NEARNESS TO JESUS
Isaiah 53:3; Mark 15:33,34; John 17:24;
These scriptures show us what the Lord Jesus desires for us, especially where we read in John. He desires that His own might be with Him. In the gospel, we learn how Jesus would draw near to us in our need. He is seeking to secure persons so that He might have them for Himself, for the gospel is not a stoical matter – divine feelings are involved in its proclamation. The Lord Jesus would speak to you so that, first of all, your needs might be met. He is the only One who can meet every need; there is nothing that He is unable to resolve in the course of a person’s history, nothing is beyond His power, and He would serve us in relation to our needs. But then Jesus also desires that you might be secured for Himself. The scripture in John brings that out, that He wanted His own to be with Him. He desires the company of persons. It is a wonderful thing to think that all He has done is in order that you might be secured for Him and that you might be kept near Him. The scripture that we read in Thessalonians shows us that this will be the case at that wonderful moment when He will come for His own. The dead in Christ rising first, then the living who are His – the Lord Jesus will act Himself and gather all His own to Himself and we shall be with Him for ever. What a moment that will be for Him. Those of us who love Him look forward to that. It will be a wonderful moment for us, but think of what it will be for Him. Every one through the whole course of time who has been secured through faith – He will gather them all, and they will be with Himself. What a moment that will be for Him!
These first two scriptures show us that the Lord Jesus knew what it was to be alone. That should affect us. He desires to secure us and to bring us to know His grace and blessing, the experience of nearness with Himself, but first He has known what it was to be alone. The prophetic scripture I read in Isaiah is an affecting one because it speaks in so much detail of the particular nature of what the Lord Jesus endured. As you go through it in its detail – written so many years before Christ came – the prophet speaks of One of whom it could be said, “He is despised and left alone of men”. Who is the prophet speaking about? These words speak of Jesus and none other, the Saviour whom we preach now, who is seeking to draw near to you in love. Think of His loving heart as He takes account of each one. He desires your company, dear friend, He desires to secure you for Himself. But the prophet speaks of Him as being “despised and left alone of men”. That should affect us.
There are many other scriptures we could have read. It speaks of Him coming to His own and not being received by them (John 1:11). Think of the Lord Jesus coming down from the heights of glory, coming down to this earth, and being found amongst men – the wonder of it! God manifest in flesh, the wonder of the universe, as the hymn says (Hymn 400). God came into the world in the person of our Lord Jesus. What was the reception that was given Him, this One who was God Himself but found amongst men? It says, “He is despised and left alone of men”. The life of Jesus was in many ways a lonely life. He had His disciples, those who were with Him in His public service, a little company of those who could say, “we have contemplated his glory”, John 1:14. There were other individuals who had light from God as to the greatness of the One who had come in, the Messiah found amongst His own, but “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. All the prophets had spoken of Him, but He was despised. Think of men despising the Lord Jesus; that was what He endured in His life here. We sang of it:
‘No eye was found to pity,
No heart to bear Thy woe,
But shame, and scorn, and spitting:
None cared Thy name to know.’ (Hymn 190).
What that must have meant to His own heart. Very few cared to know His name, and yet He was available to all. Jesus came into the synagogue and announced that He was anointed to preach glad tidings (Luke 4:18). The fulness of God’s heart of love was to be spoken of by this One to poor sinful man under bondage, to those who were broken-hearted. The Lord Jesus came and He served in love in order that men might be delivered from the burden and the bondage of sin that Satan held them in. What a pathway was Christ’s.
And yet, as far as most were concerned, He was left alone; they chose not to have Him. They took account of Him in all His gracious goodness and yet they rejected Him, and the Lord Jesus felt that. We do not like to be left alone, but the Lord Jesus experienced the reality of that. There was no response from most; generally, men despised Him, even those who should have known better. We had that scripture recently, “In the last, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried” (John 7:37); think of the Pharisees and the Jews going busily about their feast in Jerusalem, and there was the Saviour among them. It speaks of Jesus crying out, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink”. There was no answer from the leaders of His own people of Israel, who should have known better. The feelings of the Saviour were expressed but were not answered, not even by His own nation! There were a few who loved Him out of true hearts, but they were not equal for it when He told them what would happen to Him, what it would involve in going the way He did. Peter said, “this shall in no wise be unto thee” Matt.16:22. Jesus was alone in accomplishing the will of God. There was no one who could be with Him in that matter. It says prophetically that He looked for sympathy from others, for anything that was in accord with His own mind (Ps.69:20), but there was no one equal to it. Jesus truly knew what it was to be left alone by men.
But then Mark’s gospel speaks of the Lord Jesus being forsaken by God. We often speak of this. How we are to be affected by what scripture tells us. He spoke to His loved ones of their being scattered, and said that He would be left alone “and yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me”, John 16:32. Think of how that had sustained Him in His pathway. Despite the indifference of man, He had the Father with Him, He was in the enjoyment of pleasant communion. He could say prophetically, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isa.50:4. We often read of the Lord Jesus retiring in prayer; that was His recourse. He spent the whole night in prayer at one point, for that was what sustained Him. We read too of Him in the garden of Gethsemane where Satan assailed Him and brought before Him the anticipation of the awfulness of all He was about to endure, but He overcame Satan and spoke to His Father, for His Father was His resource. But this cry of anguish, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” tells of how on the cross, He was left alone by God.
You wonder at what His feelings were as being left alone by men, but think of all that was expressed in this cry of utter anguish, a cry of desolation, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. Jesus had enjoyed such precious communion with His Father, but now He was forsaken by His God for those three hours. That was endured in order that the gospel might be preached. There can be no blessing for me, no salvation, unless I know why this cry was uttered. It was uttered because the One who knew not sin was made sin (2 Cor.5:21). We are so familiar with sin; we do not have to look around to see it, for we know what it is within us. But although Jesus knew not sin, He was made sin – something that we should think about deeply, although we will never penetrate the awfulness of what it meant to the Lord Jesus to be made sin and as such to be forsaken by God, left alone by God, for these three hours. He was the object of God’s delight during His life here, the love of His Father for Him had been expressed: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matt.17:5. That was said of the One who had said, “I have glorified thee on the earth” (John 17:4); what an Object He was for the heart of God as the Father took account of that One who had done His will. Then Jesus was left alone of God, forsaken. As has been said, ‘all was dark, without one ray of light even from God’2.
That is what was endured by the Lord Jesus to bring about the salvation of all who have faith in Him. It was no light matter! Sin and sins have not been resolved without tremendous cost; it was a matter of untold suffering, untold anguish. Think of the greatness of the One who could say, “Thy sins are forgiven … Rise up and walk” (Matt.9:5), but these words anticipated the great work that Jesus would accomplish on the cross on behalf of sinners such as us. Think of the Lord Jesus uttering that cry at Calvary “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. It should move us in our hearts, so that each of us, I trust, can say why it was that Jesus was forsaken. We must have an absolute conviction that He was there for me. He took on Himself the whole question of sin; He was made sin. “Him who knew not sin” was “made sin for us” (2 Cor.5:21), and as such, He was forsaken by God. But we know that was for these three hours, for after that awful time, as Jesus delivered up His spirit, He committed it to His Father: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”, Luke 23:46. That precious communion was restored and He could speak thus to His Father. The whole question of sin had been judged, sins atoned for. Jesus was placed in the tomb, representing the taking away from before the sight of God the whole order of sinful man according to nature. But He rose again, and as out of death He desires that those who believe in Him should be with Him. It is a very precious thought. He desires His own to be near to Him.
I wonder if we all have a sense that He desires us to be here for Him in this world which is opposed to Him while He is absent. That is what we have been left here for. Sometimes we do not feel that we have the power, but we are given the power; the Holy Spirit is the power to be here faithful to Him. It is a precious thing to take up our path in testimony to Him, but then He desires that we should be with Him. The scripture we read says, “as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me”. That no doubt refers to the coming day when He will have all His own with Him, but we can all have some sense of being near to Jesus. I think we would know if we had this experience because we would want to enjoy more of it. We may sometimes take account of others who clearly have a joy, a peace in their links with the Lord Jesus, and that comes from being in nearness to Him.
So He says, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory”. There is opportunity for believers to be with Him and to behold His glory. He is no longer the Man of sorrows; that path of sorrow and suffering in which He was left alone and despised of men is finished; He is a Man of glory now. He is set at God’s right hand and He has been given all glory and honour, and He says, as it were, I want them to be with me so they can see it. The desire of the Lord Jesus is that we might enjoy His company. That is something very precious for us, that those who love Him should be with Him in their spirits: it is how we can be sustained in this waiting time until we are actually with Him. We can be maintained in the current enjoyment of having part with Him now. That is what we did this morning when we remembered Him, for the Lord’s supper is a very special occasion and one precious to His own heart. He comes to His own; His desire is not to be alone. He will never be alone again, He has His own with Him, and what a precious thing that is. How precious it is to be a true lover of the Lord Jesus and for us to have our enjoyment in that.
I just touch on Thessalonians. It says, “the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God …”. He does not send any other. It has often been said that it is He Himself who will call His own. Think of that assembling shout – all those who will hear it, those who have died in faith, will rise when they hear that voice. Think of them lying dead for hundreds, and for some, thousands of years; there will soon be the Lord’s assembling shout and they will hear it. The dead in Christ rising first, then “we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”. That is a very blessed prospect for believers in the time of His absence, to think of when we shall see Him and always be with Him. This is the time of faith – we see by faith, we understand divine things through faith. The scripture says that faith is “the conviction of things not seen” (Heb.11:1), but then we will actually see Him and when we see Him we will be like Jesus, for we will be given a body of glory like His own (Phil.3:21). That will be His last act of salvation. The bodies in which we are – bodies in which sin has been known, bodies of weakness and humiliation – will be transformed “into conformity to his body of glory” and we shall always be with Him, never to go out again. That will be very precious for us, but what it will be for Him! We often think of the blessings we receive in accepting the gospel from our own side, and they are very precious. Acceptance of the gospel in repentance and faith, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us everything we need. Forgiveness and salvation, and many other wonderful blessings, are enjoyed by the believer through the precious finished work of Jesus and His blood shed for us, but the object of it is that there are those whom He can call His own and His desire is that they might be with Him.
The Lord Jesus is waiting for that time, He is waiting for the Father’s word when He will come and claim every one who is His. The question is, Will you be among them? Those who have been bought by His precious blood, the whole redeemed company, have been secured for Him and will be with Him then. I trust that is the hope of every one here. In the circumstances that we are in now, we prove His love and we can experience Him drawing near to us, but then we will actually be with Him. What a precious thing it is that He will have all His own for Himself for ever. Wonderful!
This is my simple impression, that the Lord Jesus has desires for each one of us personally. We may sometimes ask, Me – really? But yes, that is the greatness of the gospel, that Jesus has desires in relation to individuals. He desires your company. May we all just ponder it and have to do with Him, the Saviour and Lord who is so available, and have the precious experience of being in His company, for His name’s sake.
Preaching of the gospel, Buckhurst Hill
23 May 2021
Robert Webster