THE GENTILES BROUGHT INTO THE HOUSE OF GOD
[p. 154] THE GENTILES BROUGHT INTO THE HOUSE OF GOD
JT The passage read presents the truth from God’s side showing what He has in the returning son. I like to read it in connection with Acts 10, which may be regarded as the historical fulfilment of the parable. Peter began to preach and God acted while Peter was preaching; that is He gives the Spirit to the gentile. Chapter 10 is the Spirit’s account of what happened and then when Peter gives his own account he says, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them”. He had just begun to speak when God acted. God was acting, so Peter could be quiet. Peter, we might say, was not a very fast runner when it was a question of the gentile; God, so to speak, outran him.
Rem Do you mean that the father running and falling on his son’s neck answers to the Spirit falling on the gentiles when Peter began to speak?
JT Yes. In the book of Chronicles the cherubim are seen looking out. In Exodus in the tabernacle they are looking down on the mercy-seat; in the temple they are looking out towards the house. Wherever there was a movement God saw it.
Rem We are to take account of the activity of divine Persons in this chapter in the way God has set Himself to recover man that man may be in His presence altogether for His pleasure.
JT Yes. The thought in the gospel is much more what divine Persons have than what man gets. The house in Jerusalem is left in chapter 13, then it is to be filled in chapter 14 and then in chapter 15 we see the kind of people that are going to fill it and God’s delight in those people. They fill it suitably; they are robed and shod and ringed before they [p. 155] enter. The music and the dancing all go on in the house. It is a great thing to see the kind of people that fill the house and what goes on in it.
Ques Is God’s house the same as the Father’s house?
JT God’s house is what is constituted provisionally down here on earth; that is Luke’s line. John speaks of the Father’s house, that is heaven; Luke brings in a sphere here where God is seen, which is for His pleasure. What goes on in the house is within the hearing of the elder brother; he does not know what it is but he gets the explanation of it.
Rem He was not in sympathy with what was going on inside.
JT He was out of sympathy with God Himself, that is to say it is the Jew that is in view. What came to light was that the Jews were not in sympathy with what God was doing.
Ques In what way do they who are outside the house take account of what is going on inside?
JT In the beginning it was worked out in Jerusalem; the Holy Spirit wrought and there was that there which was evidently for the satisfaction of man. The saints were happy, they were satisfied and they did not have the world. That could not fail to attract the attention of man as we see here. What we require is to experience this ourselves. The house is the testimony here to what God has wrought for man. There was music and dancing; that is to be here. The Lord said in reference to His own ministry, “We have piped to you, and ye have not danced”. That is, the Lord’s ministry here brought in the source of music to man and they were not moved by it. But that was not in the house; it was public; it was in the market place. Now that is all transferred to the house.
Rem Joy and satisfaction are the two outstanding features of the [p. 156] house.
JT That is where our weakness lies, we do not give people to understand that we are satisfied; our faces do not indicate that.
Rem We have to possess it before we can give expression to it. It is a condition to be reached.
JT There is music going on which is intended to appeal to the ear of man; the question is whether people are dancing. Scripture speaks of dancing in a remarkable way. David danced before the ark. That is the thought of the recovery of Israel in the future.
Rem At the end of the previous chapter we get, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”, and then at the beginning of this chapter all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming to hear Him; they are the kind of people who appreciate the music.
JT There must have been others in the house beside the younger son, but he is the only one made prominent.
Rem He is an example.
JT Yes. There is a great lack of satisfaction among the Lord’s people and no doubt it is the influence of the world. Issachar is said to be like an ass couching between two burdens. One in that state is not likely to be very happy, he is not happy in the world, nor is he happy among the saints, he is trying to carry two burdens. If you profess to be a believer in Christ there ought to be some evidence of it.
Rem Naphtali was “satisfied with favour”. The son is brought into that in this chapter.
JT The house of God supplies every element of satisfaction; it would not be according to God otherwise.
Ques I did not catch your connection between this chapter and Acts 10.
JT There it is a question of what God is doing for His own satisfaction. Peter was not even looking [p. 157] towards the gentiles. He was praying, we may be thankful for that, but were the gentiles in his prayers? God has to awake him to His mind by a most extraordinary occurrence. If Peter had been praying for the gentiles he would not have had need of the sheet coming down from heaven filled with wild beasts. God resorted to this extraordinary means to enlighten his mind. It is a great thing to get to God’s side of things. God was enlisting Peter’s sympathy. Then Peter goes to Cornelius and stands up to preach and he does preach, but he says, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell”, that shows it was God’s action, not Peter’s. I do not say that everything in this chapter finds its answer in Acts 10, but it shows how God carries out His thought in regard of the gentile. In the gift of the Spirit the gentile had everything in principle. No one knows the love of God till he has the Spirit.
Rem In Acts 13, when Paul is refused by the Jew, he says, “Lo, we turn to the nations”, and then we read that “the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit”. The gentiles were being brought in.
JT That is the point. What a great testimony that was in the gentile world! In the synagogue they were not filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. One great point in Luke is that he records a new order of things. At the beginning of every gospel we get a line of thought that gives character to the gospel. Matthew introduces a new kind of legislation. The Lord says, “I say unto you”; that is a new principle of legislation. Mark introduces a new kind of service. He tells us that the Lord went up to the mountain and appointed the twelve that they might be with Him that He might send them to preach; they go as from His company preaching a new order of preaching. Luke is a new order of things, so in chapter 5 we have the kind of people that are in the new order of things, people who have judged sin [p. 158] like Peter who, feeling his sinful condition, said, “Depart from me”. Then the palsied man gets strength and thus they are fitted for the house of God. The Lord tells him to take up his bed and go to his house, and he departs to his house glorifying God. That is the new order of things, men go into their houses in power. There is the old and also the new order, the earthly and the heavenly, the temporal and the eternal; all these things are in contrast. People who have judged themselves are the people who form christianity, people who in effect have said, “Depart from me”. If you have to do with such people you will not have much trouble. Take a man who has been carried all his life; instead of being carried he becomes able to carry and the house is changed when he goes in.
Rem The son gets the best robe in the house.
JT Yes, and that is a new idea.
Rem Chapter 14 is a new house.
JT Yes, in contrast to chapter 13 where the old is left.
Rem There is plenty in the house.
JT The house of God is established provisionally; the Father’s house is not provisional, but the house on earth is provisional, so that the saints should lack nothing till they get home.
Rem If they miss it here then they cannot have it afterwards.
JT Quite so, if the saints do not appreciate the house of God now they will not appreciate the Father’s house in the future; there is a provisional order of things set up so that we may have the thing now in substance.
Ques Was Paul in the power of it when he was before Agrippa? “I would to God, ... that not only thou, but all who have heard me ... should become such as I also am, except these bonds”.
JT I think so, he was satisfied. The christians at the beginning must have had very fine meetings. They came together as those who had formed an appreciation of Christ and it is such people who made up the assembly normally. “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God”. That is what they were.
Rem The prodigal was made suitable for the house.
JT What he was clothed with was brought out of the house. The best robe is the best; it is Christ viewed as in heaven. He is the heavenly Man. Paul says, “If even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”. It is what Christ is as He is now in heaven, that is the garment we are clothed with, “As he is, we also are in this world” answers to it. The best robe is Paul’s doctrine, He saw Christ in heaven, and he laboured to present every man perfect in Christ. He would not have one man less than that Man morally. His ministry was that everyone should be like that Man, conformed to Christ where He is. One would like to see the saints moving on earth for God’s pleasure; that is God’s idea, so that what goes into heaven is suitable for heaven. It is shown to be fit for heaven while on earth, hence the spiritual man does not feel there is any discrepancy between him and heaven.
Rem What is of heaven is down here.
JT The heavenly comes into everything down here, so that God is justified in sending it back to heaven.
Rem Although the house of God is provisional yet what is in it will not pass away.
JT No, it will not pass away. It is remarkable that in 1 Corinthians you have the body raised; “sown in weakness” but “raised in power”. In 2 Corinthians we read of “our house which is from heaven”; it comes out of heaven. The whole man [p. 160] outwardly and inwardly comes out of heaven. God has been pleased to set His testimony in His house, and that indicates the greatness of the vessel. Not only what is heavenly but all the principles of the coming world come out in the house. We are taken up to heaven but all that pertains to the earth remains behind; that will be carried on by others.
Rem The idea is that we find the source of our joy there instead of in the world, the house of God thus involving a contrary scene.
JT Certainly. It is the Spirit’s sphere where the government of God is carried on and the will of God is carried out. That is seen here. Those who come into that sphere are filled with joy in the Holy Spirit; they are satisfied.
Ques What is the difference between the house of God and being “Built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, Ephesians 2: 22?
JT In Ephesians it is the privilege of the saints collectively; what they are, they are no longer strangers.
Ques Is that provisional?
JT Yes, it refers to the same house.
Ques Does man become God’s testimony in the house?
JT That is where the character of God is set forth. The man in Luke 15 was recovered, he was not acting for his own good now. He is forgiven, he has the Spirit of God and is clothed with the beauty of Christ.
Rem He is able to look out in testimony to the whole world.
JT The river of Eden as it flowed out of the garden was parted and became four distinct streams. That speaks of what is evangelical, it went out universally. So the son, as recovered, would be interested in others. Two things were said of him, he was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.
[p. 161] A beautiful thought. The Father recognises him as living; his affections were quickened God-ward, he does not live to himself now.
Ques Would Romans 5, “The love of God shed abroad in our hearts”, answer to it — the heart satisfied with God, and also John 4, where the Lord proposes to give living water?
JT Yes, only Romans 5 is God’s side. John 4 corresponds with Romans 8.
Ques Do we come into the sphere of life here?
JT Yes, the son is now characterised by life. His affections are in activity towards God.