Acts Chapters 15-28

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 contains the account of this. Certain persons come from
Jerusalem, where all was still going on in connection with the
requirements of the law; and they seek to impose these requirements on
the Gentiles in this new centre and starting-point of the work which
was formed at Antioch. It was the will of God that this matter should
be settled, not by the apostolic authority of Paul, or by the action of
His Spirit at Antioch only, which might have divided the church, but by
means of conference at Jerusalem, so as to maintain union, whatever
might be the prejudices of the Jews. The ways of Godin this respect are
remarkable, shewing the way in which He has maintained sovereign care
in grace over the church. In reading the Epistle to the Galatians, we
see that in reality things were in question that touched Christianity
to the quick, that affected its very foundations, the deep principles
of grace, of the rights of God, of the sinful condition of
man-principles on which the whole edifice of man's eternal relations
with God is founded. If any one was circumcised, he was under the law;
he had given up grace, he had fallen away from Christ. Nevertheless
Paul the apostle, Paul full of faith, of energy, of burning zeal, is
obliged to go up to Jerusalem, whither he had not desired to go, in
order to arrange this matter. Paul had laboured at Antioch; but the
work in that city was not his work. He was not the apostle at Antioch
as he was that of Iconium, of Lystra, and afterwards of Macedonia and
of Greece. He went out from Antioch, from the bosom of the church
already formed there. The question was to be settled for the church,
apart from the apostolic authority of Paul. The apostle must yield
before God and His ways.

Paul disputes with the men from Judea, but the end is not gained. It is
determined to send some members of the church to Jerusalem, but with
them Paul and Barnabas, so deeply interested in this question. Moreover
Paul had a revelation that he should go up. God directed his steps. It
is good however to be obliged to submit sometimes, although ever so
right or so full of spiritual energy.

The question then is entered upon at Jerusalem. It was already a great
thing that the subjecting of the Gentiles to the law should be resisted
at Jerusalem, and still more that they should there decide not to do
it. We see the wisdom of God in so ordering it, that such a resolution
should have its origin at Jerusalem. Had there been no bigotry there,
the question would not have been necessary; but alas! good has to be
done in despite of all the weakness and all the traditions of men. A
resolution made at Antioch would have been a very different thing from
a resolution made at Jerusalem. The Jewish church would not have
acknowledged the truth, the apostolic authority of the twelve would not
have given its sanction to it. The course at Antioch and of the
Gentiles would have been a course apart; and a continual struggle would
have commenced, having (at least in appearance) the authority of the
primitive and apostolic church on the one side, and the energy and
liberty of the Spirit with Paul for its representative on the other.
The Judaizing tendency of human nature is ever ready to abandon the
high energy of the Spirit, and return into the ways and thoughts of the
flesh. This tendency, nourished by the traditions of an ancient faith,
had already given sorrow and difficulty enough to him who was specially
labouring among the Gentiles according to the liberty of the Spirit,
without the additional strength of having the course of the apostles
and of the church at Jerusalem to countenance it.

After much discussion at Jerusalem, full liberty for which was given,
Peter, taking the lead, relates the case of Cornelius. Afterwards Paul
and Barnabas declare the wonderful manifestation of God through the
power of the Holy Ghost which had taken place among the Gentiles. James
then sums up the judgment of the assembly, which is assented to by all,
that the Gentiles shall not be obliged to be circumcised, or to obey
the law; but only to abstain from blood, from things strangled, from
fornication, and from meat offered to idols. We shall do well to
consider the nature and stipulations of this decree.

It is a direction which teaches, not that which is abstractedly good or
evil, but that which was suitable to the case presented. It was
"necessary," not "righteous before God," to avoid certain things. The
things might be really evil, but they are not here looked at in that
way. There were certain things to which the Gentiles were accustomed,
which it was proper they should renounce, in order that the assembly
might walk as it ought before God in peace. To the other ordinances of
the law they were not to be subjected. Moses had those who preached
him. That sufficed, without compelling the Gentiles to submit to his
laws, when they joined themselves, not to the Jews, but to the Lord.

This decree therefore does not pronounce upon the nature of the things
forbidden, but upon the opportuneness-the Gentiles having in fact been
in the habit of doing all these things. We must observe that they were
not things forbidden by the law only. It was that which was contrary to
the order established by God as Creator, or to a prohibition given to
Noah when he was told to eat flesh. Woman was only to be connected with
man in the sanctity of marriage, and this is a very great blessing.
Life belonged to God. All fellowship with idols was an outrage against
the authority of the true God. Let Moses teach his own laws; these
things were contrary to the intelligent knowledge of the true God. It
is not therefore a new law imposed by Christianity, nor an
accommodation to the prejudices of the Jews. It has not the same kind
of validity as a moral ordinance that is obligatory in itself. It is
the expression to christian intelligence of the terms of man's true
relations with God in the things of nature, given by the goodness of
God, through the leaders at Jerusalem, to ignorant Christians, setting
them free from the law, and enlightening them with regard to the
relations between God and man, and to that which was proper to
man-things of which, as idolatrous Gentiles, they had been ignorant. I
have said, addressed to christian intelligence: accordingly there is
nothing inconsistent in eating anything that is sold at the shambles;
for I acknowledge God who gave it, and not an idol. But if the act
implies communion with the idol, even to the conscience of another, it
would be provoking God to jealousy; I sin against Him or against my
neighbour. I do not know whether an animal is strangled or not, but if
people act so as to imply that it is indifferent whether life belongs
to God or not, I sin again; I am not defiled by the thing, but I fail
in christian intelligence with regard to the rights of God as Creator.
With regard to fornication, this enters into the category of christian
purity, besides being contrary to the order of the Creator; so that it
is a direct question of good and evil, and not only of the rights of
God revealed to our intelligence. This was important as a general
principle, more than in the detail of the things themselves.

In sum the principles established are these: purity by marriage
according to God's original institution; that life belongs to God; and
the unity of God as one only true God-Godhead, life, and God's original
ordinance for man. The same thing is true of the foundations laid by
the assembly at the basis of their decree, "It seemed good to the Holy
Ghost and to us."

The Holy Ghost had manifested Himself in the case of Cornelius and of
the conversion of the Gentiles, of which Peter and Paul and Barnabas
had given the account. On the other hand the apostles were the
depositaries of the authority of Christ, those to whom the government
of the assembly as founded in connection with the true Jewish faith had
been committed. They represented the authority of Christ ascended on
high, even as the power and will of the Holy Ghost had been shewn in
the cases I have just mentioned. The authority was exercised in
connection with that which, in a certain sense, was the continuation of
a Judaism enlarged by fresh revelations, and which had its centre at
Jerusalem, acknowledging as Messiah the ascended Jesus rejected by the
people. Christ had committed to them the authority necessary to govern
the assembly. They had also been sealed on the day of Pentecost in
order to perform it.

The spirit of grace and wisdom is truly seen in their way of acting.
They give their full sanction to Paul and Barnabas, and they send with
them persons of note in the assembly at Jerusalem, who could not be
suspected of bringing an answer in support of their own pretensions, as
might have been supposed in the case of Paul and Barnabas.

The apostles and elders assemble for deliberation; but the whole flock acts in concert with them.

Thus Jerusalem has decided that the law was not binding on the
Gentiles. These, sincere in their desire of walking with Christ,
rejoice greatly at their freedom from this yoke. Judas and Silas, being
prophets, exhort and confirm them, and afterwards are dismissed in
peace. But Silas thinks it good to remain on his own account,
influenced by the Spirit. He prefers the work among the Gentiles to
Jerusalem. Judas returns from it to Jerusalem.

The work continues at Antioch by means of Paul and Barnabas and others.
At Antioch we again see the full liberty of the Holy Ghost.

Paul proposes to Barnabas that they should go and visit the assemblies
already formed by their means in Asia Minor. Barnabas consents, but he
determines to take John who had formerly forsaken them. Paul wishes for
some one who had not drawn back from the work, nor abandoned for his
own home the place of a stranger for the work's sake. Barnabas insists;
and these two precious servants of God separate. Barnabas takes Mark
and goes to Cyprus. Now Mark was his kinsman, and Cyprus his own
country. Paul takes Silas, who had preferred the work to Jerusalem
instead of Jerusalem to the work and departs. From his name we may
believe that Silas was a Hellenist.

It is happy to find that, after this, Paul speaks of Barnabas with
entire affection, and desires that Mark should come to him, having
found him profitable for the ministry.

Moreover Paul is commended by the brethren to the grace of God in his
work. The title given to Paul and Barnabas by the apostles shews the
difference between the apostolic authority, established by Christ in
person, and that which was constituted such by the power of the Holy
Ghost-sent by Christ Himself, no doubt, but in point of fact going
forth by the direction of the Holy Ghost, and their mission warranted
by His power. With the apostles, Paul and Barnabas have no title except
their work-"men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ." They are that which the Holy Ghost has made them. The
apostles are the twelve.

The liberty and the power of the Spirit characterise Paul He is that
which the Spirit makes him. If Jesus had appeared to him, although
Ananias can testify it, he must in reality prove it by the power of his
ministry. The effects of this ministry are related as well as its
character in chapters 16-20. The action and the liberty of the Holy
Ghost are there displayed in a remarkable manner.

Chapter 16

There is perhaps no example of this more remarkable than that which
Paul does with regard to Timothy. He uses circumcision in all liberty
to set aside Jewish prejudice. It is very doubtful whether, according
to the law, he ought to have been circumcised. Ezra and Nehemiah shew
us the strange wives sent away; but here, the mother being a Jewess,
Paul causes the child of this mixed marriage to follow the rule of the
Jews and submit to that rite. Liberty fully recognises the law in its
place, although itself exempt from it, and distinctly states, for the
assurance of the Gentiles, the absence of all pretension, on the part
of the Judaean Christians, to impose the law upon Gentiles. Paul
circumcises Timothy, and does not give subjection for an hour to those
who would have compelled Titus to be circumcised. He would become a Jew
to the Jews from love; but the Jews themselves must renounce all
pretension to impose the law on others. The decrees given at Jerusalem
are left with the churches-a plain answer to every Jew who desired to
subject the Gentiles to Judaism. The decrees, we may remark, were those
of the apostles and the elders.

It is the Holy Ghost alone who directs the apostle. He forbids him to
preach in Asia (the province), and will not suffer him to go into
Bithynia. By a vision in the night they are called to go into
Macedonia. Here the historian meets them. It is the Lord who calls them
into Macedonia. It is well to note here that, while the gospel is sent
under Paul's ministry to the whole creation under heaven, yet there is
specific direction as to where we are to go.

Here the apostle goes first to the Jews, even when it was only a few
women who came together by the river side-a place, as it appears,
usually chosen where there was no synagogue. A Greek woman, who
worshipped the God of Israel, is converted by grace. Thus the door is
opened, and others also believe (v. 40). Here Satan tries to tamper
with the work by bearing a testimony to the ministers of the word. Not
that this spirit acknowledged Jesus-he would not then have been an evil
spirit, he would not have thus possessed the damsel. He speaks of the
agents, in order to have a share of the glory, and of the most high
God-compelled perhaps by the presence of the Spirit to speak, as had
been the case with others by the presence of Jesus, when His power was
before their eyes. The testimony of Satan could not go so far as to own
Him Lord; and if Paul had not been faithful, it would have mixed up the
work of the enemy with that of the Lord. But it was not a testimony to
Paul that Paul sought, nor a testimony rendered by an evil spirit,
whatever might be the appearance of its testimony. The proof which the
evil spirit had to give that the power of God was present, was to
submit to it by being driven away. It could not be a support to the
work of God. We see in this circumstance the disinterestedness of the
apostle, his spiritual discernment, the power of God with him, and the
faith which will have no other support than that of God. It would have
been useful to have a testimony rendered to his ministry: the
reasonings of the flesh might have said, 'I did not seek it.'
Persecution would have been avoided. But God will have no other
testimony than that which He bears to Himself. No other can be a
testimony from Him, for He reveals Himself where He is not known; faith
waits only on Him to render it. Paul went on without troubling himself
about this malicious attempt of the enemy's, and possibly in wisdom
avoiding conflict where there was no fruit for the Lord, until by its
persistency the apostle was forced to attend to it. The Spirit of God
does not tolerate the presence of an evil spirit when it makes itself
actively manifest before Him. He does not lend Himself to its devices
by giving it importance through a voluntary interposition; for He has
His own work, and He does not turn away from it to occupy Himself about
the enemy. He is occupied, in love, about souls. But if Satan comes in
His way, so as to perplex these souls, the Spirit reveals Himself in
His energy, and the enemy flees before Him.

But Satan is not without resources. The power which he cannot exercise
in a direct way, he employs in exciting the passions and lusts of men
in opposition to that power against which he cannot himself stand, and
which will neither unite itself to him nor recognise him. Even as the
Gadarenes desired Jesus to depart, when He had healed Legion, so the
Philippians rise up tumultuously against Paul and his companions at the
instigation of the men who had lost their dishonest gains. But God
makes use of all this to direct the progress of His own work, and give
it the form He pleases. There is the gaoler to be converted, and the
magistrates themselves are to confess their wrong with respect to the
messengers of God. The assembly is gathered out, a flock (as the
epistle addressed to them bears witness) full of love and affection.
The apostle goes to labour elsewhere. We see a more active, a more
energetic, testimony here than in the similar case that happened to
Peter. The intervention of God is more striking in Peter's case. It is
the old Jerusalem, worn out in everything except hatred, and God
faithful to the one who trusted in Him. The hatred is disappointed.
Paul and Silas sing, instead of quietly sleeping; the doors burst
suddenly open; and the gaoler himself is converted, and his family. The
magistrates are obliged to come as supplicants to Paul. Such is the
result of the tumult. The enemy was mistaken here. If he stopped their
work at Philippi, he sent the apostles to preach elsewhere according to
the will of God.

We must not pass over in silence this energy which embraced whole
houses, and subdued them to the christian faith. We only see it,
however, when it is a question of bringing in the Gentiles. [24] But
Cornelius, Lydia, the gaoler of Philippi, are all witnesses to this
power.

Chapter 17

In the last case it was the power exercised by the enemy over the
passions of the Gentiles that caused the persecution of the apostles:
at Thessalonica we again find the old and universal enmity of the Jews.
Nevertheless many Jews and proselytes received the gospel. After a
tumult there also, the apostles go away to Berea. There the Jews are
more noble; what they hear, they examine by the word of God. Through
this a great number among them believed. Nevertheless the Jews of
Thessalonica, jealous of the progress the gospel made, go over to
Berea. Paul leaves the city and passes on to Athens. Silas and Timothy
remain for the moment at Berea, Paul being the special object of the
Jews' pursuit. At Athens, although he resorted to the synagogue, yet,
his spirit stirred at the sight of the universal idolatry in that idle
city, he disputes daily in public with their philosophers; consequent
on these interviews, he proclaims the true God to the chief men of that
intellectual capital. He had sent word to Silas and Timothy to join him
there.

With a people like the Athenians-such is the effect of intellectual
cultivation without God-he has to come down to the lowest step in the
ladder of truth. He sets forth the oneness of God, the Creator, and the
relationship of man to Him, declaring also that Jesus will judge the
world, of which God had given proof by raising Him up from the dead.
With the exception of the judgment of this world being put in place of
the promises respecting the return of Jesus, we might think it was
Peter addressing the Jews. We must not imagine that the historian
relates everything that Paul said. What is given is his defence, not
his preaching. The Holy Ghost gives us that which characterised the
manner in which the apostle met the circumstances of those he
addressed. That which remained on the minds of his first hearers was
that he preached Jesus and the resurrection. It appears even that some
took the resurrection, as well as Jesus, to be a God. It is, indeed,
the basis of Christianity, which is founded on Jesus personally, and
the fact of His resurrection; but it is only the basis.

I have said that we are reminded here of Peter's preaching. I mean as
to the degree of height in his doctrine with regard to Christ. We shall
observe, at the same time, the appropriateness of the application of
facts in either case to the persons addressed. Peter set forth the
rejected Christ ascended on high, ready to return on the repentance of
the Jews, and who would establish at His coming all things of which the
prophets had spoken. Here the judgment of the world-sanction of the
truth to the natural conscience-is presented to the learned men, and to
the inquisitive people; nothing that could interest their philosophic
minds, but a plain and convincing testimony to the folly of their
idolatry, according even to that which the natural conscience of their
own poets had acknowledged.

The dishonest gain, to which Satan ministered opportunity, met the
gospel at Philippi; the hardness and moral indifference of knowledge
that flattered human vanity, at Athens; at Thessalonica, the efforts of
Jewish jealousy. The gospel goes on its way, victorious over the one,
yielding to the effect of another, and, after laying bare to the
learned Athenians all that their condition tolerated, leaving them, and
finding, amid the luxury and the depraved manners of the wealthy city
of Corinth, a numerous people to bringinto the assembly. Such are the
ways of God, and the exercises of His devoted servant led by the Holy
Ghost.

We may notice, that this energy, which seeks the Gentiles, never loses
sight of the favour of God towards His elect people-a favour that
sought them until they rejected it.

Chapter 18

At Thessalonica Paul twice received succour from Philippi; at Corinth,
where money and commerce abounded, he does not take it, but quietly
works with two of his countrymen of the same trade as himself. He again
begins with the Jews, who oppose his doctrine and blaspheme. The
apostle takes his course with the boldness and decision of a man truly
led of God, calmly and wittingly, so as not to be turned aside. He
shakes his garments in token of being pure of their blood, and declares
that now he turns to the Gentiles according to Isaiah 49, taking that
prophecy as a command from God.

In Corinth God has "much people." He therefore uses the unbelieving
indifference of Gallio to defeat the projects and malice of the Jews,
jealous as ever of a religion that eclipsed their importance, whatever
might be its grace towards them. Paul, after labouring there a long
time, goes away in peace. His Jewish friends, Priscilla and Aquila, go
with him. He was going himself to Jerusalem. He was also under a vow.
The opposition of the Jews does not take away his attachment to his
nation-his faithfulness in preaching the gospel to them first-in
recognising everything that belonged to them in grace before God. He
even submits to Jewish ordinances. Possibly habit had some influence
over him, which was not of the Spirit; but according to the Spirit he
had no thought of disallowing that which the patient grace of God
granted to the people. He addresses himself to the Jews at Ephesus.
They are inclined to hear him, but he desires to keep the feast at
Jerusalem. Here he is still a Jew with his feasts and vows. The Spirit
has evidently introduced these circumstances to give us a true and
complete picture of the relationship that existed between the two
systems-the degree of freedom from the influence of the one, as well as
the energy that established the other. The first remains often to a
certain degree, where energy to do the other is in a very high degree.
The liberty that condescends to prejudices and habits is not the same
thing as subjection to these prejudices in one's own person. In our
feebleness the two mingle together; but they are in fact opposed to
each other. To respect that which God respects, even when the system
has lost all real force and value, if called to act in connection with
this system when it is really nothing more than a superstition and a
weakness, is a very different thing from putting oneself under the yoke
of superstition and weakness. The first is the effect of the Spirit;
the last, of the flesh. In us, alas! the one is often confounded with
the other. Charity becomes weakness, giving uncertainty to the
testimony.

Paul takes his journey; goes up to Jerusalem, and salutes the assembly;
goes down to Antioch, and visits again all the first assemblies he had
formed, thus binding all his work together-Antioch and Jerusalem. How
far his old habits influenced him in his ways of acting, I leave the
reader to judge. He was a Jew. The Holy Ghost would have us see that he
was as far as possible from any contempt for the ancient people of God,
for whom divine favour will never change. This feeling was surely
right. It appears elsewhere that he went beyond the limits of the
Spirit and of spirituality. Here we have only the facts. He may have
had some private reason that was valid in consequence of the position
in which he stood. One may be in circumstances which contradict the
liberty of the Spirit, and which, nevertheless, when we are in them,
have a certain right over us, or exercise an influence which
necessarily weakens in the soul the energy of that liberty. We may have
done wrong in putting ourselves into those circumstances, but, being in
them, the influence is exercised, the rights assert their claim. A man
called to serve God, driven out from his father's house, walks in the
liberty of the Spirit. Without any change in his father, he goes into
the paternal house: the rights of his father revive-where is his
liberty? Or a man possessed of much clearer spiritual intelligence
places himself in the midst of friends who are spiritually altogether
below him: it is almost impossible for him to retain a spiritual
judgment. However it may have been here, the link is now formed
voluntarily on the part of him who stood in the place of liberty and
grace, and the Christians in Jerusalem remain at the level of their
former prejudices, and claim patience and indulgence from him who was
the vessel and the witness of the liberty of the Spirit of God.

This, with the supplement of his work at Ephesus, forms the circle of
the active labours of the apostle in the gospel, to shew us in him the
ways of the Spirit with men.

Chapter 19

>From verse 24 of chapter 18 to verse 7 of chapter 19 we have a kind
of summary of the progress made by the doctrine of Christ, and of the
power that accompanied it. Apollos knew only of the teaching of John;
but, upright in heart, he publicly confessed and preached that which he
knew. It was the faith of a regenerate soul. Aquila and Priscilla
enlighten him fully with regard to the facts of the gospel, and the
doctrine of a dead and glorified Christ. At Corinth he becomes a
powerful teacher of the gospel, of the Lord among the Jews, thus
confirming the faith of the disciples. The energy of the Holy Ghost
manifests itself in him without any intervention of the apostle or of
the twelve. He acts independently; that is, the Spirit acts
independently in him. People could say, "I am of Apollos." It is
interesting to see these different manifestations of the power and
liberty of the Spirit, and to remember that the Lord is above all, and
that, if He acts greatly by a Paul, He acts also in whom He will.

In that which follows we find, on another side, the progress of the
divine revelation in union with Paul's apostolic power made very
prominent by the capability of communicating the Holy Ghost. Twelve
persons had believed, but with no other instruction than that of John:
their baptism had been in reference to it. It was a Christ to come, and
a Holy Ghost whom He would communicate, that they looked for. Now
John's baptism required repentance, but in no way came out of the
Jewish pale; although it opened a perspective of something different,
according to the sovereignty of God, and as the effect of Christ's
coming. But it was a baptism unto repentance for man on the earth, and
not Christ's death and resurrection. Grace acted in a remnant, but of
whom Jesus was a companion on earth. Now Christianity (for man's sin
has been fully manifested) is founded on death and resurrection; first,
that of Christ, thus accomplishing redemption, and then on our death
and resurrection with Him so as to place us in Him and as Him before
God in sinless life, life of His life, and washed in His blood from all
our sins. But John's baptism, in fact, only taught repentance here
below in order to receive Christ; Christianity taught the efficacy of
the death and resurrection of a rejected Christ, in virtue of which the
Holy Ghost, the Paraclete come down from heaven, should be received.

These twelve men (although John had announced that the baptism of the
Holy Ghost should be the result of Christ's intervention) did not know
whether there was yet any Holy Ghost [25] a plain proof that they had
not come into the house of God in which He dwelt. Paul explains this to
them, and they are baptised in the name of Jesus. Paul, in his
apostolic capacity, lays his hands on them; and they receive the Holy
Ghost. They speak with tongues, and they prophesy.

This power, and he who was its instrument, were now to be brought out
into distinct relief. The capital city of Asia (that is, of the Roman
province so named) is the theatre in which this was to be effected. We
shall see a power displayed in this locality, which acts independently
of all traditional forms, and which governs all that surrounds it,
whether man, conscience, or the enemy-an organising power, which forms
of itself and for itself the institutions and the body that suit it,
and which governs the whole position. The power of active grace has
been displayed in the work of Paul, beginning with Antioch; and had
shewn itself in different ways. Here we have some details of its formal
establishment in a great centre.

During three months of patience he preaches Christ in the synagogue,
and reasons with the Jews, conscious of divine strength and of the
truth. He grants precedence, as the sphere of testimony, to that which
had been the instrument and the people of God: "To the Jews first." It
is no longer said, "Salvation is of the Jews," but it is preached to
them first.

But this work having had its development, and many taking the place of
adversaries, Paul acts as the founder of that which was according to
God and on the part of God. He separates the disciples, and discourses
upon Christianity in the hall of a Greek who had a public class. This
went on for two years: so that the doctrine was spread through all the
country among both the Jews and the Greeks. God did not fail to bear
testimony to the word of His grace, and His power was displayed in a
remarkable manner in connection with the person of the apostle who bore
the testimony. The manifestations of the enemy's power disappear before
the action of this liberative power of the Lord, and the name of Jesus
was glorified. Now the reality of this action was demonstrated in a
striking way, that is, its source in the personal, positive, and real
action of the Lord on the one side, and on the other, the mission of
Paul, and faith as the instrument by which this supernatural power
wrought. Certain Jews desired to avail themselves of it for their own
self-interest; and devoid of faith, they use the name of "Jesus whom
Paul preached" as though it had been a kind of charm. But the evil
spirit, whose power was as true and real in its way as that of the Lord
which he was forced to acknowledge when it was in exercise, knew very
well that here it was not so, that there was neither faith nor power.
"Jesus I know," said he, "and who Paul is I know; but who are ye?" And
the man who was possessed attacked and wounded them. Striking testimony
to the action of the enemy, but at the same time to that superior
force. to the reality of that intervention of God. which was carried
into effect by means of Paul. Now, when God shews Himself, conscience
always shews itself; and the power of the enemy over it is manifested
and ceases. The Jews and Greeks are filled with fear, and many who
became Christians brought the proofs of their sorceries.

The mighty action of the Spirit shewed itself by the decision it
produced, by the immediate and unhesitating acting out of the thoughts
and resolutions produced in the heart. There were no long inward
arguments; the presence and the power of God produced their natural
effects.

The enemy's resources were, however, not exhausted. The work of God was
done, in the sense of the establishment of the testimony through
apostolic labour; and God was sending His servant elsewhere. The enemy,
as usual, excites a tumult, stirring up the passions of men against the
instruments of the testimony of God. Paul had already intended to go
away, but a little later; he had therefore sent Timothy and Erastus
before him into Macedonia, purposing to visit Macedonia, Achaia, and
Jerusalem, and afterwards to go to Rome; and he still remains some time
in Asia. But after the departure of these two brethren, Demetrius
excites the people against the Christians. Inveterate against the
gospel, which shook the whole system in connection wi th which he made
his fortune, and which was linked with all that gave him importance,
this agent of the enemy knew how to act on the passions of the workmen
who had the same occupation as himself; for he made little portable
shrines to Diana, in silver. His employment was connected with that
which all the world admired, with that which had possession of men's
minds-a great comfort to man who feels the need of something sure-with
that which had long given its hue to their religious habits. A great
part of the influence exercised was, not "Great is Diana!" but "Great
is Diana of the Ephesians!" It was, in short, the power of the enemy
among the Gentiles. The Jews apparently sought to avail themselves of
this by putting one Alexander forward-the same possibly who had
withstood Paul, and who they supposed would therefore be listened to by
the people. But it was the evil spirit of idolatry that agitated them;
and the Jews were foiled in their hope. Paul was prevented, both by the
brethren and by some of the Asiarchs,(26) from shewing himself in the
theatre. The assembly was dissolved by the town authorities; and Paul,
when he had seen the disciples, went away in peace. [27] His work there
was finished, and the gospel planted in the capital of the province of
Asia, and even in the whole province: Greece and Macedonia had already
received it.

There was yet Rome. In what manner should he go thither? This is now
the remaining question. His free and active life ended with the events
which now occupy us, as far as it is given us by the Holy Ghost. A life
blessed with an almost unequalled faith, with an energy that surpassed
anything that has been seen in men, and which, through the divine power
that wrought in it, produced its effects in spite of obstacles
apparently insurmountable, in spite of every kind of opposition, in
contempt and destitution, and which stamped its character on the
assembly by giving it, instrumentally, its existence; and that, not
only in spite of two hostile religions which divided the civilised
world between them, but in spite of a religious system which possessed
the truth, but which ever sought to confine it within the boundary of
traditions that granted some place to the flesh-a system that had the
plea of priority, and was sanctioned by the habits of those apostles
who were nominated by the Lord Himself.

<61442F:130>The assembly indeed, as Paul foresaw, soon returned
to its Judaic ways, when the energy of the apostle was absent. It
requires the power of the Holy Ghost to rise above the religiousness of
the flesh. Piety does not necessarily do this; and power is never a
tradition-it is itself, and thereby independent of men and of their
traditions, even when bearing with them in love. The flesh therefore
always returns to the path of traditions and forms; because it is never
power in the things of God, although it can recognise duty. It does not
therefore rise to heaven; it does not understand grace; it can see what
man ought to be for God (without however perceiving the consequences of
this, if God is revealed), but it cannot see what God in His sovereign
grace is for man. It will perhaps retain it as orthodoxy, where the
Spirit has wrought; but it will never bring the soul into it. This it
was, more than the violence of the pagans or the hatred of the Jews,
which wrung the heart and caused the anguish of the faithful and
blessed apostle, who by grace had a character, or rather a position,
more like that of Christ than any other on earth.

These conflicts will be unfolded to us in the Epistles, as well as that
ardent heart which-while embracing in its thoughts all the revealed
counsels of God, and putting each part in its place, and embracing in
its affections the whole of the work and of the assembly of God-could
equally concentrate its whole energy of thought on a single important
point, and of affection on a poor slave whom grace had given to him in
his chains. The vessel of the Spirit, Paul shines with a heavenly light
throughout the whole work of the gospel. He condescends at Jerusalem,
thunders in Galatia when souls were being perverted, leads the apostles
to decide for the liberty of the Gentiles, and uses all liberty himself
to be as a Jew to the Jews, and as without law to those that had no
law, as not under law, but always subject to Christ. Yet how difficult
to maintain the height of life and of spiritual revelation, in the
midst of so many opposing tendencies! He was also "void of offence."
Nothing within hindered his communion with God, whence he drew his
strength to be faithful among men. He could say, and none but he, "Be
ye imitators of me, as I am of Christ." Thus also he could say, "I
endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory," words which
would not be improper in the Lord's mouth-in a more exalted sense
doubtless, because He endured for Paul himself the wrath that would
have been his eternal condemnation-yet words which bring out the
remarkable position of this man of God, as the vessel of the Holy Ghost
by whom he was used. "I fill up," said he, "that which is lacking [30]
of the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake, which is the assembly;
whereof I am made a minister to complete the word of God.

John (through his intimate knowledge of the Person of Christ, born on
earth and Son of God) was able to maintain this essential and
individually vital truth, in the same field in which Paul laboured; but
it was Paul's part to be the active instrument for propagating the
truth which saves the soul, and brings ruined man into connection with
God by faith, by communicating all His counsels of grace.

Still Paul was a man, although a man wonderfully blest. The intrinsic
power of Judaism in connection with its relationship to the flesh is
marvellous. As to the result indeed, if man takes his place below
grace, that is, below God, it is better in a certain sense that he
should be man under law than man without law. He will be the one or the
other; but in taking up the exclusive idea of duty he forgets God as He
is-for He is love; and too often forgets also man as he is-for he is
sin. If he unites the idea of duty and of sin, it is continual bondage,
and this is what Christianity in general is reduced to; with the
addition of ordinances to ease the burdened conscience, of forms to
create piety where communion is absent; clothing it all with the name
of Christ, and with the authority of the church, so named, the very
existence of which in its reality is identified with the principle of
sovereign grace, and characterised by subjection. [31]

Chapter 20

But let us return to the history of Paul.

After the uproar has ceased he sends for the disciples, embraces them,
and departs for Macedonia; he visits that whole country, and comes into
Greece. The beginning of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians gives
the details of this part of his history. In Greece he remains three
months; and when the Jews lay wait for him, he goes round by Macedonia,
instead of sailing straight to Syria. At Troas (where a door had been
opened to him on his way into Greece, but where his affection for the
Corinthians had not allowed him to remain) he spends his Sunday, and
even the whole week, in order to see the brethren. We perceive the
usual object of their assembly: they "came together to break bread";
and the ordinary occasion of holding it-"the first day of the week."
Paul avails himself of this to speak to them all night; but it was an
extraordinary occasion. The presence and the exhortations of an apostle
failed in keeping them all awake. It was not however an assembly held
in secret or in the dark. There were many lamps to light the upper
chamber in which they met. By the place in which they came together we
see that the assemblies were not composed of very many persons. The
upper room in Jerusalem received, perhaps, one hundred and twenty. It
appears by different salutations, that they met in private
houses-probably in several, if the number of believers required it; but
there was only one assembly.

Eutychus pays the penalty of his inattention; but God bears testimony
to His own goodness, and to the power with which He had endued the
apostle, by raising him from a state of death. Paul says that his soul
was yet in him: he had only to renew the connection between it and his
physical organism. In other cases the soul had been recalled.

Paul chose to go alone from Troas to Assos. We see all through the
history, that he arranged, by the power that the Spirit gave him over
them, the willing services of his companions-not, doubtless, as their
master, yet more absolutely than if he had been so. He is (under
Christ) the centre of the system in which he labours, the centre of
energy. Christ alone can be by right the centre of salvation and of
faith. It was only as filled with the Spirit of God that Paul was the
centre even of that energy; and it was, as we have seen, by not
grieving Him, and by exercising himself to have a conscience void of
offence both towards God and towards men.

Paul does not stop at Ephesus, because in so central a place he must
have stayed some time. It is necessary to avoid that which has a
certain moral claim upon us, if we would not and ought not to be
detained by the obligation it imposes upon us.

It was no want of affection for the beloved Ephesians, nor any thought
of neglecting them. He sends for the elders, and addresses a discourse
to them, which we must examine a little, as setting before us the
position of the assembly at that time, and the work of the gospel among
the nations.

The assemblies were consolidated over a pretty large extent of country,
and in divers places at least had taken the form of a regularly ordered
institution. Elders were established and recognised. The apostle could
send for them to come to him. His authority also was acknowledged on
their part. He speaks of his ministry as a past thing-solemn thought!
but he takes them to witness not only that he had preached the truth to
them, but a truth that spoke to their conscience; setting them before
God on the one hand, and on the other presenting to them Him in whom
God made Himself known, and in whom He communicated all the fulness of
grace on their behalf-Jesus, the object of their faith, the Saviour of
their souls. He had done this through trouble and through difficulty,
in face of the unprincipled opposition of the Jews who had rejected the
Anointed One, but in accordance with the grace that rose above all this
evil and declared salvation to the Jews, and going beyond these limits
(because it was grace) addressed itself to the Gentiles, to all men, as
sinners and responsible to God. Paul had done this, not with the pride
of a teacher, but with the humility and the perseverance of love. He
desired also to finish his ministry, and to fail in nothing that Jesus
had committed to him. And now he was going to Jerusalem, feeling bound
in spirit to do so, not knowing what would befall him, but warned by
the Holy Ghost that bonds and afflictions awaited him. With regard to
themselves, he knew his ministry was ended, and that he should see
their face no more. Henceforth responsibility would specially rest upon
them.

Thus what the Holy Ghost here sets before us is, that now, when the
detail of his work among the Gentiles to plant the gospel is related as
one entire scene among Jews and Gentiles, he bids adieu to the work; in
order to leave those whom he had gathered together in a new position,
and in a certain sense to themselves. [32] It is a discourse which
marks the cessation of one phase of the assembly-that of apostolic
labours-and the entrance into another-its responsibility to stand fast
now that those labours had ceased, the service of the elders whom "the
Holy Ghost had made overseers," and at the same time the dangers and
difficulties that would attend the cessation of apostolic labour, and
complicate the work of the elders on whom the responsibility would now
more especially devolve.

The first remark that flows from the consideration of this discourse
is, that apostolic succession is entirely denied by it. Owing to the
absence of the apostle various difficulties would arise, and there
would be no one in his place to meet or to prevent these difficulties.
Successor therefore he had none. In the second place the fact appears
that, this energy which bridled the spirit of evil, once away,
devouring wolves from without, and teachers of perverse things from
within, would lift up their heads and attack the simplicity and the
happiness of the assembly, which would be harassed by the efforts of
Satan without possessing apostolic energy to withstand them.

This testimony of Paul's is of the highest importance with regard to
the whole ecclesiastical system. The attention of the elders who are
left in charge is directed elsewhere than to present apostolical care
(as having no longer this resource, or anything that officially
replaced it), in order that the assembly might be kept in peace and
sheltered from evil. It was their part to care for the assembly in
these circumstances. In the next place, that which was principally to
be done for the hindrance of evil was to shepherd the flock, and to
watch, whether over themselves or over the flock, for that purpose. He
reminds them how he had himself exhorted them night and day with tears.
Let them therefore watch. He then commends them, neither to Timothy,
nor to a bishop, but-in a way that sets aside all official resource-to
God, and to the word of His grace which was able to build them up and
assure them of the inheritance. This was where he left the assembly;
that which it did afterwards is not my subject here. If John came later
to work in these parts, it was a great favour from God, but it changed
nothing in the position officially. His labours (with the exception of
the warnings to the seven assemblies in the Apocalypse, where judgment
is in question) regarded the individual life, its character, and that
which sustained it.

With deep and touching affection Paul parts from the assembly at
Ephesus. Who filled the gap? At the same time he appealed to their
consciences for the uprightness of his walk. The free labours of the
apostle of the Gentiles were ended. Solemn and affecting thought! He
had been the instrument chosen of God to communicate to the world His
counsels respecting the assembly, and to establish in the midst of the
world this precious object of His affections united to Christ at His
right hand. What would become of it down here?

Chapter 21

After this time the apostle has to give account of himself, and to
accomplish in a striking manner the predictions of the Lord. Brought
before tribunals by the malice of the Jews, given up through their
hatred into the hands of the Gentiles, it was all to turn to a
testimony. Kings and rulers shall hear the gospel, but the love of many
will grown cold. This in general is his position; but there were
details personal to himself.

We may remark here a leading feature in this book which has been little
noticed; that is, the development of the enmity of the Jews, bringing
on their final rejection, such as they were. The Acts ends with the
last case presented; the work in the midst of that people is left in
oblivion, and that of Paul occupies the whole scene in the historical
narrative given by the Spirit. The antagonism of the Jews to the
manifestation of the assembly, which took their place and blotted out
the distinction between them and the Gentiles, by bringing in heaven
and full sovereign grace in contrast with law, which while universal in
its direction was given to a distinct people (grace of which the sinner
availed himself by faith)-this antagonism, presenting itself at every
step in the career of the apostle, although he acted with all possible
circumspection, is aroused in its full intensity at Jerusalem, its
natural centre, and manifests itself by violence and by efforts made
with the Gentiles for the purpose of cutting off Paul from the earth.
This rendered the apostle's position very serious with regard to the
Gentiles at Jerusalem-a city the more jealous of its religious
importance from having in fact under Roman bondage lost the reality of
it, through its being transformed into a spirit of rebellion against
the authority which crippled it.

After the history of Christianity, viewed as connected with Judaism (in
reference to the promises and their fulfilment in the Messiah), we find
Paul in three different positions. First, condescending, for the
purpose of conciliation, to take account of that which still existed at
Jerusalem, and even addressing the Jews everywhere in their synagogues,
as having administratively the first right to hear the gospel ("To the
Jew first and then to the Greek") for Jesus was the minister of the
circumcision for the truth of God, to fulfil the promises made to the
fathers. In this respect he never failed, and he establishes these
principles clearly and dogmatically in the Epistle to the Romans. We
next find him, in all the liberty of the full truth of grace and of the
purposes of God, in his own especial work from which he condescended in
grace. This is recorded in the Epistle to the Ephesians. In both these
cases he acts under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, fulfilling the
Lord's will. Afterwards, in the third place, we see him in conflict
with the hostility of legal Judaism, the emissaries of which he met
continually, and into the very focus of which he at length threw
himself by going to Jerusalem, in that part of his history which we are
now considering. How much was of God-how much was the consequence of
his own steps-is matter for consideration in this narrative. That the
hand of God was in it for the good of the assembly, and in conducting
His beloved servant for his own good in the end, is beyond all doubt.
We have only to search out how far the will and the mind of Paul came
in, as means which God used to bring about the result He intended,
whether for the assembly or for His servant, or for the Jews. These
thoughts are of the deepest interest, and require humble examination of
that which God has set before us to instruct us on this point in the
history which the Spirit Himself has given us of these things.

The first thing which strikes us at the beginning of this history is
that the Holy Ghost tells him not to go to Jerusalem (chap. 21:4). This
word has evident importance. Paul felt himself bound: there was
something in his own mind which impelled him thither, a feeling that
forced him in that direction; but the Spirit, in His positive and
outward testimony forbade his going.

The apostle's intention had been to go to Rome. The apostle of the
Gentiles sent forth to preach the gospel to every creature, there was
nothing of self in this project that was not according to grace (Rom.
1:13-15). Nevertheless God had not allowed him to go thither. He was
obliged to write his Epistle to them without seeing them. Heaven is the
metropolis of Christianity. Rome and Jerusalem must have no place with
Paul, except as to bearing with the one in affection, and being ready,
when he might, to evangelise the other. Acts 19:21, which is translated
"in the spirit," only means the spirit of Paul. He purposed, in his own
mind, saying, "When I have been there, I must also see Rome."
Afterwards he charge himself with the offerings of the saints in Achaia
and Macedonia. He wished to prove his affection for the poor of his own
people (Gal. 2:10). This was all well. I do not know if it was a
function suited to an apostle. It was an evidently Jewish feeling,
which set peculiar value on the poor of Jerusalem, and so far on
Jerusalem itself. A Jew would rather be poor at Jerusalem than rich
among the Gentiles. Poor Christians were there no doubt from the time
of their conversion, but that was the origin of this system (compare
Neh. 11: 2 and Acts 24:17). All this belonged to relationship with
Judaism (Rom. 15:25-28). Paul loved the nation to which he belonged
after the flesh, and which had been the people beloved of God and was
still His people although rejected for a time, the remnant having now
to enter the kingdom of God through Christianity. This attachment of
Paul to them (which had its right and deeply affecting side, but which
on another side had to do with the flesh) led him into the centre of
Judaism. He was the messenger of the heavenly glory, which brought out
the doctrine of the assembly composed of Jews and Gentiles, united
without distinction in the one body of Christ, thus blotting out
Judaism; but his love for his nation carried him, I repeat, into the
very centre of hostile Judaism-Judaism enraged against this spiritual
equality. His testimony, the Lord had told him, they would not receive.

Nevertheless the hand of God was doubtless in it. Paul individually found his level.

As the instrument of God's revelation, he proclaims in all its extent
and all its force the purpose of the sovereign grace of God. The wine
is not adulterated; it flows out as pure as he had received it. And he
walked in a remarkable way at the height of the revelation committed to
him. Still Paul individually is a man; he must be exercised and
manifested, and in those exercises to which God has subjected us. Where
the flesh has found its pleasure, the sphere in which it has gratified
itself, it is there that, when God acts, it finds its sorrow. Yet, if
God saw fit to prove His servant and manifest him to himself, He stood
by him, and blessed him even through the trial itself-turned it into
testimony, and refreshed the heart of His beloved and faithful servant.
The manifestation of that in him which is not according to the Spirit,
or to the height of his calling, was in love for his blessing and for
that of the assembly. Blessed is he who can walk as faithfully and
maintain his standing to the same degree through grace in the path of
grace! Nevertheless Christ is the only model. I see no one who (in
another career) so much resembled Him in His public life as Paul.

The more we search into the apostle's walk the more we shall see this
resemblance. Only that Christ was the model of perfection in obedience;
in His precious servant there was the flesh. Paul would have been the
first to acknowledge that perfection may be ascribed to Jesus only.

I believe then that the hand of God was in this journey of Paul's; that
in His sovereign wisdom He willed that His servant should undertake it,
and also have blessing in it; but that the means employed to lead him
into it according to that sovereign wisdom, was the apostle's human
affection for the people who were his kinsmen after the flesh; and that
he was not led into it by the Holy Ghost acting on the part of Christ
in the assembly. This attachment to his people, this human affection,
met with that among the people which put it in its place. Humanly
speaking, it was an amiable feeling; but it was not the power of the
Holy Ghost founded on the death and resurrection of Christ. Here there
was no longer Jew nor Gentile. In the living Christ it was right.
Christ went on in it to the end in order that He might die; for this
purpose He came.

Paul's affection was good in itself, but as a spring of action it did
not come up to the height of the work of the Spirit, who on Christ's
part had sent him afar from Jerusalem to the Gentiles in order to
reveal the assembly as His body united to Him in heaven. Thus the Jews
hearkened to him till it came to that word, and then they cried out and
raised the tumult which caused Paul to be made prisoner. [33] He
suffered for the truth, but where that truth had no access according to
Christ's own testimony: "they will not receive thy testimony concerning
me." It was necessary however that the Jews should manifest their
hatred to the gospel, and give this final proof of their inveterate
opposition to the ways of God in grace.

At the same time, whatever may have been the subsequent labours of the
apostle (if there were any the Holy Ghost does not make mention of
them: Paul sees the Jews in his own house, and receives all who come to
him; but) the page of the Spirit's history closes here. This history is
ended. The apostolic mission to the Gentiles in connection with the
founding of the assembly is concluded. Rome is but the prison of the
apostle of the truth, to whom the truth had been committed. Jerusalem
rejects him, Rome imprisons him and puts him to death as it had done to
Jesus, whom the blessed apostle had to resemble in this also according
to his desire in Philippians 3; for Christ and conformity to Him was
his only object. It was given him to find this conformity in his
service, as it was so strongly in his heart and soul, with the
necessary difference between a ministry which was not to break the
bruised reed nor lift up its voice in the street, and one which in
testimony was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

The mission of the twelve to the Gentiles, going out from Jerusalem
(Matt. 28), never took place, so far as any record of it by the Holy
Ghost goes. [34] Jerusalem detained them. They did not even go over the
cities of Israel. The ministry of the circumcision was given to Peter,
that of the Gentiles to Paul in connection with the doctrine of the
assembly and of a glorious Christ-a Christ whom he no longer knew after
the flesh. Jerusalem, to which the apostle was drawn by his affection,
rejected both him and his mission. His ministry to the Gentiles, so far
as the free effect of the power of the Spirit, ended likewise.
Ecclesiastical history may perhaps tell us more; nevertheless God has
taken care to bury it in profound darkness Nothing farther is owned by
the Spirit. We hear no more of the apostles at Jerusalem; and Rome, as
we have seen, had none, so far as the Holy Ghost informs us, excepting
that the apostle of the Gentiles was a prisoner there and finally put
to death. Man has failed everywhere on earth. The religious and
political centres of the world-centres, according to God, as to the
earth-have rejected the testimony, and put the testifier to death; but
the result has been that Heaven has maintained its rights inviolate and
in their absolute purity. The assembly the true heavenly and eternal
metropolis of glory and of the ways of God-the assembly which had its
place in the counsels of God before the world was-the assembly which
answers to His heart in grace as united to Christ in glory-remains the
object of faith. It is revealed according to the mind of God, and
perfectly such as it is in His mind, until, as the heavenly Jerusalem,
it shall be manifested in glory, in connection with the accomplishment
of the ways of God on the earth, in the re-establishment of Jerusalem
as the centre of His earthly dealings in grace, His throne, His
metropolis in the midst even of the Gentiles, and in the disappearance
even of Gentile power, the seat and centre of which was Rome.

Let us now examine the thoughts of the apostle, and that which took
place historically. Paul wrote from Corinth to Rome, when he had this
journey in view. Christianity had flowed towards that centre of the
world, without any apostle whatsoever having planted it there. Paul
follows it. Rome is, as it were, a part of his apostolic domain which
escapes him (Rom. 1:13-15). He returns to the subject in chapter IS. If
he might not come (for God will not begin with the capital of the
world-compare the destruction of Hazor in Canaan, Joshua 11:11), he
will at least write to them on the ground of his universal apostleship
to the Gentiles. Some Christians were already established there: so God
would have it. But they were in some sort, of his province. Many of
them had been personally in connection with him. See the number and
character of the salutations at the end of the epistle, which have a
peculiar stamp, making the Roman Christians in great part the children
of Paul.

In Romans 15:14-29 he develops his apostolic position with respect to
the Romans and others. He desired also to go into Spain when he had
seen the brethren at Rome a little. He wishes to impart spiritual gifts
to them, but to be comforted by their mutual faith, to enjoy a little
of their company. They are in connection with him; but they have their
place as Christians at Rome without his ever having been there. When
therefore he had seen them a little, he would go into Spain. But he was
disappointed with regard to these projects. All that we are told by the
Holy Ghost is that he was a prisoner at Rome. Profound silence as to
Spain. Instead of going farther when he had seen them and imparted
gifts, he remains two years a prisoner at Rome. It is not known whether
he was set free or not. Some say yes, others no; the word says nothing.

It is here, when he had laid open his intentions and the character of
his relationships in the Spirit with Rome, and when a large field opens
before him in the west, that his old affection for his people and for
Jerusalem intervenes-"But now I go unto Jerusalem to carry help to the
saints" (Rom. 15:25-28). Why not go to Rome according to the energy of
the Spirit, his work being finished in Greece? (v. 23). God, no doubt,
ordained that those things should happen at Jerusalem, and that Rome
and the Romans should have this sad place with respect to the testimony
of a glorified Christ and of the assembly, which the apostle rendered
before the world. But as to Paul, why put rebellious Jerusalem between
his evangelical desire and his work? The affection was good, and the
service good-for a deacon, or a messenger of the churches: but for
Paul, who had the whole west open before his evangelising thought!

For the moment Jerusalem intercepted his view. Accordingly, as we have
seen, the Holy Ghost warned him on his way. He foresaw himself also the
dang er he was running into (Rom. 15:30-32). He was sure (v. 29) of
coming in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ; but he
was not sure that he should come with joy. The thing for which he asked
their prayers turned out quite otherwise than he desired. He was
delivered, but as a prisoner. He took courage when he saw the brethren
at Appii Forum and the Three Taverns. There was no journey into Spain
either.

All this to me is very solemn. The Lord, full of grace and tenderness,
was with His poor but beloved servant. In the case of such an one as
Paul, it is a most affecting history, and the Lord's ways adorable and
perfect in goodness. The reality of faith is there in full; the ways of
grace perfect, and perfect in tenderness also, in the Lord. He stands
by His servant in the trial in which he finds himself, to encourage and
strengthen him. At the same time, with regard to the desire of going to
Jerusalem, he is warned by the Spirit, and its consequences are set
before him; and, not turning back, he undergoes the needful discipline,
which brings his soul into its place, and a full place of blessing
before God. His walk finds its level as to spiritual power. He feels
the power outwardly of that whereof he had felt the moral power seeking
to hinder his ministry; and a chain upon his flesh answers to the
liberty he had allowed it. There was justice in God's dealings. His
servant was too precious for it to be otherwise. At the same time, as
to result and testimony, God ordered everything for His own glory, and
with perfect wisdom as to the future welfare of the assembly.
Jerusalem, as we have seen, rejects the testimony to the Gentiles, in a
word the ways of God in the assembly (compare 1 Thess. 2: 14-16); and
Rome becomes the prison of that testimony; while according to the
Lord's promise the testimony is carried before rulers and kings, and
before Caesar himself.

I have said that grace put Paul into the position of Christ given up to
the Gentiles by the hatred of the Jews. It was a great favour. The
difference-besides the infinite love of the Lord who gave Himself
up-was that Jesus was there in His true place before God. He had come
to the Jews: that He should be delivered up was the crowning act of His
devotedness and His service. It was in fact the offering Himself by the
eternal Spirit. It was the sphere of His service as sent of God. Paul
re-entered it: the energy of the Holy Ghost had placed him
outside-"Delivering thee," said the Lord, "from the people and from the
Gentiles, to whom I now send thee to open their eyes," etc. (Acts
26:17). Jesus had taken him out from them both, to exercise a ministry
that united the two in one body in Christ in heaven who had thus sent
him. In his service Paul knew no one after the flesh; in Christ Jesus
there was neither Jew nor Greek.

Let us resume his history. He is warned by the Holy Ghost not to go up
(chap. 21:4). Nevertheless he continues his journey to Caesarea. A
prophet named Agabus comes down from Judea, and announces that Paul
shall be bound and given up to the Gentiles. It might be said that this
did not forbid his going. It is true; yet, coming after the other, it
strengthened the warning already given. When he walked in the liberty
of the Spirit, warned of danger, he fled from it, while braving every
peril if the testimony required it. At Ephesus he allowed himself to be
persuaded not to go into the theatre.

The Holy Ghost does not usually warn of danger. He leads in the path of
the Lord, and if persecution comes, He gives strength to endure it.
Here Paul was continually warned. His friends entreat him not to go up.
He will not be persuaded. They hold their peace, little satisfied,
saying, "The will of the Lord be done." And, I doubt not, it was His
will, but for the accomplishment of purposes that Paul knew not by the
intelligence given of the Holy Ghost. Only he felt pressed in spirit to
go, and ready to suffer all things for the Lord.

Chapter 22

He departs therefore to Jerusalem; and when there, he goes to the house
of James, and all the elders assemble. Paul relates to them the work of
God among the Gentiles. They turn to their Judaism, of which the
multitude were full, and, while rejoicing in the good that was wrought
of God by the Spirit, they wish Paul to shew himself obedient to the
law. The believers in Jerusalem must needs come together on the arrival
of Paul, and their prejudices with regard to the law must be satisfied.
Paul has brought himself into the presence of man's exigencies: to
refuse compliance with them would be to say that their thoughts about
him were true; to act according to their desire was to make a rule, not
of the guidance of the Spirit in all liberty of love, but of the
ignorant and prejudiced condition of these Jewish believers. It is that
Paul was there, not according to the Spirit as an apostle, but
according to his attachment to these former things. One must be above
the prejudices of others, and free from their influence, to be able to
condescend to them in love.

Being there, Paul can hardly do other than satisfy their demands. But
the hand of God is in it. This act throws him into the power of his
enemies. Seeking to please the believing Jews, he finds himself in the
lion's mouth, in the hands of the Jews who were adversaries to the
gospel. It may be added that we hear nothing more of the Christians of
Jerusalem. They had done their work. I have no doubt that they accepted
the alms of the Gentiles.

The whole city being moved and the temple shut, the commander of the
band comes to rescue Paul from the Jews who wished to kill him, taking
him however into custody himself, for the Romans were used to these
tumults, and heartily despised this nation beloved of God, but proud
and degraded in their own condition. Nevertheless Paul commands the
respect of the captain of the band by his manner of addressing him, and
he permits him to speak to the people. To the chief captain Paul had
spoken in Greek; but, always ready to win by the attentions of love,
and especially when the loved though rebellious people were in
question, he speaks to them in Hebrew; that is, in their ordinary
language called Hebrew. He does not enlarge upon what the Lord said
revealing Himself to him, but he gives them a particular account of his
subsequent interview with Ananias, a faithful Jew and esteemed of all.
He then enters on the point which necessarily characterised his
position and his defence. Christ had appeared to him, saying, "They
will not receive thy testimony at Jerusalem. I will send thee far hence
unto the Gentiles." Blessed be God! it is the truth; but why tell it to
those very persons who, according to his own words, would not receive
his testimony? The only thing which gave authority to such a mission
was the Person of Jesus, and they did not believe in it.

In his testimony to the people the apostle laid stress in vain upon the
Jewish piety of Ananias: genuine as it might be, it was but a broken
reed. Nevertheless it was all, except his own. His discourse had but
one effect-to bring out the violent and incorrigible hatred of this
unhappy nation to every thought of grace in God, and the unbounded
pride which indeed went before the fall that crushed them. The chief
captain, seeing the violence of the people, and not at all
understanding what was going on, with the haughty contempt of a Roman,
orders Paul to be bound and scourged to make him confess what it meant.
Now Paul was himself a Roman citizen, and born such, while the chief
captain had purchased that freedom. Paul quietly makes this fact known,
and they who were about to scourge him withdraw. The chief captain was
afraid because he had bound him; but, as his authority was concerned in
it, he leaves him bound. The next day he looses him and brings him
before the council, or Sanhedrim, of the Jews. The people, not merely
their rulers, had rejected grace.

Chapter 23

Paul addresses the council with the gravity and dignity of an upright
man accustomed to walk with God. It is not a testimony borne to them
for their good; but the appeal of a good conscience to their
consciences, if they had any. The immediate answer is an outrage on the
part of the judge or chief of the council. Paul, roused by this
procedure, denounces judgment on him from God; but, warned that he was
the high priest (who was not so clothed as to be recognised), he
excuses himself by his ignorance of the fact, quoting the formal
prohibition of the law to speak evil of the ruler of the people. All
this was right and in place with regard to men; but the Holy Ghost
could not say, "I wist not." It is not the activity of the Spirit
performing the work of grace and of testimony. But it is the means of
the final judgment of God upon the people. It is in this character, as
regards the Jews, that Paul appears here. Paul makes a much better
appearance than his judges, who thoroughly disgrace themselves and
manifest their dreadful condition; but he does not appear for God
before them. Afterwards he avails himself of the different parties of
which the council were composed to throw complete disorder into it, by
declaring himself to be a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, and called
in question for a dogma of that sect. This was true; but it was below
the height of his own word, "that which was gain I counted loss for
Christ's sake." The Jews however fully manifest themselves. That which
Paul said raises a tumult, and the chief captain takes him from among
them. God has all things at His disposal. A nephew of Paul's, never
mentioned elsewhere, hears of an ambush laid for him and warns him of
it. Paul sends him to the chief captain, who expedites the departure of
Paul under a guard to Caesarea. God watched over him, but all is on the
level of human and providential ways. There is not the angel as in
Peter's case, nor the earthquake as at Philippi. We are sensibly on
different ground.

Chapter 24-25

Paul appears before the governors in succession-the Sanhedrim, Felix,
Festus, Agrippa, and afterwards Caesar. And here, when occasion offers,
we have striking appeals to conscience; when his defence is in
question, the manly and honest declarations of a good conscience, that
rose above the passions and interests that surrounded him. I pass over
in silence the worldly egotism which betrays itself in Lysias and
Festus, by their assumption of all sorts of good qualities and good
conduct; the mixture of awakened conscience and absence of principle in
the governors; the desire to please the Jews for their own importance,
or to facilitate their government of a rebellious people; and the
contempt felt by those who were not as responsible as Lysias for the
public tranquillity. The position of Agrippa and all the details of the
history have a remarkable stamp of truth, and present the various
characters in so living a style that we seem to be in the scenes
described. We see the persons moving in it. This moreover strikingly
characterises the writings of Luke.

Other circumstances claim our attention. Festus, in order to please the
Jews, proposed to take Paul to Jerusalem. But Rome was to have its
share in the rejection of the gospel of grace, of the testimony to the
assembly; and Paul appeals to Caesar. Festus must therefore send him
thither, although embarrassed to know what crime he is to charge him
with in sending him. Sad picture of man's injustice! But everything
accomplishes the purposes of God. In the use of the means Paul succeed
no better than in his attempt to satisfy the Jews. It was perhaps to
the eye of man his only resource under the circumstances; but the Holy
Ghost is careful to inform us that he might have been set at liberty if
he had not appealed to Caesar.

Chapter 26

In Agrippa there was, I believe, more curiosity than conscience, though
there may have been some desire to profit by the occasion to know what
the doctrine was which had so stirred up people's minds, a disposition
to inquire which was more than curiosity. In general his words are
taken as if he was not far from being convinced that Christianity was
true: perhaps he would have been so if his passions had not stood in
the way. But it may be questioned whether this is the force of the
Greek, as generally supposed, and not, rather, 'In a little you are
going to make a Christian of me,' covering his uneasiness at the appeal
to his professed Judaism before Festus, by an affected and slighting
remark. And such I believe to be the case. The notion of an "almost
christian" is quite a mistake, though a man's mind may be under
influences which ought to lead him to it, and yet reject it. He would
have been glad for Paul to be set free. He expressed his conviction
that it might have been done if he had not appealed to Caesar. He gives
his opinion to Festus as a wise and reasonable man; but his words were
in reality dictated by his conscience-words that he could venture to
utter when Festus and all the rest were agreed that Paul had done
nothing worthy of death or of bonds.

God would have the innocence of his beloved servant proved in the face
of the world. His discourse tends to this. He goes farther, but his
object is to give account of his conduct. His miraculous conversion is
related in order to justify his subsequent career; but it is so related
as to act upon the conscience of Agrippa, who was acquainted with
Jewish things, and evidently desired to hear something of Christianity,
which he suspected to be the truth. Accordingly he lays hold with
eagerness of the opportunity that presents itself to hear the apostle
explain it. But he remains much where he was. His condition of soul
opens however the mouth of Paul, and he addresses himself directly and
particularly to the king; who moreover, evidently engrossed by the
subject, had called on him to speak. To Festus it was all a rhapsody.

The dignity of Paul's manner before all these governors is perfect. He
addresses himself to the conscience with a forgetfulness of self that
shewed a man in whom communion with God, and the sense of his
relationship with God, carried the mind above all effect of
circumstances. He was acting for God; and, with a perfect deference for
the position of those he addressed, we see that which was morally
altogether superior to them. The more humiliating his circumstances,
the more beauty there is in this superiority. Before the Gentiles he is
a missionary from God. He is again (blessed be God!) in his right
place. All that he said to the Jews was right and deserved; but why was
he, who had been delivered from the people, subjected to their total
want of conscience, and their blind passions which gave no place for
testimony? Nevertheless, as we have seen, it was to be so in order that
the Jews might in every way fill up the measure of their iniquity, and
indeed that the blessed apostle might follow the steps of his Master.

Paul's address to king Agrippa furnishes us with the most complete
picture of the entire position of the apostle, as he himself looked at
it when his long service and the light of the Holy Ghost illuminated
his backward glance.

He does not speak of the assembly-that was a doctrine for instruction,
and not a part of his history. But everything that related to his
personal history, in connection with his ministry, he gives in detail.
He had been a strict Pharisee; and here he connects the doctrine of
Christ with the hopes of the Jews. He was in bonds "for the hope of the
promise made unto the fathers." No doubt resurrection entered into it.
Why should the king think resurrection impossible, that God was not
able to raise the dead? This brings him to another point. He had verily
thought with himself that he ought to do many things against Jesus of
Nazareth, and had carried them out with all the energy of his
character, and with the bigotry of a devout Jew. His present condition,
as a witness among the Gentiles, depended on the change wrought in him
by the revelation of the Lord when he was engaged in seeking to destroy
His name. Near Damascus a light brighter than the sun struck them all
to the earth, and he alone heard the voice of the Righteous One, so
that he knew from His own mouth that it was Jesus, and that He looked
upon those who believed in Him as Himself. He could not resist such a
testimony. But as this was the great grievance to the Jews, he shews
that his own position was formally marked out by the Lord Himself. He
was called to give ocular evidence of the glory which he had seen; that
is, of Jesus in that glory; and of other things also, for the
manifestation of which Jesus would again appear to him. A glorious
Christ known (personally) only in heaven was the subject of the
testimony committed to him. For this purpose He had set Paul apart from
the Jews as much as from the Gentiles, his mission belonging
immediately to heaven, having its origin there; and he was sent
formally by the Lord of glory to the Gentiles, to change their position
with respect to God through faith in this glorious Jesus, opening their
eyes, bringing them out of darkness into light, from the power of Satan
to God, and giving them an inheritance among the sanctified. This was a
definite work. The apostle was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
and he had taught the Gentiles to turn to God, and to act as those who
had done so. For this cause the Jews sought to kill him.

Nothing more simple, more truthful, than this history. It put the case
of Paul and the conduct of the Jews in the clearest light. When called
to order by Festus, who naturally thought it nothing more than
irrational enthusiasm, he appeals with perfect dignity and quick
discernment to Agrippa's knowledge of the facts upon which all this was
based: for the thing had not been done in a corner.

Agrippa was not far from being convinced; but his heart was unchanged.
The wish that Paul expresses brings the matter back to its moral
reality. The meeting is dissolved. The king resumes his kingly place in
courtesy and condescension, and the disciple that of a prisoner; but,
whatever might be the apostle's position, we see in him a heart
thoroughly happy and filled with the Spirit and love of God. Two years
of prison had brought him no depression of heart or faith, but had only
set him free from his harassing connection with the Jews, to give him
moments spent with God.

Agrippa, surprised and carried away by Paul's clear and straightforward
narrative, [35] relieves himself from the pressure of Paul's personal
address by saying, 'In a little you are going to make a Christian of
me.' Charity might have said, "Would to God that thou wert!" But there
is a spring in the heart of Paul that does not stop there. "Would to
God," says he, "that not only thou, but all those that hear me, were
... altogether such as I am, except these bonds!" What happiness and
what love (and in God these two things go together) are expressed in
these words! A poor prisoner, aged and rejected, at the end of his
career he is rich in God. Blessed years that he had spent in prison! He
could give himself as a model of happiness; for it filled his heart.
There are conditions of soul which unmistakably declare themselves. And
why should he not be happy? His fatigues ended, his work in a certain
sense finished, he possessed Christ and in Him all things. The glorious
Jesus, who had brought him into the pains and labour of the testimony,
was now his possession and his crown. Such is ever the case. The cross
in service-by virtue of what Christ is-is the enjoyment of all that He
is, when the service is ended; and in some sort is the measure of that
enjoyment. This was the case with Christ Himself, in all its fulness;
it is ours, in our measure, according to the sovereign grace of God.
Only Paul's expression supposes the Holy Ghost acting fully in the
heart in order that it may be free to enjoy, and that the Spirit is not
grieved.

A glorious Jesus-a Jesus who loved him, a Jesus who put the seal of His
approbation and love upon his service, a Jesus who would take him to
Himself in glory, and with whom he was one (and that known according to
the abundant power of the Holy Ghost, according to divine
righteousness), a Jesus who revealed the Father, and through whom he
had the place of adoption-was the infinite source of joy to Paul, the
glorious object of his heart and of his faith; and, being known in
love, filled his heart with that love overflowing towards all men. What
could he wish them better than to be as he was except his bonds? How,
filled with this love, could he not wish it, or not be full of this
large affection? Jesus was its measure.

His innocence fully established and acknowledged by his judges, the
purposes of God must still be accomplished. His appeal to Caesar must
carry him to Rome, that he may bear testimony there also. In his
position here he again resembles Jesus. But at the same time, if we
compare them, the servant, blessed as he is, grows dim, and is eclipsed
before Christ, so that we could no longer think of him. Jesus offered
Himself up in grace; He appealed to God only; He answered but to bear
testimony to the truth-that truth was the glory of His Person, His own
rights, humbled as He was. His Person shines out through all the dark
clouds of human violence, which could have had no power over Him had it
not been the moment for thus fulfilling the will of God. For that
purpose He yields to power given them from above. Paul appeals to
Caesar. He is a Roman-a human dignity conferred by man, and available
before men; he uses it for himself, God thus accomplishing His
purposes. The one is blessed, and his services; the other is perfect,
the perfect subject of the testimony itself.

Nevertheless, if there is no longer the free service of the Holy Ghost
for Paul, and if he is a prisoner in the hands of the Romans, his soul
at least is filled with the Spirit. Between him and God all is liberty
and joy. All this shall turn to his salvation, that is, to his
definitive victory, in his contest with Satan. How blessed! Through the
communications of the Spirit of Jesus Christ the word of God shall not
be bound. Others shall gain strength and liberty in view of his bonds,
even although, in the low state of the church, some take advantage of
them. But Christ will be preached and magnified, and with that Paul is
content. Oh how true this is, and the perfect joy of the heart, come
what may! We are the subjects of grace (God be praised!), as well as
instruments of grace in service. Christ alone is its object, and God
secures His glory-nothing more is needed: this itself is our portion
and our perfect joy.

It will be remarked in this interesting history, that at the moment
when Paul might have been the most troubled, when his course was
perhaps the least evidently according to the power of the Spirit, when
he brought disorder into the council by using arguments which
afterwards he hesitates himself entirely to justify-it is then that the
Lord, full of grace, appears to him to encourage and strengthen him.
The Lord, who formerly had told him at Jerusalem to go away because
they would not receive his testimony, who had sent him warnings not to
go thither, but who accomplished His own purposes of grace in the
infirmity and through the human affections of His servant, by their
means even, exercising at the same time His wholesome discipline in His
divine wisdom by these same means-Jesus appears to him to tell him
that, as he had testified of Him at Jerusalem, so should he bear
witness at Rome also. This is the way that the Lord interprets in grace
the whole history, at the moment when His servant might have felt all
that was painful in his position, perhaps have been overwhelmed by it,
remembering that the Spirit had forbidden him to go up; for, when in
trial, a doubt is torment. The faithful and gracious Saviour intervenes
therefore to encourage Paul, and to put His own interpretation on the
position of His poor servant, and to mark the character of His love for
him. If it was necessary to exercise discipline for his good on account
of his condition and to perfect him, Jesus was with him in the
discipline. Nothing more touching than the tenderness, the
opportuneness, of this grace. Moreover, as we have said, it all
accomplished the purposes of God with regard to the Jews, to the
Gentiles, to the world. For God can unite in one dispensation the most
various ends.

Chapter 27

And now, restored, reanimated by grace, Paul shews himself in his
journey to be master of the position. It is he who counsels, according
to the communication he receives from God, he who encourages, he who
acts, in every way, on God's part, in the midst of the scene around
him. The description, full of life and reality, which Luke his
companion, gives of this voyage, needs no comment. It is admirable as a
living picture of the whole scene. Our concern is to see what Paul was
amid the false confidence, or the distress of the whole company.

Chapter 28

At Melita we find him again exercising his accustomed power among that
barbarous people. One sees that God is with him. Evangelisation does
not, however, appear in the account of his sojourn there, or of his
journey.

Landed in Italy, we see him depressed: the love of the brethren
encourages and reanimates him; and he goes on to Rome, where he dwells
two years in a house that he hires, a soldier being with him as a
guard. Probably those who carried him to Rome had been given to
understand that it was only a matter of Jewish jealousy, for all
through the journey they treated him with all possible respect. Besides
he was a Roman.

Arrived at Rome, he sends for the Jews; and here, for the last time,
their condition is set before us, and the judgment which had been
hanging over their heads ever since the utterance of the prophecy
(which was especially connected with the house of David and with
Judah)-the judgment pronounced by Esaias, which the Lord Jesus declared
should come upon them because of His rejection, the execution of which
was suspended by the long-suffering of God, until the testimony of the
Holy Ghost was also rejected-this judgment is here brought to mind by
Paul at the end of the historical part of the New Testament. It is
their definitive condition solemnly declared by the minister of
sovereign grace, and which should continue until God interposed in
power to give them repentance, and to deliver them, and to glorify
Himself in them by grace.

We have already marked this characteristic of the Acts, which comes out
here in a clear and striking manner-the setting aside of the Jews. That
is to say, they set themselves aside by the rejection of the testimony
of God, of the work of God. They put themselves outside that which God
was setting up. They will not follow Him in His progress of grace. And
thus they are altogether left behind, without God and without present
communication with Him. His word abides for ever, and His mercy; but
others take the place of positive and present relationship with Him.
Individuals from among them enter into another sphere on other grounds;
but Israel disappears and is blotted out for a time from the sight of
God.

It is this which is presented in the book of Acts. The patience of God
is exercised towards the Jews themselves in the preaching of the gospel
and the apostolic mission at the beginning. Their hostility develops
itself by degrees and reaches its height in the case of Stephen. Paul
is raised up, a witness of grace towards them as an elect remnant, for
he was himself of Israel; but introducing, in connection with a
heavenly Christ, something entirely new as doctrine-the assembly, the
body of Christ in heaven; and the setting aside of all distinction
between Jew and Gentile as sinners, and in the oneness of that body.
This is linked historically with that which had been established at
Jerusalem, in order to maintain unity and the connection of the
promises; but in itself, as a doctrine, it was a thing hidden in God in
all the ages, having been in His purposes of grace before the world
was. The enmity of the Jews to this truth never abated. They used every
means to excite the Gentiles against those who taught the doctrine, and
to prevent the formation of the assembly itself. God, having acted with
perfect patience and grace unto the end, puts the assembly into the
place of the Jews, as His house, and the vessel of His promises on
earth, by making it His habitation by the Spirit. The Jews were set
aside (alas! their spirit soon took possession of the assembly itself);
and the assembly, and the clear and positive doctrine of no difference
between Jew and Gentile (by nature alike the children of wrath), and of
their common and equal privileges as members of one only body, has been
fully declared and made the basis of all relationship between God and
every soul possessed of faith. This is the doctrine of the apostle in
the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians. [36] At the same time the
gift of eternal life, as promised before the world was, has been made
manifest by being born again[37] (the commencement of a new existence
with a divine character), and partaking of divine righteousness; these
two things being united in our resurrection with Christ, by which, our
sins being forgiven, we are placed before God as Christ, who is at once
our life and our righteousness. This life manifests itself by
conformity to the life of Christ on earth, who left us an example that
we should follow His steps. It is the divine life manifested in man-in
Christ as the object, in us as testimony.

The cross of Christ is the basis, the fundamental centre, of all these
truths,-the relations between God and man as he was, his
responsibility; grace; expiation; the end of life, as to sin, the law,
and the world; the putting away of sin through the death of Christ, and
its consequences in us. Everything is established there, and gives
place to the power of life that was in Christ, who there perfectly
glorified God-to that new existence into which He entered as man into
the presence of the Father; by whose glory, as well as by His own
divine power, and by the energy of the Holy Ghost, He was raised from
the dead.

This does not prevent God's resuming His ways in government with the
Jews on earth, when the church is complete and manifested on high; and
which He will do according to His promises and the declarations of
prophecy. The apostle explains this also in the Epistle to the Romans;
but it belongs to the study of that epistle. The ways of God in
judgment with regard to the Gentiles also at the same period will be
shewn us in the Apocalypse, as well as in prophetic passages of the
Epistles in connection with the coming of Christ, and even with His
government of the world in general from the beginning to the end;
together with the warnings necessary for the assembly when the days of
deception begin to dawn and to be developed morally in the ruin of the
assembly, viewed as God's witness in the world.

Our apostle, when brought to Rome, declares (upon the manifestation of
unbelief among the Jews, which we have pointed out) that the salvation
of God is sent to the Gentiles; and he dwells two whole years in the
house he had hired, receiving those who came to him (for he had not
liberty to go to them) preaching the kingdom of God and those things
which concerned the Lord Jesus, with all boldness, no man forbidding
him. And here the history is ended of this precious servant of God,
beloved and honoured by his Master, a prisoner in that Rome which, as
head of the fourth empire, was to be the seat of opposition among the
Gentiles, as Jerusalem of opposition among the Jews, to the kingdom and
to the glory of Christ. The time for the full manifestation of that
opposition was not yet come; but the minister of the assembly and of
the gospel of glory is a prisoner there. It is thus that Rome begins
its history in connection with the gospel that the apostle preached.
Nevertheless God was with him.

[24] We see however, in the case of Lydda and Saron, what is more
analogous to the introduction of a people. They heard of the miracle
done to Aeneas; and the town and neighbourhood turned to the Lord.
Saron is a district along the coast.

[25] Literally whether the Holy Ghost was. The expression, which is the
same as in John 7, is a very striking testimony to the distinctness and
importance of the Holy Ghost's presence down here on earth. It is
called "the Holy Ghost," though we all know He had ever been. But what
is called the Holy Ghost, that is, His presence down here-this had
never been.

[26] Honorary magistrates from among the notables, who presided over the celebration of religious festivals.

[27] It may perhaps interest the reader and help him to understand this
part of the New Testament history, if I point out the time at which
Paul wrote some of his epistles. He wrote the First to the Corinthians
from Ephesus, and sent it by Titus. Timothy he sent by way of
Macedonia. The latter might perhaps go into Greece; "If he come," the
apostle says to the Corinthians. Then came the tumult, and just at this
moment, or about the same time, his life was endangered; he did not
even suppose that he should save it. He had purposed going by Greece
into Macedonia, and then returning to Greece; but the state Corinth was
in prevented it, and he went first into Macedonia. On his way he goes
to Troas, but does not stay there; in Macedonia he is much exercised in
mind, and has no rest, because Titus had not brought him tidings of the
Corinthians. There, however, Titus found him, and the apostle was
comforted in his trouble by the good news of the return of the
Corinthians to a right mind. Upon this he writes the second letter to
them, and, after having visited the assemblies, he pursues his journey
to Corinth, whence he wrote his epistle to the Romans. I only speak
here of that which relates to thus part of the apostle's history, and
throws light upon his labours.

[30] The reader must distinguish between the Lord's sufferings for sin
from God in righteousness, and those which He endured from sinful men
for righteousness' sake. We partake in the latter, while Christ has
saved us from the former, in which there is no question at all of
participation, but of His substitution for us when we have deserved the
condemnation due to sin.

[31] See Ephesians 5: 24.

[32] If Paul was ever set free and returned to these parts (not
necessarily to Ephesus) as Philippians and Philemon and perhaps 2
Timothy would lead us to suppose, we have no scriptural account of it.

[33] And this circumstance is worthy of note, that it was Christ's
declaration that he should go to the Gentiles; to which we may add that
this at the time was accompanied by the declaration, "Get thee quickly
out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning
Me." So that what declared his testimony was of no avail in Jerusalem
was the occasion of his being seized. On Christ's word and his own
shewing, his apostolic service was not there but elsewhere.

[34] Mark 16: 20 is the only passage which may be supposed to allude to
what would fulfil it; and even not so as such, for that and Colossians
1: 6 refer to all the world, and are founded on ascension, not a
mission to the Gentiles only founded on resurrection.

[35] It is hardly to be read "almost." Relieving himself, Agrippa says,
"You'll soon be making a Christian of me," covering his feelings, as I
have said, by a slighting speech. But I have no doubt his mind was
greatly wrought upon.

[36]In Romans in their personal position, in Ephesians in the corporate.

[37] The word "regeneration" is not applied in scripture to our being
born again; it is a change of position in us connected with our having
died with Him and resurrection. It is found twice; once in Matthew 19
it is Christ's coming kingdom; and in Titus it is the washing of
baptism, as typically bringing out of the old Adam state and into the
christian, but distinguished from the renewing of the Holy Ghost.