THE WAY OF POWER IN MINISTRY
[p. 259] THE WAY OF POWER IN MINISTRY
Mark 16: 1 - 20; Luke 24: 45 - 52
JT What is in view to be considered is the ministry; that is, the ministry in the sense of public testimony in preaching and teaching. It was thought that Mark and Luke, considered together in these closing chapters, furnish the instruction that is needed for this feature of the Lord’s service; Mark stresses the tendency to be unbelieving, even though we may be actively engaged in the service. The great servant, that is Paul, said, “I have believed, therefore have I spoken” (2 Corinthians 4: 13). It is thought that a consideration of this chapter in Mark’s gospel today might help us, as we are all committed, more or less, to this public service, even the sisters, for they come in for consideration first in the chapter. Then those that had been, as it says, with the Lord (verse 10), alluding back to chapter 3 where it is said that He went up into a mountain and called whom He would that they might be with Him and that He might send them forth to preach, then (verse 14) those that were known by number, the eleven. The chapter deals with things under these heads; the sisters; those that were supposed to have been with the Lord in view of having part in the service; and then those that are known by number, an official number. The chapter is intended to search us as to faith, whether we are believing in what we are presenting in testimony.
ASL That the service should be carried on continually in the exercise of living faith. There is a danger perhaps with us of dropping into the habit of speaking of these precious things, and not being in the living reality of them at the time.
JT Quite so. And first of all, to bring in the sisters. Generally, in the endings of the gospels, the [p. 260] sisters shine well, but in this chapter they do not shine, although they are early at the sepulchre. They ran away, we are told, with “excessive amazement” and “they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid”. This is a challenge, I think, as to our sisters; they are not called upon to preach or to teach, but they certainly can speak to individuals — here it says “they said nothing to any one”. Of what value was all their education, the education they had had in view of public testimony? — they said nothing to anyone.
ASL And is the reason for their silence a lesson for us — they were afraid?
JT That is very often why we do not speak.
WSS Would the word ‘embalm’ as it appears in verse 1 in the New Translation, have a bearing on what you are saying?
JT It would indicate that they had no expectation of the immediate resurrection of Christ. He had plainly stated He would be raised the third day; there was no need for embalming.
ASL I suppose resurrection is entirely beyond the human mind and capacity, for the Lord constantly told them He would rise the third day.
JT I think the resurrection is the greatest test to faith.
S Would love have dispelled the fear?
JT Yes, but love may exist without much courage. The word to Joshua is, “Be strong and very courageous” (Joshua 1: 7).
ASL You said you believed resurrection was the greatest test of our faith.
JT Well, I find it that way. I think it is well for us all to face the question of death. As our bodies are formally said to be mortal, it is just as well to accept that word and all it means, and ask ourselves whether we really believe in the resurrection or whether it is a mere creed. Martha said, “I know [p. 261] that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day” (John 11: 24). That was something, but I believe it was just a creed; I doubt if it was faith in her soul. The repetition of a creed, or even the quotation of Scripture, is not faith. The Lord said, “I am the resurrection and the life”.
WJH The sisters seem to have better ability to apprehend the coming in of the Lord than His resurrection — Mary and Elizabeth and Anna all speak at the beginning of Luke.
JT There seems to be no doubt as to that. It is very beautiful at the beginning of Luke to see how ready they were to accept the fact of the incarnation. Resurrection is the great test of faith, and that is what this chapter brings to our attention. The women did not believe, neither did those that had been with the Lord, having heard all He had said, which would imply that they were conversant with all He had said in the different years, as we may say, of His ministry. Think of how often the Lord had referred to it, and yet it says of them, they disbelieved Mary.
ASL Probably all of us here this afternoon have been born and bred, as it were, in the truth of resurrection as a creed. So I think what you are saying is of vital practical moment for each one of us, as to whether in the faith of our souls we have got hold of resurrection.
JT Quite so, whether we have arrived, as Paul said, at “the resurrection from among the dead”. Martha spoke of the last day, but it is a question of resurrection from among the dead, and of course that implies Christ’s resurrection. “The first-fruits, Christ; then those that are the Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15: 23). Personally, I find it the greatest test, and I have no doubt it is so with most of us.
ASL I think it is helpful to see that, that our mental faculty is incapable of grasping resurrection.
So on Mars’ hill, when Paul spoke of the resurrection, some mocked; they were the ablest men, but the ablest men cannot grasp the truth of resurrection.
SB Why are we so slow to believe in the resurrection?
JT There is no visible thing to attest it; we have to accept it on the testimony of others. The apostles were to be witnesses of it, although indeed Paul points out that the vegetable in the field is a witness to it; in truth it is, but our minds do not accept that. As was just remarked the Greek idea was, “He seems to be an announcer of foreign demons, because he announced the glad tidings of Jesus, and the resurrection” (Acts 17: 18), as if the resurrection was a person, a god, so little did they have the idea of it. So it says they came to embalm Him, or anoint Him. “And very early on the first day of the week they come to the sepulchre, the sun having risen. And they said to one another, Who shall roll us away the stone out of the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they see that the stone has been rolled away”. Then it adds, “for it was very great”. That certainly is one stone rolled away from the great truth of resurrection, and it was very great, and yet it does not seem to have had the force it should have had with them. Those who believe in it are as sure of it as possible, yet they find out, alas, that what they are saying has very little effect. The matter is very great and it has not the effect that was intended.
W Is the thought to raise us from what is merely doctrinal to what is spiritual?
JT Yes, the idea is fact; the resurrection is a fact; it is not an anticipation now, it is a fact.
EGG Must we have the sentence of death in ourselves to reach this, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1: 9; is that the thought?
JT I think that is good. I have no doubt he had a greater grasp of the resurrection after that than [p. 263] he had when he wrote chapter 15 of the first letter. He had been brought down into death. There can be no doubt that God helps us by rolling in circumstances upon us, especially bereavement, so that faith becomes operative.
SV Is the thought of quickening in Colossians connected with faith in the operation of God?
JT Faith in the operation of God is an objective thought, that is, the working of God who raised Christ, but then that is faith as to myself. We are raised “through faith of the working of God” who raised Christ, but then it goes on to say, we are “quickened together with him” (Colossians 2: 12, 13). That is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of actuality now, that we are actually quickened, that is to say, those who are. He is speaking to the Colossians, of course. But I was thinking as to Paul going down to the gates of death, nothing helps us more than to be taxed spiritually, because we find we have more than we thought we had. God knows how to tax us and to draw forth what is there, and the exigencies of our circumstances draw out what is there, so we say, ‘It is good that happened;’ it was dreadful at the time, but the tax draws out what was latently there.
OS So Paul says, “Having the same spirit of faith” — is that what he found he had as he went through those dreadful experiences?
JT The spirit of faith — that is the idea; everyone really born again has it, there is something there that can be drawn out, and the discipline of God is to draw it out. These women were taxed by what happened here, they went away full of amazement, but, nevertheless, no doubt something went on in their souls.
ASL Abraham is spoken of as knowing God as the One who raises the dead. But then, are there not the two things, acceptance of the great fact of resurrection, and then the learning of it practically in [p. 264] being brought down to the gates of death so that you might trust in the God that raises the dead as One you have learnt to know?
SHS Would the experience of Thomas help us in regard of this, when he said, “My Lord and my God”?
JT Quite so, he had to come to it. He was materialistic, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20: 25). That is a very bad state to be in. The Lord knew, however, that what we have been speaking of was there in the bottom of his heart, for he was no infidel really; but the principle of taxing came in, he had to be assured by actual facts, not merely testimony. But here we have the women; they go into the sepulchre; one stone was rolled away, a very important difficulty was overcome, and they go into the sepulchre, and they see a young man, it says, “sitting on the right, clothed in a white robe”.
WSS What is the import of the young man?
JT Their intelligence would direct their minds to what God is aiming at in the education. We say we shall be raised when the Lord comes for us, and occupy ourselves much with that, which is all future, but this young man has reference to what is to come in in the meantime, what is to fill out the time.
WJH Arriving at the resurrection would give those three features of youthfulness and power and purity.
JT Yes, it is a question of what is to be produced in one’s apprehension and in oneself, what one is in the meantime. There are many who will occupy themselves with books that are written on the coming of the Lord by those who have never had an idea of what it means now. The time is not merely to be filled out with mere waiting — this young man is [p. 265] the idea.
WSS You would think the first impression would be an empty tomb, instead it is this young man.
JT That is it, the scene is to be filled with this thought.
AR And he is one who knows.
JT Yes. He is sitting in the right position too: he is sitting on the right, clothed in a white robe. His position is right; he is where power is, and his surroundings, his circumstances, his garments, are pure. This young man has to be brought forward. If people are talking about the coming of the Lord and their being raised and caught up, what about the interval?
WSS You mean what is to be seen in a concrete form?
JT Yes, what is to be in us as here waiting for the coming of the Lord.
WC “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion. Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord” (2 Timothy 1: 7, 8). Would that be the clothing of the young man, so to speak?
JT That is right. Timothy represents him; Timothy is to fill out the time.
SB Did Hezekiah come to this when he spoke of the experience he had been through and said, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day”, and spoke about the days of his life?
JT Yes, the whole fifteen years is to be filled out with that. What a fine fifteen years of his life as filled out with that, “As I do this day”. (Isaiah 38: 19).
LDM Does this young man suggest a history with God, too?
JT Yes, he suggests, I think, the full development in a christian. This chapter is intended to be a chapter for men, not old men. Throughout the scripture the idea is young men, young persons, for the testimony; not that the old men are disregarded,
[p. 266] of course, they have their place — they have been young, as one old man said, “I have been young, and now am old”.
CB Paul, in writing to Timothy, says, “Take Mark, and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4: 11).
JT Yes, he had washed his robe and made it white.
S In verse 19 it says Christ sat at the right hand of God; here it is the young man sitting on the right.
JT We shall come to that. This young man is where power is; that is, he is wherever he can get help in view of his testimony. If he is going to preach he has to learn, and he wants to know the secret of power.
OS It says of Joshua, a young man, that he departed not out of the tabernacle; would that answer to this? The presence of Jehovah was there in a crisis, is that the idea?
JT Yes, it is there. It is a thought that runs through Scripture, beginning perhaps with Joseph who is the great model for all young christians, an example of purity and virtue; and then Joshua.
GA Does this young man represent the moral element which would fill out in a living way the Lord’s direction, “Occupy till I come”?
JT I think so. If you are waiting for the Lord, you are not behind all those people who are so full of prophecy, but you are concerned for the moment about this young man, as to what is here. Well, what occupies christendom publicly is the cathedral, and the church at the corner and the missionaries, and all that; but we want this young man, that is, purity and intelligence, and maturity too; he is equal to work and he knows the secret of power.
L So that availability is a great point.
JT This young man is here — that is the idea.
[p. 267] The Lord had been in the sepulchre, but it is filled with the idea of this young man. Am I able to take in the thought of this young man, and what is said about him? If so, I shall be useful in the service; I shall know the secret of power, I shall be marked by purity, and my service will be effective.
WSS A contrast to what would be in the human mind, which would be an empty tomb, if they saw it. What the young man represents is very striking.
JT It is. I think it is well to bear in mind that it is not exactly an empty tomb, but this man is in the tomb; so that the idea is your mind is full of this thought; it is the mind of heaven in the interval — Christ the First-fruits. He has gone out of the grave, but the thought is to fill up the interval.
WJH I suppose the idea of getting old does not enter into this at all?
JT When you come to resurrection, there is no idea of ever getting old; the Lord Himself, as Man, is said to have the dew of His youth, though exalted. It is a question of constant freshness, whether in the old or the young, and knowing the secret of power.
AR Is the idea that you begin to preach in relation to another world?
JT I think so, and to bring in the idea here, where the grave of Christ is, that this is the thing that fills out the position. We are where He was, awaiting His return, and the application of the power of resurrection; but this fills out the interval, and the Spirit of God gives us a picture of the women here, not to record what was to their discredit at all, but as a rebuke to the unbelief that we are all conscious of in ourselves. For examples of unbelief in Christians are not recorded because they are singular, but because they are representative of every one of us, so that we are to search ourselves as to whether we are believing in our service.
ASL “How is it that ye have no faith?” the Lord had to say.
WN Why is the resurrection stressed and not ascension?
JT Ascension is fully brought out at the end, when all these matters as regards our state are settled; for that is the point throughout this chapter, the question of the state of the believer. When that is settled, there is the Lord, as it were, in perfect composure and restfulness setting Himself down up there and watching over everything down here. There is a grandeur in the position at the end of the chapter. The commotion, the uncertainty, the darkness are in us; all up there is in perfect composure. It says He ‘sat’, as if to say, ‘I have taken up this position;’ all enemies put down. He goes up quietly, as it were, and sits there, and it says, “They, going forth, preached everywhere”. How perfectly effective His instruction to them here was — they went forth, it says, preaching everywhere. God has given us a good deal of light, and I am sure we ought to be thankful, but the point is now as to the witness to it. Think of the terrible darkness that is abroad in christendom, the frightful heathendom in this land and in America, and other places, no Bible, no religious instruction at all in the homes of a great number of families in the large cities.
ASL May we not even say it is worse than the darkness of heathendom, and that it is apostasy — so there is no remedy?
JT Well, there is very little preaching; there is very little carrying out of the word to the people in large cities in general.
TW Are you referring now to preaching everywhere?
JT Yes, that is the idea, that the Lord is up there, He has complete right of way — He sat on the right hand of God, that is the place of power. The [p. 269] young man had that idea. The Lord is there, and after this instruction in the chapter and the rebuke, they going forth, preached everywhere. Now, mark you, the commission is, “Go into all the world;” you say, ‘That is to preach to all the world’. That is not the point; the point is you are going to serve where the opposition is. The world hates you, the Lord says; the point is, you go in spite of the opposition and preach the gospel to the whole creation, that is, we view persons we preach to as the creation and we take them up abstractly, not as influenced by the devil, but abstractly.
S The young man said, “Ye seek Jesus, the Nazarene, the crucified one. He is risen, he is not here”. Was that the theme of the preaching?
JT He is not here, but the young man is here — that is you; we are here in this character.
S And “ye seek Jesus” — all the creation seeks Jesus and waits for Him.
JT The commission is, “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”.
Ques You call attention to creation; is the thought that you have a link with God in your mind rather than the enemy?
JT That is right, that is the greatness of the preaching. God has His rights as Creator. We are speaking abstractly to persons who stand in relation to God; that is the ground Paul takes at Mars’ hill.
HPW You were speaking of the virtual heathendom that prevails in large cities and elsewhere. Do you think this still holds that the preaching should go on everywhere?
JT I think it does. There are other things that modify it, of course, but we cannot admit for a moment that any principle is abrogated; it must have some application.
ASL But there would be a vast difference in heralding today; if we go forth heralding [p. 270] we are doing so amongst those who are, in large measure, apostate.
JT That makes the soil harder, of course, but they are still God’s creatures.
WC Would the reference to the sun having risen bear upon it, as to the rights of Christ in regard of all? I think it is only mentioned thus by Mark in that form.
JT It would allude to that thought coming into evidence as noting the providential favourableness. As we were remarking at the beginning of our meeting, the idea is today that the world is in reconciliation. That is not the world as it lies in the wicked one, but as ordered of God under the gentile monarchies. The creation goes back to Genesis, but the world in Romans refers, I think, to the gentile monarchies, Daniel giving the key to the position in view of the gospel. The monarchies are intended to be favourable, to give a certain advantage, and all creatorial things, such as the sun and the earth, and seed-time and harvest, all these things are favourable to the gospel — the Lord making things favourable, and that is what the preacher has to look for. Whatever is favourable is to be acknowledged with thanksgiving.
JB Would Paul have that in his mind in saying, “In whom we live and move and have our being”?
JT I think that is the idea. The speech at Mars’ hill, and also the speech in Acts 14, deal with what we are speaking of now in regard to the gospel, so that the servant is to take account of everything that is in his favour, wherever it is. We are told that in the last days “difficult times shall be there” (2 Timothy 3: 1), but our business is to hold to the principle. When the Jews surrounded the Lord, He could not go on, but it says, He went away beyond the Jordan where John was baptising at the first (John 10: 40): the way is never entirely shut up.
S Would the idea in my soul of being representative [p. 271] of this young man help me to be a living epistle?
JT Quite so. Now what is so encouraging in a dark day is that the Lord takes things in hand Himself. As far as we can see here the women were the last resource. The other gospels show the brothers were at fault, and here the women failed. Is all finished? No, the Lord, it says, takes the matter up. It is a remarkable thing that this chapter, from verse 9 to the end, is disputed, as to its inspiration. But it really is needful for a right understanding of the whole gospel. That is, these verses, from verse 9 on, bring out what the Lord is, and, I would say, that is what He was in the Reformation and what He was a hundred years ago. He takes things on Himself, and we can always reckon on that, even in small matters when our way seems to be shut up, the Lord will always find a way. Hence it says, “When he had risen very early, the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala, out of whom he had cast seven demons”. He had her in His mind, and so it is, when things seem dark there is one He has in His mind that He can use. As far as verse 8 the matter is settled, “Trembling and excessive amazement possessed them, and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid”. There is no evangelisation at all, no ministry.
OS Would it correspond with the young man who fled naked?
JT We have to compare that young man with this young man; that young man corresponds very much with the women here.
PH What is the thought in the young man saying, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter, he goes before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him”?
JT I think it means that when you want a sermon the Lord is there before for you and for me; that is, if you want to preach, you must get your [p. 272] message, and if you want to get a message, you must go for it. Luke would say, ‘It will come to you as you stand up’, but Matthew and Mark would say, ‘The thing must be sought out diligently and it will be acquired, but the Lord will be there’. And Galilee is the place of reproach, but the place of reproach is the place of power. If people were to know how small you feel when you are going to minister, when you are seeking to get something, you would be ashamed to minister, but the Lord knows that, and that is the secret of power, that you have not anything yourself. But the exercise, the moral journey, leads to something; the Lord has gone before. Matthew gives us more of this when they had to meet Him on a mountain.
SB Is that what we have been considering — the Lord had been before them into Macedonia, but the apostle had to wait some time before he found what the Lord had for him, and it was an exercise to him as to why the man was not discovered?
JT I think that is right. It must have been a very searching matter for the apostle that there was no man in evidence as he reached Philippi. You are reminded that things are not to be just here, you have to go there. He says, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter, he goes before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said to you”. That is, you ought to have known this, but it is being repeated. This young man is the idea, but the Lord is going somewhere else, meaning that the testimony is to be in His own selected place; His centre of operations is His own selection. Luke does not say that, for he does not stress the exercises of a servant, but Mark does stress the exercises necessary for true service, that the Lord selects the position and that you have to find Him there.
ASL Would you say if you take that journey to Galilee you get the [p. 273] message?
JT That is what I find.
ASL When you think you have got to Galilee, and you do not get the message, does Luke help us there?
JT Well, that is a very searching matter. Now when you stand on your feet you will get something.
ASL So you get the answer to Galilee perhaps when you stand on the platform.
JT Exactly.
LDM “Go in this thy might”.
JT You may be asked to preach. You say, ‘I cannot do anything; who am I?’ The Lord would say to such a one as that, that is, if he really has anything, “Go in this thy might”, that is, the Lord would like to magnify what you have if you are making too little of it. We are not to under-estimate what we have; a man ought to know his measure.
SB Was that what the Lord did in the dispensing of what the little boy had, the loaves and two fishes?
JT Quite. I do not believe the Lord ever takes up anybody who has not got something; He does not use an empty vessel; in some sense the vessel must be filled. The time of service has come — of course, it is always present, but if there is a certain measure of development in the place and brethren have light and ability, the next thing is, ‘Go forward:’ “They, going forth, preached everywhere” in the light of the Lord up there, “the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs following upon it”. That is, you are to preach the word; the signs will come after it.
WN Would the little maid in Kings serve as an example? She knew a prophet in another land in the good of resurrection.
JT I think she is a good example for unofficial service. She had no commission; her service is most effective because she was affected inwardly — she felt the thing. We have a point of exclamation in her remark, “Would that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria!” (2 kings 5: 3). She felt the thing, “then he would cure him of his leprosy” — she had no doubt about it. What a fine example for young sisters and the like! Here they say nothing to anyone, but that young person said something, and she said it well.
HC Would the right side in verse 5 be in accord with the right hand in verse 19?
JT Exactly, that is what I was thinking. The right side in verse 5 is, I think, that the servant knows where the secret of power is; the right hand in verse 19 is, of course, God’s right hand, and Jesus is there.
WC In what way would the signs follow today?
JT There ought to be some signs following on the word, not simply what you say on Sunday night, but what comes in on Monday in the prayer meeting. The prayer meeting is a very important meeting. We think little of it because we do not feel we have to get anything special, but it is a very important meeting; it is there where, I think, you get the signs in a simple spiritual way now. Of course, there were, no doubt, literal signs following the apostles’ ministry, but confirmatory things come out on the Monday. I believe the devil has a great advantage on the Monday, after the Lord’s day, because the saints turn to their ordinary occupations, and forget the enemy knows just how vulnerable we are under these circumstances, and we may get withered up before we come to the prayer meeting.
WC The first thing mentioned here is, “cast out demons”.
JT Yes, it is the enemy’s activities. The demon is active on Monday, you may be sure. The devil knows how vulnerable our position is as we go to our businesses and workplaces and the mothers as they look after the children going to school, and so on, and he seeks to rob us of all the blessedness of the Lord’s day.
[p. 275] Ques Does this question of going into the world link up practically with our offices and employment?
JT Quite so, and I think those signs in verses 17 and 18 now refer spiritually to what is furnished to fortify us so that the enemy does not succeed after seasons of blessing. It is not apostles here, but those who believe, so it includes all, the sisters as well as the brothers.
SHS What are the signs you would look for at a prayer meeting?
JT These signs are the ones we have to contend with before the prayer meeting, these demons working in our circumstances. “They shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues” (not ‘other’ tongues, but “new” ones), “they shall take up serpents; and if they should drink any deadly thing it shall not injure them; they shall lay hands upon the infirm, and they shall be well”. These are the things spiritually, I believe, that keep us on the Monday. These signs are spiritual powers to fortify us — you notice it is a question of believers — against the victory being snatched from us when God gives us blessing.
OS In speaking of Monday, I suppose you would include every other day of the week.
JT I am only illustrating what these women saw at the sepulchre, this young man; we do not want to lose the sense of that. The signs are a question of the spiritual power that is in the prayer meeting.
WT Do you mean that the feature of the young man is to be preserved and this comes out definitely in the prayer meeting?
JT That is to fill out the week, and therefore the prayer meeting ought to be in spiritual power; that is the next meeting. For the enemy knows what the next meeting is to be and would rob you of what would enter into it and make it [p. 276] prosperous.
OS When Peter came to Mary’s house in Acts 12, they were carrying on this meeting, and a very good meeting, yet it was not in faith.
JT The Lord would go to the utmost limit to secure us in faith, hence He goes to the length even of appearing in another form. The word here means a real substantial change; the Lord went to the length of doing that in order to secure two whose faces were in the wrong direction, for they were going into the country.
SB Would you say a word as to the speaking with new tongues?
JT It is the readiness to take on what you know nothing of, I think — “new” here, not simply ‘foreign’.
ASL Is it not true that anybody brought to God, and receiving the Spirit, and having the love of God shed abroad in his heart begins to speak a language he never knew before? “Abba, Father”, “Lord-Jesus”, “Beloved brethren”. People in the world cannot understand new tongues; they do not know the phraseology.
WC Is that the same thought as “other tongues” in Acts 2?
JT Well, these are ‘new’ in accord with the position in Mark.
A Do the “new tongues” suggest the principle of variety in ministry?
JT I think so. If a brother is in spiritual power even in prayer, he may use an ordinary word with new force. One has often noticed how words acquire a force they have never had before as they are spoken by a spiritual man, for the Spirit of God knows how to clothe words and give them a force they have never had before.
Now to go on to Luke. “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Christ to suffer”. Here it is an incumbency on Christ; things must be fulfilled,
[p. 277] things must happen — and they did happen. There is no discrepancy between the Old and the New Testaments; as the Scriptures are opened up the things have happened. I think Luke would imbue us with the thought of grace, that God is going on so that things happen we do not expect.
ASL Is not that a word of power we cling to? “Thus it is written” — “What says the scripture?” If people do not bow to the Scriptures, there is no other authority.
AR So that in Luke the commission is to remain in Jerusalem — what about that?
JT The Lord is dealing with what was required. It opens up the whole question of the Lord’s position here as Son of man, what a burden He took on, what a burden lay upon Him. Thus it must happen according to the Scriptures, and it has happened. So it says, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem”. Now you are not going to Galilee; there is no need, for it is a question of what is on Christ, it is the burden that is on Christ. Think of the power that is in Christ to bear this weight — that repentance and remission of sins must be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Now you come into this — “Ye are witnesses” of it; that is, all the burden is on Christ. It is a view you want to get of what a burden He took on, how infinitely it was fulfilled, and that we are brought into it. That is, you are the persons; not that you are constituted that, but the point is, you know all about it, the burden is on Christ; and even when you stand up to speak, the power comes down.
FG Would Paul encourage Timothy to come into this; as he says, “Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry” (2 Timothy 4: 5)?
JT Quite so, that is put on him. “It behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead [p. 278] 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”. That is, they were that. They could not escape the obligation; but He is not putting anything on them beyond the simple fact that they knew the thing. He says, ‘The burden is Mine’, a very touching thing, and, as regards the burden to preach, ‘I will see to that’. He says, “Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you” — that is the position from the divine side. Mark would stress our side and the need of faith, but the Lord is taking on the burden here.
HPW Is there not an interesting link in Acts 1, where it seems as though the two were put together. “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”. You were stressing the necessity of going to Galilee, and I thought perhaps here you had the two sides; what marked them: they are men of Galilee and spoken to as such in Acts 1: 11, then they return to Jerusalem, as you are stressing in Luke 24: 52.
JT Quite so, because the burden is going to be on them now and they move intelligently; they return to the city and go to the upper room. They show they are qualified, but, as you will notice here, and probably realise in your ministry, the burden is on Christ; He takes on the burden from Luke’s point of view, and you put it on Him too. The Lord will tax you and He will draw out what is in you, but He loves you to tax Him too.
LH The battle is Jehovah’s.
JT That is [p. 279] the idea.
LDM Does the scripture in Zechariah 6: 12, 13, “He shall grow up from his own place, and he shall build the temple of Jehovah: even he shall build the temple of Jehovah; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both”, give the idea you have in mind as to Christ?
JT That is the idea here. I think if we all see this it will help us in our ministry. I have no doubt that the sin of christendom, in one sense, is that the whole burden of things is taken out of the Lord’s hands and put into other hands. But it is His burden, and He says, “Ye are witnesses” — He brings us in in that way; He does not even say, ‘Go out of Jerusalem’, but ‘Stay here’.
WJH The King, with all his resources, is the Preacher, “I, the Preacher, was king”, (Ecclesiastes 1: 12). We need to get the sense more of the unlimited supply of power and wisdom that Solomon has, and that He Himself is the Preacher, even if He uses vessels.
JT So it says, “Coming, he has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and the glad tidings of peace to those who were nigh” (Ephesians 2: 17); that is what Paul says. Peter says, “Going he preached to the spirits which are in prison, heretofore disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3: 19, 20). That is, the whole burden is on Christ, and we can understand it must be that, that we are just brought into it as witnesses, and where we are. Who can say, ‘I am not responsible?’ I know something, and just where I am here I can say something; and as you do it, He clothes you with power.
Ques Is that what you look for?
JT Quite so, that is what He says, “Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you”, that is, those who know about the things; the power will [p. 280] come as you speak of them. Luke would bring everybody into it. Of course, it refers to the eleven, but he puts it in that way, “Ye are witnesses”. “Repentance and remission of sins should be preached ... And ye are witnesses” — the onus is on you, if you know anything, to speak of it. And the Lord says, as it were, ‘I will look after the power; it will come down’.
HC Is the prayer in Acts 4 an indication of the acceptance of the obligation you have referred to? “And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings, and give to thy bondmen with all boldness to speak thy word, in that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal” (Acts 4: 29, 30).
JT That is just what it is. You can understand how sensible Peter and John would be, in going back to their own company, of their need of heaven’s help.
W Would Paul be brought into the apprehension of those remarks when the Lord says to him, “Be of good courage, for as thou hast testified the things concerning me at Jerusalem, so thou must bear witness at Rome also” (Acts 23: 11).
JT You mean the Lord took on the burden. How fully Paul realised that — “the Lord stood with me, and gave me power” (2 Timothy 4: 17). In fact, the more you come to it the more you realise He does everything. Even the scripture you are to speak from, He has provided it and He helps you in it.
WJH A very real test for faith not to take purse or scrip or shoes.
JT It is, but it brings you into all this. “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me” (2 Corinthians 13: 3), even as to the speaking, it was Christ.