F.E. Marsh :: 350. Service

Click here to view listing below for Jhn 20:21

S Sent one to witness.

E Epistle to be read.

R Representative to manifest forth.

V Voice to speak.

 I Instrument to be used.

C Child to obey.

E Endowed one with power.

S Sent one to witness.

“Christ” means the Anointed or Sent One. Forty-three times in John’s Gospel alone, do we find Him saying that His Father sent Him. The authority of Jesus as the Sent One was, that His Father sent Him; the evidence that He was the Sent One was, that He did the will of the Father (John 4:34), that He honoured the Father, and that His works were a witness that He was sent by the Father (John 5:36); and His confidence was, that He was speaking His Father’s word in His Father’s Name (John 7:16, and 14:24). And as the Father sent Jesus, so Christ has sent us (John 20:21), and our authority and confidence are, that Christ has sent us in His Name, with His Word, to do His will, that we may bring honour to His Name by our life and testimony bearing witness to Him.

E Epistle to be read (2 Cor. 3:3).

Paul in this passage seems to say, “We do not need any letter of commendation of ourself to you; for you, who were blessed under our ministry, are our epistle, known and read of all men.” “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables ot the heart.” That is, the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word is manifestly seen by the life that we are now living, and the world sees the work of God by its manifestation in our godly walk. It has often been said, and said truly, that while the world will not read the Word of God, they will read the Christian, and can Christ be glorified in us more, than when they take knowledge of us that Christ is manifestly seen in our walk?

R Representative to manifest forth (1 John 2:8).

When Christ was here, He represented the Father. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Christ represented us on the cross by taking our sin, and now, as our great High Priest, He represents us at God’s right-hand. The Spirit having quickened us, the light of the glorious Gospel having shone into our hearts, and chased the darkness of sin and unbelief away, we are to let our light shine. As John says, “Which thing is true in Him” (Christ), “and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” That is, when Jesus was here, He was the Light of the world; but now we are the light of the world (a very poor light at the best), and we are responsible to shine as such, holding forth the Word of Life.

V Voice to speak.

John the Baptist said that he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness; and we are to speak for Christ. How many souls, humanly speaking, are lost for want of a word! We should speak out boldly, like Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14); lovingly, like Stephen when praying for his enemies (Acts 7:60); earnestly, like Paul when he said to the jailor, “Do thyself no harm” (Acts 16:28).

I Instrument to be used.

There are different kinds of instruments mentioned in the Word, which may be taken as illustrating what the Christian is and should be. An instrument is something that is taken up and used by another.

C Child to obey.

“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master” (Mal. 1:6). And how do they do this but by obedience to them? Even so we obey the Lord.

E Endowed one with power.

Service with Him as Christ. As we have already said, “Christ” not only means the Sent One, but the Anointed One. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and we as Christians are therefore anointed ones. We have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and He is our power in service; therefore, let us be subject to Him, and thus will the “Name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in us.”