THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST

THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST

Zechariah 11: 7 - 14; Zechariah 12: 5 - 14; Zechariah 13: 4 - 9

These passages that one has read are somewhat lengthy, but it was necessary to read them because of what one has upon one’s heart to refer to tonight, namely, the sufferings of Christ.

The sufferings of Christ in themselves are an immense subject, but they are a subject that we do not know enough about; a subject, perhaps, and a theme, in the apprehension and appreciation of which we have not allowed the Spirit to help us as we should. I am referring to what I notice in myself when I say that. But it is a theme, that if engaged on with the help of the Spirit, will draw us nearer and nearer to the One Whom we love, Who has suffered so, our Saviour. We need to make room in our minds for the teaching that enters into the foundations of the truth of the glad tidings. I am sure if we better understood the sufferings of Christ in relation to the atonement, we should be more delivered from the influence of sin and sins. For when we see what it meant to Him, what it cost Him that we might be initially set up in relation to God, according to the way He has made Himself known in the terms of the glad tidings, if we allow the Spirit to bring more home to our souls what enters into these foundations, in relation to the sufferings of Christ, we should be far better men and women in the assembly.

There is nothing so cold as a knowledge of the truth in the mind, that has never affected the soul or the conscience. It is so easy to let our souls drift into a state of indifference in regard to the teaching of the knowledge of God, in the elements of it in the gospel; but we must never assume, dear brethren, to get to a point, as long as we are here in the public position, where the sufferings of Christ are forgotten, or that there are loftier subjects to engage us so that we leave them behind. The sufferings of Christ underlie everything that we have together, and everything that we enjoy together; and we need to allow teaching in relation to the sufferings of Christ to infiltrate into our minds, to enter our hearts, so that we might be softer and more mellowed in our spirits under the preciousness of their touch.

We want to beware, dear brethren, of going with things merely externally, for there is a constant tendency with us to live at a distance from divine Persons, while invariably ostensibly clinging to the truth, as Mr. Darby has said in relation to Jerusalem, and their sorrows in the last days in the reception of the antichrist. To be in outward nearness to God and yet inwardly not so, is a terrible thing, and to invest one’s heart with the Name of God, clothing oneself with it as a cloak of pride, a buckler, so that the arrows of God do not reach the conscience. What could be more dreadful than what the Lord Jesus has to say to Jerusalem: “Your house is left unto you desolate.” And Jerusalem is the centre of the prophecy that I have read from; God has it in mind from the beginning to the end. In Haggai it is the house, special allusion being made to the matter of the glory of the house, but in Zechariah Jerusalem is the central point, everything is measured in relation to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a wonderful type of the assembly. The more we read the prophets, and especially this prophet, we shall see that Jerusalem is the apple of God’s eye. Indeed this language is used. Everything in this book, the great powers and authorities among the nations, are all being regulated in relation to Jerusalem; and we want to see that we cherish what God cherishes, the assembly is God’s chief interest on earth at the present moment, so it should be our chief interest. Indeed, the practical result of the apprehension and enjoyment of union with Christ, the heavenly Man, the exalted Man, is that His interests become our interests; and we can see in the epistle to the Ephesians that the assembly is His great interest. He has gone the full length to secure the assembly, He has endured the sufferings, He has endured the cross, that the assembly might be His. He has taken up the sin question, that the moral history of sin and shame linked with the members of the assembly should be fully cleared. All the nourishing and cherishing features of His ministry and service at the present time are directed towards the assembly. And this book would make much of Jerusalem in our minds and before our hearts. It is not the mere ecclesiastical position, as we might refer to it; for we can see in all that is around us what disaster attaches to a professed external nearness to God, yet with hearts that are far from Him. And now in this passage that I have read, Jerusalem is in mind, Israel is in mind; and I want to draw attention to the Lord Jesus in His ministry and service in this relation.

Chapter 11 of the book of Zechariah opens by drawing our attention to the way that the power of man and the force of man has swept in on Israel and overcome the position. The noble ones are spoiled, the cedars are devoured. It is the overrunning scourge of human resource in man’s power and strength, entering upon the realm that belongs to God.

For we can understand as we read the opening chapters of the gospel by Luke, the pathos of the position to those with a godly heart and a godly mind, such as Zacharias and Elizabeth. How they felt the Roman yoke, and the fact that the resources linked with man’s uncontrolled power and energy, had entered on the realm of Immanuel’s land, and were holding in captivity what belonged to God. We might apply it in principle, dear brethren, to the whole scene around us following in the wake of the Reformation. That great servant of God, Martin Luther, was raised up to bring out that important feature of the glad tidings, justification by faith. What a service he rendered to all! But in what followed in the great Protestant movement, the resources of man came into play, the Spirit of God was set aside, and the whole position marred by the assertion of the might of human intellect in the things of God. These are real matters. How we should sorrow with godly sorrow over our brethren who are held captive in these spheres and systems around us, where the might and sway of the power of man and the intellect of man is known. How we should be crying to God, in view of the imminence of the rapture, for their emancipation. They will all be emancipated at the coming of the Lord; we shall not go up without them, dear brethren; we shall all go up together. Wonderful things will be done, but we will not go up without our brethren around us. They shall go up with us. But we should be thinking more and more, as to the awfulness of the enforcement of the mind of man in the realm of God, in relation to God’s property, what belongs to God. We are to be with God in a priestly way as to all these matters. Let us not think alone of what we enjoy so blessedly in the light of Philadelphia, as faithful to the truth. Let us cherish the promise of the Lord Jesus to Philadelphia to those who are faithful to the truth: “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial.” What a promise! How we cherish it! But let us think of those that are around, and let us pray for them; and if we meet them on the way, let us serve them in view of their extrication. Not returning to them, as the word is, “Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” And if we meet them on that returning path, let us serve them so that they might be liberated. God is not unmindful of these conditions. He realises what man in his responsibility has entrenched himself upon. It is Immanuel’s land, it is God’s realm.

There are those who are referred to here as the possessors. It says, “whose possessors slay them without being held guilty.” Think of the ravages of the lawless mind and will of man, ravaging the heritage of God, pillaging what belongs to God, and yet not being held guilty. It says, “they that sell them”; think of the flock of God being sold. What a disaster! And it says, “they that sell them say, Blessed be Jehovah! for I am become rich.” All this kind of thing, outward nearness to God, but inwardly far from Him. The Name of Jehovah, the Name of God being used as a buckler to keep the arrows of the truth, the arrows of God, from affecting the conscience. But God is taking account of these matters. He is intervening in this section of the prophet; and the word to the Messiah is, “Feed the flock of slaughter.” That is, the Lord Jesus is contemplated as coming into these conditions in the early chapters of Luke and linking on with the remnant; as it says in verse 7 that we began with, “So I fed the flock of slaughter, truly the poor of the flock.” Oh! the lowly service of Jesus, of our Lord Jesus Christ, in linking on with the remnant under the oppression of the Roman yoke, to say nothing of what happened in relation to the leaders amongst the Jews. And it says, “So I fed the flock of slaughter.” Think of a suffering and afflicted people, the flock of slaughter, the remnant viewed as the poor of the flock, without human resource, a poor and afflicted people, whose trust is in the Name of Jehovah, whose trust is in God. And the Lord Jesus linked on with them, entering into and bearing and carrying in His spirit all the sorrows of the remnant. What suffering it involved for Christ, in all the perfection of His holy sensibilities as Man, that unique humanity that was His, untouched, unspoiled by sin and it’s workings, the One who was perfect in every way here, with undulled sensibilities; not like us with our contact with sin! What He must have felt, as in His ministry and teaching He looked over the position, and saw the position of the poor of the flock; How He links on with it! It was to involve suffering for Him, as we shall see; it was to involve His death, His rejection. But let us drink into the spirit and grace of our Saviour, and our Master who has left us a model, that we should follow in His steps. He has suffered for us to this end, and we are to take our share in suffering; although there are sufferings in relation to Christ that we could never have part in, but which affect our souls as we contemplate them.

It goes on to say, “I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.” I fed the flock. We have been thinking about this administrative service of Christ, how He came in by the door to lead out the flock. And so it says here, “I fed the flock.” Oppressed in anguish of spirit and of soul under the yoke of the nations, yet He links on with them, “thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” He links Himself on with the remnant in that state of oppression of mind and anguish of soul, and it says, “I fed the flock.” Oh! the instances in the gospels that speak of His feeding the flock. These two staves remind us of Christ as the bond in relation to the nations and the bond in relation to Israel and Judah. You remember when Simeon came into the temple how he took the Child, and received Him into his arms. What grace, that He who was so high in glory should stoop so low in grace, linking on with humanity representatively in Simeon in such a way, in such accessibility that Simeon could receive Him into his arms! And as Simeon receives him into his arms his soul is expanded in that view of the thoughts of God, that only the reception of Christ in this way can give. And so he speaks of “a light for revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” And these two staves have to do with these two thoughts. The Lord Jesus served in Israel, having in mind the unity of Judah and Israel, having in mind the brotherhood, but they rejected Him, they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him.” They appraised Him at a contemptuous price. Oh! the awfulness of outward external nearness to God, but the conscience unaffected by divine light, as in the ministry of Christ to these that I am referring to, Israel and Judah. And before going on to speak of the staff, it says, “I destroyed three shepherds in one month; and my soul was vexed with them, and their soul also loathed me. And I said, I will not feed you; that which dieth, let it die; and that which perisheth let it perish; and let them which are left eat every one the flesh of another.” It shows the position arrived at as light from God is rejected in a ministry of Christ among the remnant. Jerusalem’s house was left unto her desolate. How the Lord weeps over the position in Luke 19, as He draws near and thinks of the wealth of ministry towards that city, but the hardness that marked them in the rejection of light from God.

The Lord felt it. As I have said He wept over Jerusalem. He says, “I took my staff. Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.” This matter refers to the nations, to the peoples; the staff was broken. Then he says later on, “And I cut asunder mine other staff, Bands, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.” The teaching is that the inheritance of the nations was to be taken up in relation to the position in Israel, but being rejected and refused, the staff, Beauty, had to be broken. But the Lord will come back to that great moment. What a time, when as in the light of the prophets, the peoples will come from afar; as Isaiah says, “they shall come,” coming in different ways,

some on dromedaries, some on mules, etc., but they shall come, Isaiah says. The glory will be the great rallying point. But in the meantime, all that is held up. The sufferings of Christ in being rejected by Israel has changed the position, and you will notice how it says in verse 11, “And it was broken in that day; and so the poor of the flock that gave heed to me knew that it was the word of Jehovah.” Think of how the poor of the flock are referred to as discerning where the word of God was, the state in the remnant over against the Jewish leaders in their day. Some of them had attacked Christ openly and publicly, but the poor of the flock knew where the word of God was. We are reminded of what the Lord says, “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes.” What need to maintain in our souls the unsophisticated, the uncrystallised state suggested in the babes, the impressionable state, so that we may not be like the wise and prudent around us. The word says, “The poor of the flock that gave heed to me.” They are the sheep that know the voice of Christ, and will not follow the stranger; He had come into the confines of Israel and linked Himself on with the remnant, and they knew His voice, and they followed Him. But then the time comes when He is presented to the leaders amongst the nation of Israel, and it says in verse 12, “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. And they weighed for my hire thirty silver-pieces. And Jehovah said unto me, Cast in unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty silver-pieces, and cast them to the potter in the house of Jehovah. And I cut asunder mine other staff, Bands, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.” Let us enter into the feelings of Christ in regard to this moment. There were the sorrows which were experienced by Him in the abandonment, but think of the sorrows too, that were linked with the position in relation to the remnant, bearing in His spirit all that was linked with the position, feeling in His sprit the whole matter, suffering as He did as identified with the remnant. And then this matter of complete rejection. What sufferings of Christ in this relation! And we are to understand, dear brethren, and to read the Psalms, and to read the Prophets so as to enter sympathetically and feelingly into what it meant to Christ to serve in this way amongst His people, and what it meant to Him to be rejected, to see the truth set aside as it is all around us on every hand.

Now I want to come on to the second part of what I have in mind, the principle of what is anti-Christian, which comes into the closing part of the chapter. They will not receive Jesus, but they will receive another. But then God has His eye upon things, as the next chapter unfolds, “Jehovah, who stretcheth out the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him,” what an allusion in this environment, in this context, “that formeth the spirit of man within him.” He is taking up matters. He has Jerusalem in mind; He has recovery in mind; He is going to stimulate and revive where there has been decline in regard to the truth. That is the whole burden of the ministry here. And after God comes in in verse 5 it says, “the leaders of Judah shall say in their heart.” Notice this, this great beginning of recovery in Judah, as Mr. Darby said “guilty yet beloved Judah.” Judah in the place of nearness to God, God’s sanctuary, such a place of nearness, but her conscience becoming so hardened that she becomes a leader in the rebellion against God. But God is thinking about Judah, guilty as Judah may be; but beloved Judah. But Judah is David, and David is Judah. And God is thinking of Judah, just as He is thinking of the assembly today, thinking of Christ and thinking of the assembly. He is not forgetting it amidst all man’s wilfulness on every hand. And it says, “And the leaders of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength.” Instead of the mighty prowess of the false shepherds referred to in the previous chapter, and their exploitations, the leaders of Judah, as affected by the word of God in this great time of revival, now come to see the importance of Jerusalem; and not only Jerusalem as a type of the assembly, but the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the personnel of the assembly. And it says, “And the leaders of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength through Jehovah of hosts their God.” What a word to any of us who may in any way be able to give a lead; for a leader suggests those that are able to give a lead. I am not speaking of what is official, but there is the thought of giving a lead, even in paying honour to one another. But the leaders of Judah say, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength. They are not going to tread over the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the personnel of the assembly. The assembly is glorious, but the personnel are glorious. And they say “shall be my strength through Jehovah of hosts their God.” The God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, does He not see? Does He not hear? Did He not say in Exodus that He had heard their cry? He had seen their sorrows, and He came down to deliver them. What a God we have, dear brethren! May He be magnified more before our souls. And it says in that day that God is coming in. There is what the readers of Judah have done, but there is now what God does. He says, “I will make the leaders of Judah like a hearth of fire among wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the peoples around about, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall dwell again in her own place, in Jerusalem.” What does this mean? It means that all the extraneous matter is to be dealt with,

and dealt with through the leaders of Judah, “like a hearth of fire among wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf.” Think how quickly matters are disposed of, these extraneous matters that are alluded to here. Those that have led in the matter become the great helpers on in the clearance of everything, that Jerusalem might come again into its own place; that the assembly might stand out in our eyes and in our vision in her rightful and true place, her own place, according to divine thought.

Then it says, “Jehovah shall save the tents of Judah first.” He is thinking of Judah, that choice area where His praise is going on, where the service of God is maintained. How thankful we should be, as faithful to the truth, to be amongst those that God is thinking about first. “Jehovah shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified over Judah.” Notice this balance. We have been speaking about the leaders, and then it says, “that the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified over Judah.” We are to make full room for what God’s sovereignty represents in Judah, so that the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem is not magnified over it. The leaders of Judah say that their strength is in the inhabitants of Jerusalem. But now God is balancing things, that the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified over Judah. Then it says, “In that day Jehovah will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Think of how the personnel of Jerusalem is coming up time and again here, the personnel of the assembly. And it says, “he that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David.” Think of that. Think of the level that the stumbling one is brought on to, in this great realm and sphere of reviving activities in relation to Jerusalem. You remember there were certain of whom they said to Gideon, “As thou art, so were they.” Think of this wonderful realm, where the stumbling one is made as David. We are so easily inclined to write off stumbling persons, and weak persons, whom we think do not have the knowledge of the truth that we have. God is coming in here to show us that He is going to make the stumbling among them as David. Think of the greatness of the position, when God comes into it. Then, “The house of David as God.” Think of the moral power linked with the house of David, where the full spirit and grace of the anointing shine, that system where Christ’s kingly power, and His royal power are known. It is representative of God, “as God.” God is in the matter, you see. And we read, “as the Angel of Jehovah before them.” Think of that. The way is made clear providentially. The Angel of Jehovah before them may be an allusion in our way of thinking to the Holy Spirit going before them. In this time of revival, the Holy Spirit is going forth. And then it says, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is in God’s thoughts, and He will not brook any entrenchment upon the assembly in her dignity according to divine thoughts. Whether as an entity, or whether in the personnel, God will not brook any interference.

“And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications.” Think of this wonderful reviving stream pouring upon the house of David. The house of David had an important place in the matter of defection, as being in the place of responsibility; but God is pouring upon it the spirit of grace and of supplications. I want you to note that it is not just because of their sin, and the length to which they went, or the shame to which they sank, but this spirit of grace and supplications is linked with the sufferings of Christ; it is because of what it meant to Christ, as it says, “And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look on me, whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only son.” They are not mourning for themselves, that they have been brought down. They are not mourning over the fact that their guilt has been discovered. They are mourning over the fact that their sin cost their Messiah the sufferings of that hour. Oh, the compression at Calvary, when Jesus suffered on account of Israel’s unbelief! Think of what will come into the heart of the remnant in the day to come, into the heart of Israel, when they shall look upon their Messiah, whom they pierced.

Then it says, “there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem.” There is no glossing over matters. How segregated the matter is. These personalities, these systems, these houses that are represented. It says, “their wives apart.” The sisters are not out of this. Why should the reference to the wives be repeated as it is? Dear brethren, I have found in travelling around that while generally there has been a righting of things, sometimes with the sisters there are feelings of bitterness because of what has transpired. Let the sisters suffer the word of exhortation, that they are to come into this matter of the mourning because of the sufferings of Christ, “the wives apart.” Not with their husbands, but the wives apart. It is not a question of condemnation. Chapters 13 and 14 show us that the whole position is met by the grace that is administering cleansing. It is not a question of retribution, but a thorough judgment with every one of us of the unbelief in our hearts. And so there is a fountain opened. This great administration for sin and uncleanness is essential that uncleanness should be cleansed. We cannot enjoy the truth, if sin and uncleanness is gone on with in any one of us. Young brothers and sisters, I would appeal to you in regard to the sin and uncleanness in the world, that like a Joseph and a Daniel, with purpose of heart you eschew the evil and pursue the good. Forsake the world and its ways. Avail yourself of this great administration of cleansing.

Now I just desire to refer to the sufferings of Christ in this passage. It says in verse 5, “And he shall say, I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for man acquired me as bondman from my youth.” Oh, what an allusion to Christ as available to man, available to humanity. Man acquired Him. Think of Him who was God, He who brought the world into existence, coming into a position, where man acquires Him as bondman. There is no official feature there. He could have well claimed what was officially due to Him; but as in John 13 there comes a time when He lays aside His garment, so here He is available to every one of us, to all men. Man acquired Him as bondman. “And one shall say, What are those wounds in Thy hands? And he will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” Think of what Christ has suffered in the realm where He should have been honoured. How we are to enter into that feelingly. And it says, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, even against the man that is my fellow, saith Jehovah of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.” Think of the sufferings of Christ alluded to here. We have not time to go into them. They are all paving the way for what we have in verse 9, “I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.” Do not let us think that suffering is over. Do not let us think that the days of discipline are past. God may bring us through deeper waters yet, in regard to this process of refinement. And it says, “will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will answer them: I will say, It is my people.” What a touch, dear brethren. As God looks amongst us, as He takes account of us in relation to His work, and we come under His hand in His disciplinary way, what joy it gives to His heart to say, “It is my people!” And they shall say, and may we all say, dear brethren, “Jehovah is my God.” What an answer to the sufferings of Christ! If there is anything that will help us in our links with one another, and in our links with God, it is the sufferings of Christ, as the truth of them finds an entrance into our souls. May the Lord bless the word.