THE DIVINE CURRENT IN LUKE'S GOSPEL
S.McC. In suggesting this section of Luke's gospel one is thinking of the divine current as manifest in it, and persons who were moving in that current that God had set on and was moving in Himself in view of the effectuation of His great thoughts which have men for their centre and of His own glory. We are all challenged as to whether we are moving in it or whether we are out of it. One man in this section of the gospel was out of it for a while, Zacharias, but he came back into it in great power with prophetic utterance, We have Mary and Elizabeth, we have the shepherds and we have Simeon, persons of great quality who are moving in full accord with God's mind and in this current, fully sympathetic with what God is proceeding in consequent on the incarnation. It is a great thing that we all should be affected by the spiritual and divine current that God is in; and it is very important that we should be in it and not out of it. The fact that we are assembled here shows some evidence of desire to be in it. Alas! there is much around us that is not in it, but God is moving in this current in relation to the greatest thoughts that fill His mind and heart in regard to men.
I thought we might see first in Mary the thought of subjection, one of the most important features to characterise persons who are moving in the divine current. We live in a day when there is so much lawlessness and independence but Mary exemplifies in a remarkable way the comely spirit of subjection. What a vessel she was! Elizabeth brings out a remarkable expression of a vessel filled with the Spirit in full sympathy with this current in which God is moving. Her relations with Mary are very affecting, as our relations with one another should be. Every locality should be marked by the relations that are expressed in Mary and Elizabeth. And I thought we might see in the shepherds the feature of watchful care, a thing that is greatly needed today in the midst of all the conditions around that beset the testimony, greatly needed to prevent the enemy's interruptions; how he would hinder the flow and the divine current which exists today just as it existed then. Watchful care, unselfish interest in regard to communications from heaven, appears in all these passages. It is a great thing to be in the environment where these communications come. Then Simeon is "a man in Jerusalem" who afforded scope for the Spirit. The Spirit seemed to be on very definite relations with Simeon as Simeon was with the Spirit, and prosperity in our localities has a great deal to do with affording the Spirit scope as moving in this current in which such great things are being worked out.
C.M. These were all, in the sight of men, obscure individuals, and yet what is working in them and through them is the greatest power on earth.
S.McC. That is very striking. We may wonder at the obscurity; things are very obscure in a certain sense today - small gatherings, long distances between them - yet there is a current in which God is moving which is very affecting and stimulating and comforting.
A.A.B. In the prophet Malachi the Spirit of God anticipates what we have read about. Jehovah says "they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure", chap 3: 17. Would that link with the high level of things that you have in mind, what the saints are to God?
S.McC. Exactly, and Luke brings us very near to heaven, although the Lord has come on to the earth as Son of Man on the side of the human race identifying Himself with all the sorrows of the race and having in mind the emancipation of men in view of their being for God and His pleasure. It is very affecting to see how the environment of Luke is never very far from heaven, from the beginning of the gospel through to the end.
R.E.T. The angel said "Fear not, Mary". I wondered whether the subjective side would bring out faith in operation.
S.McC. Just so; therefore we are always challenged as to whether faith is active with us. We see how the Lord is affected by faith in individuals in the gospels. Is our faith such that it would affect divine Persons? This is important. Luke deals with the smallness of things. Our brother has referred to the obscurity linked with these persons, Mary referring to the low estate of His bondmaid; she was an honoured vessel but the spirit in which she speaks of herself in Elizabeth's presence is very affecting.
D.E.R. Is it in your mind that these conditions should be found amongst us in view of the nearness of the Lord's return? These were the conditions prevailing at His first advent.
S.McC. Yes, and quality in these persons is something to be affected by, spiritual quality, we may say assembly quality, because Luke's ministry has in mind the local assembly as we move and act in the light of it in a day of brokenness, and specially to support Paul's ministry which has in mind in a particular way the assembly in localities.
E.C.M. Mary seems to be distinguished in the beginning of Acts. There is the reference to "several women" in the upper room "and Mary the mother of Jesus", chap 1: 14. Would you say something about that.
S.McC. We have to be impressed with what a vessel she was. Think of the treasure that was in that vessel but always maintaining the spirit of lowliness. We can afford, dear brethren, to maintain the spirit of lowliness; what gets us into difficulties is the lack of it. Peter exhorts all of us to "bind on humility towards one another", 1 Pet 5: 5. It is very important that we should be humble and marked by the spirit of lowliness.
C.M. So the greatest responsibility can be committed to her. In chapter 2 "a multitude of the heavenly host" is not far away but the care of the Babe is not committed to them but to Mary.
S.McC. She was a trustworthy vessel in a unique way and was marked by purity. Many things that we have had to face in recent years have not been marked by the spirit of lowliness or the feature of purity. It is a great thing that in being drawn into this divine current we should be marked by these features because it is to such persons that divine communications come.
F.N.S. Would it be right to think of Saul of Tarsus getting into this current very quickly? When he recapitulates his own conversion he says "What shall I do, Lord", Acts 22: 10. That is subjection; and his name was changed to Paul - 'little'.
S.McC. That is quite an interesting link. Well, are we content with the day of small things? It may chafe some of us that things are so small and in a certain sense so obscure, but we want to see that this is the way the divine current is moving. There is no room for the Lord in the inn, He was born in the manger; surely that would affect us in regard to how Luke presents things in his gospel. There are no magi in Luke, that is Matthew, the kingly gospel; Luke presents the Lord coming in on the side of men and taking on and discharging their liabilities. We need to see how the grace of the gospel opens up in Luke as humanity is in mind, and we should have humanity in mind especially in this day of such disturbed conditions.
D.E.B. There seems to be a certain feature of astonishment with Mary that she should have been selected for this position. Should that be with us, a certain wonder that the Lord has taken any one of us up that would keep up in the pathway?
S.McC. I think it is very important. We were having in Glasgow the Father's sovereign operations and the economy introduced in that relation as in Luke 9 and 10 and Matthew 11. How we should be affected by the Father's sovereign operations over against the wise and prudent from whom things are hid! Things are not hid from the babes. We want to be amongst the persons that things are not hid from; and that is linked with the impressionable state referred to in the babes. It is a great thing to be in an impressionable state because we know even in our day how things have been hid from the wise and prudent.
E.P. Is what is characteristic a test to us? We may be subject when something is presented to us but to be marked by subjection characteristically is something that we would desire.
S.McC. It is very important that we should be characterised by subjection because the whole bearing of things in the world is the overthrow of government, men marked by independence and lawlessness. That should be offset in the cities in which our lot is cast; we should be characteristically subject persons - subject to God, subject to Christ, subject to the Holy Spirit subject to one another. How many upsets there have been through insubjection in persons!
J.C.E. Was not Mary really already in the current of divine movement by being a bondmaid? It is not necessarily in great outward things that subjection and being in the current is shown, but by bondmanship or bondmaidship.
S.McC. God looks on all our localities for these qualities that enter into these persons that are moving in the divine current. We do not want to be out of it. Alas, there are persons that are out of the divine current and things are hid from them; we want to be in it. The enemy is always operating to offset what God is doing. As it says in the book of Job: "He maketh the deep to boil like a pot", chap 41: 31. In the last few years we have seen something of that, how the enemy has been and is still active to make the deep boil like a pot.
D.E.R. Is it significant that what seems to be emphasised with each of these persons is the service of God? Mary magnifies the Lord; "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour"; then with the shepherds there is this acclamation of praise to God; and then Simeon comes into the temple and blesses God.
S.McC. Very fine that, how the line of the service of God runs through in relation to the qualities in these persons that are moving in the current in which God is moving. We have been taught in the good teaching how this gospel sets out the service of God. Who has not read 'The praises of Israel' (J.T. N.S. Vol. 34, p.292), the remarkable way the service of God is set out in the gospel according to Luke? The amazing thing is that Luke was not an apostle.
A.A.B. Would the many references throughout the gospel to God being glorified link with Paul's epistle to the Ephesians?
S.McC. Exactly; there is a distinct link between Luke and the Ephesian epistle because of the way that nearness to heaven and what is heavenly is stressed. Then the wonderful way in which the glad tidings parallels the line of the service of God in this gospel is very fine. There is no immediate distance in the setting out of these two lines; the service of God and the glad tidings. It is very affecting how in chapter 15 God in the Trinity is engaged in the salvation of men; and, as you say, how in miracles that were wrought through the Lord's service they glorified God. There was a real representation of God in the Lord 's service.
A.A.B. Referring to the attenuated conditions publicly, would there be great compensation as we come into the liberty which marks these women in a spiritual way, the babe leaping in Elizabeth and then the doxology of Mary? In small meetings we find what is akin to that sometimes. It is a great compensation for the tremendous reduction in the public sense.
S.McC. It is very fine to think of that because Elizabeth is a type of what is seen in some ways in small meetings. Mary is more a type of what is of long standing, the remarkable way in which she gives expression to what Hannah had given expression to is very affecting; but Elizabeth is a vessel immediately of the Spirit of God, she is filled with the Spirit.
C.M. Does it appear that those who are in this current are quick to recognise others who are in it and to link on with them?
S.McC. It is good to notice that, it is a great help in our localities. Disturbed conditions arise in persons that are not getting on well together. That is not a Mary and Elizabeth quality; they get on without any disturbed feeling between them. There might have been jealous feelings if the natural side had prevailed, the fact that Mary was so honoured, but Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary and responds to it.
E.J.J. It is amazing how this salutation affects Elizabeth. We might just meet one another and shake hands but a salutation affects us.
S.McC. It brings in the thought of respect for one another. It is very humbling if disrespect comes in. We have been delivered from that, disrespect for older brethren and for brethren generally. It is very humbling as we think of all that we have come through but, having been emancipated from it, how we should regard one another in the bonds of love and make the most of our relations with one another!
C.J.S. Is that why Paul ends the Corinthian epistle on the line of salutation: "Salute one another with a holy kiss", 2 Cor 13: 12?
S.McC. He did not end the epistle to the Galatians, where there was legal error like that. In Corinthians, where there was the carnal actions of the flesh, it is remarkable that he should give that salutation at the end.
C.M. Here the Holy Spirit links on with the salutation; "as Elizabeth heard the salutation".
S.McC. Just so; it says "the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit". That is a remarkable statement as to what happened inwardly in Elizabeth, no doubt a reference to what may happen inwardly with us in the local assembly, that is the formation that is here referred to.
A.A.B. The psalmist says "all that is within me, bless his holy name!", Ps 103: 1. Would that be seen here?
S.McC. Yes, indeed.
A.A.B. In what he says in that psalm he draws upon the formation in him. I was thinking of the contrast between Rebecca and these women. When the struggle was proceeding in her she enquired of Jehovah; but these women are beyond the struggle, are they not? What marks them is the work of God.
S.McC. The sovereign work of God enters into this section and we ought to be affected that we are the subjects of it, and we would desire in each of us and in the younger brethren to see the liberation of it in expression.
C.H.S. In this current is there not a delightful informality, a lack of conformity to any set order of things?
S.McC. Well there is, but everything is comely. You may have a lack of formality which may not be comely. The remarkable way that the Scriptures and the knowledge of God are referred to, the utterance of Elizabeth and then the utterances of Mary, are very affecting.
R.E.T. Is there something in the way that "Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country"? Is the initiative spirit to be with us, in that sense, and the liberty of the household? I suppose it is an important matter today that household conditions should be right for brethren to come at any time.
S.McC. The hill country of Judah is very affecting, because Luke maintains all the way through his gospel the elevated line of thinking that should mark us. Now when we come to the shepherds what quality there is in them. It says "there were shepherds in that country abiding without, and keeping watch by night over their flock". This chapter opens with a reference to government. One thing we are confronted with today is government unable to cope with things; but God is showing how He can move behind the scenes, and other scenes are enacted in which God's thoughts are appearing despite the failure of men in responsibility.
A.A.B. Allied to the governmental side is subjection to it in Joseph and Mary, at such a time as this moving up in order to be inscribed. Is it important that we should be in subjection to the powers that be: "Let every soul be subject", Rom 13: 1?
S.McC. Very important, and at the same time recognising that, whatever fails in government in the hands of man in responsibility, God has a system of operation by which He will carry through His thoughts despite man's failure (see Ezekiel 1).
A.A.B. That is really part of the current in which God is moving at the present time.
S.McC. And we need to see that so that we are steadied and established in the light of God's throne; while the glory may be removed from Jerusalem, God is showing in Ezekiel 1 how He can carry on and go straight forward in His system of operation.
E.C.M. Is that why David is brought in so much in the early chapters of Luke - the family of David, the city of David, and He shall have the throne of David? God is going through with His system of things.
S.McC. Very good. These references to David are interesting because, in the records regarding the kings, the standard for God and what is pleasing to Him is always David: he was really a king and he reigned.
D.E.B. The shepherds were abiding without. There was this governmental sphere of things operating to which they would be subject but that was not their life: they were abiding without.
S.McC. It fits in with our position today as to whether we are marked in this light and in this environment by watchful care. We all have a responsibility, young and old, to be marked by watchful care in relation to the interests of God in our localities.
R.E.T. Would this exercise us too to be watchful in regard to seeing where the Spirit of God is leading through the ministry?
S.McC. That is right. There is no worldliness in this environment of the shepherds. What marks them is self-sacrificing care; whatever their interests at large might be they were concentrating on the care of the flock, and to them the glory appears. We have the return of the glory here in this section.
F.N.S. Did not Mr Taylor sen say that "Let every soul be subject to the authorities that are above him" included the authority in the assembly?
S.McC. One of the most dangerous things that the enemy would work through is the overthrow of government in the local assembly. Deliverance from the hackneyed word that we used, 'system' , does not mean that we are to be without government or rule. The assembly is the vessel of government and rule, according to Matthew.
F.N.S. God is a God of order. What you have been encouraging us in would help - the characteristic principle of subjection marking us and the recognition of sovereignty.
S.McC. It is remarkable as you look at conditions in the last two or three years, in connection with lawlessness, most of it has proceeded from places of learning. I know in the United States it has, radical elements want to set aside any kind of government or rule so as to break up what they call the establishment; but we do not want to be linked with that spirit of things. The young people need to be encouraged; they are living in days not only of lawlessness but of corruption, and this line of things in Luke attending the incarnation and manifesting the current in which God is moving ought to help our young people to see the advantages of being in an environment where what is of God is appreciated and honoured.
C.M. In the assembly, authority and shepherding are very closely connected, are they not?
S.McC. Yes, it is very remarkable in the book of the Revelation how shepherding is linked with government and rule; "he shall shepherd them (the nations) with an iron rod" (chap 2: 27), that is of course in a coming day; but even God Himself enters into the matter of searching out His flock in the dark and difficult day. Luke would help us as to care for souls; care for one another but care for persons who may be convicted and persons who may be exercised, Luke would help us as to the great principle of unselfish care.
J.C.E. Is it a further point with the shepherds that they were prepared to follow up the things that were revealed to them. Psalm 48 says "As we have heard, so have we seen" (v.8), and goes on to speak of God's praise being as His name.
S.McC. That is an important feature. God helps us as we follow up things, as we follow up and act on light as it comes in.
S.D.K.R. Would you say another word as to the return of the glory.
S.McC. Well, the glory had departed as Ezekiel draws attention to it; the return of the glory is linked with the coming in of Christ, and what a thing that is as Luke would impress us with it and that there are in these remnant conditions persons of moral and spiritual quality that are in keeping with the return of the glory, because the return of the glory involves that conditions amongst men are to be met. Now Simeon is one who is moving in the divine current in sympathy with God and consistent with all that that current involves, "a man in Jerusalem" marked by maturity. It is a great thing that we should be delivered from immaturity and marked by maturity which is one of the great objectives in divine operations. It says "this man was just and pious". We are living in a day when there is a great challenge to justness and piety, it marks the last days. We want to think of these qualities as features to emulate and be marked by in the testimony in such difficult times.
Ques. Would you say how this maturity is reached.
S.McC. I think maturity and the development of the work of God are linked with the Spirit and our relations with Him.
A.A.B. Would there be anything in the fact that the communication he received was in this environment? It says of him "there was a man in Jerusalem". In Acts 13 we have a similar thought: "Now there were in Antioch, in the assembly which was there" (v 1). There is a certain environment in which these communications come from the Spirit who is the source of them.
S.McC. I think that is an important thing to refer to because what saddens your heart is that many who have been deflected by the condition of things that developed have gone on in isolation and are still going on in isolation, forgetting that there is an area in which the Spirit of God is and where communications according to God can be received.
E.P. Is what Mr Bellamy is saying confirmed in Psalm 46 in the reference to what is flowing? "There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God"; then it says "God is in the midst of her".
S.McC. Yes; the last verse of Ezekiel, after going over the distributions in the city and the name of the city, is "Jehovah is there".
R.E.T. Would it take us back to Genesis: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness", chap.1: 26? Spirituality comes through desire, does it not, and manhood would be something that would be seen, would it not?
S.McC. This gospel sets out humanity and manhood in Jesus so attractive to God; the pattern of manhood is there in Jesus. We should be affected by that because God's primary and His eternal thought is that He is going to be with men and it will be men formed after the pattern seen in Jesus.
D.E.R. In this section there is no pretension; in fact the conditions outwardly are so weak that there could not be. Nevertheless there is no gainsaying the fact that there are persons there who are moving in the Spirit's current, and that is what we would desire, would we not?
S.McC. Very important. We perhaps might fail in the current moment by preoccupation with smallness and no ostentation, but the great thing is to see from the section we have ready how the Lord can come into these lowly conditions; and, in these lowly conditions which mark His pathway all the way through, serve men in view of their liberation in connection with their relations with God and in view of their being established in God's salvation.
C.M. Divine communications are not intended to be rare things. Has not man been created so as to be a receiver of divine communications?
S.McC. Just so, the Scriptures open early in Genesis with God communicating with man.
G.A.P. Is the feature of overcoming essential in our day if we are to hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies? Does that come out in those last four addresses to the churches?
S.McC. Yes, the overcomer precedes the hearing of the voice of the Spirit. Well, I thought these passages would bring out, and be helpful especially in the current time, that whatever the failure and breakdown have been (because Luke follows on Malachi where God refers to the failure) there is a divine current in which God Himself is moving and in which He would have us moving in the qualities that marked these persons.
St. Albans
29 June 1974
KEY TO INITIALS
A.A.B. A.A.Bellamy Buckhurst Hill; D.E.B. D.E.Burr Redbridge; J.C.E. J.C.Evershed London; E.J.J. E.J.Judd Barnet; C.M. C.Middleton St. Albans; E.C.M. E.C.Muggleton Croydon; S.McC. S.McCallum Detroit; E.P. E.Palmer London; G.A.P. G.A.Palmer London; D.E.R. D.E.Remmington St.Albans; S.D.K.R. Dr.S.D.K.Roberts Croydon; C.H.S. C.H.Stay St.Albans; C.J.S. C.J.Stewart Peterborough; F.N.S. F.N.Stickland Redbridge; R.E.T. R.E.Turner St.Albans