The Leadership Which Jesus Ordained
Uranda March 16, 1947
Special Sessions Riverside, California
Somebody made the comment, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” But who was it that said that? Paul, in Hebrews 9:22. This is a rather big subject, and if, in my summary, some phase or aspect of it is not developed enough to make it clear, I wish to clear it, because I am going to undertake to deal with it as concisely as I can. Blood is the life stream of the body, isn’t it? Without that blood there can be no life. The first miracle that Jesus performed in the beginning of His Ministry, according to the Biblical record, was the changing of the water into wine. That was His first miracle, the inception of His Ministry, at the marriage of Cana, according to the Bible. That was not by happenstance. Water is the symbol of Truth; wine is the symbol of the blood, which is to say, the life stream. The life stream, which makes possible the Spiritual Expression of Life, is not just the physical blood but what we call the Christ Radiation—that is, the life forces in Spiritual Essence, which are made available to human beings from God Being. When we recognize that Jesus revealed the Father, or revealed Deity and the expression of Divinity on earth, we recognize that He was allowing the expression on earth of those Divine Essences which make possible the true living of life; but we also recognize that when He incarnated from His Heavenly Estate into the world of man, He sacrificed Himself; by that very act, in undertaking to come down into the world simply as a human being and to function in the world of men under the circumstances that existed, He was shedding His blood—shedding His life stream into the world body of mankind or humanity.
When He came to the final act of His Ministry before the crucifixion, which was what we call the Lord's Supper, we find that that final act of His Ministry has a peculiar correspondence to the first act of His Ministry. He changed water into wine, water the symbol of Truth into the living expression of Life—truth in the abstract, recognized by man, but not a living, vital thing that had practical expression in the world of man—and He, by His Life and Ministry, changed that abstract truth into a vital, living thing, so His first miracle was a key to His Life and Ministry because that was what He did, not just at the marriage at Cana, but all through His Life expression He was changing abstract truth into the living wine of Life, into the life stream—and the manifestation of His whole Life and Ministry and His whole Teaching is essential to salvation, not just the fact that He was crucified. Then, in His final act of Ministry, where He took the wine and the unleavened bread—we recognize that leavened bread would indicate that the bread contained that in it which made it self-active—it is unleavened bread, meaning that the self-activity of man must be relinquished, which could be put to Divine uses, and the unfermented juice of the grape is what He used as the wine, which carries the same significance—if fermented wine is used in relationship to the sacraments, it is a continuation of self-activity, which defeats the thing which He was revealing. It has to be the sweet juice of the grape.
He was revealing the Father, and revealing the Way by which we could come into Oneness with the Father so that we also could reveal the Father. He said, “This bread is my flesh.” That unleavened bread was a symbol, and the wine was a symbol. I have not time tonight to develop the whole picture, but it was very fully developed during the Summer Session. Here, in John 15, He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”
We find that He had been teaching intensively the manner in which His Body should continue on earth. The disciples were supposed to he the continuation of His Body on earth, or what we call the One Christ Body, and through a consideration of John 14, 15, 16, and 17 especially, we find that those four chapters are dealing with the formation and manifestation of the Christ Body. “I am the Vine … abide in Me.” Oneness.
He expected His disciples to be His Body on earth through which He could continue to accomplish His purposes on earth after His Ascension. They failed to do that. They did not carry through, but that was His intention, that was His teaching. Then, when we recognize His intention that they should be His Body, the idea that He was just talking about the bread itself, when He said “This is my Body”, is seen to be extremely limited. The disciples to whom He spoke, the group of individuals to whom He was speaking, were to be His Body, and the bread was simply a symbol of that Body. As He took that to His lips, into His body, and each one there took it, that bread ceased to be a thing of itself, losing its identity as bread. Just so were they supposed to be received into His Body, so that they would lose their identity, in the sense of being scattered segregations, and become members of that One Body, so that as branches of that Body they could let the works be done on earth. Just so, when they took the wine, it symbolized the life stream, the living expression of the Christ Life on earth, which was to continue to manifest through His One Body on earth, but the disciples failed to let that Body come into formation, and that Body has not been in formation until now, and it is only beginning to manifest as a nucleus now. There is just beginning to be a recognition of what Jesus meant that His disciples should do. But they failed and did not let John head the development. Peter plunged out and started doing this, that and the other thing.
Jesus particularly stated that His place of leadership was transferred to John. He never authorized Peter to take any place of leadership. He authorized John, and they ignored John, and John was the only one who understood what was to be done in the Christ Body. The failure of Christianity, as meaning the true teachings of Christ, was very marked after the ascension of Jesus. They had so prostituted the teachings of Christ that just three hundred years afterward, the dark ages came in—just to illustrate my point. When He said, “This is my Body”, He was illustrating the fact that this was the symbol of that which they were to be, and as they partook of it they were to come into the One Body to continue His work on earth. What is the first great fallacy of the Roman Catholic Church? The word, “Peter” means “stone”, not “rock”—it means “a little stone”. He says, “Thou art Peter” but “upon this rock”—which He was Himself—“I will build my Church".” He said, “You are a little stone.” Alright. But “upon this rock” which He Himself was, He built the church. He never gave Peter authorization at all, but He did give John authorization.
“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother!” (John 19: 25-27) In other words, He put John in His place on earth. From there on John was supposed to fill the place which He was vacating on earth. He had been her son up to that point, but He put John into the place of His mother’s son. One of the last things He did was to delegate His place and authority on earth to John, but the failure of the disciples to let John fulfill that Divine Commission caused them to go off on all kinds of tangents. They were following afar off. They did not even hear the Commission. They were afraid to get that close. And Peter had just denied Him three times.
He made His Christ Life available to the world. It was not by happenstance that the cross was used in connection with the world’s rejection of him, because unless we realize that the cross symbolizes the human body, it has no real significance. It is in the human body that that refusal to let the Christ Life manifest is found, and it was set in Golgotha, the place of the skull. The self-activity of human minds, the Golgotha of today, is the place where our Lord is, each day, crucified on earth afresh. If we remember that, the whole picture begins to take on its proper proportions and the mere fact that He died on the cross is not what it is thought to be in the Christian churches. They do not even know what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. They say it is because He died on the cross, but the only Gospel Jesus authorized was to go preach that “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Have they done it? No. Of all of the missionaries that have gone around the world, I challenge you to show me one who has taught this Gospel of the Kingdom. Where is he? I never heard of him.
“And He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” (Matthew 16:15-13). “Peter” means “a little stone”, and He did not mean He was going to build His Church on a little stone. All the way through the Bible Jesus was pictured as the Rock of Reality. Upon the Rock of Jesus Christ will He build His Church, not upon the little stone of Peter.
This is Matthew’s gospel, and John, who knew more about it than anybody else, does not even record the incident. In connection with the same point, in John 6: 68-70: “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” It was the twelve to whom He was speaking. Now it is assumed, by the way Matthew puts it here, in Chapter 16, Verse 19: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” That it is supposed to be simply the Master's word to Peter—actually, it is not; it is deliberately used to engender and foster a false idea. It must be recognized that Jesus was speaking to the twelve, or, one being a devil, to the eleven, so it was His Body on earth, not just Peter, that should have the keys of the Kingdom, and when we recognize that, that it is His Body on earth that has those keys now, then we are beginning to understand the application of the teaching of Jesus Christ. Let us read John 20: 19-23.
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto then, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Here we have the word of Jesus after His resurrection saying that the Body of those who should receive the Holy Spirit would have power to remit sin. This is the Master's final and official statement on this important point.
Let me carry out this thought. Peter said he would never deny the Lord, as we read in Matthew 26: 33-34. “Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him. Verily, I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.” And even after that great warning, he did it! Then, there is another misrepresentation, because after the Master was resurrected, before His ascension, Peter had denied the Master three times, and we read in John 21: 14-17: “This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” That text has been used to still further the idea that it was Peter who was supposed to take the leadership, but there, what the Master was doing was forgiving him, and allowing him to accept a clearing on the three denials. Three times Peter had denied Him and all that text means is that Peter should then be willing, if he loved Him, to function correctly in the One Body, and in that text Jesus was simply washing away the tragedy of the three denials, if he would serve properly, which he did not do. He tried to take the reins—impulsive Peter.
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou vast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst wither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whilst thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.” (John 21: 18-19). That is, what the Master was really doing was saying that, in spite of those three assertions by Peter that he loved Him, the Master recognized that still Peter would not do what he was supposed to do. “And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” If that is not telling him to mind his own business! At that time, if Jesus had intended Peter to be in charge of all the disciples, He would certainly have answered that question, but He plainly refused to recognize Peter’s authority over John in any way.
And after the Ascension, if you take the picture that Jesus gave before His crucifixion, His final teachings to them as contained in John 14, 15, 16 and 17, and then note the course they followed afterward, you will see they absolutely ignored the leadership Jesus established. Impulsive Peter took the reins in his hands; and then, because Paul sees a vision—where did he go to get his understanding? To the disciples, who had lived with Jesus? To John? No, into the wilderness for three years, and then he proceeds to teach his theories about the teaching of Jesus, and his whole approach to it is faulty because he did not know.
Now, here is one of the most important texts to be found in the Bible from the standpoint of understanding what happened after the Master’s ascension and what is essential to the outworking now. One of the last things He said before His final prayer of intercession was, “I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now.” He had given them all they could understand then, and more, and their actions afterwards proved He was right. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.”
When it is realized that the pattern He revealed was only an outline, and that the expression of the expansion concerning it was yet to be made manifest, in perfect coordination with the outline, then we can begin to realize its meaning. For instance, when the day of Pentecost came, which was supposed to be merely a beginning of a series of spiritual experiences which would let them come into an understanding of the truth, the first time they experienced an outpouring where they should begin to know the truth, impulsive Peter straightway runs out and starts using the power he had, which started persecutions which did not need to be and brought failure. If he had let a series of Pentecostal days manifest so that they could have learned to function as a Body, then the fruit would have been the fruit of God, but he took the current of the Spirit that was given to them which was to let them learn how to function as a Body, and ran out and started casting pearls before swine, and there was no other real day of Pentecost. It went down from there—although that was meant to be the starting point upward. Peter was trying to tell people something they were not ready to receive. That engendered the persecutions that came. The way John knew how to handle it, that would not have been. It would have been a gradual outworking. They would not have had those great mass meetings that divided the currents and brought defeat. It would be just as foolish for someone who is just getting oriented in the One Christ Body to refuse to take any further direction and go out here and start some big campaign. It would just ruin it. It would not work.
We are not working according to the methods of man, but according to the methods of God, and the same methods outlined by the Master before His ascension have to be put to work now or it is nothing. They should have been working incognito, as it were, so that their function would not have been swept over and engulfed by world reaction, before the members were ready to meet it. The world reaction just buried it. There were persecutions and they were all put in a bad spot. The Master had already gained the victory—they did not have to go through all of that. There would have been opposition, but they would have been in position to meet it. As it was they were not in position to meet it. So Peter and Paul were the ones who came mighty close to wrecking the work of Christ on earth. It has taken 1900 years to get to a point where we can start what should have been started then.
We have covered a lot of ground. Fully amplifying all these points would take many services. I praise the Lord because when these things are realized we begin to be in position to do something. Until they are realized, the great distinctions between the Right Way and the way that was followed in the days when Peter took the reins, cannot be seen, and until they are seen, the people are going to go right on making the same mistakes that Peter and the others made. You take the Bible, and the teachings of the Third Sacred School, and it is all there.
I might add to our consideration here, when the other disciples refused to follow through on the plan that Jesus inaugurated and refused to recognize the place of John in the plan, and impulsive Peter usurped that place of leadership, John had to follow the way which Jesus took. I do not mean he refused to raise his voice to try to clear the situation, but he kept still after that and said not a word. If he had not done that, this cycle would not have come. On the Isle of Patmos, he wrote the Book of Revelation and reopened the way for this cycle of manifestation, but if he had not carried through there, and set the pattern as revealed in Revelation, there would not have been any way to build any salvation out of the wreckage that Peter and Paul had wrought. That would have been complete failure. John did speak up but they would not listen, even to the extent of there being no record. Luke wrote the book of Acts, and he furthered the leadership of Peter and Paul. Luke, you see, was not even a disciple, and yet he wrote one of the gospels.
In one sense the disciples had a better chance than we have, but that rested entirely in the acceptance of the leadership which Jesus ordained, but it was rejected and there is not one church outside of ours that accepts it. So their whole chance of success depended upon their accepting the leadership which Jesus authorized. At that time, they had been used to the leadership of Jesus, and then there was the strong, impulsive nature of Peter that was always pushing itself forward, and it took Jesus Himself to keep him in his place; and John could not arbitrarily take the leadership and force them to accept it, so it was a matter of accepting the transfer of leadership to John on the part of Jesus, and when they refused it there was no means at that time whereby that leadership could manifest, because we cannot use force. We cannot use force to compel acceptance today, or at any time. So, the important difference that really makes it easier now than it was then is because this leadership is recognized, and it is not a matter of transferring leadership, so in that sense it puts it on a different basis.
The important thing is that you have learned to know Jesus Christ better than the disciples did then. Why did Jesus love John? Because John loved Jesus, and because John understood Him, and the rest did not, so those in the School today know Jesus better and understand Him more fully than the disciples did the night of the Lord’s supper; that is, the disciples as a whole, and it is not until we know and understand Jesus Christ and recognize what His Life and Ministry meant, and realize that what He said is true: “Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”—that is, the end of the world of evil—that we understand what the gospel of the Kingdom was and is. Why, Peter himself did not stop to remember what it was Jesus told all of them to preach. Right after the ascension Peter started teaching them a gospel which was nothing like the one Jesus authorized them to teach. When there is a recognition of Jesus Christ, of Who He is, of what the real Gospel is, of what His Life and teaching is, of what it means to reveal that Gospel as it is in Reality, and of the Way by which that Kingdom that is at hand may come into manifestation for us, then we know the true purpose of Jesus’s Life and Ministry.
Francis — You must be a prophet or something. I have never heard anyone speak like you except Martin here, and he is one of your disciples. I have never heard the Bible revealed like you do it, and I have heard it so many times. It is almost completely a new book.
Uranda — But it is all done, all accomplished, and all achievement is possible through the Love and Power of Jesus Christ. The honor and glory are His, and while I appreciate recognition of my Ministry, the greatest recognition of it and the most pleasing for me, is the recognition of Him, and the proof that that Ministry means anything is the manifestation of an increased Love for Him.
You know, I wonder if I could convey something to you. It is a little difficult sometimes for human beings to comprehend—and it is certainly difficult to put into words—but when I talk about Jesus and His Life and His Ministry and His teaching, it is not just talking about the Bible. Mention was made about the disciples that were there. When there is the proper attunement between the outer form and the Father within, that which is of the Father may be made manifest. When I say “I”, I am not talking about this outer form which came into manifestation forty years ago. I am talking about that which I Am within the form. “The Father Who dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.”
“The words I speak unto you I speak not of myself.” The reason my Ministry has meaning for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see is because that is just as true of me as it was of Jesus, and only from the standpoint of that Inner Reality, can there be appreciation of what I mean, or what I feel, or what it is I am seeking to convey—that it is not just the words of a human being. Unless there is a recognition of that, as far as that Inner Reality is concerned, no one can realize that I stood there at the cross when He was crucified. I am not talking about a record from the Bible. I am talking about something that I saw, something that I shared and experienced, I am talking about days and months and years of living with Him while He was on earth, and there should begin to be some comprehension of the fact that all that I have done in Ministry is primarily because I love Him—because I want all praise and honor and glory to go to Him. He, the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, went through that mockery of the trial, and went to the cross under the world’s rejection, and His disciples followed afar off, so that when He was on the cross there was only one disciple there. There was only one disciple standing by Him when He was on the cross—and I was there; and concerning that, after His Resurrection, the third and last time He was with the disciples, He made that statement, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.”
The only one of the disciples that could bring this, of which the Bible is a record, back into a vivid expression of Reality, was the only one who stood by Him when He was on the cross. When I say these things I am not saying them because it is anything special to me that they be recognized, because it is not. It makes no difference to my Reality, one way or the other. It only means that unless that is recognized, and unless the spirit of that which I am seeking to convey is appreciated from that standpoint, the true reality of the Master cannot be comprehended, the true significance of His life cannot be realized, because it is not just someone talking about it theoretically, someone taking the Bible and reading it and deciding that it means this, that or the other thing. It is something that IS. As you have recognized that there is not anyone else on earth who has opened the Bible to you as I have, there must be that recognition that it is only because there is, from the Inner standpoint, a recognition of my sharing that with Him, before there can be a comprehension of what He means to us today, so that what He did will not be in vain.
This portrayal in these four chapters I have been talking about [John 14, 15, 16 and 17] of what was supposed to be the manifestation of His Body on earth, the means by which He could continue to function on earth in outer form, the means by which the necessary works could be accomplished, cannot be understood just from an intellectual, outer standpoint, or someone’s thinking or reading. There have been brilliant men down through centuries who have had these same passages to read and study. They have gotten certain things out of them, but though they read them and studied them and preached about them, they did not make manifest that fundamental Reality which the Master Himself was seeking to convey to mankind. He came into the world and did these things, and lived among us because He loved humanity, because He loved each man, woman and child upon the face of the earth. He manifested His Love for us in many ways, and when, in the recognition of that Love for us, we learn to really love Him, then we can begin to be a part of His Body on earth, and being a part of His Body on earth in actuality, we can begin to let His Love work through us into the world.
Human beings approaching it from an intellectual standpoint, cannot comprehend that depth of love, let alone let it work through themselves into the world, and unless that love becomes such a living, vital, constant and utterly complete, thing, so that it is that which fills our expression and holds us in oneness with Him, our words will continue to be just words and will accomplish no more than what a lot of other good people have accomplished.
I recognize that my saying some of these things does not prove that they are true, and yet if my Ministry and my expression of the Word, and my portrayal of Him, do not prove it, I do not know what could. I could not help you to know Him unless I knew Him. It is because I know Him as He was, and as He is, that I can help you to come to know Him. I have outlined these things because there cannot be a true realization of the fact that I know Him unless there begins to be an understanding of these truths, and the more vividly the individual knows that I know Him, the easier will it be for me to introduce the individual to the LORD of Lords, so that each one can know Him, and so that these things can be such vital, living realities in relationship to us right now, no longer separated by two thousand years—something that is just as real and just as vital for us as it possibly could have been for those disciples; and in fact it must be a lot more vital and real than it was for any of those disciples, save one. And unless that vividness can be conveyed to the One Christ Body, so that it is just as real as it was to John, then there is no means whereby this outworking can take place now.
We have got to know Him and love Him. Time, in that sense, has utterly no meaning—because if the Master had ascended yesterday it could have no more meaning than it does. Until we get away from this tendency of thinking of ourselves as being separated from Him by 1900 years, it cannot be done. It must be just as if He had walked every step of the way here with us, or as if we had with Him then, and then the possibilities of fulfilment for us are really greater than they were for the disciples after He returned to the Father. That is why, while I appreciate your recognition of my Ministry, it really makes me feel very uncomfortable when you express so lovingly—and I am not criticizing you for it—unless the praise and honor and glory go to Him. Yes, I know, it goes to Him through me, but I have said these things because I have tried to convey to you how I feel about it so that you emphasize in those recognitions the love and response to Him. I am not finding fault—please understand—but I am just trying to convey how I feel about it.
Now let me add this. Let us remember that mankind is still crucifying Him on the cross of human self-activity in the body and mind, just as surely as they were hack then. When we begin to see these things as they really are and we begin to become a part of His Body in that true sense, then we find that as we look into the world of unreality we are all standing at the foot of the cross. We begin to realize that this world is still crucifying Him; and that until we, in oneness, come to stand at the foot of the cross and begin to carry it on from there, as He intended, it is as nothing, because all of the sermons and preachings and everything else that could be accomplished by an intellectual consideration of the Bible, even though the individuals loved God sincerely—all these things—until they transcend time and space and distance, and it is recognized here, we cannot fulfil that in which the disciples failed then.
