THE LORD IS NEAR
David J Hutson
John 14: 1-3
Acts 1: 9
It is a wonderful fact that we shall always be near Jesus, to see His face and hear His voice. Everyone in that vast throng will be near Him. We cannot understand it; it is spiritual, abiding, eternal. But He does not say, ‘I am going to receive you to the place’; He says, “I … shall receive you to myself”. Is that not wonderful? Every one received to Himself! That is very near, very intimate. I will not say more about it because I cannot. It is so wonderful.
But then what about the present time? Some may remember a tract called ‘Just Behind the Cloud’. When the Lord Jesus was taken up from His own, they did not see Him, it would seem, as Elisha saw Elijah going away into heaven. He was taken up from them, and they gazed into heaven, but what it says is “a cloud received him out of their sight” as though it would hide them from seeing Him at a distance - as the tract says, He was ‘Just Behind the Cloud’. How near He appeared to be to them, just behind the cloud. They were gazing into heaven and, in that sense, they did not see Him at a distance.
Other scriptures could be referred to - brethren know better than me. Think of how He said, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”, Matt 11: 28, 29. If you are in a yoke with somebody, you are very close. How wonderful that is, and that is the invitation to us if we feel burdened, “for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”, v 30. What a difference it makes to us if we realise that He is near, and that is the truth. By the Spirit, He is near.
I just want to leave that impression that it may be a comfort to us. Whatever the troubles, whatever the burdens we may carry, whatever our circumstances, He is not far away. He is always near. Blessed be His Name! Amen.
Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
5th September 2017