HEAVEN'S INTERVENTIONS

D.R.Freeman

Acts 2: 1-4; Matthew 28: 1-10, 18-20; Judges 5: 19-21, 31

I desire, the Lord helping, beloved brethren, to say a word in regard to heaven's interventions. I began, I think rightly, with chapter 2 of the Acts because we have there the beginning of this wonderful period, the present dispensation inaugurated by the coming in of the Spirit of God. Of course, before this there had been remarkable interventions from heaven, the greatest being the coming into this world of the Lord Jesus. How heavenly hosts celebrated that wondrous move on God's part, that that blessed One who is now enthroned in glory should become Man and be found here amongst men! What a wonderful intervention! Indeed, this was the greatest event, I suppose, in time, that the Lord Jesus should be here in manhood and that God's pleasure and glory should be secured through Him. What incalculable results there have been from that wondrous move on the part of God! We shall never forget its consequences as we share in the blessings that have resulted from it, pre-eminently glory to God in the highest and God's pleasure secured in men, men who are like Jesus and with whom God will dwell eternally. What a work of grace He has set on! Luke gives us a wonderful account of that work of grace. The Acts is his second treatise the gospel gives the nativity of Jesus and His path amongst men culminating in the cross. Now in the Acts, his second treatise, this great work had been completed; the Lord Jesus had been amongst His own and they were waiting for heaven's intervention. How much, beloved brethren, we owe to the presence here of the Spirit of God! There has been no failure with Him, the failure has been in the church on the responsible side. But the Spirit has not left us, He is here and available to us the same way as He was at the outset. Of course, these conditions have never been repeated exactly, the wonderful unity at the outset in this company who were there praying; they were marked by piety and obedience, they obeyed the word of the Lord, they were subject to Him; they had the guidance of the Scriptures, and they were together as the day of Pentecost was accomplishing, awaiting this wonderful move from heaven. Jerusalem did not know anything about what was transpiring there, but as a result of it the testimony has spread through the whole habitable world, resulting in a wonderful answer to God. So it is not a question of judgment, though the world did its worst at the cross of Jesus and Satan was behind it to obliterate that precious Name "When will he die, and his name perish?" Ps 41: 5. Here are those who love Him and who are waiting for what was so necessary in view of the testimony, because it involved the speaking that has gone on throughout this wonderful period. It is a time of speaking, "God having spoken ... at the end of these days has spoken to us in ... Son" (Heb 1: 1-2), that is Son-wise; that is the character of His speaking and it is maintained here in the power of the blessed Spirit of God. It says "If any one speak as oracles of God", 1 Peter 4: 11. I think we would be bound to attend to such speaking. So they listened to Peter; Peter's speaking was God's word, there was no question about it for it bore its own credentials as a result of the Holy Spirit coming in. What a wonderful move from heaven, the intercession of Christ and God's love too being behind it. The breathings of God were involved, as another has said, as there came suddenly this sound out of heaven as they were all together in one place. It was evident where it was coming from, not from this world but from on high where Jesus was. He had received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. Peter indicates this later and now He had poured out this which they beheld and heard. So the Spirit's coming from heaven had these wonderful results. We should look more for heaven's interventions, even in these days. This was the beginning and, of course, the last move in this dispensation will be a wonderful move from heaven when the Lord Jesus Himself will descend with that mighty shout, the trump of God and archangel's voice, and the dead in Christ will be raised. What a wonderful intervention that will be! That is what we are waiting for; and should we not be together, should we not be marked by prayer and piety in view of that moment, not dissipating our time, because that event is so close to us and the Lord is preparing His people in view of it?

The Lord had prepared this company in the Acts in view of the Spirit's coming, a divine Person to be with us and in us, to take charge of the testimony. They were to be subject to the Spirit as God; He personally is entitled to worship and regard, for His own will entered into the disposition of the services under the hand of the Lord Jesus. So the Spirit of God is to be regarded and there is His sovereign selection in the assembly. We are the gainers as we recognise it. These principles are to be before us; how we work them out in times of smallness and departure is another question but we need to have the pattern, the divine principles, before us and see how the testimony was inaugurated, and the character, too, of what was established here in heavenly power and grace as the Holy Spirit comes in from heaven to take charge. So it was a sound out of heaven; the breathings of God, someone has said, were involved in that violent impetuous blowing which filled all the house where they were sitting. The fragrance of ointment filled the house in John 12, but here the Spirit is to take charge completely. The will of man is to be set aside and the Spirit is to direct the movements and speaking and testimony of the persons who were there. Of course, they would be subject to the divine order, that is, the men would pray and the men would speak. These are important matters in relation to the assembly which are brought out in 1 Corinthians. How sadly they have been neglected by Christendom and by many who have been near to us, but these things are to be regarded if the Spirit's help and service is to proceed and He is to be ungrieved amongst us.

We should note the difference between the coming in of the Spirit here and His descent on the Lord Jesus. There it was in bodily form as a dove; here in parted tongues as of fire sitting upon each one of them. This does not mean that they should be terrified; we do not read that they were afraid; but we should be thankful for the fire because of the capabilities that are with us, that is in our flesh, of assuming to undertake anything in fleshly will or power in the things of God. The Spirit is against the flesh and the fire is to be accepted by us. It is our salvation to accept it, but then it would carry conviction to others. There needs to be purity with us, pure vessels whom the Spirit can use, who maintain in a practical way the truth of the death of Christ so that what is of the flesh is absolutely refused as having been judged finally under God's eye at the cross, the Spirit being ever faithful to that. So there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire and it sat upon each one of them. Is there a weak link there? Not at all, for the Spirit is identified with every person in the company. There is no stranger there; but is there a stranger here, a stranger to God's grace? Maybe God's word would come to us with compelling power. Indeed, it says of one who was present at a certain occasion in the assembly that he would fall upon his face and do homage to God reporting that God is amongst you of a truth (see 1 Cor 14: 25). What a remarkable thing! This is the character of God's house, beloved brethren. I admit that we are in days of smallness and breakdown but the character remains; Philadelphia involves that the same character continues until the Lord comes. What a privilege to have any part in it! But if we are recovered to something we are recovered to the presence and power of this divine intervention of the Holy Spirit come from heaven above, and He will always lead us to the One from whom He has come and to the place from whence He has come, as Rebecca was taken to Isaac; that is the bent of His service. Paul was taken up with the heavenly side in view; we have been reminded of that, the light out of heaven that converted Paul, then Saul of Tarsus, and made him such a wonderful servant bringing in the light of God's purpose before the ages of time. The assembly, beloved brethren, is a heavenly vessel; let us not see it demeaned in our thoughts or in our actions in any way. We are tested as to it but the truth is to be answered to, there is to be a correspondence to the truth, and the Spirit will help us as we recognise His power to accomplish these things. Peter could not have stood, apart from divine power afforded through the Spirit's grace, for he says the gospel is preached by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven (see 1 Pet 1: 12). You might have said Peter preached, but Peter says the gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It has a heavenly ring about it because it is about the One who is there, the One who is enthroned in glory at God's right hand, God's beloved Son.

Now we might think that we are in conditions where these wonderful things are not so applicable. We may be inclined, because of the breakdown, to give up the truth. We may not give it up in terms, but in practice we may, and that has been so in the area where the truth has been recovered. We only have to read Mr Stoney's ministry given about one hundred years ago 'Thoughts for this day' (New Series, Vol 11). I would commend it to the brethren because he was concerned that the truth was being given up in the faith and the practice of the brethren. He stood firm; the number who stand firm may be very few relatively, and that may tend to discourage us; but if we have God in view, like Joshua and Caleb, we will be encouraged and will continue with the heavenly inheritance before us. So Caleb goes right through and is as strong at eighty to go out to war as he is at forty. There is no change with God - what a God we have!

I read from Matthew because the situation there is one of weakness outwardly and brokenness. I think this has special application to ourselves and is for our encouragement and help because there is a wonderful display of power at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Of course, in that act itself, the Father raising His Son by His glory, never has such power been witnessed "the surpassing greatness of his power ... the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead", Eph 1: 19, 20. Creation's worlds are wonderful, God's power exhibited in creation, but (as a sister once said to me she was bedridden) resurrection is God's masterpiece. That is an interesting word. It is God 's answer to all the power of Satan, because the One who went down into death is the One who has come forth out of it, a glorious, living Man triumphant for ever, the One about whom we sang together. Well, we are to be in the faith of that. The disciples, though few at the resurrection of Jesus, did not recall the Lord's words. I suppose their hearts were bowed with sorrow as they felt the loss of One who had been everything to them. They lacked nothing when the Lord was with them, such was the character of His life and presence amongst them here, as He says, "Did ye lack anything?" Luke 22: 35. But now it was different, He had been taken by wicked hands; that is what the world did with Jesus. It is the character of the world in which we are, it is still unchanged in New York or Kingston or wherever we are, and its princes crucified the Lord of glory. But how are we moving in the presence of these things? Here is this little number, and outwardly their defencelessness is stressed, they are women; Mary of Magdala and the other Mary came to look at the sepulchre; but then God had intervened, not only in the resurrection of Jesus but in an earthquake, showing what He can do. In the Acts (chap 4: 31) the place where the brethren were assembled shook. I suppose it was an earthquake. It was not to terrify them. Jacob was afraid in the presence of God; but if God intervenes we are to realise it is on behalf of His people. As we are together God may give us an indication that He is for us and that none is going to withstand us either, for the testimony is going to go through triumphantly in spite of all that Satan may seem to have done.

Satan had gained a great inroad here in the defection of Judas, the number is incomplete in this section of Matthew but there is a wonderful display of power from on high. So an angel descends from heaven, and he was a commissioned angel too, he was given this task to do. God has myriads of angels at His bidding. As Christians we have come to an innumerable company of angels; they are near to us. They have their place around the throne in Revelation 5, and they are near to the redeemed; not that they have any part in the benefits of the work of Christ, but they take account of the results of it adoringly. These are the holy angels, and this one is sent at God's bidding on behalf of His people to roll the stone away, not for Jesus to rise, for nothing could detain him in death, but that they might look into the tomb and see the wonderful triumph that God had wrought. He says "Come, see the place where the Lord lay". But they were not to stay there; the word is "Come", and then "Go", go tell the story. As we take account of what God has done, what Jesus has done, we can go and tell it, over and over again. We love to hear the story of the glad tidings, the story of the mighty triumph of the Saviour who went into death for us and broke its power and has risen victorious over the grave. So here their hope seemed gone but they had direction from the angel. God will always give some indication of His mind, even in these weak circumstances as they are publicly. Matthew helps us as to the public position; it is where righteousness is to be regarded. Though the position is small we are still to be marked by righteousness. We are to "pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart", 2 Tim 2: 22. God will come in and His intervention can be taken account of in regard to such. So here heaven is intervening, an angel of the Lord descended out of heaven and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. The Roman power was very great, and prevalent everywhere at this time, but there was a greater power. Let us be assured of this that, if we are brought before men in testimony, there is a greater power to be borne witness to and God can intervene in this way. He generally uses His people but His power is seen in this one angel, thus indicating that God despised the power of Rome, and of the Jews too, whose influence caused the sepulchre to be sealed and a Roman watch to be set lest the story should be told that He was risen from the dead. Could He be detained by that? No, indeed! This angel is God's intervention on behalf of those who were faithful to the cross, who had followed the Lord, who were still available and who, though sorrowing, came to the tomb. The angel gives them direction, he is in triumph, he says to the women "Fear not ye". What a difference! Others might fear, the guards trembled and became as dead men, but there were words of sympathy and light for the women. How beautiful that heaven is sympathetic! The administration of the world to come, as Mr Coates says, is going to be marked by intense sympathy. Heaven is the place of sympathy because the One whom we know is there, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, sin apart. We might say never have divine sympathies been set out more than at the present time because of the One who has suffered being there and able to succour those who are tempted in this wilderness pathway here. So heaven is sympathetic and the angels partake of that sympathy: "Fear not ye". The angel makes a difference: "for I know that ye seek Jesus the crucified one". How did He know that? I think it indicates what is going on in heaven for God is speaking about His people and the angels hear about us. If a young brother or young sister confesses the Lord, they are spoken about in heaven. It is a wonderful thing to have your name mentioned in heaven. The angels are to serve us, God gives them charge concerning us to keep us in alI our ways; they are sent out on account of those who shall inherit salvation (see Heb 1: 14). Let us not think that heaven is inactive: for it is full of activity, and conversation too. God loves to speak about His people. On one occasion He spoke about Job and we know the results of that. God loves to draw attention to His people here and He has in view the blessing and preservation of what is precious to himself. So the angel says "I know"; he knew who they were for he was sent to serve them. He says "I know that ye seek Jesus the crucified one". How beautiful that is! They were not ashamed of the cross of Christ. How easily we may feel burdened because of the reproach connected with the testimony but it is the position of power, and we cannot dissociate the reproach of Christ from the presence and service of the Spirit of God. He will always be available to serve those who accept the reproach connected with the cross of Jesus. So what a tribute the angel gives to these women! They had followed Jesus and now were seeking Him among the dead. But the angel gives them light concerning the resurrection. Heaven loves to give light to those who are in any sense affected by God's interventions. So he says "He is not here, for he is risen, as he said''. He would remind them of that. "Come, see the place where the Lord lay"; the tomb was empty. There was never a tomb like the tomb of Jesus for there was no corruption there. What a remarkable place to take account of! It was empty, the Lord had risen from the dead. Wonderful fact, and great subject of the preaching! If He was still there we are still in our sins, but now He is risen and we are justified in Him, a glorious, living Man in the presence of God. So they are brought from being downcast into triumph. They were told to go and tell His disciples that He was risen what a wonderful message! "and behold, he goes before you". The Lord is leading in broken conditions, He does not give up His rights in relation to His own, and the place, too, where divine power can be known: "He goes before you into Galilee". He is linked with the place of reproach here and, as we accept it beloved brethren, we will find Him and enjoy His company and have the gain of His word that all power is given to Him. So they go out quickly with fear and great joy running to bring His disciples word. Then, as they went, Jesus met them. No greater person could meet them, no greater person could meet us than the Lord Himself. He is coming to meet us soon, He will come Himself; He is not going to send an angel. Here an angel was first sent to speak to these women, a little handful of them. You might say, Everything is broken up. But now everything is under divine control, all power is with the Man who is at God's right hand. So He Himself met them and what does He say to them? "Hail!" This would show, I think, the importance of respect for the people of God, for the Lord regards them in this remarkable way as He salutes them. They rightfully do homage to Him but He indicates His mind as to them. If the Lord indicates His mind as to His saints, though in great feebleness and reproach (because that is where we are), then we should do well to take note of it and be concerned that we do not bring anything in which is otherwise in regard to His people. The reproach is considerable but these persons are saluted by Jesus in the circumstances of reproach; the Lord regards them as those who jeoparded their lives in affection for Him, in coming to the tomb they were publicly associated with His crucifixion, His rejection here. And that is where we are as we come together to break bread, beloved brethren, feeling the conditions around us and the reproach, maybe the misunderstanding of our brethren; but the Lord understands these circumstances and, not only is He sympathetic with us and helps us in them, but He is marked by remarkable regard for those who are found in this way. This is to strengthen us the Lord salutes them. Paul saluted the assembly, we are to salute one another. Respect is very important as linked with the saints in the testimony here. We might say that we have right regard for the brethren because of their place as seated in the heavenlies in Christ but how do we act practically? What about the saint, who is in reproach and suffering for the name of Christ? The Spirit of God is linked with such an one, and we are to regard brethren who stand faithfully in the truth; we are to be in the current of God's mind in regard to such.

Here in Matthew it was a broken position, the number is eleven, but the commission is given to them, the preaching and testimony is to go on. We know the number was made up in the Acts, the complete number was there when the Spirit came. God has completion in view and we need to keep the full thought in our minds, yet not to weaken in our efforts or work on account of the number being broken, because all power is in the hand of Jesus and He is going to complete everything and be with His people, all the days, until the completion of the age. So things are going to be completed rightly I believe; the saints are going to be ready for the rapture and the Spirit and the bride will say, Come. What a privilege to have part in it and to have part in the victory now! It will be a wonderful victory song then when we are around the throne. What songs there will be! Who would be out of it? Surely our hearts should be stirred at the prospect that is before us when that wonderful note resounds to Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins in his blood (see Rev 1: 5) and ascends from that redeemed throng who have their part and place in heaven in the companionship of Jesus eternally, for we shall be with Him and like Him. What a wonderful prospect and what a glorious victory too! The last trumpet, that is the last move, has in view the final triumph: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly", Rom 16: 20. We wait for that moment but that does not mean that we are not in victory now.

So Deborah would help us. We referred to the palm-trees a little earlier; we are to be victorious in adverse conditions, indeed faith feeds on the difficulties. The men of faith said that the giants would be food for them; so the difficulties are food for us, they are not to terrify us. You might say, I do not know how I am going to get through this week or another year. But the worse the difficulty is, the more it becomes food for the Christian and the more it is intended to cast us on God in a practical way to help us through, especially as it concerns His testimony, because that is the main reason why we are left here. God will help us in our circumstances but the main thing is His service and His testimony. So Deborah was in triumph, and the verses I read indicate the way heaven comes in. The people of Israel were under great pressure because of Jabin's army; the captain was Sisera; he had nine hundred chariots of iron. Think of the way God's people were ground under, but there was one woman who had the mind of God. It was not even a brother, for she has to say, Up, to Barak, and she goes with him too. He would go, he said, if she went. What a wonderful character she has! So she has this song and Barak joins with her. It is a good thing to have part in the victory song now. God gives us to taste the victory; that word is in 1 Corinthians 15 which is the resurrection chapter "Thus also is the resurrection of the dead" (v 42). The doxology is "But thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ" (v.57). The intervention on heaven's part in Judges is in the stars, here seen in a militant way. Shining for God as they do, here they are fighting. Whoever heard of stars fighting? They are fighting in their courses with Sisera, that is, they are not independent. A great bane is independent activity in the sense in which one is independent of the Lord and of the Spirit's help and of the word of God. We need to be marked by increasing dependence so that we move unitedly in the path of God's will. independency springs from man's will, and we cannot maintain the conflict rightly in that way at all; we have to come to an end of it, however right it may seem. So special associations of brethren because of certain views are not going to help the testimony forward at all, in fact they will hinder it; but we need to be united on the basis of the truth under the Lord's direction. The enemy is very active, but here the stars in their courses are fighting with Sisera, that is, they are moving in their divinely-appointed pattern and not departing from it, they are abiding by principles; and God intervenes through these heavenly bodies. His people were fighting but Deborah recognises that there was intervention from another source, that is from heaven. Where would we be, beloved brethren, without heaven's interventions? They are seen, as one has sought to show, in the coming in of the Spirit of God, in angelic service and special help in a day of brokenness, and in a militant way so that the saints might be preserved and the land might have rest. This is always in view in any conflict for the truth, that the saints might enjoy the inheritance. What an inheritance we have! As the ark goes forward to seek out a resting place (see Num 10: 33, 36) conflict has to be entered into; but rest is in view in all the militant movements connected with the testimony of God. So Deborah has this song for she is triumphant, and the conclusion is that God's enemies, not our personal enemies; we would not desire that for any such. Stephen and Paul are examples for us. Stephen says "Lord, lay not this sin" that was against him "to their charge", Acts 7: 60. Paul says "May it not be imputed to them" (2 Tim 4: 16) because they did not stand with him. How sad it was that he stood alone! How sad it is when brethren are forced to stand alone! But he says "The Lord stood with me, and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear". How remarkable that the Lord intervened in Paul's testimony! It was heaven's intervention in the Lord Himself, He stood by him in his defence. Well, thank God there are brethren who are standing. How we need to love them and to value them! So Deborah says "Let them that love him". She is not thinking only of herself and Barak but she widens out in her affections to include every lover of God; "But let them that love him be as the rising of the sun in its might". We want the benign sway of the know ledge of God to spread abroad; as Paul says, "His knowledge through us in every place", 2 Cor 2: 14. "Let them that love him be as the rising of the sun in its might", that heavenly orb placed there by God to rule the day. This benign influence is to spread through those who are lovers of God and who have been secured by His wonderful intervention in the time scene, through the blessed Person of His Son, the Lord Jesus and through the glorious glad tidings which are preached in His Name and in the power of the blessed Spirit sent from heaven. May God thus encourage and help us for His Name's sake.

Brooklyn NY

26 January 1974