“AS HE WALKED”
D. J. Hutson
1 John 2: 6; John 1: 35–39; 7: 1–6; 10: 22–28
One seeks peculiar help at this time as seeking ever to maintain the distinctiveness and glory of Jesus as to who He was, the unique character of His humanity and of His pathway here, and the uniqueness of the relationship in which He was, and is, with the Father, as it says,
“the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”, John 1: 18. One would seek to guard that in what one has to say. But I have been thinking of the reference that we read in John’s epistle that as He walked we also ought to walk. The question would be for us as to how Jesus walked. If we are to walk like Jesus, then we need to know how He walked. I believe I am right in saying that John speaks more about Jesus
walking, than any of the other gospel writers. So we can take account of John in that near place in which he was to Jesus, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, and we can listen to him telling us how Jesus walked.
It says, “Again, on the morrow, there stood John and two of his disciples. And, looking at Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God”. John the baptist had now as it were got beyond the side of his own relief. He had got through to the glory of the Person who was there. In the previous verse he says, “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”. In the earlier reference it says, “he sees Jesus coming to him”. I suppose we have all had an experience like that, each one of us having come to know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour; in that sense we have seen Jesus coming to us. He came into the world to save sinners. So John the baptist says, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”
(John 1: 29). What a time it will be when Jesus is manifested; then sin will have to give way, the sin which is operating around us on every hand; but at the present time Jesus is coming to persons. He has come to each one of us who trusts in His precious blood, and believes on Him where He is in glory, having finished that great work of redemption. Each one of us is taken account of by Jesus as He comes to us, the One who has taken away our sins, having borne them in His body on the tree.
But then we come to some apprehension of the greatness and glory of the Person; come to something of the attractiveness that there was in Him as He walked. It says, “looking at Jesus as he walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God”. Now what is the effect of it? “The two disciples heard
him speaking, and followed Jesus”. How attractive Jesus must have been, that persons who apparently had never seen Him before, as they saw Him walking felt that they must follow Him. “But Jesus having turned, and seeing them following, says to them, What seek ye? And they said to him, Rabbi (which, being interpreted, signifies, Teacher), where abidest thou?”.
There is no record in this gospel before this of anything of the preaching of Jesus; it seems to follow immediately on His baptism; yet there was something in the presence and power of this blessed, glorious Person so attractive to them that they were prepared to follow Him and to learn from Him.
What they wanted to know was where He abode. They wanted to know what His circumstances were. He simply says, “Come and see”. Oh the simplicity of it! Another has referred to ‘John’s simple page’. How profound it is, and yet what simple one—syllable words he uses! “They went therefore, and saw where he abode; and they abode with him that day. It was about the tenth hour”. How wonderful!—persons seeing Jesus as He walked, attracted to Him, prepared to learn from Him, desiring to find out where He lived, and then to stay with Him. Well, that was Jesus, in the perfection of His Person, His attractiveness, God manifest in flesh. As it says, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth”
(John 1: 14). These men would have seen something of it, and it attracted them and drew them near to Him. Where did He dwell? As that section again says, “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1: 18). That place is His and His alone. Oh the blessedness of it! They were attracted and they saw it; “We have contemplated his glory”.
Well now, beloved, I speak guardedly and reverently in the light of the distinctiveness of the Person of Jesus, but John, who himself was a follower of Jesus, says that as He walked we also should walk. Is our walk attractive? As we are found moving among men do they see in us something which is different from other men? Do they see something which is worth following? Do they want to know the secret of it? Are they prepared to learn from us something of the secret of where we dwell? Where do we dwell? It speaks of that which is going to come upon “them that dwell upon the earth”, Revelation 3: 10. Are you dwelling upon the earth? If you are dwelling upon the earth there will be nothing attractive to men around us, because they also are dwelling on the earth. Are we persons who know something of the innermost secrets of which we have been speaking earlier, the confidants of Jesus, those to whom He would make known everything that the Father has given to Him? Are we such, and are we dwelling in relation to these things? Are we seeking the things which are above, where the Christ is? And is our walk manifesting that we are related to another scene, another order of things altogether, which stands related not to this earth, but to heaven, to the realm of the purpose of God?
Jesus walked here in all the blessed perfection and uniqueness of His own relationship with the Father. But then are we walking in the light of that in which we stand as before God, in the light of His favour? Is our walk attractive? And then, can we say, “Come and see”? Is there that being maintained here so that as we attract men by reason of what we are in our walk they can come and see? Not only that, but it says, “They abode with him that day”. O, dear brethren, I am challenged by it, as to how little there may be that is attractive in my walk. We have spoken of our dear brethren
with whom we can no longer walk. We have spoken of those around us, the many believers, thousands of them, thank God, on this island. The Lord knows those that are His, but are we walking separately, are we walking faithfully, and yet are we walking attractively, so that these persons see something which they have not got—some secret which we would fain share with them—and are so attracted by it that they would come and see, come and learn about it for themselves? And not come and see only out of, may we say, initial curiosity, but be so attracted that they would come and stay, to have their part with us in the disclosure of the mind of Christ even in this day in which we are, to know something of the place that the saints have in the purpose of God, something of the blessings we referred to earlier, “Blessed
… with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Ephesians 1: 3.
With things in the world going from bad to worse, it should be that men are looking for something which is outside of it and beyond it, something attractive. Many are weary with this sin-soiled world, weary with its pursuits and its pleasures. They should be able to see in us something which is outside it and beyond it all and be attracted to Jesus; come to see it for themselves and to be so attracted by it that they stay, not because we are there, but because He is there. They abode with Him. Oh what it is to know something of abiding with Him! It is essential in these days to know where He is and to be with Him where He is. Beloved Mr.
Raven said we ought to know where we are and why we are there. Do we know it? Do we know that we are here not only in relation to the service of God and what ministers to the heart of Christ, but we are here in relation to the continuation of the testimony? There should be a testimony to men in our walk here, that would attract them so that they might come into the
blessings which God has for them at the present time—not only the blessedness of the knowledge of their sins forgiven, but the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they might come into the light of the assembly, and might know that there is here on earth even at the present time a dwelling-place for God.
In chapter 7 it says, “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judaea, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the tabernacles, the feast of the Jews, was near”. In John’s gospel the Lord Jesus is never associated with the Jewish system. The Samaritan woman in chapter 4 says, “How does thou, being a Jew, ask, to drink of me who am a Samaritan woman?”, but He leads her on to something which was beyond the Jewish system altogether. He says, “Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4: 21). He leads her thoughts right away from a system to which He was never related in this gospel. So it says here that He “would not walk in Judaea”. There is that which is publicly accredited, but He is not connected with that. He is walking in Galilee. How often we have been reminded that that is the place of reproach. Are we prepared, beloved, for the place of reproach? Or do we seek a place as associated with that which outwardly professes His name, but inwardly denies Him what is due to Him?
It is significant I think that it says, “Now the tabernacles, the feast of the Jews, was near”.
The feast of tabernacles was a time when all were to be together, as it were, on one level, and it was intended that it should be a heavenly level. But now it had become “the feast of the Jews”, yet it is still referred to as “the tabernacles”. Men would have us all to be together.
Suggestions are made at times that we should sink our differences;
because we are all believers we can all be together. But it says, “the tabernacles, the feast of the Jews”. That is what it had become and it was near. These things are near to us and we know the effort of the enemy to bring things down to a common level, but if we are walking as He walked we will not be bringing things down to a common level but rather be maintaining the level which was seen in all its perfection and unique glory in Himself.
“Looking at Jesus as he walked”—Oh what a level of walk that was!—a level of things above the earth altogether, as He could say, “The Son of man who is in heaven”, John 3: 13. The level of our walk should be such, beloved, that men should be attracted into it and up to it.
We would let nothing go as to the truth; we would not compromise in any way so as to have part in “the tabernacles, the feast of the Jews”, but would be walking separately, though it may bring reproach, and be walking in such a way as to attract men into the greatest things which God has in His heart for them.
So His brethren come to Him. These things come near to us. This is the way in which the enemy would come in subtly through natural relationships that we might sink our differences and all be together on a common level, but we are not to yield in any way to such suggestions. So He says, “My time is not yet come”. They are concerned that things should be seen publicly. We hang our heads in shame as we think of things publicly, and as we think of our own part in the reproach which has been brought upon the name of Christ, even by those who have been brought into the light of the assembly and recovered to the greatest things. I believe Mr. Raven once said that if we are a witness to anything, we are a witness to the breakdown. We have had that in the
ministry, but what does it mean to us? If we have contributed to anything publicly we have contributed to the breakdown. Who can elect themselves out of it?
So it is not the time now for public manifestation. He says, “my time is not yet come”. Oh what a thing it is that His time is coming! What a time is coming! Jesus is coming! So we are seeking to be faithful to Him in the time of His rejection, walking with Him in Galilee, and breaking bread in remembrance of Himself, as the apostle says, “As often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, 1 Corinthians 11: 26. It is the place of reproach, the place where Jesus died; but soon His time is coming, the time when He will be manifested in glory. Our privilege at the present time is to bear the reproach in view of the time when He will be manifested in glory. The world may hate us, but who can speak of the hatred of the world when we think of what Jesus suffered? He has gone before. He has marked out the path that we tread, in all its blessed heavenly attractiveness, marked out the road to Galilee.
I just refer again to Jesus walking in chapter 10. “Now the feast of the dedication was celebrating at Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in the porch of Solomon”. Nothing is said here in reproach as to the temple and the porch of Solomon. The days in which we live are difficult; we might say. How can we survive? How can we be true?
How can we be faithful? But wisdom is available. Jesus is “made to us wisdom from God”, 1
Corinthians 1: 30. Jesus was here walking in the temple in the porch of Solomon, so that in the place where God has been pleased to set His name there is wisdom available
to us. Think of what it says in relation to the assembly that, “We have the mind of Christ”, 1
Corinthians 2: 16. So though the day may be difficult, and though there may be problems arising which have never confronted us before (and whatever may arise we cannot go by precedent), the wisdom which comes from God, which comes from above in relation to every matter, remains and is available to us from the Lord Himself.
The Jews are concerned as to the public side, but He says, “The works which I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness concerning me—but ye do not believe, for ye are not of my sheep, as I told you”. Later He said, “He that believes on me, the works which I do shall he do also, and he shall do greater than these, because I go to the Father”, John 14: 12. How can we understand it, beloved, as we think of the works which Jesus did? But we are to think of the presence here of the Holy Spirit and of the power that there is in Him, the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from among the dead. Think of the power that there is for us here in our walk. We may feel weak, we may feel feeble, we may feel unable to bear the reproach, but there is wisdom and there is power available for the path. And the power and the wisdom in which we are to walk is to be for a testimony. The Lord says, “The works which I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness concerning me”. So there is to be a testimony in the way in which we are found here moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to be like Elisha who was concerned that he might have a double portion of the spirit of the man who went up.
We have the Spirit of the Man who has gone up; the Spirit has come from our glorified Head in heaven, so that we have wisdom and power to walk here below.
Then Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”. “The Lord knows those that are his” (2 Timothy 2: 19)—we can leave that matter with Him; and then He says here, “And they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand.
My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one”. Think of this wonderful disclosure! Think of the security of it, beloved, so that we can walk here faithfully, cost what it may. We come back to it that we are to walk even as He walked. John is following no other and those to whom he writes are to be the same. So that if he says, “As he walked” we would understand that it could be no other than Jesus Himself, even though he does not mention Him by name.
Well, beloved, as I said at the beginning, I feel the need of great care in handling these scriptures because they speak of the walk of Jesus when He was here, in all the glory and uniqueness of His humanity, the Word become flesh. But nevertheless the fact remains that the scripture says that as He walked we also ought to walk. So are you and I walking attractively so that men enquire, and are prepared to come and see? They may wonder why we are prepared to bear reproach, but are they prepared to come and see? May we be walking even as He walked, and may there thus be a testimony to Him as we are here in power and governed by divine wisdom in these difficult days. May the Lord help us, beloved, for His name’s sake.
Address in Barbados
8 April 1978