EXTRACT

In John 14, the Lord was about to die. John says much more than others about what the Lord said, what we could call His dying words. His dying commandments, for they were that. Moses and Elias met Him on the mount and they spoke about His departure, “his decease which he should accomplish in Jerusalem”. In truth it was a question of His dying; He came down from the mount to die. He went up to be transfigured, but when the transfiguration was over He was just seen as He was; “Jesus alone with themselves”, the apostles and Himself. He came down from the mount to die. That was what Moses and Elias were speaking of. They spoke of Him, they spoke to Him; showing how honoured they were, for He was coming down to die, and, dear brethren, that is what we think of at the Lord’s supper. “This is my body, which is for you”, not His body in glory, but His body in which He died. His death is in mind, when He says, “which is for you”. It is the communion of it, the portion we have together in the Lord as having died. Then He goes on to speak about being remembered, called to mind; that is not in His death, it is in His present state above; that is to say, He is not to be forgotten. The Lord’s supper, the memorial side of it, is to keep us from forgetting the Lord, for we are apt to do that. He says, ‘This do for the calling of me to mind’; the departed One, the absent One, the glorious One, but nevertheless the One that so many have forgotten, whom so many do not care about. Thus it was of old. “As for this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him”. It was a small matter to them, but I hope it is not a small matter to anybody here. Do we miss the Lord? He is coming back, of course. He has been away for hundreds of years. What has He been doing? What is He now doing? Israel is not being saved, nor the nations being gathered.

There is indeed the gathering together of the children of God; that is what is going on, dear brethren.

J. Taylor (Vol. 60, pp.224, 225)

Edited and Published by J. Strachan, 59 Frederick Street, Dundee, DD3 9DE, Scotland Printed by Crystal Stationery, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ, (T) (01277) 650661