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WATCHFULNESS DURING THE LORD’S ABSENCE

P. S. Chareyre

I have in mind the connection which exists, I think, between the directions given by the Lord Jesus in view of the time of His absence, and the directions given by the beloved apostle Paul as he was contemplating his own departure. So what I have to say is very simple. The Lord set the necessity of watching as a characteristic mark on the time of His absence. He was going to leave His own, and the prospect that He left for them was His return. That has been the prospect for the assembly, and is the prospect for us who really have the sense that His return is very near.

Thus the Lord is looking right on to the moment of His coming. As has often been said, nothing in the Lord’s words made it foreseeable that there would be long centuries of waiting.

What mattered for the disciples was to be ready for His return, “lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping”. But experience has shown us that diligence in watching, besides being important in order to be able to welcome the Lord on His return, has been just as important in just the same way during the long time of His absence. That is why, in the parable of the darnel of the field, the Lord says, “while men slept”, and we know that that is what happened—men slept, and the enemy took advantage of that to sow darnel, in such a way that we now have the proof that there has not been the watching. So, beloved brethren, I think that ought to make our hearts extremely sensitive to the necessity of watching.

The Lord therefore says, Watch, because I am coming back, so that you may be ready for the moment of My coming; and on our side, if we consider the history, we see that much evil results from the lack of watching. Everyone who has a few years’ experience of life with the Lord knows, does he not, how often, in our personal history or our assembly history, what has dishonoured the Lord has been the consequence of not having watched as we ought to have done because of all that comes up continually.

We move forward with the truth. Today we have been considering the wonderful and blessed attraction of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have been able to see how God’s pleasure is in the simplicity of hearts that give Him a place, in however small an expression of the local assembly it may be, as suggested by the tent of David. Think of the fragility of a tent, this symbol of a local assembly in extreme simplicity such a fragile structure—if we do not watch; what will happen? The tent will be quickly swept away—how quickly! So the Lord says; “Watch”; and that puts each one of us to the test; at every moment, in every phase of our individual, household, and assembly life.

Peter had understood the Lord’s direction, had he not? He closes his First Epistle by bringing it before the brethren—“Be vigilant, watch”; he says. “Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walks about ...” No doubt that would be particularly related to our personal experience.

Beloved young brothers and sisters, think about this comparison, a roaring lion prowling around you! It is very impressive; we do not want to frighten one another, but that is what the Scriptures say; that is what the Holy Spirit says—“Be vigilant, watch. Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walks

about seeking whom he may devour”. If he finds someone that he can devour, he will. But by God’s grace believers are in safe hands—“No one shall seize them out of my hand” (John 10: 28); and “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4: 4.

However, the scripture says, “Watch”. Divine protection is guaranteed to those who watch; Christian privileges and the grace of the dispensation are available to those who watch. We have been occupied with David—a remarkable history, which shows us how that which belongs to the order of man of God’s pleasure coexists with failures as regards responsibility, and all the consequences that flow out of that; not only the immediate consequences of a fall, but the solemn course of God’s government, under which we all find ourselves and to which we are a testimony. It was said long ago that if we are a testimony to anything we are a testimony to the ruin of the church. But how right it would be now, I think, to add that we are a testimony to the government of God. Thus David is a very instructive figure, who teaches us how the believer can walk in a path of integrity while under the government of God. But then the warning remains—“Watch”. How appropriate it was for David!

As we know, the Lord emphasized the importance of watching. He did not speak about it as an incidental matter. In chapter 12 of Luke’s gospel particularly, He enlarges on this subject at length; then in the garden He passes the disciples through the experience of the thing and says to Peter, “Thus ye have not been able to watch one hour with me?” Matthew 26: 40.

Clearly this establishes the utter weakness of the flesh. We say the Lord knew very well that it would be so, that Peter would not be able to watch—the Lord did know; yet He raises the question with Peter. I think we must take

heed to this, because with each one of us the Lord raises questions that expose our powerlessness. But then there is the Spirit, and you certainly cannot answer to the injunction to watch in any other way than by the Spirit.

Therefore the Lord enlarges on the matter at length, and in the passage I read, in Mark He says—“But what I say to you, I say to all, Watch”. According to Luke’s account, Peter had asked, “Lord, sayest thou this parable to us, or also to all?” (Luke 12: 41), and the Lord did not give a direct answer, but took the opportunity of presenting the responsibility that bears more particularly on certain persons—those on whom God has laid it. However, in the gospel of Mark the Lord says, “But what I say to you, I say to all, Watch”. So not one of us is exempt from this obligation; we must all watch, brothers and sisters. We all know, a little at least, by experience, how evil things get in because, just for a moment, we have not been watching. However, there is a measure of responsibility corresponding to the place that the Lord has assigned to each one, as He shows in Luke’s gospel; and in the same way as the apostle Paul attaches importance to this question, it seems to me that we too should recognise the importance of it.

When Paul felt the end of his service approaching, he had something special to say to the elders of Ephesus. Now we all know that Ephesus is the height of Paul’s ministry, the greatest outshining of the knowledge of God and His counsel and we desire to give a prime place to that truth. We should like it to be true of us that we have been recovered to Paul’s ministry, involving Ephesian light. We regard it as a precious treasure which has been given to us as our portion, and that is true, beloved brethren. In the

favourable environment that the Lord has secured in the days of the recovery it has been possible to develop the full truth of God’s purpose; and we cherish it, and we sorrow at the thought that many true believers, and devoted believers, in the midst of the profession, are missing this light. But let us see what Paul’s concerns about Ephesus are, when he sends for the elders. Of course he had not yet written his Epistle to the Ephesians, but no doubt there were among the saints there very good moral and spiritual conditions, on account of which he was able to address that epistle “to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus who are at Ephesus”

(Ephesians 1: 1, saying to them, “having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is in you, and the love which ye have towards all the saints” (Ephesians l: 15). Now how had Paul brought the Ephesians up to that level? That is what I particularly want to call our attention to. No doubt it was by presenting the truth to them; but he draws aside the veil in chapter 20

of the Acts. There we find first the exhortation given by the Lord Himself—“Wherefore watch”; then he goes on, “remembering that for three years, night and day, I ceased not admonishing each one of you with tears”. That is what Paul’s three years at Ephesus were. It particularly concerns those who carry responsibilities and those who serve among us; that is true. Although the obligation to watch is for all, we have there what is specific to those who carry a distinct responsibility in the assembly.

So think of Paul unfolding all the counsel of God to the Ephesians for three years, according to what he says from verse 19 onwards—“serving the Lord with all lowliness, and tears, and temptations, which happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I held back nothing of what is profitable, so as not to announce it to you, and to teach you publicly and in every house, testifying to both Jews

and Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”; then in verse 27—“For I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”. All the counsel of God had been announced at Ephesus, and that is what we should like to lay claim to in humility; we should not like to neglect any part of the counsel of God; we desire to stand in the light of all the counsel of God. But then remember that “for three years, night and day, I ceased not admonishing each one of you with tears”. Well, I think we are very weak in this regard. In this matter we have all failed—“admonishing each one ... with tears” according to the measure of our responsibility.

Paul certainly did not wait until someone went astray before he admonished. If he spent three years, night and day, admonishing the Ephesians, that means, I think, that he was constantly sitting beside them, in such a way that there was that link of confidence between him and them which made it possible to give warning of the slightest danger. We know how difficult it is to admonish—we need to be very near one another. Certainly we have not much capacity for doing it, and we must be very sober and not claim to admonish our brother when we are not able to do it in the Lord. However, Paul was exhorting these men to act as he had acted, to watch, so as to be a little like him, keeping continually close to the brethren, so that this tent structure, so fragile—this local assembly structure, so fragile—could be protected, because it greatly needs protection. This, I believe, is how we find the teaching of the Lord.

Jesus reflected in Paul’s way of acting with the elders of Ephesus. It is something like John 13, is it not? “If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them” (John 13: 17); “If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13: 14).

Well, may the Lord help us. I think things are as simple as that. By God’s grace we have the truth in our hands; we have it on our bookshelves; perhaps we have it in our heads a little, and we certainly have it in our hearts too. But then the Lord says to us, “Watch”, and the beloved apostle shows us how to watch. May we have it on our hearts to do it a little more diligently, now that we are reduced to such small numbers. To do it when the numbers are large needs a large capacity, which is perhaps well beyond every one of us. Now the Lord has reduced us to quite small numbers—I think they correspond to our measure, so as to make these things possible for us. If we know these things, blessed are we if we do them. May the Lord help us!

Address at Vevey (Translated from French)
11 August 1989

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