CHRIST'S PERSONAL SERVICE FOR THE SAINTS (5)
CHRIST’S PERSONAL SERVICE FOR THE SAINTS (5)
JT I have been thinking that, to complete the series of readings we have had, we should look at chapter 1 of the Acts. It occurred to me that this scripture is necessary to complete the inquiry we have had, because it gives an additional feature of the Lord’s activities during his stay amongst them, telling us the number of days — namely, forty.
I think that, among other things, what He had in view was to prepare them for the Spirit. We have had the idea of manifestation in John; he enlarges on the idea of manifestation, which involves accession of light. Then Luke, as we have seen, takes account of the feeblest of the Lord’s people as essential in the public gathering, to the end that there should be a witness. The saints should be a witness to Christ. Then in Mark, that there should be individual faith, and preaching; and in Matthew, that there should be an administrative company.
But it remained to be seen what the Lord’s stay had in view in regard of the Spirit; that the saints should be available to the Spirit; might know how to make room for Him; and, I may say, use the Spirit in their service. We find at the outset that the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, charged the apostles whom He had chosen. This is a feature which is not mentioned in the gospels, that the charge was by the Spirit. Then we read that He presented Himself living with many proofs after He suffered, and that He assembled with them. The point is not so much the resurrection (the resurrection is assumed of course), but it is not so much emphasised as the fact that He had suffered, had charged them by the Spirit,
[p. 72] and had assembled with them. So that it seems to me our consideration today should be how the Lord’s service, after He rose, bore on the dispensation in regard to the assembly, and the Spirit in the assembly.
JCS Would that be that He was handing the saints over to the Spirit, in a way preparing them for the fact that He was giving them charge of all things in His absence?
JT Well, they would also understand how to act in the Spirit.
JCS So that all that came out in the four gospels which we have considered would now become a possibility amongst them by the Spirit coming.
JT Yes. The Spirit would be here. The Lord acted by the Spirit during His service on earth, but the model should be after He rose. After He rose He charged them by the Spirit, so that throughout the dispensation those who serve were to understand how to act by the Spirit. They would learn from Him by that action.
JCS We see that, His having charged them in that way, they were to learn morally from Him how to do things in the Spirit.
JT The use (to speak reverently) that may be made of the Spirit by the believer, as to his individual experience or in his service, is perhaps but little understood; whereas all activity and energy during the dispensation is to be by the Spirit. The assembly is the vessel of the Spirit.
JFS Each instance in the gospels that we have had before, is the continuation of what is seen in Christ in the assembly now; so here He showed unto them the way in which they could use the Spirit, that they might value the assembly in that way.
JT That is what I thought. I am sure it commends itself as an important consideration.
JCS So God is virtually saying, “All that I have brought before you is only possible by the Spirit”.
JT [p. 73] Quite. In John 21 I may have the obligation of feeding the lambs or the sheep, and shepherding the sheep; or the obligation of restoring wandering believers, as in Luke, or of opening up the Scriptures to them; or I may have the obligation of preaching the gospel; or I may have the obligation of general administration; but all is by the Spirit. That is the thing one would like to have clearly before us.
JCS That is really what imparts tone and character to the thing.
JT Yes. It renders us in the carrying out of these obligations, independent of the flesh, independent of human combinations, independent of means, and that by which the machinery of Christendom is sustained — worldly means. The recognition of the Spirit renders us independent of all these things. That is what comes out in this chapter.
Ques Did you say power would be needed in the service, and this would be obtained by waiting for the Spirit?
JT Yes, that is what comes out. Not only the Spirit should come, but example is set before them in the Lord how this should operate.
MPM Would it be seen in the saints at Corinth? They were defective on that line, so the apostle brings the Spirit very definitely before them.
JT Quite. What comes out in 1 Corinthians is the setting of the assembly; first in the way of fellowship leading up to it, and then coming together in assembly in the eleventh chapter; so that we are set in relation to one another in affection. Then in the twelfth chapter there is room for the Spirit. Hence you have the varied activities of the Spirit, rendering us entirely independent of the flesh, of learning, of money, of combination. We have full support in the Spirit.
JCS The Spirit having come subsequent to [p. 74] Christ having suffered would really stress that, would it not? We are outside of all that belongs to the flesh.
JT Yes. I think it is well to notice the connection of sufferings here — “To whom also he presented himself living”. It is not here so much that He is risen (of course He is risen), but that He is living. It is a living man now; and then, “after he had suffered” — a living man, after He had suffered. Thus we have set out, as one might say, the oil by which the tabernacle is anointed. The tabernacle was anointed by a holy compound, of which myrrh was a major part with other spices, pointing to the Spirit of Christ as the One who suffered. The assembly is anointed with that. It is a suffering people, having the Spirit of a suffering Christ; not yet triumphant, except in a moral way. We are in a position of suffering. That is the place we are set in; and the tabernacle is anointed with that — pointing to a dispensation of suffering.
SF This is the order of things which, in principle, will continue through this dispensation, is it not?
JT That is right. It is the suffering period, but nevertheless, there is power; complete independence of man in every connection.
SF It is something entirely new, established on the earth.
JT Exactly.
Rem The disciples were able to take account of this in His own blessed Person.
JT The Corinthians were ignoring the fact that it was a suffering period. The apostle said, “Ye have reigned as kings without us”. 1 Corinthians 4:8. That was, they ignored the time of reigning, which is still future. It is the time of suffering. If we suffer, we shall reign; so that he cites himself and others as models. It was not simply that the world had caused them to suffer, and humiliated them; but God had set the apostles last,
appointed to this. “We are made as the filth of the world, and are the off scouring of all things”, 1 Corinthians 4:13 even unto the very day in which he wrote the epistle. God had set them in this way. They were to be the leaders of the dispensation, carrying on this principle of suffering; but without resentment, without retort; as he says, “We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter”. Romans 8:36.
JnoR Do we get a good illustration in Stephen — a man full of the Holy Spirit?
JT Yes. He stands out as the model of the dispensation; one who bore a heavenly character, and witnessed to the truth. He suffered like his Master. Wonderful type of the dispensation as in the mind of God!
HC As far as Christ Himself was concerned He said — “If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons”, Matthew 12:28. His own mighty works were done by the Spirit Himself.
JT “Then indeed the kingdom of God is come upon you”, Matthew 12:28. So here, He was speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God, because the kingdom of God is in power. It is “not eating and drinking; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”, Romans 14:17.
JCS The power of the Spirit would really be commensurate with the suffering. The Corinthians were not prepared to suffer, and their movements in the Spirit were evidently restricted.
JFS Peter in his epistle very much indicates the line of suffering you are speaking of. As he goes on he speaks of them in that position as those upon whom the Spirit of glory and of Christ rested.
JT Well, there you get it. That is the thing, As suffering, the Spirit of glory and of Christ rests upon us.
JFS In the third chapter of his first epistle he speaks of Christ’s suffering. He says to the saints,
“[p. 76] to which also ye have been called”. He connects it with the calling.
HB Would this be in line with what David experienced in the cave of Adullam?
JT Quite.
JCS What do you think was the force of emphasising the presenting Himself living to them?
JT It indicates that the dispensation is to be marked by living men — living. We have a counterpart — an enforcement — of this in chapter 9, where Tabitha is presented living. She had died. She was a woman of good works, but evidently there was this feature wanting — spiritual life. How many are active in good works, and accredited too; but what about the life? Christianity is a living system.
Ques In what way has the life been brought in at the present moment, in contrast to or exceeding that which had gone before?
JT I think attention was called to the Spirit. This was one great feature of the revival in the last century. Attention was called to the Spirit in a well-known paper entitled, “The notion of a clergyman dispensationally a sin against the Holy Spirit”. A very strong title, but a title that conveyed light. The whole clerical system was built up to set aside the truth of the Spirit, and so 1 Corinthians 12 is brought in to show that the clerical idea is incompatible with the presence of the Spirit.
JCS The idea of the clergy would be on the lines of restricting life — the neutralising of things.
JT Quite. The Lord said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8:12. You look around, having the light of life, and that becomes a test of everything that presents itself religiously in the world. It is to be noticed that the idea of life is emphasised in the Scriptures that are addressed to Jews. The Lord is presented Himself,
[p. 77] in the revelation made to Peter as “the Son of the living God”; Matthew 16:16, John 6:69 so in his epistle he enlarges on the idea of Christ being the living stone, and we are living stones. Now the light of life becomes a test in your soul as to everything that presents itself religiously. Where is the green in it? Where is the room for growth — the energy of life? I think what comes out is that all that is built up on clerical lines is restrictive, and indeed destructive, of the true development of life.
Rem So He that is declared to be the Son of the living God, speaks that which is living.
JT Yes. I suppose that nothing affords more interest in the physical creation than the energy of life. One has known of it — the development of vegetable life splitting a stone; and observation as to the varied forms of vegetable and animal life brings out remarkable power and variety; there is real life in both. There is no realm affording more interest than the realm of life — I mean in the physical system. But when you come to what is spiritual, the interest is all the deeper.
JCS The One in whom it is all presented is still living, and the Spirit is here in relation to that, so that these things might be continued livingly here.
JT That is right. In this chapter we have what is said to be “the crowd of the names”. All the names; there were one hundred and twenty. It is not the number of persons, but the number of names; meaning that, under the Lord’s tuition here, there were one hundred and twenty developments; because a name indicates what you are. Adam was called upon to name the animals. God had given others names. He called the expanse, heavens; He called the light, day; the dry land, and the stars He called by name, we are told. But he virtually says, “Now, Adam, I want you to give names to the living creatures”, and whatever name Adam gave a creature,
[p. 78] it was called by that. Evidently meaning, I apprehend, that he was able to discern by the movement of the animal what the idea expressed. Every animal had its own character of life, and the name indicated what each was; so I apprehend that with these hundred and twenty names, there were one hundred and twenty developments under the culture and tuition of Christ.
SF All the new world — the world of resurrection, with all its possibilities, has come in for God’s pleasure.
JT That is it — a living order of things; and each one named has his own distinction, his name indicating it; so that the idea would be laid hold of as the Lord is said to have shown Himself living. He would come in amongst them and occupy them with a living Man.
LDB How do you apply the idea of names today amongst the saints?
JT Well, I think that each is distinguished. I know you. If I come to you, I think of you according to your character, and you think of me according to what you see in me. My name — my actual literal name — is arbitrary, anybody else may have it. You think of my name morally because of what you see in me. My true name is what I am.
JFS Moral character.
LDB So that to the name that is given arbitrarily we attach a meaning according to what we discern as the result of what the Spirit has wrought. It makes that world which our brother has mentioned very interesting, with all the variety that is found in it.
HC Was that scene of life introduced by the statement made in the beginning of Genesis — “and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”? Genesis 1:2 The Spirit there would represent the divine energy, for the word is really “hovering over”; meaning, ready for action as the way was opened up for it. Anyone can see in Genesis 1 and 2 the great feature is life in its varied forms.
MPM It would be seen in connection with Noah after he came out of the ark; he built an altar. We have a fresh commencement there, and there was a variety of life which had been brought through the flood.
JCS A name seems to me to bring great import into the Lord’s activities on the earth. To think of such developments (the one hundred and twenty names) is most suggestive. His activities had been very productive.
JT Some of us who have only the authorised version may not see the force of it, but it reads just as I have quoted. It says, “And in those days Peter, standing up in the midst of the brethren”, and then the parenthesis “(the crowd of names who were together was about a hundred and twenty)” (verse 15). They were all brethren.
Rem You seem to get correspondence; the evidence of the life seen in them was the evidence of the names. Take Stephen for example. They marvelled at the wisdom with which he spoke. It was an evidence of life in him which could be seen by them.
JT You can see now that the Holy Spirit is supporting a movement, so to speak, which will lead outside of Judaism. We begin here with a movement leading outside the world altogether into a living system of things to be governed from heaven. Chapters 9 and 10 bring in the heavenly side. Here we begin a movement that culminates in that.
JnoR Have you anything to say as to why it is one hundred and twenty?
JT It is ten times twelve, which would be a combination of responsibility with administration. I think that is [p. 80] in view.
LDB Do you suggest that the movement which the Holy Spirit is supporting is connected with a new and heavenly metropolis? Jerusalem had been the centre, and there must be divine warrant for leaving it. Would you say that the Holy Spirit brings in a living system of things which Jerusalem resented?
JT Yes, quite. The shekinah was loth to leave the city. It lingered over the threshold of the house, and then over mount Olivet. Acts is an enlargement of that. The Holy Spirit had come in at Jerusalem. Life had come in with the Spirit, and divine administration had come in there. What attitude did Jerusalem take up towards it? The ninth chapter brings out that after the death of Stephen we have Saul’s activities. He went from Jerusalem breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He had no idea of the power he had to deal with in attacking disciples of the Lord. It does not say “disciples of Jesus”, but “disciples of the Lord”. Acts 9:1. It was like the Assyrian going up into Immanuel’s land. It was Immanuel’s land. He was trenching on the authority of the Lord, so the Lord meets him, and a light from heaven shone round about him; meaning that the metropolis is to be moved. Jerusalem has forfeited its rights to it. It is now going to be in heaven, and in heaven it is still.
JFS Is that the same idea — “added to the Lord”, instead of to the assembly?
JT Exactly.
LDB Do you suggest that in consenting to Stephen’s death, Saul represented the feelings of Jerusalem?
JT I think that is quite evident. He had authority from the high priest, he says. I hope we have taken in the idea of a living man. He presented Himself living — or alive, and with many proofs. It was Himself, and all power was in Him. The next thing we notice is, He assembled [p. 81] with them. Now we have another thought: “being assembled with them”, He commanded them; that is, the Lord’s will is exercised in the assembly.
JCS I notice that stress is laid upon the fact that He spoke concerning the kingdom; that would be in view of assembling, would it not? That is, the things He spoke concerning the kingdom during the forty days were in view of the assembly.
JT I think the kingdom, as known now, took form in the assembly.
JCS So that the great thing in view is that they might know how to assemble.
JT Exactly; and to receive commandments as in assembly.
JCS What do you mean by that?
JT That is where the Lord makes His mind known. We have to learn that. We have come to understand a little, I hope, about coming together in assembly, The expression is found in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians. We come together in assembly to break bread, for example; but if there be discipline needed, we have to come together in assembly for that, it being a question of the Lord’s authority expressed in the assembly. “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints”, Psalm 89:7. It is His will that is expressed there, and they were to understand how that was to be done; so that, “being assembled with them” He “commanded them”.
JFS Do you suggest there was a sphere where His authority was owned — where He was free to make known His mind?
JT Yes; and His will too. His will.
JCS So that the assembly is in divine order, and the Lord’s commandments are heard and known. He is not exactly commanding the world, but in the assembly He is heard, and His will is respected there.
JT That is what I think we might see in this [p. 82] chapter — how in the assembly He commands; and it is a serious matter to be found at issue with the assembly, because it is there His will is known and executed.
Ques Is it right to say, when it is the kingdom it is His authority, and when it is the assembly it is more His influence?
JT No doubt the command is authority too. In the temple of old the walls were covered with cherubim. That is to say, they said to every one there that it was no place for man’s will. There is no room in it for man’s will, but for the will of the Lord alone.
LDB So that the Spirit is available for us to learn how to assemble.
JT Well, quite. I think the Lord, in this instance, would set the example for all time, as to how to assemble. You can understand if they assembled later (as they did, of course) they would think of how He did it — just what happened in detail, when the Lord, as risen from the dead, assembled with them. It does not say ‘met with them’, or ‘appeared to them’, but “assembled with them”.
LDB It is the manner in which He did it.
Ques Does it suppose that we are gathered to Him? They were there, then He assembles with them.
JT Well, possibly. Doubtless they were together, and He came to them.
MPM This is consequent on His appearing to them in the end of the gospels.
JT It is an additional feature, because He has now in view the setting up of the assembly as the vessel of the Spirit.
HC In what way would you distinguish between the presence and activities of the Spirit of God and the activities of the Lord Jesus in the assembly?
JT Well, you look to the Lord for guidance; but I think He shows here that all His activities are [p. 83] by the Spirit. Even in the exercise of authority, all is by the Spirit. Although by the Spirit, it is nevertheless Himself. It is Himself, so that one has a sense of subjection when the Lord is present. You are impressed with the necessity of entire submission in the sense of the Lord’s presence. The Spirit gives liberty. You have in I Corinthians 11 what emphasises the Lord. In the twelfth chapter no one can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Spirit; it is by the Spirit they recognise His lordship; and then you have the idea of a manifestation of the Spirit. It is a different thing from a manifestation of the Lord. The manifestation of the Spirit is something springing up; it is ascending more; whereas a manifestation of the Lord has a descending idea.
JFS Would you say that the one comes with revelation, and the other on the line of response to it?
JT That is it exactly. So that the Spirit amongst us implies a manifestation, the power of refreshment, or whatever it may be.
JCS So that the Lord presenting Himself in that way would have a very subduing effect upon the hearts of the saints, and that would leave room for the Spirit springing up in liberty amongst us.
JT That is it.
JCS What is the thought of assembling? The fact that some saints are together does not mean necessarily that they are assembled.
JT No; because I may exercise my own will in that way. The idea of heresy was first a thought to make a party, and the Lord could not allow that. Again, anyone might hive off, having the idea of the assembly, and set up an imitation of it; but that has no moral place at all. The Lord’s authority is ignored there. You cannot have the manifestation of the Spirit unless the Lord is owned.
SF Why was the command given that they were not to depart from Jerusalem?
JT It is Luke’s line. God intended to exhibit His grace dispensationally, as well as to an individual, and that was expressed in the wonderful consideration for Jerusalem. Matthew omits it, but Luke enlarges on it, because God’s grace rises above man’s guilt. Jerusalem was the guiltiest city on earth. The murder of the Son of God having occurred there, added to all its sins; and yet God says, “My assembly is to be there”; that is, “there is to be My expression of Christ there”. They were to be witnesses. In the end of Luke, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. That is the witness that God set up there. In the Acts you see these same people organised into an assembly. In the end of Luke they were simply gathered ones — disciples gathered; but in the beginning of Acts we have the idea of assembling. That means that the Lord is organising them after His own fashion, so that there should be, not only a company of men and women partakers of the heavenly grace, but there should be an organism. The assembly is an organism. The Lord is to be known in it as assembled, and it was to be a great power in Jerusalem, as this book shows throughout.
HB Jerusalem had been the centre of God’s dealings for years, and in that place He would set up the assembly in the power of the Spirit.
JT It is the final testimony to Jerusalem. Not only is the Spirit given to so many persons, but He is in the assembly; and, as Jerusalem has rejected the testimony of the Spirit, there is no hope now for her. It is God’s final witness.
JCS What is produced in the upper room is being morally continued here. That was too great for Jerusalem; it could not hold it.
JT We have no light as to what kind of meeting places they had in Jerusalem after this. They had the upper room — the Holy Spirit mentions that, but [p. 85] we have no further light. We do not know whether they had large halls or small halls, but we are told, in the second chapter, they broke bread in the houses. There is not a word about a huge building to contain these people that were converted. We are left with the upper room. That is what the assembly began with, and that is what it is ending with.
JCS So the moment we move outside that we get away from the divine thought.
Ques Would you tell us what the upper room sets forth?
JT I think it sets forth the idea of elevation in obscurity. It was withdrawn from the ordinary level of the world’s religion. It is obscure, and yet elevated; that is to say, it is morally elevated. The Lord, as we see here, “having said these things, was taken up, they beholding him, and a cloud received him out of their sight”. Then we read, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven”. Think of the dignity that filled their souls in seeing Him go up, and having the testimony of the two men in white clothing that they would see Him come back again. It says, “Then they returned to Jerusalem ... . And when they were come into the city, they went up to the upper chamber”. In the end of Luke they went to the temple, but here they go to the upper chamber. They carried in their hearts a sense of all that dignity and elevation into the upper room. That is what it began with.
JCS Would you say that still remains?
JT Well, I think that is what the Lord is doing for us — giving us to understand the idea of His going up and coming back. He is absent from us, but He is coming back. We are in the light of these things, and we seek to maintain that light in the upper room, in [p. 86] the meeting.
GHC Do you say that the broken state of things does not alter the fact that the Lord is with His saints as assembled together?
JT Yes. It is on the ground of keeping His commandments now — “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them”. John 14:21.
MPM He could not assemble with us apart from that.
JT No. We have to reach Him that way.
CC The manifestation of the Spirit — is that what you are speaking of now? In Genesis a mist went up from the earth and covered the ground.
JT One has noticed that, although heaven was there, the mist went up out of the earth and watered the ground. The subjective idea is a great thing. A river went out of Eden to water the earth. It does not say rain came down from heaven to water it. It is a subjective idea. Later, heaven is evident as watering the earth.
GR It is recorded that “two men stood by them in white apparel”.
JT That suggests to us the purity in which you witness. Two is adequate testimony; and two in white, I think, would mean a witness in purity — the purity in which the assembly is to witness here.
MPM It is men, not angels.
JT Yes; the testimony was to be in men.
LDB ‘The Notion of a Clergyman’, which you mentioned earlier, brings God’s people down from their true elevation, but the Spirit maintains the elevation.
JT It is very marked. All around us there are those who have lost the elevation — the dignity we have been considering.
Ques It says the apostles abode there. “Where abode the apostles”. Is that maintaining the elevation?
JT Yes; their living associations were there; as it says, “where were staying both Peter, and John, and James”, and the others; Acts 1:13. I think the upper room, as remarked, is elevation in obscurity. It really corresponds with the tabernacle system — “those who serve the tabernacle”. It says, “We have an altar, of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle”, Hebrews 13:10. The cathedral is elevation in publicity. Every possible effort is employed to make it conspicuous and influential religiously. All there is in a cathedral is calculated to impress you with the religion of the flesh. It appeals to the natural senses.
JCS If we assemble we come out of that, and touch the moral elevation of things. A man may have certain things in connection with his ways here which may give him a status, but when he assembles he leaves all that behind.
JT Quite. Hence James enlarges on the rich man and the poor man. The poor man glories in his elevation — that is spiritual elevation. The rich man glories in his humiliation — that is material humiliation. His material humiliation really involves his spiritual elevation. They are both on the same platform, and that is his divine elevation; hence James goes on to enlarge on the royal law; things are royal with James.
JFS Would you say that the Lord, having set up things on the resurrection platform, as it were, retires; and afterwards the Spirit appears? A cloud received Him out of their sight. Everything is out of sight publicly today.
JT Just so. The epistle to the Colossians, I think, amplifies that things are all hidden.
Rem The Lord Jesus was not seen publicly by the world after His resurrection.
JT No. It says, “the world seeth me no more, but ye see me”. John 14:19.
JCS While there was nothing external, nothing [p. 88] great about the upper room, it really housed all the light of God for the moment.
JT Hence they had the greatest possible altitude, and the greatest possible depth. In Proverbs it says, “The heavens for height and the earth for depth”. Proverbs 25:3. The two were witnesses of that. The Lord has gone beyond all the heavens. The full idea of height is in the heavens. Then it says, “the earth for depth”. It is only in the assembly that we understand altitude and depth; that is, we have it from Christ. He went into the heart of the earth. He lay for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Of course geologists would sneer at that, but Scripture is accurate. It means that morally the Lord went to the lowest depth. There was nothing lower. “The heavens for height”, and there is nothing higher than the point He has reached. We are in possession of all that, and it is in the acceptance of the depth that we understand the height.
JCS He touched the extremities.
LDB That is all valued in the assembly. In the knowledge of the depth we can understand the height.
JT The point is the wonderful descent of love, that He went so low. The assembly comes from there. We came from the lower parts of the earth. We came out of His death. We are brought up from that depth — the depth to which love went. We should understand that. And the height is correlative with it; that is a secret of the assembly — “The heavens for height, and the earth for depth”, Proverbs 25:3.
JFS That is where it comes in — in heaven.
JT That is right. What I had in mind was, “That he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” Ephesians 4:9. So that we are to know the height and the depth.
JCS Is that where the [p. 89] assembly really began?
JT I think so.
JFS Why does Judas come in here? Peter, when he begins to address them, immediately introduces Judas.
JT I think the brethren are contemplated as being sympathetic. In the next chapter he stands up with the eleven, but here he stands up in the midst of the brethren. The brethren are taken up as those who are affectionately sympathetic. We cannot but feel that the idea of a traitor to Christ is repugnant; so Peter enlarges on it here — what Judas was, and his end. Then, as you will observe, he cites what the Spirit says about him. It is a question of the Spirit. What the Spirit says is the thing now — what the Spirit said about Judas. Then it says, “Must one be ordained to be a witness with us”. But in order to have one to replace him he must be one who assembled with them. That is the point — to prepare for the assembly one who assembled with them all the time in which the “Lord Jesus went in and out among us. Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us”, Acts 1: 21,22. This shows what is in view — that a man should understand how they assembled during the time the Lord was with them.
JFS In other words the man qualifies morally for the position.
JT Yes.
EBMcC How do we suffer today? Is it more internal?
JT I suppose it is. You mean we do not suffer so much from the world now?
EBMcC We see how the Lord suffered, and the disciples; but that is mostly outward, at the hands of men.
JT The sufferings still go on. As it is said, If any man will live godly in Christ Jesus — in Christ Jesus — he will suffer persecution. Anyone living [p. 90] godly in Him will suffer persecution, whoever may be the instrumentality of it. Satan will not leave us alone.
Rem “These all continued with one accord in prayer”, it says.
JT That was to mark the dispensation — dependence upon God.
Rem That is an evidence of life.
JT Well, quite. It is the feature of the dispensation. So we should not depend on man. “Pray without ceasing”. 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
JCS In deciding as to the two who were selected, they prayed. They had seen Jesus do that. They prayed about the one to be decided upon.
JT Yes, exactly. The Lord’s introduction of Saul, as has often been remarked, was, “Behold, he prayeth”. Acts 9:11. It is not, “Behold, he prayed”, but he prayeth. It is present and continuous. One has noticed what a remarkable thing it is, on the first entry of Paul into Europe, that the attack began “as they went to prayer”. Acts 16:16. He was a while in Philippi. He did not take a hall and start to preach. As soon as he arrived, he allied himself with what was of God in the city — or rather outside. There was a place by the riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and he resorted thither. But on one of the occasions as they went to prayer, a woman having the spirit of python met them. Satan knew that prayer was the secret of power. If that was to continue, the power of God would prevail in Europe; so he attacks them as they go to prayer; but he failed. It only gives a further opportunity for prayer; and not only for prayer, but the spirit of a suffering Christ comes into view as Paul and Silas are thrust into prison. In prayer they praised God, and the prisoners heard. In their sufferings they prayed, and in their prayers they praised, and the prisoners [p. 91] heard them.
JCS Prayer with God in the prison, and power with man afterwards.
JFS It encourages us greatly. “As he is, so are we in this world”, 1 John 4:17.
JT And what a thing to be occupied with — prayer: “as they went to prayer”; not simply the prayer meeting, but to prayer. They intended to pray when they came there. The Lord is seen in Luke in a remarkable way when He was baptised. The people were all baptised before Him, and as He was baptised He prayed, and the heavens opened on Him, and God pronounced Him His beloved Son.
LDB So that prayer here would be one feature of the method that would be agreeable to the Spirit; He could endorse the action taken.
JT Quite. So they resort to the Scriptures, to prayer, and the lot. The lot brought God in; it was putting the matter into God’s hands, as it were. The Lord might easily have filled the vacancy before He left, but He did not. It was for them to do it, and it was a test for them.
JCS “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord”, Proverbs 16:33.
JT It is really a great test, if anyone is to be prominent, occupying any position amongst us, as to what motives may govern us in placing him there.
LDB The intelligence of these things is found in the assembly.