THE LORD'S COMING TO HIS OWN AS SEEN IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (2)
THE LORD’S COMING TO HIS OWN AS SEEN IN THE FOUR GOSPELS (2)
JT The same subject is in view as in our first reading, that is, the Lord coming to His own, only we are to look at it now from the standpoint of Luke’s account, having his first treatise in mind and leaving Acts until perhaps the last reading. But I think we should again call attention to the women that enter into the account, and especially as Luke has the assembly in mind as functioning, not merely in an administrative or disciplinary sense but in the service of God, and therefore sisters are immediately in mind as set out in 1 Corinthians, Timothy, Titus and indeed generally. Luke gives us what may be called the constitutional side of the assembly as presented in chapter 8 in a man, a woman and a child; the girl of twelve years of age is raised up, the demoniac man is sitting, clothed in his right mind, and the woman is healed from the issue of blood. She is called “daughter”, and it is the daughter of Jairus that is raised up, so these three seem to form the foundation proper to the assembly and there, as in this closing chapter, much prominence is given to women. It is said of them in the end of chapter 23, “And women, who had come along with him out of Galilee, having followed, saw the sepulchre and how his body was placed”. That word ‘placed’ is to be noticed, it is not ‘lay’, and earlier we have the word that the Lord placed Himself at table in view of the Supper. But then chapter 23 goes on, “And having returned they prepared aromatic spices and ointments, and remained quiet on the sabbath, according to the commandment”, showing that these women were governed by right principles outwardly, “But on the morrow of the sabbath, very early indeed in [p. 410] the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the aromatic spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And when they had entered they found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass as they were in perplexity about it, that behold, two men suddenly stood by them in shining raiment. And as they were filled with fear and bowed their faces to the ground, they said to them, Why seek ye the living one among the dead? He is not here, but is risen, remember how he spoke to you, being yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise the third day. And they remembered his words; and, returning from the sepulchre, related all these things to the eleven and to all the rest”. And then we have mention of Mary of Magdala, and Johanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the others with them. Later we have a sister again in the two that had gone to Emmaus, for one was evidently a woman, probably the wife, so that the sisters are in much prominence and it is thought that we should keep them in mind not only as presented in Matthew but in regard of the comeliness of the assembly as convened. It was noted this morning that they represent a very necessary element but one liable to be unduly influenced, able to maintain certain right feelings and sentiments and yet to be dark and uncertain and unobservant of what has been taught. Such persons may be going to the meetings and listening and saying, ‘We had a good time’, and yet forgetting what has been said, so that when difficulties arise there is no certainty but a having to look far afield to get help.
Rem The element of intelligence should be with us.
JT Just so. The women moved by commandment here but they had forgotten what they had [p. 411] heard and were dark as to it, but heaven moves in the situation by means of two men in shining garments, suggesting heavenly habiliments, and they appear suddenly. That idea of suddenness runs through Luke; the visitation is urgent, and we may look for it especially if darkness is unduly found in the saints, and uncertainty and forgetfulness of what has been taught; heaven has to be abrupt at such times in calling attention to it.
JWD Sisters are especially seen in relation to the development of feelings in the assembly.
JT Yes, that is good, and the idea of adornment is attached to them in the instruction of the apostles. Peter and Paul both speak of their adorning, and Peter also speaks of the hidden man of the heart. The feminine side is apt to be secretive but if it is to be secretive let it be in the sense of affection for Christ and that the mystery should work out in that connection, so that they keep things as Mary kept things in her heart.
CHH The feminine side is stressed in the recovery of Israel, “seven women shall take hold of one man ...”.
JT That is so. We had the ten men this morning taking hold of the skirt of the Jew, but the seven women want a name, “Let us be called by thy name”, they say, whereas the ten men say, “God is with you”.
RRT Is this a proper feature with the women, that they are linked with Him as having come along with Him out of Galilee?
JT It is. That refers back to chapter 7 where we have a delightful, remarkable feminine product with the testimony that she loved much because she was forgiven much; she was a person with strong affection for Christ, based on forgiveness. Then the next chapter says, “And it came to pass afterwards that he went through the country city by city, and village by village, preaching and announcing the glad [p. 412] tidings of the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with him, and certain women who had been healed of wicked spirits and infirmities, Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to him of their substance”. Their history goes back that far and now they are with Him here. I think this feature of the part the sisters have publicly in the assembly is important; it is not exactly the administrative side which is so fully developed in Matthew but the side of divine service, service God-ward, involving their comeliness and sensitiveness in a holy way. The hidden man of the heart provides adornment but not in a physical sense, and all this is touched on in the epistles. 1 Timothy gives instruction regarding younger sisters and older ones, even mentioning the age of sixty years and one being put on the list for assembly giving, and all this fits in with what is comely before God and man, yet offering assembly material of spiritual wealth.
JD In regard of their following the Lord what would you say of the next verse, “And having returned they prepared aromatic spices and ointments, and remained quiet on the sabbath according to the commandment”? Would that answer in a way to the ministry which not only involves following the Lord into death but requires divine visitation suddenly by angelic ministration?
JT Well, the suddenness is peculiar in this section; it appears as though it had been already needed in the earlier part of the gospel, but we have now come to a critical time. Simeon earlier said to Mary, mother of the Lord, “Even a sword shall go through thine own soul; so that the thoughts may be revealed from many hearts”, and here we have come to that time; it had happened, indeed, when the Lord’s mother had been at the cross. But as she continues [p. 413] with the company she enriches it and the Spirit of God refers to her in a very peculiar way. Think of what she knew about the Lord! She had knowledge no one else could have. The time had come and passed when the sword should go through her soul; she had pictured these things. Indeed earlier we are shown that she was a spiritual woman for she added to the service of God when she went to the hill country of Judah. She had said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour”, Luke 1: 46. The Spirit tells us too that she kept all these things about Christ in her heart, and now she has been at the cross; John says she was there. Is she going to continue to maintain what she has gained? Is she going to keep on keeping things in her heart and pondering them? Will she continue in that way to add to the wealth of the company? Luke speaks of Mary in his second treatise and says that she was there in the upper room and the Lord seems to be everything to her now; natural relationships have proved to be utterly useless and untrustworthy. But the Lord succeeds in making relatives useful, for not only His mother but His brethren were found there in the upper room; so Acts continues the narrative and we see that Mary was successful in going on and as far as we know she continued to enrich the assembly.
JWD In connection with these exercises two men stand by in shining raiment and the sisters are to take account of that in regard to their exercises.
JT We have to pursue the thought of the sisters in this enquiry because there is much to be noted. In what the two men say to them there is no flattery at all. It says, “And as they were filled with fear and bowed their faces to the ground, they said to them, Why seek ye the living one among the dead?”. Thus we are reminded of the need of asking questions of our sisters that require an answer; there should be an answer. “Why seek ye the living one among the dead? He is not here, but is risen; remember how he spoke to you, being yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered up into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise the third day”. Now this is a challenge to their hearts with no flattery or commendation in it. They should have remembered, and now the ministry of the two men aids them and brings out the need and the condition. Then they remember what they had heard and carry this living truth in their souls, for it says, “They remembered his words”. They leave the sepulchre and go to the brethren, leaving the dead — that was a finished matter and it was a question now of the living saints.
RRT Is your thought that this word is especially addressed to the sisters or would it be for the whole company?
JT The men here paid especial attention to them, and wherever the word of God is ministered they are present.
JD After the appearance of the two men the sisters seem to need no further adjustment but go from the sepulchre to the disciples. How would that apply today?
JT Well, they had the truth in the main, so to speak. We might say they were devoted women to be up so early and no doubt they were sincere, but sincerity is no virtue if I am wrong, and this had been a move in the wrong direction because they did not remember the things ministered.
JWD Would you open up a little how we are to get the sisters functioning by asking them questions?
JT As far as the assembly goes their part is to be silent, but this is the secret, mystery side in which they may help. It bears on what they have inwardly.
JWD Would asking them questions bring [p. 415] that out?
JT It might do that. As we have said, in the assembly their part is to be silent but this is a question of what is inward and Mary, the Lord’s mother, represents a sister who is able to keep things: “Mary kept all these things in her mind, pondering them in her heart”.
JWD Although a sister is silent in the assembly her mind is active spiritually.
JT Quite so, and her affections too, so that Mary is said to be in the upper room, “These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer, with several women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”, Acts 1: 14.
CHH Would all this be educational for the sisters in view of Pentecost so that they might have intelligent part in the administration according to the prophecy of Joel? “And it shall be in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall dream with dreams; yea, even upon my bondmen and upon my bondwomen in those days will I, pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy”, Acts 2: 17, 18.
JT That is a point to bring out because at Pentecost this inaugural scripture in Joel was fulfilled. Bondwomen are mentioned, and they were the thing; and sons and daughters were there, young persons.
LES It says of Anna in Luke 2 that she was “of the tribe of Asher” indicating a spiritual idea that goes right through, and she continues in the temple night and day.
JT That is in keeping with Luke because he really links on with Ezra and by extension with the whole history of the testimony, for Ezra begins the book of Chronicles with Adam. It is the first name in that whole work, so that there is the carrying down [p. 416] of the truth through Luke into the New Testament, attaching it to Anna and then to these sisters we have been speaking of and ending up with Paul in Rome. Luke was evidently an accurate man, he records with method, and these thoughts help us greatly as to the feminine side in regard to the assembly; not the assembly viewed generally but more as together, emphasising the comeliness and treasure that are in it in those who keep things in their hearts; they are like a reservoir of spiritual power.
JD Would the thought of Hannah in 1 Samuel help?
JT She is very suggestively connected with Mary because Hannah is praying and yet we do not hear one word! And then in chapter 2 we have what is called prayer but it is really praise; it is a celebration, you might say, to Jehovah; and so with Mary.
RRT In connection with the matter of questioning the sisters would it be right to bring in Rebecca? Her family said to her, “Wilt thou go with this man?”. And here in Luke they were following Him.
JT There is also the questioning of Sapphira, because in truth she is regarded as a sister. Peter challenges her and brings out the truth.
JWD Sisters as being silent publicly would minister to the idea of depth of feeling.
JT They sing David’s praises in the book of Samuel, which helps at this point. Hannah is brought in in that book and also the women that praised David, “Saul hath smitten his thousands, and David his ten thousands”, 1 Samuel 18: 7. That section brings out masculine and feminine affections, the masculine side being in Jonathan of whom David says, “Thy love to me was wonderful, passing women’s love”, 2 Samuel 1: 26. In Exodus 15 we have a parallel idea, the women following the example of Miriam who takes her tambour in her hand and adds to what [p. 417] Moses had sung in a masculine way. So that there are two sides to the singing, and now as we come into the New Testament, of course, there is also singing. And singing is not the same as speaking, it is melody; it is for God.
CHH The section that comes before the Supper in 1 Corinthians 11 speaks of the relation of man and woman.
JT What is indicated there is very important, and then what comes after the Supper is that the women are not to speak but they are to have their part in the service. And indeed what we are considering now begins with the Lord’s supper, for Luke infers that the two going to Emmaus were a man and woman.
CHH “Neither is woman without man, nor man without woman, in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 11: 11. There is the balance.
JT As the Lord’s supper was instituted in Luke it would look as if it was instituted with just the twelve, “And when the hour was come, he placed himself at table, and the twelve apostles with him”, but it was inaugurated as something that could be added to. Feelings, not law, enter into the testimony of the Lord’s supper, and the Spirit then saw, as it were, the controversy that would come in and so He rendered unquestionable testimony to what happened. These things enter into the beginning of our chapter because they are the beginning of assembly service God-ward.
RRT Though the woman is to be silent in assembly yet her mouth is not altogether stopped for it says in verse 10, “who told these things to the apostles”. And that would apply today, that there are places where a sister can open her mouth.
JT By all means! That is a cardinal truth. Take, for example, the household of Chloe, she acquainted Paul with what was current at Corinth, with very important [p. 418] things too! Her household might link with Abigail and her young men who were ready to say the right things at the right time.
Ques Would the last verse of the chapter include these women, “And they, having done him homage, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God?”
JT You might say that, but it is a question of accurate enquiry as to whether it has reference to the apostles or to the whole company; it requires close attention. In general after the Lord is introduced in verse 36 the instruction is largely to do with the public testimony; thus He says to them in verse 44, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things”, I think the ‘ye‘ there applies to the apostles, they are the ones who are mainly in view.
Rem The apostles are now the accredited witnesses to carry things forward.
JT That is what links this section with the beginning of Acts. What has been said about the feminine side in our gatherings is of the utmost importance because they bring in a wealth of feeling and affection and sentiment, but these are to be accompanied by sincerity and truthfulness. So that secretiveness in this sense carries power and influence; such are those who “love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”, as seen for example in Mary of Bethany who anointed Him [p. 419] with pure nard.
RRT The tendency with us is not to give this matter its proper place and when the sisters come with godly exercises regarding a matter we are unconcerned and their words appear like idle tales.
JT These women go and tell the apostles and those with them. Truth is truth, and it is carried in power and influence.
RRT We are to take account of the exercises brought through the sisters.
JT As witnesses, quite so.
Ques Is the feminine idea to be carried forward in the twelve because the church includes both the feminine and the masculine sides?
JT Well, it is hardly connected with the twelve. The women are seen here as in connection with the apostles and also in the beginning of Acts we get such as Mary in the upper room; suggestive of that side we have the prophecy quoted from Joel.
JWD Would not the work of God in the twelve have feminine qualities too? Brothers have feminine features of God’s work.
JT Viewed as the assembly, of course, the feminine is carried right through. The assembly is the bride of Christ, which is a feminine thought, and then there is the idea of the sons of God too.
Ques Is the idea of sons of God a higher thought?
JT I would think so; sons of God is the greatest level we can get.
Rem “Passing women’s love”.
Rem Sisters can enter into the thought of the sons of God too.
CHH What is actually being stressed is the part of womanhood as in contrast to brethren.
JT Just so. The assembly viewed as Luke presents it to us is functioning God-ward; it is not only in a public sense exactly, so that the sisters have a large place in the gospel.
[p. 420] But we should not occupy all the time with that side, we come now to the two on the way to Emmaus, helping us as to the circumstances of the Lord’s coming to a position where He is wanted. So it is said, “And they drew near to the village where they were going, and he made as though he would go farther. And they constrained him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is declining”. It should be noted that these are both of the assembly yet they are going away. But now they are almost ready to return to the place where they should be and they begin to manifest features that belong to the assembly. The word ‘constrained’ is used, and the Lord is ready to be constrained in that sense, constrained by love.
LES They needed the full development of the truth itself; I am thinking of the underlying condition in which the truth is to be known by us, and only the Lord could set it out.
JT I think that He looks for desire with us. Undoubtedly His whole service to them was to bring about this very thing. What does ministry accomplish in us? His making as if He would go farther would bring out what had been accomplished. Will they really want Him? Is the general underlying condition of the place that the Lord is wanted or can we get on without Him?
Rem Lydia constrained Paul to abide with her.
JT She is really representative of assembly qualities. And so here the Lord made as if to go farther and they constrained Him saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is declining”. That was an intelligent remark.
RRT It shows how far the Lord will go in love. He will be constrained by these two. It is not a large company, just two.
JT That is the point, because both man and woman are secured, representing assembly material.
[p. 421] The two are taken account of here whereas Matthew says “two or three”.
RRT You would look for such features as these in a locality, even in two or three.
JT They would not take No for an answer, so to speak. The Lord is looking for such.
JWD The constraining was not due to sentimentality. They had been truly affected by His words: “having begun from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”.
JT Quite so. The influence of the scripture is beautiful. The Lord would use the types to show that they spoke concerning Himself.
JD This would be a special voice to those whom the Lord uses in service. Is my service such that it brings into view the Person of Christ in this way so that the hearts of the saints respond to Him?
JT That is good, and so Luke 10 brings out this matter, where He sent out seventy persons, two and two, to go to every city and place where He Himself was about to come. Will the twos make a way for Him? Will their visit to the places so impress persons with the thought of Christ and the attractiveness of His Person that when He comes the door will be wide open? So ministers are to secure an open door for the Lord amongst His people and we are not to forget that.
Rem The writer of the Song of Songs speaks of the Lord as gone; the loved one did not let Him in.
JT That is good. She would not let Him in because she was not ready to get up; it was not that she did not love Him but the love was not strong enough and the Lord departed — a very solemn thing!
AD If we are prepared for adjustment the Lord is ready to come [p. 422] in.
JT That is how it works out. The ministry should be adjusting, in that way, and that is what comes out here. As the Scriptures are ministered to them how it affects their hearts! They burn within them; but still they are not ready to turn back yet. Nevertheless what is produced in their hearts makes room for what follows, and then it is the Lord’s going in and breaking bread that turns them back to the company.
JD “Having begun from Moses” — what an opening up of the Pentateuch!
JT Yes, how He would open it up! I suppose the walk may have taken two hours, well, He went over the ground in that time. Think of the ground He covered!
Ques Would the experience of the two going to Emmaus be a good thing for us on Lord’s Day before the morning meeting? It would be a touch from the Lord in that way.
JT The word ‘constrain’ is a beautiful word. It is found in 2 Corinthians 5: 14, “For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised”. The love of Christ affects us in that way, so that we go to the meeting and we are entirely for the Lord, to love Him who died for us and was raised again. And then there is the other side that we want Him there, and that means that we leave our houses and sit down together in assembly that we might constrain Him. He is amenable to influence of that kind, I cannot imagine His coming to a company where He was not wanted, a company taken up with earthly things. We say the Lord is with us, but He may not be! Do we want Him? That is the point.
[p. 423] Rem Joseph could not restrain himself, he must make himself known to his brethren.
JT Quite so, and he put everyone else out.
JD If we knew the Lord as a lover of righteousness and hater of lawlessness we would be careful where we invited Him. The testimony of Him in the first chapter of Hebrews indicates these features and He is still marked by them.
JT Yes, that enters into what we are speaking of. What the Lord is really working up to is that that very thing should come out in us.
JD The reaction of the saints to the ministry concerning Christ is what is in mind here.
JT Quite so. The next thing to note is that we are on spiritual lines. There was a meal to be got ready and how long did it take? I suppose there was nothing in the house; it would have been empty when they got there. They had constrained Him, as we are told, and that is one thing, but then the next thing mentioned is what transpired while at table with them. How long a time had elapsed between their arrival and His sitting at table with them? What precious moments those were! How were they occupied? What did the wife do, or the husband? How were these precious moments to be filled up? It suggests the idea of the assembly and those moments are infinitely precious; how are they to be filled up? And now He is at table with them, joining in the meal they had prepared. What moments they were! They would have been very full moments in that house in the Lord’s presence.
CHH There is no reproach or complaint while the meal is being prepared.
JT That is true, nothing unbecoming is suggested. Young people must behave suitably in assembly. Indeed sometimes even the older ones talk to each other. All these considerations are important in regard of assembly functioning as Luke has it in mind.
RRT So three times the word ‘them’ is repeated. How far the Lord would go! He stayed with them, He was at the table with them, and He broke bread and gave it to them. It shows the extent of His love.
JT It is important to see the action there, “he ... gave it to them”. They had to do something and now He is giving something to them. And so a brother has to do something in preparation for the Supper; he has to get a loaf and cup and put them where they should be. That is a very important thing, though not in itself spiritual, but we are now coming to purely spiritual matters, “Having taken the bread, he blessed, and having broken it, gave it to them”. The word ‘gave’ has peculiar force as most of the brethren will know, it is not the article given that is in mind but the idea of giving. It suggests something handed to them, and to us is something the Lord puts into our hands, meaning that it is to be with us, as Joseph said to the butler, “Only bear a remembrance with thee of me when it goes well with thee”. The Lord is putting it into our hands and it remains there; it is not taken away from us.
Ques Does the thought of ‘house-father’ bring in the family side?
JT It is the family side, an informal family matter.
Rem Bringing affections into play.
JT The meaning of the word ‘gave’ is worthy of further note; Mr. Darby’s note says, ‘It has the sense of “giving it into their hands”, as a letter ... . He took the house-father’s place, and blessed and gave it to them’. The peculiar force of the verb is to be noted because it is something so precious at this time, a critical time in our affections. Are we ready to give something? Because after His giving to them He departs from them. And so it goes on,
one, two, three: “And they said to one another, Was not our heart burning in us as he spoke to us on the way, and as he opened the scriptures to us? And rising up the same hour, they returned to Jerusalem”. That is what they did, and it was no small thing to go back to Jerusalem that very day.
Rem What is the thought in “but their eyes were holden so as not to know him”?
JT That is God’s action, I think. Here, in verse 31, “their eyes were opened, and they recognised him”, but in verse 16 “their eyes were holden”. It was not due to state in them; in their case it was an act of God and it happened to facilitate what was proceeding. We can always count on something happening on God’s part, as it did when the two men appeared suddenly.
Rem Perhaps it happened so that we would have this record.
JT Yes, the scene was prepared by God; there was state in it, as we know, but that was not the only thing, God was in it besides.
JWD “And rising up the same hour”, is that a feature of good assembly state?
JT It is a question of sacrifice now. The Lord has worked to one end and now the sacrifice is up to them, involving a long journey. Your staying at home from the meeting because it is raining would be just the opposite of this; sacrifice enters too into assembly giving.
Rem Giving is more than just saving, it involves the thought of sacrifice.
JT These are spiritual matters; they refer to what is from Him because the point here is the house-father, suggesting affections in a certain capacity, not in the assembly but leading up to it.
CHH Is there anything like that in the passing of the bread [p. 426] now?
JT Yes, because the thought of the organism comes into the Lord’s supper, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body”. I think the passing of the loaf has more in it than the mere physical act; we pass it in the light of the fact that we are an organism spiritually.
JD Is there a movement in the passage from lordship to headship? If I go to your house to have a meal with you it would be out of place for me to give thanks, yet here the Lord breaks the bread and takes the place of house-father. Is the idea that we are to be prepared for headship?
JT Quite so. He is to have the pre-eminence because He is anointed above His companions, and so He is the One to give thanks here.
JWD And thus as passing the loaf and cup is it that there flows into our hearts the general collective element of spirituality and sacrifice?
JT That is it; we gather it up here because this is primary experience, but it is leading to one point, the assembly itself.
JWD Are we to expect that?
JT I am suggesting it now; I do not know whether I have ever said or thought it before but I see here that that is what happened.
RRT When it says that they recognised Him that was not merely recognising a physical form but recognising the Lord in the position He took in the house.
JT Just so, it was an act of God, and we may expect that. The apostle says, “In him we live and move and exist” (Acts 17: 28), and how much more at such a critical point as this in the recognition of Christ in the assembly. What the assembly is doing is affected by His impulse, and that is as we are near to one another.
LES It is a question of what God can do at any given [p. 427] moment.
JT So that in coming to the Lord’s supper we leave our houses and proceed to the room and sit down. Well now, what are we doing? We are going to do something, not only the Lord or the Spirit; merely nominally breaking bread will not do, there must be the divine touch.
JD Hebrews 11: 3 says, “By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear”.
JT Well, there is a reminder that everything is from God. And so the assembly can look for this because the assembly is the most precious thing in the whole universe outside of divine Persons; its development and growth are of great interest to heaven, and heaven is ready to help.
AD “And how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread”; at that point in the morning meeting when the Lord comes in we are to move under His influence.
JT Something happens — the opening of their eyes! That is a divine action not an angelic one, so the brethren are under divine action at that time or the assembly would not function.
RRT In applying this in the assembly now how would we look at the disappearing of the Lord? We do not look for His disappearance today.
JT This is an imperfect setting; the Lord has gone as far as He can and then He disappears. But what happens to them? They go back to Jerusalem.
CHH Would it apply in the breaking of bread as the Lord would say, “Rise up, let us go hence”?
JT That is John’s line and there you are dealing with a higher matter beginning with John 13 and running through to the end of chapter 17.
CHH Would this lead up to it?
JT It is concurrent but John is more copious. He has the last days in mind and presents a remarkable [p. 428] opening up of things which the other gospels do not touch.
JWD While we have Christ Himself before us we have the sense in our minds of the power of God, and would you refer to God as such at that time?
JT Well, God has moved; He gives bodies as it pleaseth Him and that is a very wide thought, but we have to be careful what we bring into the assembly because the assembly functions in limitations of a most remarkable kind. It is in creature limitations as it is presented in Ephesians, and in Corinthians too; we have to become accustomed to the wealth resident in the assembly and to see to it in a priestly way that we do not go beyond those limitations.
JD The climax of the Lord’s service here is really when they recognise Him.
JT That is the point so far; we are not really in the assembly yet but the Lord has graciously come out to show us how things are to be done in order to obtain response in a spiritual way. When we come to the assembly He does not vanish away but we move with Him, as John shows us, to the Father. John says much about the Father and the Lord speaking to the Father; we have to keep before us that he has more to say on this point than any of the others.
JD We have the response here to the Lord’s ministry as He talked with them on the way; they understood now that they had to judge their course and go back to the assembly.
JT We have another point here in that there is no cup, only the bread; the Lord blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them. It is leading up to the full, final thing which is in Ephesians.
JD Why is the cup not brought in here?
JT The whole matter is just a touch of private instruction to help them and we must not put more [p. 429] into it than is here; we must wait for Ephesians to get fulness and measurements.
Rem The Lord spoke to them on the way to Emmaus of Moses and the prophets but later on when He spoke to the company to which they had returned He included the psalms.