DIVINE APPEARINGS BEARING ON SERVICE
[p. 90] DIVINE APPEARINGS BEARING ON SERVICE
Acts 26:16 - 18; Acts 22:17,18; Acts 16:9,10; Acts 27:22 - 26
These scriptures speak of divine appearings which bear on service. The first divine appearing spoken of in Scripture, having in view the disposition of the world, was to Abraham. He was to be impressed with what should fill the world, for the world should be filled with God’s glory. Thus, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia”, (Acts 7:2).
The glory of this world fades and disappears, but God had in mind that there should be a world filled with His glory, and so we have that remarkable expression in Revelation 11:15, “The kingdom of the world of our Lord and of his Christ is come”. The kingdom of it will guarantee the subjection or removal of all that would interfere with the spread and display of the glory of God. Abraham was to be impressed with it: not indeed, that the glory shone, it does not say that, but the “God of glory appeared”, which is greater. We have also the expressions, the Father of glory, and the Lord of glory; whether it be by God as such, or by the Father, or by the Lord, the glory will shine and fill all things. I mention all this at the beginning of what I have to say, that our hearts may be attuned to it. As unconverted, we have no response at all in our hearts toward God. As born again and as having the Holy Spirit, as redeemed, there is that which answers to God; and so the thought of divine appearings will appeal to us.
From Abraham’s time onwards, the great thought that there was glory which belonged to God filled the mind of faith. All else fades, but the glory of God is fadeless. It shines now in the face of Jesus;
[p. 91] it is intended to be perfectly intelligible to us in the face of Jesus. It is brought within that compass, and so it says of believers: “we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face”, (2 Corinthians 3:18). “We all” — that is a very inclusive word but also an exclusive one; we christians — all true believers characteristically — look on the face of Jesus. I wonder whether we have all looked at the face of Jesus; there is nothing repellent about it; it is most attractive. All that God is in love towards us, dear brethren, shines there.
Paul tells us in the passages read of appearings to himself, and I wish to speak of him in this connection in order to set out what I have in mind with regard to service. Having spoken much of the sufferings that he endured in his service, he says, “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord”, (2 Corinthians 12:1). How full his heart would be as he wrote those words! Dear brethren, let them not be altogether foreign to us! If we have not already done so, let us begin to think of the possibility of getting into the realm of revelation. Amongst the records of Solomon are “the visions of Iddo”, (2 Chronicles 9:29). These would bear on the glory of Solomon in a peculiar way, as “visions and revelations of the Lord” bear on the glory of Christ. It is needful for us to pay attention to this because we are so prone to live and move and have our being in relation to what is material: is it not so? The famines in Scripture of which we have spoken, having their reflection in what is current today, would bring out where the people of God are, and how affected we are by what is material; whereas God would use what seems to be very adverse, to direct us to the sphere of revelation.
The apostle says, “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows;)” (2 Corinthians 12:2). It was [p. 92] no dream; it was nothing imaginary; it was a reality, the experience not simply of an apostle, but of a man in Christ, which term applies to every true christian. In religious circles, people speak of seeing this and that — sometimes the very worst suggestions of links with the devil; but they are not visions and revelations of the Lord. Unless we can bring the Lord into the things we see — or fancy we see — they are of no value whatever; they should be renounced as evil.
In order to amplify what I am saying, I would refer to Paul’s list of those to whom the Lord appeared after He arose; and I would direct your view to the forty days of the Lord’s sojourn here after He arose. It is inscrutable, but full of spiritual instruction. Unless we understand something of those days, we are scarcely equal to the assembly or to its privileges. The apostle, in bringing forward this list, was endeavouring to allure the Corinthians on to spiritual lines; and that is what I have in mind, that there is a spiritual realm — a realm of visions and revelations. The Lord “appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once ... Then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to an abortion, he appeared to me also”. And then with what beautiful humility he speaks! “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called apostle” (1 Corinthians 15:5 - 9). That would never be my judgment of him; but he said it, and this sets before us a truly humble person. He said, “I am the least of the apostles”; and not only does he say this, but also, I am “less than the least of all saints”, (Ephesians 3:8). This corresponds with Psalm 16:2, in which our Lord in spirit expresses His lowly mind here: “my goodness extendeth not to thee”. We bow as marvelling at such words, but He uttered them, and they are surely intended to imbue our minds with the humility [p. 93] seen in the service and testimony of our Lord. The Lord Jesus said further, “to the saints that are on the earth, and to the excellent thou hast said, In them is all my delight” (verse 3). That is how He spoke, and so the apostle speaks of being the least of the apostles — not fit to be called apostle, he says, “because I have persecuted the assembly of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9); but yet he says, “he appeared to me also”.
I go on to the passage which records this appearing in his own words — in the apostle’s speech before Agrippa and Festus in Caesarea. It is in the presence of “great pomp”; for we are told that the king, Bernice, Festus and the great ones of Caesarea were there. How wretched that show of worldly glory must have been to Paul! Not that he despised official dignity, for he addressed them with respect — “most noble Festus”, and “king Agrippa”. That is an important matter too, for the powers that be are ordained of God; but mere worldly show was nothing to Paul. His eyes had seen the King, the Lord of hosts, and one view of that glory dissipates all this world’s glory. And that is what the Lord would bring us to, dear brethren — to view the glory of this world, as Paul did. The Lord would bring us down; in fact, He is doing it now through reduction in our circumstances — little by little; but this makes for inward expansion; and the Lord would take us aside and give us a view of His glory.
In Paul’s account of the first appearing, he tells us that the Lord said to him, “stand on thy feet”. That is a significant word; he had fallen to the ground, which was right in its place; but the Lord says, “stand on thy feet; for, for this purpose have I appeared to thee”. I urge upon all, especially those who are serving, to get some idea of an appearing — if not an appearing, some direct contact with the Lord with regard to our responsibility here in the [p. 94] service to which we may be called. Paul is available; the Lord said to him, “stand on thy feet”. That expression as used in Scripture means that one stands up in the sense of responsibility, and in the sense of power too; and it also implies balance, that one does not need to lean upon another. One great idea seen in the Levite is that he stands on his own feet.
In Mark 3:16 - 19, which is the servant’s gospel, you will find that the list of apostles is not made up of twos, but that they are listed singly. Now that is a matter of importance. I do not deny that two are better than one, and that Matthew lists them in twos, but Mark would put upon each servant the responsibility to stand on his own feet; then there is the thought of a special impression made on him by an appearing; and then that he is to be sent. Look at the Lord’s own words to Paul, which he cites here: “for, for this purpose have I appeared to thee, to appoint thee to be a servant and a witness both of what thou hast seen, and of what I shall appear to thee in”. There are to be further appearings; one will not suffice; as the Lord said — “and of what I shall appear to thee in”. The Lord intimates to him that the gain of the first appearing is to be sustained. The Lord sustains, and a sustained person maintains himself; that brings in his responsibility.
We find here that the apostle is delivered from the people and from the nations. The Lord knew how strong the pull of national feeling was with this great servant. He loved Israel, and could say that he had wished he could be accursed from Christ for Israel, (Romans 9:3). That is an extraordinary thing to me; but Paul speaks in the past tense, thus the wish to be accursed from Christ was not continuous with him; but what he says brings out the strength of his affection for Israel. Too much of it, as we see elsewhere, would hinder him in his service; so that the Lord said, “taking thee out from among the people, and the nations, to whom I send thee”; implying that if we are to be able to serve people, we must be delivered from them. If people influence me by natural things, I cannot serve them truly or effectually; I must be delivered: and then I am sent to people from whom I am delivered; thus, I am free. Paul asserted that he was the servant of all. “For if I announce the glad tidings, I have nothing to boast of; for a necessity is laid upon me; for it is woe to me if I should not announce the glad tidings”, (1 Corinthians 9:16). “For being free from all, I have made myself bondman to all, that I might gain the most possible” (verse 19). “To all I have become all things, in order that at all events I might save some” (verse 22). That is how the matter stood.
I read the passage in Acts 22 to show how all this was amplified later. The apostle is now speaking to his own people in Jerusalem, and after recording the first great appearing to him, he says, “when I had returned to Jerusalem, and as I was praying in the temple”. Now that is a fine thing — praying in the temple. That is how he speaks about himself to the Jews in Jerusalem. The first commendation that occurs about him is, “behold, he is praying”, (Acts 9:11). I should like to be able to say that of every young woman and of every young man here — Behold, he is praying. Is it so? I believe the leading feature of Paul’s whole life and the secret of his success — both as a christian and a servant — was that he prayed. He says, “as I was praying in the temple, that I became in ecstasy”. Maybe some of us have never thought of that word “ecstasy”, which is one that stands out in the vocabulary of Scripture. It is not mentioned as something that is unobtainable, but as something that is. “I became in ecstasy, and saw him saying to me, Make haste and go quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me”. Now you see the bearing of what I have said — “taking thee out from among the people, and the nations”. If I am held by national feeling, I shall never be able to serve according to God. I must be wholly free from all that, for God has given it up; although He will return to it by and by. It is in His purpose with regard to the earth, to have a nation; and that is coming in presently, but not now. The assembly cannot be made to fit into any nation; it is a universal thought; accordingly, if I am to serve effectually, I must know something of this experience of prayer and ecstasy, and of the Lord’s saying in effect, Leave your national setting — do not halt any longer; they will not hear you. How well the Lord knew; they did not even hear Him, but said, “Away with this man” (Luke 23:18). That was their judgment — the judgment of the most favoured, the most religiously cultured nation the earth has had. Today apostasy is fast laying hold on all the so-called christian nations. They are turning away from Jesus and are looking for another, whom they will get. All these nations will be in it — let us not be deceived. They will all acclaim that man — the beast, and wonder after him (see Revelation 13:8).
With reference to the third scripture, while it is not an appearing of Christ, it is a divinely ordered vision. It is the impersonation of a Macedonian man in a vision, which is an action of heaven. The servant is not now in Jerusalem; he is away, near to Europe; and he is not sure as to his course; but he is a dependent servant. What a model he is! — so near to Christ that the Spirit of Jesus could say to him, Do not go that way. The Spirit of Jesus forbade them to speak the word in Asia; where then was Paul to go? The true servant asks, What am I to do now? where am I to serve next? This, dear brethren, applies to the smallest bit of service. Isaiah stands out in this respect. In answer to the divine inquiry, “Whom shall I send?” he says, “Here am I”, (Isaiah 6:8). That is the attitude of a waiting servant — one ready for orders. He will be directed, for the work is very extensive; servants are needed in all directions. The nearer we get to the Lord, the more we shall discover how great the need is. I believe that voice, “Whom shall I send?” is to be heard all the time. The answer is, “Here am I”. It was from Isaiah. He had just seen the glory. “In the year of the death of king Uzziah, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple”, (verse 1). John refers to it later: “These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him”, (John 12:41). That is the clue. It is the man who says, “Here am I, send me” that was sent. I am persuaded of this, that servants are not taken on save as they see the glory. How can we serve effectually save as we see the glory?
Paul saw this vision “by night”. I do not know just what this may mean; although you get it several times. I suppose there is a stillness and hence opportunity for abstraction in the night, and the Lord takes advantage of this. In the vision of which I am speaking the man of Macedonia says, “Come over ... and help us” — what an appeal that is! Selfish considerations must not intrude in the presence of it. That man was thinking not of himself alone, but of the Macedonians. There are many such calls, and the Lord will stand by everyone who really serves Him in answering to them. Paul answered immediately, and went into Macedonia, but, oh, what suffering this service entailed! At Philippi he was thrust into that inner prison and scourged, and his feet made fast in the stocks. All that lay between the vision and the man of Macedonia, but he reached the man; that is the point. A true servant will never stop short; he goes forward and reaches his objective. The gaoler, you may say, was the man; and he asked [p. 98] for lights. We have now to do with very hard soil. People come to our meetings and listen to the truth, and you wonder why they are so unimpressionable; but this man was impressionable, although he must have been a hard kind of man, for he was a Roman gaoler. But now he is respectful and hospitable to the Lord’s servants, showing tender-heartedness and impressionableness. He is manifestly a subject of the work of God. He is material for the assembly — a man who asks for lights wants the whole truth.
Passing on to the last scripture, I want to show you how the servant comes in for an appearing in times of great doubt. The ship was about to be broken up, and Paul was on it. Dark days when neither the sun nor the stars appeared, preceded this incident, and the ship was rocked by the waves; there was every evidence of the ship’s foundering, but he said, “And now I exhort you to be of good courage, for there shall be no loss at all of life of any of you, only of the ship. For an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me”. I would that I could use that language as he did! “Whose I am”; that brings in the divine right to us; no one can be independent. Paul belonged to God; he was a levite of God. “Whose I am and whom I serve”. There is nothing said of Paul’s actual service as on the ship, for he, as a prisoner, was on a ship bound for Rome from Caesarea, and there is nothing said as to what he may have done on the way, but you may be sure that his hands were not idle. How much he could have done! Some of us know how much can be done aboard ship. There is no need for idling at any time and no true servant of God will idle. Time is relatively one of the scarcest things I know of; and you may be sure that the apostle used the time profitably. He does not say, Whose I am and whom I have served, but “whom I serve”, and we may be sure that during those dark [p. 99] days on the Mediterranean, he spent a great deal of his time in prayer, and the angel stood by him.
You may ask why it is an angel, for this is the only recorded occasion of angelic relations with him. Distance is implied as under the extraordinary circumstances; it refers to the history of the assembly. It is a prophetic position; defection had already set in; the ship — the external body, as we say, was breaking up; God was not pleased, but He continued to care for His people and His servant, and He sent His angel. As of old, when the angel of Jehovah left Gilgal and went to Bochim, that meant a change in the state of the people; and so, in these circumstances, prophetically, at least, there was a change. It was “an angel of the God”, who was in full sympathy with heaven and in sympathy with Paul, and he stood by him that night. What a cheer it must have been to the apostle to have an angel standing by him speaking to him! We must not think that the angels are far away from us. I do not wish to be visionary in the ordinary sense, but spiritually so. They are not far away from us; they are ministering spirits sent out to minister on account of us; they are active agents here. They are “sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation”, (Hebrews 1:14). Paul says, “And now I exhort you to be of good courage, for there shall be no loss at all of life of any of you, only of the ship. For an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted to thee all those that sail with thee. Wherefore be of good courage, men, for I believe God that thus it shall be, as it has been said to me”.
As I close, I want you to ponder this position — a servant standing up in such circumstances in the sense of having been spoken to that very night by an angel from heaven. What freshness and power [p. 100] there would be! He was not speaking of something that happened years before. He was speaking on the deck of a sinking ship, not in platitudes, but in the freshness of a very recent experience with God. “Fear not, Paul; thou must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted to thee all those that sail with thee”. Why should that be said to Paul? — because he was a feeling man — he was a man of affections. He did not wish one on that ship to be lost, and the angel assured him that nothing should be lost, save the ship. He would feel the loss of the ship, as understanding its significance, but what we are concerned about now is not any more the salvation of the public body; we accept sorrowfully the loss of that; we are concerned about the safety of the members of Christ, that if the assembly in its public character is lost, it stands in the counsel of God; for the heavenly city remains and will come down from God out of heaven; nothing will be lost; it will come out, having the glory of God. John supplies all that. John, therefore, so to speak, stands in the outward ruins of Paul’s structure, and presents what cannot be ruined; he presents the heavenly city coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God. That is what John sets before us, an angel having shown it to him (Revelation 22).
Paul said that all those in the ship would be saved, and it is put most beautifully: “all those that sail with thee”. I want all to take that in; it is a question of sailing with Paul — all that sailed with him were given to him. I often think of this passage, believing that if we really value the saints, in spite of the public breakdown, the Lord says, I will give them to you. Every person that sailed on that boat arrived on the land safe. All that is prophetic. There is much instruction in this chapter, and in the next one, as to church history, but the point now is that there is a man serving under these circumstances to whom an angel [p. 101] speaks, and who speaks immediately in the power of it, and his word has effect. He really became master of the ship. There is power with him.
Well, what I have presented has in view that we might become spiritually acquainted, in our service, with the realm of revelation.