THE FIRST DAY AND THE LAST DAY
THE FIRST DAY AND THE LAST DAY
Genesis 1: 1-3; John 20: 1-18; Acts 20: 6, 7; John 6:30-40, John 6:44, John 6:53-55
I have in mind to call attention to the importance of the first day and the last day, both clearly relating to time. It is wonderful that God should make time His servant, as, indeed, He uses everything. “For all are thy servants,” a wonderful word in Psalm 119, indicating how great God is. Ultimately everything is His servant, whether willingly or unwillingly, and that gives great rest to our hearts. Time especially is His servant, God dividing time into sections.
It is clear that the great divisions of time are determined from heaven. Man has nothing to do with it except to submit to them. None can alter a day. The day is settled from heaven, it cannot be lengthened, it cannot be shortened, and what we speak of as a day, twenty-four hours, is divided into day and night by heaven. And the month is determined by heaven — the lunar month. Man has nothing to say thereto, for it is fixed by God. And the year is fixed by God, the complete cycle of seasons is also determined from heaven. God is pleased to use time to teach us many things. Finally He uses a thousand years as one of His days to display His great triumph, for the coming world will display the triumph of good over evil, and when time has served its purpose it passes away. Our lives individually are made up of days and years. That is the great division of life of each individual on earth.
“The days,” it says, “of our years are three score years and ten.” But the life of God’s people as His assembly is divided into weeks, and it was with this in mind I wanted to say a word or two particularly about the first day of the week.
First of all I want to say a word about the first day. Its bearing is that it leads and gives character to the days that follow it. That is the scriptural thought of first, illustrated in the way the apostle speaks of Christ. As typified by Melchisedec He is “first... King of righteousness” and then “King of peace.” That is to say, He is to be known first as supreme in righteousness, the great King of righteousness. Men would like to alter that and put peace first, but you cannot have peace according to God without righteousness. So it is with the Lord’s selection of the apostles. It says, “First, Peter.” Peter is the apostle that is to lead and give character to all, both by divine selection and by what he represents in his ministry.
So the first day is that day in relation to other days. It is not an isolated day, but as the first day it stands at the head of the other days. Now you can see that must be true if you look at what is said of the first day in Genesis 1. On that day it says, “God said, Let there be light.” Previously there was a condition of darkness, “And the earth,” it says, “was waste and empty.” How long that period lasted is not disclosed to men, but the truth is that the earth was waste and empty. What a thought that is, an empty, barren earth, and darkness pervading all. But on the first day, “God said, Let there be light. And there was light.” What follows on the other days could not be effective without the first day. The light must be there for the work of God to proceed, for God would not work in darkness, because He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. So that if He is operating, He brings in light and then divides the light from the darkness and names them. He calls the light, day, and He calls darkness, night. So it says, The light was good, and then “the evening and the morning were the first day.”
All can see what follows in the separation of the waters on the earth from the waters above, by the firmament; in the bringing in of dry land and making it fruitful, and finally, animals and then man appearing on the scene. How essential must be the first day, that there must be light and that the light and the darkness must be separated and named, or all else could not proceed to the great end that God had in view.
Now this is still true of His work in every one of us. Our first day, the first day of His operations in us, is that He commands light to shine out of darkness and He causes the light and the darkness to be separated and named. I believe every true conversion is like that, divine light enters the heart that hitherto has been barren and empty, and what follows normally is that the soul begins to distinguish between light and darkness, and is able to say of the light, This is day; and of the darkness, This is night. There is evening and there is morning, a first day. Then every exercise that follows is to be governed by that. Our life and our spiritual history are to be in the light that God has commanded, and in the maintenance of the difference between day and night, by naming both.
Every true Christian had a first day like that. Let me ask you, Is it a unit that stands away back in the past by itself and your other days different, with no relation to the first? or has your subsequent history been in that light that once shone into your soul? And have you maintained the calling of light, Day, and of darkness, Night? Or are you mixing these things, so that the first day of your soul is simply an isolated unit in your history? That is not God’s thought. His thought is that the first day should lead every day, as controlling and influencing them. What fruitfulness, what pleasure to God follows when that is the case, so that, at the end, God looks on everything that He has made, “and, behold,” it says, “it was very good.”
I inquire of young hearts here who have had a beginning, a first day, who once divided light from darkness, who once were able to say, This is light, this is day; that is darkness, that is night, and the two were separated in your soul. What about your second day, and your third? Does every other day follow your first one? That is God’s order, His thought. If there is to be productivity — increase — for His pleasure, that day must ever be the first day, when the light of heaven shone into your heart and when you were able to definitely separate light from darkness and name both.
One has been struck with the great power there is in naming things. God helps people who do so. Many are detained and diverted because they will not look things in the face and give them a name.
Read the first of Genesis. God keeps on naming things and the first thing to be named is light, called day, and the second, darkness, called night. To mix these two will, as far as you are concerned, destroy the great end in view, of being here, fruitful for God. What I have said as to that indicates what is in my mind — that the first day stands out as the great head of the days. It is so in creation, and it is so in our souls as we are maintained true to divine thoughts.
Now I would like to say a word or two about “the first day of the week,” which belongs to the assembly, God’s people as set together. The bearing of a week has relation to God’s people together, and I want to apply what I have said in the same way, that every week we live, as of God’s assembly together, is headed by the first day. The twentieth chapter of John introduces what comes to light on the first day of the week. Luke does not speak of that, but of the day after the sabbath. But John speaks of the first day of the week, the beginning of the week, the assembly period. The One who went into death was not there on the first day of the week — He was risen. That is the thing. God’s people now stand related to Christ, not as here on earth, but as a living Man out of death. The Object of God’s people, the Object of their hearts, is not living on earth, nor is He in the grave — the sepulchre is empty — He is a living Man beyond death. The assembly’s Object is not on the earth, nor in death.
The assembly’s week begins with that. The week for all our hearts, as God’s people, begins with this great discovery, that our Object is not on the earth, but is beyond death and is to be known to us there, as He made Himself known to Mary. Mary represents what I am saying. She discovers an empty tomb and she finds, on the first day of the week, that the great Object of her heart discloses Himself to her as in resurrection, outside man’s world and earthly things and all that makes up human life. He is beyond all that, but He is living and able to put Himself in touch with His people in a real and spiritual way. Is that a theory to us, dear brethren? Is it something that we assent to in a mere nominal way, or do we know it experimentally, that the Lord Jesus, the Head of His body, the assembly, can put Himself livingly in touch with His own as their great Object? He does it on the first day of the week, and then He discloses to Mary, this great lover of His, that the light and the sweetness of heavenly relationships are to be known on that day.
He says, “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” And Mary came and told these things to the disciples. She told them that on this wonderful first day, He is to be known as out of death, in touch with His own, and He would convey to them the blessedness of heavenly relationships. That is the day that is to head our week. The consciousness that He is not here, that He has passed out of this scene, not now in the grave, but still living, characterises this day. Our Object is a living Man, who is in touch with us and conveys to our hearts the sweetness of heavenly relationships. He said, “I ascend,” that indicated the heavenly character of the relationships to be known on the first day. Not only resurrection but ascension.
What about the second day? What about the third day? What about every other day of the week of God’s people here? Is this the day that gives character to our week? That our Object is not on the earth. We must have to do with the earth, but our Object is not here. That is as true on Monday as it was on the first day; it is as true for the last day, the seventh day, as it was on the first, that our Object is not here, but we belong to His assembly where He is known, and we have tasted the sweetness of eternal and heavenly relationships. The Lord intends that to put a colour on the rest of the week. How different everything would look on Monday, if the first day stood in relation to the next day, and the next, and the next, even to the last. Alas! with many of us, I fear the first day is only a unit, just one day, not the first day really, but one day, the second day not attached to it, not linked with it. So that on the second day our objects are seen to be really on the earth and earthly relationships absorb us.
Now I would like to pass on to the twentieth chapter of the Acts. There we have the first day of the week connected with the breaking of the bread. It says “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread.” Every heart, I trust, says, Yes, I do that; I come together with the saints on the first day to break bread. Who that loves Christ would be missing? “This do,” He says, “in remembrance of me.” What lover would be voluntarily missing when He is to be remembered? How worthy He is to be remembered, for we owe everything to Him! But what I want to ask, dear brethren, is this, Is the day on which you break bread the first day of the week, or is it a detached day, a day that just comes round once a week but has no bearing on the rest of the week? If so, it is not the first day to you. The Spirit of God records that it was on the first day of the week they assembled to break bread. The saints in that city, Troas, began their week by this day. It was not a detached, isolated day to them; it was the start of their week. It characterised their week. Every single day that followed was controlled by it to the very last day.
What was it that they enjoyed on the first day that was so great that it could mark the whole week, that it could give a tone, a character to Monday and to Saturday and Saturday afternoon and every evening? What was it that was so wonderful that the whole week of Gods people in Troas was coloured and characterised by the first day? The Lord was known to them on that day. He was known, it says, in the breaking of bread. How is He known to them? “This is my body, which is given for you.” That precious body, including every member of it, was laid down, devoted to His own. “Take, eat,” says the Lord, “this is my body.” Feed upon this wondrous food — eat this, that your heart might be strengthened by this bread — My body given for you. He is known to us thus.
The blessed One who came into the body that was prepared for Him used His body in devoted love to His own, even to its surrender in death, and the saints, on the first day of the week, eat this bread.
They not only maintain the memorial, but they eat the bread. It is food to their affections. What for? That strengthened, they might pursue the week as characterised by the food they have eaten, for that is the meaning of food. Food determines our character and the saints together on the first day of the week eat this bread. The point in Matthew particularly is the eating, it is food for the hearts of the saints, so that strengthened by it, the week might be characterised by the first day.
Let me ask each one of us as of the assembly in this city, does Monday reflect anything of the first day? You say, How can it be? The bread we have eaten on the first day speaks of Christ’s body given for us. What are we doing with our body on the second day? Oh, says someone, we must take great care of it lest our health gives way. That is not what was learnt on the first day. What was learnt on the first day? “This is my body, which is given for you,” even to death, so that with that day leading we hold our body for sacrifice, for devotedness to the saints, in measure as Christ did.
Then come the evenings; the prayer meeting sees us present, also the reading on Wednesday, maybe Thursday, and the care of God’s beloved people who need shepherding will be remembered also. Oh, you say, there is little time, and our strength will give out. “This is my body, which is given for you,” is the food of the first day. It is not a day by itself, every day takes character from that day. Oh, says somebody, we will not live long. That is not our object. The Lord was taken away in the midst of His days. How are we holding our bodies?
Perhaps the greatest evidence of selfishness lies in the use of our bodies. The Spirit of God says, They came together on the first day of the week to break bread. The whole week should be marked by what flows from the first day, the Lord’s body given in devoted love to His people, the reflection of that in the beloved saints is that their body is held for service and sacrifice to the saints, or else the first day is only an isolated day. “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
So the next thing is, “This is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many,” “Drink ye all of it.” The Lord says on the first day, Let your heart be stimulated with joy as you drink into the love that moved Me to lay down My life for you, to secure you for the pleasure of God and His holy service. “For many.” One loves the thought of the many. God looked down at one time to see if there were any. It says, There was not even one. But the Lord says, “This is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many,” “Drink ye all of it.” Let our hearts expand in the joy of the love that would give up His life to have you for God, for His service, for His praise, to be amongst the thousands of them that love Him. That is the joy of the first day, that you have a place amongst the thousands of those who minister to God, that love Him. Is the second day like that?
What about the last day of the week? The first day speaks to us of a life that is laid down for ever, for the life that is in the blood is surrendered for ever. You say, If I follow that line I will not live long here. The blessed Lord surrendered the life of flesh and blood for ever, to have you amongst the many, to have you as one of those instruments to praise withal. What are we doing with our lives as the week pursues its course? Are we letting go a little of our lives? The Lord in the cup says, I have given up my life. This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for many. As the week passes, are we holding our life with a firm hand, lest a little of it should go? The apostle John says, “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren,” and the apostle Paul says, “I die daily.” “Bearing about,” he says, “in the body the dying of Jesus.” Paul says “dying,” not the death of Jesus, but the dying. We miss the joy and blessedness of Christianity if our week is not headed by the first day, but if it is headed by the first day, with what appetite, with what intense longings we approach the first day again, that our hearts might be strengthened afresh by the bread and the joy of our souls stimulated by the cup. There is sometimes a lack of desire for the supper, which indicates that the first day of the week has not really been first, hence there is little hunger and thirst, because the energy and joy has not been expended in the week that followed. I commend it to every heart here of those who break bread, that the divine thought is that the first day stands in relation to each day that follows.
I would say a word or two about the “last day” of John 6. What a thought is the last day, the final day, the day when all that has been secured in time, comes to light and is manifest. What joy to think that nothing that God has wrought in His people throughout the ages will be missing in the last day. The last day will be the assembling day, the day of manifestation, the day when God displays His work. That is the day that counts in this connection. Where will we be when the last day comes? Will there be anything worthy of having a place in the last day? So the Lord indicates what marks those who will appear then.
The Lord speaks of those the Father has given Him. “All that the Father giveth me,” He says, “I will raise him up at the last day.” What a view of the work of God, that we belong to those who are given to Christ! Think of the Father giving us to Him! Would He give Him a poor, unworthy gift? The Lord delighted in those who were given to Him. He says in another place, “thine they were, and thou gavest them me.” What a view to take of the saints. They are the gift of the Father to Christ. What a privilege to serve them faithfully. “All that the Father giveth me,” the Lord says. Every true believer represents a gift from the Father to Christ. He values them so much that when the last day comes He will raise them up, not one will be missing. They will be there because of the price He puts on them as the Father’s gift. Then the Lord says, “this is the will of him that has sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” That is another feature of the work of God. “Every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him.” What a sight to see the Son, to see the blessed One in manhood who declares God, who makes God known!
The whole physical universe teaches us something about God as to His eternal power, but the Son is the Declarer of God in grace and life, and every eye that has seen Him and believes on Him (not did believe, but is characterised by belief, whatever adversity comes, whether loss or sickness or death, such still believe on the Son and in the disclosure of the heart of God in Him) — every such person shall have life eternal. The Lord so delights in such that He says, “I will raise him up at the last day.” Such are so valuable to Christ that He will see they are not missing then, for they have seen Him and believed on Him here.
Then we have a further word from the Lord. “No man can come to me,” He says, “except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” Now we have another view of the work of God. Christ is presented as the great Magnet of the moral universe, and the Father is drawing the hearts of men to Christ. In another place the Lord is doing the drawing, “I will draw all,” the blessed One who was lifted up. But in this passage the Father is drawing. In His gracious activities of love and goodness He is engaged drawing men to Christ. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him. What made him come? The Father drew him. How He valued Nathanael, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” The Lord says of everyone that has been thus drawn, “I will raise him up at the last day.” He so values such that when the last day comes each will be there; the Lord will see to that.
Then, finally as to this view-point, the Lord says, “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Lord is looking again at another feature that He puts great price on. How the Lord delights in those who eat His flesh and drink His blood. He has His eye on them and when the last day comes they will be there. You will notice He says, “I will raise him up” in each of these cases. They said to Christ, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” One cannot speak of it now, but just to say that eating His flesh and drinking His blood is the appropriation of His death here. The expression “flesh and blood” signifies the condition of life that He took, in which He died; it was the termination of the life of flesh and blood. You say, I do not see much food and joy in that. No, dear brethren, if earthly things are our all, there is nothing to attract in such meat and drink. If all I want is my business, my money, my home, and the pleasures and comforts of this life, of course I am not attracted by the termination in death of the condition of life that the Lord Jesus took; but if I find my food and joy in His death, it is because I have discovered other objects. First I have discovered in His death that which satisfies my heart, the blessed disclosure of His love, of divine love, and then there is a world beyond flesh and blood. Do we believe it? There is a world beyond flesh and blood, a vast world, “that world, and the resurrection,” and the eating His flesh and drinking His blood is the acceptance of death in view of that world and the resurrection. The Lord says of any who so accept death, that He will see that he has part in the last day. What will give us a place in the last day is the thing that matters. We may miss much that is going on in the present world, but that is all coming to an end for ever, but when the last day comes, the Lord is going to raise up all that the Father has given Him, all that have seen the Son and believed on Him, all that have been drawn to Him by the Father, all who have fed upon His precious death as having another world in view. The Lord says, I will see they have a place then.
I thought it might be well to commend to you these two thoughts, the first day giving character to the rest of the days, whether it be our first day as Christians, or whether it be the first day of the week for God’s people. On the other hand, to pursue that which will give us a place in the last day, so that the Lord will raise us up as valuing us. The Lord puts a value on what He raises up for the last day. May the Lord help us in these two matters.