(iv)

(iv) David C.Brown

Acts 7: 55, 56; 23: 11; 2 Timothy 4: 17; Revelation 1: 17

I simply had in mind that the way in which Jesus acts shows what He is; it shows His character. I was impressed by that on Lord’s Day, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you” John 14: 18. That is a wonderful thought, the Lord Jesus coming, but it is not only what He is doing and what He is promising, but the fact that He has made that promise and that He acts on that promise shows the character of the manhood that is in Jesus. Quite simply it shows the kind of Man He is. That is wonderful! The believer not only knows what the Lord Jesus does, but He knows the kind of Man.

I wondered whether these scriptures would give us a continued impression of the kind of Person the Lord Jesus is, the character that belongs to Him as displayed in what He does. These refer to our present dispensation. You could, of course, read through the whole of the gospels and every movement of the Lord Jesus would be a display of what He was. We have had the reference tonight “Let love be unfeigned” Rom.12: 9. How wonderful it is to think of a Man who in everything that He did displayed in truth what He was. Nothing of the activity of the Lord Jesus was feigned.

We have the time of Stephen, a time of great sorrow and great pressure. He had been faithful to the Lord and he had been rejected for it. The people were against him, the people were stoning him, he was cast out of the city. That was their attitude towards him. At the time of this pressure and suffering, the Lord Jesus presents His glory in a distinctive way to Stephen. Quite simply, what else do you expect Him to do? What else do you expect the Lord Jesus to do for a person who is in suffering and pressure for the testimony, but to give them a sense of His glory? You know Him as I know Him, you know the kind of Man He is and how He responds and how He acts and the impressions that He gives us. It is wonderful that we know. The One we know, the Lord Jesus, is a Man like this who would give such a presentation of Himself at the time of the greatest suffering, the greatest sorrow, for Stephen.

Later in the book we have Paul. We could say Paul was in this position to a degree because of his own failure and his own weakness. We could point to various things in this chapter where he is not up to the highest standard, and that of course would be the case if you look at anyone apart from the Lord Jesus. But here, at this time of pressure and need, you again get the Lord Jesus coming in, “But the following night the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good courage”. That is the kind of Lord that you know, that is the kind of Man. You have had, no doubt, some impression of that, the Lord stood by you at a time of pressure and a time of sorrow. You know by experience, as Paul knew by experience, not only what He does and what He says, but the kind of person that the Lord Jesus is.

The history of the testimony continues and we find in the end of Timothy that there is pressure on Paul. Things publicly are gone astray and things are breaking down, all in Asia have turned away from him, things are in difficulty. No one else can be fully depended upon, but we know the kind of Man that Jesus is as One that can be depended upon. So when that time comes and all else had turned away from Paul he can tell us, “But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power”. It is just what you would expect of the Lord Jesus, because you know Him. This is the kind of things He does because this is what He is like. It is very good to think of it – it is not just what He does, it is what He is, it is the kind of manhood. How wonderful that He would come in in His blessing like this.

Again in Revelation, things are difficult and things are unusual and the Lord Jesus presents Himself in an unusual way. But then there is one of His lovers here, John, one who had known Him, one who had had experience with the Lord Jesus, “and he laid his right hand upon me”. You have experience of that. I think we have had experience of this in this city – at a time of sorrow and pressure, the Lord Jesus gave us that word particularly, “he laid his right hand upon me”. In such circumstances we learn of Him. As we have these experiences, as we know His touch and we know His word, as they come to us, do not just leave it at His word or at His touch, but learn the Man, learn the glory, the moral worth that belongs to Him, the kind of Man, what is characteristic of Him, the kind of love that is characteristic of Him. May we be helped to learn of Him in these things. We know Him, we have experience. I think that is a wonderful thing to look round a company of persons who have experience with the Lord Jesus, they know what to expect of Him. May we be helped to grow more in this. For His Name’s sake.

13 August 2002