DIVINE ACTIVITIES IN SUPPORT OF THE TESTIMONY (2)
[p. 14] DIVINE ACTIVITIES IN SUPPORT OF THE TESTIMONY (2)
JT This chapter shows how God acts, we may say, in a physical sense, to enforce His mind, to enforce the truth of the gospel. The book begins in the main at the second chapter, which relates Peter’s gospel address, the result being three thousand souls; the chapters following show how the enemy set to work to oppose, and the facts related indicate, as we said, that God acted as we might say physically, or through physical means, to advance the truth of the Scriptures. Hence it is said in the beginning of this chapter that as “they were speaking to the people, the priests and captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being distressed on account of their teaching the people and preaching by Jesus the resurrection from among the dead; and they laid hands on them, and put them in ward till the morrow”. Now the intervention of God is seen in what we have read. The general thought is that many of those who had heard the word believed. We have already been told that there were three thousand converted, but now it is said here that many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men had become about five thousand, so that God’s work was proceeding in great power and with great results.
Then the enemy continued his efforts. It says, “It came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together at Jerusalem, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the high priestly family; and having placed them in the midst they inquired, In what power or in what [p. 15] name have ye done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are called upon to answer as to the good deed done to the infirm man, how he has been healed, be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom ye have crucified, whom God has raised from among the dead, by him this man stands here before you sound in body. He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone. And salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”. I thought we had a plain statement there of God’s way of furthering His interests on earth, of advancing His testimony and asserting it; and how His people are brought to the truth, and how others are converted.
ENJ Is the position held in salvation by what is said in the twelfth verse as to the name?
JT Just so. It was really a question of a building, because it was a structure. God intended to rear up a structure, which we know now to be the assembly, and so, “He is the stone which has been set at nought by you the builders, which is become the corner stone. And salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”.
PAH That would stand good at all times, whatever the position of the testimony might be. That name is all powerful, is it not?
JT Just so. At the end of nineteen hundred years or so it is still as good as it was then. It is the rock, as the Lord Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my assembly (Matthew 16:18)”. It is a rock that cannot be overthrown. It ought to stimulate our hearts to know that we are thus supported. It is our [p. 16] privilege to suffer for the truth, and we see here how it is supported.
ENJ You were thinking of the maintenance of the position. The lame man in the first place was healed through that name, the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean. There is the maintenance of the position, whatever the attack might be.
JT Quite so. Whatever the attack might be. That is a good way to put it. There have been many attacks, and they are varied. It would greatly help and strengthen us in our testimony whatever it might be, the testimony as to the gospel, or the testimony of the assembly, to have the sense that God is with His people, as He has promised: “The Lord is with you, while ye be with him”, (2 Chronicles 15:2).
JM “But seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and perceiving that they were unlettered and uninstructed men, they wondered; and they recognised them that they were with Jesus”. Is that the position?
JT Quite so. “The righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1), so that we need not fear. The Lord indeed had already said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”.
PRP “The name of the Lord is a strong tower”, (Proverbs 18:10). Would you bring that in?
JT Quite so. “The righteous runneth into it, and is safe (Proverbs 18:10)”. It is a question of the strength of the tower.
Rem Is there significance in what is said, that the name is “given among men”? We are among men in our associations.
JT Showing that God is thinking of men in His testimony; not angels, although He has them under His hand, for His purposes. We shall see that in the next chapter, where it says in verse 17, “The high priest rising up, and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, were filled with [p. 17] wrath, and laid hands on the apostles and put them in the public prison. But an angel of the Lord during the night opened the doors of the prison, and leading them out, said, Go ye and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life Acts 5:17 - 20”. That is, the words of the life of Jesus are to be asserted. The angel is ready; as we have already had, we cannot say how many there are. We read of a great multitude of them, but they are available for service, “sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14)”.
PAH So that there is, in the face of opposition, a positive testimony as to the truth, which is important, you would say?
JT Quite so.
ENJ There seems to be a tendency right from the very outset, for the enemy to band together certain persons and certain companies to increase their power, if possible, against the testimony. We read here that “the priests and captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them”.
JT We see the character of the combination, the Sadducees being infidels really. They do not believe in angel or spirit, and now they are in power instead of the other sect, and therefore arrayed against the truth of the gospel.
RP Really setting aside the truth of resurrection on which everything is based in Christianity. All there is for God is on resurrection ground.
JT Quite so. It is an invulnerable position. The power of God is centred in resurrection. “Now is Christ risen from the dead”, is the testimony in 1 Corinthians 15:20, “and become the firstfruits of them that slept”. “How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:12) That is the thing the Sadducees were saying, and so we know what the nature of the opposition is.
RP Do we not see that spirit operating today [p. 18] with men, using material things to set aside the rights of God?
JT Quite so, moving in relation to material things, binding themselves in bundles, as it were, to defend their thoughts. They disregard the thoughts of God, and disregard the gospel.
PRP Is this matter of salvation one feature which is very delightful to God? He delights to be known as the God of salvation.
JT Quite so. It is the testimony of the prophets really, but now verified fully in the resurrection of Christ. “Now is Christ risen (1 Corinthians 15:20)”. That is the point Peter is making in this chapter. In chapter 3 we are told that “Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, which is the ninth hour; and a certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they placed every day at the gate of the temple called Beautiful, to ask alms of those who were going into the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to enter into the temple, asked to receive alms. And Peter, looking stedfastly upon him with John, said, Look on us Acts 3:1 - 4”. So that the interest was directed to Peter and John. They were the witnesses there to be looked at, to see what kind of people they were; what Christians are, they are well worth looking at.
JM Would there be a correspondence in them to the Man who was raised from the dead? “They recognised them that they were with Jesus”, it says.
JT Quite so.
RP Peter had announced in his preaching, in which three thousand were converted, that God had made this same Jesus, both Lord and Christ. Jesus was supreme in the matter.
JT God has settled the matter as to who is to rule. It is a question really of the Jews and Jesus. Jesus came on the behalf of God, and the Jews attacked Him and crucified Him, and now God shows [p. 19] that He is taking on Jesus. He has raised Him from the dead. The enemy still continues to oppose that Man in one form or another; that Man is always the object of attack, and Peter and John are on His side as witnesses, as we see. “We are his witnesses, (Acts 5:32)” Peter says.
JMcN Have we in Peter and John a sample of the material of the temple, of which Christ is the corner stone; the building which is impregnable to the attack of the enemy?
JT Exactly; the word ‘Peter’ means a stone. He was the leading apostle, as we know, and so he represents the material of which the building is reared up. The Lord said, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly”, (Matthew 16:18).
ENJ Are you thinking that if any of the Lord’s people are called upon to give evidence publicly before men, in relation to this great exercise as to associations, there should be something specific in them which would be a testimony to those who inquire?
JT Therefore Peter says, “Look on us”. They were worthy of attention.
PAH Then further in verse 14, “And beholding the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to reply”.
JT There was incontestable evidence of the power that was at work on God’s behalf towards men.
RP They had the opportunity of taking account of this power when Christ was here with Israel. “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner”, had been said by the Lord in power, according to Matthew 21:42, and here is an evidence of the same operation in the saints here below, in the power of the Spirit.
JT So, “Beholding the man who had been healed standing with them”. He is now identified [p. 20] with the apostles, he is standing with them — “they had nothing to reply”. Then it goes on to say, “Having commanded them to go out of the council they conferred with one another, saying, What shall we do to these men?” That is the whole problem now; what is to be done with these men, that is to say, the witnesses of Jesus. They had put Jesus to death, but now He is taken out of the way, He has gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him; but His witnesses are here, and the enemy attacks the witnesses.
Ques Is boldness necessary that the testimony may be witnessed to before men?
JT Well, that is the idea. These twelve men, that is to say, the twelve apostles, were constituted witnesses; they were not ordinary men, not even ordinary believers; they were constituted powerful men, who were able to stand in the breach to defend the truth, and they can be looked at. You can see them, where they live, and how they live.
JAA It says, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness”.
JT That is the point. Our position requires that we are filled with the Holy Spirit; not simply that we are sealed with the Spirit, but filled, at least in measure. There must be some evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
JSP So that they would be in accord with their testimony?
JT Quite so.
Ques Do these men become irresistible on account of what they are, as formed by God?
JT Just so. There were none like them. God added after that, but there were none like these twelve. One of the disciples had betrayed the Lord, but he had been replaced by another, so the idea of the twelve is maintained. It is increased, but it is [p. 21] maintained. The idea of twelve is administration, capable administration.
Rem While we are living in a day of weakness and breakdown, what was set up in an inaugural way goes through.
JT That is the idea. What was inaugurated stands. “These that have turned the world upside down”, (Acts 17:6).
JM So that the rulers say, “That indeed an evident sign has come to pass through their means is manifest to all that inhabit Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it”.
JT Yes, something evident; and the point for us is to make things clear; what we have believed, and what we are in consequence of having believed.
JSP It says that they took account of them that they had been with Jesus. The thing was working out.
JT Quite so, so that the Lord is seen in the gospels, “Jesus alone” (Matthew 17:8) or “Jesus alone with themselves”, (Mark 9:8). That was the thought at the beginning, but now there were a great many more. You can see now the movement is growing, because we are told here that they had become about five thousand, and we shall see it is still growing later.
ENJ Is it significant that it is men? The number of the men had become about five thousand.
JT Yes; not yet men, women, and children, but men; as if to show that God is taking up men. The book of Proverbs gives the idea. It speaks of wisdom, the wisdom of God, and its delights were with the sons of men; not simply men, but the sons of men; that is, the idea of men viewed in sonship. So that they are in every way attractive as on God’s behalf in testimony.
CGMcC As we are enabled to speak with boldness, will there always be increase for God?
JT I would think so. Wisdom’s delight is sonship. Wisdom is a great quality; it is not simply a person; it used to be thought to be a person in Proverbs 8, but it is a great quality, but a quality in God Himself, and its delights are with the sons of men, not with angels, and not with men merely, but sons of men; that is, men in that relation.
JSP This matter of wisdom seems to be very important, because the apostles not only knew the Lord here in flesh and blood, but they knew Him in resurrection; so having to do with men we need to be grounded, so that we can give right witness and right testimony.
JT Quite so. The Lord had remained with them forty days so that they might know Him perfectly. In fact they had eaten and drunk with Him after He arose from among the dead.
Rem Their great concern in their prayer does not seem to be so much their own deliverance, but that they may go on furthering the testimony.
JT Quite so. The thing is to be increased. It is a great movement of God. That is the idea of Christianity: a great movement of God, and the quality is there that God can approve.
RP The thing is consolidated, would you say? What comes to light is mutual affection, body feelings, unity among the saints.
JT We have already alluded to the stones, and that it is a structure; a firm one, an indestructible one, and there is no salvation in any other than in Jesus; and then we are told that they were bold in their efforts, in their preaching. The elders of the Jews saw that, perceiving that they were unlettered and uninstructed men. That is to say, they were not specially polished men. God can get along with them as they are. They were fishermen really, but God could use them, and use them effectively, so that we are thus delivered from mere human education [p. 23] in the service of God. Not that we are to despise ordinary education, which enables us to read and write, and all that, but we are not embellishing our young people, making them especially college people. God takes us up as we are, and it is a question of His education, and what He will make of us.
ENJ Is this lame man an excellent example of what you have drawn our attention to lately, as to the way judaism is to be set aside? That is to say he is an example of where the Jews were at the time.
JT Yes. The truth had come out, and it had become apparent that judaism in itself was failing to be a testimony to God. The epistle to the Hebrews opens up what had been there, and Paul, who, I have no doubt, is the author of the book, speaks of what God had spoken, and that He had spoken in His Son. Everything now is a question of Christ, so that we have come, it says, to mount Zion, the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and then we are told of the kind of men that are in that system.
ENJ You are referring to the firstborn ones?
JT Quite so, the assembly is formed of them. And Hebrews 12 brings out the elements that are noted in that remarkable chapter, amongst which were men of that kind. I was thinking of “the spirits of just men Hebrews 12:23”. We have come to them, to their spirits; not disembodied spirits, but to the spirits of just men made perfect. Actual Christians are of that kind of men to which we have come.
RP Those who have filled out their part in the testimony even in a past dispensation. We can take account of them in their own dispensation.
JT We can see the types there, like Abraham, who is a great type for us. He is the father of us all, and he was constituted righteous because he believed. That is the kind of man there. Abraham and David and the prophets all show the kind of men there are in Christianity: “The spirits of just men made perfect (Hebrews 12:23)”.
CP Would these men not only be justified, but be just men?
JT Just men, that is, righteous men. The most important thing to be before us is, I believe, to be righteous, to follow righteousness, faith, love, peace; but righteousness first. Righteousness is our leader.
CEJ So it opens in verse 19, “If it be righteous before God to listen to you rather than to God, judge ye”.
JT It was what Peter and John answering said to them. This is a Peter and John chapter. They say further, “As for us we cannot refrain from speaking of the things which we have seen and heard”. There is the testimony. We cannot refrain; we must do it; we are bound to do it on God’s behalf.
Rem These things were the joy and power of their own life.
JT Quite so. Now we see in verse 23 how they come together. They love one another; they are a band of their own. “Having been let go, they came to their own”. The word ‘company’ is not there, but the idea is there. It is a question of our own, that is righteous people, people who love one another. “They came to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And they, having heard it, lifted up their voice with one accord to God, and said, Lord, thou art the God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them; who hast said by the mouth of thy servant David, Why have the nations raged haughtily and the peoples meditated vain things? The kings of the earth were there, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ”. The testimony is clearly set out, and these men are in defence [p. 25] of it.
ENJ So that it was no new thing for men to be banded together against Christ; and now they were banded together against what was of Christ in the brethren.
RP That is really what is set out in testimony, is it not, the substance of what had been revealed to Peter had come out in testimony? “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”.
JT Quite so. Christ is the One who does things for God. That is the way I look at it, the way it is presented in the Old Testament. God said, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who shall do all my will”, (Acts 13:22). And it is a question of being with that Man and following Him. When we come to Paul, we shall see how he was formed after Christ, and he put himself forward as a model for the believers.
CEJ We get help on this line if we accept authority, in the recognition of the term “Lord”. “Lord, thou art the God who made the heaven and the earth”.
JT Well, these words would have to be carefully examined to get the full meaning, because the word “Lord” in verse 24 is ‘despot’, meaning one that is to be thoroughly submitted to.
RP He had rights in the universe, and they are to be recognised.
JT Quite so. The attitude of master and slave is the idea. That is to say we are subject in that sense, we are thoroughly subject as coming out on the side of Christ, and we cannot afford to be otherwise. We cannot do anything else, but be subject to Christ. And then we read in verse 29, “Now, Lord, look upon their threatenings, and give to thy bondmen with all boldness to speak thy word, in that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and that signs and wonders take place through the name of thy holy servant Jesus”. That is to say, these men are not lawless, or against men. They have in their minds that men should be saved, and so they pray, their weapon is to pray. “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness”. We have already noticed that God is acting now in regard to material things, using material things, because it says the place shook where they were assembled.
RP There is an outward manifestation of power, and there is an inward result too; they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
JT And they pray as to what is in their mind. It says, “The heart and soul of the multitude of those that had believed were one, and not one said that anything of what he possessed was his own”, that is to say, they are not asserting their rights in material things; what they had they were ready to give away. It says “not one said that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them”, that is to say, love was operative: not banding together to defend property, but simply to give it away, if need be, to help others. “And with great power did the apostles give witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all”.
PRP Does this raise a question as to how we hold material things?
JT I think it does. It is a question, if we have anything, to hold it in love, the circulatory thought; that if we have anything, it is to go round, to circulate.
PRP I was thinking of our occupation. Possibly we are too concerned about it, and not thinking sufficiently for God.
JT Too concerned to keep our jobs, and afraid of losing them, instead of thinking of principles. Of [p. 27] course, we have to work; it says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, if a man does not work, neither let him eat; but still the concern to keep our jobs is too urgent in our minds, whereas it is a question of the will of God, as this chapter shows us clearly. We are to be here for the will of God, and if need be to suffer. “To you has been given, as regards Christ, not only the believing on him but the suffering for him also”, (Philippians 1:29).
WJB Does Peter’s epistle help? “Let them who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator”, 1 Peter 4:19.
JT Quite so, and suffer as a Christian too. “If as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in this name”, 1 Peter 4:16.
ENJ It says, “Great grace was upon them all”. Is that suggestive of the spirit in which we should meet this position?
JT Instead of being exacting, and demanding higher wages, and all that sort of thing, great grace is upon us. It is a question of love acting.
ENJ It is remarkable that Luke is saying this, because he is the one who was so deeply touched with the grace that was in the Lord Jesus in his gospel.
JT “All ... wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth Luke 4:22”. Beautiful testimony!
RP This is the character of the testimony that was seen in the assembly in the beginning.
JT Therefore the assembly (an appropriate word, meaning a called-out people) is marked by grace, by love, by the idea of giving. God loves a cheerful giver, we are told. “Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over”, (Luke 6:38).
[p. 28] The dispensation, is to be maintained. God has designed to keep it a certain time, and He is keeping it thus. It may stop at any moment, but it has not stopped yet, and the point is to be in the spirit of it, the spirit of Christ.
PAH “In that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal”, would be in keeping with that?
JT Quite so, very beautiful. And another thing here at the end of the chapter is Barnabas, a typical Christian you might say: “Joseph, who had been surnamed Barnabas by the apostles (which is, being interpreted, Son of consolation), a Levite, Cyprian by birth, being possessed of land, having sold it, brought the money and laid it at the feet of the apostles”. He did not give it away, he did not sell it to make money out of it, to put it in the bank; he brought the money and laid it at the feet of the apostles. He made the best use of it, laying it at the feet of the apostles to be administered.
Rem He was serving divine interests.
JT Quite so, and he is ennobled, he is surnamed, showing that that is the idea; as the truth progresses, these things come to light. There is the idea of nobility, not nobility in a human sense, not man-made titles, but nobility in a true sense according to God.
RP Barnabas acquires a place among the saints on moral grounds.
JT Just so.
PRP There is a tendency with us to recognise the blessedness of what we have had before us, but also a tendency to say that we are not equal to it ourselves, that we have not faith for such a position. I was wondering if you would help us as to what would encourage one. We feel very weak as having to face men in relation to such matters; we say we have not faith for it.
JT [p. 29] We have not faith! We are not Christians, if we say we have not faith: “whatever is not of faith is sin”, (Romans 14:23). If you stand up and say, I have not faith for this and that, it is sinful.
PAH Is it a question too, of righteousness? Referring to verse 19 again, “If it be righteous before God to listen to you rather than to God, judge ye”.
JT How clear that is, and undeniable too. God must be first in everything; and in all these exercises that our young brethren have to face, to my knowledge and that of many others here, their appearing before tribunals and their spirits in this, have been a testimony to God. This has been through the grace in which they have met the tribunals and submitted to them in readiness to do anything that was short of killing; they were ready to work thus for the authorities. That is the kind of men that God will commend; but not those who say, We have not faith for it. That is not Christianity at all. If I have not faith, I am really not a Christian.
CGMcC We get great help if we pray. It says here that they prayed that they might have boldness to speak the word of God.
Ques Is it important to see that they lifted up their voice with one accord to God?
JT That is the thing, I am sure. The secret of the victory for the truth is the spirit of prayer. We were speaking about Esther; with her it was a question of fasting, but for the moment we can leave that; here it is a question of prayer.
Rem At the close of the chapter it says, “neither was there any one in want among them”. If we face the matter together, there will not be any want among us.
JT Quite so. There was not anybody in want. That is to say, love was operative, but it is a question [p. 30] of circulation, the circulation of love; but that would mean the circulation of money too, and whatever might be needed for our bodies, but the matter of circulation is a great matter.
ENJ One word as to faith. The Lord says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ... nothing shall be impossible to you”, (Matthew 17:20).
JT Quite so. How good and clear that is.