"For
they that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because
they knew him not, nor the voices of the prophets which
are read every sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning
him" (Acts 13:27).
In a
way, that verse is the key to the whole of the book of
the Acts, for this book is really an interpretation and
exhibition of the principle that is at the heart of that
statement - that is, that there is the Bible with its
verbal statements, its record of utterances and
activities of God through men, and it can be read and
re-read for a lifetime, as it was in the case of the
people referred to here, and yet the real significance
may be missed. In other words, there is in it something
more than the actual verbal statements. You may have the
statements, the letter, the volume, the whole record, and
you may know it as such, as these Jewish rulers did, and
yet you may be missing the way, you may be moving on a
plane altogether other than that which God intended. This
book of the Acts, from beginning to end, shows that there
was something more in the mind of God when He inspired
men of old to speak and to write than is discernible in
the actual words which they used, and which requires the
activity of the Spirit of God if it is to be heard and
grasped and understood, and if it is going to work out as
things worked out in this book - in power, in
effectiveness.
There is
much of the Old Testament in the book of the Acts, and in
the New Testament as a whole. The prophets are very much
quoted, but see the difference between the effect of the
words as used in the book of the Acts and the effect upon
those who merely heard or read the actual utterances of
the prophets. The Holy Ghost has come; and He is not
making another Bible, He is using the old one; but it is
a new book with a new meaning and a new effect, and you
are amazed at times at the way in which He uses
Scripture. You never saw that it meant that; it is
something altogether beyond a former apprehension,
although you knew that Scripture quite well in a way.
There is a difference, and it is a crucial one.
So these
people in Jerusalem and their rulers heard every Sabbath
the prophets, but failed to hear their voice. They missed
something - the voice of God coming through, the meaning
of God in what was being said, as distinct from the mere
statements. It is possible for a company to be gathered
together and for one to be speaking the word of the Lord,
and for some merely to hear the words and go away and
say, 'He said so and so,' repeating what was actually
said in verbal statements. It is at the same time
possible for others to say, 'I never saw it like that
before; I knew that passage of Scripture, but I never saw
that!' Something, not only of a fresh recognition but of
living value, has been detected. That is the difference
between the words of the prophets and the voice of God
through the words of the prophets.
So, as I
have said, this verse in chapter 13 is, in a way, a key
to this whole book. It makes this discrimination, which
is so very important, between the letter and the spirit,
between the statements and the Divine meaning in the
statements. One is death and gets nowhere. The other is
life and goes right through.
ALL PROPHECY POINTS TO THE LORD
JESUS
Let us
now glance at the book of the Acts. We go right back to
the first chapter with this principle in mind. It might
be well for us to be reminded, in parenthesis, that,
speaking broadly, the whole Bible (but for a few verses)
closes upon a comprehensive statement about this very
matter. In Revelation 19:10, we are told that "the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." What
does that mean? It simply means this - that all the way
through the Bible, from the beginning onward, there has
been a predictive element in this sense, an element of
implication, something implied beyond the actual words
said at the time. In it all there has been a pointer
onward. It may be an historic incident, something quite
local and immediate in itself as to time, place and
persons concerned, but in no part of the Bible is only
the local and present in view. There is something more -
there is an implication, there is a pointer onward; and
if you could see where all these pointers point to, you
would find it was Jesus. He is implied in everything,
everywhere.
When we
speak of prophecy, do not let us limit our thoughts to
certain times and certain men of the Old Testament. True,
we have been, and are very often, occupied with the
prophets whose books are included in the
'prophetic' section of the Old Testament, but we have to
expand beyond that. Moses was called a prophet
(Deuteronomy 18:15), and Samuel was a prophet (1 Samuel
3:20), and even David in the New Testament is called a
prophet (Acts 2:30). The spirit of prophecy embraces more
than a certain class of men whom we designate prophets.
The spirit of prophecy goes right back, as far back as
Enoch; no, further back than that - to Genesis 3:15,
concerning the seed of the woman: that is the spirit of
Prophecy. So, if we remember that prophecy is something
so far-reaching and all-inclusive, and bearing
upon the Lord Jesus, I hope we are able to see something
of Divine meaning as being more than verbal statement.
With
that parenthesis, let us come to the first chapter
of the Acts.
THE HOLY SPIRIT'S HIDDEN MEANING
IN THE SCRIPTURES
"They
therefore, when they were come together, asked him
saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom
to Israel?" (Acts 1:6).
We
pointed out in a previous chapter how much the prophets
were occupied with this matter of the Kingdom. These
disciples of the Lord Jesus had their whole idea of the
Kingdom from the prophets, and so their question is based
upon a certain kind of mental apprehension of the
teaching of the prophets. They had deduced certain things
from what the prophets said, and they bring this question
even at this late hour - "Dost thou at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It
is not for you to know times and 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. And when he had said these things, as they were
looking," - He restored the Kingdom, ascended His
throne? No - "he was taken up; and a cloud received
him out of their sight" (Acts 1:6-9).
Everything
begins there in the way of spiritual understanding,
because this statement of the Lord Jesus indicated that a
new dispensation was being inaugurated which was
different from that which the disciples had expected from
the teaching of the prophets. This was the dispensation
of the Holy Spirit, and they were going to discover that
the Holy Spirit had meanings about the Old Testament
prophecies which they had never imagined were there. Not
until the Holy Spirit took hold of the Word of God did
they know the prophets at all. And then we shall see that
when He really took hold of the Scriptures and began to
apply them and open them up and give the Divine meaning,
things happened which not only were unexpected but were
utterly contrary and opposed to the fixed mentality of
the disciples, and which required a complete shattering
of their mentality, the abandonment of established
positions on their part. It is tremendously challenging
if the Holy Spirit gets hold of the Word of God and then
gets hold of us. There are going to be revolutionary
changes in our whole outlook and procedure, and this book
of the Acts is just full of that.
THE COMING OF
THE SPIRIT - A NEW ORDER INTRODUCED
It is
the dispensation, or stewardship, of the Holy Ghost. The
words 'dispensation' and 'stewardship' mean an economy,
an order; how things are done in this regime. We find
that, in this dispensation, when the Holy Spirit came, He
began to change things, because He was in charge. You may
become a member of the staff of a business, and when you
arrive you find things are done in such and such a way.
Times are set and fixed like this; this is how things are
done in this regime. And then a new Managing Director
arrives, and he sees this prevailing order, and he
registers at once that it is an imperfect system, that it
is not producing the fullest results for which the
business exists. He begins quietly but very strongly to
take charge, and things begin to change, and the old set
people who have been in that regime for years do not like
these changes, and they begin to kick. They will not have
it; they revolt and begin to fight against this new
order. Some, who are more open-spirited, who are not so
fixed and settled, begin to see his mind, his vision, and
although they stumble on difficulties from time to time,
and come up against the implications of this tremendous
change - like Peter, over the visit to Cornelius (Acts
10) - and it wants just a little battle to get over the
old prejudice, nevertheless, they have their battle, get
over their difficulties, and fall into line, and so the
great change takes place with wonderful results. Things
begin to happen; the original purpose of the business is
now beginning, in a wonderful way, to be realised and
fulfilled.
That is
exactly what happened when the Holy Spirit came in on the
day of Pentecost. There was an existing, fixed,
established order, but it was not reaching God's end. It
was not, as we say, 'delivering the goods'. The Holy
Ghost came, with all the full knowledge of the Divine
mind; He entered in and began His work of realising the
real Divine concept; He took hold. So He divided the
people. Some - these that dwelt in Jerusalem, and their
rulers - would not have the new order. Well, all right -
they lose it all. But others came into the fellowship of
the Holy Ghost, "joined unto the Lord... one
spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17), with wonderful
results.
A VITAL CONTRAST - THE LETTER AND
THE SPIRIT OF SCRIPTURE
The
point is: first of all, it is a new dispensation; and
next, the Holy Ghost is in charge. His being in charge
has to be recognised, with all that it means. And, being
in charge, by His activities He reveals and evolves the
very object of God from all eternity, and seeks to bring
it out in this dispensation. As for the cleavage - well,
it was an historic cleavage then, but it is a cleavage
which spiritually has been going on all through the
dispensation. It is a dividing between men of the letter
and men of the spirit.
That
movement, that tendency, toward a fixed position is
constantly recurring, bringing that which is of God into
imprisonment, within organized limitations which
frustrate the whole counsel of God. I have an article
before me - I wish I could quote it all; I cannot - but
there are some things in it which express what is in my
heart better than anything that I could say myself. It
was written by a Member of the British Parliament.
'There
are many classifications into which men and women may be
divided - as upper, middle or lower class; rich,
well-to-do and poor ; religious, sceptical and atheist;
... and so forth and so on. But, as I think, the only
categorization which really matters is that which divides
men as between the Servants of the Spirit and the
Prisoners of the Organization. That classification, which
cuts right across all other classifications, is indeed
the fundamental one. The idea, the inspiration,
originates in the internal world, the world of the
Spirit... the idea having embodied itself in the
organization, the organization then proceeds gradually to
slay the idea which gave it birth. In the field of
religion a prophet, an inspired man, will see a vision of
truth. He expresses that vision as best he may in words.
Upon what his disciples understand of the prophet's
message, an organization, a church, will be built. The
half-understood message will crystallize into a creed.
Before long the principle concern of the church will be
to sustain itself as an organization. To this end any
departure from the creed must be controverted and, if
necessary, suppressed as heresy. In a few score or a few
hundred years what was conceived as a vehicle of a new
and higher truth has become a prison for the souls of
men. And men are murdering each other for the love of
God.
'One
moral to be drawn, it would not be wholly facetious to
suggest, might be that the first rule for any
organization should be a rule providing for its
dissolution within a limited period of time... When we
are members of an organization, as such, our attitude to
it should be one of partial detachment. We must be above
it even while we are in it. We should reckon on being in
almost perpetual rebellion within it. Above all we should
regard all loyalties to organization as tentative and
provisional. We must be Servants of the Spirit, not
Prisoners of the Organization. We must keep in touch with
the sources of life, not lose ourselves in the temporary
vehicles.'
'This
world is a bridge. Ye shall pass over it, but ye shall
build no houses upon it.'
Is that
not just what you have in the Acts and all the way
through - the crystallizing of our apprehension of truth,
our interpretation, the partial perception, the statement
in the letter, something fixed, embodying that which was
of the Spirit of God in the beginning, but not allowing
it to go beyond those bounds now? Anything more, anything
other than that, is called heresy; this is the last word.
It may be embodied in an organization, in what is called
a church, a sect, a denomination, and if you go beyond
that, well, you are said to be all wrong. The great
difference between men of the organization and men of the
Spirit is what you have here in the Book of the Acts.
THE LORDSHIP OF THE SPIRIT
ESSENTIAL TO PROGRESS
The
point is this: the fullness of Divine purpose demands
that the Holy Spirit be continually in charge, that He be
allowed to be completely in the place of government, and
that we do not put anything in His place - nothing
whatsoever; not a 'church', not a fixed order - so that
at any point or in any way we could say, 'That is not
what we teach, that is not what we have been brought up
to believe, that is not what our church believes and
teaches.' To do that is to put something in the way of
the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost must be in charge and must
be free. It was on those very points that the Apostles
themselves had firstly their battles and then their
enlargements. We shall see that as we go on. The full
Divine purpose is going to take shape when the Holy
Spirit is in charge with us.
And then
there is something infinitely greater than times and
seasons. Be careful about times and seasons; they have a
wonderful and pernicious way of bringing you into
limitations. Many people are dwelling in times and
seasons. But they have done that all the way through the
centuries. Let us watch, observe, take note; but be
careful. Things have been happening, for example, in
Palestine. We were told that the times of the Gentiles
ended when General Allenby entered Jerusalem; that a new
Caesar had arrived to reconstitute the Roman
Empire when Mussolini set up his great empire in Rome!
That sort of thing has been going on for centuries, and
it is all based upon times and seasons.
The
point is this - not that there are no times and seasons,
not that there are not movements in the plan of God which
have their particular characteristics and can he noted,
but that there is something infinitely greater than that.
It is the heavenly and not the earthly aspect that is in
view in the Book of the Acts. That is why I stayed at
that point - "When he had said these
things... he was taken up". From that point it
became a heavenly matter. Later the apostle Paul will use
a phrase like this: "The Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God " (I Corinthians
2:10). "The Spirit searcheth... the deep things of
God": that is something transcendently greater than
times and seasons; and if the Holy Spirit really is in
charge, there is no fathoming what God has to reveal.
"Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and
which entered not into the heart of man." It is out
there, into that vast realm, that the Holy Spirit would
bring us, and we must be very careful that we do not
clamp down on the Holy Spirit with man-made,
man-constituted institutions. We must keep out in the
open with the Spirit, and it is there that our surprises
will begin - yes, and our very real discipline.
THE PROPHETS' ULTIMATE MEANING
SPIRITUAL AND HEAVENLY
Those
referred to in Acts 13:27, or those of whom they were
typical, had a kind of apprehension of the Scriptures.
There was no doubt at all about their devotion to the
Word of God. They were fundamentalists of a rabid kind,
as far as the inspiration of the Scriptures was
concerned. They stickled for the Scriptures; they dotted
all the 'i's and crossed all the 't's. Many among them
were particular about the smallest detail in the realm of
outward observances, even to the point of fussy
fastidiousness. Because the law ordained that a tithe of
all the fruit of the land was the Lord's, they tithed
meticulously even their mint and other herbs - but at the
same time over-looked the things that were inward and
which mattered much more to the Lord, such as judgment,
mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23). That was their
apprehension, their mentality, their position. They saw
everything on the horizontal. It was a matter of the
exact technique of Scripture.
What was
the result? Well, they were perpetuating an earthly
system with the Word of God. Their 'church' was the
'church of Israel', the 'Israelitish church' - and you
can put in the place of Israel any other denominational
title that you like. That church had its own particular
forms, its vestments, its ritual, its liturgy, and all
according to the Scriptures. It had its reading of the
prophets every Sabbath. It had the whole system; but it
was right down here on this earth and as dead as anything
could be. It was purely formal; it was not getting
through to God's end at all. Scriptural, in a sense,
though it was, it was failing to realise the eternal
counsels of God. When the Holy Ghost came, He did not
sweep away the prophets, the Old Testament. He took them
up and showed that there was something more - something
more than all that earthly, perfect technique of the Word
of God, with all its accompaniments - without which all
that other would have to be set aside. And it is going to
be set aside. It fails to reach God's end, therefore it
passes out; and that is the issue of the Book of the Acts
- the great transition. There is a Divine meaning back of
all that, and when you have the Divine meaning, you can
dispense with the other - it can go. If you have the
thing in the really spiritual sense and realm, in the
living and heavenly way, it does not matter about the
other; that just drops out and falls away.
That is
what happened in the Book of the Acts. You can hardly see
the point at which it happened, but there is such a
point. The Apostles did go on attending the temple and
the synagogues for a little while, and then they ceased
to do so. They were continuing for a time, but then it
was as though they were steadily, quietly, moving out,
and eventually they were out. Something had happened.
They had come into the real thing and the initial thing
had gone. The one led to the other, but it had served its
purpose. They came into the heavenly good and meaning of
it all; it was not a matter of technique now.
There
are many who will say about the fixed orders and rituals:
'Of course, we do not regard this as everything; it is
only symbolic. We do remember that it implies and points
to something else, and it is that something else we are
thinking of.' Yes, but is it not true that, when the Holy
Ghost comes, as He came then, and gets possession, and
you go on with Him, more and more the emphasis of the
merely outward and earthly and temporal aspects of
Christianity fade away, and you become increasingly
occupied with the glory of the reality? The Jesus of
history gives full place to the Jesus of the Spirit, of
heaven. That is exactly what is meant by "the voices
of the prophets".
So, on
the day of Pentecost, you start with Joel. Everybody in
Jerusalem was saying, "What meaneth this?"
(Acts 2:12). They were all bewildered, without any
understanding or perception; and Peter, with the eleven,
stood up and said: "This is that which hath been
spoken through the prophet Joel" (vs. 16).
"This is that..." What a crushing blow it was
to tradition, what an upheaval it created in Israel, this
- with its implications of Jesus of Nazareth! And the
Apostle went on, quoting freely from the Old Testament.
He quoted David. That sermon of his on the day of
Pentecost was just full of Old Testament quotations. But
who ever saw that - who ever knew that that was the
meaning of it!
You see
the point. It is something that really needs to come to
us with tremendous force, because even New Testament
Christianity can be reduced again to an earthly system of
exact technique. You can write your manuals on New
Testament procedure. You can have it exactly according to
the letter - but it is all on the horizontal, it becomes
legalistic, it ties up the Holy Ghost. Although the
intention may have been to be more exactly according to
Scripture, that the Lord might have a fuller way, it does
not always result in that. The whole thing must be
baptized in the Holy Ghost and lifted clean off the
earthly level, becoming something entirely heavenly.
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YIELD TO THE
SPIRIT
Now I
think we can rightly say that, when the disciples asked,
"Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to
Israel?", they were seriously and genuinely
exercised. The Scriptures must be fulfilled; what was
written must happen. I think the disciples were very much
occupied with this, burdened and perplexed; they wanted
to know how things were going to work out. The Lord said,
in effect: 'Do not worry about that. The Holy Ghost is
coming and He will take all responsibility for everything
- times and seasons and everything else. He is coming
with the whole purpose of God in His hands, and He will
work it out. You can be at rest - it is all right.' Those
who get this earthly idea and conception of a system
become terribly worried and burdened to work it out -
burdened with the awful responsibility of this 'New
Testament Church', of having things exactly as the
Scriptures say! If the Holy Ghost were in charge, the
burden would go. He is doing it. All that we are
called upon to do is to get into the hands of the Holy
Spirit, get completely free from all this harness, free
to the Spirit of God. Matters will work out all right.
And even
if the Holy Spirit comes up against some stones in us and
for a time there is some conflict, He is more than equal
to that situation. He is more than equal to Peter and his
never having eaten anything unclean. When the Lord gave
Peter that vision of the sheet let down with all manner
of fourfooted beasts and creeping things and said,
"Rise, Peter; kill and eat", Peter in effect
quoted Scripture to the Lord; he quoted Leviticus 11,
with its commandments concerning the unclean beasts which
must not be eaten. 'Lord, here is Scripture for my
position; my position is soundly founded upon the Word of
God!' What are you going to do with that? Now, listen - I
am not saying nor even implying that the Holy Ghost
will ever call upon us to do something contrary to the
Scriptures. He never will. But He will very often
show us that the Scriptures mean something that we never
saw them to mean. Leviticus 11 had a meaning that Peter
had not seen. He had taken the letter and the literal
meaning of those things. He never saw the Divine,
spiritual meaning at the back of that. Cornelius had
never received the Holy Spirit, and therefore an angel
spoke to him. Peter had received the Holy Spirit on the
day of Pentecost, and it was the Spirit who was speaking
to Peter. The Holy Ghost had this matter in hand, and was
dealing with the difficulties in Peter, even in his
fundamentalism, to lift him off a merely temporal,
earthly ground to a heavenly. Peter was living under an
open heaven; and there are tremendous changes when you
get there. It does not all happen at once.
THE HOLY SPIRIT 'UPON' AND 'IN'
Just one
further word for the present. You notice here that there
was a double operation of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 2,
the Spirit lighted 'upon' them. These cloven tongues as
of fire sat upon them; and then it says, "They were
all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
'Upon' and 'in'. I do not want to be technical,
contradicting what we have been saying about too much
technique, but there is a meaning in the 'upon' and the
'in'. The coming 'upon' is the sovereignty of the Holy
Spirit in relation to God's eternal purpose. That is, the
Holy Spirit has come as the custodian and administrator
of the eternal counsels of God, of the purpose of God
from eternity, and, coming like that, He imposes (I trust
that it is not the wrong word to use) the purpose of God
upon the vessel. He gathers the vessel into the purpose
in a sovereign way. It is as though He circled around and
took charge of the vessel in an outward way and said,
'This is the vessel of the eternal purpose of God.' He
takes charge of it, comes 'upon' for that.
But then
He entered 'in' also, and they were filled, and this had
a further meaning. It meant this, that the inward life of
the vessel must correspond to the outward purpose. That
is tremendous. You see, the old dispensation was not like
that, and this is the problem that the prophets were
dealing with all the time. The outward form was there.
Israel had their temple, they were offering their
sacrifices, they were going through all the ritual, but
their inward life was far from corresponding to that. God
had to say, through the prophets, 'Away with your
sacrifices - I do not want them!' (cf. Isaiah 1:10-14).
The Lord Jesus took that up. "Sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body didst thou prepare for me;
in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou
hadst no pleasure: then said I, Lo, I am come (in the
roll of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, 0
God" (Hebrews 10:5-7).
Formalism
never does the will of God; merely external system,
however much it corresponds to the technique of the
letter, never does the will of God; and the Holy Ghost
was having none of that. He did not come in sovereignty
to take up a lot of new people in a new dispensation, and
give them forms and order, and make them do things in
such and such a manner, merely in an outward way. He was
going to have the inner life of the Church corresponding
to the purpose. You find before long that He very
severely comes upon anything that does not correspond.
Ananias and Sapphira will know you cannot carry on in an
outward way, pretending all is right. The Holy Ghost has
seen inside the contradiction, and is not allowing it to
pass.
Many
want the coming 'upon' because they want to feel the
power, feel themselves taken up, manipulated and moved.
There has been a great deal of that sort of thing, which
has not carried with it an inward correspondence. But the
Lord's end can never be reached fully while there is any
lack of true consistency between the purpose of God and
the life of the people called to that purpose. "I...
beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye
were called " (Ephesians 4:1). Oh, I do beg of you
to have continuous dealings with God on this matter of
the indwelling Spirit - not just for purposes of service,
or power, but for purposes of life.
One of
the tragedies of many Christians and many servants of God
is this, that they can believe and give expression to
things which are positively false, and propagate those
things and do harm to other Christians by propagating
them, and yet the Holy Ghost never seems to be able to
make them aware that they are not telling the truth. I do
not mean in Bible teaching, but in relation to other
servants of God, and other work that God is doing. The
solemn fact that there are such prejudices, suspicions,
criticisms, misrepresentations, and so on, ought to drive
us to the Lord with earnest appeal - 'Oh, Lord, it is no
good my being engaged in Thy work, doing a lot of things
for Thee, being prominent among men, perhaps, and well
known for my Christian service, if yet, after all, the
Holy Ghost cannot correct me within, put me right, give
me a bad time when I say something not true. Save me from
saying anything that does not correspond with the truth,
or of which my inward life is a contradiction.' The
Spirit within is to adjust us to the purpose of God. If
we habitually, constantly, fall into ways which are not
according to the Spirit, so that we become known for that
kind of unpleasantness, we had better ask the Holy Spirit
to do a deeper work in us. It is no use our having the
deep things of God, while people know us as most
difficult to get on with, always making life unpleasant
for others. It will not do; it is a contradiction of the
indwelling Spirit. He does not want us to have the system
of things merely outwardly. We must have the inner life
to correspond.
So we
see that He came 'upon' to possess for the purpose of
God, and He came 'within' to see that everything in the
inner life corresponded to that purpose.