FORMATION OF ASSEMBLY MATERIAL
[p. 100] FORMATION OF ASSEMBLY MATERIAL
JT These scriptures are read with a view to the consideration of assembly material and incidentally that we might also see something of the skilled workmanship that is needed both in the procuring of the material and in its formation.
We were noticing recently, some of us, how unskilled workmanship may acquire greater outward results than the skilled workmanship.
CAC That is most important and helpful for us.
JT After Stephen’s death many who were scattered abroad carried the glad tidings as far as Antioch, with great outward results, but more skilled workmanship had to follow to make the results suitable for the divine purpose. Philip had great results at Samaria, but Peter and John came down to perfect the work. Philip did not perfect it; and the others went into Antioch and preached to the Greeks so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord. But Barnabas had to come, and Saul of Tarsus had to come, to perfect the work and make it suitable for the divine purpose. Then we find too, that in the work of the greatest workman, the most skilled, that is Paul, there were very few outward results from his early preaching. His work, according to chapter 11, too, after he was brought to Antioch, was to perfect the work of others. For a whole year he and Barnabas toiled to teach them in the assembly. They taught a large crowd, we are told, in the assembly. It does not say they were used to convert them — they taught them.
Ques Is it your thought that that might obtain [p. 101] today?
JT It is obtaining. Those that are least skilled seem to get the most results outwardly, but the great concern is that divine ends should be reached, and for that we need skilled workmen.
Ques What is the divine end?
JT Well, there are two. The first, as to the immediate need, is to have material for the assembly here, brothers and sisters who understand the assembly, who know how to function and support the testimony in divine power. The second and ultimate end is that we should fit in with the divine counsel. God has His own number chosen before the foundation of the world and He is seeking these, so that it comes out in Paul. On his first great missionary journey he and Barnabas went down to Cyprus and traversed the whole island and did not get anyone save Elymas, and he was an opposer, and the man that God had in His mind to secure, that is the deputy of the island. And then in Acts 13: 48 those that were ordained to eternal life believed; meaning that that side comes out with skilled workmen. They are not thinking of the results as reflecting themselves, accrediting themselves, but as answering to the divine counsels, a notable thing to be mentioned in regard to the greatest workman: and I believe that these remarks have a peculiar application today because of the apparent results by unskilled people, persons who hardly know the assembly at all.
CAC Did you think that that was what we should have specially in view now, the development of things according to the whole counsel of God?
JT I believe that is what God is aiming at. At the beginning of the revival, of course, there were great public results, but that phase came to an end in the great division; and since that division what has been prominent is the assembly and the house, and that is more and more stressed by the Spirit, I think. The Lord is calling for skilled workmen so that [p. 102] the saints might be perfected, that there might be something answering to His mind in the end.
Rem So the Lord spoke of finishing the work which was given Him to do.
JT Quite so. His was to do the will of God and to finish. John’s ministry would stress that — what is finished, and so it is said in Acts 14: 26, “and thence they sailed away to Antioch;” that is, attention is called to the workmen, that they are workmen who had gone the full limit of what is required. They fulfilled their mission, and what marks the chapter is the setting up of assemblies, and leaders selected in each assembly, so that the mind of God is answered to in each locality, the assemblies standing up on their own feet.
Ques Would that be the course of things when the apostle went on his two or three tours to see how they did? He was used of God, the first time to lay the foundation and the second time to perfect the work.
JT That is right. So that you find in the beginning of this second journey in chapter 15 Paul passed through Syria and Cilicia. It is further stated that “the assemblies therefore were confirmed in the faith, and increased in number every day”.
Rem So that confirmation and increase was the evidence of good workmanship.
JT That is the way the matter stands. I think the Spirit of God has written this carefully to call attention to the workmanship, material and the results, how the assemblies were set up on their own feet severally with leaders in each. That is what I think we might see in these two cases, a certain man in Lystra, and Lydia, the kind of material for local gatherings. The first as to spiritual formation, the man at Lystra had never walked and he represents the gentiles that had never walked or pleased God. The material is taken up entirely as in itself. He could [p. 103] never be of any service as he was. Now he walks. It says: “He sprang up and walked”. That is the kind of material that will be available in a local company. I believe Lystra is mentioned later to remind us of this, as having an assembly and leaders appointed there. Then Lydia is the kind of material that will also be needed in the local assembly. She is a business woman, indicative of the source or kind of people that are drawn upon, business people, whether brothers or sisters. She is qualified in that God opened her ear to attend. There can be no assembly conditions without that, without persons whose hearts are opened. Paul is the great assembly minister, the wise architect, and unless we attend to what he says in our locality we shall not answer to the mind of God in the assembly locally.
Ques Is Paul’s ministry very important?
JT Yes, it is important, that is the point. Those who turn aside from the path in independence as a rule do not pay attention to it; they do not observe it in its true character.
Ques What would answer to this walking at the present time?
JT It is the way you move about in any given locality, how you should walk. I think it refers to the saints’ movements in our localities. A business woman might be known in a universal way, travelling overseas. Phoebe too, another business woman, apparently travelled to Rome. Such a journey is a tax on a christian as to whether he has ability to maintain things. Travelling on the ocean, for instance, is very taxing to christians as to their spiritual power and whether they can keep aloof from the spirit of the world.
Rem The man in chapter 14 heard Paul speaking.
JT I think he represents the work of God. He heard Paul speaking and Paul discerned in him that he had faith, faith for what is so needed. Lydia is [p. 104] more a type of one whom the Lord could affect. The Lord opened her heart. It is more differential in her case. She is a woman of potential quality. She is a business woman who had come from another city and she was a seller of purple and one who worshipped, meaning that she was a proselyte. She attended the synagogue, but she attended the prayer meeting also. Her business seemed to help. It did not hinder. No legitimate business should hinder. Indeed the business becomes an occasion of the truth shining out, that I can be a heavenly person and sell real estate or dry goods or whatever it may be. Lydia was a seller of purple — that would be dyes. Her business was to sell them. These dyes may be used to embellish the world but that was not her business; she sold them.
Ques Is what you are suggesting as a work of God in contrast to what the Lord says to Sardis: “I have not found thy works complete”?
JT That is a good suggestion, because the Lord is laying it open, to look into the state of the saints. The Lord alludes to finding, meaning that he had looked into it: “I have not found”. The great principle of examination of work is in Exodus, where the material is furnished by the people and then it is put into use and the work brought to Moses and Moses passes it and blesses them. That is what the Lord does. He had not found the work in Sardis perfect. There was much being done but it was not perfect. I suppose all the great religious evangelism in the last century would be included, great activity with apparent results, but the Lord says, “I have not found”.
RWS Is it not suggestive that in each scripture read where material is secured and perfected extreme suffering is contemplated?
JT The character of the enemy’s attack against the ministers should also be noted; it involves [p. 105] suffering.
FI These two instances show much energy and activity; is it greater than what is seen as a result of the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship in Acts 2?
JT I think Acts 2 is intended by God to stand by itself. There is very little said as to regulation. They are told to be baptised but there is very little said as to regulation and the imposition of assembly principles. I think that God intended the movement at Pentecost to stand out as an evidence of his own direct work.
The description given is very striking in the end of the chapter, but the regulations that belong to Paul’s ministry are not there. I think it is intended to stand out as evidence of the immediate results of the Spirit in volume. It awaited Paul to work out what God had in his mind, that is, companies of saints set up throughout the world.