THE PROMOTION OF SPIRITUALITY
[p. 415] THE PROMOTION OF SPIRITUALITY
John 20: 19; Mark 5:22-24; Mark 5:35-43; Acts 9: 36 - 42
One is encouraged and thankful for the kind sympathy that one is conscious of in the hearts of the brethren, and one counts on God to enable him to serve them. With this in mind I have read these three scriptures. What they convey to one’s mind is the promotion of spirituality, and in view of the conditions in which we are, this will apply to what is negative as well as to what is positive. The negative side is expressed in the first scripture in that the doors were shut for fear of the Jews. In the second, that is in Mark 5, we have another example of this. The subject in mind there is the child of twelve years old who was healed by the Lord Jesus; and it is said that certain who were in the house where she was, were put out by the Lord. He put them all out; that is, those that derided Him. Not that He acted in violence, far otherwise. What He intended was the promotion of what was of God in those that were there; that is, to promote spirituality. The third scripture has the same thought in it. Dorcas was dead, as indeed the child was dead. According to the scripture read Dorcas was dead, and Peter was sent for in view of her being raised up; and he put all the widows out; he put out those who were weeping and wailing as if they would by their presence and ways, prevent spirituality. I do not go so far as to say they would prevent salvation, or the work of the gospel. I am just confining my remarks to the prevention of spirituality, and the promotion of spirituality.
Well, now coming to the first scripture it is a question of the assembly. You will understand, dear brethren, that I have a peculiar feeling of joy when I mention the word assembly. It is a word that [p. 416] as used in Scripture properly belongs to Christians. It is a word that is used in the world, but as used in Scripture it is the property of Christians. We have, as Christians, peculiar title to the use of the word, and I refer to verse 19 of John 20 to show how what is presented there affords opportunity for the working out of assembly operations, of assembly results, particularly of spirituality. The worker, the operator, as it has often been mentioned, was a woman. I do not say that the Lord was not operating, for He was, but the person in mind particularly now, and who was in the Lord’s mind, too, at that time, is Mary Magdalene. She is a sister out of whom the Lord had cast seven demons; she had been in bad company, in bad service and doing bad work, serving sin; but now she is rescued, and in the Lord’s service in a peculiar way. She had been much affected by the Lord’s disappearance from view; it was fully in her mind that He had died and now she is recovered, she is secured, according to the verses preceding verse 19, for the Lord in His service. Hers was an extraordinary service, one rarely done by a woman; that is, the service in the assembly. Of course you will understand that all the sisters here are afforded the opportunity of serving in the assembly, because it is the proper sphere for us. Whether we are brothers or sisters we are to serve, and there is much to be done; but I speak of what she did in the sense of an industrious woman. Not that she had yet shown much of this, but she did eventually I am sure, and already was doing so; that is to say, she had already begun and was now occupied industriously in the Lord’s service and for the assembly, for the benefit of the assembly.
The type that I would bring forward as to her for the moment, dear brethren, is in the last chapter of the book of Proverbs. It is what is called an [p. 417] alphabetical chapter because the section referring to the virtuous woman is written on the principle of making the first letter of each verse follow in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. The woman in that chapter became a model of industry in the service of the Lord. She is called a virtuous woman. “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies”. We have a description of her from verse 10 to the end, and it aptly illustrates, dear brethren, what is needed in assembly service, not service by persons who have gift specially, but by persons who love the Lord Jesus. That is what really marked Mary. She loved the Lord; and I need hardly remark on this that it is a matter of primary importance that we should love the Lord. You may say, Well, that is very general. It is, but what is less general is loving His appearing. And I would challenge everybody as to whether he loves the Lord, but also as to whether he loves the Lord’s appearing. There is a special tribute paid to all those who love the Lord’s appearing.
Now, coming down to Mary I would regard her in this sense as marked by industry, by industriously serving the saints. Not simply serving one of them, but serving them as such characteristically; because she was one of them, and the Lord knew she was of them, and as of them she called the Lord by the name of “Rabboni”. She gave Him that name, and it had a meaning, and her use of it implied that she had learned from Him. He was her Instructor, and that is what she meant to say; that is what He was, He was her Instructor. The question for everyone here tonight to answer is, Who is our instructor in the things of God? It is no question of the things of this world, or the sciences of this world, but the things of God. Who is instructing you in the things of God? Mary had decided as to who should instruct her, so she called the Lord Jesus by a [p. 418] name that indicated that He was her Instructor. So you see what a place she has, beloved brethren, and how important and how right that the consideration of her should enter into a meeting of this kind, so that we should be learners and quick learners, because the time is short. We should learn to do things, but learn them well, and learn quickly, because they are to be learned quickly, and they may be learned quickly. If we are not quick learners there is something lacking with us, because the matter that we are engaged in is so necessary and urgent, so profound, so wonderful. Mary was one of these learners and she had to do with the disciples, and she was effective. She was sent indeed to them with a message, and I would venture to say that she in measure gave character to them as they were together at that particular time. The Lord had given her a message for them, and that message was intended to characterise them, and it did; but she was the instrument of the message. She thus affords an example for every one of us, specially sisters, at such a time as this.
Well, now I come down to the point before us in the passage; that is, promotion of spirituality. If this is to be the result in our services, we are to learn to shut the doors; not simply the door, but the doors, the word is in the plural. It is, of course, easy enough to convey the idea of shutting a door, but to shut doors is more general, and sometimes more laborious, and would involve more care, more work, where the number is not mentioned; and the number is not mentioned here. The doors were shut and we are told why, it was for fear of the Jews, meaning that the Jews would influence the meeting. It was a meeting of the Lord’s people, of those who believed on Him. It was a meeting of such persons and the Lord came because they were there. He did not come to an empty room, He came because they were there. It says “where the disciples were”. And so the doors were shut. Whether she had anything to do with the shutting of the doors I am not saying, but I am saying that somebody had to do with it. It was evidently part of the needed service to be rendered, in view of the meeting in prospect, that there should be no Jews there. They were not simply men called Jews, but persons of a peculiar religious character and characteristics, such as would spoil such a meeting for which the disciples had come. Then the Lord was come too, not indeed that they had expected Him formally, but He had in His mind to come, and He did come. I am not saying that Mary had in mind that the doors should be shut, or that she had done it, or that she had indicated that it should be done; but anyway it was done, and she had given the message, she brought the message to the disciples; and these are the facts.
What I am saying now has to be used for instruction by each of us, if indeed he is at all interested, because it is a most interesting matter. That is, how to assemble where the Lord Jesus is about to come, and if there be anything to be attended to negatively, it is not left unattended to, it is attended to, that is the point. And hence there were results, because it is quite obvious that the brethren there were promoted in their spiritual thoughts, and I hope that what I am saying tonight will help each one here in this fairly large number of brethren, that there will be some promotion of spiritual thoughts in every one of us. And so it says “The disciples rejoiced therefore, having seen the Lord”. It was not a mere curious gladness: but it was real gladness, because they loved Him, and they were glad to see Him. And He said to them “Peace be to you”. That was His thought for them. Their thought was that they were glad to see Him, and they were. His thought was that they should have peace, and He said it twice. “Peace be to you”. There were, of course, many other things that He did, He breathed into them which was a portentous matter, a very great matter, a matter that would have effective results ultimately. “He breathed into them, and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit”. It was not simply that He would give them the Holy Spirit, but that they should actually receive the Holy Spirit. This is a very great matter, and one has to challenge the brethren as to whether he or she has, whether all of us have received the Holy Spirit because we cannot be in the assembly aside from receiving the Holy Spirit. Well, now I need not say much more on this passage because the whole matter is simple; most here know all about what I am saying and therefore everyone, I believe, is capable of taking it in, and perhaps enjoying it. And so the meeting starts; it is the inauguration, I might say, from John’s point of view, of the assembly. John, however, speaks rather of those who form it, and there is quite a difference to be understood between the assembly itself and those who form it. I do not say that John speaks of it as formed, he does not speak formally of it at all, he does not even use the word in his gospel, but he does speak of the persons who form it being together. There were very few of them, of course, but they were there, and they were glad they were there, and it is said that they were glad when they saw the Lord, and they got the word from Him, “Peace be to you”.
Well, now I want to go on to the second scripture read which is not an assembly matter, not exactly even a household matter, although it is recorded of a household. It is a matter for gift, a matter in which gifted men are to serve; hence in the facts mentioned it is said that Jairus, who is the subject of the narrative, had his little daughter very ill, at extremity, he said. She was about to die, and he begged the Lord [p. 421] to come to her and lay His hands on her, and the Lord immediately went with him, but He took Peter and James and John with Him. That is why I said it was a matter of gift, of men who as having gift can serve the Lord on that principle. Gift is a wonderful matter; it is a question of what the Lord Jesus, having gone into heaven, has received from the Father. He has gone in and He has received gifts for men. It is a question of the means of working out what God has in mind in view of the assembly, but I am not now speaking of the assembly as such. I am speaking of what came out in this household. There is a girl in it who is dead, who may be part of the assembly in time; but she is dead, and she comes in for this line of teaching that is now in mind. I want to enlarge on it so that the brethren might profit. These gifted men must go with Him, the Lord would have them to go, He takes them on first. He takes on the mother and the father of the child afterwards, but He takes on these three men first. It is a question of gifted men, of men who can be used, as having gift which the Lord gives from heaven. He gives gifts to men, and that is why I am stressing the point of gifted men, and how they are to be used. Their gifts are not to be used as toys, or as making much of themselves, they are to be used for the promotion of spiritual power and spirituality, and too for the help of persons who have fallen under the power of sin or death; in this case the child had fallen under the power of death. The father said that she had actually died, but then the Lord said “the child has not died, but sleeps”.
Now I want to remark on the importance of gift, and how the Lord selects gift, and how when He comes to the house He selects these men. After He heard about the child being dead He comes to the house, it was not far away, apparently, and then we have a selection of these men, as if they were needed [p. 422] at this particular time. So the matter proceeds and we are told that certain ones derided the Lord. A terrible thing that there should be a condition of derision when we are dealing with the things of God, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, His burial, His resurrection, and His ascension to heaven, and all else that enters into the truth of the gospel. It is a terrible thing that there should be found derision in a city like this, but it is so, and it is actually in the house in this chapter, but the Lord put the deriders out. That is my point in this passage. The doors were shut in the first, and these deriding people are put out here. The Lord did it. If we look into the gospels, we find that Matthew says they were put out, without saying who did it; but Mark says that the Lord did it. Then the Lord selected the father and mother of the child and He said to her, “Talitha koumi, which is, interpreted, Damsel, I say to thee, Arise”. The Lord used those words and she arose and walked. You may say, Why do you say that she walked? Well, because she did, and she was old enough to be regarded in the light of being able to walk. She was not simply a babe or a little child, she was a girl and therefore the question arises as to whether she was fit for fellowship; because what I am dealing with, dear brethren, is spirituality, and we must have intelligence before spirituality, and now this girl is evidently ready for fellowship. She is able to walk. She can go to the meeting herself. She could be trusted to walk. I want to make the thing simple and practical; she points to a person who is at the age of suitability for the fellowship, for fellowship in the things of God, if you will understand me. I do not want to be misunderstood. It is a question of the things of God. There may be fellowship in other things but I am speaking of the things of God, and that there may be fellowship in them, and this little girl is [p. 423] clearly one that can be viewed as in fellowship. She walks. It says, “for she was twelve years old”. That word for means something. It means that something grows out of it, that she is one of those who can go to the meeting and participate in what is of God, “for she was twelve years old”.
Finally, the Lord took care of the other side of the matter; He commanded that something should be given her to eat. That is another point of great importance, especially to mothers, as to young girls and what they read, what they are living on in that sense. Sometimes one has ventured to refer to Elisha who had to do with a dead boy in the Old Testament. Elijah did too, but Elisha had to do with a dead boy and he wondered why he had died, what caused his death. He wondered, he walked up and down the house as if he were saying to himself, Why has this happened? What caused this, why should this child have died? Well, what is the cause? So, as I have said, you can understand how Elisha walked up and down in the house. Would he not look around to see if someone had any books that would be damaging to that young boy? Certainly he would, and other things like that, because these are the things that hinder fellowship, that hinder the growth of meetings. Youths are damaged by what they eat; that is, in the moral sense of reading and the like. Then, besides that, the Lord commanded that something should be given her to eat. What is the something? Something surely that is not stale, not something that has been used before, but something that is fresh. She is a girl just raised from the dead and surely we would do the very best for her, and would select what is fresh and good and nourishing, but above all what is spiritual; what would promote spirituality in that child.
Now the third thought I had in mind is in Acts 9. Again, it is a woman. Mary in John 20 was not [p. 424] dead, she was living. She had been morally dead, but now she is living. She has come into touch with Christ. John would say she is living. She belongs to the living. When we come to Dorcas, she was a woman. We often say, Well, she is a woman. But why should we say that? Why should we use the word woman in any sense except the true sense? Dorcas was not only a woman; but, as ordinary people would say, she was a useful woman, a woman making garments for the poor, and how useful these are at the present time, but then she died. She grew sick and died. She lived at Joppa, but she grew sick and died, and the widows and the persons around were no doubt interested, they were concerned; not that they were said to be relatives, but they were in close relation to her clearly, and they sent for Peter. A very great matter that Peter should be sent for, for he was shortly to be sent for to do something very wonderful; that is, to help Cornelius; but now he has been sent for to raise the dead woman. It is another matter altogether, but he is ready to be sent for, and he goes with them. The Lord went with Jairus, and Peter goes with those sent from Joppa, and what he found was that she was dead. She was taken care of too, she was washed, she was in the upper chamber, she was not left carelessly, although dead, she was left with respect. The passage tells us what happened. “And Peter rising up went with them, whom, when arrived, they brought up into the upper chamber; and all the widows stood by him weeping and shewing him the body-coats and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them”. But Peter put them all out. Now, I am pointing this out, because it refers to what has to be put forth from our associations, and our affiliations, if we are to progress spiritually. We are not to make everyone our companions. We are to select our companions. We belong to heaven. We are called [p. 425] by God, called out first, and then called up. We are called of God, partakers of the heavenly calling. That is what we are, and as soon as we lay hold of that fact we begin to look around as to the associations we have been keeping, whether they are suitable, whether they are clean and holy, fit for Christian association, Christian fellowship, and companionship. These are very searching questions and we should all pay attention, especially young people here.
Now in the third case in my address, the third feature of my subject, it is a question of finding out what has to be learned in this woman. She is dead. Well, what about Peter? What can be learned from Peter? See what he did. Peter put them all forth without any discrimination, clearly. That is to say, they were not fit for these surroundings. They would, if left there, only hinder what he had come for to Joppa; and yet they had washed the woman and laid her in the upper chamber, but Peter has these exercises about them, and he prays. He was a praying man. I have already referred to Peter and James and John as gifted men; that is the point as regards them. Peter is an apostle of course, but more than that he is, according to Matthew, the first apostle. There is that fact mentioned, that Peter is first, and clearly there is involved in that the sense of responsibility. The great matter if we have gift at all, or if we have anything from God, is to have a sense of responsibility as to it, and make whatever we can of it in the power that God gives to us, and that power is in the Holy Spirit. There is no other power for the work of God today, and if anybody is attempting to work in the Lord’s service, do not think of it unless you can see that you have the Holy Spirit and that you have learned how to use Him, and that He is free to use you too, and He will be free as you are free to be used. So Peter is a true [p. 426] servant here, for it says in verse 39, “Peter rising up went with them, whom, when arrived, they brought up into the upper chamber; and all the widows stood by him weeping and showing him the body-coats and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them”. All these persons are there. You say they were a fine lot, they are interested people, interested in this woman. They had been before, and had attended to what she needed done for her, and why should we not praise them, why should we not think them most worthy people? Peter did not, and I am in line with Peter. God has given such men as Peter to guide us, and we do well to be guided by them. Peter is an apostle, but he is a servant now, and he kneeled down here. It says in verse 40, “Peter, putting them all out, and kneeling down, prayed. And, turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and, seeing Peter, sat up”. He is worthy to be looked at. Peter had said to a man earlier, “Look on us” not ‘Look on me’, but “Look on us”. He was with John, and he would have John looked at too. He did not want to make much of himself, any more than John. He said “Look on us”, but there is no “us” here. The widows are all put out. They are not worthy of being looked at, even although they may be well-dressed, women of society. In this light they are not worth looking at. Do not think I am rude in saying that, beloved, but they are not. Peter put them all out, that is what he did. But then he wanted Dorcas to look at him, and she did look on him. That is the fact stated that she looked at Peter, and Peter gives her his hand, for he would help. That is the idea, because that is what is needed in the fellowship and the service of God — help. If we can help, do it. Peter could do it. He had been long in the service, and he knew what to do in this case. He knew exactly and he did it. It says “having given her his hand, he raised her up, and having called the saints and the widows, presented her living”.
Now notice, the words “saints and widows” are included here, showing that they were not all widows, meaning people who would be in evidence at such a time as this; they were saints, and that gives the character of the whole matter, that they were saints. We are saints, we are called saints. If there is anyone here tonight who is a believer, but does not know that he is a saint, then I would say he should awake to the fact that he is a saint, and belongs to the saints. They are to be your companions. So that he called the saints, they have the first place here, then the widows, and he presented her living. That was the result. I need not say more; you can see what I have said in a very broken way because there is a real impediment to one’s efforts because of certain conditions; but at the same time the word of God is coming forth and that is enough. We have much to be thankful for if we have power to convey the word of God. It is a question of the word of God, and the priesthood of Christ. We have had it today already. These are the two things that have been before us today, and they are before me now, and they were before Peter. He was a priest himself. He was not only an apostle but a priest, because the idea of a priest is that he prays. He kneeled down and prayed. He knew how to pray. He knew all that is necessary as a true saint of God in the service of Christ. Results are seen here and they are to affect us, and that is why I am stressing this now. I commend the whole matter to you of these three cases so that we may all be concerned as to the promotion of spirituality. There is great need for it, especially for the young people, that we may learn to be spiritual, to think spiritually, to walk spiritually. That is what the young woman did, “for she was twelve years old” and that for may apply to many here tonight. Young men and women are to see whether they are suitable for the fellowship of God’s people, the saints of God, for that is the idea. May God bless the word to us all on these lines.