READING ON ACTS 9
READING ON ACTS 9
JT The opposition to Christ, I suppose, is specially emphasised in Saul. How deep-rooted it was in the breathing out threatenings and slaughter! The opposition occurs in different forms, sometimes shallow, sometimes deep-rooted. The Spirit of God seems to single out this man to show and to emphasise the deep opposition, and show us how He can meet it. There are three accounts of this incident, this far-reaching incident, two by Paul himself, and one by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the writer of this book. He gives us the general features, then chapter 26 gives us the more copious account; and this particular phase is to be noted, the character of the opposition.
Ques What was the particular character that was presented here? Had it deepened from the previous chapter when he saw and was consenting to his being killed?
JT I should think so. Saul tells us later that he was an eye-witness of “thy martyr Stephen”. And James witnesses to the character of martyrdom of that day, “Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you”. He saw that in Stephen, but then we are told he entered into houses and dragged men and women from them. So he met Christ in this character, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”. The I is what he met in the houses of the saints, and the thou is the breathing in the threatenings and slaughter. That is the two characters, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”. He ravaged the assembly-men and women, it was the assembly.
[p. 118] Ques Would you say the already pricked conscience only aroused the flesh to greater enmity?
JT Well, apparently so, the hatred was against Jesus. As the Lord says, “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father” (John 15: 24); the satanic character of the thing, the breathing out, would denote that he was intelligently in it; the upper organ, the inner man that was active in an intelligent manner. He did it methodically from the intelligent part. It is the manner of Satan’s malice.
Ques Was Satan behind all this?
JT Exactly, breathing would indicate that; Satan was in him to that extent, inwardly.
Ques Does the binding refer to the mind and spirit, as well as bodily?
JT Well, quite, rendering them as powerless as possible in their defence. I suppose the intent was the ferocity of the thing, to render them powerless by the ferocious rush upon them. But he met with Jesus. Stephen did not cower before him, he met him in power. He was not rendered numb by the onrush of the enemy. The Lord Himself in Gethsemane, and on the cross, never lost His holy balance in spite of the opposition against Him. There is no more touching study than the study of martyrdom as taking character from the death of Christ, how He met the enemy in death.
Rem So the Lord did not take the myrrh, that which would have deadened the senses.
JT Quite so. Martyrdom infers that they died intelligently, witnessing to something. Saul was intelligent as under Satan. The martyrs were intelligent in the Spirit of Christ. “He does not resist you”. “For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter”, Psalm 44: 22. Like the Lord, “dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth”, Acts 8: 32. Martyrdom is triumph.
[p. 119] Stephen is the characteristic martyr. He is called “thy martyr”.
You notice here that the attack is against the disciples of the Lord. It is against the Lord, not only Jesus. Jesus is the character, the unresisting character that he met in the saints. But the Lord resists him, there is resistance, Saul had to do with the Lord, they were disciples of the Lord; that is, the whole power of the kingdom; the disciples were defended. Power is behind His authority, either to destroy Saul or to convert him. So it is the power of the kingdom, not as destructive as yet, but it is the Lord who can enter into conflict with him, and overcome. “Are we stronger than he?” 1 Corinthians 10: 22. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”, Romans 12: 19. But the wonderful thing that comes out in this chapter is the kingdom as it is now. If he had appeared later with this resistance it would be for his destruction, like antichrist, but now in the kingdom it is power acting in grace.
As he was journeying, he was active in the thing. It says, “It came to pass that he drew near to Damascus; and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven, and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?” It is the voice of grace, but it has authority in it.
Ques Why is it called the way here?
JT The way is a symbol or formula for christianity or fellowship. You get it used in Mark, “Jesus entered on the way”. It was the way into death. They belonged to that, the way that led Him into death. If the Lord had set up something that did not imply death, Satan could have used it. But inasmuch as they were in the way Satan would contend that every inch. The Lord teaches His own that He must suffer. He not only tells but He teaches. It is a question of being that, suffering is shown in [p. 120] that way. The young man ran into it in Mark, and kneeled down to the Lord and called Him, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” He was not fit for that, but the blind man; son of Bartimaeus, entered on it and remained on it.
He understood, he followed Jesus in the way. If we are in the way we shall suffer.
How divine instinct takes the way in Samuel I The kine had never been under yoke, they were clear of the world. The calves were tied and kept behind and they were to go on without driver, without any external pressure, and they went along the highway.
And they came to Beth-shemesh, and the men took the kine and sacrificed. Satan hates that. The attractiveness of Christ would lead us to follow.
The disciples of the Lord were in the way. The great end in view is to see the glory, but it is by death. The oxen were in the employment of the ark, that is the powerful influence of Christ. They move on, and on, and on, by the one highway, and there they died, glorious end typically. Paul is a witness of the glory and a partaker of the sufferings.
But bringing them bound to Jerusalem ... terrible thought, the city of the great King, the spot where this murder should be carried out. But as he was journeying, and as he drew near to Damascus, “suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven, and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why does thou persecute me?” It is grace, where sin abounded grace has overabounded.
The gospel of the glory comes in here, he got the conception of Christ in glory. It was a glorified Jesus that he saw. Now he is in the presence of Jesus, calling him by name out of heaven, and that in the Hebrew language, as he tells us elsewhere.
Ques Why does he say “Lord”?
JT That is the evidence of his conversion. Other [p. 121] lords had had dominion over him. Satan was his lord. The high priest in Jerusalem was the lord that he served. He never lost sight of this, “To us there is ... one Lord Jesus Christ ... and we by him”. That is instinct, the instinct accompanying conversion. The work of God produced that instinct that would recognise the Lord. The instinct that goes with the work of God that would recognise the Lord shows that he was “delivered from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”, Colossians 1: 13.
“Who art thou, Lord?” A fine question, the question that issues from instincts of the divine nature. If it accompanied all conversions we should have more subjection amongst us. Now the word ‘Lord’ is put into our mouths, and rightly, but this is instinct. Here he just gets the answer, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”. The answer is in keeping with the state. The Lord says, “No one knows who the Son is but the Father”, Luke 10: 22. But here the answer is in keeping with the circumstances, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest”. He would never forget that — whom thou persecutest. That refers to chapter 8, and chapter Z. Terrible challenge to his heart. I “am not fit to be called apostle, because I have persecuted the assembly of God”. That man had to go, and he did go, not only from the eye of God but from Paul’s eye, too. Whenever he would look at the saints afterwards Paul would think of that; it is a question of what Jesus is in those persons; they represented Jesus. “I am Jesus”, that lowly unresisting Man at Calvary, not Lord. Paul says “Lord”, but He says “Jesus”, “whom thou persecutest”, showing that it is Jesus who suffered here in man’s reach. Not up there, Paul could not persecute Him up there, but it is what He was in the saints.
I have to judge myself as to whether the Spirit of [p. 122] Christ in a brother may not cause enmity in my heart; especially if, because of any way he may supersede me, I am apt to become a persecutor. That is how it was with Ishmael when Isaac was weaned. When Christ gets the full place in a christian’s heart the man after the flesh is sure to persecute. The Lord says, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day”. It is the day of Christ, typically, and the whole house is given over to rejoicing at the weaning of Isaac.
Ques Am I a persecutor if I am out of the spirit of the house?
JT Exactly, it is a very great test to us. For it may not seem a serious thing to many. I may be a persecutor of those who are giving Christ His place, and making others speak ill of them. But it is much to heaven.
In his own account in Acts 22, Paul tells us that he said, “What shall I do, Lord?” so we should keep that in mind. The Lord had in His mind that Paul was to do something. So that after the Lord saves your soul the next move is yours; what are you going to do? The christian is a moral product.
Rem As Paul had persecuted the saints he had to learn to take his instructions from them, too.
JT That is right, he had to go into the city.
Rem It is where the saints were.
JT Yes. The saints were in that particular city. “Enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. That is rather a humbling thing, to learn that he had to go into the city. He had gone in another character, but now he had to go there bowed down, a stricken, weakened, disabled man. He has to go into the city, the responsibility is his. Others led him in grace, the Lord saw to that, but he had to go there. It raises the whole question of the Lord’s authority, and where you have to go. It is your responsibility to go there.
[p. 123] Rem The Lord tells him to go there, but what he hears there is through the saints.
JT Yes, but it is in the city. There is something in it; the believer is not to do his own will at all.
What does it matter what place I go to? Would it not be better to go to Jerusalem and get light from the apostles there? But no, go into this city, the nearest one. The idea is that this city, Damascus, is almost here. It was an area in which the Lord had some ordering; He would have him to go to that particular place. He went into Arabia, he tells us afterwards, but the Lord did not send him to Arabia yet. Go into this city. It had certain boundaries, that city. He had to go within that. Not a word about the saints. Go into the city and it will be told you what you must do. Not a word about some great apostle there, but the principle that you must submit and do what you are told. And everything hinges now on whether you will move.
He had three days and three nights. All that had to be gone through before he met anyone. We are told, “the men who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but beholding no one. And Saul rose up from the earth, and his eyes being opened he saw no one. But leading him by the hand they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without seeing, and neither ate nor drank”. Those three days were spent inside. What is going to happen? It was a process of soul, an indescribable experience those three days, but they were making days, he was being made inwardly. I think it would go with Romans 7; he gives us the outline, he does not describe it all.
Ques In those three days was there any thought of reaching the Lord in resurrection?
JT I think they were preparing him by the divine way, showing that we are not to force the work of God in the soul, but give it time. Three is full [p. 124] testimony to something. Here it is to a full process in the soul which is necessary before getting light. Not seven but three.
The next thing is that a little bit of preparation had to be gone through by Ananias as well. It is a humbling thing for us if we are going to help souls. The Lord considers for Ananias, and for Himself too, for His own name’s sake that Saul should be rightly met, not only in word but in spirit, that he should be met in the right spirit. So the preparation was needed on both sides. The minister sometimes forgets that he has to be prepared for every address he gives, every service he renders, every soul he helps. And the brethren should give him time for that, and he should give himself time, for he is handling divine things. So there was a certain disciple in Damascus. That agrees with the Lord’s word, “Enter into the city”, and this disciple had to be prepared.
Rem As a disciple in Damascus he was available.
JT Yes, there were disciples in Jerusalem but they were not available. Paul speaks well of Ananias in chapter 22, a pious man, but the Lord had prepared him nevertheless. But he was in the city, in Damascus. Every word tells, for this is the initial chapter in Paul’s ministry.
Ques Would you say that the Lord always has that which will meet the need of those that He will bring to light in that locality?
JT That is so. There is that in a locality which the Lord can use. So Paul says, “The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me”, Acts 20: 23. What a thing for the Lord to have vessels in every city that would witness to Paul what would happen in Jerusalem! That is the testimony. It is very important that assembly service Godward should go on in companies in a locality and that there should also be service manward there. Peter served in a great transaction,
[p. 125] the reception of the gentiles. Who is ready for such a thing as that? Peter had doubtless never thought how it would happen that he would admit the gentiles, how he would turn that key. In receiving people into fellowship the principle is that they have a right: “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city”, Revelation 22: 14. That is, they can walk in. I cannot stand at the gates and say that I have authority to keep you out. They have a right, but it is conditional on their washing; it is not that they have washed but that they are washing regularly. Sometimes assemblies need to have a washing day. The brother that washes regularly has the right, but we have to see that he does wash, not simply that he is converted, but that he washes. Blessed are such. “Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away”. If he does not do that he has no right to the tree of life. The thought of the city is the testimony and service manward; that is what I have in mind.
Ques Is it as we move in a defiling scene that the necessity for washing comes in?
JT Well, and what you are yourself; the bodies are washed, but there is uncleanness from within, too. “Let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God’s fear”,
2 Corinthians 7: 1. A continuous process is meant in Revelation 22; it is the present tense. In Revelation 1 the Lord is praised as the One who has washed us from sins in His own blood; He did that. In chapter 7 the great multitude have washed their robes; they have done it; they are not doing it. But in Revelation 22 it is those that wash their robes, and that is a continuous operation.
This chapter is full of holy instruction for us, bearing on Paul’s doctrine; how the Lord prepared Ananias, and then how he rightly represented the [p. 126] Lord, for it is a question of what Paul would find in the city after the three days. What kind of spirit in service will he find? So you have Ananias coming to him and saying, “Saul, brother”. He went and entered into the house, and, laying his hands upon him, he said, “Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit”. The spirit of the man, laying his hands on him, and the word “brother” are representative of Jesus, Jesus in him. It is not ‘Lord’ but “Jesus”; all is to encourage his soul with the sense of grace. What a great preparation that was! We want to be a witness, one that Jesus can send; He sent him. That is the principle of service, that He sends you, and you are representative of Him.