(Read John 4: 23, 24).
WHILE there is a danger on the one hand of cultivating that which is mystical and fanciful, there is, on the other hand, the equal danger of limiting the truth of God to that which is according to our small understandings. This latter, I think is particularly so in connection with the corporate worship of the saints when gathered together. I mean that the Lord’s mind, in the institution of His supper, is too often limited by our superficial thoughts.
The institution of the Lord’s Supper is given to us in the three Synoptic Gospels; each in its own particular setting, and His words indicate that we are to partake of the Supper together “for a calling of ME to mind.”
In the reference to it in 1 Corinthians 11, the Spirit of God would impress upon those who partake the signification of what they do, i.e. “ye do show [or, announce] the Lord’s death, till He come.” The sad condition of the Corinthian Assembly made it necessary for this to be brought to bear upon their conscience, and it is well for each of us to have the significance of this in mind, so that we too might judge and free ourselves of everything unworthy of that which becomes us as saints, in the light of the Lord’s death, as set forth in the broken bread and the cup.
We do not learn from the Scripture that this showing forth the Lord’s death is the object of our coming together; but rather that, when we come together to remember Him and “break this bread and drink this cup” we by that act do announce His death. The act has that significance.
But in what way would the Lord have us to remember Him? Here again we have to fear the intrusion of the thoughts of men, in one way and another, and it must always be remembered, none can lay down any rules or regulations in this connection.
To many, the partaking of the Supper has become a morning’s service, in which they go over all that the Lord Jesus suffered in His life and death for their sins, and their whole time is spent in praising and thanking Him for this. Where the praises and thanksgiving rise from hearts filled with love going out to Him, how precious and fragrant must this be to the Lord.
Yet this aspect of the Lord’s death is particularly individual, and is that which should be continually before us day by day. His praise in this connection should always be in our hearts and on our lips and, for myself, I make it a rule to go to Him with my thanksgiving for His love in going into death for me personally, before I start out from home for the Assembly meeting, or else in the quiet of the meeting room, while we tarry one for the other.
When we come together, we do so in assembly character. What we are as men after Adam is set aside, and we meet according to what we are IN CHRIST; He is Head and we are all members of His body, and each in our place before Him according to where He has been pleased to place us in the body; where too, all is subject to the power of the SPIRIT OF GOD. Thus assembled with Himself in our midst, He will have His joy in leading out our hearts in the Spirit’s power, in praise and worship to the Father. The partaking of the Supper brings HIM to mind, so that our thoughts and hearts are set free of every hindrance to worship in spirit and in truth.
This is in keeping with the great care and detail in which the mind of God for His earthly people in their service of worship was set forth by Him in the Old Testament times. We learn very much from the type of the Tabernacle, and also the offerings stipulated in the book of Leviticus; with all the priestly service in connection therewith.
It was the great privilege of His earthly people, under the Law, to have God dwelling in their midst, and to ‘be able to draw near to Him as worshippers. The mind of God was that this should have been the privilege of every one in Israel, that they should be a Kingdom of Priests; but by reason of the failure of the people and also the fact that they departed from His grace and asked for; the Law, only a special family was taken by God for the Priesthood, namely, that of Aaron and his sons; while the whole tribe of Levi was chosen by Him for the service of the Tabernacle. The qualification to serve thus in the things of and service of God was, as we know, that in the tribe of Levi was found regard for the holiness of God and what was due to Him, regardless of all other claims, even of the closest natural ties.
The worship too was expressed in the offering that was brought. All the offerings spoke, in one way or another, of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, particularly of God’s appreciation of these, and they, also spoke of the blessing accruing to the offerer from that blessed life and death. As the offerer brought his offering it typified his measure of apprehension of the significance to God and His claims, of the death and life of the victim. The offerings of the priestly family, Aaron and his sons, as worshipping priests, are set out in detail in Leviticus 8, as also Exodus 29.
The Lord Jesus made known to us, through His conversation with the woman at Sychar’s well (John 4), that it is the desire of the Father to have worshippers — those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth — and the Christian company today, (the Assembly of God) are all constituted priests by God, to offer ‘up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2).
Unfortunately this great truth is not known amongst the Lord’s people generally, and so many of them are content to have a special class of men “ordained” to undertake so-called priestly service for them.
There is no earthly priesthood now in connection with the worship of the FATHER; we have no high priest on earth and no earthly tabernacle or temple, nor is worship in any earthly sanctuary. Those who are His today, are heavenly in character and connected with the heavenly sanctuary of which the Lord Jesus is Minister in heaven. This we learn every clearly from the Epistle to the Hebrews.
We have no bullock to bring, or sheep or goats to offer; but we can present our worship to God. Where His earthly people had but the shadow, we have the substance. They offered that which was a type and pointed on to our Lord Jesus Christ; we are now able, as taught and empowered by the Spirit, to offer before the FATHER our appreciation of what the Lord Jesus meant to Him in His life and death, and all else that is expressed in His Person, as well as what He has meant to us, and done for us. He is our Great High Priest, through whom and with whom — as sons of the heavenly family — we draw nigh to worship.
Worship, of course, is not confined to when the saints are assembled together. There is an individual worship, which is open to us all, at all times; but whether it be individual or collective, we see very clearly from the Old Testament types, that is only in our priestly character, i.e. as of Christ and in Christ that we can draw near. God has not in any way given up one iota of His holiness, and none can appear in that holy presence except in the value of the precious Blood and the efficacy of the perfect sacrifice of our beloved Lord and Saviour.
The realization of this must cause every godly soul to be very much in earnest, before Him, in the refusal of the allowance in ourselves of anything that is contrary to Him, i.e. all that finds its source in the natural and fleshly mind, which assuming to enter into the worship of God, would be of the nature of “strange fire.”
If what is set before us in the Old Testament is to be our guide (and such things were written aforetime for our learning) that which we find in the Book of Leviticus, as well as that given us in the Epistle to the Hebrews, would give us to know that God would have us to enter into: —
1. All that the Lord Jesus in His life meant to the Father.
2. All that His death has secured for the glory of the Father.
3. The wonderful love of the Father to us ward, as manifested in Him; in that He has given Him for us, and His purpose in so giving Him.
4. The preciousness of the Church to the Lord Jesus Christ.
5. The great vista of glory that is yet to be eternally established through His death upon the Cross.
6. Something of all the glories that center in Jesus, and all else that the Spirit of God would teach us of the glory of that blessed One, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom and through whom we learn the heart of God, and all that is to be known of Him.
So that, with the hands filled full with Spirit-taught, appreciation of Christ, we may wave Him before the Father, sharing His delight in the Son of His love, and being brought by Him — the SON — to joy with HIM in His delight in the Father’s love, which too, is the same love wherewith we are loved by the Father.
This cannot be produced like learning lessons out of a text book, but can only be the fruit of the Spirit’s work in us; but one would desire that we may all be more subject to, the Spirit’s teaching and guidance, so that in the enjoyment of our place with the Father, in Christ, He―the Spirit — may lead us thus to worship when we are gathered together in Assembly from time to time. Then we shall not be limited to thanksgiving for that which is merely our benefit accruing from His precious blood-shedding.
J. F. English.