We have pointed out
that the Greek word for disciple means 'a learner', but I
want to make a correction to that. The Gospels were not
all written originally in Greek, but in Aramaic, and in
Aramaic the word 'disciple' does not mean a student, but
an apprentice. So we have to make an adjustment.
Disciples are not just students - they are apprentices.
Jesus was a carpenter and would not think of His
disciples just as students. He was far more likely to
think of them as apprentices learning a business. You may
be an apprentice to engineering, or to the law, and the
idea of an apprentice is something quite practical. The
idea of a student is only theoretical, and Jesus never
wanted His servants to be merely theoretical. He intended
them to be very practical, so His training was not in
theory but in practice. He was training His disciples for
His work: not just to be preachers, but to work. Jesus
was not just a lecturer. He was a demonstrator, and there
is a lot of difference between a lecturer and a
demonstrator! So Jesus took His disciples into very
practical situations.
We have shown how John said that Jesus always
did His works in the presence of His disciples. He took
them into actual situations and involved them in the
situations so that they became a part of them. We must
remember that because, as we have already said, we are
supposed to be disciples. Perhaps you have not thought of
this before - but you are apprentices if you are related
to the Lord Jesus. That may be a new idea to you, but the
reality is no new idea. You know quite well that the Lord
Jesus is taking you into very practical situations, and
is involving you in situations where you have to learn
something. You have to learn how to be the master of a
situation, and that is very practical training. So,
whether you take the name or not, the truth remains. If
we have come into relationship with the Lord Jesus it
means that we at once become apprentices.
In the New Testament
there were three phases in discipleship.
First of all , there
was the call, and it seems that this was much more
general than the call to the twelve. It is put like this:
'He called unto Him whom He would and He chose twelve.'
The first was a general call. Jesus was calling to
people: 'Come, follow Me.' A number of people responded,
and then from them He chose twelve. It does not mean that
all the others were not faithful or that they were not
suitable, but it does clearly show that the twelve came
into the real business of their calling.
You can see quite
clearly how true this is at all times. There are
multitudes of people who are just followers of the Lord
Jesus. They would take one of the other names and call
themselves Christians. If you said: 'Are you a follower
of the Lord Jesus?' they would say 'Yes', but many of
these people are not really meaning business with Him.
And the Lord must have those who do mean business, so He
draws such ones nearer to Himself. It may be one thing to
be called, but it may be another thing to be chosen.
You remember that in the Book of the
Revelation these words are used when speaking about the
followers of the Lamb: "And they that are with
him are called, and chosen" (Revelation 17:14 -
AV). There is a difference between being chosen and being
called.
The third phase was
that He put them into His business and gave them the
great commission. I am going to leave that there for the
moment.
What was the work for
which the disciples were chosen? I can put that in the
present tense, for we are in the same dispensation: What
is the work for which the Lord would choose us? The
answer is: the work of His Kingdom. Notice: "And
he chose from them twelve" (Luke 6:13). Twelve
is the number of the Kingdom. Jesus was following the
pattern of the twelve tribes of Israel, who were to be
the kingdom of the coming Messiah. Twelve is the Kingdom
number. Jesus has come to set up His Kingdom and has
chosen disciples, or apprentices, for the work of that
Kingdom.
Here is an important
thing for us to notice. Jesus knew beforehand how things
were going to work out and exactly what would happen in
His own lifetime and afterward. He knew that Israel would
refuse Him as the Messiah and as the Head of the Kingdom,
and would refuse the Kingdom that He had come to set up.
He knew all that beforehand, and so He was working with
this foreknowledge. He foreknew that the time would come
when He would say to Israel: "The kingdom of God
shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew
21:43). He was working with this foreknowledge of the
transfer of the Kingdom from Israel to the Church. So He
chose twelve. This was the nucleus of His new Kingdom,
which, as represented by these, will call Him 'Lord'.
They will go everywhere proclaiming: 'Jesus Christ is
Lord.' They are the people who have come to see by divine
revelation the place of Jesus Christ in the appointment
of God. They have come to see "that God hath made
him both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).
So you have the new
Kingdom and the new King, but there is a great deal of
difference. The old kingdom of Israel was a temporal,
earthly kingdom and the new Kingdom is a spiritual,
heavenly Kingdom. I am not going to dwell on the Kingdom
just now, but we are moving toward something. He chose,
and He chooses, for the work of His Kingdom. He puts us
into His school as apprentices to learn the nature of the
Kingdom, and what the Kingdom of Heaven really is.
The last thing, and
where we start again, is the basis of this new Kingdom.
What is the basis of this new spiritual and heavenly
Kingdom? It is heavenly life, divine life... and now we
are back again where we were in the last message. John,
introducing the Lord Jesus, said: "In him, was
life" (John 1:4). Right in the middle of the
Gospel he put the words of Jesus: "I came that
they might have life" (John 10:10). And
he summed up the whole of his Gospel with: "That
believing ye may have life" (John
20:31).
John, as we have said,
gathered the whole of his Gospel, his spiritual Gospel of
the Kingdom, around seven signs, and those signs are a
setting forth of the meaning of this life of the Kingdom.
You remember that John said he selected these signs out
of a great many more. I like to think of John doing this.
He said that the signs which Jesus did were so many that "if
they should be written every one, I suppose that even the
world itself would not contain the books that should be
written" (John 21:25). And so you can
think of John, with this great mass of material, saying
to himself. 'Now I want to convey to those who are going
to read this the real nature and meaning of this divine
life. I have to select the best illustrations out of this
great mass of material.' And so he went through it and
said: 'That is the first one, that is the second', and so
on, and then 'Those seven will do', and he put these
seven signs into his book, which is the Gospel of eternal
life. Remember, he called them signs, not miracles,
although they were miracles. He did not call them
wonders, although they were wonders, nor did he call them
powers, although they were powers. He left Matthew, Mark
and Luke to call them by those names. He called them
signs, which meant that they pointed to something more
than themselves. There was the work that Jesus did, which
was one thing, but the meaning was another thing. John
said: 'I want to get at the meaning through the work.'
You know what the seven
signs are in the Gospel by John, but let us just run
through them to refresh our memories:
(1) The Turning of the
Water into Wine:
(2) The Healing of the Nobleman's Son:
(3) The Raising of the Impotent Man at the Pool of
Bethesda:
(4) The Feeding of the Five Thousand:
(5) The Walking on the Water:
(6) The Giving of Sight to the Man born blind:
(7) The Raising of Lazarus from the Dead.
John said: 'That is
quite enough. If only I can get the meaning of those
things over, then people will know the meaning of life.'
Now we are going to
consider these seven signs, the first of which is the
Turning of the Water into Wine.
Reading: John 2:1-11.
Of course, there are
many lessons in this incident, but I am going to leave
them in order to come to the one main point. We are
dealing with the matter of divine life, which Jesus came
to give, and we are seeking to understand the nature of
that life. I trust it is true of all of us that we have
received what the New Testament calls eternal life! But
it is important for us to know what it is we have
received, that is, what it means to have eternal life,
the life which Jesus has brought to us in His own Person.
And here you have the first characteristic of that life.
The key to this sign is
the verdict of the master of the feast. You can take it
that this man knew all about wine, whether it was good or
bad. He was an authority on wine. He would not have been
responsible for the feast if he did not know what wine
was. Therefore, this authority on wine gives us the
secret of the whole thing in his verdict. What was that?
"Thou hast kept the good wine until now." If
this wine was intended by John and by Jesus to illustrate
eternal life, then there is a quality about that life
which is different from every other kind of life. Every
other kind of life is what this man called 'poor wine',
but you never know how poor the other wine is until you
have tasted the better. The point is that this life which
Jesus gives has a quality in it.
Let us look again at
this story and remember that the heart of the incident is
the training of disciples. It says: "And the
third day there was a marriage in Cana". It is
not quite easy to understand why John said 'the third
day' here. If you read what goes before you say: 'Well,
evidently that incident was on the first day, that one
was on the second day and this was on the third day' -
but it does not say so. All that it says is: 'On the
third day'. Does that strike a note? "He hath
been raised on the third day" (1 Corinthians
15:4). The third day is the day of resurrection, the day
when divine life triumphs over death, the day of life. "And
the third day there was a marriage in Cana of
Galilee." John knew what was in his mind when he
was writing, for he had one thought running all the way
through: 'I am working on the line of resurrection life',
and he brought that into everything in his Gospel. And so
this verdict of the master of the feast gives us the key
to divine life. It is a quality in that life which is
quite different from everything else. You can see, as we
say, 'by reading between the lines' what the quality of
this life is.
This was the reversing
of human failure. Someone had failed, had made a terrible
mistake: they had not provided enough wine - it says: "When
the wine failed". That was a terrible
thing for a marriage feast, for the wine was everything,
and if that failed the whole feast broke down. And what
happened? Everybody looked at the master of the feast,
and looked on him with reproach: 'Oh, you terrible man!
You have spoiled everything. You ought to be ashamed of
yourself!' And the poor man bowed his head in shame. He
was altogether dishonoured as the master of the feast.
Jesus, in bringing in the new wine, removed the human
failure and took away all the human shame. He made it
possible for this poor man to lift up his head and to
feel that the feast was a great success and not a great
failure.
Dear friends, that is
exactly what divine life does - it takes the failure and
shame out of life. It makes it possible for us to lift up
our heads and say: 'Life is not a failure, not something
to be ashamed of.' We need not hang down our heads in
dishonour. We can lift them up and rejoice. Is that not
true of the life which the Lord gives? There is a quality
about this life which is different - it gives character
to the people who receive it. If you think that I am just
reading into this something out of my own imagination, I
can prove to you that what I have said is true.
I want you to notice
the change which came about in these disciples with the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look at them when the wine
failed - when Jesus was crucified! It was as though they
had lost everything. They were wondering if they had made
a great mistake in trusting Him, and were going about
with their heads hanging down. They were afraid to meet
the people who knew they were His disciples. When Peter,
the leader of them, was down in that room warming himself
by the fire, a little serving-maid came in and said: "This
man also was with him" (Luke 22:56), but Peter
said: "Woman, I know him not" (Luke
22:57). What shame! What dishonour! Yes, they were men
going about with their heads hanging down because they
thought the wine had failed.
Look at these men not
many days afterward! Their heads are up. They can look
the whole world in the face and there is not the
slightest sign of any shame about them. They are boasting
in their faith in the Lord Jesus. What a difference
the life has made! Before, they were cowards, afraid even
of a little servant maid. Now look at their courage! It
is said of the rulers: 'When they beheld the boldness
of Peter and John' (Acts 14:13). From being cowards
they became men of courage. From being men who were
ashamed to be in the world they became men of dignity -
they are standing upright before everybody. From men who
were always thinking about themselves and trying to draw
everything to themselves - such as the first places in
the Kingdom - they are men who have forgotten themselves
and are altogether selfless, thinking only of the Lord's
interests and not their own.
They had been men who
had very little sympathy in their hearts for other
people. The poor Canaanitish woman came crying after the
Lord to help her daughter and the disciples said: "Send
her away; for she crieth after us" (Matthew
14:23). When He entered into a certain city the people
did not receive Him, so the disciples said: "Lord,
wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and
consume them?" (Luke 9:54). Mothers brought
their little children to Him to get a blessing, and the
disciples drove them away. There was not much sympathy in
their hearts for other people.
Now look at them! After
the resurrection and the life had come into them the
whole world is in their hearts, and their hearts have
become as large as the whole world. They go everywhere in
this great sympathy for sinful men.
In the old days they
could not stand up to any kind of difficulty. They began
to give up altogether as soon as things went wrong. "This
is a hard saying" (John 6:60) ..."Upon
this many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him" (John 6:66). These twelve were all too
ready to give up too soon when things became difficult.
Now look at them! What
about difficulties? Why, they are greater than anything
they had known before! All the rulers, all the world, all
the circumstances and the devil himself are against them,
but they are going on: they are not giving up. This life
has brought into them a new stamina, the power to endure.
All that is in this new
wine. There is a quality about this life. It makes us
different people from what we are naturally. It puts into
us that which was in Christ Himself, and we are better
able to understand the words: "Christ in you the
hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). There is not
much hope of glory in the old wine, dear friends. There
is not much hope of glory in that old, natural life, but
it does come with the life which Christ brings. This life
is the very character of the Lord Himself.
You see, there was
something about Him that was different. The rulers looked
at Him and there was a big question on their faces. They
were really perplexed and did not know how to explain
Him. They saw His life, His work, and the wonderful fact
of His life and His work. They heard His teaching and saw
how it met the need of the people. And they said: "Is
not this the carpenter?" (Mark 6:3). But
there is something different about this carpenter,
something more than just an ordinary carpenter. See His
dignity as He walked amongst them - and what dignity
there was when He was before Pilate! They tried to make
Him look very small, but all that they did to Him did not
take away His dignity. What endurance there was in Him!
He endured 'to the end'. What a different quality there
was in Jesus from other men! It was the quality of the
life that was in Him, the very life of God, divine life,
eternal life, that explained everything as to His
character.
Dear friends, you and I
are supposed to have that same life. It was released from
Him at the Cross and has been brought to us by the Holy
Spirit. Now do we see what it means? There ought to be
something about us that is different. Anybody who has any
intelligence, like the master of the feast, ought to be
able to say: 'These people are different. They have
something that we have not. There is character about
them.' We as Christians ought to be marked by a spiritual
dignity. We ought not to be going about with our heads
hanging down, ashamed to be alive! We ought to have our
heads up in a right sense. There ought to be real courage
about us and endurance of suffering in us. Yes, there is
a quality about this life.
I wonder what the
verdict of this world is upon us! Does it say - is it
able to say: 'Well, our kind of life is poor stuff in
comparison with theirs. Their life is different, and it
is better. You have kept the best wine till now'?
That is sign Number
One. How rich, how challenging it is! It comes home to
our hearts with a big question. But, dear friends, if we
have the life, and if we allow the life to have its way
in us, that is what it will do. We may naturally be poor
wine, but when the Lord Jesus comes in with His life, it
will be the best wine.