Reading: John 5:25,
28; 11:43; 6:63, 65; 8:43; 10:4,5; 10:16.
It is well known that
with John 11 a transition has taken place. Up to chapter
10 a series of spiritual truths and principles has been
very largely enunciated and made practical in relation to
a number of individuals. With chapter 10 those truths are
taken up in a collective way, and from there onward the
Lord Jesus is found more particularly occupied with a
special company. Chapter 11 stands exactly half-way, with
ten chapters on either side. ln this position it gathers
up all that has gone before, and represents what will be
the ultimate issue. Lazarus is central in both position
and meaning, so far as Christ's glory is concerned. The
company which is found together at the table, occasioned
by the raising of Lazarus, sets forth two things (and we
must always bear in mind the double aspect of things in
the Scriptures, the earthly and the heavenly, the
temporal and the spiritual). Those two things here are
Israel and the Church. Israel's history will be exactly
that of Lazarus. A sickness in which Christ will not
intervene. He will deliberately remain away from Israel
(as such) - although greatly loved - until no hope
remains along any line but a miraculous intervention.
Israel will "stink" in the nostrils of the
world, and, rather than a remedying, only by a
resurrection as from the dead, by the voice of the Son
of God - Jesus Christ, will they have a Divine
future.
The other thing here is
that the Church comes right into view typically and in
principle with the resurrection of Lazarus and the
company as gathered. The Church is the company of those
who have their very being only and solely by reason of
the resurrection miracle. This is quite clearly and
finally stated in the most "Church" part of the
Bible, the letter to the Ephesians. "And you did he
quicken, when ye were dead through your trespasses
and sins... and made us to sit with him in the
heavenlies" (2:1,6). ("Lazarus was one of them
that sat at meat with him" John 12:2). But, when we
have said that, we have not touched the deepest note in
the matter. The very heart of this position is found in
the words in John 5:25, "The dead shall hear the
voice of the Son God".
Firstly, it is obvious
that something more than a physical faculty of hearing is
in mind. The dead have no such faculty, there must be a
hearing which is not natural, which is deeper and more
inward than the natural. Nor is it just that by God
speaking some actual result occurs. There is a hearing
which has that result. Briefly then, a living
relationship with Christ and its corporate expression in
what is called His "Body" - "the
Church" - is the result of a hearing of His voice
which, while it may come through spoken and audible
words, is more than they. It is possible to hear the
verbal statement of truth, and that many times and over
many years, but not to have heard His voice. It is
possible, after having heard the truths often and long,
suddenly to hear the voice, and the result to be as
though we had never before heard at all, all is so new
and wonderful. Living relationship with Christ is not an
emotional or intellectual or volitional reaction to a
presentation of Gospel truths; it is not by an influenced
and persuaded signing of a card or "deciding for
Christ"; it is not the effect of hot air
evangelistic effort in which the soul is played upon, and
all sorts of superficial and theatrical elements are
brought into play. All this may have an apparent success
on a large scale, but - always allowing for the
sovereignty of God to reach some hearts through His Word
- much of this may only be adding to the great tragedy
with which the Church is confronted as one of its most
difficult problems, namely a cheap regard for the
Christian life, a mass of people who "have tried it
and found it disappointing", and a great number of
"Christians" who have no real living and
growing knowledge of the Lord. The fact that there is so
much indifference to Christianity today and so little
taking of it seriously is largely due to its having been
vitiated and cheapened. No, the basis of everything in
the New Testament is that, beyond anything audible,
vocal, natural, temporal, earthly, the voice of the Son
of God was heard deep down in the human spirit. This may
or it may not be a voice of actual words, but when it
happens the one concerned is truly able to say "The
Lord has spoken to me", or "I know that the
Lord has made me aware of His will". It is a voice -
a power - through words, or without them, but not
just words alone.
I said that everything
depends upon this. "They that hear shall live".
Our very life - in the Divine sense - depends upon it.
Our salvation issues from it. But what is true initially
is true in principle continuously. For all the major
decisions in life (obvious and unmistakable duties
excepted) it must be on this wise. Paul based his
whole ministry, and its specific aspects, upon this
principle. When God speaks in this way, something is
done, not only said. We know that something has happened
to us or in us. Such a knowledge or work in us is
absolutely essential to stability. We know of those who
have radically and thoroughly changed their strongest
positions more than once in the course of a few years.
After taking up truth and affirming that it was the
greatest thing that God had shown them, they subsequently
repudiated it, and changed their attitude to it. When
this happens there is only one thing to be said, apart
from willful and deliberate disobedience, and that is
that they never received it in the first place from
heaven, but from men. It came by mental and emotional
acceptance, either by hearing or reading and study. So
strong was the impact, so seeming to answer a need or
provide a way of self-realization, that it was taken up
in the soul with zest. And those concerned were not
really broken in soul and emptied to the dust. Thus, not
being a hearing in the spirit, beyond nature, of the
voice of the Son of God, it could not last, and the life
has become characterised by lack of permanence. Of course
this is quite a different matter from the changes which
mark true development and growth. Very big changes may
take place here, but not in our basic revelation. It is
most important that, as to the basic knowledge of the
will of God and revelation of Himself to us, we are at
the end where we were at the beginning, although enlarged
and perhaps with a change of merely outward features.
Further, in the moment
when God speaks thus to us in Christ, eternity has broken
through time; the super-temporal has been registered upon
us. All that belongs merely to time and earth has been
suspended, and in that moment that which was in God's
mind "before the world was", and that which is
His thought unto the ages of the ages yet to be is
brought to our lives. Our very existence is bound up with
it. I do not mean that our continuity is involved and
that there is the peril of annihilation; but the very
fact of our existence, of our having a being at all, is
now to have its meaning for us, or has drawn near. Yes,
it is, for all Divine intention, an eternal moment;
"Upon this moment hangs eternity".
Then again, and closely
related to what we have just said, it is most solemnly
important to recognize that this hearing of the voice of
the Son of God is a sovereign act of God. That is, it is
when and as He alone chooses. Unless God speaks, all
men's speaking is dead. Neither those who are in view nor
those who are concerned for them can choose the time.
That sovereign decision is most clearly seen in Christ's
attitude over Lazarus. There were many human factors at
work, and He was involved in misunderstanding by His
behaviour, but, nevertheless, He would not move until the
time of God had come. The point for the moment is this:
when that voice is heard it is God's time, and we can
never say if or when that time will be again. In the
passages at the head of this message, we have included
that strange one, "Why do ye not understand my
speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word" (John
8:43). God had spoken, and they had not responded. and
now they cannot hear, even when He speaks. On the
Damascus road only Saul heard the voice. Those that
travelled with him only heard the sound (Acts 9:7. marg.,
26:14). There is a recorded instance of the same thing in
the life of Christ (John 12:28,29).
Then, a question arises.
What is the first and immediate effect of God speaking to
us? It will not necessarily be exhilaration. Mere
exhilaration may mean something false. Usually there will
be no natural gratification resulting. Our natural
interests and likes will have little or no place.
Exhilaration is not necessarily life. If it is
only exhilaration we should pause and examine ourselves.
There is a great difference between rest, peace, and
quiet joy, and mere exhilaration. It may more likely be a
solemn awe and fearfulness, but with quiet reassurance.
The first effect of
hearing the voice of the Son of God is the gift of faith.
What could not before be contemplated now becomes
possible. What was hopeless - and we knew it - is now a
living prospect. "Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ Who according to His great mercy
begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead..." (1 Peter 1:3). It is
a resurrection hope. How hopeless and impossible the
situation was with Lazarus until he heard the voice of
the Son of God! Now, Paul says, "by grace have ye
been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). He also says,
"Faith cometh by hearing" (Romans 10:17). But
it is the kind of hearing of which we have spoken. The
strain goes out of life when faith in God enters, and the
impossible mountains are no longer impossible.
We are nearing the end,
but two things remain to be mentioned. If the dead are to
hear the voice of the Son of God and live, it will only
be the dead who do so. We have seen that the Lord Jesus
was very deliberate in His determination that Lazarus
should really be dead before He came on the scene. He
first used figurative language. "Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth", but His disciples did not know His
meaning, wherefore He said emphatically, "Lazarus is
dead". The sisters knew what the state would be
ordinarily after four days in an Easter clime and tomb.
Was Lazarus dead? Indeed he was! This was essential to
the Divine principle. We are too much alive, in our own
efforts, interests, struggles, ambitions, activities,
works, etc. to stand a chance of hearing this voice of
the Son of God. Therefore our works are so much
"dead works". There is the life of nature, but
not the life of God. So many voices fill our ears,
religious as well as worldly, and a mixture of both. If
the greatest thing that can happen to mortals is to
happen to us, we, like Paul, will have to be smitten to
the ground and hear a voice (Acts 9:4). How often, under
the hand of God has it been that the end has been the
beginning. We have been brought to a place of despair and
utter helplessness, so that like Paul we have
"despaired of life", not only or necessarily
physically, but spiritually. But afterward we have found
that this was sovereignty at work in relation to an
entirely new thing. There really is no hope until we are
dead.
"I lay in dust
life's glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be".
Finally. What is the
nature of your relationship with Christ? You may believe
in the Christian doctrine of the Deity of Christ, and
believe in it very intensely. But if it is only doctrine,
a tenet of the Creed, an objective fact concerning
Christ, it will not carry you through the terrific
experiences which lie in the path of true Christians.
John said that the object of his writing his Gospel was
that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and
that believing we might have life in His name. But he
took pains to show that those who did so believe, had an
experimental basis for their faith. How and why do you
believe? Can you say truly - "because something has
happened in me for which there is no accounting apart
from God Himself. Emotions, reasonings, persuasions,
cannot account for it. Human personalities, psychology,
or any human or natural factor cannot account for it. It
required God Almighty, and I found Him in Jesus Christ.
It was the voice of the Son of God, and I lived,
and live".
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, May-June 1946, Vol. 24-3.