THE presence of Jesus in the midst of His saints is as real to-day, though He is glorified in heaven. We still have His word, “Where two or three are gathered together in (unto) My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)). What a resource in a day of feebleness and failure! He has not changed towards His own. Though we look back, with humbled and bowed hearts, upon some eighteen hundred years of deepest failure, He is as true as ever to those who in simplicity of faith look up to Him. What a comfort Whatever else we have not, we have Christ. Is He enough? Is it gift, wealth or influence, that we seek, or is it really Christ? I often think that the Lord had in view such a day as this when He spoke of two or three. There were no twos or threes in the first days of the church; all that believed were together. Men speaking perverse things had not arisen, nor had grievous wolves come into the flock to scatter and devour. But how changed is the condition of things now! Yet His word holds good to the very end. “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
What all our souls need, is a deeper realization of His presence. It would correct many things that we have to groan over before Him. Would saints arrive late on the first day of the week if there was a just sense that the Lord is there? To whom are we gathered? Whom do we go to meet? Dare I keep Him waiting Who deigns to come into the midst of His gathered saints? Further, when together, what holy calm would prevail if His presence were duly realized! Nothing like haste or eagerness, and certainly no display of flesh would grieve us if all hearts realized sufficiently the simple, yet vital, fact that the Lord is there. It would enter into everything, affecting our dress, our words, our whole behavior. The Lord give us to exercise our hearts before Him.
Observe the place of separation of these disciples. They were shut in; the world—the murderous, Christ-rejecting world—was shut out. True there were special circumstances at that moment, but the principle abides. What has the church to do with the world? Where do we read of all the parish joining with the saints in “public worship?” Indeed, where is such an idea as “public worship” (or what is meant by the term) to be found in the word of God? We are called to bear testimony to the world, we are to preach the gospel to it, and warn men to flee from the wrath to come; but worship with the world! Far be the thought. In John 13:11Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (John 13:1) we read of “His own which were in the world.” If we belong to the circle called “His own,” of necessity we do not belong to the other “the world.” The two are distinct and opposite in nature and character.
The Lord's first words to His disciples were, “Peace be unto you.” How precious after the work which He had accomplished He had just returned from the battle, the enemy was overthrown, the work was done, divine justice was satisfied. Therefore He returns to those for whom He suffered, and announces the grand and blessed result. Not only so, but “when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side.” As if to say, “See how peace was made.” He made it by the blood of His cross. Naught else would have availed.
When John saw the Lamb in glory, it was “a Lamb as it had been slain.” The marks of Calvary will never be effaced from His holy person, though it is not true to say as Wesley, “Five bleeding wounds He bears.” Whenever we gaze upon Him there (and shall we ever take our eyes off Him?), our hearts will be reminded of what it cost Him to redeem us to God.
But we have more in John 20 “Then said Jesus to them again, “Peace be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Is this needless repetition? Nay, there is no such thing in scripture. The Lord is giving a commission in this verse, and in connection with it, says the second time, “Peace.” He would have His own serve Him with the enjoyment of “peace” in their souls. How can one serve Him truly otherwise? What inward holy calm it gives to have the settled assurance that peace has been made and that it is ours; and further to have His peace keeping the heart and mind! The circumstances of service and testimony are often discouraging, and there is at times a tendency to give up; but His word comes in, “Peace be unto you,” and the heart rests and is sustained.
The commission is blessed, yet solemn. As really as the Father sent the Son, the Son has sent His own unto the world. What a position for us! Taken out of the world, given to the Son, then sent into it to act for Him. The Son was here to make God known, and to bear witness to the truth; the same place is ours in measure. In reality it is a privilege to be allowed to spend a few years here before being taken to heaven. When first He called us to the knowledge of Himself, His purpose was to place us in the Father's house; and He could have done it there and then had it suited Him. But He has chosen to leave us here for a season, but it is to act for Him. We cannot bear testimony in heaven. All such service must be rendered here, and the more difficult and trying it is—the more suffering and reproach it brings—the more will it draw forth His approval and reward in the day that is at hand.
“And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” This passage may present serious difficulty to some. It was not yet the gift of the Holy Ghost as a divine person to dwell within them—for that they must wait until Jesus was glorified. We read in Acts 1:55For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. (Acts 1:5), “ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence,” words uttered subsequently to those before us. To understand the Lord's action aright, we must go back to a similar one in Gen. 2 There we have the Lord God first forming the man's body of the dust of the ground, then breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. In this, man is distinguished from the beast. Here the Lord, risen from the dead, after having accomplished redemption, breathes His own risen life by the Holy Ghost into His beloved disciples. They were unquestionably converted men before; the Lord gives them now to participate with Himself in life more abundantly. It is of the utmost moment to seize that the life which is ours in Christ, is a risen life. What has judgment to do with it? What has law to say to it? It is victorious, and beyond the reach of the enemy. The difference between the Spirit as life, and His personal indwelling may be seen in Rom. 8. In vers. 1-11 it is not so much His personal presence as that He is the Spirit of life, instilling Himself into all our thoughts and ways, and giving character to the life that we now live below; in vers. 12-27 He is viewed rather as a distinct person dwelling within, bearing witness with our spirit, sympathizing with us in our groans and sorrows, and Himself making intercession for us according to God.
(To be continued, D.V.)