"THEY MINISTERED TO THE LORD"
“THEY MINISTERED TO THE LORD”
I call attention to this scripture, beloved friends, desiring to give you my thoughts upon it, especially because it shows how the Christian economy shook itself clear of what one may call the legal trammels that held it within abnormal or restricted bounds at the outset. It is important to see that in the ordinary course of the development of the testimony there was a gradual cutting loose from earthly moorings, until it is seen enshrined in that which is living and abiding. The apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, refers to something similar in speaking of the purification of their consciences, that they might serve the living God; and the service of the living God necessarily implies a living order of things. Until it found itself, as it were, enshrined in that order, of things, there was movement. Movement always implies that the testimony had not found a resting place, so that there was gradual movement until the service of God, the living God, could find itself in connection with others who were sympathetic with it; and, as you can see, the assembly at Antioch was in sympathy with it. There the ministry of the Lord went on, as it says, they ministered to the Lord.
Now, beloved brethren, it is my thought and desire to dwell upon that. I wish to impress upon each one in a simple way, that that is what each of us is called to. The great thought that God has in leaving us here, instead of taking us to heaven, is that there might be a continuance of His service. It is a wonderful thing for God to establish that in which His service is protected, while the world power remains untouched. Now I say, that that is the great end God has in view in calling us out of the world,
[p. 106] leaving us actually in it, but free from it morally, so that there may be a continuance of divine service.
You will recall how, in addressing Pharaoh, the Lord habitually, in each message, reminds him that the object He had in view in delivering His people was, that they might serve Him. In fact, going back earlier in their history, you will remember that Moses received his commission at mount Horeb, and the Lord told him that the token of their deliverance should be that His people should serve Him there. They should serve Him at mount Horeb. Now mount Horeb is not in Canaan, as you know; mount Horeb is in the wilderness.
As far as I can remember, Pharaoh was not reminded of Canaan. He had nothing to do with that. He had to let the people go three days’ journey into the wilderness. There was to be something established this side of Canaan. God spoke to them of the service which should have its commencement and its existence at mount Horeb. I want you to take note of that, beloved friends. I call attention to it because of this, that the thought of God is to establish His service here as a testimony, and to support it with a power adequate to maintain it as a witness in the eyes of the world. If He can establish the testimony here. He is sufficient to protect it; and, that testimony and power being established, He can formulate the law that governs the system; and if He can organise the system, He can both obtain the servants and the service in the presence of the world. That is a wonderful thing.
Now, in order that the service should be introduced, it was essential that the apostle and the high priest should be brought to light. We have to learn everything from the apostle. He brings out thoughts and develops them before us by the Spirit and enables us to understand them. Now in the book of Exodus, in chapter 6, you find that the [p. 107] Spirit of God gives a list of the heads of the fathers of the tribes of Israel. That was what God had in His mind. He had the tribes in His mind. They were to be, as far as the mind and purpose of God then went, set up in Canaan. Each tribe was to have its own, place in the land that was promised to Abraham. In token of the fulfilment of His promises, He reveals Himself to Moses and the people by His new name of Jehovah, which signified that He was undertaking to fulfil His promises.
Well, now, the Spirit of God goes on to give the list of the fathers; and what you find is, that when He comes to Levi He stops. One would like to stop there. There are such things in the Scriptures as divine interruptions, but, as a rule, indeed always, they are pleasing to God. God stops, as you may remember, in giving the generations of Jacob earlier in the book of Genesis. “These are the generations of Jacob — Joseph”, (Genesis 37:2), and no other generation is given. It is only when Jacob and his sons and their household are on the way to Egypt to see Joseph that the other generations are taken account of. In an earlier chapter you will find the generations of Esau, and there is no interruption. The course of the man of the flesh is pursued to its end. God allows the man of the flesh to pursue an uninterrupted course in this world, until he attains to the highest position. There were kings of the line of Esau before there were any kings of Israel.
Well, now, when you come to the heads of the fathers in Exodus 6, you find that Levi is the great terminus. The families of Levi are given, and then we have, “These are that Moses and Aaron, to whom the Lord said”, (Exodus 6:26). The Spirit of God brings into prominence the apostle and the high priest. Having the apostle and the high priest, you have a guarantee for the deliverance of the people and the establishment of what was in God’s [p. 108] mind, and that is service. Now one can well understand the apostle saying to the Hebrew Christians, “Consider the apostle and high priest”, (Hebrews 3:1) as though we are to await the accomplishment of the promises to the fathers. In the meantime we are to consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, and I want you to consider the great High Priest, to consider Christ, dear friends. He has brought in a new system. See how the apostle puts it. He has come “by a greater and more perfect tabernacle”, (Hebrews 9:11). He has come in in connection with a divine tabernacle, and that is not of this creation, and it is in connection with that which is introduced that we get the service of God.
Next I want to show you, if I can, how the wisdom of the Lord influenced those who came under His teaching. You will remember that Moses received on the mount this communication about the building of the tabernacle, but he did not build it. He was not the constructor; he did not actually make the things. He received the pattern of the things, but there were two wise men in Israel, divinely endowed with wisdom, who put the tabernacle together.
When we come to the gospels, what I understand by them is this: they present to us Christ, who in divine dignity has come out from God to show us divine thoughts. All the divine thoughts are there, and they are unfolded in divine wisdom. Love lay behind everything that the Lord did, and all was in divine wisdom. What I understand by wisdom is that it is the handmaid of love. Love lay behind all the Lord’s movements, and so we see divine wisdom. You can add nothing to it, and you can subtract nothing from it; everything is just as it ought to be — it is divinely perfect. That is what I see in the gospels. Those who came under the Lord’s influence received the spirit of the Lord’s ministry, so that what you find is, that their movements [p. 109] are generally in accord with it. In the Acts, whilst there is a full recognition of the Lord’s authority, the Spirit of God presents their actions as they took place.
Now you are not to misunderstand me; the Lord’s authority is fully recognised. God allows you to do things, and what you do proves just where you are spiritually, as He gives you light. Now, the proof of your soul being in the good of the light, is in your movements after you receive it. If you take the Lord’s wonderful ministry, those who came under it were affected by it. You remember the Lord’s word. He said, “Wisdom is justified of all her children”, (Luke 7:35). Not of one, but of all. Take the book of Acts. The gospels present to us the ministry of Christ. It is all wisdom. There is the love of God behind it, there is wisdom in the expression of it, and there is power in the fulfilment of it. The Acts present the same things that come out in Christ in the gospels. In other words, the book of the Acts is the justification of the gospels, because the Acts present the children of wisdom. The gospels present wisdom in a Person. The gospels present a Man, the Acts present the woman, the assembly. But it is the same thing. “Wisdom is justified of all her children”. (Luke 7:35) There is not a child of wisdom anywhere who does not justify wisdom. How do we justify wisdom? We justify it by movement in accordance with it.
Take the earlier chapters of the Acts. The Spirit of God presents to us what the disciples did. Not what the Lord told them to do, but what they did. It is a most interesting and extensive theme; I can only touch upon it. They were together with one accord in chapter one. They recognised the authority of the Scriptures. That was wise; the Lord recognised that too. They were in accord with the Lord. That was well; they had gathered that [p. 110] from the Lord. And so with everything. They were in prayer. The Lord taught them that. They were found together; they had one mind. Well, the Lord brought that in. You know the great basis of unity is the unity between divine Persons. “I and my Father are one”. (John 10:30) The Lord introduced that, and they were one. They had learnt that from the Lord. They were morally according to wisdom. They were the justification of the gospels. They were the justification of the ministry of Christ. Was His ministry a failure? There was the justification of it. His mission was no failure; it was justified by these people. They justified what Christ did. What He introduced they justified.
There are many other things that one might mention. As you remember, they did not break bread during the time that the Lord was with them. They did not take the Lord’s supper, so far as we know; but directly the Lord went to heaven they did. That was right. Nothing is said about the Lord’s supper during the forty days of the Lord’s sojourn amongst them.
The Spirit tells us that “they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). Now that is remarkable. It reminds one of what you get in the last two chapters of Proverbs; there are weak things, but they are wise, and they know what to do. The children of wisdom recognised existing conditions. They took account of the fact that the whole world was lawless. There was one Man in whom God had vested authority — Christ. That Man was no longer here, He was in Heaven, but He had delegated His authority to the apostles. They recognised that. We have not the apostles now, but we have the authority of their teaching. Now they recognise that, and it says that they continued in it, in the recognition of it. These are [p. 111] very practical things. They continued in these things; they were essential to their safety. There was the lawless world around them, and they recognised that God had vested authority in a Man, and that Man had delegated His authority to twelve men. The teaching was continued by them. They were teachers divinely accredited by Christ, and all outside was lawless. These men regarded anything that was outside the teaching of the twelve apostles as positively lawless. The early disciples saw that. They recognised the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. They recognised that which their hearts really cherished, and they had the breaking of bread, that which would sustain their hearts and remind them of their absent Lord in the scene of His rejection. And they recognised prayer. Now I refer to all these things especially to point out that they are the evidences of the children of wisdom, and that they are the justification of wisdom.
There is one thing said in Acts 2, and that is, that they broke bread in the house instead of in the temple, which, to my mind, is a very touching allusion to their appreciation of the Lord’s supper. However much they recognised the temple they did not break bread there. They broke bread at home. It is a touching allusion to the place the Supper had with them. They loved the Lord and they loved the Supper, because it was that which brought vividly before them the affection which was in the heart of the blessed Lord on the night of His betrayal.
Well, now, what I would like to point out is this, that as the testimony developed, the children of wisdom were equal to it. They were equal to the circumstances. And when we come to chapter 20 we find ourselves in a Gentile town, and there are disciples there. And we are told what they did, not what they were told to do, but what they did. And what they did was right. What did they do? They [p. 112] came together to break bread. Now in the second chapter it does not say they came together to do it; they did it in the house. But in the twentieth chapter they came together.
What I understand by that is, that they see that the temple is superseded. You may say “they came to break bread”. But it does not say just that. You may say you come to break bread on Lord’s day morning. That is not right; you should come together first. You may say that is only a matter of a word, but I think I can show you, beloved friends, that the word involves a principle. The fact is this: that the word together involves the displacement of the whole Jewish economy. The coming together of the saints involves that they know nothing outside of that, no religious ceremonies or furniture of any kind. The temple necessitated a huge system of ceremonies, garments, and so on, but the coming together displaces all that. Do you not understand that that little word together delivers you altogether from the system of religion, the Babylonish system that exists around us today? It is not easy to be delivered from these things if once you have been entangled with them.
You come together because your heart is filled with the love of Christ, and you want the company of the saints. You cannot get the company of the saints in the humanly organised systems; it is impossible that you should. You have something in your heart that must be reciprocated in a heart like to yours. Well, that is a heart under the influence of the love of Christ. Men and women are brought under the influence of the love of Christ, and the effect of that is, that they come together. They love one another, because they love Christ. It is what, as I understand it, answers at the moment to the greater and more perfect tabernacle. It is a moral idea. It is something that is for God. It is [p. 113] similar to what the Lord said to the Samaritan woman. “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”. (John 4:23,24)
Now I would like to say this: you will never understand Christianity until you see how the early Christians acted. They came as it were fresh from the effect of the ministry of Christ, and they came together to break bread. I only refer to it, I cannot dwell upon it any longer. You have in the coming together of those who love Christ, the greater and more perfect tabernacle. That is the antitype of what Moses effected. Moses led the people out of Egypt to serve God; but they were to serve Him as knowing His heart. You never serve God if you do not know His heart. They knew His heart by His covenant.
Now in 1 Corinthians you have the terms of the covenant. The second epistle presents to us the man who is formed by the spirit of the covenant. In the first epistle the apostle presents to us the Spirit, and the Spirit presents the terms of the covenant. The second epistle gives you the spirit of the thing. Paul is the man who is formed by the Spirit. You remember it says, “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”, (2 Corinthians 3:6). Paul was in the spirit of the covenant; he was formed by it. Well, it is the people that are formed by the spirit of the covenant that serve God.
Well, now, you see these people here. In Hebrews the apostle says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God”, (Hebrews 9:14). I do not know if you have taken it into account, but I think that the idea of the living God [p. 114] is most prominent in the Scriptures that have reference to Jewish believers, because they were accustomed to a dead system. They were to see that the new order had reference to a God that was living and revealed to be such in the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. There is a beautiful passage in Hosea: “After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight”, (Hosea 6:2). That means that you are raised up in the power of God and made to live in His sight. The word live refers really to the quickening power of God; you are made to live, you serve the living God. That is the divine thought, and that is what I had in my mind to present to you.
I read that passage in Acts 13 to show you how the testimony had freed itself from the Jewish setting, and breathed the atmosphere of liberty. Outside of Jewish territory or Jewish setting there is the service of God. No longer in Jerusalem, no longer in the temple, but established in living men in the Gentile world. That was a great triumph for God. They had the ministry of the Lord, and they were equal to it as regards themselves, for they fasted. If we are to be equal to the heritage that our fathers have handed down to us, we must be prepared for it. Are we equal to it? What is required is fasting. They ministered to the Lord and they fasted. That is how the thing is continued. You may depend upon it, that if we do not fast, there will be no continuance with us. As I understand it, fasting is a complete deliverance from fleshly desires. “We are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh”, (Philippians 3:3). That is Christianity. It answers to the Lord’s remark that the hour had come when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
[p. 115] May the Lord grant that these simple thoughts may affect us, that he affections of the saints should be gathered in Christ. That is the idea, I think that there may be such an appeal to our hearts that there may be an answer in the assembly; in he book of Revelation she invites Him to come. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. (Revelation 22:17) “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”. (Revelation 22:20)