LUKE 24
We have in this chapter the loosing of the bands of death (see Psalm 18: 4; Psalm 116: 3). The Lord had come by the grace of God into the place of death, and all the might of death, all its strength, was put forth upon Him. There is no feature of the power of death that He has not been subjected to in grace. The bands of death were very really and truly bound around that blessed One, but God loosed them all. The Spirit of God speaks in the New Testament of the “pains of death” (Acts 2: 24), intimating to us the anguish of soul which was involved in the grace of God finding expression in death. The word involves extreme anguish; it is the same word translated ‘throes’ elsewhere. It shows what the manifestation of grace involved to the Lord Jesus. In Hebrews we read that He by the grace of God tasted death. He not only went into the article of death but He tasted in His soul all the bitterness of death. The loosing of the pains of death is the testimony on God’s part that in grace the penalty has been so borne that it is now annulled.
[p. 295] I think we see death here in a new character. There is divine testimony that the penalty is gone and the One who bore the penalty of sin in the way of grace is liberated; it is God’s testimony to the completeness of grace. That is one side, but Peter on the day of Pentecost adds: “it was not possible that he should be holden of it”. Being God’s “gracious One” and moving into death entirely in the way of grace, it was not possible that He should be holden of death. There could be no true and adequate expression of the grace of God in the death of Jesus if there had not been the full weight of the penalty. It is well not to underestimate what was there. We must never lose the sense that the full weight of the penalty was on the Lord Jesus; it draws our hearts to Him. How touching it is to be able to say, He died for me! The sting of death is sin, and that calls for the extreme penalty. In that character, for us who sit under the shadow of a risen Christ, the penalty is completely removed; the pains of death have been loosed. Every question has been settled so that the Lord can move through the “gates of righteousness” into a new position as Mediator of the all-blessing grace of God.
If the penalty is fully borne and in that sense death annulled, all the might of death as vested in the hands of Satan through man’s sin, and all the power of Satan, are brought to nothing. We come here to the complete triumph of grace: sin, death, Satan, are all annulled, ‘Annulled’ is a powerful word; it means made as though it never existed. That clears the way for the Lord to bring to light life and incorruptibility; they come to light for the first time in a risen Christ, and there we see God’s thought for man. That is the positive side of the death of Jesus; the setting aside of the penalty is one side, but we have to look at the death of Jesus in another way; it is also the way through which the Lord enters this new place in which He can be the Dispenser of the grace of God universally. Death is the way in. In resurrection God opens to Him the gates of righteousness, and He goes into this new place as the Mediator of all the grace of God. That is not exactly the place He had in the days of His flesh, for He said, “how am I straitened!” There was the restriction of grace there, but now having moved through the gates of righteousness the Mediator is perfectly free for the administration of grace to all men, and He has reached that position through death. According to Psalm 118 the gates of righteousness stand in relation to His [p. 296] becoming the Head of the corner, and He introduces a new “day which Jehovah hath made”. It is full of gladness and rejoicing for men because it is the day of grace to them. This is the new day which we have in Luke 24, a day into which no shadow of death can come.
According to Psalm 16 the Lord has come here as God’s gracious One. It was not possible that One like that could see corruption. God’s gracious One passed through this world of sin, and now He has gone through the gates of righteousness into this new position. That is the new day, the day that Jehovah hath made, and it is marked by gladness and rejoicing.
The aspect of the death of Jesus in Luke is that He is moving through death into the place of unchallenged supremacy. In Acts it is repeatedly said that God raised Him, but the gospels give us the Person — He is risen. It implies that there is inherent power in that victorious One which made it impossible that He should be holden of death; He must rise. No power can challenge the rights of His grace. He could say, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”, In Hebrews 2: 9 we read that “he was made some little inferior to the angels on account of the suffering of death”, but this was on the way to being “crowned with glory and honour”. He has universal rights of grace; He can give the promise of the Father, He can do everything; repentance and remission of sins can be preached in His name to all nations.
It could not be necessary to roll away the stone to let such a Person out, but the stone was rolled away that death might be uncovered as the place of divine triumph. The women could look into the place of death and see nothing there but the evidence of the triumph of grace. They found not the body of the Lord, but His clothes are there, the testimony that the Lord Jesus has been there, If we look into the uncovered place of death we are made conscious that the Lord of life and glory is not there; He was there in the way of grace, and now the first order of man has been ended.
It is a fine spectacle to see men in shining raiment; they are not here said to be angels. Now that the stone is rolled away we have at once the thought of men in a new condition altogether, men in shining garments, men suitable for a new condition which is outside of mortal life. The risen One is to have associates in His new condition. There are two men, for testimony is in view. God would have us to see these wonderful [p. 297] sights, to look into the grave as lovers of Jesus and to see that He has been there in death in the way of grace, and that now He is out of it, and men can be in shining raiment as a result. Here upon this earth where Jesus died there are to be men standing in shining raiment. It is the answer to Luke 2: 14, for it indicates that the pleasure of God in men is to be secured in this new condition. His pleasure is not found in men as part of the system of this world; shining raiment is not for such. No man had ever been seen before in shining raiment except the Lord on the mount of transfiguration; such raiment is in accord with the resurrection world.
This is the crown of God’s pleasure in men. The Lord could delight in repentant sinners; they were to Him the excellent of the earth; they were His associates in the days of His flesh. But the full pleasure of God was not reached, and God was not satisfied, till men were set up as suitable associates of the risen One. In the beginning of Acts we see companies of men who were associates of the risen One.
The shining ones were men of understanding, and they address the women as those who have intelligence — “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen”. They were to understand that, in order to reach His true place, the Lord had to go through death; He had to go out of the place of limitations into a large place of liberty.
All this is presented in testimony in these first twelve verses, but it is not entered into. The Spirit of God sets it before us to show that even a divine testimony does not bring us into the good of anything; we enter into things only by the personal service of the Lord. This casts us upon His active grace. The Lord in the following part of the chapter undertook to bring the disciples into it by His own personal service, and He would do that for each one of us. He Himself would draw near to us in all our ignorance and unbelief and lead us into what has been presented to us in testimony. Unbelief marked the women, and also perplexity which results in slowness to take up the comfort of what is there. We have to be prepared to understand the importance of the resurrection of Christ, for it was the most wonderful movement of the testimony that had ever taken place, a movement from Christ known after the flesh to Christ in resurrection. The disciples were not prepared for it; they had to be divinely prepared and so do we. Many today are not prepared for the moral import [p. 298] of the resurrection of Christ. They may believe it as a fact — they are not Christians at all if they do not — but very few understand it. It is a wonderful change in the ways of God. In Luke 23 we see man given a new place in paradise, but now we find men standing on the earth in a new condition as associates with a risen Man. It would completely break the power of the world for us if we understood that that is our place. We shall know it is our place when we are actually raised, but what will mark the saints then actually is to mark them now morally. At Pentecost the whole company was seen morally in shining raiment, with not a grain of selfishness left.
The account which Luke gives us of the two disciples who went to Emmaus brings out in peculiar sweetness the grace and service of the living One. The men in shining raiment had spoken of Him as the living One. Now what kind of activities belong to the living One? We have here a beautiful picture of them, whether in relation to true lovers who are not moving in the line of His thoughts, or to the company as gathered together. The living One is moving in the service of grace and love.
These two disciples really loved the Lord, but they left Jerusalem to go to Emmaus “that same day”, and we should gather they went to their own home. We find too, that Peter, after visiting the sepulchre and seeing the evidence that the Lord was risen, went to his own home. Now that is where the trouble is: we get certain impressions of Christ, but then there is something else that governs the movement of our feet. There may be true love, as there was in Peter and in these two disciples going to Emmaus, but in going to their own circle their movements were not governed by affection for Christ. It is often so with us. The Lord Jesus went after these two and brought them back to that one circle that was identified with His interests and with Him as risen. It was in view of their being found together with their bonds in a Person who is altogether outside the life of this world, and who can notwithstanding be known intimately in that life, as Peter says in Acts 10: 41, “who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead”. It suggests the closest intimacy in association with One whose life is entirely outside and apart from the whole course of this world.
As He broke the bread He was made known to them. It was no doubt a significant figure of His death when He took [p. 299] the bread and blessed it, and having broken it gave it to them. It was an act which corresponded with what He had done in the upper room when He instituted the Supper, though it was not actually the Supper. The two recognised Him; it was a peculiar and unmistakable touch that they recognised as having known it before. Who could bless as He could! What an extraordinary thing it must have been to hear the Lord giving thanks or blessing! Their eyes were opened and they recognised Him — it was Himself. The most wonderful exposition of Scripture that ever was failed to turn their feet, but when He was known in the breaking of bread their feet were set in movement at once; they must find their company. They had an intuitive sense that He had a company and, though it was too late to go any further, it was not too late to get back to Jerusalem.
It is generally the Lord’s way to give us enough to make our hearts glow, and then He puts us to the test as to what effect it has produced. The Lord does not thrust Himself upon us. It is a very serious matter to get a manifestation of the Lord or any touch from His own hand, because the test is sure to follow. In Mark 6 we read that He walked on the water and would have passed them by; He put Himself within their range, and it became a test for their hearts. Peter answered to the test; he says, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water”. In Revelation 3 the Lord says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock” — why did He not open the door? He will not do that; He leaves it to you and me to open the door; there is no intrusion. So here He gives them this wonderful exposition of Scripture and makes their hearts glow with fervour, and then He made as if He would go further. They constrained Him; they would not let Him go. It is like the beloved in the Song of Solomon showing himself through the lattice. There is a setting forth of His moral loveliness, His personal attractiveness and glory, to set us in motion, and then He waits to see whether we will respond. In the Song there was not response and the beloved withdrew himself, so that when the sluggish heart of the bride awakes to want him, he has gone. That is how we miss things. The Lord may give us a touch of ministry, or as we read the word or come together we may get a touch that makes our hearts burn. There is that about the saints that is easily set on fire; they are inflammable material. He works, He ministers, He serves, to [p. 300] awaken some kind of movement on our part. How delightful it was to Him to find them conversing about Him and reasoning! It is a fine thing to work things out that are connected with Christ, to understand their relation to one another, to reason them out affectionately. Going back they contributed to the assembly; they came back with peculiar impressions of Christ. What good are we in the assembly if we do not bring some impressions of Christ? We are more or less a drag; but every brother or sister who comes to the assembly with some impression of Christ contributes to its wealth.
There is no limit to the spiritual possibilities that are available for the individual lover; we are only limited by the desire of our own souls. In spite of the terrible state of things in the Christian profession, there are unlimited possibilities for hearts that love the Lord; but then what we get individually is to qualify us for our position in relation to the brethren.
The Lord delights to give manifestations, not merely thoughts that refresh and stimulate, but distinct manifestations so that the Lord becomes known in a new way. Every manifestation gives a new impression of Christ; He is so great that I do not think He ever manifests Himself twice in quite the same way. There is such a diversity of glory that every manifestation has its own unique character. We should always be on the look-out for it, for it is the choicest thing within our reach. We should look for manifestations particularly when we come together to eat the Lord’s supper.
Our efficiency in service depends very much on the way the Lord has manifested Himself to us. The Lord said to Paul that he was to be a minister and witness of the things which he had seen and the things in which He would appear to him. He gives us manifestations in order to constitute us ministers and witnesses. So these two disciples could go back and report to the assembly — the eleven and those gathered together — and tell them how the Lord had manifested Himself. They brought wealth to the assembly. Nothing can be purely individual; what is granted to the individual is intended for the blessing of all. There is no New Testament writer so individual as John, and yet there is no writer that so insists that we should love one another.
The Lord is seen in this chapter in the wonderful character of interpreting all the Scriptures. It would seem to suggest the great spiritual wealth that is brought into the assembly.
[p. 301] It all clearly had in view the new circle of communion or fellowship which the Lord was about to set up, and which would stand in relation to Himself as the risen One, altogether outside the life of this world. All the wealth of the Old Testament Scriptures is gathered up and substantiated in the risen One. The assembly has been enriched by the interpretation of the Old Testament which the Lord has given to the saints. The Lord would impress on us, as on the two disciples, that all the favour of God as made known in the Old Testament requires resurrection to give it body. Its substance depends on the resurrection of the Messiah.
It had pleased God by the mouths of Old Testament prophets to develop in wonderful detail a vast number of things, as it is said here, “He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”, verse 27. And again He says, “All that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled”, verse 44. That suggests the immense scope of the Old Testament, and I believe the Lord would have it to be an experience with which we are familiar to walk with Him through the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi. That was a real journey outwardly, for they walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but spiritually they were traversing the whole range of the Old Testament. Think of the immense detail. It is a great safeguard against the wretched infidel notions that are about, to go through the Old Testament in company with Christ. As the wealth, substance, and power of it, the wonderful variety of spiritual thoughts concerning Christ, come before us, we are lifted up to an elevation from which we can look down with absolute contempt on the infidelity of man. No one who has walked through the Old Testament in company with Christ will open his ears to the infidel thoughts that are broadcasted today.
There were a multitude of thoughts of divine favour expressed in the Old Testament and they were precious to faith, but all the people who cherished those thoughts died — there were two exceptions only. For men to be in death was no expression of divine favour, so in faith they must have reasoned it out. In the New Testament they did not come directly to resurrection, but faith reasoned it out that there must be resurrection, If God had such precious thoughts of divine favour and yet all men were under death, there must be resurrection. That the Lord was to suffer and to enter into His glory was the great [p. 302] theme, and the Old Testament made it clear that He would be victorious. The serpent was to crush His heel and it was through His sufferings that the power of the serpent was to be annulled. Now God shows that His favourableness to men was greater than all the poison of the serpent’s bite. The Old Testament was full of favourable thoughts on God’s part towards men, but as men were under death they could only be substantiated in resurrection. Now the Messiah has come in as the One on whom death had no claim and upon whom death could have no power, for He was the Prince of life; and yet such a One as that came into death. The supreme expression of the favour of God to men was that His own anointed One came into death, but He could not be holden of death; He passes through to resurrection, and every gracious thought of God was substantiated in the risen One. The Lord is just the same today as when they walked with Him through the Old Testament.
This gospel is characterised throughout by grace, and the Lord, whose feet had been beautiful in His journey through this scene in the days of His flesh, shows that they were still beautiful with grace in resurrection, as He walked eight miles with two disciples who really loved Him, though they were not moving in correspondence with Himself. He went with them and led them along this wonderful road and enlarged them. How they must have been enriched! These were true lovers in sympathy with each other, and they conversed with Him. If we were more marked by such features, I think the Lord would draw near and converse with us, and He would lead us along this same road that He led them.
What wealth they brought to the assembly! We should pray that we might get individually and household-wise such impressions from the Lord that we are qualified to contribute wealth to the assembly. That thought runs through the whole of Scripture. In the Old Testament we have the thought of going up to the place where Jehovah set His Name; they did not go empty, but all Israel brought their tithes and their offerings. They all came as contributors and poured their wealth into the treasury of the dedicated things. These two enriched the assembly; they had a manifestation of the Lord and brought it to the assembly. They must have contributed greatly. The report had reached the eleven that the Lord had risen and had appeared to Simon — that was something — but [p. 303] how much more these two could bring! “They related what had happened on the way”. It must have taken a long time as they told the eleven about this wonderful walk through the Old Testament. Then they crowned it all by telling how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread; He had disclosed to them His own thought for the moment. Added to the wealth of the Old Testament He had taken bread and blessed and given it to them, and that is His thought for the present moment right down to now. How the eleven and all the rest must have listened! Perhaps it took them an hour or two to tell them only a little outline.
People complain sometimes that there is no fellowship. We are called upon to insist that there is a fellowship, and it is the most blessed thing that ever was. The Lord has formed it; He has given it character; He is Himself the substance of it, and it subsists and is available for all His lovers. It is for us in the spirit of Christ to bring these impressions to bear on our fellow-Christians, as the Lord brought them to bear on these two. He calls attention to the fact that there is a fellowship of divine character, and if we once get the sense of it we shall want to find a spot where that fellowship can be enjoyed. It is a fellowship of blessing and happiness. We come together because we are divinely and spiritually happy, and we long to be in the place where our happiness will be shared by others, and where our joy will be appreciated and welcomed. Those who complain of lack of fellowship are not in correspondence with the Lord. The Lord is not complaining of lack of fellowship; He is seeking to bring before His saints the supremely blessed character of the fellowship that exists. If I find a cold saint who has come under the influence of the world and I want to do him good, I must not complain of his condition but bring before him in spiritual power what he is missing, and that will surely affect him.
When we come together to remember the Lord, a brother gives thanks at the table for the loaf, and I learn from what he says to the Lord what he thinks about it. He put it in my hand with confidence that I have the same thoughts of it as he has. Then I pass it to a brother or sister with confidence that he or she thinks about it as I do. We pass the bread and the cup from one to another as all having common thoughts and appreciation of it; and we delight to sit among people who, some in small and some in great measure, think of Christ [p. 304] exactly as we do — that is the fellowship. What a wonderful sight for the eye of heaven to look down on — people all thinking the same thoughts about the precious body of Christ devoted in death, and thinking the same about His precious blood! The youngest babe would have the same thoughts as Paul; they would be a good deal smaller, but the same thoughts as have developed to maturity in Paul. That is the communion. If we had the most intelligent brother on the earth at the Lord’s supper and he gave thanks, a person converted last night could say Amen to every word he said. He might say, It is wonderful and beyond me, but it is precious — that is the communion. One who can say Amen is a contributor: “Let all the people say Amen:” Every one is a partaker of the preciousness of Christ. The Lord in taking the loaf at Emmaus intimated that He was forming a communion; there were at any rate two participants. The Lord formed a communion which derived its character from the fact that He had by the grace of God tasted death; He gave His body in death. The whole thing takes character from their recognising Him as living. If they had not recognised the Lord as living they would not have had any right thought of His death.
If the taking of the loaf and cup were spiritual realities with us, any bad terms between brethren would be settled before another Lord’s day. Such a pang would go through our hearts as we passed the loaf to the brother with whom we were not on good terms that we would feel that we could not do it again. We get into the way of doing it formally, and all kinds of things have place which would disappear in twenty-four hours if we knew what it really means to take the bread and the cup. It is a serious thing to get into a kind of fellowship that is unreal. Then on the other hand we have to be careful that what belongs to personal infirmity and peculiarity does not influence us in relation to the fellowship. We all have personal peculiarities, and when we sit down together to partake of the bread and the cup we should have grace from the Lord to rise above these things. Perhaps a brother is quick-tempered and has said a hasty word — what are we going to do about it? We have to seek the grace of Christ, His wonderful priestly grace from His uplifted hands, so that when we come together we think of that brother in no other way but in pure and holy feelings of grace. Of course there are a thousand things which call for meekness, forbearance, lowliness and long-suffering:
[p. 305] all these things test whether we have the grace of Christ. We often find that we have not the grace of Christ, but this sends me to Him to get the supply that I need. I realise that this brother who annoyed me has the same thoughts of Christ that I have, and in all the things that constitute the fellowship we are absolutely one. I have known a brother come on Saturday night to say how sorry he was for having said a certain thing in the week; he was not free to come to the breaking of bread without saying it. These moral questions should never go over the week. That was the intention of the Lord in setting up the fellowship; it was not to be touched in an unholy or unrighteous way, but it was to adjust all moral questions.
The Lord desires that we should find our way to the assembly as contributors, as those who have precious substance in the knowledge of Himself and who realise that there is a company where that substance will be appreciated and welcomed. The assembly is the place where there is an outlet for all the precious thoughts concerning Jesus that have been indelibly engraved on our hearts. God has provided a suitable vessel to contain all the precious and holy worth of Jesus; and that vessel is the assembly. That assembly will miss something if I do not bring my contribution — every saint should feel that. It is the only place where there is an outlet for the appreciation of Jesus.
The aspect of the assembly that Luke brings before us is not so much the assembly in the privilege of family relationships, but as enriched with the all-various grace of God, every element of which has been disclosed in Jesus.
The Lord came in as they were saying these things: “He himself stood in their midst, and says to them, Peace be unto you”, verse 36. They were confounded and frightened and supposed they beheld a spirit. That shows how the presence of the Lord brings to light the actual conditions that were there. We often talk about the presence of the Lord in the midst of His own, but I have often wondered what the effect would be if the Lord actually came into our midst. I believe it would bring to light every element not in correspondence with Himself. Here they had accepted the testimony that Christ was risen, but they were not in correspondence with it. We may receive a good deal as divine testimony without the heart being brought into real correspondence with Jesus.
It was because of the conditions that the Lord said, “Peace be unto you.... Why are ye troubled, and why are thoughts rising in your hearts”. They needed this word of peace. It is according to the grace of this gospel that the Lord takes account of the actual conditions; but He does not leave them where He found them; He brought them into perfect correspondence with Himself before He had done with them. We all know what it is to require a good deal of adjustment in our spirits. Our true spiritual inwardness is often much behind the measure of light that may have come to us in testimony. The Lord wants to bring us inwardly into correspondence with the light He may have given us. The Lord never loses sight of the actual state, though we often do. If His saints are troubled and thoughts arise in their hearts, the Lord knows it and He would meet it with the gracious word, “Peace”.
If we are not in the present, conscious peace and joy of that which is substantiated in the risen One, we are not suitable to the assembly. He would have the precious grace of God, substantiated and verified in Him, so known by us that we are undistracted, and no thoughts arise in our hearts. We are in the peace and joy of all that has been brought to us in Jesus; then we are in correspondence with Him.
The disciples had been walking with Him for about three-and-a-half years, and they had seen marvellous things and heard marvellous words. The grace of God to men had been set forth most blessedly to them, but they did not at this moment identify it with the risen One. He was not at that moment the substance of it to their hearts. So He says, “Handle me and see; a spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see me have”, verse 39. I believe there is a spiritual apprehension that answers to handling. Handling is not hearing or reading about Him. “Handle me” — there is substance here. Many of us have known what it is to say: “Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me a living bright reality”. We have had certain thoughts of Him, but they were more or less misty. To many believers Jesus is a spirit, a vague, intangible personality, but the Spirit of God would make Him very real. It was not a spirit that called them to follow Him and find in Him the all blessed grace of God; it was not a spirit that had died for them.
His hands and His feet suggest everything that the disciples had seen in Him in the days of His flesh. His hands covered all His service of grace, and His feet covered all His movements of grace. Those hands had been active all through; there are fourteen references to His hands in this gospel. They were [p. 307] always moving in the service of grace. Then His feet — what wonderful footprints! We can mark them all through this gospel. And now He identified all this with Himself as risen; they are the same hands and feet, but they are now in resurrection conditions. Nothing of the grace that was expressed in Him in the days of His flesh has been left behind in the grave; it has all gone through in resurrection in the risen One. It is all in the risen One this moment and the Lord makes it tangible to us now.
In John 20 reference is made to His hands and His side. His hands in John are viewed differently from His hands in Luke. In John His hands held everything for the Father; He holds the sheep for the Father — it is on the side of divine purpose in John. It is divine grace in all its activity manward in Luke, but in John what comes out is that His hands are strong enough to hold everything in the Father’s purpose; the pleasure of Jehovah prospers in His hand.
The movements of His feet were connected with the preaching of the gospel. He brought the glad tidings, He was the great Evangelist; but His hands were occupied in skilful touches on the souls of men. Now those are the two sides of the service of grace. There is what we may call the testimony side, the wonderful grace of God carried by One whose feet are beautiful, and there is the other side, the skilful touches of His hands on individual souls. I cannot believe that anyone who has been touched by the hands of Jesus would ever forget that touch; I believe every one carried some impression of the skill of the hand that touched them. The assembly is made up of persons who have not only believed the glad tidings brought to them by Jesus, but who have come under the personal touch of a divinely skilful hand. What a wonderful company! Our touching Him is the other side, the exercise of faith, and it draws virtue out of Him, but His touches suggest the plenitude of grace. “He healed every one of them” — such was the power of His touch.
In the assembly everyone is to be a contributor. If I have heard one precious word from His lips, I must cherish that and bring it as wealth to the assembly; and if I get a touch from His own hand I must cherish that too, and bring it to the assembly. The Lord is seen in this chapter as Interpreter of all the Old Testament Scriptures, showing that all was concerning Himself. I believe that all true interpretation of [p. 308] Scripture is the interpretation of Christ. He is the great Interpreter, and He is the Preacher, for every gospel preaching is the preaching of Christ. He takes up this and that one as a mouth-piece, as Paul says to the Corinthians, “Since ye seek proof of Christ speaking in me”. Christ is the Speaker, the Evangelist, the Teacher, the Prophet, the Pastor. Every gift is an expression of Christ.
In Moses and the prophets we have the divine testimony, but in the Psalms we have the spiritual emotions of the saints; so when the Lord found the company He spoke of the Psalms. In the Psalms we have soul-history, experience, not simply light from God. Moses gives us what is inaugurated and has to do with the setting up of things, and the prophets give light suitable to a day of departure, but then all kinds of exercises and spiritual emotions, whether of sorrow or joy, are produced in the soul, and they are found in the Psalms. The effect of the Lord’s service would be to put us all in tune so that we should be ready to sing. It is a great matter to the Lord that He should have a singing company before He comes back. I am sure He thinks much about the hymns we sing when we are together, for it is said that He sings in the midst of His assembly.
The Psalms speak much of the sufferings of Christ, they should have a great place among us when we are in assembly, but I doubt if we are much up to it. We are to think of the exceeding sweetness of the love that would suffer so much. The Lord is cherished in His suffering love, but that means that we are perfectly free from all thought of ourselves. We are not thinking so much of what the Lord did for us, but we are thinking of the path of unmeasured sorrow and suffering which He traversed in order to bring to us the grace and love of God. The Psalms rightly give prominence to that, and it is always so in spiritual affections. There is no subject in Scripture so profoundly spiritual as the sufferings of Christ. Everyone ought to read J. N. Darby’s wonderful book on the sufferings of Christ; it would do the saints good to read it once a year. The Lord was the holy Sufferer all the way through; the whole Scripture testifies to His sufferings. The whole testimony of Scripture was that He would suffer and enter His glory.
The Lord had evidently drawn the attention of the disciples to the Scriptures; He had given the Scriptures a very great place. “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you” — so that in attaching very great importance to the sacred writings of the Old Testament we are following the Lord, which is always a safe thing to do. The Lord connected the testimony of the Scriptures with the present testimony of grace; He brought in all the Old Testament Scriptures as having an essential place in connection with the present testimony of grace, so that we are quite justified in preaching the gospel from the Old Testament. There is not a single part of the Old Testament writings that ought not to be brought into the assembly’s wealth. There is an immense wealth of spiritual detail brought out in the Old Testament in the form of types and figures which is needed. We should be surprised to find how much we lost if we limited the wealth of the church to the New Testament; we should find that we had lost a very large part of the testimony of God concerning Christ.
The Old Testament has a present bearing on us, so if God says, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn”, Paul says, For whose sake did God say that? For the ox? No, “altogether for our sakes”, 1 Corinthians 9: 10. Such a scripture as that is altogether for the assembly. It is very striking. The Lord has shown that not a word of the Old Testament Scriptures can be broken. If God says of His servants and judges of old, “Ye are gods”, it is as if the Lord would say, Whether you can explain it or not, the Scripture cannot be broken. In the first half of the book of the Acts they had no Scriptures save the Old Testament. We should not shrink from dwelling on a matter of this kind on account of the thoughts that are abroad in the air, and Christians are in danger of becoming affected by them, and of thinking that certain parts of the Old Testament have no value.
If God gives us communications and we do not read them, it is like contempt of the Writer. The risen Lord reminds His disciples that He had told them before that all things written in the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Then He opened their understanding to understand the Scriptures, which is a necessary spiritual operation. That would preserve us from reading the Old Testament in the letter. He opens their understandings to let all the wealth of the Old Testament come in. The Lord did much for His disciples when He was with them that [p. 310] afterwards was the work of the Spirit. It is by the Spirit that the Lord opens our understandings to understand the Scriptures.
It is very beautiful that the Lord should have eaten before them (verse 43). He wished to show that there was that with them which He could appreciate. Nothing frees us more than to know that there is that with us that the Lord can appreciate. In grace He values, and takes a part of, what we have, though it is small. “They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of a honeycomb”. The Lord said, “Have ye anything here to eat?” It was wonderful grace, as much as to say, ‘If you have, I should enjoy it and will partake of it’. It suggests the perfect grace in which He makes Himself known, and puts Himself so near to us, even if we have things only in part. None of us have things in completeness. Paul himself said, “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1 Corinthians 13: 9), and that distinguishes the fish and honeycomb from the loaf. What the Lord presented to them, as everything from the divine side, is marked by completeness; the loaf is a complete entity. On our side it is only in part, but such is His grace that He will eat of it. The broiled fish would suggest the saints as taken out of the general mass of mankind for the pleasure of God. The broiled fish had been taken out of the sea and been subjected to the action of the fire. Nothing found with the saints is palatable to the Lord if it has not come under the action of the fire.
Then the honeycomb represents what the saints are in mutual love and activity. There is nothing that more aptly represents combined labour for a common end than the honey-comb. It has been the work of thousands of bees and everyone contributed his little bit; it is the evidence of united and co-operative labour on the part of many saints.
The Lord ate before them, so that Peter could say, “We did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead”, Acts 10: 41. It was a remarkable proof which Peter brought out to show that He was a living Man.
All this qualifies the saints for testimony. There are the Scriptures and a company of living witnesses in verse 48, “the promise of my Father” in verse 49, and the leading out to Bethany and priestly blessing — all that qualifying them for the testimony of grace. The assembly is left here for the testimony of grace. The Lord gives them to understand the [p. 311] Scriptures, a very necessary equipment. The testimony was to be carried on by those who were led out as far as to Bethany, the place where the glory of God had been seen in resurrection, and I think this answers to the Colossian position.
In Matthew the Lord is seen with His disciples in Galilee, the place of reproach, the place that was looked down upon by all the religious leaders of the day. That would answer to being identified with the reproach of Christ. In Acts the ascension is at the mount of Olives, because the object of the Spirit in Acts is to bring out the testimony to One in heaven — the mount of Olives is heavenly association. But in Luke He led them out as far as to Bethany; it is the place where there had been the witness of resurrection power, the place where the Son of God had been glorified in resurrection power.
The Lord gives understanding and we should look for that. What is the good of reading a chapter and saying, I do not understand it at all? But suppose you knelt down and said to the Lord that you did not understand the chapter but that He had expressly undertaken to give understanding and that you wanted Him to do so — I am sure that Scripture would open to your understanding and become radiant with light and with discoveries of divine wealth. I have found it to be so. I think the Lord honours the regular reading of Scripture; it is astonishing how one gets what one needs through reading the Scriptures regularly.
The Lord had in mind that there should be a company of living witnesses: “Ye are witnesses of these things”, verse 48. The Lord shows that, consequent on His suffering and rising again, repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. It is the full width and scope of the testimony of grace. Repentance is preached as a wonderful bestowal of grace on God’s part; the preaching is part of the grace of the gospel.
Then the Lord says to them, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” — showing that the ability to understand is a separate thing from power. There is nothing more needed now than power. I believe the Lord would exercise us about power. He has helped us greatly in the understanding of the Scriptures, but what about power? We need power in a hostile world; we cannot stand up without power or we shall let the cause down instead of promoting it.
[p. 312] In their case the secret for obtaining power was tarrying in Jerusalem, and we know how they spent their time. They spent the ten days in prayer and supplication. If brothers and sisters all continue in prayer there will be power, for power is the result of prayer. The Lord does not propose to us now that we should wait for the Spirit, but the disciples had to spend ten days in unceasing prayer and supplication, and there is something for us to learn in that. It connects the power of the Spirit with the dependent state. We cannot have the power of the Spirit apart from a dependent state; even the Lord was anointed with the Spirit as He was praying. I believe power is a thing the Lord would have us conscious of. I know the difference between being naked and clothed; if I put on my clothes I am conscious of being clothed. Now the Lord says, Tarry till you are clothed. It is surely possible to have the consciousness of being clothed with power. I think we ought to wait before we launch out in any testimony until we are conscious of being clothed with power.
It is “power from on high”, suggesting the heavenly character of the power; it is not what will distinguish us as men upon the earth. It is a power that belongs to heaven. I wish I knew more about power out of heaven. I can understand a man with great fervency of spirit, great zeal and eloquence, and a knowledge of Scripture; but real effectiveness lies in what comes out of heaven. The power of the Spirit is a very real thing, as we see in Peter in the Acts. There was not a vestige of cowardice about him — the very man who had quailed before a serving girl! He stands up in the utmost boldness. They saw the boldness of Peter and John and they could not understand it; it was a power from on high. When we come face to face with the devil we want power. Peter had power; he could say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk”, Acts 3: 6.
In heavenly power the testimony of grace would go out unhindered in all its blessedness. God has made the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins as attractive as possible by sending it forth in the name of this wonderful Person whose life is recorded in the gospel of Luke. God takes pains to make it attractive by the personal charm of the kindness of Jesus. He sets it forth in the most attractive way possible in the Name of Jesus. We read in Proverbs, “The charm of a man is his kindness” — that is the text for the gospel of Luke.
The disciples saw the Lord carried up. The Lord is not said to have been carried up in John; there He says, “I ascend”. It is the glorious majesty of His own inherent power. But in Luke He is carried up; they see the blessed Man who has been the dependent vessel of grace carried up by a power not His own. He is carried up to heaven as the dependent Man — what a lesson! And the power that carried Him up is the power that can carry us on. As led out to Bethany they are outside the life of this world altogether. That is like the epistle to the Colossians; they are not carried up but led out as far as to Bethany. Bethany is not the place of reproach. We can pass outside the life of this world to a sphere where there is no reproach; it is a spiritual region, and in that region we come under the priestly blessing of the One who was carried up. It is a wonderful climax to the gospel of Luke. It is blessing flowing out unhinderedly on persons suitable to receive it. The Lord would bring us outside the death sphere altogether. In John 12 they made Him a supper; Martha served, Lazarus sat at the table, and Mary anointed Him. They were outside the life of this world altogether; they were in the sphere of resurrection life. They were not living in the world, as the apostle says to the Colossians, “Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” They are on earth but not in the world. Bethany typifies our true spiritual place on earth, though it is not our heavenly place. Our true spiritual place on earth is to be outside the life of the world. The priestly blessing is known there.
Luke presents things spiritually, and this reference to the temple is, I believe, a spiritual reference because it is a place they occupied in praising and blessing God. The temple is furnished with a suitable company of worshippers. In a material sense it was left to Israel, but in a spiritual sense it was furnished with a company of worshippers praising and blessing God. These people could have sung psalms. In the beginning of this gospel the multitudes were praying without, while Zacharias was exercising priestly functions within; he was representing a praying multitude without. Now in chapter 24 we have the Priest gone within and a company here so full of all that had been brought out in this precious gospel that they are praising and blessing God. For a moment they are [p. 314] outside the region of prayer. They are praising and blessing God because they are in all the wealth of the priestly blessing of the One who has been carried up into heaven. They had reached the point that David reached when he could say, “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended”, Psalm 72: 20.