TOGETHER

^[p. 328] TOGETHER

Acts 2:44; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:18-20; 1 Corinthians 14:23-25

The word “together” being in these scriptures is initially why I read them. It is a word that characterises christianity, characterises the saints as here in the absence of Christ, and will characterise them eternally, for it is said that we are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Underlying it is love, and it is this that gives lustre to it as seen in christians, as over against the application of this word to men in the world. In the gospels we have instances of men being together in hatred of Christ, murder in their hearts. Such assemblies set out the power of the world, for organised opposition is the most potent and virulent. We read of the assembly of the wicked surrounding our Lord Jesus in His closing moments here in flesh. Evil took this form as if to shut out every possible way of escape so that their design should be accomplished. In no part of human history was evil so concentrated and virulent as at that time. It was a combined effort of the devil, his agencies being arrayed militarily so as to shut off all possible escape, as they thought. It appears as though, as they reached their end, that the outlet from them was unexpected, and in it their end was judicially complete, not yet outwardly, but nevertheless in truth. The resurrection of Christ, for He is heard from the horns of the unicorn, was the answer to that combination of evil.

Satan is still carrying on, dear brethren, aware, as perhaps others are not, that he is defeated. The prince of this world is judged. It is a matter for faith; those who have faith understand, and Satan understands. We thus take on the principle of the assembly, of gathering together. The Lord had indeed inaugurated it Himself in His own way, and then Peter alluding to their assembling during the Lord’s lifetime here, speaks of the men who have “assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us” (Acts 1: 21). The Lord inaugurated that great thought of assembling, or gathering together; that is, not only that we come together actually, but that we are together as being led together. There is also the idea of being assembled, as being convened by One who has authority to do so, so that the matter has a great place in the Scriptures and in the testimony of God. It involves great privileges and enjoyment spiritually during the period of the absence of Christ from this world, affording to Him opportunity of coming in and going out amongst us in a spiritual way, so that we might know Him and how He assembles with us as our Head.

Now I begin with these remarks and allude for a moment to the well-known Psalm 133: 1, which speaks of “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” The idea is very strongly expressed in the early chapters of the Acts from which we have read. I read chapter 2: 44, not because it presents the thought first, but because it gives the idea of being together as to the attitude of our minds towards one another and the longing of our hearts to one another, even though we may not be actually together. We are told there that “all that believed were together, and had all things common”. It does not say here that they were together in one place. The allusion is to the attitude of their hearts and minds in regard to one another, that as the opportunity offered, and it was physically convenient for them, they were together whether in small or large numbers.

That is the first point I would dwell upon, and without the understanding of it, the coming together by appointment and for a purpose is not likely to be what it should be. So in chapter 1 we have the idea of the brethren staying in a certain place — the upper ^[p. 330] room. The suggestion is that they were morally elevated that they were abiding in quarters free from ordinary religious influences. That is how the matter stands in chapter 1. Those who had seen the Lord Jesus ascend into heaven returned to Jerusalem and went to the upper room. His disciples were loyal and instinctively free from what was current religiously, and we are told the names of the persons in the upper room. Then the Spirit of God proceeds to tell us about Peter standing up in the midst of the brethren, and that the crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty. The word crowd is used, that is, they did not come together for a specific purpose, nor were they led into a position, but they were in it and each with a distinction; a point that is of great importance in christianity. For in truth every one has his distinction, and his distinction saves him from rivalry and envy. Hence christians are marked off in this informal way in the divine narrative in the book of Acts, so that each one should understand that he stands on his own feet in relation to God and before his brethren, and he is no more and no less than God has made him. That idea will run through eternally, we shall certainly not be any more nor any less than God has made us, and that will be the distinctiveness of each and every one who will then shine, each in his own glory.

Then we find in Acts 2:1 that the saints “were all together in one place”. The point is not that the one hundred and twenty were there, but they were all there, and heaven took account of that. It is characteristic, the formation of the assembly being in view, and heaven pleased with the scene. It is the divine way to take account of what is. I mean there is no thought up there of adding to or subtracting from what is. However large or small the number, heaven takes account of it as it is.

The Spirit would draw attention to what heaven has to say; heaven retains the thought of intervening ^[p. 331] here upon earth. There are those who would shut out heaven, and indeed the general trend today in religion, politics, society, and science is to shut it out, but heaven will not be shut out; it is at all times ready, and will seize opportunities. In speaking of heaven, I am of course speaking of divine Persons, of God, of Christ, and of the Spirit of God. Heaven is always ready to take advantage of opportunities, the more opportunities we give to it, the more we shall find it intervenes, and what could be more blessed, more gracious, than heaven intervening in complacency? Heaven may intervene otherwise, and will presently, and does too amongst the brethren, but if it intervenes in complacency the privilege is great, and so it is here. It was Pentecost, and the Spirit of God understood what Pentecost meant from the earliest days of its introduction. It is the feast that in the type signifies eternal relations, and what could be greater in the mind of heaven, at that time when such conditions existed on earth, than to make good what the type meant, to introduce eternal relations? And these relations are running on, and will run on, for there is no time limit to this great feast. I am speaking of the greatness of it, the greatness of heavenly intervention, the “sound out of heaven as of a violent impetuous blowing, and filled all the house where they were sitting”. Never such a sound had reached the ears of men as that, and it filled the house. It would not be forgotten; we may be sure that these early occasions in the introduction of christianity were carried down. The early traditions — not such as were carried down in the so-called fathers, but the traditions carried down in love and in intelligence — were conveyed in accuracy from one lover of Christ to another, from one generation to another. Certainly the Holy Spirit has never lost sight of this great sound that He caused when the saints were thus seen together in one place.

^[p. 332] Well now, I want to go on to 1 Corinthians to show how the christians began to come together for a specific purpose. I wish to go over the ground with you in these chapters; this section of the first epistle and also Acts 20, bring out how, under the Spirit of God, the apostle Paul peculiarly sets out this great thought of coming together. In Corinthians he is concerned about the order of it, and in the Acts the Spirit of God is concerned that in the coming together to break bread, the whole range of divine thoughts in the ministry of the apostle Paul should be in view. What a vista opens up to us therefore as we understand what Acts 20:7 implies!

I speak first of all about 1 Corinthians 11, and what you find is that added to the word together is the word assembly — “when ye come together in assembly”. Now we have an added thought and one which I hope by the Lord’s help to make clear, but at any rate it is well to have it before us; it is an added thought to what I have been speaking of already. We have the word assembly in Acts, alluding to persons called out, and it is added to the thought of gathering together in this epistle in order to set out the proper position, environment, and order for the Lord’s supper. It is not only that saints are together, even though we are together in love — that is really the only way to be together — but not only are we together in love according to this chapter, but “together in assembly”. The thought of the assembly is added to it, and that gives a lustre to the position that we have not had as yet in the divine narrative. It is true that it has had to be brought in by the apostle in a corrective way. The conditions he is dealing with are distressing in the extreme, that brethren were coming together ostensibly in assembly and carrying in their hearts party feelings, personal bias — a most distressing situation, but the apostle nevertheless uses this word. He says in effect, at least inferentially, that it should

be to partake of the Lord’s supper. He does not say, When you are all together in assembly, and when he speaks in verse 20 of one place, he does not say the whole assembly. Scripture is wonderfully accurate, and foresees difficulties that would arise; and undoubtedly the carefulness with which the words are chosen in this particular scripture has in mind our present circumstances. In these last days cities have grown to enormous proportions; sometimes the boundaries are almost indefinable, taxing the wisdom of the brethren, taxing their patience, taxing their love. Yet this scripture is so carefully worded that though we may have any given number of subdivisions in the assembly in a city, the truth is workable. For the words are chosen in such wise as to convey what is characteristic, not what is specific. That is to say, “when ye come together in assembly”, may mean a dozen or twice that number, or fifty or a hundred; it is not the number but the character of the thing. It does not necessarily include all the saints in the city, but the character of the thing is in view; and even if it be in one place, the same thing holds, it is the character of the thing, not the totality of the saints in a city — the Spirit of God reserves that word for chapter 14.

We must never forget the unity of the assembly in the city; it is not a matter of a confederation of meetings, it is one assembly in the city; and that idea of oneness should appear as often as possible. I come to that in a moment. I want to dwell now on this characteristic idea of coming together in assembly, and how it brings into mind not only that we love one another, but that we understand the position. The idea of being together in love underlies it; unless we have that we shall never understand the idea of coming together in assembly. For the coming together in assembly may tax our patience, and unless we have love, our patience will give way, and we shall lose the power of sitting together. “Love never fails”, and certainly that word ^[p. 334] applies when we are together in assembly, and have the precious emblems of the Lord’s death before us, and all that enters into such a service. We certainly require love, love amongst ourselves, that which never fails, if the divine thought in the position is to be realised.

So you have the word assembly, and in the introduction to this subject you have the word intelligent, “I speak as to intelligent persons”, that we may he able to sit together in the exercise of affection, not simply sit, but in the exercise of affection, so that I am able to clothe the brethren inwardly with affectionate thoughts, and every moment of the time is a matter of enjoyment; it is preparatory to our eternal relations, to our eternal portion. There shall be nothing else, dear brethren, but continual enjoyment, enjoyment of divine love, enjoyment of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and the enjoyment of the brethren. Let us not think otherwise than that the presence of the brethren in heaven will add to our enjoyment; and not only does it add to the enjoyment, but it adds to the divine enjoyment. That is the great thought in divine purpose, that God is to have enjoyment in His people, and we are being educated for that now; hence the necessity of love, the bond of perfectness.

The introduction of the covenant in the Supper, which the Spirit never fails to stress, is to carry into our hearts the bond of perfectness, and when is perfectness more necessary than when the idea of an organism is present? It is a question of love in the power of the Spirit; so that you have the idea of faith in the verse in Acts 2 — “all that believed”. Believing is a fundamental idea, but love draws the saints together, “all that believed were together;” it is faith working by love, and what joy when the Spirit of God brings the new covenant home to us as we are sitting together in assembly!

Now, I want to show that Acts 20: 7 is the statement of how things proceeded in these early days. The writer says, “we being assembled to break bread”. The word is not the same, but it is significant that the saints were together with a view to breaking bread. That is, they were together for a specific purpose, and whilst love is always present and enables us to be together for pleasure at any time normally, yet christianity carries with it this specific thought. In a sense nothing is so important as the idea of being specific in coming together, so that we proceed as we come together according to the purpose in mind, and that is what we get in this chapter. As I intimated a moment ago, the Spirit of God presents to us here a remarkable incident that we have often dwelt upon. I mention it now, not to go over what we have often heard, but to suggest to you that the purpose in mind involves, not only public order as in Corinthians, not only public smallness, not only the idea of the anointing, the dignity that is proper to us as coming together, but the whole range, the whole environment implied in the divine counsels. That is what I would like to make clear, so that we might see that the Lord’s supper is introductory to that. It is not something simply to be partaken of and the saints to return to their homes, as for instance with the priests of old — they went to their tents after partaking of the passover. The Lord’s supper, according to this passage, has in mind what is introductory to the whole range of divine purpose.

How great is this! — and one would seek to rest on it for a moment — and how great is this matter that here are saints, intelligent men amongst them, besides the apostle — some names given which indicate great spiritual wealth and intelligence, and yet they do not proceed with what they came to do. One may inquire, Is that an example for us? We are to understand every passage in its own setting. Whilst we may have considerable intelligence, considerable spiritual wealth, and love among ourselves, while we ^[p. 336] have all that, we may miss much. We may miss the great range of things, a great vista of glory as to environment that is opened up to us; and that is clearly why it is said that the apostle discoursed and prolonged the discourse till midnight. What I have in mind is that we may think of this a little, and look into the Scriptures and see what detail enters into the position we are in as coming together in assembly. What is meant by it? There is not a word said here as to what Paul actually said in his discourse. One would like to have heard it, but the Spirit of God has not preserved it. We may find the words substantially elsewhere; that is, they are essentially bound up with the ministry which the apostle had. He makes much of it; he said in Ephesians 3, I would have you to know my intelligence in the mystery, and is it not for us to search and, by the Spirit, acquire an apprehension of the mystery, and see how the Lord’s supper leads us into that which it presents?

Now the setting here is marked by love; the chapter is full of affection. Paul, you may say, is written over it from beginning to end. Not that the Spirit of God would occupy us with any person rather than Christ, but He would occupy us with the ministry — the ministry of this great servant, lest it should be overlooked or ignored; lest we should be proceeding with the Lord’s supper without the fulness of the setting proper to it. That is what I had in mind as to this chapter.

So that the coming together in assembly should take on what is divinely intended, not only for ourselves but for God. As the Lord said in John 15: 26, “the Comforter ... whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father;” a remarkable expression, who “goes forth from with the Father; he shall bear witness concerning me”. The Lord had in His mind that the Spirit, coming out, as it were, with first-hand knowledge of all ^[p. 337] that was there, from being with the Father, would bring out the Father’s thoughts about the Son; testify of them, testify of Christ. The twelve were to testify of Him, as the Lord said, “because ye are with me from the beginning;” that is Christ in the gospels, but the Holy Spirit has come out to testify of Christ as He is in heaven today. Paul presents Him as He is, He is the glorified Christ, as to whom the Holy Spirit would witness to us; that is in Paul’s ministry.

Unquestionably Paul is the minister taken up to open out the great range of the Father’s thoughts about the Son and about the assembly. Can we afford to be without all this? I do not think so. The Lord is seeking to lead us into it, and it lies in a practical sense, in this word “together”, with the word “assembly” added. Then, so as to have the mind of God maintained in a city — in all cities, of course, but in a given city, in 1 Corinthians 14: 23 we have “if therefore the whole assembly come together in one place”. This scripture has in mind the working out of the temple, another great thought in this epistle. There is not only the incoming of Christ to His people as in assembly in the way of interest and affection, but as affording light particularly to meet current emergencies. If there be freshness in the assembly spiritually, if God be working, we may be sure that the enemy will be working too, to offset what God is doing. The meeting that is contemplated has in view to bring in the mind of God for every emergency; prophetic ministry is especially contemplated. The Lord is calling attention to it, with the thought of the mind of God coming in. In this connection we have the unity of the assembly in a city, this must not be lost sight of. Sub-divisions must not rob us of the great thought of God of the assembly in a city. Surely it must take form at some time, it must not be a theory; and so here “If therefore the whole assembly come together in one place”.

^[p. 338] There are prophets; we are told in Ephesians, “he has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers”. Prophets are the second in the list. It may be there are none today in the full sense in which the word is used in that scripture. But in the sense in which it is used in this chapter, that is to say, power to minister the mind of God, the idea remains, and we may look for prophetic ministry. It is particularly stressed here; it is not the Ephesian point of view; it is presented here as something to be aspired to, something to be coveted. “Be emulous of spiritual manifestations, but rather that ye may prophesy”. This enters into the continuance of the assembly in power, that the gates of hades may not prevail against it.

So the Lord would have us keep in mind the unity of the assembly in a city, all coming together as directed in this chapter that we may have the special advantage of it in the prophetic ministry. As we lay hold of the divine thought and make room for it you may be sure that the Lord will seize every opportunity and come in for us. It is a question of conditions, of the brethren taking up the divine thought and moving in it, and heaven will not fail to come in and meet current needs.

These are the thoughts I had, and I commit them to the Lord, and to all, for our profit.