OUR RELATIONS WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

A.J.E.Welch

Acts 7: 55, 56; 10: 19, 20; 20: 8

No doubt the thoughts of many of us have lingered a good deal over the emphasis that has come among us in the past two weeks as to the Holy Spirit. The Lord would strengthen our faith as to what the blessed Spirit is immediately able for. We have often quoted the comforting word that John gives us, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world", 1 John 4: 4. But in this remarkable book that we have read from faith can seize the extended proof of what is here in the Spirit. The need is real as we read the scriptures to seize the bearing of whole sections of scripture, whole books of scripture; if we take the scope of this history in the Acts the impression is left of a course of things that is totally dominant over everything that stands against it. In the course of the history the Roman power, the civil powers, come into expression from time to time, (Luke reminds us of such things in his histories), but where do they compare with the history of the testimony of God as it takes a triumphal course through these early years of the time of the Spirit? Where were men like the men that this book brings forward? Where were the human agencies that would produce men like Peter, John, Stephen, Paul, Timothy and many more? All this stands related to the presence and work of the Spirit, and the Spirit as we know Him is the same Spirit. Speaking with reverence, the passing of time and the change of outward circumstances do not change the blessed Spirit; He is the same Spirit of whose manifestations we read so richly in this book. Where is all this going on? Is it in public evidence? In general, it is not. It is going on very largely in the secret histories of men and of local assemblies. Not all is secret, of course. God shows from time to time, especially in this matter of Stephen what the Spirit is equal for in our testimonial relations. That is not just in what is said, but in the kind ·and quality of manhood that is called attention to by the circumstances that arise.

Stephen was a remarkable person, for he was not an apostle. It is something to be thought about that such a remarkable manifestation of the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus in suffering, was according to divine wisdom not brought out in one of the apostles. No doubt it was brought out later in the apostles who suffered martyrdom, but at this point it was brought out in a man who is said to have been full of the Holy Spirit. He was a man who is thoroughly in control of the whole situation as it affects him. So that it says he "fixed his eyes on heaven", a remarkable expression calling attention to something that Stephen did; he “fixed his eyes on heaven", a man in remarkable composure in suffering. How could it be? He was a man full of the Holy Sprit. Luke records that fact as if he would say to us, that is enough. If that can be said of any man, that is enough. That man will stand in any situation if it can be said of him that he is full of the Holy Spirit. And what ensues in Stephen's case just brings it out. I am impressed with the bearing of this on our individual histories. Things assembly-wise were not, it would seem, developed much in Stephen's time. This incident would reflect the depth, the distinctiveness, of this man's history with God. He would have learned the distinctive way in which Christ had been set forth in Peter's testimony, God having made this Jesus "both Lord and Christ", Acts 2: 36. That is a fine expression which conveys to us the settled commitment of the blessed God to what is established in an exalted Christ, involving that there is no change up there. The Spirit coming from an exalted Christ would further involve that which does not change down here: it is a Person of the Godhead who is here with divine power and divine grace to sustain everything as God Himself would have it to be.

I call attention to Stephen to bring out the side of individual history, the place that an exalted Christ and the Person of the blessed Spirit are to have with everyone of us so that we are made equal to the exigencies of the testimony if the Lord should leave us just a little longer.

Peter in chapter 10 represents a remarkable adjustment, and the scope of the chapter is most affecting in reminding us how God is working, how He uses agencies which are at His disposal. He coordinates everything, so that the tiniest detail of event fits into place. Things are going on in men. This is not a public exhibition of what is taking place. Great things are going on in men: great things are happening in a house, the house of Cornelius, a committed house, reminding us of the place that a house is to have. Peter was in a house where he could go on the housetop to pray; that is something to be borne in our minds, how the normally restful, peaceful circumstances of our households are to be used, and how the Spirit would come into them. He went to the housetop to be free for the Spirit to affect him, and Peter was deliberate in doing that, as the history shows. It is a great need for us, beloved brethren, to be definite in seeking opportunities that the Spirit might affect us, that our links with Christ may be built up in the reality of undisturbed and undistracted communion with Himself and with the Spirit . Peter clearly had a real understanding, of that, and it laid a basis for a great deal that followed.

So the Spirit comes into this matter with Peter. "Peter doubted in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean". What do things mean, dear brethren? If a word comes to us, if the Lord comes in among us, if there is some fresh disclosure as to the truth, or some fresh and choice disclosure of glory of Christ, what does it mean? We are intended to be affected by all these things; things that happen are to affect us. They are not working out in the public view, in this connection. There is the public side of what is sustained in righteousness, and sustained in confession of the Lord's name, and in faithfulness to His word, under the eye of men, and before the authorities. But these things are going on in the relatively secluded relationships of Cornelius's house and Peter's history. Where are we looking for the fruits of the Spirit's service? Among those who love Christ. Fruits of the Spirit's service appear in lovers of Christ coming to light as the word is preached, too, but things here focus on the way Peter is being affected by the Spirit in view of this remarkable change in the course of the testimony, for which Peter is being fully and carefully prepared. This is a great adjustment for Peter; there is a new extension of God's working in men as the testimony goes out to the Gentiles. In Cornelius's house the Spirit falls upon those who are present, evidencing the full thought in the mind of God, and making way eventually for the Pauline testimony and all that comes into it.

So it says, "as Peter continued pondering over the vision". How pleasing that was to the Lord! He pondered over it. "The Spirit said to him, Behold, three men seek thee; but rise up, go down, and go with them, nothing doubting, because I have sent them”. The whole situation is falling into place; not a detail is out of place, but Peter is to be brought into full sympathy with what God is doing in the curse of this magnificent testimony by this touch of the Spirit upon him. We are to realise, dear brethren, how the Spirit is here in charge of things in the most intimate way, having to do with matters, having to do with saints and having to do with servants as they are dependent in this service, to carry everything forward in its due place. There is a noticeable emphasis in this section of the book on the accuracy with which things are presented; we note the clarity of the impressions that come to Peter and the accuracy with which (as in chapter 11) he goes over the impressions he received. Notice the precise correspondence between what the Spirit relates in chapter 10 and what Peter relates in chapter 11, showing how Peter had an accurate grasp by the Spirit of the whole situation as he had been shown it. Peter fills certain key relations in the testimony at this time of which we have read. Are we ready to go forward intelligently in the peculiar moment in which God has set us? We are to be clear as to what He has in mind, understanding that the situation that has arisen is not an emergency situation from God's viewpoint: He has His hand over it, and the Spirit being here, He may be relied on to keep us clear and accurate and safe as we go on in what is precious to Him.

I read of Paul in chapter 20 just to touch the remarkable unfoldings of the heavenly side in this beloved servant. What a vessel of the Spirit Paul was! In the word "where we were assembled" the 'we' conveys the conscious tangibility of something in which Luke personally had his place; "we were assembled". Paul's ministry had taken a productive course. What a traveller he was. How widely the word and the influence of that beloved servant was in divine ordering spread through this continent of Europe, the south of it anyway. It is very instructive to see how the Spirit spreads the testimony, especially in Paul, and how local assemblies are secured, though not without conflict. Let us fit that into our own time the Spirit of God, though it be not an inaugural time, is holding to the great thought of the assembly, and of local assemblies, in which there is something in tangible expression of what the Spirit would maintain in true assembly character to the end. This was a very auspicious company, according to what is related earlier; different brothers are named as being present in Troas, and the circumstances here are worthy of close study. Mr Taylor reminded us that Troas has a prophetic bearing on the whole end of the dispensation, so that the raising up of Eutychus would encourage us as to young people and what God is able to do even yet, and do quickly. I mention that in passing, but this scene at Troas is a most stimulating scene as to the way in which God will cause things to reach a finish that affords something for Himself. "And there were many lights in the upper room where we were assembled". It reminds us of the auspiciousness of these assemblings. There is nothing here according to the record of which man's world took account; the point is what such an occasion is under the eye of heaven. One seems to detect, in reading the scripture, a certain sense of delight with the Spirit as He indites it calling attention to this occasion and what was taking place, who was there and how the Pauline ministry was taking its course.

So the Spirit, dear brethren, would lead us on to that, to what we can rightly speak of as assembly ground. We will not disregard the public conditions, feeling them rightly, as the Spirit Himself feels them, but understanding that God is going through with His every thought, to secure it against what is contrary and to secure it in its own true character because the Spirit of God is here in the assembly.

These things are to strengthen us, to stimulate us, and to urge us on in our links with the Spirit, to be ready under His hand for whatever the testimony may yet bring. May the Lord help us in that, for His Name's sake.

London

13th March 1973