SERVICE GODWARD
SERVICE GODWARD
CAC It is not easy to suggest Scriptures comprehensive enough to cover all that relates to what we are considering but I thought we could read these two verses to start with, and work from that.
I might just say that we have been looking at matters connected with the Lord’s supper. We thought of what was connected with calling Him to mind in the reading before last, and last week we were saying what the effect is upon the Lord of our calling Him to mind, which we thought was an important matter.
We referred to the Song of Songs 5:10 - 16, beginning with the spouse saying, “My beloved ... The chiefest among ten thousand”, and ending with, “... Yea, he is altogether lovely”. We thought that was calling Him to mind, because He was absent. He was in her mind in all His personal excellence and beauty, surpassing all others, and we thought that was properly bound up in the calling Him to mind.
The effect in chapter 6 verse 9 is that the attitude of her mind, in calling Him to mind, brings her into view in her unique beauty under His eye. As we have said, the assembly is unified in calling Him to mind, and she is seen in her true character, and so in chapter 7, she becomes the object of His desire; and it is on that line that He came to Bethany in John 12. He came that they might make Him a supper. It is the converse of the Lord making us a supper. The service is set forth in a feminine character. Lazarus is not active, Martha serves and Mary worships in a way that surpasses anything in Scripture, as far as I know.
I thought we might see this afternoon what follows [p. 146] upon that. That is not the end of the matter. There is something even greater than that, greater than any service that we can render to Him. That is, He serves us in a way of surpassing excellence. I thought it was the service following on the supper that we might consider this afternoon for mutual help.
Ques Would you say how the Lord’s service of feet-washing is connected with that?
CAC That is necessary on account of something on our side, but I was not thinking of dwelling on that particularly, as I do not know that it should have been prominent, but it comes in incidentally, on account of the need of His own. It is always necessary in order that we should have part with Him. We cannot enter into what follows in chapters 13 to 16 without having our feet washed. The Lord takes account of the fact that we are affected by the scene through which we pass, and would have us liberated to have part with Him; really to share His thoughts, and His precious thoughts are unfolded in chapters 13 to 17. If we do not share His thoughts, it seems to me, we cannot share in His service of praise.
Rem The assembly is the only vessel that can rightly interpret the heart of Christ.
CAC What He communicates must be greater than anything we can say to Him. What He says to us in Headship is of the greatest importance. It must be so when the marriage tie is in view. Whether it is Moses with Zipporah, or Isaac with Rebecca, or Boaz with Ruth, or Joseph with Asnath, or David with Abigail, or Adam with Eve — whichever way you look at it, the communication from the Head would be the important matter.
Ques It follows on; it is the Lord’s response to those at Bethany, would you say?
CAC That is exactly what I was thinking! The Lord is so affected by the attitude taken by the assembly, there is [p. 147] such reciprocity of affection between Christ and the assembly — the “ME” and the “YOU” — that there is liberty for Him to communicate all that is in His mind.
Unless we understand this we shall not enter into His singing in the assembly! It is most significant that these chapters in John follow what describes the institution of the Supper, though John does not give us the institution of the Supper. I believe the Lord would give us spiritual impressions in these chapters. He has something to say to us after the Supper, to draw us to His side, to enable us to join Him in the way He approaches the Father. This is the first part of the communications He gives. The Head is the source; it is as getting what is in His mind and His heart that we get the gain of Headship. It is very striking that after saying all this He turns to the Father in chapter 17. There is instruction in that, shewing He will go a long way in communicating to us, but there is something more, now He is going to speak to His Father.
In these chapters the Lord has very much to say about the Father, it really would answer to His declaring the Father’s Name and He would bring us into His mind that we should get spiritual impressions of what is opened out in chapters 13 to 17.
We shall never understand the assembly unless we see how the Lord was with His own, as J.N.D. and J.B.S. said. In learning how the Lord was with His own in these chapters, we get an apprehension of the character of things that belongs to the assembly. I think it was a drawing of them to His side. The key to it all was having “part with me”. Part with ME is entering into what is in His heart and mind — what He would communicate.
Rem “I will declare thy name to my brethren” comes first.
CAC “I will declare thy name to my brethren” comes necessarily before His singing praise, and all that is before us [p. 148] in John is connected with making known the Father’s Name. These chapters are full of the Father and the Spirit; we can see the spiritual beauty of them.
It is important to see that when He says, “I am coming to you” it is a greater thing than chapter 12. There He came to them to be served — Martha served and Mary anointed Him. But His coming in chapter 14 is greater than that, because He comes to serve — to minister to them. “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. And if He comes it is to serve a condition of heart, an orphaned condition, and supply the comfort needed by the affection of the assembly, a peculiar kind of comfort derived from His presence and the ministry of His own thoughts, all is for the attuning of the instruments to praise the Father.
The first thing after the Supper is that we should serve Him. There was the supper and Martha’s service and Mary’s pound of ointment, all that He should be served. When He says, “I am coming to you”, He comes to serve us, and chapters 13 to 17 are a real, actual, living example of how He serves His own in love. It is the service of the head, of the husband to the wife, it is a marital service. We may say we do not know much about it; the Lord will help us; let us pray about it. The Lord would delight to lead us into it and give us the intelligence of it.
Rem “Another Comforter”.
CAC It is the Spirit on the line of needed support. He takes His place in service and represents Him on the line of His service for us, just as the Lord served His own in these chapters. Chapters 13 to 17 are full of His service in love for His own. Now, He says, the Comforter is coming to continue the service. I can understand now, the great importance the great servants of the Lord saw of ministering in the assembly. J.N.D., J.B.S. and F.E.R. almost invariably ministered the word in the assembly. I remember J.B.S. express astonishment if there was no word from the Lord in [p. 149] the morning meeting — ministry on the line of the Lord’s service as Head to the assembly. We think we can join the Lord automatically and sing with Him, but we cannot without being served by the Lord first. Do we look at it that way? We say, we go to remember the Lord. That is not all that I go for!
Rem “The head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”, Colossians 2: 19.
CAC That exactly puts in one verse all that I had in mind. The Head ministers, with the result that the body becomes intelligent. What follows is, the word of the Christ dwelling richly in it — in the body, so that there is wisdom to admonish one another. “In all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another”. This very service is going on still. The result is, “Singing with grace in your hearts to God”. Now you get the service Godward — “Giving thanks to God the Father by him”. If the assembly is to function vitally we must understand these things. If the assembly is to go on intelligently we must understand these things.
Ques You mean in the sense of the assembly as one whole, so that there is freedom?
CAC I thought so. It is not given to us purely as doctrine; the service of the assembly is never laid down in doctrine. If it were, all christendom would have followed it. He says, I am going to put the teaching of it in such a spiritual way that it will not be understood unless there is reciprocity and love.
We need to pick up the spiritual hints dropped. We shall not be qualified to sing with Him unless the thoughts relating to God and the Father have the place with us that they had with Him. This moment becomes a turning point in the meeting when His service to us ends, and He turns round to praise God. We have to have sharp eyes to see Him turn round. If one thinks that He is serving us when He has [p. 150] turned to praise God, and another thinks that He has turned to praise God when He is serving us, we bring discord into the meeting, like trying to sing two hymns at the same time. When He turns to praise God, if we do not turn too the service is spoilt.
Ques. Is it voluntary?
CAC You can join a chapel on a voluntary basis, and some have joined the brethren on a voluntary basis, but how would you get into the body on a voluntary basis? Nobody does. What we have to do is to find our place in the body; you could never think of getting out of it. We cannot come in or go out of fellowship on a voluntary basis. If any one does he is a thoroughly lawless person.
Rem The breaking of bread is not a matter of option.
CAC No christian is left at liberty as to whether he will break bread or not. It is never supported or contemplated in Scripture that a believer will not eat the Lord’s supper. A good many unenlightened persons think it is the Lord’s supper anywhere where they have bread and a cup, but, it is not! The Lord’s supper is set in the assembly of God and nowhere else, though there is a kind of imitation. How could you have two Lord’s suppers in one town, you could not have it! The Lord’s supper is intended to unify all the saints. If you have two companies not in fellowship with one another, claiming it, one of them at any rate is deceived.
Rem Would you say a word as to sensitiveness to the Lord’s movements, what promotes it?
CAC Nothing will promote it but personal acquaintance with the Lord, to know Him well enough to know when He says, “Arise, let us go hence”.
Rem John who was so intimate with Him would know.
CAC A man like that would know whether the Lord was speaking to them or to the Father. All the apostles would know. When He lifted up His eyes to heaven, they all knew He was speaking to the Father. There could not [p. 151] properly be praise in the assembly before the resurrection, but it illustrates it. It was an entirely different attitude, and we ought to understand that and that in His position as Man He can take that place as addressing “the Father”. The Lord wants us to understand what He is doing. We see the Son has taken a place in Manhood in which He can say, “My God and your God”, which is a relative position, though in His Person equal with God. In the service these things should be understood, otherwise they will not be in order. Any christian would be free as to the Son praying to the Father, but no christian would think of the Father praying to the Son; it is an evident impossibility. The Son prays to the Father, He takes a place of dependence, and it belongs to the place He has taken as Man.
The Lord would draw us to His side by speaking of the communications in chapters 13 to 16 in the assembly or whenever we come together, so that we might be so served by Him that we really come to His side. We are alongside of Him; He can turn to the Father, and we can turn in company with Him to the Father.
Ques It would be mediatorial service would you say?
CAC Yes, surely. Well, one can only with imperfection say these things, and the Lord can help us and I hope will, because I think the side of the Lord’s service to us is little understood. It is a time when the Lord would serve us by giving us spiritual impressions, and one should covet being used by Him for it. If it were so, we should not think of saying such and such a brother gave a word, but what a word the Lord gave us this morning!