WHAT GOD HAS IN A DAY OF SMALL THINGS

David Wright

Malachi 3: 13-18; Luke 2: 25-40; Acts 1: 12-15; 2 Timothy 4: 9-11

D.J.W. We often remind ourselves that we are in a day of small things, and I wondered whether we might, in reading these scriptures, be encouraged to see what God has worked out in a few and what such persons mean to God. Paul tells us that in the last days, difficult times shall be there, and where we read in Malachi it was a day when men were saying, “It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we keep his charge”. That spirit of things is prevalent and it may be that the enemy would whisper it in our ears, but over against that there are persons here who fear Jehovah. I wondered whether we could take account of certain moral traits which run through these scriptures. Here it is that they are marked off as those that feared God and spoke often one to another. It may have been insignificant as far as this world was concerned, but it was taken account of in heaven. It is very touching in verse 17, “they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure”, bringing out how deeply God values such persons.

I wondered whether we saw that carried through into the New Testament in Luke, in such as Simeon and Anna. There again you get an impression that it was a small circle, but certain characteristics are drawn attention to with Simeon, that he was just and pious and that the Holy Spirit was upon him. I believe that we should bear in mind in our consideration together the greatness and importance of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Simeon was one who could prove the Holy Spirit’s guiding. He came in the Spirit into the temple, and in that Spirit he was given great light in relation to the greatness of the One who had come in as a babe. Anna is spoken of as a prophetess, it says, “who did not depart from the temple” – a treasure in her heart so that she was one who spoke of Christ to all those who waited for redemption in Israel.

In Acts, I wondered whether we could look upon the one hundred and twenty as the fruit of the Lord’s own ministry. You might say many persons were healed and blessed in the gospels, but the hundred and twenty represent more than that, they represent persons who had been constantly under the divine touch of Christ, and what marked them was continual prayer. The crowd of names might suggest spiritual personality which comes as a result of experience with Christ. Such persons were suitable for the launching of the dispensation in which we are and suitable vessels on whom the Holy Spirit could descend. In the next chapter, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came and it says, “and it sat upon each one of them” (Acts 2:3): it would give them their own distinction. We know there was much blessing in what proceeded through Peter’s preaching, there were three thousand converted, but we are now in the last days, 2 Timothy days, and much has entered into the history of the church publicly in the way of failure, and all in Asia had turned away from Paul. There has been much falling away from Paul’s teaching in these last days, but you can see in the way that Paul writes how he valued those that were with him. There were persons who were with Paul, sympathetic with his teaching, supporting – “Luke alone is with me” – and then Mark is recovered, “for he is serviceable to me for ministry”, a vessel fit for the Master’s use. You get an impression that there were not too many vessels available, as in our day, and yet what could be wrought through them as being maintained in their relations with God and indeed what can be worked out in the last days of the assembly’s sojourn here. I wondered whether it might be a line of thought that would on the one hand encourage us to see the divine resource available in a difficult day, but at the same time exercise us to show some of these moral features that are necessary for us to be fit for the Master’s use.

E.O.P.M. It links very much with what we have been having locally. We have been considering the charge in Numbers, the charge of the order and the charge of the sanctuary, and this word that you started with, “what profit is it that we keep his charge” is a very relevant question for every one of us, and particularly in connection with smallness, because the enemy can use smallness to discourage us. I just notice the note to “they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure” which takes us right back to the beginning of the history, God said He had borne them on eagles’ wings and brought them to Himself and they would be His possession (see Ex. 19:5), so that this line links us with God’s original thoughts in relation to what He was going to have with His people.

D.J.W. I think it does. Scripture makes provision for a day of small things and there may be just four or five of you together for the ministry meeting or the reading, insignificant as far as this world is concerned, but it is encouraging to see that heaven takes account of it and there is a book of remembrance. The book is for God. It shows His valuation and appreciation of persons who in their measure are prepared to be related to God and what He is doing in these last days.

E.O.P.M. I enjoy your emphasis on the power of the Spirit because five persons together for a ministry meeting or a reading, if they are there in dependence and self-judgment, have the whole wealth of what is available to us in the Spirit just as to fifty or a hundred.

D.J.W. That is encouraging. It would stimulate us to see the possibilities of our gatherings together in that light. The Holy Spirit is not limited by numbers – any limitation is on our side – but where there are these conditions I believe He would serve us. His service relates to bringing before us the glories of Christ, impressions of Christ which we can exchange, and would bring us to a valuation of one another too.

P.J.M. It is interesting that these persons are motivated by what is prophetic; it says, “Then they that feared Jehovah”.

D.J.W. I thought that stands in contrast to what is spoken of in verses 13 to 15. They were the conditions that were prevalent. In Matthew’s gospel it says the love of the most shall grow cold (see Matt. 24:12). We can be affected by what is prevalent around us. I think the more that we experience being together as those who fear God and speak of Christ to one another; valuation of that experience would stimulate us.

P.J.M. It is easy to know what the world thinks (and naturally what we would think), “what profit is it that we keep his charge”, especially in a day of small things. You say, The meeting is getting smaller, there are fewer, what is the point; but what seems to affect these persons is that they had heard from God. God says, “Your words have been stout against me”. He is talking about the general mass of people. These persons were sensitive to how God felt and then they say, what we are going to do is to think about Him, His name, His rights and His charge. I thought you saw that in this protective circle of the second scripture that you read, those who were waiting and caring and had a view of the prophetic promises, and they say, no that is what we are waiting for, the world can come and go, but we are waiting on God.

D.J.W. In Malachi it was at the end of the dispensation, a previous dispensation when they were waiting for the Messiah, and no doubt they would be occupied with that, as we should be in relation to the Lord, at the end of the dispensation in which we are. I feel exercised that the thing should be known and experienced in our souls so that we are kept steady in an evil day; you come to it that you cannot afford to be without it.

P.J.W. The commendation for the sons of Zadok in Ezekiel is that “that kept the charge of my sanctuary” (Ezek 44: 15), when the children of Israel went astray. Do you think that would be something for us to think about? It was God’s people that went astray, but they kept the charge of His sanctuary in those conditions, and recovery came in.

D.J.W. There again, it was in a difficult day. All the settings here are difficult. I thought it would encourage us in the day in which we are because God is not unsympathetic with the pressures of the way, but as we seek to relate ourselves to Him in this way and to His things, the results are there for us to experience things that the world knows nothing about.

G.N. I wondered whether what underlies what you are bringing before us is an appreciation of the mystery. Would that help us as having an appreciation of Christ in the assembly as being separated to God and exclusively for Him, and help us in the last day in which we are?

D.J.W. I think it leads on to that, that the Holy Spirit is uniquely involved in the securing of the assembly for Christ and maintaining the assembly in freshness and vitality for Him. That is what has been departed from in the day in which we are, but these assembly truths as known and experienced are very precious things.

P.J.M. There seems to be no precedent for what God does here. It is something very attractive, “they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure … and I will spare them”, and a book of remembrance is written. It is as though it is something new. I wondered how much divine Persons appreciate faithfulness in the declining times. We have a lot in Revelation 3 about the overcomer and what God will do for him. The time may be small and difficult and challenging, but the recompense is remarkable.

D.J.W. That is what I thought we might see, “they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure”, or ‘my own possession’, as the note says. God was looking for something from man and the mass had turned away, but that only underlines the valuation of those who feared Jehovah. We do not have to be very old to see the tremendous decline in the fear of God generally, in this land and in many lands, and that has an affect on the behaviour of persons in a negative way, but our being maintained in the fear of God has a positive effect on our behaviour.

A.M. Solomon says, “In the fear of Jehovah is strong confidence”, Prov 14: 26. That helps us in our small day, but then the next verse says, “the fear of Jehovah is a fountain of life”. Does that involve drawing on the resources that are available to us?

D.J.W. That helps – we are intended to feel our weakness, but as we proceed along the path of faith and experience with God it gives us confidence in Him, and He answers the immediate need so that we are maintained. But then there is something beyond that. There is the positive enjoyment of the truth. These persons that feared Jehovah and spoke often one to another would be in positive enjoyment of what they were proceeding with.

P.M. The fear of Jehovah suggests that He has rights and the thinking on His Name that He has the resource. In the setting in which the fear of Jehovah is spoken of here, where His rights have been denied, but in the midst of it there were persons who, in fearing Jehovah, were maintaining those rights, and in doing so affected God Himself. He brings in the resources in the thinking upon His Name, everything was there in God Himself.

D.J.W. That is the burden of what I have today, that on the one hand there is much to discourage, but on the other hand we need to take account of what there is in the way of resource. As we do so I think it paves the way for the fear of God being deepened in our hearts. The deeper we are in the fear of God, the more we are sensitive as to His rights and the way that they are discerned here, but as pursuing the path of righteousness, we prove the resources that are available to us in Christ on high and the Holy Spirit here. That is what moved persons in the early 1800s – the truth of Christ glorified on high and His body here, and that defined a path for them. In taking that path they also proved the divine resources that there were.

P.M. God has rights over every man, and He has rights in relation to His house. It was those rights that were denied here: that would link with what you say as to the working out of assembly relationships with divine Persons, would it?

D.J.W. I am sure that is right. I just feel that we should keep before us the positive enjoyment, the end in view. I feel, for myself, that you can get unduly occupied with difficulties and the pressures of the way, and in a day of small things you tend to think of what you have not got, but I think God encourages us to see what we have and take it up in faith and be in the enjoyment of it.

J.A.B. Would that be implied in the “thinking upon His name”? These persons of whom you have read, from verse 13 to 15, did not understand God. They said, Why should we walk mournfully before Jehovah? As you are saying, there is much to be borne in the testimony, but when we think upon His Name, when we get to God, then as you have been saying, there is much to enjoy and nearly four hundred and fifty years later, Simeon and Anna were in the full enjoyment of that, as thinking upon His Name?

D.J.W. That is why I read the passage in Luke because I thought that very thing, Simeon and Anna bore the characteristics of those persons in Malachi and therefore they were ready for the divine appearing in this little child. The moral characteristics that marked them made them suitable vessels who could get the full gain of the light that came in in Christ.

P.J.M. It is a fine link, she “spoke of him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem”.

D.J.W. I have known old sisters like this, those who have quietly gone on consistently. They cannot contribute publicly to an occasion like this, but many a time you speak to them and they will speak to you about an impression of Christ. Such persons are valuable in every local assembly and in the testimony.

D.E.R. How is God to be served today?

D.J.W. I thought that firstly we take account of what pleases Him, and that determines our path, our interest, that they are not in the world, but are bound up with the Lord in His interest in His people. God Himself gets much from our assemblings together, and we would be those who are in liberty to have part in the service of God. We have often been told that we are here for the service of God and for the testimony. Having part in liberty in the service of God is the inside position, as it were, but we are here for the testimony too, involving that people can take account of what we are as formed in the truth and that we do fear God, as seen practically in our pathway here, and therefore we are a witness to Him here.

D.E.R. It seems that there was an outward form in serving God, both in Malachi and in Luke, but God was not pleased with it. In Malachi discernment came in as to those who truly served God and those who served Him not: it was not in ritual or form, or in name, but it was in life and vitality.

D.J.W. There is very much profession in the day in which we are which would link with what you are saying, but this would involve reality – our own individual relations with the Lord and with divine Persons. No service for Him can flow other than from a healthy individual link with divine Persons.

P.J.M. It is quite specific here, “there was a man in Jerusalem” and this is what he was like, he was “just and pious, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him”. There is a whole lot in that!

D.J.W. I thought we might take note of that, “just and pious”. In the world you do not see much of those features, but I think they are features that are formed as we cultivate our link with Christ. Who was as just and pious as He? Simeon was formed in those features, therefore he was one who could experience the guiding of the Holy Spirit. He could be sensitive as to when He appeared, He knew instinctively what there was in that child and that he was set for the fall and the rising up of many in Israel. In fact the light that he received was tremendous because it looks on to our own day, “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”.

P.J.M. You might say, but Simeon it is a baby! It is wonderful how spiritual things are communicated by spiritual means; the Spirit was upon him, he comes in the Spirit, he speaks in the Spirit, and suddenly you have this opening up of what God was going to do through this baby. Things are not what they seem even in a day of small things.

D.J.W. They are certainly not the way many persons would have been looking for the Messiah at this time. They would have expected Him to come to a palace with great pomp, and that is really why so many of His people missed Him. But not so with Simeon; Simeon was fully intelligent as to the way that God would work, the way that He would come in in Christ as a lowly babe in the perfection of manhood to bring near to men God’s love. He had a perception of that.

G.C.B. Could I go back to the matter of serving God? In these two scriptures and in 2 Timothy 2 it is quite clear that we are not to be left completely alone in our serving God, there are others, “those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (v.22). That is an encouragement even in a broken day that the collective side is not gone.

D.J.W. I think we need to lay hold of that. There are persons today who say that everything collective is gone, but that is really a slight on the Spirit because He is the One who is going to maintain what is collective in that way and although things have become very small and scripture has allowed for that, yet what is collective is maintained. I think that that in itself, as we experience the things we are speaking of, would increase our valuation of one another as to the greatness of the things that we can share together. I have been impressed lately that the greatest privilege we can share with one another here is in the taking of the Lord’s Supper and what flows out from it.

G.C.B. It is clear from this chapter in Luke that these persons were not waiting for the Lord to come as an event, but waiting for Him.

D.J.W. Yes, the Person.

G.C.B. And the Supper would be a demonstration of our joy in waiting for Him.

D.J.W. I think so. We were speaking in the week at home of our valuation of the Lord’s Supper week by week and also of the gospel because those two occasions bring before us the Person in a distinctive way so that our affections might be stirred and kept fresh towards Him.

E.O.P.M. It is interesting putting those two together, the Supper and the gospel, because the maintenance of what is collective in vitality depends very much on individuals being right with God. I think all these scriptures bring the two things together, there is that which is for God’s pleasure collectively, but it depends, in a sense, on my being maintained in the reality of things and in the practice of the truth if I am going to contribute to what is collective in what is positive and for God.

D.J.W. I am sure that is right. The collective in that sense is only as strong as the individuals who compose it. That is, that we are drawing from the same source, we have experience with the same Person, we have impressions of the same Person and we share it with one another.

E.O.P.M. I was just thinking of the earlier reference to formality seen here in Luke, what was generally going on. It is sobering to think that the last state of the church as we have it in Revelation 3 before the Lord comes is one of profession in Laodicea, and those are the days we are in. We often – I speak for myself – rest in the view that Christendom out there is Laodicean, but I an part of that and the danger is that I become formal in what is for God and in my paying lip service to things and do not see that I am blind, naked and poor. That is an individual matter in Laodicea. The Lord is knocking at the door, “if any one …” (v.20).

D.J.W. I feel that for myself, how easy it is to slip into what is just formal and routine, but drawing upon the Holy Spirit in dependence would preserve us from that. That would involve our lives day by day, relating ourselves to the Spirit. It is not something you can just switch on when you are in the meeting, but there is something in the work of formation that has gone on which can be liberated for the help and edification of one another as together.

J.W. I was wondering whether those in Malachi were revived to God’s thoughts as to Jerusalem, and Simeon and Anna were those who were maintained in relation to that, as to God’s thoughts as to Jerusalem. We cannot serve God unless we are really committed to His interest here in the assembly.

D.J.W. I think that is right. The two are inseparable. As has been said, what is collective is maintained so that serving God and serving the saints are very much bound up together. The thought of Jerusalem would cover that.

J.W. What is maintained in these persons in Luke is holy conditions. I think things proceed because of that.

D.J.W. I thought that – you get the feeling that this was apart from all that was proceeding outwardly in Jerusalem at that time. Earlier in the chapter you have the shepherds keeping watch over their flock. There was a circle of things that was insignificant in relation to what was proceeding in Jerusalem publicly, but as you say, holy conditions were known there and therefore divine communications could be made known to them.

R.H.B. These persons were at the end of one dispensation, and on the threshold of another. Is the fact that Simeon speaks of what is to come, even though it was beyond his own dispensation, a secret to be sustaining, that the view is forward to what is before us? We are called to lay aside the things that are behind.

D.J.W. I think that helps because you get to the carrying forward of the dispensations. There is always something carried forward from the previous dispensation into the new. That brings out that God’s thoughts are cumulative, nothing is left behind, but all are carried forward, so that in the day in which we are all God’s previous thoughts have been carried forward. We are in a very precious day in that light.

R.H.B. It is striking how active the Spirit of God is in these early chapters in Luke. The angel announces that the Spirit of God would come upon Mary and the Spirit of God was upon Simeon and it was divinely communicated to him by the Spirit. It was not the Spirit’s day yet, but He was announcing to them what was coming which is one of His services. In John the Lord speaks of it, “he will announce to you what is coming”, John 16:13. Is it that that keeps us bright in our affections in a dark day?

D.J.W. That really fits our own day – to take account of what the Spirit is doing in the hearts of the saints. Someone spoke to Mr. Coates in relation to outward things in the world in relation to the coming of Christ and Mr. Coates said I would rather look to see what is being developed in the hearts of the saints.

B.E.S. Simeon and Anna are in contrast with Eli in 1 Samuel. We find him sitting and then lying down in the temple, then sitting by the wayside. That is in contrast with what we have as to “one who did not depart from the temple, serving night and day”. It says in Psalm 134, “bless Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah, who by night stand in the house of Jehovah” (v.1).

D.J.W. On the one hand there were those who were very careless in relation to the things of God, but the contrast is seen in persons like Simeon and Anna.

B.E.S. Yes, and then there are other things that we can take a warning from in Eli – he did not discern a spiritual person and he did not keep his sons in order. All these things we get exhortations about as the background that is needed if we are to be serviceable to God.

D.J.W. I think it has already been quoted – spiritual things are conveyed by spiritual means. It requires these moral conditions in us to be sensitive as to divine communications.

M.W. It says of Simeon that he was “just and pious” and of Anna that she was serving with “fastings and prayers”. I wondered whether what we have said already is confirmed in that that the conditions require the denial of self, the making way for God and His resource and above all the recognition of His rights. Are they fundamentals to the enjoyment of what we have been speaking of?

D.J.W. I think they are. Piety involves bringing God into everything. It is very much absent in the world today, but I think it would encourage us that in whatever circumstance, we relate ourselves to God in a simple way. Such persons would be sensitive as to the leading of divine communications.

D.E.B. I was noting that the Lord’s natural parents came in according to the custom of the law and that may be something that marks us: it is virtuous so far. The customs of the law do need to be maintained, but Simeon was looking for God’s salvation, “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”, and having seen that it was sufficient for Him. I wondered whether we need to have something of that Spirit while maintaining what is laid down in the good teaching, but we should have in view seeing something of God’s salvation.

D.J.W. That would save us from mere routine. It is right that we come together, but it can become routine unless we are in the good of the features spoken of here in Luke 2 as seen in Simeon and Anna.

P.M. Did both these persons come in in the spirit of anticipation?

D.J.W. Yes, I think so. It says of Simeon “he came in Spirit into the temple”. I think that would involve that he was anticipative of what might come in. We need to come together in the spirit of enquiry we may know a lot, but that is not necessarily what the Lord may want to bring forward in our times together. As being maintained anticipatively and in this spirit which was seen in Simeon we would be ready for divine communications. I think that even though we are just a few together we need to anticipate the possibilities of such an occasion. It involves the underlying moral state we are speaking of.

P.M. I thought it delivered us from the formality of ‘another occasion’. It was divinely communicated to him that he should not see death until he should see the Lord’s Christ. What a prospect, what an object for his affections as he came in the Spirit in the temple! Do you think if we really had some living sense that we were going to have a fresh impression of the Lord and His glory it would change the way in which we assemble?

D.J.W. Think of Simeon coming in every time, and he would think, is it going to be this time? You can almost feel that his heart would be full of anticipation.

J.W. The presentation of Christ is in a small way, a babe, but Simeon embraced it and the presentation becomes enlarged. Is that the way things can work sometimes?

D.J.W. I think so. It fits into the very concept of a day of small things, and yet what can come out from such a day! There are limitations on our side, but no limitations on the part of Christ or on the Holy Spirit. I think we need to be encouraged to see that.

D.N.S. I wondered whether this might help the young people. They may feel it is a time of small things and a time of reproach, but at the end of this section, the Lord was in Nazareth. That was a place of reproach and smallness, but it says, “And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit”. It is not to hinder the growth of what is becoming serviceable to the Lord.

D.J.W. I think this is the way that growth takes place in our souls as simply seeking to take this up. Where there is simplicity of exercise and uprightness on our part, I think God would be pleased to answer that and lead us to a greater knowledge of Himself and being formed in the features that were like Christ.

P.J.M. If we are exercised as to the condition that prevails in Christendom – mention was made of Eli and his sons – it is interesting to see the way in which God does actually communicate His mind. He communicates it to a boy who came into that environment, a boy who grew up, first under the nurture and admonition of His mother, and then God speaks to Him and uses Him powerfully. Should that be an encouragement? I wondered if we should encourage our young people that, like Simeon here, God has promised something, His Son is coming, He has come and He is coming again and we are in anticipation daily and hourly of His coming.

D.J.W. What you are saying in relation to the younger ones is good because they can have a very real part in this. Quite often a reading is opened up by questions from young men and boys, questions which perhaps some of us who are older would not ask, but there is much that comes out of it. I think we should encourage them simply to have their part in these things. In 2 Timothy 4 it is obvious that there were not too many vessels available – that is like today – but I think Samuel was one who was available to God, and that God values such persons as simply being available to the Lord.

We have been referring earlier to what has been carried forward in the dispensations and we have in Acts 1, in the one hundred and twenty, the carrying forward of a dispensation when the Lord was here in manhood, and they represent the fruit of His ministry. It was not a very great number – you might be surprised at that in view of the distinctive service of Christ – but these were persons who had had to do with Him in a formative way and in whom a spiritual personality had developed, a crowd of names. Each would have their own impression of Christ and when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost in the next chapter they are empowered to give expression to those impressions of Christ that they had, which had a very powerful effect on the testimony in Jerusalem.

E.O.P.M. It is important that we do not undervalue what we have in one another. If it is a day of small things, we need to make the most of every bit of the work of God that is available. The company here, the crowd of names, was not much bigger than we are in this room now, but as I have often thought, if you take a company of about a hundred persons who love the Lord and say on average they have twenty five years experience with God, that is hundreds of years of experience with God that we can draw upon – and then we sit back and say we have not got anything!

D.J.W. I think what you say is right, we need a true valuation of the work of God in one another and to seek to nurture and encourage it.

M.W. The matter, practically, of our gatherings is important? We may feel the smallness, but as we gather to the Lord’s Name and make way for the Spirit and prove something of the temple functioning, I think most of us have found that what comes out is greater than the sum of the parts.

D.J.W. I am sure that is right. I would say too that the sisters have a valuable part. They are not audible, but if godly sisters commit themselves to the occasion and follow it prayerfully, I think that adds power, and the Spirit can use one and another to bring into expression something of their thoughts. It is a very real sense of the body working in that way and each one is needed, however young or insignificant they may feel, they are needed.

E.O.P.M. The smaller the number, the more the sense of responsibility needs to develop in each one of us because there are fewer to carry things. If you have a hundred people to carry something and one or two are absent, you might not notice, but if you are only a dozen and two are absent, that is a far larger percentage; therefore the exercise in me to take up the charge and bear responsibility and to seek to maintain, as Samuel did, what is necessary in a very dark day is all the more important.

D.J.W. I think it is. These things are practical. I speak to the younger men affectionately, I trust, but in this particular area there is a great need for those to be available to preach the gospel. You may not feel up to it, but be exercised to make yourself available in simplicity to take it up and I think God would take notice of that and be pleased with it.

J.W. You said earlier that these persons were the handiwork of the Lord.

D.J.W. In the gospels you get very many persons who, for example, receive their sight, the deaf are made to hear, and the crushed are sent forth delivered and so on, but with these one hundred and twenty it is more than that. These are persons who no doubt had been constantly in the presence of Christ and who had taken account of His teaching and the way He did things and therefore they were suitable vessels upon which the Holy Spirit could come.

J.W. I think what you are saying is important. They were in the company of Christ, they were those who followed Him. The one who was to take the place of Judas was one who assembled with them when the Lord came in and went out, from the baptism of John. It is important to be in the company of the Lord both personally and collectively. They would be persons, speaking reverently, who knew the Lord intimately. They knew how He did things, they knew how He operated and had been empowered by the Holy Spirit: they would do it the same way.

J.T.B. Do you think the reference to the crowd of names implies overcoming? The overcomer in Philadelphia has written upon him “the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God”, Rev. 3:12. I wondered whether that would be heaven’s answer to thinking upon His Name and also the features seen in Simeon as a resident of Jerusalem? God honours that by endorsing His work through the Name.

D.J.W. I think it helps bringing in the thought of the overcomer. If you read the addresses in Revelation 2 and 3 the valuation of heaven for the overcomer is clear because there is some special blessing for the overcomer. That, you might say, is taking up exercises, which involves sacrifice, but then there is something stamped upon that person in the name that is a direct product of their exercises with God.

J.T.B. It is really the outward recognition of what is there internally, constitutionally.

D.J.W. It is what goes through. That would be a great culmination of the dispensation in which we are. All that has been wrought out in this time by the Spirit in persons will go through and be in the day of display.

J.T.B. The crowd of names would bear the evidence of being inhabitants of Jerusalem do you think?

D.J.W. I think so. There is something distinctive about each of them.

P.M. Distinctive, and yet formed in the features of the One whose company they had been keeping. Does the continual prayer bring out that they had learnt from the One whose company they had kept?

D.J.W. I am glad you reminded me of that reference to prayer because that is really the moral feature that is brought in here, persons who are continually marked by prayer. Such persons are taken account of in heaven.

P.M. Can you help us as to continual prayer? We know a little about prayer, but I would like to know something about continual prayer. I could not say much from experience, but I think it would involve your attitude characteristically. You are looking to God all the time. We feel the need of help all the time; you cannot literally pray all the time, but it is that attitude. It was “with one accord”. The company was united. Although there was such wealth there which had come from the hand of the Lord Himself, the company was united in the spirit of dependence for the next move in the testimony. Is that something that bears on the present day?

D.J.W. I think it is. They would have learnt that from the Lord Himself, particularly from Luke’s gospel where He is seen constantly as a praying Man. They would see that if things are going to be accomplished for God, it is in the maintenance of that spirit of prayer.

G.N. I thought the scripture bore on an earlier question, that God is served distinctively in relationship. I wondered whether the side of relationship is vital in the present time, primarily the relationship with God into which we have been brought, but with one another too.

D.J.W. These persons were related to God, they were praying with one accord, they were united in their prayers, because they were related to the same source. There can be no disunity if we are related to the same source.

E.O.P.M. The way the scripture is put here is related to the eleven and these women, rather than to the crowd of names, so it was a responsible element that saw the need for continual dependence in waiting upon God if they were to be kept in the way. It is very much like Simeon, waiting for the next move from heaven. It struck me that Simeon was just and pious, but awaiting. A man who is with God can afford to wait for God to say where the next move is and where it is coming from and where He is leading the people of God.

D.J.W. It relates to anticipation. What is the next step? To know that involves dependence, which links with prayer. If we are to determine what is the next step, it could be that the next step would be the rapture, but we need to be sensitive in relation to these things.

D.E.R. Should we note that Peter stood up “in the midst of the brethren”? There was mutuality working and Peter was not independent. There was the recognition of God’s sovereignty in Peter, but Peter recognised the company because the company is greater than any individual in it. It was in the midst of the company that he stood up.

D.J.W. I think that is worthy to be taken account of. In all our actions in what we do, they should be in one accord. Peter related himself to the company. Gift is not greater than what there is in the local assembly. God uses gift for leadership, but it is also related to the saints.

B.E.S. Peter here was interested in restoring things. I was thinking of the way administration continued as a result of his efforts and how soon he rallied to the Lord speaking to him on the line of recovery.

D.J.W. He spoke as being a recovered man himself. The Lord said to him, “when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren” (Luke 22:32), and that is what we see him doing in the early Acts”.

E.O.P.M. Is that what we get in Mark, even in 2 Timothy days? You get someone who was able to confirm for himself, “serviceable to me for ministry”.

D.J.W. It is interesting that he says, “serviceable to me for ministry”. That is that he could take account of Mark as a recovered man who was in line with what Paul had taught, that is that he was not going out on an independent line again – he did so earlier – but he is now brought back and in relationship with Paul so that he can be serviceable to him when many had turned away from him.

P.J.M. There are two aspects to this – Mark is a recovered man and serviceable, but Paul is also adjusted in the way that he thinks of him, “serviceable to me”. There is that bond and affinity between the two, but something that belonged to the past has not been allowed to sabotage the Lord’s work at the present.

D.J.W. But rather strengthen it do you think?

P.J.M. Absolutely, one recovered man is a valuable thing.

D.J.W. Timothy had a special relationship with Paul, but you almost get an impression that Mark has been brought into that, “serviceable to me for ministry”.

P.M. In chapter 2 you get vessels that are serviceable to the Master, Mark would be one of those would he?

D.J.W. That is what I thought and would perhaps exercise each one of us also to be vessels fit for the Master’s use, particularly in a day of small things when there may not be too many vessels available.

 

 

 

Walton

15 June 2002

 

Key to Initials:

J.T. Brown, Edinburgh: J.A. Brown, Grangemouth; R.H. Brown, East Finchley; D.E. Burr, Colchester; G.C. Bywater, Buckhurst Hill; A. Martin, Buckhurst Hill; P. Martin, Colchester; E.O.P. Mutton, Walton; P. Mutton, Walton; G. Napthine, Colchester; D.E. Remmington, St. Albans; D.N. Smith, Chelmsford; B.E. Surtees, Felixstowe; P.J. Walkinshaw, Gillingham; M. Webster, Buckhurst Hill; D.J. Wright, Havering; J. Wright, Havering