In the last chapter we have covered six principles of meeting from the last chapters of the Gospels and the opening chapters of the book of Acts. Now we will consider another eight principles. From all the instances of the Lord Jesus meeting with His disciples after His resurrection we can see fourteen principles regarding the matter of meeting.
We must realize that after the Lord’s resurrection, including the time of Pentecost, the record we have is that of the Lord Jesus continually meeting with His disciples. Have you realized that when the Lord was resurrected His disciples were immediately requested to meet together? In other words, after the resurrection, the disciples immediately became a meeting people. When we read Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20 and 21, and Acts 1 and 2, we see that the disciples did nothing but meet. I do believe they met every day. They resigned their jobs, they surrendered their homes, they gave up everything for meeting. From the morning of the resurrection day the Lord began to meet with them, not only with a good number in one place, but also with one or two. In the morning of the resurrection day He met firstly with Mary (John 20:14-18), then with a few sisters (Matt. 28:8-10; Luke 24:9-11); in the afternoon He met with two brothers (Luke 24:13-31); then in the evening He came and met with all His disciples (John 20:19-23; Luke 24:36-49). From that day either the Lord made His presence manifest or He hid Himself. But the disciples continually came together. Meeting together became their life, their business, their occupation. They were a meeting people.
In the past years, Christians have paid much attention to the stories of the Lord’s resurrection, but they have neither apprehended the principles of meeting nor applied these principles to today’s Christian meetings. Now the Lord has opened our eyes and shown us in all these stories many principles of how to meet. Therefore, we must apply all these to our present meetings. We need to have them wrought into our beings. Whatever we are, wherever we go, we must apply them, forgetting the old way of Christianity. We do need the Lord’s deliverance from all the old ways of meeting.
I have mentioned already that Peter and John with all the other disciples in the early days, though they had seen and met with the Lord in His resurrection, automatically continued to frequent the temple. Why did they do this? Because they were used to it, they were accustomed to going to the temple. We cannot find a word in the New Testament telling Peter and John that they should do so. In principle the Lord Jesus told them, “Go to Galilee; I will meet you there.” And, “Go to the mountain; I will meet you there.” The Lord Jesus never told them to go to the temple. Doing this, however, was in their blood. Today it is the same. We do have some temples today—the old way of Christian “services.” I do not like to hear this word “service” applied to our meeting—“We are going to the Sunday service.” This use of the word “service” spoils the real meaning of the word. Service in its spiritual meaning refers to serving the Lord. Do you believe that in today’s Christianity there is some real service rendered to the Lord on Sunday mornings? We all must come out of that old religion and leave everything associated with it. I am afraid that some have come out, but are still wearing the old religious cloak. We need to not only come out from it, but leave all its trappings. Take them off and throw them away. We need to meet in an up-to-date and absolutely new way.
The new way of meeting is fully revealed in all the records of the Lord Jesus meeting with His disciples. After His resurrection, He came back again and again to meet with them, and in the record of these occasions we see Him setting up the principles of meeting. By His examples we have the principles. We have seen six of these; now let us consider the seventh.