PRISONS

^[p. 562] PRISONS

Acts 5: 17 - 20; Acts 12: 5 - 12; Acts 16: 23 - 32

These scriptures all speak of prisons being divinely opened. The thought of prisons is old, much older than humanity, disobedient angels being consigned to such places of confinement and punishment. But in the history of humanity men have employed them, and they are still employed, nor would we wish them abolished. As knowing God, and knowing that the governance of this world is placed in the hands of other than believers in order to restrain evil and support good, we do not wish to see prisons abolished, nor any department of government weakened. Those in authority, whoever they may be, are God’s ministers appointed to the christian for good, so that believers pray for authorities. The restraint of evil is one of the most important functions of government in view of present conditions. Indeed we see that the sword is needed; “it bears not the sword in vain”, we are told (Romans 13: 4). Without punitive means government cannot function successfully nor continue, so that we christians recognise the necessity for prisons.

But then these prisons may be used against good, as they are being used in some countries. Indeed it is said of our Lord Jesus Christ, “He was taken from prison and from judgment” (Isaiah 53: 8); authority was turned against Him. He recognised however that it was from heaven. He was not released from prison; He was taken from prison to the cross. Judgment miscarried in the most glaring way; the Judge of Israel, the Judge of mankind indeed, was at the bar of the so-called rulers, and they smote Him on the cheek. He was suffering for righteousness sake; He did not suffer vicariously in the place of detention nor at the bar of the High Priest. All that was suffering for righteousness, and ^[p. 563] the prison doors were not opened at all. He was taken to the cross and put upon it, dear brethren. He was heard however from the horns of the unicorns, that is to say, His voice reached heaven; and one of the most touching answers in Scripture is that He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Not there the power, but the glory, meaning that the Father entered into the matter in all that He is; it was His matter. He was deprived of His beloved Son for three days and three nights; I mean deprived in the sense in which He was here in life. That does not interfere with the statement that He went to paradise; we have to leave these statements as inscrutable, while accepting them as facts. The Father’s heart was deprived of the Object of His affections as His Son lay in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, a prison indeed!

Now dear brethren, that shows that man’s prisons, prisons rightly used up to a point, may be turned against God’s people, God’s testimony, and God’s service. This is becoming increasingly possible, and may be nearer to us than we expect. At any rate the great trend is towards restriction, restriction applied to men and particularly to God’s people. We have to accustom ourselves, dear brethren, to it, and to know how to behave in it, to learn from Him who was taken from prison and from judgment, who was apprehended as an ordinary malefactor and caused to carry His cross. We have to learn from Him the spirit, the demeanour, the attitude that is becoming to us as brought under human restriction. “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and he opened not his mouth”, Isaiah 53: 7. Again James says, “Ye have condemned, ye have killed the just; he does not resist you”, James 5: 6. The Lord Jesus is the Just One, but James is alluding to those who are ^[p. 564] characteristically just, which ought to apply, and does, to every real christian. They had been haled to prison and before tribunals, and James says, “He does not resist you”. It does not belong to us to take up the sword; those who do shall perish by it, we are told. In doing so indeed we may jeopardise the whole position, a very serious matter. The whole position covered in what we call the dispensation of God which is in faith may be jeopardised by the use of force, whether actual or in a moral sense, against those who persecute us. “He does not resist you”. So the Lord Jesus in approaching one of the greatest agents in this nefarious work, Saul of Tarsus, says, “Why persecutest thou me?” Who was Paul persecuting? He was persecuting the saints that were like Jesus. They were haled away to prison and judgment, tribunals and sufferings, but the Lord implies that they are all like Himself: ‘You can see it Saul, you have found in them My spirit; they do not resist you’.

Now in these three narratives I want to show the principle on which we may expect divine intervention. If we accept without question all that men may impose upon us, and fall in with their requirements, we may find ourselves in impossible positions. What is to be inquired into in these three cases is the ground of divine interpositions. Do these matters affect the testimony? Are they directed against the service of God? The Lord has the greatest concern about these moments in which we are; it is the time of the putting on of the top-stone, the headstone. Zerubbabel was to put it on with his very hands. Christ is working to bring about the very best; the completion of the structure is Christ, but it is Christ in the most ornamental way. The presentation of Him thus, by ministry or otherwise, has a binding influence. He is putting on the ornamentation as well — saying, “Grace, grace unto it!” Zechariah 4: 7.

^[p. 565] The dispensation is one in which grace reigns. It was begun by Jesus; He was full of grace and truth. It was the outflow of grace, one wave after another. Grace and truth subsists through Him, a holy combination, and it inaugurated the dispensation. And at the finish we are saying, “Grace, grace unto it!”, that is, unto the headstone. The dispensation is to be maintained throughout to the very last moment while the Lord Jesus sits on His Father’s throne. It is to continue and to be expressed down here in the ministry and in the character the saints take on, the character of grace, grace reigning; it is the dominating principle in the dispensation and in every christian, so that he is able through it to overcome evil with good. It is in the possession of the good in a liberal manner that we are able to overcome evil, and it is rising higher and higher every day. And the Lord is putting it to us as to mounting up in a moral way in the spirit of grace, grace upon grace, putting on the headstone and saying “Grace, grace unto it!” Limitations seem to be getting more and more stringent, but in what spirit are we meeting the limitations, man-made impositions upon the people of God? To submit to a principle that obliges me to serve man rather than God is not meeting the principle rightly. If a man is persecuted for non-compliance with some human arrangement that has no authority whatever, how does he accept it? The Lord says, “Why persecutest thou me?” And again, when one smote Him on the cheek, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?”. The question challenges the conscience, and men have consciences, you know. And some day or another a question like that will find some response, and that response will bring intervention; God will intervene and open the prison doors, relax the limitations.

^[p. 566] I want to show in these three instances the end that is in view. The first is, that “all the words of this life” of Jesus are to be spoken. “Stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”. It is not here what He is up there, but it is Jesus in His words, in His life, His ways, what He was here below. As if God would say, Those words of this life are to be over against this Pharisaical, or Sadducean, attitude. At the present time it is a partisan world, governed by partisanship in a peculiar way, whether it be Pharisaical, or Sadducean, or Herodian, or Libertine, whatever name you give it, it is the same thing, it is a party spirit and power supporting those who rule. The Sadducean power here resists the apostles, and puts them in the common prison. There is no respect at all; prisoners are respected sometimes, but there is no respect for the apostles. As the Lord was treated so were they; as common malefactors they were put in the common prison. But they are not to stay there. Why not? Because they were suffering? That is not the reason. They are to be delivered because “this life”, this other life over against the Pharisaic life, the Sadducean life, was to be spoken of. All these lives are not of God; they are not the kind of lives that God intends for the earth. That is the point today, that over against what we have to contend with is the reproduction of that life, the life of Jesus, so that we walk in His steps. Not only in the general thought of it, but in all the words. If John were here he would say, a great many books would need to be written to open up all the words of this life, a great many addresses would have to be given. Not only that, but what is to be the theme of table conversations, the ordinary conversations among the lovers of Christ? The words of this life. If these prisoners are to be released from the common prison, it is not simply because they are ^[p. 567] such sufferers, but that their lips should be used to speak the words of this life. That is the first point, and one of the most important, that instead of the much talk that is of no value at all, or worse, there should be in our conversation, in our ministry, in our services, the unfolding of the life of Jesus. It is that kind of man that is over against the antichristian life that is being so developed now. Our minds are intended to be habituated to it, so that we can understand antichrist. We are given evidence of what he is to be; he is simply anti-, the very opposite of Jesus and against Christ. The best answer to that is set out in life, the moral superiority of it to anything that exists in the way of life in this world. You will observe that when released they went into the temple early in the morning and taught. The words of this life are to be set out in the power of the gift of teaching. How refreshing it would be to listen to these men, perhaps with little or nothing in their stomachs, cold it may be, as straight from the common prison, they go to the temple according to the word of the angel and teach all the words of this life.

I come on to chapter 12, having specially in mind verse 24: “The word of God grew and spread itself”. The word of God brings God in, the true God, and that is over against idolatry. It brings God in in an intelligent, intelligible way. The word of God is, as it were, God Himself. “All things are naked and opened”, we are told, “unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4: 13), and then follows the description of the word of God. This prison is opened just to let Peter out, none of the other prisoners. And why? That the word of God should spread itself. Not because Peter was a sufferer. James was not released, he was murdered, and Herod proceeded to take Peter also, no doubt thinking it an opportune time to ingratiate himself with ^[p. 568] the Jews. Well dear brethren, God had something to say, something He was thinking about in all this. He felt for His servants of course in their sufferings, all heaven was sympathetic with these men; but God was thinking about His word. His word is more than Peter, more than James, more than all the apostles. And in any restrictions that we are suffering, if we are to have release it is as those who are ready to speak the word of God. What a need there is for the word of God! How much scope there is given to the word of man, what this man and that man has said — but how rarely to the word of God! Sometimes a feeble voice is lifted in favour of Christ; there are many, even in worldly positions, who love Jesus in measure, we must not forget that. A Nicodemus can be used at any opportune time. We thank God for anything like that. But what is needed is not simply that; it is persons who are boldly speaking the word of God. How great the need for it! Presently the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. What a time that will be; one tries to anticipate it, how God will cause the knowledge of Himself to spread abroad through the earth as the waters cover the sea. The word of God is quick and powerful. We read of an angel flying in the midst of heaven (Revelation 14: 6) and what is he doing? He is announcing the glad tidings of the everlasting gospel. It will be done quickly. Now in our dispensation what is needed in our preachings, our teachings, our conversations, is the word of God. It goes wider than the Scriptures, it is what comes out in the power of the Spirit of God, as He conveys, amplifies, and applies the word of God to the consciences and hearts of His people. And if I am to be released from any restrictions put upon me it must be that I may be of service to God in the proclamation in some measure of His word. And we are told that ^[p. 569] it is living and operative, penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and that it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It affects men’s consciences and brings them morally under the rule of God. Well, the angel comes there, and locks and bars cannot interfere with him. If it be a question of limiting evil, the stronger the bars and the surer the locks the better; but God can come in at any time and break through what man does to limit His people. He has a definite end in view and that is to cause His word to spread abroad. There is power in it that it spreads itself through the preaching. There is one thing, however, that I would call attention to, and that is that the angel touched him on the side. That is to say, Peter, it is not simply your intellect I want, your mind, your hands, your feet, I want you to be affected by love. The allusion undoubtedly is spiritually to the side of Jesus, and Peter would understand it. All testimony flows from that; it is a question of love.

He says, Bind on thy sandals, put on thine upper garment, and follow me. Those of us who are in service are the subjects peculiarly of angelic ministry; “are they not all ministering spirits”, Hebrews 1: 14. Peter followed, passed through the first and second guard, and through the gate that led into the city (reminding us of what the Lord said, Go into the city); that gate opened of itself. There is an unseen hand guiding. And Peter followed and they went down one street, the right one. You may say, What does it matter about the street? But Scripture is strictly accurate, it says, “one street”. Elsewhere it speaks of the street called Straight; it calls it by name. He came to himself; he is in the right way, under heaven’s guidance. Under heaven’s guidance we find ourselves where we should be, where heaven would have us to be. There is no mistake about it.

He comes to Mary’s house. I am not going to say anything about the state inside that prayer meeting, but it was a prayer meeting, and one in which Peter was prayed for. When God intervenes in this way for the proclamation of His word He gives you the right street and the prayer meeting. That prayer meeting is morally the centre of everything; it is where God is, and where He makes His people joyful, as it says, in His house of prayer.

Now I come to chapter 16, to show that the opening of the next prison is in view of the word of the Lord. This brings many things into view. My associations, my marriage relationships, my engagements, a great many things relative to my position here in the wilderness come under this head. Deliverance from this prison had in view that the households of the Lord’s people should have the word of the Lord spoken to them. How many of our young are turning away! There are so many mixed marriages amongst us, which are abominable to heaven, so many associations that are not “in the Lord”, business associations, friendships, household orderings; all these things and many others come under this matter, the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord here bears on household matters, and if the household gives way the assembly gives way. One generation comes, Scripture says, and another passes away, but we must have our eye on the coming one as it comes, to see that it comes under the word of the Lord. I have no doubt that what comes out in the word to the jailer was the outcome of the apostle’s feelings as to what he had experienced in the house of Lydia. Lydia is a model on household lines. You say, she did not have to contend with what some of us have to contend with. But she was a business woman, a seller of purple, and the Lord took up that woman and put it into her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul. I want you to follow this because ^[p. 571] Paul is the servant in the New Testament that opens up the truth of the household, the household of faith. He had the mystery of the assembly, and the household was to be auxiliary to that great thing that God had in mind in past eternity. The household is intended to be auxiliary to that, and Paul, I believe, had tasted it in a peculiar way in the house of Lydia. So that the next time he speaks to a person about Christ, he speaks to him also about his household. The Lord would say to every parent here, ‘I want you, but I want your house’. Have you a house? It must be a baptized house. The parents are said to be, as Lydia was said to be, faithful to the Lord. “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”. Paul did so, and I have no doubt at all that the link is just there. He has to go through the prison, he has to suffer as he did, along with Silas, to secure the man that God intended to have to set out this principle. This prison may be compared with the one Peter was in; he was asleep, but they were wide awake. At midnight in the inner prison, with their feet fast in the stocks, they were, in praying, “praising God with singing, and the prisoners listened to them”. The earthquake came, the prison foundations were shaken, and every bond loosed. All are released, but they do not go. God is aiming at that one man, the jailor who held them there. He was not a careless jailor; having received such a charge he had put them into the inner prison. I have no doubt that God pays attention to people who do things they ought to do and do them well. This jailor’s occupation was not illegal nor immoral. He was carrying out governmental matters belonging to his department of government, and he did his work well. The Lord says, I am going to get that man. It belongs to christianity to do things well, whatever you are doing. So he felt the charge; he was a true jailor,

^[p. 572] and he was greatly concerned that the prisoners had fled. That was a right thing, he was responsible for the prisoners. He was going to commit suicide, such was the fervour of his mind as regards his obligation to the government. All this is taken account of by heaven, and Paul from the inner prison cries with a loud voice. You may say, that is a mere incident, hardly to be mentioned. But it is to be mentioned. Why did he cry with a loud voice? He was as urgent in his occupation, in his obligation, to his Master as was the jailor to his master; just as obligated to heaven in regard of the jailor as the jailor was obligated to Rome in regard to Paul. He cried with a loud voice, “Do thyself no harm”; he would save that man. He was urgent about it, that is the point. A sense of obligation pervaded the whole place, but not more in the jailor than in Paul. Many of us in serving the Lord are just optional; the sense of obligation is very little felt. Whereas the prime thought in the service is that one is sent, and you are obligated to the One who has sent you, that is, to your Master. One of the best illustrations of that is in chapter 4 of this book, where the apostles address Jehovah, address the Father, no doubt, but they call Him “Master”, the word meaning “despot”. They are no optional servants. If I am subject to a despot I have to fear him and see to it that I carry out my mission, or something will happen. So that our services are not merely side lines with us. Paul would say, this man is within my reach, I am obligated in regard of him, and he cried with a loud voice, “Do thyself no harm”. And he rushed in and said, “Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?” He respects the men now, what a change had come over him! The word “Sir” implies that; it was a change in the direction of obligation. The centurion said to the Lord, ‘All You have to do is to say the word, and my servant shall be healed. I understand that You are under authority’; it is not simply that the Lord had authority there. The centurion understood that the Lord was commissioned by heaven, and he said, ‘I am under authority too. Lord; I say to this servant, Do this, and he does it. And You say, Let my servant be healed, and he will be healed’. So Paul was in that position, under authority, obligated to that authority, and that jailor was within his reach and he must get him, and he gets him. He speaks to him the word of the Lord; there was authority. He had been true to authority as a jailor, but he is now to be true to the Lord Jesus, not in the jail only but in his house. All that were in his house came under the power of the word of the Lord, parents and children and servants and all. They did not find it irksome; no, they rejoiced. The word of the Lord was received and enjoyed; it was a happy household, and a household that henceforth would be contributory to the assembly.