Two weeks ago, we had an opportunity to fellowship in the Scriptures, basically around a verse in Matthew chapter 5. It had to do with this matter of the kingdom of God.
What we discovered in our fellowship was that when our Lord Jesus came and began His ministry, there was one overriding burden in His heart that came out. It had already been introduced by His forerunner, John the Baptist.
The message was a very simple one. It was not complicated or hard to understand:
Repent, because the kingdom of God is at hand.
Now, I do not know how you brothers and sisters and friends view that, but for both John the Baptist—who certainly had one of the greatest responsibilities that any human being has ever had, to be the forerunner of our Lord Jesus—and our Lord Jesus Himself to have this burden about the kingdom of God points out to us that this matter of the kingdom is a matter of utmost importance.
This morning, I felt that we might begin with a very short review of something. First of all, what do you think God’s purpose is for man? Why did God ever create us anyhow? We give Him so many problems—only heartaches. He knows everything; He knew how things were going to turn out. Why did God ever create us?
Let me respond with my own limited understanding. I think we find the answer in Romans chapter 8, verse 29:
Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.
My dear brothers and sisters, do you know what God is after in us individually? He is going to obtain it. He is going to gain it. He wants you and me to have the character—the perfect character—of His own Son formed in us.
Now, if we are honest with ourselves, we would have to admit, with the poet, that we have miles to go before we sleep. There is a lot of work still to be done. But God has not given up, no matter how difficult we make it. He is not going to give up. He is going to find a way to reproduce in every one of His children the character of His own Son.
Then we might ask, what was God’s purpose for the family?
There is a book that, at least for me, helps explain God’s purpose for the family. Certainly, we can put it in terms of God wanting the reality of His kingdom to be manifested there. With the old-covenant people, it was said that they had light in their dwelling. God’s presence was there.
With God’s presence in the family unit, light was manifested. The reality of God’s rulership was manifested in the family. That is God’s purpose for the family.
Now, what is God’s purpose for the church?
The verse that helps me the most is Ephesians chapter 1, the last verse in that chapter:
The church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
I wonder if it would be helpful for us, from time to time, to use a different word when we refer to the church, because the word “church” has come to mean something that it really is not. In misusing the word, we reinforce misunderstanding in ourselves.
Perhaps, for a while, it would be a good spiritual discipline, when we are referring to the church, to refer to it as the fullness of Christ. That is God’s perspective. We have our own perspective, but from God’s perspective there is only one purpose for the church: to contain the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we might ask, what is God’s purpose for the universe?
I think it is answered at the end of that same verse:
The church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Do you know what the purpose of the universe is? It is to display the fullness, the beauty—the full beauty—that is revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if we go back to this verse in Matthew chapter 5, when Jesus sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to speak to them, and the first words that came out of His mouth were:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
So, brothers and sisters, it seems to me that not only at the beginning of our Lord’s ministry, but also when He was seeking to set down the most important things for us to understand, He began with this matter of the kingdom of God.
Something has happened in this universe that has challenged, if you please, the kingdom of God. I hope you have done some thinking, so that it is clear in your heart that God, in Himself, has the right to rule because He is God.
Therefore, the kingdom is His. The rulership is His. The dominion is His. It does not belong to anybody else.
We should not be surprised that this matter of the kingdom of God was at the forefront of our Lord Jesus’ ministry—not only in preaching and teaching, but also in the reason He performed miracles: to display the reality of God’s rulership.
When something had become a mess, when something had become evil, He touched it. By doing so, He displayed what happens when God has His way. When God is ruling, things are totally different.
Paul said in Romans chapter 14, verse 17:
The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
When we look around—whether at our own lives, our family units, the church, or the whole universe, at least that part which we can see with our eyes—we see that things are wrong. People’s lives are in a mess. We continue to make a mess of things. Why? Because the kingdom of God is not a living reality.
This is why our Lord Jesus has come.
When we talk about salvation, please allow it to include all that it includes: a full restoration of everything according to God’s will.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. This is the God we are talking about.
Our Lord Jesus gives us, right up front, the one thing necessary. Without this, we cannot know the reality of the kingdom:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
Theirs is the kingdom of God in reality, not merely something to be hoped for.
There is a day coming when our Lord Jesus will return here. He will set up His kingdom here, and eventually He will be the ruling Sovereign over all things. But now we can know the kingdom here—in our own lives, in our homes, in our families, and in the church. We can see it displayed, in some measure, in this world that is antagonistic—hopelessly antagonistic—to God and His kingdom.
Our Lord Jesus makes it very clear that poverty of spirit is an absolute necessity. It is not optional.
When I went to boot camp in the Navy, during the training sessions they had classes that you needed to attend. They categorised them as a must one, a must two, a must three, and so on.
Brothers and sisters, poverty of spirit is a must one if we are going to know the kingdom of God. It is not optional. To whatever degree this poverty of spirit is ours in experience, to that same degree we can experience the reality of God’s rulership—His kingdom—in our lives and in other places.
Our Lord Jesus points out that this is something to which we need to give ourselves in understanding and experience.
We ended last time with some verses in Philippians chapter 2. This morning, I would like for us to begin a few verses earlier, in Philippians chapter 1.
Paul was sitting in a prison cell, writing to these dear brothers and sisters whom he loved very much. He was the man whom the Holy Spirit used to bring the church into being in Philippi. In a very unusual way, he did it in a prison.
While Paul was in prison previously, the Philippian jailer came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, along with his household. This was the beginning of the church.
As you read the letter to the Philippians, you find that Paul had a wonderful relationship with these dear brothers and sisters. They were concerned about him while he was in prison, and they sent a gift to him through Epaphroditus. Now he is writing back to them, addressing issues of disunity and disharmony, particularly between Euodia and Syntyche.
He is seeking to help them live in oneness of heart and oneness of mind, to be unified, so that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ might be beautifully displayed in their corporate life together.
Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, says:
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you—and that too from God.
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
Paul continues in Philippians chapter 2:
If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if there is any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.
Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Have this attitude in yourselves which also existed in Christ Jesus.
Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed—not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence—work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Let us ask the Lord to help us.
Lord, we want to bless You that You have sought us out and made us Your own. We want to thank You that You gave us the opportunity and privilege this morning to come and be with You and Your people at Your table.
We rejoice that the Holy Spirit has helped us to express something of our heart’s love to You, even through our time of worship at Your table.
Now, Lord, we want to thank You that You have so richly blessed us. One of the ways You have richly blessed us is by giving us a copy of Your written Word.
We stand today humbled before Your Word, asking that You would send Your Holy Spirit to enable us to see the truth that is here.
Lord, we ask You simply to take the written Word and the spoken word and make it Your Word to each of our hearts.
We ask it in Your name. Amen.
We find that poverty of spirit is the door that opens and enables us to experience the reality of God’s rulership—His kingdom—in our lives.
We might say that our poverty before God permits Him to impart His riches to us.
I hope that at some point in your Christian life you have stopped long enough in your busy schedule to think seriously about what God has done for us in His Son. He has taken all the riches of heaven, put them in Him, and then given Him to us as an absolutely free gift.
There is nothing more that He can give. He has given the absolute best He has, and He has made all that He has available to anyone. He so loved the world that whosoever believes may receive Him.
So, when you look at it honestly, there are no excuses. There is no accusation that we can make towards God. He has given His Son, making Himself fully available to all of us.
All the riches and all the fullness of the Godhead are now available to you and me as those living here on this planet.
What hinders us? What prevents us?
The opposite of poverty of spirit: pride of spirit, arrogance, self-confidence, and thinking that we can do it ourselves.
How did we get this way? How did we get into such a position that we do not readily and fully enter into the riches that are ours in the Lord Jesus Christ?
What has happened is that we are simply children of Adam. We are of Adam’s race. When Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a spirit of independence, arrogance, self-confidence, and self-centredness came into the human race.
Before they ate of the tree, they were naked, but they were not aware that they were naked. As soon as they ate of the tree, they became very aware and conscious of themselves, centred upon themselves.
You and I, being born into the human race, have been born with that same nature. It is hostile toward God. It does not want God’s will and, according to Romans chapter 8, cannot do the will of God.
That independent self-sufficiency keeps you and me from knowing the reality of the riches of living in the kingdom of God.
What we have to learn to do is humble ourselves before God, to be willing to acknowledge that we are nothing.
Actually, when you look at it, we are worse than nothing. We are sinners. We have not merely failed to do something; we have violated His will knowingly and willingly. We deserve His wrath and judgment.
But He has been merciful. He has provided a way. He has withheld His wrath, and instead of giving judgment, He has given riches. He has given us a great salvation.
It is only as we enter into this experience of being poor in spirit that we are able to receive what God has already provided for us.
One translation renders Matthew chapter 5, verse 3 in this way:
Blessed are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
A footnote attempts to explain what it means to be humble by describing humility as poverty of pride.
Think about it.
This is our problem. We are rich in pride, and therefore we are deprived of experiencing the riches that are ours in Christ.
When we are willing to become absolutely poor in pride, we are in a condition where God can come and become our very life. We can have a life of total dependence upon Him.
This is a very difficult thing, at least for me. Maybe it is not for you.
When we read John chapter 15, where the Lord Jesus says:
I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Are you convinced? Are you convinced that what our Jesus says is true—that without Him you can do nothing?
It is only as we find ourselves in a place of absolute dependence upon God and what He has provided that you and I can know life the way He initially designed it and intends for us to live.
If we are going to know the kingdom, it means that we have to deal radically with our pride.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11:
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.
With whom are they violent? With themselves.
We are the only thing that stands in the way of entering into the riches that are ours in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The way we enter into God’s kingdom is through being poor in spirit—being paupers, having nothing of ourselves, being totally dependent. God has designed us, created us, and redeemed us to live a totally dependent life, dependent upon Him.
If your experience is the same as mine, you may find yourself thinking and acting as though you are supposed to do the best you can, and then, when you get into trouble, turn to the Lord.
Is that the way you approach things?
That is a faulty way of thinking. We need to start out in the place where we usually end up. If we could start there, things would come out much better.
We may admit that being humble before God is a good thing, but Paul brings in another dimension of humility—not just in our relationship with God, but in our relationship with each other.
The problem Paul was seeking to help the Philippians with was a lack of oneness. Problems were beginning to come into their corporate life.
Out of his deep burden for them, he calls them his beloved, his joy, and his crown. They were very special to him. You can sense his heart going out to them. Because of his love for them, he was going to share that which would be most helpful.
He encourages them to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.
Now, what is the gospel according to Paul?
For many of God’s people, the gospel is only the forgiveness of sins. But this is a complete gospel. It is a gospel centred in a Person. It is not merely a teaching, doctrine, or philosophy. It is a Person—the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, whenever we want to understand the gospel, we have to look at Him.
This gospel is something God has accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ to ultimately restore the whole universe. It includes our restoration, the restoration of family life, and the restoration of corporate life, so that the fullness of Christ can be experienced.
The writer of Hebrews calls it “so great a salvation”—not merely a great salvation, but so great a salvation—because it encompasses everything.
God is going to take us where He finds us and accomplish what was in His heart originally. His intention for you and me is that we should be conformed to the image of His Son.
This is part of the gospel. It is the gospel of transformation. He is not going to leave you where you are. He is going to take us in whatever condition He finds us and transform us from glory to glory until, finally, the character of His Son is formed in us.
The same thing is true in our corporate life. When He finds our situation, there is good news: a provision has been made.
Whether it is in our individual life, our family, or our life together as God’s people, when we enter into difficulties and fail, what does it prove?
It proves that we have gone someplace other than to the Lord Himself for our solutions. That is what it means to me.
Rather than remaining in a place of humility and dependence upon Him, we have gone someplace else. If you read your Bibles carefully, you will find that this has been the history of God’s people from almost day one.
It does not have to be that way, but that is the way it usually turns out. We go someplace else, and He has to bring us back.
Yet it is a gospel that tells us about the wonderful work God has done in the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby He can take the worst people and the worst situations, restore them, and bring them back to what He wants them to be.
Micah chapter 6, verse 8, has been haunting me for a few months:
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
That is all He requires.
I do not find it easy to stay in that place of poverty. Even after God richly blesses me, I somehow get the erroneous idea that I brought it on myself, that I produced it through my own good efforts.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 speaks about how God had to deal with His people: He blessed them, and then they thought the blessings came from themselves.
Some of us in this room have been so blessed by God that it is beyond our ability to enumerate it all. He has given us wonderful revelations of His heart. Some people would give everything they had to receive some of the teaching that you and I have had the opportunity to hear.
He has blessed us, but what happens? We become proud of our blessing.
Then hardness, self-centredness, and confidence in ourselves begin to settle in. The moment that happens, it blocks the reality of the kingdom from coming here.
The gospel Paul is talking about is a gospel in which God ultimately wants to transform us to be like His Son. He wants the church to be a place where the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ is evidenced—the fullness of His love, mercy, grace, patience, and ability to forgive.
He wants it all to be displayed in a full way.
How can that be possible?
I think the key Paul gives the Philippians is the key he would speak to us:
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
When the Christ in me relates to the Christ in you, there is no difficulty. Why, then, do we have difficulty relating to one another? Because something other than Christ has come in.
The issue of humility is not merely a matter of humility before the Lord. We have to learn how to be humble and poor in spirit in our relationships with our brothers and sisters.
It seems to me that we get proud of all kinds of things, sometimes the most foolish things. But the most insidious kind of pride is spiritual pride, because it comes under the cloak of being godly.
It blinds us. It does something to our hearts that we need to be willing to examine. It can cause us to become people we hoped we would never become again, doing things of which we are ashamed.
There is a real danger of getting old in the Lord. We may reach a certain point, and then begin to get old in ourselves. We fossilise and crystallise. We learn how to do spiritual things, and it all looks and sounds good to many people. But if it is not reality, it is the result of thinking we are somebody when we are not.
Our Lord Jesus did not write the letter to the church at Laodicea only for Laodicea. It is written for us too.
What was their overriding problem?
You say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.”
They had received rich teaching and rich experiences with the Lord, but they themselves became the substitute. They became proud of their experiences, and that pride caused them to close the door. The Lord Jesus was outside, knocking to get in.
Paul is laying before his beloved ones the way they can overcome their situation: they must have the same attitude operating in them that operated in our Lord Jesus from beginning to end.
Paul begins by saying that they should not consider themselves number one, but should consider others more important than themselves.
Does that come naturally to you outside of Christ?
No, it does not. We are born with a nature that causes us to look at ourselves as number one. But into this nature God has put a new life and a new nature.
Paul is trying to focus their hearts on this new life, so that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ can come into the assembly and overcome the situation they face.
Let me mention the seven steps downward that Jesus took. We might call them the seven steps to poverty.
The world has many books on “twelve easy steps to success”. But here Paul points us to the steps Jesus took to reach the goal of poverty of spirit.
First, although He existed in the form of God, He did not hold on to His position as God. He surrendered His position.
Was He right? Was He in the right position? Yes, He was God. Yet the first step He took in His heart, at the request of His Father, was to surrender His position.
Do you not find that when you are having disagreements with your brothers and sisters, one of the most difficult things to do is surrender your position?
“I am supposed to be respected. I have this place.”
But He surrendered His position.
Second, He emptied Himself.
He could not empty Himself of being God. How could He do that? It is impossible. He emptied Himself of His rights as God.
Here is the way I would put it: He became a nobody. Even though He was God, He became a nobody. He emptied Himself of all His rights as God.
Third, He gave Himself to become a bond-servant—to His Father, to do His Father’s will no matter what.
When you read the Gospel of John, you repeatedly hear our Lord Jesus saying that it was His meat to do the will of Him who sent Him. This is the declaration of a bond-servant who loves His Master, has given up His own rights, and whose heart-burden is only to do that which is pleasing to His Master.
Fourth, with this bond-servant heart, He became a man.
To me, the greatest mystery in the whole universe is this: how could God become man?
The human mind cannot solve that question. Every time human beings have tried to explain how God and man could be one Person, they have come up with some form of heresy. Either He was not God or He was not man. The human mind cannot allow Him to be both simultaneously.
But the fact is that He was. He is. He still is—God and man.
His humanity does not affect His divinity, and His divinity does not override His humanity. He is perfectly both God and man.
The One who created it all became a creature, taking on the limitations of creaturehood. He became a man, limited to a human body here on this planet, walking around and functioning as a human being. And yet He was God.
That is a considerable step down—from God to becoming a creaturely man.
Fifth, as a man, He humbled Himself. He was a perfect man and should have had the respect of all men. He should have been elevated to the highest place in humanity. Yet He took another step down and humbled Himself.
He became poor in spirit. He set aside any pride that He rightfully had.
Sixth, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient.
Hebrews tells us that although He was a Son, He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. He did not escape anything. Our Lord Jesus had to learn how to obey in the midst of the situations of everyday life.
He did not obey men; He obeyed His heavenly Father.
To what point did He obey?
He obeyed to the point of death—even death on a cross.
I wish I had better language and a fuller understanding of what was accomplished when God the Son, the Creator, died on the cross at the hands of men.
And Paul says that the same attitude we see operating in Him needs to be operating in us.
We have not even come close to being in the position He was in. Where did we start? We started as sinners. The only thing you and I can brag about is our sin.
Why, then, are we so unwilling to go lower—to go as low as our Lord Jesus demonstrated for us?
I have been trying to do some reading on the Sermon on the Mount. I came across a book by Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount.
He makes the observation that the reason the Lord Jesus spoke the words of the Sermon on the Mount was to fully frustrate us—to bring us to the place where we throw up our hands and say, “There is no way this can be accomplished.”
Some people say the Sermon on the Mount is not for now, but for when the kingdom comes, because it is impossible. If you take seriously what our Lord Jesus said, you have to throw up your hands and say, “There is no way.”
What is He trying to do? He is trying to frustrate us with our own human efforts and self-efforts, so that we will surrender and come to a place of poverty of spirit.
We admit, “I cannot do it,” and learn to stay there.
This is the challenge I confront. The Lord is so merciful that He arranges opportunities for every one of His children to learn poverty, without exception. He does it perfectly, at the right time and under the right circumstances.
Somehow, we enter into it for a little while. But I am amazed at how quickly we move away from it.
He reduces us to a place of dependency, and once we get through the difficulty, we think, “Just watch me. I can take it from here.”
It is an endless process of God having to deal with us again and again about the independence inside us.
But praise God, if you have been born from above, born again, and Christ has come to live in your heart, then you have a new nature and a new life.
The humility Paul calls the Philippian believers to enter into is not natural in themselves. They can find it in only one place: in Christ Himself.
Paul says:
If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if there is any affection and compassion, make my joy complete.
Where do you find this kind of humility? The only place is in Christ Himself.
Human beings learn a few lessons. We become tired of being embarrassed by our pride, so we learn our own brand of humility—sometimes false humility. But there is only one place where we find the real thing: in our Lord Jesus Himself.
God has been merciful to us. We will appreciate the fullness of His mercy when we look back and see what a wonderful thing He has done.
Before God intervened in our lives, where were we headed? I have some idea, and I do not even like to think about where I was going.
But God has come into our lives and delivered us from meaninglessness. That is His salvation. Now He not only delivers us; He wants to fill our lives with the fullness displayed in the person of His Son.
There is a price to be paid. It is humility.
How can the church be the fullness of Him who fills all in all?
The principle is the same. Paul says:
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.
Selfishness and self-centredness are natural to us. We want to hold on to our position, ideas, understanding, knowledge, and experiences, holding on to them selfishly like a bulldog.
Then there is empty conceit. What basis do we have for conceit? What can we brag about? Even in our testimonies, we sometimes glorify how great a sinner we were. We exaggerate our testimonies because we want people to think we were bigger sinners than we really were.
Pride is something else, brothers and sisters. It takes some funny twists.
Now, think with me for a moment. Who is the most difficult brother or sister you have to deal with?
Do not say it out loud. Take that person in your estimation. Honestly—do not play religious games or practise false humility—do you believe that person is more important than you are?
Is that what the Word of God says?
Where can you find the humility that will enable you to do that? Only in one place: in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Because He is not only a crucified Saviour but a resurrected Saviour, Christ has come to live inside us. He can enable us to be humble and to consider our brothers and sisters more important than ourselves.
We are also to consider the interests of others more important than our own personal interests.
When you read the New Testament, especially Paul’s letters, you find the phrase “one another” again and again.
We have been brought together with one another. There are times when we might have chosen not to be thrown together with certain brothers and sisters. But God has put us together, and we are required to learn how to live with one another.
The Lord did not take only people of the same personality, intellectual ability, or financial background. He threw them all together and said:
This is My commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
As far as I know, He has not taken that commandment back.
I do not find it easy to fulfil that command. Some of you are hard to love. Your personalities are different, and you do things that irritate the daylights out of me. I wish you would do things differently.
Then something begins to settle in my heart. You are no longer up here, but down here, and I become your judge rather than your servant.
Paul says that our Lord Jesus became a bond-servant. Whose servant are you?
We would all like to say, as the writers of the New Testament did, “a bond-servant of the Lord Jesus Christ”. But whose bond-servant did our Lord Jesus become?
When He washed the disciples’ feet in John chapter 13, He became the servant of those twelve men. One of them He knew would betray Him. One was so self-centred and self-confident that he did not feel the Lord needed to wash his feet. Yet Jesus washed them all the same.
We have to learn how to be humble and poor in spirit in our relationship with one another. This is the gospel.
It is not merely a gospel of forgiveness or a gospel of grace. It is a gospel in which we learn to love one another as He has loved us.
Let me give you several passages to consider.
Romans chapter 12, verse 10, says:
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honour.
We need to do everything we can, by the grace of God, to put our brothers and sisters in positions of honour above ourselves and to prefer them.
This is the opposite of selfishness. It means being concerned about them, their well-being, what is going on in their lives, and whether they are finding their place of functioning among God’s people.
The result will be a greater fullness of Christ among us.
Some brothers and sisters find it very difficult to find a place to function among us. Their timidity, their attitude towards themselves, or whatever has formed their thinking may make it almost impossible for them to open their mouths in a meeting, vocalise their worship and praise, or pray.
If we see people seeking to make those breakthroughs, and they do make a breakthrough—even if they have not done it as perfectly as we think they should—we need to encourage them and help bring them in.
Even if it means becoming a nobody.
Romans chapter 15, verse 7, says:
Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
I remember a dear sister whose husband abandoned her and her two children. It was beyond my ability to describe what she was going through. She was part of a fellowship of God’s people, and she said to me, “Ernie, when I go there, I feel as though I am not accepted because I have not fully overcome yet.”
Unconsciously, we develop standards for the kind of people we want in fellowship. Says who?
We are told to accept one another as God in Christ has accepted us. Did He say, “Before I can accept you, you must do this, this, and this, and meet this standard”?
No. We are acceptable in Christ.
We must be very careful that we do not communicate unacceptableness to anyone. If the Lord has accepted them, who are we to do otherwise?
Romans chapter 12, verse 16, says:
Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
If we have been received and accepted by the Lord, we cannot have favourites. We may develop special relationships with certain people, but all our brothers and sisters ought to be dear to us.
First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 25, says:
There should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
There is no way that you and I can go through this life without picking up scars. Some of those scars result from difficult situations that God’s people are called to go through.
There are brothers and sisters who are going through things that seem totally impossible to endure. Why does the Lord put us together? So that we can go through them together and have care for one another.
Our Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and He wants all His sheep to be cared for. One way He does this is by giving each of us responsibility to care for the others He brings into our lives—to be concerned about them, love them, pray for them, and encourage them.
Ephesians chapter 5, verse 21, says:
Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
We like to proclaim our freedom: “I am free.” But as members of the body of Christ, we are to submit to one another, respect one another, and learn how to receive from one another.
This does not mean that others dictate how we live. It means that there is an understanding between us that they have access to our lives. If they see us going somewhere or doing something detrimental to the body of Christ, they have a right to call it to our attention.
If we are nobodies in our own minds, it should not be a problem to submit to others. The problem comes when we think we are somebody and will not listen to a nobody.
Galatians chapter 5, verse 13, speaks of serving one another in love.
Serving means bond-service: giving up our rights, being concerned about the well-being of others, and taking the position our Lord Jesus took. He said:
I did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give My life a ransom for many.
Colossians chapter 3, verse 16, speaks of teaching and admonishing one another.
We need to learn to be admonished by one another. None of us lives a perfect life. At some point, in our life together with God’s people, we are going to fail—and we may fail in a major way.
Do our brothers and sisters have the freedom to come to us and admonish us when they see us doing something detrimental to the life of the fellowship? Are we open? Are we accessible? Can they come into our lives and sit down in fellowship with us?
Some of us are very thin-skinned. We get our feelings hurt easily because we are focused on ourselves.
I remember reading about a brother who received a great deal of criticism. It seemed that all the brothers and sisters were criticising him for something.
He went to the Lord, and the Lord said, “That is the best thing that can happen to you. It is good for you to be criticised and corrected by your brothers and sisters.”
So the brother began carrying a pocket full of coins. Whenever somebody criticised him, he gave them a coin.
What a different approach. Rather than striking back, we receive the concern and correction with humility.
If you are a nobody, if you humble yourself to the point of death, there is nothing to respond with except concern and love for your brothers and sisters.
The source of this kind of humility is only in our Lord Jesus.
Recently, I started reading the Book of Revelation again, and I discovered that the Lamb is on the throne. Do you know how many times the Lord Jesus is referred to as the Lamb in the Book of Revelation? Twenty-nine times.
He takes the scroll. There is the wrath of the Lamb, those who follow the Lamb, the Lamb as Shepherd, and the marriage of the Lamb. It all has to do with a Lamb nature.
In Philippians chapter 2, Paul says:
Therefore God highly exalted Him, and gave Him the name which is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Why did God do that? Because of His Lamb nature.
Do you know why He is seated in the position He occupies now? Because of His Lamb nature. As a Lamb, He was led to the slaughter.
Can you think of a more defenceless or less threatening creature than a lamb? Are you afraid of a pet lamb biting you or running into you and hurting you? No.
When the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God,
He might have said, “Blessed are those who have a Lamb nature, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”
You remember what the elder said in Revelation:
Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome.
But when John looked to see the Lion, what did he see? He saw a Lamb.
I want you to check me out on this, but I think God is determined to have people who are going to reign with His Son—people who have a Lamb nature.
Where does all of this get worked out? A lot of it is worked out right here, in our relationships with one another and in our homes.
What hinders us from becoming servants to the members of our family? What keeps us from serving our brothers and sisters here? What keeps us from serving all the people God brings into our lives?
What keeps us? We keep ourselves. I hinder me. If you do not hinder me, I hinder me.
We see in our Lord Jesus that it can work, but only in one way: by being in fellowship with the Lamb nature God has put in us.
In our relationships with each other, we need to be as gentle and humble as lambs.
The Lord Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11:
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Are you tired of trying to be humble? Are you weary? If you are in that state, come to Him. He will give you rest.
My brothers and sisters, I know it took a long time to say this, but we have a place where we can go.
I admit to you that I have blown it. I have not been humble and poor in spirit. If you have been on the receiving end of my pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, or whatever else goes along with it, I ask for your forgiveness.
Please forgive me. If you need to talk with me, please come to me.
Pray for me. We need to pray for one another.
Somehow, may this Lamb nature that is in our Lord Jesus be formed in every one of us.
May the Lord be merciful and help us.