‘DISAPPEARING’
A desire for prominence now is not a mark of the kingdom, nor of those who are in it. I desire to shew what are the present characteristics of the kingdom, which also come before us in this gospel by Matthew.
I do not believe that the desire to be near Him was alone the spring which prompted the request of the mother of Zebedee’s children. There may have been this also, but I think I see in it besides, the desire for present recognition—the desire for prominence amongst men in the midst of things as they existed then, and as they exist now, and I think that this is a present danger with believers.
As to the particular place in the gospel where the passage is found we know that chaps 11, 12 set before us the rejection of Christ by the Jewish nation. In this gospel Christ is God’s king. Then come the chaps 13 to 25: 10 which verse ends the present interval (that is, the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost in believers on earth) by Christ’s return. This passage, which I have read, comes between chapters 13 and 25:10, and so also do four parables, which shew how the Spirit of God (who is here consequent upon Christ’s rejection) works in those who are waiting for Christ. The Lord’s answer shews the unsuitability of obtrusiveness, or the desire for prominence now, and the parables shew us that that thought is the opposite of God’s thought for us who are of the kingdom. They shew us too what that thought is, which God by His Spirit is bringing into.
If we are in the light of the kingdom we must disappear as to things down here. I do not think that this can be questioned if one reads the passages I have referred to. The Holy Ghost is here to put the first man aside, to cause that man to disappear morally and to substitute Christ. That is the present work of the Holy Ghost. He is here to maintain that which has come before God in the person of Christ, because it is only that which suits God. Hence these intervening chaps from 12 to 25 are very interesting. At the end of chap 12 God’s king is rejected, and consequent on that, God sets aside for the time those who by natural birth claimed to be the “children of the kingdom”, chap 8: 12. In Israel there was no fruit God-ward, and that is why in chapter 13, He begins again to sow. God is yet to have fruit, and there is yet to be a rich harvest for Him!
The gospel of Matthew is the continuation of the Old Testament and the Old Testament was full of the thought of a coming kingdom. Man has had his day of rule and God is now going to have His. Matthew begins on this line, and Christ is born King of the Jews, Matt 2: 2. In the book of Daniel and in the other prophets we have more or less this kingdom referred to. The time would come when the “God of heaven” “should set up a kingdom”. When you come to the gospel of Matthew you have God making this good. The King is born and is on earth.
In the coming of Christ into this world God has put forth His hand to establish the kingdom. He has never withdrawn His hand. He has introduced the King, and even when they crucified Christ, God took care that all men should know (both Jew and Gentile) that it was His King that they were refusing a place on earth. “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews” (John 19: 19) was the title which He put on the cross and would not allow to be altered!
Now the Holy Ghost is here in order to maintain God’s claim to the kingdom, and to form in men what suits it and God. To make this clear I must ask you to consider for a few moments the teaching of the four parables as to the kingdom, in which the present activity of the Holy Spirit is set forth. They come in between the revelation of God’s purpose in chapter 13 and the closing of the door (as to the Spirit’s present work) in chap 25: 10. They are found in no other gospel than this of Matthew, and they shew that the spirit of the kingdom will be maintained here by the Holy Ghost until the return of Christ. The four parables are, the unmerciful servant, the labourers in the vineyard, the wedding garment, and the ten virgins. The right condition found in all these is the important matter to consider.
The Holy Ghost then is here to form in us the spirit of the kingdom during the absence of Christ, and to prepare us for His return. In the first parable, that of the unmerciful servant, chap 18, the Spirit of God being here for Him must lead men to act as He acts. If the king has been pleased to forgive the servant, the servant must also act in the spirit of forgiveness towards his fellow-servant. He must not exact what may be his righteous due. God has not acted, and is not acting thus toward man. The spirit in which God is acting now to us is the spirit of forgiveness. Grace is prominent. Hence I am not in the spirit of the kingdom if I am contending for any rights down here.
Those that are in the light of the kingdom (the King being rejected) are in the spirit of Matthew 18. They are willing, as men speak, to ‘go to the wall’. They are not contending for anything down here. It illustrates what I said just now, that if we are in the light of the kingdom (the Holy Ghost having His way in us) we are disappearing down here. We cannot assert our rights and at the same time be in the good of the kingdom, and not to insist on one’s rights is to be a fool, according to the world. In chap 20 the kingdom is likened to a householder hiring labourers for his vineyard. In the vineyard of course the owner is greatly interested, and what we see that the Spirit is teaching is that the owner seeks servants devoted to his interests. The owner has interests in his vineyard, and the servants have to make his interests theirs. If I have seen in the former parable that the Spirit leads me to sink my interests, in this second I learn that the Spirit will lead to devotion to the rights and interests of another, the owner of the vineyard. By the Spirit endurance will mark us, though the burden and heat of the day will be sorely testing. No reward will be expected, and no relief from labour, until the evening, when we meet Him. The Spirit is here to set a man to labour out of simple devotedness to Christ. If you and I are in the good of what this parable teaches, we are working away as hard as we can for One who is not here, but who has interests here, and because we do not expect anything until the end of the day, we are never disappointed at present results.
In the third parable, that of the wedding garment, the prominent thought is something outside which people can see and take account of. This I understand is Christ. But it is clear to me, and I hope also to you, that if there is not in us an ungrieved Spirit, people will not see much of Christ in us. That is, they will not see the wedding garment. The Spirit is working here, and is in us, in order to maintain Christ here under the eye of God. Everything in this world that does not suit God will presently disappear, so that Christ may be “all in all”, but at the present time the Holy Ghost is here, that all that does not suit God may disappear in Christians. The Spirit of God forms the ways and life of Christ in the believer, so that Christ is seen externally. It is the Spirit that forms in you the ways and manners of Christ. You see nothing at all of Christ in unbelievers; the Spirit is not there, and the man was cast out finally, chap 22: 11-14.
In the last parable, chap 25, the Spirit maintains the light, and if people have not the Spirit they will be shut out. Here we learn that nothing avails but the Spirit. You may have religion, theology, and much that may seem to be light; but oil is an absolute necessity, when lamps are going out. The night is long and the test a severe one, and it is oil alone that will maintain a light for God; oil is a figure of the Spirit in many places in scripture.
As I said, Matthew is a continuation of the story of the Old Testament kingdom. But it is in mystery. Chap 13 gives us the full account of how it comes about that there are (at this moment) in the kingdom offences and “those who offend”. But these four parables are intended to shew to any one whose eyes God may have opened, what suits Him in the kingdom on earth today. We are “in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”, Rev 1: 9. There is nothing on earth for God but the kingdom, and Matthew is the gospel which links us in this way to the Old Testament. The kingdom is here, but it is not “meat and drink”, it is “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost”, Rom 14: 17.
The world does not value any of these at all. The world can only value what it sees. The world neither sees nor appreciates what is of the Spirit. The “natural” man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, and “he cannot know them, for they are spiritually discerned”, 1 Cor 2: 14. You must be born again to see the kingdom. That which God does, and which He values, is totally unappreciated by the world. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 2: 30), therefore you and I as saints have to disappear in the eyes of the world, and if you are walking in the light of the Spirit’s ministry to you, that is with an ungrieved Spirit—the world will not know you, because it knew Him not.
I turn now to the passage which I have read, chap 20 20-28. The Lord draws attention to what is seen before outward display. He meets the question as to greatness and position in the kingdom by asking a question. He was about to drink of the cup given to Him of the Father. That cup involved His disappearing in rejection and death, as a man here. Were they able to drink of such a cup as this? They say they are “able”, and though perhaps then they knew but little of what was involved in their reply, He knew all. He had drawn them to Himself, and the Holy Ghost was to come, to be in them the power which would enable them to follow Him in that path, and to make them (before the hour of display) willing to disappear here, for this is that which marks the kingdom today, where it exists.
It is interesting to note that the characteristic of faith is disappearance in the world. Abel is the first record of it (Heb 11) and he disappeared. Enoch disappeared. Noah went into the ark from the world. He disappeared. Moses disappeared from Pharaoh’s court. Christ disappeared, and the church will in like manner also presently disappear; but now this is effected morally in saints by the Holy Ghost. The first man has to go in order that the flesh may not glory, and that the Man that suits God may come before Him!
Abraham is the bright witness of faith in the Old Testament, and there are three preliminary spheres, so to speak, in which Abraham had to disappear. He had to disappear as to his country, and as to his kindred, and as to his father’s house. You and I have to disappear in these just as he did, only that we disappear morally. You will find them again referred to in Mark 6. A prophet is one who has the mind of God, and the Lord says, “A prophet is not despised, save in his own country, and among his own kinsmen, and in his own house”. He disappears there—becomes practically of no account, in these three spheres, just as Abraham did. It is the universal record as to faith in the world where it exists, that the man who has it disappears because the world has cast off God.
If I look at these things a little more closely I see that the first is as to my country. That is, I disappear politically. I am nothing in that sphere. Nobody comes to solicit my vote, and the world says it would go on quite as well, and perhaps a little better, if I were well out of it! We take our stand alongside of Paul in this matter when he says our citizenship is in heaven, Phil 3: 20. May it be so in living power in our souls.
Secondly, I disappear as to my kindred. These are my relations. I am willing to become valueless (and perhaps worse than that) in their eyes. I am no credit, but perhaps a disgrace to the family! It is hard to be thus despised, yet it is a part of the pathway, and by no means to be shunned.
Thirdly, there is the disappearing as to my father’s house, that is—as to my brothers and sisters. This has to be met and will be met in the pathway of faith. I am willing to become of no account in their eyes. All these three form the beginning, I should say, of the disappearing pathway, and I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit suffices for them all.
Now, let us look at the importance of being subject to the Spirit of God, who seeks to form in you day by day the spirit of the kingdom as set forth in these four parables, lest that condemnation should be true of you which is true of thousands, they are ‘grieving the Spirit’! In Matthew 18, the Holy Spirit is here to maintain in those that are in the kingdom what suits God. When I have disappeared as to the world then Christ only is seen. This is progressive.
Now suppose that I am standing up for any assumed rights of mine in this world. I do not hesitate to say that Christ did not do that, and if not I am grieving the Spirit. Again as to chap 20. Suppose that I am idle and doing no ‘vineyard work’ for God in this world, I do not doubt that this did not mark Christ, and again I am grieving the Spirit! The Spirit of God is most active in this world. What am I doing? If I do not see that there is something to do here for God I am one of the idlers of this chapter. They were standing “idle in the market place”. The market place is the world, see chap 11: 16. When we come to the next parable (chap 22), the wedding garment, let us suppose that people who have spiritual eyes cannot see much (if anything) of Christ in me. Surely then also I am grieving the Spirit. Scripture says, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof”, Rom 13: 14. Christ put on and yet not seen?
And lastly (chap 25) if I am no light in this dark world Christ was. “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9: 5), and if I am no light I cannot be in the good of the Spirit’s testimony! We read again “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world”, Phil 2: 15. And if I am no light, or in so far as the light is feeble, the Spirit is grieved. It is a most solemn thing this, because if I am grieving the Spirit He cannot lead me into the “deep things of God”, 1 Cor 2: 10. The Holy Spirit is in me to help me to disappear. Christ is rejected and we are between His rejection and His return, and the Spirit is here from Him and for Him. But the Spirit is here also to form what does suit God—to make that manifest.
The kingdom of God now is God’s work in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is the only thing worthy of our hearts, because it is the only thing which will stand. Everything else is about to be shaken. The presence of the Holy Ghost is the proof that God has never withdrawn His hand as to establishing the kingdom. The word to us is “Grieve not the Spirit”. The Spirit of God is forming now a people for Christ. God is working thus in us, and His work is the setting aside of the first man. This of course the world cannot appreciate. “The world knoweth us not, because it knew him not”, 1 John 3: 1.
The Lord, as a man down here, was ever, I believe, disappearing. Wherever the world expected to see Him He was missing. “Where is he?” They could not make His absence out. Have they to say oftentimes now the same words because they note our absence from their assemblies? Where is he? At last the blessed Lord was no more here, and He says of them, “Ye shall seek me and shall not find me”, John 7: 36. He became less and less in the estimation of the world until He finally disappeared. Is it so with us ?
I feel it is important to often ask ourselves, How far are we in the light of the present moment—in the light of what the Holy Spirit is here for? I do not doubt that there are two sides to His work and that as to the world He helps us to disappear in it, while as to God, by Him also Christ is more and more seen. Only I do not think you can manifest the latter without the former. You will not float into all the good which is in the heart of God for you. You will reach it by the steps being taken which lead to it.
Was it wrong to desire to be near the Lord in the kingdom? I do not think so. But I think if we are near Him when the kingdom is displayed, we shall be found near Him today, and today He is rejected !
I do not see how any obtrusive man can have the light of the kingdom in his soul. I do not say that he cannot be in and of the kingdom. But if I am in my soul in the light of the kingdom, it is to God, and the present scene does not come at all into my consideration. I am becoming less and less as to my value in it and pretty indifferent to its value of me. The world appreciates nothing that is of God, and nothing that God is doing. Yet today, as in the first creation, only that which God does can be said to be “very good”. It is very good, and everything else will have to go—will be shaken—that that which is of God, which “cannot be shaken” may remain.
Now nobody is more active than one who is in the light of the kingdom, because God is active in the present scene. At the same time (since the natural man cannot appreciate what God is doing) the world will not appreciate nor accord any value to what we are doing, for if we are doing anything at all that will stand, it is “God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”, Phil 2: 13. Yet it is a comforting thought that God rightly estimates all! “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (Luke 17: 20), and yet what is called Christendom is all outward display. I distinguish between what is called Christendom, which is simply the world, and the kingdom. I know that Christendom is to come into God’s judgment, but that God will not judge His own work. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son”, Col 1: 13. The kingdom is begun in us, because the Spirit is in us. God must be true to Himself. “He cannot deny himself”, and the Spirit forms what suits Himself. There is nothing in the work of God in us that man can appreciate. May we be more simply here in the light of the kingdom, and in the display of what is of God, in this interval between the departure of the Bridegroom and His return! The difference between profession and reality is one thing, the presence of the Spirit. Everything that is for God depends on it. All that which marks the day in which we live is the opposite of that which suits God. All that desire for prominence, for outward show, “to be seen of men”—all the display of man which marks what men call Christendom—all that is merely external—is sensual, and will come into judgment, no matter how great the present profession. It is as true today as ever it was, and may it be burnt in living letters into our hearts, ‘The world cannot and does not appreciate Christ’, and if we are seeking its recognition and appreciation, it is evident that we must present to it something congenial to itself. The world only loves its own, but if “the world knoweth us not”, why is it? “Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”, John 15: 19.
I seek to disappear in the estimation of the world and also in the estimation of what is called the Christian world. I shrink from coming into prominence here because I seek to be recognised of God and of those only who are in the truth of the kingdom. I want to be here not merely in lip confession, but in the truth of it in my heart. All the saints are of God. “Ye are of God, little children”, 1 John 4: 4. They are in the world, but God is now refused His place in it—in His own world. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not”, John 1: 10. What place then do I expect in it? I expect to disappear, and I pray God to give to us all the grace for it!
I would repeat once more how (as I understand it) it begins in us. By remembering that if God has a place in you, if He dwells in you by His Spirit, He will (if they are unconverted) have no place in your “father’s house”—no place among your “kindred”, and no place in your “country”. But He has a place. You have already tasted by the Spirit the joy of it.
“Come into the land that I will shew thee”, (Gen 12: 1) is His desire for you. And you reach its enjoyment I think only in one way, “as unknown, and yet well known”, 2 Cor 6: 9.
These four parables, to which I have drawn your attention, enforce the Lord’s answer to the desire for prominence which is so much to the front today. They shew the manner in which the Holy Ghost maintains here what suits God, and they are the reverse of all that the natural man is seeking after. May we more and more covet the spirit of the kingdom, while awaiting the return of the Lord, who was Himself ever actuated by what suited it, when He was on earth!
From Helps for the Poor of the Flock—vol 5, 1900
