EDUCATION FOR SERVICE TO GOD IN THE ASSEMBLY
[p. 303] EDUCATION FOR SERVICE TO GOD IN THE ASSEMBLY
JT In order to rightly apprehend the assembly and how we have part in it, to serve in it, we need to see how the Lord was with His own during the days of His flesh, and then how He was with them after He died and rose. That is, what we get in the gospels would help us in our public movements, the movements which come beneath the notice of all who may be present; but what we get after the Lord died and rose, is more spiritual. Both are essential to our having part in the assembly according to God. I thought the verses in chapter 1: 1 - 5 would suffice as calling attention to the Lord as having assembled with His own after He rose; and then we see in chapter 13: 1 - 3 how they ministered to Him, this being the first mention of direct ministry Godward, so that they become peculiarly interesting in that way. If there is one thing more than another that we need, it is to be led on to the apprehension of the assembly in its service Godward. To make it simple: in the gospels we have the Lord instituting His supper, that was before He died. Luke mentions much about external order. It has often been questioned why others were not present besides the apostles; but it is obvious that the Lord wished to have what happened carried down by competent witnesses. So that Luke being accurately acquainted from the origin as having learned from those who were “eye-witnesses of and attendants on the Word”, from the beginning, writes with method to Theophilus. He tells us that the Lord placed Himself at table when the hour was come, with the twelve apostles. Luke 22: 14, and he tells us what the Lord did, and how in His actions and [p. 304] words, He separated His supper from the passover. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians about the same thing, but he says that he received it from the Lord, so that what Paul received from the Lord is confirmed by Luke’s account in his gospel.
Luke also tells us that the Lord was praying in a certain place, and that one of the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, chapter 11: 1, 2, showing that they learnt how to pray from Him; and then he also tells us that when the seventy returned and told the Lord about the success of their ministry, and how the demons were subject to them. He goes further and says, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”, but He says, “in this rejoice not ... but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven”, chapter 10: 20. Then Luke tells us that He rejoiced in spirit at that time, and praised the Father; so we see in that way how we ourselves are to praise in the assembly, and what we are to do and say, how we are to pray and praise — we learn all these things from the Lord; at least they did, and being witnesses, as Luke tells us, they passed them down to us.
Then after He rose we have the Lord coming in and speaking to them, showing by what took place how real His humanity was even after He rose, so that He is a real Man in resurrection. But He is gone into heaven, as the book of the Acts shows, and before He went into heaven He “assembled with them”. We have the word “assembly” formally in the Acts, probably for the first time in chapter 5, verse 11, although it may possibly appear in chapter 2, verse 47, but we have it a number of times until we come to chapter 13, where certain in it are formally “ministering to the Lord”, verse 2. What happened in the Lord’s lifetime came under the notice of men, any one might see what He did, but He tells us Himself that the world should see Him no more [p. 305] after that; therefore what happened after He rose is not before the eyes of men at all, it is spiritual. It is a great thing to bear in mind that Christianity, as regards ourselves, is a matter of witness; it has come to us on the principle of testimony.
Ques Will you help us a little on the ministering to the Lord?
JT Well, it is the service of the assembly Godward. It had been spoken of, the Lord having in spirit said in Psalm 22 that He would sing “in the midst of the assembly”, Hebrews 2. It had long been in His mind, but now we see it in actual function.
Ques Is coming together on the Lord’s day morning a spiritual thought?
JT The first thing to notice is we are together in a public way; the Lord placed Himself at the table with them when the hour was come, which is a public matter, any one present could have seen it. Acts 1 is in keeping with what is spiritual, “being assembled with them” after He rose would not be public. The Lord says, “The world seeth me no more”. John 14: 19, so it is the spiritual side. Acts 1 prepares us for the spiritual side of things in christianity: the essential thing is what is spiritual, what is public is the outcome of that.
Rem If we did not have what is recorded of the public movements of the Lord we should be at a great loss in the spiritual sphere, we should not know how to act.
JT I think those present in Acts 1 would get a new impression. They had been accustomed to Him coming in and going out among them. There was nothing mysterious about the way He went in and out amongst them in the days of His flesh; but what is recorded at the beginning of Acts is mysterious, it is outside the range of man; so they would get a new impression. It would be wholly new to them that He should come in, the doors being shut, as [p. 306] we are told in John 20, but it was intended to make them spiritual.
Ques Would they, in the spirit of the thing, be regarded as risen with Christ?
JT They would be, only the doctrine awaited Paul — that is, Colossians. But what we learn in the days of His flesh, would correspond more with Corinthians, what is public; so that we are viewed as men and women, and it is a question of days of the week and the notices, matters relating to the testimony in the place, all that has part in the public side which any one with ears and eyes can hear and see: there is a public testimony before men in that.
Ques What would be the force of speaking of the kingdom of God before they assembled?
JT I suppose the Lord had in view what they should bear testimony to. The kingdom is spiritual too, but it bears on conditions down here. It is said to be “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. The kingdom of God is the moral sway of God. “If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you”. He had also said, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you”, which would allude to the power which He exercised among the Jews. It does not say He spoke about the assembly, but the thing is there without being spoken of; that often appears, that a thing is presented but not dwelt upon. What He was doing in assembling with them would come out by and by in Paul’s ministry, but He is preparing them for it; I judge that nothing that came out in Paul’s ministry would take the twelve by surprise.
Ques The apostle says, “I have received of the Lord”: he received it by the Spirit from the Lord. What is our part in it?
JT What he received was an account of what happened before the Lord died. So that the Lord’s [p. 307] supper was not simply passed on to the Gentile believers from those of the Jews; the Lord gave it directly to Paul for them. It confirms what we have been saying, that the two things now run together, what happened before He died and what happened after He rose. What happened before He died refers to the public position, and that is what He delivered to Paul; then we have the more spiritual or inner side of the truth in Colossians and Ephesians, involving the mystery and the heavenly position.
Ques Is that why the disciples were not to speak of the transfiguration till after Jesus was risen from the dead?
JT Yes, the bearing of it was future; such directions to conceal are consequent on the Lord’s rejection by the world. The Jews were already rejecting Him.
Ques Is it not a striking thing that the Lord in resurrection still acts in the power of the Spirit? It says here He charged His apostles “by the Holy Spirit”, verse 2.
JT Yes, it is. He did that in the days of His flesh no doubt, but here it is all to bring in the spiritual side, all that is done is spiritual.
Rem So that as we develop in this instruction we come to chapter 13.
JT Yes; there you see service Godward.
Ques Presenting Himself living, with many proofs, covering the whole period of forty days would ensure their formation as taking up this service.
JT That instruction is essential to the understanding of the assembly in its service Godward. We may have public rectitude in our meetings, but what about the spiritual side? What about this forty days’ experience? The Lord was taken up to heaven, but He did not carry the impressions away with Him. He left them, and the impressions became the [p. 308] property of the assembly. He says they should receive the Spirit “after now not many days”, so that all would be verified after the Spirit came. If Peter were here this afternoon he could tell us much, but the Holy Spirit is a greater witness than Peter and He is here. Not only does He present things to us, but He guides into all truth.
Ques I suppose all the appearings of the Lord in resurrection to His own, had in view that they should be spiritual. He refused to be touched when it would be linking up with a former order of things, but He encouraged it when it would link them up with what is spiritual. He says to Mary, in John 20, “Touch me not” for in her mind it was to link Him with the condition of things which He had left: but elsewhere He would encourage them to touch Him, for it would help them to link on to the spiritual order of things. “Handle me and see”, He says.
JT In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he mentions the appearing to Cephas first: Luke mentions His appearing to Simon — that is the responsible erring man. The apostle Paul had in mind that the Lord appeared to Cephas in relation to the assembly. We have to take account of one another as Simon, that is, as persons who are responsible in this world, the subjects of God’s grace, which is properly the line of Corinthians. But the record of Christ’s appearings is in chapter 15 where Paul is going to speak of the resurrection and spiritual and heavenly things, not of public order. There are things that relate to us in our responsible life here as men and women, that is what “Simon” would stand for; but He appears to us as “Cephas”, a stone, in relation to the assembly.
Rem Stones which are being put in place.
JT Yes. In 1 Corinthians 11, the Lord is brought in as having told Paul something about what happened before He died. We have to think of that, that such things enter into the assembly, but viewed [p. 309] more in its public character. In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle speaks of what happened after He died and rose; and that is the secret behind the public position. If we do not understand the Lord in a spiritual way, risen, we shall not rightly represent Him publicly.
Ques I think we all have a measure of appreciation of what is public, but the moment what is spiritual is touched, there is little response: that is what you are anxious we should avoid.
JT Yes, I think it is important to make that distinction; what He was before His death is to be continued. 1 Corinthians is like the hands of a clock, but the works are Colossians and Ephesians. You would not get the hands moving rightly without Colossians and Ephesians. If the Lord draws attention to the hands, He does not fail to draw attention to the works which are the secret of the movement of the hands. So that the assembling with them in chapter 1 is to make them familiar with the spiritual, and the Holy Spirit coming in a few days after would consolidate all the impressions they received during the forty days, and that is the heritage of the assembly. Although the assembly was present it is not stressed until after the Spirit comes down, and service Godward is not mentioned, I think, until chapter 13. You get the service of Paul and Barnabas in chapter 11, they were there a year, “gathered together in the assembly and taught a large crowd”. That is to say, the brethren at Antioch had received verbal instruction from Barnabas and Paul, and also had the advantage of seeing how these two men moved in the assembly; then they go up to Jerusalem with the bounty of the saints at Antioch; which would also involve spiritual education for those at Antioch. They were Christ’s glory in carrying the bounty, and they came back after having fulfilled the service entrusted to them. They came [p. 310] back bringing with them John, whose surname was Mark, and then we are told that “there were in the assembly” certain persons, of whom Barnabas is put first and Saul last, and they are “ministering to the Lord and fasting”.
Ques What is the exact bearing of the Lord’s act in John 20 when He breathed into the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”? If He did that, why was it necessary that there should be the baptism of the Spirit afterwards?
JT I think John 20 is just pattern. We cannot say that they actually did get the Spirit then, for it would conflict with the actual pouring out at Pentecost. It is pattern I believe, pointing to the life that they would have, because it is His own breath. It is really the most intimate of all transactions with the Lord, that He breathed into them. It would mean that they received His life.
Rem So that He imparted something positive to them in doing that.
JT Yes, anticipatively; they would find a full answer to it when the Holy Spirit came down. This is not the Spirit in a general way upon them for testimony, but His own spirit and life energising them; they would be therefore like Him, they are sent out as having thus been breathed into, hence He commits Himself to them in giving them power to remit and retain sins.
Ques Do you connect it with 1 Corinthians 15 — the life-giving Spirit?
JT Just so; it is a wonderful thought that we live in His life.
Ques Would you go so far as to say that there was thus a company here on earth in which the spirit of life of the risen Man had been placed?
JT That is how I understand it, and so they would be representative, not only as sent ones, but as having His own life. What is recorded in John 20 [p. 311] had its realization after the Spirit came; but Acts does not say He came into them, but that “it sat upon each one of them”. It was visible; but John 20 shows that they were inwardly equal to that; that He had not only constituted them capable in the manifest power of the Spirit, but they were equal to it in the power of His life. You would have said of them, ‘These men are like Christ’. We have the Spirit of Christ, so that if you meet a brother say, from the Establishment, you do not tell him at first that they are all wrong; that would be to impute sins, but you would rather indicate that you remit them, because you want to help him; you make him feel you have not anything against him; and that is the Spirit of Christ. If the matter of his walking with you in fellowship arose, you would then want to know whether he had judged and forsaken his associations.
Ques Do you think that in the Lord moving in and out among them during the forty days, they would learn to be at home with Him in such conditions? and then that would be preparatory to the service in chapter 13.
JT All those impressions they would get during the forty days would be consolidated in them by the Spirit’s coming. So the first visit would probably occasion a certain surprise — according to Luke 24 it does. On the second visit He would become more familiar to them. If I had been there I should have liked to listen to Peter giving thanks and breaking the bread; and John, I would love to hear him too. They were henceforth spiritual men. Judas (not Iscariot) said, “How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world?” That question has to be answered in our souls. The Lord says, “If any one love me, he will keep my word” — he will understand, and tabernacle conditions will be there and “my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”.
[p. 312] Rem If we are to understand that spiritual sphere, there must be more of that individual appreciation of the Lord coming in. In a way we touch the spiritual sphere individually, so that when we gather together it is not a sphere we know nothing about, but something we have known and proved of the presence of the Lord as coming to us. His individual coming to us would prepare us for His coming to us assembly-wise.
JT John 14: 21 - 23 is provision for remnant times, so that the individual who loves the Lord comes in for the best things. The appearings in 1 Corinthians 15 are to teach us that there is the individual side: He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once! — they are three different settings. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all to Paul. The passage teaches us that there are individual appearings.
Rem In our individual movements it would make a great difference to us if we realized the Lord as for us and with us. He would always be for us, but are we conscious that He is always with us?
JT And then with us in the sense of appearing so that you have some spiritual apprehension of Himself. So that the first idea is apprehending a Person. I can well understand that Peter experienced that, he appeared to Simon. There would not be much liberty in the first appearing, for things were not quite right with him, but the Lord appeared to him. Then after that remarkable occasion in John 21, when things were bottomed, any time the Lord appeared to Simon would be simple to him. The Lord appearing to five hundred brethren would imply a family touch. The same impressions would be taken on by all.
Rem So in John 20 the disciples say to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord”.
JT What we have said should help us to understand [p. 313] how the Lord can be known spiritually in any relation. What we are speaking of depends now on the presence of the Spirit. The appearings during the forty days after the Lord rose from the dead were, of course, literal or corporeal, and so also what Paul speaks of; but the application of the thought to ourselves is spiritual, and depends as we have said, on the presence of the Spirit with us.
Ques Why are only these two gifts, prophets and teachers, mentioned in connection with the assembly at Antioch? In Ephesians He ascended on high and gave “some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”.
JT I suppose it awaited Ephesus to get the full thought; we are only at the beginning of Paul’s ministry here. Ephesus is the crown of his service.
Rem They were rather a mixed company here; Barnabas, a coloured man, then a Cyrenian, and a foster-brother of Herod, and then you get Saul. If the Spirit takes people in hand and puts them together in view of divine pleasure, it does not matter what they are socially or religiously.
JT That is important at this juncture where Paul’s ministry was beginning to tell. He is the last one mentioned, but that does not mean he has the least power, rather otherwise. We have the coloured man in chapter 8 and then Saul himself in chapter 9 and Cornelius in chapter 10 — the three branches of the race. But Paul is still called Saul, which would mean he has not yet taken on his distinctive feature. You would expect to get a set of persons like this in the first assembly among the Gentiles.
Ques Would the manner in which the facts are stated suggest a spiritual state of things?
JT That is the point, to bring out the remarkable effect of the work of God in that assembly.
Rem Such a variety of people could not be together as seen here apart from what is spiritual.
JT [p. 314] That is so, and all this developed out of the service of Paul and Barnabas there for a whole year. Then they had gone to Jerusalem and linked on with the apostles, and come back again. In 1 Chronicles 22 you get David as head, then the princes in chapter 29. These men at Antioch are like princes, and they assure us of wealth in that assembly: Christ coming in as Head, and the princes — a great spiritual formation seen at Antioch.
Ques Does the fasting emphasise the thought of spiritual conditions?
JT That is the test of spiritual vitality, the giving up of legitimate things for the sake of the Lord’s service. It brings me, in the power of the Spirit, under complete self-control.
Ques You connected ministering to the Lord with Psalm 22, would you connect it with the service of praise to the Father?
JT I should; this is the beginning of it in the history of the testimony — the first concrete expression we have in the Acts of service Godward; and I am sure it is what God has in His mind. The Lord spoke of it prophetically on the cross. I am concerned that we should get a little touch of it now, that we should have part in the assembly Godward.
Ques How vastly different all this is from what is commonly said — “The place where the sacraments are duly administered and the word of God faithfully preached”. That leaves out all we are talking about this afternoon. You find people are interested in service, missions, etc., but you begin to talk about the assembly, and there is silence.
JT Yes, and this side is not known, nor will it ever be known, apart from the recognition of the Spirit.
Ques Would this be the assembly actually convened?
JT I think so. “As they were ministering to [p. 315] the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said ...” — it was what they were doing. The service of God that was at Jerusalem in a material sense is now transferred to the Gentiles in a spiritual way. God has His establishment now where He is ministered to, where His worship is carried on. The service issues forth from these conditions: it shows how much the state of a meeting has to do with the public service.
Ques In the light of what you said as to there being wealth here in chapter 13, is not that in view of the concrete thing taking form in chapter 20?
JT This is the beginning, I think, of what is perfected at Ephesus, where we have, “To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. Ephesians 3: 21; that is the full thought; the temple is “in the Lord”, but the assembly is a question of the Father’s place and glory, as seen in that passage, throughout all generations. This is the beginning of that. The end of Ephesians 3 is full of holy stimulating power.
Ques I thought that in John 20 you had the place that David speaks of in Chronicles, the house of Jehovah. There is nothing there actually when he bought the threshing-floor, but he called it “the house of Jehovah Elohim”, 1 Chronicles 22: 1.
JT He bought “the place”, which would be more extensive than the threshing-floor; there is plenty of room; God’s thought is very great.
Ques These two things mentioned in verse 3 are important, fasting and prayer.
JT Fasting makes room for the Spirit, hence the power. One of the fruits of the Spirit is said to be self-control, and in Romans 8 we read, “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. Fasting is not dealing with bad things exactly, but it shows that I have control, my natural inclinations have not power over me, I control myself [p. 316] by the Spirit.
Rem It shuts out everything of the first man.
JT It does, and even legitimate things, so that natural inclinations and propensities do not control you. I cannot be in the assembly according to God unless I am in self-control.
Rem Monasticism assumes that the flesh is able to control the flesh, but the truth is, as you were saying, that the Spirit is the only power.
JT Exactly. They build monasteries to shut out flesh, but the power of the Spirit is the only power for this. Better is “he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city”. Proverbs 16: 32.
Ques What we are speaking of goes far deeper than the refusal of the flesh. What you have in view is that if that which is of nature assumes dominance over the soul, it is a death-blow to spiritual apprehension.
JT In the Scottish Establishment they fast before the sacrament. There is something in that. I believe if brethren were more concerned about themselves in view of the assembly, in self-control, to disallow even what is legitimate, there would be more power in the service of God.
Rem That would raise the question of practical holiness.
JT It would indeed.
Rem I was thinking of John again — “Receive the Holy Spirit”.
JT Yes, it is more the character of the Spirit.
Ques This would work positively. Would it be a question of what you are finding your life in?
JT That is the way it would work out, so that you have the power to join the Lord in the assembly. It is an interesting fact that Matthew and Mark in their record of what happened at the institution of the supper, speak about eating first, eating is mentioned twice; and they are the only writers who mention the singing of the hymn, as if they would [p. 317] call attention to the power that you need to eat what displaces the flesh and builds up a spiritual constitution. They sang a hymn, meaning that they could sing together; we cease to be so many units and learn to sing together — it is a question of spiritual power in unity as in 2 Chronicles 5. Now Luke does not say anything about eating or the mount of Olives, he speaks about remembrance, which does not require the same power; it comes in earlier in the meeting when we sit down, as a matter of memorial. But as soon as you begin to move spiritually, as the Lord shows Himself, that needs power. Otherwise you will be a mere theorist as to the Lord’s presence in the assembly; we must move with Him. But besides the idea of the memorial there is food in the Lord’s supper.
Rem That would enable you to move to the point of ascension.
JT Yes; if I only come for the memorial, I may not move. The Lord would draw us to His side, so that we might have part with Him; then besides the effect of what the supper presents there is the action of the Spirit leading us to apprehend Christ as the Ark of the Covenant and as Head, which brings us on to 1 Chronicles.