"The Heaven, even the heavens are for Jehovah; but the earth hath he given to the children of men."
The offer of a few remarks, and those of a simple kind, is all that I can hope to attain to upon this topic, The subject is of interest to all those who are on their way to heaven; and it is of importance, too, to those whose faces are not yet turned thitherward. For darkness is everywhere else, and nowhere else is there to be found light, in which to see light; but in heaven, there is a light; and it is the true and abiding light; which, not only sheds its light over a world in darkness, but, communicates itself to those who, in heart, seek after it. For God and His Christ are now in heaven; and " this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."
To any extraordinary knowledge about the place, I make no pretension; indeed, I not only confess myself to be still a learner about it, and to know nothing, save the little which God may have given me, to see for myself that He has revealed about it in the book, but, I have individual confession for culpable past ignorance to make. Still I have read what others have written, as students gleaning for themselves, and for God's people in the field of His written Word, and, I have, while gleaning there for myself, found some things, which have struck my own mind, and which I would desire now to present to others.
1. Contrast of Heaven and Earth.
A contrast between heaven and earth might be drawn; and that would throw heaven out into bright relief, in contrast with earth and its history.
The history of the earth is the history of sin, and of man's failure upon it; but, amid all the failure here below, When did heaven above prove itself unmindful of the failed ones that looked up to it? Or, baffled as to wisdom, power, or intelligence, of how to show its wealth, and befriend the failed ones that seek to it? This is saying too little; in every way too little. For heaven, not only has made known that there is One in it, able and willing to help the seekers; but that One, has been altogether before the seekers, in proffering aid, and in displaying resources, ready for help in time of need. Yea! and more too. For in the unfolding of the doctrine of salvation,—the doctrine of God, the God of Heaven, being a Savior-God—the tale does not begin outside of Eden, after the door was closed upon the guilty, rebel man;—but, when the whole tale is told, we find that, somehow or the other, he that brought in ruin upon earth, had showed himself ere ever Eden's garden was planted.
The Book of Genesis, gives us the genesis of man, and of the earth; but there was one before them, a liar and a murderer from the beginning, who, if he found in Eden an occasion to do mischief, found, in that very mischief he did, in the midst of that very ruin which he occasioned, that he himself was entangled and trapped;—for the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. This brought out the priority and the preeminence of heaven, as to good, in its contrast with earth; and something of a length and depth about the ways of heaven, which goes altogether beyond the bounds of earth.
Man would not stand in the light that shined in paradise. Man kept not his first estate there. But, if man was to be driven out, God would first give him a word, spoken to Satan, about the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head, ere he was driven out. Outside of Eden, we see, in Cain and Abel, man under a new phase; and what the goodness of God, in those circumstances, was; and in the fresh blessing of Seth, as a line of hope.
But man declined and failed still more; the judgment of the deluge swept away the wicked; and Noah, the man of the new earth, received a covenant of providential mercies.
Man sinks again, until idolatry is spread abroad, and Abram is called out, to walk with God as a stranger and pilgrim. The God of Heaven shows His grace in various ways to Abraham and to Lot, to Isaac and to Jacob; yet, alas! each character among them, is one of less perfect conformity to the mind of heaven, than the preceding one. Joseph is now found in Egypt. The slavery of Israel follows; for the God of heaven was preparing for Himself a redemption, to be accomplished in Israel, even as He had shown a call and gifts in the case of Abraham. The senselessness of flesh, appears but too soon; and the law of righteousness is given, to teach Israel what there is, and what there is not in the flesh. This goes on, with various modifications, until there are but a few left, and they poor and feeble. Messiah is born. One appears, whose predicted corning had raised hopes in many hearts. He spreads out all His readiness to take up the whole burden of the nation, in its fallen state, and to bear the whole responsibility Himself. But He is slain with wicked hands. Raised again from the dead, He lingered, forty days, in the haunts of His days of humiliation, and goes up to heaven, thence to send down a message of mercy, and the power of the Holy Ghost, beginning at Jerusalem.
Judea, Samaria, the Gentiles hear the word of the grace of the Lord and Messiah. Then Saul of Tarsus is raised up, to witness to the personal association of the heavenly people, with the Son of God, as such, in heaven; not merely as Lord and Christ, but as Son of God.
The Word spreads out. Churches are formed every-where. Declension sets in. God moves the chosen servants of His Son, to give the analysis of the evil, and heaven's judgments upon it in the epistles. And in the Apocalypse it is shown out afresh, that, fail as the candlesticks may, the Lamb is on the throne, and all sure in Him—for God and His people.
The apostasy of Israel, the declension of the churches, the final apostasy, as to governmental power, may now be maturing; but faith knows that Jesus will yet be King in Zion,- that the Church will be the bride of the Lamb on high,- and that the Gentiles, extern and intern, shall yet be forced to bow the knee to the Nazarene:
When the Lord rises up from the right hand of God, the heavenly places will be purged; the Church established there—there to reign a thousand years with Christ; but the heaving of the earth, when the heavens are cleansed, will issue in a reign of righteousness, over Jew and Gentile, during a thousand years; and then Satan, let loose once more from the pit, will show what man is; and then shall follow the judgment and the new heavens, and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
It is a contrast, and no mistake; and, however rapidly we may run the eye through the points of the history in which the contrasts stand forth, heaven is found to be always the resource for man, because God is there; and more than that, for the plan and purpose of the God of heaven to give blessing, is evident from first to last. The God of heaven will put down Satan; put him down by means of the seed of that very woman whom he, Satan, first entangled; and so put him down, so break all his power and rule, as that all the weak ones, once the children of wrath, even as others, who cleave to this seed of the woman, they shall share, either in heaven above or earth beneath, the glory that belongs to Him as the Redeemer.
2. the Unity of Heaven's Ways, Etc.
Or, again, we may look at heaven in the various displays of it. For there is not only a unity that we trace in "heaven as it was," "heaven as it is," and "heaven as it shall be"—a blessed unity in Him who is God; and a blessed unity in His counsels; in His plans; in His work; in His objects.- But, also, while the counsel, plan, work, and purpose are but one, there is such a marvelous variety in the, ordering of the plan itself, as cannot be passed by unnoticed.
The purpose was, that God should be all in all (1 Cor. 15) That is, as I understand it, that in heaven above, and on earth beneath, in spite of all that Satan has done and tried to do, the name of God shall be permanently stamped everywhere, on everything, in heaven above, and on earth beneath; while all that will not bow, all that will not bear and wear that glory, shall be circumscribed to the place prepared for the devil and his angels.
It may be, that in heaven above, God shall be all in all, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and that in earth, God shall be all in all, as Jehovah-Elohim-Shaddai, Messiah, and the Spirit. But the time shall come, when, neither in heaven above, nor in earth beneath (in the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness), shall there be anything and any one not fully subject to the display of divine glory. Each thing and each person in their respective spheres and characters of glory; but God all in all.
If, leaving aside, for the moment, the peculiar displays which God means to make of His glory in connection with man, we consider broadly what has been shown out among men upon earth, as having been characteristic of what was in heaven, we shall see a gradually increasing light about heaven; and not only so, but certain elements introduced, or to be introduced, which justify our speaking of heaven as it was; heaven as it is; and heaven as it will be.
Creation gave a plain token of God's presence, and of the beneficence of the eternal power and Godhead of the God of heaven. In His visit to man after the fall, He did more; in his clothing and driving man out of Eden; in His acceptance of Abel's lamb and rejection of Cain and his fruits, and in His replacing Cain by Seth; in His dealings with Enoch and with Noah, with Abraham and Lot, according to a call given; in His separation of
Israel as a nation, to be the central nation to Himself upon earth, with the other nations grouped round it; in His redemption of that nation; in the Mediatorship, priesthood, tabernacle, kingly glory, temple, prophetic office; in the power put into the hands of four nations, to oppress the people of the Lord in the land which belonged to Him; in the fact of the incarnation and tabernacling in flesh of His Son; and, when Israel and the Gentiles rejected Him, His forming a Church on earth, and revealing a heavenly tabernacle and heavenly hopes;-in all these things we see, as the stream widens, how the subjects connected with the interests of heaven become more plain. And in the Lord descending hereafter to cleanse the heavenly places, and have His bride there, while all the heads and substance and powers which are now at work on earth, are to be put down under the Son of man in His reign, until (after the final apostasy) He abolishes death, and brings in the divine glory-we see the still wider stream in all its perfectness. All this speaks of the God of heaven, and tells of the counsels and plans of heaven.
3. Heaven As It Was, Is, Will Be.
But if we turn to heaven as it IS, we find that which sets before us a certain contrast from that which was, and from that which will be.
In the prayer now answered-" And now, Father, glorify Thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was"-we have, clearly enough, Jesus of Nazareth as Son of man in the glory which He had with the Father before the world was.
The Son of God in the divine glory, creating and upholding and testifying in Scripture, is that which faith recognizes to have been true of the Son from Gen. 1:11In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1), down to the day of His incarnation.
But this is very different from this same blessed One being displayed now, as Son of man, upon the throne, in the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. Now, the work is done; and He Himself is there, in proof of its being finished, and the power of the Holy Ghost is come down.
And as to what will be. He, on whom every title of redemption-glory rests, has yet, hereafter, to rise up from the place where He now sits, in patience, waiting, and to act upon and according to the titles so resting upon Him.
It was, I admit, an amazing step onward, when God became manifest in flesh; and when the Son of the Highest was born a babe in Bethlehem. But still the work was not done: the cross was still future; and, until the cross had been endured, the work was not done.
The work ended, and the value of it proved by the resurrection of the Lord, He is now in heaven: His patience still waiting. The work is now known only to faith; because grace will gather a people to Him there in heaven.
And when that gathering and calling to heaven are closed, He will rise up to act in energy and power; to show out the power and the glory.
If I consider the manifestation of the glory of God in connection with these three general testimonies of heaven as it was, heaven as it is, and heaven as it will be, I cannot hesitate for a moment as to which is the brightest and best manifestation of that glory.
True! each was perfect in its time; each display, too, has a bearing upon the others, and a voice from and for the others: but as well might we say, that heaven as it will be, when the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall dwell in the new Jerusalem, will not be a brighter and fuller display than that which now is-as to say, that heaven as it is, has no fuller testimony to faith, as to the glory of God, than had heaven as it was.
While man was being tried, and while time was allowed to roll out, in order that it might be seen that, among men, there was no savior, heaven shut its light in to itself, and spake forth its thoughts by types and shadows upon earth, and in earthly redemptions of an earthly people.
When the Son appeared-who was worth speaking of; save He? God manifest in flesh; He of whom it could be said, " He that hath seen Him, hath seen the Father"-this was light displayed; the true and real Light. And yet it had not expressed itself, according to the earth, fully, until upon the cross He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But here was an enigma which none but God could solve or explain: it was solved by the resurrection; and is now explained to faith since the ascension, and descent of the Holy Ghost.
And here comes in that other all-important truth; namely, that the light was light fitted for man as a sinner upon earth. It was not only perfect light, shining forth from God; but light that now can shine into the heart and mind and conscience of a poor sinful soul. Where was this to be found in Old-Testament times? There was nothing then that could make the conscience perfect.
God in the tabernacle, or God in the temple? Yes; but how far will the tabernacle of the wilderness, or the temple of the land, set a soul at rest? As God of Israel, He may pardon: but eternity? How shall I find rest as to it? The Jewish sacrifices have only efficacy for a year! And the day that discharges all guilt, the great day of atonement, precedes days on which sin may be renewed.
Then, again, shall I give a bullock or a ram for the sin of my soul? Or how can a sinner like myself mediate for me? Thanks be to God! all this is now changed. Upon the throne of the Majesty of the Highest, there is a Man who, with the heart of the Son of man, assures our souls, that that which has justified God in proclaiming His throne to be the throne of mercy, may well justify us in drawing near with boldness. And what solemn truth meets one's soul there? Sin was against the God of heaven, in His eternal majesty; His own Son, as Son of man, has borne the full penalty in His own body on the tree; and, token of the ineffable delight of God in Him and His work, He has received the promise of the Father, and sent down to us the Holy Ghost. Here the soul finds a perfect rest; and though we have, with patience, to wait until He rises up, yet are our hearts assured before Him in love; and we do with patience wait for Him, who shall appear a second time without sin unto salvation. We take our place as a redeemed people, His own heavenly people; not of the world, as He is not of the world; but who wait for Him to come, and receive us to Himself.
We have thus looked briefly, 1st, at heaven as in contrast with earth, in their several histories; 2ndly, at the unity of the mind, etc., of heaven at all times; and, 3rdly, at the points of contrast internally in heaven as it was, heaven as it is, and heaven as it will be.
The field is thus before us; and it has treasures of untold value in it, some of which we may examine. The fact is, that the person of our Lord being there, every title of honor and blessing and glory rests upon Him; and we can only know them as they are found in Him there; and according as His acting upon them to usward, has caused the reality of that which was contained in the titles to become apparent. These heavenly things are thus (as connected with the honor which Heaven has set upon Christ) most precious; and, inasmuch as they are made known by His acting towards us upon them, they become at once the expression of the delight which God and the Father has in Him and in us, towards whom the blessing flows forth: and they lead our souls, withal, into the relationships of Christ in heaven, and into the fellowship which we have through His being there, and sustaining there certain titles of glory, with heaven and with the God of heaven.
The first great titles which shine forth in Christ in heaven as it is, are those of LORD and CHRIST, and SON OF GOD.
Heaven As It Is: so Far As Manifested by the Setting up of the Church.
Heaven as it was, at any period before the ascension of the Lord Jesus, is not my topic now; nor, again, heaven as it will be in any period after that the Lord Jesus has left the place which He took consequent upon His ascension. Heaven as it is (the Lord Jesus being ascended, owned by God, and known to faith, but waiting in patience there), is that to which I limit my present remarks. For the page of Scripture, without any question, as I have said, throws light upon heaven, and the revelations of it and of its ways in various periods that preceded the ascension of our Lord Jesus; and also on the different kinds of glory and different ends for which they will be revealed at various epochs after that the Lord Jesus shall, hereafter, take a position different from that which He now holds.
Scripture gives us light upon the Lord's course of humiliation; upon His present position, as resting in patience at the right hand of the Majesty in the highest; and on His future course, when the time is come for His glory to be manifested. Into these three parts the history divides itself; though it adds much and full testimony, in so doing, to the glory, honor, and dignity of the person of the Lord, and the offices to be sustained by Him. And it is especially in these three chapters of the Redeemer's course, that the light and mind of heaven shines out; but it is the second of them alone, viz., "heaven as it is," which is my topic.
Of course, when the soul turns to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the divine glory in heaven-the Spirit of God come down here being the power and guide of our faith-of course, I say, we cannot forget either the perfect sympathies of His heart, shown as a man, when in the world, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, on the one hand; or, on the other, the perfect expression of His divine fullness who, on the cross, did receive at God's hand the full judgment due to our sins, that He 'night separate between us and our sins, and between us and Satan. Himself alive is before us. But, then, while Himself is ever the same, the position and display of Him is now quite other than what it was. He was the "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief "; He is "crowned with honor and glory." To the heart of Christ Himself, and to the hearts of those that love Him, these two positions awaken very different, thoughts. Each position is perfect in itself, and Himself perfect in each position; but the humiliation and the glory are not one, but TWO positions-and two most widely contrasted positions.
If Christ in resurrection were my subject, I should have to refer to Matt. 28, to Mark 16, to Luke 24, to John 20 and 21 in detail, as showing the sympathies and graciousness to His own disciples of a risen Lord; but Christ in ascension is not found in these portions; and heaven is only presented in them directly thus: Jesus said, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matt. 28:1818And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Matthew 28:18)). " The Lord... was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God" (Mark 16.19). Jesus " led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:5050And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. (Luke 24:50)).
I turn now to some passages in the first seven chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, arid Peter and Paul. In many details, Acts repeats the same things as are mentioned in Luke 24 But the contrast between the placing of the facts with that which is peculiar to the two books, is easily seen. The Gospel of Luke gives an outline of the history of the Son of man from His first appearing here on earth, until the curtain drops on Christ's going up into heaven. The Acts give you the entrance within the curtain, with all that follows it. The Gospel leads you on outside right up to the fall of the curtain in Christ's disappearing. The Acts leads you from the inside of the curtain right onward; but Christ Himself within, and the effects consequent thereon.
And here we shall find a gradual development of light about the Lord ascended to heaven. As, 1st, the fact and act of His ascension was presented in a way which addressed itself to the experience of the eleven apostles, as men in the body down here; and, 2ndly, there was, as a result of this fact (of the Son of man being in heaven), the doctrine of the coming down of God the Holy Ghost, the promise of the Father, the Spirit of power and of testimony. " Wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me" (Acts 1:44And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. (Acts 1:4)). " Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (ver. 8).
Such the doctrine. And connected with that doctrine, as I have said, the fact of His being seen to ascend into heaven. "And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight." So they returned to Jerusalem, and continued in prayer and supplication. There-upon, unwonted wisdom appeared in Peter, in handling the word of God: a twelfth apostle is consequently chosen; and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, we have the third step onward: "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind; and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:2-42And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:2‑4)).
To see their Lord, who was risen from the dead, and had been in and out among them as one risen from the dead, thus ascend up into heaven-a man going up into heaven was a marvelous sight—and to know that this one, their Lord and their God, had been hidden (in the very body in which He was crucified, though it was now glorified) in heaven, was a marvelous secret. But they waited on Him so gone up; and when the time was fully come, they found the fulfillment of the promise of the Father, and this manifest and distinct sign of how they were recognized in heaven as being associates of His; for the Holy Ghost comes down upon them, and in His power they became witnesses of and for their Lord. A Lord risen from the grave had indoctrinated them, and given power of understanding, which appeared in them after His ascension. The Holy Ghost came down, and they heard and saw that which marked His descent and presence; but not only so: for, this descent upon them being a token, from Him who had gone on high, of the recognition He had met with in heaven, they had a testimony to give as to Him their Lord. There was a doctrine which they would have to announce, and there were effects which, in grace, would follow the proclamation of it. True; but there was, as I have said, first of all, in and to themselves, this blessed mark of the delight of the Father in them, as in those who delighted in the One whom He delighted to honor. The promise of the Father is fulfilled; they receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is given; and, in taking the place of witnessing of His having been received up on high, they take His place of testimony which Himself had just left—place which, but for the Holy Ghost (one need hardly say it), they were utterly unable to hold.
The world around understood not the sign, though confounded by that which they witnessed. Peter and the eleven rise up as solvers of the enigma; and let it be remarked how they use the word of God as their weapon. Prophecy had told of signs and wonders to precede the coming of the Lord; and it had been written: " And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved" (ver. 21).
Who was that? Why that same Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of Israel, as they themselves knew; whom they, with wicked hands, had crucified and slain: this same Jesus (in order that the hopes of, and promises made to, David might be fully made good, and also in that He was one whose personal glory made it impossible that He could. see corruption)-" this Jesus has God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David saith, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." God had raised Him from the dead, and they had seen Him: God had highly exalted Him, the earth-rejected man; and He, having received the promise of the Father, had shed forth, on and in the apostles, the power and signs and testimony which men witnessed and beheld. It was not new wine which was a mocker-a mocker as great as the mockers who wanted to suggest that this expression of the Father's delight in Jesus, exalted as Son of man, was only the effects of too much wine drank by the apostles. (Oh the brute-beast stupidity of sin!) Not new wine, but Jesus of Nazareth declared by God in heaven to be both Lord and Christ, and witnessed of thus, by God the Holy Ghost, in those that were the Lord's friends.
Let the place which the fear of the Lord puts man in, when it is acted upon, be here noticed. The apostles had much to learn still; their minds and their consciences and their hearts were still not where the Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Hebrews, etc., have put ours. But the fear of the Lord was real in them, and fully practical; and God, in doctrine, began there where He surely ought always to begin; viz., in showing the place His Beloved has in His eyes, and how the fullest association and power of association is provided by Him (through Him who is both Lord and Christ) for all those who fear and wait upon Jesus. If Jesus was Lord and Christ, and owned so by God in heaven, all was theirs. It needed not much wisdom to see that. Though none but God knew how full the blessing was which He had prepared for them, yet this was now seen -that the Holy Ghost was sent down froth the anointed Jesus, as the proof and the power of association of His disciples with Himself on high.
The first question for me, I repeat it, is not as to my mind, my conscience, my heart—though, in their proper places, such questions do arise- but, if God's supremacy is to be owned, and God's Christ honored, this must ever be the first question for a man, "am I practically associated with the One whom God delights to honor?" The knowing and owning the Christ, is the way into all blessing.
But this word-expression of the blessedness of His disciples—was terror to those that knew Him not. Pricked in their heart, they demand, " What shall we do?" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and so this question gives occasion to the apostles to show their fellowship with, and understanding of, the grace. Then Peter said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (ver. 38, 39). Three thousand are added to their blessed company-company which not only enjoyed, but reflected the blessed light of heavenly grace and glory.
The doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers, of the apostles' company, had its unearthly, its heavenly marks about it. There was fear upon every soul; -wonders and signs by the apostles; fellowship and communion; unselfishness and disinterestedness; gladness and singleness of heart; praise to God and favor with man. Such was the company of saved ones. (See ver. 42-47.)
Heaven, Heaven as it is-is thus first brought before us; and thus are we first introduced to it, as it now is.
It cannot be too much noticed, that it was altogether and entirely A NEW THING, the fact of Jesus of Nazareth being in heaven; he had been on earth, a man approved of God among the Jews, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by Him, in the midst of them.- That same Jesus had been taken by them, and by wicked hands had been crucified and slain; but God raised Him up, because it was not possible that he should be holden of death; this Jesus, raised up from the dead, and by the right hand of God exalted, was now seated in heaven, at Jehovah's right hand, until His foes are made His footstool; that same Jesus, whom man had crucified, God had made Lord and Christ. He was thus glorified as Son of Man in heaven, according to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, as Son of God.
And having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He shed forth that which was then seen.
Contrast, if you please, heaven, as thus set forth, with heaven, when at creation: -" The morning-stars sang together, and all the [angels as] sons of God, shouted for joy " (Job 38:77When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)); contrast it with the ladder, seen but in a dream, by Jacob, with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it (Gen. 28:1212And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28:12)); contrast it with the manifestation to Moses in the bush (Ex. 3); with the glory of God, as seen when Moses went up into the Mount (chap. 24:9-18); or with Isa. 6 How far does the revelation of Heaven as it is, go in grace beyond all that had ever been? In Heaven as it is, all that God is, or has,-all revealed as honoring, as Lord and Christ, and that too in heaven, a man whom earth had rejected; and, when the Father has fulfilled the. promise to Him, He shedding abroad of its blessednesses upon His people upon earth who believe in Him. And let us not confound counsel, the carrying of it out, and the fruits of its having been carried out, together, as some do. The counsel was from everlasting, about Him who had been known in His own eternity, as the first and the last. But the existence of such a counsel, and its promulgation openly in heaven, and on earth, too, as a counsel accomplished when the work was ended,—which enabled Jesus to take the place as Son of Man, owned of God as Lord and Christ,- were very different in themselves, and in their effects as revealing divine glory, and as the means of blessing, to the people of God. Now, all was done, and the Man whom God delighted to honor, the one who, alone, personally, could be Lord and Christ, was shown out to faith, as Lord and Christ in heaven, the Giver and Sender down of the Holy Ghost.
I only remark further, that all this blessed scene has been made known to us thus, through the words which flowed from the lips of these self-same apostles, as, filled with the Holy Ghost, they uttered that which God the Holy Ghost gave them to speak, as witnessing to the same Jesus.
But the grace and love, which, heaven being thus ordered, showed itself forth in power upon earth, were not to be limited to the forming of a blessed company, however holy and happy that might be. Grace became more loud in its claims for space to display itself in; and, by the healing of one in the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, it opened a way for the claim to be raised, by the servants and ambassadors of heaven, that Israel should open its doors, to welcome the blessing which had long been predicted, as to follow to 'Israel, when it hailed the prophet who was greater than Moses. In man's rejection of the claim and the judgment forewarned, which would follow, man showed his senselessness, but could not change the grace. " Unto you, first, God, having raised up His Son Jesus sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one Of you from his iniquities." The effect of the appeal, we see to have been the conversion of two thousand more (chap. 4 ver. 4).
The authorities resist and persecute; but Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, vindicates God, for having so honored Jesus as He had. The authorities threaten, but dismiss their troublers. These, returned to their own company, make an appeal to God, still to honor the name of His holy Child, Jesus, and heaven's answer to the appeal is not wanting; the place is shaken, all are filled with the Holy Ghost, and speak the word of God with boldness.
It is most blessed to trace the effects of the energy of the Spirit of God, and of Christ in this company in the one mind, and one object between God in heaven, and this company upon earth. The Father honoring the Son at His right hand on high, and the Holy Ghost, down here on earth, expressing, in these blessed ones, a life on earth spent only and solely for the glory of Him whom heaven honored.
The same truth comes out also in chap. 5, though in a. different way. For here it enforces the holiness of the house upon earth, and sets Peter forward as one, used of God, to vindicate the holiness of God, very present among them. Holiness and truth, quite as much as grace, must be maintained wheresoever the Lordship of Jesus is owned; be it among a people who own the Christ in heaven, or, be it among those who own Him as Messiah upon earth. He and darkness, cannot go together; and where His power, as Lord, is present, there must be the detecting and purging out of evil; for the heaven of God, never loses its character. Lying, deception, and seeking after credit for self, from man-what have they to do in a house, formed for the manifestation, on earth, of truth, simplicity, and the honor due to the name of Jesus alone? Their appearing there at all, showed the inveteracy of the hatred of Satan, on the one hand, and of the weakness of man, on the other. Their being there, gave occasion, however, for an awful expression of the first judgment of God the Holy Ghost upon them, as things which He could not but judge in His house on earth. They are the formal principles of the sins by which the testimony has, since, while men slept (as Peter, at the hour of their first appearance, did not) been undermined and corrupted. Love of credit and applause from man for self; acting with lying and deceit; with a heart set upon the gold and the silver of the earth-these are the three evils referred to. Satan, working on flesh, through the elements of the world, thus first tried to make an inroad upon the House and the assembly of God upon earth; for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, are still his weapons. But, thank God! in the case before us, the very appearance of the evil, gave but occasion for God to show that the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, was more mighty than the world, the flesh, and Satan; and also that, however weak and feeble, the separate stones in the house, looked at in their separateness, might be, when built together for a habitation of God, through the Spirit's presence, the place and the assembly were holy, and had power to detect, rise above, and judge the evil.
The holiness of the house and assembly, having been thus vindicated, and the impossibility of darkness living, as an energizing principle, in the midst of the light of God's assembly, having been shown, we next find how the fresh living water, from its rock on high, fills it afresh. By the hands of the apostles, were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; of the rest, durst no man join himself to them the people magnified them. Believers were added to the Lord- multitudes. The sick were brought into the streets, and laid on beds, that, at the least, the shadow of Peter, as lie passed, might overshadow some of them. Multitudes, also, out of the country round about, brought sick folks, and those which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed, every one (chap. 5:12-16.)
Such was the freshness of the grace given to this new-formed assembly. Power over the power of evil, to attract the world; to comfort those that came; to provoke to jealousy the opposers. It was the expression of the presence of God the Holy Ghost in the assembly, witnessing of how God in heaven delighted in those upon earth, who entered into His delight in the Christ; but it was a house, an assembly of, these associates of Christ, which had this honor. They had it not, save as members of that assembly.
The indignation of the priests is moved; they seize upon the apostles; but what can a prison do, when the angel of the Lord has commandment to open its doors? The malice of the enemy does but create an occasion, the more marked, for a testimony.-"We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand—a Prince and a Savior—for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him."
What could be a more simple explanation of the whole affair? What more cutting to the adversary (ver. 33)? What more suited for the time-serving Gamaliel (34-40)? The spite of the adversary, however, cannot refuse itself to give a few stripes to the apostles; but even this turns to their confusion, for the Lord fills the hearts of His people with joy, that they are counted worthy to suffer for His name's sake; and, daily, in the temple, and in every house, they teach incessantly, and preach Jesus Christ.
In the next chapter (6), we get another proof of the enemy's malice; and that, not displayed in those who were to be cut off, but in those who remained within. Murmuring and discontentment had arisen, because, that, in the administration to daily wants, some widows were neglected. The things of time are thus found to give occasion to the adversary, even where daily needs are in question. The difficulty is remedied by those to whom, in common, the purse belonged choosing almoners; and their choice is approved by the apostles. But one of these seven almoners, Stephen, had been chosen of God for another and a higher work as well, namely, to be an especial witness to Israel of its sin; and, through the enmity produced by the testimony thus given, to become the first martyr who went on high. False witness is brought against him; but the help given to him from above is irresistible. His face was as it had been the face of an angel. His answer is based upon the Jewish Scriptures, but contains a summary of God's dealings, and the principle of His dealings with the whole race, from Abraham, downward, which is divinely perfect. Abraham, called of God to be a pilgrim and a stranger, had, indeed, had gifts and promises bestowed upon him. But, as to his descendants, they that were in the flesh, had always risen up against those that were, in spirit, the Lord's, and persecuted them. The Jews had ever cleaved to the outside blessings, and had neither heart nor mind to recognize God, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, were all witnesses of what a back-sliding people they were. And Solomon, the king, had borne witness, that heaven contained the Lord's throne, and earth was but His footstool. The generation, in Stephen's day, were but like their fathers, stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears-always resisting the Holy Ghost. Which of the prophets had not their fathers persecuted? What witness to the coming of the Just One had they not slain? That Just One, of whom (said he) ye have now been the betrayers and murderers.
They bowed not to the testimony.
" But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."
This is a new and a very important step onward. All that was learned about heaven, in the earlier chapters, was learned by the testimony of persons preaching. Here, the heavens open upon the earth-rejected follower of an earth-rejected Christ,-and he sees right up into heaven. And he can speak as one that sees and knows for himself.
Being full of the Holy Ghost, he looks up steadfastly into heaven, sees the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God—and bears witness to what he sees.
So they stone Stephen, invoking and saying, "Lord Jesus! receive my spirit." Then he knelt down, and cried aloud, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!" and so fell asleep.
The amazing power of support, which this Abel found, the first of the flock of slaughter, the members of which were to be as killed all the day long, was most gracious; and the whole scene showed, how death of the body as well as life, all things, are ours; for nothing can separate from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
These seven chapters form a sort of book in themselves, and give us the light and bearing of the glory belonging to Jesus, as Son of man, owned in heaven as Lord and Christ.
As Lord, God will eventually put all His enemies under His feet. Appointed Judge of all, on His word, the fate for eternity of every soul eventually hangs. As universal Lord, 'tis He, who, in the end, puts down death, and locks up Satan in the lake of fire and brimstone. Yes; that same Jesus, whom man crucified, will do all this, and much more than this; for all power in heaven and in earth, is given to Him, and He is Lord of all. What a proof of His being Lord of all, the formation of that assembly was. In the days of His humiliation, none clave to Him, and, when the Shepherd was smitten, the sheep were scattered. Satan's sway over Jew and Gentile, over the High Priest and Herod, and Pontius Pilate, and over the mob, had seemed perfect. Peter and all the disciples had fled dismayed. But now, on the day of Pentecost, how is everything changed. Peter, James, and John are full of courage; the word of these poor men is mighty, as they speak about Jesus, to arrest three thousand, to cause so large a mass to pass from the kingdom of darkness, right over, and at once, into the kingdom of light. And why and how was this? Jesus was Lord of all, and was now owned as such. He, therefore, endowed with power from on high His servants; and thus He formed upon earth, in Jerusalem itself, where also our. Lord was crucified, an assembly for God—an assembly, the very existence of which, as well as its objects and purposes, were the living and abiding proofs of His being Lord of all in heaven. The Church was a new development on the day of Pentecost. A new position was taken by the Lord, as to His dealings with man upon earth, and this Church, the assembly where God Himself dwelt, was the unmistakable proof of it. People get so occupied sometimes with themselves, and with the question of their own consistency, or inconsistency, both with the truth, of which the Church is a proof, and with its hopes, purposes, and callings, as practically to forget that there is a Church to belong to. Now, I could desire, by all means, that we should judge and set aside whatever in us, individually, is practically inconsistent with the position which grace has given to us; but the way to do this, is to have the heart, and mind, and soul, well occupied with the position and privileges, hopes and calling, of the thing itself. And who does not know the blessedness of being able to say: " However much I may fail, blessed be God! He has a Church, and I belong to it, and the full blessedness of what it is, belongs to me." As has been often said, a stone has a relative value when it has been placed in a building, which it never would have had, had it remained in its individuality. So, a tache of gold, or a loop of a curtain, in the tabernacle, formed an integral part of the tabernacle of God, and was to be looked upon and judged as such, and not according to its own individual worth. When the tabernacle, in all its parts, was ready, and each part was just what it ought to be, Moses had done his duty so far; he had prepared a tabernacle for God. But it was God coming down into the tabernacle, that made it to be the tabernacle of God. Much more is true as to the Church. For when the Holy Ghost came down, on the day of Pentecost, it matters not about the parts, whether there were 12, or 120, or 3,000, or 5,000 parts, God the Holy Ghost was there, a witness of, and to, an earth-rejected, but heaven-honored Jesus. He took the lead; God always has the first place. To the believer, it runs thus: Seeing we have found such grace, what manner of person ought I to be in all holy conversation? All our obedience supposes consistency, with a position of blessing. Ciphers are the expression of naught, when alone; concede one unit, and then the value of the cipher, will be according to its position as to the unit. As -to the Church, the energy of blessing supposes many things; and not merely the watchfulness of an individual, to keep himself up to a given standard. For instance, there is first the presence of God the Holy Ghost, who secondly, has, by the word, formed into a body, various quickened persons. Being together, the word truly acts upon the conscience and heart of individuals as such but it is the word as used by Christ, and empowered by the Holy Ghost. The place is a place of light and conscience, as, therein, both an enlarged arena, to act in, and the aid of many keepers, and the company being God's, there are gifts and gifted persons there; and the living God, who, when one fails, puts forward another.
Jesus being Lord, is His title to power and right over all. Jesus being Christ, or Anointed, is His title to office in testimony, worship, and government. Where He is, He must, of necessity, be the source and spring of all action. All the light which His people 'possess, is from and in Himself; the answer to all their needs, and their power as to worship in spirit and in truth, are found in Him; and who else, save Himself, either guides His people, or forms and fashions them. There is an interesting and an important difference to notice, between the Christ-hood as for earth, and the Christ-hood as in heaven. The prophet, priest, and king, in Old Testament days, were all anointed, and each office pointed on to the Messiah upon earth. But, Messiah for earth, has no body associated with Him, in the same way as has the Christ in heaven. The prophet has a people to prophesy to—disciples; the High Priest has priests subordinate to him; the king has subjects. The correlative titles of the party inferior, are according to the title of the party superior. Official relationships characterize the earth. Personal relationships characterize the heavens. The Son of Man has a bride. The Head has a body. The Christ in heaven, has Christians too now upon earth. The Messiah upon earth has not Messiahites. It is not that there is not an unction for the earthly people; but it comes in a different way, attaches itself to a different class of things to what it does in the case of the heavenly people.
In these chapters, again, be it observed, we get the expression of the results of the combination of these two titles, Lord and Christ, Jesus of Nazareth being in heaven. While He acts upon them, He, being in heaven, He forms, and sustains, and directs a Church of God upon earth,- beginning at Jerusalem. He will, at a future time, act upon them, He being on earth; and the millennial earth will be the result.. He acts upon them combined together, in both these periods, in grace to man. In the first, God has been showing out, what His delight in Jesus of Nazareth, as Son of Man, Lord and Christ, is, He being in heaven; nothing less than the formation of a new body, could express THAT; a body which, in its very elements and essence, its objects, purposes, thoughts, and affections, told forth fellowship with the Father, in His delight in the Christ. In the second display, He will make good, as Jehovah, His title to place the root and offspring of David, as His fountain of blessing, upon earth. God has a right, if He wills, to have a people upon earth, who are of and for heaven, and who walk as citizens of it; such a people—new as the thought was to man -indeed, un-known till Pentecost, is the expression of the presence upon earth of the Holy Ghost, to make good all the titles which are owned by God and the Father, as being the Son's now in heaven. God has a right, too, when the time shall come, to reform a people for Himself upon earth-people who shall be willing, in the day of Messiah taking His power, to reign upon earth.
But the titles thus acted upon in combination, whether in heaven or in earth, are for blessing to man; and as power from God in that blessing. A state of weakness is no expression of the present power of an Almighty Lord: and power which has not the honor of the Christ of God as its object, is not power divine in man. Power and grace, I conceive, will be found always united, when these two names are acted upon together. If I take them separately, I could not say this: for the Lordship has expressions of its glory as against and over adversaries that are recognized as remaining adversaries; and the activities of Lordship in Jesus have not the same place for them, when He has put down all enemies under His feet, as they have while He is putting down, or showing (as now) His competency to put down. On the other hand, the blessedness of the anointing only becomes more enlarged, when the spheres in which enemies now exist, for the grace of it to be shown to, have ceased to exist.
The revelation of our portion is indeed wondrous. It reveals the glory of the throne of God and the Father, as the resting-place of Jesus of Nazareth, and that Jesus endowed with the promise of the Father; and, consequent thereon, the Holy Ghost come down here to form and sustain a people in whom, upon earth, the virtues of the Lordship and the Christhood of Jesus should abound; while all that the heart of the Son of man feels about
God, and His people, is told out to them and in them and by them. It is this which makes the book called the Acts to be of such peculiar interest to the hearts of the children of God. lt gives, truly, the divine explanation of the change from the temple-worship at Jerusalem (being the only one which God recognized for the earth), to the meetings for worship in spirit and in truth, the wide world over, among all that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus out of a pure heart. It gives, truly, the history of the actings of the apostleship of Peter; and the drifting of the testimony, after worship was set up in the Church at Jerusalem, out through Judea, Samaria, and to the Gentiles. It gives the outline, to a certain extent, of the actings of the apostleship of Paul -apostle of the uncircumcision, as Peter was of the circumcision: but it does much more; for it (not only shows us things wrought down here, but) opens to us the scenes above, where the springs of all that was wrought by the Holy Ghost down here, are shown to us; and everything traced up to God's delight, in heaven, in Christ, and the heart of Christ in heaven, faithful to God, and fresh in love to the people of God down here. As we read it, we see and are made to feel that we have, indeed, not a dead Christ-who was merely crucified, dead, and buried -to do with, but one alive again from the dead, and at God's right hand. This, as connected both with one's own soul individually, and with the work that is passing here below in the name of the Lord, is of exceeding importance.
No one can read carefully from chapters 1 to 8, without seeing the part and place held by Christ, though Himself in heaven, in the forming and sustaining of the testimony at Jerusalem, and up to the hour of its first formal rejection of it by the Jewish people.
Chapter 8 If God's hand ever moved men upon the board of life, His hand was certainly making itself known in Jerusalem during the period which is brought before us in the first seven chapters of the Acts. His hand was there ordering everything external, and His Spirit ordering all internal to His Church—His church-expression, here below on earth, of His delight in Jesus, both Lord and Christ, at His right hand in heaven.
What a remarkable incident, Saul's presence at Jerusalem! and his being just in the way to have the young men's clothes (who were the witnesses against and stoners of Stephen) laid down at his feet. While Satan was doubtless in it, there was another than he also in it all-even that One who looked down from heaven on Stephen, and gave to him his testimony and upheld him in it. And what were Christ's thoughts as to Saul? Much, in one sense, what they were about Peter, as found in John 13 and 14. If Peter had to be Christ's witness as to Israel's self-sufficient rejection of the Messiah, Peter is first made to know what he himself is, and how he was in no wise better in himself than they. If Saul was to go to the Gentiles, to tell of a heavenly calling, and of fellowship with an ascended and glorified Christ, he is allowed to prove that grace found nothing in him, when it first looked upon him, but a man who was a persecutor and a blasphemer and injurious. How wondrous are the ways of God; yet how perfect withal!
And let us mark here, too, in another respect, the contrast between the ways of God and the ways of man. Man makes a proffer; and, if it is refused, he too oft finds the springs of his own willingness to give to be choked: his gift rejected, returns with sorrow and pain " to his own soul, to vex him." Not so God. Jerusalem -has it rejected the testimony of the Holy Ghost given from heaven by Jesus gone up thither, and sat down there as Lord and Christ? Christ moves on in testimony. He saw Saul there, and doubtless thought of what was coming as to him; but if Jerusalem ceases to be an open channel for the blessing, the waters can-not, according to His heart, reach the Gentiles without Judea and Samaria first getting a benefit. From Jerusalem, in its wickedness and madness, persecution scatters all save the apostles, and the cities of Judea thus first get a testimony. Satan might concentrate all his power in Saul. Christ would make it visible that means were not lacking to Him. The apostles shall tarry at
Jerusalem. The disciples, scattered, shall, by the Holy Ghost, tell of that which filled their hearts. Therefore they that were " scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word."
Saul's part in the persecution is three times named: " The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul" (7:58); "And Saul was consenting unto his [Stephen's] death" (viii. 1); " As for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison" (ver. 3). He was a persecutor in thought, word, and deed, whom the heaven-sustained testimony and joy of dying Stephen did not reach; and who had no sense of pity for the weak, or sympathy for the afflicted. What is man, when not subject to God!
The persecution thus arising, Philip is led, in this simple way, to Samaria. The power of God is with him. Miracles are wrought, unclean spirits cast out, the palsied and the lame healed; and. great joy filled the city.
Then we find the record of a move of the enemy in a new form-perils of false brethren unawares brought in. Simon, a sorcerer, listens, and takes his place among the disciples.
The news of the movement-most gracious movement -in Samaria, reaches Jerusalem (ver. 14). The apostles send Peter and John, who pray for them, that they may 'receive the Holy Ghost; then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost (ver. 17). This exhibition of communicative power detects Simon. Who might not long for a share in such a power? True; but where was the heart and mind. which could see it and overlook GOD, and count that a little silver would induce Peter to sell the power of communicating the Holy Ghost? Alas! what is man? What is flesh in any of us, when it expresses itself, be it placed in the world or in the Church? active amid the excitement of persecution, or active amid the flowing streams of divine grace and power? That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
The effect of all this upon Peter, is to produce anger without sin, though his indignation is strong, and expresses itself with unmeasured strength. The apostles preach the Gospel in many villages of the Samaritans, and then return to Jerusalem.
Grace flows on, no longer pent up within the walls of Jerusalem, or to the order of things there. It is pleased to work through Philip; and in a proselyte from among the heathen, who was on his journey back into Ethiopia after the feast. An angel bids Philip go down into Gaza, which is desert: there he finds the Ethiopian eunuch; communicates to his puzzled mind the light of the Gospel, as led by the Spirit of God, and then is caught away.
Samaria was in a circle farther off for the manifestation of God, according to man's mind, and according to God's order too, than was Judea, for worship upon earth. Under the law, there was no worship save in Jerusalem. Under the new order of things, there could be worship in Judea as much as in Jerusalem; for the three great feasts which had to be kept in Jerusalem, had now yielded to the truths as found in a crucified and risen Christ, to which they pointed. But, if Jesus (earth-rejected and heaven-honored) was the door through which the gift of the Spirit came to all that believed, then Samaria was not shut out; and the water was flowing out still farther. Accordingly, here we have a proselyte who had come all the way from the court of Ethiopia up to Jerusalem, to keep the feast, met by Philip; and his heart made to joy and rejoice as he goes back, not empty-handed, but a worshipper of God in spirit and in truth.
How blessed is the thought of the part which the Lord Jesus, alive in heaven, had in all this And how blessed, to see how the Holy Ghost orders and arranges everything and every detail for the disciples-just as much and as overtly as the blessed Lord Jesus had done in the days of His humiliation 1 And yet, while it is God the Holy Ghost who is directing all, He directs all according to the thoughts and affections of the glorified man, Christ Jesus the Lord, who though in heaven, thinks of all the littleness and all the slowness of His people down here. And so all passes with that leisure which our littleness and little faith makes meet. And let it be noted, that we have here, not (as before) the Holy Ghost only as in the assembly of believers, and working through and with office-bearers and men of note -but, away from the assembly, this same Spirit is found divinely directing and overtly leading a man who had been chosen to be an almoner for the saints, yet who now has to go out to a desert-place, and, finding a nobleman in a car there, has to go near and join himself to the chariot. And the same Spirit, as He had manifested His presence once and again with various groups, now catches away Philip, and sends the eunuch on his way full of joy.
What a blessed doctrine is that of the Holy Ghost down here, as Witness of and for Jesus, Lord of all in heaven, and Guardian of the Church and people of Christ! Yea, divine and heavenly blessing it is!
Chaps. 9-12. The formation of the Church upon earth; the testimony to, and of it, rejected; the testimony breaking out from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria; a proselyte;-these things we have seen. But the testimony was to take a larger and a wider range yet; and, in the four next chapters, we find the outline of the provision made in connection therewith. Saul's conversion, when he was near Damascus, by direct revelation from heaven, and the mission of Ananias to him, is, together with its consequences, the first grand incident (9:1-31). The second is as to Peter, in the fresh honor put upon him just at this period, in the restoration of Aeneas at Lydda (9:32-35); the raising from the dead of Dorcas at Joppa (to ver. 43); and the vision to him of the great sheet, with the attendant call to go to the Gentile Cornelius, and its blessed results (chap. 10). The third fact is the effect of this first outbreak of mercy to the Gentiles, upon the saints at Jerusalem (11:1-19). Fourthly, Barnabas gets led to Antioch; and, seeing the need there, he fetches Saul-the Lord leading forth their service, and giving abundant supplies of grace (to end of chap. 11). Then (chap. 12) follows the persecution under Herod; the Lord's rescue of Peter; the death of Herod, his iniquity being indeed awfully full.
In entering upon the Lord's dealings with Paul, as the apostle of the uncircumcision, we shall see how the person of the Lord comes out, more and more, into light, as the object. It is not that, to God's mind, there ever was other center, or other way of displaying God, than that blessed one; but, clearly, the light may shine out more simply and fully at one time than at another. At first, it was God dealing with the people of Jerusalem, who had rejected the Messiah when He was upon earth; and the leading truth pressed upon them is, that God in heaven had owned as Lord and Christ that same Jesus whom they had rejected. Here (in Paul's case) the blessed Lord reveals Himself in heaven to him; and though it is Jesus who does so, this Jesus is known in heaven as Son of God. The question, in this part, is of what it becomes God to do for His Son, when revealed in heaven as the Second Adam.
Saul, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, arms himself with authority from the-high priest, and is then off for Damascus. The Lord makes an appeal to the whole man, as any man upon earth, and in mere nature, could take notice of it. Suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven; and he fell to the earth. Then (and Oh, what a volume to the renewed heart does the part which the Lord takes in it all contain I) he heard a voice saying unto him, " Saul, Saul, -why persecutest thou me?" Aye, why? What reason had Saul for persecuting Jesus? But what grace for a glorified Lord, for the Son of God, thus to offer to hear what a rebellious creature has to say in vindication of his most unreasonable opposition. The query was well framed, and drew forth another question in reply from Saul: "Who art Thou, Lord?" The voice of a man had addressed Him; the voice of a man ushered in by a display of divine effulgence, of a Man in heaven, who asserted that He was the object of the persecution of Saul of Tarsus. " Who art Thou?" was a natural question; but it would not have been the fair expression of Saul's state: he knew now that he had to do with another than a mere man; and the conscious conviction of the divine character of the revelation, comes out in his using the word Lord. "Who art Thou, Lord?" Had Saul ever before been an enquirer after divine glory? Had he not rather taken it for granted, that he knew intuitively all about God, and what he had to do for God? I judge that he never, until now, had really found himself in the divine presence-never knew how man needs to be taught of God. " Who art Thou, Lord?" 'T was a simple question, and the answer is as simple: " I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." "I am Jesus." What a simple word! and how simple, too, that which qualifies it!-" I am Jesus whom THOU persecutest." Of the truth taught here there can be no mistake: it is Christ, as the Head of a body, who speaks here; feeling in Himself that the Saul who was before Him, had been acting most rudely and cruelly; though not He, the Head, but the members of His body alone, were within Saul's reach.
Love leads Christ, here, to present Himself as being personally concerned: he that touched a Christian, touched a member of that body, the Head of which was Christ. But grace adds another word too: " It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." When almighty power closes up a man's way, who shall break through, or set aside the power of the Lord? Overwhelmed, he demands: " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Entire, personal surrender of himself is what I here see. He is told to go and seek the help of one of those poor despised sheep, whose lives he had come down to destroy. Saul arises from the earth; and is led by the hand, being blind, into Damascus. The Lord's love does not hide itself, does not even bring things to pass merely in a providential way. He who alone could curb and bow such a spirit as was Saul's, had been pleased Himself to meet with him, and to curb and bow that spirit: He, Jesus, had Himself set Saul at his wit's ends-at points which he had never known before-in positions in which for the first time in his life he had ever said to Jesus, " Who art thou, Lord?... What wilt thou have me to do?" But the gracious love in Christ, which moved thus with power, kept Saul in the consciousness of dependence, and formed the longing in his heart after discipleship. It is He, too, who Himself speaks to Ananias in a vision; and having called his attention to Himself, then bids him (Ananias) " arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus; for, behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight." Saul had come down to seek the life of such as Ananias: Christ exposed not Ananias to the uncurbed, unbroken Saul; but, having broken Saul down, He, in the sovereignty of His own power, and in full accordance with the thoughts of God, that the word of God spoken by men should be honored, and that the disciples should have the fullest fellowship possible with the Master—He, I say, will use the word of Ananias to perfect the work Himself had commenced. Ananias demurs (ver. 12-14): Surely, the Lord would not let in such a wolf upon the flock which Ananias loved! But the Lord is imperative; and yet, withal, how considerate to Ananias in his little faith! " Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name unto the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel: for I will chew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." What a Lord He is! and how perfectly, in every way, does He carry out the duties which rest upon Him, as Head of His body, the Church, toward all the weakest and least intelligent members in the body!
Ananias goes. His " Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost," is not without effect: for "immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized": a token, this, of the Lord's love to Ananias. Saul joins himself to the disciples: "And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God."
Persecution arises (ver. 23): the disciples took him by night, and ignominiously let him down by the wall in a basket. He had not much to boast of in this, according to the flesh. But the same flesh which had run riot when he was Satan's servant, needed, in him as in us all, constant crippling, that he might be able to serve the Lord.
Arrived at Jerusalem, the disciples stand in doubt of him (ver. 26). But Barnabas befriends him when standing outside the door (so to speak), and he is accredited (ver. 27). His bold testimony again exposes him to persecution, and he is sent off to Tarsus.
There was rest to the Churches throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and edification; and the disciples, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. When man acts, too oft a new friend or servant leads to the forgetfulness of the old. Not so with the blessed Lord. All He did remained in its perfectness; and every part of His plan, and every workman whom He called, had due regard and attention paid to him.
Peter is not forgotten because Paul has appeared. One Lord is Master of them both. Aeneas, sick of the
palsy for eight years, is restored by Peter (ver. 33, 34). The testimony spreads (ver. 35). Dorcas falls on sleep at Joppa; but Peter is used to confound all, by raising her from the dead (ver. 36-41). The testimony flows outward thereby. Peter, tarrying at Joppa, lodges with one Simon, a tanner. There was nothing marvelous in that: others, perhaps, had lodged there often before. Ah! but the Lord meant to make the house of Simon a house to be remembered; and therefore, on this occasion, Peter turns in thither. How exquisitely simple is the account given to us, in chap. 10, of Cornelius' vision at Caesarea! and how bright the scene is, as a scene in which the living affection and energy and occupation of Christ towards His people is displayed!
A bell and a pomegranate. A bell and a pomegranate round the high priest's vesture, was to announce where he was on certain occasions of tabernacle and temple worship. But here we have more than that; viz., all the fruitful love of the Lord toward His people showing itself in the arrangement of everything connected with the enlargement of the sphere of testimony. The Gentiles, as such, were to have the word of grace preached to them. Cornelius is chosen as the first who is to be called, and Peter is selected as the one first to call a Gentile: for this would make still more clear the principle on which God was now acting. But here the Gentile was a seeker of God, and has himself to send for Peter to come to him. The Lord, by His angel, tells him to send for Peter; and tells him, too, where the said Peter is to he found. Cornelius promptly obeys, with all due attention. On the morrow, while the messengers are a-journeying, Peter is on the house-top. He falls into a trance, and. "saw heaven opened upon him, and a certain. vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air." And then a voice is heard, saying, " Rise, Peter; kill and eat." Peter objects: he had never eaten any common or unclean thing. The same voice is heard a second time: "What God has cleansed, that call not thou common." This was done thrice, and then the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Peter understands not, but Cornelius's messengers are at the door.- Peter muses; but the Spirit said to him: " Behold, three men seek thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them" (ver. 20). How blessedly does the part and place which God the Holy Ghost, down here, has undertaken to fill up-responsively to Christ up in heaven—here shine out. When the Son of Man was on earth, He listened, morning by morning, for instructions as to what next He, in His servant course, should do. And He was led and guided perfectly by the Spirit. Now, He, as Son of Man, is gone up into heaven, and His people down here. The Spirit is with them, to guide and direct in all the ignorance, which is natural to them, each step of the way. And all down here is to be according to what Christ up there is doing. This is beautiful and blessed. The Son of Man would walk down here as a pilgrim, and was led here and led there by the Spirit. Now, we, who know nothing, get the perfect guidance of the Spirit; and that as a part of, and means to practical fellowship with Christ in heaven.
Peter goes down, and presents himself as the person whom the three men seek. They explain their business. Peter shows them hospitality for the night, and starts with them next morning for Caesarea. Cornelius and his friend are awaiting their coming; for the vision of an angel was not a common-place matter to such an one as Cornelius. He meets Peter, and would have rendered him homage, such as Peter could not receive. Peter explains what he is; and then Cornelius explains why he had sent for him. Peter owns the exceeding largeness of the principle upon which God is now acting (vers. 34, 35). He then gives the brief outline of that which he himself had known of Jesus, as a man upon earth, and a witness for God; of His experience here at man's hand, and afterward how God had raised Him from the dead; shown Him to His friends; and that He was to be preached as the appointed judge of quick and dead; the One, in whom every one that believes, finds forgiveness of sins, as witnessed by all the prophets.
While Peter is discoursing, the Holy Ghost falls on all that hear, to the no small astonishment of those of the circumcision who were present, who marveled, because, that on the Gentiles also, was poured out the gifts of the Holy Ghost, with all signs, and the power of worship.
Peter then asks: " Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we?"
The entire unpreparedness of man, for such an extension of the blessing, divine and heavenly blessing, as would, necessarily, pass over all distinctions in the flesh and world, now appears. Peter is called to account in Jerusalem, on his return, for his practical inconsistency; he had eaten with, and in the house of, men uncircumcised (ver. 4). He relates the vision he had had; the concurrent testimony to it, of the facts of the men coming; the injunction of the Spirit to him, to go without doubting; his six brethren with him;—he had gone to the house of Cornelius; had heard of the angel's instructions to cornelius; and, lo! while he was himself speaking, the Holy Ghost had fallen on the Gentiles, as He had on them who were Jews at the beginning. This had recalled the Lord's own words to him: " Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." For as much then, as God gave these the like gift, as he had given unto the others, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, what was Peter, that he should withstand God?
The circumcised bow to the truth of mercy having thus reached the Gentiles (ver. 15), even repentance and life.
In the meanwhile, and it was another step connected with the establishing the same truth, of the enlarged measure of bliss, Phenice, Cyprus, and Antioch became evangelized, so far as the Jews and Hellenists are concerned, by means of those whom the persecution had scattered.
Barnabas is sent down from Jerusalem, that he might confirm the work at Antioch. He does so, and then starts for Tarsus, seeking Saul, and bringing him (not Peter) to Antioch; where they tarry a whole year, and are greatly blessed. Antioch (which is more connected with Paul, as the starting place of his labors), is thus brought into view. And the disciples got their name of Christians first at Antioch (ver. 26).
An act of love and power on the Lord's part, here occurs, and marks how He will have all knitted together in one.
Prophets come down from Jerusalem to Antioch; the Spirit signifies by one of them, Agabus, of a great dearth a coming. The disciples make a collection for brethren in Judea. Barnabas and Paul take it up (ver. 27-30).
In the midst of the famine, the Lord had shown His love, which knows how to gather and to glean occasions of displaying itself, in blessing every where; he does so, again, chap. 12, in the midst of a persecution. Herod persecutes; kills James with the sword, and lays hands on Peter, casting him into prison. But prayer rises in his behalf. An angel is sent to open the prison gates, and bring him out. Peter is asleep, between two soldiers, bound with two chains; but light shines into the prison; the chains fall from his hands, and he arises and follows the angel; they pass the first and second wards; the iron gate, into the city, opens of its own accord to them. Peter is alone outside. He hastes to the house of prayer, to announce the Lord's mercy, and then retires. The ado next day in and about the prison, can be conceived. But the cup of Herod's iniquity is now well nigh filled up. Sycophancy and adulation are ready to be offered by those who thought to turn his pride to their own benefit, and the shout arises from his flatterers: " It is the voice of a god, and not of a man." The angel of the Lord smote him with a loathsome disease.
God has not ceased to be God, nor has He ceased to exercise a governmental restraint over, and judgment upon, nations, because He has set grace in the Church, and rules there. The book of Jonah shows us, that it was so, also, when He was God of Israel upon earth. Today, His sway in the world is in exercise; kings and emperors, kingdoms and empires, though energized in by powers of darkness, are not outside of the governmental survey of God.
In chap. 13:9-11, there is another instance of the Lord's grace. Barnabas and Saul return from Jerusalem, their work there being ended (chap. 12:25), and are found (chap. 13) gathered at Antioch, with certain others.
Then and there the word comes "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them (ver. 2).
Thus sent forth by the Holy Ghost (ver. 4), they begin a progress or course of preaching and testimony; Seleucia, Cyprus, Salamis, Paphos, John being with them, as their minister.
It is to be noted, that this is the time when Saul's name is changed to Paul in the Book. The circumstances are to be remarked, too. They were before Sergius Paulus, a man who wanted to hear the Word of God. Elymas, a sorcerer and false prophet, and a Jew, who was with Sergius, opposed them, and the progress of the faith.
Then Saul (who also is called Paul) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes upon him, and said, "O, full of all subtlety, and all mischief, thou child of the devil-enemy of all righteousness-Wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And, now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And, immediately, there fell on him, a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand." The deputy Sergius receives the word.
We may remark here, that the mission of the first preachers of the Gospel outside of Jerusalem, and the mission of Barnabas and Saul from Antioch, were very different. The twelve apostles had been the holders of authority in the Church at Jerusalem; yet (not did they send, but) persecution scattered abroad, throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria, the first preachers in those parts of the Gospel: it was an effect of Providence, that they were scattered (8:1); grace led them, every-where, to speak of Him they loved (ver. 4). It is the Holy Ghost who says to the prophets and teachers who were gathered together in prayer at Antioch, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them" (chap. 13). In this case, the mission is manifestly directly from God in the assembly.
From Paphos they go to Perga; whence John departs from them, returning to Jerusalem. But they go onward, whither the Spirit led them, to Antioch, in Pisidia. There, in the synagogue, Paul gave his testimony on the seventh day (ver. 16-41), with no little blessing. The Jews leave the synagogue; the Gentiles beg to hear the word again. Many or the Jews and proselytes follow Paul and Barnabas, who persuade them to continue in the grace of God. Next Sabbath, all the city, so to speak, comes to hear. Envy moves the Jews against the words spoken by Paul; they contradict and blaspheme. This forces these servants of the Lord to make good the position to which their work led them. They warn the Jews, and turn, in the most formal way, to the Gentiles. This is so important a step in their course, that we may as well quote the text: " But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of, everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (ver. 45-48).
The word spreads (ver. 49). The unhappy Jews stir up persecution, and thrust the word and the Lord's messengers of it from them; but they, shaking off the dust of their feet against them, come to Iconium: and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.
At Iconium, the testimony again begins in the synagogue: there is decided blessing (14:1), and opposition (ver. 2). But the Lord is with them in power (ver. 3); persecution ensues. They pass on to Lystra and Derbe (ver. 6). At Lystra, Paul displays his power on a cripple who had faith to be healed. The mob salutes them as gods, and would make Barnabas to be Jupiter, and Paul Mercury (he being the chief speaker). They protest against the blasphemy (ver. 8-18); and in the next verse (19) we read, that Jews came down from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people; and having stoned Paul, they drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. But the mercy of the Lord was, in this case, above the enemy's spite and the disciples' fears; for as these last stood round Paul, he rose up and came into the city: thence he is onward to Derbe; back to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.
They seek to settle the souls of the disciples in faith and patience (ver. 22), appoint elders in every assembly, and commend the disciples to the Lord with prayer. They pass onward, through various places, back to Antioch, whence they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled; and there relate what they have passed through-all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
The next chapter is one of peculiar interest in many respects. It contains an account of the effort made by some coming from Judea, to legalize the brethren at Antioch, through a false place given by them to the ordinance of circumcision. The disciples determine to take up the matter, and to send up Paul, Barnabas, and others to the head-quarters of such teaching. They go up, spreading joy everywhere by the blessed news of the conversion of the Gentiles. At Jerusalem they are received, announce the same good news, and set forth the legalizing teaching complained of. Peter (and it is the last time he appears in this book) takes his place as the one whom God had chosen among them, that the Gentiles by his mouth should hear the word of the Gospel, and believe.
God had given to the Gentiles the Holy Ghost, as well as to the Jews: He had put no difference between the two; both were to have the heart purified by faith. Why, then, tempt God, and put an unbearable yoke on the necks of disciples? Such was his thought. " But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they" (ver. 11). Barnabas and Paul then declare what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them (ver. 12). James confirms Peter's judgment (ver. 13-21). The apostles and elders of the whole Church send forth their written judgment by Barsabas and Silas, chosen men of their own company, who are to go down with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch (ver. 22-29). This, which seemed good to the Holy Ghost and them at Jerusalem, is in a very solemn way made known at Antioch; and they were glad (ver. 30, 31). Judas and Silas aid in the work; and, even when let go in peace, still please to stay on there (ver. 32-34).
Paul, after a time, proposes to Barnabas to repeat their former excursion: they split upon the question of companions. The contention was sharp, and issued in Barnabas taking Mark (who on the former occasion had turned back from the work), and sailing for Cyprus (alas! his native place); and Paul departs with Silas, being recommended by the brethren to the grace of God-no little matter that.
Here I close: for my subject was not the apostleship of Paul, but Heaven as it is, so far as it manifests itself in the setting up of the Church upon earth. We have seen the expressions of heaven as it is in acts; and we have seen deeds which proclaim the love and wisdom and power of God and of Jesus in heaven, owned now as Lord and Christ and Son of God, and of the Holy Ghost come down to earth. The aggressiveness of the love; the pertinacity and faithfulness of it; the way that power, in Providence and circumstances, acts, so as to make good the purposes of love where man fails to understand the Spirit's mind and teaching, and the depth and wisdom of the Lord's ways-are all to be noted and admired. What a master-stroke is found in the choice of Saul of Tarsus, the leader of the persecution by the circumcision, to be made the apostle of the uncircumcision! What depth in using the very persecution as the means of spreading the word everywhere; and that, too, when the Jerusalem prejudices of the twelve apostles had hindered them in understanding and in going forward with the commission they had received!
Jerusalem, and the testimony presented there by the Church, and renewed in various ways; the cities of Judea; Samaria; a Gentile proselyte; the Gentile Cornelius, and those with him—these were the trophies of grace in connection with the circumcision: the circumcision, as such, being clearly a mark for earth. The call of Saul as apostle of the uncircumcision -called from heaven, and sent by the Holy Ghost-is another thing. And the gradual leading of Saul through all the questions which seemed on earth to entangle his freedom, and his coming out in the close of this chapter, not with Barnabas, who had befriended him. (9:25) and counted on him (11:25), but with Silas (whom he chose, 15:40, and) whose working propensities had approved them-selves at Antioch, is remarkable, and tells of a mind in heaven which was directing everything for him.
The differences between the Church when at Jerusalem, and the Churches of heavenly disciples the wide world over, would tell many a tale of the perfectness of the same wisdom, love, and power, had we room to go into them.
For divine and heavenly grace, acting upon a limit which was confined by its connection with Jerusalem (God's self-chosen center for earthly dealings), could not express itself in the same free way as it chose for itself when its connection was (not with Jerusalem upon earth, but) with Jesus a§ Son of God in heaven-earth-rejected, though owned in heaven as Lord and Christ.