FIRST READING AT VALENCE, FRANCE
FIRST READING AT VALENCE, FRANCE
WJH I think one can see clearly that God’s way is always to end as He begins. The features of the end of any dispensation always agree with the features of the beginning, the difference being that the beginning is mainly light, and the end the state in conformity with the light. I believe that is where the Lord would bring us. One believes one can see in all parts of the world where there are saints governed by the truth of the assembly, the Lord is bringing back the spiritual features of the beginning, not as light, but as state, in view of His coming. So that the beginning of the church’s history is particularly important as indicating what the Lord would bring to pass now in our hearts. One felt the Lord might help us to look at perhaps the first nine chapters of Acts, the ninth chapter arriving at a point when the Lord looking down from heaven, sees that on earth which He can speak of as “Me”. It might be compared to what is said of Adam and his wife, “they shall become one flesh”, Genesis 2: 24.
So the Lord in heaven and the church on earth are absolutely one, and that is the kind of vessel the Lord is going to take away in the rapture, as John writes, “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, Revelation 21: 9. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come,” and the bride is the Lamb’s wife; she is absolutely one with Him. I believe the Lord will help us to look at these chapters in that way.
Rem That should be very helpful. We should all like to be increased in regard to the Lord’s thought for us.
WJH I am sure He will bring us back to it. It is clear in scripture that those whom the Lord has taken before, were taken as bearing features that He delighted in. It says of Enoch, “before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God”, Hebrews 11: 5. Then when Elijah was taken it says, “when Jehovah would take up Elijah”, 2 Kings 2: 1. He did not take him when he was lying under the juniper tree wanting to die; He took him in all the dignity and power of a mighty conqueror. So the Lord Himself was “carried up into heaven”, Luke 24: 51. He was so delightful to heaven, that heaven put down its arms, so to speak, and carried Him up. I believe that is how the church is going up, so that one would like to suggest to the youngest and to the oldest, that the greatest thing for the moment is to come livingly into the features of that which Christ is going to rapture to Himself. There is nothing to compare with the importance of that; everything on earth looks nothing in the light of it, and the increasing troubles which God is allowing to come upon the world are, I believe, to help us to let the things go that hold us here. So that the first feature brought before us in this passage in Acts, is that the Lord was with His disciples for forty days before He was received up into heaven.
Ques What are we to understand by the shipwreck in Acts 27?
WJH That is the public condition of the outward vessel — one of utter ruin — broken to pieces. But then there is something else besides that; there is Paul in his own hired house, receiving everyone that comes to him, preaching the kingdom of God, and the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, no one hindering. That is the secret end.
Ques Have we not already arrived at the shipwreck?
WJH Yes; there can be no question. But the shipwreck is not the end for God. Paul hidden away in secret and holding everything, is His end. The Spirit of God closes the history of Paul, in that position; he is in his own hired house; that is, he is not indebted to the world, he has no obligation whatever to the world system. Then he is accessible to everyone that has any exercise; it is a position that any can come to if he wishes, for Paul received everyone that came to him. Then he preached the kingdom of God; that is, the rights of God are maintained at the end. And then the things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ — the vast system of glory that concerns Him, no one hindering. The Lord will keep that door open till He comes.
Ques Would Laodicea answer to the shipwreck and Philadelphia to Paul hidden away? Do those two places really give the two positions?
WJH Yes; the one is the private position that the Lord loves intensely. He will make it public. He says, they shall “know that I have loved thee”, Revelation 3: 9, not that I will love thee, but I have loved thee. But the public position is obnoxious to Him; He is going to spue it out of His mouth very shortly. But we want to be in the private position.
The Lord, when He found the treasure, hid it. That is the thing. He never intended the church to be public. And that is what comes out in this chapter, for the disciples went not to the temple, but to the upper room. How would you find that upper room?
If you went to the government, they would know nothing of the upper room, and if you went to the leading religious man of the day, he would not know where that room was.
Ques Would it be right to say that the Holy Spirit is forming in the saints the features that are suitable to that condition of things?
WJH I am sure that is right; so that at the end the Spirit and the bride are together. The Spirit says, as it were, Here is the vessel I have formed, and He will not be ashamed of it.
Ques Would these features be seen at Bethany?
WJH Quite so; the upper room and Bethany correspond.
Ques You were asking just now how the upper room was to be found. What is the answer to that question?
WJH I suppose what precedes it in this chapter taught them that such a room was necessary.
Ques Do you understand that this would be the same upper room as that in which they received the Spirit?
WJH It is the same idea. It may not have been literally the same place, but it is the same thought. The idea of a room is an insignificant place; it is not a palace. Then the thought of it being “upper” is that the place is little in this world yet morally elevated above it.
Rem The upper room would be a spiritual thought.
WJH Quite so, not a material one. You might have an upper room in a building and you might bring pride into it, or jealousy, or envy. Well, it would not be “upper” any longer. It would be on the same level as the world.
Rem You think the upper room stands for a spiritual state.
WJH Quite so, and therefore what precedes it leads up to it morally. So that the Lord was with them for forty days, going in and out amongst them. I think that is a wonderful thing. Think of the Lord remaining on earth for forty days after His resurrection!
Ques What is the force of His going in and out amongst them?
WJH I think it was to show that He was actually in resurrection and not simply a spirit. The forty days would prove to them that He was a living Man. That is what forty represents in scripture; it is the period that tests out anything. The forty days of rain at the flood tested the whole of this world, and the forty days in which Moses was on the mount tested the moral state of Israel. The forty days in which the Lord Jesus was in the wilderness tested and proved His own perfection. So that these forty days proved perfectly that He was a blessed Man in resurrection. And the Lord would convey that to our hearts at the end, that, as assembling with us, we should have the certainty of His being living.
Rem It says, “he presented himself living, after he had suffered, with many proofs”, Acts 1: 3.
WJH Yes, and while, of course, we do not see Him physically now, yet He is giving the sense of His presence at the end in a new and living way, so that we have no doubt in our souls as to His resurrection. It is not simply that we believe it because it is in 1 Corinthians 15, but we believe it because we know something of His blessed presence.
Rem That is to say we have “many proofs”. We have them in the shape of experiences of His being with us.
WJH That is very good. At that time the enemy flooded the world with a lie about the Lord’s resurrection; the keepers were told to say that the disciples came and stole His body away. And Christendom is being filled with lies about Christ from the same source — lies about His work, and as to His present position. But the “many proofs” would be the consciousness of His presence, and if we get that, we are delivered from the lies. So that the church’s history began with the assurance in every heart that He was a living Man.
Rem In 1 Corinthians 15 we have the proof of His resurrection, but here we have it for our own enjoyment.
WJH It is given there as doctrine; the Apostle preached that Christ died, and was buried, and rose again. But then there is the secret thing. He appeared; He appeared to Peter, and then later to five hundred brethren at once. What would any of those five hundred say if the lie that Satan spread came to their ears? They would say, But I have seen Him, and the lie would fall on deaf ears. And the lies of today will fall on deaf ears if we have the sense of His presence, and that is what the Lord is giving in a peculiar way at the end, as at the beginning.
Ques So that the answer to the lie Satan is spreading, is the truth we enjoy today.
WJH The greatest preservation is the consciousness of His presence, not simply that we know certain things as truth or as light, but we are conscious He is with us. And the Lord is prepared to give that if these conditions exist; and He is giving it.
Ques Do we get these experiences individually or collectively?
WJH Both; so that in 1 Corinthians 15 it says He appeared to Cephas; that is,
to one man. But then He appeared to the twelve. Then later to five hundred brethren at once, and the Apostle says, that last of all He appeared to him. Mark’s gospel tells us that He appeared first to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16: 9). She was the first person on earth to see Him. These scriptures indicate that the consciousness of His presence is both for an individual heart and for the enjoyment of all as assembling together. But conditions are necessary. The Lord says, “he” — that is, one person — “that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; but he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him”, John 14: 21. There it is; it comes right down to the possibility of one heart. These appearings were not accidental. When the Lord appeared first to Mary Magdalene there was a reason.
Ques Why is not the witness of Mary given in Corinthians?
WJH Because there it is a question of public testimony, and a woman does not come into that. There it is what the Apostle preached; it is public witness. But Mark gives you the private side.
Rem Mary is very prominent in John’s gospel.
WJH Yes; but John does not say that she was first. Mark says that He appeared to her first.
Ques Would that be the privilege of one who hears His voice and opens the door as we have it in Laodicea?
WJH Indeed; the Lord would knock at every door in Laodicea.
Ques Do we see the necessary conditions furnished in John at Patmos?
WJH Yes; he was a bondman; that is, simply living to do the will of the Lord. The Lord would tell such a person all His secrets. So that the first feature brought forward is the “many proofs” that the Lord was risen, and we cannot have assembly features unless we have that. The Lord remained for forty days to assure them that He was a living Man.
Then the next section, from verse 6, seems to bring in a danger. The disciples think it is the time to put the earth right, and put Israel back into its position. And I think we have to beware of that kind of thing, that we are not diverted on account of it.
Ques What do you mean by that? Is it not part of our hope that the world should be put right?
WJH Do you not find that there is a tendency amongst God’s people and in our own hearts to be particularly concerned with what is happening in the world, to determine our position by what is going on around. We look at Russia, for instance, or Italy, or Palestine, or the industrial world, with all its cruelty at the present moment, and there is the tendency to look around on these things. But the Lord would take our eyes off that and call our attention to the Spirit. We will not get things by looking at the nations and Israel, but by the Spirit. So that in the assembly the voice of the Spirit is heard, and you will find things out more reliably that way than by looking outside. When the Lord first came to this scene there was one man that knew He was coming; he was certain of it. He knew that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. It says it was revealed to him by the Spirit, and he came in the Spirit into the temple (Luke 2: 26, 27). He recognised the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, it says, was upon him, and he knew what was happening. So that when the little Babe came into the temple, he could recognise Him; he took Him in his arms and blessed God. How did he know that? Not by signs in the world, but by the Spirit. And that is what the Lord would impress upon us: It is not a question of signs but the Spirit, and the thing is to hear the voice of the Spirit.
Rem What we see in Simeon at the beginning is to be seen again at the end.
WJH Yes; the beginning and the end are to be the same.
Ques Is it suggested here that the disciples had not left the national thought? God was going to bless men, not only Israel.
WJH That is good; the Spirit of God does not come in relation to a national position. The house of God is not a national matter at all, and the Spirit of God speaks expressly there; that is where He speaks (1 Timothy 4: 1).
Rem It is the house of prayer for all nations.
WJH That is it; it rises above what is national. The Lord is helping on that line so that the brethren are lifted above the boundaries of nationality, and holy affections exist whether you live in Norway or New Zealand. There is one voice being heard in the house of God — the voice of the Spirit, and if we listen to that we shall know what is going to happen. What a wonderful day every day must have been to Simeon. Every morning he set out with the sense in his heart that this might be the day that he should see Christ. He knew that he would not die till he had seen Him. If you had said to him, Simeon, business is collapsing, the thrones of the world are giving way, and things are getting increasingly difficult in the world, he would say, I realise that, but Christ is coming — the One who is the solution to everything is coming — the salvation of God. So that it would have altered every day for him. But he had got all that by listening to the voice of the Spirit. I suggest that the Lord is going to give the definite sense of His coming to those who are in the state to receive it. What a difference it makes to the whole of your outlook if you receive that. I have no doubt we have all seen it in those the Lord has taken away through death. A brother (or a sister) learns that he or she cannot live more than three months. Well, he looks on everything differently from that moment. Everything is done in the light of the fact that he is going to meet the Lord in three months. That is the kind of feeling that will come into the hearts of those that can receive it at the end.
Rem He is coming to those who wait for Him. Is there that which corresponds in that expression?
WJH Simeon was such a man; he was waiting. But how did he wait? He did not stand at his door wondering when he would see Christ, but he devoted every day to the Lord’s service, not as a hireling for wages, but as a bondman. So he says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy bondman go.” Simeon was simply a bondman seeking every day to carry out the Lord’s will. That is what I understand by those who wait for Him.
Rem Simeon was in the spirit of Christ. It says of Him prophetically: “he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isaiah 50: 4.
WJH Very good; each morning he was waiting and hoping that that would be the day, but he filled in the day as a bondman. The question is, Are we prepared for a bondman’s place? I think we shall miss the secret if we are not prepared for that.
Rem A bondman does not look for wages.
WJH No; he gets no wages, nor any holidays, nor time off. He has no liberty whatever. His sole life is to serve his master, morn and midday and night. That is the kind of man Simeon was; he says, Thy bondman. He is the man that knows things, for it is to the bondmen that the Lord gives His secrets. The book of Revelation is only intended for bondmen; it is the “Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show to his bondmen ... sending by his angel, to his bondman John”, Revelation 1: 1.
Ques And has not the Lord taken that place Himself for ever?
WJH Indeed; that is what would make it attractive to our hearts, to know that He has taken a bondman’s form (Philippians 2: 7).
Rem It says here, “It is not yours to know times or seasons, which the Father has placed in his own authority”, Acts 1: 7.
WJH Quite so; all our business is to do His will — whatever He tells us. Now in Malachi’s day, which corresponds to Simeon’s, the public position was that men brought to the Lord what was worthless. If a man had a blind sheep or one that was maimed or diseased so that he could do nothing with it, he would give it to the Lord. But that was not Simeon. Simeon says, Everything I possess, my time, my heart, my money, my body is devoted to the Lord. I am simply a bondman to do His will. And God says, I will tell that man what I am doing; I can trust him. What a wonderful thing to come into that.
Rem A bondman has no will of his own.
WJH None whatever; so that when you come to Mary, the mother of Jesus, she knew more than anyone that the Lord was coming — that the Son of God, the Son of the Highest was about to enter this world and deal with everything. He would put the proud from their seats and exalt the humble. But why should she know? For the same reason as Simeon. She says, “Behold the bondmaid of the Lord. Be it to me according to thy word”, Luke 1: 38. And afterwards she says, “he has looked upon the low estate of his bondmaid (Luke 1: 48). That is what made Mary a suited vessel for this wonderful light; she was simply a bondmaid in the Lord’s hands to do what He willed. That is how we get secrets: there is no other way, but it is worth it.
Rem You have given us examples of those affording conditions in James and in Simeon, but you spoke also of Mary Magdalene. Will you say a word as to what you see in her?
WJH The Lord graciously accepted in the main while in flesh and blood the limitations of human life, but when in resurrection beyond flesh and blood He moved sovereignly. He comes into a room when the doors are shut. He joins the two going to Emmaus and disappears out of their sight, indicating His right to move where He likes. So He deliberately chose to appear first to Mary Magdalene, and that puts a wonderful dignity and honour upon her. We have often thought that she just happened to meet Him, but that is not so at all. He appeared first to her; He appeared. And the reason is given in Mark, where that is recorded. It says, “out of whom he had cast seven demons”, Mark 16: 9.