is taken and a brother is left alone with one old sister. But then the Lord begins to act, He shows the might of His glory, and persons begin to be recovered to the truth. Do not let us be overwhelmed by a spirit of infirmity but be helped to look for the change in persons that comes in as the might of His glory shines out. And what strength there comes in then! The kingdom of the Son of His love is in view, in spiritual experience. The might of His glory is with a view to sustaining us in a scene of adversity, that is the setting in Colossians. Preservation from philosophy is one of the things in view; the might of His glory would preserve us from all these things that so easily move us this way or that way. But all these experiences of transformation are with a view to the final transformation. What a transformation it is going to be as we read in Philippians. It is not exactly the same word but the same thought as the mountain of transfiguration, when the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour is going to come from heaven. We are waiting and it may be even today. What stability there is in the meantime! The Spirit of God says, "for our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens". That is a stabilising fact. It is not a commonwealth that can be overwhelmed or shaken by the force of events in the world; great commonwealths may come and go, empires may rise and fall, but our commonwealth has its abiding existence in the heavens. But then "we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory". What a final change that is going to be! How many of the beloved brethren have frailty in their bodies, pain and weakness physically, all connected with the body of humiliation, but there is no weakness and no frailty in the body of glory of Jesus. What an experience the disciples had for forty days when Jesus was here a glorious, risen Man! What impressions they must have had of a Man who was out of death! But then we are awaiting that same glorious Person, the Man with whom we can find counsel and guidance and direction on the mountain top. He is coming down from heaven beloved, He is coming down Himself. He is not going to send an angel. Coming with archangel's voice, surely, but He is not going to send an archangel, He is going to come Himself, and He has power to transform the body of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory. It may be today. Do not let us say we are going to do this, or that, tomorrow; we cannot be sure. We say, If the Lord will. Let us mean it more and more. Let us be expecting today the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. We worship Him as the Saviour through whom we have received the forgiveness of sins, but this is the Saviour to take us finally from the scene of trials and adversity, of experience and difficulties. This is the final transformation when we are going to experience His saving power, when He is going to transform our bodies according to the working of the power which He has. How infinitely perfect the blessed Spirit is in the words He chooses! It is not according to the power that He will have when that moment comes, it is the power that He has now "even to subdue all things to himself". As we expect the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour for this final transformation, let us have increasing confidence that He has today power to subdue all things even to Himself. The saints as in the light of the truth of the assembly are peculiarly qualified to see what the Lord is doing in this way, because the word in Ephesians 5 is the assembly "subjected to the Christ" (v 24). As we are individually and collectively increasingly subject to Christ, the Spirit of God would give us priestly discernment to see those whom the Lord is subduing to bring them more into accord with His own will and secure them for the service of God whilst He leaves us here.

Let our hearts be alerted, beloved, for this final change, the great transformation when we are going to see Jesus our Saviour face to face. The One whom we have loved, the One who has been so close to us in all His saving grace and wonderful power for each day of our lives, we are going to see that glorious Man face to face, and we are going to be with Him in the presence of God through all generations of the age of ages. At the moment we are being prepared for departure to be with Jesus. May the Lord bless the word.

NEW YORK

19 November 1977