MATERIAL FOR THE ASSEMBLY AND PERSONAL DIGNITY

^[p. 70] MATERIAL FOR THE ASSEMBLY AND PERSONAL DIGNITY

Matthew 16:15 - 18; Matthew 16:28; Matthew 17: 1 - 5; Matthew 18: 19, 20

JT It is well known to some of us that Matthew’s gospel is the gospel that most of all speaks about the assembly. In the gospel of Matthew the assembly takes the place of Jerusalem. It is in the assembly that the light of God and the order and government of God come out. Our first scripture alludes to the material of which the assembly is being formed, and the two others point to the persons that constitute the assembly. We ought to make a distinction between material and persons. We may look upon every believer as being material for the assembly, or we may consider him as a person in the assembly, a personality there. Looked upon as material it is a question of what he is; considered as a person it will be of who he is.

In chapter 16 Peter is addressed by the Lord not by his own name, but according to what he was, “Thou art Peter”. It is interesting to compare this with John 1 where it says: “Thou shalt be called Cephas (which interpreted is stone)”. In John it is a question of what he should be called, his personality. In John’s gospel the Lord says this after having looked on him. When the Lord looked at him He saw certain features in him, and therefore He says: “Thou shalt be called Cephas”. This was to be his name. The name speaks of the personality. But in Matthew it says: “Thou art Peter”. In Matthew the thought is what he was, but in John it is who he was. In Matthew Peter is looked upon as material, and this on account of what he says, but in John it is in connection with his behaviour, what one could see in him.

Ques When it is a question of testimony, is the thought then of what we are?

^[p. 71] JT Yes. In his first chapter John presents the Lord as the last Adam; He gives names. It does not say that Adam gave names to anything not having life; he named living creatures. In the same way we find that the Lord in John’s gospel is occupied with that which has life, living persons. As the living creatures were led to Adam he named them all. The names he gave every creature allude to the life that came out and was expressed through the movements of each creature. In this way we see how the Lord in John 1 comes forth as the last Adam, giving names. He looked at Simon, and He said: “Thou shalt be called Cephas”. He was to be known by this name. The name spoke of what he was in his personality. But when the Lord in Matthew speaks of Peter, he is thinking of the material which was found in him. Further on in the gospel of Matthew we find how the thought of personality comes out more distinctly. The visions on the holy mount come in to show us the greatness of the Person in heaven, so that the Lord says: “There are some of those standing here that shall not taste of death at all until they shall have seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom”. It is the Person that is coming out here, the Son of man coming in His kingdom. Peter’s confession showed that he had apprehended the Lord as the Son of God, as the Christ. This is the way in which He is known down here in grace and power. But what these three disciples were to see was the Son of man coming in His kingdom; that is to say His personal majesty, not only a person, but the Person in His own glory, coming in His kingdom. It is not Jesus in lowliness, but Jesus, the Son of man, in highest majesty and honour. Therefore, when we come to the truth of, the assembly in activity, we get the thought of personality, first of all in Christ, and then in the two heavenly saints, Moses and Elias, and further in ^[p. 72] connection with the relationship into which the disciples were brought, namely sonship. Between chapter 16, where the material for the assembly is mentioned, and chapter 18, which speaks of the assembly in activity, comes chapter 17 showing us what personality implies.

Ques Is this your thought that we commence as persons whom God has called to have part in the assembly, but if this material is not found in us we cannot enter into the reality of the assembly?

JT I believe that the thought of personality in Scripture comes out after the thought of material; that is to say, I gain what one might call personality in the assembly; I cannot bring my natural personality with me into the assembly. If I were a prominent person in this world, a nobleman or a professor, then this personality has no place in the assembly of God; the only kind of personality which is of worth in the assembly is the personality I have received of Christ.

Rem I thought you were contemplating John’s side first, and then Matthew’s side, and that it is the right person that makes the material.

JT No, I was speaking of John to show the order in Matthew’s gospel.

Ques What is your thought as to personality?

JT Personality is some characteristic feature which distinguishes one person from another. Each one in the assembly has his own dignity, and the name he receives from the Lord intimates what underlies this dignity. This name may involve that which the Lord sees beforehand is to come out in us. He knows the end from the beginning, and if He gives me a name as He gave Peter one, He knows what will come out in due time. The dignity which characterised Peter was something which he had gained in being in the company of Christ.

^[p. 73] The believer is looked upon as being material for the building, but he is even viewed in his personal dignity as one who has part in the assembly. The assembly is regarded from two sides, either as a building, and for this there is need of material, or also as a body or organism which consists of such as have spiritual intelligence. In Matthew 18 the Lord says: “And if also he will not listen to the assembly”. Here He does not view the assembly as a building, but as a gathering of certain persons, something like the Sanhedrim, the council of the Jews.

Ques Do we find in chapter 17 our place in the kingdom in connection with our personality?

JT Yes, but it is not only our place in the kingdom. We see what kind of persons these were, and how they appear. In chapter 17 we have a heavenly picture.

Ques It says of Gideon’s brethren that each one resembled the sons of a king. Was this their personality?

JT Yes, quite so, it was their personal dignity that came out. In connection with Matthew’s way of representing the vision on the mount of transfiguration it was not only that they should see the kingdom of God, but that they should see the Son of man coming in His kingdom; that is to say, it was the Person who was so great. We see His majesty. It is as if God would show us majesty in a Man, before we consider the assembly in its activity, as we see it in chapter 18. There is no one found in the whole universe to be compared to Him. It was not Jesus seen here in humiliation, but Jesus as He is up there. It says that He was transfigured before them. His face shone as the sun, and His garments became white as the light. That is how He looked. When Peter later on writes about it, he says, “Having been eyewitnesses of his majesty”; this chapter lays stress on His personality. See too ^[p. 74] how Moses and Elias appear; they appeared to them talking with Him. Thus we have here the very greatest personality in Christ and then two of the heavenly saints that appear in glory talking with this exalted Person. When I contemplate this wonderful vision on the mount, I begin to ask, How great this is as compared to what we are accustomed to see on earth? What we see up there, is what is going to continue. God’s thought was that this personality which was found up there should be reflected in the three disciples when they came down from the mount.

Ques Do we see this in Acts 3 where Peter says: “Look on us”?

JT Yes, there they were two persons, and the word was, “Look on us”. We find the same thought there.

Ques Have we the same thought in Acts 1 where it says: “The crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty”?

JT That is a good thought. We were reminded of them in chapter 3 where Peter says: “Look on us”. It does not say: Look at this, but, “Look on us”. So also in chapter 1 it says, “The crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty”. Each name had its own personal significance. Further on in the Acts we see these persons as living stones; this alludes to what we are. This is a question of what God has wrought in us, love and all that which makes us suitable for the building. But at the same time as we are fitted together in the building, we are also several individual persons. In Acts 15 we find that when a case was to be handled, the apostles and elders came together, and we read that Peter stood up and spoke; after that we get James speaking, and each one spoke according to his personal dignity.

^[p. 75] Ques Is it so that each one of the saints possesses this personality, or is it only those who are more prominent?

JT Each one has it; it says that the crowd of names was one hundred and twenty. This includes sisters as well as brothers. Amongst this number the apostles are named, and also the mother of the Lord is named, as if she also was to be distinguished. I suppose that the eleven apostles and Mary, the mother of Jesus, had a special place in this company. In chapter 2 we find them all together in one place. This shows that they were material suitable to be joined together.

Ques Is the material that which God forms in the believer?

JT Yes, that is the thought, and as being material I am suited to be built in. But the thought of personality involves that the believers exercise influence. Every believer has some characterising feature, and this feature is what exerts influence among the brethren. But this shows how important it is that all that which might characterise us after the flesh is shut out. I do not doubt that every one of those one hundred and twenty in the upper room had some personal acknowledgement from the Lord during the time He was with them. If we had been with the Lord during the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among the disciples from the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up, we should find that He would recognise us in some special way. He would mark us out by the way in which He spoke to us.

This shows how the Lord, when He came in and went out among them, could intimate what each one was. Every one was to be marked out in a special way, and He could say what it was. If we think of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, we find that these names were given with prophetic significance,

^[p. 76] and later on we find how the names are made use of in poetical form with a spiritual meaning. The name of Judah: “Thy brethren will praise thee”. This shows us what the name means. So also Levi which means joined; he was to be joined to the priesthood. The Holy Spirit applies the word and connects it with the truth. When the Lord calls John and James sons of thunder He meant something with it.

Ques What is the thought in this?

JT I cannot say, but I would only point out how names come out in connection with the truth. We may be sure that the name the Lord gave them, Boanerges, came out in their service. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was one amongst the most honoured in the company; for her name is mentioned together with the apostles. Twelve names are mentioned, but only one is a woman’s name. She is mentioned as the mother of Jesus. This shows how every kind of personal dignity that we may gain in this world must be shut out from the assembly. The Lord shows in connection with our entering the assembly what each one of us will be, and this is not on account of what I have been before, but of what I am going to be. What I am going to be is what I may gain in the assembly. Suppose I were a nobleman with a high title, and I found myself in some way transferred to heaven, of what value would my nobility be there? It would not help me for a moment to know how I ought to behave there. And the same thing holds good in assembly. The assembly down here ought to correspond to what is found in heaven.

Ques Is Stephen an example of this?

JT Yes, his face shone as the face of an angel. This showed he was a personality from another world. What we see on the mount in chapter 17 is what should come out in the disciples down here, that is sonship. In the last part of this chapter the Lord says, “Then are the sons free”. And later He adds, “Take that and give it to them for me and thee”. This great Person whom I have seen in heaven, and who is addressed by the Father as Son, is leading the disciples into sonship conditions and is linking them with Himself as sons. Not any personality that might distinguish me in this world could for a moment be compared to this, that I am a son. It is only in the light of this that we can understand chapter 18. Here on earth is found something very wonderful, that is, the assembly; it is composed of such dignified persons that if someone who has done wrong will not listen to them, he will be regarded as a heathen and a publican. It says in verse 19, “Two of you”; this shows us that the thought of personality may be applied in a day when everything is in ruins. It is not a question of two who are believers, but it says “two of you”; it is such persons.

Rem These disciples had seen something that we never saw.

JT But in principle believers see these things by the Spirit. Scripture speaks of what is possible, and not of what is impossible.

Rem There may perhaps be some among us who wonder if all the saints may be considered as material.

JT From God’s side all believers are in the assembly, but the Holy Spirit presents for us in Scripture what is God’s desire for us, and this is what we ought to be occupied with. In chapter 16 we find a man who had light about Christ in his soul. This light he received from the Father. Every believer ought to understand that this is possible. For us it is not in exactly the same way as it was with Peter, but it must be something corresponding to it. The Father has had something to say to my soul about His Son. We have apprehended so little the greatness of the Holy Spirit’s presence here and ^[p. 78] what is possible on account of this. By the Holy Spirit I can take in what it means that Christ is up there; I get an impression of His Person who is in heaven. It is in the power of these things that the believer is in the “building” and even in the “assembly”. When the Lord therefore says, “Two of you”, He alludes to two of such persons. If I cannot reckon myself as of such persons I ought to ask myself, Why not? Is it not open to us even here in Gothenburg to be one of these?

Rem I suppose, it is open for each one who has an impression of Christ in his soul. Peter got an impression, did he not?

JT Yes, and later it says, “It shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”. Not only that it shall come, but it shall come to them.

Ques Do the words “two of you” in chapter 18 allude to such as we have been reading of in chapter 17?

JT Yes, no doubt; it says “two of you”, so also, “Where two or three”; they are the same persons. The Lord says, “There am I in the midst of them”. We are amongst these whom heaven acknowledges.

Rem Is this possible at the present time?

JT Yes, to be sure. It is a great consolation to know that such persons are found on earth.

Ques Is Romans 16 an example of such personalities?

JT Yes, and there we find such who were well known in Rome, and we find the word ‘salute’ there mentioned twenty times. In Matthew 18 we see the assembly in activity. We see there what the saints are as composing the assembly. They are persons who are known in heaven. Heaven would, so to speak, salute them.

Ques When can Matthew 18: 20 be applied?

^[p. 79] JT I believe it is that side that Matthew presents. It is not the privilege but the administration side, administration that has God’s interests in view down here. This verse shows therefore that we may act on God’s behalf down here. The Lord gives His support to “two or three”. That “two or three” are gathered to His name involves that they are gathered as representatives of Him here.

Ques What we call a care meeting?

JT Yes, or wherever it is a question of administration for Him.