THE HOLY SPIRIT IN LUKE
[p. 14] THE HOLY SPIRIT IN LUKE
Luke 1: 35; Luke 2: 25 - 32; Luke 3: 21,22; Luke 12: 11,12; Luke 24: 48,49
I wish to speak about the Holy Spirit, encouraged in the assurance that there will be not only a readiness to hear, but a measure of capacity for taking in any thoughts presented as to Him. I believe that it is of God to emphasise the presence of the Spirit. Indeed, it has occurred to me of late that it would be a profitable inquiry to see how He is presented in each of the books of Scripture; and with this in view I have ventured to take up Luke, so that we might see how the Holy Spirit mentions Himself in this book. For we have to bear in mind that whilst the Lord says of Him, “he shall not speak from himself” John 16: 13, that does not mean that He does not refer to Himself, for in truth He is the subject of testimony, as the Father is, and as the Son is. Indeed, we are said to be baptised to the name of “the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28: 19, so that He has His own place in the testimony. I thought that the consideration of Luke, in this regard, would help us as to the dispensation viewed as in grace.
Luke is concerned as to how the gospel should reach men; the vessels through whom it should come; and so you find with him great prominence given to heaven, that the gospel should come to men clothed with heavenly influence. Hence, he introduces at once a great heavenly dignitary; for it was to be expected, we being what we are, that in the service of the gospel there would arise a desire for personal distinction in it, such as painfully manifested itself at Corinth. So Luke would introduce the idea of personal dignity in Gabriel. Who of those at Corinth could measure up with him? The apostle in speaking to them refers to “the tongues of ... angels” 1 Corinthians 13: 1, but here we have at the outset presented to us, not simply an angel, but a heavenly dignitary.
But I did not wish to speak about that, nor about the [p. 15] visitations from heaven which Luke records, most interesting as they are. He would clothe the gospel with personal dignity, and with a heavenly atmosphere; that the thing might carry with it all possible commendation — nothing to forbid, nothing to prejudice, but all calculated to invite; so that the most might be saved, that the greatest possible result should accrue. One is impressed with the divine forethought and preparation recorded by Luke, so that the gospel should be untrammelled; that nothing should be attached to it or detract from it, so as to render it unacceptable. Hence the Lord Himself is presented in Luke as personally attractive in His preaching; the manner in which He read the scripture and His deportment, both in standing up and sitting down, and in speaking — all was marked by the grace that God intended should adorn the proclamation of the gospel.
Now I wanted to dwell upon the Spirit, as I said, and what impresses one at first is the filling by Him of persons. Indeed, Luke throws out at the beginning a sort of atmosphere which would disallow all corruption and render null all fleshly taint. The incoming of the Saviour was to be guarded thus; and so we have a remarkable set of vessels filled with the Holy Spirit; thus shutting out from the environment of the Lord’s birth all taint of contamination; for a group of persons appear, filled with the Holy Spirit. It is an important matter; for a half-filled, or partly filled vessel is sure to be contaminated. Hence you find the first mention of the Spirit in this gospel is that He fills a person from the very outset of his being — John the baptist — a marvellous thing! There may be an inquiry as to its possibility; but how else can we explain the movements of an unborn babe, as the sound of the voice of the mother of Christ falls upon the ears of his mother? What can be the thought, but of wonderful divine preparation, so that the incoming of our Saviour in such lowliness and outward weakness, should be so greeted [p. 16] and so protected that there is the acknowledgment of Him in an unborn babe?
Then the announcement of Gabriel himself; it is most interesting and touching to note the manner of his address to Mary. And when I speak of Mary, the thought of secret history comes into one’s mind, of secret history with God. Who can tell what that history was? The angel Gabriel — his name is given — says to her, “Hail, thou favoured one! the Lord is with thee” Luke 1: 28. Can we doubt that He had been with her? Can we doubt that He had watched over her as a unique vessel? Can we doubt but that He went far up the stream in her line? Can we doubt that there was extraordinary preparation in her, to be such a vessel, to be so honoured, so greeted, so saluted, by a great heavenly dignitary? The proof of all this is evidenced in her calm and subject demeanour in such august circumstances. And then in answer to her remarks he refers to the Holy Spirit, who alone could bring about the great design of eternity. “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow thee” Luke 1: 35. What a scene is suggested! An operation of operations, the like of which had never been known or thought of by men as such! The Holy Spirit had been employed in garnishing the heavens, and brooding over the face of the deep; and right along had been engaged in the divine operations, but now, there is an operation of operations: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God” Luke 1: 35.
I wish to dwell for a moment on this, that we may apprehend what happened. Gabriel says, “the holy thing”. Had the angel said, that holy Person, or, that holy Babe, the thought would have been weaker, but it is a question of what will be. We have to understand the distinction between what the Lord Jesus is, and who He is. The former speaks for itself. It is something to be noted; it is absolutely intrinsically holy. Holy [p. 17] babes relatively there were, such as the babes of believers, but not holy things. No person ever born before or since was a “holy thing”; there was only one “holy thing” — it was absolutely, intrinsically, essentially holy. It is what He was, the marvellous production of divine power; and so we have here what in due course was called the “Son of God” Luke 1: 35. That is to say, what He was, soon manifested who He was. Hence His question to His disciples was as to who He was. It had come out; what He was had demonstrated itself, and now He is called “Son of God”.
Proceeding from this passage I wish to show you how He is guarded by the Spirit as a Babe. The idea of the thing being introduced is made clear, and then we have “a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes”, as it says, “and lying in a manger” Luke 2: 12; and later brought up to Jerusalem. I wish to dwell on what was in Jerusalem, that is, “a man ... whose name was Simeon” Luke 2: 25. Jerusalem here is not yet viewed as hostile. It was still the centre for God on earth and there are grouped here very precious features in this still divinely recognised city. One would love to be consciously in the centre; I believe God would have it so, that as giving us the Spirit He would link us on with the centre of His things. It delivers and saves us from mere localism and nationalism.
Mention was made to me a little while ago of a meeting in Scandinavia far away in the Arctic circle, the only one there, yet some one who had visited it said that he felt at the centre of things as among them. Look at that! Not that one would wish to occupy you with those dear brethren unduly, but what can it mean but the evidence of the Spirit of God, for what are miles to Him! what are geographical distances to Him! As we are in the Spirit we are in the centre of things, and so Simeon was in the centre of things. He was in Jerusalem. That is what is said of him. Spiritually, everything gravitates there; and as in the centre of things we miss nothing; current spiritual events are known to us; we are [p. 18] conversant with them. Anna was there too, and she missed nothing. Then it says of Simeon that the “Holy Spirit was upon him” Luke 2: 25. Now you have not only the vessel filled — that idea is in chapter 1 — but a vessel anointed; and that one in the very centre of things, who has the mind of God; to whom it had been revealed that “he should not see death before he should see the Lord’s Christ” Luke 2: 26. And “he came in the Spirit into the temple” Luke 2: 27, and, as there by the Holy Spirit, the Child is brought in, and he takes Him in his arms.
I wish to dwell upon this because the opposition now bears on the smallness of things outwardly. This marks our own times; how much therefore is it incumbent upon us to recognise the Spirit, the anointing; so as to be able, so to say, to hold the Child. I allude to the Child for a moment as referring to the outward smallness of things; but how intrinsically precious at this moment! What a spectacle for heaven to see the priest with the Child in his arms, in the full light of God regarding It! What an awful darkness is spread abroad today around us, especially with regard to the Person of Christ! The best refutation of the error is the priest with the Child in his arms, and the light of God in his soul regarding It. It is God’s salvation, and God’s salvation seen. What a word that is for us as the powers of darkness are felt abroad!
As Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered him up a whole burnt-offering to the Lord, having poured water upon the ground in acknowledgment of abject weakness, God thundered on the Philistines and routed them. It is the holding of the Child, as anointed by the Spirit, with the light of God in our souls, that routs the enemy. I believe the Lord is doing this in a little way; I believe the Child, so to speak, is in the hands of holy priests at the present time. One would love to see it more definitely.
Then there is the blaze of light in Simeon’s references to the Child, as blessing God, everything is made clear. “A light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. Luke 2: 32. The former is the very word that [p. 19] covers our present position as in this dispensation; the revelation or unveiling of the gentiles still holds. God is God, and the dispensation remains unaltered. The patience of God is marvellous, that the world is still in reconciliation; and God would put it upon us to maintain it in every way. It may be in smallness, but the character of the thing, the principle of it, is never to be let slip. It is the gentiles’ day. The glory of God’s earthly people is imminent. Christ is that. We know it; we have the light that Simeon had, in our souls. We know what is coming; the glory of God’s earthly people, for the father’s sakes, is near. No one can be with God without cherishing that testimony, “for the fathers’ sakes” Romans 11: 28; and Christ is indeed seen here in relation to the house of Jacob in this book; He is the glory of God’s earthly people Israel.
Now I pass on from this. We have viewed Christ in outward weakness; we have held Him, as it were, in our hands and blessed God! How much enters into this! Our very assembly privilege, as well as our public testimony, is in the Babe in our arms. We stand by Him. The sword may pierce through our souls, but our privilege is to stand by Him. But I pass on to the position in chapter 3, involving the full position of the Holy Spirit in a vessel. God gives us a view of that. The church is that now. We do not and cannot see it concretely, for it has failed outwardly; but the Holy Spirit in this regard gives us Christ as the Vessel great enough to receive the Spirit, and to move by His power, for that is how Luke presents the subject. He is a dependent Man, and comes up out of the water praying, and sees the heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit coming down in bodily form as a dove and resting upon Him. It is the Spirit, the Person, as I may say, in His entirety in that Vessel.
And then He began to be about thirty years of age. That comes in afterwards, as if you have the full thought of manhood there, with the Holy Spirit upon Him.
[p. 20] There is nothing to grieve the Holy Spirit in that blessed Man; for one idea of a dove, as I understand it, is sensitiveness; love doubtless too, but extreme sensitiveness. There was nothing there to grieve the Spirit in the least degree. All the fulness, we are told, was pleased to dwell there. Who can compass that? But there it is. The words “of the Godhead” have to be added simply to make the force clear in English, but the word is “for in him all the fulness was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19).
But then He moved in the power of the Spirit. In chapter 4 we read, “But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan” Luke 4: 1; so that, in this wonderful picture we see what we do not see now in the church. It was seen at Pentecost, but here we see the full thought of God in a Vessel. He is about thirty years of age, and He moves by the Spirit. He returns in the power of the Spirit from Jordan, and is led of the Spirit in the wilderness — that is the force of it — to be tempted of the devil. He returns to the conflict in the power of the Spirit; for that is how Luke presents it. So He goes into the synagogue at Nazareth, and we have that beautiful picture which every preacher of the gospel should consider before preaching — the way in which He read the scriptures and spoke. I think you have in these three settings the Holy Spirit as God intended Him to be here in the testimony, as the means for the maintenance of the dispensation of grace. It is not speaking only, it is in being the thing, filled, anointed, and then all that showing itself in our demeanour, as in our preaching. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings”. Luke 4: 18. There was present in Him the full evidence of this.
Well, I may refer to other passages than those I read, and there is one in chapter 11 that we should notice; that is the desire for the necessary furnishing, in view of our assembly gatherings. The early part of chapter 11 has reference to the furnishings in a locality. I cannot [p. 21] go into details, it has often been spoken of, but it comes in now in relation to what I am saying as meeting current conditions; calculated in a very distinct way to order and furnish our meetings; that we should know how to come together in the light of the church, agreeably to heaven. It should not be mere crystallised routine, but in the freshness of the Spirit; and hence the Holy Spirit is presented there as available for the asking. I refer to that, for we all should be concerned as to our local furnishings, and that is the way to meet them. They are to be met in the power of the Spirit of God.
Then in chapter 12 there is the public testimony which rightly follows; the inward order and furnishings corresponding with heaven as by the Spirit of God, and then the public testimony — how we are to behave as brought before magistrates and authorities and the like. True enough we know little of that; there is very little of it today. In fact, I suppose the Lord means that when He says to the remnant in Thyatira, “I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come” Revelation 2: 24,25. He has made a wonderful way for us, so that the authorities leave us alone; they are not opposed in general. That is of God. We accept it, we pray for them; but then there is the idea of public testimony that will incur persecution, and chapter 12 provides for this. So the Lord says, Do not think of what you are to say beforehand, “for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the hour itself” Luke 12: 12. It is not simply that He gives us what to say, but He teaches us in that hour.
That is an important matter. It supposes that we have already been accustomed to be taught. Of all persons in the world, christians understand teaching, for they have to unlearn and learn so much. Before conversion we know nothing at all spiritually; we have everything to learn; and so there is the teaching of grace, which is first, the teaching of the Lord, and the teaching of the Spirit. When the Levite is in the service and comes [p. 22] under reproach, and has to make answer, he has to be a quick learner, and he can be as in the divine school. It is not a short course merely. Let no one assume that the scholars of the world learn everything in the college. They learn there, of course, but they get principles of education, and learning goes on all their lives and they acquire the way of learning quickly. So it is in christianity; we have to come to the idea of quick learning, not simply hearing continuously, but learning at once. That is acquired ability; that you can learn in a moment; and then there is the teaching corresponding with this, so that the thought comes to you and takes form in your soul immediately. Who can effect that but the Spirit of God? Who else can teach you in the very crisis, when you have just to make your answer? Not only does He put the word in your mouth, but He teaches you what to say, and it would stand in relation to all the truth; it is not an isolated thing. The Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of truth”, and He teaches in relation to the whole system of truth; and He can do it quickly.
We have remarkable examples in Paul’s defences, say before the emperor, or Agrippa, or before the Jewish council. I would commend to you all the study of those defences of the great witness of Christ in the testimony, how the Holy Spirit gave him the thing, and taught him, as I may say. I would love to dwell on the speech before Agrippa; and then what he says later: “At my first defence no man stood with me” 2 Timothy 4: 16. Undoubtedly it was the right word, got for the moment. “But the Lord stood with me”, he says, “and I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth”. 2 Timothy 4: 17. You may depend that the answer was Spirit taught. All forsook him; alas! that there was such cowardice at that moment; but the Lord stood by His great witness.
I want to go on to the last scripture, and what I wish to dwell upon in closing is “the promise of my Father” Luke 24: 49, how the Father is brought in at the end, so that we may [p. 23] see fully what the dispensation is. It is “The promise of my Father”, but before that the Lord says, “Ye are witnesses” Luke 24: 48, not yet “My witnesses”. That is to say, it is not here that He is calling them to the witness box; the point is that they were eye-witnesses. In the Acts it says, “Ye shall be my witnesses” Acts 1: 8, but here the emphasis is on them, on what they were. The New Translation emphasises the “YE”. They were cognisant of what appeared in the Lord’s ministry; they have not only been to school, but they have seen things. They were not hearsay to them. We should learn to see things, so as to become witnesses of them, that is, persons competent to speak of them as knowing them. That is the idea. But then that is not enough. To be sent is another matter, called into the witness box. And so the Lord says, “behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you” Luke 24: 49.
Now you see we are in the presence of the Father, this is the closing touch, that is to say, it is God in grace and in love too. It has been remarked that the name Father always stands in relation to grace. “The Father judgeth no man” John 5: 22. Here we have His promise. What is the promise? Some inquire, What is the unspeakable free gift? It is better to let it stand as it is and rest in it. It is an unspeakable free gift of God; who can compass the extent of the unspeakable free gift of God? It is better to live in it. That is the idea; for the dispensation is impregnated with the idea of an unspeakable free gift, and that must entail the Spirit, There is the gift of the Son for us, and the gift of the Spirit to us. The one enhances the other, so to speak, and together you have the fulness of divine giving. What a weight of glory rests upon us as having the Spirit of God!
So the Lord here says, “Ye are witnesses” Luke 24: 48; you know these things, but He adds in effect, Do not attempt to speak about them until the promise of the Father comes upon you. What could any one of us do apart from the Spirit of God? Even although the disciples [p. 24] were witnesses of the most marvellous powers, yea, the very vessels of those powers, yet the Lord would not allow them to speak of them until they received the promise of the Father. So the testimony is to be presented in the power of the Spirit of God. There is no other way. Any one attempting witness apart from the power of the Spirit of God, discredits the thing that he presents. Even a Peter, a James, or a John, although having been on the mount of transfiguration, could not preach the gospel rightly without the Spirit of God.
The Lord says, “Tarry ye in the city” Luke 24: 49, meaning that it is not now a question of going a journey, as in Matthew; nor a question of the exercise of the servant to get his ‘word’, but what comes in sovereignly. We can reckon on this; it is a question of promise. I have not to work for something that is promised me; it is a question of promise, and what a promise! “The promise of my Father” Luke 24: 49, He says, that is to come upon you; and then, “but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high” Luke 24: 49. There are the two thoughts, the promise of the Father bringing in all that the Father is in grace; and then the power from on high, that is, moral elevation. Literal elevation to be sure, but it is moral elevation here also; it is “from on high”. Hence the witnesses do not descend to the level of man, or the world, in their testimony.
Then the word here is “clothed”, “till ye be clothed” Luke 24: 49. We were speaking about the Lord’s clothes today, what was said being very suggestive. Clothes do not convey the idea of acts of power. That is, a man acts by his hands, etc.; the hands are the symbol of a man’s power to do things; but when curative effects are seen through the garments, that is another matter. It raises the question as to my circumstances, what is round about me. So the whole position is “from on high”; it is not only while one is preaching the gospel, or doing things as with your hands, but power emanates from [p. 25] your very clothes, so to speak. In fact you have “greater things” in the Acts even than with the Lord. The people brought out the sick on couches, so that the very shadow of Peter might fall on them. That indicates how things stood, what mighty power was there, not only in the preaching, but going out from the apostles; they were thus clothed. And so with Paul; napkins and aprons taken from his body were laid upon the sick and they were cured. The Spirit of God says that these were “no ordinary miracles” Acts 19:11; they were extraordinary; they were miracles going out from the bodies of the apostles, from their clothing. God wrought them for the sake of the testimony. The maintenance of it is not only in the preaching, but in the persons and circumstances of the preachers, indeed of the saints generally. Power should go out from us, and it is power “from on high”, hence things are carried through. Luke would help us to understand the ministry of the Spirit, and to rely on it, so that the testimony should go through until the end.