THE MATERIAL FOR THE NEW STRUCTURE
THE MATERIAL FOR THE NEW STRUCTURE
We see in this chapter the nature of the material the Lord had formed, and how suited it was for the new structure — the assembly. Special notice should be taken of the place given to the Spirit in the Lord’s charge, of the fact that He assembled with the apostles and that they as together asked of Him, and that Peter stood up with them for his discourse recorded in chapter 2. There is something for us in all this, for according to the mind of God, the end of a dispensation should conform to what was true at its beginning.
The first narrative by Luke finishes with Christ carried up into heaven after blessing the disciples, and their returning to Jerusalem and attending the temple and praising and blessing God there. All is suggestive of the results of Christ’s ministry as bringing in the priestly family. Luke’s second narrative, the Acts of the Apostles, has in view the new structure, hence the prominent idea is assembling together in view of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Lord’s own charge to the apostles is said to be by the Spirit. His service in Luke 24 is not presented as being by the Holy Spirit, but as what He did Himself. Acts has the assembly as the new system in view. Everything is now provided by the Spirit, and what the disciples did in the ten days between the Lord leaving them and the Holy Spirit coming shows that they had been formed by Christ’s ministry. Without being told to return to the city and to go to the upper room they did so, showing that they had light as to the new thing. The fact that we get here the mount of Olives instead of Bethany gives a clue to the heavenly connection. Those in the [p. 2] upper room represented the authority of Christ; no reference is made to the temple in verses 3 to 14.
“Assembled” is one of the key-words to the new dispensation, and here “assembled with them” is a most remarkable expression. Here in Acts it is the manner of His presence, and so He assembles with them and commands them not to depart from Jerusalem until they had received the Holy Spirit. It is a pattern — a primal thought that goes right through the dispensation as a matter of light. It is most suggestive that the Lord takes up a relation like this, and there He commands. We treasure it as light in the soul, and if we are to answer to the beginning this is necessary. In Luke we find that the Lord left here a priestly company. He led them out to Bethany, which speaks of an earthly association, and there He blessed them; it was like Aaron’s house being blessed (Psalm 115.). They continued in the temple praising and blessing God, which was what God sought from Aaron and his family.
Luke’s second treatise has the assembly in view and although he refers to the same things, it is in quite another way. The disciples, who belong to the new structure, are here charged, assembled, and commanded not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father. The mount of Olives in Acts 1 suggests a heavenly connection. When every man went to his own home, Jesus went there (John 8: 1), and it would seem to point to heavenly associations with the Father, “When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives”.
When the disciples are together they ask the Lord; they recognise the oracle, the place of divine communications. It is at this point that the Lord is taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight, but the two things we have been looking at remain, the Lord’s administration in relation to the assembly, and our privilege of asking. It is a great thing to be in a place where we can ask, and although we may not always [p. 3] get what we ask, we get regulated. Here the Lord replies to their question in the negative, but a negative is very often light, and we learn that when the Father’s time comes, the course of things will be resumed according to the prophecies. The assembly is linked up with an eternal order of things; we are, as it were, let down to earth like the sheet, but only to be drawn up again. The feast of Pentecost was not limited by time like the other feasts, and so we have access to what is eternal.
The Lord is taken away, and they are seen gazing up, but they are corrected at this point. The cloud would indicate that they were not to look up. Stephen was right in looking up into heaven, for then there was no cloud; but at this point God had not given up Israel, so there was not the “clear shining” yet. The disciples go to the upper room, not to the temple. It was probably the guest-chamber where the Lord had been (Mark 14: 14, 15), and where He had instituted the Supper. They show that they are in keeping with the new thoughts.
Peter standing up is another evidence of the fruit of the Lord’s work. He stands up in the midst of the brethren, the assembly properly, and proves that he had profited by what had gone before. In chapter 2 he shows that he understands further the ground on which preaching stands. In the first instance they are together to receive communications, and he stands up “in the midst of the brethren”, but in the second he stands “with the eleven”; that is, they are on the same footing as he; they were all commissioned to preach, and it is only sent ones who can preach or teach. Evangelisation stands on the ground of commission, and it is for the brethren to determine whether there is a commission; they are to judge.
In verse 21 we see that they deemed it an indispensable qualification that the one to be chosen in the place of Judas should be “of the men who have assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us”. Only such could be an adequate witness. It is remarkable that the Spirit tells us the number of names in the whole company residing in the upper room, which indicates His cognisance of what belongs to Christ.
Peter stands up in chapter 2 more as an oracle than as a servant. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God”; as there is speaking for God things are clarified. A word from the Lord comes from one standing up “in the midst of the brethren”. In the assembly the Lord is supreme, and the speaking is an oracle. The gospel preaching is supported by the sympathies of the house of God, and you may get a manifestation at the Lord’s supper, which will colour not only the preaching, but will go through the week with you.
It is instructive to see that the disciples appeal to the Scriptures, and that they pray. The Lord knew when He left them that He could safely trust them, and so He did not tell them, as He could have done, whom they should appoint in Judas’s place. They had not the Spirit as yet, but they knew what to do in those unique circumstances. They were menders of nets, and what they did in Acts 1 was on the principle of repairing a rent. It is also a point to be noticed that they knew the brethren, those who had been in the habit of assembling with them all the time Jesus went in and out among them, and the Lord knew their hearts. They go through all the exercises needed in making the selections, but God decides the choice. It is a great thing to know the brethren, and then you know how to act under any circumstances.