EARLY COLLECTIVE MOVEMENTS
[p. 155] EARLY COLLECTIVE MOVEMENTS
These scriptures are read in order that we might dwell upon the collective movements of the saints seen in the beginning of our dispensation. The result of the Lord’s work in the saints is seen in their outlook, attitude, and movements, as left to themselves when the Lord ascended. It is touching to contemplate the Lord as having said certain things to the disciples according to this account and then being taken up. “When he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight”. It is not presented as if it were His own action. The Lord must have felt keenly the incident of His being taken away from the disciples.
No one has keener feelings than the Lord, and, we are told here, He was taken up from them and a cloud received Him out of their sight. He would look upon them with the greatest affection, “I will not leave you orphans”. He had said to them, and now they were for the moment left, but everyone did not go to his own home as on a certain occasion during His ministry. These disciples loved Jesus, their hearts had become attached to Him; the Lord could see they loved Him, just as He could when Peter, in his final appeal in John 21, said, “Thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee”. That is, there was something the Lord could take account of with Peter, something objective which witnessed to his love. Let no one speak of loving Christ unless there is some sign of it that the Lord at least can see.
So here they gaze after Him, and two men in white appear and say, “Why do ye stand looking into heaven?” There seemed a good reason for it,
[p. 156] just as when Mary gazed into the sepulchre, there seemed a good reason, but in each case it was a misguided look. Mary needed adjustment, and the disciples did here. Christ had been removed out of their sight, it was a fixed matter, so that it was useless to continue to look, as if He could be seen still with their natural eyes; they have now to learn to look otherwise. The two men adjusted them and we are always being adjusted if amenable; many are not amenable. So the disciples returned to Jerusalem; the two men did not direct them to do that, but they did it, and they did what was right; they were moved by right instincts. They return from the mount of Olives, not now to their own homes, but they go up to the upper room where were staying the apostles and others.
These facts, presented in this chapter, are of great moment if understood as bearing on the position today. Mere religious instinct does not lead to the upper room; something more showy and on a human level is demanded. Nor does it lead to such society as we find in the upper room; those who were lovers of Jesus, subject to Him and representative of Him, were there. If you had introduced modernism there, those men would have repelled and repudiated it with indignation, there was no room for it. Today alas! the schools and seminaries are full of it and other such things, but if any, or all of the elements that the people of God are now darkened by had been introduced there, they would have been rejected with authority. These men are brought forward for our example that we, as christians, might move in correspondence with them. Earlier the Lord had presented Himself to them. They had loved Him, but He would cause them to love Him more. He “presented himself living”, Scripture says. In Canticles, the bridegroom is introduced as “shewing himself through the lattice”, the marginal reading is ‘flourishing himself’, which no doubt gives the idea. If I love the Lord, He would seek that I should love Him more and more. He would present Himself in such a way as to attract me, hence in Acts 1, He presented Himself living, and “being assembled with them”, spoke to them of the Spirit of God. They had the opportunity of hearing the Lord speak of another divine Person; indeed, He spoke of the Father, and of the Spirit as associated with them. They could not possibly be in a position of greater advantage than they were then, the Lord being “assembled with them”. What an opportunity they had of hearing one divine Person speak of the other holy Persons of the Trinity! We know but little of what it is to be assembled as having Christ with us.
I mention all this to lead up to the collective thought. He was aiming at that, and so now; He would lead us into the understanding of the assembly and how He is to be known in it, and how we are to serve in it. Current religion gives no instruction in these matters, but rather the opposite. As the Lord assembled with His own, and spoke of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit, what feelings, what an atmosphere would pervade that holy gathering! They would be enriched, they would be filled with the holy atmosphere, occasioned by the presence of the Son of God.
They enquire of Him (verse 6), “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” If Simeon (Luke 2), had overheard this he might have informed them that Israel was not first now! In the mind of God, Jesus was to be a light for the revelation of the gentiles, they being mentioned first. The Lord does not enlighten them as to times and seasons. “It is not for you”, He says, “to know the times or the seasons ...” Why did they not speak about the assembly? The Lord could say, ‘Do you not recall what Simeon said — that Israel comes second?’ We should understand the light that governs the position, and all questions should be in accord with that. The times and seasons “the Father hath put in his own power”: that is a very important word. “To us there is one God, the Father, of whom all things”. The Godhead is there, and all reserves are with Him. The Son and the Holy Spirit, to effect the divine purpose, have taken positions involving limitations (but, of course, retaining their part in abstract Deity), the Father, according to the economy into which the three divine Persons have come, being regarded in Scripture as the one God, (1 Corinthians 8: 6; see also Mark 13: 32). As to ourselves, there is plenty to know, but let us not attempt to go beyond what is revealed. There are those who intrude into what is not seen, worshipping angels and so on. The Spirit of God sternly condemns that. Let us ever remember that we are creatures, and as such, limited. The Lord tells them what they needed to know, saying, “Ye will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses ... to the end of the earth”; so that their work is laid out, and there was plenty to do, and so it is today. The Lord marked out a large field for them, and, as the Holy Spirit came, they would receive power to enter upon it. There is today scope enough for all, and power too as we are dependent on God in the work. So in John 4 the Lord says, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are already white to harvest”. Although it is a dark day, the field is wide, and the harvest white and plentiful. As long as the dispensation lasts this is true. Other men laboured, and we enter into their labours; let us then be lowly, but zealous in the work, and God will continue to bless us. Our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.
The Lord was instilling a right outlook into the minds of those whom He was leaving. We cannot but feel He was loth to go, but it was needful; He [p. 159] was taken up, and they were left here with these thoughts. “And having said these things he was taken up, they beholding him ...” They were intent, their hearts were with Him. All was intended to affect their feelings and understandings, and who can say what were His as He was carried up? There they were — orphans — yet surely with a sense that they would be taken care of, that they would experience fatherly care. Did they remember His promise (John 14), they would know that they would not remain orphans. As they were gazing upward, two men in white stood by them and instructed them, and now what are they to do? If Christ moves, what are you to do next? If you get additional light, or if something comes home powerfully to you, there must be a change of outlook, a movement governed by it; so we find they did not go to their own home. Jesus had gone up from the mount of Olives, and these men came back with the idea of moral elevation. They go to Jerusalem to the upper room — where all these rich and holy thoughts the Lord had conveyed to them in the power of the Spirit would be cherished. And we are told who were there. There was no society like these men and women; the place was the home provisionally of the lovers of Christ, where His rights were maintained.
So we have the collective idea now, they move together. “These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer, with several women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”. There are care meetings held with sisters absent, and yet they are not absent in one sense, for it is their matter, and they should ask their husbands about things if they are to pray intelligently. But here it was “with the women”; and prayer marks the company. Of old, prayer was valued as in our dispensation, so much so, that when Solomon prayed, as he ceased, the glory filled the house (2 Chronicles 7: 1). God was [p. 160] so pleased with it that there was no room even for the priests. It is to remind us of the importance of prayer.
When Daniel prayed, Gabriel said, “At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved ...” What a thing to have the sense as praying for divine interests, that one is greatly beloved! Heaven moves towards him and sends one of its most distinguished messengers to Daniel. And what a message he brought! God has fixed limits to all we may be enduring, and He shows Daniel the end for Israel. “Seventy weeks are determined”, Gabriel says: the complete accomplishment of God’s thoughts comes in after the prayer (Daniel 9: 24). So we must value the prayer meeting, and give plenty of scope for it. The women were in the upper room, and the brothers not silent. It is a very pitiable thing if brethren come together for prayer and do not pray. Here heaven’s notables were present. There is so much to be prayed for, and one is always concerned in a prayer meeting that nothing should be omitted. All the interests of Christ should be covered, and God would fill the place with glory. He will make us joyful in His house of prayer. There is great restfulness and assurance where, in faith, brethren lay their burdens before the Lord. He gives a sense of having taken them all on, and that He will do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. We often speak of the Spirit in a theoretical way, but it is the Spirit that we have experienced as having been with us constantly — the power that works in us. There is the same power as at Pentecost, only the vessels are so weak and dislocated that the Spirit is hampered, conditions for such a display as at Pentecost are not available.
Then we have the appointment of one to take the [p. 161] place of Judas. In this connection Peter quotes Scripture. It is important that our procedure should at all times be based on Scripture. It was the mind of heaven that twelve apostles should be secured, that there should be no discrepancy, but that all should be together as the day of Pentecost was fully come, or “now accomplishing”. We may read Acts and overlook that what took place is connected with the day of Pentecost; it was no accident, it was a spiritual matter. “When the day of Pentecost was now accomplishing”. “When” indicates time, and directs the spiritual mind to earlier teaching. What I am stressing is that this company are moving together intelligently. They repair the breach by the appointment of an apostle in lieu of the missing one, and heaven ratified their provision. Thus they are together at the suitable time — it is a selected time. Scripture had spoken of that day, and they would understand what was written, as the psalm referring to Judas was understood. Pentecost was one of the most important of the feasts. It is called the feast of weeks, when the days were counted after the sheaf of the wave-offering was presented, and it is important to count those days. The disciples may not have had much teaching on the Pentateuch, but they had spiritual understanding. The Lord had instructed two of them on their way to Emmaus, “beginning at Moses”, and He had opened the understanding of those gathered together (Luke 24). We must not assume that they did not hear about Pentecost, they did, and the Lord would open their understanding as to it. Peter would no doubt say to John, What do you think about the feast of weeks? Such questions are asked in our readings. The most precious things are revealed to brethren coming together with their Bibles open.
We read of the feast of weeks in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It is mentioned in [p. 162] Deuteronomy in connection with two other feasts, three being selected out of seven. God wishes us to understand these three by themselves. In Leviticus you get seven, you have the whole range there. In Deuteronomy God says, “Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before Jehovah thy God”, as if these were the feasts to be specially understood; and He says further, “They shall not appear before Jehovah empty”. We are to appear before God with spiritual substance. How great to be brought into the divine system and made to enrich it! The male represents that side of the truth. You will notice in the chapter referred to, Deuteronomy 16, that there is no limit to the time of observance of the feast of weeks. The other two feasts are limited as to time. This, no doubt, alludes to the antitype, for the Spirit leads us outside of time.
The feast of weeks has particular reference to our dispensation, the disciples were all together on that day; as already said, it was no accident. It is the great type that speaks of the coming down of the Spirit according to the Lord’s promise. So now they move together, there is not one absent. Is there anything for us in that? Many of us are away when the best things come in; we are absent and miss them. Anna was not absent as Christ was brought into the temple. Sisters sometimes have a heavy day on Monday and say, I shall not go to the prayer meeting, I shall go to the reading. And thus they may miss an advantage never again offered. The Lord had prayed the Father to send the Comforter, so suddenly there was “a sound out of heaven as of a violent impetuous blowing”. The disciples came together in the light of Scripture, and heaven accredited their action, and so today what we expect in intelligent faith will come. Let us be more expectant, coming together in the light of the principles that govern the moment. We may come together in our own way, but heaven does not regard that, It says, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. Notice that word “all”. Why should one be absent? Thomas would not miss it this time! I would again remind the brethren that absentees from meetings do not know what they may lose.
Finally, I wished to show how, as the result of the first great evangelical effort, converts were brought into what was there, but not with their own thoughts. A truly converted person does not wish to retain his own thoughts, they are extraneous now, they will hamper him and others. These three thousand mentioned in chapter 2: 41 imbibed the light and principles and feelings that were already there, they would not bring in anything to vitiate what was among the saints, it all comes from heaven. You will notice that when they were convicted, they said to Peter and to the other apostles, “What shall we do, brethren?” Why are “the other apostles” mentioned? Why not Peter alone? It is to show that the principles governing the apostles, who had all been affected by the Holy Spirit, were injected by the gospel into the converts. They saw eleven of the apostles standing there, and Peter with them. Who are these men? they would inquire; they are like Peter. They would recognise that the apostles represented the Lord, and they addressed their questions to them, as well as to Peter, showing they were drinking in the spirit that was there. A truly converted man has instincts, and would regard any one of the apostles as one who could answer questions. The apostles excelled any that had existed before, they were the workmanship of Christ; manifestly of Christ. The apostle exhorts the Thessalonians to “know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake”; that is the principle here.
[p. 164] So these three thousand were baptised, and “added”, and we read, “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”. These converted ones had drunk into what was there, and they are not to go off to their own sects, to the Pharisees, Sadducees and so on. A converted man will not go back; he will follow the line of the truth and what is said of these enters into our present position, as to whether the truth is affecting us, whether we are persevering in it, and it is giving character to us, whether we are continuing in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, that fellowship where the Lord’s rights are observed; and in the breaking of bread, which is the expression of that, and then in prayers.
In what I have said, I have sought to give some little idea of the early christians, and how they moved together. The Lord would say to such, I can add to you. Why are we not added to? Suitable conditions may be wanting. Other things are stated here. “Fear was upon every soul ... and every day, being constantly in the temple ... they received their food with gladness and simplicity of heart ... and the Lord added ... daily those that were to be saved”. It is as if the Lord said, If conditions are there, additions will be there; and these are the conditions — saints moving together in the light governing the position. Under these circumstances He would say, I can trust some of My own to you, such as are in the counsels of God. Would that one might grasp it oneself! The apostle could say, “For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”. There are precious souls all round us who are included in the counsels of God, and the Lord would have us to seek them, that they might obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.