THE THRONE OF GRACE (5)
THE THRONE OF GRACE (5)
JT We read yesterday a section of chapter 16 which we did not touch afterwards. It refers to having money. We read there of the unrighteous mammon, and how it may be turned into account now with a view to the future. We may be helped to dwell a little on that passage because of the place money has acquired, the place it has acquired generally in the world through the prominence of high wages, and especially how it has affected the brethren, at times interfering even with the service of God. The passage will be remembered by the brethren as what is called the parable of the unjust steward. The Lord sees fit to enter into this matter immediately after what has taken place in chapter 15. It is said, “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and he was accused to him as wasting his goods. And having called him, he said to him, What is this that I hear of thee? give the reckoning of thy stewardship, for thou canst be no longer steward. And the steward said within himself, What shall I do; for my lord is taking the stewardship from me? I am not able to dig; I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, that when I shall have been removed from the stewardship I may be received into their houses. And having called to him each one of the debtors of his own lord, he said to the first, How much owest thou to my lord? And he said, A hundred baths of oil. And he said to him. Take thy writing and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, And thou, how much dost thou owe? And he said, A hundred cors of wheat. And he says to him, Take thy writing and write eighty. And the lord praised the unrighteous steward because he had done prudently” Luke 16:1 - 8. Notice the word ‘praised’. And then we get the Lord’s remarks. “For the sons of this world are, for their own generation, more prudent than the sons of light. And I say to you. Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles” Luke 16:8,9. And then again He says, “He that is faithful in the least is faithful also in much; and he that is unrighteous in the least is unrighteous also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall entrust to you the true? and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who shall give to you your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” Luke 16:10 - 13. So that we are clearly confronted by the problem of money and how it affects the service of God. The fact is that if it rules us we cannot serve God. Many are disqualified, and others are becoming disqualified, because of the temptation to ignore, or pass by, the service of God, for the sake of gain — high wages. It is a matter the Lord would lay upon us so as to save us.
SWP You mean wages taken on account of extra time. The people of God are in abnormal conditions just now, and special demands may be made upon our time. Is your thought that as an employee I should seek to preserve myself from undue demands upon my time above normal conditions?
JT That is what is in mind. The Lord deliberately uses words to belittle money. The thought runs through the chapter into the well-known parable of the rich man and Lazarus; it is the same line of thought. The parable shows how wealth may lead to hades, or torment — sorrowful thought that money may lead in [p. 179] that direction.
LES Do you not feel that we need to be honest in the facing of a matter like this, because so many bring in the idea of the requirements of the government, instead of facing the necessity of bringing out our motives, and putting them before God, as to whether they are pure, or tainted by the principle of vanity?
JT You are struck by the government requirements, the urgency of them. How it enters into the calculations of the government that they demand a citizen to give up his time, whatever he may regard as his pleasure, for the sake of the government’s requirements or needs, but the temptation is that there is large money at stake. When it becomes a question of wages, the temptation of larger wages especially for working overtime, we are tempted to take it on and deny God His rights.
JK To seek first the kingdom of God would be a help.
JT Well, godliness would come into that. Chapter 12 involves the principle of godliness: “But seek his kingdom, and all these things shall be added to you”, Luke 12:31. We may be set for these things, but when it comes to high wages we are affected, and may simply ignore that we have an eye on the high wages and are tempted to pass by the service of God.
CCT “Let your conversation be without love of money, satisfied with your present circumstances; for he has said, I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee”, Hebrews 13:5.
JT Quite so. This is a matter of overtime, and the temptation attached to it. The demands by the authorities to secure their ends are bowed to, whereas God is neglected, the service of God neglected. It reminds us of the end of Malachi, “Will a man rob God?” Malachi [p. 180] 3:8.
ABM Have you in mind by robbing God, that some for higher wages take themselves out of their normal occupations and encroach upon the Lord’s time by working on the Lord’s day?
JT The Lord has been pleased to take certain time, not all time, not all the days of the week. He has been pleased to take the day that the Spirit of God calls the Lord’s day, and He certainly is jealous as to that, and He has first right to it. The first day of the week is slightly different in meaning, but still carries on the same idea because it is the same day; it involves the same day called the Lord’s day. The Lord’s supper, applying to the same day, raises the question of the Lord’s rights. Take the matter of higher wages being paid on that day, and the premium which is put upon that day by men. Nevertheless God has made time and the Lord Jesus has a right to do what He pleases, for there was not one thing made that He did not make. In raising the question of the claim He has to one of the days of the week, we must see that He is jealous as to that, as to having it.
AEJ Would the tendency for high wages cause men to become like the Pharisees, who were covetous, who went in for all they could get, and so the service of God was set aside.
JT Nothing of that ever marked the Lord.
JWD It is a good thing for us to get before the Lord and find out what portion of our time is due to Him. So with money given us; then we would assess things rightly. What portion should I put into the box? What portion of my time should be set aside?
JT That is a good point to raise — it is raised by the apostle Paul. God is pleased to raise the question of wages, and how it affects the service of God. In 1 Corinthians 16:2, the apostle has in mind the contributions of the saints in view of the collection and he says, “On the first of the week let each [p. 181] of you put by at home, laying up in whatever degree he may have prospered, that there may be no collections when I come”. Now the point is, if that would include the Lord’s day, or part of the Lord’s day at double wages. One wonders how the conscience would be affected, because you are going to use some of the time which is the Lord’s, and is to be dedicated to His service.
JWD The primary thought is, what is my valuation of the Lord’s things?
JT Well, there it is. The first day of the week is a good day to devote part of it to the calculation as to how God has prospered you. The word mentioned there, ‘prospered’, would take in what you are getting from your regular employer, it hardly alludes to what one may get as a levite which would include the tithes. I think the word ‘prospered’ alludes to something accruing to one in business, and from that he has to assess his obligations to the Lord’s service. He has to assess this on the Lord’s day, do it on the Lord’s day. That is, you would lay by at home, which would imply that the wife and children are cognisant of what is being done. It is an open matter and clearly you would not leave the Lord out in assessment of that kind.
LES In remnant times in the Prophets, the matters of the sabbath and the valuation put upon it all enter into the discerning of that day. Does it not have its answer in Christianity?
JT I think it does, and the question of our conscience before God. It is not in view to enlarge on this subject, but just to get the touch of it which the passage implies, that is the valuation of money if that is what is in mind; that one may be set in the position to use that to promote something for the future, to purchase that which would stand him in stead for the future, that he may be received into their houses. By extension it is applied by the [p. 182] passage to the eternal tabernacles, that is what the truth of the gospel involves, that we are to have eternal tabernacles, have part in them, not in the lake of fire, although this is treated of in the latter part of the chapter. Eternal tabernacles, not alluding to the houses of the persons who are debtors, but using the money to the end of buying eternal privileges.
JGV That is what this verse implies? “Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles” Luke 16:9. That is, use money rightly.
JT That is how it is dealt with in this chapter. The Lord says in verse 9, “Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles” Luke 16:9. And then He says, “He that is faithful in the least is faithful also in much; and he that is unrighteous in the least is unrighteous also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall entrust to you the true? and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who shall give to you your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” Luke 16:10 - 13. That is the wages we are getting. If we are not faithful in relation to the service of God, who shall entrust to us our own, or the true riches which would mean spiritual things? So we have to face valuation as we have already had it. We are to go in for the best available and acquire that, using the wages we may have to acquire that.
Ques Who are these debtors, that are in the mind of the Lord, one owing one hundred measures of oil, and so on?
JT All this helps to bring out what is in mind to impress us. What is said by the master of the [p. 183] unrighteous steward helps us. He praises the unrighteous steward because he has done prudently. Whether it is a question of these other persons or not, the simple fact is that he had done prudently in having these persons write, because the object he had in mind was to acquire their friendship, or their houses, in the future when out of the stewardship.
JWD What would be the basis of your calculations to be faithful in material things? What comes before you as the basis?
JT Well, we have to see what is said in verse 10, “He that is faithful in the least is faithful also in much” Luke 16:10. If he is not faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall entrust to him the true? We say we have the money, we take the wages and these are our own. Now what are we going to do with it? Are we going to be faithful and make the best use of it in promoting divine interests? This is a small matter in itself. Money is a small matter in itself, and it is called the mammon of unrighteousness. It may be used for the things of God in some way, and then the Lord follows on that alluding to one being faithful in much. You may get a gift from the Lord, great increase of spiritual wealth. He is entrusting you with these things, because you are faithful in the least and therefore will be faithful in much, which works out that the present situation requires faithfulness. If it is a question of money you use it rightly in relation to divine interests, making the most of it.
Ques One that is faithful would realise that it belonged to the Lord and he was only a steward of it. That would greatly affect him in the use of it.
JT It should do. The Lord is showing here that there is a way of using it, but He is belittling it. The way you use wealth or money may show that you are entitled to something else, something more. You [p. 184] may be entitled to a gift and there is need for that — men who can help the Lord’s people spiritually.
AD Would Paul’s word to Timothy help in this regard? “Enjoin on those rich in the present age not to be high-minded, nor to trust on the uncertainty of riches; but in the God who affords us all things richly for our enjoyment; to do good, to be rich in good works, to be liberal in distributing, disposed to communicate of their substance, laying by for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of what is really life”, 1 Timothy 6:17 - 19.
JT That is a good passage and works out in this matter of faithfulness in the least. For that is exactly what the faithful have in mind, in using their money. And in due time they may get something more. Everything that the world has may be taken on by others, but they would go in for this — the ability to serve the saints spiritually perhaps. That is the way the thing works out. Hence the first reference to Paul’s service is in regard to material things, because he was one of those that carried something to Jerusalem; something that those who worked would have provided for those who needed it. Those wealthy at Antioch met the matter by giving, giving out of their money, the means they had. There is no doubt that God, in time, used these men in a spiritual way.
Ques The widow with the two mites recognised that the two mites belonged to the Lord Himself.
JT Well, it goes beyond what we have here. The Lord recognises much in her, she gave it to the house of God, and she gave greater than them all, He says.
LES It is remarkable the great place money has covetously with Ananias and Sapphira, in the beginning of Acts.
JT It is remarkable. The beginning of the matter in the Acts is that no one regarded anything [p. 185] as his own, but under Paul you have another principle; that is, you have what is your own, and you can sacrifice it.
SWP I was just looking at that scripture: “and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). There was power in the appreciation of the great grace operating in them. If the claims that our employers make upon us are understood in faithfulness, they will be given to see that they cannot have the time that God has a right to.
JT We show in this matter of time that it belongs to God. It is very important because He uses time, and of course He lays it upon us too — we are to redeem the time. We are to redeem it; that is to say, that we are certainly not to use time that is allotted to us by God for use in His service, in order to make money. That is the matter of wages. Are you using the time that belongs to God, and that He has allotted to you for His service, are you using it for that purpose? It becomes a matter of faithfulness. You may be faithful in these things and God will allot to you further things; that is, spiritual wealth. It might be a gift to help the saints.
HB It was the much cattle of the two and a half tribes that hindered them moving into the land.
JT Just so — they lived away from Jerusalem, whereas they should have been living in nearness to it.
JGV It is a matter of which master we are serving. What you are speaking of as to the service of God, would not only allude to the Lord’s day, but all the time.
JT The idea of the mammon is personified. That is one of the things in Luke. It is as if it were a person, and you are under the control of it.
CCT Would the thought of hating come into this scripture in the same line as we had in the previous chapter — hating the mammon?
JT And hating one’s own life. We must have a right view of these things, money as well. Well, it was only to touch on that, our main thought now is the throne of grace and how it appears in chapter 24; and how it is linked up at first with the temple. The Lord is seen as risen from amongst the dead. The day of grace is now the peculiar day in question. It is as if the Lord is saying, I am in great haste to get to heaven, because of this matter of grace, this matter of the exercising of grace. It is a question of the administration of it now, involving the throne. So that there is no reference to the forty days in this chapter. Luke in his gospel does not mention the forty days that the Lord was on earth after He arose. It would appear from reading this chapter, as though He arose and He went to heaven, and it is left that way. Of course, the forty days comes in in Acts 1, but this is the way Luke treats of it in this chapter. It would seem as though the Lord is telling us that He is in haste, so to speak, to get to heaven, because He wants to go forward and take up His office involving the administrative side of grace; to make it world-wide in its distribution beginning at Jerusalem. Before we get the actual terms of grace in the chapter, we have what involves the assembly. As if the Lord is saying to us, if we are going in for the gospel which is stressed and stressed greatly, Do not forget the assembly. Hence on the Lord’s day we have the assembly privileges and added to these is rightly the gospel service. So that the passage we have just read beginning at verse 36 implies the assembly and the reality of the thing. It is not a parable. They are really conscious of the Lord’s death and resurrection and the reality of His humanity in resurrection. It is a real thing, not some figure or form. It is the thing really, not a parable. All these things are mentioned as applicable, and involving the Lord’s resurrection, and these [p. 187] things bear on grace, on the throne of grace, and those who are to have part in the service of grace are essentially of the assembly. That is what is in mind in verse 36.
JWD Do you think that what the servant who stands up to preach the gospel on the Lord’s day evening has springs out of the Lord’s supper?
JT That is what I thought. This chapter contemplates that. In fact it is the dispensation that is in mind. In Acts 1, as has been noted, the forty days are treated of, but this chapter is confined to the elements of the assembly involving the Lord’s supper and the reality of the Lord’s humanity, the real thing in resurrection, not flesh and blood but flesh and bone. It is a real Man in resurrection, and thus He proceeds to impress them with His reality, the reality of His humanity; and thus it is said there, “And having said this he shewed them his hands and his feet. But while they yet did not believe for joy, and were wondering, he said to them, Have ye anything here to eat? And they gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb; and he took it and ate before them. And he said to them. These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”. Now I appeal to the brethren, is not this particularly stressed? They are particularly charged with this, by the Lord, as though [p. 188] to impress His apostles with the matter of grace. That this is what is in His mind, that the assembly service alluded to is preparatory to this matter of the gospel. They were to preach it; we are to preach it.
AD Why does He stress that they were to start at Jerusalem?
JT That comes in in the detail which is, of course, important too, because it involves the operations of God with His earthly people, and the promise to them. He is not forgetting that. He is keeping it in His mind, but the prime matter is that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations. That is to say, this gracious dispensation is in mind, and this added as to Jerusalem is to show He is not forgetting the peculiar position of the Jews. They are in His mind. But the main thought is this matter of repentance and remission of sins preached to all the nations.
LES So the apostle in Romans begins with the Jew first and then the gentile.
JT Of course, that was dropped afterwards. The kingdom of God was sent to the nations and they received it. God is showing here that He is not forgetting His promises to the nation.
SWP Does Luke speak of the service of the Lord to His disciples as taking them out of their novice character? We get in the Acts, “Men of Galilee” spoken to them by the two men in white clothing and Peter says, “Brethren”, literally ‘Men, brethren’; it is the thought of real maturity in the matter of grace to be carried forward.
JT Very good. I would urge on the dear brethren the words I have chosen to use in regard of this passage — it is a matter charged upon them. It is a passage involving a real charge from Christ Himself under which they are to serve — an authoritative passage to set forth what is in the dispensation as governing the gospel of grace, not simply assembly [p. 189] service, but gospel service. The assembly is the centre of it.
CCT Have you any thought why the understanding of the Scriptures is brought in here?
JT It is one of the things to be noted. It says, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures”. Giving them understanding was part of the thing in His mind. He would arm Himself with these men, and tell them, ‘You are to be intelligent, and know the Scriptures, but the great point in My mind is that the gospel should be preached and Jerusalem should be the beginning, the start of what was to be preached to all nations’.
HB Is it part of the armour of God? “And shod your feet with the preparation of the glad tidings of peace”, (Ephesians 6:15).
JT That enters into this. The Lord in Matthew says with less force or emphasis: “Go, bring word to my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see me” Matthew 28:10. That is not what we get here. He is not making them go to Galilee. He is at Jerusalem Himself. He is ready to go to heaven and tarries on the way to express what is in mind to His disciples. He would say, ‘I am employing you; I am with you absolutely; I am going up there to look after this matter. I am going to heaven’. There is the principle of emphasis in it. This chapter has nothing about the forty days, but is full of the gospel of grace.
LES And we are to preach like this.
JT Exactly. What could you get greater? It is one thing to have it and another thing to use it. The apostle says, “For it is woe to me if I should not announce the glad tidings”, (1 Corinthians 9:16).
“[p. 190] Cursed be he that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently”, (Jeremiah 48:10). That is, negligent in the things of God.
NB Is the reference here to the hands and the feet a reference to the service of grace?
JT Quite so, Luke refers to it, rather than John. Luke refers to the feet with the woman in chapter 7; she anointed His feet, because they came in grace to her. How she regarded those feet! She wept upon those blessed feet, the feet of a Man, because of affection for Him. She claims Him in that way. If you were to ask about her love, she would say, ‘My love is measured by my forgiveness’. She knew the true value of things, she did not simply admire the Lord, but she had affection for Him. She would say, ‘He went into death to bear away my sins’. It all brings out the action of grace, and we are to be witnesses — exponents of it, not failing to preach the gospel; it is our responsibility that we should preach it.
CCT “How beautiful the feet of them that announce glad tidings of peace ... !”, (Romans 10:15).
LES Is the link with the present dispensation that the Lord has been carried up into heaven?
JT Heaven is henceforth aglow. All aglow over that One, that is heaven’s viewpoint. So the Lord is carried up there. Peter says, “By the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven” 1 Peter 3:21,22. That is his gospel. He alludes to the fact of the Lord being gone.
ABM Applying this to the preaching of the gospel, would it involve all?
JT It would involve all, in the sense that the assembly, according to Philippians, had fellowship with the gospel from the start. The whole assembly at Philippi had fellowship with the gospel. Here it is not simply the assembly as such, but the persons who form it, as the apostles, who are witnesses. The [p. 191] bearing of this is apostolic testimony. That is what made it authoritative as to the gospel.
LES Would the bearing of this be reflected in our service? I mean this matter of the nations, referring to what is apostolic? You referred to certain sections of the earth. Is there any link here?
JT The subsequent history comes out in Paul and, of course, has its force, and there is much to regulate this question of missionary work - whether we should merely go where we like, or whether we should be regulated by Paul, at the present time, as to the geographical principle. I do not know whether what I am saying is clear to the brethren, but I am certain that this is a most important matter, and if we could only see the force of this chapter, and how it is filled up with matter from the Lord in relation to the preaching of grace. “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem”.
LES Does this have a peculiar bearing on the last chapter of Revelation? “And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely” Revelation 22:17.
JT Just so. That fits in very well.
HB Is the authoritative side in the beginning of Acts? “Concerning all things which Jesus began both to do and to teach, until that day in which, having by the Holy Spirit charged the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up”. Acts 1:1,2.
JT There the thing is not so forceful because it is recorded there. Here it is a forceful statement, in fact the most forceful you can get as conveying the authority of the Lord Jesus, not authority He has alone, but His apostles and what they were to be.
LES So the throne of grace is very much in evidence at the present moment.
JT That is what we are dealing with in a small way. Men may say we are small and we want to be [p. 192] small; there is no disadvantage in being small; but we want the government to let us go on with this testimony of grace, because if they do not, we will have to suffer, because it must go on. So the Lord is not saying anything of forty days, but I am going now, that is what is implied. He is ready to go, in haste, as it were, to go to the place of authority, where the power for these things is. “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”.
AEJ So there was great joy when Peter preached and three thousand souls were converted. They asked Peter what they should do and he told them, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, (Acts 2:38).
JT And will receive the promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit. That address of Peter’s enters into what we are saying, it is the complement of it. Still keeping the Lord’s words before us, let us see what is going to happen. Ten days after the Lord goes up, the Spirit comes down. Let us see what Peter has to say in Acts 2. Peter does not begin to speak until after there are certain complaints and sarcastic remarks. “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke forth to them, Men of Judaea, and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words; for these are not full of wine” Acts 2:14,15. Speaking to these cavillers, Peter says, “these are not full of wine, as ye suppose, for it is the third hour of the day; but this is that which was spoken through the prophet Joel, And ... saith God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh” Acts 2:15 - 17. Now that is clearly the end of the chapter in Luke, because the Lord intended them to be powerful. And Peter’s position in the second chapter of Acts is central; Peter was prepared for [p. 193] all that. First Peter. No one else was to be the first preacher. Peter is the first preacher. It was divinely arranged. What a preacher he was! And what a result!
AEJ The Lord intended that the preacher be found in power. “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”.
JT All that is very interesting and instructive as to what the Lord gives them, as we had in the passage read from verses 36 to 53 — all that is interesting detail. You are speaking of this power that comes from above, and it is called clothing. It is not religious habiliments, or mere religious power such as can be gotten from the seminaries, certain religious power; that is not power at all. The power of the Holy Spirit is called clothing here. These men are clothed with power from above. They are preaching in His name as in power. That is, the power of the whole thing is in Christ’s name.
SWP Why does it say, “I send the promise of my Father upon you”, not ‘to you’?
JT It is characteristic of the Luke side. John shows the Lord as being concerned with what is inward — the affections as inward. But Luke shows what the personality of the preacher is — not just the preaching but the preacher. He is in power.
JWD The responsibility of the gospel is then a very serious one. We need help as to that. The brethren are taking up the thing with a tendency to apathy. You would get us to see the glory of the position.
JT That is what I understand. How can one preach unless he is sent? The idea of being sent is a great word in preaching. You can see in Peter that he was a sent person as he stood up there with the eleven. Just a matter of a dozen men left here [p. 194] by the Lord and that is this chapter — the Lord is going on high and leaves them with the responsibility of the gospel.
HB In Luke 4 the Lord started out in that way.
JT And thus the dispensation is set out as coming in in Luke’s first and second treatise. Room is made for Paul to come in, making way for where the preaching is to be; it is the Spirit of God who directs here. The Lord Jesus is dealing with the whole matter in Luke 24. He is going to heaven to be over all things. “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand” (John 3:35). These things are in His hands, this matter of the gospel.
LES If the brethren who serve in the preaching do it rightly, as we are with God, it will go on.
JT I am sure the Lord fully confirms that. The work was begun at Thessalonica — Paul laboured three sabbath days over the beginning of that particular work. Referring to this matter of each brother preaching, if there are half a dozen brothers and they take it in their turn, that is not what the Lord is at here, nor what Peter was at. Peter stood up with the eleven, all real men on that occasion, but as we saw it is Peter who carries on the preaching. It takes the best man you have. Use the best man you have for the occasion, not just anybody, but the brother who can do it best.
ABM Do you make a selection?
JT We make a selection because it is a question of being qualified. Therefore it is said of Philip, “And Philip, going down to a city of Samaria, preached the Christ to them”. (Acts 8:5).
ABM The selection involves a sent one — wisdom enters into it.
JT He shows that he is a sent one, because he is sent to do it.
[p. 195] CCT The brother in charge of the gospel in selecting a brother to preach would understand his measure.
JT We are forced to use the word ‘select’ in relation to the brother who is appointed to look after the gospel and the Lord says, I know the conditions under which you have to do things, but this does not affect the primary thoughts of Christianity. Let us leave out for the moment the details of things as they are found today, and go back to the beginning of things as appointed by the Lord.
JK The force of it here is that it is a command: “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem”. You would say it is a command?
JT Well, it is. “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached”. If I understand the word ‘should’ it has the force of a command. It must be done. It is in the Lord’s mind that it must go on. Of course we are dealing with the apostles, as we were saying a moment ago, the primary position. Let us leave the details out, which we have to face because of conditions, and go back to the beginning to get our beings impregnated with the thing. What was going on in these days, what heaven was cognisant of, how aglow it was! The Lord opens up what He wants to be done, because it is the inauguration of a great dispensation and it gives the sense that we are stagnant today, because we are not aglow, not affected by it.
LES The greatness of it is to be seen in that we are empowered from on high. We are not to set out some scripture, in order to present it in the preaching, but to present the gospel of God as occupied with what took place at the beginning.
JT Getting the full light of it. Putting on the right clothes. They come from heaven, it is not the best robe, but clothing from on high to preach the [p. 196] gospel. That is not the best robe, it is the power. The best robe is to wear in the drawing room, so to speak, but the gospel is in mind here, the working principles of it, the workman’s clothes.
Ques Is the anointing in mind here?
JT The anointing is in mind. The Lord is seen in that way, as we began with in chapter 4: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor ...” Luke 4:18. Well now, we have the anointing of the apostles. They are anointed. Hence Peter stands up with the eleven, not with the hundred and twenty. The hundred and twenty would have only the sense of being in the assembly. The twelve are anointed to preach.
AD What about open-air preaching?
JT Well, that is a good point. We started it in New York and a good few went out — brothers and sisters. No doubt the Lord is pleased with it.
LES What would you say if we have not any one able to preach or having a gift in regard of the preaching in our localities?
JT Then we have to see that we have no one to preach, and we must wait until we get someone. Our prayers come into that. That is the way it stands here.
LES We do not bring the Lord into these matters sufficiently.
JT That is so. I speak feelingly, the Lord would have us ask for help in these matters, be concerned about them.
JWD It is deplorable if there is no gift for the preaching, because the gifts are with the Lord Himself; the Corinthians came behind in no gift.
JT That is exactly it. See how the Lord gave an example to His apostles. He spent the whole night in prayer. How He would ask the Father for each one of those apostles: He told Peter that He had prayed for [p. 197] him.
LES The testimony here in our public position is really the preaching.
JT Well, it is. However small it may be, if there is power someone will be converted by it. We hear of one here and there. Elijah put his face between his knees when coming to the final issue, because that involves prayer, praying with prayer. He prayed with prayer for rain and it came. He sent his servant to see what was there, to look out westward towards the Mediterranean, the western world, and he saw a cloud as big as a man’s hand. Not much, you say, but it soon came. He sent to Ahab, “Go down, that the pour of rain stop thee not” (1 Kings 18:44).
CCT What about the lifting up of His hands? “And he led them out as far as Bethany, and having lifted up his hands, he blessed them”.
JT The Lord would say, I want to make you happy, and bring you into the gain of what is in My mind, because it is a happy scene, a happy time; the Lord is just filling it up, an evangelical time. “And having lifted up his hands, he blessed them”, having led them out as far as Bethany.
Ques Is that priestly service?
JT That is just so. And all this, dear brethren, rouses Him to act in a spirit of blessing, because Christianity is a period of blessing. Aaron was told what to say when he blessed. “And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel: saying unto them, Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee; Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace” (Numbers 6:22 - 26). And this is the true Aaron lifting up His hands and blessing them. And then it is said, “And it came to pass as he was blessing them, he was separated from them and was carried up into heaven”. The word ‘carried’ there is remarkable. It shows how much heaven thought of Him. Not the thought of ascending as in John, but here the Lord is carried up into heaven, showing how much heaven thought of Him.
Ques Did not Zacharias become charged with this in the beginning of Luke?
JT He was really a priest in the end. That is what is connected with the gospel, this priestly function. Preachers are happy men. It is the blessed God. It means the happy God — it is the idea of God as seen in the gospel. The glorious gospel of the blessed God.
JWD “For which cause I put thee in mind to rekindle the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands”, 2 Timothy 1:6. That is connected with the testimony of the Lord in the glad tidings.
JT “Rekindle” — it had got a little bit dim, it had to be rekindled. You have to keep on using a gift; it is given for use, you know.
JWD As we are listening to what is coming out this afternoon there should be rekindling going on, as to the importance of the gospel amongst us. It should have to say to apathy, this going on with the gospel from week to week in an apathetical sort of a way. It is to be preached in power as it was at the beginning.
SWP Luke is the only evangelist that tells us that they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Is that in keeping with what has been said?
JT Very good. Paul has it too, in his first journey: “And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit”, (Acts 13:52). That is a wonderful chapter full of evangelisation. And the end is the disciples filled with joy, and the Holy Spirit. We cannot say much more, the time is gone, but the word here is, “And it came to pass as he was blessing them”. Notice it is as He was doing it. That is the attitude in which He went into heaven. “He was separated from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, having done him homage, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God”. Now it is significant that all this was done at Bethany, not on the Mount of Olives but at Bethany; it was the place of love. Bethany was the place of love. “And he led them out as far as Bethany”. So there was the proper sphere there, the sphere in keeping with what was in His mind and they were left behind Him in happy conditions. And they go to the temple at Jerusalem as though they are powerful enough to claim it with this thing. They go to the temple at Jerusalem before the upper room is mentioned.
NB What would be the application to us today?
JT The brethren are in happy circumstances. We are to be in the local meeting as happy people. The brethren must go along and carry on the idea of the gospel preachings. Carry on the gospel with what is available, the best available. Carry on the gospel in free happy conditions. So that the persons who are listening will say, ‘These people have something’.
AD It is significant in relation to the joy attached to the gospel what the angel says at the outset: “Fear not, for behold, I announce to you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people”, (Luke 2:10). He evangelises to them.
JT Very good. “To all the people; for today a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10,11). And then there is the chorus from heaven, the place He is given up there: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, (Luke 2:13,14)a very significant opening [p. 200] to Luke.
LES There is a great correspondence with Paul in the end of Acts where it is said, “Be it known to you therefore, that this salvation of God has been sent to the nations; they also will hear it” Acts 28:28. And then the last two verses, “And he remained two whole years in his own hired lodging, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all freedom unhinderedly” Acts 28:30,31. Would that be the climax of the throne of grace presented in Paul’s ministry?
JT It is remarkable, it is in his own hired house at Rome. One has often thought of the closing verses of the second treatise of Luke. It is his own hired house — it is his own — it is in the hands of Paul, that is what the significance is. It was his own hired house where he received all that came to him.