Reading: Acts 1:1-5.
"Jesus... was
received up, after that he had given commandment through
the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen...
and, being assembled together with them, he charged them
not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise
of the Father, which, said he, ye heard from me: for John
indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in
the Holy Spirit not many days hence."
It is of the greatest
importance that we, as the Lord's people, should be
deeply concerned about two things.
There should be in our
hearts, in the first place, a very real concern for the
fullest Christian life that it is possible to know. Such
a concern is a necessary link between us and that which
is the Lord's will for us: for you notice that when the
incoming of the Holy Spirit is spoken of in the Word, the
expression 'filled' is often used. The Lord's thought is
'fulness': it is not just that we should 'receive' the
Spirit (cf. Acts 8:15,17), but that we should be filled
with the Spirit; not just that we should be 'filled'
(cf. 1 Cor. 4:8), but that we should be filled with
the Spirit. If, therefore, we are to come into God's
thought for us, we need to be deeply exercised about this
matter of knowing a life of as great a fulness as the
Lord intends it to be.
And, in the second
place, we should have a deep concern for the most
effective possible witness in the world by the Church -
that the Church's testimony in the nations should be as
effective as the Lord would have it.
These two things are
essential to the realisation of the Lord's thought and
intention. But, in relation thereto, there are certain
important considerations.
No
Church or Christianity Without the Holy Spirit
In the
first place, 'Christianity' - the Christian life and the
Church - owes its very existence to the advent of the
Holy Spirit, to that day which is marked out in history
as 'the Day of Pentecost'. There had been many days of
Pentecost before that one, for the Feast of Weeks, the
feast of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest (Ex. 23:16,
34:22), observed on the fiftieth day (Gk. pentekostos,
fiftieth) after the Passover, was one of the seven
principal festal seasons in Israel. The day of Pentecost
had been observed year by year throughout the centuries.
But there had never been a Day of Pentecost like this
one. So much was this so, that this is the only
'Pentecost' that we ever think of when we use the word.
We forget that it was an annual event, and so a
commonplace in the life of Israel. Although, of course,
the actual term 'Pentecost' only entered into the common
vocabulary of the Greek-speaking Jews and proselytes of
the latter centuries B.C., the feast itself formed part
of the common course of Israelitish festivities; it was
what we might almost call an 'everyday idea' in Israel.
But that particular occasion swallowed up all the others.
It brought into full meaning all that the others had
foreshadowed; it was The Day of Pentecost, rightly
called that in the Scripture. Christianity and the Church
owe their existence to what happened on that Day.
This means that there is no Christianity - there is no
Church, as recognised in Heaven and in the Word of God -
that is not the product of the Holy Spirit. Without the
Holy Spirit, neither Church nor Christian life is
possible.
From which, of course,
it follows that Christianity and the Church can never
fulfil their purpose, or reach their Divinely intended
goal, on any other ground than that upon which they
started, that is, upon the ground of the Holy Spirit. No
alternatives are open to them; there are no substitutes
for the Holy Spirit available. If the Holy Spirit does
not continue with them, then Christianity and the Church
lose the very meaning of their existence.
Fundamental
Principles Underlay the 'Acts' of the Spirit
A second consideration
is this. The opening phase of the Holy Spirit's activity
was not just a set of unrelated acts. We have sometimes
substituted for the artificial and unwarranted title in
our Bible, 'The Acts of the Apostles', that other and
better title, 'The Acts of the Holy Spirit'; but we have
still regarded the events that are here recorded as a
mere set of acts. We rightly attribute them to the Holy
Spirit; but for us they are still just so many - of
course very wonderful - 'acts'. And yet, they were not
just unrelated acts of the Holy Spirit, and certainly not
of the apostles. The falsity of the latter title is seen
in the fact that not half-a-dozen of the apostles have a
place in the book, after the first chapter. After being
listed there in toto, most of them then disappear
from the book completely; and the apostles who really
play a part in the 'Acts' are very few - Peter and Paul,
and one or two others. No; this may be a record of the
acts of some apostles, but it certainly is not a
record of the Acts of the Apostles, as a
whole.
My point is this: that
the 'acts' that are here narrated were related to
fundamental principles of the Holy Spirit. These events
were not the beginning and end of everything, in
themselves, they were the demonstration of certain
spiritual realities which lay behind them. We go
completely astray when we fail to recognise this. They
were not merely isolated 'happenings', without further
meaning than themselves. They had a very deep meaning - a
much greater significance than what merely appeared on
the surface; they carried with them deep spiritual
truths. If you and I are really concerned about this
matter of a full Christian life and of the Church's
effective witness in the nations, we have got to get
behind the 'acts' to the meaning of the acts, to
the principles which the acts demonstrated, for they were
all most significant things, as we shall see later.
The
Church at the Beginning - and Now
At this point, we must
note - what is, alas, only too obvious - the sad contrast
existing between the first thirty years of Christianity
and of the Church, and that of all the centuries since.
There really has been nothing in all these centuries
comparable to those thirty years. The known 'world',
certainly, was a very much smaller place than it is now.
But, even so, making all allowance for this, the
indisputable fact remains that then, in that more limited
known world of nations and people, an impact was
registered with which nothing that has occurred since
bears any comparison. It is doubtful whether all the
subsequent centuries put together could represent the
spiritual force that was there in those early years. The
witness in the nations was unparalleled in its
effectiveness. We need only to recall what happened
during the lifetime of the Apostle Paul alone: to think
of how things were when Paul was converted - the Church
small and struggling, limited in range and in effect
- and then of the situation when Paul went to the Lord -
churches in practically every nation, and many far beyond
all national locations. "Their sound went out into
all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the
world" (Rom. 10:18) - that is the statement. It is a
tremendous record for a mere thirty years of Christian
service, on the part, mainly, of one man. There has been
nothing to compare with it since.
But there then set in
something which checked the spiritual impact almost
entirely - indeed, started a downgrade movement; so that,
but for little lamps of testimony, from time to time,
here and there, in remote places, the Church as a whole
lost its testimony in the world, and its sense of
responsibility for it. So deeply and terribly was that
true, that, even at so late a period as the end of the
eighteenth century, when William Carey (1761-1834), away
in a country church, was speaking about the obligation
that rests upon the Church of God for taking the Gospel
of Christ to the heathen, he was immediately pounced upon
by a member of the gathered company, and rebuked with:
'Young man, if God ever wants to evangelize the heathen,
He will do it with better material than you!' 'He will do
it without our help' - that was the thought. There was an
utter loss of a sense of responsibility.
But then there came a
revival - what we may call a 'renaissance' - of that
responsibility. I am not going to give a history of
missions: that is not the point; but just think of all
that has been devoted to this undertaking during, say,
the last hundred years. Think of all the lives that have
gone out into the nations with the inspiration to
evangelize - a great and mighty army of men and women;
think of all the millions of money that have been poured
into this. If it were possible to produce a comprehensive
document, or statement, showing how many Societies have
been, and are now, engaged in this work, and how many
representatives they have had since they were founded,
and how much organization there has been, and how many
countries have given of their resources in persons and
means and energy; it would be a startling and amazing
story.
Today, with it all, not
half of the world knows anything about the Gospel! not
half the world is touched! And what is more, Christianity
is losing its influence in this world - you have only to
look at our own country of Britain to see this. We are
noting it in these very days. How tragic is the loss of
testimony in high places, the loss of the place of God
amongst authorities and rulers; the terrible growth of
godlessness, and God-forgetfulness, and God-ignoring, in
the Western world. What is the matter?
I say all this by way
of drawing a comparison. In the beginning, the Church
registered such an impact upon this earth that men were
provoked to say: "These that have turned the world
upside down are come hither"! (Acts 17:6). Rulers
and nations - and hell - were stirred, were provoked with
fear for the presence of this 'thing'. It is not like
that now. I do not dwell too much upon it, but, with
every honour and respect for all that is devoted and true
and sacrificing, the spiritual ineffectiveness today, the
kind of Christianity that is so very general, makes a
terrible story - I am speaking quite generally. Why? what
is the matter?
The
Lord Would Continue His Original Work
It brings us back to
this whole question of the Holy Spirit. And it challenges
us, and provokes in us, surely, some questions. The
question that immediately arises in our hearts is: Have
we any ground for believing that the Holy Spirit would
continue or repeat the works of those first thirty years?
Was it just something for a time? Did God just then, in
this massive way, demonstrate something, which He did not
intend to be perpetuated or repeated: something that was
for a time only, something merely to be looked back upon?
I think the answer lies
in two directions.
First of all, surely it
is at least implied in the words of Luke at the beginning
of this second treatise of his: "The former treatise
I made... concerning all that Jesus began both to do and
to teach, until the day in which he was received
up". Implicit in that statement is - not only that
now Luke is saying: 'I am going to tell you what Jesus
continues to do after He is received up' - but, surely,
that His 'receiving up', and His continuing of the work
from His heavenly position, is something that is not
related to time at all, much less to the few short years
of one man's life, His life on earth. Surely we have
ground for believing that the Lord, from His heavenly
position, would go on. And in reality He is going on with
His work: because, as the Scriptures throughout testify,
it is a work for a whole dispensation. The Lord Jesus
Himself said: "I am with you all the days, even unto
the consummation of the age" (Matt. 28:20, mg.). The
end of the age did not come when the Apostle Paul was
executed and went to the Lord!
But we have other
evidence that answers our question: namely, the fact that
through this age, and even in our own day, wherever the
Lord has His required conditions He does this very thing.
He does it - the thing happens! It may not be
world-wide; nevertheless, here and there, from time to
time, the Lord has done something comparable in its range
to what happened at the beginning - He has just done it.
And, in some parts of the world, He is doing it now: it
is there, and it can be seen. The Lord is doing something
quite wonderful, and when you see it and know it, you
have to say: This is just what we read of in the book of
the Acts! Yes, there are instances through history that
prove that, if the Lord has His required conditions, He
would go on with the same kind of work as He did at the
beginning.
That leads us, of
course, to ask the further question: Why was the work
arrested? why, at a certain clearly defined point in the
history of Christianity, did the work begin to fade out?
You can see when it began to happen; and, if you look
into it carefully, you can see why it began to happen. We
could, in fact, put the question in another form: What is
the ground of the Holy Spirit's work? If we can answer
the second question, we have answered the first - why it
was arrested? The answer is found in a discovery of the
ground upon which the Holy Spirit works, and continues
His working.