FEATURES AT THE BEGINNING MAINTAINED IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT AND SEEN IN THE ASSEMBLY
Reading 1
1 Corinthians 12: 12, 13; 14: 24, 25
A.J.G. The assembly is especially in the mind of God and it is important for the saints to maintain the features which characterised it at the beginning.
At the beginning of the book of the Acts, the Spirit speaks to us of Jesus, “this Jesus”, drawing attention to what He was: “the things which Jesus began both to do and to teach” must be continued in the assembly for God’s pleasure.
We find in the book of Numbers (chap 24: 5) a complete vision of the way in which God considers the saints: “How goodly are thy tents, Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Israel!” They are wonderful in His eyes considered as answering to His mind. So when we are assembled, we must keep in mind what is for God’s pleasure and also what is seen. Both depend upon the Holy Spirit. Before He left them, the Lord spoke to His own of the Holy Spirit as a promise, “the promise of the Father” (v 4), preparing them with this wonderful thought that the Holy Spirit was going to be with them. But He had commanded them to wait, which implies dependence on our side, the Lord did not say how long they would have to wait. He went up into heaven; His own, left without Him, without knowing how long they had to wait for the Holy Spirt, could but be in dependence. That is why they persevered with one accord in prayer. We have to keep in our minds that the service of the Holy Spirit is linked to dependence on our side.
It seems evident that the Lord had taught His disciples how to assemble. “And being assembled with them” (v 4), and “all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day in which he was taken up from us, one of these should be a witness with us of his resurrection”. This is what we may read in the gospels. So the apostles had learned from the Lord Himself how to assemble which shows how far the thought of the assembly was precious to the Lord, an assembly bearing a character derived from Christ in the power of the Spirit. And so the Lord in giving commandments here to the apostles desired to leave a strong impression of One who was living that would give character to the assembly. Three times in the passages read, it is said, “This Jesus”, in verse 11, the angels say, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven”. They had received impressions of the Man received into heaven, and Peter in chapter 2 in referring to Psalm 16, presents “This Jesus” so that we may receive deep impressions of this sort of Man in whom alone God takes His pleasure and from whom the assembly must take character. Verse 36: “… God has made Him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ”, showing indeed that we must not receive the least thought of the part of the world that has crucified Christ, One whom God has set in a heavenly position, having made Him “Lord and Christ”, One from whom everything in the assembly must take character.
Ques. Does “This Jesus” imply more than a Man?
A.J.G. No, but it is to draw attention to the Person of Jesus and the features that marked Him, with which the disciples were familiar, having spent three and a half years with Him, the mother of Jesus especially.
Ques. Does “This Jesus” correspond to what is said in verse 3: “He presented himself living”?
A.J.G. I think so, so that the Lord takes account of Himself as risen from among the dead—a full expression of God’s pleasure in Him. God has raised Jesus from among the dead, He alone among the millions who still lie in their tombs. Thus the Spirit of God draws attention to Jesus, the features of Jesus that must mark those who remain on the earth as the vessel of testimony.
Ques. Was it to the apostles alone that the Lord presented Himself living?
A.J.G. Yes. The apostles had been chosen to present the glad tidings and the teaching with authority. We read in chapter 2: 42 that “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles …”. Those who had received the word, and had been baptised, did not go back to the law, but received the instruction of the apostles chosen of the Lord who, having been with Him, were to present the real features of Christianity. John in his epistles, taking account of the last days, insists on what was from the beginning: “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled”.
Ques. Is there a slight difference between that and what is said in verse 22: “one … should be a witness with us of his resurrection”?
A.J.G. The apostles were to testify of the resurrection of Jesus, as being the evident proof of God’s satisfaction in the Man whose moral features are described in Psalm 16. Peter quotes the last four verses of this Psalm and He adds, “This Jesus”, this unique kind of Man in whom God has found His pleasure; it is from Him that the assembly should draw its character. The apostle even does not judge it well to know anyone among the Corinthians “save Jesus Christ …”, Jesus Christ, the anointed Man, and “Jesus Christ … crucified” as the power to set aside every other man, 1 Cor 2: 2.
Ques. Could the first verse of the chapter be linked with what God has done to Him (chap 2: 36): “God has made him, this Jesus who ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”?
A.J.G. Yes. The “first discourse” mentioned in verse 1 is a reference to the gospel of Luke which presents a detailed description of the Man in whom God has found His pleasure, the crucified Man, raised from among the dead, then, “Having been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”, chap 2: 33.
Rem. And this so that the saints can continue.
A.J.G. Yes, and two other things are mentioned as to the Spirit: in verse 5 of chapter 1, it is said, “ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit”, and in verse 8, “but ye will receive power”. So that the unity of the assembly is a consequence of this, as we see in the first epistle to the Corinthians (chap 12: 12): “For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ”. And the assembly as being of Christ is an anointed vessel for God’s pleasure in the testimony: “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit”, v 13. That is to say that in the assembly, persons must watch that all that is of the natural man is put aside so as to be in movement together, as one body, love being in evidence. The human body is the normal expression of love: every member acts for the good of the whole; certain members not in evidence, such as the lungs that function even when we are asleep, are content to function for the good of the body. It is a marvellous example of love functioning in the assembly, each member acting for the good of the whole body and to the end that God should be glorified.
It will be possible to see the great triumph of God in Beauvoisin, as in every other place, if there may be there a company of saints going on together without independence or selfishness, so that the mind of God should be expressed on the one hand and the life of Jesus in abundance on the other. These are the movements, the activity that expresses love, and “God is love”.
Rem. The two thoughts are linked: the pleasure of God and correspondence to Christ Himself.
A.J.G. Yes, the assembly is the vessel which is going to continue the testimony, expressing Christ; it is here as the public testimony in the place of Christ now on high. In chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel, the Lord going into the synagogue, stood up to read, and He read the passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor”, v 18. The Lord stood there publicly to present grace to men and the mind of God as to them. In the same way, the assembly, the anointed vessel, is now to manifest to men God’s mind for them. The saints, united in love and made intelligent by the Spirit, as able to express God’s mind.
Verse 13 of chapter 12 of the first epistle to the Corinthians mentioned that we have all been baptised by one Spirit. It is He who clothes the assembly with power, every natural element being excluded, and who allows the saints to go on together as being one, in the power of the Spirit. This is what convinces a simple person found there, chap 14: 24, 25. This power will be manifested in the measure in which we accept in dependence giving place to the Spirit, and real faith will be added to that dependence. The Lord said, in speaking of a certain place, that it was not possible to do many works of power there on account of their unbelief, Matt 13: 58. The lack of faith hindered the Lord from working; and it is the same as to the Holy Spirit; He is hindered and cannot act if there is not faith on our side.
Rem. So what marked the assembly at the beginning was this double character of unity—from their being baptised—and power.
A.J.G. Great power was evident at the beginning, as well as unity. In the first chapters of the book of the Acts, the assembly had not received Paul’s teaching, but it is there in its full expression because the Holy Spirit is free. The disciples were found together in the same place in unity and in love, marked by joy and power in the testimony.
It is indeed necessary for us to keep constantly in mind the beginning of the book of the Acts for we find the divine thought there as to the assembly. In chapter 5, while the apostles were in prison, an angel of the Lord opened the doors at night and led them outside, and said: “Go … speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”. What life? Surely the life that was seen and which could be discerned among the saints in Jerusalem, something quite different from what could have been seen up to then. It is to this life that the apostles had to draw attention, a life deriving from Jesus in character.
We must recognise the presence of the Holy Spirit when we are together, and experience in dependence that He does not only use one or two brothers, but according to what is said in 1 Corinthians 12: 8, “For to one, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; and to a different one faith, in the power of the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healing in the power of the same Spirit; and to another operations of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; and to a different one kinds of tongues; and to another interpretation of tongues”. The more we see these gifts of the Spirit manifest among us, the more we will appreciate one another. The Spirit works to distribute, “to each in particular according as he pleases”, so that there should not be any shortage or clericalism.
Rem. It is no doubt the same thought which is expressed in chapter 14: 24: “ … if all prophesy”.
A.J.G. One must never lose sight of the fact that the body is composed of many members and that each member has a function in the body, the assembly.
Rem. He works “as he pleases”, chap 12: 11.
A.J.G. The saints’ faith recognises that each is a member who has something to do and each, before the Lord, can discern what he has been prepared for and, in a spirit of dependence on the Spirit, fulfil the function for which he is prepared. The Spirit is God, which is why He distributes “as he pleases”, which implies dependence on our side. If we act in independence, our service is not the least useful, but the Spirit proposes to give us something to do, “as he pleases”.
God is sovereign. It was so that, at the death of David, Solomon became king by sovereign choice, and not Adonijah. God has chosen the assembly as being now the only vessel by which He can speak, so that if everything is normal, each functions in his place “and some unbeliever or simple person come in, he is convicted of all, he is judged of all”. The Spirit of God speaks, and the man says, “God is indeed amongst you”.
Rem. The presence of God among us is the greatest thing we could realise.
A.J.G. How much the fact of full knowledge of it would elevate our occasions when we are together, and what pleasure that would procure for God!
Rem. The man convicted by the presence of God, “will do homage to God”, and testify to the presence of God among us. What a result!
A.J.G. The testimony is extended in that way.
Rem. We realise the necessity of being taught so as to acquire a greater knowledge of the person of the Spirit.
A.J.G. Yes. That is why the Lord is insisting on the result of the fact that “all prophecy”. He desires that we should all be taught in the truth of the assembly; what was visible in the beginning must be seen again in the same features and in the same power.
The Spirit of God has sensibilities; He feels dark conditions. The Lord, I am sure, is interested especially in what goes on among the saints even more as the darkness around us increases.
Ques. Would you develop the expression in chapter 12: 13: “given to drink of one Spirit”?
A.J.G. The thought is that all enjoy the same thing; it is especially a reference to the Supper and particularly the cup; “drink ye all”, the Lord says. When we meet on Lord’s day morning, the Holy Spirit gives us a fresh note, a new enjoyment of the love of Christ, of His glory, and we all receive an impression of this joy. There is thus a double idea, the joy of enjoyment of the love of Christ in the power of this one Spirit, and the unity created among us by this one Spirit. Each first day of the week should lead to unity; this is a great testimony to God. God is “one”; there is no divergence between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but a perfect unity in the Godhead. It is so important that the saints should be led to be “one”. Satan makes every effort to destroy the testimony in this respect currently.
Ques. Why is the Spirit sometimes called the Spirit of God, and sometimes the Spirit of Christ?
A.J.G. He takes different characters according to the necessity of the moment. The Spirit of God suggests power; the Spirit of Christ expresses rather the character of the humanity according to Christ producing feelings as to the Father. He is also spoken of as the Father’s Spirit, which suggests the Father’s feelings as to the Son. But this “one” Spirit is powerful to produce and maintain among the saints the features which have marked the assembly at the beginning.
BEAUVOISIN
4th November 1952
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, August 1953
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