p. 7 | OUR LEADER by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 26.

OUR LEADER.

By G.

CHRIST is pre-eminently the leader of His people. There have been many nominal human leaders, but Christ has always been the real director in any successful undertaking. When the people have failed to follow His guidance, their efforts have invariably failed.

When God called Abraham out from his country and from his kindred, it was to a land that He would show him. So when the trusting pilgrim came to the land of Canaan, the Lord was there, and appeared to him, and made promise to him that his seed should possess that land.

God made other promises to Abraham, among them “the promise that he should be the heir of the world.” Rom. 4:13. And from Abraham’s day on, the people of God have been led with direct reference to the fulfilment of those promises. Deut. 7:7, 8; Ex. 32:11–14. The angel of the Lord went before Abraham’s servant as he journeyed in quest of a wife for Isaac, the immediate heir to Abraham’s temporal estate and the typical heir to the promises. Gen. 24:1–7.

Moses was the visible leader of Israel, but from Mount Sinai the Lord declared, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Ex. 20:2. And His Angel went before the people all the way thru the wilderness into the promised land. See Ex. 23:20–23; 32:34.

In all the ministry of Christ upon the earth, He took the position of leader. From the moment of His baptism and anointing, He acknowledged no human superior, being led solely by the Spirit of God. In all of His journeying and teaching, the people who were interested to see or hear Him followed Him; He followed no one. As He gathered up His chosen twelve, singly or in pairs, He said to them, “Follow Me.” And after His resurrection, when Peter became concerned as to what a brother disciple should do, Jesus answered, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” Peter was not to be the director of his brethren.

Before His departure, to take up His mediatorial service in the heavenly sanctuary, Jesus made provision for the work on earth. He gave commission to His disciples, representing the church, to “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” He did not leave them to their own leadership, for He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” And wherever He is, He is leader in His own work. Men can not be entrusted with leadership, for they are fallible beings; Christ has to be making intercession for them continually. The church can not be her own leader, for she has no power of her own. Jesus lays claim to all power in heaven and earth; therefore the church must go forth in His power.

Before His death, Jesus told His disciples how He would lead them after His departure. They were much troubled about His leaving them, as they felt the need of His visible leadership. As yet they knew nothing of the power and efficacy of spiritual influence and direction. But Jesus said, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you.” Then He told them that the Father would send the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, in His name—as His representative—and this Comforter would be their leader. He would “guide” them “into all truth.”

So important was it that Christ retain the leadership of the Gospel work, that when He was about to leave His disciples, He “commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Acts 1:4, 5. They were not even fitted for labor, much less for leading in the work, until thus qualified. Being “baptized” with the Spirit means entire submission to its guidance. That is what it meant in the experience and example of Christ.

Jesus had before enunciated the true principle when the subject of pre-eminence had caused a strife among His disciples. At that time He said to them: “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” Luke 22:25, 26. Such a principle as this could not predominate under any other leadership than that of Christ.

After the day of Pentecost, the disciples displayed a spirit of wisdom and courage, of self-denial and fidelity, that showed beyond question that they were being led by a superhuman power. The heroism of Stephen, the discernment of Peter in the case of Simon Magus at Samaria, the calling of Philip to instruct the Ethiopian eunuch, the power and influence of the disciples in “everywhere preaching the Word” when “scattered abroad” by the persecution, all demonstrate that an all-seeing eye and a master hand was at the helm of the Gospel ship.

The great signs and wonders that were performed in witness of the truth,—the raising of the dead, the healing of the sick by the mere passing of an apostle’s shadow, the opening of prison doors by the hands of angels, the indication of individuals for certain work by the Holy Spirit, as in the cases of Paul and Barnabas, all show that the Lord Himself was directing the work. The personal appearance of the Lord to Paul as he journeyed to Damascus on a mission of persecution, and the personal direction of his movements by the Lord, are unmistakable evidences of the continuance of divine supervision.

Paul says of his conversion and ministry: “I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Gal. 1:11, 12. Again he testifies: “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.” Verses 15–17.

The appearance to John on Patmos, and the record of the Revelation, still further testify that in the direction of His work the Lord is the “first and the last,” and that He is “alive forevermore.” Since the record of the Scriptures, however, the evidences of divine leadership of the true people of God have not been wanting. The various striking periods of reformation—a throwing off of the usurpation of human rule—have shown the care of the Master for His truth, and His power to guide into all truth those who have no confidence in the flesh, but desire to “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” rather than the “traditions of men.”

It is cheering in these days of the confusion of human leaders, to know that we have a divine Director, who sits on “the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high,” and without whom we can “do nothing.” G.