FIFTH READING AT VALENCE

FIFTH READING AT VALENCE

Acts 5: 1 - 10; Acts 5: 17 - 23; Acts 7: 54 - 60

WJH I thought it would be helpful to look at this section in chapter 5 first, following on what we have had together as to the first features of the church. This section as to Ananias and Sapphira would teach us that in the early church there was the absolute refusal of the exaltation of man under any pretence whatever. It is evident that Ananias and Sapphira wanted to use the offering that they brought, in order to get a name for themselves. The incident follows the naming of Barnabas, who, by surrender and sacrifice had been given a name by the apostles, a name which heaven would recognise. But Ananias and Sapphira wanted a name for themselves, but were not prepared for the sacrifice involved. The apostle Peter makes it perfectly clear that such an attitude merited unsparing judgment, and would not be tolerated in the early church. What a different history the church would have had if that had been maintained. Instead of great cathedrals, instead of men appearing as lords and treating their flocks as their servants, there would have been only one name exalted in the church — the name of Jesus. All other names of any real value such as the “son of consolation” would have been earned through a life of sacrifice and devotedness, for that is the only way names are secured according to God.

Ques Would Philippians 2 be in keeping with that?

WJH That is very good; the One who has a name above every name is the One who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He became a bondman in order to carry out the will of God. God has given Him a name. That is the kind of name Barnabas got. Ananias wanted it, but he was not prepared for the sacrifice. A passage like this sweeps away the whole clerical system that has been built up. I believe the Lord would encourage us on that line, to judge continually in our hearts any idea of using the things of God in any way whatever to adorn ourselves, or to make a name for ourselves, or to call attention to ourselves.

Ques Is that not a subtle attack of the enemy even after we have left the outward pleasures of the world?

WJH Yes, the thing is to see that the assembly is for Christ, that all the glory is for Him.

Rem It says, “he that boasts let him boast in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 1: 31.

WJH I feel we need to take account of this as coming out so strongly in the early church, that we do not in any way whatever touch divine things in order to get a name for ourselves, to appear publicly what we are not. The judgment that was executed may appear severe, but it was supported by heaven; it was the act of God that removed Ananias, but Peter was entirely in accord with it. He says to Sapphira, “the young men shall carry thee out”, though she was standing there before him, showing that Sapphira was affected by his word. When the people of Lystra wanted to worship Paul, he and Barnabas ran in among the people, and they said, Sirs, we are men like yourselves. They said, as it were, the exaltation is for God, for Christ, not for us (Acts 14: 12 - 15). The angel in Revelation is in accord with that. John has such a sense of the greatness of the angel that he falls at his feet, but the angel says, “See thou do it not; I am thy fellow bondman, and the fellow bondman of thy brethren, the prophets”, Revelation 22: 9. He says, I am a bondman, simply to do God’s will. God is master, Christ is master, anything else needs to be judged unsparingly in our hearts, in our associations. That is what marked the early church.

Now if we turn to the other section for a moment, we find that the opposition increases and the apostles particularly are forced into a position that seems hopeless. But what comes to light is that if we are doing the will of God, if we are living in His world, He will come in through His angels and find a way somehow for His people to get through. He may at times allow some to be martyred, such as Stephen and James, but if He wants to keep us here any longer He has an innumerable company of angels, as scripture says, “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands.” No one can tell how many that is, and there they are waiting to do God’s will, to serve His people. That is what comes to light in the early church, and it is coming to light at the end, and as the hatred and opposition of man increases, faith can count upon it still further that God will come in by His mighty servants and open the doors so that we can go through.

Ques Is that akin to what we find in Philadelphia?

WJH It would include that. In that passage the Lord opens the door; He opens and shuts, He has the key of David. But then He uses His servants to do that, His angels. I think we need that today, and we shall need it more. We shall need that part of the system of faith to which we are said to have come in Hebrews 12 — the innumerable company of angels, the universal gathering, available to God’s people everywhere. Everywhere this universal gathering is available, if we are moving in the system of faith. So that here in this chapter they take the apostles and put them in the inner prison and put the keepers at the door. But an angel comes, and what door can remain shut before an angel? What use are the keepers in the presence of an angel? So that somehow or other the apostles come out.

Rem It is said that it was the sect of the Sadducees that put them in prison. What do you think about that?

WJH They would be the infidels. The people were divided into two sections as they are today. There were the Pharisees, that is, the religious people who made everything of mere outward forms and were most careful to tithe mint and rue and cummin (Luke 11: 42) yet leaving out judgment and the love of God. Very careful to wash their hands, but with no concern about washing their hearts. That is the character of the Pharisees. But the Sadducees deny the existence of the angels and ultimately of God. Here the opposition comes from the infidel, and God uses the angel to take out the apostles. There is the door shut; there are the keepers standing, but the apostles are not inside. That is what God will do, and I think the Lord would waken us to that. He woke Peter up to it in chapter 12. Peter had been taken; James had been beheaded. Two soldiers guarded Peter, bound with two chains, and there was a great iron gate. The keepers are at the door and Peter is sleeping — wonderful position for Peter to be in. Tomorrow Herod will take him out of the prison and behead him, but Peter is sleeping in confidence in God. The angel comes and the chains fall off; the door opens of itself and Peter is outside (Acts 12: 6 - 11). That is what the angel can do, and God has more of them than we can number; they are ready to serve those who are in God’s world. They do not help us to make money; they do not help us to make a name for ourselves in the church, but if we are the Lord’s servants — His bondmen, they are available to us to see us through. And as the hatred of man against Christians increases all over the world, the faith of this is needed in our hearts, and God will providentially make a way. We do not know how. We do not know in what way, but He will make a way, unless the time is come to remove us. If He wants to keep us here, He will make a way.

Ques In the previous chapter it was Peter and John who were imprisoned. Why is that?

WJH We were noticing that that is the divine order. Peter represents the kingdom which means subjection to the Lord, but John represents the ministry of love. And you must have them in that order. There are the two elements, and the infidel would remove both — subjection to the Lord and divine affections among the saints. They would like to shut them in prison.

Now when we come to the passage read in Acts 7, one feels there is a voice for us at the end. The hatred and opposition increased to such an extent that they gnashed upon Stephen with their teeth; they rushed upon him; they stoned him. We may expect the hatred to increase, and it is increasing, even in the most isolated parts of the world. That spirit is extending all over the world. So that if the Lord leaves the church here we may expect to face increasing opposition and hatred. But Stephen’s death shows us how to meet it. We want to meet it at the end as it was met at the beginning, and the Spirit of God is the power to do it. It says, Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit; his object was in heaven, not on earth. His eye was upon Jesus. He stood his ground immovable. He was in keeping with the beginning. He prayed; he continued in prayer. And he never departed from the spirit of Christ. Not one trace of hatred or enmity was in his heart. As they stoned him to death there was nothing in his heart but forgiveness for them. That is how the church met the opposition, the spirit of hatred and murder. It met it in the spirit of Christ, in dependence upon God, its eye looking into heaven. That is how Stephen departed. These are the features that enter into what the Lord meant when He said to Saul, Why persecutest thou Me? He recognised on earth a wonderful vessel that owed its origin to Himself, that was His body, that had His spirit, that was to Him what a wife is to her husband. So that He calls it “Me”. That is what the Lord will have on earth at the end. The Spirit and the bride say, Come.

Ques Do you suggest that Stephen is the climax of this line?

WJH I think Stephen was the completion of it in that way, because Saul was there witnessing it, and it is to Saul that the Lord said, You are persecuting Me. He had witnessed the “Me” as no one else had ever seen it, finding its climax in the person of Stephen.

Ques Was it because of these features that the enemy would destroy him?

WJH I am sure that is what he hates. When Christ was removed from the earth it might appear that that kind of man had disappeared, the Man of God’s pleasure, but here it is again, not now in Christ personally, but in His body. That is the meaning of “the church which is His body”, Ephesians 1: 22.

It is in our bodies we express what we are. I cannot tell what a person’s spirit is, but I can see what a person is by his body, by his actions. And here is the body of Christ in which Christ expresses Himself. That is what the enemy hates.

Ques Might not one say that because the Lord Jesus represented God, those who were His brethren after the flesh hated Him?

WJH What Satan is ever against is the true representation of God here. You remember the two witnesses in Revelation in the character of Moses and Elias. When they were killed, then those that did it rejoiced and sent presents to one another. They have got rid of these features of Christ. But God raises them from the dead and carries them up to heaven (Revelation 11: 1 - 13). So they have got rid of Stephen; the Lord Jesus has received his spirit. They got rid of Christ, but He was carried up into heaven. And that is what is going to happen to the church, bearing the features of Christ in a living way, it is going to be caught up to heaven. What we have sought to bring before one another, are some of the features that mark this wonderful company that the Lord spoke of as “Me” and the Lord would bring back in a living way, and is bringing back, these living features in the church. One would say again that the great exercise for the moment is not to miss it, but to be in it livingly.