THE GLORY OF CHRIST (3)
[p. 113] THE GLORY OF CHRIST (3)
John 7:39; John 4:10 - 14; John 12:16
JT It is the proposal that we might see that the Spirit is here as a consequence of Christ’s glorification, as living water, and then as the power of remembrance. Later we may see in chapters 14, 15 and 16 how the Spirit guides us into all the truth, but at this time we may see how the Spirit’s presence depends upon the glorification of Christ, and necessarily gives character to the testimony rendered.
JWD What do you understand by the thought of glorification?
JT Well, christianity in its testimony must include what Christ is as received in glory in heaven. We read that “God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been received up in glory”, 1 Timothy 3:16. The position He has up there must enter into the testimony involved in the Spirit here.
AR You mean the testimony on earth must correspond in some way with His glorification up there?
JT Yes, the glorification enters into it and enriches it. In John 2:22 the resurrection of Christ is said to affect the remembrance of the saints; and in chapter 12:16 it is said that the glorification of Jesus affected their memories: “Now his disciples knew not these things at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of him” John 12:16. The resurrection in itself affects the testimony of Scripture, because as risen the Lord expounded it unto the two on the way to Emmaus: “He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”, Luke 24:27. John 12:16 would go beyond that, and so His glory was necessary for [p. 114] the understanding of such scriptures as are mentioned. I think the Lord may help us to see the difference between Christ’s ministry as here in the flesh and then as risen and then as ascended and glorified, the Spirit being here in consequence of the latter.
CAM Would the memory in chapter 2, consequent on His resurrection, connect with His body looked at as the temple here, whereas the other scripture in Timothy involves His ascension?
JT It does. I thought the truth of the temple of His body is important as connected with Him risen: “Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, John 2:19. That He could be raised by Himself is a great matter, and after He is risen the memories of the disciples are affected so that they believe: “When therefore he was raised from among the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken” John 2:22. So that the testimony of the resurrection has a great place in our position in itself, but the glory is essential to the full thought of christianity because the Spirit is here consequent upon that. In the type in Exodus the Spirit is given on account of the suffering of Christ; the beginning of spirituality really in the types is in Exodus 17. But John 7 goes beyond that and makes the presence of the Spirit consequent on the glorification of Christ. Christianity is a heavenly testimony; it is not a millennial but a heavenly one.
AR Would it be right to say the ten days that the apostles remained in Jerusalem waiting for the Spirit was a great tax on them?
JT It was, and formative too. What they were was brought into evidence. We can see it was not the full thought but it was wonderful as far as it went. Acts 1 is of great importance in that sense, what the [p. 115] Lord left here is seen perfected by the testimony of His resurrection. Chapter 2 brings out not only the resurrection but the Spirit here consequent on His ascension; that is the full christian position.
JTJr In Ephesians 1:19 - 23 we have the exceeding greatness of power in bringing Him out of death, and also that He is set in heaven above every principality and power. It is the full thought there.
JT Yes, the exceeding greatness of His power in raising Christ and setting Him down at His right hand. That corresponds with John 7, the wonderful power of God in raising Christ up there and that He “gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body”, Ephesians 1:22. I believe many do not go much beyond resurrection and many do not even go that far; they are occupied with what Christ did here; wonderful indeed that manifestation of His glory, but christianity is much more than that.
JWD Would the idea of resurrection bring in what is positive? Death is negative, undoing all that is adverse and hindering. Is that right?
JT I think that is right. It is foundational, so that Romans stresses resurrection, not the ascension. The gospel stresses the resurrection as meeting conditions in men here; but still Romans goes to the Spirit, but it does not stress the heavenly side, whereas Ephesians does. That is full christianity.
SJH Would it be the special portion as with Elisha, ‘If you see me go up’?
JT That is the idea, I am sure. The second book of Kings begins with one man falling down, he falls down through a lattice; and another man is going up, Elijah is going up. The time of his receiving up is come, and that is what Elisha lays hold of. The journey from Gilgal with Elijah strengthens him in his soul, the thought of an ascending man; and of course it synchronises with John’s gospel because [p. 116] John has the ascending Man in mind. Elisha is in companionship with Elijah, that is why John stresses companionship with Christ so much. You get enlarged thoughts, and the more enlarged your outlook is the more you pray. You want to grasp the thing in power. And so the journey of Elisha with Elijah and the different points visited enlarged his view. It was the ascending man he was companying with and they went over the Jordan. He saw Elijah wrapping his mantle and smiting the waters but that was not all; they went over together and walked and talked. That is a further movement after the Jordan was crossed, and then came the idea of what Elisha should ask. Well, he says, ‘I want a double portion of your spirit’, meaning that he had gathered up in companionship with Elijah a great outlook. And Elijah said, “Thou hast asked a hard thing”, 2 Kings 2:10. I think God values that because He likes to be asked hard things: “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think”, Ephesians 3:20. Still He gives you credit for asking a hard thing, meaning you have a grasp of things you have not had before. ‘If you see me go up’, Elijah says, and he went up by a whirlwind, “And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!”, 2 Kings 2:12; but he got his request. A double portion is what accrues to us as apprehending Christ, not only as risen from the dead, but as ascended.
SP Would it in any way connect with Stephen’s address? He sees the glory of God and Jesus.
JT God would bring in this very thing we are speaking of at that juncture. I believe that is the basis of the epistle to the Hebrews: it has been called the book of the opened heavens. Stephen looked up there, his countenance was like the countenance of an angel; it was really judicial. What is to replace Israel is another Israel; it is the heavenly thing. That [p. 117] is why his view is guided upward; he sees Jesus and the glory.
JWD This hard thing you mention, does the solution of it lie in the emphasis on the Spirit in John 7, the place we give Him as a divine Person?
JT That is what I thought and that is why I suggested the one verse; it gives character to the whole subject. “But this he said concerning the Spirit” — it is a round-about thought, all the way around, it is the full thought — “which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (verse 39), “not yet” means not yet here in activity; it is not, of course, a question of the Spirit’s existence, but not yet in the actual sphere of activities. We are the sphere of His activities.
CAM Where would you say the heavenly side comes into prominence in the gospel?
JT I think here, in chapter 7. It is not mentioned in chapter 4 where we have the living water, it is held for this passage until we reach the best that judaism has, the feast of tabernacles, the great day of the feast. The Lord awaited this circumstance to bring in this fact of the glorification of Christ as essential to the Holy Spirit here below. The feast of tabernacles was the last of the series in Israel, and this was the great day of it, the very best. That is the point at which Jesus cries; He does not cry in chapter 4. This is a more dispensational thought; in chapter 4 it is meeting need, but this is dispensational. The Lord awaits the opportunity for the cry. Why should He cry? He cries twice in this chapter, it is urgency! The ending up of one dispensation is not simply judicial, but it is also because of its insufficiency to meet divine requirements. Over against that the Spirit is “not yet”, meaning that He is not yet in the sphere of operations, but now you have the supreme thought of God. The cry ought to be [p. 118] observed; I think it indicates the urgency of the Lord as to this matter.
CAM Does it express the emotions of divine Persons with regard to it?
JT Very good.
JWD I was wondering about the thought of receiving.
JT I think chapter 7 is the balance of the 4th, and contemplates progress in believers; the word is, “But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive”. The believing is past history in the disciples, but culminates in this; they had already believed. Believing in John is progressive; the faith here is beyond the woman’s faith in chapter 4.
SJH Would the Lord’s cry indicate His feelings about the emptiness in the best that was earthly?
JT I think that is the way it stands. John gives great place to cries, divine feelings. Twice in this chapter the Lord cries and He cries at the resurrection of Lazarus. In chapter 12 His soul is troubled; He weeps in chapter 11; all this comes into this book and it is to bring out how real things are, how much feeling there is in heaven. It finds a reflex here in the flowing out from the inward parts of the believer, the place of his affections, the region of our organs that are automatic in their movements; they are genuinely affected, that is the idea; christianity is a system of feelings.
SP The Spirit as a divine Person enters into this too. This is the Lord’s cry and then the Spirit cries.
JT Quite so. I think we are very slow to lay hold of divine feelings. God says, You weary me; He says that to Ahaz (Isaiah 7:13). In Genesis 6:6 it says, “And Jehovah repented that he had made Man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart”, Genesis 6:6. In Genesis 1:2 the Spirit brooded over the face of the deep. God comes down to where we are, to give us to [p. 119] understand He is not far away from us. Paul says, “As also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring”, Acts 17:28. Even man as he is created is like God. How much more so as learning of God in Christ and having the Spirit of Christ!
AR Do the “rivers” (verse 38) suggest that we have love for all the saints?
JT Yes; the allusion would include the river in Eden; “as the scripture has said” is not a quotation, it is what Scripture says in effect. Matthew makes a point of quotations, John too; but this particular instance is not that, it is a question of what Scripture says in effect. The Scriptures are full of the thought of a river or rivers and the sources of them too.
CAM Do you see a reflex of that in the expressions Paul uses to Timothy in the expression of his affections?
JT Yes, you can see it throughout Paul’s ministry; what an affectionate man he was! His salutations are remarkable. How he could remember the brethren by name in order to tell them of his love! One of the greatest difficulties one has is naming the brethren, to know them by name, and be able to think of each according to what you know of them. The apostle excels in that as, for instance, in Romans.
AR You spoke about the river in Eden; there Eden would be the source, but in chapter 7 the believer is the source.
JT That is the thought. I was thinking of Eden, it is a tropical suggestion. The tropics of course are remarkable as to the effect of the warmth on the human body and mind; so that after God set up Eden Adam is to look after it, and He would come into it in the cool of the day. It is a tropical allusion. It says He was heard walking: “And they heard the voice of Jehovah Elohim, walking in the garden in the cool of the day”, Genesis 3:8.
[p. 120] Does it refer to the happiness or blessedness of God that He found in a scene like that? Why should His voice be connected with walking? But alas! there was no Adam or Eve ready to meet Him; they hid themselves. Still, we have the suggestion of what Eden was: it was the source; the river went out of Eden, the word meaning the place of delights. The river went out of that situation into the garden and then it was parted and became four main streams or heads, meaning that there is intelligence typically in the movement of those rivers.
EP Is that idea of intelligence worked out in the Acts, Peter bringing in Cornelius, then Antioch and Philippi?
JT That is the idea. You cannot but be impressed by the spirit of control in the book of Acts; so many persons operating and yet the spirit of control is there.
EP Does the glory of Christ synchronise with this great movement of the Spirit here in John 7?
JT That is the thought, the glorified Christ and the rivers flowing out: “He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” John 7:38,39. That is, out of the inward parts should flow rivers of living water, out of one person. Who is that person? A believer in Christ. What a person he is! A characteristic believer; it is a progressive thought.
CAM Our heads control really; this looks on to the headship of Christ.
JT That is the force of the word; they parted and became four heads or main streams.
EP Headship is not simply a title; there is flow from [p. 121] it.
JT It involves functioning in the way of control. As soon as your head gives out, the body is out of control. Things are to function from heaven in christianity, that is what you get in the book of the Acts.
JTJr Is “the head of the ... assembly” Colossians 1:18 an administrative thought?
JT Quite so. It is organic also; many inscrutable things which originate in the head take place all the time in our bodies.
JRH Would this matter of remembrance have an important part in our activity?
JT Yes indeed! How poor we should be unless there were the power to recall by association! One thing helps you to remember another thing. Chapter 12 shows that the glorification of Christ helps us in our memories; we shall see more about that in chapter 14 but it is touched on here. You remember that these things were written of Christ: “Now his disciples knew not these things at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things to him” (chapter 12:16).
You stand up to give an address, you have in mind the general outline, but then there is the power of association, of memory, the Holy Spirit helps you. What a wonderful field there is in Scripture! You need to scan the field. Well, the Holy Spirit helps you thus to glorify Christ, that is the supreme thought; the whole field is in the mind of the Spirit and He will bring things into your soul as you need them.
JRH I was wondering if remembrance is to promote the feature of holiness with us? It is connected with what He says of the temple of His body, and then there is the feature of remembrance [p. 122] connected with spirituality.
JT Quite so; the glorification of Christ connected with your memory opens up a wide field; it is well worth looking into and using. The scripture opens up, the Holy Spirit operates on your memory and brings things back to you. The scriptures quoted in this passage from Psalm 118 and the prophet Zechariah had been read in Israel for hundreds of years: “Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt” John 12:15; and the one in verse 13. In the glorification of Christ these two scriptures are brought back to memory. For this section of glory in chapter 12 I need such light, such power as that to bring back to my memory what belongs to this sphere of glory.
EP It says of Israel, “When Moses is read, the veil lies upon their heart. But when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away”, 2 Corinthians 3:15,16.
JT That will be a wonderful time for Israel! They are reading the Scriptures every sabbath, but what good are they to them? When Israel turns to the Lord the veil is taken away. When they do, Israel’s intelligence will be opened up. They will not have the same intelligence as we have today, but they will have great intelligence.
JWD I was thinking about your allusion to Romans, “the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2, and then “the eyes of your heart” Ephesians 1:18 in Ephesians, whether that does not link on with the thought of remembrance? Some of us are getting older, our natural forces are abating.
JT We all know how much it affects us and it is one thing we should keep before us. One of the most important things for a brother to keep before him is that his mind should be clear. As he gets older it is apt to become very dull, which is a great disadvantage.
AR Spiritual persons are not taxing their minds in regard to the work, they are taxing a divine [p. 123] Person.
JT That is right. We shall see more about that in chapters 14 and 15.
Returning to the rivers and what “the scripture has said”: this is a simple statement and I believe directs us to Genesis 2 and 3, showing first the source of the river, where it flowed out, and then how headship entered into it; how as flowing it surrounded the territory. You get good things there, “the gold of that land is good”. It brings up a whole realm of thought as to what is good; “bdellium and the onyx stone are there”, Genesis 2:12. It involves riches and the refinement that goes with riches.
CAM When a person’s memory is being helped of the Spirit he relies on spiritual suggestions.
JT One great effect of a river is influence. If you are influenced in your mind, well then there is the thought; then come words and then sentences. These are all sub-divisional to the whole matter, but influence is the great thing. Take the Euphrates, think of what influence there is in that great river!
JST You have a suggestion of it in Paul’s ministry as to “holding fast the head” Colossians 2:19; and then would his epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians be like surrounding “the whole land of Havilah”, reaching out, so that “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”? John 7:38.
JT Quite so; it is “holding fast the head”. It is a glorified Christ we begin with and the Holy Spirit down here. The idea of headship keeps us in balance, so that the new man is “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him”; that is a remarkable statement, “into full knowledge”, Colossians 3:10.
AB Is that why in chapter 7 the cry is, “let him come to me and drink” before you have the rivers of water flowing out?
JT Quite so; that gives you headship. But then, this Man is glorified, and “This he said concerning the Spirit”.
[p. 124] He is going around the thing, the whole matter of the Spirit is conveyed. You must have a glorified Christ to get the full power of it; the full outflowing of the river universally is from heaven.
CAM The idea of influence helps; the word ‘influence’ and the fact that it is a river and has banks seems to take care of this matter of balance.
JT It is the idea of headship organically; you do not see anyone asserting himself; everything is balanced. The very fact of the river flowing indicates there is something behind it.
SRMcC Peter standing up in Acts with the others is not asserting himself Acts 2:14. “Peter, standing up with the eleven”, quotes the scripture in Joel.
JT Look at these eleven men standing behind Peter! Is Peter eclipsing these men? No, he is not; these men have a gift too, every one of them, and when Peter finishes speaking the convicted people speak to these eleven men. Why did they do that? They saw it was one idea, that these men were all of the same kind. That is the idea of christianity, we are to help each other and stand in relation to one another. It is not one man’s understanding, it is an organism that is in mind.
JS T. The Lord in speaking to His disciples says, “Ye will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you” Acts 1:8. Would that be seen in Peter standing up with the eleven? Was it the evidence of His power so that you would get to what was behind the apostles?
JT There is something behind those men. They were all to receive power from on high. The convicted soul sees that these men are all of a kind.
Ques Are we deficient in appreciation of the glories of Christ? In Corinth it would appear that spiritual persons were not functioning. I was wondering whether the glories of Christ were not being maintained.
JT [p. 125] They were not. The first thing Paul rebuked in Corinth was the divisions. The divided state amongst them would preclude the idea of rivers flowing out. These eleven stand up with Peter; they are like him; the Lord had brought them together. He called whom He Himself would that they might be with Him, that He might send them forth. It is a united thought and I think the idea of a river must have been behind it, the thought of headship.
AHP Is the same thought in 1 Corinthians 12? Great prominence is given there to the Spirit.
JT Quite so: “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, ... and have all been given to drink of one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12:13.
AHP Would chapter 14 show that it is flowing out in the ministry meeting?
JT Quite so.
JWD I was going to suggest that these eleven apostles that stood behind Peter would be well content to be there, feeling they were organically of the same thing.
JT It is remarkable how you get them together throughout the chapters of the Acts. The converts persevered in the doctrine and fellowship of “the apostles” Acts 2:42, not ‘of the apostle Peter’, but “the apostles”. Then in Solomon’s porch there they were, the apostles; you get them together, and there was the great power of the apostles’ witness, and so forth. It is one idea in twelve men to bring out the administrative thought in love. That is why a meeting like this is so important; the brethren coming together, we learn together. It is the divine way that the glorification of Christ, the Spirit being connected with that fact here, unifies our thoughts. We have a wider outlook, and we are all brought into it; not to signalise any person but to bring out the dispensation and what is in it.
[p. 126] Ques Paul says we have the mind of Christ; does that enter into it?
JT It does; it is the power or faculty of thinking. It is not gift exactly, it is what is normal to christianity, the mind of Christ, the power of thinking as He does.
SJH Would you make much of the fact that it is living water? Is not that a test, in that there is the touch of headship about it?
JT That is another good point; that is why I thought we might connect it with chapter 4 which brings out the quality of the water; it is living. In chapter 4 it is a question of the state of the believer; chapter 7 is more dispensational, hence the cry. Chapter 4 is to bring out the state of the believer as it comes into evidence, so that the Lord sat just as He was on the well, and this woman comes to draw water, and the conversation brings out the state she was in. So chapter 4 is on a lower level, dealing with state, and how inwardly through the ministry of Christ we can make room for this matter of springing up in chapter 4 and flowing out in chapter 7.
Ques Is chapter 4 more the Romans side?
JT That is right, and chapter 7 is Ephesians. Chapter 4 is what is given to you and chapter 7 is what you receive: “But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive” (verse 39).
AAT Chapter 4 requires asking.
JT That is the thought. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him” (chapter 4:10). A need arises in her soul, because the Lord’s remarks lead her to say, Give it to me. It is a question of your need and you value the thing; it springs up into everlasting life. That is deliverance; I cannot be a vessel here unless I am delivered. Chapter [p. 127] 7 is the other side of the matter, the heavenly thing; it is what flows down through Him universally.
NB “For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives not the Spirit by measure”, John 3:34.
JT That is the general character of the giving dispensationally. Now the Holy Spirit is here in an absolute way, not partially. Of course He does not give the Holy Spirit to any one of us in that way; no creature could receive the Spirit in absoluteness. It comes out there in relation to Christ; the Lord Himself received the Spirit in completeness. It came in bodily form upon Him, and the same is true of the assembly.
AR This woman in John 4 was very fickle, she had five husbands.
JT Quite so, but she is brought into headship in principle. She has only one Man before her now; that makes way for what we were speaking of in chapter 7.
Ques Would you define for us what the springing up and flowing out are?
JT Springing up is an allusion to the organs that are automatic. Many things happen in our bodies that do not refer to the head; they act of themselves. Our bodies are so constituted that they act of themselves, the organs act of themselves. Springing up is not to heaven, it is into everlasting life; it is deliverance, another order of things, an out of the world order of things. The Spirit in the believer operates on him as he judges himself according to Romans, and he is delivered; it is an upward trend, it is up into everlasting life. That I would take to be deliverance: it “shall become in him a fountain ...”. There are two words used for ‘well’: one is ‘fountain’ in verse 14, “But the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water”; that is, it takes charge of the believer and functions [p. 128] in the automatic organs, so to speak, so that it operates of itself; it is not headship but it makes way for headship. Chapter 7 involves headship.
JWD Why do you think this process of deliverance in John 4 takes so long a time with us? Here it is connected with the power of a divine Person.
JT That is a good question for each to ask himself. The woman said to Him in verse 15, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw” John 4:15. That is a selfish way of speaking, therefore the state of the person must be disclosed. That means a long history, you know; it is the length of the history and the variety of it and how much we have forgotten in such a history as this. All that has to be gone through; the process of self-judgment is a life process. As a matter of fact a man never ceases to be normally a repenting sinner; it is the length of the thing, how much has been forgotten and how much has to be brought to our attention by the Spirit of God. Think of a history like this: five husbands, and now one not a husband! The others were apparently legal in some sense, they were actually husbands.
AR Some might say, Why go back so far?
JT That is the point. It is hesitancy to go back so far that prevents this spring within, this matter of deliverance. She had to come into that: “If thou knewest the gift of God”, One taking such a low place and yet divine. But then the other thing is this matter of five husbands; evidently they were legal in some sense; there must have been some sort of ceremony connected with them. This means how much had been forgotten, but not in heaven, and I have to come back to that.
CAM She loves talking of the well of Jacob.
JT The well was deep; the well of corruption in her soul is deep and she has to bottom it.
JTJr [p. 129] I suppose in an outward way she claimed a religious position, in connection with the well that belonged to Jacob.
JT How much such people can say! She is setting herself up in a religious way: “Our father Jacob”, she says. Well, think of what she has to go through to get right!
SJH What is the lack? It seems to be a lack of conscience.
JT There is at first, she has no conscience at all. It is when the Lord says to her, “Thou hast had five husbands”, that she says to Him, “Sir, I see that thou art a prophet” John 4:18,19. That is the beginning of her spiritual history. What did she see before? She thought she knew something about the mountain and Jacob, she could talk quite well; you would never think she was what she was, but the Lord would see what she was at the bottom. He touches the well of corruption and He says these words to her, and she says, “Sir, I see that thou art a prophet”. She is worth speaking to; the Lord does not hesitate to talk to her about worship. We often wonder why it is, but it is perfectly clear she saw He was a prophet. The prophetic word is the point.
Ques Is the meeting for prophetic ministry designed to help us in our souls?
JT It is certainly intended to bring out all these historical things that have not been settled; they have all to come to light, that is what the prophetic word is for. We cannot bring everything into the assembly or it would be full of judicial matters all the time; the Lord makes provision for minor matters between saint and saint. Some matters have to be brought to the court of the tabernacle. This woman’s case requires full investigation. How can she say, I have settled this matter? She could not say it. Yet the Lord does not go into the matter publicly. She says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done”, John 4:29.
JST Does availing ourselves of the Holy Spirit as in Acts 2:17 — the pouring out upon our sons and daughters and then the prophesying — help us as individuals?
JT See what a time we should have! So much prophesying — the past would be exposed and a great clearance effected, so that the Holy Spirit would have scope to spring up.
JJ It is not a question of having her moral defects drawn attention to, but of her seeing the glory of Christ.
JT It is both, you know; because the point she makes when she went back to the men was, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done” John 4:29. He said very little to her but His words searched her; that is the secret of her power in testimony. She admits she had been exposed to herself. Now one Man controls her instead of these others; she left her water-pot and went back into the city, she was a vessel, and carried in principle the living water to the men. “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?”.
JRH Would not this idea of abundance set aside the thought of labour and toil?
JT It makes way for the sabbath; there was to be no servile work on the sabbath. It is the liberty that we have inwardly springing up into everlasting life.
AHP You referred last night to Psalm 51: I wondered whether David in his soul history with God was brought into line with what the Lord did with this woman? He says, “Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts” Psalm 51:6.
JT Christ’s inward parts, in infinite holiness, were laid out before Jehovah in the sacrifices. In John 4 the inward parts in the believer are exposed [p. 131] to be dealt with, and then instead of corruption you have living water springing up into everlasting life.
AR In 1 Corinthians 14 it says of an unbeliever, “He is convicted of all, he is judged of all; the secrets of his heart are manifested; and thus, falling upon his face, he will do homage to God” 1 Corinthians 14:24,25.
JT Not only does he judge himself but everybody sees it, all judge him. You want to join in with the person that is repentant. Everybody judges it, the whole matter is clear, and that man is fit for fellowship at once. They all see the man is repentant, they all come to his judgment of himself.
JRH So in chapters 4 and 9 the recognition of the prophet comes in and makes room for worship in both chapters.
JT It is very remarkable that Peter should say so much about prophesying in Acts 2:17,18. A sister bringing something to your conscience convicts you. Your sons and your daughters, your bondmen and bondwomen shall prophesy. It is a question of bringing in conviction, the mind of God towards us with regard to the state we are in. Everyone needs this.
What a holy, pure state of things there must have been in that house of Philip when Paul went there with his company, and Agabus came down and taking Paul’s girdle, prophesied! There were four women there, four daughters of the evangelist, who prophesied. We are not told they did it then, but what a state would be in that house! The whole matter was clear as noon-day as to what would happen to Paul in Jerusalem; the condition in the house admitted of it. Paul did not say a word, he was not affected by it; it shows how the most spiritual of us needs that sort of thing.
EP Do both chapter 4 and 7 of John converge on chapter 12, in the thought of Jerusalem? I was wondering whether the woman calls attention to Christ in chapter 4: “Come, see a man” John 4:29; and then in chapter 7 attention is called to the realm of the Spirit. Jerusalem would be the whole sphere of it, would it not?
JT The whole great domain of glory! “Lift up your heads, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in”, Psalm 24:7. In chapter 12 the brethren are ready for that by the glorification of Christ; that is the end of things; Jerusalem is the great centre of glory.