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Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapters 3 and 4 Chapter 5 Chapters 6 and 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapters 10 to 11:18 Chapters 11:19 to 30 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapters 18:1 to 19:7 Chapters 19:8 to 41 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 |
The risen Lord and the apostles' position before the descent of the Holy Spirit
Let us now examine the chapters in their course. Acts 1 supplies
us with the narrative of that which relates to Jesus risen, and the
actions of the apostles before the descent of the Holy Ghost. The
Lord's communications present several very interesting points. Jesus,
the risen man, acts and speaks by the Holy Ghost after His
resurrection as before it. Precious token of our own position, as
reminding us that we shall have the Holy Ghost after our resurrection,
and that, being no longer engaged in restraining and mortifying the
flesh, His divine energy in us will be entirely consecrated to eternal
joy and worship, and to the service committed to us by God. The risen
Lord then gives His disciples commandments in connection with the new
position He assumes. Their life and their service are to be formed and
guided in view of His resurrection — a truth of which they had
irrefragable proofs. They were still on earth, but they were pilgrims
there, having Him in view who had gone before them raised from among
the dead. Their relations with Him are still connected with their
position on earth. He speaks to them of the kingdom, and of that which
concerned the kingdom. Jerusalem was the starting-point of their
ministry, even more than of His own. For He had gathered together the
poor of the flock wherever He had found them, especially in Galilee;*
but now, resurrection having made Him in power the vessel of the sure
mercies of David, He calls Israel afresh to own as Prince and Saviour
the One whom they had rejected as the living Messiah on earth. The
Epistles of Peter are connected with the gospel in this point of
view. The apostles' mission in the power of the promised Holy Spirit and the foundation of their testimony
Nevertheless, to exercise this ministry, they were to wait for
the accomplishment of the Father's promise, the Holy Ghost, with whom
they were to be baptised, according to John's testimony, which the
Lord assured them should soon take place. The mission of the Holy
Ghost led them, at the same time, out of the Jewish field of purely
temporal promises. The Father's promise of the Holy Ghost was a very
different thing from that of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel
by the power of Jehovah, the God of judgment. It was not for them to
know the time and season of this restoration, the knowledge of which
the Father kept in His own possession; but they should themselves
receive the power of the Holy Ghost, who would come down upon them;
and they should be witnesses unto Jesus (as they had known Him, and
according to the manifestation of Himself after His resurrection),
both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth — thus making Jerusalem the
starting-point and first object, according to the mission, Luke 24:
47. Nevertheless, their testimony was founded on their beholding their
Master and their Lord caught up from their midst, and received into
the clouds of heaven, which hid Him from their sight. While looking
steadfastly upwards, as this took place, two messengers from heaven
come and announce to them that He will return in like manner. His
manifestation in this lower world, beneath the heavens, is therefore
here intended. He will return to earth to be seen of the world. We
have not the rapture of the assembly, nor the assembly's association
with Him while absent. With the knowledge of Jesus taken up out of the
world, and to come again into the world, as the termini and elements
of all their teaching, they return to Jerusalem, there to wait for the
Holy Ghost who was promised unto them. It is not into Galilee that
they go. They are to be witnesses in Jerusalem of the heavenly rights
of that Christ who had been rejected on earth by Jerusalem and the
Jews.* Apostolic authority exercised according to intelligence in the word; Judas' place taken by MatthiasAll this clearly shows the position in which they were placed, and the mission committed to them. But before they receive the Holy Ghost for its fulfilment, some other characteristic circumstances find their place in this chapter. They act, under the guidance of Peter, according to intelligence in the word, before they are endowed with power from on high. These two things are therefore distinct from each other. It appears that, although Peter was not directly led of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit put His seal on that which was done in accordance with the word in the Old Testament understood by the apostle. We have before seen that Christ, after His resurrection, opened the understanding of His disciples that they might understand the scriptures. They now act, not having received the Holy Ghost, according to a Jewish principle. They present the lot to the Lord, that He may decide. Nevertheless the lot was not all, nor was it drawn without making a distinction. Apostolic authority flowed from the nomination of Christ Himself. Intelligence of the scriptures makes them understand that which ought to be. The object which the Lord had assigned to their service narrowed the choice to the little circle of those who could fulfil that object. Their history made them capable, as Jesus had said, of being His witnesses, because they had been with Him from the beginning, and could now testify that this same Jesus, whom the Jews had rejected and crucified, was indeed risen from among the dead. Apostolic authority is exercised in Jerusalem on the Jewish principle, before the gift of the Holy Ghost. In this there was neither research nor the exercise of the human mind. "His bishopric let another take" guided their conduct; the capacity to testify of Jesus in His life on earth, and now of His resurrection and ascension, decided on the needed qualifications; the lot of Jehovah determined the individual who was to take Judas' place. Two are chosen, according to these needful qualifications, and the lot falls upon Matthias, who is numbered with the eleven apostles. But they were still without the promised power. |
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