THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE CONTROL OF CHRIST
C. Middleton
What I have before me is quite a simple thought, but I believe the simple things in the divine realm are well worth going over. The apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians says he is writing the same things and comments. For you it is safe (Philippians 3: 1). It is safe for us to go over some of the simple things of christianity, for we know in recent times of a great many who have turned aside, and generally we find that when persons turn aside it is because they have not really learnt their first lessons.
So I am thinking of these persons who were brought under the control of Christ—and in reality that is what we accept for ourselves when we own Jesus as Lord. If we stay in that position we are safe. Nobody goes astray who is under the control of Christ. That is how we begin, and, if only we continue like that, we are preserved.
In this scripture we have, first of all, this great light; that means the coming in of Jesus. We do not get here the expansion of all that this great light means, but the very fact of the Lord being here on earth, His incarnation, His growing up here, meant that the great light of christianity, which is developed right through the New Testament, was there. Persons did not, in fact, realise how great the light was, yet it says, “The people sitting
in darkness has seen a great light, and to those sitting in the country and shadow of death, to them has light sprung up”. This is God’s intervention, Christ coming in. There they were sitting in darkness, but, when the light came in, they were not intended to go on sitting; they were intended to move. That is a principle in Scripture all the way through, that when light comes in it is intended to make a difference to people, to make them move. I suppose there were those who continued sitting—and they were all the more responsible because of having been in the presence of the light. But normally the effect of the light is to produce movement. That applies today. We would not say that any true believer is in the fullest sense of the word sitting in darkness, but he may be to some extent in the dark. He may say, ‘I am sitting quietly at home’; but the light is intended to make him move. The light has come in in order to take control of him, not simply so that he can enjoy the shining in a distant kind of way.
Now the Lord coming in was the great light, and that was intended to affect everybody. We know that some refused it—there were some who loved darkness rather than light. I believe we are all here because we love the light, we love the Lord. We can never exhaust the knowledge of the Lord, the greatness of the light. Paul got an impression of that on the day he was converted. He could not see for the glory of that light, and within a short time he was preaching that Jesus is the Son of God. He had got that appreciation of Christ. Much later on, in Philippians, we find he is still pursuing, “On account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”, Philippians 3: 8. He knew the Lord far better than any of us, I suppose, nevertheless, he still wanted to go on to know more.
This thought of a great light is a very wonderful thing, yet what the Lord says when He begins His preaching is very simple. He does not go over the whole realm of what is connected with the revelation; He just speaks of repenting, “for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh”. The very reference to the heavens gives us a sense of greatness. As the heavens are higher than the earth, we are told, so are God’s thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55: 9). What an immense difference between them! The greatest thoughts we have are eclipsed by what comes from heaven. On the part of the people repentance was needed. It was not without cause that they were sitting in darkness; they were not without their own responsibility. That is why they were there. They might say that a great deal had contributed to it, due to the power of the enemy; but repentance was called for. Repentance is a deepening work that can very well go on with all of us. When the Ephesians had left their first love the only way back was to repent (Revelation 2: 5). That means a real revolution in a man’s soul.
Well, this was wonderful news for these people. Instead of darkness and a hopeless condition of things, “the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh”. That means that a tremendous power has come in from heaven. In a certain sense the kingdom of the heavens was established when Christ went back into heaven and now, thank God, there are those on earth who are governed by the light from heaven. Our lives are to be controlled by the One who is in heaven; that is what the kingdom of the heavens means. Heaven is now to have control. It is not a control that is in force everywhere on the earth. It is a most extraordinary thing how God, for the time being, tolerates the will of man, which resists His will on earth.
Yet, in the midst of all the lawlessness that there is, we can, thank God, have our part amongst those who are controlled from heaven, and by the One who is in heaven.
When we come to the next paragraph it becomes a more personal matter. Here the Lord is walking and He finds these two brothers and calls them. He says, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”. This brings in the direct personal link of the Lord with the individual. Each is to come after Him, and then He speaks of what He will make them. Of course this was very special in the case of Peter particularly, and of Andrew also. The Lord had great thoughts for them. They were amongst the twelve, who were to bear the brunt of things and carry on the testimony in a hostile scene when the Lord had gone. They had a comparatively short time of training. I suppose by the time they had that heavy responsibility on their shoulders they had known the Lord only three or four years. I expect the great majority of us here have known the Lord longer than that. What a tremendous responsibility these men were capable of sustaining! The Lord had made something of them. I suppose, if we are in His hands, it would be right to apply this in some degree to any one of us. The Lord does not mean many of us to have a very outstanding place, no doubt, but He can make something of us—that is, if we are in His hands. I suppose there are some who are so inclined to go their own way that the Lord cannot make much of them, and perhaps many of us have given Him a lot of trouble. Yet I believe the Lord would make something of us. In a day of small things how valuable every brother and sister is! But they are only valuable as they are what the Lord intends to make them. It is not human ordination, as we get all around us, it is what
the Lord is making of people.
Then you see what a response there was. These men move immediately. It is remarkable the effect the Lord’s call had upon them. We might wonder why they did not want a week or two to think it over, but divine speaking is intended to produce an immediate result. That is what we should normally look for, and it should be so with us. We know God speaks once, yea twice, and I suppose with many of us He may have spoken a good many times before we moved. But Peter and Andrew are a good example, they moved at once. So did James and John—they had the same call from the Lord, though not in quite the same words—He does not say what He is going to make them. Yet we know He did make use of them. What a valuable man John was particularly, and no doubt James too, though we do not know so much about him. The Lord took a special interest in these persons, but it is not meant only for them. They are a sample of what the Lord calls us for. He would have us to realise that that call gives a personal link between Him and ourselves. It is not only that the glad tidings is available to everyone, and that He is Lord of all, but there is a special link between Him and the one He calls. We want to have a sense of that, that the Lord Jesus has not called us for nothing; He has not called us without any intention as to what He is going to do with us. He has called us having in view that He wants us.
The immediate point is that He called them and they went after Him. They, “having left the ship and their father, immediately followed him”. It is stressed in their case that they had to leave their father. In the case of Peter and Andrew it is more what the Lord had in view for them. Both points are important. The Lord had to take
precedence over their father. This does not alter the fact that a man is to honour his father and mother; in fact the Lord had to speak very seriously about the kind of thing that we come across today, that persons are not permitted to do any more for father or mother on the plea that they are so devoted to the Lord. The Lord condemns that; He says, “And ye no longer suffer him to do anything for his father or his mother”, Mark 7: 12. No doubt James and John would have done something for Zebedee if he needed it, no doubt they would honour their father; but when it is a question of priorities the Lord takes first place above father or mother, wife or children. “Come after me”, just simply means that. So they followed Him.
We are going over things we know well, and one can only say that it is safe to go over them. They are very simple, yet they are very blessed. The Lord is to have control. The fact that we have only a mere fraction of the brethren here today who belong to the Lord in this place is evidence that there are a great many with whom He has not got control. But then we cannot just assume because of a right position that the Lord has got control of us. Thank God if He has in any degree. But with these men it was complete and immediate and they went after Him.
Then they see what a wonderful system they are brought into. They are linked up with the One who goes round the whole of Galilee, teaching and preaching and healing. He was “preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom”. This is wonderful good news for men, that the kingdom has come. We may think of kingdom truth as being very simple and basic. Well, it is; but it is very good. It is glad tidings. We might challenge ourselves whether we are enjoying it as much as we should. The
queen of Sheba came a long way to see what the kingdom of Solomon was like, and to get to know him, and she found it was twice as good as she had heard, or more than that. What a wonderful place it was! It was a safe place—there was no evil occurrent, and it was a wealthy place. The kingdom is a place where persons are subdued. With David you get more the power to subdue, and with Solomon the wealth and display and the wisdom, all that is to be found in the kingdom. So the glad tidings of the kingdom meant that however much God had borne in patience with conditions up to this moment, the kingdom had now come in and the evil had to give way. We wait for the Lord’s coming before evil finally has to give way everywhere, but in the souls of those who are affected by the light of the kingdom the power of the enemy is broken now as the Lord has control. Now that is what we have to see to, that He really does have control. The Lord’s coming in brings most wonderful blessing. When He gets a place in a man’s heart it brings blessing to that man. When He came into the house of Zacchaeus He brought salvation to the house. And in a meeting, when the Lord gets His place there is blessing in the meeting. We expect that and experience it, yet it is possible to have meetings where blessing is not really enjoyed very much, and you can trace that to the Lord not really having control; there is somebody there over whom He has not got control. Once He has control everything prospers.
Then the Lord is not only teaching and preaching but He is healing. This is a remarkably comprehensive list of those who were healed. It is seen that the Lord can deal with everything. We do not see Him doing a great deal today in healing people’s bodies, but I believe what is suggested here is that there is no disease in the soul of
anyone which cannot be healed by the Lord. If all the people with all their troubles in this locality or any other locality were to come to the Lord today, they would find that He has just as much power as He had in this record here. He could deal with them all. Whatever troubles we have in our souls He can deal with them all. We were speaking of the man who calls himself a “wretched man” in Romans 7; he realised that deliverance was found in having to do with Christ. It was not so much that he learned the doctrine better, but he says, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 7: 25. He realises that it is Christ who is the Deliverer. And, of course, a person does get delivered when he gets to know Christ. He becomes his Object instead of himself, and that has a wonderful delivering effect. So this great crowd, every one of them, got the gain of having to do with the Lord, “He healed them”. This healing is always an individual matter. The Lord may give us blessing all together, and everybody enjoys it, but when it comes to healing it is the Lord’s own touch to the individual. You have to do with Him, both in regard to the initial call and in regard to your exercises where healing may be needed.
Now in the next chapter He goes up into the mountain and sits down. And then we find the crowds to some extent get left behind and the disciples come to Him. That shows that He had control of them. He did not order them up into the mountain, but the disciples realised it was well worth going up into that mountain in order to get to the Lord. Peter later on gives expression to his appreciation of this when he says, in a very testing time, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal”, John 6: 68. Others were going away, but Peter knew he must keep near the Lord—and it was well worth while keeping
near the Lord, “Thou hast words of life eternal”. Peter was not only thinking of what the Lord had communicated, but that, if he kept near Him, he could continue to get communications.
The Lord’s disciples had some sense of that, so they went up the mountain in order to get to the Lord; and then it says, “Having opened his mouth, he taught them”. Now they come into the region of the teaching. We all have to be taught. We even have to he taught of God to love one another; that is one of the things that the Thessalonians were taught, and you are taught everything in christianity. The teaching goes right on to what we get in Ephesians, and a disciple is one who is ready for it. It means that the Lord has control of us as we realise that it is well worth going up a mountain or doing anything in order to get where the Lord is and where His teaching is going on.
So He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens”. I did not think of going on further than that, but I think these persons who are poor in spirit are rather like those we were speaking of earlier today, who were subdued. They are not high-spirited, uncontrollable people, but they are those the Lord has had to do with, so that the power He has to subdue all things to Himself has already affected them. It would be good if we were all like that, poor in spirit and really subdued to Christ. Then He adds, “Theirs is the kingdom of the heavens”. The whole wealth of the kingdom is open to them, and the whole power of the kingdom is available to support them. When we look round and see what power the enemy has in the world—and it seems to be on the increase, with lawlessness abounding you might wonder how the saints can get through according to God. Well, the power of the kingdom is in support of these persons of whom the Lord speaks as the poor in spirit. You have the wealth of the kingdom and the power of the kingdom for those who are really subdued. If we are really brought under the control of Christ it brings us into this avenue of the greatest blessing and thus we come into His presence where the teaching is going on and the blessing and power of the kingdom are known.
Address at Redbridge
30 August 1975