"They took knowledge of them, that they had been
with Jesus.. Being let go, they went to their own
company.... And when they had prayed, the place
was shaken where they were assembled together;
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and
they spake the word of God with boldness.”
Acts 4:13, 23, 31.
In verse 13, where "they [the religious leaders] took knowledge of them, that they [Peter and John] had been with Jesus," it also says that they "perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men." Those who were thus passing judgment on them were the learned, the educated, the intelligent class of men. They had before them for judgment Peter and John, two men of very limited education, who, I suppose, knew a great deal more about fishing and mending nets than they did about the classics. They saw that Peter and John were unlearned and ignorant, and they despised their lack of knowledge. Nothing that these two might say would have any weight from the viewpoint of their intellectual standing in this world.
There was something beyond intelligence and learning about those two men that impressed itself on their audience, so an explanation was sought. How is it that two unlearned and ignorant men dare with Jesus and Their Own Company face us to contend for their cause, and are not the least intimidated by what we put before them? Then they began to weigh the evidence, and there was just one explanation for it: "They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
If you are seeking power, if you are seeking a place in this world, let me tell you that there is a kind of power and place that you can have in this world, that you will have to get through other channels than human intelligence, or education, or schools. This kind of power that I refer to baffles the most intelligent and the most educated unbeliever. It is transmitted in the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a blessing it is! "They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
Pressure was laid on them by every means, as we learn, to stop their mouths, but the fact that they had been with Jesus made them undaunted, and they left the presence of those men to go right back to serving the Lord as they had been doing previously.
They Went to Their Own Company
I suppose that each one of you has friends and those whose association you enjoy. If you are a Christian, if you have been brought to Jesus, if you are one who is called by His Name, I wonder if you have yet found your joy in associating with those that love that same Name! Supposing that you were to be let go, that is, if you were given your own will and had some leisure time, where would you go?
I heard a statement the other day to the effect that "what a man is, is what he does in his leisure time,” and I think that there is something in that. We might say that you are putting in eight hours a day as a carpenter and someone asks you what you are. You will answer that you are a carpenter. Is that true? That is what you work at as a means of livelihood in this world. Yes, you are a carpenter, but that does not tell what the man is. In the evening, after your work is done, after you have discharged your responsibility for providing for your own—a responsibility that rests with each one of us and we cannot escape it—what are your interests then? What is your real life? For that is what tells the story "Being let go, they went to their own company.”
What has the strongest grip on you while you are following your vocation, whether in an office, at school, or household duties? Is it the interests of God, the interests that pertain to the things of Christ in this world? Or is it some worldly ambition or interest that you are occupied with? It is astonishing what trivial things Satan can put before us to rob our souls of our privilege in Christ! I am often very much surprised at my own heart, what a vain and empty thing can get and hold my interest, until I wake up to the fact that what I have been occupied with might have been something far more rich and profitable to my soul. "Being let go, they went to their own company.”
A good criterion by which to learn something of the status of our souls is to notice whether we love the association of God's people, and whether we love the companionship of other Christians who are ready to speak about Christ. It is a good sign if we do, and it is a bad sign if we do not.
In John 13 where the Lord Jesus is just about to leave for heaven, there is a very sweet word: "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." Could you get anything more personal than that word "His own"? If you possess something that you value very highly, you call it your own. What must the Lord Jesus have thought of that little group there when He said, "Having loved His own which were in the world"! What a choice place that is! Is not that an association worthy of your richest desires, to be in company with those whom the blessed Savior calls Mine? He looks down from heaven and has His eye upon you, and He is saying in His heart, "My own," so should not we choose for association those who love our Lord Jesus?
A Threefold Secret
Notice in Acts 4:31 the three things that will help us in our learning to be with Jesus. That verse gives us a threefold secret of being with Jesus.
1. "When they had prayed.”
2. “Spake the word of God.”
3. “Where they were assembled together.”
In them we have the secret of all wholesome growth in the things of God. We also have the explanation of the sad fact that many of us do not make a wholesome growth, that we are dwarfed and emaciated in our spiritual life.
Prayer
Have you learned to pray? I don't know that any of us would say we have done so, because we all make such bungles in these matters, but it does no harm to search our hearts with the question, "Do we pray?" What I mean is this: Do we definitely engage God each day with a request of which we feel a burden on our own heart? Do we know what it is to have dealings with God about our lives? I believe there are many Christians who are living a prayerless life. Do we get off alone with God and pour out our heart before Him in actual supplication and request with thanksgiving? That is the important thing and it is one of the secrets of going on with God.
The Word of God
Do you know what it is to have a Bible of your very own, or does the family Bible do for you? Do you read your own Bible to gather a portion for your soul at your own time? Has the Word of God a place in your life? This is one means that the Holy Spirit is pleased to use to keep us going on in communion with God.
Assembled Together
You know what it is to enjoy the meetings of God's people, but we would prize them more if we felt that everything else is secondary. There may be occasions to keep us away from a meeting, but if there is such, it should be a real occasion. A dear, godly old brother was feeling ill one night, and someone remarked to him about going to the meeting. "Well," he said, "my heart is there, so I guess the poor body will follow!" He went to the meeting.
That is the kind of spirit that God can bless, to be with God's people and give it the first place. "Where they were assembled together." What a place that has in Scripture. And it is largely a matter of cultivating an appetite for those things—a matter of habit, though I don't like that word. Therefore, form the habit while still young in your Christian life, so that when there is a meeting, you are going to be there and you will be blessed for it, unless you have a definite word from the Lord that He does not want you to go.
We each can make a lot of excuses for missing a meeting. If you want to keep happy in the Lord and go on in the truth, take advantage of the meeting together of God's people. Form the habit! Do not even raise the question if you should go or not, but leave that question entirely out. Take it for granted that you are going. There are some people who miss a meeting, and no one ever knows it. There are other people who miss a meeting, and the next time we see them we inquire why they were not there. They can always give an answer. Isn't it a sad situation when someone can stay away for quite a while and no one ever says a word about it? In such a case they take it for granted that such a person does not come regularly, and for that reason is not expected. But if it is evidenced that our desire is to be with God's people, they desire that we be there.
What a blessing it would be to all Christians if those three things were of primary importance in their lives: prayer, the Word of God, and the assembling together with God's people. Very soon people would begin to take knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. They would find a real blessing in the joy of being with their own company—those that are dear to our Lord—and having the sense in their souls that they are seeking to please the One that brought them to Himself. What is there to be compared with Him? What is there to be compared with walking under the eye of God, with the approbation of Christ in a world like this? May the blessed God enable us all to do this with purpose of heart.