THE LORD AS OBJECT OF ATTRACTION
[p. 415] THE LORD AS OBJECT OF ATTRACTION
The Lord has been before us as led of the Spirit; He is an Example, as it is said, “led by the Spirit in the wilderness”, Luke 4: 1. The whole wilderness period would be characterised by the leading of the Spirit, not simply by being led into it. And this scripture being characteristically from the gospel of John, presents the Lord to us as an Object of attraction: the light and the judgment of the world and of the prince of it; and it seemed to me to be needful to bring it before us at this time, so that we might be stable, as having come out unto Christ. John’s ministry is intended to stabilise us. “And I, if I be lifted up out of the earth”, says the Lord, “will draw all to me”. Obviously the “all” is to be understood in the context; those that may be called drawable; those that are not are exposed as not being the subject of the work of God. John would present Christ as a test in this way. The whole gospel stresses the personality of Christ, and this verse presents Him as attractive — in an astronomical sense, in order to be understood. The attraction is irresistible, as referring to what is intended to be attracted. All else will be negative.
So that in the passage already quoted, chapter 6, there is a great drift away from Christ, largely because what He was teaching could not be received. “This word is hard; who can hear it?” (chapter 6: 60). The Lord is helping us, I believe, in the truth, the whole truth. This gospel enlarges on the truth - “Ye shall know the truth” (chapter 8: 32) — not simply truth, but the truth, the whole matter; and again, John quotes the Lord as saying that the Comforter “when he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth” (chapter 16: 13), not simply all truth, but all the truth; and remarkably, the Comforter is the “Spirit of truth”.
[p. 416] And the Lord is saying to us that He is not mitigating the truth; he is not bringing it down or adding to it to meet our consciences or our standards.
“Who can hear it?”. They complained in chapter 6 several times because of what He was saying. It was hard; they could not receive it. And so the drift began; the drift backwards — a retrogression. Then many of His disciples, we are told, they were actually disciples of His, went away back at that time and walked no more with Him. They were turning back. Had you met any of those disciples on the way back, what would they have said? Well, they would not speak very respectfully of Him, I suppose. They might call Him Rabbi, but His saying cannot be received; it is too severe. And the Lord looked on those who were not going back, and that is the worthwhile side of it. There were those who were not going back, and we hope that we are all amongst them; we are not going back. There might be hard things said amongst us, difficult to understand. Even Peter speaks about Paul’s ministry, and says of some things they “are hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3: 16), but he did not complain of this; he complained of those who wrested the scriptures. It is what Paul is teaching in the scriptures. How do you read what Paul ministers? How do you read it? If you read it from the standpoint of current religious report you begin to speak disparagingly of even Paul. They did, you know; they did not read aright. Peter said it was hard to understand.
And so they did at Capernaum where the Lord was teaching; they went away back, many of them. You would say, Well, the fellowship has been broken up; maybe we are too severe. But the Lord does not indicate that in the least degree. He turns to those of His disciples who were not going back, and we are here tonight, I trust on those lines. We are not going back. Whither are we going? From whom are we going? From where are we going? Some years ago, a well-known brother said to me, ‘I will withdraw from fellowship’ Only recently I had a letter from these parts of the city, from a certain person who said she and her children were ‘withdrawing from fellowship’ — that is all. Well that is this: turning away back from Christ. No, they do not say that. That would be too glaring to say that. But that is what is meant, for what is the fellowship? If it is worthy of the name, it is the fellowship of God’s Son; it is the fellowship of His death, and it is the fellowship of His Spirit. It refers to what is of Christ; am I going to leave that? Do I understand it? I am referring now to facts. Here the Lord turned to those who were not going back; He looked with pleasure upon them. One would look through the gospels and note the instances in which the Lord looked on His disciples. It would be very interesting. He was speaking, for instance, about a certain man — “how difficultly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” Mark 10: 23. “How difficultly” — well, what do the disciples say? “And who can be saved?”. That is what they were saying, commenting upon what the Lord had said. The Lord looked at them, looked at Peter, looked at John, looked at James, as much as to say, How were you saved? He looked at His disciples, and He says, With God these things are possible; the salvation of anybody is possible with God — even yourself. You were hard to save — God did it. And so in several other instances, the Lord looked at His disciples.
Now what pleasure He has in His disciples. They are not going away back, if they are worthy of the name of disciples; they have come out to Jesus. “What went ye out into the wilderness to see?” says the Lord, Matthew 11: 7. What have you come to? Well, the fellowship if it is worthy of the name, involves the fellowship of God’s Son, the fellowship of His death, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and are we going to leave that? Then we are apostates, if we are saying it with deliberateness. We may not mean that, but we are doing that.
[p. 418] That is the idea. So He turns to those who were not doing it, and says, “Will ye also go away?”. Oh no! Peter says. Peter, on more than one occasion voiced the real thing, the real truth of the moment; it is a great matter to find one who can do that. He says, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” And he gives the reason for saying it — “Thou hast words of life eternal”. That is where we are — are there any words of life eternal? Is there any spiritual ministry? Is the Holy Spirit at liberty amongst us? You cannot think of not staying there where that is. There are the words of life eternal. And it is not only that, but “we have believed and known” — that is, he refers back to the experience that he has; that is the thing. What have I proved in that fellowship? Some of us here have been longer in it than others and have proved more, but Peter says, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. Can I leave Him?
Well, that is all I had in mind, dear brethren, and this passage strikingly illustrates what I am saying. “I ... will draw all to me”. If there is nothing in me that can be thus attracted, it is clearly evident that I am not a subject of the work of God; if I am at all a subject of the work of God I am smothering it up with my own will. And so the Spirit of God would have us to be under no misapprehension as to what the Lord meant in being lifted up. It means He was lifted up on a cross, to die; it was reproach. “This he said”, it says, “signifying by what death he was about to die”. There is no doubt about that; that is the crucified Jesus, the Object of attraction. John would say, He is worthy of all my mind and soul and strength. So that there will be no doubt left; in fact, one has noticed in John’s gospel how things are made plain; for instance, if it says, Rabbi, John says that means Teacher, so that we are to be under no misapprehension, because we are apt to have wrong thoughts. So John would have us to understand the right thing. The bystanders say, “We have heard out [p. 419] of the law that the Christ abides for ever; and how sayest thou that the Son of man must be lifted up?”. Had they read Isaiah 53? Had they read that chapter, you might say, the greatest chapter in Isaiah? The greatest prophet speaks about the death of Jesus. They had not read that. I speak of that to show how easily our minds are just baffled, misled by current religious thoughts. So Jesus said unto them, “Yet a little while is the light amongst you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness may not overtake you”. That is to say, I am going back into darkness if I leave, and not only so, but it goes on to tell us that He hid Himself. How sad, that now the Lord is fully shining upon us, and we turn our backs upon Him! The next thing is He hides Himself and we do not see Him at all. He said “Walk while ye have the light”, and then hid Himself from them. That is one of the most solemn things you can get; the Lord not only hiding Himself, so as not to be apprehended, but from them. He hid Himself from them. Most solemn, that you do not see Him at all. Now it is clear sunshine, as it were; the light is shining. Walk in it, and ye will be sons of it. So that you illuminate what you come in contact with; otherwise He hides Himself. Going away He hides Himself from that. That is what I had in mind, perhaps fitting in with our current exercises.