Ordinary men in John

Let us turn together, please, beloved saints, to John's Gospel, Chapter 1. The truth of that hymn that we've just sang, Brother Lavery gave out, I trust will really be the sentiment of what I have on my heart and been thinking of a little for today. In John's Gospel, I want to notice how the Lord Jesus chose some very ordinary men to become extraordinary men and women. And it is wonderful the character of teaching and the training that he gave to them and the great purpose of it, as we shall see when we come to the upper room ministry of the Lord Jesus, was to equip them and to trust them with work relative to corporate testimony, that is, the assembly testimony for his name.

So we're going to commence our reading, please, in John's Gospel, Chapter 1, and we will read just a few verses concerning the call of these dear men. This is their first call that they received from the Lord, just as you did in conversion. Verse 35 reads, again, the next day after, John stood in two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus.

As he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see.

They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day. What a day that must have been, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

He first fineth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah.

Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. And verse 43 reminds us, the day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. And Philip, in verse 45, findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.

Now turn over please to chapter 15, 15th chapter of John's Gospel. And I want to notice with you in this chapter the fruit of the training of the Lord Jesus. Up until chapter 15, in fact, the first 12 chapters of John's Gospel is taken up with the first one and a half years, and the teaching of the Lord Jesus, the most of it, because he is training the disciples.

And the way that they are trained, beloved, is the same manner in which we are trained today, in keeping with ministry that we've been hearing in our conference. It's walking, watching Jesus as he walked. That's how they're trained.

They saw the touch of his hand and miraculous power. They listened to his teaching, and through John's Gospel, very graphically and very thematically, the Apostle John sets out teaching for guidance, to show how he was taught. He learned how to deal with sinners, chapter 3, 4, 5, and he learned as well how to deal together in unity with his brethren, when we come to the later chapters.

And then in the upper room, the Lord Jesus is going to show them, I've been training you. Now I'm going to trust you. And it is that trust that I want to try and notice a little with you, and the change that is made in this chapter.

Chapter 15, please just read an excerpt. Verse 5, I am the vine, ye are the branches. Now look down to verse 8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.

So we have branches that have developed into disciples. Their first call was a call of conversion. When you turn to Luke chapter 6, verses 12 and 13, the Lord Jesus went up into a mountain to be alone with his Father.

And when he came down, he chose twelve men. And that's who he's teaching in the upper room. These men are now going to be in the position of responsibility.

The second thing he's going to teach them, you'll notice, please look down in verse 11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends.

For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. So now those who have been called servants are called friends. That is a very touching statement that I hope will help us today.

Those who are young in the faith, some of you have just recently been baptized, let me say to you kindly, you're involved here. That's chapter 1, you've been called. And now God wants you to see that there needs to be that development from a branch, having life, to be a disciple.

That's the visible, that's before the world, that men will say they've seen, they've been with Jesus. That's who those disciples are, as a case of manifestation and testimony. And then we have those who are servants, doing the will of God, as he had taught them, he says, you're my friends, trusted by the Lord, and trustworthy in their ministry.

Look down to the end of the chapter now, please, at verse 21. All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. Verse 26, but when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeded from the Father, he shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness.

They will be witnesses. And the grammar there is very interesting, it is, and bear ye also witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. So there's those who are his associates, and now they're trusted as witnesses.

Now we will notice a little further, if the Lord will, just for a few thoughts. But I want to try and bring before our hearts today, beloved, the fact, as we have been hearing, it is true, of development. But development, I want to notice with you, is a relationship with the Lord Jesus.

That's where development comes in. Now I'm not saying this of contradiction whatsoever, but if you would obey me to meet my standard, you're not doing it for the Lord. You've got to get it from him.

And that's the lesson that's being taught here to these disciples. And I hope it will be a help to us. First of all, from branches to disciples.

Now the idea that we have in the branch, very simply looking at it in connection with the Lord Jesus being the vine, he is the source of our life. And the purpose of that branch is to bear fruit. What kind of fruit is it going to bear? This is to be the exercise of the one who is newly saved.

Now you're beginning to sprout. Now the branch is beginning to look green. And sure enough, someone, and the Lord Jesus says, it's my father, he's going to be looking for fruit on that branch.

What kind of fruit? The very same fruit as the vine would give. That's what he's showing us. What is seeing, what you saw in the Lord Jesus as you watched him.

John the Baptist said, they watched Jesus as he walked. Oh, how he would walk. It's very beautiful, brethren, let me point out to you how the Lord Jesus, when he's teaching in the parables, speaking about himself, he characterizes himself in those parables often.

A certain rich man. That was his character. He was full of benevolence.

He was constantly willing to give. He was sacrificial in his life. That's what you're watching.

That, dear young believer, is one of the marks of the branch. That's what the Father's looking for. A heart that's like the heart of the vine.

And when we look at our Lord Jesus again, and he is speaking and teaching even the disciples. On another occasion, in the Gospel of Luke, he says, a certain noble man. I love that.

The Lord Jesus was a nobleman. He wasn't a sloppy old gink trying to make himself known to the people that way. No, brethren, he was a nobleman.

They respected him and would listen to him because of the character of nobility that was in his person. That's what we are to be. That's how we are learning.

That is the branch that's bearing fruit like unto the vine. And of course, when we come to the Galatian Epistle, the Apostle Paul is writing and he shows to us that the energy of that fruit bearing is submissiveness to the divine person of the Holy Spirit. For the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and gentleness, even as we've been hearing.

That's one of the features of it. And beloved, you and I, in that spirit of submission, we are the branch that's dependent upon the vine. And there should be in my life that my heavenly Father will find something that gives him the joy of a likeness to the vine that's seen in that branch.

That is one reason that he has saved you. He wants the world to see the fruit of the vine, and he's doing that through the branches. But, says the Lord Jesus, those branches now, he said, I've called you.

I've trained you. You have watched me. Now you're going to be here without me.

My disciples, I'm going to leave you. I'm going back to heaven. Those dear disciples we know from reading these chapters, they must have looked at each other's wondering, what are we doing now, boys? What? Ah, beloved, the Lord Jesus is wanting you to recognize that as you move before the world, there's a scent of heaven about you.

There is a likeness of that nobility about you. There is about me that gentleness of which we've been hearing, oh, how necessary. And there is as well, beloved, the simplicity of the character of the Lord Jesus before the people.

He loved them, and that love flowed out willingly. It wasn't drawn out from him. It couldn't stop being manifested.

That's who he is. God is love, and the character of it was to embrace, to hate what God hates, to love that which God can bless. That is his great work.

That's the disciple. But let me note with you as well the character of the disciple. He is walking before the world in the absence of the Lord Jesus through the book of the Acts.

That's how you're going to see actually these three, the disciples, the friends, and the witnesses you will see in the book of the Acts, because in that book they are reaching out. And very interestingly, let me just pass this on just for the sake of my younger brethren as well to see that in following the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus gave his disciples instruction just before he went to heaven.

He said to them, I want you to begin right here at home in Jerusalem. Your neighbors will all know you. They're going to watch and say, what are they going to do now? Where's their leader? What's it going to happen? They're watching you right here in Jerusalem.

You start right here as my disciple. Then he says you go to Judea. That's the further away in the land of Israel.

And then he says go to Samaria, where you would never have gone as a Jew. No, indeed not. You wouldn't bother with those people.

They have no dealings with the Jews in the Samaritans. But that's where you're going to go. And then you're going to go to the Greeks.

You're going to get out to the nationalities around you with the gospel. Now the interesting thing is, that's exactly the pattern the Lord Jesus followed in John's gospel. That's where he began right at home.

He went to Judea. He went to Samaria. He went to the Greeks.

And so he's getting you and I, brethren and sisters, as disciples to follow the path that he trod. That should be our experience and exercise as disciples. We are branches by birth.

We are disciples by trust. And it is ours to move out with the gospel. Start at home.

Make sure you start at home, dear young believer, that your parents will see it's real. The devotion is there, as well as your neighbors, the people you go to school with, the people that you're working with. They'll know it.

And they'll recognize that something has happened. Not only something has happened, but he talks about Jesus. And that's the very thing that God wants the world to see and to hear.

Disciples that bear character to the vine, the branches bearing fruit for the glory of the Father. But now the Lord Jesus mentioned secondly, he says you were servants. There are five different words used for servants in your New Testament.

It's a very interesting study. The one of them, of course, that is most commonly used is the idea that we would think of as a slave. Now, the idea of the slave is not inferiority that's in view.

The idea of the slave is he is a vessel of service for his master. That's who he is. He watches his master's hand.

All he has to do is lick his thumb, and away goes the servant. All he has to do is blink his eye, and the servant goes to do the master's bidding. He has learned the will of his master, and he is ready.

And he is not only willing, but he is swift to do the will of his master. Now, one of the greatest expressions of that is in Mark's Gospel. Because the Lord Jesus is seen as Jehovah's servant.

And he is straightway doing the will of his God. Immediately, says the writer Mark, about the Lord Jesus. That's the slave.

That's the servant. Now, there are other servants. I will not take time to mention them to go over them with you.

But it is very interesting that the servant here now, the Lord Jesus says, is a friend. You know, I covet that. To be a friend with the Lord Jesus.

You know what it means, dear younger Christian, dear older one? It means that we sit with him and we are of kindred spirits. He trusts me, and I trust him. He can speak to me of his pleasures, and I absorb them and love them.

And I trust him with my needs. You're friends. Now, the idea of being a friend in this passage, of course, is visibly.

It's not just the idea that that is seen when you're alone in your chamber, alone on your knees. That is indeed a time of communing, when we listen. Not just always talking, but just listening.

Because we are his friends. But the Lord Jesus says, ye are my friends. Now, what he's giving here is the evidence of what is going to be seen in their life.

That the communion of their life, and the loyalty of their life, and the motivation of their life, is the blessed person who was their master. They were a slave, and a servant, but now they are his friends. I trust, beloved, that we will see that.

And as we move through the book of the Acts, we find that is where the power of strength is. And that's what the world hated. And the Lord Jesus is going to say that.

They're going to hate you because they hate me. And that friendship that is manifested in the world is not wanted by the world. But beloved, that's what our testimony is, to show that we have not only a relationship of life, not only a privilege to walking as a disciple, but we have an intimacy with heaven.

That's what the world needs to recognize from my life, that there is that touch of the presence of God. Ye are my friends. But last of all, the Lord Jesus mentions in this passage, you've associated with me, you've seen my works, you've seen how the world has treated me.

Now, he says, in your association with me, you stayed right with me. And they did. Only Judas left them.

Ah, we know, beloved Peter, dear Peter, I don't kick him too hard. Let me tell you, I fear, I don't know what I do in that situation. I make no boast, I tell you, but I don't want to do what he did.

But dearly beloved, every one of those men were loyal to their blessed Savior. When I move through the book of the Acts, I see them in their loyalty as witnesses. They're standing on the streets.

Some of them are on the beaches preaching. Some of them are down by the riverside preaching. Others have gone into where the congregations are preaching.

That's the mighty work. That is the great trust that the Lord Jesus is giving to these dear disciples. Bear witness of me.

You've been with me. You've seen him. And not only have they seen him in his ministry, but they saw him in resurrection glory.

They saw his wounds. They saw that blessed one as he ascended into glory. They watched him receive by glory into heaven.

Bear witness of it to a dying world, dear brethren and dear sisters. Can I say, dear younger one, make sure that you put it into the habit of your life to give out gospel papers. You'll love it.

And furthermore, God is honored thereby. And tell them what you know about the blessed Savior. Apologetics we talk about.

It's good to have apologetics. But you know, God isn't wanting you to spend all your time in apologetics kind of a thing. But be prepared to tell them why you trust the Lord Jesus.

Why do you trust him? You've never seen him. You've never heard his voice visibly. Why are you trusting him? Says the Lord Jesus, tell them what you saw about me.

That's how we can show. That's how we can prove. Tell them what you saw about me.

What they saw in his ministry of his love. What they saw at Calvary of his sufferings. What they saw of him in resurrection glory.

It would stand in any court. Over 500 men were witnesses to a living Christ on the ground of resurrection. Bear witness of me before that world.

God help us, brethren. Our voice isn't heard enough. I say it to my own shame.

But ah, the blessed honor of speaking what we know about his person to a world to which the Lord Jesus is trusting us. Now he's going to prepare them for their need of corporate testimony. Not just individually now going out into the world.

But he has a plan for them. He has a way that they should be occupied. And he's going to show to them that as they have been one in following him, they are to be one with the promise of his presence.

He tells them that in chapter 14. He says, I'm going to go away, but don't you worry. I'll send the comforter to you and the spirit of my father and my own spirit coming to you.

He's going to be with them in that sense, which is spiritual and dear brethren and dear sisters, we need to remember. And I hope that those of you who are young in the faith and you've been taught that in mom and dad are in God's assembly. Let me just let me put a little parenthesis in here for you.

When I was 16 years of age, I went to a conference in Toronto, Ontario, and there was a man rose up. His name is Mr. Fred Watson, very good teacher of the word of God. The first thing he said was, I'm going to speak to young people today who had been raised in a home where mom and dad are in God's assembly.

And you're wondering perhaps why you were there. Well, you know, the strange thing, it was only that past week and the week before I went to school with a boy by the name of Georgie Wald. He was a good, dear, dear Christian.

And he used to try to get me to go with him. But all I could say to him was, no, I don't think I should. But I didn't give him a reason.

But Mr. Fred Watson that day took up Matthew 18 and verse 20. And in such sweetness, he presented it to us as he had learned it as a boy himself. And I got it that day.

Thank God. And upon my knees, alone in my bedroom, more than once after that occasion, I got to appreciate the blessed presence of being gathered to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, gathered with his saints in his name. When we come together, marvelous privilege, beloved.

That's what the Lord Jesus is going to teach them here. And when he comes into that 13th chapter, the first thing he's teaching them is. The Lord's Supper is not in that chapter.

It's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And each of those writers, they deal with it in a little different tense. One of them is going to take it up as being dispensational.

It doesn't belong to Judaism. It's not added to Judaism. It's separate from Judaism.

And of course, the other one as well is in regard to the condition of the disciples. They had been arguing a little on the road. And the Lord Jesus says, get that settled first.

We'll look after that first. Then talk about the Lord's Supper. And when we come to John's gospel, it has to do with the moral character of it that Judas must leave.

It's not for the unsaved. And Judas leaves. Then the Lord Jesus teaches these precious truths in chapter 13, chapter 15, chapter 16 of the truth of being gathered to the person of the Lord Jesus in testimony.

That's what he wants. In the world, he wants disciples. And he wants friends.

And he wants witnesses. And hidden as together, he wants them to be a corporate testimony gathered in his name unto his person, totally separate from that from which they were raised in. They left it, never went back to it, because they had him.

That is the secret of it, brethren. When we come into chapter 16, the Lord Jesus is going to teach them the minister of that company. It's the Holy Spirit who's that minister.

He is the one who is governing there. And he's going to teach them. That's why we have the epistles.

In the epistles, we have the unfolding of what the Lord Jesus told them would be their portion. Therefore, beloved, as we read the epistles of the New Testament given to the churches, and that which was given for the behavior of the believers, it's all intended to be incorporated into our behavior and testimony as disciples, as friends, and as witnesses. God help us, indeed, to understand and to see that the Lord Jesus is teaching them.

And it's beautiful how he starts out with the Lord's Supper. That's beautiful, brethren. He doesn't mention it in John, but he prepares them for it right at that position.

Can I say to you, don't miss being there. Don't miss being there, beloved. He is there.

That's why I go. He is there. And he asks me to be there.

And he asks me, do this. And, beloved, what honor we are able to give to him as his presence is in our midst, as he watches every heart, every believer, and the obedience of the sisters in their position, in their silence, and their head coverings, and as well as you, beloved brethren, having read the portion beforehand to get a little something that you might be able to give. That's why we spend that three-quarters of an hour before we break bread.

It's just taking the occasion to extol our beloved Redeemer. That's the honor of it. And the purpose of it is to take the loaf and to take the cup in due course, in obedience to the Lord Jesus.

Then he says, this is his order as he's teaching them. Then he says, now I'm going to give you material to preach. After the remembrance, then the preaching.

Now, I don't mean after the meeting. I mean in the character of the assembly testimony. Now, he says, the first thing he said, too, is the gospel.

He's bringing them into the preaching of the gospel. And the Spirit of God is in our world, he says, to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. That's what you're preaching.

And then he says, he's going to take truth concerning me. And he's going to take my sayings and reveal their meaning to you. And then he's going to give to you the great visions of the book of the revelation.

A total, complete revelation sufficient for the day of your testimony, until we're called home to heaven. God help us, brethren, to be good disciples, to be good friends, to be loyal witnesses, and to not forsake the gathering of ourselves together unto that lovely one, until we see his face in glory.