THE WORKMAN AND HIS WORKMEN
J Bruce Ikin
Zechariah 13: 5, 6;
2 Corinthians 12: 15;
Philippians 2: 19-30;
2 Timothy 2: 15, 1, 2; 4: 11;
Mark 16: 20
I seek help of the Holy Spirit to speak of the Lord Jesus as the perfect Workman, and the work and His workmen. We were reading in the previous occasion of the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting and how it came under the approval of Moses. The Lord Jesus is the One who is the perfect Workman and the work is still going on. Workmen are needed. The Lord tells us, “The harvest indeed is great, but the workmen few; supplicate therefore the Lord of the harvest that he may send out workmen into his harvest”, Luke 10: 2. I would challenge myself as to whether I am truly available to Him as the Lord of the harvest. It is not that He is looking for volunteers exactly; I would speak carefully; He is looking for those who He would send out, for those who are prepared to be one of the workmen securing His harvest. What a fruitful harvest it is - it is for God, and He is the Lord of the harvest. As we come under His scrutiny, as we are serviceable to Him, He would send you and me out. Who would be involved in that? You might say that a woman would not be free to preach, but a woman is free to do the work of an evangelist, and we are thankful for sisters who do that. It is open to all of us to come into the work, to be workmen under the direction of the Lord Jesus as the One who is the Lord of the harvest. Not only is He Lord of the harvest, but He is also Son over God’s house, Heb 3: 6. The preaching of the gospel would lead on to what is for the heart of God and for the Lord’s own heart as a result of the Spirit forming assembly characteristics in the saints.
We have been reading about Moses and how he was looking at the work, and how it met with his approval. The Lord is looking on at each of us, looking on at each of our localities too. I speak soberly as asking, ‘What is the Lord saying?’. He says to each of the assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3, “I know”. To some of them, He says, “I know thy works”, Rev 2: 2. We are before Him but let us be encouraged that as we set ourselves in relation to the work we may prove the power of the Holy Spirit that there may be results for the harvest and for bringing in what is for God’s pleasure in His house.
What characteristics do we look for in the workman? Let us look at the Lord Jesus Himself, the perfect Workman. We need to read this passage in Zechariah carefully, but wonderingly, as we look at what was seen in the Lord Jesus as the perfect Servant. The prophet says, “I am no prophet”. Would any of us, as believers, say that that the Lord Jesus was not a prophet? The Lord Jesus was surely a prophet, and yet He took such lowly ground. The woman in John 4 says, “I see that thou art a prophet”, v 19. At the end of Luke’s gospel, the two on the road said that He “was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people”, chap 24: 19. They had arrived at that conclusion. Do you know what it is for the Lord Jesus to speak to you as He did to the woman in John 4? Her life was turned right round through His word; He was here, truly as prophet. But then she arrived at the fact that He is the Christ, and she herself became a workman. She proclaimed who He was to her, and as a result the men of the city came to verify that wondrous matter for themselves. She came under His hand. She left her water pot behind and she was serviceable to Him as a workman.
Zechariah speaks prophetically about the Lord Jesus and His wounds: “one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thy hands?” Have you asked that question? His answer will be, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends”. Think of the wounds of the Lord Jesus, what it meant for Him to be rejected in the house of His friends, what it was for Him to be betrayed! Yet, as Paul reminds us in his first epistle to the Corinthians, even in that dark scene of the night He was delivered up He instituted the Supper for our remembrance of Him, chap 11: 24, 25. What a service that was! That service has gone on still, thousands of years to the present time. What it means for every true lover of Christ to remember Him at His Supper, as to which He gives us that promise, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”, John 14: 18. He surely keeps His promise as we give Him room in our hearts in our company and He engages us with Himself; and He leads the praises expressed by the saints forming the assembly as appreciating and loving Him. These are very real experiences. While wounded or betrayed He yet served in such a wondrous way. We see the lowliness of the Lord Jesus, the lowliness in which He served, the spirit in which He served. He speaks of the Father going before, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5: 17. He, unlike ourselves who like to draw attention to ourselves and think perhaps we might be a little better than others, took such a lowly pathway. He “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, Phil 2: 8. Think of His work on the cross – what He has borne in the sight of God. If we put our trust and hope in Him, our sins are forgiven, washed away in His precious blood. What wondrous work the Lord Jesus has undertaken.
He is continuing to work too, and He is looking for those who may work with Him - you and I as available to Him. We read of Paul, and what was committed to Him by the Holy Spirit, the work; he was called to the work. The word “the work”, is spoken of very frequently in Scripture - the work that is continued by the Holy Spirit under the hand of Christ. Paul was truly a workman, and he took that matter on in obedience and affection for the Lord Jesus. And it cost him much; it cost him wounds. We read here in 2 Corinthians 12, “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved”. It was not easy for Paul; he was faithful and was also loving; love and faithfulness go together. How important it is to see that; and we see that his faithfulness comes out in his first epistle especially. He was not well thought of and they criticised him. I suppose that was really wounding, and so he becomes like Christ, the perfect Servant, prepared to be wounded for their sakes and prepared even to be less loved. That did not stop him loving them exceedingly, “I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you”. These were really features of Christ coming out in the workman, in Paul himself, as carrying out the commission that was given to him by the Holy Spirit. He was called out with Barnabas and separated from that little company that lovingly laid their hands on them and released them as recognising the authority of the Holy Spirit. Think of how the Holy Spirit is here, and seeing through what is for the Lord Jesus until He comes. As we were reminded in the earlier reading, He is prepared to do that despite the breakdown and failure of the church publicly and despite our own failure too. The Holy Spirit is committed to that.
We read about two other workmen in Philippians, Timotheus and Epaphroditus; how Paul valued them: they were like Paul. What is so interesting is that they had their own love and care for what was precious to the Lord in the saints. We see that Timothy was one who had “genuine feeling how ye get on” v 20. We may ask one another how we are getting on in business, at school, college or in health, but do I really genuinely care how that person is going on in his or her soul? I feel challenged by that. There was a dear brother in this city, who some of us would remember - how he served us, not only as a brother, but as a father, and he would go up to a young person (I can speak from experience), and say, ‘How are you getting on in your soul?’. That is a real thing, a real question. I do not often get asked that. Do you? Am I one who cares with genuine feeling how one another get on in our souls, where we are in our love for Christ, our experience of His own affection for us, and our affection for Him? Is it genuine? “I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on. For all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ”. The things of Jesus Christ not only include the proclamation of the truth in all its grandeur, but the formation of what is of the Lord Jesus Himself in the souls of the saints. There is the proof of him, “as a child a father, he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings”. Again that shows the spirit of a workman according to what is pleasurable to God, meeting the approval of the Lord Jesus as Son over His house, “as a child a father, he has served with me”. How attractive that is, attractive in that relationship between Timothy and Paul. Timothy regarded Paul as a father and Paul regarded Timothy as a child. Think of that relationship of affection and trustworthiness.
Then we see this man Epaphroditus, in whom we find a certain selflessness: he loved the saints and desired after them. He wanted to go and see them, and it says that he had “a longing desire after you all”. That is very attractive, to regard the saints so precious that you want to go and see them and see how they are, have a desire after them, a desire to see the work of God developing in them, and to see what is precious to Christ. Epaphroditus disregarded his own sickness: Paul says, “he drew near even to death, venturing his life that he might fill up what lacked in your ministration toward me”. What can any of us say in relation to such a standard of devotion? But there it was in this man, and Paul valued it; the Lord Jesus valued it. What am I prepared to do for Him? Am I promoting myself? This man was even distressed that the saints had heard that he was sick, distressed that they should know how much he had suffered for their sakes, suffered for the work. What he was desirous for was promoting the work of God in the saints whom he loved. What a standard, and it really is those features seen in the Lord Jesus Himself who made nothing of Himself and everything of His Father, and yet the Father honouring Him. Think of how the Lord Jesus was there upon the mountain, and He was there alongside Moses and Elias, and Peter then voicing his desire to build the three tabernacles; and the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son: hear him”, and then they see Jesus alone, Matt 17: 5. Think of how the Father delights to honour the Lord Jesus; think of how the Lord humbled Himself, obedient even unto death, but it is God who has exalted Him. A wonderful fact!
In 2 Timothy we read of what the workman is to be. What Paul says is, “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. Think of what that means. Paul’s work is now finished; he is now with the Lord Jesus. So is Timothy, but we see that the standard is to go on, the work is to go on, but can only go on as approved of God. The workman is to present himself “approved to God”. I feel so measured in speaking of that, feel my own failure in that too. I confess it too. “A workman that has not to be ashamed”. The standard is, “cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. The scriptures speak for themselves. It is important to be able to apply them, apply them rightly that there may be that which results from what I say, and what I am too. Then we see that Timothy is to “entrust to faithful men such as shall be competent to instruct others also” what he had heard from Paul. We are numbered amongst the others. We all, including the younger ones, are to go on taking up responsibility based on being instructed. The instructions of Paul are very clear, instructions for the last day. Chapter 2 verses 19 to 22 is the charter for the assembly and is key to the instructions, the instructions of Paul; and we are to instruct others also. I feel the test of that too - that there should be faithfulness and competency to continue in the Lord’s testimony, as He would approve. If it is not approved of Him it will not last; it will not bear fruit. It must be based on what is meeting His approval. So we see, “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed”.
Then I read about Mark. We see in the book of the Acts that Mark abandoned Paul, abandoned the work and went away (chap 15: 38); here we see his recovery. I feel the need to take it home to myself as to being ashamed. Mark had been ashamed; he had gone away; he had not continued in the work. The work is to continue, and the question is whether I am available. Mark was recovered to the work; he was recovered to Paul himself, “Take Mark, and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry”, 2 Tim 4: 11. No doubt it must have been through repentance and through recognising the Lord’s rights over him and his life.
So I read the last verse of Mark’s gospel because it shows that the Lord is working yet and working with those who are loyal to Him and available to Him as His workmen. In the beginning of his gospel, Mark draws attention to the Lord Jesus as, “preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God” (chap 1: 14), and at the end He shows that the Lord was working with them, and confirming the signs upon it. The work is going on under His hand; He is the One in whose hand is the testimony, the testimony of our Lord and that is going through. The foundation of the house is there and secure, and the foundation is there in Himself, and there is what is established through the prophets and apostles and it is going right through to the end until He comes. Think of what is thus being built up, a spiritual house for the pleasure and dwelling of God, founded on Him and comprising true believers loyal to him.
We see that the workmen are seen at the end of Mark’s gospel as continuing in the work and the Lord working with them. What a wonderful privilege to experience the Lord’s help in the work as the One with whom we are yoked. In Matthew’s gospel we see that, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”, chap 11: 30. Think of what it is to be yoked with Him in the work, and to prove what is fruitful under His hand in the power of the Holy Spirit.
May the Lord help us that we may have a desire to be available to Him as the One who is the Lord of the harvest, and who is Son over God’s house.
For His Name’s sake.
LONDON
18th January 2020