THE ACTIVITIES OF THE LORD
[p. 237] THE ACTIVITIES OF THE LORD
I desire to shew you, if I can, the great importance of what comes before us in this chapter. It presents a new starting-point in the ways of God, and I wish to make that plain. We have in this chapter the first account in the Acts of the Lord in activity from on high. In chapter 1 He gives commandments to the apostles, and ascends to heaven, and in chapter 7 Stephen looks up and sees Him standing on the right hand of God.
Now in this chapter the Lord is seen in activity, and that signifies a new starting-point. What took place previously in a certain sense overlapped — it was the end, but here we get the real beginning. And the chapter is interesting in that it presents the character of the Lord’s activities from the start to the finish: it brings in view the “world to come”, for that is, I suppose, the point at the end of the chapter.
I do not think that people generally understand the difference between Christ as Head and as Lord. He is both. It is a question of the way in which you apprehend Christ. If you apprehend Him on the part of man He is Head, and if you apprehend Him on the part of God He is Lord of all.
As an illustration. Supposing the House of Commons were summoned to the House of Lords to hear a proclamation from the Prince of Wales on behalf of the Queen, it would go headed by the Speaker — its head. In the House of Lords the Prince of Wales would represent the Queen. The House of Commons would be in accord with the Speaker, who is the first Commoner and the head, not the lord, of the house. In the House of Lords the Queen would be represented by the Prince of Wales — he would represent the authority of the Queen.
So Christ, as Lord, represents to us all the authority [p. 238] of God, but He is also Head as to man. He is the Head, and we are of Him, because we have partaken of His Spirit, and if we have partaken of the Spirit of Christ then we are Christ’s. We recognise Him as Head, and He directs us. That is the position of christians. Now in Acts 9 we do not see the Head, but the Lord. We have the Person who is Head, but He is seen here as Lord. Two thoughts are connected with lordship — first there is administration.
We get an illustration of the Lord’s administration in His feeding of the multitude in Matthew 14. He used the disciples in connection with the administration, but He Himself was the Administrator.
The second thought connected with lordship is subduing power. (Philippians 3: 20) “We await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”. Here we get the subduing power which is His as Lord. There is also connected with Him as Lord the thought of authority and judgment, for all judgment is committed to Him; but that has mainly to do with enemies. God has brought us into the kingdom of the Son of His love that we may be able to stand against the power of evil. We are to “Be strong in the Lord”. We ought to have a great sense of the authority of Christ as Lord as against all that is contrary to God; every enemy will be subdued by Him, even death itself. He will enforce authority over death, and the dead will come forth out of their graves; His authority is made good in that all judgment is committed to Him.
Now before taking up the detail of this chapter I refer to the two previous ones, chapter 7: 54 - 60, 8: 32 - 38. In chapter 7 we see Stephen looking up to heaven, where he sees the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, verses 55 - 60. The Jews stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice,
[p. 239] Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep”.
Then at the close of the next chapter (verses 33 - 39) we get the account of the enlightenment of the eunuch. And Philip baptised him. He passed out of sight. What I want to shew is that we have in these chapters the termination of that which had previously existed for God; and this is important for this reason, you could not get a new starting-point in chapter 9 if all had not first been closed up with regard to the things that previously existed for God. You could not understand the Lord’s action in this chapter otherwise, and it gives to this chapter great importance. The Lord has no present connection with this world. He is rejected, and sits on the right hand of God, and His present activity is to lead us outside this scene.
The time will come when the Lord will have to say to the world; that will be in authority and judgment, but that does not hinder His activities now, which are not exercised with relation to the world, and therefore I would not go to the Lord in connection with anything of the world. He is active as concerning His people down here, but His activity is in order to lead the subjects of it out of the world.
The object of chapter 7 is to shew that every promise and purpose of God connected with the earth has been taken from the earth, and carried up in Jesus into heaven. Every interest of God connected with the Jew — His earthly people — has been carried up into heaven in the Person of Christ.
Stephen saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. The Son of man, the centre of all God’s purposes, is on the right hand of God, and Stephen was going to heaven to Him. There was a complete end of all on earth. God had repudiated the temple. He says, “Heaven is my throne”, &c. Every promise and purpose was carried up for the time into heaven.
Now in chapter 8 Philip explains to the eunuch in regard to Jesus that His life is taken from the earth. The [p. 240] eunuch was a God-fearing man, but he did not understand what he read. Philip interprets it to him, and when he understood it he says, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” He apprehended that the life of Jesus had been taken from the earth, and he desired to be identified with His death. Baptism signified the end of every hope and expectation here, as connected with the flesh, and from the point of baptism there is nothing whatever for the one baptised but what is from the Spirit of God, and He will enable man’s soul to live in the reality of the love and mercy of God. I wish all would take this in. The Spirit will enable you to live in the region which God has opened out for you in the revelation of His love and mercy. He will set Himself against the flesh. If you accept your baptism, you will expect nothing from the flesh, but you will find everything in the Spirit.
And then chapter 9 is given to us to shew us the activities of Christ now as Lord on high, acting in subduing power here, and it carries us on to the kingdom and the power of the world to come, which is probably seen in the raising up of Aeneas and of Tabitha, at the close of it. I desire to shew you the effect of this power and these activities.
The first to come under the influence of this power was Saul of Tarsus. Chapter 9: 1 - 9.
I have no doubt that the purpose of the Lord in this was to raise up a very special instrument, and the work of this instrument was to take precedence of all that had been before. Not that God ignored what had taken place previously to this, but the new takes precedence of the old. What is expressed in the case of Saul is not the exercise of authority in judgment, but subduing power.
Saul was a most contrary man, but we see in him the Lord’s activity in “the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself”.
If you ask me whether I do not think that there was also a work of God in Saul, I say there was, but that is [p. 241] not the point here; the side we get here is the subduing power of the Lord, and Saul could not stand before it. In the lifetime of Christ on earth we find that the character of His activities was of the nature of subduing. If He found those who were suffering under the power of evil He subdued it. Here He subdues Saul of Tarsus, and He can do the same thing today if He sees fit; for that same subduing power is found in Him; and presently He will exercise that mighty power with regard to our bodies. It is a wonderful thought.
Now in verses 10 - 16 we come to another point and that is administration. The power of the Lord is there put forth not exactly in subduing, for Ananias was a disciple, but in appointing a vessel through which the Lord could administer. It is another interesting activity of power in connection with Christ as Lord. An object of His administration is to bring souls into christian fellowship.
Baptism is a very important point in this. It is intended to dissociate you from all that is contrary to the Lord, and the activities of the Lord are exercised in order to bring you into the blessings of christian fellowship, and we see here this administration, which belongs to Christ as Lord, and in which He takes up this person or that person to carry out His will. Ananias at first makes objections. The Lord says to him, “Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel”. Christ in glory was to be preached by Paul to the gentiles, but the activity of the Lord towards Saul personally was to bring him into the reality and blessing of christian fellowship. It is a great thing now for a man to be separated from the contamination down here, so as to be a vessel sanctified and fit for the Master’s use, for we have come to a time when only “the Lord knows those that are his”.
In verses 26, 27 there is a point further. When Saul was come to Jerusalem he assayed to join himself to the disciples. But they were afraid of him. Then Barnabas [p. 242] related how he had seen the Lord (not the Christ) in the way. All this shews the activities of the Lord. And Saul is a chosen vessel in whom He would shew His activities.
Then in verse 31 we get the disciples walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and being ‘multiplied’. It is a beautiful picture of the effect of the activities of the Lord down here on earth. Now that is the end of that part. We have seen the activities of the Lord, and the purpose of them, not with regard to what transpires in the world, but in regard to His people and His own interests. What goes on in the world does not affect me, save that I ask, How is the Lord’s testimony affected by it?
Now in the raising up of Aeneas (verse 33) we get a sample of the power of the world to come: “And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord”. It does not say were converted, but they turned to the Lord, they were affected.
Again, in verse 42 it is said, “many believed in the Lord”. The effect of the Lord’s activity through Peter in the raising up of Dorcas was that “many believed in the Lord”. This activity of power shews that which will be in exercise in regard to the world to come, with the effect — that “many believed in the Lord”. It is connected with Peter and the kingdom.
Is it not a great comfort to know that the Lord can subdue now to Himself? He takes up often the most unlikely persons in which to exercise that subduing power; we are each and all a proof of it. He prepares instruments to do His work, and Ananias is an example of this.
How did it come about that the assemblies had rest from the persecutions they had been suffering through the hatred of Saul? Not by the crushing of the persecutor, but by taking him up in the subduing power of grace and making him an instrument of the Lord’s own blessed activities; and right it was that the assemblies should have rest as the result of the Lord’s gracious activity towards [p. 243] the persecutor. We can walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit now. The Lord says, as to Saul, “I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake”.
It was right that he should suffer, governmentally right, for he had made others suffer. The great apostle of the persecution was taken up and made a chosen vessel.
The Lord exercises His subduing power with regard to saints, that they may be brought into the reality and blessing of christian fellowship, and prepares us for any little bit of service in which He may see fit to use us. The assembly is to be now walking in the fear of the Lord — finding the Lord a present reality; and our mainstay down here is the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It is a comfort that never can fail you. If you look for comfort only in texts of scripture, that may fail you; but the comfort of the Holy Spirit will never fail you. We have to look to it that we are found walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. There will come a time when the powers of the kingdom will be made manifest by a general subjugation to the Lord. But now we have to say to the Lord in His blessed subduing power and administration. If you recognise that, you will desire to be a vessel sanctified and fit for the Master’s use — ready for any little bit of work which He may see fit to entrust to you.