EDUCATION FOR THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 129] EDUCATION FOR THE ASSEMBLY
You can never find the church unless you see that Christ is rejected here. If He were not rejected He would be reigning; He is not reigning, but He is at God’s right hand, and this is proof of His rejection. God says to Him, “Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool”, Acts 2: 34, 35. Everything in christendom is got up to deceive you, as they are deceived. Men wish to make out that Christ is well received here; and so, if I walk down the street, I see numerous so-called places of worship, erected professedly in honour of Him. But Christ is rejected: He is disallowed of men. One interesting thing in connection with this is that His power is just as great after His rejection as it was before it. In this chapter (14) we see Herod, the Edomite, ruling in what was really Christ’s territory; and he puts John the baptist violently to death by beheading him. The Lord, when He heard of John’s death, did not need anyone to say to Him, You are going to be rejected, too. He goes away Himself into a desert place. If the King’s herald is murdered, what may the King Himself expect?
It has often been said that in these chapters the Lord is educating His disciples for the assembly - the new structure that He was about to set up on earth. In this chapter He feeds the multitude with the five loaves and two fishes, using His disciples as the administrators of His bountiful grace. Then He sends the disciples across the sea, while He goes on high to pray - His present place and service in intercession. Wind (Satan’s power) and waves (man’s power, as acted on by Satan) are contrary; and their own efforts are unavailing against the opposing elements - true picture of the relative position of Christ and His [p. 130] people all through the long dark night of His rejection. But He also comes to them. They are in the boat (a figure of the Jewish system really); but Peter, seeing the Lord as One supreme above all power (wind and waves), and having the affection for the Lord that would lead him out to face every difficulty, says - “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And ... he walked on the water, to go to Jesus”. Peter had the affection; we have the power. If you have the affection you will soon find out you have got the power. The Spirit is the power. We were seeing in the last reading that what characterises the christian is having the Spirit. A very good illustration may be found in the case of a nest of young fledglings. The mother bird hovers over the nest just sufficiently near to make the young ones wish to reach her. They begin to flutter, and find that they have not only the affection for the parent bird, but they have wings - the power - to rise to her. Depend on it, if you have the affection you will find you have the power. Christ is in an out-of-the-world condition, and the point is for us to reach Him there by the Spirit.
This chapter sets before us the value of knowing His priesthood - His present service for His own which are in the world. The One who has saved you, now Himself becomes endeared and indispensable to you. We have His sympathy, intercession, succour, salvation (see Hebrews 2: 18; 4: 15; 7: 25; also Romans 8: 34). Why were those disciples not swamped? How are saints upheld and comforted under the most pressing and crushing things such as are man’s common lot in this scene? Christ lives to make intercession for them! See how the truth of His priestly service comes out in connection with Peter in the moment of his need and infirmity (it is quite plain it was no question of sin). He had left every earthly and human thing on purpose to join the Lord, and though he failed, and [p. 131] though everything failed, yet he got near enough to the Lord to be reached by His hand. He realised the truth of ‘I cannot do without Thee.’ This is the character of the Lord’s priesthood as opened out in the earlier part of Hebrews; it is the truth of what He is as Priest to us - in our pathway outside, so to say. In chapter 10 we come to the other side, what He is as Priest to God - inside. We enter the holiest of all not only as a cleansed but as a consecrated company - like Aaron and his sons. The holiest is where Christ is. When gathered together to the Lord’s name we have His presence in the midst; He is the antitype of the holiest, and if His presence is not true to us we are not so well off as Israel was. They had the cloud of glory; we have the Lord of glory. Holiness is the condition in which we draw nigh. The sacrifice is the basis of our approach; but the priesthood is that which sustains us in approaching. Holiness becomes God’s house for ever. Therefore in going to the assembly there is always fresh exercise; for, while having the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and the body washed with pure water there must also be the true heart and full assurance of faith; Hebrews 10. One who has a blemish cannot draw near; and it is very easy for us to contract a blemish; one might enjoy the meeting and yet not be in the holiest. Any of Aaron’s sons who had anything betokening imperfection were not permitted to draw near to offer the bread of God. They might eat it; that is, they would get their portion through grace; but they could not go within the veil. In the holiest we not only enjoy His grace, but we behold His glory. We are in the assembly on heavenly ground, in an out-of-the-world condition (a pattern of which we have in John 20). What a wonderful favour! It is important to remember that what the Lord was teaching His disciples in Matthew was the assembly as the structure-the house of God on earth - not the body of Christ. The latter was not revealed until Acts 9.
David says, “To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary”, Psalm 63: 2. He was not, like a mystic, looking for something he never had seen and never could see; it was what he had known that he wished to see again. When you see His power and glory you are absorbed and abstracted; men and things have no place then, and you must be apart from them to worship (see Abraham; Genesis 22: 5).
Many know Christ in grace who do not know Him in power; many know His love who do not know His wisdom. What is knowing the wisdom? You see, like the queen of Sheba, all the wonderful ordering of things, eclipsing, even in the smallest details, anything you have ever known. It is not only that you have heard “a true report”, but you have come to the very spot and the very Person; the result is, there is no more spirit left in you. Many know His work who do not know Himself. When you get a sight of His wisdom, and taste a little of the excellency of the knowledge of Him, things here look very trifling. I do not think the queen of Sheba would ever have been satisfied with her own order of things again after seeing Solomon’s. She would say, That wisdom of Solomon has eclipsed everything here for me. Her servants might not think so, but she would; and if we only realised what it is to see His power and glory in the sanctuary, we would bear a different stamp here in this scene. It would affect us on Monday as well as on Lord’s day.