DIVINE NEED
[p. 358] DIVINE NEED
Luke 19:28 - 36; Mark 11:1 - 7; Matthew 21:1 - 7; John 12:12 - 14
I have been thinking, dear brethren, of divine need, and of how it may be met. In speaking of divine need I am bearing in mind that it can only be met in Christ — for in no other can there be any answer to the requirements of God. You will remember that at the baptism of our Lord Jesus the Father opened the heavens and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight” (Matthew 3:17); it does not say “all my delight”, leaving an opening, as I apprehend, for the expansion of what was in Christ, for He is to fill all things, and it is in a universe filled with Christ that every divine desire and requirement is met.
My thought now is to show that God is operating for the extension of what is in Christ, in the sense in which Christ comes under God’s eye now in the time of His rejection; in the time of His strenuous service; in the time of the maintenance of this wonderful period, in which it is said, “of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”, (John 1:16). That is, one wave of grace after another coming out without limit.
Bearing this in mind, I would also bring before you the variety of the features of Christ. The city in Revelation 21 has twelve gates, three facing each direction of the compass. These refer to special features. What relates to the north, is necessarily marked by a particular feature of Christ; certain things have to be met in that direction. There is the west, the east, and the south; each has its feature; each point has its own peculiar exigencies to be met. There will be nothing in the coming world that will not be perfectly met according to God, His glory [p. 359] will be in the city. There will be nothing narrow or exacting; all will be according to God, and the fulness of God shining out in Christ and the assembly.
Now all that is in the making here in this city, and in every city where the people of God are. It lends wonderful lustre to the time in which we are, that these great features are in the making in us, having shone in Christ as narrated in the gospels. Each of the four narratives has its special spiritual intent; and so you find this particular incident of the colt in all of them, and I hope you will see that the need expressed in each narrative, has in view its own particular setting, according to the gospel in which it is found.
The features seen in all four gospels necessarily apply to the colt, that is, to each believer. The divine intent is to make each of us relatively four-sided like Christ. One would seek to be as ready to look towards the north, and face all the rigour of it, as to enjoy all the privileges of the south with its warmth. The west too, suggests the despondency that marks the world at the present time, the despairing relinquishment of cherished hopes. One would seek to be able to look in that direction and lift up one’s head without a tremor or doubt, that the sun that seems to set will soon arise. Then again to look toward the east, to the sun-rising, full of hope, looking in that direction soberly, but with assurance that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”.
Well, to begin with Luke 19; especially do I refer to our young brothers and sisters, and would say to each in the language of the evangelist, “the Lord has need of it”. But if He has need of you, He has need of you on His own terms, not on yours. In referring to Luke, I had in mind the great need of priesthood, for that is the point of view there. You may be sure evangelical sympathy goes with the priesthood, and the patience and sympathy with [p. 360] the brethren too, but priesthood is what this gospel has in view. It is the gospel of prayer. Let no young believer assume for a moment, that priesthood belongs to the elder brethren alone; it does belong to them, but it belongs to you also if you are a believer and have the Spirit. This gospel contemplates great anxiety as to you on the part of those who seek you; hence in Luke we find the Lord often in prayer — something like ten times — and on one occasion for a whole night.
Before the Lord selected His apostles according to this evangelist, He spent a night in prayer (chapter 6:12), and “when it was day”, that is, when the full light shone, “he called his disciples”. He chose them when they could be seen. It is an immense gain to acquire ability to see things as they are, for nothing is of any value for the divine requirements, but what is the result of the work of God. Other things may blind and deceive us, so that we do not see things as they are. All this enters into the Lord’s selection of the colt.
So in Luke, the Lord is ascending to Jerusalem, that is to say as having in view the divine centre. There is a group of localities here: Bethphage, Bethany and the mount of Olives. All these places have a spiritual significance as the environment in which the person may be, whom the Lord needs. It is an excellent environment. The Lord gives us every advantage. There is an advantage in Bethany. Think of the memories of Bethany, and Bethphage, and the mount of Olives, the latter alluding to divine provision in the Spirit! And Jerusalem itself, meaning so much spiritually, — “the city of the great King” (Matthew 5:35). He is ascending to it in Luke. You are not being called to anything degrading or levelling according to man. He is going up to it, and as in that way He is seeking to have His needs met. How touching that is! He has need of you. So He sends two of [p. 361] His disciples, and He tells them what to do. As I said, Luke has priesthood in mind. The Lord has need of you in this sense; He has need of priests, and priests must have suitable clothes; hence you find much made of the clothes, but only those of the disciples here. This evangelist ends with the idea of being “clothed with power from on high” (chapter 24:49). We are in the presence of great moral elevation, what is “from on high”. We are lifted out of the level of man’s way and of man’s priesthoods.
The two disciples go and find the ass, and we learn that it has “masters”. Luke only mentions that fact. It is a very important matter that someone owned him, in the sense of having authority over him. How important for a young believer! It may be that some of us are not accustomed to admit ownership on the part of those immediate to us. The masters inquired why they loosed the colt. There was no hostility, but right-mindedness, for it was surely right to inquire as to this interference. But what an interference! It was by the authority of the messengers of Jesus.
This leads me to the two disciples, and where the brethren are in regard to them, so as to be thus used at any time. If there be no confidence between meetings, there can be no such service as this in a general way. While the understanding of local responsibility is most important, yet general confidence is essential for this service. The principle is, that the Lord has needs, and He would graciously use us to satisfy them. In each of the synoptic gospels we have two disciples sent, none at all in John, as I hope to show, for the Lord will ever remind us that He is not dependent wholly upon us. He finds the ass Himself in John. Let us be warned about that. If we are not available the Lord will see that the needed service is rendered.
[p. 362] In John, according to the New Translation, He neither uses them to feed the multitude nor to find the colt. He does both Himself, and He will still do likewise. Unless we are available, He will have to pass us by. In Mark 6:48 we read that, He “would have passed them by”, but He did not. He would warn us of this. The Lord is patient, but righteousness must govern patience. In Luke 19 He sends two of His disciples and He says, “Go into the village”, and they go and find the colt; never man sat on him. He had masters but they were not using him, he was never under the yoke; typifying a young believer. The young among the saints are brought up in the understanding that they belong to the house. This colt had his masters who cared for him, having him under control. The Lord Jesus is the first to use him. How beautiful that is! He was held there by these intelligent masters, and they let him go as the Lord sends for him. How beautiful is this scene! These two disciples leading the colt and putting their garments upon him; and then setting Jesus upon him that he might carry Him into His capital. It is what is available to every brother and sister, young or old, for priesthood belongs to all. But the Lord had need of you for this. One wonders how much prayer there is in secret, how much carrying of things by the Lord’s people in secret. As He says in Matthew 6:6, “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father ... shall reward thee openly”. Such is His estimate of prayer.
I pass on now to Mark 11. Mark has the ministry in view. One may speak to God and yet not be able to speak to men; but as I acquire power with God, I shall acquire it with men. So the Lord has need of you, in Mark, for active public service. The need is great. The Lord would use every bit of ability for public testimony. But this must be on His own [p. 363] terms; as we find in Mark, in the selection of the servants, that He went up into a mountain, and called His disciples to Him; He called whom He Himself would (chapter 3:13). It is entirely a question of His choice. He has His own way of showing it. He called “whom he himself would”, “that they might be with him and that he might send them to preach”. There is such a thing as going forth like Philip in Acts 8, but this is “that he might send them forth to preach”. Thus Mark would convey to us that He has need of us in that light, that is, for the ministry.
You will observe in the synoptic gospels that much is made of the Lord’s ministry and the volume of the results of it; there is no limit to those He healed of diseases; everything was well done, but done in volume. The Lord would encourage us to pray that He should send forth labourers into His harvest, for the harvest is great. The great amount of work already done only suggests the greatness of what is yet to be done. Let us take this to heart. There is extremely little being done by those walking nominally in the light; I am not excluding myself, and the Lord would stir us up. So, He says, I have need of you for the ministry. The work is extensive; the fields are white to harvest. So the two disciples find the colt, — he is tied at the crossway. It is the same environment as in Luke but at a crossway near the house, — a dangerous position because he might go either way when loosed. But they loose him and lead him to Jesus.
Now, in Matthew you will observe that they had two, an ass and a colt, and that brings us to the assembly. Matthew deals with that, as with other things. As regards the servants, Matthew says nothing about prayer. He simply says that the Lord appointed His disciples, “first, Simon, who was called Peter” (chapter 10:2). That is, He gave Peter the first place. Matthew has [p. 364] in mind to convey that there is authority, vested in Christ, to set up a system of things and to give one man the leading position if He choose, hence it says — “first ... Peter”. Matthew clothes the Lord, and all that belongs to Him, with authority. We are living in democratic times, and it is well to keep in mind the thought of authority vested in the kingdom of the heavens, the designation of the kingdom the Lord generally employs in Matthew. It is the rule of the heavens, all the benign influence of the heavens exerted here upon earth. Is it to be spurned? or refused? The democratic spirit annuls that influence and therefore robs us of our wealth. We need to be reminded of the kingdom of the heavens with its authoritative, but benign, influence; and that suggests to us the great need of assemblies, not of big meetings, but a large number of meetings. The assembly is not presented as ruling now in a universal way. There is no such thought in Scripture for the present time. That will apply in the millennium. The rule today is an economy of assemblies. The apostle says, “Thus I ordain in all the assemblies” (1 Corinthians 7:17). As to local companies, the more the better, the greater the number, the greater the influence of heaven. So the Lord has need of you according to Matthew, for another meeting. That is the point, and hence you get two here, “an ass tied, and a colt with it”. You cannot have another meeting without two. The Lord has need of two. I am using the incident in a spiritual way.
You will find throughout this gospel the prominence given to two, in a bad sense as well as in a good. I am speaking of two in the good sense, and would say the Lord has need of two, to increase the number of meetings. Meetings reach a size sometimes, a point of saturation, when they cease to answer to the Lord’s mind. They cease to be available to Him for His use. But the word here is that the Lord has need of “two”, — an old brother and a young one, — for that is the idea in the ass and the colt; you have the energy of youth and the wisdom of age. You need these two features for an assembly. If the Lord had fifty of them in this city it would not be too many. I do not know how many He had in Jerusalem during Pentecostal times. It is the only period in the assembly’s history in which definite numbers of believers are mentioned, doubtless to show what treasure there was. It is a question of the treasure at Pentecost, not of the pearl; the pearl is Paul’s line. You have no numbers formally given, with Paul, but at Pentecost you have three thousand souls mentioned, five thousand later. How many meetings do you think the Lord had in these five thousand at Pentecost? If you consider the size of the city of Jerusalem it was not a very large city in one sense, though it was comparatively large. Think of the number — five thousand divided by fifty — probably one hundred meetings! Would the Lord have all this number together in one place on every first day of the week? There is no such suggestion. Probably there was no meeting-place in the city of Jerusalem capable of accommodating so many people. But you can see what a treasure the Lord had in the number mentioned, and He would make the most use of it by subdivision. The number twelve means great divisibility, and spiritually you cannot have that without love; you cannot have assembly material without love. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” And if the Lord has need of two, it is two that can walk together, that He can use at one time. He uses the ass and the colt at one time here. The word is to the old as well as to the young; the Lord has need of you for the extension of His influence; that is one idea of the assembly.
We shall see in the future, the great extension of His influence in the assembly universally, but we [p. 366] see it now in local companies. I would urge therefore this appeal — the Lord has need of you. So the Old Testament is brought in here; for Matthew brings in “things new and old”, that is to say, the experience and teaching of the Old Testament are brought in. All that was in it of God merges in the assembly, every bit of experience and instruction merges in it. It is to lack nothing that is available on the part of God, to make it what God intends it to be, a vessel for the extension of the influence of heaven here. For this He has need of twos. He says, “That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (chapter 18:19). What will He not do as we thus ask? He will constantly add to what there is answering to the thought of the assembly. May the Lord stir us up to this!
What an opportunity there is to present ourselves, as it were, to the Lord to say, We are here for Thy purpose, in all this four-sided ministry and service that Thou art carrying on; we are here at Thy disposal; if it be for the extending of Thine influence. Let us reduce ourselves so that there may be another meeting, and the Lord will be with us in view of increasing growth. It is most interesting to see such plants of the Father’s planting — plants not to be rooted up. “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up”, (Matthew 15:13).
Well now, I come to John 12, and as I have already said, you have no disciples used here; and moreover the acclamation at Jerusalem is already in evidence, as if the Lord were to notify us that His end may be reached without us. He will not be defeated. In the synoptic gospels, the acclaiming Him at Jerusalem is subsequent to the securing of the colt, it is accorded Him as sitting on the colt, or as in Matthew on the ass and the colt; but in John, you will observe that the acclamation is already there.
[p. 367] A very solemn thought, suggesting the possibility of being left outside, of being passed by. But then I want you to notice that what precedes this incident in John is Lazarus. In Luke and Mark what precedes is the opening of the blind man’s eyes; in Matthew there were two blind men, but in John what you get is Lazarus, and I want you to think of what Lazarus is to Christ. Did you ever hear of the Lord going to a town because of a brother being in that town? Well, that was Lazarus, as I might say. He came to Bethany six days before the passover “where Lazarus was”. That is the honour that is given to Lazarus. He is the kind of man the Lord wants; He has need of that man — Lazarus, “whom he raised from the dead”. He belonged to a loved family which represented the family of God. The Lord has need of those that are brought up in family affections, and who know the love of God, the love of Christ, and the love of the brethren. How lovely they are in His eyes! He has need of them. He has need of members of that family. Already people were coming and believing on Him because of Lazarus. How important Lazarus was to Him! Is Lazarus a preacher? No! As far as Scripture tells us he never spoke a word. Of course we know he would speak, but that is not the point. It is not a question of preaching here; but that he is risen; it is the principle of the family of God, as delightful in the eyes of Christ. Lazarus as raised from the dead is so reflective of Christ that people are coming and believing on Him because of Lazarus, and for this reason the leaders desired to slay him. The Lord has need of such people as Lazarus. He does not send any of His disciples to find them. He knows all about the family of God. He is Son over God’s house. In this gospel He is the One who sets free. He does not send anybody on that service, He does it Himself. How it brings the Lord Himself into relief as to what He [p. 368] can do without us! Think of the immensity of the family of God! Who can tell the number of christians on earth at this time? They all belong to the family, and the Lord knows every one of them; He knows where they are. It is in this connection that His entry into Jerusalem comes into view in John. He says, so to speak, I would like to be borne along in testimony by such men. He finds the ass Himself for He has need of it: and He rode upon it, it was His own doing. I love to think, in that way, of Christ’s activities in the house, knowing where every member of the family is. He has need of them. He finds the ass and rides into His capital, and the acclamation of the city was there. It was suitable that He should so ride into it, and He finds the ass. These thoughts are not mine, but of the Holy Spirit. The Lord will find someone Himself. Let us not think that He will not pass us by, if we are not in these conditions; but He has need of us as in them. May the Lord bless the word!