SPIRITUALITY NEEDED FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 212] SPIRITUALITY NEEDED FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE ASSEMBLY
Luke 24: 50 - 52; Acts 1: 1 - 14; Acts 2: 1 - 4
By what transpired between His resurrection and ascension, I believe the Lord intended to accustom the disciples to spirituality, a spiritual way of doing and teaching. The Lord had been going in and out amongst them here in the flesh, and although it was manifest that He was personally superior to material things, He moved generally in the acceptance of ordinary human limitations, having taken His place in the likeness of men; whereas in what transpired in the forty days after His resurrection, as we are told in Acts 1, they saw One in a condition entirely unhampered by physical things. In resurrection He had passed out of the limitations to which we are subjected, and into which He had come in grace; He had passed out of those conditions, and moved about unseen by all, save by those to whom He manifested Himself.
I thought that the consideration of the facts in these passages would help us as to spiritual experience, which is essential to the assembly. That is, it is not only composed of persons physically here in this world, as we are today, but there is as it were an unseen state of things in which the Lord moves, not corporeally, nor even in the sense in which He moved during the forty days, because He was still on earth, although He could go in through closed doors, but now that He is gone up into heaven bodily, as Acts 1 tells us, the Holy Spirit has come down to the saints as all gathered together in one place, indicating that what is in view, is that saints are to be together. Whilst they are so gathered together, there appeared to them cloven tongues, as of fire, and “it sat upon each one of them”. What had happened? The Holy Spirit had come to them and upon them, so that there is in the assembly now another divine Person — not in a corporeal form as Jesus was, but nevertheless really present and in a universal way. He could be in any number of places at the same time, and we have to become accustomed to that thought, to that condition — of a Person being here who is able to be in many Places at the same time. The Holy Spirit being a divine Person come down from heaven, is a medium through which the Lord can be known in a spiritual way, as really as when He moved about during the forty days, only that now it is in a purely spiritual way.
Matthew does not record His ascension, neither does John, save that the Lord says, “I ascend”, but that is characteristic, not historic — so that in both Matthew and John we have not the ascension properly.
All the recorded experiences of what occurred after He arose afford tests for us as to whether we can see, as to whether we recognize the Lord as He shows Himself. Mary did not know Him; Peter did not know Him; John says, “It is the Lord”. All these instances are to test our state, as to whether we discern Him. The Holy Spirit would open up everything to us, according to John 16. His presence here involved Paul’s ministry — it was only a matter of time before it was developed. The Spirit was the truth, He had come down, He was here, so that it was only a question, in the wisdom of God, as to when the truth should be opened up in its fulness. The Lord says, when speaking of the kingdom in John 3, “If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?” The heavenly things would come out in due course, they would involve Paul’s ministry. It is therefore, a question of knowing the [p. 214] point to which He leads, and the verse we read in Luke 24 says, “He led them out as far as Bethany”; it is evidently a limit, not the final position; Bethany does not represent that. It represents a circle of love here on earth, which marked the early history of the testimony after the Lord ascended. It is on the principle of the Jewish remnant, but it could not be limited to that, because after the Holy Spirit came, the assembly was there. The actual words “to the assembly” may not be in the passage at the end of Acts 2 — I understand they are not there in the original — but it is stated that “the Lord added”, without saying “to the assembly”. The idea of the assembly came in later, although it was there inherently, but the position is more Bethany, a place of loved ones. The testimony should go forth — and they returned to Jerusalem — God showed how patient He was with His earthly people. Bethany was provisional, but the Lord led to that point, and the apostles were intelligent enough to know what was in His mind. Bethany did not represent the full thought of divine counsels; it did not represent Paul’s ministry, for instance, nor indeed does Acts 2 although the thing is there in principle. But in Acts 1, they saw Him go up, and as they were gazing up into heaven “a cloud received him out of their sight”. He had gone into heaven; and henceforth they were linked with a faith system, and His place here is taken by the Spirit, so that we have spirituality. In the Holy Spirit we have a divine person here who has come down as the means whereby we reach the full thought of God. There is no limitation there; there is no limitation as the Spirit came in. He is the means of reaching the heights and depths of the full divine thought.
Luke 24 helps as to the Lord’s leading here. He led them to a point. Bethany does not fully describe the circle now, because it was the Jewish remnant,
[p. 215] but it afforded a retreat for the Lord; it was love’s circle, and the fact that He led them to that point, would mean that it was a provisional thing, and they recognized that, because they went to the temple. But in Acts l they saw Him go up and the cloud received Him out of their sight, the sight period had ceased and the faith period had begun, so that they returned to the city and did not go to the temple. They knew instinctively, as it were, that they were not to be held to the provisional thing — Bethany — but go on to the full thought, and they go to the upper room. In Acts 2, “breaking bread in the house” preserves the link with the “upper room”, whereas “constantly in the temple” maintains the provisional period of grace for the Jews. The temple corresponds with God’s ways on earth, and God is loath to leave His earthly people. The ascended Christ leaves His own at Bethany, “and they, having done him homage, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and” (without any command) “were continually in the temple”, as if they understood.
The comparison between what happened in Luke 24 at Bethany, and what happened in Acts 1, helps us as regards the two things, the one provisional, and the other the final thought which the upper room has in view. The disciples being there, were in a position which answers to the full purpose of God now. Instead of the temple — an imposing place — you have an upper room, and certain persons, whose names are given, abiding there, including several women, and Mary the mother of Jesus.
Luke 24 provides for a continuance of God’s patient grace towards Israel, and the disciples understood it. That is to say, it is not a question of being formally told what to do in the assembly; we have, of course, principles to go by, but it is not a question only of being told what to do; you should know what to do, and that is spirituality. So in Luke 24 [p. 216] you have the Lord opening things up for them, and then opening their understanding so that they might understand the Scriptures. The Lord makes His movement to Bethany, and then they make their movement, without a commandment; which shows they are spiritual, they are intelligent, and that is the idea in the assembly; the Lord does not necessarily tell me to give out a certain hymn, I am free to do it, being spiritual, I know what to do. When the Lord went through the cornfields on the Sabbath, He did not pluck any corn, but the disciples went further and plucked the corn. Why is it recorded that they did it? To show that the Lord was leading in the direction of the setting aside of the sabbath, and they acted in the liberty His movement afforded. They plucked the corn, and ate it, rubbing it in their hands. The Pharisees complain of their unlawfulness in acting thus on the sabbath. The Lord defends them. He was indeed Lord of the sabbath and hence could afford the liberty they took. In John 20 He breathes into them, which is a peculiarly blessed feature of the reception of the Holy Spirit — the Lord’s personal breathing into them. So that we have the mind of Christ, and know what to do. Of course this knowledge is based on what God has made known in an objective way.
In Luke 24 you have the priestly service of Christ first, in opening up the Scriptures to the erring ones; He goes after them, He instructs them, and then He breaks the bread in the house, and there was ability to discern who the Person was that so acted — that is spiritual. Then He vanished; that was to produce a spiritual impression, but an impression which was to act upon them, and it did act upon them, for they returned to Jerusalem. He did not tell them to go back to Jerusalem, but they went back. They went back to the city, “and they found the eleven, and those with them, gathered together”; that they found
[p. 217] them, showed that they looked for them and they had something to contribute.
Then the Lord appears to them and shows them His hands and His feet. They were not fully ready for Him, they needed to be adjusted, but they were adjusted, and “then he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures”. Then He leads them out as far as Bethany, and what will they do after that? What they did, shows that they understood. The Lord’s question, “Have ye understood all these things?” enters into all this. They worshipped the Lord Jesus — He had the right place in their hearts — they went back to Jerusalem, and were in the temple “praising and blessing God”. They were full of joy, they were real witnesses of what grace had effected in them in a positive way. Israel never before had such a testimony! Moses, David, Solomon, or the prophets, never gave such a testimony as this! A company of people (who had been with Jesus, and saw Him ascend to heaven) in the temple praising and blessing God! The temple represented what God was bearing with in grace. He had not left it yet literally, the presence of these men in the temple was, in principle, the presence of God in grace: salvation was there for the Jews notwithstanding that they had murdered Christ. You get the grace side in Luke. And so it says in Acts 2 they were constantly in the temple with one accord — the testimony of grace went on. But they did not break bread in the temple, they broke bread “in the house”.
You do not get the upper room in Luke 24, they went to the temple, but in Acts 1 after they had seen the Lord go up, they went to the upper room, that is the difference. That is to say, the viewpoint in Acts is the assembly, which meant that God had begun a new thing altogether; the link as to the assembly is in the upper room. And here it was [p. 218] Olivet, not Bethany, that He went up from, Olivet representing what is spiritual.
“And as they were gazing into heaven, as he was going, behold, also two men stood by them in white clothing, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do ye stand looking into heaven?” It says earlier in the chapter, “And having said these things he was taken up, they beholding him”, verse 9. They saw a Man go up. It is not only that they saw Him moving in and out amongst them, but they saw Him go up. He would not, as it were, go, except as in their view. It was important that they should see Him go up. “And a cloud received him out of their sight”. That was the end of the sight period, and the period of faith now properly begins. Seeing Him go up is a movement by itself. We have to understand the idea of going up, because we are going up, and the experience ought not to be strange. They receive an impression as they see Him go up, they have the idea of a Man going up, as well as a Man going in and out amongst them in that extraordinary way. “But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended” — this latter is to touch our hearts.
The point is in seeing Him go up; and He will come back that same way. It is a question of going and coming. The cloud receiving Him out of their sight was God’s act; it was not defective sight in them; God intimated that the faith period had begun. There was nothing more to look at when the cloud received Him out of their sight. “Why do ye stand looking into heaven?” that is, seeing the cloud had received Him out of their sight. It might almost be unbelief, as when the faithless sons of the prophets persuaded Elisha to send men to search for Elijah! A cloud received Him out of their sight; and so we walk by faith and not by sight. That is the adjustment they needed, and they accepted it.
But the Holy Spirit coming in, makes faith as real [p. 219] as sight. When you come to Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, he is able to look through the heavens and he sees “the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. You have the power of seeing Him in the heavens — you see Him there. So that we are living in the faith period, and the Holy Spirit having come in makes it all real.
The forty days stand by themselves, wherever they are presented as a period. Forty is a full period for a purpose. Fifty is ten beyond, which implies, as to what is in view, the full result. The Lord was in their midst, and moved about before their eyes “during forty days”, and when the Holy Spirit comes ten days later, there is the full result, and hence, as we get in Leviticus 23, two wave-loaves are brought out of Israel’s houses, baked with leaven, and presented as a new meat offering-that is the full result. I have come to the idea, I am to bring the loaves myself. We may take a long time to come to it. In the loaves you have the idea of baking. First of all, there is the sheaf cut down — that is a type of the Lord Himself. Then there is the corn taken out and milled, ground into fine flour; then there is the kneading process — the dough, and then the loaf. That is the whole idea — the baked loaf, that is to say, the Holy Spirit has rendered null the sin that is owned to be in us — it has ceased to act. There were two loaves required in the type, which would be an adequate testimony to the truth of which we have been speaking.