SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION FOR PART IN THE ASSEMBLY (4)
[p. 216] SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION FOR PART IN THE ASSEMBLY (4)
Acts 2:1 - 4; Acts 2:42 - 47; Acts 4: 23 - 37
JT The subject in view is discernment of the features of the assembly. It began with certain of those who loved the Lord, as seen in the end of Luke 23 and the beginning of chapter 24. They were regulated by the commandments; but were wanting in faith and intelligence as to actual facts existent — that is to say, that the Lord was risen. We are seeing how the Lord brings them, step by step, into the assembly, that they might discern Him there opening their understandings; how He leads them to a point, as far as to Bethany, and how they are in the temple as a testimony on God’s part to the Jews. Then in view of the assembly formally presented in Acts, it is stated that the Lord assembled with them; and further we get how He was taken up from them. They returned to Jerusalem, but “to the upper chamber where were staying both Peter, and John”, and the rest, with the women (Acts 1: 13). Then Peter stood up in their midst and conveyed the light governing the position.
All these facts have to do with the Lord’s own handiwork while here, including the “forty days”, always having the assembly in mind. What is before us now, in these passages, is the thought of the assembly actually formed by the descent of the Spirit; and what marked it at the outset, so that we might have a right conception of the Pentecostal assembly. If the Lord permit, we might later consider the assembly as formed under the ministry of Paul, and how it became the vessel of divine service and praise. The intent throughout is that we might learn to be spiritual, and to apprehend the assembly in its spiritual features so as to be in accord with it, and have part in it intelligently.
The finishing touches of the Lord’s handiwork are seen in the end of chapter 1, and His gracious care as risen, during the forty days of His sojourn before the Spirit came down, leading on to the spiritual side of the truth. There is the thought first of His assembling with them, and then what marked them in the upper room. In connection with the appointment of another apostle it was thought necessary that he should be one who had assembled with them during the time the Lord came in and out among them from the outset, until He was received up. The assembly was thus in mind even before the Spirit came down.
FJF It was essential that the one chosen should have initial assembly experience.
JT Yes, that seems to have been in mind, showing how assembly features had taken form before the Spirit came down. The two appointed had had experience of assembling, and had missed nothing of the spiritual touch in the Lord’s example in coming and going, from the baptism of John. There Jesus appeared publicly and heaven owned Him. What a wonderful day when the Spirit came down in bodily form upon Him at the Jordan! From that time onwards there was the idea of the Lord’s assembling with them, and of His coming in and going out, so it was a learning time. The allusion here to the baptism of John is to the beginning of Christ’s ministry. When His way among the Jews was shut up He “departed again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptising at the first ... And many believed on him there”, John 10: 40 - 42. These would come into the assembly.
DS What is conveyed in the fact that the Lord’s age is given at His baptism?
JT Luke says, “Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old”, Luke 3: 23. “Beginning to be” would indicate the real levitical start.
FJF Does the coming in and going out of the Lord suggest what was in John’s mind when he spoke of what would take place after the Lord’s departure — “I am coming to you”, John 14: 18?
JT I think that is in mind, the apostles had already experienced it. After the Lord was in heaven, they would only experience it in a spiritual sense. John contemplates an era of the Spirit when he records the Lord’s words, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. That is what is to be experienced throughout the whole dispensation while the Spirit is here. They were already coming into the spiritual side of things, even before the coming of the Spirit. It is necessary for brethren to see the spiritual side of the assembly. It can be treated of as brothers or sisters at any given time or in any place, but that is only the persons; we have to think of the spiritual features in these persons and the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst them, and the effect of divine visitations.
CCE The three and a half years’ experience of assembling was an extensive education.
JT I thought we might see in chapter 1, before leaving it, how the full result of that education is presented. I had particularly in mind how they came into the experimental side of things during the forty days, they learned to apprehend the truth in a spiritual way; they experienced how He came in and went out through closed doors. They learned from Him, on the principle of having a model. “The crowd of names who were together” (Acts 1: 15) does not suggest irregularity but that each was distinguishable. Every saint is distinguishable by his characteristics; no one is worth much unless he has some distinguishable features. Life is known by its features.
FJF Does this present the people in their spiritual setting?
JT The word “crowd” is somewhat singular here, in that it was of those who had names, and their number is given. It might have suggested disorder, but a “crowd of names” brings out that they are persons distinguishable, although they are not set in any regular
[p. 219] order. Life is always distinguishable in its fruits. In selecting Matthias they were desirous that all should be according to the counsels of God, but what happens is to bring out the wisdom that was there. Peter quoting the Scripture shows how careful they were. They were not appointing another apostle as they later appointed deacons, but they selected two, as qualified by their histories. The whole disposition was in the Lord’s hands, the lot signifying this.
LW Each saint has a name in that sense.
JT Each has a distinguishing feature. The more we have to do with the saints, the more we should be able to think of them as the subjects of the work of God. If we have to think of some brother as well off, prospering in business, or as merely educated, belonging to a good family in the world, we are not doing him much credit. If he is a subject of the work of God, that is the feature that counts.
JAH What they looked for meant that there would be the ability to discern the Lord when He was in the midst, when He came in and went out.
JT What is any office or gift aside from the ability to discern the Lord? We must learn His movements in the assembly, and all gift and ministry ought to take character from these. That is what gives it its touch, so in the assembly on the Lord’s day one gets suggestions as to one’s movements and service. The more spiritual we are, the more we shall find our beginnings in the assembly, because we get touches there that we get nowhere else.
FJF Even what is presented in the service of the gospel might flow from that.
JT Yes, I find that. It tests us, as there is not much time after Lord’s Day morning to get something, but one touch is enough to give us what the Lord intends to characterise what we say in the preaching.
CCE Personally I feel I should wait — and I do — till I have that touch from the Lord [p. 220] at the morning meeting, before deciding what to say at the preaching.
JT The Lord honours that. The Lord Jesus coming in and going out: the apostles were made conversant with this. It was part of His service to them.
FJF All service flows from what is spiritual.
JT One may have light, but a spiritual thought conveyed is what is intended to make up the assembly practically. The touch the Lord gives is intended to be formative of the assembly. “And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me”, Luke 8: 46. The woman approached silently and, as she thought, unobserved, but the virtue went out of Him; that is the principle of the formation of the body. It is what goes out of Christ. An impression of Christ conveyed in preaching may be that. The body is of Christ characteristically; it is all of Christ.
Rem Virtue flows from Christ as we realise His presence.
JT The more alert we are, the more we shall realise it. The Lord honours the recognition of right principles. If we wait on Him, we shall get something in the assembly for our service. Virtue goes out from Him and it is that which forms those to whom He ministers.
John had a great sense of the personal touch of Christ. No other apostle brings out what he does in chapter 14. Going in and out is according to that, and John was conversant with it all because he was so intimate and free with the Lord, being in His bosom. When the Lord said, “one of you shall deliver me up”, without mentioning whom, Peter beckoned to John to inquire, because he recognised that John was so near the Lord. Though John was second to him, Peter seemed to recognise the spiritual superiority of John, and John’s ready understanding of Peter’s hints shows the familiarity they enjoyed at the beginning.
FJF Peter would have confidence in John’s judgment.
JT “I will not leave you orphans”. John mentions [p. 221] that, alluding to the state of things in apostolic times after the Spirit came, when the Lord would come to them.
NG Would spiritual discernment be in accord with individual knowledge of the Lord?
JT It supposes knowledge of Him. “Am I so long a time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip?” Philip was upbraided for it, for the Lord feels it when we do not know Him and recognise Him. Then, “He that has seen me has seen the Father”, John 14: 9. The Father is there to be recognised in Him.
WS Are you suggesting that each Lord’s day marks a fresh beginning in our assembly history?
JT John makes it a weekly matter, that we might be kept in freshness. Luke also refers in Acts 20: 7 to “the first day of the week”, saying, “we being assembled to break bread”.
Ques “I am coming to you”. Is this a collective thought, having direct reference to apostolic times, before the breakdown?
JT I thought so; verses 21 - 23, however, refer to a later time. “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”, John 14: 23. Individuals keeping His commandments — that is what is in view in this latter scripture, it contemplates remnant times when others are not loving Him.
FJF Would those weekly impressions refer to a fresh movement, so to speak, in relation to the tabernacle?
JT Assembly history is a question of weeks, according to John. It is not formally stated, but is to be spiritually apprehended. John 20 is intensely spiritual. The more we are with the Lord, the more it will work out. As we approach this matter spiritually, we shall wait on Him in the assembly to get the impressions which are to govern us during the week.
WS These things being spiritually apprehended, maintain us in godly fear.
[p. 222] JT We maintain public order and go through the meetings that we have arranged during the week, but we receive a spiritual touch so that it is not the same routine, there is freshness in them always.
Rem We have to discern the Lord’s movements on each occasion.
JT “This same Jesus ... shall so come in like manner”, Acts 1: 11. All that will fill in the interval follows on His movements recorded in chapter 1, which were intended as the final education by the Lord during the forty days. He had accomplished spiritual results in the brethren. Now the same people in chapter 2 “were all together in one place”. This is a new feature. Now they are on the ground of the assembly formed by the descent of the Spirit, but the material for it is described in chapter 1, and this is seen plainly here in that they are “all together in one place”. Not one is absent. This is of present bearing, no one should be absent from the assembly at any time. It is a disadvantage and it deprives the Lord of what He intends to work out in us.
Rem “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”, Hebrews 10: 25.
JS “Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which he will choose, at the feast of unleavened bread, and at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles”, Deuteronomy 16: 16. They were times of joy and they must come.
JT Deuteronomy 16: 9 - 12 is the passage that properly governs the assembly position. Notice that there is no limitation to this feast as with the others, and it was running its course here. Historically it was only carried on at a certain time, but in Deuteronomy 16 it is not limited by days. The weeks are counted up to it, but there is no end to it. It is a spiritual matter because it suggests the beginning of an eternal state of things in principle in the assembly. The assembly is linked with the eternal state by the Spirit.
LW “And when the day of Pentecost was now accomplishing”, Acts 2: 1. It was going on.
JT Yes, we get the real thing in the gift of the Spirit. In the types, the assembly is brought in at this feast. The Lord is seen as risen in the sheaf of barley, and fifty days after He brings in the assembly. Therefore the types help here. Deuteronomy 16 indicates a spiritual state of things which cannot be limited by time. You cannot limit the Spirit; there are, in Him, infinite possibilities.
HWR The place that “God will choose, to cause his name to dwell in” brings in the assembly (Deuteronomy 16: 6).
JT That is the idea. The Lord comes to you, there He blesses you.
RD In verse 14, is the family thought suggested in the sons and daughters? How would you place that in the assembly?
JT You have the Levite and the stranger too. It is to bring out the state of things in the assembly as marked by the Spirit. What marked the assembly in Acts 2, was the state of love. Under the twelve, it is not the intelligent side of the assembly that is developed; for that we have to wait for Paul, he gives the law of the house. Here, under the twelve, it is great unselfishness and love that is expressed. What a great volume of love there was in the early assembly! Surely this is of present bearing! We have more light, but have we more love?
CCE “Thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy bondman, and thy handmaid, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in thy gates”, Deuteronomy 16: 14. Rejoicing together in one beautiful assembly!
JT What a time they had! What a volume of love was operating! We get in the closing verses, “all that believed were together”, Acts 2: 44. This is not that they were always literally together, but it alludes to the principle of unity that bound them together in affection.
“[p. 224] And had all things common, and sold their possessions and substance, and distributed them to all, according as anyone might have need” (verse 45). What a state of love! We have to look this in the face and admit we can hardly see it anywhere, except in this chapter and Acts 4: 32 - 35. We have to accept its bearing on ourselves.
HWR There is no reason, is there, why we should not hold things in this way now.
JT But do we? Where is the unselfishness? Is it so? The Spirit of God portrays here the early assembly. It is not yet seen as the vessel of divine service, but these are the initial conditions. How unselfish these believers were in giving up all that they had! How subject to the apostles! And they carried on the breaking of bread and prayer.
JS Something worth persevering in!
JT Persevering is the word: “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles”. There was a new order of things; they were not in relation to the old system — to the teaching of the high priest — but to that of the apostles. Authority is there, and they “persevered”, in that they kept at it all the time.
DS Would it be right to think that here we have the answer to the Man gone into heaven?
JT That is the thought. What is described — subjection and that volume of love — was effected by the presence of the Spirit. It enhances the idea of the Spirit. What a state of unselfishness! What a volume of love! I look at it all and compare myself with it, and am humbled.
LW The Lord gave all that He had.
JT The Lord gave Himself in utter unselfishness.
FJF It is our privilege to hold all that we have at His disposal.
JT Paul regulated this somewhat. We have to wait for Paul for regulation, and for the full spirit of intelligence that governs the assembly. Both 1 and 2 Corinthians deal with financial matters. Paul does not impose the [p. 225] conditions of Acts 2, he brings in intelligence, to be seen in the equity and seemliness generally that should govern giving. “On the first of the week let each of you put by at home”, 1 Corinthians 16: 2. It is put on us to do it, and that under the most favourable circumstances, not when the thought of paying the rent is pressing, but on Lord’s day, when that does not enter into ones’ thoughts, and our hearts are open to be affected by spiritual circumstances. Then in Paul’s second letter he enlarges on giving, two chapters are devoted to it. Wisdom is recognised. A brother has means, he holds them in love, and uses them with discretion.
HWR The widow gave both mites. We are ready with what we have if the Lord wants it.
JT You exercise wisdom in what you do.
CCE “They gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God’s will”, 2 Corinthians 8: 5. The other way round would not be right.
FJF If we give ourselves that would regulate all our giving.
JT All else is subservient to that, all to be in wisdom.
HWR In Colossians it is love in the Spirit; love is regulated in that way.
FJF Does stewardship enter into this? “I say to you, Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness”, Luke 16: 9.
JT That is good, but somewhat low ground to take. There is the thought of self in that, but yet the using of means in view of the future is honoured; but Paul’s letters to the Corinthians make a great point of the present. The brethren who carried the bounty of saints in 2 Corinthians are said to be “deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ’s glory”, 2 Corinthians 8: 23. A great deal is made of the individuals used. The point is that the very act of giving becomes the means of the glory shining. In the carrying of money to Jerusalem, every step taken would radiate glory. Paul was used more than once in the actual carrying of money. What exercise and feelings [p. 226] would be occasioned by carrying the bounty of the saints to Jerusalem!
LW This puts giving on a high plane.
JT In Acts 4: 35 the price was laid “at the feet of the apostles”. In 2 Corinthians the whole company is seen as permeated by love. Paul regulates it in view of public order, so that the mind is brought in, and we know what we are doing, and are doing it properly. Our giving is according to the need, and the need is to be determined, according to Paul, before the giving takes place.
SG Love was in them, and it was divine love. This is not giving on natural lines.
JT It is on a very high plane. “That the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”, John 17: 26. It is not what men call charity, but a more exalted thought that is to be in us; the “love with which thou hast loved me”, is the character of the love in us. The idea conveyed by bowels of compassion (Colossians 3: 12) is that the lower affections are involved and stirred. Our giving is aroused by need; need ought to move us. We do not give aimlessly, but to meet need. We give as God gives.
FJF The assembly must be a wonderful sphere for the residence of glory, where even what is material radiates glory.
JT Everything is made to fit in with spiritual intelligence. It is a question of administration, and divine administration means the radiation of glory.
HWR We need wisdom in the care meeting, in connection with giving.
JT Circumstances have to be considered. Love calculates on the principle of equality. The widow gave all, showing what love will do. Her affections were bound up with the house of God. That is one thing, but in giving now, you consider your family’s needs and your own needs. Paul shows how intelligence calculates. Everything is distributed by God, not only in love but in wisdom. “I was daily his delight, ... rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men”, Proverbs 8: 30, 31. It is to be noted here that it is wisdom that is speaking. Things are calculated in wisdom. In persevering in the apostles’ teaching these things would work out, and teaching would help us to work them out. When we come to Paul we have a higher level, because it is a question of the assembly with him, assembly giving, involving the radiation of glory. Paul makes much of this.
Rem The Lord had a bag. What was the difference between that and assembly — giving?
JT Judas had the bag, it was in wrong hands. There was not much glory attached to his having the bag — but he was doing the work of a deacon. No doubt the Lord taught them, in measure, the divine principle of giving. “Some supposed ... that he should give something to the poor”, John 13: 29. Caring for those in need evidently marked the Lord’s service here. Ananias ostensibly sought to act as Barnabas had done. Peter expressed the right thought as to it. “While it remained did it not remain to thee? and sold, was it not in thine own power?”, Acts 5: 4.
HJR Should the conveyance of bounty to an individual be equally radiant?
JT Quite so. Paul links the glory with the assemblies; “deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ’s glory”, 2 Corinthians 8: 23. Those assemblies had part in this service. The messengers were Christ’s glory, but they were messengers of assemblies. The thought of glory includes the assemblies. The messengers were the fulness of that glory in carrying the bounty. The assembly is the residence of divine glory.
WS It is beautiful to see the Lord supporting spiritual conditions, and adding to the assembly as the result of it.
JT Another thing here is they were constantly in the temple. That was in keeping with the provisional [p. 228] state of things, but they were breaking bread in the house, not in the temple. They had already seized the thought of breaking of bread, and to some extent they had instinct enough to separate it from the temple. Seemingly they broke bread more frequently than on the first day of the week. And the Lord added to the assembly, as if to honour that state: it was worthy to be added to. There was a place of salvation there in those conditions. What a realm for young people to come into, with all the unselfishness, love, and unity that marked it!
HWR The Jewish remnant is absorbed in this here.
JT Yes, “those that were to be saved”. The assembly was the place of their salvation.
FJF The body was here without the doctrine of it being known.
JT Yes, the time for naming it had not yet come. The temple was still in mind. It awaited Paul to bring out the thought of the body and the heavenly side of the truth.
WS The three thousand added shows the greatness of what was coming in.
JT What Paul brings in is not so much increase of spiritual power, but an increase in spiritual intelligence. They had love here, and they had substance, and regulation came in in due course. There was in these converts complete unselfishness. They “sold their possessions and substance, and distributed them to all ... and breaking bread in the house, they received their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people”, Acts 2: 45 - 47. The breaking of bread may have been attached to ordinary meals, but it had its own place, that is, apart from the temple. These people were free and simple, taking all from God. The gladness flowed not from mere sociability, but from obedience of faith in Christ, energised by the Spirit.
HWR The breaking of bread was in a household [p. 229] setting.
JT It has a family setting. Paul detaches it from houses altogether, and attaches it to the assembly.
FJF Heavenly light had not yet come in regard to the assembly.
CCE The accuracy of Scripture is remarkable. We can trace exactly in the Scripture the stage of development in the assembly at any given moment.
JT We see the spiritual bearing of the outward facts recorded.
RD The giving of thanks for food is testing. It is inclined to become formal because we do it so often.
JT Some brothers are very brief and formal, but it is a heart matter. “Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, being received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God’s word and freely addressing him”, 1 Timothy 4: 4, 5. The word of God enlarges the thought.
Rem We eat to the glory of God.
JT Thanksgiving for food is very important; it partakes of the character of the service of God.
FJF Would you enlarge a little on the thought of sanctification?
JT The creature takes on a new character when you attach the word of God to it. “By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God”, Hebrews 11: 3. All our relations with the creature are on that principle. The mind of God enters into it. God provided flesh, fish, fowl, and vegetables. He thought these things out, having man in mind, and they are sanctified by the word of God. The fresh light of christianity only enhances the place of the creature, as everything becomes an occasion for thanksgiving and glory to God. There is glory to God in all creation. Psalm 148 - Psalm 150 are beautiful in this respect. The word of God simplifies all. The serpent deceived, but Christ brings everything back to the simplicity of the divine thought, “simplicity as to the Christ”, 2 Corinthians 11: 3.
[p. 230] There is complete recovery in Christ as to everything. Creation is never rightly understood till we bring in the word of God.
CCE Food not received with gladness is, in principle, gluttony.
JT “Whose god is the belly”, Philippians 3: 19.
SS “Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord”, Deuteronomy 8: 3.
FJF Is all this, in principle, how the city was being surrounded in order to take it? laying siege to Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 20: 19). Here Jerusalem was being encircled with the bounty of God. “Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine”, Acts 5: 28.
JT I do not know what the population of Jerusalem was, it could not at that time have been great; yet there were a great number of saints as time went on, over three thousand here, a good quota and all adults, I take it. With their children they would make a goodly number. Jerusalem was encircled with all this — a wonderful testimony rendered. Presently, it was to be encircled by something dreadfully different — Roman soldiers, who ruthlessly razed it to the ground; but now, as you say, it is surrounded by divine goodness in the most palpable way. “Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria”, Acts 1: 8.