GREAT COMMISSION RESOURCE & RESPONDSIBILITY

THE FOURFOLD RESOURCE AND RESPONSIBILITY

"Take My yoke upon you."—MATTHEW 11:29

"He shall be servant of all."—MARK 10:44

"Tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high."—LUKE 24:49

"Abide in Me."—JOHN 15:3

            In the light of the matters already consid­ered, our last article must necessarily be personal, and have to do with the condi­tions upon which it is possible to avail ourselves of the resources at our disposal for the fulfillment of our responsibilities.

            In order to clearness of apprehension, let us first restate the teaching of the Gospels as to our responsibilities and resources.

            First, then, as to our responsibilities. These are created by our deposit.

            The Gospel according to Matthew is the Gospel of the King. The great commission of Jesus as there recorded charges us to declare His regal authority.

            The Gospel according to Mark is the Gospel of the Servant of God. The great commission of Jesus as there recorded lays upon us the responsibility of proclaiming in the kosmos the good news of His renewing ministry.

            The Gospel according to Luke is the Gospel of the perfect and perfecting Man. The great commission of Jesus as there recorded makes us responsible for revealing His redeeming ability.

            The Gospel according to John is the Gospel of the manifestation of God. The great commission of Jesus as there recorded calls us to cooperation with Him in the great ministry for the remission of sins.

            To summarize yet more briefly, the missionary deposit which the Church possesses for the world is that of the regal authority, the renewing min­istry, the redeeming ability, and the reconciling work of the Son of God.

            Our debt in each case is conditioned by the deposit. We are to proclaim His royalty, His Family and Partners, we are to have fellowship with Him in His renewing ministry, we are to demonstrate in our own lives His redeeming ability, and we are to cooperate with Him in His reconciling work.

            As to our resources, these are declared, in each case, side by side with the declarations of respon­sibility.

            When Jesus charged His first disciples to dis­ciple the nations, He said, "I am with you always." The presence of the King til the end constitutes the power for proclaiming His royalty.

            When He charged them to go into the kosmos and to preach the evangel to the whole creation, it is written immediately that they went forth, "the Lord working with them." Power for the fulfillment of this phase of responsibility is that of His fellowship with us in suffering, in sacri­fice, and so in healing ministry.

            When He charged them that they were to be His witnesses, He promised them the Holy Spirit, and on the day of Pentecost fulfilled His promise. Power for such witness is that of the indwelling and transforming Spirit.

            When He charged them to remit or retain sins, He did so in conjunction with the declaration that He sent them as the Father had sent Him. Power for this most sacred work is provided in that vital union of believers with Himself which is most perfectly set forth under His own match­less figure of the vine.

            Thus it is at once seen that all our resources for fulfilling the ministry are in Him. If we are to proclaim His royalty; if we are to have fel­lowship with His suffering ministry of renewal; if we are to manifest His redeeming ability; if we are to be in true cooperation with Him in the manifestation of God, and the putting away of sin; we must avail ourselves of the resources which He has provided.

            This brings us to our present question. Upon what conditions can we appropriate the promises of power which He made, in order to the dis­charge of the debt created by the deposit in each case?

            Let us ask the questions separately. How may I enter into such consciousness of the presence of the King as to be able to proclaim His royalty? How may I enter into such fellowship with the actual suffering Servant of God as to be able to communicate His healing power to the

Creation? How may I enter into such true realization of all the powers of His life as to demonstrate in the world His redeeming ability? How may I have His life so flowing through my own that through me God may be manifested for the putting away of sins?

            These conditions may be stated in each case by quotation of absolute and central words peculiar to the Gospel which reveals the phase of mission­ary responsibility under consideration.

            At this point we must draw the necessary dis­tinction between responsibility for the proclama­tion of the evangel, and responsibility as to our ability to proclaim. We have spoken of our re­sponsibility to the world, but how are we to ful­fill it? It is already conceded that our resources are in Christ, but how are we to avail ourselves of these resources?

            In order to the proclamation of the royalty of Jesus there is a simple and all-inclusive condition. It is to be found in one simple, brief, and in some senses incomplete quotation from the eleventh chapter of Matthew, "Take My yoke upon you." In order that we may gather the force of this word, we must consider it in its contextual light. The closing paragraph of that chapter contains the ultimate call and claim of the King. It is the most significant and stupendous claim that Jesus ever uttered. It is well that we should have it before us in its entirety.

"All things have been delivered unto Me of My Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

            If in a brief word I may attempt to express the meaning of the great passage, I shall do so by saying that Christ therein affirmed that all the restlessness of humanity is due to the anarchy of humanity; to the fact that man is not living his life in relation to the government and authority of God. He claimed that God had given Him all authority to reveal Him to men. He claimed that man can only find his way into rest as he comes into the government of God; and that he can only find his way into that govern­ment through Himself. In view of these facts His call was threefold; first, "Come unto Me"; second, "Take My yoke"; finally, "Learn of Me."

            Out of the center of that inspiring passage, with its ultimate claim and call, I take that word, "Take My yoke upon you," as revealing the one and only condition, upon fulfillment of which, we shall be able to proclaim His royalty. I am perfectly familiar with the fact that the word has many wide and spacious applications with which I am not now proposing to deal. I take the simplest only. Loyalty is the condition for the victorious proclamation of royalty. If the Church of God is to proclaim in power the fact of the Lordship of Christ, she must herself be loyal to Him, taking His yoke upon her, by not playing games with grace.

            There is a fact full of encouragement, not to be forgotten in this connection. When Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you," He spoke in the first place not of the yoke He was imposing upon others, but of the yoke He Himself wore as Man. That was the yoke of a perfect sur­render to the will of God, and absolute submis­sion to His throne. To all who come to Him He says, "Take My yoke the yoke I wear is the yoke I impose upon you. As I am submiss­ive to government, so also must you be, if you are to exercise authority." Said the Roman centurion, "I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers." The condition for the exercise of authority is always that of sub­mission to authority.

            Therein consists the whole philosophy of our responsibility. If we are to proclaim the royalty of Jesus we must wear His yoke and yield our­selves to His Kingship. The secret of power for the declaration of the Kingship of Jesus in the world, and for the bringing of the world to the consciousness of that Kingship, is that of the realization within ourselves of all the meaning of His government. This will issue in the mani­festation to the world of the breadth and benefi­cence of that government. In the power of such realization and manifestation, there may be such insistence upon His Kingship as will issue in triumph.

            The Church of God will never make the world believe that Jesus is in very deed and truth the King until she is herself submitted to His King­ship. I suppose that statement may raise some measure of resentment. I may be asked if I mean to suggest that the Church of God is not loyal to the Kingship of Christ. I mean more than to suggest it; I declare that it is so; and I affirm that to be the reason of all her weakness and failure.

            We regularly pray, until sometimes one is almost afraid of the formalism of it, "Thy King­dom come, Thy will be done." That prayer prevails in the measure in which we ourselves hallow the name, are submitted to the Kingship, and do the will of God. Our work in the world prevails in the proportion in which we are loyal to the Lord Christ. My heart is full of hope and full of expectation when I look out over the world, for everywhere there are evidences of the activity of the Spirit of God. The only hour in which I am depressed is that in which I look within the Christian Church. Do we believe in His Lordship? Do we believe He is King? Let the question be answered individually and pri­vately and honestly, only let us remember that we cannot make the world believe that we be­lieve, save as we are loyal to His Kingship. Unless we are so submitted to Him that there is manifest to the world the gracious influence of that submission, we have no prevailing argu­ment for His Kingship. The breadth and the glory and the beauty, resulting from our own submission to the Kingship of Jesus, must be our argument as we proclaim His royalty to the world.

            The condition upon which we may avail our­selves of the resources provided for the fulfillment of the second phase of commission is indi­cated in the words, "Servant of all." Again let us gather the contextual light upon that imperfect phrase.

            James and John, the sons of Zebedee, asked the Lord that they might sit, one on His right hand, and the other on His left, in His Kingdom. When we are inclined to be angry with them let us remember how infinitely tender Jesus was. He rebuked them; but in great tenderness and great patience He said, "Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink I or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with" And they said, "We are able." (Matt. 20:22) They meant it. They were absolutely honest, but they were appallingly ignorant. Then with a great foreseeing of His own method of fulfillment He said, "The cup that I drink ye shall drink; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized." He then went on to teach them that the underlying pur­pose of their inquiry was wrong. "It is not Mine," He said, "to give this right to sit on My right hand to any except to those for whom it is prepared." Moreover, their request for the place of power made it evident that they had not yet come to fellowship with His cup and baptism. Then it was that He said, "Whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all"; and He illuminated His meaning and inspired them to humility by the great declaration, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."

            The teaching as to responsibility is that in order to fellowship with Jesus in His renewing ministry, the selfless motive of activity is necessary. "Servant of all"; (Mark 10:44) and the word must be interpreted by His declaration concerning Himself that He came "not to be ministered unto but to minister." I do not think that this ap­plication can be made in the midst of a multitude. It must be made alone. It must be made quietly. Let us seek to discover the principle, and then leave the matter. The principle is that in order to fellowship with Jesus in the proclamation of the evangel to the whole creation, we must be at the end of that subtly selfish motive which is so slow to die.

            A question which ought to be asked by every disciple at work for the Master is the question, Why? Why am I doing this? What am I seeking? My own enrichment, my fame, my comfort, my ease? I repeat, these questions are not for public answer. They are for private examination, and they must be faced. So long as there lurks in our service, even though we know that service to be of the highest and the best in its intention and purpose, the desire that somehow or other it may serve us and minister to us, we have not come into true fellowship with Christ. He came not to be ministered unto. He did not seek anything for Himself. For­evermore He was unmindful of Himself. He was mindful of the things of others, and the whole truth may again be revealed by a quota­tion, quite apart from the context. I call His own enemies, from the midst of ribald mockery, into the witness-box, and quite unintentionally they tell the whole account of the Servant of God. "He saved others, Himself He cannot save." (Mark 15:31) I propose to amend the declaration, and to de­clare that He saved others, Himself He did not seek to save, or desire to save, or attempt to save; and therein is revealed the whole secret of fellowship with Him in renewing and healing work. Our service must have at its center noth­ing of self-seeking. That is a matter, I repeat for the third time, not now to be applied, but to be faced when we are alone.

            Let us pass, then, to the third phase of the commission—that namely, of the demonstration of redeeming ability. How are we to appropriate the resources of His life, so that through our lives witness may be made alive to His power? Here we turn to the actual words of the commission, because therein Christ so clearly indicated the conditions upon which we shall be able to fulfill this ministry of witness. He commanded those first disciples in Jerusalem, "Tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high."

            Nothing in ourselves of wisdom, or of planning, or of power, or of endeavor is sufficient to the demonstration before the eyes of men of the re­deeming ability of Christ. We cannot be wit­nesses in the full and gracious and glorious sense of the word by any strength or wisdom of our own. Dealing with the commission, we carefully drew attention to a matter which it is of the ut­most importance that we consider again. The principle involved in the command to tarry is an abiding principle. It is that we are not equal to witness in our own power. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. The application is changed. The disciples had to wait for fifty days for the coming of the Spirit; for the forty during which the Lord remained among them, and for the ten during which He was absent and they were wait­ing in the upper room. We have not to wait half an hour for the Spirit of God. The Spirit has been given, and is immediately at the dis­posal of all believers for fulfillment of their re­sponsibility.

            The abiding principle is that the Church, in order to bear her witness, must depend wholly and absolutely on the Spirit. Such dependence is the condition of realization, and consequently the condition of manifestation. We ultimately need to recognize this truth in its application to the corporate life and testimony of the Church. We cannot bear witness to the redeeming ability of Christ in our Church life in any other way than that of ceasing to put our trust in men; ceasing to seek help from men; ceasing to employ the methods which are carnal and worldly-wise; and abandoning ourselves utterly and wholly to the life and the light and the love of the Holy Spirit of God.

            The principle has also the most immediate per­sonal application. If we attempt to teach or witness in any other power than that of our dependence on the Spirit, we are doomed to failure. If we attempt to preach in any other way than that of dependence on the Spirit, we are foreordained to failure. If we attempt to evangelize the heathen by our own cleverness, by our own new methods, apart from the power of the Spirit, our efforts are entirely useless. No one by intellectual argument will come to salvation. That is the method of the scribes and Pharisees. An empowered, changed life  produces conviction and provides deliverance.

            All this becomes the more searching and solemn a consideration as we remember that if we tarry, blame attaches to us, because there need be no tarrying. We can take our way, if we will, to our work in the school, endued with power from on high. We can go to our pulpits, if we will, in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We can proceed to the uttermost part of the earth, if we will, in the power and demonstration of the Spirit; for the Spirit has been given and never withdrawn.

            Nevertheless the principle must not be forgot­ten. Unless we have this endowment, unless we are in conscious fellowship with the Spirit of God, we cannot bear witness to the world of the re­deeming ability of the Christ.

            Now we come to the last phase of the commis­sion, which in some senses is the most wonderful and most awe-inspiring of them all. What is the abiding condition of cooperation with Christ in the reconciling work of revealing the Father and of dealing with the sins of men? The answer is fully given in the word of our Lord, "Abide in Me." (John 15:4) Again we need the contextual light, and must recall the teaching of that wonderful fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John.

            Occurring in the midst of the discourses which Jesus uttered to His disciples before He left them, it constitutes a commentary on the union between Himself and them which would follow His death, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Spirit. We must think of the whole figure, in order to make application of the condition en­joined by the words, "Abide in Me." That whole figure is contained in the words of Christ, "I am the Vine." Unless we are careful, we miss the force and beauty of the teaching sug­gested in these words. I fear that we are in the habit of reading the passage as though Christ had said, I am the main stem of the vine, and you are the branches; whereas His word was far more remarkable. He said, "I am the Vine." That is inclusive; root, and stem, and branches, and leaves, and tendrils, and clusters of fruit. The vine is not complete without its branches, and we immediately see that what is suggested is, that the branches are a veritable part of Him; that while it is true, most solemnly true, that apart from Him—that is, severed from Him—branches can do nothing, it is equally true that apart from the branches He cannot bear fruit. He is dependent on the branches, as the branches are dependent upon Him. That is the fact which creates the solemnity of our responsi­bility.

            The awe-inspiring note of this responsibility creates our anxiety as to the conditions upon which we may avail ourselves of those resources which are necessary to fulfillment. Our resources are all in Him. His life unhindered must issue in the fruit which glorifies God, being produced in the branches.

            What, then, is the teaching as to conditions Manifestation and cooperation are only possible by maintained identification, "Abide in Me." To deal with sins for remission or retention we must abide in Him; to be able to bring to men that unveiling of God which produces conviction and provides deliverance, we must abide in Him.

            Such consideration makes the word "abide" almost appalling in its solemnity. We recognize the absolute necessity for abiding in Him. We see how the branch perishes and is only fit for burning, when severed from Him, and we are filled with fear. The word is severe with a terri­ble severity, revealing to us our utter helplessness in the presence of our responsibility, and bowing us to the dust with the consciousness thereof.

            But the word thrills with a great tenderness also, and is characterized by a gracious simplicity. There is one or two of the very simplest mat­ters we need to remember. These words were words spoken to the men who knew Him inti­mately after the flesh. We must remember, how­ever, that they were spoken to simple, trembling, troubled hearts, like our own. The one condi­tion of abiding is weakness. It does not require any effort to abide. We enter a building, and for a period we abide in that building without effort. We make effort when we leave it. Abi­ding, therefore, is a word which indicates weak­ness, and the consciousness of it, and the yield­ing to it, so that weakness is the strength which keeps us in Christ.

            Abiding in Christ makes no intellectual de­mand upon us. We are not always equally conscious that we are in Him. We have said on the morning of some given day, that for the day we would abide in Christ, we would never forget Him, we would keep Him in mind; but we have never succeeded. We start into the business of the day; into the midst of the city with its rush and its roar; into the following of our necessary and proper vocation; and soon, so far as our immediate consciousness is concerned, we have forgotten Him; and then the heart is troubled. But it need not be; we abide in Him, even though we are not conscious of Him. To return to the simple figure already used, we enter a building and remain in it. We do not remember all the time that we are in the building, but we abide there. So abiding in Christ is not the result of strength; neither is it dependent upon constant consciousness of the fact.

            What, then, is it to abide in Him? He did not leave us without clear instruction, for He said, "He that keeps My commandments abides in Me." To abide, then, is to obey. To obey is to abide. If we would abide in Him, we are quietly to obey Him; and if we do so, then we abide in Him. And if we do so, then abiding in Him, all the tides of His life flow through us, and produce the fruit which is to the glory of God.

            What the Church ultimately needs in order to the revelation of the Father for the reconciliation of men by the remission of their sins, is abound­ing life; and the Church can only have abound­ing life as she abides in her Lord, in quiet and restful but determined obedience, to whatever He may say to her.

            In conclusion, by contrast we discover the rea­sons of failure. A divided heart towards the King hinders the coming of the Kingdom. Self-un-crucified, so that even in the midst of toil for Christ there lurks the motive of self-enrichment, cancels the power of service and makes it useless. The using of carnal methods, either in individual life or Church work, quenches the Spirit of God, and makes all our service of no avail. Lack of abundant and abounding life prevents the mani­festation of God, and makes impossible work for Him.

            The cure for all such failure is the maintenance of right relation with Christ. We need a clear vision of His Kingliness, and a complete surren­der thereto; a keen sense of His motive, and an answering selflessness by the way of the Cross; an abiding recognition of the perfection of His provision for us in the Holy Spirit, and a con­stant dependence on that Spirit for the doing of all our work; a perpetual experience of the power of His life, and an obedient abiding therein. Daily talks with the Lord and Master (like Adam at the start) and the reading of His word.

"Christ for the world, we sing, the world to Christ we bring."

            That is the whole account, but in each case those represented by the “we” must be related to Christ. We sing of Christ to the world in per­fect melody and perfect harmony and the world listens as to an ideal song. But if there enter into our singing the thrill of passion, the touch of a personal experience, then we shall not only sing of Christ to the world, but bring the world to Christ.

            For the fulfillment of the Lord's great missionary commission we must be loyal to His Kingship, have fellowship in the suffering of His service, depend upon the gift of His Spirit, and abide in the full tide of His life.