PRAYER: CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PERFECT MAN (3)
[p. 47] PRAYER: CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PERFECT MAN (3)
JT We might look at two passages — one in chapter 9 and the other in chapter 11 of Luke. What has engaged us in our previous readings is that there is a constructive line of instruction in the instances in which the Lord is seen in prayer in this gospel. We have seen how at His baptism He is so engaged, and is approved of heaven, the Father’s voice speaking to Him. Then in chapter 5, in the presence of need that had come into evidence from His fame, He retired, and was in desert places praying, so that the power of the Lord was there. The believer, in his progress, corresponds to that; but in seeing the need, his own need being met, turns to God, disallowing the flesh, which the desert places would suggest. Then in chapter 6 the Lord is seen praying for a whole night; not so much because need is immediately before Him, but because He would have workmen; as if to suggest that one cannot do all. So He names His apostles, and comes down to the plain with them to meet the need in the plain.
In chapter 9, after they had been successful in their ministry as sent out, they return. The multitudes have to be fed, and the Lord puts it upon them to feed them. But it comes out that they could not, and this brings in a fresh glory of Christ. He feeds the multitudes. Then He raises the question with them as to who the multitudes said He was; following this with the question, “But whom say ye that I am”. Peter says, “The Christ of God”. Luke 9:20. In Peter’s confession the light is there; the Christ is there; so that the workmen humbly take their places under Him. What is done is done by Him; a very important and salutary lesson, for it keeps us lowly, and saves us from pride.
[p. 48] The next instance is in the passage read in chapter 9, where He is seen on high praying, these three disciples being present; and what comes out is that He becomes altered or different. What suggests itself is that the believer, in his progress, corresponds at this point as apprehending the heavenly — he is different. His service now is carried on in a different way; he is no longer on the level of ordinary religious activity — he is different. In other words, as having thus progressed, we are actuated by heavenly principles and manners in our service. I think it well to link it all up, so that we may have the thing clearly before us, and get the teaching of this passage in chapter 11. It is not that we should become Quakers or monks. Christianity involves a difference from all that is of this world: “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:48), and this enters into our walk; ways, and service in this world.
AHR Is it on the line of “beholding the glory of the Lord” 2 Corinthians 3:18 you are changed from glory to glory?
JT It is that line. So you have here Moses and Elias, who, appearing in glory, speak with Him. It would bear out your thought — they appear in glory. The heavenly element, entering into our position here, involves a change; in fact Christianity is established on the ground of the light of Ephesians; hence what follows is coloured by what is seen here.
RJW Would there be an indication of what was new and heavenly in the fact that it was eight days after?
JT Yes; eight is a change — a new point of departure.
Ques Is it necessary to be in an elevated position to take account of it? It is only there it is seen.
JT I think so. It is said, “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us ... hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4 - 6); so that we come out as heavenly.
MPM The difference is seen very markedly in Saul. He was changed from being an insolent, overbearing man, to one who was characterised by prayer.
RJW Do you suggest that as you pray you take on these features?
JT Well, I think at this stage of your progress the thought of the heavenly comes in. It is not at the outset, although the light may be there; but the time arrives when you take on the heavenly.
JCS So that when you take on the heavenly it will impart tone and character to all that you are and all you do.
JT There are some textures that will not take on certain colours. I think the Christian texture should take on a good blue — the heavenly colour.
Rem And your preaching would come out in that way?
JT Yes; you begin now to present things differently.
AHR You come to God in prayer, and you obtain the heavenly colour — the blue, and you come out in it.
JT That is what I understand; the texture is prepared for that. The believer’s life is like a web of cloth. Principles are laid down. Principles are the warp in the piece; they are laid out the whole length. The weft is woven in bit by bit; it is, as it were, a hand-loom — the shuttle acts this way and that way constantly. Romans prepares for what is heavenly. Romans lays out the principles, and then you begin to weave in, and gradually you begin to take on the colour — to take on a good dye; because it has to enter into the whole piece — the warp and the weft.
JCS So Romans brings in all that establishes one on the line of recovery, but you have [p. 50] not yet come to the reception of what is Ephesian truth exactly.
JT That is it.
Ques And would Romans bring you to Ephesians?
JT It prepares for Ephesians; so the apostle speaks of the mystery which had been hid during the ages. He desires that the Roman Christians should be established according to it.
JCS Do I catch the thought that this heavenly thing that is being introduced is really a process?
JT That is what I think. At this point of your progress as a believer you go in for what is heavenly, and that enters into local responsibility. Chapters 10 and 11 deal with the testimony in localities, and that must be heavenly. Local furnishings, which we may see in chapter 11, correspond to heaven. It is a question of the Lord going into the cities and places, and preparation being made for it. He appoints seventy, and sends them out two and two into every city and place whither He Himself would come, so that there should be conditions in each city and place suitable for Him.
Rem So what you put on can be taken account of.
JT Yes; the furnishings are according to heaven..
RJW Is that why Luke emphasises the thought of shining — what is heavenly is shown?
JT So we have two men in shining garments at the end of Luke’s gospel. And here His raiment is “white and effulgent”.
Rem Would you say we get it on the line of contemplation?
JT I think we do. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image”. 2 Corinthians 3:18. The glory of the Lord is involved in the question, “Whom say ye that I am?” Luke 9:20. The knowledge of the Lord leads to [p. 51] the change.
JCS So that the Lord Jesus comes in here again as a pattern. If we think of Him intrinsically, there is no change; but He is there as pattern for us.
JT That is what I thought.
LDB Following up the thought of Romans, would Peter and James and John stand for those who have reached this point?
JT I think that He selects those who would be, so to speak, capable of taking on the heavenly colour. He knew them, and He intended that they should reflect all they saw. As Peter says, “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount”, 2 Peter 1:16 - 18. They were with Him so that the effect of the vision should be reflected in them. He knew what they could take on, although apparently they then acted very poorly. Nevertheless the result came out later.
JCS So it was the Lord Jesus who went up to pray. He took them with Him that they might witness all that was transpiring, and take it on.
JT Yes, that is it; they came to it afterwards.
SF Peter understood it much more later when he wrote his epistle, and refers to it then; but the impression remained with him from this time forward.
JT He speaks in his epistles of an unfading inheritance reserved in the heavens for us; and goes on to say that the gospel is preached by the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. Then, in chapter 2, he links it on beautifully with Paul’s doctrine governing local assemblies by calling the attention of the Jews of the dispersion to what they were. “To whom coming”, he says, “as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”, 1 Peter 2:4,5. He was separating them from Jerusalem, and setting them up in a spiritual way in what they were themselves; they were a spiritual house. All that links up with what we may see in Luke 10 and 11. Here local furnishings must take on the heavenly, and be independent of metropolitan centres. Peter’s epistle teaches the saints that they are independent of earthly metropolitan centres.
JCS So that the local assembly should be the repository of what is heavenly. Heavenly conditions should be found there, and heavenly furnishings, as you have remarked.
LDB Would you say a little more about Peter’s epistle? How does he show that there is nothing metropolitan on earth now for the Lord, and that the heavenly is in view?
JT I link it on with his service as recorded in Acts 9. After Paul was converted Peter seemed to discern the new point of departure. It says, “Peter, passing through all quarters”, and coming down to Lydda, raised up Aeneas, and says to him, “rise up, and make thy couch for thyself”, Acts 9:34. There I think we have a plain intimation that he discerned that God was about to abandon Jerusalem. It took some time to do it, but the principle was laid down in his word to Aeneas that saints in different localities must learn to make their beds for themselves. Then he raises up Tabitha, and presents her alive to the widows and those who were mourning for her. Hence you have one who can make one’s bed for oneself; and then, in Tabitha, the energy of life in localities; so that his epistle amplifies these principles. He brings in the heavenly instead of occupying the Jews of the [p. 53] dispersion with Jerusalem or the earthly promises. He speaks about an inheritance in heaven unfading and undefiled, and says they were begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that they were “kept by the power of God through faith”, 1 Peter 1:5. Then he goes on to speak about the Spirit coming down from heaven as the power of ministry. Then he says, “as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby”, 1 Peter 2:2. It was a thing to grow up to. That would free them from the system at Jerusalem. Following on this, he says, “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”, 1 Peter 2:4,5. In all that, it seems to me, he detaches their minds from Jerusalem, where the visible temple was, and corroborates Paul’s ministry, which set up local companies officially, and calls them “assemblies of God”.
GRG The source of all that light was heaven. Peter was an eye-witness “of his majesty”. 2 Peter 1:16.
JT All that enters into it. He goes on to say at the end, “She that is elected with you in Babylon salutes you, and Marcus my son”, 1 Peter 5:13. He links up, it seems to me, the east (that is Babylon — the work of God there) with the west, unifying the work of God.
JCS That was only possible by bringing in the heavenly. So long as things were attached to Jerusalem the possibility of break-up was there, but the transfer of the centre to heaven brought about a permanent result.
JT The heavenly element now began to assert itself. In Acts 9 a light from heaven came to Paul; and in chapter 10 a sheet from heaven came to Peter. All that enters into Peter’s ministry. The metropolis [p. 54] was transferred to heaven, and it remained in heaven. “Jerusalem above ... is our mother”. Galatians 4:26.
GRG Do you think the sovereignty of the Lord comes out in that connection?
JT He knew them. Peter and James and John were evidently more spiritual than the others. They were taken into Jairus’ house when the little girl was raised up. So I think we are reminded here that we are privileged according to our progress.
RJW Then do you suggest that as we reach a certain point in our soul’s history we correspond to this?
JT That is what I was endeavouring to emphasise. At this point you begin to take on the heavenly; you want the heavenly because it is better.
RJW There was a great change in Job after he judged himself.
JT Quite. All this is instruction, involving a change in us. The heavenly colour enters in, I think, to the teaching of chapters 10 and 11. That is the idea of a place suitable for the Lord in the end of chapter 9. It says, “It came to pass, when the days of his receiving up were fulfilled”, Luke 9:51. The time was arriving when He would be received up into heaven, where everything is in keeping with Him. But in the meantime He was going to visit cities and places, hence He sends messengers before Him, as it were, to prepare. So that in praying in a certain place He had in mind that that place should be furnished. It refers obviously to the need of furnishing in it, because He had been to Bethany, to the house of Martha, and, although He was received, the furnishings were not just right. Martha did not reflect just what was heavenly; things were not altogether right there. Hence one would look around in one’s locality and see how much the conditions correspond to heaven, because the Lord is heavenly. He is in heavenly [p. 55] surroundings, and is entitled to something like heavenly surroundings on earth as He comes.
JCS So that when He comes the surroundings would be agreeable to Him. There would be no discomfort, so to speak; all would be according to Him.
AHR If we got hold of that it would be an immense thing for our spirits, would it not?
JT Surely. In the beginning of chapter 10 it says, He chose seventy, and sent them “two and two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to come” (verse 1). That has a meaning beyond what is literal; it has a meaning for us. If one goes as a representative into a locality, the Lord follows him up; and it is a question of what He finds. Take Luther’s ministry — wonderful energy of the Spirit, but the Lord would follow that up. What did He find? What was the result of that movement ecclesiastically for the Lord? There were not assembly conditions as far as we know. So with everyone who represents the Lord in ministry; the Lord follows you up, and what does He find as the result of your ministry?
RJW Do you think then the objective is the assembly? Your works are not complete until that objective is reached and the furnishing brought in.
JT That is what I think is found in service — “I have not found thy works perfect before God”, Revelation 3:2. There were works and conversions and much done in Sardis, but the work was not complete. There were no furnishings locally for the Lord. Take the Lutheran church of Germany, and the churches of England and Scotland, and then the establishment in Switzerland and France, and the later off-shoots in English-speaking countries; what do they afford for the Lord?
GRG Do you think it is suggested that the messengers were not successful in these [p. 56] villages?
JT You see that in a city of the Samaritans. It was not to the discredit of the messengers, because a national feeling was there of rivalry between Samaria and Jerusalem, and there was no reception of the Lord at all.
Rem Does anything take place before they go out two by two? The Holy Spirit goes before them, as it were.
JT We get the Holy Spirit in chapter 11. It is another consideration, because the Holy Spirit is the solution of all this. The Holy Spirit is really the means whereby local conditions are brought about that are acceptable to heaven. You cannot have it without the Spirit. Hence He says, “Much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him”, Luke 11:13. That is the solution, but I don’t think any of these systems which I referred to have made room for the Spirit; hence the assembly is lost to view, and there are no suitable local furnishings.
EBMcC You might point out what you mean by furnishings.
JT It means that I have a peep into heaven, and get to know something about what the living conditions of the Lord are. To use a figure: I have some idea of Buckingham Palace; anyone of us who has been to London knows that is where the king lives with his family. Now, the living conditions in the house of the king’s representative in this Dominion would, be, in some sense, a reflex of that. If the king were to come to Wellington he would go there, because that is the idea; it is a reflex of his own living conditions. Paul’s ministry enables us to understand what is heavenly, and local conditions must correspond in some sense to what is in heaven.
EBMcC Then it must be borne in mind that we are heavenly?
JT Yes, indeed. “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”, 1 Corinthians 15:48. I think the Lord, as He prayed in a certain place, had in mind that there should be others in that place suitable. Hence the disciples say to Him, “Teach us to pray”. This is the first time we get that. It does not say, ‘Teach me to pray’. We have been on the line of the individual; now we come to the collective. It is the question of the saints in a locality learning how to pray there.
JCS So that Buckingham Palace would really be the model for the Government House here. We become, in that way, acquainted with what is in heaven and what is heavenly; the local assembly is patterned after that.
JT That is what I had in mind. Now you have the added thought here of place — He was praying in a certain place. He had already said they were to go before His face into every place whither He Himself would come. Martha received Him to her house, but she was not heavenly. There are many of us perhaps who are not heavenly, and we are ready to receive the Lord only on our own terms, so to speak. It is one thing to go into a man’s house on his own terms, but another thing for him to receive you on your terms; in the latter you are much freer and happier. Now Martha did not receive the Lord on His own terms. I doubt whether she knew Him rightly. She would have Him bring Mary into accord with her. There was no question of Mary being suitable to the Lord. In other words, it is like a brother in the meeting wishing the whole meeting to be brought into accord with him, which is often the case.
JCS In Martha’s house the Lord found something that was really foreign to heaven.
JT I can understand the Lord turning aside into one of the rooms and praying for that place.
[p. 58] That seems the only solution of it — praying for Martha because the conditions are not right. It does not say so here, but it is the thing carried forward. He was praying in a certain place. He had just been to Bethany.
WJP Would you say there were mixed conditions?
JT Martha received Him into her house; she was the responsible one, but Mary was of a very different spiritual calibre. It is a very good type of a meeting; a very good example perhaps of all our meetings.
RJW Would the result be seen a little later in the place where there was a large upper room furnished?
JT You get that further on. It is a question of the furnishing here. So there is the praying in a certain place, it may be in Wellington or any place. If things are not right that is the way to deal with the matter.
SF In a way, Martha was holding the reins. Mary’s submission suggests she had surrendered everything to Him.
JCS So you would impress us with the necessity of being acquainted with what is in heaven, that in our localities we might place ourselves in relation to it.
JT That is the thought. I think Luke has, in the main, public conditions in view, conditions in keeping with heaven, because that is what was to mark the assembly.
AHR Do you think the heavenly conditions mentioned were brought about in the house when Lazarus was raised? All were in their places then.
JT The Lord came in there and manifested His glory; the result in Bethany is seen in John 12. But He wants to show from this occurrence here that the solution of this is by the [p. 59] Spirit.
Rem What comes out of heaven goes back there.
JT Yes, the Spirit has come out of heaven; that is what you get in verse 13: “How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven”. It is not in heaven. It is not going to heaven, but bringing heavenly conditions down. “Who is of heaven, give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him”. There it is the plural — not ‘him’, but “them”. I think it is collective.
Ques So heavenly conditions furnish the house for the Lord’s presence?
JT That is the thing. It is not that He will not come without them, because He came into Martha’s house, and there was nothing much about her then that was heavenly; but you want Him to come and find conditions entirely congenial to Him. He may come, it may be in a judicial character, and then He has to rebuke us, taking a judge’s character towards us.
JCS I take it that what you have been drawing our attention to is in order that these conditions might be planted in the hearts of the brethren in the various localities, so that the Lord is really at home amongst them.
JT That is it. He is praying in the place; He gives the lead, as it were, and the disciples were glad to take advantage of it; so one said, “Teach us to pray”. Then the Lord immediately says, “When ye pray, say, Father”. It is not, ‘our Father in heaven’; that is not Luke’s line. He wants to set us up in liberty. When you pray say, “Father, thy name be hallowed”. You want conditions suitable to that name: “thy name be hallowed”. “Thy kingdom come”. These are the features of prayer that He teaches us in this passage.
SF “Father” conveys what is general. As you have remarked, it is “Father”. Sometimes it is “our Father”.
JT In this passage I think it is the liberty we have with God. The Lord sets us up in liberty with God, so we can address Him as Father. It is very precious in our locality that we can address God as Father. Then we are concerned as we take that name on our lips. It should be as hallowed; there should be no uncleanness, or unholiness, or unrighteousness connected with it. Then, “thy kingdom come”, meaning that we are not trusting in human power. At the Reformation they called in the civil powers to support them. Protestantism, as its name indicates, is really a protest against Romish encroachment, where the kingdom of God was set aside. Rome was guilty of that. This prayer brings in the power of God; you can rely on that. I mean that power is involved in the thought of God’s kingdom.
EBMcC Is that connected with the mount where He was praying?
JT That was the kingdom in power.
JCS So where the furnishings are right there would be no room made for any other kind of power in the assembly.
JT That is what the kingdom means: The kingdom is really the bulwark for us. You can count on God, and go on. You would not call in the powers that be. That is where I think the Reformation failed. There was an ignoring of the power of God in the kingdom, which would have supported them; and if that had been recognised I believe they would have gone on to the assembly. It brings about a sphere in which you are protected. Then it says further, “Give us our needed bread for each day;” In this — that is godliness — we bring God into our daily circumstances. This saves us from aspiring to be rich. Paul says, some, having the love of money, “pierced themselves through with many sorrows”, 1 Timothy 6:10. This part of the prayer would save us from aspiring to be rich: “Give us this day our needed bread;” Then it says, “Remit us our sins, for we also remit to everyone that is indebted to us”.
There I think we come down to the brethren. In our relations with one another the attitude is remission; we are not seeking self-vindication or giving offence to the brethren, Your heart is forgiving. You expect divine forgiveness only in the measure in which you forgive; that is the way in which you have forgiveness. The next thing is, “Lead us not into temptation”, a great word for the young people, because in every town and village, as well as in the cities, there are tempting things — picture shows, theatres, dancing, and other things that are seductive. It is a very wholesome prayer, it seems to me, for the saints in every locality if we are to be preserved and furnished so that we are not led into temptation. I believe every one of us here, in reverting to his past experience, will remember how God graciously protected us from things that would have ruined us. I think the formula here is, in its elements, the groundwork of conditions that the Lord can approve of. He then proceeds to a parable; in which He opens up the great gain of prayer — what you may get through it — namely, the Holy Spirit.
JCS The Holy Spirit, in this light, comes in answer to prayer. That is how Luke presents the Spirit. I was thinking how it further supports the thought that Luke seems to connect everything with prayer — the great means whereby these things reach us.
RMcM One who gets the Spirit in this way would use the Spirit; it is subject to desire.
JT I think this prayer makes room for the Spirit. If it is honestly uttered there is room for the Spirit to come in.
Ques And would there be something for the Lord?
JT That is the thing. If you [p. 62] make room for the Spirit He will make room for the Lord. He is here on account of the Lord, and if there is liberty He will make room for Him.
GRG Is this the Spirit in the house — a collective thought?
JT Yes, it is; it is to them that ask Him.
JCS And the Father, who is of heaven, is He who gives the Spirit. Is that the connection in which the Spirit is given?
JT I think so. It is in order that there should be heavenly conditions on earth, that is the point: “The Father who is of heaven”, Luke 11:13. It is the character.
Ques Would you say that the Spirit never forces Himself?
JT He does not; and you have the words, ‘grieve’ and ‘quench’. Of course, wherever Christ is dishonoured He resists, for He cannot bear dishonour to Christ, or any unrighteousness.
JCS Is this like the dove coming down?
JT That is it exactly. The dove is a very sensitive creature; I think she is a sample of that. She found no rest for the sole of her foot. She is not like the raven. The dove is discriminating, it seems.
JCS I think that is very suggestive, and seems to give a beautiful climax to what we have been considering. Not only are there conditions now for the Lord Jesus to come to, but the Holy Spirit can come; there is nothing to disturb Him now.
RJW The dove seems to suggest affections — affections that belong to the assembly.
JT It says of the dove, she returned to Noah into the ark; meaning that, typically, there was a link of affection there.
RT What is your thought in connection with the Spirit being mentioned only once in Colossians 1 Is it that the greatness and glories of Christ come before us?
[p. 63] JT I think it is rather that the Spirit’s work is in evidence there. He is much in evidence in Romans, because Romans is the foundation; but I think Colossians contemplates His work. He says, “You ... hath he quickened”. Colossians 2:13. It is the work of the Spirit. The Spirit is mentioned in Colossians only in connection with love.
Ques Are the parables spoken here to encourage persistency in prayer in the sense of need: “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of”? Matthew 6:8.
JT Yes; He gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.
Ques Would it be right to pray for an increase of the Spirit in connection with our local assembly?
JT It would, indeed. How different things would be, under certain circumstances, if opportunity were afforded the Spirit of God. This passage is to encourage us to get on that line.
LDB The sensitiveness which you mentioned is very suggestive. It says, “the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot”, Genesis 8:9. What sensitive discrimination!
JT The Spirit takes account of life. The dove came back the second time with an olive leaf plucked off. She did not pick up a dead leaf — it was plucked off; as if to remind us that the Spirit takes account of the energy of life.
RJW Can the Spirit work from that?
JT He can, even if there is only one living one in the company. If the conditions which the prayer indicates exist I believe the Holy Spirit has liberty.
SF Would true prayer to God open up the channel for this unspeakable blessing to be enjoyed down here?
JT That is right. What the Lord says here is to encourage us to persist, because that is the only solution for local discord. The thing is to bring in [p. 64] the Spirit.
HLD Would it be right to pray for the Spirit now?
JT It would be right if you did not have Him. I should not pray for Him if I had Him.
AHR Would you encourage us to pray that there might be conditions for Him to come in?
JT Quite. That He might act in power. I should not like to weaken the Scripture which says, “How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him”, Luke 11:13.
JCS The Spirit has come in answer to desire. If there is no desire one cannot think of the Spirit coming in this connection.
Ques What gives the desire?
JT The knowledge that conditions locally are not according to heaven, and that He is available to prayer.
RJW Would it be a heart’s desire? It says of David, in Acts 13:22, “I have found David ... a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will”. And then the apostle reminds them of God’s promise, as it says, “I will give you the sure mercies of David”, Acts 13:34.
JT The Lord brings in the fathers after the flesh and compares them with the Father which is of heaven, and shows the greatness of His giving.
Ques What do you say about Cornelius in that way-he prayed to God?
JT He prayed as one having light. One may pray without having the Spirit; he did not have the Spirit.
ARG In what connection is the Spirit received here — as indwelling?
JT I take the incident at Ephesus, in Acts 19, as an example. “Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed?” That is what they needed.
ARG [p. 65] That is collective.
JT It is.
RJW That is, there were twelve men there, and the prayer is all in the plural.
JT That is what was needed. Paul laid his hands on them and they received the Spirit. That was the foundation of the Ephesian assembly, wherein there were conditions that would agree with heaven.
ARG Is the thought making room for Him amongst us?
JT That is the idea.
HLD Would this refer to Pentecost? There they were praying.
JT No doubt. This was written long after Pentecost, and it is to encourage us to pray; because if you see brethren biting and devouring one another, how can you tell whether they have the Spirit or not? The question is whether they have.
JCS The idea is that the furnishings would all be orderly, beautiful; all animated with divine love flowing from the Spirit. It is a place where the Lord can come and feel at home, and the Spirit can rest without being disturbed, and the brethren can rest.
JT You see it in Ephesus. Paul represented the Lord in visiting Ephesus after the assembly had been set up. He embraces them as he leaves them, and then, as he returns and calls for the elders, they embrace him. There is the evidence of spiritual affections. If the Lord Himself had come He would have been received just as Paul, because Paul was His representative. As he went to Tyre, as recorded in the next chapter (Acts 21), the brethren, their wives and children came out to the seashore, and all kneeled down together and prayed. There you see heavenly conditions. What a spectacle for heaven as they were all there with the apostle! Then in Ptolemais he went up and saluted the brethren, and spent a day with them; Acts 21:7. “The brethren” is a heavenly suggestion. He saluted them; he did [p. 66] not rebuke them; there was evidently nothing to rebuke. Then he came to Caesarea and entered into the house of Philip the evangelist. That dignified name, which was undoubtedly fitting, is given to Philip. It says, he “had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy”. Acts 21:9. The Spirit of God is pleased to say they prophesied and they were virgins. These are heavenly suggestions. The Lord Himself would have been quite free had He come to this place with Paul. I think the apostle’s last journey to Jerusalem is to bring these facts into evidence — the great results of his ministry. There is nothing said about his ministry; the evident results were there, because it says they spoke to him by the Spirit.
LDB To follow up the first scripture we looked at, the saints in this place were now different, and their garments were white and glistening.
JT That is the thought exactly.
JCS So they learned to walk on high places.
JT Just so; and the fact that the Holy Spirit testified to him in every city shows He was free in the assemblies in these cities. He could speak through a brother, because, if He testified to Paul, it was through some brother or sister in the place.
JCS They were well furnished there.
LDB Do you think it is all possible still?
JT I do. It is what the Lord is aiming at now — to have “gardens” into which He can come and feed among the lilies.
Rem The brethren dwelt together in unity in the places mentioned.