ACTS
This book, at its beginning, links
directly on to the close of Luke, and we find the disciples acting in the
intelligence of the scriptures without the power of the Holy Ghost yet given.
Then, the Acts of the Apostles embraces the revelation of the gift of the Holy
Ghost and His workings: first, at Jerusalem, where He is rejected by Israel;
next, in His free operation outside Israel; and, lastly, in Paul, connected
with the revelation of the church among the Gentiles at large, closing with his
being delivered by the Jews to the Gentiles and his being sent a prisoner to
Rome.
The coming of the Holy Ghost, while not
undoing the result of Babel, overleaps it in grace by the gift of tongues, the
first sign of His presence. We see the moral effects of His presence in
devotedness and unity, and, forming the assembly, the remnant in Israel are
added to it. "The Lord added to the church daily such as should be
saved." But He still proposes to Israel the return of Christ (founded on
Christ's intercession on the cross) upon their repentance; while declaring that
the heavens must receive Him till the times when all that the prophets had said
should be established; but Israel rejects His testimony. The Holy Ghost thus
come down is received of Christ for this, consequent on His exaltation. They
pursue their testimony in patience in spite of Israel's opposition, and are
confirmed in the power of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit is manifested in power, as
God's presence in the assembly on earth, searching the hearts of men. He
ministers to unity and order even in temporal things, and acts now in liberty
according to faith and faithfulness in instruments of His own choice. This free
action of the Holy Ghost calls out the final judgment of Israel, on every
principle of relationship of God with man (but their conduct is characterized
throughout by resistance to the Holy Ghost); but this is accompanied by the
opening of heaven to him who, on the other hand, was filled with the Holy Ghost
and gave the testimony they now resisted. His thorough likeness to Christ,
through seeing Him in glory, is beautifully brought out; his death on the
earth, and his being received into heaven. The making good church blessings in
connection with Israel plainly becomes impossible. Here it is that Saul, the
enemy, first comes in.
And now, before turning to any more
positive facts, you get the free action of the Holy Ghost extending the gospel
outside Jerusalem, consequent on persecution. Next, we find Saul, the apostle
of enmity against Christ, broken and brought down by Christ, revealed in
supreme heavenly glory, but identifying all Christians with Himself, as being
Himself, "why persecutest thou me?"
Peter's testimony to Christ has been that
the Messiah, the Prince of life, whom they had rejected, God had exalted;
Paul's immediately is that He is the Son of God. Peter never preaches Him
as Son of God. Paul's preaching consequently embraces the two points of the
heavenly glory and the unity of the saints with Christ, and his preaching
Christ as the Son of God. But Saul, while owned of the disciples, is for the
time laid aside. Then the Peter - ministry continues; and the first Gentile is
added to the church as existing among the Jews by his means, to maintain its
constituted unity. The previous free action of the Holy Ghost outside Jerusalem
at Samaria had been connected with it by Peter and John going down, and the
disciples' receiving the Holy Ghost by the laying on of their hands. We now
find the same free action of the Holy Ghost going to mere Gentiles in the great
Grecian capital, Antioch. The connection is still kept up by the apostles
sending Barnabas there, who goes and fetches Saul. We have then the testimony
through prophets (another sign of the Holy Ghost), this same connection being
maintained in another way, The prophets come from Jerusalem, and in result they
of Antioch send help to those in Judea. We have then the proof of the service
of angels to the church. This closes this part of the Acts.
The Holy Ghost now calls, through
prophets, for the separation of Barnabas and Saul for the work to which He had
called them, and they are sent forth by the Holy Ghost. It is a new kind of
apostle. The first thing we find is a figure of the total blinding of the Jews
who resist the Holy Ghost, and the eyes of Gentiles opened to believe.
Notwithstanding this, Paul (for he is now called Paul) according to the Lord's
mind goes always first to the Jews, and afterwards to the Greeks. John Mark
leaves them. After having preached round, they choose elders for the churches,
of whom we here read first among Gentiles. He then returns to Antioch, and
there we find what the laying on of hands had been: that is, they had been
recommended to the grace of God for the work which they had now fulfilled.
"And there they abode long time with the disciples."
The church having now been freely
established on heavenly principles outside Jerusalem, Satan seeks to introduce
confusion by bringing in the law upon them; and God, to maintain unity, causes
the matter to be referred to Jerusalem, so that the apostles there, and the
church, should themselves declare the Gentiles free. The points to which they
were subjected were not introduced by the law, but expressed the title of God
in Himself and to all life, and the maintenance of the original purity in which
God had originally constituted man upon earth. I see authority here within the
church in the apostles. "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us,"
with perfect liberty of ministry. They dismiss Judas and Silas; and then we get
another thing, Paul gathering fellow-labourers round himself: first Silas, then
Timothy, whom he circumcises. This was completely illegal. He never rose more
above the law than here. Now, we get the direct guidance of the Holy Ghost in
the carrying out of his ministry; but that direct guidance as not excluding his
drawing conclusions from divine intimations sent to him. Then we have Paul
pursuing his ministry - kept of God everywhere - the very demons forced to own
him - and as competent as the other apostles to confer the Holy Ghost: free
ministry, under the guidance of God's Spirit, still going on.
And now Paul, returning to Jerusalem,
intimates the close of his ministry in those parts to the elders of Ephesus at
Miletus, predicting the efforts of Satan, and calling upon them to watch and
labour with the same earnestness and energy as had marked his own labours
amongst them. The elders, moreover, he expects to maintain themselves. He now
returns to Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost warning him, and the disciples telling him
by the Spirit, not to go up. On the suggestion of the elders at Jerusalem, he
accommodates himself to Jewish ceremonies, the believers at Jerusalem being all
zealous of the law. This brings him into captivity; but the effect of the
captivity is to bring him into the place of testimony before the Jews, who
refuse grace to the Gentiles, before Lysias, Felix, Festus, Agrippa, and Nero.
But he is a prisoner all the time, and as such he works at Rome. (Paul's gospel
was a prisoner at Rome from the first day.) This closes the testimony to the
Jews; and thus closes the history we have of the dissemination of the gospel in
apostolic times.