SYMPATHY IN THE TESTIMONY AND AUTHOIRITY OF THE WORD OF GOD
[p. 174] SYMPATHY IN THE TESTIMONY AND AUTHOIRITY OF THE WORD OF GOD
My thought is to say a word in regard to sympathy with Christ in the testimony, and in connection with that to seek to show the importance of the word of God. What you can see here is that the Lord stands forth in connection with the testimony, not only as individually connected with it, but as associating others with Himself; and you will observe that whilst it states that the twelve were with Him, there were also others, and these were women. You will find in the Scriptures that what represents divine authority, as the apostles, is associated with what is subjective; and the feature in which the subjective side appears here I take to be that of sympathy.
Now I think you will find in the perusal of the Acts that these two lines are found together. Most of us here are aware that Luke wrote to confirm Paul. It is indeed essential to a right understanding of Luke to bear that in mind, and you will find in the Acts that which corresponds with this section of his gospel; namely, the position and ministry and authority of the apostles, which I take the liberty of designating as official, it being the result of divine appointment.
The apostles were divinely appointed, but they were tried men. The Lord took them up in perfect discrimination; they were men whom He knew, and who had been tested, so that He appointed them as qualified. What corresponds with the official position of the apostles is the Spirit which indwelt them. That is to say, although divinely appointed, they were not to exercise their apostleship apart [p. 175] from the Spirit. They were to remain in Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high; and I think you will find by a consideration of Acts 1 that they were in every way equal to their mission. Their hearts were attracted to Jesus; that wonderful Person had been brought to their attention and had completely won their hearts, so that when He is taken up from them they are found gazing up into heaven. In other words, the apostolic ministry was marked by affection for Christ.
Then you will find that whilst awaiting His promise, the gift of the Spirit, they recognised the authority of the Scriptures in the choice of an apostle to fill Judas’s place; the Scriptures being the only authority left upon earth, seeing that Jesus had gone into heaven. To these men the Holy Spirit came, and as endued with power from on high, they carried on their ministry. The Holy Spirit coming down from heaven, we are told, sat upon each of them; there were others there as we know, but I speak for the moment of the apostles. The Holy Spirit came into the company, and His sound filled the house where they were sitting, and He sat upon each of them. Peter in the power of that Spirit stood up and testified for Christ. Now that is the apostolic position; it was characterised by affection for Christ, by submission to the authority of the Scriptures, and energised by the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. That continued through the Acts, I might say, up to chapter 15. They were in complete identification with Christ, representing His authority here upon earth.
What I wish to show is that side by side with that there appeared a spontaneous element, which is represented in Barnabas. I am not overlooking the fact that Barnabas was called an apostle; he was an apostle in virtue rather of what he was morally than by official appointment; that is, he was [p. 176] sympathetic with what was going on. Barnabas first appears in Acts 4. We are told that he had lands and he sold them. Now we might have thought he sold them because he cared no longer for them; that, in the light of what was heavenly, brought in by the Spirit, he who had title to the earthly possessions surrendered them; but that is not the way in which the Spirit of God presents the matter to us. Barnabas had a true estimate of his property, I have no doubt, and did not undervalue it; we are told by the Spirit that he sold his lands. Why did he do that? Clearly because he saw that he could use the price for the furtherance of the testimony. He was taken up with the testimony, and he brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. That is to say, he recognised the authority of the Lord in His apostles. They were there with power to administer, and he brought to them what he had; he had land, he sold it, and devoted the money to the service of the testimony. It was not exactly Levitical service, although he was a Levite; his gift was not spiritual for the moment.
You will recall how in Israel the Levites were divided into two classes: there were those who carried the holy things upon their shoulders, and there were those who had waggons. I take Barnabas’ gift in a sense to be a waggon; he recognised the necessities connected with the testimony, and he brought what he had got for his lands and laid it at the apostles’ feet. What came to light in connection with his action indicates the Lord’s appreciation of what he did. He was sympathetic with the testimony, and the apostles named him, his name had been Joseph, but they called him Barnabas — “Son of consolation”, Acts 4:36. Now that is what I understand to be an evidence of his sympathy with the testimony.
As we proceed in the Acts you will find that the testimony moves on, and it is when the movement [p. 177] takes place that Barnabas shines. He shone in connection with that which was official at Jerusalem, but the testimony moved on; and when we are genuinely moved in regard of Christ we shall follow the course of the testimony. The testimony moved out to Antioch. An independent action of the Spirit took place there. There were no apostolic labours bestowed upon Antioch, as far as we know, prior to the movement there, but chapters 11 and 13 show us that Levitical service, and, indeed, priestly service, had moved out among the gentiles. That was a great triumph for Christ. There were found at Antioch certain men who ministered to the Lord and fasted; that is, they were in the liberty of service outside of Jewish territory.
Now Barnabas, who was a “good man and full of the Holy Spirit”, Acts 11:24, recognised this work; he recognised the movement of the testimony and he was in complete sympathy with it. What did he do? He went down to Tarsus to seek out Saul. He was instinctively in the mind of God, and recognised what God had done, and how the testimony had moved. He sees that Saul is the man for the occasion; he goes to Tarsus to seek him out, and he takes him, not to Jerusalem, but to Antioch. Thus the testimony moved on, and correlatively the authority of Christ in the apostles, until we come to chapter 15. That is to say, the service of God was set up among the gentiles, and you will find in tracing these chapters that the Spirit of God pursues it until it is enshrined at Ephesus.
I make another remark in regard to Ephesus: the economy of the house of God is in connection with Ephesus. Timothy was at Ephesus when Paul wrote his first epistle to him, and it is this epistle above all others which should govern us in relation to the house of God. The house of God, beloved friends, is a heavenly institution. The [p. 178] assembly at Ephesus was set up in the light of its heavenly position, and hence you have the true basis for the development of the house of God. The house of God is in the good of what is in heaven; the first mention of it in Scripture shows it was the connection between heaven and earth: Genesis 28:17 - 19. We need to maintain the light of that in our souls; it is the sphere in which the affections of God flow; a heavenly institution upon earth, so that it was a question of Timothy’s conduct there. We have to be regulated by heaven in regard to our conduct. So Timothy was to know how to conduct himself in the house of God, which was at the same time the assembly of the living God; it was also the place of strength — “the pillar and base of the truth”, 1 Timothy 3:15.
In this eighth chapter of Luke’s gospel we have what in a measure corresponds with all that I have been saying; that is, we have the apostles; they are with the Lord; and then there are those also who represent the subjective state; the sympathy that would sustain the testimony. These had been benefited by Christ, and the names of some of them are given to us. It is said of them that they ministered to Him of their substance; they were in complete sympathy with His position in connection with the testimony.
I just refer for a moment to what follows in this chapter, and that is, the authority of the word. One might speak of it in another way, in connection with sowing, but I refer now to its authority. The fruit of the word is spoken of as a hundredfold; those who “in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it”. There is a peculiar touch here, which is confined to Luke’s gospel. It is only in Luke that the hundredfold is spoken of. In the gospel of Matthew the result of the seed sown in the good ground is said to be an hundred, sixty, and [p. 179] thirty. Matthew contemplates things set up in perfection and a perfect result — an “hundredfold”, but there is decline from a hundred to sixty, and from sixty to thirty; whereas in the gospel of Mark it is presented in the reverse order; that is, there is fruit, thirty, sixty, and an hundredfold. Mark presents increase of energy. Mark had at first failed as a servant (see Acts 15:38), but having been restored he was stronger at the end than he was at the beginning. Now Luke gives the full and perfect result of the testimony of God in the soul of man; it is not a question of our responsibility in that respect, or of the history of the church. What he is presenting is the ministry of grace; the effect of the Lord’s ministry. In other words, he is presenting the full testimony by Paul; the word of God. When Paul went out from Antioch, it was to preach “the word of God”, and Luke shows us that the word of God produces a perfect result.
I now want to dwell a little on the “light” in regard to the word. “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light”. Now there cannot be light unless we are governed by the word. The Lord says, “Take heed therefore how ye hear”. The man that brings forth fruit is the man who with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keeps it. I need not say that no son of Adam has that; God alone can produce an honest and good heart. The Lord says, “having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience”. I wish to emphasise the importance of the recognition of the word, for we cannot have the light unless we are regulated by the word. The word of God entering into an honest and good heart is kept with patience, and bears fruit an hundredfold;
[p. 180] and the result of that is that there must be light. Light is morally the character of God coming out in the christian.
I now pass on to where the Lord’s relations are referred to. It is good to have the light in our souls of our relation with the Lord as the result of His death and resurrection. One cherishes the thought that we are the “brethren” of Christ, not only of Christ as risen from the dead, but we are the brethren of the One who could say, “I ascend” (John 20:17), which in a certain sense is the most wonderful light that can possibly enter into the soul of a man. He who says, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father”, also says, “My brethren”. It is a divine Person speaking in the liberty of sonship. The Son has the full liberty of the house, and He can say, “I ascend”; and at the same time He associates us with Him as His brethren. I repeat, that no greater light can enter into the soul of man. But here in Luke 8:21, we have the other side. The Lord says, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it”. I am not introducing John 20 into this passage; I referred to John 20 as showing the full light of our place. One can see in the Acts that the Lord in the course of the testimony indicates, that the earthly relations were abandoned, and that the new circle took form at Antioch and Ephesus, where divine relationships were established, which were connected, not with an earthly system, as Jerusalem was, but with heaven. The enemy saw it, and he essayed, by introducing legality, to capture the glad tidings of that wonderful liberty of sonship in the presence of God which was enjoyed at Antioch; but the saints were mercifully preserved, so that we see the full light of it in Ephesus.
But how are we to be marked off in this world as related to Christ? The Lord’s word is, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it”. We have to maintain clearly and distinctly in our souls our position as the result of the death and resurrection of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is given to us to that end. But what is to be the rule for us here upon earth? The authority of the word; the word of God is to be the rule for us, and it is to be acted upon; the Lord says, “these which hear the word of God, and do it”. The Lord recognises those who hear and do it. You may ask me, How does He recognise them? He comes to us; He distinguishes us, He manifests Himself to us. The Lord says, “If any one love me, he will keep my word”; and “I will love him and will manifest myself to him ... my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”, John 14:21,23. We are marked off in that way as submitting ourselves to the word of God.
May the Lord bless these simple thoughts to us. It seems to me to be a great thing at the present time to be in sympathy with the testimony. Things are much reduced, but the Lord is moving on, and He takes account of the twos and threes of His people here and there who recognise the authority and rule of His word and are in sympathy with His testimony. It is not a question of numbers, though Scripture makes a great deal of the vast number of the redeemed, but evidently the great point for us as upon earth is the authority of God and His word. If there are but a few christians in a city who are governed by the word, you may depend upon it that the Lord will distinguish them by manifesting Himself to them, and they will be in sympathy with His testimony.