Reading:
2 Kings 2:19-22; Acts 1, 2; Mark 9:50.
When the
above passages are read together it will be seen that
they are bound by a common tie; namely, salt, and what it
signifies. Throughout the Scriptures salt stands for
recovery, preservation, and permanence.
In the
first passage mentioned, we have the waters of Jericho
lacking in some constituent, which resulted in the
miscarriage of the trees; the fruit falling ere it
ripened. Nothing reached its intended end; nothing
fulfilled its promise. All fell short of its design. Thus
the labour proved in vain, and all the toil ended in
heart-breaking disappointment. There was the field, there
were the trees, there was water, there were labourers,
there was much energy, there were good motives. Withal
nothing got fully and finally through; it all stopped
short somewhere. There was no maturity, satisfaction, and
full justification of all the expenditure and effort.
Some essential property was absent, and this absence made
all else futile as to the ultimate issue. How different
from the tree planted by the streams of water, that
bringeth forth its fruit in its season, mentioned in
Psalm 1:3!
Now, while
it is the “salt” that is the vital and most
important thing, it is rather of the cruse that we shall
speak for the moment. Acts 2 undoubtedly brings the salt
into view, but Acts 1 precedes that. Our attention is
first drawn to Elisha’s request for a new cruse. (In
this passage, the “cruse” probably meant a
small pan or dish; the word is related to the
“pans” of 2 Chron. 35:13. In other O.T.
passages, a flask is probably intended.) Why use a vessel
at all? Why not take a handful? And then, why a NEW
cruse? Why will not any cruse do? Well, that is just the
point. For work like this a vessel must be specially
prepared and set apart. What is the nature of the work to
be done? What is the condition needing to be dealt with?
At rock bottom it is the loss and absence of a
distinctive SOMETHING. It is deficiency in
respect of a certain distinctiveness. Everything is there
but THAT.
The modern
spiritual counterpart of this is that things have
degenerated into indefiniteness, vagueness, uncertainty,
ambiguity, as to real meaning, life, and purpose
spiritually. The original meaning of things is no longer
there. Things said and done do not mean what they did at
first. Terms have come to be applied to, and be used of,
that which is not permissible in the realm of their
original Divine employment. There is a difference of
meaning, and the tragedy is that so many have gone on
with the form and fail to see that the power is not
there.
If we take
the book of Acts as the model, and the epistles as
revealing the truth intended by the Lord to be the
abiding basis of that which sprang into being in Acts, we
cannot fail to be impressed with the presence of a
certain something which made everything at that time very
much alive and superlative. Whether in respect of what
was individual and personal, in salvation, service, and
suffering, or of what was corporate, in fellowship and
practice, there is only one phrase that expresses the
effect of that great something: it is Resurrection
Life. There is hardly a chapter in this book but -
when you have read it - provokes the spontaneous
ejaculation: ‘That is life!’
Now,
without further delay, what was it that produced this
atmosphere and spirit of life? What was it that made
everything so wonderful to those concerned? There is only
one answer. It was –
THE
LORD JESUS HIMSELF.
The Lord
Jesus had been glorified, and the Holy Spirit had come as
the Spirit of the glorified Lord to glorify Him on the
earth (John 16).
Was it the
matter of salvation? Well, it was not salvation as such.
It was not just BEING SAVED, either from
something or unto something, but it was the SAVIOUR.
The message of salvation was all focused in who the Lord
Jesus was. Look at the preaching. “They ceased
not... to preach Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42).
Find a discourse anywhere in the Acts which ‘got
through’ and you will see that it is - not a
treatise on Evangelical Theology - but a presentation of
the glorified Lord Jesus. If it was Christ crucified, it
was Christ not dead but risen and glorified. Look at the
address at Pentecost (Acts 2:32,33,36). See the words to
the lame man and the subsequent address in the Temple
(ch. 3). Listen to the words addressed to the Council in
chapter 4. Whether it be to individuals or to companies,
it is always the Lord Jesus who is in full view.
It is the
same in the matter of service. In the Acts service is
never something appended to salvation as a further
consideration. One of the striking omissions in this
record is that of exhortations and urgings to propagate
the Gospel. Service here is never the result of
organization or special pleading and appeals. It is free,
spontaneous, eager, ‘natural’. It is not of
constraint from without. It is not by an appeal to a
sense of duty or obligation. It was not something which
was special in its connection and time. It was at all
times, in every place, under all circumstances:
irrepressible testimony, proclamation, in direct, public
manner and in ordinary conversation. “There arose...
a great persecution... and they were all scattered
abroad... They therefore that were scattered abroad went
about preaching...” (Acts 8:1); “travelled...
speaking the word... preaching the Lord Jesus”
(11:19,20). What was it that created and produced this?
It was the Holy Spirit’s glorifying of the Lord
Jesus in their hearts! He - the glorified One - was so
real to them, and the wonder of who He – “Jesus
of Nazareth”, the Crucified One - really was, as now
revealed and manifested to them and in them, was so
great, that even these “new bottles” were
finding that unless they let it out this new wine would
burst them.
And what
was true in the matters of salvation and service, was
also the secret of their ability to suffer. There is no
doubt that it cost dearly in those days to take sides
with ‘The Nazarene’ – this as amongst men;
but to take sides with “The Son of God” was
something which provoked Hell. Put together, there is not
a little in the record which indicates this suffering;
but it was accepted in a spirit of “rejoicing”
(Acts 5:41). It all seemed in the spirit of Hebrews
10:34: “Took joyfully the spoiling of your
possessions”, or: “Received the word in much
affliction, with joy” (1 Thess. 1:6). This cannot be
attributed to optimism, sanguineness, or merely human
good temper. It was not a ‘make-the-best-of-it’
resolve. It was the reality of the Lord Jesus as
Sovereign and reigning.
As it was
in these matters which came so directly home to the
individual, and which were always individual tests, so it
was in the matters which were more of a corporate nature.
A ‘BAPTISMAL SERVICE’ in the Acts was a
wonderful time, always accompanied by great rejoicing and
a living witness of the Holy Spirit. There was nothing
formal about it. It was not just a bit of
‘Church’ order or teaching. It was not just a
command obeyed, or something just for personal blessing.
It certainly was not a matter of compulsion, persuasion,
or argument. It took place as in full view of the Lord
Jesus, as the One who died in the stead of all; whose
death was the death of all; and in whose resurrection
“they which live should no longer live unto
themselves, but UNTO HIM who for their sakes
died and rose again” (2 Cor 2:15).
It was UNTO
HIM. It was a testimony to a living reality, and a
mighty spiritual fact, namely, that the one supreme
object of life and all living was the Lord Jesus. All
other objects, interests, concerns and visions had gone
in their union with Him in His death, and all and only
that which was of Him had come for them in union with His
resurrection. This matter was lifted out of the realm of
ordinances (such as the Jewish) and into the realm of
testimonies. Jewish ordinances were looking on to
something to come, and they never made anything complete
(Heb. 7:19; 9:9; 10:1). These TESTIMONIES looked
back to something consummated, into which there was
experimental entry.
Just the
same atmosphere of glory surrounded the ‘LORD’S
TABLE’ - the “breaking of bread” (Acts
2:42,46). There was nothing of ‘Church’ duty or
rule or regulation in this. This was not something apart
and separate from the other life of the Church. This was
not a ‘service’, as something by itself. At the
beginning it suffered nothing by frequency - though,
alas, it all too soon dropped from this plane. It was the
centre and spring of all else. Worship, praise, prayer,
the ministry of the Word spontaneously sprang out of
this. It was living, and fraught with “great
joy” (Acts 8:8; 15:3). It was to those who thus
gathered and worshipped that “the Lord added... day
by day those that were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
What,
again, was the secret? It was the appreciation of the
Lord Jesus. That table gathered all other testimonies
into itself and became an all-inclusive testimony. There
was the Offering wholly given to God without a
reservation, and the will of God utterly done. There was
union with that offered One in His death, burial, and
resurrection. There was the one life shared by all, as
represented in the Blood. There was the one loaf, which
is the one Body, the corporate oneness of all believers.
There was the “one hope” (Eph. 4:4), “that
blessed hope” (Tit. 2:13), His coming again –
‘till He come’. So, then, ought not there to be
a wonderful attestation of the Holy Spirit in the hearts
of all? Yes, it was a time of great glorying in the Lord
- the Lord was there!
THE
LORD’S PRESENT NEED
Each of the
matters mentioned really needs a book to itself, but we
merely touch them to lead on to our further point and
object. Referring back to what we said in connection with
the waters of Jericho, is it not true that in all these
matters at the present day, in a very widespread way, the
constituent of wonder and glory and life – that
spontaneity and overflow in all matters which relate to
the Lord Jesus - is lacking? What is needed? Our
conviction is that, whatever may or may not be recognised
as needed by that which ostensibly stands to represent
God in the world today, His own need in the earth is that
which will lift all the phases and aspects of the
Church’s life and work into the realm where this
glorying in and glorifying of the Lord Jesus is the
dominant characteristic; where formalism yields to life;
where all is aglow with His wonderfulness; where His
train FILLS the temple; where 'ordinances' are
living testimonies; and where all is vital, dynamic and
effectual.
No one will
disagree with this, but they may with the next. What is
necessary to the Lord to bring this about? It is a new
cruse, a new vessel. There is so much mixture in the
constitution of the vessels today. The world has got in,
on the one hand, and the natural man has so much taken
hold, on the other. Tradition, formalism, ecclesiasticism
and ‘mechanicalism’ are like chains and fetters
upon the Lord. Moreover, as we have already said, things
are given different meanings today from what they had at
first under the sanction of the Holy Spirit.
A new
cruse is needed, and it must be that which has been
made like unto the Lord’s vessel at the first. It
must be:
(1) That which stands upon an absolutely New
Testament basis.
(2) That which marks the point where God has a
clear way because the Cross has brought to zero all the
personal interests and resources and confidence of such
as form that vessel.
(3) That which recognises, yields fully to, and
glories in, the absolute government of the Holy Spirit in
every detail of life and service.
(4) That which recognises the utter Lordship of the
Lord Jesus.
(5) That which sees in Him all the fullness of
wisdom, power, knowledge, grace and everything needed,
and draws only upon Him.
(6) That which is completely selfless and has only
one object in view, and that passionately the glory of
the Lord Jesus.
We leave
till later the matter of securing the vessel, but here
emphasize the necessity for it. When the Lord gets it -
and He is getting it - He will make it the instrument for
the restoration and preservation of His testimony in the
earth. This newness may be costly, but then, special
usefulness to the Lord is always costly.
No, this is
not an appeal for a new sect! It is an appeal for a
people embodying the principle and power of “newness
of life”.