THE ASSEMBLY (5)
[p. 330] THE ASSEMBLY (5)
On a previous occasion we were occupied with the truth of the Lord’s supper. The breaking of bread is a remembrance of the Lord Jesus and is named in connection with the first day of the week. When we remember Him, He will lead us into the Father’s counsels.
In John 20 it was the first day of the week on which the Lord came in amongst His own, after He had sent them word, in which He called them His brethren, and said that His Father was their Father and His God their God. He had in view to link them with what is heavenly, as He was about to ascend there. So we find that the first day of the week and the breaking of bread stand in connection, with the Father’s counsels. The expression, the Lord’s supper, stands in connection with the Lord’s day and is more linked with our testimony here. “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, 1 Corinthians 11: 26. The Lord’s supper is the outward side of this act, while the breaking of bread gives us the inward side. It is one and the same act, but looked at from different sides. The first day of the week is a new beginning; it links us with what is eternal, and we are led into the Father’s realm. John knew what it was in Revelation 1, when he was called back on the Lord’s day to the testimonial realm. John became “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”; he was outside the limitations of time, but, as we said, he was recalled from there. He heard behind him a voice which called him back to the testimonial realm. The one who knows what it is to be in the realm of the Spirit knows what it is to come back to the realm of testimony.
We have seen before that John’s gospel stands linked with eternal things, while the first three gospels stand connected with what had gone before in the Old Testament. John’s gospel begins: “In the beginning was the Word”, that is, before anything was created.
[p. 331] It may be said that most believers in christendom break bread, but the question is, Is it really the Lord’s supper they have? Paul says to the Corinthians, “When ye come therefore together into one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper”, 1 Corinthians 11: 20. Every believer ought to be assured that it is the Lord’s supper in which he participates. This epistle gives us the conditions for this. It is a help to notice the circumstances which obtained when this supper was inaugurated. The Lord had told his disciples that they should follow a man who was carrying a pitcher of water and, when they followed him, they came to a house where there was a man who acknowledged the Lord’s authority. It is most important to recognize the Lord’s authority before it can be the Lord’s supper. It says also that the room was furnished. In Corinthians we have the proper order presented; the whole epistle is the Lord’s commandment, chapter 14: 37. We must not introduce there anything of man’s order, as the case is in the systems around us.
We found it of interest to note the different presentations of the assembly in John’s gospel and in those of the three other evangelists, the latter speaking of the place the assembly has in the testimony down here, typified in Rebecca as brought into Sarah’s tent. The supper is not named in John’s gospel. There it is a question of the Father’s counsels and eternal things, but feet-washing is mentioned, so that we might have part with Christ.
Ques What is the meaning of the bread being broken? It was the Lord who broke the bread. They saw Him do it and could remember it. The disciples ate it. Others can see us eating the bread, but no one can see that in our hearts we are remembering Him. Putting out our hand and taking the bread and eating it constitute a testimony to the fact that we are committing ourselves to the Lord’s death. It is a love supper, but it is also the Lord’s supper. It is His body and blood. To say that because we break bread we necessarily eat the Lord’s supper, is to destroy all soul exercise in connection with it.
In chapter 15 we have the great truth of resurrection.
[p. 332] The saints ought to be a testimony to God’s great victory over death.
Ques Does what happened at Emmaus shed light on the breaking of bread?
It is true that the Lord broke the bread there, but it was not the Lord’s supper. They had to go back to the eleven in Jerusalem, the place where the Lord’s authority was recognized and where the testimony was to be maintained. If it had been the Lord’s supper that they had in Emmaus, then they would have remained there. We can say that the Lord breaking the bread in Emmaus presents to us the spiritual side in the breaking of bread; He was made known to them in the breaking of bread. It does not mean that the breaking of bread and the Lord’s supper are two different acts, but they are two different ways of looking at the same matter. The thought in the breaking of bread is that we are ready to leave this world, which corresponds to the rapture; but the thought in the expression “the Lord’s supper” is that we should be in keeping with the testimony down here. The breaking of bread has therefore in view to lead us to the place where He is, and is like a door out of the place where our responsibility is. There comes the moment when the Lord comes before our minds, and He leads us then into the place where He is. “In his shadow have I rapture”, Song of Songs 2: 3. I am, so to speak, away from everything down here, and I go out of sight. The breaking of bread in itself takes us back in our thoughts to the moment when the Lord broke the bread. He comes before us then in a living way, so that we forget ourselves.
1 Corinthians 15 presents God’s victory over death. Ephesians goes further than this, and speaks of the power that works in us, and that God will have glory in the assembly for all eternity. This is the eternal side, whereas Corinthians speaks of the assembly as a testimony to God’s victory down here. If God bears testimony to men, He does it through a suitable vessel. When the Lord Jesus was here, He was the One God found competent for this. In His Person He is God. He was in Himself competent [p. 333] for every service, but He did not take up any service before He was anointed by the Spirit for that object. Then it was that God committed everything to Him. Now the Holy Spirit has come here and the assembly has been anointed to carry the testimony. It says of the Spirit that “it sat upon each one of them” (Acts 2: 3) so that the testimony went out from an anointed company. The Spirit’s incoming to the assembly involves power; the same power which raised Christ from the dead, operates now in the assembly. Christ was marked out Son of God in power by resurrection of the dead, Romans 1: 4. It is by this power that the work of God is continued now, as we see in 1 Corinthians 15: 58. In Job 37: 7 and 8 it says: “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know His work. And the wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens”; that is to say, Satan is restricted, and the work of God goes on unhindered. I refer to job because it shows us how all human power is excluded in connection with the work of the Lord. Satan is restricted as we recognize the principles that distinguish the work of God. In all the various religious systems much is made of what man can do; even money exerts its influence there. Peter says in Acts 3: 6: “Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk”. There is sufficient power in the assembly to carry out the work of God in a proper manner. Moses says in Psalm 90: 16: “Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy majesty unto their sons. And let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it”. God desires that His work should continue in the assembly in His power. I refer to this, as it shows us the vessel through which the testimony is continued down here on God’s account.
Ques How is this power realized in the assembly at the present time?
It is when we are brought back to recognize God’s power, the power of resurrection. The power is there if we are in the state to recognize it. When the Lord raised the [p. 334] son of the widow of Nain it was a testimony that God had visited His people. Christ is marked out Son of God in power by resurrection of the dead. The power was there present when the widow’s son was raised to life (see Luke 7) and in the same chapter we see the Lord in Simon the Pharisee’s house. The Pharisee saw no beauty in Him, although He had brought the grace of God into the world, but the woman washed His feet with her tears, those feet that had come all the long way down here with the glad tidings of grace, and she anointed them; she saw His beauty. We could say that God established the work of her hands. If the work of our hands consists in protecting the rights of God and giving Him right of way, then He will establish it, and we will then compose part of the anointed vessel. As we consider this chapter, we see the wonderful vessel through which God presents His testimony, that is, the assembly, which ought to be independent of the world and its resources. The assembly should not seek to adorn herself with any human education, but the Lord’s delight should rest upon her. Despite the ruin and damage which has come in, we can abound in the work of the Lord always. No one needs to lose courage. God says through the prophet Isaiah, “Strengthen the weak hands” (Isaiah 35: 3), and it was said to Gideon, “Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valour ... Go in this thy might”, Judges 6: 12 and 14.
Ques What is involved in the testimony at the present time?
We have three different expressions, namely “the testimony of God”, “the testimony of our Lord”, and “the testimony of the Christ”. In 2 Timothy it is a question of “the testimony of our Lord”, which we have to preserve, but “the testimony of God” includes the whole truth of God as revealed in Christ, and this in relation to man, as we learn in Romans. “The testimony of the Christ” is more in relation to Him as the vessel through whom God will fulfil all His thoughts, and accomplish all things according to His own pleasure. “The testimony of our Lord” gives us the thought of the power through which He carries it [p. 335] out. It says of the apostle in Jerusalem that the Lord stood by Him at night and said that, as he had testified the things concerning Him at Jerusalem, so he should also testify at Rome (Acts 23: 11). Christ is Lord of all; He rules over even emperors. We have great encouragement to continue in the testimony. The Lord showed mercy to the house of Onesiphorus because he had a heart for the testimony. The Lord will encourage His people as they walk in the light of this.
In 2 Timothy it says, “Do the work of an evangelist”, and in Isaiah 56: 8 we read, “Yet will I gather others to him, with those of his that are gathered”. In Acts 2 we find that, where they were assembled for prayer, the assembly was added to by three thousand; then five thousand are mentioned, and in chapter 5 “more than ever”. The thought is that they were gathered to the Lord and loved Him.
To keep the sabbath in the Old Testament was a sign of keeping His covenant, and in the New Testament the sign is the Lord’s supper. In Isaiah 56: 6 and 7 we read, “every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast to my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer”. Some of us have enjoyed what it is to have come to His holy dwelling: “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples”. If we apprehend the true meaning of the house of God, we will pray for all men and God will give blessing through the gospel. “The Lord Jehovah, who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith: Yet will I gather others to him, with those of his that are gathered”, Isaiah 56: 8. What a great encouragement for us that God will continue to gather right to the end.
In chapter 16 we hear again of the first day of the week. The apostle speaks of certain persons whom the Holy Spirit names for us. These persons belong to the anointed vessel and they shine out in a special way; they are like stars in relation to the sun. Star differs from star in glory, the one from the other, as we see in chapter 15. We find such a group of stars in verse 17. The apostle says of them,
“[p. 336] They have refreshed my spirit and yours”. Their love for the apostle shone out. They were labourers in the Lord. It is important to notice all those that the Holy Spirit names. It appears that Timothy by nature was somewhat timid, and he thus could easily become the object of criticism or complaint among the saints. We ought to see to it that we are occupied with the good which is found with every brother, no matter how weak he may be. Timothy was one who worked the work of the Lord, as it says. It cannot be said that all work is the work of the Lord. We ought to assure ourselves that it really is the work of the Lord that we are doing. This would preserve us from working independently of the Lord. Paul was the wise architect, and it is right for those who build to follow in his footsteps. The apostle says of Timothy, “he works the work of the Lord, even as I”. We ought to receive such, and give place to them, that they might be amongst us without fear (see verse 10). The work of the Lord involves many tears and much labour, and we ought to see to it that we are supporting such a brother. “Let not therefore any one despise him; but set him forward in peace, that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brethren”, verse 11. He does not come to Paul as a prominent person, but with the brethren. He should come with them, not they with him; he did not come as a prominent servant, but as a brother. It is greater to be a brother than a servant. This should help us to separate from the spirit that marks clericalism.
Another brother named here is Apollos. He represents God’s resources alongside such a vessel as the apostle Paul. It says, “I begged him much that he would go to you with the brethren; but it was not at all his will to go now; but he will come when he shall have good opportunity”, verse 12. This conveys the thought that he was one who looked after his own special service for the Lord. The Lord always has His resources. Peter once asked, “Lord, and what of this man?” (John 21: 21), and the Lord answered, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me”.
[p. 337] The house of Stephanas had devoted themselves to the saints for service. We find there a house wherein the work of God was carried out. We ought to own all such. “Ye should also be subject to such, and to every one joined in the work and labouring”, verse 16. The house of Stephanas was a house like this, and such a house is a great help in a place. In verse 19 Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned, and the assembly in their house. What an honour for a house! Every believer ought to hold himself for service to the saints. Whatever we possess, a horse or a car or whatever it may be, we ought to hold it at the Lord’s disposal and service. God brings all this in among the saints for the sake of the testimony.
The giving or collection which is mentioned in verse 2 does not stand connected with the Lord’s supper, although it was on the first day of the week. There was to be no collection when the apostle came, but they should lay by at home on the first day of the week. This shows that it should be given in the light of eternity. What generosity God has revealed in connection with creation! What riches we find there! Barnabas, whose name means “Son of consolation”, gave like a son. He sold his land and laid the money at the feet of the apostles for the need of the saints. We ought to be like God and give richly, not only when some special brother comes along, for example, when an apostle in the days gone by came to the saints, but what we give ought to be the result of what God has given us in connection with what we have enjoyed on the first day of the week. We do not find anything said in Scripture as to taking a collection on the Lord’s Day, but it is in keeping with the spirit of the Lord’s supper. It is not that God needs our money, because everything is His, as we read, “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle upon a thousand hills”, Psalm 50: 10. But God loves a cheerful giver. He says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee”, Psalm 50: 12. The Lord appreciates what we have learnt on the first day of the week, and it is according to this principle that we should act.