"And his father and his mother
were marvelling at the things which were spoken
concerning him; and Simeon blessed them, and said unto
Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the
falling and the rising of many in Israel; and for a sign
which is spoken against; yea and a sword shall pierce
through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts
may be revealed" (Luke 2:33-35).
THE MEANING OF CHRIST MUST BE INWROUGHT
In the passage quoted above we have given
us something of the meaning of Christ, something of what
is involved when Christ comes into our lives with
ministry in view. That is the real significance of
Simeon's vision and service. Sooner or later, to those
who are "called according to his
purpose" the meaning of Christ will be brought
home in a forceful and much fuller way. It may be that we
have a deep and very real knowledge brought to us at our
conversion; but whether that be so or, on the contrary,
we are born again in a simple and comparatively easy way,
the time will come when, through deep crises and
upheavals in our lives, we shall move up to the fact that
Christ, and union with Him, is something infinitely
greater than we had ever imagined. It is true that
salvation is free and all of grace, but it is not cheap
and superficial. If we so regard it we may just fade out,
count for little, or be amongst the offended. The eternal
counsels of God, comprehending all ages and realms, and
centering in a redeemed people, are so full of meaning,
so vast in their import, that much deepening work has to
be done to bring about a correspondence with them. We
have to come to a realisation of what it means to us that
we have been called into fellowship with so momentous and
so vast a One as God's Son. There are three aspects of "the
fellowship of his sufferings:" the first,
co-operation with Him in His work of delivering souls
from a jealous and bitterly hostile enemy; the second,
the discipline and purifying which makes for
Christlikeness; the third, the enlarging of capacity, and
developing of faculties for apprehending and
understanding the greatness of Divine things,
particularly the knowledge of Christ. All this is
suffering indeed. We cannot attain unto this knowledge
along the line of merely being informed; it has to be
inwrought. No amount of listening to teaching will bring
it about. Often a large amount of long-standing teaching
only springs into life when the one possessing it passes
into an almost devastating experience of suffering and
testing. One world seems to be entirely breaking up and
falling away, and a new one is essential to survival.
Those who know Christ more fully and really are those who
have discovered Him in deep spiritual agony and
perplexity. Christ is the door into an immense realm of
Divine meaning, and there is nothing casual or haphazard
about that way. The whole being becomes involved in this
issue if we are really going to represent spiritual
measure for others. "A sword shall
pierce through thine own soul."
John
Bunyan, in his great dream allegory, sought to personify
characteristics and propensities, and to represent them
in life-size form, so that they could be seen in full
stature. By his characters he would make us see
ourselves, our weaknesses, our perils. As we see them
passing before us we smile, we feel ashamed, we are
disgusted, and then we find that Bunyan has portrayed
ourselves.
One of
these characters, in which Bunyan has concentrated his
genius for humour, sarcasm and irony, is Mr. By-Ends. He
tells us that Mr. By-Ends' ancestors gave their name to
the town of Fairspeech, that his great-grandfather was a
waterman, who always looked one way and rowed the other.
Mrs. ByEnds, his wife, was a very virtuous woman, the
daughter of my Lady Feigning, and By-Ends and his wife
had two firm religious principles to which they most
strictly adhered, and brought up their family
accordingly. These established religious principles were
(1) never to strive against the wind and the tide, and
(2) to walk with Religion when he goes in his silver
slippers, and if the sun shines and if the people applaud
him. Bunyan says that is a tendency found in human nature
to pretend, to feign, to look one way and really be going
the other, to make-believe, to choose the line of least
resistance, to go the popular way, but to disappear when
things are difficult. We all have nothing but contempt
for Mr. ByEnds. But that kind of thing can be the peril
of us all, more or less. Indeed, it is going to be
disastrous unless the Lord deals drastically with it, for
it is so utterly incompatible with Christ and with God's
eternal purpose as centred in Him.
Let us
look again then at the words of Luke and see something of
what is involved through Christ being brought in.
CHRIST DETERMINES DESTINY
First of
all, Simeon says that this Child - the Christ - is going
to determine destiny. He "is set for the
falling and the rising of many in Israel." There
are several different translations of these words.
Firstly, they may mean that some will fall, never to rise
again, as they come up against the Lord Jesus. They will
find Him a stumblingblock. It was said in the Scriptures
that He would be a stumblingblock to many (Isa. 8:14).
Many would strike their foot against Him and go headlong.
How true that has proved to be! Coming up against the
Lord Jesus, and not being willing to accept the offence
of the Cross, not being willing to suffer affliction with
the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season, not being willing to take up the Cross
and follow Him, they have gone headlong, and their
destiny has been settled by their contact with the Lord
Jesus. It is ever so. On that side He is set for the
falling of many; that is, He is put there to find out
whether we really mean business with God or not; and many
coming up to Him and finding Him and His way an offence
have turned and gone again, God only knows to what. "Set
for the falling... of many."
"And
the rising of many;" and oh, what a glorious
story is bound up with that! Many have come to Him,
sensible of something of the cost, recognizing that in
which they will be involved if they should link on and go
with Him. Nevertheless, they have chosen Him; and what a
lifting it has meant for them! Yes, from the dunghill to
be set amongst the Princes of His people (1 Sam. 2:8).
"We maketh the rebel a priest and a king." You
and I know just a little of what it means to have
been lifted by reason of union with the Lord Jesus. But
how much more there is yet to be, for He has given His
word that some shall sit with Him in His Throne, even as
He overcame and sat down with His Father in His Throne
(Rev. 3:21). What a rising! A long and wonderful story
could be told of men who have been lifted by the Lord
Jesus. The settling of destiny: some will fall, some will
rise. Their attitude toward the Christ will determine for
ever which it is going to be.
These words may also mean that many will
fall and also rise, and in this connection there is a
mighty army. I see Peter in that company. Oh, this
self-elevated, self-confident, self-assured, boasting
Peter! "Even if I must die with thee, yet will I
not deny thee" (Matt. 26:35). There was a man
who was up, but up on a false platform, and when he came
really into touch with Christ crucified he fell - but,
praise God, to rise again. Christ, Who brought him down,
brought him up. See the great Saul of Tarsus riding his
highhorse to Damascus; and what a highhorse it was! Oh,
how self-sufficient and self-important and self-confident
was young Saul of Tarsus! He came down off that highhorse
into the dust at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth - the most
humiliating thing that could ever have been conceived by
him. 'Jesus of Nazareth, that false prophet, that
impostor, that blasphemer of God, that one who was hanged
on a Cross, bearing what our law declares to be the mark
of the curse of God resting upon him!' Think of that man
humbled at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth and saying,
"What shall I do, Lord?" Has he not come down?
Yes, but did he not come up? "This child is set for
the falling and the rising of many".
It will
always be like that, one thing or the other. We shall go
down before Jesus Christ, we shall come up, according to
our attitude and response to Him, according to whether we
refuse or accept, obey or disobey; He determines it.
Coming down from our own natural strength and fullness,
in brokenness, humiliation and shame at His feet,
confessing Him Lord - a hand will take us and lift us to
such wonderful heights of grace.
CHRIST A SIGN SPOKEN AGAINST
(a) THE CHALLENGE OF HIS PRESENCE
Then said Simeon, "and for a sign which is
spoken against". What is that? It means that He
is set for a provocation by implication. A sign is an
implication. It implies something, and the effect of this
implication is to provoke. Should you begin to see what
Jesus implies, there will be some reaction; and if you
are not prepared to accept the implication of Jesus
Christ you will be strongly provoked. You will not remain
neutral, you will begin to fight. That is where
Saul of Tarsus was. Deeper down than all else, he was
fighting against the Lord, kicking against the goad. That
was the innermost meaning of it. He was provoked by the
significance of Jesus, the significance of Christ
Himself. In the person of Christ you have a different
kind of man, no mere earthly man, but a heavenly Man.
Here is a Man embodying in His own person a holy,
heavenly standard, the standard of heaven, and men are
being measured and weighed by heavenly standards in the
presence of the Lord Jesus: not only by what He says, and
the judgments that He verbally passes, but by His
presence. They are discovering that here is a standard
that finds out their smallness, their lack, and their
difference. You know that is very true. We have often
said that if a true child of God, indwelt by the Spirit
of Jesus Christ, goes into a business house to work or
into some ungodly home, it often happens that, without
their saying anything about their being a Christian, a
strain begins to be felt, and people begin to be nasty or
pass remarks. Something in the very atmosphere has been
stirred up and provoked by the presence of Christ in the
believer. Without being awkward or difficult (some people
are that, of course, and provoke by their foolishness) by
even a true, humble, loving child of God something is
provoked, and he or she becomes a marked person and known
to be different, and that difference is awkward for other
people. People begin to feel uncomfortable. If that is
true of some simple child of God, how much more true it
must have been of the very Son of God Himself. His
presence was the standard measure of heaven. Men could
not measure up to it, and they felt all wrong and
uncomfortable in Its presence. He was a sign. There was a
significance about Him, about His very presence, which
was spoken against: it provoked.
It is a
grand thing to be at home in the presence of Jesus
Christ, to know the grace of God which makes it possible
to sit down with this holy and righteous and perfect One.
But He finds us out. Often that is just what is going on.
We are being provoked, upset, annoyed, we know not why;
but if we did know, we should realize that the Spirit of
Jesus Christ is at work upon us because we are out of
harmony with our Lord. In such a case we can take one of
two attitudes, either get right, or go from bad to worse
and become more and more bitter, even against the Lord.
He is a sign spoken against.
(b) THE CHALLENGE OF HIS MANNER OF LIFE
His life and behaviour constituted that significance
which was so provocative. You see, He did not conform to
their earthly system, even their religious system. He did
not fall into line and do the customary thing. He
belonged to a heavenly system. Spiritual and heavenly
principles were everything to Him and not just outward
rites and performances, and He was not going to be drawn
into the mere externalities and formalities; He was
holding to the inner principles; and the significance of
His behaviour provoked those who were concerned for the
form of things rather than for the spirit, for the
framework rather than for the heart. This people
offer lip service: God is seeking heart service. The
presence of the Lord Jesus is the repudiation of mere
formalities and customs and traditions. He brings in the
heavenly standard, the heavenly laws, the heavenly
system, and it is not easy for you unless you are on the
side of heaven. Follow that out, for that was the sign
which was spoken against. They could not get Him to
conform to the customary thing, because He was not going
to be a party to their falsehood, their hypocrisy, their
formality, to their unspiritual condition which lay back
of their outward ritual; He was not going to be involved
in it, and therefore He was a provocation; and He is
always like that. He will find out whether we are
governed more by policy than by principle, whether
temporal interests concern us more than eternal
considerations. He was always bringing a whole series of
things like that into the world, and in that sense they
just could not bear Him and Its way of going on. We have
often cited the occasion when He said to His brethren,
after being urged by them to go up to the feast, "Go
ye up unto the feast: I go not up unto this feast."
"But when his brethren were gone up unto the feast,
then went he also up, not publicly, but as it were in
secret" (John 7:8-10). It looks a little
difficult, does it not? as though He is involved in some
duplicity. But what does it mean? It was the feast of
tabernacles that was at hand; and what was the feast of
tabernacles? It celebrated the consummation of the
emancipation from Egypt and the entrance into the kingdom
of God, the deliverance from this present evil world and
translation into the kingdom of the Son of God's love.
That kingdom was embodied in Christ Himself, not in
Jerusalem, nor now in any earthly celebrations of
historic feasts. He is the kingdom of God, therefore He
does not make it a matter of mere occasional celebration
in an external way like that. The celebration was empty,
false. Their deliverance from this present evil world!
Why, they were as much involved with the prince of this
world as anybody! Worldly considerations governed them
altogether, and the Lord Jesus said, in effect, 'I am
publicly having nothing to do with that. I stand for the
true essence of this heavenly kingdom, and for absolute
separation from this world.' Thus in no way would He
allow it to be thought that He was in that. He was apart
from it, and if He did go up "not publicly but as it
were in secret" it was because He went to try to
get people out of the false representation of heavenly
things, to bring them to Himself as the embodiment of the
heavenly thought of God about the feast of tabernacles.
I have
just cited that by way of illustration in order to try to
focus what I am saying. He was a provocation because in
His own behaviour He signified something of another, a
heavenly, order. It is ever so. Where the Lord's children
become heavenly and spiritual people in very truth,
emancipated even from the established religious system,
and are living by heavenly principles, what provocation
it arouses, what speaking against! You cannot be a
heavenly child of God and not be spoken against. Do not
try to escape being spoken against. You signify
something, and everything of this world is against that
something. We come to that with the next point that
arises in connection with Simeon.
(c)
THE CHALLENGE OF HIS CROSS
There was further the significance of His death
and of His resurrection as a sign that was spoken
against. Yes, His Cross indeed was the signal for much
speaking against. Has it not been so all the way through,
and is it not so today? How hated is that Cross, when
given its true interpretation! It is all right as
heroics: yes, men will have the Cross on that basis. But
bring in the true meaning of the Cross of Christ - that
it is God's No to man and all his heroics, His final and
utter No to every man, good and bad, and that when Jesus
cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34), He was bearing our
curse in God's utter No to the fallen race: bring that
in, and it is an offence. Say that to anyone who has any
feeling of his own importance and dignity and goodness,
and who considers there is something of account in
himself and he will be very offended. We never accept the
Cross of the Lord Jesus until we see how utterly
worthless we are, and then the Cross becomes our glory;
we side with God and say, 'Thou art right, Lord, in
saying No to me.' Have you got there, are you being
brought there? You see what God is doing if you are being
brought where you recognize you have no claims upon God,
no rights before Him, and where you realize your utter
wretchedness and unworthiness and unfitness for His
presence. You are in agreement with the Cross as heaven's
No when you get there. They all had to come there - Peter
and John and all the rest. But to be there is to be very
near the great Yes of God in the resurrection. The
resurrection proclaims that another Man, other than
ourselves, passes through into heaven. The door is wide
open to this other Man, Who has taken that first man down
into judgment and death and has left him there. Heaven is
opened to this new Man, this risen Man, and "if
we have become united with him in the likeness of his
death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection" (Rom. 6:5). It is God's great Yes
to the risen Christ, and we who have been united with Him
come into that Yes; we have the open door of heaven. Now,
you see, that doctrine is an offence to any
self-important, self-sufficient flesh in this world, and
it is spoken against. Christ crucified is a sign spoken
against; to the Greeks foolishness, to the Jews a
stumblingblock; but to us who believe, Christ (yes,
crucified) the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor.
1:23-24).
THE FRUIT OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS
SUFFERINGS
And
Simeon said to Mary His mother, "yea and a sword
shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of
many hearts may be revealed." The significance
of Christ - "a sword shall pierce through thine
own soul!" The sword there is not a little
thing. The word used to describe it is the same as that
used by the translators of the Old Testament into Greek,
the word which was used for Goliath's sword. Here the
Greek word signifies the great Thracian sword, an immense
thing. 'A great sword shall pierce through thine own
soul,' speaking of course of her suffering, her anguish,
when she would stand and see this child, then grown to
full manhood, stretched upon the Cross. Simeon said,
'That will have the effect or be the means of disclosing
the thoughts of many hearts.' What it really amounts to
is that the fellowship of Christ's sufferings is the
means by which hearts are revealed. It is when we are
brought into the fellowship of His sufferings and are
suffering together with Him that the thoughts of many
hearts come to light, either sympathetically or the
reverse. Some hearts, as they see the Lord's people
suffering for His sake, will show bitterness, resentment,
and be all against the Lord because they do not
understand. Oh, how often do parents rise in rebellion
and resentment when a young man or woman, in full
consecration to the Lord Jesus, accepts the fellowship of
His sufferings, and goes out into a life of
self-sacrifice - a life in which eternal and heavenly
interests take precedence over earthly advancements and
privileges, and the things of the Lord are very costly in
terms of worldly things. How friends turn against such
and call them fools, and all the rest of it! The hearts
of others are beginning to be exposed by their fellowship
with their Lord in His sufferings. It is coming out all
round; hearts are being laid bare. It is necessary that
that sort of thing should happen. You will so often find
that the effect of such a thing is to precipitate a
crisis in those very hearts sooner or later. Oh, what a
story is bound up with this? How often has a man been
called upon, because of his devotion to the Lord, to
suffer terribly at the hands of his own family -
persecuted, subjected to every kind of ignominy, shown no
favours. That may have gone on for a long time,
increasing all the while, but the one has stood
faithfully, yielded no ground, gone on with the Lord
quietly, humbly, meekly, lovingly, showing no resentment;
and that very exposure of what was in those other hearts
has at a later time become the means used by God to break
those lives, and to bring them to Himself. That is only
one aspect of this matter - the thoughts of many hearts
being revealed by the fellowship of His sufferings.
The
disclosure comes out also in the other way, thank God.
Many hearts are revealed as to what they have of love for
the Lord when His children are going through bad times in
fellowship with Him. But whichever way it may issue, the
principle operates. If we are, like Mary, brought into
the sharing of His travail, it has a tremendous effect
upon other people. The fact is that it has always been by
way of the fellowship of His sufferings that other hearts
have been touched. If the Lord takes you into a deep way
of suffering with Himself, in sharing something of the
cost of the coming of the Kingdom, that in itself is a
testimony which touches hearts; whereas we may stand and
preach and nothing happens. When something happens to us,
when we go into the depths, something begins to happen in
other people.
So, servant of the Lord, realize that the
Holy Spirit works upon other lives through your suffering
with the Lord, and takes you into suffering for this very
purpose. Hearts are disclosed. The worldly heart will be
uncovered by the Cross of the Lord Jesus. Paul said, "Far
be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified
unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). The
Cross finds out how much worldliness there is in our
hearts and brings it to light. By worldliness we mean, of
course, the standards of this world, its ways, its
opinions, and so on.
The Cross finds out what is in our hearts
as to ourselves - how much selfishness there is about us.
You cannot know the Cross in any real way and be a really
selfish person. The Cross will expose all selfishness and
demand the setting aside of all that is self;
self-interest, self-consideration, self-pity and every
form of self comes to light by the Cross.
Well, this is the particular ministry of
any end-time, which is also always a time of transition.
We have seen that Simeon represented a
remnant clinging to a heavenly vision in a time when what
was of God had become earth-bound and largely traditional
and formal; that he gathered up in himself all the
fragmentary, diverse and partial revelations of God's
speaking; that he embodied the idea of spiritual
maturity, while at the same time he signified that which
had waxed old and was nigh unto passing away. But, with
all, he linked on with God's new and full manifestation
as he held the infant Christ in his arms. Thus he showed
by declaration and prophecy the immense issues bound up
with Christ, and the course and cost of a ministry of "the
fullness of Christ." Here we leave the matter
for the contemplation of all such as look for "that
blessed hope," and, in looking, ask what the
Lord would have as the ministry of this present
transitional phase which will issue in His appearing.