Acts 20: 37,38; Philippians 2: 3-11

(2) David Hutson

It is right, beloved, that we should mourn at this time. These occasions are in a sense a peculiar mingling of joy and sorrow. As we think of our beloved brother we cannot but rejoice for him that he is released from the conditions which attach to us in these mortal bodies. As our beloved brother has said, he has departed to be with Christ, which is very much better. How much better it is that our brother is now in the unclouded enjoyment of the love which has sustained him throughout that pathway to which our brethren have referred, for death does not separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and there is now nothing to interfere. The anxieties which were his in his latter days are now over for ever, and there is nothing but the unclouded enjoyment of that love - which has been his portion, and is ours through grace, throughout his pathway here. So it says that they were "specially pained by the word which he had said, that they would no more see his face". On our side there is that which is gone in the departure of our beloved brother never to be seen again, but then there is what came into expression in him. The face would convey to us something which is in real and living expression. Our brother has referred to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It was not merely the physical presence of our beloved brother, although how much we valued him as he came in, but it was what was in expression in him which caused us to rejoice as he was found among us.

Therefore I read in Philippians 2, this scripture so well known to us, because I believe it epitomises the spirit which was found in our brother, as it says, "let nothing be in the spirit of strife or vain glory, but, in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves". I feel our beloved brother was always marked by that feature. He always seemed to give credit for more than we felt ourselves when speaking to those of us who were younger, "each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves; regarding not each his own qualities". What qualities our beloved brother had, but how he delighted to regard the qualities of others also. If we were on these lines, beloved, I believe what the apostle exhorts in the earlier verse would be found more distinctly among us, that we should be thinking the same thing, "having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing". I believe this would be the great secret of unity among us, and as this spirit is found with us there would be diligence to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace", Eph 4: 3. I read on because how often we refer to these verses, "For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus". I believe it was in our beloved brother in his manner among us, the spirit in which he served, his lowliness of mind. But the note says it is not only 'be found in you’ but 'be found amongst you'. As long as our brother was here this mind was amongst us because it was in him; but now the point for us is whether it is still going to be found amongst us, and therefore there is in a sense a charge put upon us that it may be so, and the secret of it, I believe, would be occupation with our Lord Jesus Himself in these blessed features which are set out for us in the following verses. One would recall that these verses end with that verse, "becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross". So far as I recall, one of the very last words which our brother gave us in this room was an exhortation to keep near to the sufferings of Christ. I believe if we carried that forward we should be helped in this matter. It does not here refer to the atoning sufferings exactly, although they must be involved in it; we know the question of sin is not mentioned in this epistle. Nevertheless He became "obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross". The cross was where man was exposed, and all that I am according to the flesh was dealt with unsparingly by God, but also where God's heart in all its love was expressed in the giving of His only-begotten Son; and all this is to be before us as we recognise what was effected there in the death of Christ. So as we keep near to those sufferings we shall be helped in this mind being found among us that we should also be, as our beloved brother was, serving "in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves; regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others also". Well, may the Lord help us, that these features may be carried forward by us, and thus there be an increasingly affectionate bond in unity between us in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Lord Jesus.