HOW THE LORD JESUS CAN CHANGE OUR LIVES

R. F. White

Luke 24: 15; Acts 9: 17–19; Song of Songs 1: 7, 8

It has often been remarked that every occasion like this is unique; we are a company of persons set together at a particular stage in our lives’ history to hear the gospel. We will never be together in quite the same way again. You may say our feet have brought us here from various places and in various ways and for this time we are set together; when we leave after this occasion has finished, we will never here be together again in the same way. But the gospel presents to us that which can change our lives for ever, not just for the remainder of our sojourn here, however long or short it may be, but for all eternity. There is no message in the world like that. I want to speak about the way that we have come and the way that we might go because at this time it is my responsibility to preach. We were reminded earlier in these meetings, what must surely be true, that the preacher can effectuate nothing; if there is something to be wrought in us during occasions like this, it must be as a result of God working. And yet the preacher has the responsibility to bring with him the glad tidings, a responsibility and a privilege. Paul says, “How beautiful the feet of them that announce glad tidings of peace, of them that announce glad tidings of good things!”, Romans 10: 15. Now the preacher has something good to announce, that is a privilege for the preacher, and the privilege is to speak about Jesus. The great matter in the glad tidings is to bring us, in our lives, into contact with Jesus, that blessed Person, to bring us into contact with Jesus Himself.

If we think of our lives and what has entered into them, the great point in them is that we have come into contact with Jesus. If we were to sit down, each one of us here, to write down the experiences of our lives, what volumes could be written. Some here are fairly young, and might not be able to say or write very much, they could speak about their parents and their parents’ love or about their brothers and sisters, if they have them; they could speak perhaps about school and what entered into that. Older ones could speak about relationships formed, how they were set together perhaps with a partner, family life, how it developed, what they did for employment, the changes that came in through their own actions or through the actions of others. Many of us could write about the company of believers with whom we have been set and what happened there, and the changes that have come in. But the great point in it all, in all our lives and in all these experiences, is to come into contact with Jesus! None of us is too young to have a link with Jesus. When the Lord Jesus was here they brought to Him little children that He might bless them and He laid His hands upon them. Matthew’s gospel tells us that at one point He called to Him a little child. Think of the interest of the Lord Jesus in every one of us—we are never too young and never too old to be of interest to Jesus Himself.

So we might well raise the question, Who is Jesus and what has He done that we might have an interest in Him or that He might have an interest in us? It was a question that Paul raised—“Who art thou, Lord?”, Acts 9: 5. The scriptures give us a good deal about the life of this man, Paul, because God intends to teach us something through it. He intends every one of us to learn something from what happened to Paul in his life and in his contacts with Jesus. God indeed intends persons in a dispensation yet to follow, to learn from Paul, as the rebellious Jews will see the extent of the mercy that took up a man who was an opposer and persecutor, and turned him into a lover of Jesus. They will learn mercy from that, mercy that will yet reach the rebellious nation and bring them to an appreciation of Jesus. But God intends that we should learn, through the life and experience of Paul, something about Jesus. Who is Jesus?

Paul writes, as to Him, “God has been manifested in flesh”, 1 Timothy 3: 16. What a Person!

Think of the wonder of that, a divine Person come into manhood. There is nothing so great as the truth of Christianity because it involves this, that a divine Person has come into manhood to make available God’s salvation. To make such a thing possible required that a divine Person should undertake it. One so great as that. There is no other religion like Christianity, indeed, it is the one true thing; a divine Person has come into manhood, Jesus, God manifest in flesh. The hymn says, ‘O wonder of His universe!’ (Hymn 400). Think of the greatness of that, that God should be here, God with us. The work that secured your salvation and my salvation was so great that no human agency could accomplish it, nor could any angel accomplish it. Only a divine Person could accomplish such a work, having eternal consequences, for God and for us as well. That is Jesus, God with us. What a Person! How blessed He is!

Well might a note of worship and reverence enter into our souls as we speak of Jesus, a divine Person here, a Man amongst men. Think of the wonder of it! “come of woman”, the apostle says (Galatians 4: 4); He was not an angel, but “come of woman”. Then he says, “come under law”, that reduces it even more, “that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship”. Think of Jesus, a divine Person, content to be here. As “Jesus the Nazaraean” He introduced Himself to Paul; Paul says that in Acts 22: 8, when speaking to the Jews. “And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazaraean”.

Think of the grace of that! Peter knew Jesus, the Nazaraean—he came into contact with that Man when He was here, the Man of the gospels. Peter and the other disciples went with Him through those great experiences that are recorded in the gospels. When Peter starts his preaching proper in the beginning of the Acts, he starts with this, “Men of Israel, hear these words—Jesus the Nazaraean” (Acts 2: 22), he starts the preaching with Jesus. We have often been told that the difference between Peter and Paul was this, that Peter preached Jesus the Nazaraean exalted at the right hand of God. He preached the lowly Jesus, crucified, raised from the dead, but not only that, exalted. Paul began with the Man in the glory; he was struck down by the glory of the light, the light of the glory of a Man, and that Man said to him, “I am Jesus the Nazaraean”. Think of the wonder and the grace of that!

Well we might ask, then. What has Jesus done? The writer to the Hebrews says, “having made by himself the purification of sins”, Hebrews 1: 3. I just desire to draw your attention to Jesus Himself. He has made, by Himself, the purification of sins. This is after it says, “by whom also he made the worlds”. You remember what it says of Jesus, “without him not one thing received being which has received being” (John 1: 3)—not one thing! Look around you, take account of this great creation, then take account of yourself—not one thing received being without Him! But then He came in here to a scene that was marked by sin and distance from God, corrupted by what sin had brought in and it says, “having made by himself the purification of sins”. Think of the greatness of that work! Who but a divine Person could effect such a work? Then Peter says, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24.

Peter was writing to believers and he says, He Himself bore our sins, that is, He suffered and He died that our sins might be taken away. By faith, I can say that—can you say that by faith? It was not delegated to any other, nor could any other undertake it. He Himself bore our sins. Then Paul says, “and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he should deliver us out of the present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father”, Galatians 1: 3, 4. The Lord Jesus gave Himself to deliver us from the present course of things, to open up to us another world, the world of the Father’s will and the world of divine purpose, to give us an interest, to give us a life, to give us a future in the things of God, in the things which God has prepared for us. He gave Himself that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of our God and Father.

Then, Paul says most affectionately and affectingly, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. Is there another expression in the whole of the Bible as touching as that? Think of Jesus, this blessed One, that we have been speaking of and Paul says, He gave Himself for me. As we have been often reminded it is as if there was not another sinner in the universe! Do you know that this is intended to bring about a bond of affection and confidence and trust between the believer and Jesus, the Saviour? How blessed to think of such a Friend! Where does that leave you? Have you met Jesus in your life? Paul met Him on that road that we read of in Acts chapter 9. The salvation of our souls is a personal matter, an individual matter; no one else can undertake it on our behalf because no one else has got my sins, nor has another got your sins. We speak of these things that have entered into our lives and the experiences that we have had, but there is this great question that we all have to face, and that is our relationship with God, the God against whom we have sinned. Our salvation and the meeting of that question is an individual matter. It is a question of an individual transaction with Jesus Himself. Have you met Him? He is available to meet you, to have a transaction with you.

The gospel preaching is a time when divine grace would indicate to us what is available. It says of Paul that scales fell from his eyes; Ananias says, “Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales”.

Sometimes there may be scales upon our eyes. There were scales upon the eyes of those two in Luke 24. The scales that were upon their eyes were their own thoughts; they said, “But we had hoped that he was the one who is about to redeem Israel” (Luke 24: 21). That which was preventing them from seeing what was immediately before them in the Person of the Lord Jesus Himself, being with them, was their own thoughts. It may be that your own thoughts, your own prejudices, the way your mind has been used to thinking about things is preventing you from having this blessed, vital transaction with Jesus Himself. There is a fresh opportunity at this time for every one of us. Have experiences come in that have soured you and affected your outlook on things? It is easy to be like that. You will remember when David was in the cave there came to him some who were of embittered spirit and “he became a captain over them” (1 Samuel 22: 2); the experiences they had had under Saul’s regime had caused bitterness of spirit. It can be like that with us, the things that have happened to us, the experiences that we have had along the way, may have caused us to be of embittered spirit.

The answer to it is in Jesus as it was with Paul; “Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit”. It is in mind that our sins should be forgiven, yes, but the Lord Jesus Christ has in mind too that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit. Are you frightened of that word, “filled with the Holy Spirit”? In the book of the Acts, to be filled with the Holy Spirit was the qualification that was needed to serve the brethren at tables. “Look out therefore, brethren, from among yourselves seven men, well reported of, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom”, Acts 6: 3. Perhaps we are frightened of the word ‘filled’. It is the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful thing that is! How great the gospel is! How great Jesus is! He is the One through whom the. Holy Spirit has come, the One through whom the Holy Spirit is available to us that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit. That is a challenge to me, that is what is presented, “that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit”.

What a way Paul had come; think of what entered into that man’s life; he speaks about it later on, “My manner of life then from my youth ... know all the Jews” (Acts 26: 4), he says to Agrippa. They know what kind of man I was, the influences under which I grew up, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel, I imbibed all that he could teach and all of the law—and what did it produce? Just a hard and violent man, a persecutor of Christ, self-righteous, full of his own importance, an insolent, overbearing man—until he met Jesus! What a blessed thing it is to have a meeting with Jesus Himself. Is there another such a Person in the universe? There is not! There is not another Person in the universe like Jesus, a divine Person come into manhood. Jesus met Paul on that road, that violent, overbearing man and He turned him around. He met him in mercy and overcame him that he might be a servant, a follower; it says, “he was with the disciples who were in Damascus certain days”. I just desire then to speak about how we might go. It says about Paul, “Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest”, and I am just applying that to ourselves as gathered in this place at this time, we have all come a certain way to this point. The question now is where we will go and how we will go from here onwards because the Lord Jesus is interested in that. He was interested in Paul and what was to mark him for the rest of his life; He had taken him up for a purpose. It may well be that we are unsettled in our lives, lacking in purpose and definiteness.

The Lord Jesus would not have us to be like that. He had taken Paul up for something definite, and He has in mind a definite course for every one of us.

I think that where we read in the Song of Songs would give us an indication of how we should go. The Lord would help us to find our way. It says here, “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock”. The Lord Jesus has a way for us to go. He would direct us and help us and guide us in the way to go forth. He does not intend us to be indefinite or uncertain but to be helped and supported in the way to move in accordance with His will. Paul said to the Lord, “What shall I do, Lord?”, Acts 22: 10. A good question! Paul had had a contact with Jesus that changed his outlook on his life and the whole course of things that he had been engaged with, and so he says, “What shall I do, Lord?” What way will I go on from here?

That is the challenge for every one of us. This section of the Song of Songs sets out, in type, the exercises of a lover of Jesus. How blessed it is to become a lover of Jesus! She says, “Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth”. It is a wonderful thing to be amongst the lovers of Jesus; that blessed One who has died for us, who has given Himself for us. Are you a lover of Jesus? Have you ever had an impression of the love of Jesus for you personally? You have had, perhaps, your sins forgiven and the assurance of having received the Holy Spirit; but have you ever had a sense of the personal love of Jesus for you? I think there is nothing like that to give colour and character to our lives, a personal sense of the love of Jesus. It is to produce a response, an answer. The speaker here says, “Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth”, I was thinking of reading that expression which God Himself uses, as quoted in the gospel of Matthew, “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul has found its delight”, Matthew 12: 18. Have you ever been moved in your soul in thinking of Jesus and what He has done for you? This person in the Song of Songs had come to love His name; she says, “Thy name is an ointment poured forth”. Has the balm of the love of Jesus come into your soul and affected it? What a thing it is when in our lives here—poor, feeble, failing, insignificant creatures such as we are on the face of this earth—we can have a sense of the love of Jesus. What a thing that is, to affect us, to give colour and character to us.

So she says, “Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest thy flock, Where thou makest it to rest at noon”. The question that often comes up with us is, Where is the Lord, where will we find Him? In this day of breakdown and confusion in Christendom, what company is the Lord with? Where will we find Him? As enlightened believers, I suppose, we would understand that God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul says to the Corinthians, that company of saved people who were set together in Corinth, “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, 1 Corinthians 1: 9. That is one thing to understand, and being enlightened by that, we could never have fellowship with anything on any lower level; it is the fellowship of His Son! Many of us, I suppose, have found our way by what we might refer to as negative guidance, we can take account of things that we could not go on with, matters that were inconsistent with the thought of the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Maybe some companies of Christians have features that might attract us. Some of us are set in very small and isolated localities and there are companies of believers much more numerous, and outwardly much more attractive, but then, there is this light as to the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Where is the Lord giving food? Where is His presence known?

As lovers of Jesus, it is the Lord that we want. So she says, “Tell me ... Where thou feedest thy flock ... For why should I be as one veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions?”. The answer to it is this, “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock”. Her attention is drawn to “the footsteps of the flock”. We get indications from others, we get help among the Lord’s people, about the footsteps of the flock. The Lord Jesus has a flock. He has His people here and He is able to take care of every one of them. He is the good Shepherd, the great Shepherd of the sheep. His flock has certain ways, certain footsteps that mark it, and He says, “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock. And feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ booths”. Where is the Lord to be found? He is to be found amongst those who walk this way in the footsteps of the flock. We find help and direction among the people of God, we find food there for our souls; and more than that, we find the Lord Jesus there. How good it is to find the Lord Jesus amongst His own, and find food for our souls, and so in a practical way it involves committal, answering to His own request. What is your way forth from this point then? The Lord Jesus is looking for an answer. He is looking for persons to be here for Him as part of His flock, to answer to Him, to take up the privilege of remembering Him here. The greatest privilege open to us is to remember the Lord Jesus in the scene where He has been rejected. What a privilege it is to sit down together with lovers of Jesus, and partake of the bread and cup as remembering Him! It may be with few, but still, they are of His flock.

And then, there is one other thing that Jesus Himself is going to do for us. We read of it in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16, where it says, “the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven”. Wonderful thing! That is not delegated to an angel or any other agency, the Lord Himself is coming for us, the One who has given Himself for us is coming Himself for us, “and thus we shall be always with the Lord”. What a hope is ours, as believers! You see the importance in our lives of having a meeting with Jesus, it not only changes us here, changes the direction of our lives, but gives us a hope and a certainty for all eternity. The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven to take us to be with Himself and so shall we be always with the Lord. What a hope, what an expectation to be together for ever with the One who has loved us, and with those who love Him, in conditions of glory and eternal happiness!

Another has said that the future for us will be full of happy surprises! May we be helped then to have a fresh experience of a contact, a meeting with Jesus Himself. For His name’s sake.

Preaching at Vancouver
19 August 2001