Author’s Introduction
INTRODUCTION
The art of living is the least learned of all arts. Humankind has learned the art of existing, of getting by somehow with the demands of life, of escaping into half answers; but we know little about the art of living, about being able to walk up to life, with all its demands, humbly conscious that we have within us a mastery that is able to face this business of living with adequacy. That is life’s central lack. All others are marginal lacks. The modern person knows everything about life except how to live it!
There are just two great human needs: light on the mystery of life, and life for the mastery of life.
We have made a great deal of progress in finding light on the mystery of life. Through the discoveries of science in the realm of the physical universe, the mental universe, and the spiritual universe, we know a lot about life. We see its mechanisms, its workings, as no other age has seen them. We are enlightened, but I question whether we are more enlivened. We are more nervous, more jumpy, more twitchy, more tense; but I question whether we are more enlivened. To be really enlivened is to be the possessor of an inner life adequate to meet outer life with joy and confidence. That is lacking. Our light has outrun our life. We thought that to analyze our problems was to solve them.
But to know is not necessarily to know how to live. We need life for the mastery of life. But even that is inadequate unless you put it this way: We need Life for the mastery of life.
If it is life trying to master life, then we will fail. In order to live, life must come in contact with Life or cease to be life; it becomes existence.
Mastery is not gained by trying to be masterful—by clenching your teeth and asserting your life against life. That results in the big I over against the little you—an unlovely personage. Mastery is gained by humbly relating your life to a Life that is masterful, effortlessly so. You take that effortless mastery and make it your own and live by it—effortlessly. You learn the art of receptivity, which is the art of life. To be able to receive is to be able to live, and to be able to receive abundantly is to be able to live abundantly. Life is gauged by its capacity of receptivity. I know there is the counter truth that life is gauged by its capacity to release. Receptivity and release are the alternate beats of the Christian heart. But it is first receptivity; without that there is nothing to release.
That leads me to the heart of this book: In a period of thirty years—one generation— 120 people and their immediate spiritual descendants introduced more basic changes in human living, individual and collective, than have been introduced in any generation in any part of the world before or since. And those changes have embodied the ruling ideas of real civilization ever since. This period we call the “Acts of the Apostles.” But just as rightly it could be called the “Acts of the Risen Christ.” This Risen Christ through the Holy Spirit put into the inner life of a group of very ordinary people such extraordinary moral and spiritual mastery that within the space of thirty years they had effected a revolution so great that it has been at the basis of all great constructive revolutions ever since in every part of the world. And its force has not been expended. It is still working, vitally and masterfully. By all the rules of the book, this revolution should have expended itself long ago. Revolutions do. They come and go and have their day. But this one has not had its day; it is moving on to nothing less than that which can be described as the Day—the Day of its ultimate world triumph—the Day to which all creation moves—the Day!
When people looked on what was happening, they described with rare insight this revolution in these words: “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also” (Acts 17:6 KJV). They called it a turning of the world upside down, and it was, but in a far deeper sense than they guessed. They thought it was a change of religious allegiance and customs. It was far deeper than that; it was a turning of the world upside down in its basic outlook, its personal and collective allegiance, and its economic, social, and political structure. It was a total revolution affecting the total life.
But never did a revolution come in so unobtrusively. It stole in under religious forms and terms so quietly and unobtrusively that people, for the most part, have missed the basic revolutionary character of the movement. They looked on it as the spread of a religion that could be superimposed on the framework of human society and could leave that society unchanged basically. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a religion at all—a religion that could be put alongside other religions—it was a kingdom demanding a total obedience in the total life. That was—and is—revolutionary!
And that leads me to my real point. Jesus said, “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom arrive in power” (Mark 9:1). And again: “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see the Human One coming in his kingdom” (Matt 16:28). Did that come true? If not, then Jesus was mistaken; and if he was mistaken in this, then why couldn’t he be mistaken in other things? We can’t rest our full weight down on him. That is the worm that has been eating at the heart of the faith of honest believers in all ages. Jesus said that there were some standing there who should not taste death—very specific!—until they saw the kingdom of God come with power—very specific! Did it happen? If not, then he was wrong—and wrong not on a marginal issue but on a central one; and wrong there he is not completely trustable. But suppose he was right, that the kingdom of God did come and did come with power during the lifetime of those present; then that makes us go with eagerness back to the account to see what really did happen. Did the kingdom of God come with power in the revolution that began with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and ramified [spread] into the individual and collective life of society in the next thirty years? I believe it did! Not fully, of course. The full consummation of that kingdom will come only when Jesus returns in his second coming to consummate it. But the kingdom did come in miniature. The essence and nature of that kingdom was revealed in the revolution that took place with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s impact upon the individual and society. The kingdom didn’t come “at Pentecost,” as some have suggested; but it began there and produced individuals and a society that became the kingdom in cameo. It was a preview of the final consummation, which will come when Jesus returns to consummate that kingdom. The coming of the kingdom and the coming of the Son of Man seem to be in two phases—the preview and the final consummation. But the point is that we have in the preview the outline and spirit of the kingdom that is to be and yet is. I am persuaded that we have in the first half of the Acts of the Apostles the kind of individual and the kind of society that will constitute the final kingdom. That final kingdom will be more than, but not different from, what we find revealed in Acts.
Is it possible that the kingdom stole in upon people almost incognito and was there ready to be revealed when they were able to receive it? Jesus said it would be so: “Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “Lo, here it is!” or “There!” for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you’” [in the margin, “within you”] (Luke 17:20-21 RSV). In these words Jesus provided for the coming of the kingdom, which would not be by signs to be observed; nor could men say, “Lo, it is here!” or “There!”; but it would be in your midst, yes, within you. And that happened in this movement that was inaugurated with the coming of the Holy Spirit—the kingdom was within them and in the midst of them—personal and corporate.
And this seems to be the method of God in revealing God’s deepest secrets. In the incarnation, God stole in among us almost incognito.
A Babe appeared in a lowly manger, grew up in an obscure village, worked in a carpenter shop, and then after a public ministry of three years quietly asked his intimate companions, “Who do you think I am?” And it dawned upon them that they were looking into the face of the Eternal God. The incarnation is both the veiling and the unveiling of the hidden God. So it is with the kingdom. Jesus speaks of the “open secret of the Realm of God” (Mark 4:11 MNT); it is a secret—hidden in the nature of reality, but it is our open secret—open to those who have eyes to see and hearts to learn. And just as Jesus, the incarnation of the Eternal God, stole in, in lowly human guise, so the incarnation of the kingdom of God also stole in, in a very lowly movement—the movement that began in the hearts of 120 ordinary people. When Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights in giving you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). it seemed laughable. The group of nobodies rule the ages? Absurd. But they have! They have literally ruled the development of the ages—they have held the kingdom. Any departure from their thoughts and principles and spirit has been visited by the silent judgment of God with decay and doom. And any rediscovery and re-embodiment of their thoughts and principles and spirit has been visited by the silent approval of God with revival, release, and open vistas—life has become living, and more—worth living.
These nobodies became the somebodies who have been the real rulers of the ages. Not the Caesars, the Alexanders, the Napoleons, the Hitlers, the Mussolinis, the Stalins, or the Croesuses have been the rulers of the ages—these nobodies have. To them, the little flock, has been given the kingdom. They rule even now. Not because of what they were, but because they presented in their own attitudes and proclaimed with their voices a new kingdom. They were identified with the final order, the kingdom; hence their word was final—and is final. Why have our eyes been “holden” (KJV) that we could not see this? Often truths are hidden until events force our attention upon them, and then they burst into meaning. It has been so with the kingdom of God. It has lain within the pages of the New Testament as a truth, inoperative as a working way; it was a far-off dream to be realized in heaven, or if on earth it has been reduced to the compass of the Church. The Church and the kingdom were identified, and the kingdom thereby reduced. But now with the rise of the human totalitarianisms—Fascism, Nazism, and Communism—demanding a total obedience in the total life, we as Christians have been stung into the necessity of finding something to match against these totalitarianisms. And to our glad surprise we find that we do have a totalitarianism—God’s totalitarianism—the kingdom of God. It demands a total obedience in the total life, individual and collective. The kingdom of God is the end of human destiny, and it is the way to the fulfillment of that destiny. Therefore it is the Way. “And he entered the synagogue . . . pleading about the kingdom of God; but when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way . . ., he withdrew” (Acts 19:8-9 RSV). Here the kingdom of God and the Way are used synonymously. The kingdom then is the Way. It is true that Jesus said, “I am the way,” and we will take up later the relationship between Jesus and the kingdom, but suffice it to say now that the kingdom is the Way.
But how could we know what the kingdom as the Way is like unless we could see it in actual operation, at least in miniature? If the universal Christ, not incamate, had been proclaimed as the Way, it would have been words. We had to see the Way in operation in the incarnate Jesus. The word of the Way had to become flesh in a Person. Then it lived! It is the same with the kingdom. Had the kingdom been proclaimed verbally as the Way, it would have left us with proclamation but no demonstration, words with no fact. Just as the Divine Person, the Son of God, had to become flesh in Jesus, so the Divine Order, the kingdom of God, had to become flesh in a group. It did. The new order of living that arose from the impact of the Holy Spirit upon the framework of human living became the Order, the kingdom of God. Imperfectly, of course, because made up of very imperfect people; but it was in a real and recognizable way the revelation of the nature of the kingdom of God. In this study of the Acts of the Apostles we turn then to inquire into the nature of that human living in both the individual and the collective, which became in a real way the kingdom of God. People standing there did not taste death until they had seen the “kingdom of God come with power”—with such power that the nature of human individuals and society underwent profound changes, and that those changes are ruling the development of the best life on this planet today.
The Acts of the Apostles is not merely a study in the history of early Christianity and its spread through that ancient world—it is that—and more! It is also an exploration into the nature of the Order that is and is to be—the nature of the kingdom of God. For here in small events great meanings are revealed. And those forces have not been expended. They are pressing at the basis of all wrong human living, individual and collective, and are pushing the foundations out from under all evil everywhere. Evils continue to exist, but they belong to the “dethroned.” They are destined to the dust.
Perhaps as a missionary—an evangelist traveling through the world in East and West, and especially the East, for forty-five years—I have had more opportunity than most people to observe and feel these silent forces of conflict, of collapse, of conversion, of construction. And perhaps I’ve thus been able to see more clearly in this world context the meaning of the movement that began with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said that the kingdom would not come “with observation,” by outward sign and show—“the kingdom of God is within you,” or “among you,” as the margin puts it (Luke 17:20-21 KJV, NRSV). The only lasting revolution begins there—“within”—and goes there—“among.” All other revolutions begin “among”—imposed from without. They go to pieces upon the rock of unchanged human nature. There is not enough of the “within” to sustain the “among”—hence failure. Communism will fail because it is deliberately from the “among” to the “within”; change the order and you change the people. Upon the rock of that half-truth it will go to pieces. The whole truth is with the kingdom; therefore it will wear down all movements based upon half-truths or falsehoods. The mastery is from “within” to the “among.” A group of people waited for ten days after the ascension to receive a Divine reinforcement within. God moved into them. And then they went out to move into human society to effect the greatest changes, and the most lasting, that have ever appeared in human history.
To the exploration of that Divine Impact and those consequent changes in the structure of human society we now turn. It will be an exciting adventure, for we shall be exploring the shape of things to come, the destiny of our race. For here in history the norm has been fixed, the pattern has been set. We see what the consummated kingdom will be like; it will be like this order universalized.
The thesis of this book will be: A group of ordinary people were mastered by the risen Christ moving into them in the Holy Spirit; and thus mastered, they moved out to master their circumstances and their relationships into a miniature kingdom of God. It is Mastery, within and without.
The book is arranged after the pattern of the rest of my devotional books—a page a day. This is for personal use. But it is also arranged in topics of a week each, so it can be used as a study book for group study. At the same time there is one developing theme, so it can be read straight through as an ordinary book. This may be the last of my devotional books, for my autobiography comes next; but of this I cannot be sure, for I have wondered if each one wasn’t the last. In each one I seem to write myself empty and then comes the filling up again, apparently from Eternal Springs. But if this should be the last devotional, I would not be sorry that my last one pointed people to the possibility of mastery. It is our greatest need, for we are more weak than wicked.
E. Stanley Jones