THE INFLUENCE OF HEAVEN - READING 5
THE INFLUENCE OF HEAVEN — READING 5
Acts 1:6 - 11; Acts 10:9 - 17; 2 Corinthians 12:1 - 10
What is in mind particularly in this last reading on our subject is that we may get some insight into heaven as a place, a place to which man has access. The Acts has the assembly in view, and in the main that it might be qualified as a vessel of witness or testimony here. But there is also the thought of looking into heaven, and in Peter’s case something that comes down and goes up and stays and that what comes out of it goes back into it; and then Paul’s experience in being caught up to the third heaven, calling attention to degrees in the subject of heaven. We have also Stephen, a well known passage as to heaven, the heaven opened to him and what he saw there. We have concrete actual witnesses in Peter and Paul, Stephen, and we may add John according to Revelation who was invited up to heaven. In the assembly we have the effect of all these witnesses carried down; the thing is in the assembly, it is a treasure in the way of light and knowledge.
Ques Is heaven available now to us, that we reach it?
That is in mind in Paul. John was invited into it, although he was invited up to see things that referred to the judgment of God mainly, yet he saw great and blessed positive things, especially the assembly itself coming down from God, from heaven.
What is in mind is the ‘up’ line. In the main the twelve point to the ‘down’ line, that is, what comes [p. 78] down in testimony here. From the time that the Jews rejected the testimony of the gospel the idea of what is in heaven came into view in Stephen, and then Peter seeing the vessel coming down; and then Paul himself being caught up. He was caught up to the third heaven and into Paradise and he heard wonderful things there. This is to enrich the assembly in the sense of testimony and the knowledge of it, what is in heaven.
I suggested verses 6 - 9 so that we might see how we are shut up to what the Spirit would bring in. There are restrictions placed on the apostles as to their knowledge; the Lord said, It is not yours to know. There is a suggestion of a principle that you are not to know the times and seasons; they are to be known, but it is not particularly Christianity; He is confining them to what would be properly Christianity. The two witnesses in white addressed them as “men of Galilee”, not as apostles or disciples — that is your position; you have everything to learn. And they just inquire, “Why do ye stand looking into heaven?” You might say that is contradictory, because we are to look into it, whether we see it with a natural eye or if it is of faith.
Ques “In like manner” — would that refer to the appearing? It would not be the rapture. That is the thought — as ye have seen Him go — He is to return. “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. That was the word left to them, that they were to expect Him; it is an added thought to verses 6 - 9, where they are shut up to the Spirit. Give attention to the Spirit and everything will be clear, nothing will be omitted that you should know. “The Holy Spirit having come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. They are [p. 79] bound up with the Spirit. He did not go up secretly as far as they were concerned, He went up in their sight, as Elijah’s going up. The disciples are very special in His mind, and things happen before their eyes. In anything that the Spirit is doing, make abundant room for it. What is in our minds must be clarified. The fact that those who saw Him went to the upper room shows that they were adjusted. They went to the upper room and then to the temple, and then the Spirit would use them subsequently. The handiwork of Christ is of great interest to heaven — the ten days and what they were doing in them.
The second chapter tells us that “When the day of Pentecost was now accomplishing, they were all together in one place”. There was not an absentee, they were together in affection. The Spirit descended in a bodily form and abode on Jesus, and here it is to a large number of persons, and it sat on each of them.
Ques In John 14 it is the Spirit in you, and here it is upon you; is that the idea of the anointing? I think it is the public position. Luke has in mind almost entirely the public position because it is a question of testimony.
The moral position of chapter 1 corresponds to the moral position of Psalm 1. It is the godly man, how worthy he is. What Christ is effecting is proving itself in how the disciples behaved morally. The white involves purity — that touch entered into the upper room, because the persons there were not only brothers or sisters. It says, “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called the mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath-day’s journey off. And when they were come into the city, they went up to the upper chamber, where were staying both Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the zealot, and Jude the brother of James.
[p. 80] These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer, with several women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren” (verses 12 - 14). That is the composition of the upper room — brothers and sisters. The adjustment had that in mind; the composition would be in purity. Then it says, “in those days” — that is ten days; there were never ten days like them; “Peter, standing up in the midst of the brethren, said, (the crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty) ...” The word ‘crowd’ is used, but each one has his distinction; what follows in the selection of the twelfth apostle is to bring out all the moral qualities. In the second chapter each one is noticed by the Spirit as are they all together. This is a company of brothers and sisters; that is carried through into 1 Corinthians, and what is proper in such a circle. We must have both brothers and sisters.
The Lord did more than affect the twelve; He affected others. It is remarkable how His own brothers and His own mother come into it. The spiritual affections attaching to sisters are of God and they are to be kept in that way. I believe the two men in white are to point out what is necessary.
Ques Would this connect with the previous scripture read, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1) — would this complete their education?
Yes, He would open their understanding. Peter quickly uses the Lord’s instruction. One of the greatest things in the young is to have obedience. The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey.
These are fundamental thoughts leading up to the assembly. The assembly is formed in chapter 2, and we have arrived at the dispensation. Now we should consider how certain ones are brought into heavenly things. Stephen as a martyr — the heavens are opened to him. It is a wider thought, it is introductory to Paul’s ministry. Peter being administrator, having [p. 81] the keys, he is caused to be in a trance to see this wonderful vision, this vessel like a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air; all in it, so as to make him a real administrator of heavenly things, so that he might use these keys in heavenly dignity in letting in the Gentiles. There came suddenly a sound from heaven. It would almost seem as though heaven was just waiting for them to be gathered.
What we do down here is no accident, it is in the heavenly design. The thing happened suddenly, just as the two men appeared suddenly in Luke 24 and the heavenly visitants in Luke 2. God has His mind and it depends upon certain things in us — how serious if we fail in it! God reckons on certainty in His work. What is down here corresponds fully to what is up there. It is a divine Person down here and a divine Person up there. We are essential to the divine pattern, the divine mind.
As to Peter’s vision, the word ‘vessel’ is significant and really points to the assembly and each one of us is a vessel. Paul was a vessel. “And he became hungry and desired to eat. But as they were making ready an ecstasy came upon him: and he beholds the heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as a great sheet, bound by the four corners and let down to the earth; in which were all the quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth, and the fowls of the heaven. And there was a voice to him, Rise, Peter, slay and eat. And Peter said, In no wise, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. And there was a voice again the second time to him, What God has cleansed, do not thou make common. And this took place thrice, and the vessel was straightway taken up into heaven”.
Peter is fully affected by what he saw; he is ready [p. 82] now for the heavenly matter. The sheet, although of woven material, is bound, it is going to hold, it is going back into heaven, to stay there. What the Lord says to Peter is very striking. Peter was very definite as to how religious he was, but he was really condemning himself in his remarks. He says, In no wise, Lord. He is a very bold man, he is very abrupt in his answer; he is combating heaven. The thing happening three times succeeds in changing his mind.
In these last days when religious denominations are multiplying the work is harder because every time you have to deal with a soul he has some predilections of earlier experience. They have in their minds earlier things and they are usually prejudices and they have to overcome them. We have to be patient in dealing with souls, but we must overcome the prejudices, so that every man must be made perfect in Christ.
As to Paul’s experience of being caught up to the third heaven and into Paradise, he had kept this matter in his mind for fourteen years, and now he speaks of it. “I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows;) such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, (whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knows;) that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter. Of such a one I will boast, but of myself I will not boast, unless in my weaknesses”.
Then he goes on to tell us how the Lord attended him so that this precious light and experience which he had in Paradise should be preserved and effective in the assembly treasury, for it comes down to us preserved by the Spirit. The ‘making’ matter, of course, is still going on, because it is said, “And that [p. 83] I might not be exalted by the exceeding greatness of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn for the flesh, a messenger of Satan that he might buffet me, that I might not be exalted. For this I thrice besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits, for Christ: for when I am weak, then I am powerful”.
It would seem that all this is required during the fourteen years since he had been up into Paradise, the making process went on. It opens up a wide subject as to the treasuries that David speaks of that we have by the Spirit of God, by the temple, in such a person as Mary the Lord’s mother who was in the upper room, and in such a person as Paul himself; how things are to be kept in our souls as treasure. It is said by Luke that Mary the Lord’s mother “kept all these things in her mind, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Later we are told that she kept things relative to the Boy Jesus. As a figure it is said of Jacob that he kept the things that Joseph said as a young man; so that the treasury is to be filled with these things relative to Christ.
But Paul has something relative to Paradise that he has been keeping fourteen years, it is in the treasury. And so it is, as we are enriched in these matters and carrying them in our hearts we are qualified for our heavenly portion. When we get there, ‘There no stranger-God shall meet thee’. (76:10) Every servant has his own distinctiveness — the secret, the name that no one knows but himself.
In David’s regime we have doorkeepers and storekeepers; we should recognise the importance of doorkeepers and what comes in, and storekeepers,
[p. 84] what has come in as watched over and cared for as the dedicated things. We do not cast our pearls before swine.
Ques What is the difference between Paradise and the third heaven?
Paradise means ‘garden of delights, place of pleasure’, whereas the third heaven indicates altitude clearly. Measurement denotes creature limitations. Paul must have seen things in Paradise that he never spoke of, they were too wonderful to speak of.