ASSEMBLY CONDITIONS AND RELATIONS
[p. 102] ASSEMBLY CONDITIONS AND RELATIONS
Acts 15:36, Acts 15:40,41; Acts 16:4,5; Acts 20:28; Acts 21:3 - 6
I have in mind tonight to speak of the maintenance of church or assembly conditions and relations.
It was the divine thought that the assemblies, as set up under Paul, should be maintained at the full height of their original status. We know, alas, that historically it was far otherwise; but we see in these passages how the assemblies were, for a time, maintained so as to be available to God and to Christ and to the Spirit. There was to be from the outset, under Paul’s service, a universal unity; and there was to be, at the same time, what I may call local autonomy. So, as Paul goes into the service, Peter, evidently under the influence and direction of the Lord, moved to bring the work of God among the Jews into accord with the new movement that had begun, so that there should not be, so to speak, one railroad laid for Judaea and another for the provinces outside of Judaea. Most of us will be aware of irregularity in railroad grades, if you will allow me a homely illustration. And I apprehend that Peter, as he discerned the new movement under Paul, hastened to extend the grade, that communication should be unhampered. Hence he told Aeneas to rise and make his bed for himself. That was a feature that was about to become general.
The assemblies set up under Paul were all marked by local self-maintenance, as I may say. If others came — and they did, as we see in these passages — all well; but it was never the divine thought that local companies should not be, as it were, self-supporting; so Peter says to Aeneas, “Rise up, and make thy couch for thyself”, Acts 9:34. The assemblies of Judaea were to learn that they should not be henceforth [p. 103] dependent on Jerusalem — a most important lesson. Thus they acquired the designation, “Assemblies of God in Judaea”, and they became models for the Thessalonians in a later day. The Thessalonians are said to have become imitators of the assemblies of God in Judaea; 1 Thessalonians 2:14. It does not say they became imitators of the assembly at Jerusalem; they became imitators of the assemblies of God in Judaea. I have no doubt that, as I said, Peter intended that the assemblies in Judaea should learn to arise and make their beds for themselves.
I mention these things, dear brethren, because, if there is to be the maintenance of assembly conditions and relations, we must understand how to arise and make our beds for ourselves. It is not that God is in any way shut out by this principle — far otherwise. For the apostle writes to the Philippians (the first European assembly formed), “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure”, Philippians 2:12,13. They were to be deprived of the great support of the apostle, and they were to learn how to work out their own salvation.
But there had to be the willing; and I raise this question, dear brethren, as several companies of the Lord’s people are represented here. God looks for the willing. There could be no divine support aside from the willing; as Isaiah says, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land”, Isaiah 1:19. But God works to that end. He works in us for the willing. It is a long process with many of us, but God is wonderfully patient. How He waits upon us; and how He allows circumstances to come about in connection with each of us so that there should be the willing! There can be no possible progress in the working out of our own salvation apart from the willing. There must be entire submission [p. 104] to the will of God; the willing and the doing of His good pleasure. God works in us to that end, so that each company should learn to make its bed, as it were, for itself. Apart from this there is no possible escape from metropolitan conditions; and metropolitan conditions are not assembly conditions. Metropolitan conditions existed for a short while, and were owned of God at Jerusalem; but these conditions ceased with the destruction of that city.
God had graciously anticipated that event, and had provided for the maintenance of the several local companies throughout the world. Hence Peter, evidently under the direction of the Lord, went to “all quarters”. He, with the others, had remained at Jerusalem, but now he moves out and visits all quarters. In his epistle, having established this principle, we find him writing to the Jews of the dispersion, saying, in effect, “You are yourselves living stones; you are yourselves a holy priesthood; you are qualified to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus”. That was an amplification of his word to Aeneas. He says that not only were they responsible to make their bed for themselves, but they were furnished divinely for all that was requisite for the worship of God.
Writing from Babylon, having established these great principles of local responsibility and the maintenance of assembly relations locally, he proceeds to unify the work of God. He writes to the brethren of the dispersion in Asia Minor, “She that is elected with you in Babylon, salutes you”, 1 Peter 5:13. You see, dear brethren, how, in the maintenance of assembly conditions and relations, the great leaders, qualified of God to minister to the assembly, maintained not only these local relations, but general or universal unity, so that, to use my homely figure, a train could go right from Rome to Babylon.
Assembly conditions and relations involved complete [p. 105] elevation from the principles that govern this world. This world is divided into nations, nations into provinces, provinces into minor localities, and every locality has its own feature and characteristic, as well as its own pride. The world seeks to go on bearing such a load; but not so the assembly. The assembly, at the outset, was lifted above all that. It was released from all obligations that had been incurred by those who had gone before. Jerusalem had to take on all the obligations of her predecessors. The Lord said that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to that of Zacharias should be required of that generation. Terrible obligation! But the assembly was relieved from all that. The ground, as it were, had all been burnt.
The assembly was set up on the ground of redemption, immune from all those obligations; and immune, too, from the weight of these crooked principles by which the world seeks to move on. Thus Peter, in writing from Babylon, links up the work of God. As Paul says, “So ordain I in all the assemblies”. 1 Corinthians 7:17. The same principles that ruled in one assembly ruled in all, and thus delivered the saints from localism. Local and national feeling afford one of the most baneful weapons that Satan uses to deprive us of our heavenly colour and dress.
Peter later says, “Our beloved brother Paul”, 2 Peter 3:15. You see how he links in affection the whole work of God in his epistle — the whole work of God in connection with himself and the other eleven, and then Paul and Barnabas and their co-workers. The whole work of God is linked up in affection in that beautiful expression, “As our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him”, 2 Peter 3:15. Now, I mention these things because I see the need of them in myself and in all. Moving about I see the enormous influence [p. 106] that national and local feeling exerts among the people of God, whereas the Spirit of God is labouring to maintain us in the light of primary assembly conditions and relations.
Well, now I come to the passage in Acts 15 to show how, as Peter had wrought for local and general maintenance of assembly conditions, so Paul, as he says, “laboured more than they all”. And hence he says to Barnabas, “Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do”, Acts 15:36. What an interesting record, dear brethren, as to this beloved man; and what a model we have in him for service — a model for everyone with any little ability to serve Christ! Did it ever come into your heart to visit your brethren and see how they do? You say, ‘I have no gift’. But you can go and “see how they do”. It is not a question of gift for the moment, but a question of affection. He says, “Let us visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do”. Brethren, what about this? How does this comport with sitting down in your own locality, content with the routine of weekly meetings? What about those meetings that are rarely visited? Has it ever come into your heart to say, “Let us visit our brethren, ... and see how they do”? You say, ‘I have no gift’. But “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend”, Proverbs 27:17. I look at that countenance of Stephen. He is not presented to us in Scripture as a man of gift; he is a martyr. He is a man who laid down his life for the testimony. I look at his countenance as he stands there in the sanhedrim. They had to witness to it; it was as the countenance of an angel. If he never spoke a word to you, he would encourage you; and so, as I said, it is not exactly a question of gift; it is a question of affection. Can we allow our brethren to go [p. 107] unvisited? How should we expect them to be maintained? “Let us visit our brethren”, he says, “in every city” — not only those near to us. How far afield have you gone, brother? Peter went as far as Babylon. The beloved apostle here proposes to go, and he chose Silas, a worthy and wise choice, as after occurrences proved, and we are told in the chapter that he was “recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches”, Acts 15:40,41. There is not a word said about preaching or teaching in this passage. I am not saying that Paul did not preach or teach, but that is not the point here. The point here is brotherly interest and affection in this great servant which led him to visit and see how they did. The result was, as the passage states, that he confirmed the assemblies. Then it goes on in the next chapter, “And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily”, Acts 16:4,5. You see, there is not a word said about Paul preaching or teaching. It was simply delivering the decrees of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem; and see the result — “The churches were established in the faith, and increased in number”.
Now, I want to speak a little about that. You will all recall that the passage in the ninth chapter is very similar to this. It says that the assemblies had rest, and were edified in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and increased. They increased; but it does not say they increased in number. But it does say here the assemblies increased in number; and I want to speak, dear brethren, for a moment about increasing the number of the assemblies. It was not the Lord’s thought from the beginning to have large congregations of His people. He spoke about the “little flock”. Peter, in his epistle, calls attention to the similarity between his times and those of Noah. He speaks about “the few”.
Dear brethren, have we learnt to be content with a few? I do not know what the population of the antediluvian world was; I think it was comparatively very large. The increase of the population must have been rapid on account of the longevity of the people, and yet out of that world only a few were saved — Peter says, “wherein few”. Noah had to be content with a few. And Peter, I apprehend, inferentially reminds the brethren that they had to learn to be content with a few. The Lord is content with a few. It is not that there shall not be multitudes of the redeemed. “Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands”, Revelation 5:11. This surely encourages us as to the immense number of the redeemed. But the divine way now is a little flock. And so, dear brethren, increasing the number of little flocks is a great feature of the moment. Every added “assembly” is an added sphere for Christ. Are we on that line? That is one of the features of the maintenance of assembly conditions and relations. And hence you find the continual use of the word, ‘assemblies’ throughout this book (Acts), and the epistles.
They “increased in number every day”. What an interest for heaven that was! It does not say they increased in size. Thank God that the meetings do increase in size; but I have a feeling that the cup (there is only one spoken of) of the Lord’s supper is intended to govern the size of the little flocks. It is that into which love enters. Joseph spoke about a cup by which he divined; and I believe the Lord would use the cup, as it were, to divine — to bring out where we are, and so you look around in a circle governed by the cup. I do not think it should be any larger than what would correspond with the [p. 109] family circle. The Lord looks for the family feeling. The family feeling involves that I know the members of the family. It is an extraordinary thing that I should have brethren in this city that I do not know; and yet, alas, such are the conditions at the present time that this has to be said of almost every city and town. But then, there are those that are available to us, and surely love would lead us to love everyone of the circle. If we drink into the same Spirit, symbolised in the cup, surely it follows I shall know the brethren who drink out of the cup that I drink out of.
Well, now, I wanted to go on to chapters 20 and 21 for a moment, to show you such local companies as afforded liberty for the Holy Spirit. Luke loves to dwell on the externals — the externals issuing from that which is internal; and so in the twentieth chapter the apostle speaks about the Spirit testifying to him in every city. Now, why should it say “every city”? Why should he not simply say that the Spirit testified to him that bonds and afflictions awaited him? If he meant simply to tell us that the Spirit witnessed to him that bonds and afflictions awaited him in Jerusalem, he need only say that; but it was meant to convey to us that the Spirit was free to speak in every city. Now, the Spirit has not become incarnate. If the Spirit speaks, He speaks through vessels; and He speaks through vessels which are available. Hence the incidental testimony to what was in those cities through which Paul passed. As he passes through them there are vessels available for the Holy Spirit to speak to him. He had been the vessel hitherto to speak to them. Now the assemblies are available, and the Holy Spirit can speak to him. Think of what this was to heaven!
To make the thing practical; throughout this Dominion in every company there are, I trust, those that are available to the Spirit. What is a company of the Lord’s people professing to be in the light of the assembly unless it is available to the Spirit? The assembly is the vessel of the Spirit, and so in all these companies the Spirit was free to speak to Paul. What a remarkable result! And at Tyre, particularly, the women and children are all governed by the same blessed feelings and sentiments. As Paul visited Tyre, the wives and children accompanied him to the sea-shore. What a spectacle for heaven that was! It was the evidence of right local conditions. The apostle was, as it were, the Lord’s personal representative, and was regarded with affection. That is one of the features of local conditions; those who seek to serve the Lord are regarded with affection. You do not think that you are honouring them if you give them a meal, or if you give them a bed. No, they are honouring you. And so at Tyre, there were right local assembly conditions.
Now, brethren, that is all I had to say. It came especially before me this evening, in thinking over what I should present tonight. I believe the Lord helped me to take up this, that there must be amongst us conditions which are available; conditions which God can recognise, which enable the Lord to move about freely amongst us, and which enable the Spirit to manifest Himself in ministry, in brotherly affection, in brotherly care, and in that service that delinquent ones require, so that they, our brethren, may be with us. We cannot be with God and not desire that all our brethren should be with us; so, as I said, these conditions which the Holy Spirit would produce involve solicitude for the delinquent ones — and there are many. The Lord would lay it upon us to reach them. James says, “He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”, James 5:20.