HEAVEN'S ADMINISTRATION

A.J.E.Welch

Acts 3: 1-8; 7: 54-60; 9: 37-43; 10: 1-19

A.J.E.W. I have been interested in recent times in thinking of this wonderful history in the Acts, showing the glory of an administration which works from heaven. Our thoughts of administration - a rather familiar word perhaps - have sometimes stood connected with the meeting in different respects of negative things, but Scripture shows us that the administrative thought is connected with the wealth and variety of divine supply. This history is full of the positive workings of power and grace that entered into it. Much is asserted against a testimony so glorious, but in general the history serves to show the unerring character of what is administered from heaven, the Spirit having come and becoming available here in us and with us to afford the variety of support which is needful. But there are men, servants who are fully adjusted in their relations with what is up there, becoming effectively usable to further God's great positive ends in the assembly, bringing out the features of the dispensation in the way they move and speak under heaven's direction. Taking the whole history right through to the closing parts of it in this book we can see how all is organised not of man but in immense skill out of heaven, where Jesus is made (as Peter reminds us) both Lord and Christ (see Acts 2: 36). I thought we might gain something in thinking of Peter and John and Stephen, and of Ananias in reference to Paul, to see how suited vessels are acquired and taken up who become the reflection of what is above. The epistle to Titus, in speaking of practical matters, reminds us of things which do not further God's dispensation which is in faith. That perhaps is a way of expressing a little what is in mind now, that we have happenings on record which work out to the furtherance of God's dispensation which is in faith. We see how the whole position in the testimony is strengthened, enriched and widened out, sometimes by direct intervention of the Lord or of the Spirit, sometimes by the intervention of angels, but more usually through those whom God takes up, such as these persons named - Peter and John, Stephen and Ananias. The wealth of detail in this history in the Acts has sometimes detained us a little from seeing the wider scope of what this book is about and catching something of the glory that enters into an immense variety of happenings which God uses to further His interests.

J.A.P. There are difficulties in each passage, but is your point that the supply heaven brings in is overwhelming in a right sense?

A.J.E.W. If that sense gets hold of us - the supplies out of heaven are overwhelming - it would immensely help us not to become discouraged or disillusioned by things that arise in a day of small things such as we are in. It is a wonderful outlook when we realise that what is up there and administered from there is entirely equal to every situation that arises. The point would be by way of challenge, Am I equal to it as coming under the authority and influence of the heavenly centre? Can I fill some little place in this grand scheme of divine activity which represents, taken in its scope, the bringing in of divine wealth and the application of it so that something becomes fruitful for God Himself?

R.C.H. Would you say more as to where we see that supply evidenced in Acts?

A.J.E.W. We have these three cases. Peter said "Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee"; that is on the principle of supply, and what according to God is available to bring in life. It is an immense matter that life should be asserted. There is this difficult case, a man who was lame from his mother's womb, and it is resolved by the disposing of what Peter can say that he has. There is something there of a substantial kind which represents how heaven is acting, bringing in through Peter the character of its actings; Peter is supported by John, not active in this matter apparently but expressing the kind of choice substance, gained in the constant experience of the presence of Jesus, which John suggests. When you come to Stephen he is furnished with all that he needs in suffering; he gets a view of a glorified Christ which sustains him. When such circumstances arise God has a man on the scene who can, so to say, pour out the Spirit of Christ in the midst of intense suffering. In Ananias' case you have a man who is usable. There is no suggestion that he has great gift - we do not hear of him again so far as I recall - but there he was in Damascus, and the Lord could call him and say 'Ananias', and he responded at once. Here is a man who is in a simple way subject to direction, perfectly in liberty with the Lord (because he is quite free to speak of his difficulty about Saul of Tarsus), but there is something in that man in the sense of divine supply that meets the situation in the remarkable instance of Saul of Tarsus.

I just had an impression of the way that things are centred up there in heaven. The centre is where Christ is, free of every element of interference; there may be an effort at interference down here, but all is organised from the centre of things where the interference cannot come. To see in detail how different ones fit into the divine scheme of things is to my mind very instructive and appealing. It becomes a challenge whether features are in evidence under the Lord's precious touch in each one of us that are related actively to what heaven is doing for God's pleasure.

R.N.H. Would that be Peter and John going up together into the temple at the hour of prayer? They were going together in relation to heaven, do you think?

A.J.E.W. It is important that those two men, probably very different men in their natural characteristics (one can just judge from other features of the history), are working together. Peter knows when to speak, John knows when not to speak, just expressing it very simply. The situation is regulated in the Spirit; it is a very fine feature of what heaven is doing that what is available here is under regulation. There are great potentialities for the use of it, but the use of it is not to be haphazard and not to be out of control; the Spirit is here to assure the furnishing of grace and power that everything might be under control from up there, and what results are proved as a result of it! Think of this man, as it says, walking, and leaping, and praising God. What an amazing change, the kind of change that God could find satisfaction in! The man is brought into life, a man previously, to all intents and purposes in the practical sense, useless; but now that man is coming into the temple as a priest in character.

T.E.D. The note links the 'together' interestingly with the end of the previous chapter; 'the Lord added together'. Is that the feature, needed to be understood, which would deliver me from any independent activity that I might engage in apart from what heaven is supporting?

A.J.E.W. I am sure that is right. Without in any sense being fanciful you can visualise the depth of Peter's exercises in these days. Think of his adjustment when he went out and wept after denying the Lord, think of the history of Peter; and yet there he stands, not only in this chapter but earlier too. It is most striking to see in chapter 2 that "Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke forth to them" (v 14). There is a touch of victory about that. Morally the whole Jewish system is brought down in the activity of these two men. What the Jewish system in the whole lifetime of this person could not do is done by a word from Peter concerning the Lord Jesus. This is how heaven's administration operates.

C.F.D. What you are saying about these servants, Peter and John, is very instructive to us. There are certain moral qualifications marking these men. We know that the Lord chose them to be apostles, but then there is a moral qualification that goes with that. Would Peter's own link with heaven, and heaven's administration proceeding from the One into whose hands everything has been committed, be evident in the fact that he says "Rise up and walk"? There was no question in his mind as to what the outcome would be; his link with heaven was such that he could just proceed to act for heaven. Is that the point with these men?

A.J.E.W. Very much. And it is right to say, is it not? that the same link with heaven is open to us. This is not just an apostolic privilege, the link with the centre of the whole wonderful administration is in Jesus up there, and we can get as close in relation to it as we may seek. We need not be remote from the centre of things. Peter was not remote, I am sure, nor was John; in spirit they were in touch, as you say, with heaven. It is not here, I would think, a question of apostolic office; but rather the way in which the men as such, having their diverse history with Christ, stand in regard to the heavenly centre. How do I stand in regard to it? Is that not a question for us?

C.F.D. It is a real challenge, because our link with the heavenly line of things and with that glorious Man where He is brings into relief immediately my link with the Spirit of God. Would it show here that there was at this moment just an easy, free, unclouded relationship with the blessed Spirit, so Peter in a sense has immediate access to what is in heaven.

A.J.E.W. That is exactly the searching yet very attractive point for us. Although you speak rightly of the glorious Man up there, Christ exalted, that is not just a spectacle for admiration; it is an object for contemplation surely, but it is something that is to involve the administration of power even through ourselves. That brings the challenge.

R.N.H. You mentioned grace and power before. I was reading recently (I think it was Mr Raven who said it) that in order for us to bring the truth to bear on persons it must be preceded by grace. What we have here seems to convey that; these persons acted in grace and power, and the next section Peter fully speaks the truth to the men of Israel. Would that be the demonstration of grace and power in operation?

A.J.E.W. You are linking grace and power with the working together of Peter and John, which is a fine thing. Can we work together? That becomes a searching point sometimes. Here were these two men with very different histories, but they are together and they stand for something as being together. Later on, according to the later chapter, the man held Peter and John, as if they in a joint sense represent something which is of heaven. We are in a world that is full of discourse where you cannot find two men acting together like this, but we see it under heaven's touch.

R.C.H. You were saying a few moments ago that this is available to all of us. Would you say a little more about that, please?

A.J.E.W. Well, as normally here we would each have the Spirit and know an indwelling Spirit, and I trust we would be conscious as we speak together of the reality of the Spirit being with us as well as in us. The Lord uses both words. That involves divine power here, and that in ourselves and among us, in relation to Christ where He is. The apostles had a distinctive place as taken up by the Lord and specially nurtured and educated by Him, but here we see them corning out in the gain of the presence of the Spirit, the same Spirit who would link us in our time with the same administrative course.

G.D.P. Peter got something of that view in chapter 10, in the sheet corning down out of heaven.

A.J.E.W. I was thinking of that. As we read through this history with this side of things in mind it is remarkable to see how it comes into active expression to further God's dispensation which is in faith. It helps us to get a positive objective and prove a positive resource to pursue it, both of which are seen in the labours of men like those we are considering.

G.D.P. That would save us from drifting off to independent lines, as was mentioned.

A.J.E W. Yes, precisely so. How vital it is that the regulation of things is something to which we are rightly subject. If we serve rightly we serve under Christ, we might say the Prince of the princes of the Levites, but whatever aspect of things it may be, submission to the Spirit, hearkening to His voice, being available in the exercise of His power, there is an element of regulation entering into it.

J.A.P. Would that be in some sense the force of the Name here, "Jesus Christ the Nazaraean"? The Lord Jesus Himself accepted that, He was in Nazareth. Peter says later, "Neither is there another name under heaven... by which we must be saved", chap 4:12. So the power now is in the Man who Himself accepted every limitation here according to God and glorified God in it.

A.J.E.W. In your use of the term 'Nazaraean' you imply that He, speaking with reverence, lived the life of a normal man down here, sin apart - a wonderful thing - and that really is what the divine administration would assert, that there has been a life here in man in total perfection, and that must be the standard against which everything is assessed. In that way heaven's administration is totally consistent in all that it undertakes and carries through. All these thoughts are particularly to help us at a time when we feel our weakness; we feel the need of strength in days when the testimony in an outward sense is in frail circumstances God is in that.

R.C.H. You were mentioning that Peter and John here were acting in the power of the Spirit. Do you feel our having that power available to us today would enable us to do what Peter and John did, or was that something special to them, that they were able to have this man rise up and walk?

A.J.E.W. I take it that the Spirit's power is equal to carrying through whatever may be in God's mind for us to carry through. We cannot overlook the broken condition of things in our time, but we can rightly be with God about it, and we can be assured that as the Lord directs things, and as the administration of the wealth of heaven proceeds, the Spirit will give adequacy of power to carry through any feature of activity that may be determined of God. It is not that I can stand up and say, 'I am like Peter was at the beginning', or 'like John was at the beginning', that is not the point. Administration out of heaven has the control and the ordering of things up there. We need to stand in reference to it. It would be a presumption for any one of us to claim to do just what Peter and John did, because Peter and John were answering to the Lord's mind, the Spirit's mind, in what they did - though that is open to us too. What may be needed to be carried through in our day is something which can be left very safely in the Lord's hands, and we would just seek to be available, according to the measure that God gives us, to fill out what the Lord may have in mind. That is the way the administration proceeds.

S.E.H. You are stressing the thought of God's dispensation which is in faith, and according to verse 16 it is "by faith in his name, his name has made this man strong whom ye behold and know· and the faith which is by him has given him this complete soundness in the presence of you all". Peter indicates the importance of faith here, faith in His name, in connection with this man being made sound. What would you say about that in our time?

A.J.E.W. The dispensation, as we have quoted, is in faith; that is its whole character. There will be a time yet to come in which an administration of this quality will be manifest to all. Think of the world to come - what a magnificent thing to think about and speak about, the "world which is to come, of which we speak" (Heb 2: 5), when everything will be in perfect order and everything will be seen to be under Christ. What an administration that shall be! Faith would lay hold of that, and faith would lay hold of the fact that the glorious Person who will be in pre-eminence publicly then is for us, through faith, pre-eminent now. Not only is He apprehended by us in His pre-eminent position, but the knowledge of Him becomes in us power to carry matters through in reference to Him.

T.E.D. In Hebrews 11 each of those drawn attention to acted in accord with their link with heaven in their own peculiar time, and in the manner in which God helped them to proceed. There are no two alike that I know of in that list. Would that bear on what you are saying?

A.J.E.W. It does in a most distinct way, particularly in some of the things that are said in that chapter. For example, towards the end we have the reference to those who "quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword" (v 34), and lower down we have those who are "stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, died by the death of the sword" (v 37). In the one instance there is escape from the edge of the sword, and in another dying by the death of the sword. The unregulated human mind would say that is something of a paradox, but it merely answers to the fact that these men of faith acted in the light of what the divine thought was for the moment to carry forward the divine interests.

T.E.D. It is not for me to ask or say, 'Which do I want?’ My desire should be, do you think, as in verse 4: "And Peter, looking stedfastly... " and then, "he gave heed to them". Is that not faith active in view of the moment and what heaven might do?

A.J.E.W. That is it. You see what Peter says: "Silver and gold I have not"; he speaks from his own viewpoint, which in a certain sense he had to do. The previous word was, "Look on us"; but then Peter takes up things in his own faith, and he pursues it on that basis.

R.N.H. These names here, the gate called Beautiful and Solomon's portico, seem to suggest a character of things which is over against what is earthly. Peter speaks as to silver and gold, the temporal side, and there seems to be a contrast in how these men proceed.

A.J.E.W. It corresponds with what we spoke of as the moral overthrow of Judaism. This gate of the temple, although it is part of the Jewish economy, has a name with a much wider bearing, as if to hint at something greater that God has in His mind.

Now Stephen is of course a great sufferer, and in suffering he uniquely brings forward the Spirit of Christ: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge"; that is, the time is one of suffering. The testimony is in suffering circumstances because it is a testimony to one who suffered supremely, whether it be at the hand of men or under the mighty hand of God, but especially in this instance the former, the tribulations that stand related to the testimony of the Christ. You feel how heaven is supporting this man in a unique way, and he fills out the position with remarkable power and appropriateness, full of the Holy Spirit: "having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God"; that is, he is livingly in touch with what is up there and he is able, although in somewhat different terms' to describe it: "Lo, I behold the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God". He is in the fullest touch with the divine centre of things in heaven, which becomes a basis of strength for him to accept suffering of an intensive kind in respect of things here.

S.E.H. Would you say this would be an actual, physical matter or something that he saw by faith?

A.J.E.W. This is taking place in the time of an exalted Christ and of the presence of the Spirit. This is not taking place in the days of the Lord's flesh down here, nor is it in the forty days when He would come in and say "Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see me having", Luke 24: 39. I take it that the intention is here to convey the wonderful impressions that Stephen gained as a man described as being full of the Holy Spirit and fixing his eyes on heaven. I think it would be difficult to draw a sharp distinction between what we may think we actually see and what we see by faith, because this is the time of faith, the time of the Spirit, the time of Christ exalted. He saw Him up there. You might raise a very similar question as to how Saul of Tarsus saw Jesus when He appeared to him out of heaven.

G.H. It says, "having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God". What is involved in that?

A.J.E.W. Well, we can not go further than Scripture goes. It would be difficult for us to define precisely that character of glory he saw, but whatever he saw he would say to himself, I have seen the glory of God. I suppose he had seen it in Jesus. He had seen a Man up there who, in al! that shines into wondrous expression in Him, reflects the glory of God.

C.F.D. That helps us to get an impression of what his experience was. The Spirit of God records this for us as Stephen's own experience, that of a man full of the Holy Spirit with the heavens opened. The heavens were opened to Jesus (see Matt 3: 16); but here it is an interesting matter that to a man who was not an apostle, as you were emphasising previously, but a man who was full of the Holy Spirit, the heavens were opened and he had a distinct view of the glory of God, which I am sure, as you say, was really shining in Jesus.

A.J.E.W. How he was affected by it! We can see how the whole heavenly course of things is finding its reflection in a man down here in suffering circumstances. While it may not be in the measure of what we see in Stephen, the suffering circumstances of the testimony are very real for many of the saints at the present time, and real in some respect, I would think, for most of us. Yet heaven is still active, divine administration is still working, and it is bringing out this Christ-like feature in the course of the testimony that is to yield so much for God. Stephen was the means of bringing it out for the moment.

C.F.D. If we could just let that get into our souls the fact that what he saw there at the right hand of God became reflected in a man in testimony - it opens up a wonderful vista for us. Can we be really reflective of what is heavenly?

J.A.P. The witness of Stephen was not lost, which is very fine in the sense that Paul got something, and the writer of this book; so these things are not lost and they are very real.

A.J.E.W. In the midst of suffering circumstances for Stephen, the greatest servant, I suppose, that God has had outside of Christ is secured, at least in his initial impressions. He clearly indicates that in speaking of consenting to Stephen being killed. There was something wrought in Paul here which soon comes to light and which the Lord still uses. His hand is over all that, He is just arranging every detail, but in arranging every detail He has those who can enter into the detail with Him and fruitfully for God Himself.

G.D.P. That is very helpful because Saul is with the disciples finally.

A.J.E.W. When we come to chapter 9, there is Ananias as one that the Lord can take up. Ananias was immediately there and available, and the Lord speaks to him and sends him, and he goes. He speaks to the Lord about his knowledge of Saul of Tarsus and is adjusted by the Lord in respect of it, and he goes forward and becomes to this man, the beloved apostle Paul as he became, an indication of just what the 'Me' meant which the Lord used in arresting him. Ananias would be an expression of the 'Me', he would learn the character of what was found of Jesus here below. The character of it was that despite all that Paul had engaged upon there was one who would have been the subject of his persecution, who now says "Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me". Ananias really becomes expressive of the whole spirit of this wonderful dispensation.

T.E.D. That brings out, does it not? that the need is our being available for divine help. Do you not feel sometimes we are just on the verge of divine help, but we spoil it by the intrusion of our natural thinking, our own ideas, or the way we go about something. Ananias here is so submissive and amenable to the touch from the Lord that he does exactly what heaven would have him do.

A.J.E.W. I think that is remarkable because who of us does not need adjustment from time to time, especially as we engage in any little measure of service? It is almost as if the Lord would say to us, There is an adjustment necessary with Ananias but I can use him in spite of that; I can get him right and he can be used of Me in a way that rightly reflects the character of the whole administration up there. Is that not fine? I suppose we might even say justly, Just a simple brother in Damascus is signally used of the Lord.

T.E.D. In Judges a sister said "From heaven was the fight", but then she also says "The stars from their courses fought with Sisera", Judg 5: 20. She is thinking of the whole order in heaven, the stars are in their courses and they are working together. Now can I be in relation to that?

A.J.E.W. As remarked, I have been a little inclined to look at the detail of the Acts without grasping the magnificence of its wider bearing. You know how Mr Taylor used to say that it could be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, which is a fine thing, but how are the acts of the Holy Spirit conducted? Men here are taken under the Lord's hand to pursue so much in His interests.

 

PLAINFIELD

22 October 1982

 

Key to initials

C.F.Dadd; R.C.Hesterman; G.D.Pfingst; T.E.Druckenmiller; G.Hesterman; R.N.Hesterman; S.E.Hesterman; J.A.Petersen (all of Plainfield); A.J.E.Welch, London