PAUL'S EMBRACE
PAUL’S EMBRACE
Acts 20:1 - 12; Acts 20:36 - 38
My thought is to speak a little about the assembly as set up by Paul. I want to dwell on the mutual affection and the mutual feeling that mark the record given in this chapter. You will observe that in the beginning of the chapter Paul embraces the saints at Ephesus and at the end of the chapter they embrace him; that is, he had acquired a place in their affections. These are the things that the Holy Spirit sets down for us as marking the establishment of the assembly at Ephesus, this assembly being obviously selected by the Spirit as representing the full result of Paul’s service; and a wonderful result it was, as we may see, for the work there in the saints enabled him to speak to them and to write to them without reserve. He says in his discourse to the elders that he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole counsel of God.
He had said to the Corinthians in his first epistle that he could not speak unto them as unto “the perfect”; he could but speak to them as to babes. Babes in Christ, thank God! But babes in Christ, although most interesting and loved of the Lord, are not exactly the material to form the assembly. The assembly in the divine thought was to be formed of men, that is, believers founded in the truth. In the epistle to the Romans believers have come to apprehend Christ in His moral greatness, for that is how we come first of all to apprehend the Lord. He has come in for us and effected our deliverance, and hence acquired a place in our minds on moral lines. Young believers need that if they are to have stamina — the qualities typified in the acacia wood. They need to apprehend Christ as He came in on moral [p. 233] grounds to deal with moral issues, in order to settle them so that their souls are set up with God in righteousness.
Then the believer apprehends Christ as He is presented in the epistle to the Colossians, that is, he comes to apprehend Him according to what He is personally. He begins to see in the Lord His personal dignity, and distinction, and beauty. We are detained before Him. Colossians presents Christ personally; He is the Son of the Father’s love: He is before all things and by Him all things were created. He is the beginning and Firstborn from among the dead, and He is the Head of His body, the assembly, and in Him all the fulness was pleased to dwell. The Lord then becomes personally interesting to the soul.
Then in Ephesians He is presented to you as being made Head: He is given to be Head over all things to the assembly; that is, you see Him in relation to the fixed purpose of God. He is the Man of purpose; He is the Christ, the Man by whom God does everything and in whom He sets out all His pleasure in relation to the assembly. He gave Him, it says, “to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Ephesians 1:23. So that the Ephesian is the fully developed man. The teaching of it is to bring us to “the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”, Ephesians 4:13. To such the apostle can announce the whole counsel of God; so that with the Ephesian believers the development in their souls through the ministry of the apostle enabled him to unfold to them the whole counsel of God.
The Corinthians, describing, alas, the great mass of believers, were but babes in Christ. So he says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2:2. See what they shut themselves out from through [p. 234] their carnal condition! In Luke 24 the Lord stood in the midst and said: “It is I myself”. Then He says: “Have ye anything here to eat?” Luke 24:39,41. If the Lord had gone to Corinth and raised that question when Paul wrote his first letter, what would they have brought forth? What could they have brought forth? The question He asks the company at Jerusalem, “Have ye anything here to eat?” raises the point which is the test. It is what you have here! What had they in Corinth? That question may be justly and indeed profitably raised with every company of believers. In answer to the question put to them in Luke 24 we read: “And they gave him part of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb”. Luke 24:42. They had these two things. They had what spoke of the sovereign resources of God, and they had drawn upon those, dear brethren. They had drawn upon the infinite resources of God — the fish. They had besides the mutual feeling amongst them which the honeycomb suggests.
Then the Lord proceeds to open their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. He opened up to them the depths, as one might say, of the Pentateuch and of the prophets, and the Psalms. Think of the opportunity they had! The apostle could not do that with the Corinthians. He had to turn aside to deal with the fleshly condition amongst them; indeed, he had abstained from going to them. He gives them in that way a solemn notification that a fleshly state of things in any company precludes the Lord’s visitations, for the apostle represented the Lord. He was in entire sympathy with the Lord, and the Lord was with him, and he refrained from going. The conditions were not suited to the Lord’s coming to the company.
In Luke 24 He opened their understanding, because the conditions were there for it. The Fountain of knowledge was there: He who was with God when [p. 235] the foundations of the earth were laid was there; wisdom was there; understanding was there; and all was available to them, and so He opens their understanding so that they might understand the Scriptures. But the Corinthians were only babes, and the apostle says, I cannot speak to you as unto perfect, but we do speak the wisdom of God among the perfect. I refer to all this by way of warning. A fleshly condition is seen in the recognition and maintenance of national things, occupation with man, with families, with business, and all that goes with these things. These are the marks of babes. You may have the Spirit and yet be going on with these things which shut out from you the hidden wisdom.
This hidden wisdom is the “wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory”, 1 Corinthians 2:7. Think of that! Not only the wisdom that was with God when the foundations of the earth were laid, but the wisdom that was prepared before that — God’s wisdom which none of the princes of this world knew. It is beyond their range. It had come within their range in Him who was the wisdom of God, but they had no eyes to see it, any more than carnal Christians have. As living after the flesh and in fleshly conditions we are shut out from this hidden wisdom; “the wisdom of God in a mystery”, as it says in 1 Corinthians 2:7; we shut ourselves out by a carnal condition from the most precious heritage conceivable — the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predetermined before the world for our glory. Paul spoke of it to these Ephesians, but he spoke of it as “all varied”. The angels see in the assembly the “all varied” wisdom of God. Think of the wonderful opportunity there is for us in that the Lord would open up to us these wonderful things! The Lord would stand and open up to us these blessed things as we are prepared to “follow on to know the Lord” Hosea 6:3.
[p. 236] These things are all available for us, they are all there; so the Spirit of God says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2:9. Note “the things” and the word ‘prepared’. The apostle goes on to say: “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit”. 1 Corinthians 2:10. God has held back nothing and the apostle was not going to hold back anything. One is tested as to what one does with the little bit of light one gets from the Lord. Sometimes we hold it back too long or wait for a special occasion. The apostle would open up what he had to the saints as they were prepared for it. God had revealed the things by the Spirit, and he was prepared to open them up to the Corinthians, but he was shut off by their carnal condition; nevertheless, he refers to the things so as to move their hearts. He had them all, and he was ready to impart them, but, alas, their unspiritual state hindered.
You will observe that I have been contrasting the Corinthians with the Ephesians. The Ephesians were the perfect, and so he embraces them. He embraces them and leaves them, and then later when returning that way from Miletus he sends for the elders of the assembly — their representatives — and opens up the truth again to them, pressing upon them their responsibility as to the assembly as set up at Ephesus. And what you find is that they embrace him. I see in the two embracings the correspondence between the vessels of the light, representing the Lord Himself, and those who receive the light. There was a correspondence. I take their embracing the apostle to represent the love that they had for Christ. You see the correspondence between him who brought the light of the counsels of God — the light of the love of Christ and the love of God — and them. “They all wept sore, and falling upon the neck of Paul, they ardently kissed him”.
[p. 237] Well, that is how the matter stood, but I want to show you the mutual features which the Holy Spirit interweaves here between Paul’s departure from Ephesus, having finished his work there, and his return and sending for the elders. I want to show you how the Holy Spirit weaves into it all the features of the assembly. You will notice there were with the apostle certain ones at Troas, “Sopater son of Pyrrhus, a Berean; and of Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius and Timotheus of Derbe, and of Asia Tychicus and Trophimus”, Acts 20:4. These represented, as you will observe, not only different countries and localities but even different continents. Now one of the most baneful sentiments that can arise in the assembly is local and national feelings, and I have no doubt the Holy Spirit introduces these brothers so that we might see how perfectly united in spirit and how entirely free from all such feelings they were. If the national feeling is cherished you cannot have development. The house of God becomes stifled by the existence of these feelings; it is not that we cease to be Christians, but we cease to recognise the house of God in its universal character. It is never viewed in any other way than universal. It is never limited to a local company or nation.
So I apprehend the Holy Spirit brings in these brothers from different parts as representing general exercises. The writer himself, “Luke, the beloved physician”, Colossians 4:14 was amongst them. He was a man like Ezra in the Old Testament, whose delight was to present David, David’s kingdom and the house. Luke says: “The first day of the week we being assembled”. That “we” embraces all those brothers; it included the great apostle himself. It is the we of mutuality, the we of mutual respect among Christians, and of affection. It is the we which includes the interests of Christ and the testimony of God. He [p. 238] says it was the first day of the week. It took them five days to get there, but they spent seven days in that town. How these days were filled I would not undertake to say in detail, but we may be assured they were happy days, they were assembly days. They are introduced here by the Spirit of God between Paul’s departure from Ephesus and his return when he called the elders. The Holy Spirit introduces them as representing conditions or features that are becoming to the house of God.
Now it is remarkable that the first day of the week is referred to here for the first time in this book. It is scarcely referred to by the twelve after the record in the gospels. It did not really fit in during the transitional period in which the Jewish nation was recognised. It did not fit in there because it represents a wholly new order of things. It is an assembly day. The assembly involves a complete break with all that this world ever had before. Before it is introduced in Matthew the Lord left the Pharisees and the Sadducees; Matthew 16:4. There must be a definite break with all that there is in the world; however honoured an institution may be, however ancient, whatever its reputation, there is to be a definite break, especially with that which is religious. The Lord left them.
I understand by the reference to the first day of the week that the Holy Spirit is beginning afresh. The assembly is set up in its four-cornered relations, as I may say. The sheet let down from heaven was knit at the four corners. It was heaven’s indication that an order of things was about to be introduced which was universal. It is no longer “the Jew first”, Romans 2:10 it was to be men, and this chapter is full of instruction as to the universal character of the assembly. Peter saw the sheet come down; it was to prepare him to open the door with suitable grace so that Paul, whom the Lord had in reserve, might have a free hand.
[p. 239] Thus chapter 20 is the full complement wrought out by the great architect of the assembly; you have his affection for it and its affection for him, and in between this development the first day of the week. We go back now to begin over again with the day on which the Lord Jesus arose. The assembly begins there. It took years to work out, but when it was worked out it is linked with the first day of the week. The first day is the beginning of the dispensation; it is nothing less than the beginning of the eternal era of things.
The seventh day was the end of the period that marked the Old Testament. The first day of the week has reference to an unending period. “His going forth is assured as the morning dawn”, Hosea 6:3. Luke says: “The first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread”. One would love to dwell on that, dear brethren, because the first day of the week arouses such memories, such spiritual feelings and sentiments, in those who love the Lord, that it becomes one of the most interesting subjects in the Scriptures. Paul does take it up in the letter to the Corinthians, chapter 16, but not in this connection. He takes it up in connection with the giving of money for the need of the people of God. The Corinthians were scarcely in a state for the opening up of [p. 240] what the first day of the week means, but he does refer to it. Whilst it is connected with the mere giving of money as the Lord prospered them, it was as much as to say, I want you to be affected by everything that would induce you to give, and if there be anything that would induce you to give it is the memories connected with the first day of the week.
It is the beginning of a spiritual era, and if the light of that enters your heart you will easily relinquish your hold on what belongs to Monday or Tuesday. The latter perishes in the handling, but what the first day of the week represents does not perish in the handling. It refers to Christ risen and glorified, having gone up to where He was before. Nothing that is connected with Him spiritually will perish, everything is imperishable, and that is what the first day of the week really means. It corresponds with the assembly. The assembly is imperishable. It is the product of Christ as He came out of the grave. He brought it out with Him. It comes down from God out of heaven. After a thousand years it retains its youthfulness, as we see in the book of Revelation. There is nothing corruptible in it; it is incorruptible like Himself. The first day of the week is introduced here in connection with the breaking of bread. “We being assembled to break bread”. That is what should mark the first day of the week. It comes in here for the first time in the Acts. It is in keeping with the light of the moment. And it stands out connected with the assembly and will be connected with it until the assembly is taken up.
In conclusion there is one other thought I would add. The next thing after they are come together to break bread is that Paul is mentioned. It says, “Paul” (verse 7). I have been speaking of the mutual side, that Paul was included in the we, but what is to be continued is to be entirely governed by Paul’s ministry. Peter and John are not to be neglected, but here Paul stands out before our souls. Paul represents Christ in a peculiar way. He had a special place, as the Lord says: “He is an elect vessel unto me”, Acts 9:15. So we read, “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread, Paul discoursed to them”, Acts 20:7. He discourses and then he breaks bread and then he talks. Two words are used here, the first in verse 7 is discoursed, the second in verse 11 is conversed. I only refer to that because discourse is connected [p. 241] and stands out as a governing principle as we break bread. Conversation followed because it gave opportunity for the expression of any exercises that may have arisen during the discourse. The Lord looks for that. If there are any exercises produced by the discourse He will meet them when they converse. The word ‘talked’ or ‘spoken’ in verse 11 has a conversational significance. It is not a connected discourse. We find in Matthew 13, that the Lord went into the house, and it says His disciples came to Him. He places Himself where they could come to Him and ask Him questions. And they came and asked, and He opened up things to them. Here it came after they had broken bread. “When he therefore was come up again and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed”, Acts 20:11. It was a typical occasion. There was opportunity in the conversation for inquiry, so that there could be no difficulty. The Lord looks for us to come to Him; “His disciples came to him”, and coming to Him all difficulties are solved. He is ready to answer, and I have no doubt that such a conversational state of things ensued on that occasion after Paul had broken bread. One’s desire is to occupy our attention with the assembly, to see it as it was, so that we can move in the light of it now. Unless we see it as it was, we shall not understand the present. We have to see it as it has been, and what it shall be. The Scriptures are definite as to what has been and what shall be. What is hazy is what is now. We need to be in the light of what has been and what shall be, so as to be in the light of what is present. There is the light of the former glory and of the latter glory, and they converge in the present position, and in that light we can have understanding of what is becoming to Christ in a day of brokenness.