SPIRITUAL ELEVATION
[p. 238] SPIRITUAL ELEVATION
Acts 19:1 - 7; Luke 1:39 - 45; John 20:15 - 23
JT It will be observed by the brethren that these scriptures are related to each other. The highest thought is in John 20, Mary taking the Lord’s message. Ascension is in mind, firstly in relation to Acts 19, it is geographical, “the upper districts”; and the same thought of spiritual elevation is in mind in Luke 1, “the hill country”. In John 20 it is the wholly spiritual thought. Mary calls Him “Rabboni, which means Teacher”; the teaching was that He was ascending to His Father and their Father, and to His God and their God. Then “He breathed into them, and says to them, Receive [the] Holy Spirit: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained”; but ascension is in mind.
Rem To arrive at Ephesus we must travel by the upper or higher levels.
JT Yes; Apollos was holding the ground of the local assembly in Corinth, involving the principles of God worked out in local assemblies, and then generally.
Rem The culmination of assembly history is ascension to heaven.
JT Just so.
JC-S Corinthians is before Ephesians, so we pass from the local to the general.
JT That is it. What is local is generally on the level. Ephesians is the ascending thought.
Ques Is there a link between “the upper districts” and “the things which are above”, Colossians 3:1?
JT Just so. We are beginning on the great level, and in Colossians we begin to ascend, and our minds come into [p. 239] it.
Rem Does this raise moral challenges with us?
JT Yes.
Rem The Supper is anchored to the local position; we start there. That precludes taking the Lord’s supper on board a ship.
JT Just so; we must have the local assembly “which is in Corinth”, 1 Corinthians 1:2.
Ques Is it connected with the rights of the Lord?
JT Yes; the order of the assembly is worked out from the local assembly.
Rem Thinking of John 20, ministry is a great help; so the Lord sent word, “Mary of Magdala comes bringing word to the disciples”, John 20:18.
JT Just so, providing you make room for the fact that the Lord’s supper is not in John’s gospel, but John’s ministry and the truth we get there is already “upper”.
Ques Is it because the Spirit’s service is essential that Paul raises the question at once, “Did ye receive [the] Holy Spirit when ye had believed”?
JT Yes. Apollos before that was at Corinth, and that represents the local assembly; Ephesus represents the assembly on the ascending side.
Ques Why was Apollos at Corinth?
JT He was just the kind of man that fits into chapter 18. He could be relied upon, as Paul says of Timothy, “For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus” (1 Corinthians 4:17); so Apollos was also a trustworthy man; a very notable feature.
Rem He was “mighty in the scriptures”.
JT Just so. We must have reference to the scripture, “what does the scripture say?” Paul says; Romans 4:3.
Ques Are “the upper districts” connected with the liberty of the saints?
JT Yes.
Rem We are to be like the Bereans, and search the Scriptures; Acts 17:[p. 240] 11.
JT Yes, and do it often.
Ques What about the Holy Spirit coming upon the twelve men?
JT The incident is of some importance; it is not the twelve apostles, but it says, “And all the men were about twelve”. You need the Spirit to work out the truth of the assembly.
Ques Would perseverance “in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles” (Acts 2:42) be necessary?
JT Perseverance in the apostles’ teaching would involve the Holy Spirit, which had come on the Lord as a dove, but on the apostles as tongues of fire; it was a sign of the drastic dealing with sin.
Ques Would the tongues of fire imply testimony?
JT Yes, and fire; it is drastic dealing, but like the tongue in James 3:5, “See how little a fire, how large a wood it kindles!” It needs watching. The local principle did not begin properly till Paul came on the scene. The tongues would mean speaking in the power of the Spirit.
Rem Faith is necessary, “Did ye receive [the] Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” Acts 19:2.
JT Quite so. The Spirit comes on the principle of faith.
Rem It says, “Paul having laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them”, Acts 19:6.
JT He was in the Lord’s mind, and the formation of the assembly was in his hands; it was not at the beginning when the Spirit was poured out.
Rem Would it mean Paul’s impress being on these men?
JT It was not Peter’s, but Paul’s; though it is said, “first, Simon, who was called Peter” (Matthew 10:2), Paul acquired the first place.
Rem His place was most important.
JT He received the mystery of the assembly; he was the minister of it. He was the architect of the assembly, 1 Corinthians 3:10.
Rem As “disciples” they would be ready to take on the truth.
JT It means they learn in subjection.
Rem So disciples are linked with Ephesus, but not with Corinth.
JT The thing was there though they had not yet the Spirit. Faith must be there before the ministry of the assembly. The new birth comes in here, “Except anyone be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), and then the Spirit is given to the believer.
Ques How does the thought of the “upper districts” apply?
JT It is all working in view of Ephesians. In Luke we have the upper districts in the “hill-country” and John 20 lays the basis for all persons who form it. Mary of Magdala says, “My teacher”; it is so necessary. Paul was spoken to from heaven, which shows that it was a heavenly matter.
Rem Mary travelled at a great rate.
JT We have to learn that in a city; the assembly is generally in a city.
Rem Mary went to the “hill-country” on her own initiative.
JT Yes. John 20 is beyond the Supper. It belongs to Corinthians; that is where you get it.
Rem Mary made way for the Lord to come.
JT For us it is a question of the Lord’s birth, and that the Supper deals with Him as incarnate. Luke deals with what was at the beginning, with the incarnation, and makes way for the Lord’s supper in chapter 22.
Ques Why is John’s baptism referred to in Acts 19?
JT More was needed. It was a question of Paul, and his word.
Rem So that he builds on the baptism of John.
JT Of course he does; it was his ministry.
[p. 242] Ques Do we learn in Mary in Luke 1 the need of movement spiritually?
JT Yes, and from Elizabeth, too. Mary went to the hill-country, and Elizabeth had spoken in the power of the Spirit; so she went to the hill-country and became spiritually elevated. Sisters are to learn to dwell in the hill-country.
Rem In verse 65 we get “the whole hill-country” which would be a collective thought.
JT It was an elevated position. But we need instruction from Mary and Elizabeth. John is said to be “called [the] prophet of [the] Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of [the] Lord to make ready his ways” (Luke 1:76), so he was to be the forerunner of Christ, and he was brought into the deserts, for a minister has to learn to be there, to get no remuneration for his work, and to live on small provision.
Ques Is Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:9 - 13 on this line?
JT John had it, and Paul is equal to him.
Ques Does our position as made to “sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, (Ephesians 2:6) agree with what was said as to the hill-country?
JT We are sitting, restful, in the heavenlies.
Ques She “went into the hill country with haste”; is it the agility of love?
JT She did not take much time talking with her neighbours!
Rem There are several references to the “Highest” in this chapter.
JT It is said of John the baptist in verse 76, and the angel said it to Mary. The Lord’s sonship was brought out in the incarnation; He was not the ‘Eternal Son’.
Rem In Psalm 2:7 it refers to time, not eternity: “Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee”.
Rem In 1929 it was the Lord’s Person, and now it is the Holy Spirit.
JT [p. 243] Now we have an additional thought, you mean?
Ques What are we to learn from Elizabeth being “filled with the Holy Spirit”?
JT A remarkable thing because the public giving of the Spirit was at Pentecost, though David said, “take not the spirit of thy holiness from me” (Psalm 51:11); and “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” in Genesis 1:2. The Lord Jesus had the Spirit first; He was anointed “with the Holy Spirit and with power ... because God was with him” (Acts 10:38), and then after His ascension, the Holy Spirit came down.
Ques Do these thoughts of spiritual elevation involve a gradual going up that is not automatic?
JT Yes. These persons imply the vessels that form the assembly, though John never speaks of the assembly.
Rem It is the persons in John 20.
JT They are just “disciples”.
Ques Is it a household setting? And is that important because of spiritual households and the kind of things found there?
JT Yes.
Ques May we have a word on John 20?
JT It has been much used as to the privileges we have. After Mary had delivered her message “Jesus came and stood in the midst”. In Luke 24 He came to the disciples in the sense of the local assembly. John does not touch that; he has in mind the general assembly.
Rem It was “he himself stood in their midst” in Luke 24. Is that the wilderness?
JT That is it. Here it is the land.
Rem Jesus stood in their midst in Luke, here He came and stood. Is it a movement of affection? Mary “comes bringing word”, but that is a moral [p. 244] way.
JT Just so.
Ques What is the thought in His saying “peace”?
JT Very good, for peace is a moral idea. He says it again in verse 26. The position is to be consolidated.
Ques Why is so much made of the Father?
JT The whole idea of God is there, but “The Father” is a somewhat more limited thought; God is the complete idea of the Deity.
Rem God is the supreme Object of worship.
JT Yes. John worshipped the angel, but the idea is to worship God.
Ques Is the thought of God seen in “the name” in Matthew 28?
JT Yes, “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”; only one name; it is the full thought of God.
Rem In 1 Timothy 2:5 we have the expression, “For God is one”.
JT That definitely helps. The order in John 20:17 is that; the Father and God, and it is the full thought of God, and links with Matthew 28, the one thought there in “the name”.
Ques When we worship God, how should we address Him?
JT In 1 Corinthians 8:6 we have “to us there is one God, the Father”, and then the Son, but not the Holy Spirit; whereas the total idea of God is in Ephesians 3, “to him be glory in the assembly”.
Rem It includes the headship of God.
JT From David you mean in 1 Chronicles 29:11?
Rem “My God” in John 20:17 is the Trinity, the Godhead.
JT Yes.
Rem “God ... all in all”, 1 Corinthians 15:28.
JT It is the Deity, the full thought.
Ques Does the thought of “the upper districts” link with the thought of [p. 245] the Deity?
JT Yes. The first word for God implies supremacy.
Rem “My Father, and your Father” is to set us free in the liberty of love.
JT Yes, John presents the family, but God spoken of by Himself is the full thought of Deity.
Ques As to the supreme Person in the Godhead?
JT The Father is that.