When Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin, something unexpected occurred. The Jewish leaders assumed that they would be able to threaten Peter and John into submission. Weeks before, they had done away with the chief object of their hatred. Dispensing with his disciples should be quick work: warnings, beatings, perhaps some time in jail, a death or two. With the striking of the shepherd, the sheep would be easily scattered. In their blindness and hatred, the Jewish leaders were completely unprepared for the personal effect Jesus had upon Peter and John. Being with Jesus fundamentally transformed them.
Here stood two unlearned and ignorant men, virtual idiots, of no account, despised commoners. Suddenly, Peter and John reversed the examination; sheer boldness and clear proclamation turned the accused into the accusers, the condemned into judges. Instead of denying their Lord or being overcome with fear, Peter and John steadfastly professed the name of Jesus Christ, directly pointed the sword of the Spirit at our Savior’s murderers, and preached salvation in no other name but Jesus. The Sanhedrin was perplexed and hesitant. Defeated by the Son of God even in his death, they are now undone by his mighty power displayed in his lowly disciples. They cannot deny the notable healing, but they must not allow this name to be preached, this doctrine to spread. Their own criminality would surely become known; their tyrannical stranglehold over the people would be endangered.
After a few minutes’ of private council, the Sanhedrin could do nothing but forbid them to preach in Jesus’ name. Insufficient ground even for a beating was present. Peter and John, however, refused to be dismissed so easily. Hearing the Sanhedrin’s threat, they calmly said: “No. We will obey God rather than you, for you are in the wrong. We have a clear duty; we shall not abandon our posts. We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.” Being with Jesus changed everything for Peter and John. It has been said that Christian influence depends upon being regularly in the society of Jesus Christ, upon being with Jesus. True, we have not known his physical presence, though we greatly long for it. To depart and be with him is better by far than anything else on earth. Until then, however, he is with us by his Spirit, a covenanted presence of grace and power, life and joy, anointing and light. That we are often so lifeless, dull, and impotent is to be attributed more than anything else to our failure to avail ourselves of his holy, transforming, and life-giving fellowship. That our words, even our Christian words to our family and friends, often seem perfunctory and preachy, exhibiting more party-spirit than sincere love and personal commitment to our the Savior, may be traced to the same cause. That we focus upon the symptoms of our fellow-sinners’ diseases rather than lovingly pointing them to the Great Physician, that we call men to our particular version of the Christian faith rather than directly to the Lord of glory himself, is the result of too little fellowship with our Savior, too little experiencing of the joy, grace, and victory of his presence in our lives. If we are with Jesus, he does great things for our soul. These great things – because we do not use them as occasions of spiritual pride and ostentation, because they humble and delight us, because they lead to him being more the center of our lives, we then warmly share with such earnestness, simplicity, and humility that men, like the Sanhedrin, cannot but note that we have been with Jesus.
Our Savior invites us to the same fellowship by calling us to “abide in him.” This is prefaced by his declaration of an objective engrafting into him that each of us experiences when we are born again. We are definitively and covenantally united with him by the inward renewing work of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we are to “abide in him.” That is, we are to live in him. His word is to be our constant companion, for his word is spirit and life, absolutely and effectually. We are to draw from him – through believing prayer, faith in his promises, and dependence upon his grace – all life, light, glory, and blessedness. We are to walk with his Spirit, a call that again leads us to the word, for the Spirit is not otherwise known or experienced except through believing and submitting to the word of the Spirit. And this walk with the Spirit – a life of mortifying sin through repentance, confession, and self-denial, putting on the new man through renewing the mind in the truth and obeying God’s commands – is the bond between us and our Savior. We are with him as we walk with his Spirit, and walking with the Spirit always produces fruit, the fruits of righteousness that come through fellowship with Jesus Christ, through being with him and drawing from his fullness, grace upon grace (Phil. 1:11; John 1:16).
You see, being with Jesus is not mysticism. It is not a higher life of following an inner light, which is really nothing more than following your own impulses. It is not the result of occasional thoughts about God, contenting yourself with allowing a few snippets of the Bible to flit about in your brain with no exercising of the will, emotion, and mind, the heart, toward the Son of God and his word. You will never be with Jesus by following spiritual gurus or participating in a score of new and creative church programs, which are so ubiquitous in our age exactly because we are not more with Jesus himself, who makes spiritual gimmicks and circuses unnecessary for the maturing believer. No, nothing substitutes for being with Jesus: with him in his word, with him in prayer, with him in his worship and sacraments, with him in meaningful service and fellowship with other believers. But with him we must be, for an “out there” Savior, a theoretical Savior, a merely intellectually apprehended and historically embraced Savior, will never save or satisfy a single soul. I must have Jesus Christ himself, in his all his divine glory, immeasurable love, and transforming grace. I must be with him.
There are impediments to being with him. We encounter several of these in the gospel. Some would not follow him fully because they would not forsake their family (Luke 9:59-61). A modern application of this would be allowing family demands, schedules, and sins to prevent true and constant fellowship with Christ and his body. Others were afraid of losing pecuniary advantage and the comforts of the world (Luke 9:57-58). One thinks here of those who are not with Jesus in their business practices, or for whom covetous thoughts utterly choke out the pure delight of knowing and being with Jesus. Still other lost the incomparable blessing of being with Jesus because they were too much in love with this world; their interests were divided (Luke 9:62). They had double vision, and it is certain that we will never yield ourselves fully and exclusively to the joy and power of being with Jesus as long as either the benefits or cares of the world so weigh us down that our souls are divided and suffer under spiritual paralysis that never allows us to establish our complete happiness in our God and Savior. By far, however, the real dividing line is the actual claims Jesus made. When he said that we must “eat his flesh” and “drink his blood,” many of his early disciples stopped walking with him (John 6:66). Jesus here proclaims himself as the fulfillment of the peace offering, of which the worshipper partook as a sign and seal of restored fellowship with God. Many would prefer the Jesus of feeling rather than the Jesus of concrete revelation, a relationship defined and controlled by his self-revelation. They would have Jesus feed their bodies, clothe them, and prosper their businesses, but they would not be fed in their souls, for this would effect a potentially troublesome renovation of the entire life. Being with Jesus, though, does exactly this. It is unavoidable. It is sometimes painful, for nothing is more uncomfortable for us as sinners than to face ourselves honestly and deeply, than to run to Jesus as the only cure of our contagion, like the woman with the bloody issue.
Yet, as challenging as is being with Jesus – the glorious and holy Son of God, with eyes like fire, whose word penetrates to the very depths of the soul, who, glory of glories, died for us on the cursed cross – nothing surpasses his fellowship. To know his love, his presence, and his power, is to be filled with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:21). Being with him gives reality, even compulsion, to our words and witness. He gives us his boldness, as he did to Peter and John. He fills us with a growing sight of his majesty and wonder. He satisfies our soul. He leads us to seek the Father and say, “Not my will, but thine be done.” He consumes us with his zeal for his Father’s house. He makes us humble, meek, transparent, and heavenly minded. He breaks the grip of worldliness, lust, and anger. He make us loving, self-forgetful, self-denying. He invigorates us to love his word, his church, his elders, his worship, his service. He does so much more – more than we can ask or imagine. Being with Jesus is our life.