Chapter 19: YOU BUILDERS
Chapter 19: YOU BUILDERS
Acts iv. 1-37
"God spoke, and gave us the Word to keep;
Bade never fold the hands, nor sleep
'Mid a faithless world; at watch and ward,
Till Christ at the end relieve our guard.
By His servant Moses the watch was set,
Though near upon cock-crow, we keep it yet"
— Browning.
PETER WAS STILL addressing the hushed crowd which the healing of the crippled man had gathered. The sunset of the Western sky was casting long shadows, and forming a gorgeous background to the Corinthian columns of Solomon's Porch.
Suddenly a band of officials moved quickly towards the congregation, threaded its way through the densely-packed mass of people, and forcibly arrested the three men, whose presence seemed magnetic. There were priests, who detected in these unordained and unrecognized laymen serious rivals. There were Sadducees, the unbelieving sections of the literary class, who were disbelievers in the world of Spirit, and in the doctrine of a life after death — a sect not numerous, but wealthy, powerful, and holding the chief offices of State. There was also the Captain of the Temple, with his band, charged with the duty of maintaining public order.
Probably the Sadducean party was chiefly responsible for this ill-timed and unpolitic art. Clearly they had special reasons for resenting the teaching, with which for days past the Apostles had been flooding
Jerusalem. "They were indignant that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the Resurrection of the dead." If the story, which was attested by Peter and his friends, were true, Sadduceeism was ended. It is probable, therefore, that this arrest was instigated by Annas and Caiaphas, and the other leaders of this powerful party. Before Jerusalem was aware of what was happening, the Apostles and the healed man were clapped in prison, and messengers were hastening through the city to summon the members of the Sanhedrim to meet early on the following morning.
That night must have been to the imprisoned trio one of unspeakable emotion. This was the treatment their Master had taught them to expect. Clearly they were on the path which He had foreseen. It was an opportunity also of redeeming the cowardly desertion of the betrayal-night. Peter remembered that he had vowed to follow Jesus to prison, and here was the chance of fulfilling his promise. The man, whose healing had led to this collision with the rulers, was taught the significance of these happenings, and he joined in the prayers and psalms with which they beguiled the sleepless hours. As to the morrow's trial, they had no anxiety, nor prepared a defence, for the words spoken three years before came freshly back to memory: "When you are brought before rulers and kings, do not premeditate what ye shall answer, for it shall be given you in that same hour.
It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you."
The Sanhedrim was the most venerable and authoritative assembly and court in the world. It represented the seventy elders chosen to assist Moses in his administration of the Exodus march. The High Priest presided, and around him in a semicircle sat the heads of the twenty-four priestly classes, the doctors of the law, and the fathers of ancient Jewish families. The names of some of these are given, such as the crafty Annas, the unscrupulous Caiaphas, his son-in-law, the celebrated John Ben Zakkai, and Alexander, the wealthy brother of the learned Philo. It was the same body that had handed Jesus of Nazareth to the Roman executioners, and now, in the same chamber, they were preparing, by one supreme effort, to stamp out the Galilean heresy. Note their procedure! It was idle to question the miracle — the healed man was standing there before them. They could not deny it. It was perilous to discuss the general question of the Resurrection, because on this matter there was a distinct cleavage between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, each party being strongly represented. But the point at issue was as to the Source of his healing. "In whose name and by what power." If Peter and his associates had ascribed the miracle to the mighty power of Jehovah, with the stories of Elijah's and Elisha's miracles in view, nothing more could have been said. But if it were attributed to some other name, the Apostles would bring themselves within the ancient prescription of death as sorcerers. If they ascribed it to Jesus, they would risk the infliction of the death that had already been inflicted on Him. But Peter was entirely oblivious to all questions of policy, and beneath the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, spoke thus: "Rulers of the people and Elders, you question us about the deed done to this cripple and ask how he was made whole — we take this opportunity of saying publicly to you and to the whole nation that it was wrought through the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. It is in Him that this man stands before you whole. You builders rejected Him, but none the less is He the headstone of the comer. Neither is there salvation by any other."
I. THE RIVAL BUILDERS. — The reference to this rejected headstone recalls an ancient tradition woven into the structure of Psalm cxviii — the climax of the great national Hallel. We are told that when Solomon built his famous Temple, all the masonry was performed at a distance, so that there were neither hammers, axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the building during its erection. One day, in the earlier operations, a huge stone was delivered from the quarry, which bore evidence, in its unusual shape, that considerable care had been expended on it, but no one could suggest the precise place in the structure it was intended to fill. It was put aside as a misfit, and lay on the site unrecognized and useless. The winds blew over it scornfully, the birds chirped and perched on it irreverently, and most people forgot it. But when the building began to emerge above ground, and a corner or headstone was needed of a particular shape, in the builders' dilemma someone remembered the rejected stone, which, when it was placed in the gap, answered the need with perfect exactitude. The memory of this incident was, therefore, embalmed in the words: "The stone which the builders refused, the same is become the Headstone of the corner."
Isaiah also alludes to it: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious comer-stone, and a sure foundation, in which if a man believeth he shall not make haste." Our Lord also directly quoted it of Himself, when He clenched the moral of His Parable concerning the Wicked Husbandmen; and in after years the Apostles of the Gentiles referred to it in addressing the Ephesian Church: "Built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone."
The position accorded to that Corner-stone in the national structure was the real cause of divergence in the Assembly. Two ideals confronted each other. The one group of builders was composed of that brilliant and powerful body which comprised all that was most illustrious in the Hebrew Commonwealth. The other group was represented by those two simple "unlearned and ignorant " men. The former refused the Stone, and covered it with neglect. The other made it the keystone of the structure, which was beginning to arise, and has since spread through the world.
They said that they could do without it. They had no use for it. Then Peter remembered what his Master had said, that if a man refused it, he would fall on it and be broken; or that it would fall on him, as a dislodged rock might fall on a shepherd tending his flock beneath, and grind him to powder. Therefore he insisted that there was no salvation for men or nations apart from Christ.
Of course, his primary reference was to the healing of the impotent man, who stood there saved and whole before their eyes. But there was more in his thought. Was it not clear that Israel was the real cripple, after all? Beneath the rude Roman power the nation lay there bound, prostrate, and powerless. It was crippled morally and spiritually. The burning passion of prophets and psalmists had died down; and in its place were these warring sectarians. With profound insight that the Holy Spirit gave, Peter realized that they had cast aside the one divinely-given opportunity of rehabilitation and safety. If only the Jewish leaders and builders had been induced to acknowledge his Master and Lord, their national influence would have revived, and they would have become what God meant them to be, the religious leaders of mankind. There was no salvation in any other. We may apply this nationally, ecclesiastically, and individually.
Nationally. — If a nation refuses to build according to the great truths that Jesus taught, exemplified, and died for, it is not destined to permanence, but must pass as all the great empires of the world — Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman — have passed, and become as the dust of the summer threshing-floor. The only hope of salvation for the State is to be built foursquare with the Gospel of the Son of man. There is salvation of a permanent description in no other expedient.
Ecclesiastically. — The Church which substitutes doctrinal formularies, the pomp and splendour of high ritual, or priest-craft, learning, or wealth, for a vital contact with Jesus Christ, the living Saviour, may enjoy a temporary success of popularity; but it is not destined to endure. It will find itself unable to command or lead in the march of the human race. It will be left behind like some gigantic vestige of the Ice-Age in the congealed floes of the past. The only salvation for any Church is in Union with Jesus Christ. He is never stagnant, but ever the same, living for evermore, and leading on the Ages to their consummation in God, as All-in-All.
Individually. — We all build from our childhood. Who of us has not built with wooden bricks in winter, and sandcastles on the sea-shore in summer? When older we build businesses, stories, tragedies, poems, pictures, systems of philosophy, fortunes, or statesmanships. Too many build to the neglect of Christ. They can do without Him — so they say. They have no need, no use for Him. But they cannot continue. For a while they flourish and grow up, but the wind passeth over them and they are gone, and the place thereof knoweth them no more. But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. The life which is foursquare with Christ and at right angles with His teaching and example will shine as the stars for ever and ever; but those who reject or neglect Him are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
If one had a trumpet voice, one would cry, "Jesus Christ alone can save." By His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and Passion, by His glorious Resurrection and Ascension, He has thrown wide the Gates of Salvation. All who accept Him and enter into union with Him become as Mount Sion, that cannot be moved, but abideth for ever. Jesus is the Rock. He is the living stone! He gives eternal life and unchanging stability! Elsewhere you may get philosophy, moral integrity, virtue, but there is no other name given under heaven and among men whereby we must be saved.
II. THE IRREPRESSIBILITY OF THE CHRIST LIFE. — As the Sanhedrim listened to these words, and watched the two Apostles closely, they were irresistibly reminded of Jesus. They were animated by His Spirit, and spoke as He had done. They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Not only had they associated with and absorbed Him during the three happy years, which had now passed, but He was living in their hearts, and pouring through them the spirit of His own glorious existence as the Prince of Life.
When the court was cleared, with a view to private conference, they confessed to each other that they dared not permit these men to continue to preach and teach. They could not deny the miracle or disprove the Resurrection, but they must take thought for themselves. When the Apostles were recalled they were strictly charged not to speak further in the name of Jesus. Their judges would have been glad to punish them, but this would so enrage the people that it could not be entertained. So they further threatened them and let them go.
But they might equally have bidden the morning light not to spread, or the bursting life of spring to restrain itself, or the incoming tide to turn away back to its heart. These men could do no other than bear witness to the things that they had heard and seen. Even if they had resolved in their own hearts that they would speak no more in His Name, His words would have been as a fire shut up in their bones, and they would have been weary of forbearing and unable to restrain themselves. Is not this what the Apostle meant when he said, in answer to the remonstrances and arguments of his friends: "The Love of Christ constraineth us"? Oh that we knew more of these irresistible impulses, like steam generated in a boiler that must move machinery or shiver the containing vessel! Oh for this Divine passion, which like an overflowing stream catches hold of the logs, lying high up on the banks, and hurries them downwards to the ocean!
III. THE ATTESTATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. — They returned to their own company, who had doubtless spent the intervening hours in prayer. With what welcomes were they received! How intensely their narrative was listened to! Then what an outburst of adoration and prayer! Such a meeting could only be held subsequently in the torchlight of the catacombs, the recesses of Alpine caves, or on the moors of Scotland in the days of Claverhouse, when similar circumstances threw back the struggling Churches on the everlasting arms. There was no entreaty that God would stay the persecutor or save their lives. The sole request was that they might have power to give an unfaltering testimony, and that God would stretch out His hand to heal, so that wonders and signs might be wrought in the Name of Jesus. If only that dear Name could be magnified, extolled, and revered, they would be content to suffer to the extreme of human anguish! Let Jesus Christ be praised! Let Him see of the travail of His soul! Worthy was the Lamb that was slain to receive honour, and glory, and blessing!
Let victory be granted to the cause of the Divine Saviour!
Can we wonder at Heaven's response? The tremor of it shook the place, as before on the day of Pentecost. There was a second infilling of the Holy Spirit; not now for the hundred and twenty only, but for them all. The evidence of it was in the Divine Love, which prompted the sharing of their goods and secured the forging of a Divine unity of sentiment.
Peter must have been overwhelmed as he saw what had transpired. Well enough he knew that it was not because of his own power and holiness that such results had been secured. In the splendour of that hour the blemishes and failures of his past must have stood out in their native deformity and evil.
How could he have spoken and acted as he did? But how passing wonder had been the Lord's forbearing grace! What could he say, than to fall on his face, sobbing and confessing, "Not unto me, not unto me, but to Thy Name be all the glory. Thou hast redeemed and saved me. And Thou hast magnified Thy mercy above all Thy Name!"