NEARNESS TO BE ENJOYED IN THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 239] NEARNESS TO BE ENJOYED IN THE ASSEMBLY
I read this scripture having in mind to say a word that would further the spiritual movements that have been suggested to us during the past few days, and to encourage us in regard of those things which would make our place of association with Christ a very great reality to us.
We thankfully accept as divine light what has been made known to us, and no doubt hold it as a matter of faith, but the Lord would exercise our hearts that we might have it more consciously in a sense of personal nearness to Him. I have in mind the sense of nearness that can be enjoyed in the assembly. It is most important that we should understand that our relations with Christ are on the footing that He has entered into His glory.
His sufferings and death were a deep divine necessity; indeed, He says here, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things ... ?” His sufferings and death were a divine necessity, as we all recognise. But there is no suffering Christ now. There is no dead Christ now, either on the cross or in the grave. He was there in His matchless love, and it touches and captivates our hearts to know that He was there, but the assembly does not know Him there. That is, the relations of the assembly are not with Him as on the cross or in the grave; our associations are with Him as having entered into His glory. The consideration of this is of deepest moment to us.
The Lord has been in conditions of humiliation. When He was here in His precious, holy life, it was not a time of glory, but of humiliation. For the glory of God He was here in suffering manhood, and this is precious and profound beyond compare. It touches and wins our hearts. Yet we [p. 240] need to know with personal affection that our links are with Christ as having entered into His glory. The eyes of the disciples were holden so as not to know Him. Often it is thus with us. We may have precious ministry which makes our hearts glow within us; we may enjoy the Scriptures, and being together, and the breaking of bread — we may have all that, and yet no personal recognition of Himself as near to us. But He wants us to enter into this, and particularly in the assembly.
The Lord’s supper is intended to prepare us for a manifestation of Himself. He said, “This do in remembrance of me”, or, ‘for the calling of me to mind’. If He is called to mind, the mind of the assembly is filled with Himself. Such a company would be very attractive to the Lord. He would be moved to come to us. We can hardly think of His coming to a company that was not attractive to Him.
In Luke 24 we see the service of the Lord in grace to educate and adjust disciples, so that they might be prepared for a manifestation. They were not ready when He joined them, their eyes were holden. No manifestation is given except to those prepared for it. He went over the whole scope of the Scriptures in reference to Himself, and so moved their hearts. They had known Him as in death, and their hearts were very sad, though they need not have been.
The Scriptures and His own words would have kept them from being downcast. Mary of Bethany was not with them, and I can hardly think that she was downcast, for she had learned Him as the resurrection and the life. They were out of the secret, and how often we are out of the secret of God’s mind. But He ministered to them until their whole hearts wished to have it. He warms our hearts so that we want Himself. Do we want Himself? It is precious to hear of Him and His glory, but all is granted that we should want Himself. “It is I myself” — that is what He wants to bring us to. Hearts that want Him will get Him, and the moment was reached when He sat down at their table and the blessed touch was given to them that manifested Himself to them.
[p. 241] When the Lord took the bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them, they recognised Him. It was not now facts about Him, but Himself. The bread He broke represented the new condition into which He had come through death. It is death viewed from that standpoint; that is, as His way into His glory. The fact that He broke the bread and put it into their hands suggested a new condition of manhood into which He had entered through death, and His giving it into their hands suggested that they were to have part in that kind of humanity. Whether they be few or many, there are moments in privilege and blessing when we realise that we have part in His risen life, we are of that order of humanity into which He entered in resurrection. His giving the bread to them was an indication that they were to partake of the same order of life in which He was as risen. The other disciples were confounded and frightened when He came, but I can hardly think that those two were affrighted.
They had learnt the wondrous lesson that they had a part with Him in the new order of humanity in which He was as the risen One. It is a sorrowful thing that thousands of lovers of Christ have never learnt this lesson. They think of His life on earth and of His death as making atonement, and they believe in the fact of His resurrection, but Himself as risen they do not know, still less that they have part in His life as risen. But He comes to His own to give us consciousness that we are of His order of manhood, and that we can be near to Him without the slightest sense of disparity.
His disappearing from the two disciples was as much as to say, ‘If you want more of Me, you must find it at Jerusalem’. And so He gives us personal touches in order to bring us to the assembly — He makes His saints conscious that they have part in His life, and so are suitable to be led into all those thoughts of divine love that are known in the assembly.
We may enjoy ministry, but something more than that is needed to satisfy the heart of Christ. It is the consciousness of His personal nearness, so that He is known by those who have part in His own life.