ACTIVITY IN CHRISTIANITY
[p. 326] ACTIVITY IN CHRISTIANITY
Acts 2:17,18; Acts 3:7-9; Acts 3:11; Acts 16:14; Acts 21: 8,9
The word this evening has in mind that, as having received the Spirit severally and as of the assembly, we should be engaged in doing what our hands find to do, but that this should be carried on in the power of the anointing; for, however patient God is with us in our services as believers in Christ, making allowances for our ignorance, He in time would look for the anointing. So the Spirit of God in Peter, the Spirit having just come, calls attention to this passage from the book of Joel which shows that the Spirit would employ every believer. Most believers are not available to Him, but He would employ every one and support every one; so the list of persons in mind is, Your sons and your daughters, your young men and your elders, My bondmen and My bondwomen. “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall dream with dreams; yea, even upon my bondmen and upon my bondwomen in those days will I pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy”, in each case what is in mind is being done. That is what is in mind; the Spirit of God, in coming, had all this in mind. He would deplore the thought that has become current of speaking of Him in an abstract way, and people assuming to have the Spirit and doing nothing.
Now my thought is to work out, from these verses, the form the work of God took as seen in this book that has become known by the term, the Acts, or the Acts of the Apostles; but the Acts — leaving open who the persons are. There are such things as actions in christianity, but actions under control, for the spirit of control runs through the book, and it [p. 327] has in mind the formation of the tabernacle, nothing less than that. Many actors, and actresses too, in the book have no part at all in the great work in mind; the work in mind contemplates the Spirit as in believers and actuating them to do what is to be done and to do it well, that is, to do it by the Spirit. And so, as I was saying, these verses contemplate sons and daughters, meaning that the families of believers are in mind for these services; they prophesy. You may say, We do not see anything like that now. Well, there is something amiss if we do not, and a sure way of overcoming what is amiss is accepting that it exists, and that it is not a question of the Spirit’s fault, but ours. The book furnishes us with illustrations of daughters prophesying, as I have just read; it does not say Philip’s daughters were prophetesses, but that they prophesied; they did the thing. And then we read, “Your young men shall see visions”. You say, I have never met anybody who had. There is something amiss. Why should the Holy Spirit not cause us to see things? It is no doubt that our eyes are not trained in the direction in which He would cause us to see visions. We are told to set our minds on things above, and if our eyes are in the right direction we shall see something. One said, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen”, 2 Corinthians 4:18. There are wonderful things to be seen in the sense of what is invisible to the natural eye. Would the Holy Spirit not be wholly with me had I in mind to see something? And then we are told that “your old men shall dream dreams”. Of course old men are apt to dream, and old sisters too, but the real meaning is they dream with dreams, that is, the thing has a compact form; it is a finished thing: they dream with dreams, that is the real thing, the outcome of the Spirit. Now I may be told that I cannot point to the concrete, that these things are all [p. 328] past or else future. No doubt the Spirit of God has in mind in Joel to call attention to what is yet future in the coming day, but then Peter brought it in. Why should we be deprived of this promise? for it is a promise; every promise has some bearing upon us. So that if one, as an old man, an old brother, lays his head on his pillow in the sense of being possessed by the Holy Spirit, not a mere theoretic matter, but active; if, during his long years in the path he has been accustomed to rely on the Spirit, the Spirit will not fail him when his natural powers are waning, when indeed he scarcely needs any natural power; he will dream, the real thing, with dreams, and he will awake refreshed.
Well now, these remarks will enable me to proceed to show how in the other books of the Scripture, the truth presented in these verses is verified, and God takes up unlikely people; that is, unlikely from man’s point of view. The selections in the Acts are very striking in that sense, God taking His own way, and you will observe sisters are included. They elect themselves too much out of things and the brothers will have it so; sometimes they love to have it so, but that ought not to be so. The Spirit of God includes the sisters in striking manner: sons and daughters and maidens, besides the young men and the elders, are all included. Why then should the matter not be taken up, even though we may say we have not experienced the thing? We say that too lightly — but why? The enemy would be very well pleased, and is very well pleased, to have us leave it at that; that is the enemy’s way, to get us to leave it at that, whereas the Spirit’s way is to arouse us to things that the Scriptures require. So God sets about to take up unlikely persons; He has in mind the formation of a tabernacle. The main point in the book, the outline, is to have the tabernacle, the parts, all in their places and functioning. So, to take the book of Exodus as [p. 329] illustrative, the enemy, the prince of this world, typified by the king of Egypt, says, Save all the females alive. Why did he say that? But he says in effect, Be sure not to let a male live. In his mind Satan is always short, you know, always behind; he has ten horns instead of twelve. Pharaoh stresses, Save them alive, not simply, Save them, but, Save them alive, they will help me, that is his thought, I can use them. From the standpoint of the formation of the race, as God made it, they are the most easily influenced, for the word ‘man’ covers male and female, as used by the Spirit. They are the most easily influenced; Satan knew that well about the woman, and of course Satan was operative in Pharaoh; and Pharaoh had in his mind, That is the side of the race I can influence so as to use them to build up my world, as if God could not use them! And, dear brethren, is it not sometimes implied that God does not use them in our meetings? Is it not implied by themselves? — they elect themselves out of things. It is the devil. “Every daughter”, Exodus 1:22. Pharaoh said; but then God says, I can use the females, and I can use them to preserve the males too. That is the thought, to bring in Christ as the book of Revelation shows. But that in truth is the great victory: the seed of the woman is to bruise the serpent’s head, and the seed is Christ, the male Son, a remarkable phrase; God saying, The very thing that Satan will destroy is brought in by the woman. Why then did he preserve the women? It is his shortness of vision. And so we find in Exodus, in the first chapter and in the early part of the second, five women employed by God in the salvation of the males, three of them used to save one male, and there are two midwives. Now we come to hospital nurses, for we are accustomed to that thought, why not apply it amongst the brethren? God made them houses; you may be sure there was some suggestion [p. 330] of the tabernacle in those houses, so that we have these two women honoured in a striking manner. One would like to visit one of their houses; the architecture was of God, different from that of Egypt. There is not a relic of those houses in Egypt, I am sure, I never heard even a suggestion of an excavator or those seeking ancient things finding the foundation of one of those houses: they belonged to another world. These women belonged to another world, they belonged to a world in which women save men. Why not take that on? Here are your sons and your daughters and your maidens, Jehovah says. How remarkable these two women were; they concealed from the enemy the real process, but the result was there. And so, in chapter 2, we have Moses’ mother, Moses’ sister and Pharaoh’s own daughter actively engaged in saving one man, and that, we may say, the greatest man in the Old Testament. That is God’s way, Satan’s short-sightedness makes room for God; “The weakness of God is stronger than men”, 1 Corinthians 1:25 to use the word of the apostle to the Corinthians. He carries on His work but He carries it on through selected vessels. Do we dare to elect ourselves, to eliminate ourselves, from this, brother or sister? He names besides the old brothers, old men, dreaming with real dreams. You may be sure the enemy is defeated in every way in these things, in these activities, by the Spirit of God through every class amongst the brethren, every age and state, and station in life too, for it is bondmen and bondwomen.
Well now, the material is drawn out of the world on these lines, so that we have three thousand at once. No doubt the history of those three thousand would fill a book, but the Spirit of God passes over the details, and He takes up one man by himself to set out what He has in mind, the skill of His way. Think of what we are brought into, dear brethren, the [p. 331] divine skill in the field of operations, and these things being the operations, that is, prophecy by the young people, young men and young women, servants and handmaidens, and seeing visions and dreaming with dreams; all these things severally and together mean the entire dislocation of the enemy’s activities against us. What can cope with these things! One of the servants of the king of Syria said, There is a prophet in Israel who will tell you what you are thinking about. What can they do about that? He knows what you are thinking about, what you say in your bedchamber. As I said before, you may say these things are all past, but why should they be past? They are not past; that is the enemy saying that. If an old brother ceases to preach and to teach, he can dream. How useful is a dream by the Holy Spirit!
So the first one mentioned specifically is the lame man. He is active in life and the activity shows he is different from what he was, and different because of the work of God, not because of any schooling in this world, but because of the work of God: he is walking and leaping and praising God. Well, you cannot say that is past. Thank God it is not, it is the thing that God is stressing at the present time, walking and leaping and praising God and entering into the temple in that attitude. What liveliness, what cheer, what stimulation, in such a person! And then he held Peter and John; that is the testimony, so that the work of God is there, it cannot be denied, in this man. It would take me a long time, much longer than is available now, to go over the book of Acts, but it is a very fine enquiry to go through the book of Acts and note the persons the Spirit of God selects to fill out the divine thought. We have just one here and one there amid myriads, so that we may drink in the divine idea in the work of God. I have read two scriptures as to women, but there are many others one could have read; but [p. 332] you take men such as Stephen, such as Philip, such as Saul, and many others; and then Lydia, not forgetting Rhoda; we often speak of Rhoda, she was available for something. But Lydia suits my purpose, because she is an active woman already; she was not one of those sisters, or women, who would say, I have no time; she was a woman of affairs, a merchant. She had time for prayer, and the Spirit of God tells us that the Lord opened that woman’s heart. When it happened we are not told. In the quiet of the night perhaps, or maybe when she was making a sale of purple, for she was a seller; whenever it happened, it happened, dear brethren, the Lord opened her heart; the Lord did it, He had access to it. She is not presented to us as a convert, as we say, who had not the truth before; she evidently had, she is a worshipper, the Lord had access to her heart. What an attitude of soul for the sisters, instead of being occupied with so many trifling things, foolish things too, for the heart to be accessible to Christ. And think of the Lord’s thought about this woman; it is a calculated matter, that is, He operates in relation to the testimony He presents, whatever form it may take at any time, and this is a heart matter, it is not a conscience matter with her, it is a heart matter; the Lord had, I am sure, consideration about this matter. It was a peculiarly pleasant operation on His part: the heart was accessible and He operated on it, and He operated on it for one thing, that she might get the very best there was. Think of the shop windows (not that I am speaking against them) and such like wretched things that occupy us. The Lord’s thought is that we are to get the best there is, and when I speak of this on the divine side, how much is in it! And she was ready for it, the Lord made her ready for it. She had been going on with prayer, but the Lord says, in effect, Lydia, I want you to get the very best that [p. 333] there is at the present time. Peter had been working and now Paul had come; no doubt she had not yet realised how great the man was who had come to Philippi; the Lord would give her to understand that a greater than Solomon was there. How great the position was, the presence of Paul in Philippi, and He says, Lydia, you must get all he has to give, and you must attend to the thing too, because the word would imply that it needed attention, the mystery in which things are hidden. Paul had prayed for people, he had combated for people, he had agonised for people that they might get the truth he had; and he said, I want you to know all about it, too; he said that in Ephesians. He said to Lydia, as it were, I am ready to spend all the time necessary in your case. All could see that which had come about in that sister; she would prick up her ears when Paul was speaking. She would like to hear Luke; he was there, Silas was there. They would all speak well, no doubt, but as soon as Paul spoke, she would listen to that. I know people who almost turn a deaf ear to the truth of the mystery, the heavenly calling, but they spend long enough in speaking of one convert in China; he is more important if in China than in England, they think. But Lydia would not be like that. The Lord had had to say to her: He opened her heart, for He had access to it, and He caused her to attend to the things spoken by Paul. That is what is needed, dear brethren, the heavenly calling, the mystery, would stand out at the present time. There is the mystery of iniquity; one might almost say it is no longer a mystery. What will meet the mystery of iniquity? The mystery of God; and the Lord is ready to open our hearts to attend to what Paul has to say, which is now available to us to be understood by the power of the Spirit. That is what is needed. We shall not get through to the end in victory unless we understand the mystery.
[p. 334] The great burden of Colossians and Ephesians is that the saints should understand the mystery of God in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So I believe he has reached the highest point in Philippians; Paul left Philippi, as we often say, on the highest note: he and his companion, Silas, went to Lydia; Paul would be refreshed. Let her talk to us, he would say of such. What will she tell us about? Oh, she had a meat-offering, she would have something heaving up in her heart, for that is the idea. How Paul would love to hear such things, and Silas too. No doubt she would ask them about their experiences in the prison; what a subject, what had happened there would be. It was a time of doing things; the jailor, of course, did his wicked part, but he was changed; God converted him. But then these men, Paul and Silas, had their prayer meeting and their praise meeting and their gospel meeting in the prison; they were doing things. They could easily have said, What can we do now? They had their feet fast in the stocks, but they had all these meetings there, in the principle of it, and Lydia would be delighted to hear all these things, and how delightful it would be to these two men to hear what she had to say. God was working in her house. The jailor, of course, became a brother, but who were the others? “They came to Lydia; and having seen the brethren, they exhorted them and went away”. Acts 16:40. It was a scene of holy activity and formation; activity is nothing without formation. Of course, Lydia was one of them, others in her house too, but now the great divine thought is reached in Philippi, the brethren were there: Paul went out and left the place having seen Lydia and the brethren.
The last scripture is read just to touch on the idea of doing. We entered “into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was of the seven”. The brethren had rich thoughts in those days, they had themes,
[p. 335] designations, that were full of spiritual richness — the seven. I would like to know these seven men, this man Philip was one of them, and he had four daughters. Then there were the five hundred, they lived on and on: Paul said, “The most remain until now, but some also have fallen asleep”, 1 Corinthians 15:6. What assets they were in this world! — five hundred to whom Jesus appeared as risen from amongst the dead. But this is one of the seven and he is the evangelist. These words have richness in them, and the Spirit of God uses them as Luke uses them. “We came to Caesarea; and entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was of the seven, we abode with him”. Apparently there was no thought of going to hotels in those days if there were brethren in the town. Why should we? Why should houses not be opened for such men, representative of God? And then we are told that “this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied”. Well, I say, I do not understand. Acknowledge it then, tell, God you do not understand it, and tell him there are sisters in your meeting and ask Him why they do not prophesy. You will get help on those lines. God has never forgotten these things; they are living to Him as they were in that day, no change with Him, no change in the Spirit of God; they have come down to us through Him and they are here today. There are so many things that are a dead letter to us — I admit it, I have not seen much of this. But I do see that God is looking for acknowledgment, looking for honest men and women. Why are things different from what they used to be? They “prophesied”, that is, they did the thing. It does not say Paul and his company listened to them; I should not deny that they did; Paul would listen to them. Do not misunderstand me, dear brethren. I am not at all suggesting that sisters should stand up in a meeting and prophesy — other scriptures forbid that — but this [p. 336] scripture says there were such things as women who prophesied, and there were four of them. It would enrich the house; it made it a unique house, and with all that distinction, Philip the evangelist and the four virgin daughters who prophesied, they are hospitable; these women would do their best for visitors, I am sure.
That is all. I do not wish to prolong the word, but just to bring forward these facts that we might have them in our hearts. If they humble us and lead us to be little in our own thoughts, it is something. Every one of us is, in the mind of God, to be doing something in relation to the testimony, and to be under the spirit of control so that all that one does is contributory to the one tabernacle into which the glory entered where God resides, the very residence of God Himself by the Spirit.