THE VALUE OF THE ASSEMBLY
We have been speaking together about the living character of the service of the Lord Jesus towards us. I feel that the Lord would have us consider this evening what is precious to divine Persons.
Before we begin, I want to speak about a practical matter. I do not know how many translations of the holy Scriptures there are in the room, but there will be several. There has been controversy about the correct translation of this verse we have read in Acts 20, and Mr Darby has an article just on the translation of verse 282. It is important that we have a common understanding together of what this verse says and means. The Darby translation in English says: “to shepherd the assembly of God, which he” (that is God) “has purchased with the blood of his own”. Most translations of the Bible in English say, “which he has purchased with his own blood”. And it may say that in your translation. Most of us here know that it is impossible that God should shed His own blood, because “God is a spirit” (John 4:24) and He is immortal: He cannot die. But the passage in Philippians 2:6-8 has already been quoted, as to the Lord Jesus coming in, God manifesting Himself in a Man and “taking his place in the likeness of men”.
This verse in Acts speaks of the love of God, and shepherding “the assembly of God, which He has purchased with the blood of his own”. That is, the blood of One who belonged to God, and that is the Lord Jesus. I do not know of a more attractive demonstration of love than this, that God “has purchased with the blood of his own”. How much that conveys as to God’s love for what He has purchased! Paul the apostle is writing here of “the assembly of God”, and we have been speaking of the assembly as a vessel which belongs to the Lord Jesus. This expression, “the assembly of God”, does not refer to different people: they are the same company as those who comprise Christ’s assembly, but the expression is used more in a testimonial sense. For example, when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he writes “to the assembly of God, which is in Corinth”, 1 Cor.1:2. What this verse in Acts conveys is how much this vessel, the assembly, is valued by God. We are to take account of what God values here. The treasure for God was so great that He bought it Himself, He purchased it “with the blood of his own”. It involved the death of the Lord Jesus. There are many scriptures that speak of God’s love towards the Lord Jesus. Think of the words of the Lord Jesus, “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”, John 17:24. We cannot fathom God’s love; it is greater than anything we can measure. His love for His own beloved Son is beyond the natural mind. Yet so great and precious is this vessel, that God gave His only-begotten Son in order to purchase it.
I want to speak about Ephesians for a moment. It says, “even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”. Here we may see the value of the assembly from another side, as it were; we see it from the side of the Lord Jesus. We see the feelings of the Lord Jesus: He so “loved the assembly” that He delivered Himself up for it. The delivering up of Himself involved the cross, it involved Him giving His life. As the epistle to the Philippians says, “becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross” (chap.2:8). We should pause for a moment in our thoughts and contemplate what we have spoken about: God so loving the assembly that He was prepared to purchase it with the blood of His own, and the Lord Jesus so loving the assembly that He was prepared to deliver Himself up for it. Surely this tells us that there is no greater vessel in the world today than the assembly. I ask myself, and each one of us, do I value what divine Persons value?
We could think, for instance, of the well-known passage in Genesis 24 – Abraham sending his servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac. Have you ever thought of what Isaac felt when he first saw Rebecca? Had he ever seen a more beautiful woman than Rebecca? Had he ever known a woman with feelings like Rebecca had? Think of her dignity. She had travelled for three weeks, a distance of about eight hundred kilometres, and at the sight of the man walking in the fields towards her, it says “she sprang off the camel” (v.64). What alacrity! A camel stands about two metres high, but the power of the spiritual life that was in her was such that she “sprang off”, and she covered her face with her veil. Then she was presented to Isaac. It says, “And Isaac led her into his mother Sarah’s tent … and he loved her” (v.67).
I would desire that every one of us might have a greater impression of how precious this vessel is. We often speak about the assembly, and some people might say, ‘Why?’ The reason is that there is no vessel on the earth today more precious than the assembly. We have spoken already today, and we are speaking again this evening, about the way that the assembly answers to the heart of the Lord Jesus. But this vessel is also a glorious vessel of praise towards God. At the end of Ephesians 3, Paul breaks out in doxology: “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen” (v.20,21). The answer to God, the response to Him, is taking place today. Think of that eternal day, when the response towards God from believers will be swelled by the millions of faithful souls who currently lie in death, to join together under the leadership of the Lord Jesus to answer to God in glory.
We sometimes sing a hymn:
‘For, added to the riches that were then,
Thou hast secured vast myriads of men,
Thy house to fill’. Hymn 5
There is a vessel secured now, the assembly, to answer to the heart of God, and He delights in all that Christ has done, and Christ delights in her. And so God delights in all that is set before Him.
I want to speak further about the first verse we read, in Acts 20. The brethren will understand the setting in which Paul writes this. Paul was coming to the end of his ministry as an apostle; by that I mean his public speaking to men, and visiting places. We only need to go a few pages further on and we find that Paul is taken captive, and has to go before the governor, and all that that meant leading up to his imprisonment. But here he is on his journey to Jerusalem, and he appeals to those in Ephesus, the elders, to come and see him. These elders were appointed by Paul in the apostolic authority that was his. He knew, as it says later in the chapter, that these Ephesians would not see his face again (v.38). He is appealing to them to take up the work that he had himself been doing in nurturing souls.
We no longer have apostles, nor do we have official elders. We do not have appointed elders in Britain, nor anywhere in this country either. But the character of eldership is to remain. I would like you to think for a moment of the responsibility placed upon men of the Old Testament: think of Noah, and how important it was that Noah should fulfil what God instructed him to do. Likewise, think of Joseph: what would have happened if Joseph had not worked in accordance with God’s instruction and preserved the children of Israel, as well as all Egypt at the same time? Think of what was entrusted to Moses, and all that Moses had to do. We could go on to Joshua, and David, and Solomon – right up to Paul’s day. We come to this point, around two thousand years ago, when Paul, who had been entrusted by God specifically to open up the truth of the assembly to souls, was about to pass off this scene. He says to these men, and he would say it to all of us here, “Take heed” (pay attention) “therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God”.
You may say, ‘I thought the Holy Spirit was here nurturing and beautifying the bride for Christ’, and indeed He is. The Holy Spirit may choose to work through the people in whom He dwells, and there is evidence that every soul in this room is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. This exhortation, then, is for every single one of us, brothers and sisters together. Paul says in 1 Timothy: “if any one aspires to exercise oversight, he desires a good work” (chap.3:1). Here he goes on to say, “shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. Hold in your mind what we have said about how precious the assembly is to divine Persons. Paul is placing responsibility on all of us, in the intelligence that God, through His Spirit, has given us, to shepherd this vessel. Do you know of any greater responsibility? Is there anything greater that God could ask us to do than to look after those who form this glorious vessel? It is not something that we can do one day, and then not the next. It is something that should characterise all of us, all the time. We do not do this in our own strength, but as under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God.
Consider a shepherd’s work: he keeps the flock together, he feeds the flock and he protects the flock. This suggests to me that we need to be very careful in all that we do and say, not only as a testimony here to the Lord Jesus, and as linked with Him as our Head in heaven, but in nurturing in a delicate, careful, and feeling way, what is so precious to God that He purchased it – an active, deliberate movement of God. He purchased the assembly with “the blood of his own”, the blood of the Lord Jesus. We know that there are many families, but there is no greater family than the assembly. There is no vessel brought into greater privilege than the assembly. I think what we have spoken about – as to being joined with Christ – is vital. We do not simply know Him, but we are linked with Him, inextricably and eternally linked with Him. And I speak carefully: as well as the Lord’s joy in the assembly, we think of this glorious vessel as taken up by Him, led by Him into the presence of God and under His direction set in liberty to praise God with the intelligence and understanding; and God is satisfied with the answer that He has to Himself and to His love.
You and I have been exhorted to shepherd all those who form this glorious vessel. God would share with us His own feelings towards the assembly, and He would stir up our feelings in answer to Himself. And the Holy Spirit would so direct us that there should be this nurturing, for growth and protection in what is so precious to God. May we be found here under the Lord’s hand, taking up the responsibilities that have been impressed upon us and answering to Him and all that is His. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Anand, Gujarat, India
16 January 2026
Alan Croot