THE WAY TO MORAL ELEVATION
[p. 52] THE WAY TO MORAL ELEVATION
Acts 1: 9 - 14; Acts 10: 9 - 13; Acts 19: 1
My thought, beloved brethren, is to speak of moral elevation. The thought of elevation, whether we look at it as moral or literal, has a special application in christianity. The literal side we find specially in the gospel of Luke, and this corresponds to the epistle to Ephesians. In a coming day there will be found a people of God that has its blessing on earth, but our blessing is in the heavenlies. It says in Ephesians that “God ... has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, and in connection with this it says that He has “raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”. It was in the purpose of God to set us in the heavenlies. Nothing in Scripture is plainer than this, that our calling is a heavenly one. As the apostle says in Philippians 3: 14: “The calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. That is why, as I said, the gospel of Luke develops step by step the great principle of elevation.
In Luke 2 we find the angels saying, “Glory to God in the highest”; and in chapter 10 the Lord says to His disciples, “Your names are written in the heavens”. In chapter 19, when the Lord passed into Jerusalem for the last time, He rode as King and the multitude of the disciples celebrated this occasion saying, “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest”. In the gospel of Luke the believer is always reminded of what is in the highest in view of our place there. In Luke 10 the Lord says, “I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven”. He shows how swift his fall is, that the sphere may be free for the assembly to come and take its place. In correspondence to all this we find at the end of Luke that the Lord was carried up into heaven.
[p. 53] All this prepares the way for these three scriptures in Acts that have been read.
The Acts of the Apostles has the assembly in view, and is intended to help those who are of the assembly to understand how we may become morally elevated, before we are literally elevated. In the present time we are to understand moral elevation. I wish to show how this moral elevation comes out when the believer refuses to connect himself with the religious ways and habits which are current in christendom. That we are gathered here tonight bears witness to what I have said. If we had been gathered in an acknowledged religious building with the religious arrangements that are found there, we should not be morally elevated but rather in a spiritual sense be degraded. We are morally elevated when we withdraw from that which has public reputation, and when we avoid ways and habits that the world recognises.
In the light of the elevated place we possess in God’s thoughts and in the light of the recognition that will be ours one day, we may be satisfied with being hidden and unseen. It says in Revelation about the assembly that it came down out of heaven from God having the glory of God. This shows that when we come out in public glory, we shall be seen by the whole universe. What answers to that now is to be hidden, to avoid all religious acknowledgement, to evade what man considers good in a religious sense and to avoid all mere publicity. Those who can be content with being small now are such as are really great according to God. It is not that we should be inactive or conceal ourselves but believers should, as Paul says, be recognised by being “unknown, and yet well known”. We are unknown because the world will prefer to overlook us, but if we are faithful to Christ in our testimony it will know us well enough. Even if we are unknown as [p. 54] not forming a part of this world, we are, all the same, well known in the testimony, and this testimony incurs persecution.
Now I wish to show how this came out at the beginning. In Acts 1: 9 we read, “A cloud received him out of their sight”. Their eyes were fixed on Jesus, and it was as they were looking on Him that He was taken up. It is well, dear brethren, to ponder a scripture like this and, so to speak, try to picture the whole event before our eyes. Suppose you had been there when the Lord was taken up, you would have received an impression of it, as of something which had never been seen before. It was a Man going up; think of that! Have we ever pondered such an event? It says, “They beholding him”. Think of a Man who goes right up! What grace in Him! what feeling of victory! what joy in His heart when He went to the place from whence He had come! And it was not only that He went up to heaven, but He was received up. If you had seen it you could never forget it; you would get such an impression of elevation. When we see Him going up, we get a thought of our going up, and we could say, ‘Here we find the way in which we are going up’. The two men in white clothing who stood by them, when He went up, say, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”.
Satan does not come down from heaven in this way. The Lord says: “I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven”. The Lord Jesus does not fall. He comes down in glory and dignity. He shall thus come as they had seen Him going into heaven. And between these two events, the Lord’s going away and the Lord’s return, we find the assembly. And what might we expect should fill their hearts who form the assembly during this time of expectation [p. 55] but the light of His elevation and our elevated place with Him? These disciples saw Him going up, and they returned to Jerusalem, and it is in their behaviour and in what they now do, since they have returned to Jerusalem, that we can see that of which I have been speaking. We can see how the thought of elevation fills their minds. It says: “And when they were come into the city, they went up to the upper chamber”. We see how the thought of going up comes out.
Let us ask ourselves: What have I before me when I go into a large city such as Gothenburg, London or New York? Do I look for what is morally elevated? If I am unconverted or worldly minded and travel to Paris, then I wish to see all the sights in the city. If I value religious reputation I shall visit the most famous church there. I mention these things to show the contrast to what we are speaking of, namely moral elevation. If I love the Lord Jesus and His interests, and I go to Paris it is in order to meet some few of those who believe in the Lord Jesus, and who might come together in some humble place there. When I come to Boras today I do not know of any place like this room where we are gathered. I should look out for this place, and why? because here is found what corresponds to heaven. Here are found such as love the Lord Jesus, and this is what characterises heaven, for heaven is filled with those who love the Lord Jesus.
Therefore as we see, these disciples went into the upper room when they returned to the city. And whom did they find there? Was it the great men of the day? Not at all; there were not any such found there. There were found Peter, James and John and Andrew and all the apostles together with a few women and Jesus’ brethren, and they were together praying. If I had asked Peter about the latest news,
[p. 56] he would not have had to say of such things nor of the money-market. He would have answered, ‘We have in our hearts the light of another world altogether. He whom we love has gone into heaven, and He said to us before going up, that He would come back to fetch us. He even said that in a few days the Holy Spirit would come upon us’.
We can understand, dear brethren, that it is such things they were speaking of in a company like this in the upper room. If a so-called higher critic, one who denies the deity of Christ and the inspiration of the Bible, had come into this upper room and had said to Peter, ‘I do not believe in the man of whom you speak, I do not believe in the inspiration of the Bible, I do not believe that Jonah was swallowed by a fish’, how do you think they would meet a man like that? There would be found no place for him there; they would surely meet him very coldly; they are all occupied with Jesus. They know who He is, and they know where He is. I notice a woman there, Mary, the most wonderful woman in the world. Where would you find a woman, who can speak to you as she can? She could speak about the childhood of Jesus, of His earliest years as a young boy; she could speak of Him at the age of thirty. One can understand what this upper room was as filled with the most wonderful people that one could meet. And you say to yourself, ‘I should like to stay here; I am willing to give up all religious reputation in Jerusalem in order to be in this company. Whatsoever I have to leave, I must stay here’. In this upper room we find God’s nobles. The emperor at Rome in all his power cannot add anything to a company like this; in this company the least of all is greater than the emperor. There we see moral elevation. We get an idea of what christianity is as well as what this world is. What is this world? John says, “The world is passing, ... but he that does the will of God abides for eternity”.
One can understand that this upper room in Jerusalem was a contrast to the temple with its splendour. Perhaps you would remind me that these same disciples went into the temple according to what we read in Luke’s gospel; but we find an explanation of this when we see that at the end of Luke’s gospel they are viewed as the remnant of Israel, and that they are found in grace in the temple, as if God once more would appeal to the nation. But as I have mentioned already, we are viewed in the Acts as in the light of the assembly, and the building, which corresponds to the assembly is not a building like the temple or a cathedral but an upper room. The meaning of the word ‘upper’ is not that it is any better than other rooms, but that it is insignificant and humble. The expression ‘upper’ involves moral elevation.
To speak of our next scripture, it says in Acts 10 that Peter went up on the roof to pray. God intended to bring in the gentiles. In chapter 19 it says that Paul went through the upper districts to Ephesus. Romans answers every question in connection with me as a believer on earth. All this must first be made clear to my soul. Romans is given us of God in order that our souls might be set right as regards our sins and all that concerns us regarding our responsible life here on earth, even our bodies; wherefore we are encouraged in this epistle to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. Later on we might reach to a more excellent side, and, so to speak, reach to the truths of Ephesians “through the upper districts”.
When the nations were to be brought into the assembly. Peter was found in the house of Simon the tanner by the great sea. This speaks of God having the nations in view. Peter went up instinctively [p. 58] as it were; he went up on the roof to pray, he did not go down. And heaven honoured him with a vision, for it says that while he was praying an ecstasy came upon him and he beheld the heaven opened and a great sheet came down. What I have before me is that God might make us evangelical. He longs to fill our hearts with love for souls. If we cannot preach. He will give us ability if we pray about it, but in seeking to reach souls we must not drop down to common religious methods. Peter went up to pray. It is not time for us now to settle down, but it is time for us to be diligent in the testimony. If we have no ability to preach, let us pray, but let us go up to pray. Peter went up to pray, and it was as if God said to him, ‘This is pleasurable to Me, and as you have come up to pray I will show you what I intend to do’.
When Peter relates about this sheet he says, “It came even to me”. That is to say, if we are exercised concerning the testimony, and if we go up to pray, and we refuse worldly methods in connection with the testimony in our service. God will honour us, and He will do this by revealing His thoughts to us. The sheet descended with all the quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth and the fowls of the heaven. That shows how all mankind, men of all these different nations, ought to hear the gospel. Peter was now prepared for this, and when he opens the door for the gentiles he does it in the light of the thoughts of heaven. The gentiles are brought in on this upper line. If believers around us wish to come into fellowship they come to what is morally elevated. When Peter preached to the gentiles the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard him speak. This thought is affirmed as we have seen in Acts 19, when Paul in Ephesus through God’s guidance wished to announce the truth about the [p. 59] assembly. If we read Acts 20 together with the apostle’s epistle to the Ephesians, we shall understand how elevated the assembly is. It says that Paul came to Ephesus, through the upper districts. May God bless these few thoughts!