FEATURES OF THE ASSEMBLY IN ACTS
[p. 355] FEATURES OF THE ASSEMBLY IN ACTS
Acts 1:14; Acts 9:36 - 42; Acts 16:14,15; Acts 16:40
It is, I believe, a principle in many of the books of scripture that the women mentioned therein are intended to convey or represent the work of God — the work of the Spirit in the way of affection, the men representing the intelligent or responsible feature of the formation in view. This in the Old Testament alludes particularly to the typical books, and in the New Testament to the gospels. I venture to carry the thought forward tonight into this book — the Acts — believing firmly that these women, particularly the three mentioned, set forth the work of God in the sense of being brought into correspondence with the light presented in the book.
In the women mentioned in Luke, subjection is in view, and in those mentioned in John, the Spirit of God has spirituality in mind. Both features appear in the Acts, as we might expect, for there we get the culmination of all the features of the gospels, and so these women mentioned in chapter 1 may be taken to convey to us what may be gathered up in the gospels as the fruit of Christ’s own handiwork. You all know how the cross and the morning of the resurrection were marked by the presence of devout women who followed Him from Galilee. From amongst them some stood by the cross of Jesus, and then others, notably Mary Magdalene, bore testimony to His triumph on the morning of the resurrection.
Now if you examine the endings of the gospels, you will be struck with the conditions the Spirit calls attention to in these women. In Luke, as you will remember, they, having heard from the two men in shining raiment who appeared at the sepulchre, went to tell the eleven and the rest what they had heard,
[p. 356] showing that they had regard for authority, the eleven apostles representing the authority of Christ. Matthew and Mark have their own accounts. In John, Mary Magdalene is sent with a message directly, and she went to the disciples, we are told, not as a sent one, for she discerned by right womanly spiritual instincts that a woman is not to teach, although she had the most wonderful and precious light. She went to the disciples and told them that she had seen the Lord, and that He said these things to her. She says nothing about any commission; she says nothing about being sent. She simply comes to the disciples as a sister, and tells them that she has seen the Lord. She tells them, that is all. She told them that she had seen the Lord, and that He had said these words unto her; but she said not a word as to the message being sent to them through her. She delivered the message in the most comely manner, for she was spiritual. Spirituality is rare in brothers and sisters. The women recorded in the gospel of John are, I believe, intended to promote this feature, and instruct us in it. The Acts begins with women joining in prayer with the apostles and others, with Mary the mother of Jesus and His brethren.
I begin with these women, so as to work out my thought in these chapters. The only name given there is Mary, the mother of our Lord; others are mentioned without names — “... with (several) women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”. What the Holy Spirit would occupy us with in this picture is what was there. It is a question of what there is in any locality, whether Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, or Corinth; the one great principle is what is there. The Lord emphasised that when He said to the assembled disciples after He had risen: “Have ye anything here to eat?” Luke 24:41. It is not simply, Have you anything, but “Have ye anything here?” You may be sure that the Lord’s [p. 357] inspecting eye surveys the whole field constantly, and He raises the question with us, What have you got here? The assembly is wonderfully enriched by the glorified Christ in a general way, but it is a matter of responsibility in any locality as to what it has. So in this opening chapter in the Acts, what you find is that there were certain ones staying there — Peter and John, and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, and so on — a whole list of the apostles. We have to examine our localities as to what there is of God staying in them. The element of representation of Christ must be there if the assembly is there, also the element of intelligence, and the element of love for Christ as seen in the women. What marked those who were staying there was that they were praying. Now you see what was there. The Holy Spirit presents to us, at the very outset of this book, the work of God in relation to the assembly, what was there before the Holy Spirit came. But I wish to occupy you with Mary; that was what I had in mind in reading the passage. Luke gives us more of her history than the others; she is with him an ideal — a failing one, alas! but nevertheless an ideal. No one had more opportunity of knowing Jesus than Mary; she thus represents to us that great feature, the opportunities that we have of becoming acquainted with Jesus. What opportunities have you got? That is what Mary represents — opportunities of becoming acquainted with the Lord.
Mary is presented as subject; that must be the first great feature in any brother or sister who is to become acquainted with Jesus. She said to the angel Gabriel, “Behold the bondmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to thy word”. Luke 1:38. She recognised Gabriel that he was a representative of God, but she was not his bondmaid; she was the bondmaid of the Lord, and she takes her place in subjection. “Be it to me according to thy word”. Now we have a [p. 358] subject person. If the Lord has a subject brother or sister, He can effect something in such an one. Not until we are subject can He work out His thoughts in us. In this attitude of soul Mary is in close proximity with Christ, I may say in companionship with Him, for thirty years. What a history! We might call it secret history, for it is secret history; but we have two sidelights thrown on to it, one when He was twelve, and another at the age of thirty; but think of those years between infancy and boyhood, and between boyhood and manhood! What intimacy must have existed between her and Him! All that is here in the mother of Jesus. If I look into that room, I see her there; she has no equal, there is no one like her, no one with the experience she has. His brethren, too, who had grown up with Him, were there. Think of the intimacy that was within their reach as the sons of Mary! What opportunities they had had! Had I been there, I would have sought an interview with Mary; what an opportunity to get some little light about the boyhood of Jesus, about His ways, about His sayings! What food for my soul I could gather as she would, reverentially now, speak about Him! She would no longer refer to Him as her son. Those days were past; she had grown in spirituality. She would never again say, “Thy father and I have sought thee”. Luke 2:48. His last words to her were, “Woman, behold thy son” — meaning John — and He said to the disciple whom He loved, “Behold thy mother”. John 19:26,27. Her maternal relations were transferred to John. She would never talk about herself as being the ‘mother of God’ as some do today; such blasphemy would not enter her mind. She would give the lie to that in the present day; were she here, she would refuse it with indignation; and yet the Spirit of God says, “the mother of Jesus”, as if to call, our attention to what was there, to one who could give you an account of Jesus, from His infancy to His [p. 359] manhood. The Holy Spirit has drawn a veil over it in the Scriptures, but in her mind it was all there; it was an asset in that upper room.
A secret history with Jesus is one of the primest assets we could have in any locality; and that is what Mary represents. It is said of her that, having heard those things, she kept them all in her heart, and so the history went on in her soul during all those years, and now it was there with that company. I could ask, too, any of His brethren about Him; they knew Him doubtless as a workman at His father’s bench — the wonderful descent of Jesus the Son of God to work as a carpenter. They knew about that; they knew how He did it, how He spoke, and how He acted; they could tell you, for they were there. I refer to this, dear brethren, partly as forming the most important feature of the assembly. It is a question of what is there of secret history with Jesus, so that you can speak about Him; you could tell others about Him. If I want to get light as to what He was as to ministry, I would go to Peter, James, and John. These could tell me volumes of His wonderful ways in public ministry; but were I to desire to know something of the secret history, I would go to Mary and the brethren of Jesus. We need both.
I must pass on to chapter 9. I have spoken of subjection and soul history; I now want to speak about life, another great feature. It is still a question of locality. At Joppa there was a woman with a reputation for good works, but such good works as might appear without the Spirit of God — making garments. You may find this sort of thing today in certain church societies. This woman had a remarkable name — Dorcas, meaning ‘a gazelle’. Dorcas had carried on all this work, and yet she could not be said to be living, and when she died she needed to be washed. The Holy Spirit mentions this for a purpose.
“[p. 360] Having washed her, they put her in the upper room”. That is, there was something in the locality that carried forward the principle of the upper room; thank God for that! There was some sense of moral elevation, as if the work engaged in had not just been that, but now there was an expectation of something on that line. That, dear brethren, is what the Holy Spirit is emphasising at the present time — the importance of moral elevation, of being taken out of the level of ordinary customs and activities religiously, however praiseworthy they may be. She is washed — that is to say, the previous history is regarded as done with — and she is laid in the upper room. There is an expectation in that action of something to happen; it is a question of the attitude of our minds in regard to certain things, expecting that God can come in, and He does. The disciples sent for Peter, having heard that he was near to Joppa. The hands that washed her and laid her in the upper room are not named, but the disciples sent for Peter. He was in the neighbourhood, and they knew it. We have not far to seek for the remedy of a low, dead condition. It may seem praiseworthy and acceptable to go on smoothly with our customs, our rules, our comfortable houses, and we may think things are all right; and yet they may be far from being so. God is the living God, and He is the God of the living, and not of the dead. It is possible we may have a perfect outward order of things, and a praiseworthy one, too, in a certain sense, as in the beginning of Luke, and yet there may be no faith. Take, for instance, Zacharias; he had prayed for a son, and when a son is announced, he does not believe it; he was wanting in faith, and yet he was serving in the order of his course. He was a son of Aaron; he was offering incense inside and the people were praying without.
Well, they send for Peter; and he comes, and goes into that upper room. Way was made for the power [p. 361] of God. They had placed the corpse in the upper room and they take Peter up there, as if there was a spiritual understanding of what was to happen. He puts out all the widows and the weepers; sentimentality will not do. Weeping will not do; weeping is nothing in itself; it is a question as to whether it is of the Spirit. Mere sentiment will effect nothing for God, whatever form it may take. Peter puts them all out. He had a similar experience during the Lord’s presence here, for when the Lord Jesus entered into the house of Jairus, He put out all who were weeping. It was no new thing for Peter; he had learned that what was at the root of the difficulty was their want of spirituality, so he put them all out. There is a great deal in that as to the reviving of life. In order that there may be a living state of things, there must be the putting out of mere natural sentiment. Peter then knelt down. How beautiful to do that — to have learned to do that! There are those who understand what it means to kneel as Paul did: “For this cause I bow my knees”. Ephesians 3:14. Kneeling means excessive exercise. The matter is a serious one; you want the thing, you must have it, and you can have it. You value it, and as you kneel down and ask for it, you have it. I am not speaking of the mere form, but of what it means spiritually; it is exercise ... .. “For this cause I also exercise myself”, 2 Timothy 2:10 Paul says. When Peter kneeled down and prayed, the woman opened her eyes. The dead are made to live by the power of God. She opened her eyes, and she saw Peter. What a thing it is to get our eyes on someone who represents Christ! As brought into life, there is an idea presented to us. Peter represented Christ; he had been praying to God; he had been, as it were, looking into the face of God in prayer; was it not reflected in him? Yes, it was. She saw that face; she looked on Peter, and as she looked on him she sat up. It is not [p. 362] now a time of lying down and taking one’s ease; she sat up, and he gave her his hand and raised her up, for it was a question of the energy of life. I believe that what God has in view at the present time is to bring about a living condition amongst us. That is indicated here by the sitting up; it is not a time of taking our ease or holiday-making; it is a time of sitting up and being active, serving in love.
Then Peter called the saints and widows, and “presented her alive”. It is a divine contribution to the locality; God does it. Note, it is a question of what is in the locality. If the divine requirements are not here, what is the remedy? Turn to God; He will bring in what is needed. What a marvellous thing to bring in a living woman, who had been dead, and present her to them! It is a divine contribution through Peter.
I must pass on now to Lydia. She is certainly one of the most beautiful characters in the Acts, corresponding somewhat to Mary Magdalene. It is not here a question of life, although life is assumed; but it is a question of her intelligence. These three women — Mary the mother of Jesus, Dorcas, and Lydia — taken together, present, I believe, the assembly in three features — subjection and acquaintance with Christ, life, and then intelligence. When the Lord spoke to Saul He said, “Why persecutest thou me?” Acts 22:7, Acts 26:14 alluding to the assembly. God does not wait for the truth of the assembly to be worked out to disclose it; it is there, and the work is all in relation to what is there. Lydia attended to the things spoken by Paul. She represents the assembly from the standpoint of intelligence; it is a question now of the things spoken by Paul. Is there anyone in the locality like that? It is worth your while to listen; God had opened her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul. What a range of things he could speak about! And she attended to them all.
[p. 363] Like Mary of Bethany, who listened to what Jesus said, this woman listened to what Paul said. Lydia had a house, and she has it baptised. What light was in her soul as her house was baptised! How much Paul could have told her about Jesus in heaven, about His life of worth, His death, and His resurrection! How intelligently she would have accepted baptism! She was baptised and her household, and she says, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”. If there is one thing that contributes to the assembly more than another, it is a house like that — a house owned by persons whose hearts have been opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul. If there is anything that conduces to the building up of the assembly, it is a house like that. “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”, she says, “come into my house”. How worthy a house! how worthy an owner! What light was there! One can see how it would radiate in the house as that woman would listen to what the great apostle would say as he would humbly, but forcefully, tell her about Christ and the assembly. How lovely to sit at that board, whether there was much or little on it, with such persons as these!
I think you will see from what I have said that these women present some of the features of the assembly as the fruit of the Spirit, of the work of God. My thought was to seek to impress upon the brethren that these features should appear in their localities; that is to say, subjection and the knowledge of Jesus — the secret knowledge of Jesus in the soul-life, and then spiritual intelligence; not head intelligence, but the heart opened. It is a question of the heart, as Paul could say, “the eyes of your heart being enlightened”, Ephesians 1:18. Lydia’s house was opened for the servants of the Lord, open to the saints. It was a house in which light radiated, so [p. 364] you will notice that when Paul was released from prison, and Silas with him, they went to Lydia — a sort of rendezvous for them. How happy to have a house in every locality like that, where the saints and the servants of the Lord can go! It does not say that she invited them: “they came to Lydia”, as if the house was open to them — a remarkable tribute to her. “They came to Lydia; and having seen the brethren, they exhorted them and went away”. Can we doubt that Lydia had a large measure of fellowship with the gospel and that her house would be a rendezvous to every lover of Christ? How much that would contribute to the assembly at Philippi?
May the Lord bless His word!