Lord, we are so thankful and encouraged in our hearts just to be able to simply say, “We love You, Lord.” Lord, we know it is because You first loved us.
Lord, we love You because You do, as our sisters already shared, take care of us even when we do not want to be taken care of. Lord, we love You. We love You for Your patience, Your mercy, Your long-suffering, and Your willingness to stick through with us, Lord.
Lord, we thank You that You love us. Lord, we want to come back today and ask that You would just open Your Word to us, so it would do something in our hearts. Lord, draw us closer to Thee. Lord, that might open our eyes to see Thee more clearly.
Lord, open our ears that we might hear Thee more clearly, and that, Lord Jesus, our walk with Thee might be shadowless. We just praise and worship Thee this morning. We honor Your name. Lord, honor Your Word in our midst. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I would like to begin this morning by reading a couple of Scriptures first. Let us turn to Luke 10:38-39.
Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word.
Let us go to Matthew 18:20.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
Let us read now 1 Peter 2:5, the verse that I used last time I spoke.
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Well, last time I shared—you may not even remember, but it has been a while—I really emphasized this matter of living stones being built up together. In that ministry, I shared how, in those early days, our great desire was for the Lord to have a house: a place of comfort for Him, a place where He was recognized and loved.
That was really our heart in the early days, and I want you to know that is still our heart: that the Lord Jesus would have a Bethany. I mentioned that, and it has stuck with me ever since.
This morning, it is just on my heart to share a little bit more about a Bethany for the Lord. Bethany was where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, and they loved Jesus.
That Scripture I just read says that they welcomed Him into their home. They welcomed Him with joy. They expressed their love to Him. They took care of Him at their place. It was a place where He could be at peace, at rest, and at home while He was on this earth.
The Apostle John, more than any of the other apostles, I think, reveals the very heart of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Father. In John 1:11, it says Christ came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
What a tragedy. What a heartbreak for our Lord. The ones that should have recognized who He was, should have desired Him to be in their presence, loved Him, and tried to cherish Him, instead rejected Him.
These were not strangers. These were His own—His own people, the ones that had come under special covenant with His Father.
Later in His ministry, in Luke 9:58, the Lord Jesus declared:
Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.
The animals that I created, I have created a place for them, a home for them—even the foxes and the birds. But I have come, and I find nowhere to lay My head.
Luke 10:38, which I just read, is the first recorded time our Lord Jesus Christ is in Bethany. He may have been there before, but this is the first recorded Scripture. It says that Martha received Him. She welcomed Him, and Mary sat at His feet.
Bethany: that is where He was welcomed and where He was received. It is where He was cherished and where He was listened to.
In the last days, six days before the Passover, before He went to Calvary, we find Him at Bethany again. He is there at Bethany, and He stays overnight.
The next day, He gets up and tells the disciples to get Him a donkey. They could go to a certain place, and the man would give them a donkey, one that had never been ridden before.
We all know that in those days kings came in riding. That was the day—Sunday—when He made a triumphal entry, and the people rejoiced, “Hosanna in the highest!” Oh, how glorious that day was.
As He approached the city of Jerusalem, He came over the hill and looked over the city. It says He wept when He saw the city that represented God’s testimony. The people that were to have received Him had rejected Him, and He knew it.
His heart was broken, brothers and sisters. I think any of our hearts are broken when we find that we are rejected, particularly by the ones we love. It is so difficult. Rejection probably has the most profound effect of anything that can happen in our lives on this earth.
If you live long enough, you will probably have that time of rejection in your life. It is difficult. The Lord, though He was sad, saw that the people did not see and could not hear. There was no real testimony of God there, and He wept over the city.
He goes on to the temple. It was His Father’s house, but He does not find His Father present there in the temple. He does not find a place where He is welcomed or noticed.
There is no place of rest for Him there in that earthly temple. What He finds is money changers—people doing business, making money, hustle and bustle. His Father’s house has been defiled.
He is sad, and it is late in the afternoon, so He returns to Bethany. Once again, He stays there that night.
The next morning, He gets up to go back to Jerusalem once more. Bethany and Bethphage are two little villages near the Mount of Olives, just outside the city.
That next morning, He goes out and comes to a fig tree. There is no fruit on the fig tree. He is hungry, and He curses the fig tree, and it immediately withers.
Now, I think most of us here already know that the fig tree represented Israel, the nation of Israel. He came to His own, and His own received Him not. All that was there was leaves—the appearance of something—but the reality was not there.
There was no fruit for Him in the nation of Israel. They had failed God’s heart, and they had failed God’s purpose in having a place for the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. We all know that the nation of Israel, at this point, is set aside—not done away with, but set aside for a time.
He then goes to the temple. He cleanses the temple. He overturns the tables of the money changers.
My Father’s house shall be called a house of prayer.
Then He returns to Bethany. You know what Bethany means? Bethany and Bethphage: house of figs.
There was the fruit. There was the place where He could be fed and satisfaction was found: the house of figs. How interesting. Bethany, the house of figs for our Lord Jesus.
Now listen real carefully. This is so important. I have already read it: Matthew 18:20.
Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst.
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house.
Do you see? Do you get it? Do you see beyond just the message here, beyond the Scripture, to what the Lord is saying? Have your eyes been opened to see the connection between Bethany, between two or three gathered together, and the Lord Jesus saying, “I am in your midst”?
Those built together are a living house for the Lord, a place of rest. We should be the Lord’s Bethany.
What the Lord is saying in these Scriptures is: when two or three are gathered in My name, unto My name—and our brother Jeffrey spoke on what that meant—that does not mean just two or three hanging out together. It does not mean just two or three brothers and sisters being together, even talking about the Lord.
It means two or three gathered under His name, under His authority, under His lordship, looking to Him to be Head and Lord of their lives—not only individually, but corporately—given to one another to be a place where the Lord would feel comfortable in their midst. That is what it means.
It is a place where He is recognized, a place where the Lord’s presence is desired, a place of fellowship for the Lord, and a place of rest. That is what He is looking for.
I think the Lord would say, “I love all of you. You are all Mine. You are all My sheep. I love you, every one. I am going to take care of every one of you.”
“But you need to know I do have a special desire in My heart. My desire is to be able to dwell in the midst of you together—two or three gathered together in My name.”
“I will meet with you individually. I will meet you in your prayer closet. I will encourage you, and I want you to. But you need to know, I have a desire. I am in you, but I have a desire to dwell in the midst of My people—My resting place forever.”
That brings up Psalm 132, a psalm of David. Turn to that one. Let us read it.
Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions:
How he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob;
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,
Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.
That is what it means for the Lord to dwell in the midst of His people, in the midst of two or three.
Now let us go on and read Psalm 132:14. This is God responding to David:
This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
The Lord’s heart. The Lord’s heart.
The Lord God—the Father and Son—have always desired to dwell in the midst of His people. You remember in the garden, it says that He came in the cool of the day, seeking out Adam and Eve.
We may think of that as Him approaching them individually, but really there were two of them. He desired to be with them. He desired to fellowship with them. We do know they sinned, and that created a problem with fellowship. God took care of that at Calvary, but I do not want to miss the point: the Lord wants to be with us in our midst.
Exodus 29:45-46 says:
And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.
And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God.
He did not say, “I brought them out of Egypt just to save them.” He said, “I brought them out of Egypt that I might dwell among them.”
Then we know that the Lord had them build the tabernacle and the ark, which represented the presence of God. The tent was put in the midst of the twelve tribes, and the twelve tribes surrounded that tent. When they moved, the twelve tribes moved, and the ark was in their midst.
A cloud was over the tabernacle by day and fire by night. It was the presence of the Lord in the midst of His people, even in the desert.
I always thought it was interesting that after the Lord’s resurrection, the disciples were gathered together—the eleven, or ten, I think—and He appeared in their midst. He had appeared to some individuals, we know that, but here He appears in their midst.
Brothers and sisters, we have to realize that the Lord dwelling in the midst of His church is really pictured in Pentecost. At Pentecost, there were 120 brothers and sisters, individuals in the Lord. They were gathered together in the name of the Lord, under the headship of the Lord.
They had gone and been praying for ten days because the Lord, their Head, had directed them to do so. What happens at Pentecost? The Lord comes into their midst. The powerful Holy Spirit fills them and is in their midst, and the church is brought to birth.
They were no longer just individuals. They were united together by the Holy Spirit into one body in Jesus Christ, into that holy temple of the Lord—a house for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think this matter of the Lord being in our midst is very personal and very practical. “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst.” That is the Lord’s desire. That is what He is after.
Now look at Revelation 21:2-3.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.
The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them. That is the end of the Book, basically. We see the New Jerusalem coming down. That is after the thousand-year millennium period, where the Lord Jesus will come and reign on this earth for a thousand years.
Then we see the completed house of God coming down, and we find out it is not just a house; it is an entire city. It encompasses every brother and sister in Christ. Every living stone is in that completed house.
He says, “This is where I am going to dwell.” The dwelling place for the Lord—His Bethany.
I think this is particularly important as we gather together: Sundays, the Lord’s Table. He says, “If you gather under My name, committed to one another, being built together, I am in the midst.” That is His promise.
When we gather on Sundays, brothers and sisters, He is in our midst. When we gather together for prayer meeting, He is in our midst. When we come together to study His Word, He is in our midst. It is Bethany. It is where He fellowships with us, where He is at rest, where He can find pleasure.
As we come together, particularly on Sunday, I think we generally find ourselves in one of three spiritual conditions.
We come with faith in our heart. We know the Lord is in our midst. In faith, we apprehend the Lord, sense His presence, and enjoy His presence. We would not want to be anywhere else than at His Table and in His presence.
We have a mental understanding that He is in our midst. We read the Scriptures and say, “Yeah, that is true. That is right.” We have a conviction that the Lord Jesus is in our midst, but have we apprehended His presence by faith? If not, then we do not really sense His presence, and we do not really enjoy it.
Sometimes we just come. We just attend. It is kind of going through the routine.
Now, those are our conditions—I think those are three general conditions. But at His Table, through worship and communion with the Lord Jesus, we find that He is in fellowship with us and He is in our midst. It becomes His Bethany.
Brothers and sisters, I mentioned that years ago that was our heart. I hope that is still our heart: to be a Bethany for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think when we gather, we should really think about this: “Lord, am I going there to gather unto You, or am I attending a meeting?”
Even today, we announced about the meetings. I will tell you, brothers and sisters—and this is me; I am not trying in any way to condemn anybody, I really am not—but I never go to them. I always gather. I really do, in my heart.
When we come on Sundays, I am gathering to the Lord and with you. When I come on Wednesday night for prayer, I am gathering to the Captain of the host. He is in our midst. We are together. It is Bethany. When we get together to study His Word, it is a gathering.
So I like to say, we gather together unto the Lord, whether it is Sunday, Wednesday night, whatever. He delights to be in our midst. We should be delighted to have Him.
When we gather at the Table particularly, it is a family table, brothers and sisters. That is the way the Lord looks at us: His family.
It is as much for the Lord—in fact, it is for Him. The Table is His joy: to be in our midst, to fellowship with us, and to allow us to commune in His blood and all the value of His blood in our lives, and to commune with Him concerning His broken body, giving His very life to us.
He wants that to be real in our lives and real to us. That is what we apprehend by faith. We are a family, and the Lord Jesus is our elder Brother.
As we come together, did you know it is on the Lord’s heart to bring us to His Father?
Psalm 22:22 says:
I will declare Thy name unto My brethren:
In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.
How the Lord Jesus, when we come to that Table, loves to bring us to the Father. “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren in the midst of the congregation.” It is a time of worship, a time to remember Calvary’s provision, a time of fellowship with the Lord, a time of enjoying His presence as His family.
We thank and praise Him not out of obligation, brothers and sisters, when we come, but out of the overflow of our heart and our love for the Lord. It reveals the Lord Jesus saying, “I am going to bring you to My Father.”
You know what He is doing? He is really saying, “I want you to once again experience the Father’s love. I want you to be enveloped in the Father’s love as you take of this Table. It is My love for you too, but I want you to know that the Father loves you.”
He wants you to see the great depths in which the Father loves you as well, and to be immersed in His love as we come. When that truly happens in our hearts, everything else is forgotten, is it not? Our troubles, our sorrows, our concerns.
I am no longer thinking about myself, but about Him and the Father. I only see Him. I lose sight of everything but the Lord Jesus. That is worship, brothers and sisters. That is a Bethany for the Lord.
Now, to really be a Bethany, there has to be preparation. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus had to prepare for our Lord Jesus.
They had to have a little correction. Martha got so caught up in the preparation that she missed the Lord. We cannot do that. But preparation is important if there is to be a place where the Lord is worshiped and adored and can receive love back from us.
As we come, we cannot just come here on Sunday morning hoping that somehow the Lord will touch our heart, encourage us again, and we can enter in. I mean, we do that, do we not? I know I do.
We come probably thinking about other things, and we get here, and maybe fifteen or twenty minutes into the meeting, the Lord finally is able to touch our hearts and we can enter in. Well, it really should not be that way.
First of all, there are a couple of things in preparation. There should be no cloud between you and the Lord, between me and the Lord. Brothers and sisters, if we have sin, if we have a controversy with the Lord, we need to get it settled in His blood. We really do.
No clouds. It is hard to enjoy the sun on a cloudy day, is it not?
As we come, we want to be able to come into His presence without any hindrance in our hearts. When we come with a cloud, we spend most of our time dealing with the cloud.
I know; I have been there. You say, “Lord, I have to get this straight with You before I take this Table.” We are dealing with the cloud, but we are here. Far better to deal with the cloud before you come.
Then there is no distance when you come. There is no coldness in the meeting when you come. You can enjoy the Lord Jesus without the clouds. Clouds tend to block the sunshine as we gather together.
Secondly, we should come with washed feet. I know that might sound a little strange. Most of us, I think, at least in our culture, try to take a bath and get washed up before we come.
But the Lord is very interesting at the Last Supper. After the supper was over—and this is recorded in John 13:4-15; I am not going to read it all—after the feast, do you all remember the story? He introduces the Lord’s Table. He takes a towel and begins to wash the disciples’ feet.
Remember, Peter objects. He says, “No, Lord.” Peter understood—or, well, he did not understand. “Lord, what are You doing? The maid or somebody like that should be washing our feet, not You. You are the Lord. You are the Master. We should be washing Your feet, Lord.”
The Lord says:
If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.
“I am not talking about additional theology here, brothers. We need the blood for our sins. But here the Lord Jesus says, ‘If I wash you not, you have no part with Me.’”
This stuns Peter. Then he says, “Lord, if that is the case, wash my head, wash my hands—not only my feet, but everything.”
The Lord says, “No. He that is clean is washed, but you need your feet.”
In other words, brothers and sisters, the blood has cleansed. We come in the cleansing blood of Jesus. That is for sin, for rebellion, for the things that we do that oppose God and His Word.
But here, the Lord insists that He needs to wash our feet. So what is this all about? Well, the issue is not sin. The issue is defilement just from walking through this world.
Is that not the way your feet get dusty? You are just walking barefooted through the world. In those days, they had sandals; their feet got very dusty. The Lord says, “You need to wash the defilement away.”
Not because you have sinned, but defilement because you have just had the world experience, the world all this time, and it has its effect on you. It has an effect on your worship with Me. The world does that. It is the earth touch. You have come in touch with it. There is a defilement, and I just need to cleanse that.
We are no longer of the world, but we are in it, and we walk in it, and our feet get dusty. The Lord says, “I need to wash your feet.”
With our feet unwashed, the edge of our worship is taken off. The edge of our communion is dulled. It is because of that earth touch.
It is similar to my eyeglasses. They need to be cleaned. Now, I can see when I put them on. I can see, but they are dirty.
If I go in there and wash them off, I look and say, “Wow, what have I been missing?” They are so dirty you do not notice it, do you? You just do not really notice, but the edge has been taken off your relationship with the Lord.
I remember one time a man I worked with, retired now, said, “Jerry, I just got a new windshield in my car.” I think I have had five because I run up and down the interstate, and they get cracked and then they break.
Anyway, he said, “Isn’t it marvelous?” I said, “What are you talking about?” He said, “At night, with that new windshield, you look and everything is so bright and shiny. Otherwise, at night it is all pitted and dirty.”
I said, “You are right. It is much better with a clean windshield.” So that is what I am talking about. Just that dust needs to come off.
Brothers and sisters, what does that mean practically? Honestly, it is a little bit of preparation. Before we come, we do need to see that there are no clouds. But we just need to take a few minutes to get before the Lord.
Just come before Him. You can pick up the Scripture that we are going to be worshiping around and look at that. Maybe there will be another Scripture, or you are just before the Lord and something comes to your heart. The Lord refreshes you.
You know that refreshing you get when suddenly something in the Word just comes alive to you, or when you are before the Lord and you sense His presence? He is washing your feet, brothers and sisters. He is washing your feet.
No clouds. No defilement. Clear communion. Clear fellowship. We can enjoy. How precious I think the Lord is.
Do you realize that He did not just wash the disciples’ feet? He washes your feet. He washes your feet.
A couple of Wednesday nights ago, we came together. My sister offered a song, and boom, the Holy Spirit came right in. We could feel it. You could sense it.
I remember I responded that night, for those that were here. I said, “Do you know what just happened to you?” I said, “Your feet have been washed.”
We had a time of worship that was precious, and I thank the Lord for that. But it is interesting: John 13:14 says:
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
You also ought to wash one another’s feet. Brothers and sisters, when we gather, we do not always all come with washed feet, do we?
But if you have—if you come and your feet have been washed—and you are in our midst and you share a song, a prayer, a thought, or a verse, all of a sudden the rest of us, or maybe most of the rest of us, find our feet being washed.
All of a sudden, we are enjoying the presence of the Lord. That brother or sister washed your feet. Really, it is that the Lord has washed your feet through the brother or sister.
So you see how important this matter of washing the feet is, particularly in gathering where the Lord Jesus is in our midst.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to come together prepared—no clouds. Then we can enjoy the presence of the Lord. Maybe we can lift up our brother or sister so that they too can sense the presence of the Lord and enjoy His presence.
Brothers and sisters, our desire is to be a Bethany for the Lord Jesus Christ, a place of rest for Him.
There is one other thought. As we gather together, not only do we need to be prepared, but we need to be responsible as priests in this house of God.
In 1 Peter 2:5, it says that we are not only built up a spiritual house, but it goes on to say that we are a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual worship and service.
We do not gather together like a priesthood; we are a priesthood. We do not gather together like a house for the Lord to dwell in; we are the Lord’s house to dwell in, brothers and sisters.
We do not function like a body for the Lord; we are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tremendous difference. We are the holy priesthood as we gather.
The Lord Jesus—when we gather, we do come individually. But when we come together, together unto the Lord, we are coming as a—let me put it in musical terms, I guess. I will venture out there a little bit, being totally non-musical.
We really come as a choir or as an orchestra. You are one instrument; I am another instrument. We have all been before the Lord and gotten our instruments tuned and ready, and the Lord begins to direct the orchestra through the Holy Spirit.
One brother, one sister, a song, a prayer, a ministry of the Word—whatever it may be. Then we find, brothers and sisters, that we are no longer just an individual playing our instrument. We are part of something much greater. We are in the orchestra.
In reality, it is really fulfilling your function in the priesthood. He does not just say, “I am gathering My priests together.” He says, “You are the priesthood.”
As we gather, brothers and sisters, we see this in the Table that we take. When we take the Table, we see one loaf.
Each one of us breaks off a piece—the life of our Lord Jesus Christ—and we partake. When we finish the Table, we take away the plate, and the plate is empty.
But we all have the Lord Jesus together as one loaf. You see what has happened? He is the bread of life. We have partaken of that bread, and we become the one loaf.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know if there is any higher calling than to be before the Lord and have Him in our midst as we gather together. May the Lord encourage us and give us a real heart to be a Bethany for our Lord Jesus.
Lord, we just come today with these few simple thoughts. Lord, I pray that You will really open our eyes to see Your great desire for people gathered together unto Your name, where You can dwell in the midst.
Lord, we thank You. Every one of us, thank You, Lord. You have brought us into something far greater.
Lord, I remember in math it says that the whole is equal to the sum of the parts. Lord Jesus, it seems like to me that in spiritual reality, when You add up all the parts, the sum is much greater.
Lord, we thank You. We ask that You would bless us all. Lord, we thank You. I just pray that this word will really touch all of our hearts.
When we gather together, may we be gathering unto You, not just meeting, but gathering unto You as a Bethany for You. In Jesus’ name, amen.