PREPARATION FOR THE RECEPTION OF THE SPIRIT

^[p. 213] PREPARATION FOR THE RECEPTION OF THE SPIRIT

Acts 1: 15 - 26; Acts 10:1-4; Acts 10:44

I purpose in reading these scriptures to seek to show what preparation is needed for the reception of the Holy Spirit. The whole of this first chapter could be read to enlarge on that point; for preparation is needed, and that preparation has to be regarded as the work of God, having, or characterised by, its own development, involving the new birth; but also the endings of the gospels, especially Mark, showing that much was needed to be done in this respect before the Lord died and after He rose. Mark shows the Lord’s personal work, both what He did on earth, and after His resurrection; and how much had to be done! Mark 16 tells us, as the others do, that the Lord arose, and we read in the early part of the chapter of certain things that indicated grave unbelief among those who should have been believers; even the women who had waited during the sabbath to embalm Him, were afraid as the young man in white spoke to them, “and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid” (verse 8). So that if what was recorded up to this verse was all there was, it would be difficult to show that the Lord’s work was a success. But then verse 9 shows that the Lord took the matter in hand, as He always does, as we fail in what is manifestly needed. So He appeared to Mary Magdalene, “out of whom he had cast seven demons”, but the disciples failed, the apostles failed, they were unbelieving, and the Lord immediately rebuked them as they were eating at table in unbelief; reminding us of how little external advantage helps us, unless it is supported by the work of God, for I am dealing with things before the ^[p. 214] reception of the Spirit. He goes on to tell them to “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation” (verse 15). We may enquire as to the consistency of this, ‘How is the world to be evangelised by eleven unbelieving men?’ But the Lord knew their unbelief was superficial, not deep; and that is the encouragement now; the work has been going on and there is a wide effect; many are converted; and there is also this that He is dealing with one family, the assembly. The work in the eleven men, and the women, too, was genuine; no such handiwork had been before, like the handiwork of the Lord Jesus, as a Man operating in those the Father had given Him. Hence the command can be recorded, “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”, that is, to unbelieving men, at least at the moment; and He also said many other things. I may remind you of other things that He said (verse 16), “He that believes and is baptised shall be saved, and he that disbelieves shall be condemned”, and saying that to eleven men who were unbelievers! And another thing that was said was that He, Himself, “was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God” (verse 19), without remarking what was at fault, to assure us that all would be well; He knew the depth of His own work; and so it is today, all will be gathered up, and nothing will be lost, “knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15: 58); let us continue in it, and abound in it. The Lord will bring it into fruition; He can work in a short time, “in the twinkling of an eye”; and so He “sat at the right hand of God”. That is Mark’s account. Much had to be done, yet He sat, which means that we are able to take time in the work of God, be deliberate, contemplative, and do things with method, as Luke did (Luke 1: 3), and in due time the results will come. He “sat at the right hand of God”, and so, as I said, this chapter in Luke’s second treatise might be read to prove what I am remarking on. I refer to the verses read, and the account of Peter’s address. His gospel address awaited the Holy Spirit’s coming; even the word in Mark 16, “preach the glad tidings to all the creation” has that in mind; for all awaited the advent of the Holy Spirit, and Peter awaited the advent of the Holy Spirit, but he did not await that advent to speak of what happened to Judas in the interim. I am not speaking of it, but I had to read it; a terrible thing, like the death of Herod in chapter 12; it is the severity of God; Paul says, “Behold then the goodness and severity of God” (Romans 11: 22); He can be severe if necessary. How terrible the penalty on Judas and on Herod. So Peter quoted this psalm, the same Peter that was unbelieving, who did not believe Mary of Magdala’s message, and he is telling us what he saw was needed to be done. For indeed also a new book, the second treatise of Luke, the man of method, was needed! So Peter says in verse 21 (passing over what he said as to Judas), “It is necessary therefore, that of the men who have assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day in which he was taken up from us, one of these should be a witness with us of his resurrection”. So you see, dear brethren, Peter had already been unbelieving as to the resurrection; Peter was unbelieving at a certain time, but not now. That is the point, what are we doing, or not doing, now. He is concerned as to the apostleship and the service, though as yet he had not received the Spirit, but the work was progressing in spite of that. He is progressing. Are we all doing that, or are we retrograding? The work is going on, and not one to be numbered among the brethren of the Lord, among the assembly, will be lost. If we are restful there will be plenty of time.

^[p. 216] But the forty days had elapsed, and Peter is going on, and yet he had not the Holy Spirit. You will see what I am at. Then there was to be the full number of the apostles. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: 5, that the Lord “appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve”; there must be the twelve. He did not appear to the others first, but to Peter first; he took on the matter, “first Simon, who was called Peter” (Matthew 10: 2); and the great need is leadership, not to be a leader, but the need for leading. Peter had not been told, but he is doing the right thing, he is leading. One must be appointed, it must be “one of these”. “And they appointed two”; wisdom is employed, because “Two are better than one”, Ecclesiastes 4: 9. Matthias is chosen, and the twelve are now there. The work of the Lord is going on according to the divine plan, and according to love; there are no short cuts in the “way of more surpassing excellence”, for it is the short way, and “Love never fails”, 1 Corinthians 12: 31 and 1 Corinthians 13: 8. So there is no committee chosen to fill the gap, a lot must be cast; heaven must act, and it did act, “and the lot fell on Matthias”. Paul speaks of the twelve (including Matthias), as if to show the completeness as to administration, that we may learn to keep our sabbaths, not to go to the sea coast, but to be before God. He rested on the seventh day, “and was refreshed”, Exodus 31: 17. So Jehovah set the example; the need to keep our sabbaths is great, for there is more to be done in us than by us. We pray for results lustily, but maybe the workmen are not keeping their sabbaths, which means being restful. I do not mean that we are not to get tired; there is nothing wrong in that, for the Lord was tired; but Jehovah rested on the seventh day, “and was refreshed”.

I want to speak of what is needed to qualify for the reception of the Holy Spirit, that the whole ^[p. 217] number are there, the missing apostle was there, “And they gave lots on them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles”. I should have said that Matthias was the appointed one; the missing apostle was Matthias by heaven’s appointment; not now to enlarge on this, as time is flying, and we must have a word on chapter 10.

Fresh material is in mind, not raw material, for we are coming to Cornelius. The Spirit came to the company at Jerusalem; the apostles were there in the upper room, for it says, “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called the mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey off. And when they were come into the city, they went up to the upper chamber” (verses 12, 13); the disciples were housed there. “Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren”, they were all there; all His brethren, it means, were saved, a touching thing that His relatives are referred to at all. It is a word for parents, that we have faith as to our children. Now, as to Cornelius, and the coming in of the Gentiles. There were Jews here, they were subjects of the Lord’s own work in view of what was necessary, and the Lord waited forty days for it to come about. We need to see that divine Persons are working by the Holy Spirit; the Lord had worked and we see the work that was needed before the Holy Spirit could come in. Divine Persons can wait, forty days, and ten days more, all showing, when the time comes, the perfected work seen in Peter. So Paul says, “to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ”, Colossians 1: 28. Peter was such, a piece of work from the hands of the Lord Jesus; I say this in view of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in us. I come now to Cornelius. The matter was settled as to Jerusalem; the vacancy had been filled by the eleven, and God confirms what they did, and chapter 2 ^[p. 218] brings out how glorious is the result; it was indeed no accident. Now waiting is necessary. The work in Cornelius had gone on before ever he had seen Peter and before the Holy Spirit came. So it was not raw material, but prepared material; so we read, “But a certain man in Caesarea, — by name Cornelius, a centurion of the band called Italic, pious, and fearing God with all his house, both giving much alms to the people, and supplicating God continually, — saw plainly in a vision, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming unto him, and saying to him, Cornelius. But he, having fixed his eyes upon him, and become full of fear, said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Thy prayers and thine alms have gone up for a memorial before God”. He knows how to speak to the Lord, even if he has not the Spirit (I am not saying he is speaking to the Lord Jesus); and what a memorial! How could it be? It is the work of God, before the Spirit comes into the believer. You may question why I make so much of the Holy Spirit; but He is to be made much of as coming in to dwell in the believer. The work of God goes back to Adam. God was there, and He wrought what was in Eve, in Enoch, in Noah, and God has been working all the time. Even in the eastern world, God is working all the time; they are not given up. People are being born again, and like Peter, they know what to do in the absence of Christ. Cornelius was known in heaven, and without the Spirit. Yes, I am speaking of God and of what He can do. The angel comes to Cornelius and says, “Thy prayers and thine alms have gone up for a memorial before God”. The whole chapter works out this thing, I am only touching on it. If we look for a revival, let us look at God and how He works, and be zealous in the work, and do it according to method, and keep our sabbaths, and the effects of His gracious influence will help us to grow up according to His ^[p. 219] mind. This man prayed and gave alms and “thy prayers and thine alms have gone up for a memorial before God”; it is not just doing things, but that there is a memorial, up there, before God, all that has gone up since Adam, and this is adding, as it were, adding to the assembly, adding “those that were to be saved”, Acts 2: 47. We need to make room in our houses and in the assemblies for the gift of the Spirit. One has often wondered what the midwives’ houses were like, for it says in Exodus 1: 21, “because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses”. And then I have wondered what this memorial was like. We have spoken today of the memorial of the Supper. If I went to heaven today I should see it, and more than that, I should see Cornelius there; a great joy to see the saints! What lessons Peter had to learn in order that Cornelius should be rightly preached to; I do not know what meeting-room he would expect! We spoke of meetings in houses this afternoon, and of the upper room. It belonged to someone, and the Lord demanded it, “The Teacher says to thee, Where is the guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples?” (Luke 22: 11). Anyone who has a meeting in his house, Scripture speaks well of that! This man was a Roman officer; he was like the “most excellent Theophilus” that Luke speaks of (Luke 1: 3); we have all to be brought to the way God works, and the works we do are to be properly done; anything will not do. Maybe this meeting-room in Acts 10 was Cornelius’s drawing-room, “Now therefore we are all present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God” (verse 33); what satisfaction he showed that the angel had spoken of Peter coming, and now heaven was looking on with great pleasure at things being done, and let us not be saying too much about the tiredness, but be keeping our sabbaths; so “We are all present before God”,

^[p. 220] Cornelius says, and at the end of the chapter the Holy Spirit came into it, so “While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word” (verse 44); He “fell upon” them; you can see how this links with our ideas of receiving the Spirit; we say, ‘so-and-so has not the Holy Spirit’, and that we had better be careful not to receive any one; but “the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word” the man was speaking, and the Holy Spirit fell; we have never seen that! It is more than sealing. Am I worth while; is there anything to show that I am God’s property? All this had gone on with Cornelius, and now he had a house ready for Peter, but the Holy Spirit’s coming, he had not thought of that! God has a right to give the Holy Spirit where there is fitness qualifying for Him. “While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell”, not simply the Spirit was there, but it was His own action, it was like the Father’s action in Luke 15, He “fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses”, He laid hold of His own property, divine property, living property, like Paul laying hold on Eutychus in Acts 20, “Paul descending fell upon him, and enfolding him in his arms, said, Be not troubled, for his life is in him”, a beautiful touch as to his affections, a living boy, belonging to the assembly. The Spirit lays hold of us to put us into the assembly that we may function in the assembly. May God help us that there may be more for the great going up; all possible by the Spirit.