MAN (30)
MAN (30)
JTJr In the beginning of this chapter we see how the Lord had to do with the devil; the temptations show how He met him. We shall see also how He brought Peter into service, first having to do with his house, and then in his boat. In the Lord’s own life every contrary element was met. It says, “But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, tempted of the devil”, and then it says in verse 14, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee”.
ABP Would you say that the expression, “full of the Holy Spirit” was characteristic of Jesus? It was not necessary for Him to be filled by the Spirit, was it?
JTJr No; it would be characteristic of Him. I suppose, however, that there is a pattern in this for us, for all the way down in the history of the testimony the devil has had to be contended with.
AR He never met this kind of Man before. It says, “But Jesus ...”; this kind of Man had never been seen on earth before. After passing through all the temptations, it says, in verse 14, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee”. The same character of power is seen at the end of this experience as at the beginning.
TNW Is it right to stress manhood here? His deity is not in evidence although, of course, it is there.
JTJr He is a divine Person, of course, but in that He says, “Man shall not live by bread alone”, it is evident that His manhood is particularly in mind. It says, in verse 2, “In those days he did not eat anything”. That is, He was deprived of what ordinarily supports man, which He truly was.
CAM The Lord said, “The ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”, John 14:30. There was nothing in that holy Person that Satan could take advantage of.
JTJr Quite so, “in me he has nothing”, whereas in ourselves there may be something that he can use.
CAM It is a marvellous thing, is it not, that He alone went through this entire testing.
EEH It was after man had failed that God said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”, Genesis 3:19. The Lord Jesus indicates here that bread is not the only food for life. It is in dependence upon God, and in obedience to His will, is it not?
JTJr Yes, He says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”.
EEH Man failed initially in not adhering to the word of God, but the Lord Jesus links life with “every word of God”.
FNW Why did not the Lord eat in those days?
JTJr Well, I suppose it was to show that He was able to fast; it was for forty days; it was a very extended period, involving, I suppose, a complete test in the natural sense; the Lord was a real Man, and it says that He was tempted of the devil. It was a complete test — “forty days, tempted of the devil”.
ANW It can be said that while the enemy does not know everything, he did know that Jesus was hungry; he seized that moment to make the attack.
JTJr You mean that he would attack Him when He was weak?
ANW Well, I thought so; making the test more difficult but perfect in its result. Jesus hungered, and the devil says, “If thou be Son of God, speak to this stone, that it become bread”. The Lord could have done this, but how beautiful the answer, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”.
JTJr It says, in verse 13, “The devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time”. It would bring out the fulness of the temptation.
FHL This first great test evidently was to see if Jesus could be taken out of the path of dependent manhood. If He used His power to relieve His need, He would be taking Himself out of that pathway.
JTJr He did not take Himself out of the path of God’s will. It says that He “was led by the Spirit in the wilderness forty days”. It is the thought of manhood, I suppose, that man should be led by the Spirit.
JHE It says in Romans, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” Romans 8:14. Satan said, “If thou be Son of God”.
JTJr His sonship, therefore, hinged upon His manhood, for immediately the Lord says, “Man shall not live by bread alone”.
LW In the Lord’s being full of the Holy Spirit, there was nothing that had to be displaced. With us there is that which does have to be displaced.
JTJr Well, I suppose that is what is in mind in the reference to Simon Peter in chapter 5. He needed to be adjusted. And we have to be adjusted in relation to this great matter of manhood; while we are men and women, in the ordinary sense, we need to come to God’s great thought as to man, as the Lord emphasised here: “Man shall not live by bread alone”.
Rem The Lord is the great Model for us in the way He does everything, for all His replies are from the word of God.
ANW The Lord would not be diverted from Deuteronomy. The enemy quoted from the Psalms, but the Lord again quoted from [p. 471] Deuteronomy.
ABP Is it not noteworthy that when Satan says, “It is written”, the Lord says, “It is said”? Would that not bring in the spoken word?
JTJr Well, I suppose the force is the same; both have divine authority.
ABP I thought there was a link with man living by God’s words. It says in Matthew 4:4, “By every word which goes out through God’s mouth”, Matthew 4:4 as though it is a current matter. That would be fresh speaking.
JTJr Yes; but based upon Scripture. Therefore the great need of the Scriptures, “It is written”.
JHE The fact that we are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit implies that we are not filled, and it means that we have first to be emptied.
JTJr Well, we do need to be emptied, and I think Peter comes to that in chapter 5, but what comes out first of all is the devil’s activities and they have been going on all the way down in history. He was especially active in regard to the Lord at this point, and then it says that he departed from Him for a time. He was to return again; evidently he returned to bring the power of death to bear on the Lord’s spirit in Gethsemane. The enemy is busy all the time; he is against the testimony. The Lord is in heaven now, and the enemy is against the testimony, but the Spirit is able for all these things; it is a question of the Spirit now. It says that Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.
DMacd You mentioned that the Spirit is able to meet Satan’s efforts. Do we see that in Acts 13? It says, “Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixing his eyes upon him, said, O full of all deceit and all craft: son of the devil”, Acts 13:9,10.
JTJr Yes; Satan was using a man to obstruct the testimony and to obstruct Paul in his ministry, but the Spirit is able for these things. The Spirit of [p. 472] God is here in the assembly, therefore the enemy will not succeed.
AR Do the first fifteen verses of our chapter bear on the power of the Spirit inwardly? The chapter begins with “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit” — and in verse 14, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee”. But verse 18 says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. That would be external — the anointing.
JTJr Quite; so that the testimony comes out now; the devil has been met; he was not able to stand before the Lord — he “departed from him” and the Lord immediately began His wonderful service in the gospel. So it says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”, That would be the outward expression of power; the first part of the chapter deals with inward power in the Lord, in the wilderness; but here, when it is a question of testimony, He is anointed. “He has anointed me to preach”. The power of the Spirit is in evidence in a formal outward way, in the testimony.
Ques Is it important to observe that the test came before the service?
JTJr Quite so; the Lord was tested supremely here but, as has been remarked, He “returned in the power of the Spirit”.
DP Did the enemy realise that there is a Man on the scene that he could not overcome?
JTJr That was so; there was a Man on the scene that Satan could not overcome; I think what corresponds to that now is the assembly. The gates of hades shall not prevail against it; the Spirit is in the assembly.
Rem And so in Revelation 12, the dragon did not overcome the woman (figurative of Israel): “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth”, Revelation 12:16.
ABP The Lord’s own words in relation to the temptation were, “Unless first he bind the strong man”, Matthew 12:29. It was more than Satan not being able to overcome, but He overcame Satan.
JTJr I would say that; it says, “And the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time”.
EAL What would you say about the three positions given here: first as to the bread, then being taken up into a high mountain, and finally to the edge of the temple?
JTJr I suppose it is to bring out that the Lord has been “tempted in all things in like manner” Hebrews 4:15 as we are. The Spirit can bring us through, but we must acknowledge our own weakness. The Lord was in complete victory.
Ques Was the victory also seen in Stephen? In Acts 7 he is full of faith and the Holy Spirit.
JTJr He was martyred, of course; he gave his life in the testimony.
FNW Would there be, in these forty days of temptation, a testimony to the Lord’s personal power over Satan, and would the forty days after His resurrection be a testimony to the power that is here in the testimony in virtue of His resurrection?
JTJr Well, the forty days after His resurrection were to establish the disciples in the pathway, to assure them that He was risen from the dead and was going into heaven; so that they would know Him in resurrection life. But here He is seen as meeting the power of the devil, which is what we must face, also.
AR The disciples were instructed to wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit came down.
JTJr Quite so, the Spirit came down and He is here now. We should be encouraged by the fact that the Lord Jesus is in heaven but the Spirit is [p. 474] here; the Spirit of God is here and He is able to meet every situation that the devil might bring up.
ANW The Lord did not meet the devil in the exercise of His deity, if I may say so, but as Man; so that He defeated him in the power of the Spirit and by the use of the Scriptures.
JTJr Is not this then a pattern for us, the Spirit of God being here?
FHL The enemy misused the Scriptures. This is being done today, in principle, in regard to the ministry. Letters have been written in certain places trying to undermine the truth.
SCM The enemy would use Peter to rebuke the Lord when He spoke of going up to Jerusalem to die. The Lord said, “Get away behind me, Satan; thou art an offence to me, for thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men”, Matthew 16:23.
ABP Is it your thought that the temptations suggest that we, in our private lives, are to be dependent upon the Spirit of God that we may overcome Satan’s temptations in order to be free for service?
JTJr That is what I thought. The Lord gives us that lead as led by the Spirit. He was full of the Holy Spirit, and then His ministry was in power. The ministry is seen in verses 17 - 19, where it says, “And the book of the prophet Esaias was given to him; and having unrolled the book he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor; he has sent me to preach to captives deliverance”. That is a great thought — to preach to captives deliverance; “and to the blind sight, to send forth the crushed delivered”. These things were in the Lord’s mind, for He was to do them in His ministry and service. And then, finally, “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord”.
ABP [p. 475] So that effectual service flows out of walking in the Spirit in our ordinary lives. Then we can use the Scriptures, as led by the Spirit, and be able to say, “To-day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears”. The Spirit must be wholly free in us to get a distinct word which has its direct bearing at a given time.
JTJr I think that is good; the scripture is fulfilled. The meetings that we have would make way for the Scriptures, for we have them in our hands as the Lord did, and as the Spirit is free He opens them up to us.
FNW “The word that I covenanted with you ... and my Spirit, remain among you: fear ye not”, Haggai 2:5.
JTJr “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”, Zechariah 4: 6.
Rem “Subject yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”, James 4:7. There is the thought of victory in that.
JTJr Yes; resist the devil and he will flee.
TNW Can we do that on the basis that the Lord Jesus has taken away his panoply in which he trusted? That is an accomplished matter, is it not?
JTJr Quite so; and what the Lord accomplished here in His life is now, in a sense, to be continued in the assembly; we see things accomplished through Paul; there is fulfilled responsibility. Responsibility was fulfilled in persons spoken of in the Acts and responsibility is to be fulfilled in us, too. “The righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us”, Romans 8:4. The Spirit of God is here and we should see that things to be done are fulfilled, and needs amongst us met.
ABP When the seven sons of Sceva attempted to use the name of Jesus the wicked spirit said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with; but ye, who are ye?” Acts 19:15. What we see [p. 476] in the Lord Jesus is carried into christianity by Paul, in measure.
JTJr And also the passage referred to, in Acts 13, tells us how Paul met the man who opposed the word of God: “O full of all deceit and all craft: son of the devil, enemy of an righteousness”, Acts 13:10. Paul met him in the power of the Spirit, for he was “filled with the Holy Spirit”.
Ques It says in Ephesians, “We are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them” Ephesians 2:10. Do we see here the works which were before prepared?
JTJr Quite so; they came out in Christ; “God has before prepared” them. Now we are to walk in them.
AR In verse 33 of our chapter the Lord deals with a man with an unclean demon. I was wondering if this bears on what man’s condition is as under Satan’s domination.
JTJr Do you not think that what is stressed is the power there was in Jesus to deal with the case?
AR I was wondering about that; the power to clear the scene of Satan’s domination of man.
JTJr The chapter shows how the Lord met the devil’s power in the wilderness, in the mountain, and in Jerusalem. The whole matter is settled, really, in that Satan was defeated. Healing the man with an unclean demon would be but a matter of detail. The man needed to be delivered and the power was there in Christ to deal with the unclean spirit.
AR So that verse 36 says, “What word is this? for with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out”. That power has not been diminished, has it?
JTJr So that the whole matter is that there is power to deal with everything that may arise. That [p. 477] is what we are to understand now, for as we get on to the end of the dispensation, the power against us may increase. We do not know what form it may take, but there is power here, in the Spirit, that is able to deal with it. There is the One who restrains.
ANW Whether in the case of the demon-possessed man or the bad fever in Peter’s house, the power is there to deal with it.
JTJr Yes.
AR Have you something in mind about Simon’s house? It says, “And rising up out of the synagogue, he entered into the house of Simon. But Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering under a bad fever” (chapter 4:38).
JTJr Well; I thought we should see how Peter comes into the service. The Lord’s service is before us here, but Peter is to be brought into it. The Lord went into Simon’s house, as He might do in any one of our houses. The Lord is able to enter a house and deal with conditions in it. There is no question but that the thing was dealt with; “He rebuked the fever, and it left her”. It was dealt with.
AR How would the Lord enter a house today?
JTJr We cannot limit the Lord in what He will do, and the fact that He has gone up into heaven does not limit Him. But then, there is the question of the Spirit. The Lord is in heaven but the Spirit is here.
AR Would you look for such a feverish condition to be checked in our houses?
JTJr I believe the thought in the chapter is that there is power to deal with everything. The Lord’s power was able to meet all that was in the devil, in unclean spirits, and even in the houses of the saints. But then there has been power with the ministers who have brought out the truth; power to deal with the enemy [p. 478] in what he is doing.
AR What about Peter’s mother-in-law?
JTJr Well, it is mother-in-law position, but the point is that there was fever there.
EEH Luke 4 treats of what was in Peter’s house, but chapter 5 deals with Peter personally. His house was adjusted, but he needed a personal adjustment.
JTJr Yes.
RCP Would Peter’s mother-in-law be one of the crushed persons sent forth delivered?
JTJr She was in a condition from which she needed deliverance. The Lord had read, “To send forth the crushed delivered”. She was one who needed deliverance.
FNW It says, “And forthwith standing up she served them”. It was as though the Lord’s service to persons was that they should become serviceable. Paul says of Onesimus, “Once unserviceable to thee, but now serviceable to thee and to me”, Philemon 11.
ANW The matter of the demon was a synagogue matter, but this bad fever was a household matter.
AP Does the fever suggest Satan’s work?
JTJr Whatever the cause, she was suffering.
Ques Would this bad fever interfere with Peter’s ministry?
JTJr Well, I think it might; it is a question of how the Lord dealt with it. “They asked him for her”.
SCM We are told that the Lord came to undo the works of the devil. This would be detail work; at the cross He dealt with sin in its totality, but it has to be undone in detail in us.
JTJr So that in every matter that comes up there is power by the Spirit of God to deal with it.
FHL If conditions are not right in a meeting we might trace the thing and find that conditions are [p. 479] not right in households.
JTJr Quite so.
ABP In the epistles the reference to those who are suited to have part in service brings in their households; it is a moral principle, that in view of liberation in service, households must be right.
JTJr The Lord is able to deal with everything. I think this passage would give us the clue in that it says, “They asked him for her”.
Rem About eleven times in Luke’s gospel it is stated that the Lord entered into someone’s house.
JTJr That would confirm what has been said as to the importance of our houses in relation to the testimony.
AN W. It says that Jesus rebuked the fever. He did not rebuke Simon’s mother-in-law; he rebuked the condition.
JTJr Yes; that needed to be dealt with; it is that the person might be saved. Jesus stood over her; it was direct contact and it was successful. It would involve deliverance, I suppose. We may have been delivered from the world and be positionally right, but still need to be delivered from ourselves. The man in Romans 7 said, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 7:24,25.
TEH According to Matthew’s narrative, He “touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and served him” Matthew 8:15. Our chapter suggests that the brethren are to be served.
ABP With respect to the disciples asking Jesus for Simon’s mother-in-law, do you mean that we should be concerned about the prosperity of the testimony to the extent that disturbing matters in households should become the subject of [p. 480] collective prayer?
JTJr I think we should find that the Lord would come in for us if we laid such matters before Him. The radio matter was a great concern, but the Lord has helped us; and He will help us in other matters, too. Moral issues are in mind and if we pray about them the Lord will come in. And so it says here, “Standing over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her”. It is a matter of what the Lord will do in such cases.
CAM I think it is a very important matter that is being stressed; it was the Lord personally in the gospels, but with the Spirit here it is a matter of what is of Himself functioning in the saints..
JTJr Quite so; the Spirit helps us in these matters; and He will help us; He will adjust conditions as we humble ourselves before Him and bring Him into our exercises.
CAM There is liable to be a tendency with many to make their experience the great matter in the gospels; but Christ personally is the theme of the gospels, and when we realise that that life is being reproduced in the saints it brings to light a mighty power that is here and available either to enter into a house or whatever the need may be.
JTJr Well, we should think of the Spirit being amongst us and how He will lead us as He led the Lord, as it says, “Jesus ... was led by the Spirit in the wilderness”. That seems to be a pattern, to show how we are to be led in matters which come up amongst us. So that it is a question of the Spirit, and how He will act, as under the Lord, for the whole system is in mind; the Lord is in heaven and the Spirit is here, and the assembly is here, Thus the gates of hades shall not prevail against the assembly.
Rem Your allusion to the whole system is helpful, It says, in Zechariah 3:2, “And Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan! Yea, Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee!”, Zechariah 3:2.
[p. 481] And then, later, in chapter 4:6, it says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”, Zechariah 4:6.