POWER
POWER
FER In Acts 2 and 3 you get the two great principles of christianity, namely, the witness and the name. There is the witness of the Spirit and the power of Christ’s name. What is connected with the name is power.
JSO Does the name imply, that the One whose name it is, is present?
FER Yes, it is the power, or rather the renown of the One who is not here.
JSO The name carries with it the faith of all that He was here.
FER You can anticipate all that will be known at His coming because His name carries everything. It is very important to apprehend where the power of christianity is, particularly in a day of departure such as we are in now.
JMcK There was a display of power here which we have not now.
FER It is all a question of faith in His name. It was through faith in His name. If there is an apparent lack of power with us, it is because there is a lack of faith in His name.
JSO Still you may have greater results morally than what are here in this miracle.
FER We must take the chapter as it stands. I have no doubt that lame man was a picture of Israel. It is the fulfilment of Isaiah; “Then shall the lame man leap as a hart”. Before there was any act of power the Holy Spirit had come. The first point was to account for the presence of the Holy Spirit, which the apostle does in chapter 2. Chapter 3 is distinct from chapter 2: the point in it is the name.
JSA Does the name go further than [p. 48] being made Lord?
FER Every interest of earth is carried up to heaven in the person of Christ. Nothing has been let go, all is carried up to heaven.
Ques What are the interests of earth?
FER The restitution of all things, of which the prophets have spoken. God had many interests on earth but they are carried up to heaven in Jesus glorified.
JSO Every purpose of God has its centre in Him and therefore all power is committed unto Him.
FER Yes, he came down to earth to take everything up to heaven in His Person and therefore the heavens must receive Him until the time of the restitution of all things. Everything has now to come out of heaven.
DLH Does faith in His name refer to Peter or the blind man or to both?
FER To Peter I thought. It was the apostle’s faith in His name which brought about the raising up of the lame man.
DLH The testimony was received by the man?
FER The point is it acted on the man. Peter and John really took the initiative, not the man.
DLH The man had nothing to begin with; how do you apply that now?
FER My impression is this, that everything begins with faith in the name.
DLH That would greatly characterise the preacher.
FER I think so. It is not only the faith of an apostle, it may be anybody’s faith. The point in this chapter is really showing the secret of power, real power down here. After all what appears to be power in the world is not power at all. For instance, armaments, they are not really power, they only tend to destruction.
JSA There is really more power in moral things than in material.
FER There is no real power outside the name of Jesus. What tends to destruction and to promote the [p. 49] pride and glory of man is not power to me, I see no power in it.
JSO The point at the moment was that the power was in the name of the One they had crucified.
FER Exactly, it was the glorified Man whom the heavens must receive until the restitution of all things.
JSO Another thing in the chapter, is that it is power displayed in grace.
FER The lame man was a picture of Israel. He had been impotent from his birth and was about forty years old. The power of His name will be revived in Israel and they will be raised up.
JSO In the same way as the remnant were added to the assembly in chapter 2.
FER Exactly, the power of His name will raise them up. ‘Name’ is the renown of the One in heaven whom God has glorified. The fact is this, that such a tremendous deal is gathered up in the name that it is difficult to give any definite idea in regard to it.
DLH I suppose that this was all in the way of testimony here?
FER Yes, at the beginning of every dispensation you get set forth what would characterise that dispensation, and the two great principles characterising christianity, are the witness and the name. The witness brings in the church because the Spirit is given to them that obey Him, and the name brings in power.
JSO Both necessitated by the absence of Christ.
FER Exactly, you see in them the true substance of christianity, what is abiding and cannot be touched. A man has no power in this world beyond his faith in His name.
JSO It is very important to get an idea of the character of the dispensation.
FER That is a point of the last moment, and you get it set forth at the outset. The first thing for us is to be in the power of the witness — you must be in the light of the church — no man can really come out in power [p. 50] without support, a man cannot do without support, and he must either have the support of the Spirit — the witness — or else he will lean on christendom. Take any man who has left us, a man who had the place of being a servant, and without exception you will find that every man falls back on the support of christendom. Somebody told me two days ago, that he happened to be going through the Strand and went into Exeter Hall, upon looking into one of the smaller rooms, he saw there a brother who had had a great name among us as an evangelist surrounded by some twenty young women and a harmonium being played. On enquiring he was told that this brother was conducting a mission in connection with Y.M.C.A. so that he had fallen entirely upon the support of christendom. Man must be supported in some way either by the Spirit or christendom, but you will not get the support of the Spirit if you ignore the church.
Ques Will not the Spirit keep a man up to his light?
FER It will keep him toward the light. Our work is to enlighten. God can bear with a very great deal from people going towards the light, but it is another thing altogether when they are going away from it. If a man wants to be in real power, the power of the Spirit, he must recognise the church.
DLH It is perfectly obvious that the Spirit would support such as had God’s interests near their hearts.
FER I cannot conceive of a man getting the support of the Spirit who does not recognise the vessel of the Spirit, the Spirit is not here apart from the vessel.
JSA And he could not have the Spirit without being connected with the church.
FER The fact of having the Spirit brings him into the church.
JSA So that practically he denies the church.
FER Exactly, he is denying the truth of his own existence. Where people carry on their work by the support of christendom they help on christendom and not what is for God. People are converted and they go to the [p. 51] systems and give their light to the systems, that is to christendom.
JMcK I suppose you can only have the Spirit’s support as we are going on with the Lord.
FER You must be in that which the Spirit has come here to form and to maintain here, the house of God and the body of Christ.
JMcK Take those gone out from us, had they the Spirit’s support while they were with us?
JSO They were responsible for the light and position in which they were.
FER Exactly.
THB They might have the light of the church at one time, and be judicially blinded.
FER It is very difficult to say. A man may go very far in a way, and yet turn away as did the Hebrews.
AEW Light is no evidence of power.
FER You will not get power without light.
JSO God will yet accomplish in the remnant what was accomplished in this man.
FER Exactly. “Then shall the lame man leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing”. The point for us, is what have we got? there is no hope for Israel for the moment. It is remarkable what comes out in the end of the chapter “Ye are the sons of the prophets” etc., and “in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed”. What He did to Israel was really the beginning of His purpose in regard to all the families of the earth. Peter says “To you first”. It was first to the Jew, but the testimony was to go out to all the families of the earth, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem”.
JSO And so Paul was converted with that object “I will send thee to the nations afar off”.
FER The resurrection has placed Christ in relation [p. 52] to all men. After the flesh He was limited to Israel in a sense. That is what the apostle means by saying to Timothy “Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead, of the seed of David, according to my glad tidings”. Resurrection put Him in relation to all men.
Ques Do you take raised up in verse 26 as resurrection?
FER Oh no, but the point in the verse is ‘first’, “To you first”. The presence of Christ here among the Jews was really only the beginning. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself”.
JSO And in the death of Christ everything closes with the Jew, on that ground as regarded the promises, they had forfeited everything.
FER God carried out His purpose in the raising of Christ.
JSO Christ is never spoken of as head of a race, though He is head of all men.
FER He is head and centre of every circle and the church is His body. In Romans 5 He is put in relation to all men.
Ques “... such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”. Is it head?
FER I think so in a way, the heavenly are all in the body.
DLH Would you say a word about the head?
FER I cannot understand for a moment how God could approach man in grace apart from a head, apart from a head there is an impossible barrier between God and man because God’s judgment lay upon man and God could not ignore His own judgment. The way God has set to work is to introduce a head, and that head has taken up every liability of man, and now in the name of a head, repentance and forgiveness of sins is preached to man.
DLH When it says “Through our Lord Jesus Christ” is it on God’s part manward?
FER Yes, authority, administration and lordship,
[p. 53] is all against the power of evil and we stand in His power, Righteousness comes in with His position as head, Lord brings in salvation.
Ques Do you connect “Power over all flesh” with Him as head or as lord?
FER As ‘last Adam’ He is head to all men, but all men are not in Christ as in 1 Corinthians 15, there it is the saints. He as priest stands between the living and the dead. The head is the priest, but He represents the living not the dead. He is head of every family, every circle.
DLH God has now a man entirely to His own satisfaction.
FER In preaching you have to bring a man to righteousness, the gospel proposes righteousness for God, and a man’s first necessity is righteousness and salvation follows upon that.
JSO Righteousness is in view of salvation.
Ques What is “Firstborn of all creation?”
FER He is pre-eminent, the beginning.
JSO He is judge of living and dead too.
FER The same One who carries righteousness to all men, is appointed judge of living and dead. I should like to be here in the faith of His name, in the import of it, what is set forth in Him.