"THEIR OWN" - "HIS OWN"
“THEIR OWN” — “HIS OWN”
Acts 4: 23 - 37; John 13:1 - 5
I have read these scriptures because they contain the words “their own” and “his own”. The first reference is to ourselves, that is the saints viewed as ‘our own’, as to whether we are entitled to regard them as thus ‘our own’, as belonging to us. The second is as to what the Lord regards as ‘His own’. As seen first in Acts 4 it forms a sort of picture illustrating what Christianity is; not Christendom it is the greatest of all the dispensations, and the passage contemplates the testimonial position, a characteristic position, too, a characteristic scene of the early days of our dispensation. The thing in mind is that the Lord is bringing us back to such scenes; one is here today, one in which we regard each other as “our own”, excluding all else, that is what is contrary, disallowing it; whether it be fellowship or companionship, we are content to dwell with “our own” people. All is, at least in the chapter we have read, favourable, no adversary is in the midst, or current. In John 13 the Lord is seen in relation with His own, who are said to be in the world; but the group in Acts 4 is not said to be in the world, but in its own sphere, that is love’s sphere unalloyed; whereas in John 13 it is the Lord’s own, only in their midst was the devil, terrifying them; he had already entered into the heart of Judas. The Lord accepted that fact, and His love went on in spite of it in this disadvantageous position. And today, as we see in Acts 4, we have love in its own sphere; and one desires that the brethren should cultivate this, though we cannot prevent Satan coming, as in the early days, when the sons of God came (Job 1:6); and one fears lest we may allow this, “spots in your love-feasts”
[p. 222] as Jude says (verse 12), as sunken rocks. There is the need of untrammelled spheres where love is; it is the greatest need; I say, need, because what we are exposed to outside is terrible, and becoming more terrible; but God is making it possible for us to go through, and conditions are not likely to improve, “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse”, 2 Timothy 3: 13; industrially and politically, it is the same.
I read this passage because we have local positions where love is at home; heaven is the home of love, but so is the assembly, and so the Lord encourages the brethren at the beginning; He said much in those holy speeches to His own, as Paul did in Acts 20; we are not told what he said; it was a long speech, and “there were many lights in the upper room where the saints were assembled” (Acts 20: 8); and so it was the Lord carried on, but in greater variation, and His discourses are very full, and help us to form our own spheres for ministry and fellowship as we have it through Paul’s ministry as outlined in Acts 13 to 17. These are most instructive chapters if we are to work out Christianity in these days in our own company. That word ‘company’ in chapter 4: 23 is not in the original, and the omission of this makes the passage similar to the one in John 13, and helps me to call attention to Christianity as it is at the present moment.
The two principal ones are Peter and John; they had had severe times and cruel persecutions; not that we have such now; but they were most cheerful in these circumstances. They were released, and they “let them go”, which is a very appropriate expression, for our young men are now being let go. One speaks of it, for one has seen as well as heard, they are being formed for greater things, as the Lord says to Nathaniel in John 1: 50, “Thou shalt see greater things than these”, and I should say the [p. 223] young people are coming into greater things, not in this world, but morally. So our hearts are being stirred up, so that we in our turn stir up our young brethren, for they may get into defiling and damaging circumstances, and it is for them to keep themselves; each has to work it out for himself. So the Lord has been working and the brethren have kept themselves in measure, and the Lord tells them that they shall come into greater things, testimonial things. So Peter and John had been suffering, but now as let go, they come to their own company. It was a different letting-go to the one in Acts 13; there it was the brethren letting go Barnabas and Saul as serving the Lord, and all was well, “there is neither adversary nor evil event” as in 1 Kings 5: 4; so the brethren laid their hands on them and let them go. It was the gentle release of love in regard of the two men, setting out to evangelise the Gentile world; no two men ever had such a service; they were workers; and there is to be time for that! Whatever our hands find to do, let us do it with our might! Paul and Barnabas were workers together; the work had turned out to be so great that one brother, one servant, sought out the other unjealously that the work of God might succeed. There is a love-call now for all workers, not a certain class exactly, but workers together, “knowing that your toil” (that is a levitical word) “is not in vain in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 15: 58. And so it was that Paul and Barnabas were real workers, and they worked well as brothers in the city of Antioch, and an assembly was formed there. We seem to say sometimes that the assemblies are growing smaller, but I am sure that the work is progressing and successful towards assembly formation, and we can be encouraged to go on, and what we need is love, and that is what is in chapter 4; it is love in operation; love at home, too; these are things that I greatly desire to be prominent among us.
[p. 224] Peter and John were relating that the efforts of the government to hold them were thwarted, as later on Herod was thwarted when wanting to kill them in chapter 12. God is frustrating these things, and so He is today. So they came to “their own”, not friends or brethren, but simply “our own”; the reaction on the mind is that. Some brethren may turn away and cease to be that; some have turned away, and it is constantly facing us; turning away, they cease to be of”our own”, they take on the world and its things, and we lose our brethren and they turn against us. “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1: 11); it was the Jews now, and Judaism was turning against the Lord, so that when He presented Himself to them (as we get in the gospels, He came to the Jews first) in John, it is said that they had turned against Him, “his own received him not”. In the middle of Luke 9: 51, it says “the days of his receiving up were fulfilled”, meaning that the Jews had turned against Him, because “he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”. They did not want a man who would die, they wanted a warrior; but He did not come for that; the time of His receiving up was near; He came down from the mount to die; it was the “dying of Jesus”, 2 Corinthians 4: 10. But I am speaking of the time of His receiving up; “He came to his own, and his own received him not”; He was not received by those who were His own. Some may be here today who will turn back, and have to say, ‘I was once in the assembly, once I was breaking bread’. I urge it in order that we may not turn aside and cease to be “His own”.
Luke begins with peace on earth (chapter 2: 14), and finishes with peace in heaven (chapter 19: 38); the thing was changed; so it is there is peace in heaven, for the Lord says, “I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven” (Luke 10: 18); he has been cast out;
[p. 225] the great battle between the archangel and the devil is not yet, but it will be; we are to be there then, and to actually sit down in the heavenlies; and so it is each Lord’s day we have access to heaven now; the doors are opened wide, as it were. So Luke finishes with His being “carried up into heaven”, Luke 24: 51.
Now referring to the passage in Acts 4 that we are in now, it is common (though not ordinary), but prevalent, and more and more, for the brethren to have these holy scenes on Saturdays, when they are free to come together; I call attention to what is here now in this very town, this very hall, “And having been let go, they came to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And they, having heard it, lifted up their voice with one accord to God, and said, Lord, thou art the God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them” (verses 23, 24). You see how the Spirit of God puts into their mouths suitable expressions towards God, the Creator; He never loses this character; it will ever be a theme for us; and here are the brethren, where the opposition is, raising a note of praise, as we have today. Has He not heard it? I am sure that He has. Have we not enjoyed it? I am sure that we have. And the desire is to make these occasions more and more, and free from sin. So it goes on, “who hast said by the mouth of thy servant David, Why have the nations raged haughtily and the peoples meditated vain things? The kings of the earth were there, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For in truth against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou hadst anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations, and peoples of Israel, have been gathered together in this city to do whatever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before should come to pass” (verses 25 - 28). How they [p. 226] revert to the counsels of God, and what He permitted; so again we read, “And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings, and give to thy bondmen with all boldness to speak thy word, in that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and that signs and wonders take place through the name of thy holy servant Jesus” (verses 29, 30). A suitable word, and I endeavour to encourage these occasions, that all the part taken in the service should be intelligent and intelligible. So I go on to read verse 31, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness”. And again, “And the heart and soul of the multitude of those that had believed were one, and not one said that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them; and with great power did the apostles give witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (verses 32, 33). This is a scene I want you to notice; the general spirit of the moment; the place the apostles had, especially when liberated, as we see in verse 33. So that once the mass of the brethren come together in a holy way, the apostles (that is the gifts that God has given for the building-up of the saints) have full scope. But I go on to verse 34, “For neither was there any one in want among them; for as many as were owners of lands or houses, selling them, brought the price of what was sold and laid it at the feet of the apostles; and distribution was made to each according as any one might have need”. It shows how love was going on; love was doing it; what a dispensation it is! No one is forgotten, and God delights in love scenes on these lines.
Now I want to show you how personality comes in, so it reads in verse 36, “And Joseph, who had been surnamed Barnabas by the apostles (which is, being [p. 227] interpreted, Son of consolation), a Levite, Cyprian by birth, being possessed of land, having sold it, brought the money and laid it at the feet of the apostles”. I refer to this, and you may see that there are incomers that have to be specially noted because they belong to the community, a holy community, in which all these things are to be seen, and made more and more as the time of translation draws near; as the first word of His power comes, we are to be ready for it; taken out of this scene and translated to a scene of glory. The time is imminent; it is coming, and we are to be in these occasions more and more, and I want to be in it, and I hope everyone here is the same, to be in that wonderful time, for it says (1 Thessalonians 4: 16, 17) “for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”. Now it is a learning time, a preparing time; we are those who love His appearing, when He comes out of heaven with His saints.
Now a word on John 13. This chapter is the beginning of the wonderful discourses of the Lord to His own before He suffered; Luke tells us in Acts 1 of what happened “after he had suffered”. But here John speaks of “the end”; not the end in time, but the end in dangers and suffering, and that He “loved them to the end” in spite of all that. The devil was there, and the world in the offing; we are not there, but they were in the world. We are in the Father’s protection; these meetings are really that. Here the Lord is in the world, and Satan right there, in Judas’ heart; yet love goes on in spite of what is acting. We know it in our care-meetings; these mixed marriages, these terrible things that would deaden the fellowship. Love says, No. He goes [p. 228] through with His own, however severe the consequences. He “loved them to the end”, in spite of Judas, and all that was there. The present knowledge that was in His mind; those precious thoughts of service in love. So He took a towel, not an ordinary one, a linen one; it was consideration for them, He “rises from supper and lays aside his garments, and having taken a linen towel he girded himself”. Notice what He did in the presence of the devil; they needed washing, not bathing, but they needed their feet washed. The Lord has graciously taken account of what we need to keep our walk right. So it says in Ephesians 2: 10, “For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them”, and we need our feet washed for that. We are not to be careless as to our feet. “Then he pours water into the wash-hand basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which he was girded”. We should have said the washing was enough, but not so Jesus; they must be dried. He did all that well, that all the defilement, the soil, should be removed, and that we should be in full communion with the brethren.
I leave these things for these meetings. We have about twenty three-day meetings in U.S.A. I think the Lord will use the three-day meetings, for we get to know each other, and get ready for translation. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us.
PS — At the house of a brother later, Mr. Taylor remarked that he thought 1 Corinthians was the washing in John 13, and that 2 Corinthians was the towel that left them comfortable.