HEAVENLY-MINDEDNESS IN THE LOCAL POSITION
[p. 116] HEAVENLY-MINDEDNESS IN THE LOCAL POSITION
JT These scriptures speak of the value of the saints in the divine eyes; indeed Luke would make much of this side, the saints viewed as the result of the gospel; he leaves us with them in this book as “praising and blessing God”. They are seen as essential to what God had in mind. This section, coming in after the transfiguration, views us more as pertaining to heaven. Chapter 9 speaks about the transfiguration and the Lord taking certain up to the mount, and the passage says, “Two men talked with him ... appearing in glory” (verses 30, 31), and the chapter further speaks of His being received up: “When the days of his receiving up were fulfilled” (verse 51). What transpired on the mount implied that, in being received up, He should not be there alone. The disciples were not equal to the position, but there were two there who were equal to it. They appeared in glory, and were in liberty speaking with the Lord as transfigured; because we have to bear in mind that it is as He is now that we are to know Him. We are to know Him and to be like Him. When we shall see Him we shall be like Him; and that implies that we shall be at liberty there and equal to holy converse with the Lord in His present glorified condition. These intervening chapters to the 15th have, I think, in mind the heavenly side of our position, what goes on in heaven, so that the Lord says here, “Rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice that [p. 122] your names are written in the heavens”. And then, in chapter 15 we have, as we have often noted, the three Persons of the Deity calling for sympathy in this very connection, calling for joyous sympathy.
The shepherd says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep”. The Spirit is seen under the type of the woman who found the lost piece of silver, and says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost”. Then the father, typifying God the Father Himself, entering deliberately into merry-making on account of the prodigal returned. So that these passages all point to what the saints are to God, or, as we may say, to the divine Persons; they are all brought into it. Luke, in his further treatise, pursues this thought as to the interventions of heaven, the light from heaven, and the vessel, the sheet, coming down from heaven and drawn up again. It is an amplifying of the same thought, the saints being heavenly, that indeed heaven is intended for them, that without them there would be a blank. That was what I was thinking of, that the saints might come into accord with heaven as to who the saints are, and how all this now takes form in the assembly pending our translation.
EuR Names “written in the heavens”.
JT Yes. The book is full of holy jubilance, beginning with such persons as Elizabeth and Mary, Zacharias, Simeon and Anna. They are occupied more with Christ as the occasion of the joy, but in these later chapters the saints come into view as also essential to God, so that divine Persons themselves are jubilant over the saints.
Rem “It was right to make merry;” who did that?
JT I take it to be the Father, and the servants are included in that. The whole scene is jubilant in merry-making on account of this return. The bondmen, of course, are not hired servants as the prodigal had thought; he had thought of hired servants, but there are none. The nearer we get to God the less the thought of hired servants appears. God has bondmen, but that means they are like Christ, they are [p. 118] there in love. It would take a good few to make a dance (using the figure), the number is left open; the dance was in the house.
S Was their names being “written in the heavens” something much greater than the spirits subject on earth?
JT That is what the Lord points out, I think. He says, “I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven” (verse 18). That was much greater than anything they could speak of, the clearance of heaven; the Lord intimated there that the place designed for them would be cleared of Satan and that their names were there.
Ques So would the first rejoicing here be the great fact of God having secured through Christ that which would supersede Satan?
JT That is how it stands. It says, “In the same hour”, meaning that this earlier remark of the Lord’s entered into this rejoicing spirit, “in the same hour”. The very suggestion of their names written in heaven became the occasion of joy to Him. We are told He “rejoiced in spirit”.
EuR And then He wants the disciples to rejoice in that fact. Do we need to ask ourselves as to whether we have taken account of ourselves in this way as citizens of the heavenly city?
JT Well, I think we ought to begin to see what we are as first of all coming together in assembly. 1 Corinthians has in mind who we are, “called saints”, it says (chapter 1: 2); that we are no less than saints by calling; like Abraham, we are called. We have no saints by calling earlier than that. There were saints, of course, who valued what was there, such as Abel and Enoch; but in Abraham we have a call. So that we are on a higher level; we are called out, and then called into something, into the fellowship of God’s Son; and in chapter 12 we are anointed, like Abraham too: “Touch not mine anointed ones” (Psalm 105: 15). “So also is the Christ” (1 Corinthians 12: 12) means that the saints are anointed, hence the interest that heaven has in us as we move toward the assembly; as we leave our houses in view of the assembly, what there is for heaven, even before we sit down. The very walk of the saints, the footsteps of the flock, are delightful to the Lord. Then, in sitting down together, nothing is common. Even the court of the tabernacle is anointed. Whatever is done is under the anointing, nothing is common in what is done, whether it be the announcement of names, or information, or the box, everything takes on that character in the minds of intelligent persons. It is an anointed scene, and heaven so regards it, and we ought to awake in ourselves to the dignity of that even in the wilderness, for that is the point in the tabernacle, it was anointed in the wilderness (the temple was not anointed), everything is hallowed.
EuR So, as we sit down, should that great thought, “the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven” (Hebrews 12: 23) be before us?
JT Well, quite so, we go on to that, “registered in heaven”. The anointing is to dignify us here, I think, and it enters into our intelligence, how we understand, how we look at things. Paul would speak of it as “being enlightened in the eyes of your heart”, but John, in his epistle, would say that it implies our intelligence as well.
CG Is not this a very remarkable way in which the Lord addressed the Father, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and the earth”, speaking here as a Man?
JT Well, I think He gives us a lead here. The two men were speaking with Him on the mount; now He is speaking with the disciples and viewing them as having status in heaven, and having spoken of that, it says, “In the same hour”, as if the thought [p. 120] was in His mind; it was not, as it were, just immediate, but in the hour, the thought was in His mind. This thing is taking effect and it is an important matter, and Luke links on with His remark about their names being written in heaven, what follows in the Lord’s own spirit. He said to them that they should rejoice, but in that hour, He rejoiced in spirit and turns to the Father about it. He had spoken to them, but it would look as if there was continuance of the thought; it was taking hold in the hour, the idea of the prevalence of a thought, and how the Lord takes it up and speaks to the Father. He does not speak of their names being written in heaven to the Father, but He speaks to the Father of what He had done to these same persons.
EuR Would the intelligence that we receive by the anointing enter into the thought of “revealed them to babes” here?
JT I think so. I think the anointing is that which marks us off, as gathering together, apart from current religion around us. There is no such thing as anointing attached to any of these denominational services; it is all man’s order and device.
EuR “God has revealed to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2: 10). Would that fill out this dispensation, that these things have come to light, and the believer, as having the Spirit, has the capacity to take them in and respond to them? Would that enter into it?
JT Quite so, even in the initial speaking in the assembly the anointing appears, but these things that are revealed and which the Lord speaks of here are, I think, the heavenly side of our position; He connects them with the Father.
EuR In referring to Abraham, have you in mind what came out in Paul’s ministry as being more special than the ministry of the twelve?
JT Yes, and I think the anointing, while not spoken of in this passage, ought to be kept before us [p. 121] as regards the assembly, for some are apt to think that certain things are common, whereas the whole tabernacle is anointed, nothing is common.
Ques Would it be out of place to ask about the seventy?
JT Well, they are the ones that are sent out before Him into every city and place where He intended to come; that would allude to local assembly conditions. These seventy would promote conditions in every city and place to which the Lord was to come, principally in sons of peace. This section we have before us now is to enhance that, and bring the heavenly side into the local setting. So that the Lord returns to the local setting in the end of this chapter, in a certain village and in a certain woman’s house. Mary is at His feet; that is, she represents the side of intelligence, of taking in His mind. Then, in the next chapter, He was praying in a certain place and the disciples wanted to be taught how to pray. I think those verses we have read are the heavenly side, between the two thoughts: the seventy being sent out, and the Lord coming back to the idea of a locality, in a certain place. The heavenly side must enter into the local setting.
EuR Both Romans and 1 Corinthians begin with “called saints”, or “saints by calling”.
JT Quite so.
G Did it add character in that way to the local assembly?
JT I think so. I think we have to see, not only that we are gathered according to Corinthians, but that we are heavenly. How can we have conditions for divine Persons here, aside from apprehending Their circumstances up there?
Ques Would that give that buoyancy you alluded to this morning, the jubilance that enables us to rise?
JT I think it does if you lay hold of the heavenly part. That is what the Lord points to, “Rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”. It not only means our complete deliverance from earthly influences, but that we have come under the influence of the heavenly side, we are partakers of the heavenly calling.
Rem And rise above the adverse circumstances.
Ques Have you in mind that we have relations in the wilderness while heavenly in character?
JT Yes. The position in the wilderness in our several localities is to take colour from the heavenly; so, before you have any word of the tabernacle being built in Exodus, the saints go up and see the God of Israel; they see what His circumstances were. That is the principle.
EuR How do we arrive at that individually now? As having a place in the local assembly and calling on the Lord in a place, how do we get a glimpse of what is in heaven and persons there in relation one to another?
JT Well, according to Exodus, it is a matter of education. Chapter 24 begins with the divine thought that they should go up. The mind of God is a great matter; we are to get that, what His mind is for us. His mind is that they should go up, Moses and Aaron and seventy of the elders of Israel; that is, persons qualified to witness to what is there.
EuR So Mary is taking that in here; is that your suggestion?
JT Quite. Three went up in chapter 9, and they saw the glory.
Ques Do you mean that, as having taken account of God in those heavenly circumstances, we would have a better idea of what is suitable to Him down here?
JT That is the exact point in Exodus 24, and indeed it is here in Luke 9 in the transfiguration; they saw what was there, and not only that, but these two men in heavenly dress.
[p. 123] Rem So what you are speaking of now supposes we have entered into what is set forth in the transfiguration.
JT That is the idea, and Mary is in keeping with what was said on the mount: “This is my beloved Son: hear him”, she is hearing Him. And that comes into the assembly, so that we should know what the mind of heaven is. How can we have it save as we hear what the Lord says?
Ques Is it remarkable that this was spoken to the seventy, and there were seventy elders went up in Exodus 24?
JT It is remarkable; what the Lord says is not to the twelve here, but to the seventy.
Ques Would a company in the gain of it work out, as in 1 Corinthians 14, the prophetic word amongst them? Would that be in a company in a like position to those here who appreciated these things and were in the joy of them, and God was known there?
JT Yes, there is the thought of revelation in 1 Corinthians 14: 30, “If there be a revelation to another sitting there;” it is the same idea, that the saints are kept going and are heavenly through the things revealed.
Ques In speaking of the seventy and the twelve, have you anything further in your mind?
JT I think it is well to keep in mind Exodus 24, as corresponding with the ninth chapter of this book. There were two men there speaking with the Lord; that is, they saw a state of things in heaven; that in heaven there are men perfectly free in speaking to the great Person, the Lord Jesus. He is transfigured; it is not simply what He was down here, it is what He is up there, and that they are great enough to converse with Him as He is up there. Well, that leads up to what we have here. Then He is about to be received up; we are told in the same chapter that the time of “his receiving up” had come. Then, in view of all that, He sends out these seventy persons to every city and place which He intended to visit; meaning that He had in mind coming to localities and finding conditions suitable to Him. Well, that is the suggestion, but then there is this heavenly side intervening; these very seventy persons have their names written in heaven; that is an additional thought. And then, in the end of the chapter, a certain village, and a certain woman receiving Him, and then another one sitting at His feet and listening to Him; what does she represent? She is in accord with what is said on the mount, she is getting all the good therein. He is free to unfold the mind of God; to speak to her, and everything He said she would absorb. What would Mary of Bethany be in the assembly? Luke does not tell us but John does; John gives the full result, what she was in the assembly, as it were, in chapter 12. Then chapter 11 of this book says the Lord is praying in a certain place. Well, what did the disciples see when they saw the Lord praying? They had never seen a man praying like that. The high priest in the temple would not pray like that. No doubt this man had prayed himself, but he saw there was something more, so he says, “Lord, teach us to pray”, not ‘me’, but “us;” he has one mind, the local company.
Ques Do you think the Lord, in visiting this particular place, found something that was delightful to Him, but He found something that needed adjustment, and prayer would be necessary in connection with that?
JT That would be the inference. You can understand it. Supposing the Lord, in the days of His flesh, came to Worcester, or Malvern, or Evesham, and found certain conditions that were not right, what would He do? As a dependent Man, He would pray, and that is what we should do. He prayed in such a way. There is Martha; well, she received [p. 125] Him into her house; that is commendable. I suppose the most deranged meeting on earth walking in the light we have, would receive the Lord; but then, what are the conditions? What does He find? Martha received Him, it says expressly, into her house; but He would have been more comfortable outside her house. She began to complain, even about the Lord Himself. Well, what will He do but pray? Who can set this right but God? He prayed, and in praying, the disciples saw there was something that they had not been accustomed to see.
Ques Would that be where they contemplated His glory?
JT Morally speaking it would be.
Ques Would you see the result of that prayer, in John 12, that things have been adjusted?
JT It is just as well to see that, that John supports Paul’s line; Luke does not give us results. John does; he gives us much more about Martha and Mary than Luke; in fact Luke only mentions them here. I think Luke is the public condition of things and John brings the same thing out in spite of failure.
EuR When He prays His prayer would take its character from “I praise thee, Father”.
JT Yes. If you heard the Lord say, “Father”, and heard Him praying, and heard what He said, how wonderful! The Lord immediately said, “Father” when He prayed, so that He would bring them into accord with Himself; that is the point, I think; He would say “Father”, and they were to say “Father”.
Ques Would the prayer meeting in that way take character from what you are bringing before us, having in view that we should enter into those heavenly circumstances?
JT Yes. We ought to bear in mind that the prayer meeting is not only for the expression of our [p. 126] needs. Every meeting ought to make room for God to have part in it, to have pleasure in it. It is like the offering of the evening oblation, that there is something like Christ there. Every meeting of the saints ought to afford something for God.
CG In verse 22 the Lord seems to go on to the Father and speak of the revelation of the Father; is that in connection with what you are speaking of, preparedness for that, and what God would give?
JT Yes, that is the next thing. In that hour He had spoken to His disciples and told them why they should rejoice, not because of power in their ministry, but because of their place in heaven. Then His own spirit is affected, so that He says to the Father, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes: yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight”. He is speaking to His Father of what His Father had done for the disciples, showing what a place they had in His mind; and it is evidently at a considerable time afterwards.
EuR Is the thought of divine pleasure one of the great features of Luke’s gospel?
JT I think so; that thought of “good pleasure in men” runs through the gospel; but “on earth peace” (Luke 2: 14) is given up in the latter part of the gospel. It is replaced by “peace in heaven” as we get it in Luke 19: 38. So the divine thoughts are transferred from earth to heaven, and these chapters (10 and 11), following on the transfiguration, have in mind what is to be in localities throughout the world, that there is to be something like heaven in them.
EuR So Paul’s ministry takes its shape in the light of the Son of God in heaven; every assembly on earth is set up in the light of [p. 127] that.
JT That is the thought, and, as I said, Exodus 24 greatly helps us, because Jehovah says “Go up” to Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy others. Well, they did not go up immediately, there is something comes in between that suggestion of Jehovah and the actual going up; that is, what had Jehovah said? What were His requirements? Well, Moses immediately goes on to tell them what Jehovah required of them, and they say, “All that Jehovah has said will we do, and obey!” Well now, Moses, representing God, says, ‘We can go on with the service’. You cannot go on with it if people are not obedient; the mind of God is plainly asserted, but there is nothing done at all if people are not obedient; that is the ground in the commandment. So immediately they take the ground of obeying, Moses builds an altar and twelve pillars and offers sacrifices, and then they go up.
Ques Would “the Father who is of heaven” giving “the Holy Spirit to them that ask him” enter into it?
JT It would enter into it. “The Father who is of heaven;” He belongs to heaven, so do we, and He gives “Holy Spirit to them that ask him”. We are fitted for heaven by the Father who is of heaven giving us the Spirit, “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones” (1 Corinthians 15: 48).
Ques Would the way Joshua is presented as the attendant of Moses give us the idea of the way we can enter into it?
JT Yes, he represents that side, that youthful, attentive, absorbent side; he stays, the others go back again, but they go with the sense that they had seen the God of Israel and He had not laid His hand on them. They are called elders when they go up, but afterwards they are called nobles, meaning we are ennobled as heavenly and thus fitted for heavenly conditions here.
Ques Is it like God saying, “Make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them;” is that what we have here in Luke?
JT I think so. God’s thought is very wide, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace;” but the earthly side is abandoned as we get further on; it is the heavenly side, which is christianity.
EuR Heaven’s best.
JT That is right, that is where chapter 15 comes in.
Rem If we learn to be marked by what marked the Lord in that hour, it will prevent us treating anything as common.
JT Yes. It is “in that hour;” an hour is short; give full scope to Christ, and see what He will do! He told them to rejoice because their names were written in heaven, and then the thought develops that ought to enter into the assembly, a development of thought. So He rejoices in spirit and says, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”. Not that ‘Thou wilt do it’, but He takes account of them as having already received the revelation.
Ques Is the revelation to babes going on now?
JT Well, we must not assume that christianity is not complete at any time, but there is the thought of things coming to us and our being brought into things.
Ques What are “the things” that are spoken of, “the things that ye see”?
JT The Lord carries the thought on. Notice He speaks to them first, then to His Father, and then He turns to them, as much as to say, ‘You are of the utmost importance in these matters;’ so that we are to learn what the saints are in their heavenly relations, how important they are; they are essential to what God has in His mind; He turns to them.
[p. 129] Ques When they were on the mount it says they “were oppressed with sleep”, and it was as “having fully awoke up they saw his glory;” can you help us as to how we might keep awake?
JT “Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee” (Ephesians 5: 14); we are in danger of sleeping. It is very remarkable that that is said to the Ephesians, the most intelligent company; so our intelligence does not keep us from going to sleep. Eutychus goes to sleep in that same connection.
EuR You mean the awakening in Ephesians would be to the heavenly position, and Eutychus falls from that.
JT That is the setting in Acts 20.
EuR It is very remarkable it says, “Having fully awoke up they saw his glory, and the two men”.
JT Yes, we must bear that in mind, these two men, they are mentioned twice.
EuR Would you say a little now as to chapter 15?
JT Well, we get the Father’s side in that chapter figuratively. It is not simply that we have heavenly status, but we have garments suitable, “the best robe”, there is only one; it is not ‘one of the best robes’, it is “the best robe”.
Ques. What is it?
JT It is well to take one thought first of all, that it is the best one. It is brought out and it is put on; the prodigal does not put it on. Ephesians and Colossians contemplate our putting on the new man; it is not that, although the new man down here is a reflection of it; it is a question of what is done in heaven, “Bring out the best robe”. I apprehend that it is God clothing us with Christ, what He is now, not what He was, but what He is. “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3: 2). It would not be easy to bring it down to the mental [p. 130] thought, it is a great thought; seeing there is only one and that it is brought out, it must be a supreme thought. And the idea of clothes, God clothing us, directs us back to Genesis 3, how God clothes suitably; it was needful then, that the first clothing we read of as made by God should be of skins. Clothes of skins do not give the idea of ornamentation, but of moral necessity. With the Dorcas-made clothes there is no suggestion that she made them of skins, but the next passage says that Peter was in the house of a tanner and looking out on the sea; the gospel is in mind in its universal bearing, and the clothing implied would be through death, a moral necessity. But the best robe is not a moral necessity, it is a heavenly necessity; God requires that dignity in His presence.
Rem It is the bondmen who have to put it on.
JT Yes. It says, “The father said to his bondmen, Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it;” “his bondmen”.
Ques What does that refer to at the present time?
JT I think it is a question of those who move in love. “I love my master, my wife, and my children” (Exodus 21: 5). This is a love scene, but there is the dignity that God, as viewed here, requires. “Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it”.
EuR Is the best robe at all akin to “taken us into favour in the Beloved”?
JT Well, I think we ought to go to Paul and John for the best robe. John says, “What we shall be has not yet been manifested”, as if there was something yet to be disclosed, but “if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3: 2). I think that suggests the best robe.
EuR John actually gives us our place as children in his epistle, but that involves sonship. Is that the thought, that seeing Him as He is involves sonship?
JT That is [p. 131] the thought.
EuR But you mean in the assembly we are to anticipate that?
JT Yes. Paul saw Him as He was, a heavenly Christ.
EuR So, if we came into the gain of what the Lord Jesus said in chapter 10, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see”, we should take account of things in that way; we should clothe the saints with this thought as being essential; heaven’s best.
JT Quite so, as laying hold of it yourself. The bondmen bring it out under the father’s direction and clothe him in it. That is, I clothe the saints, in so far as I may, in my mind or in service, with this great thought, that it is not simply the Christ that was; the Person is unchanged, but the condition is changed. So that the apostle Paul says, “We henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5: 16, 17). These are the bondmen who are leading us into this great thought.
EuR John and Paul.
JT Yes.
Rem And it is not till the best robe is on that the Father rejoices over him.
JT That shows we are to be in the light of this in the assembly; you clothe me and I clothe you with these great thoughts, so he says, “Let us eat and make merry”, and he says, “it was right” we should do it too; he defends it.
EuR So it would not be happy to bring in any lower thought in the assembly than this.
JT That is the thought. Let us learn to clothe one another with this great thought, the best robe; it is in that setting the father makes merry, “Let us ...
make merry;” and how full of satisfaction he is, although he must have felt the elder brother’s attitude deeply, but the dancing does not cease in spite of the elder brother’s attitude; the dancing went on. God is not going to be debarred from His joy by such an influence as the elder brother’s.
EuR We have to judge the tendency to this in ourselves.
JT Well, I think there is a good deal of this goes on amongst us, a good deal of complaint and criticism as to this heavenly side of things, and the chapter is intended to rebuke this. The father is in grace, but he does not call the elder brother ‘son’, just “child”, he has lost his dignity.
EuR So what you are speaking of is what belongs to full growth.
JT What is inside is sonship. The elder brother has lost his dignity; the Jew is owned as having God outwardly, but he has lost his dignity; sonship does not belong to him, although it did primarily. Paul says, “Whose is the adoption” (Romans 9: 4), but he has lost it.
Ques Does Paul show his skill as a bondman in clothing the saints as he did at Corinth?
JT Quite so.
Ques Does the best robe include clothing the saints with thoughts of sonship?
JT Yes, it does; it is really what Christ is. The condition is the point, that we do not know Christ as He was then, but we are to know Him as He is now, and we are to be like Him as He is now; so the apostle says, “I do not count to have got possession myself; but ... I pursue, looking towards the goal” (Philippians 3: 13, 14).
Ques Is the house of God in view here?
JT Quite so, it is what is here on earth that is in mind, the heavenly thing brought down to earth [p. 133] within the hearing of the elder brother, and it goes on; God will not be stopped by any critical attitude.
CG It was wonderful grace on the part of God the Father, going out and entreating him.
JT Yes, it is just Luke’s line, clothing the gospel with all this; and I always think this gospel is so suitable for young christians; they perhaps think we are very doleful. This passage is to show there is much music and dancing.
Ques Why does he say to the elder brother, “All that is mine is thine”?
JT He is giving the Jew full credit, what he had claimed. He is not openly disinheriting him yet, it is to bring out the grace side, and how it is supported by the joy within. Why should I forgo that? It is to bring out how patient God was and how inexcusable the Jews’ attitude was.
EuR In John 20 they had the doors shut for fear of the Jews.
JT That is another side; that is a question of refusing the Jewish element amongst us.
Rem So that we might be free in sonship and rejoice, as you were saying this morning.
JT Yes. He entreated him to come in, but, if he comes in, it must be on God’s terms, that is assumed.
Ques How would you convey the idea of this music and dancing to the young people?
JT Well, the best way, I suppose, is to be in the enjoyment of it oneself. I think the Lord’s people are showing they are enjoying it in the way they get together now. They are not doleful-looking; you look at their countenances in the meeting and they show plainly they are enjoying what is presented. I think that is the way.
Rem That would be a cure for the development of Laodicean [p. 134] conditions.
JT Yes, not lukewarm. The assembly really is a reflection of heaven.
EuR Heaven’s joy.
JT Yes, that is the thought.
Ques Are those outside to hear this joy?
JT That is the idea, that is what Luke presents; it is what is brought within man’s range. You take Acts 2, they seemed to be full of new wine, and the first great gospel address of christianity was to meet a criticism. What was that? That the saints were enjoying something; how simple that was! Men were saying they were full of new wine, and they were full of new wine spiritually! That is the very thing Peter took up; the joy of the saints.
Rem That is open to all of us. Did the prisoners in the prison at Philippi hear that?
JT Yes, it says “the prisoners listened to them” (Acts 16: 25).
EuR Peter could refer to these men; they were round him, their faces radiant with heavenly joy.
JT Just so.