Eleven

We began our previous study by quoting the words of the Lord Jesus: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle (meek) and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11: 28, 29).

“Rest for your souls!” “Jesus, I am resting, resting In the joy of what Thou art!” “Resting!” We remember that the prophet encourages us with the promise, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26: 3). “Perfect peace!” The Lord Jesus gives us the assurance, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (John 14: 27).

“Rest!” “Peace!” “Perfect peace!” And yet there are many Christians who listen to these words of promise, and then when they look at all that is going on in their own lives, they are fully convinced that most of the time all that they see and experience is a stark contradiction of these words. Their lives do not mirror the promise of the Word of God, in fact, their lives reveal trouble, turmoil, perplexity, conflicts, distress, along with a multitude of disturbing and unanswered questions. Storms rage there!

“Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved!” But where is the rest when we are confronted by the tragic break down of health? when finances are in a tail-spin? when multitudes of problems invade the home and the family? when all the world around is filled with nothing but strife and violence? Where is the rest? the peace?

How can we ever come to grips with this seeming contradiction in the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: “My peace I leave with you,” and, “In the world you will have tribulation”? (John 16: 33). There is only one way: as we continue to maintain our personal commitment to focus our attention on beholding His glory! As we listen to the Word of the Lord Jesus as He is speaking to us in both of these statements, focus your total attention of the Person who is speaking to us. Above all else, be determined to continue to behold His glory in everything that He says to us personally.

For example, He who said, “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy . . . Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you” (John 16: 20, 22).

He continues to call us to abide in Him! To rest in Him! To find perfect peace - in Him! It does not matter what all of the other outward circumstances appear to be, nor how threatening they may become, nor how terribly troubling and perplexing they are. “Abide in Me!”

In Him there is always peace in the midst of the storm! Any storm! Every storm! For us to grasp the vital impact of this necessary truth, we need to reemphasize this essential fact: He continues to call us to “behold the glory of the Lord!” “Looking to Jesus!” “Come to Me!” “Learn from Me!” “Take My yoke upon you!”

In this regard, Matthew records a series of events which prove to be most instructive in this regard, especially as we seek to continue to behold the glory of the Lord. “A leper came!” (Matthew 8: 2). That leper said to the Lord Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” By law this man was an outcast, unable to enter into the company of any person who did not have that dread disease. When anyone approached such a leper, the leper was required to shout out the warning, “Unclean! Unclean!” Yet, this man dared to approach the Lord Jesus and make his urgent request!

As the Lord Jesus looked at this leper, He saw him in exactly the same way that His Father saw the man. He looked at the leper and in His heart He felt the throbbing love and compassion that the Father felt for the man. “Jesus put out His hand and touched him!” (verse 3). The Lord Jesus put out His hand and touched the leper because He knew that His Father put out His hand and touched him.

The Lord Jesus reminds us that He always did whatever He saw His Father doing. He always said exactly what He heard His father saying: “I am willing, be cleansed!” The Lord Jesus knew that His response to the leper pleased His Father, and that was the one thing that always mattered most to Him, He always did what pleased His Father.

Then there followed the incident involving the centurion. This man was a Roman, a Gentile, who “came to Him”(verse 5). When the Lord Jesus responded to the centurion's plea for help for his servant, He said, “I will come and heal him”(verse 7). He responded in the way His Father responded. Then, when the centurion pleaded his utter unworthiness, asking, “Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed”(verse 8), the Lord Jesus spoke the words of high commendation that were uttered by His Father, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel”(verse 10).

The same pattern is evident as we witness the Lord Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law (verse 15), as well as His meeting all of the needs of those who were sick and demon-possessed (verse 16). The Lord Jesus always saw every person in exactly the same way that He knew His Father saw them. He was always doing to all those who were in need exactly what He saw His Father reaching out to do for them. He knew that every Word He spoke, every act of love He did, pleased His Father.

The Son was one with the Father! Remember: “Just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love” (John 15: 10). The vital application of this for us is in His words at that very point, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love!” If you are as deeply concerned to be always one with Me as I am one with the Father. If you are motivated by the strong desire to always do that which pleases Me!

“Abide in Me, and I in you!”(John 15: 4). “Come to Me! Learn from Me!” There is no alternative to this crucial relationship. The peace He enjoyed was an integral and inseparable part of the fact that He was one with His Father, and always pleased His Father. In this reality, He enjoyed true rest!

Behold His glory! Be alive in the life He lives in you, and be alive to the life He lives in you. Always give the closest attention to watching Him and listening to Him. Be committed to always please Him. It is in this reality of abiding in Him that we find rest, and perfect peace, in Him.

“Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him” (verse 23). But did they really follow Him in His attitude and spirit? Or did they just follow Him in His physical presence with them?

He had just reminded all those who had been listening to Him that there is a price to be paid by all of those who would really follow Him and abide in Him. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (verse 20). “Nowhere to lay His head” - as far as the things of this world were concerned. Yet He did rest fully content in the perfect will of His Father for Him, and that was perfect rest!

To another person He said, “Follow Me!”(verse 22). That is the only issue you have to consider. As I find perfect rest in My father's perfect will and plan, you will find your true rest as you: “Follow Me!” Following, in total identification with Him.

Knowing that He was in perfect fellowship with His Father: “He got into the boat!” But when “His disciples followed Him,” the events demonstrate that they were not in vital personal fellowship with Him, they were not really one with Him in heart, in life, and in faith.

And so they began their journey across the lake. The Lord Jesus was resting in the confidence that He was still pleasing His Father. Therefore, nothing else mattered! Nothing!

But were His disciples resting in Him? Or, as they sailed across the lake, were their eyes darting about as their minds began to be concerned about all of the things that might possibly happen before they reached the other side? They had experienced how dangerously changeable this sea could be, one moment quite placid, the next a raging fury! Could that be their experience on this trip? And, if it was, what would they do?

He rested! They did not rest! How typical the disciples are of the vast majority of Christians today, always fearfully anticipating the worst to break in on them. And the disciples were not disappointed as far as their fearful anticipation was concerned. “And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves”(verse 24).

Yes, there are many of the “worldly-wise” who would be quick to claim that that was one time when He was caught unprepared. And, as always, they are wrong! “He was asleep!” - yes, but He knew that He was in the center of His Father's will, and His Father could never be taken by surprise! Thus: He rested!

“I will give you rest!” So, rest in Him. Nothing will ever catch Him unprepared. Learn from Him. Always seek to please Him as you abide in Him.

The disciples watched as the circumstances reached the point where, to them it was inevitable that the boat would be swamped by the waves and sink, and they would go down with it. So, “His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us! we are perishing!”(verse 25). “We are perishing!” Their panic had utterly stripped them of their faith, and their lives were in the gravest danger.

The Lord Jesus did not panic! He knew that there was no real danger, because His eye were focused on His Father and not on the storm, for He knew that His Father was in total control. He had no fear because He had faith in His Father.

“Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” The presence of fear is the strongest proof of the absence of faith. The presence of faith makes all fear impossible. The disciples saw a situation of greatest peril because they were convinced that the circumstances that touched their lives at that moment were totally out of control. The Lord Jesus saw no danger because His eyes were on His Father who was in total control!

“Learn from Me!” The storm was real! It was a raging fury. The boat was actually being covered by waves! All of those things were quite real. But they were not the most important reality! The one circumstance that actually did matter was the fact that the Father was in total control, even when it appeared as though everything was completely out of control.

In the storm the Lord Jesus once more revealed the glory of the Father. Do we see the vital significance of that fact? “In the world you will have tribulation!” Yes! that is absolutely true! Even as it is equally true that, if we let Him, even in the most severe tribulation our lives reveal the fact that, God is shining “in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!”

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels,” so that the light will shine through no matter what the situation may be that confronts us, so that those who so desperately need to see “the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus” can do so. For that glory to be clearly revealed, the earthen vessel must become as fully transparent as possible. And that fact is what all the storms that we will have to face are all about!

“We” - who “have this treasure in earthen vessels,” “are hard pressed on every side”(2 Cor. 4: 8). “We are!” This is the present and continuing experience of every earthen vessel through whom God has commanded the light to shine.

We are faced with pressures of all different kinds closing in on us from all directions. How are we going to be able to deal with this fact? First, look at the Lord Jesus and recognize that great pressures were continually inflicted on Him. To be like Him we must be willing to share His sufferings, and do so in the same way that He dealt with them. To be like Him we must learn to view all of these unexpected and unpleasant pressures with the same attitude in which He viewed them.

The principle that is involved is still, What happens to us is no where near as important as how we respond to what happens to us. Yes, “We are perplexed!” - facing storms and difficulties that come from unexpected directions and at unexpected times. Perplexed because we cannot foresee or prepare for these developments. Deeply puzzled, and inclined to ask, Why?

We are “persecuted.” So often misunderstood and misrepresented, rejected, and cast aside by others. Treated with contempt and disdain. Yet even as we think about this, we have only to look to the Lord Jesus and learn from Him. He endured it all, and more, and did so in the way that was so positive.

We are “struck down” - so that we begin to feel that our situation is hopeless. “Struck down” - yet they took the Lord Jesus out to that hill called Golgotha and there He was struck down. “Learn from Me,” He says. The Apostle Paul learned from Him. His testimony is so vital, “According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.”(Philippians 1: 20).

“We are” all subject to all of the storms of life. Does our attitude, as we respond to the violence of the various storms, reflect the attitude of the Lord Jesus? Or is our attitude more likely to blur and conceal the light of His glory?

The Christian who has responded to the invitation of the Lord Jesus, come to Him, learned from Him, so as to be able to rest in Him, has grasped the vital reality. As the Lord Jesus lay asleep in the boat, and the violence of that storm struck, and the waves were filling the boat, the Lord Jesus was unconditionally confident in the faithfulness of His Father, so that even as the storm raged He rested in serene peace.

“We are hard pressed on every side.” But, is that all that we see? That we are being so hard pressed on every side? That the storm is raging and our little boat is being flooded so that it is likely to sink? Or, do we see what the Lord Jesus saw, “yet not crushed?”

As we rest in the Lord Jesus we do feel the full impact of being hard pressed on every side, we do not deny that. But we are also fully confident that He holds us in His hands, and it is His hands that continue to control the impact of any and every pressure that may touch our lives. No pressure can do anything more to us than what He permits it to do. We are sure of His faithful oversight.

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10: 13).

Notice: “God is faithful!” He knows exactly what you can bear, and He will bring you through whatever He permits you to face. As He does bring you through the pressures victoriously, the result will be that you as the earthen vessel will have become even more transparent. Thus, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” will be revealed in even greater clarity.

“Perplexed, but not in despair.” We know that we do not have the answers to whatever may be causing us the perplexity, but we are calmly resting in the One who does have the answers. We know that we can simply bring the problem to Him, and say, Lord Jesus, You know what to do with this, and we rest in Your faithfulness.

“Persecuted, but not forsaken.” Even though we may come under a variety of attacks from those whom the enemy would use to attempt to tear down our faith, the result of any and all such persecution is never what the enemy seeks. The outcome is always securely in the hands of the Lord Jesus in whose love we are thankful to rest. The Lord will use any and every attack to achieve His goals in our lives so that the end result is always a brighter demonstration of the glory of the Lord Jesus.

When we as Christians do grasp the vital significance of this spiritual reality, what a thorough transformation it will make in our attitude. We realize that it does not matter what anyone says about us or does to us, the outcome is always safely in the hands of our Lord, and He will be glorified as the result.

“Struck down, but not destroyed!” Thus Paul could confidently testify, “For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus”(Acts 21: 13). Even as Stephen could look up and say, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. . . Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”(Acts 7: 56. 59).

“Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved!” Content to abide securely in Your faithfulness. Confident that You never fail. Yes, resting in the reality that, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8: 28).

We are “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus”(verse 10). This is a most unexpected and incredible statement. The storms, all of those seemingly totally negative things which the Lord permits to impact on us and on our lives, directly and specifically relate to our identification with the death of the Lord Jesus!

As we make it our commitment to press on to perfection, the Holy Spirit undertakes this utterly crucial ministry of working out in us all that it means for us to be His earthen vessels which contain His treasure. The storms are a vital part of His ministry. We can approach the situation with the attitude which the Lord Jesus revealed, or with the attitude His disciples revealed.

When, like the disciples, we react negatively to the storms, we are drawing attention to our own suffering! Thus, our response means that the earthen vessel loses its transparency!

When we seek only to please the Lord, no matter how fierce the storms are that we have to face, we are learning from the Lord Jesus, and so we respond to all that confronts us in the same way He responds to it. Thus we become increasingly transparent, and we reveal in our attitude “the dying of the Lord Jesus,” which focuses on His glory!

`For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake”(verse 11). Notice how specific that statement is! To be “the called according to His purpose” means that inevitably “we are always delivered to death for Jesus sake!” That is what this is all about. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service”(Romans 12: 1).

Did not the Lord Jesus say, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16: 25). “Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy”(1 Peter 4: 13).

“Partakers of Christ's sufferings!” What an amazing privilege. You, as you seek to be totally identified with the Lord Jesus, are being honored to bear about in your body “the dying of the Lord Jesus!”

We are “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,”(verse 10) as we bear clear witness that no matter what happens, we are dead to self. We do so for this very purpose: “That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body!” So that we make no mistake about the amazing inspiration of this truth, Paul repeats it: “we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”(verse 11).

Not that we will be able to demonstrate that we are alive, but that the Lord Jesus will be able to use our body to demonstrate the glory of His life - “in our mortal flesh,” that is, in our earthen vessel! In our body! - the radiant glory of the life of the Lord Jesus will be made manifest for all to see! It is obvious that when that happens the earthen vessel has become so totally transparent as to be invisible! All others can see is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!

The more that the Lord leads us into all of the various storms of life, and our response to all that comes honors Him, the more invisible we become, so that those who need to see His glory will see it. It is by this means that those whom the god of this world has made blind will be able to see in us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!”

“Learn from Me!” “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10: 10, 11). The good shepherd still gives His life through you, so that those around you who see Him in you may have life more abundant! Just as He embraced the cross and despised the shame, moment by moment He seeks to continue to embrace the cross and despise the shame in us, to bring life to others.

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I might attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3: 10, 11).

What an incredible truth! Earthen vessels that are made so completely transparent so as to become totally invisible, so that the only thing others see is the treasure those earthen vessels contain! One of the most vital tools that God is seeking to use to reach this objective in our lives are: the storms. What a most vital purpose every one of those storms has in this glorious plan of God!