LINKS WITH THE SPIRIT

A.J.E.Welch

Acts 7: 54 -60; 13: 8-10; Revelation 1: 10,11

I want to refer especially to the Holy Spirit to bring out the distinctive time in which our part is in the testimony, and the leading thought is to point out that God's great thought for men is that they should move in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is not just a question of the Spirit being received but of the Spirit having full and unhindered place in every one; and in the sense of what I have mentioned we see that God's greatest thoughts for man are being brought out into expression in this present time. The time in which the power of evil is still to be met, the time in which the greatness of what God has reached in His saints, in the assembly, is brought out in the precious fact that the powers of evil are met, as this history in the Acts would show, and as we could humbly say more recent history would likewise show. The great root of the whole matter, on our side anyway, lies in the fact that there are men who move in the Spirit, and I speak of Stephen and of Paul and of John, men who were signally marked off as used of the Spirit of God to further God's dispensation which is in faith. It is a great point for meetings such as these that they further the dispensation, that something is effected, something remains with all of us which goes through, in the sense of what is formed of God, into eternity, and this involves in the most intimate sense the presence and service of the Spirit, and it involves the place that He has with every one of us.

Stephen appears very soon after this time of the Spirit began, and his service as it is recorded is very brief. He was not a man who was marked off previously in the time when the Lord was here; he comes to light as bearing this very feature that he was full of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 6 records it of him very significantly: "they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit" (v 5) and then others. He comes under our notice very briefly; the time of his service was not extended but he really represents in one man the whole spirit and character of this time in which we are, showing how quickly, through the Spirit, God can so affect a man that he can set forth something distinctive in that person. God is able for that. What a comfort it is, when oppressive circumstances come, to reflect each of us severally that God will bring out in those circumstances something in me that commands the approval of heaven and renders testimony to man. That is what happened with Stephen, and it is to show what the Spirit of God is able for in each one of us, and He will bring out, I believe, in these closing moments, even when those available to Him may seem to be few, the distinctiveness of how the Spirit Himself is able to bring out the greatest thoughts of God in men. So Stephen is before us here under intense pressure and eventually, as we know, martyrdom. He retains his composure, he speaks clearly and definitely, and the key to the whole situation is what is said of him again: "being full of the Holy Spirit". Here is a man now that God has brought into great matters and the way in which he pursues those matters and is in them becomes a distinctive mark of what God is able to do in a man. How attractive this is, dear brethren! From a human view-point this scene was a disaster; our human minds would say 'think of a man like Stephen being lost to the testimony'; but the One who is in charge of the testimony is perfectly able to conduct His testimony in the way that becomes Himself. Let us remember that, beloved brethren. We are in the hands of God in all these matters; His way is not our way. To secure large numbers in a certain outward prominence is something that God has shown not to be His way; but the thought stands, and is to appeal affectingly to us, of what the Spirit of God can bring out if necessary in one person distinctively. So Stephen is remarkably presented to us. Where were the other disciples? There were other disciples; where were they? The Spirit of God gives us no clue as to what the apostles were doing or what the other disciples were doing at this critical time. He brings to a focus the case of Stephen and intimates that He has something to bring out in Stephen, and when we review the remarkable address that Stephen gave to the rulers, and see how he dwells on Abraham and Joseph and Moses and David, we begin to get a clue as to what the Spirit of God is at in this section, singling out those distinctive men in the course of the earlier history of God's testimony in Israel - Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David. Those four men are specially presented to us in Stephen's address as if he by the Spirit picks out from the earlier history these outstanding persons in whom God has brought out so much that is distinctive to Himself, not of course in the time of the Spirit, but persons in whom nevertheless God wrought according to the dispensation in which they were and in which they shone. How Abraham shone! How Joseph shone! How Moses shone! How David shone! Each of those men was in personality and power with God and distinctive in power in the testimony. As we review these things does it not make us long to be in the current of the Spirit so that God can bring out something distinctive in us and adorn the assembly with persons that are moving characteristically in the power and the distinctness of the Spirit's movements? That is to become very attractive to us, peculiarly so. Now Stephen having delivered himself of that remarkable word, having shone in the testimony in the presence of these men who stood against him, he is retaining his composure, he is in the midst of suffering, he is the objective of man's hatred on a large scale, and he fixed his eyes on heaven - "having fixed his eyes on heaven". That is the mark of a man who is moving in the Spirit to fix the eyes on the whole point from which everything originates for those of us who love God. He is not fixing his eyes on those who are casting the stones, he is not fixing his eyes on the high priest or those who serve with him, he fixed his eyes on heaven. That is his action, yet in what power was this his action. He was a man filled with the Spirit and it was in the power of the Spirit that he fixed his eyes on heaven. How steadying such an experience is, to fix the eyes on heaven, find that heaven is determining things; even when the power of man seems to be at its height heaven is determining things. He fixes his eyes on heaven and he sees Jesus. We are told twice what he sees, the Spirit gives us an account of it and then he gives us an account of it, but in both cases what is emphasised is that He is at the right hand of God; that is to say, Stephen is in touch with the point of power; whatever men may say, whatever men may do, Stephen is in direct touch with the point of power, and here is a man full of the Holy Spirit equal to the whole situation bearing upon him and bearing upon man. What does he bring out? The spirit and character of Jesus. Even in his dying how like Jesus he is; we have often commented on that but it is vital in respect of what we are saying. What kind of manhood is the Spirit bringing out in men as He uses them? The Manhood of Jesus. Even in his suffering and being slain this man in perfect composure, sustained manifestly in the Spirit's power, is bringing out what found its perfect expression in the manhood of Jesus. "He cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge". The details are all of deep interest but I read this section to bring out the great point of what the Spirit puts into a man, and how here we have a man relatively briefly in the course of the testimony but bringing out in himself its finest features. I believe in a certain sense God is working out matters similarly at the present time. We find that persons recovered come quickly and powerfully into the course of things that God is supporting; it is a mark of this present time. God is showing us what He can do through the Spirit. But I seek to call attention to the Spirit as the power by which all is carried through for Him self.

Now chapter 13 is a very great chapter in relation to Paul. Paul and Barnabas had been sent out from Antioch. It was a remarkable time in assembly history, a time when the assembly was taking character in its local relations at Antioch, a time when Paul was being raised up for the distinctiveness of the service that he rendered as an apostle, a time as we have sometimes noted in which Paul is said to have a company - "Paul and his company" (v 13). It is a peculiarly Pauline chapter preparing us for the heavenly course of ministry which Paul rendered. Then an attack comes; Elymas the magician opposed them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith. It is at the most promising points of history that the attack comes. It is just one man, a profane man manifestly, that is launching an attack that would cut at the root of all that the Spirit of God is doing; but Paul meets it - "filled with the Holy Spirit, fixing his eyes upon him, said, O full of all deceit and all craft" - clearly discerning the enemy's power and the character of its operation and meeting it. God came in to meet it of course in His own power, but Paul is the instrument that He uses to bring power to bear on this man that would stand athwart the whole course of the testimony of God. So it speaks of Paul as filled with the Holy Spirit. How the Spirit of God is before us afresh in this instance, and in other instances in the Acts where certain ones are said to be full or filled with the Spirit, seven instances I believe; the dear young people can follow them up and find them. Well, we have to ask ourselves what instances are there of something like this today? I have no question but that the Spirit is in powerful operation. I have no question that the Spirit of God has those that He can distinctively use. In that sense we look for great things to take place, not things that are outwardly manifest to men in general but things which are understood in their place in the testimony to those who stand in it. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. I bring it in not to dwell upon it at length, because so much might be said as to Paul and the Spirit, but here he is meeting the opposition that attacks at the most critical time as his ministry is beginning to come into expression, not only in the utterance of it but in the fruits of it. It is this that the enemy is bent against, not only the expression of the truth but the answer to it; and hence Paul deals we might say very summarily with this man. Given wisdom of God, no doubt, as to how to meet the opposition, but the opposition is met and the testimony goes on. What is it that meets the opposition? A man filled with the Spirit so that the testimony moves forward. There is to be something akin to this, dear brethren, at the present time when things appear which would stand athwart the course of the testimony. The answer lies in a man or in men who come in in the manifest full power of the Spirit to meet the situation. Is there such a man? We have to raise these challenges. Each of us has to say for himself, Am I such a person? This is not without its bearing on the sisterhood in the sense in which the Spirit has free course among the saints, but especially on responsible persons. I would say to such affectionately, Is there such a thing as being so in the Spirit's power that there is capacity to meet the opposition that the testimony unhindered and increasing in wealth and power may go forward to its glorious conclusion? There is a great challenge in that at the present time.

John is not exactly said to be full of the Spirit but he records an experience which he is able himself to describe: "I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day". I need not say how much was unfolded to John in consequence of this, how the whole termination of everything, as to an understanding of it, is entrusted to John as Christ's bondman, for the sake of His bondmen to whom He would entrust what His mind is. It is wonderful to realise that amidst all the darkness and confusion of man's world at the present time the mind of God stands in all its perfection. This book shows us what it is and how it proceeds. It is a uniquely stabilising book of scripture at a time such as the present when everything in men's affairs seems to be riddled in confusion; read this book and you get the sense there is One on the throne who is holding everything. There is One on the throne whose will is prevailing in every circumstance, there is One on the throne nevertheless in whom grace is shining out and securing· its fruit so distinctive in view of eternity. There is One on the throne who is securing, to answer to Himself, a vessel which comes down at the close in the character of a city having the glory of God. John sees that and is given an understanding of all these things. What an unfolding! You marvel at the detail in which John can record it and yet you have to say it is the Spirit in that man. You see how John, unique in his nearness to Christ as He was here, having his place in the bosom of Jesus, is unique likewise in his relations with the Spirit. He says "I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day". Now that is a challenge to us too, both as to the fact of his becoming in the Spirit and the time when he became in the Spirit. Do we know what it is to be abstracted from things here and in the power of the Spirit be engaged with what is of God essentially? Are we ready to be carried through a sequence of figurative events which bring out divine supremacy? Are we ready to enter sympathetically and in affectionate feeling into what God is doing right down through the course of His dealings with men to secure a rich result? What do these things mean to us? We may say, Who is equal to them? Who can read and understand this book in the amazing detail which marks many of the visions which John sees? The Spirit is able. It is not exactly said that John was full of the Spirit; it refers to his position in relation to the Spirit from his side: "I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day". He records an experience; and what is our experience, dear brethren, of the blessed Spirit and His power? We would be very cautious to use exactly the words that John uses, but can we be abstracted in the power of the Spirit from the course of things here, sometimes relatively trivial things, and become engaged with what is essentially of God? What a portion! It is very extensive in its bearing, touching the local assemblies and the place that the Lord has in them, reaching on to the ultimate triumph of God over every power of evil, reaching on to the glorious victory and manifest answer to God Himself in the city as it comes down; but all these things are to be opened up to us in the Spirit. So how richly equipped we are, beloved brethren, in this time of the Spirit. How wonderful it is to see men moving, acting, speaking in the Spirit's power, bringing out as they do so the greatest of divine thoughts, showing to us that the great thought of God for man, in view of His reaching His end in man, is by the gift of the Spirit, and bringing out that the holding, the cherishing of all that God is carrying through for Himself rests in the hands of the Spirit and in those who know what it is to be 'in the Spirit' and to come into the present course of His mind. May our links with the Spirit, dear brethren, be strengthened, may our appreciation of the Spirit be enriched, and something fresh that answers to Himself be found in every local assembly as the Spirit has a place that He would seek in these closing moments, for His Name's sake.

 

MAIDSTONE

28 August 1976