“STAND ON THY FEET”

A. J. E. Welch

Acts 26: 14–18; 2 Timothy 4: 3–8

We live in the greatest conceivable days. This time of the Spirit brings out the divine glory in the richest and most fruitful way. There has been no time like this time, nor will there ever be another time like it; it will be understood that I am speaking not just of the present immediate period, but of the immensity of the Spirit’s day, this time which began at Pentecost when the Spirit came, and continues till the Lord comes to take His lovers to be with Him. It is a time which lovers of Christ rejoicingly recognise to be in its very last moments before its triumphal conclusion, when the Lord comes and takes all that are His to be with Himself—when, as it says so feelingly in the scripture, “we shall be always with the Lord”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 17.

Now I believe the case of Saul of Tarsus, of whose initial touch of blessing we have read, is to set out the prime example of what God is able for in this time. That is peculiarly vital to what enters into the present moment, to see what God is able to do in respect of man. This was a singularly significant time in the course of God’s testimony; the Spirit had come at Pentecost, believers had been secured, and the testimony had taken a certain course, particularly in Jerusalem. Now God is widening out the great scene of His testimony. There were the crowds at the beginning, at Jerusalem; there were the thousands at the start; but now God is embarking upon the richest and most fruitful line of activity which enters into the testimony. He secures in the

first instance one man. No doubt there were many others brought in in one way and another, but the point I am calling attention to is that the Spirit focuses attention on this one man, as if He would show us what God is able for in one man. He changed the man to bring him into full, sympathetic, energetic support of what He brought forward in His movements.

Saul of Tarsus was embarked on a murderous course against lovers of Christ, as it says,

“breathing out threatenings and slaughter”, Acts 9: 1. I doubt not there were those who wondered just how they could check what this evil man was doing. The Lord shows that He can check this man in what he is doing, but He can do far, far more; He can establish His thoughts in this man; He turns him right round. The Lord does not act in judgment in respect of him; He changes the man right round and makes him for the time His leading servant, the great apostle of the gentiles. That is the mark of this time of the Spirit, in which the Lord Jesus is on high; that same glorious Lord Jesus comes out of heaven to secure this man, to turn him right round, to make him indeed His faithful and most distinctive servant of the time. Think of God being able for that! If He is able for it for one, He is able for it for everyone; but God is not choosing at this point to bring out His work in great numbers. What He does elect to do is to bring out His work in its own choice, distinctive character, showing its refinement. We all know some at least of the details of the history of this man that show how his change was complete.

No, there was never a time like this. God wrought in times beforehand; God wrought in Abraham, in Sarah, in David, and in Solomon, but there was never a case like this; it is glorious in the way in which God intervenes, not only to stop the various activities of opposition upon which Saul of Tarsus was embarked, and to meet all that underlay that in this man’s soul, but in changing him round to become the greatest exponent for the time of the precious truth of God, the precious truth especially of the mystery of Christ and the assembly. There never was, prior to this, a time in which the testimony stood related to Christ in glory. I wonder if the blessedness of that has really claimed our attention, the blessedness of the testimony of a glorified Christ. Christ is out of death, the whole power of death met and overcome, and He has gone into a place of pre-eminence at the right hand of God; He has gone to the Father, to the place of love; Christ is up there and the Holy Spirit is here. In due time we see how Paul comes into the circle of lovers of Christ, and finds the Spirit as he comes among them; he finds one who comes to him and by whose hands, under God’s wise directing touch, he receives the Spirit.

Let us think about receiving the Spirit. Let us go back to the time when we were conscious that we received the Spirit. What a remarkable gift—which is the mark peculiarly of this time of which we are speaking—the gift of the Holy Spirit, giving us objectives outside everything here, giving us indeed a single glorious Objective in Christ in glory. The Spirit makes Christ in glory a centre for our affections, a governing point for our lives in their entirety; He speaks to us about Christ and makes Him precious to our hearts. He speaks in the simplest tones to the dear young people who are believers in the Lord Jesus and have obeyed Him and received the Holy Spirit; they find that the Spirit is able to tell them about Jesus, not only as He was, but Jesus as He is. This gives us, in the glorified Man, a centre of affection, a centre of interest, a centre upon which the bent of our minds is turned.

So the Lord speaks to Saul of Tarsus and announces Himself; He says, “But rise up and stand on thy feet”. Now that is the point that made me turn to this scripture, this very interesting word of the Lord to Saul of Tarsus, “But rise up and stand on thy feet”. Saul must have felt very humbled to think that he had persecuted this glorious Person who had spoken to him in such words of manifest grace. How humiliated he must have felt to realise that this same Jesus, who had been the objective, perhaps a few moments before, of the utmost hatred on his part, was speaking to him in grace. The Lord says to him, “Stand on thy feet”; that is to remind us, I have no doubt, of the glorious efficacy and completeness of the work of Jesus, that everything has been done that our guilt might be purged, that we might stand cleared of guilt in God’s presence, and that we may know what it is to put on Christ, to get free of the power of flesh in the light of God’s condemnation of sin in the flesh in the cross of Jesus.

Think of that shed blood; think of what John presents—the smiting of His side, the flowing forth of the blood and of the water. There is not only that which purges guilt—the blood—but the water, that which meets the need of moral cleansing, the cleansing by the Spirit through the word, that we may come suitably into God’s presence. All is effected in the dying and raising of Jesus. The Lord can say to such a man, “Stand on thy feet”. Saul might have said,

‘What about my history?’. The word would be that that is finished. The Lord would intimate that that would never come before Him again, never, and that it had been judged in His death, so He can say to Saul of Tarsus, “Stand on thy feet”. It would take some time perhaps for this dear man to arrive at what had taken place and to

understand the truth of what I have lightly touched on, but the point is that the Lord can say this to the man, “Stand on thy feet”, because of this wonderful provision from God’s side in Christ, provision which is perfectly adapted to a man’s needs, whatever kind of man he is, to bring him into God’s presence fit to be there, and not only fit to be there, but fit to be used in the course of His interests here.

“Rise up and stand on thy feet”. What a word that is to us! Let other things be done with. Let the things that belong to this time of the Spirit govern each one of us; let us be in the free gain of all that Christ has effected in the sacrificial work in love and power that He has undertaken. Let trivial things, which Satan seeks to bring in to despoil us of what is so great, be cast aside.

This dear man was brought round to see things as God sees them. He yearned for what God yearns for, to see the assembly secured for Christ, and he laboured that what belongs to the assembly might be secured in the places he visited. What a labourer he was! He was not negligent of God and His claims, the claims of His grace upon men, but came round to God’s side to see them, and laboured at them. So the word is, “For, for this purpose have I appeared to thee, to appoint thee to be a servant and a witness both of what thou hast seen, and of what I shall appear to thee in”—remarkable words, as if the Lord is saying to Saul of Tarsus, ‘I am going to maintain active relations with you. This is not the last disclosure you will receive from Me; there will be more yet’. The Lord is just showing that He is going to keep this man in relation with Him as a channel for God’s blessing. When we think of where Christ is, and the character of the operation of His power and His grace, and the kind of results

that He is able to secure in men, we can only say, what a wonderful time this is!

I just had the concern that we come into the gain of this. This was a vision from heaven to Saul of Tarsus; it—was imperative that he answer to it. But, you know, the truth of God is brought to bear upon us in its imperative character. The grace of the Lord Jesus is wonderfully manifest in this episode; and the grace of the Lord Jesus is available to you. But do not miss what belongs to this remarkable time of the Spirit! The knowledge of our God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit involves the wealth which He has brought in in the introduction and maintaining of the truth. ‘Come into these things’, He would say; ‘come right in; the power is there in Christ in glory and in the Spirit in the assembly’. Here is a man who had been embittered to the point of such active attack against Christ and His interests, but who was told by that same glorious Lord to stand on his feet. That word would come to us, dear brethren; do not hold back! Many things the enemy would use to hold us back; he would engage us with ourselves, with our frailties, with our histories, but the word is, “Rise up and stand on thy feet”, because this is the great time of an exalted Christ and of the Spirit here.

There is resource to effect things in the souls of men answering to Christ and answering to God’s great thoughts in the assembly.

But now this man is to become a leader. He is to pursue a course of service; that is to say, not only has the Lord secured him, but He takes him up in distinctive activity. This again is the mark of this wonderful time; He does not just secure persons and isolate them. He would say, ‘Come right into the flow, the rich flow of all that is transpiring in this wonderful time’. So he takes matters up in

such thoroughness as to Christ and His interests. Saul of Tarsus’s total committal to the interests of Christ comes in here. We see that from God’s side all is presented glorious; Christ is on high, His work complete, and the efficacy of His work is presented to men; the gift of the Spirit too is presented as God’s thought for men, the activities of the Spirit engaging the hearts of His lovers with Jesus and God’s pleasure in Him as Man. The great divine objective in mind here is the assembly, of which the Lord could say, “On this rock I will build my assembly” (Matthew 16: 18); that is what is to bring out the greatness of Christ—the assembly is being built. But will you not come into the working out of it? I would say to myself, ‘Shall I not come into this?’.

The consequence of the way in which the Lord speaks to this man is to secure him as an active servant for His interests; he does not hold back, nor does he suffer any holding back on the part of others with whom he has to do, such as his beloved child Timothy. It is the time, you see, to come into these things. There is to be the answer on our side, just as there was an answer on the side of Saul of Tarsus as he went forward, under the Lord’s direction, and became so quickly and so remarkably effective in His interests. The scale of operations was not small. Take a look at a map of Europe and see how widely Saul, later Paul, ranged in his service, those four missionary journeys embracing pretty much the whole of the habitable world at the time at which they took place. Think of the energy, the ceaseless energy, of this man! Remember the conditions in which he laboured; yet he laboured on and let nothing stand in his way of continuing committal to the labour that the Lord had opened up to him. There is to be a clear answer to Christ right the way through this time of the Spirit in something of this quality.

So Paul had one chosen by him at a critical time who was singularly the subject of his affection and attention and care, that is Timotheus. He writes him two letters, as we well know, two epistles to sustain that younger man in the course of the testimony in a dark day, showing us that God has provided for the darkest day. He has made provision. It is as if He would say, ‘I am equal to the testimony in its widest extent, and I am equal to it in smaller circumstances, and I will show the quality of what I can do in small circumstances in these closing moments’. So Timothy, setting before us one who moved in dark times, is instructed in these things. It is not for me in a time like this to go into the teaching of the letters, but rather to emphasize the character of them. The beloved apostle is passing things on to Timothy as his beloved child. What times they must have had together! What a close link there was, but that link worked out in the continuance of the testimony.

Dear brethren, the continuance of the testimony is very much the challenge of the moment, and God has made provision in power that it may continue. The basis and character of continuance is unfolded to Timothy by the beloved apostle, who shows him that in the midst of breakdown God has made a way through. In the midst of broken conditions there is a way in which the testimony shall be fittingly maintained for God, a way in which there shall yet be an expression under God’s eye of what is precious to Him in the assembly. All this enters into the Pauline instruction to Timothy; and it enters into the Pauline instruction to us.

So he addresses himself, near the end of this closing word, to his beloved child, “Fill up the full measure of thy ministry. For I am already being poured out, and the time of my release is come. I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race”, referring back to the time of his active service. It is as if he says, ‘Timothy, the continuance depends on you’. That is the word for us at this time; this time of the Spirit continues in all the glory of it, the divine resource from His side in no sense changed. Christ in glory is the same, every resource in His hand as it ever was; the Spirit is here and His power and the grace of His activity are unchangeable. How shall we, according to our several links with Christ and with the Spirit, move through for the continuance of the testimony? The word is very clear to Timothy in this chapter, and indeed in this whole second epistle; Paul is about to depart, but is the testimony to cease when Paul is removed from it? Let us ask ourselves today in our several circumstances—is the testimony to cease? Let it be the resolve of every one of us that it shall continue, as in view of the moment when He, once spurned, rejected, and crucified, comes in glory to take up His rights here.

In the meantime He has those who love Him, who stand in His rights and cherish the preciousness of the One whose rights they are. Let there be no slipping back! Let there be no failing! Let there be no half-hearted standing in things to which such glory belongs! Let us see that we go through, dear brethren, in unreserved committal to Christ and His glory. Just as in Pauline times, the testimony and its continuance depend upon the faithfulness of younger men. The resources of this dispensation in Christ and in the Spirit are unchangingly available to carry through what is of God in changed persons, to bring in something that is fresh and powerful in view of God securing His great end. Let our courage

and confidence in God not fail in view of the great end that is before us when the Lord Jesus appears. Let us be marked off as those who love Him and His appearing, for His name’s sake.

Address in Sydney
29 July 1978