PRAYER AS SEEN IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES (4)
[p. 85] PRAYER AS SEEN IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES (4)
Acts 9:10 - 17; Acts 9:39 - 42; Acts 10:1 - 17, Acts 10:28 - 33
JT This section refers to the administrative authority of Peter, committed to him by the Lord under the term, “the keys of the kingdom of the heavens”(Matthew 16:19). It was thought well to read the passages referring to Saul’s conversion, as he was being prepared, as it were, for this great event, then to consider Peter’s service at Joppa as bearing on local assemblies in view of their incoming under Paul’s ministry, and finally the prayer of Cornelius at the ninth hour, in which he had a vision, and Peter’s prayer on the housetop. So that the great event of the incoming of the gentiles into the kingdom of the heavens is marked by prayer. The further we proceed in the subject, I think we would all admit, the more the importance of it increases in our minds, and it ought to influence us greatly as to this matter of prayer in the prayer meeting. We finished this morning with Philip’s service and the apostles at Jerusalem sending down Peter and John to Samaria that those there might receive the Holy Spirit. The matter of Samaria’s rivalry with Jerusalem was adjusted in that event and was never to revive, for rivalry is shut out by the gift of the Spirit; but the fact of the Spirit coming in in connection with the assembly at Jerusalem, and that the apostles were at Jerusalem, before that city was set aside, shows that its full place is owned insomuch as Samaria’s claim is concerned.
HGH Is the thought of submission set before us here in the expression, “Behold, he is praying”? We get Saul’s conversion, as we speak of it, and we now see him praying in connection with [p. 86] it.
JT I would say that. Before, he was an insolent overbearing man, and he had come from Jerusalem armed with letters from the high priest allowing him to do acts of violence in Damascus, but now he is looking to heaven for help, a dependent man. The Lord introduces him to Ananias as a man who is praying. What he prayed would be very interesting to know; but anyway it says he saw in a vision Ananias coming in; as the Lord says, “For, behold he is praying, and has seen in a vision a man by name Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he should see”. How did the vision convey Ananias’ name?
ANW Do you think he was praying before he had the Spirit?
JT Manifestly. It is said here by Ananias, “that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (verse 17). He would hardly have received the Holy Spirit until he was baptised, because of the position he held in Judaism; until he formally broke links with it publicly he would not be fit for the reception of the Spirit.
CT Is that why the word ‘see’ is so prominent? We get it in verse 12 and also in verse 17 as from Ananias’ side.
JT Yes, “that thou mightest see”; so that he should see and then “be filled with the Holy Spirit”. Seeing comes before the reception of the Spirit.
ANW Praying would be the evidence that he was born again.
JT Well, that is the point; just as we see in Cornelius and others, dependence and subjection in prayer are features of new birth.
CN Would it be right to say that his praying is not so much in connection with his own conversion as in relation to the range of things ahead of him?
JT It is hard to say how-much his own state entered into his prayer, I would say that would be [p. 87] the immediate burden. The immediate burden would be his dead state and deliverance from it.
Ques Does his state have a great deal to do with the immediate response? It says, “Behold, he is praying”, as though these visions and the movements from the divine side come in immediate response. I was wondering if that was a prompt answer to the state that was with him.
JT I think that is so. There is no indication that he was praying before the Lord appeared to him. This is the reaction and the Lord awaited the reaction. As the Lord appeared to him it says, “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?”(Acts 9:4). Well, there is no evidence that he was praying before that. I think he was fully confident of being able to cope with the conditions in Damascus; he was commissioned to deal with them and he was not relying on God then. He was an insolent overbearing man, but now that light has shone into his soul his attitude is that of prayer.
AR The last time we heard of him he had seen a man’s face shining as an angel’s. The next time we hear of him he has a light from heaven shining around him, and “he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? ... I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest!”. I was wondering if he would not link them both together in his prayer.
JT That is good. As suggested a little while ago, he was dependent and submissive. He says, “Who art thou. Lord?”. Elsewhere we are told that he said, “What shall I do, Lord?”(Acts 22:10). His attitude was one of subjection and dependence, clearly in effect it was the work of God that is called new birth, a sovereign action of the Spirit; but here it is accompanied by much more than accompanies it with [p. 88] most believers.
CHH Would he correspond in any way in the commencement of his public history with the Lord in Luke? He was praying and the Spirit came on Him.
JT Yes, there is clearly a link there. As the Lord was praying the Spirit came upon Him, and of course Acts is a counterpart of Luke’s gospel. In the Lord’s own case, as we had it already, how much He was in prayer! So that the work of the Spirit in us, that is in men, leads to correspondence with Christ from the outset.
SJH Would not the three days without seeing convey something as to his state and what he was passing through?
JT I suppose it would. If anything of Romans 7 entered into it what a time he must have had! The Lord evidently gave him scope, before he got the Holy Spirit, to search himself inwardly. He was not looking at external things, he was blind.
ANW Would these prayers before receiving the Spirit, and in the case of Cornelius before he was saved, have the nature of what the Lord said to the woman in John 4, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee. Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”(John 4:10)?
JT Just so, there it is: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him”. The Lord implies considerable knowledge in her soul for that: “Thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. It is the same sort of exercise with Saul here, the desire for someone to deliver him. “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”, he says in Romans 7:25, after “Who shall deliver me?”. There is that sort of feeling and desire in his heart, and the Lord was waiting for that. He was waiting for the reaction to the first [p. 89] impact. What would happen? The Lord was watching for that and could tell Ananias about it so that Ananias should know that he was to be in that matter, he was to have part in this great work. I suppose it was Ananias’ greatest work, and the Lord told him this so that he might be in it intelligently and in liberty.
SP Is that why the Lord passes this great vessel through the hand of a certain disciple in a certain locality? “It shall be told thee what thou must do”.
JT It must have been a humbling word to him, “What thou must do”; it was not optional. That is a good point because many at this stage are very loose and independent. The word ‘must’ is important.
CHH Would there be an indication that as Saul passed through the exercise of Romans 7 that exercise would be met by ministry?
JT It would. If any part of it entered into these dark hours evidently he worked it out in his own soul according to that passage. External ministry is not contemplated in Romans 7; it is an inward process that each has to go through, and he says it is “when we were in the flesh”(Romans 7:5), so that it is difficult to see how it would have fitted in after he got the Spirit and was preaching. It would look as if in some sense it was worked out at this time. Perhaps he was working it out before secretly, you may say unconsciously, after he witnessed Stephen’s death, for the Lord says, “It is hard for thee to kick against goads”, Acts 26:14. There must have been something definitely going on in his soul, but now the matter is taken on by the Lord and Ananias is brought into it. He is introduced into it by the suggestion of prayer; this man is praying.
WL Would Ananias be impressed by this? It was not merely a matter of information to [p. 90] him.
JT I am sure it was not. I am sure he retold these incidents many a time in Damascus and I have no doubt that the apostle Paul himself told the disciples in different parts something about it.
HB Is there something to learn in that there are many names of places and many names of persons given?
JT The idea of place must have a great part in this dispensation, because the whole world is in mind; certainly now in this chapter places are in mind, and persons too.
HB Would it help us to be more specific in our prayer meetings?
JT That is what we were saying already. Sometimes prayer meetings do not go very far beyond the meeting room in their scope, but the dispensation is a very long one and prayer should cover the field. The Lord bought the field in view of what was in it; now we are coming into the field of the gentiles, and persons and places surely have a great place in the record. In the opening of the letter to Corinth it is said, “To the assembly of God which is in Corinth ... with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”(1 Corinthians 1:2). So the pearl of great price is involved now, we are coming on to the ground of it. It alludes to Paul’s ministry of the assembly, and great scope of territory and time are in mind, and also persons.
AR This vision must have brought with it some sense in Paul’s soul of the mystery which later he had so much in his mind, and his prayer might embody something about the mystery; “Why dost thou persecute me?” and “Rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, would be suggestive of the mystery.
JT It certainly was preliminary work in his soul when a man like this was told he must do certain things, obey orders from certain persons. He [p. 91] might say, Lord, you give me all the instruction, but the Lord did not give him all the instruction. He said, “Enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. It is a most important part of the believer’s experience, most important, initially, because he has to learn to take orders from others and from persons whom earlier he might have looked down upon.
CT Would you connect the city with the assembly today?
JT The idea of the cities, as we have been speaking of places, has a great place in this dispensation. The Lord says to Paul, “I have much people in this city”, Acts 18:10. The work is chiefly in cities, but, of course, it is in countrysides too. It is a question of concentration of evil and how God meets it, because the concentrations of evil have to be overcome.
CAM Would you say in that connection that all the conditions surrounding Paul’s conversion were the design of God in view of the city? While those in Damascus were going on in discipleship they must have been in great fear of this powerful enemy, and he was very near to Damascus too; it says, “It came to pass that he drew near to Damascus”, Acts 9:3. The Lord had timed the deliverance in a very wonderful way.
JT Damascus was the habitual enemy of Israel and Saul would know that well. He would go there to execute judgment from the high priest. So he is allowed to get near the city. How much he knew of Naaman I do not know; he ought to have known about Naaman the Syrian, the rivers of Damascus and so forth. It would be well-known territory to him objectively, as it was opposed to Israel: “For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin”, it was said in Isaiah’s day (Isaiah 7:8). Hardly any country had more to do with [p. 92] Israel than Syria and Damascus. In his natural state Saul would certainly be aware of all this and have it in mind in approaching the city. Now he has to go in and get his orders; a great revelation must take place in his soul, and that runs down in the history of all souls. We have to learn to take orders from others, not only from the Lord but from the brethren. One will never be an assembly man unless he learns to take orders from the brethren.
WL I was wondering if dependence and obedience go together.
JT They do. That is just what you find in his soul. What good are the letters of the high priest now? What will they obtain for him in Damascus? He certainly cannot carry out their orders; he might as well burn them. He had taken orders from the high priest, but now he has to take orders from others, and the Lord has already told him that he must do so in the city of Damascus. His natural instincts would revolt against it, and that is what happens, we have to give up our natural instincts and learn to be subject and dependent instead of insubject and independent, otherwise we shall never be in the assembly according to God, nor shall we find the pearl of great price in it.
SP So the “must do” and the “must suffer” go together.
JT Quite so. He has to learn something about these “musts”.
AB Would the three days involve no seeing, eating or drinking?
JT A great gospel subject! Tell us more.
AB I was thinking of it as really the end of that order and the bringing in of another according to God.
JT I am sure he is set out here as a model. He tells us himself that in him was set forth a delineation of those who shall hereafter believe unto eternal [p. 93] life. We have to keep our eye on Paul for our part in the assembly, our part in the dispensation and the assembly as he brought it in.
JWD It says in the end of Romans 7, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”(Romans 7:25). Do you think the idea of “our Lord” and the deliverance connected with that are connected with Ananias and city exercises?
JT Just so. Of course when he wrote the epistle to the Romans he had come into contact with a great many more Ananiases.
JWD I was thinking that souls in the throes of Romans 7 get emancipation through the idea of obedience to what is set up locally.
JT Quite so.
CN Does Ananias show, over against all this concentration of evil in Damascus, what one man might be in a city and that God can, as it were, turn the city upside down through that one man? I am thinking of Ananias being in prayer.
JT Paul gives him a good recommendation. He does not seem to have been a very wonderful brother; he thinks he knows better than the Lord at the outset. He says, “I have heard from many concerning this man” (verse 13), as much as to say the Lord did not know him. Many are like that; they know better than the Lord; they know better than the Scriptures. But he is amenable to the Lord; the Lord says, I must have it this way, you may as well bow; Saul had to bow. Thus Ananias was brought into the system; he was hardly fit for it but I think we learn here how quickly the Lord can bring us into line and make us suitable for His service.
JS Do you think the Lord has taken His seat on the throne of grace between chapters 7 and 9? In chapter 7 Stephen sees Him standing; now apparently He has taken His seat and is exercising grace in that [p. 94] way.
JT Well, if you listen to Mark he says He sat down as soon as He went up there. Of course what Stephen saw was just symbolical of the Lord’s readiness to come back and save Israel, but sitting is the permanence of the reign of grace.
RWS Did He come down, appearing in the way, to secure Saul in view of the importance of the local assembly?
JT It is a question of where the thing happened. We have entered on the idea of local companies and the end of this chapter shows that Peter had entered into the current; he went through all quarters, it is said. The current of the economy had already begun, involving administration in the assembly, involving local assemblies. Peter is going to Joppa and the other places at the end of the chapter, showing that he was dealing with localities. Aeneas was told to make his bed; “rise up, and make thy couch for thyself”(Acts 9:34), that is what Peter said. Then at Joppa, Tabitha is a local sister, or at least a local person, and he raises her up and delivers her to the local people, “having called the saints and the widows, presented her living” (verse 41). “Presented her living”, that is to say, she is presented to a local setting and the local people. Aeneas is making his bed for himself in his place, and now Paul is converted at a certain place, Damascus, and he must begin to receive orders there. I think all this is in order to bring out the new thing involving local assemblies.
JH Would Damascus be Paul’s local company?
JT Well, for a while he would be there with the disciples. It says “he was with the disciples who were in Damascus certain days”. That would be enough to give him the experience of a local company. I suppose he would refer to Ananias in any matter in the meeting. He would have respect for [p. 95] Ananias because he would always remember that he was the vessel that the Lord had chosen, for his inward deliverance.
JHtJr Would you say that to be of immediate value in the local meeting you need to be in the spirit of the dispensation? Ananias had heard other things about Saul and tended to set aside the way the Lord can transform in a short time.
JT I suppose that would be a part of the lesson to be learned out of these circumstances. How quickly the Lord can change a brother and make him fit to help another brother, one of whom he had no good opinion! So if we are at all subject the Lord would make us useful to one another. Young converts have to learn to take orders from others.
Rem As soon as he received orders he went; he moved immediately.
JT He did.
JRH Would this help us to make every allowance for the work of God showing itself in others?
JT Yes, I think so. And visiting the saints is a matter of real importance. The Lord directs him to a certain street and a certain number; giving a man’s name and address lays a basis for visiting the brethren.
AR If we were to go to heaven and sit beside the Lord we would find the work of God is one theme on earth. I was wondering if that was what the Lord wanted to bring Ananias into here and set them both as one piece.
JT Quite so. The history of Saul afterwards would bring out a great deal which we cannot go into now, but enough is said in these few verses to indicate how the work of God proceeds, how quickly the Lord can adjust matters so that brothers can serve one another. We are to serve one another in love. Saul gets his first lesson here in the way [p. 96] Ananias served him; he lays aside all his prejudice, comes into the house, lays his hands on Saul and says, “Saul, brother”; he calls him ‘Brother’.
CHH Would the experience that Ananias had in being corrected help him to correct Saul? It is as though he would stimulate Saul by saying, “And now why lingerest thou?”(Acts 22:16); so the stimulation he had from the Lord is carried on.
JT Yes, quite. When Saul tells the Jews at Jerusalem about this incident later he intimates that he was rather slow in being baptised. He confesses that to the Jews, as much as to say he was not in a hurry to leave Judaism when he was converted, and Ananias wanted to know what was hindering him: Why are you delaying being baptised? Paul tells the Jews that, as much as to say, I was not in a hurry to leave Judaism, but Ananias was in a hurry about it. So it says, “Arise and get baptised” (chapter 22:16), and he was to get the Holy Spirit, “that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (chapter 9:17). I think all the facts of the three accounts we have are intended to help us as to early experience after our conversion. First, to learn to take orders from others, persons we might look down on otherwise, and then not to delay in the thing that should be done. “Why lingerest thou? Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away, calling on his name” (chapter 22:16); that is what he tells the Jews. He meant to convey to the Jews that he was not in too great a hurry to leave Judaism but Ananias was in a hurry for him to leave it.
JS Is Ananias set over against the Sanhedrim, and Damascus over against Judaism?
JT He represents Christianity, as we have said already, but the Lord had to prepare him. He was not right and the Lord set him right. He was not equal to the work, the Lord had to prepare him for [p. 97] it. That is another thing, in seeking to serve we must be amenable to the Lord’s adjustment if we are to serve aright. Clearly Ananias served very well as Paul’s comments on him later show, “a pious man according to the law, borne witness to by all the Jews who dwelt there”(Acts 22:12).
JS Would it be like the Lord saying to Zacchaeus, “Make haste and come down”, Luke 19:5?
JT Quite so.
CT The apostle says at the close of his day, “The time of my release is come”(2 Timothy 4:6). Is that a man who has been under orders?
JT That is right. The Lord is about to release him through martyrdom.
CHH The Lord said to Peter, “And thou, when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren”, Luke 22:32. Adjustment must take place with Peter first.
SP Would you expect these geographical locations that you mention, Damascus, Lydda and Joppa, to enter into the spiritual import of these brethren’s prayer meetings from now on?
JT Undoubtedly these are the beginnings. Historical Christianity is important, but current Christianity is also important, as we had last night; the blind man in John 9 brought in the historical side first to the neighbours and then current conditions to the Pharisees. These incidents in Peter’s service at Joppa and Lydda were, you may be sure, often related by the people who were the subjects of them. There is Dorcas, a woman who undoubtedly had a place in the society of the town, but now she is a changed woman. We have finished with Saul: he is set on his way by taking orders at Damascus where there is a meeting and a brother who tells him what to do, and he does it. He gets the Holy Spirit and preaches Jesus as Son of God;
[p. 98] he is thoroughly on his way. And now, later in the chapter, we have Peter moving, as though he were sensing the change in affairs and as he goes into all quarters (these are special quarters, Lydda and Joppa, and what he does there is historical) he is enlarging, we might say simply, laying the width of the rails, because the train has to go out into the world among the nations. We have to have wider gauge, so that is what he is doing. Then when we come to chapter 10 we find Peter still in Joppa; he spent a good while there with Simon the tanner. Joppa was at the end of the Mediterranean; the Mediterranean refers to the gentile nations and that would be the outlook as he went up to the housetop to pray. In the meantime there was another man, in Caesarea, who was praying, too, Peter at the sixth hour and Cornelius at the ninth hour. It is remarkable; these prayers are going on. This is the secret history of the work of God and we are going to have great results.
EF We get a great deal of synchronising in this section, the prayers of His people with His work.
JT Yes, showing that even the use of Peter’s keys is preceded by Cornelius’ prayer. It is a remarkable thing! Mr. M. brought the matter up yesterday of everything being the outcome of prayer. Certainly the use of Peter’s keys is preceded by Cornelius’ prayer. He is a remarkable man; he is not an ordinary man, he is a military man, a titled man too, a centurion, and he has a soldier as his servant who is called pious. So we must not be too hard on military men because they are needed, according to their names and their ranks. One of them is said to be pious but Cornelius is more than that. He was a centurion of the band called Italic, meaning he was a thorough Roman, nevertheless “pious, and fearing God with all his house, both giving much alms to the people, and supplicating God continually” (chap.
[p. 99] 10:2). This is the man who is going to be the beginning of the gentile work.
Rem Peter was a praying man in dealing with what was sectional at Joppa. The widows were all standing by him, but he puts them out and kneels down, and then deals with that by presenting Dorcas alive to the saints and widows.
JT Quite so, it does not say to the weeping ones. There is nothing said about the saints before he went there; they seemed to be all Dorcas-people before he went there and as he went they were weeping, we are told, showing him the garments, “And all the widows stood by him weeping and shewing him the body-coats and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them. But Peter, putting them all out, and kneeling down, prayed”. That is, he discriminates against those weeping and occupied with the garments, but now we are told there are saints and widows there. He does not hand her back to the recipients of the garments: he presents her to the saints and widows and that is important as to local matters. It shows that the local position must be purified. He put them all out; that is very arbitrary, but you will have no assembly if you let these people stay, wailing about garments.
JRH Peter kneeled down and prayed, showing the position in Joppa was more serious than in Lydda.
JT He knew well enough what that wailing and body-coat making meant; it meant social affairs.
ANW The condition is too negative at Lydda and too active at Joppa.
JT Just so. The paralysed man could not do much, but this matter of the wailing and the garments is to be watched, because we shall never reach the local assembly according to God on these lines. Peter is very drastic, he puts them all out and turns to God and prays.
CAM [p. 100] It is very remarkable about this matter of piety. There is a great deal made of it in these different characters. Would you not say that there may be a danger of resting in so-called piety? We should pray with expectancy for some intervention of God, some heavenly intervention. I was really thinking of the whole matter, because Ananias and Cornelius, indeed all these men, were pious.
JT Are you making little of that?
CAM It seems to be indispensable, but is there a danger of resting in it? A home needs to be marked by piety, but really to be in assembly light it seems to need some additional heavenly touch to it.
JT Well, that is what we get now in chapter 10. Peter had laid the basis in Lydda and Joppa for the local companies, and now with Cornelius we come to another territory in Caesarea, and it involves a military man with a title and a servant who is a soldier; but Cornelius is described, as we just noted, as “pious, and fearing God with all his house”. I would say that he had some light because he was fearing God and had his house with him in it. That is a very important thing in view of what we are coming to, because “thou and thy house” is so strong a feature in Paul’s ministry. Paul has nothing to do with this case but instinctively this man says, I must have my house apart from the social affairs of Caesarea. Agrippa came there later, and if Cornelius were there undoubtedly he would be recognised, but his house was out of the world already. It is with his house, not and his house, as in the case of the nobleman at Capernaum in John 4:53 who “believed ... and his ... house”. There the house believed by itself, but here Cornelius believed with his house, as far as he had got, “fearing God with all his house, both giving much alms to the people, and supplicating God continually”. He is a remarkable man, and he is taken up to represent the introduction [p. 101] of the gentiles. He is going to come in formally by the keys of Peter. So we must look at this in a formal way to see how the keys were employed. He is outside of Christianity, yet he has traits of Christianity with him.
AB Is he different from the man in chapter 3, who was carried and laid at the gate asking alms? Here is one actually outside the system bearing the character of what is within, praying, giving, and marked by piety.
JT Yes, yet he is still a gentile commander of the Italic band; but he is like the man in John 9: he is ready for this matter. When God is doing great things. He prepares for great things.
JS Is he like the centurion who is set under authority and beseeches the Lord to come and heal his son?
JT That is right. There are several centurions in the New Testament. It is remarkable how the work of God carries them further than their external position. The one at the cross was simply in charge of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, but he says, “Truly this man was Son of God”, Mark 15:39. He got beyond his external position; that is a great thing, to get light beyond the light you have.
CT Is this on the line of Joshua, “But as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah”, Joshua 24:15?
JT Yes, this man is ready for Paul. Peter does not make much of the believer’s house, Paul makes a good deal of it, especially to the jailor as we have often said. Here this man is anticipating all that, his instincts are right, they are sure, they are accurate. Before he hears the gospel he has the instincts of the work of God. He is a prepared man for this purpose. We hear nothing of him afterwards, but he is prepared for this purpose.
CAM [p. 102] This all enters into the city life, dwelling in a walled city. He would come into the blessing of that dwelling established for ever.
JT Well, quite so. He is certainly remarkable as representing divine preparation. You get people converted on the spot, thoroughly in the darkness before like the man at the gate of the temple; but here is a man like the man in John 9, prepared for a purpose. The Lord said of that man, “Neither has this man sinned nor his parents”(John 9:3). Well, what was he there for? “That the works of God should be manifested in him”. What about Cornelius? He is to be introduced into the kingdom of God by Peter. He is a prepared man, so all that follows is in keeping with this. He is praying at the ninth hour and he gets a vision; Peter prays at the sixth hour, and he gets a vision. The work of God is going on according to these records and the result is seen at the end of the chapter. But in the meantime Peter’s experience is that he is waiting for his lunch, speaking simply. He goes up to the top of the house to pray, that is, we are reminded not to waste our time. He has a little time while awaiting dinner and he is going to use it in prayer. It turns out that in this matter of prayer (whatever he said we do not know) he is on the Mediterranean and he is looking out from the housetop. What is he praying about? Is he beginning to think of the wide domain that the Lord is operating in? In any case that is what happened; he was praying, spending his time profitably. We are reminded that we should not waste our time. If we cannot do anything else we can pray. There is plenty to pray about and there is great result in the house of God. The vision comes down, and he tells us just what it was: there was a vessel like a great sheet; God goes to all that trouble to enlighten Peter. He has already prepared Cornelius, now Peter must be prepared; that is to say, the man who [p. 103] is to be helped has to be prepared and the man who is to help has to be prepared. So the whole matter is preparation. The work of God should not be carried on in any casual way, but carefully; not slothfully; you lose no time. If you have a little time before the preaching use it in reference to the preaching.
CAM To create expectancy?
JT Quite so.
AB Is Rahab another example of this preparatory work of which you speak?
JT I think so. She had flax in her house preliminary to the state she came into and in view of what she had been.
AT Is there a suggestion that Dorcas had too much to do in making garments and no time to pray? She had only an upper room, part of a house, whereas Cornelius had a house.
JT She was occupied with things that do not enter into the assembly at all, but they were considered very praiseworthy. Cornelius had a house and servants attending, and he used his time well.
HB Why does God use an angel to speak to Cornelius, the Lord to speak to Ananias and the Spirit to speak to Peter?
JT An angel represents what is providential and distant in a comparative sense. That described Cornelius’ position at the moment: he was really afar off and without God and without hope in the world. Externally that is what he was, having no part in the covenants of promise.
JRH Would it be right to say that Cornelius and his house was a good example of what God was going to effect?
JT It is the kind of material God can use; that is a great matter. When God made the universe, where did He get the material? He created it out of [p. 104] nothing and yet there are great features of material in the universe. Now He is creating another universe and here is part of the material; it is ready for the great event; but Peter has to be made ready, that is the other side.
JTJr At the end of the prayer we should be different from when we started.
JT We ought to be. The point is to use the time and to use it right up to the moment of your taking part in service, because the devil is watching and if he can bring in some little bit of frivolity he will spoil your address. Angels prepare themselves to sound. Prepare yourself. We have to watch otherwise the devil may get in before we begin to speak.
Ques Would the idea of prayer and fasting come in?
JT Quite so, that is another thing.
SMcC Would you link this up with Romans 2:7 “to them who, in patient continuance of good works, seek for glory and honour and incorruptibility”?
JT Yes, that is the sort of thing. Cornelius is one of those.
HB Would you say why this is the Spirit’s matter and the matter of Saul is the Lord’s matter? Is there something to learn from that?
JT I am glad you brought it up. This matter of Cornelius is a distant matter: he is still outwardly in a place of distance though inwardly possibly nearer than others perhaps in a place of nearness. It is the secret side of the matter, how God operated secretly before the public result.
SMcC In verse 27 it says, “And he went in, talking with him”. It is not ‘talking to him’ but with him; would that show the result of the preparation both in Peter [p. 105] and Cornelius?
JT Just so. It is very beautiful and moreover he said, “I myself also am a man”, not a Jew, it is a question now of man.
JS Would his prayer in that light be an expression of man’s weakness?
JT Well, it is that, no doubt, but it is a question of man’s dependence, which is a more beautiful thought than weakness.
SMcC As the chapter proceeds, it seems the idea of distance recedes. Cornelius does not say he saw an angel standing, he says, “And lo, a man stood before me”, as if that is really bringing the matter a little nearer, in relation to Peter’s service in coming near.
JT That would be how the angel appeared, so that man is now finding a place; Judaism is receding and it is man that is in mind. We have not time to go into the matter of the sheet but the incident was thrice repeated to impress Peter with the fixity of it. What is represented in the sheet is a fixed matter; it happened three times, then the sheet was drawn up into heaven. That is, the whole thing is going up; it is a heavenly matter hereafter; it is not a question of the Jews but of the assembly, and of the assembly being heavenly, coming out of heaven, coming down here in a threefold sense in testimony and going up again into heaven into its own place. That is really what is to be learned in the sheet. Then Peter says, You sent for me, and, as it were, I was in no hurry: “Wherefore also, having been sent for, I came without saying anything against it” (verse 29). What a remarkable thing! He is in no hurry to leave the Jewish setting but still he is doing it. He is slow but steady, and now he is with Cornelius and his house, and he says, T am a man like yourself. Cornelius says, ‘I saw a man’, so that we are on the ground of men now. Stephen had seen the Son of man in heaven. We are spreading out now to the domain of [p. 106] man. The Lord Jesus is alluding to man. He has rights among men. He has bought the earth so that He can move out and secure the treasure and the pearl. Now we get this incident of how Peter got on with Cornelius. What a nice company there must have been at home in his drawing-room, as we might say! He brought in his friends; they were all his friends, he was not going out to the highways and hedges. Peter says, ‘I was not in a hurry, but still I am here’. I do not say anything against it. But why should he not be in a hurry? It shows how difficult it is to get a Jew out of his setting; but he is out of it now. Peter is now in a gentile house, in a soldier’s house with his family and friends, and Cornelius says, “Four days ago I had been fasting unto this hour, and the ninth I was praying in my house, and lo, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, thy prayer has been heard, and thy alms have come in remembrance before God”. Now this is remarkable, he is known in heaven. He is a priest; like Job, he is beyond his dispensation.
CAM He seems to be always looking right on to the fact that the sheet will go up.
JT You can see he is ready for it. He is not hankering for the earth, nor his title, nor his associations in Caesarea. The idea is that this man belongs to heaven; his very name is known up there. When he goes up he will be received.
JTJr The heavenly side of it will deliver us from personal feelings, when we are akin with God. God is no respecter of persons.
JT I think it would help us as to these friends he had in to listen, because there would be a social side to the matter, and Peter opens his mouth and preaches to them. Then as we come down the chapter, “While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word”(Acts 10:44). I think heaven is pleased with this company. It represents secret work and heaven knows perfectly what is underneath this matter. It is not simply Peter’s preaching that heaven is thinking of but what is underneath the matter. Peter’s preaching is the official side, it must have its place, but God is not waiting until Peter finishes; He takes charge of this company, embraces them, like the Father falling on the prodigal’s neck, an energetic action of the Father’s to take them on. It is the same word as is used in Luke 15:20.
CN “But that the works of God should be manifested in him”, John 9:3.
JT Just so.
AB Is that why it is emphasised in this chapter, “Simon, who is surnamed Peter”? It is mentioned three times.
JT Very good, he was surnamed.
CHH Is there a similarity between this and John 9:37 in the Lord getting near the blind man? It says there, “He that speaks with thee is he”, whereas to the woman in John 4:26 it is, “I who speak to thee am he”. With thee would be nearer.
JT Peter is speaking with him here. I think this embrace of heaven is very wonderful. It involves the preciousness of the pearl that the Lord had in His mind. How pleased heaven was with this company, shown in the action of the Spirit falling on them!
CAM Would you think it would go as far as what is suggested in Ephesians, “He has taken us into favour in the Beloved”(Ephesians 1:6)?
JT God has it in mind. It is a love matter and heaven is saying. Well, Peter, you must go the whole way; you have the keys, you have the official place. But heaven is going beyond him and running faster than Peter. It is a question of the envelopment of [p. 108] the objects of affection by heaven, the Spirit taking charge of them.
CAM Peter knew that Cornelius was one “having no hope, and without God in the world”, Ephesians 2:12. What a wonderful range the whole thing covers!
JT That is the idea. Peter says, Who indeed was I to be able to forbid God? It was God’s matter, so that he commanded them to be baptised at this time.
JRH You were speaking about the gift of the Spirit. This is the only incident we have in this book about the Spirit being received without the exercise of faith.
JT Without any confession of faith. It is a question of God knowing what is there, because the gift of the Spirit is God’s matter, not Peter’s. Peter did not have to pray for them to get the Spirit as in Samaria. It is God’s matter, really the Father’s matter. He is falling on the prodigal’s neck and kissing him.
JW Is the Holy Spirit falling on this company different from being filled with the Spirit in chapter 9:17?
JT I think it is. As we said this morning, it is a collective allusion. In Acts 2 it is the Pentecostal matter; it is what happened then, but I think here it is God honouring the gentiles when the Spirit takes hold of them as It did the Jews. As Paul says later, putting the gentiles on the same level as the Jews, “So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone, in whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, Ephesians 2:19,22.
The ‘ye’ is the gentiles. I think that Peter alluding to what happened at Pentecost in his account of the matter would indicate that the gentiles are in the same position, on the same level, as the Jews in the house of God.
CAM It is wonderful to think of Peter getting on as far as Ephesians.
JT Yes, that is it. It is God’s matter; that is the ground on which Ephesians stands. “God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, (we too being dead in offences), has quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace), and has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, Ephesians 2:4 - 6.
CHH Is there an indication that these features seen in the different households such as those of Lydia, the Philippian jailor and Cornelius, involving the introduction of Christ among the gentiles, are re-appearing at the end of the age?
JT Yes; it looks as though God is reviving things among us, but in a very small way, and some are very reluctant to go into them. It is not a question of an individual believer receiving the Holy Spirit, but it is God receiving the gentiles, just as the Father received the prodigal. The word is the same, “Fell upon his neck”, Luke 15:20.
WL Is that why Peter does not stand on his dignity in regard of this matter? It speaks of him as being told to go down and he does not take a high attitude in any way; he goes down.
JT We ought to read chapter 11 but we have not time to get Peter’s own account of it.
ANW He might have sought to forbid God. “If then God has given them the same gift as also to us when we had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who indeed was I to be able to forbid God?”
[p. 110] Acts 11:17. He dare not do that. It goes with what you say about the willingness of God to receive the gentiles.
JT He just saved himself from impairing the scene, as much as to say, I did not say anything to God against it. He should not impair the scene at all, but he should be out and out in it; chapter 11 gives us a better view of him in this regard.