ASSEMBLY MATERIAL (1)
[p. 427] ASSEMBLY MATERIAL (1)
Acts 16:13 - 34; Acts 17:1 - 4
ANW In suggesting this subject we had in mind the young assemblies at Philippi and Thessalonica and the way the Lord was brought before them in ministry with a view to establishing assembly material in those places.
JT Keeping the thought of assembly material before us will steady our minds. The Spirit of God seems to be particularly concerned about this work at Philippi. “And having passed through Phrygia and the Galatian country, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, having come down to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; and having passed by Mysia they descended to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There was a certain Macedonian man, standing and beseeching him, and saying, Pass over into Macedonia and help us”, Acts 16:6 - 9. And then it says, “immediately we sought to go forth to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to announce to them the glad tidings”. It is very plain that great care was exercised by heaven, that the servants might first go forward to a certain given point, and then in the vision of the Macedonian man, representing the actual need in the section, followed by the apostle’s conclusion that it was of the Lord; the Lord made it very plain that this was a matter of great concern to heaven. This is all to be kept in mind in dealing with the result of this work, what it was to be for God and what it was for God, according to the apostle, what it was for the testimony, and what kinds of persons are mentioned, because they are mentioned with a view of indicating what the material was that was secured at Philippi for divine purposes.
HAS When the Lord was here it was said that He could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief. Now here in the gentile world, heaven sees a place where the message is going to be received.
ANW Would you allow the glad tidings to be preached anywhere without assembly formation as the objective?
JT I think the Scriptures indicate that the assembly is in mind, to take out a people that is set for God.
CAM What you have said conveys to me that God makes marvellous guidance and provisions in view of a certain objective such as this, in the way of guiding His servants, and selecting the material. Is that right?
JT I think so. That is what I think you see in these verses to which I was calling attention. The Holy Spirit, it says, forbade them to speak in a certain place, and then the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go to another place, and then the Macedonian man besought them to come over to Macedonia, and then the conclusion that the Lord had so ordered it. That is very remarkable, and shows what this particular field was. It was like the wise woman, “She considereth a field, and acquireth it”, Proverbs 31:16. She has a certain purpose in mind.
CAM Yes, and this particular city was the first city of that part. Do you not think that is a point to take account of, that it was not just any city?
JT No, it is a particular one. It is called “the first city of that part of Macedonia, a colony”. I think the word ‘colony’ has great significance in view of Europe and the great colonising enterprises there from that day to this, and in view of the use God makes of colonies, for indeed where we are today is a colony, an extension of certain conditions.
Rem This was the first great end reached in the confirmation to Jacob.
JT I think that was in mind, Europe in a general way, the great colonising [p. 429] enterprise.
AFM Would the fact that we have a woman and a man prominently in the chapter before us, suggest the two parts that make up assembly material?
JT You mean Lydia and the jailor? Quite so, the woman leads spiritually, because the apostle goes to her after he is released from prison.
ANW Would this satanic interference only confirm the importance of the move? Was it designed that there should be satanic interference between the securing of the woman and the man?
JT That is what comes out. Women are in mind first of all. They assembled, we are told. That is a word we should notice, too. “And on the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where it was the custom for prayer to be, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had assembled”.
Ques Is there a suggestion, one being a woman of Asia and the other a man of Macedonia, that the middle wall of partition no longer existed, diverse elements being merged?
JT Quite so.
CAM Would it suggest conquest? I mean that God is going to take this citadel. The fact that it was a woman must have been a severe blow to Satan, do you not think, for that is where he made his first inroad?
JT Yes, you mean the woman was in the transgression. This is a great triumph, and not in an ordinary person, because Lydia is a very extraordinary person. She is a woman of affairs, and that also has its place in Europe, a great commercial part.
JS She was from the city of Thyatira, was she not? It is remarkable that there should have been such a grouping together — “certain women”. Was there not a prior work of God in the women?
JT Lydia is a remarkable type of soil. I think what is brought to light is soil. The idea of a field and of acquiring a field runs through Scripture. Isaac said that the smell of Jacob was as the smell of a field [p. 430] which Jehovah hath blessed. The woman in Proverbs, who represents the assembly, acquires a field, and uses it, and sees that it is fruitful for her purpose. I believe what is in mind here is the soil and the field for the purpose in mind.
CAM How are you referring to the river?
JT That is part of it. All that is mentioned has to be taken into account, the colony and the fact that Lydia was from Thyatira. The colony implied that it was a direct and integral part of the system of Rome.
Rem Would a seller of purple suggest bringing in the idea of glory?
JT I think the thought would be what Europe was or would be, but then the purple also suggests, perhaps, the suffering that would accompany the testimony here. The colonies had a city status. They were an integral part of the city of Rome. The same law that governed Rome governed the colonies, and the Roman colonies had a peculiar relation to the centre, so that it was Roman territory in an exceptional way, and God has allowed that.
JS It was the design of heaven to acquire this field. It would appear as though two fields had been passed by, Asia and Bithynia.
JT That is what we should see; the facts mentioned by the Spirit are for our consideration so that we might see what is in mind, and it is possible to apply the principle at the present time as to assembly material.
JS It is not simply any field, but that which the Spirit of God indicates.
JT I think so. The idea of the gospel going into all the world is promiscuous, but it is general. But when you come to the working out of it, there is another law that interferes, and that is the levitical law, or the principle that the labourers are under the direct ordering of heaven and are to be guided accordingly; that is, heaven selects its own field or fields for a specific purpose.
[p. 431] Ques Would this suggest an advance on what had been done? The Spirit of God sent Philip down to the Ethiopian individual, and Peter to Cornelius. It was the Spirit in each case, and is this an advance, which has in view the assembly as its objective?
JT I think that confirms what we are saying, that heaven selects its own territory, and the levitical principle requires that the workmen are to understand that it is the field of Boaz, and they are to understand that Ruth is not to be in another field. We are to know what heaven is doing and what kind of material is in mind.
RWS Who is this Macedonian that stands and beseeches and says, “Come over into Macedonia, and help us”? What does he represent?
JT He represents, I think, the West, not the West of Alexander or his father Philip. It is their territory. These Macedonians are men that stand out in the history of the world as types. They were great aggressive men, conquerors, especially Alexander. He did not ask for help from Asia; he went and took Asia. Well, now, this man is not like that. He needs help. The world leaders do not need help; they are able to command and do their part. This man is helpless. He is a Western man, but a Western man as the subject of the work of God.
JS Typical of christendom, I suppose.
JT Just so. He needs help — “Come over into Macedonia”. That is a territory and field.
JS The general bearing of the gospel would be that God would have all men to be saved.
JT That is the general thought, but then there is another law. That is the levitical law that requires that the services of the levites are carried on with a view of results and that requires certain territories and certain fields. That is what is in mind here. You are not to go there, and then there is a positive call here, so it is perfectly plain that the Lord has called us, says the apostle.
JS [p. 432] Would it be in keeping with the movements of the testimony in the book of Numbers?
JT The levites are under control and direction. The levite is not a free lance at all. There is nothing further away from the levitical thought than the idea of being an independent man who does as he pleases.
FHL The fact that he saw the man showed that the need was severe.
JT The word ought to be taken up in the abstract, what man is. The man feels his need and his helplessness. Well, God has begun a work in that man. We were speaking the other day about the end of Mark 14. It says Peter wept. The last word in the chapter is ‘wept’, in such a scene as is described. The Lord is a prisoner, and the chief priests and the scribes and the whole Sanhedrim took counsel to deliver the Lord Jesus over to Pilate. Pilate knew that they did it for envy and that He was innocent. He represents the element that knows right and wrong, but under the power of Satan, he lets the right go; he delivers the Lord up to be crucified. Well there is just one element in that whole scene around the Lord that was morally right and that was Peter’s weeping. There is something in this man — “Come over into Macedonia, and help us”. See to whom he is speaking. God is working in that man.
ANW It would not be too much to say that he is condensing the prayers of this woman, would it?
JT Quite so.
ANW It would be the result of those prayers, do you not think?
JT Quite so. There may have been long prayers made in that place where it was the custom for prayer to be, but this man condenses them. I suppose he is a good illustration of assembly material in the prayer meeting.
AFM I was going to ask whether the thought of Philippi being the open door into Europe, suggests [p. 433] that in that continent God was going to get the best out of it for His assembly — the best material.
JT That is what is in mind. The thought is a field being required, a field suitable for a certain purpose.
WB-w Does that field refer to Matthew 13 where the parable suggests that he sold all that He had and bought the field for the treasure? Is it in mind to take the treasure out of the field?
JT Quite so. There you have the whole thought. The field is the world. A man may buy an enormous tract of land, but with different purposes in view. If he is a good farmer, he will know what kind of land is suitable for each crop. I think that is the way it should be taken up. God has scattered persons abroad over the whole world, but He has carefully fenced them in, and He knows where they are and what is suitable for this and for that. I believe Jacob is in mind for the assembly.
CAM Referring to the fact that God gets the best, I would like to ask about Lydia. She seems to be an indication of that. I suppose she was really a very prosperous kind of woman. She had her business and had belonged to Thyatira, but where God wanted her was in Philippi. I mean to say, the thing just served the purpose.
JT I think that is right. Another thing is that she is a woman of affairs. She is a seller; she is not called a merchantess.
Ques Would she represent a seeking soul? She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart so when Paul comes along, she is ready.
JT I think she represents the field. She is the kind of woman that the Lord could do things with. We have very hard soil in America here. How many could you get like this? The Lord could open the heart of a woman to listen to the greatest things. That is what the Spirit of God was saying through Paul, the very greatest things that could be said. The Lord is free to [p. 434] take up this woman to listen and attend. She was a woman of affairs who knew how to attend to her business, and she is going to attend to this now and give up her business for the moment.
Ques Have you any thought why at the outset the assembly material was in Asia but that has almost entirely disappeared and the assembly work now is almost entirely in Europe?
JT I have often thought of it. It is a colonial thought, the great principle of expansion or extension. God selected Europe for the assembly. Sometimes we hear of parts of Europe where the testimony used to be, but is not now. It is terrible to think of that, Greece and Macedonia and Egypt and all that territory including Palestine and Syria. How pathetic it is! The Lord has not forgotten one meeting that used to be in those places, and we ought to think of these things, for the Lord feels it. Well now this colonial principle has opened up America and Australia and New Zealand and many other places, and God is working in those places. That is what we should see.
TH When our children ask us as to the saints — and there are very few that are real Americans — we would have to refer them to what has been extended.
JT That is right. It is what has been extended. The fact that we were born in England, does not matter. We are here. It is a colonial thought.
Rem So the work of God in England began colonially from Rome. The gospel was brought from Rome through Augustine and others. That is the same thought as you are expressing.
RWS It is a bit of divine territory and Lydia waits to hear Paul. It is time for her to hear Paul speak, is it not?
JT Quite so, to attend to the things. I think the allusion is to the kind of person she was.
AFM Seed for soil.
JT She was capable of receiving the greatest seed that could be sown, Paul’s ministry, the best kind of seed that could be sown.
CAM The fact that she had given her ear to Paul seems to be a special blow to the enemy, the ear of the woman having been devoted to other things at the outset.
JT Then the enemy begins with this girl, the spirit of Python. I think if we want assembly material, we cannot consider a more remarkable example than Lydia.
FHL You were speaking of assembly material here in America and how difficult it is to find it. The material in this instance was actually brought to light outside the city.
JT Quite so. You can understand how Paul and Silas would say to themselves, What a remarkable correspondence there is here with what we know; the Lord suffered without the camp and these dear people are assembling outside the gate. There is that thought in it, I think.
JS Do you consider all this the development of Japheth?
JT Yes; he is scattered or enlarged; that is what his name signifies. God had that in mind in what has come about in Europe.
WB-w Is there not some thought in Lydia having a house in Philippi? Although she was of Thyatira, she was not a guest at a hotel.
JT No doubt the house would be for the testimony. There is a group of things here that we have often dwelt upon but perhaps the Lord would enlarge them in our minds, the house of the christian and the household. That comes out in this chapter. The house is a suggestion of hospitality, which is a great matter in the promotion of the Lord’s interests; moreover, she did not ask any one into it until her household was baptised. That is beautiful, I think. I do not think any one with an unbaptised house should ask people into it.
Rem She said, “If ye have judged me to be faithful”.
JT That showed that she was baptised and her house.
CAM I suppose it makes it a clean place, in that way.
JT It does. The place here is manifestly a clean place.
NMacC An evangelistic spirit would not wait for a man to indicate that he needed help.
JT No; of course the servant gets his guidance from the Lord. I think we ought to see that this section gives that idea of guidance from the Lord. There are some meetings that never invite anybody. They say, if a brother is guided by the Lord, he will come to us, but then an invitation encourages them to go, and I think this is the principle: “Come over into Macedonia, and help us”.
ANW He is not isolated. It says, ‘We came to the conclusion’ and ‘we went’. He had somebody with him; he is not alone.
JT It is a mark of this section that the apostle has co-workers. Is that not the thought? He has co-workers. It would mean not only that you serve, but that you have sympathy in your service; you feel you are not acting alone; you are supported in your service. I think that is the support that comes out here.
ANW Luke was evidently with him, but Lydia attends to Paul.
JT She knew the man that had the light of God. In chapter 14, the lame man heard Paul speak. Hundreds had heard him, but the Spirit says that this man heard him. Really that man discerned something in Paul that he had not seen and heard in any one else.
AD I was going to ask about Philip. He had just one person in mind. He was sent down to the desert. Would you make a difference between him going there and Paul going over in answer to “Come over into Macedonia, and help us”?
JT I think the idea here is that the Macedonian man represents a class or subdivision of the rest. “Us” is a wide thought spiritually. “Come over into Macedonia, and help us”: that is a big thought.
WB-w He had in mind more than the colony.
JT The eunuch was a lone man. It does not say it was a voice from Abyssinia or Ethiopia. It is not a question of representing Ethiopia. I do not believe God had intended Ethiopia as a special field. He intended Europe as a special field, and the Macedonian man, I think, represents that.
Ques Would you agree that the Ethiopian might serve to illustrate the grace of God that brings salvation to all men that believe?
JT He shows that God is no respecter of persons, and he is a typical one taken up there. We are told who he was, his office, and all that. He is not a man looking for help in that sense. He is reading the Scriptures and is taken up as a lone person and individual.
WB-w He went on his way rejoicing. We hear not a word of his forming an assembly in Ethiopia.
JT No, we do not, nor does he give us light as to what was formed in the easterly section of the world in apostolic times.
RWS We do not look for so much in the States as in England and elsewhere.
JT The field here is evidently not so fertile in the mind of heaven. I think we ought to take that into account. If we see the actual facts of the case we know what to ask God about.
AFM Is there anything defective in the country itself that bears on the law of progress in the testimony, the fact that its whole make-up is in the spirit of independency in a way, instead of helping one another?
JS While the light of God is at the present moment here, it is the result of the overflow from Europe. This is directly in keeping with what we have before us and the thought with regard to [p. 438] Japheth.
JT I think so. There are fields, and heaven makes its own selection.
Rem For instance, Australia and New Zealand are fields, but they are more productive in a sense than this country. It is wide in its hospitality and generous in that way, but it is founded on independency. In Australia and New Zealand there is much greater scope for the work of God.
JT Yes, quite so; where any people are marked by the word ‘independence’ or any sect marked by the word ‘protest’ it is not an advantage.
WB-w Do you think at the time of the declaration of independence they broke away from the idea of a colony? Would that have anything to do with it?
JT No doubt; they formed a new entity.
TH What about being in the chief city? Would you not like to be in a place to which such a man would go?.
JT Just so. God is not approaching this by the back door. He was going in the front, and God got the best out of it. That is the divine way; as the Lord says to Moses of Pharaoh, ‘Stand in front of him’. What you get in chapter 17 is the rabble are against the truth and the chief women are for it. I believe that one weakness lately is that the material is largely drawn from what is called ‘the lower classes’. I think God intends the rich and the poor. You get here a merchantess — a seller of purple — and a jailor. These are the two that stand out. When we come to the next section, Thessalonians, it was changed. The chief city of Thessalonica was a greater city than Philippi. So we get the chief women not a few, and the rabble are against the truth. Satan can use the rabble. There is no material of much value from it. They are a worthless kind of people that stand around the market place; they do nothing. They are alluded to in the next chapter. They do not work; they are busy-bodies. Well, here they are against the truth; whereas the chief women — and [p. 439] we get them again in Berea, persons of the better class — support the truth. God is making his own selection, His own material; He knows what He wants. What we have before us brings out the field and the material that God will have for special purposes.
CAM The field contributes to the seed.
JT Yes; the field includes the seed. It is the kind of place where God’s ordering is fruitful.
CAM Referring to this matter of important cities, in the mercy of God they are scattered over England and the States and the colonies as a kind of cities of refuge that God has graciously provided. The reason I mention it is to emphasise what you were expressing about the importance of being in the right place. God has got some definite thoughts in His mind about each locality.
JT He has; what is in a place and what material is needed for the place. If there is to be anything in the way of an assembly, you have got to think of the place and what is needed for the place. Take Corinth where there was a very different state of things from what we are reading about here. What was needed there? It is evident that the material that was secured, proved to be very, very difficult to handle. The assembly at Corinth was not much more than eighteen months or twenty months old when the first epistle was written. We must bear that in mind, but the conditions found there in that very time after they were converted were distressing. We might say, There never should have been a meeting in Corinth, but then that will not do. There was an assembly at Corinth, and in spite of the awful things that were there, there must have been some wonderful material.
ANW Then again there was Athens. Will you express your judgment as to where the converts in Athens stood with regard to assembly material, where would you place them? Apparently there was no assembly [p. 440] there.
JT You cannot say. It does not appear that there was any guidance there at all. The apostle is apparently not ready to do anything until his co-workers, Timothy and Silas, come. He is waiting until they come. That is to remind us that in God’s work we need sympathy and those who understand. He sends a message back and says, ‘Tell them to hurry down’, and while he is waiting for them, he took account of what was at Athens. That was what led to what he said, but the real object was Corinth. Athens was just an incident and the results are negligible because they are not pursued by the Spirit; God tells Paul what the Spirit of God has in mind for Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, and so the apostle will not do anything until he has these two brothers, Timothy and Silas.
JS Was Athens solely man’s wisdom?
JT It would seem as though God did not require that field at all. It did not seem as though it were a field at all.
ANW What do you suppose the converts did when the apostle went?
JT The fact is they were left; we just have to leave it at that; there was not much there to follow up.
CAM We cannot make God take an interest in a place just because we want Him to.
ANW They clung to Paul.
JT They clung to Paul, but there was no assembly formation there.
RWS Do you think they went over and broke bread at Corinth?
JT I would not say that, but that was what they would have to do.
Ques Do we not discern the principle that a small place may be fruitful in assembly material and a large city may be passed by? We cannot understand it; we can only accept it.
JT It is an allusion to [p. 441] sovereignty.
NMacC There is not much for God in this great country. We have the desire that there should be.
JT Just so. It is remarkable how many cities there are in which God is not operating. What we are saying now is of the first importance as regards the work of God and the formation of assemblies. We must recognise sovereign movement in it.
Ques Would the chief women indicate that God is the chief object of affection here now in the assembly?
JT Well, quite so. It was brought out in the selection God made in Thessalonica, the chief women not a few. They had already come under His influence; they were workers.
AFM In verse 5 the Jews had been stirred to jealousy and had taken to themselves certain wicked men of the lowest rabble, as if the work of God did not affect them at all. You said something about that earlier.
JT They lend themselves to the enemy. He opposes.
Rem I suppose there is no denying the fact that communism and the like comes from that class, so that in sovereignty it looks as though God puts a restraining influence on them. You have to leave much to the sovereignty of God, do you not?
JT You do. I think God recognises law and order. I have no doubt the Roman Empire was used of God to prepare the way and this colony was part of the Roman system. We are enjoined to pray for the authorities. I believe the legions laid the way for the gospel.
CAM It is remarkable but there is nothing like Roman law.
JT This rabble would represent persons that were irresponsible, worthless.
WB-w In modern evangelisation, the evangelists usually go to the slums to preach. Is that not the principle in the world today? They think they get more [p. 442] results there. Do you think we should move more among the highest class?
JT Evangelisation is hardly the leading thought now. I believe the work of the Lord is largely the perfecting of the saints. Others have begun it. The lowest rabble here must not be identified with the poor. The Lord says, “to the poor the gospel is preached”, Luke 7:22. The poor are not necessarily lawless people. That is a different idea, and God takes account of the poor. Paul said he always remembered the poor. The lowest rabble is another matter. It represents the element from whence comes communism, dissatisfied people and worthless people.
RWS Is there a suggestion in Athens that there are just individuals, but in Philippi there are households — not only individuals but households?
JT I think the household idea is of prime importance. It is a great feature in chapter 16 as the testimony comes into Europe. The household will not give dissatisfaction. The rabble will not come from there, that is, from where there is affection and love.
WB-w Is it specially important for getting assembly material?
JT I think law and order are of importance in that way. The household augments that, adding affection and that sort of thing.
RAL What are the chief requisites for assembly material?
JT You see it here. Lydia has a heart; she is not a gossiper; she is a business woman and a seller of purple; yet she is such a person as can attend to the Lord’s things. There is something there that gives the Lord right of way in her soul.
Rem She worshipped God, it says.
JT Quite so; I think she represents excellent assembly material, the very best you can get.
JS Opening her heart would give the Lord the right of way in her household, would [p. 443] it not?
JT That is it; first her heart and then her house. She says, “If ye”, putting the matter on the apostles, “have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”.
WB-w Do you think in being baptised she attended to the things of Peter; now she has the assembly line of Paul?
JT The Lord had that in mind, but He opened her heart for that very purpose.
JTJr It says of the Jews that they and certain men of the lowest rabble beset the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. Would not the enemy act on these lines today to deprive the assembly of right material?
ANW I thought it was remarkable that Saul had been doing this kind of work, going into houses.
JT That is very interesting. What Paul found in Jerusalem when he went into the houses! How he would recall what these houses were! These men of whom it is said, “ye have condemned, ye have killed the just; he does not resist you”, James 5:6. That is what Paul found, and when he went into Lydia’s house, what restfulness there would be!
ANW It is striking how the term “assembly” is used precisely in connection with the matter spoken of. It was the assembly, yet he went into houses dragging out men and women.
JT In the jailor’s house, it is noticeable that the jailor brought Paul and Silas into his house, and laid the table; what beautiful touches these were, the washing of the stripes and the laying of the table! I think the allusion is to what is seemly amongst christians. The rabble is the opposite of this, where there is no sense of decency or order; whereas these things should be found in a believer’s house.
NMacC We have been in our locality for two or three years and there has not been much addition. We are apt to have thoughts about that as to the place. Are we just right in being here?
[p. 444] JT I believe there is a certain answer in this section. There were these women there and Lydia’s heart is opened, but still we have many days in verse 18. In verse 17 it says the woman with the spirit of Python followed Paul, and this she did many days. I think your question would fit in here. Why should there be this “many”? Here are Paul and Luke and Silas and Timothy and these women that have been praying for a long time. What is the outcome of it all? Here we are and we are going to prayer, and this woman meets us. There is a hard state of things; and she did this for many days. We do not know how many.
Ques Would you think we had better clear out, we have been here for three years with no additions?
JT I was going to remark that it is a question as to whether there is anything for God in what there is there. You do not need to look for numbers if there is quality or something there for God week by week. It is a great matter. It is like a stronghold held for Christ.
Rem One would suggest for the comfort of our brother that one can think of places that have gone for many years, and then all of a sudden the Lord has begun a work there and results have come about. Is it not a question of being cast on the Lord for intelligence in this matter?
JT How much there is to be wrought in us! Are we equal to any work of God in a place? It may be that we need to be wrought in ourselves. When we feel the thing before God, prayer goes up to God in deep feeling. There may be something in that.
HAS The scripture tells us that in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
JT We have to remember that our times are difficult times, and we have to accept that.