The Doctrine of the great hour - Chambers, Oswald
February 25, 1917, Zeitoun , Sunday morning Service
When it was yet dark . . . John 20:1
There is twilight before night, and an infinitely deeper dark before dawn; but there are hours in spiritual experience darker than either of these, when the new day looks like disaster, and light and illumination have not yet come. There is no possible progress in personal life or national life without cataclysms, big crises, breaks. In our ordinary life we have the idea that things should gradually progress, but there comes a time when there is a tumble-up, a mixture of god and man and fiends, of crime and abomination, and all our idea of steady progress is done for, although there may be progress in individual lives. In the bible there is the same idea. For instance, take what our lord says about new birth verily, verily, i say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of god ( john 3:3). Some teachers make new birth a simple and natural thing, they say it is necessary, but a necessity along the line of natural development. When jesus christ talks about it he implies that the need to be born again is an indication of something radically wrongmarvel not that i said unto thee, ye must be born again. It is a crisis. We like to talk about the light of god coming like the dawn, but it never does to begin with, it comes in a lightning flash, in terrific upheaval. Things do not go unless they are started, and the start of everything in history and in mens souls proves that the basis of things is not rational but tragic; consequently there must be a crisis.
1. The dark of the darkest dawn
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark. . . . ( john 20:1)
Can you imagine anything more completely dark than that? Mary magdalene had had a wonderful his- tory with jesus christ, he had absolutely delivered her: and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, mary called magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, . . . Then she saw him crucified before her eyes, and now she has come to mourn the biggest disaster of her life. When it was yet darkno light or illumination. Many may be going through this experience. The testimony they used to give, which was quite genu
Ine, is not working now, they are in other conditions and it is no good; they work for all they are worth, but there is neither life nor power in it. The weakness of many a testimony is that it is based on what the lord has donei have to testify to what god has done for me in order that other people may have the same thing done for them. It sounds all right, but it is not the new testament order of testimony. Jesus christ never sent out a disciple on the ground that he had done something for him, but only because he had seen the lord after he had done something for him (see john 9:3538). People testify to conver- sion and to the grace of god in their lives, but plainly they do not know him. There is no question about his having emancipated them from sin and done a mighty work in them, but the great passion of the life is not jesus christ; their personal experience is not marked by pauls wordsthat i may know him.
2. The desolation of the glorious day
But mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. ( john 20:11)
Mary was standing weeping in absolute distress; it was the most desolating dawn she had ever known, and yet it was the dawn of the most glorious day she was ever to know. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. . . . It is a good thing to stoop as well as weep; there is more pride in human grief and misery than in joy and health; certain elements in human sorrow are as proud as the devil himself. There are people who indulge in the luxury of misery, they are always talking of the agonising and distressing things no one ever suffered as i do; there is a special element in my suffering, it is isolated. At the back of it is terrific pride, it is weep- ing that will not stoop. And seeth two angels in white. . . . Mary was not at all surprised when through her tears she saw angels; there was only one whom she wanted and that was her lord and master. . . . She turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Mary is standing face to face with Jesus Christ and yet she does not know him; the obsession of her grief makes her mistake him for the gardener. Mary had had a wonderful history with jesus, but now in her desolation she does not know him. We only see along the line of our prejudices until the surgery of events alters our outlook. We may have had an experience of what jesus christ can do and yet not have known him. Suddenly at any turn he may comenow i see him. It takes all time and eternity to know god.
3. The direction from the great divide
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. ( john 20:16)
In the midst of her grief, Jesus said one word which had in it all her personal history with him mary. If Mary had had no past history with Jesus christ she would not have detected him when he spoke that word. If you have had a past history with Jesus Christ, if he has delivered and emancipated you, when he speaks, he speaks with the volume of that intimacy of personal acquaintance and you know, not by hearing only, but implicitly all through you it is the lord! No one else could speak like that to me.
She turned herself, and saith unto him, rabboni; which is to say, master. Mary thought that our lord had come back to the old relationship he is back again! But Jesus said, touch me not; for i am not yet ascended to my father you can no longer hold me under the evidence of your senses, no longer hold me as a possession of your own individual life as before; the relationship now is one you cannot begin to conceive as yet a relationship of identity with me through the indwelling spirit of god, and i am going to the father to make that possible. . . . But go to my brethren, and say unto them, i ascend unto my father, and your father; and to my god, and your god.
The direction from the great divide is that it is connected instantly with the verb to go, never to stay and moon. As soon as we see Jesus and perceive who he is by his spirit, he says go go out into actual life and tell my brethren, not what i have done for you, but that i am risen.
No one can tell another about Jesus until he has seen him as he really is, the one who imparts his own life, i. E. , holy spirit, an impartation from the lord himself.
Darkness is not synonymous with sin; if there is darkness spiritually it is much more likely to be the shade of gods hand than darkness on account of sin; it may be the threshold of a new revelation coming through a big break in personal experience. Before the dawn there is desolation; but wait, the dawn will merge into glorious day. . . The light of dawn [mg], that shineth more and more unto the perfect day (RV ). If you are experiencing the darkness of desolation on individual lines, go through with it, and you will find yourself face to face with Jesus Christ as never before. I am come that they might have life, life in which there is no death and that they might have it more abundantly.
