“IF ANYONE SERVE ME”
John 12: 26; 1: 35-41; 9: 11, 12, 34-38; 13: 21-25; 17: 24
I would like to say a few words about this verse in John 12. The Lord said, “If any one serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there also shall be my servant”. The Lord does not say, ‘Where My servant is, there will I be’; but “where I am, there also shall be my servant”. That is the consequence of serving the Lord Jesus and following Him. The two in chapter 1, who had been disciples of John, were where He was on the basis of desire. It would be a good thing if each one of us desired to be where the Lord is. It does not require long experience; these were two persons who had been disciples of John and immediately they became followers of Jesus; they had not been a long time on the road. This is open to every one of us, dear brethren.
They heard John speaking and they followed Jesus, and they came under the notice of Jesus. They became interested, and I would urge every one here to become interested. We can come to meetings, and be in fellowship, and not really be interested. We can have one foot among the brethren and the other foot in the world. It is a great matter to become interested. There is nothing more interesting than the truth, the Scriptures, the will of God, and to answer to the desires of the Lord Jesus for us. There is nothing more worth being committed to; we begin by being interested.
John said, “Behold the Lamb of God”. Then “the two disciples heard him speaking, and followed Jesus. But Jesus having turned, and seeing them following ...”. If you become interested, dear friend, you will come under the Lord’s notice; He will take account of you, and He will help you with all the help you need. We begin our Christian way by becoming interested, as these persons were. “Jesus having turned, and seeing them following, says to them, What seek ye?” What a question that is! What a question for each one of us here! What is your object, your purpose in life? What seek ye? The remarkable answer is, “Rabbi where abidest thou?” They become interested in where the Lord is. Jesus says to them, “Come and see”. To anyone who has this desire, how helpful He will be. “Come and see”, He said. “They went therefore, and saw where he abode”, and not only saw where He abode, but, “they abode with him that day”. “Where I am, there also shall be my servant”; these two had the privilege of being with the Lord in His own home. What a privilege to be where the Lord is! May it become more and more attractive to every one of us.
Here we have two followers who have just set out on the pathway, and they have the privilege of spending some hours where the Lord is. What impressions they would receive! Andrew was one of the two; John does not tell us who the other is; I have no doubt it was John himself. Andrew is set in movement immediately. It says, “Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard this from John and followed him. He first finds his own brother Simon”; Andrew is immediately in movement, commendable movement, seeking his brother and saying, “We have found the Messias”. That was experience; that was not just knowledge, it was experience; “We have found the Messias”. What a satisfied man Andrew was! He was one of the two; the other one was John I suppose. We do not hear again of John until chapter 13.
I desire now to speak about chapter 9 where we have the man who was born blind. “Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifested in him”, John 9: 3. It is remarkable how the works of God were manifested in this man. His confession was very simple, there was nothing complicated in his statement, he simply says, “A man called Jesus”. I wonder if we all know “A man called Jesus”? Have we all had experience with “A man called Jesus”? How simple it is! “A man called Jesus”, he said, “made mud and anointed mine eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash: and having gone and washed, I saw”. This was experience. They asked him, “Where is he? He says, I do not know”; there were certain things he did not know, but he knew enough; he knew he had had experience with “A man called Jesus”. I would like to make this attractive to every person here, “A man called Jesus”. Do you know Him? Have you had experience with Him? What transformed this man’s life was his experience with “A man called Jesus”. How attractive it is! How simple it is! He was obedient; he became a follower by being obedient. That is a very important matter. Interest and desire are important, as in John 1, but being obedient is also a very important matter. We were speaking about knowing Jesus as Master and being obedient to, and serviceable to, the Master. I think He is the Master to individuals, each one being subject to the Master. The man says here, “having gone and washed, I saw”. He did not know where He was, but he is true to his impression of the Lord Jesus. The neighbours have to do with him, the Pharisees, the Jews, and his parents, but he stands firm in his impression of “A man called Jesus”. Think of the works of God appearing testimonially in this man. Nothing could shake him. The result was that they cast him out.
We sang—
Thou abidest in the bosom
Of the Father’s love.
In principle that is what the two disciples saw in chapter 1. But where is He in this chapter 9? He is in the outside place; He is outside the camp. We are exhorted, “let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”, Heb 13: 13. In chapter 8 of John the Lord was under great reproach, it says, “They took up therefore stones that they might cast them at him” (John 8: 59)—outside, He was totally rejected and opposed. It says, Jesus “went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and thus passed on”. The Lord is outside; outside the camp; that is where the Lord is publicly now. “If anyone serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall be my servant”. That includes being outside the camp. Just as the Lord was under reproach and opposed in chapter 8, this man had the same experience of being under reproach, and opposed. The Lord, in chapter 8, was an embarrassment to these religious people; in chapter 9 the man became an embarrassment. They took up stones to cast at Jesus in chapter 8, and the Jews cast this man out in chapter 9, and he found where the Lord was, “Where I am”, outside of all religious pretension; he was where the Man called Jesus was.
It says, “And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out”. The Lord is absent in all these verses; the man never saw Jesus because he was blind, but he was obedient; he had a personal experience, and he is faithful to his impression of the Man called Jesus; he stands in testimony, resolutely, then he is cast out, and Jesus heard that they had cast him out. “And having found him”; the Lord found him where He was, outside the camp. Hebrews speaks in chapter 10 of the holiest, inside; that would correspond with chapter 1, what the two experienced; they would be in principle inside the veil. This man is outside the camp bearing the reproach of the Lord Jesus; not in the popular line of men’s thinking, but outside of all that—“Where I am, there also shall be my servant”. May it become attractive to every one of us. The inside position is privilege; we go inside to contemplate; and along with that goes the public position of being outside the camp. One of the two in chapter 1 was Andrew, and he becomes immediately in movement. I think I am right in presuming that the other one was John. I believe John was a contemplator. He tells us in chapter 1—“we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1: 14. I suppose he saw something of that when they saw where the Lord abode, and abode with Him that day; I suppose he got an initial impression of the glory of “an only-begotten with a father”. He tells us in his epistle, “that which we contemplated”; he speaks about, “the eternal life, which was with the Father”, 1 John 1: 1, 2. John was a contemplator. We need both; we need movement, as with Andrew; Andrew was right in being active; but along with that we need the ability, and to take time, to contemplate. That is how John appears. At the beginning of chapter 13 it says, “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father”, John 13: 1. How did John know that? Again in verse 3, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands”. How did John know what was in the Lord’s mind at that moment? It was because he was near to Him; because he was a contemplator. I believe—I can take it to myself—we do not spend enough time contemplating, letting things sink in. That is how John is in chapter 1 and he does not appear again till chapter 13. Andrew appears in chapter 1, chapter 6 and chapter 12; but not John until chapter 13. He presents himself in chapter 13 as the disciple whom Jesus loved; he is in His bosom, “where I am, there also shall be my servant”.
Think of John in the bosom of Jesus. It says, “Now there was at table one of the disciples in the bosom of Jesus, whom Jesus loved”. What a place of privilege, and not only privilege, but in the place of knowing what is in the Lord’s mind. The Lord is troubled here regarding Judas; it says, “Jesus was troubled in spirit”; some things were concerning the Lord here. One who is in the bosom of Jesus would not only know the privilege of being there, but be acquainted with how the Lord felt about things. Would it be fair to say that maybe there are some things among us at the moment that the Lord is concerned about? I think there may be some things the Lord is concerned about. I wonder if we are near enough to Him to know what concerns Him, what He is thinking about things. He longs to see unity. Does He not go over that in John 17 where testimony and unity are the subject? No doubt that prayer was answered at Pentecost, but the Lord would still long to see unity, especially among those who are available at the moment, the few who are available. They are a very, very small percentage of all the Lord has on the earth, for He has many. He would expect that the few who are available would be in unity; I am sure He would, and He would feel it if it is not so. John was near enough, as in His bosom, to know what was in the Lord’s mind according to the opening verses, and then to know what troubled Him, what He was concerned about. He was in the bosom of Jesus, that is a resting place; and then it says too that he was “leaning on the breast of Jesus”—“But he, leaning on the breast of Jesus, says to him, Lord, who is it? He was the one who got the answer. This was privilege, to be in the bosom of Jesus, to be near enough to be on the breast of Jesus, and to know what the Lord’s thoughts were about matters current at that moment. We can be near enough to the Lord to know what His thoughts are about matters current at the moment in which we are.
“Where I am, there also shall be my servant”. May He become attractive to us; may we become exercised, every one of us, to know what is in the Lord’s mind. We are quite sure of what is in our minds; some of us can be very definite as to what is in our minds, maybe not so sure of what is in the Lord’s mind. May the Lord encourage us.
In chapter 21 John is following. The Lord says to Peter, “Follow me”. “And having said this, he says to him, Follow me. Peter, turning round, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned at supper on his breast, and said. Lord, who is it that delivers thee up?” How intimate John was; a characteristic follower. I suppose there are such; I believe there are such amongst us, characteristically followers, as John was. “Peter, seeing him, says to Jesus, Lord, and what of this man?” There was John as a follower, a model, an example to Peter. It was an advantage to Peter to have one who was a characteristic follower; it was an advantage to the Lord to be able to point out one who was a characteristic follower.
May the Lord help us in this. The Lord said also, “And if anyone serve me, him shall the Father honour”. How wonderful that is! Think of the Father’s honour bestowed on the Lord Jesus! How worthy He is of honour and glory, but this verse in John 17 could be interpreted as the Lord’s request that the Father might honour His own by being “with me”, “where I am”. This is, I suppose, future in its fulness; it is the Lord requesting that the Father honour persons who have served and who have followed. Think of the honour; listen to it—“I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. What an honour to be initiated into the Father’s thoughts of the Lord Jesus! I suppose it is future in its fulness, but we can get some impressions now of the Father honouring persons who serve the Lord Jesus—“with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. My glory is not a particular glory. The Lord speaks in this chapter about particular glories. In verse 5, for instance, “and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”, is a particular glory. Then again in verse 22, “And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”, is a particular glory; but in verse 24 it is “my glory”, which is a wonderful expression. There is a fulness about it. “If anyone serve me … him shall the Father honour”. The Father would honour such now; He will certainly honour such in the future, answering the Lord’s request that “where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”.
I trust I have given some impression of the Lord’s own words, “If anyone serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall be my servant. And if anyone serve me, him shall the Father honour”. May these truths become increasingly attractive to us, for the Lord’s own Name’s sake.
REDBRIDGE
14th January 1989
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