"And
he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or
seasons, which the Father hath set within his own
authority. But ye shall receive power, when the Holy
Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be my witnesses
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and
unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:7-8).
"Now
when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John, and had
perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they
marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had
been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).
"Not...
times or seasons... But ye..." The Lord thus turns
the whole question of the new dispensation into a matter
of people. The old dispensation commenced with a man. He
was God's key to everything in the creation. And here, in
the book of the Acts, we have the commencement of the new
dispensation and the new creation; and it is focused in a
Man - the Son of man - and in men. The key to everything
is - "But ye..." The disciples were interested
in something objective to themselves, and yet in which
they would have a place - the kingdom of Israel. That
meant they were interested in the interpretation and
fulfilment of prophecy - one of a good many themes and
subjects; they were interested in teachings. But the Lord
said, 'No, it is not teachings, nor truths; not a
movement, an enterprise, a kingdom.' All that was to be
subsequent to getting the men, and getting the men
inwardly in the position which was necessary.
Well, that
is a very simple word, but it really goes to the heart of
things. What are we waiting for? What are we expecting?
Is it a change in our position, circumstances,
conditions, location, association? Are we waiting to be
precipitated into some movement, for the Church to take
action where we are concerned, for others to take
responsibility for us? What is it? Well, let us note
this: the Lord says, "Not... but..." Not any
things like that, in the first place, but you: the man,
the woman, in right relationship with the Lord, under the
full government of the Holy Spirit, filled with love for
Christ and for others: the man, the woman, whose eyes
have seen the King. That is the key to everything. It may
change the circumstances, it may change everything; but
to change everything without that would not get us
anywhere. The Lord says, 'It is you, everything waits for
you'. It is not this and that which you can tabulate,
something you may be either definitely or vaguely
expecting in connection with a day when you will be in
some other position and your job will change and you will
be out in 'the work'. You will go on like that to the end
of your life; you can have any number of changes but not
be getting to the real goal. It is not this and that, but
ye... The Lord gets us where He wants us and as He wants
us.
It is
quite clear that is exactly how it works out. We can see
that. Here and there are such people, men and women in
whom, because of their utterly selfless abandonment to
the Lord and because they are so full of the Spirit, the
thing is happening. All that we long to see happening is
happening with them, the work is being done, there is
movement.
So do not
let us wait for things. Let us at once recognise the fact
where we are. We may not be moved elsewhere. This is to
hold good just where we are now, without waiting for some
change of time or place or situation or set of
circumstances. It is not the thing outside of us at all: we
are the key to it all. What is required is that both
the Lord and others should be able to look on us and say
'They count, they express the Lord'. And, after all, it
does not matter what we might get of official position
and place in anything that is going. What is the value of
that, however great it may seem to be, if it is not the
expression of Christ? Let us ask the Lord to show us
clearly just what has to be ruled out in our case - that
of which He says, 'No, not that, but ye...'
We are apt
to think that if and when the circumstances and
conditions of our lives are changed and we are in another
position than the one we now occupy, then something will
happen, the purpose of God will begin to be fulfilled.
The Lord would say, 'No; it is not circumstances, not
conditions, at all; it is you.'
Some think
that it is a matter of graduation and ordination and
office, and that when they get into an official position,
and have recognition there, then they will begin to
fulfil the purpose of their lives. So they are waiting
until they are either ordained or appointed to their
work. The Lord says, 'No, it is not office, it is not
ordination, it is not placing; it is you; you are the
key.'
And
alongside that, many are looking to the organization, the
society, the mission, the church connection to which they
are related, and expecting a new day for themselves to
originate there, and that when the institution, whatever
it may be, takes action, then the work of their life will
begin. And the Lord says, 'It is not the church, the
mission, the organization, the society, the institution;
it is you.'
These men
in Acts 1 were waiting for something to happen outside of
themselves. They called it the restoring of the kingdom,
the setting up of an order which would be a national -
perhaps an international - movement: a new order outside
of themselves in which they would find their place and
probably be allocated, appointed or ordained to it. And
the Lord simply swept the board of all those ideas and
said, 'No, it is not that, it is you.' That is how it
proved, how it worked out. We individually may be the key
to everything in the purpose of God.
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, March-April 1951, Vol 29-2