THE ASSEMBLY AS SEEN IN THE CLOSE OF THE GOSPELS (5)
[p. 80] THE ASSEMBLY AS SEEN IN THE CLOSE OF THE GOSPELS (5)
JT What was intimated at the outset was that Luke has a system of grace in mind with which the assembly is identified, and this chapter bears out the thought. The Lord is again seen here upon earth before His ascension so as to keep in mind manhood in Him, and so it is seen in its beautification of life, not simply in the basic thoughts of it which are most important. What an opportunity is given for examination of humanity according to God, to be used systematically in view of the testimony of God in a world-wide sense! Now we have Luke’s point of view, but still with Jesus on earth, but risen and seen in life, presented indeed in life. So that our thoughts are, as it were, lifted to the beauty of life in Christ and that in operation, for operation is in mind in the system, not exactly what we shall have in eternity, but what is here in the Spirit; although we do not propose to look into the thought of the Spirit in the second chapter, but only to pursue the idea of humanity in the Lord as seen finally in this chapter. It was in mind to call attention, at the outset, to how early the thought of the Lord’s ascension is seen in the gospel of Luke. The time of His receiving up is mentioned in chapter 9 confirming that there was haste, as it were, in reaching the position in heaven, the position contemplated. Peter later says in Acts 3:21, “Whom heaven indeed must receive”. He is there, received, but carries on in view of the assembly, not in view of the prophetic feature of the testimony, but of the assembly; not in view of the millennium, but the assembly, and so there is the completion of the twelve, the administrative side of the position in the twelve apostles.
AEH [p. 81] How do you reconcile the waiting forty or fifty days until the Spirit came with the idea of haste?
JT The idea of haste is not stressed in the Acts, but rather, levitical principles are seen more in the Acts and carried out in the apostles and even in the Lord Himself. The book of Acts is intended to convey for the whole dispensation the principles by which service or administration is to be governed. I was thinking that we have to make allowance for time in the book of Acts so that things should be properly done, and we also have much said of geographic position as well as time.
AEH The chapter starts with the eleven, but soon we have others added reaching one hundred and twenty. The system is expanded and time brings it to ourselves.
JT Quite so, and also the idea of life is pursued in the chapter, for the idea of names alludes to life. There is the distinction that life gives, involving names. All that is in keeping with this preliminary chapter.
AB What have you in mind in setting the prophetic side against the assembly?
JT Peter says in Acts, “Whom heaven indeed must receive till the times of the restoring of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since time began” Acts 3:21. The allusion to the prophets “since time began” is a remarkable statement; that order of things is held in abeyance to make way for the assembly. What the prophets have to say is held in abeyance; it has not the first place.
MO Is that what the Lord has in mind in John 17, “I sanctify myself”. Is that His service in relation to the assembly period?
JT Yes, that chapter relates to the assembly period. We can name it, because we know enough [p. 82] of the assembly to do so, but this matter of “since time began” is literally ‘holy since-time-began prophets’; they belong to time whereas the assembly takes precedence now, and the Lord is received in heaven in view of that. The prophetic period is held in abeyance, but is of great importance, and the Lord is actually waiting on high until the time for that, as Psalm 110:1 says. The book of Acts and particularly Paul will tell us what is occupying Him now.
AEH In the verse following your reference to the prophets, Moses is spoken of and the prophetic ministry in that dispensation. “Whatsoever soul shall not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people” Acts 3:23. That is in abeyance for the operations of this system of grace.
JT Yes, it is. Peter was setting out the faith period so he says in chapter 3:16, “And, by faith in his name, his name has made this man strong whom ye behold and know; and the faith which is by him has given him this complete soundness in the presence of you all” Acts 3:16. Faith is greatly stressed there, in that which Peter is now engaged with, the present period, what we have ventured to call a sort of nondescript period or dispensation awaiting the time of which the prophets spoke since time began. The Lord will take all that up presently, but in the meantime He is going on with the assembly.
AB Is that the import of Acts 1:7, in regard to the times and seasons?
JT That is the idea; that is put off. They were preoccupied with their own matters, whether the kingdom would be restored to Israel. The Lord says that is the Father’s matter. Your position is to wait for the Spirit and I will carry on certain things in which you are being engaged. The gospel was to be preached when the Holy Spirit was sent from [p. 83] heaven.
AR Prophecy in relation to the future is connected with time, whereas there is no time limit to the feast of weeks which foreshadows Christianity.
JT Yes, it refers to Christianity. The first of Acts refers to what is brought out of our houses (Leviticus 23:17).
RWS In regard to the beautification of life which you spoke of, is the assembly period to be filled out by the living movements of the Lord Jesus, His coming in and going out?
JT I think so. How attractive He is in life! He is attractive in all settings, but notice that He presents Himself as if He would be known in a certain way, which I think is very suggestive. The book begins, “I composed the first discourse, O Theophilus, 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; to whom also he presented himself living, after he had suffered, with many proofs; being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things which concern the kingdom of God”. We can understand that there would not be the same haste here as in Luke 24. In Luke 24 there is the idea of reaching the administrative period so that the gospel should go out without delay, according to God, from Jerusalem. The geographic position is stressed. Now we are dealing with how Christ is presented to us, beautiful and attractive in life, so that the dispensation might be set out accordingly, the Spirit coming in after this, but the beautiful thoughts of life developed in the Lord Jesus must belong peculiarly to this dispensation.
CR It was so attractive to Luke that he presents Him to Theophilus at this time. In Luke 1 he is addressed as “most excellent Theophilus”.
JT All that is meant is that Theophilus is a more spiritual man now. Luke did not have to use terms of courtesy and respect for he is ready to learn that greater things attached to the Lord Jesus in life.
HGH What is the difference between receiving the Holy Spirit and being baptised with the Holy Spirit as referred to in verse 5 of our chapter?
JT Well, the reception is spoken of in John 20. He breathed into them, but reception, I suppose, is a right word. Paul says, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” (Acts 19:2) It was a gift, spoken of in Luke. “How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11:13. That is the ground of the reception of the Holy Spirit, but the baptism is an external matter. It is taken up from the idea of baptism, which is immersion. John the baptist says that it was said to him, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33,34). It would connect with the cup of the Lord’s supper. We have all been made to drink into one Spirit, for in the power of the one Spirit, we are all baptised into one body. The baptism of the Holy Spirit brings in the body.
AEH The note to the word ‘with’ in Matthew 3:11 gives the meaning as ‘in the power of; be it external or simply the nature and character of, but always including the latter’; it is the nature and character of the thing as well as the outward public exhibition of it.
JT I think that is helpful. The baptism of the Spirit would be the idea of immersion, that is, that it covers us. It is a question of power but includes the formation of the body. “So also is the Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). “The Christ” is the public idea involving [p. 85] the body.
HGH Does the thought of baptism suggest that the Holy Spirit takes control?
JT I think so. John contrasts the Lord with himself. It is well understood that John baptised with water, but the Lord Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit. It was well understood that the idea of baptism meant immersion, whether by water or by the Spirit. The idea is carried forward in the epistle of Corinthians, “so also is the Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). It is the public position of the assembly, as in baptism. In the power of one Spirit we are all baptised into one body.
MO Would it link on with Acts 1:8, the idea of witnesses in the public side of the testimony?
JT Well, it does. That is what the Lord is stressing among the disciples. He says, “But ye will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. That is the position. Instead of the kingdom being restored to Israel, what is set over against that is the position of the Spirit, and the disciples had to come to that, to make way for that. That would be the great dominating thing in Christianity — the presence of the Spirit.
ABP It says, “And there came suddenly a sound out of heaven ass of a violent impetuous blowing, and filled all the house where they were sitting”, (Acts 2:2). They were engulfed in the thing.
JT Just so. It was the Spirit, really God, taking charge of things in chapter 2.
ANW In connection with Cornelius and his household it is a lavish idea, poured out upon the nations. The gift of the Spirit was poured out.
JT I suppose the thought would be to stress the lavishness of the gift of the Spirit and how full is the provision made in Him for Christianity. We have, of [p. 86] course, something like it in the millennial day according to the second chapter, but it is not just what we have in Christianity. We have the outward thing in the Spirit poured out and given in that sense, but the inward too as in John 20.
TEH Do you link the suggestion in Ezekiel? “And he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds” Ezekiel 37:9.
JT Well, it is a question of prophesying which is hardly the thought in the incoming of the Spirit, which is an inward matter. Speaking reverently, I believe the inwards of God are involved in the breathing, impetuous blowing or breathing. That is the idea and it refers to Christianity. Of course, at Pentecost it is the public side, “sat upon each one of them” (Acts 2:3) and the house was filled, but it was Christianity. God is saying that He is coming in in His own way, and with adequate means of setting up and maintaining Christianity, involving the assembly.
AEM Is there some significance in that, after the reference in Acts 1:5, to the baptism of the Holy Spirit; we read, “After now not many days. They therefore, being come together”. Is that the response in the disciples coming into evidence, the organism taking shape?
JT Would you not link it with what we had already in Luke 24? We do not get it in John 20:19, for there it is said, “where the disciples were”; but in Luke 24:33 when the two come back from Emmaus, it is said, “They found the eleven, and those with them, gathered together”. John does not say that, but, “where the disciples were”. “Being come together” makes way for the public administrative assembly, because the eleven were there, meaning the twelve would be there in principle. That is what is meant, and so the idea of together is of note in [p. 87] this chapter, and in the next; in fact, in the whole book the idea of “together” is notable.
FNW Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body”. Would you help us as to how we come into this baptism with the Holy Spirit?
JT Well, it is one thing, a great general thought. Of course, we come into it individually. I do not know that I would consider myself as baptised by myself, not that I would say much about that, but I think it is a great general thought, one idea as marking the dispensation.
CAM Would you say a further word about this matter of being gathered together. The fact that we sit down at a certain time, that we are all here, would in itself, I suppose, involve the idea that some mystical thing takes place that causes us to be assembled. I mean that the mere physical fact that we are all together at a certain time does not mean we are assembled in this way.
JT No, but it is implied in chapter 2, “And when the day of Pentecost was now accomplishing, they were all together in one place” Acts 2:1. That is governing thought that runs through the dispensation, I would say. In the end of the second chapter all who believed were together, meaning that they were together in heart, wherever they were, which is important. To be gathered together suggests the assembly in its functioning capacity and so Matthew says, “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20, which is another side of the position; where the Lord is when we are gathered together. I think what you mean is that there is a sort of unseen power that acts upon us to gather us and where that is the Lord says, “There am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). But we see here at the outset of Christianity that first the apostles were together. They were all together when [p. 88] the Spirit came, but afterward there is the preaching and the gathering of three thousand. It says that all that believed were together, meaning that wherever we are we should be in spirit together. We should never lose the sense of being all of one company.
JTJr Do you think the apostle in writing to the Hebrews would have this sort of thing in mind, partaking of the Holy Spirit, and tasting of the heavenly gift and the powers of the world to come? He is alluding to this very thing, what is going on among us at the present time.
JT Quite so. It might be that persons externally with us, who might fall away, are contemplated; they might even be partakers of the heavenly gift, and fall away, but still the allusion is to this very thing, when together.
ANW “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25).
AB In Genesis 49 Jacob says, “Gather yourselves” but then he says, “Assemble yourselves”. Jacob rightly in his place says, “Assemble yourselves” in view of their hearing — to listen to Israel their father.
JT That is a very orderly and prophetic position, which really runs into what we are saying. I am glad that matter of together came up, but there are certain things we should notice in the first paragraph that enter into the special word that the Lord was there forty days. “I composed the first discourse, O Theophilus, 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”. I thought we might pay attention to the idea of being charged, how the Spirit is brought in here in a peculiar, definite way, that as risen the Lord acts by the Spirit. It is an element of the dispensation, that things are done by the Spirit and the charge is by [p. 89] the Spirit and the persons charged are the chosen ones; that is, we are on elevated ground, as it were, the full platform on which Christianity is set. The Lord charged by the Spirit the apostles whom He had chosen.
ABP Does that link on with John 20:21, “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”?
JT Yes, the charge involves certain solemn responsibilities placed on them. In verse 6 they dropped to a lower level in talking about the kingdom of Israel. It seems as if the Lord would tell us that Christianity began with great dignity. All that we have said about humanity in Christ is involved in this, but in this chapter we are in the presence of dignity, and rich beautification, and choice of persons, and the authority of the persons; [p. 98] the apostles whom He had chosen and then the presentation of Himself living after He had suffered. All these thoughts are most beautiful, I think, and present the dignity of the dispensation even before the Spirit came, showing the vessel is great enough to receive the Spirit and retain Him, as it were.
HB Would it be right to bring in the thought of Aaron’s rod that budded and blossomed? It was to be a testimony before the people night and day.
JT It would. There was a great result after the uprising of Korah’s company. All that was the outcome of Korah’s rebellion. What an order of things God set up in the power of life, for that is what is meant.
TS Does this matter of beautification that you referred to earlier go with 2 Chronicles in connection with Solomon’s regime?
JT Quite so. You mean what the Queen of Sheba saw.
DP I want to ask if the presentation of Himself living would be to set out the idea of victory over death.
JT [p. 90] Well, it would be. I think the word ‘beautification’ is good. The beauty is involved in life as seen in Christ. It is man in Christ, but in view of the dispensation in which we are. It is all presented here as inaugural, carrying beautification, carrying what is necessary to accentuate the greatness and beauty of the moment and what is going to result from it; that is, the great thought of the assembly is coming into it.
AEH Peter says in chapter 3 verse 16, “By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong whom ye behold and know: and the faith which is by him has given him this complete soundness in the presence of you all” Acts 3:16. Would you connect that with Ephesians 4, the full-grown man that we are to arrive at?
JT Well, quite so. The full-grown man is undoubtedly a full-grown person, and the idea is set out in Peter and John. It is the Peter and John chapter. This man in Acts 3 is added to give fulness to the position, the result of faith operating, so that Peter says, “Look on us”. It is a question of what is to be seen there.
AR The carved half-open flowers in the temple would represent that? Half-open flowers suggest life.
JT Very good. It is a beautiful thought meaning that they are fresh, opening up, not stale or fading fruit, but fresh and beautiful. The temple was marked by that.
AMacD Do we see some of this beautiful fruit in the Song of Solomon which we feel the Lord is opening up to us in these last days in a beautiful way?
JT It sets out the assembly, how it operates in the Lord’s supper. God is only mentioned in the song under the name of Jah, which is an abstract thought, and hardly the feature of the book. It is a [p. 91] question of Christ in the assembly as introducing the service of God.
ABP When Lazarus came forth from the grave, bound feet and hands and the napkin over his face, the loosing of Lazarus and the movements that would result in life would be similar to what we have in this chapter.
JT Quite so, the point is to show what was there, the living condition that was there; he became a testimony to those who came to see him.
JTJr Peter refers to the Lord as the Originator of life. Would that be the idea of life set out in persons? The Lord set it out Himself and then others.
JT That is good. It seems as if we should now proceed to examine the chapter. We have reached verse 10. It says, “And as they were gazing into heaven, as he was going, behold, also two men stood by them in white clothing, who also said. Men of Galilee, why do ye stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called the mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey off. And when they were come into the city, they went up to the upper chamber, where were staying both Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the zealot, and Jude the brother of James. These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer, with several women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”. What is to be noted is, that after the earlier remarks, we are shown the whole number of the apostles and their companions, we may say, in an upper room, as if the Spirit would show us the basis of Christianity in the upper room;
[p. 92] that is, what is there and what is to become enlarged in the sense of authority, and then in the sense of personal acquirements in the knowledge of Jesus and the brethren; as if we are to understand what we have come into in Christianity, what was set there by the Lord to inaugurate and conserve what was in His mind, to preserve it in an out-of-the-world state of things. There is no religious building or anything such as that would enhance us externally, but what was there was enough to preserve what is of God and promote it and keep it going.
APT These two men seem to be cognisant of the Lord’s movements. They know something about Him.
JT It seems as if it is in keeping with what we have remarked on the idea of man, not angels, in this setting; then in keeping with that, the position which marked the company, “in those days Peter, standing up in the midst of the brethren, said (the crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty)”. The idea of names would refer to life which was there, and which gave distinction to them, and then there is Peter’s position as giving a lead indicating what should be done, which is a matter of great importance in a crisis, to know what to do and to do it in a dignified way. The names point to dignity or distinction among the brethren. What are we unless there is some spiritual distinction attached to us, not simply so many persons, but persons with distinction?
CAM Would you regard the upper room as a moral idea?
JT Just so, because it is a conservatory of all the Lord Jesus had done. It says He “began both to do and to teach”, and then the company of persons, not simply official persons, but the persons generally are distinctive in their names. That is, we ought to know one another. “Greet the friends by name” (3 John 14).
[p. 93] We ought to know one another even in these general meetings. We appreciate one another by our names. Affection runs in that current.
CAM Regarding the upper room, Jerusalem too, is a moral idea as I understand, but it is a city with boundaries at the same time.
JT We have measurements taken from it to Emmaus.
CAM As to practical matters in our localities, do the dwellings of the saints stand relative to some boundary line, and is the boundary line in regard to a city, rather than to the upper room idea? It becomes a practical matter because you measure the distance from your home to the meeting room.
JT I think Jerusalem would be measured from the temple. It would be the centre of gathering, where the people were. The walls in themselves are nothing. It is where the people are, where the disciples were.
JKP Is that borne out in verse 8? The matter of witnessing comes in there, “in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. Would that be the idea?
JT I think so, that is where the people were. When Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to see about matters, they were received by the apostles. It is a question of people; there would be something in the walls of the city of course, from a military or political point of view; but as regards the fellowship and the enjoyment of things, and the light, we must have the people. The Lord comes to where the disciples were.
AP Would these persons carry forward characteristically the manhood features of Christ?
JT Just so. Every name there would be some reflection of Christ, as for instance. Peter, his name Cephas would suggest something of the [p. 94] assembly.
AB Would verse 14 bear on that, “These gave themselves all with one accord”. There were no reserves. All the principles of life were there in beautiful character.
JT Yes, in dependence on God and leadership. “These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer, with several women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”. I think the feminine side is usually a modifying feature. There is no evidence that there were any women at the Lord’s supper when it was instituted. The apostles were there, but here we have the women, the feminine side, and it would look as if the divine intent was that the assembly should be composed of women as well as men. There is a modifying influence by the feminine side which runs through Scripture.
TEH In the matter of the cities they were to measure to the nearest city in connection with the slain man in Deuteronomy 21.
JT But what would you do without a people? When Boaz had something in mind, he called for the people. The matter necessitated the people.
JKP You were speaking of the matter of distinction. Does that thought go beyond the upper room idea, carrying into the sphere of public testimony?
JT That is right, because we have not the idea of the upper room there so much, of course, but what we read is, “And in those days Peter, standing up in the midst of the brethren, said, (the crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty)”. I would think the crowd of names would imply what was public, and worth looking at. Of course, they were inside. No doubt the meeting was there, but still there is the idea that it would be a public testimony, the distinction that marks the brethren: for instance, no one with any sensibilities [p. 95] coming into this hall would fail to see that there is distinction marking the persons of a kind that is not seen in any ordinary people of the world.
JB Would you have the same thing in chapter 13 at Antioch where you have those together and the names mentioned?
JT Yes, it is not a crowd there, but certain names known by their distinction. The last one is Saul. The point was they were ministering to the Lord and fasting. They carried the idea of the dispensation strikingly in Antioch, from the Jewish position to the nations in Antioch. The service of God was transferred among the nations. That is what marked that situation. The service of God was carried out among the nations in these distinguished persons.
JB What was set up at the beginning is carried through in that way, is it not?
JT Well, it is, and what was at Antioch was equal to what had been at Jerusalem. The scattering had already taken place but the thought was carried on by Barnabas and Saul particularly, because they had ministered in Antioch for a whole year, showing that dignity was maintained outside of Palestine.
DP The distinctive features that marked the disciples here would be a distinct advance on what had preceded.
JT It is a question of intelligence here really; the handiwork of the Lord Jesus personally is seen there in the upper room, and the word ‘names’ implies that each had a distinction, some ray of glory in each of them, I believe, in the sense of life. Not that the Spirit had come, but the idea of life in the Spirit. The work of Christ had that character.
FKC I think you have said that the hundred and twenty represent what is greater in quality than the three thousand. Did you have that in [p. 96] mind?
JT I think so, because it was the handiwork of the Lord personally, which is a very precious thing, what the Lord Himself did before the Spirit came.
AR It would affect the whole earth, would it not? It speaks later in the Acts of turning the world upside down.
JT Just so, the handiwork of the Lord there is seen in one and another. How much each could tell them, and his brethren, how much they, who were there before the Spirit came in, could tell the disciples about the Lord Jesus.
MO Would not Peter’s skill in taking up this matter of Judas suggest the Lord’s handiwork too?
JT Well, that is another thing, not so attractive as what we are speaking of now, but it is remarkable that Judas is brought in here. We have awful conditions of humanity in the world at the present time, degraded, murderous humanity, and life made so cheap. It is the same with Judas, a remarkable product. There was nothing at all commendable about him and now we have the terrible kind of thing that happened to him. Peter says, “Brethren, it was necessary that the scripture should have been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before, by the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who became guide to those who took Jesus; for he was numbered amongst us, and had received a part in this service. (This man then indeed got a field with the reward of iniquity, and, having fallen down headlong, burst in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that that field was called in their own dialect Aceldama; that is, field of blood.)” It seems to me it is a terrible thought brought in by the Spirit here in the introduction of Christianity. That kind of thing had to be contended with, and the names are over against that. It is over against what God has and the fruit of Christ’s own handiwork, the kind of [p. 97] humanity He brought in and which alone stands the test at the present time.
AEH Is there a warning in it in regard to association with what is religious? He was guide to those who took Jesus.
JT Well, it shows what is possible within the scope of the assembly publicly. How incorrigible the flesh is under the most favourable influences. While the Lord Jesus came in and went out among them, Judas was there.
ABP Is it not delightful to heaven now that there should be a vessel here concerned about the fulfilment of Scripture? The Lord opened their understanding, but there was care in their hearts, that it would be fulfilled.
JT Peter makes that point in his address. What the world is full of now, accentuates the need for maintaining the kind of humanity that is set out in Christ, and the apostles too. They were capable of being developed in the highest order of humanity. It brings up the necessity of distinction which belongs to Christians, those who have the Spirit, the distinction that belongs to Christians and the assembly too.
R-. Would that distinction be seen in what the apostle says in Colossians, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved” Colossians 3:12?
JT Quite so, so that Peter’s address takes up the question of the Scriptures and leadership, and then the exposure of the thing that brought in all the sorrow; that is, Judas. Then the Spirit turns to the idea of the person needed to make the apostleship complete. “And they appointed two, Joseph, who was called Barsabas, who had been surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed, and said, Thou Lord, knower of the hearts of all, shew which one of these two thou hast chosen”. It is a question of choice. At the beginning of the chapter it says,
“The apostles whom he had chosen” and it is a question of choice now. “To receive the lot of this service and apostleship, from which Judas transgressing fell to go to his own place”. That reminds us of antichrist really. He is going to his own place. “And they gave lots on them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles”. That is, the apostleship is complete, which points to the new order of things and involves administration.
CR Probably Peter remembered the night the Lord spent in prayer over his selection.
JT You can see here what the tutorship of Christ really meant and how essential ministry is to us, because of the need of instruction among the brethren, each one taking up the need of being instructed.
AEM Is the lot falling on Matthias wholly a sovereign matter, or is there some distinction between the man who has three names and the man who has one? I was wondering if the Spirit, with the greater knowledge that pertains to Him, might indicate some refined distinction with the man whose name indicates more simple life and ways, with only one name. The Spirit would have more liberty where there is greater simplicity; perhaps there are more complications with a man who has so many names — relatives and business interests.
JT Especially if he changed his name for business or social reasons or had a hyphenated name.
HH Verse 20 uses the word ‘overseership’ and verse 25 ‘apostleship’. Would the thought of overseership reach down to the present time, such as spoken of in 1 Timothy 3?
JT Well, of course, Peter was an elder, that is, an overseer, I suppose, but then apostleship is really the issue here; that is, authority, and the lot fell on Matthias A,P.T. They say, “Thou Lord, knower of the hearts of all”. There may be something in this as a heart matter.
JT It is a sovereign matter too. It is a sovereign matter to name the apostles. The Lord named them and took great care; He spent the night in prayer before He named them. Here the idea of sovereignty must enter into it. Sovereignty implies that we are not now dealing with novices or beginners, but we are dealing with a great person called an apostle. We are thinking of him not simply as having an official name but his actual state must be known. Not only is God sovereign in making the selection, but it is necessary that his state be known. Judas’ state in the wisdom of God was never really known by the apostles. They never seem to have known him, but we should know one another and especially those in a position of trust or responsibility.
HH Psalm 109:8 says, “Let his days be few, let another take his office”. After all, Judas was only with the Lord a few years.
APT This matter of service among the brethren, involving a responsible matter such as an address or any service among the Lord’s people, necessitates that those who have it in their hand should be acquainted with the moral state, as well as the ability, in the one selected.
JT Quite so. It is very important, and to take the best advice you can get. Timothy had a good name, a good report among the brethren; and when it is a matter of a large number, it is all the more important that any person who is to be entrusted with a service should be reliable, not simply the brother who can speak well, but who is reliable as to the truth. That is the principle that is to be [p. 100] set out.
JKP Is that the reason for service preceding apostleship? It says, “Shew which one of these two thou hast chosen, to receive the lot of this service and apostleship”.
JT So that the word is earlier, “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole decision is of Jehovah”, (Proverbs 16:33). They follow that here. Matthias had been there during all the time in which the Lord Jesus had come in and gone out. Justus was too, but Matthias was selected, meaning God knew better than the brethren. Of course, we have to trust one another and it is certainly important to get reliability in ministry, not simply those who can say things o give addresses, but those who are reliable in what they say.