The Captain of the Lord’s Host and the Missionary Campaign
The Missionary Review of the World The great command of Christ and the great commission of the Church are coupled with a promise than which there is no greater: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of the age.” Those four words, “I am with you,” are perhaps more frequently found in the Scriptures than any others, and, at every great crisis or turning point in the history of believers, from Abram to Paul. When the father of the faithful was called out from Charran; when Jacob left Bethel, when Isaac was going to Padan-aram, Moses to Pharaoh, Joshua against Midian, and Solomon was assuming the kingdom; when Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel were undertaking the prophetic office—this great Jehovah promise was their stay and strength. It was repeated to Paul the apostle, and was the consolation of Christ. In this particular case the promise takes a unique form, literally, I, with you, am. The pronoun and verb, which together form the mysterious name of Jehovah, are separated so as to take in between them the two words which concern the messenger whom He sends forth. As this is the only instance of such order and arrangement, we cannot think it an accident. It is as though God literally took the disciple who acts as His ambassador into His embrace, and stretched about him the everlasting arms of His presence. He says: “Be fearless and calm, for I with you am. I go before you as vanguard; I follow after you as rere-ward.” The Acts of the Apostles, which immediately follows the Gospel narratives, is the proof that the promise was literally fulfilled in apostolic times. Modern missionary history is a later exhibition of the fact of the continued presence on the field of the invisible Captain of the Lord’s host. This promise means three things: first, the personal presence of Jesus Christ, as Captain, with His missionary company; secondly, this presence continued to the full end of the age; and, thirdly, this presence affecting every day’s details; in other words, a divine providence over the whole work of missions, through the entire age of the gospel dispensation, and extending to every event of every day—apparent adversity and prosperity, disaster and success, all equally under control, and equally part of the working out of the promise. Christ in the Days of the Apostles
The book of the Acts shows how this promise was fulfilled, during the period of one generation. The history covers about as much time as the gospel record,—thirty-three and one-half years,—and records how, in that first generation after Christ’s ascension, He manifested and vindicated His faithfulness and truth. As disciples went out to preach, in Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth, from first to last He who sent them was with them. As these four words mark every great crisis, when Old Testament saints came to the parting of the ways, even so, when the Church comes to that new parting of the ways, which in itself embraces all the great steps, typified in the history of those old-time believers,—the Church going out, not knowing whither, into strange lands and unto strange peoples, against myriads of foes massed in great hosts,—when all these typical experiences of former days were comprised in one great experience of the new gospel age, the great promise is renewedly given, “I with you am.” In the Acts we see at least twelve proofs of Christ’s fidelity:— 1. There are four great pentecostal outpourings: among the Jews at Jerusalem, the Samaritans, the Romans in Cæsarea, and the Greeks at Ephesus. These are representative outpourings, given at the inception of work among these various peoples, to indicate that the bestowment of God’s Holy Spirit was equally for Jews, Samaritans, Romans, and Greeks—in other words, for the whole human race. 2. The sending forth of laborers, as when Christ called Saul of Tarsus by name, in the ninth chapter; and when Barnabas and Saul were called by name, in the thirteenth chapter, and sent forth by the Holy Spirit on the first great missionary tour. 3. The pre-adaptation of laborers for their work. Christ said of Saul, “He is a chosen vessel,” and He told him that he had been prepared for this work, as a vessel is prepared by the potter, whose hand molds the clay on the wheel for his purpose. Jesus Christ shows His presence in the work by fitting the laborers in advance, and often unconsciously to themselves, for the work unto which they are called. Then He gives direction to the workers, as when Paul147was forbidden to go into Bithynia, and called to Philippi by a vision of the man of Macedonia. 4. The Lord is also seen opening doors. When Saul and Barnabas returned from their first missionary journey, they gathered the church together at Antioch, and rehearsed how the Lord had opened the doors of faith to the Gentiles. They told the same story on their way to Jerusalem, and to the council there; never claiming that they opened a door by any skill, personal, social, or political. 5. Again the Lord gave courage in the hour of danger, as when the apostles, threatened with death by the Sanhedrin if they should continue to preach in His name, went to their own company, and, lifting up their voices with one accord, said, “Now, Lord, . . . grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal.” He exhibited His presence among them, and encouraged and emboldened them by shaking the place where they were together, and then by giving them great power both over the souls and over the bodies of men. 6. When Stephen came to the hour of martyrdom, he was permitted to look up and see Jesus Christ “standing.” Why standing? He is represented as having taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God, after having ascended up on high; but Stephen saw Him standing as his advocate and defender, as if He was so aroused by what was going on on earth that He had risen from off the seat of power, and stood there by the throne of God specially to encourage that first martyr. 7. All through the Acts we perpetually have answered prayer. Ten days of supplication, and Pentecost; Peter’s prayer on the housetop, and a vision of the sheet let down; prayer by the Church for Peter in prison, and his marvelous deliverance; Paul’s prayer, and a vision at Corinth. Over and over again all through this wonderful history Jesus Christ appears in answer to prayer, in some cases personally, as to Paul in Corinth: “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” 8. Jesus manifests His presence in the ingathering of converts. Three thousand on the day of Pentecost; shortly after, the men were about five thousand; then a great multitude of priests obedient to the faith; and so convert after convert, the most conspicuous being Saul of Tarsus himself turned to the Lord by the literal presence and appearance of Jesus Christ. 9. Marked deliverances manifested Christ as present with His Church, such as that remarkable deliverance of the apostles from prison when the angel of the Lord opened the doors, and said, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life;” and Peter’s rescue from four quaternions of soldiers, when his chains fell off, and the iron gate opened before him of its own accord; and Paul’s salvation from shipwreck, with all that sailed with him, after another appearance of God to him. 10. In some cases judgment manifested Christ’s presence. Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead, and Peter expressly says, “Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” He felt himself only a representative of the Master. Then, in the twelfth chapter, there was a great manifestation of judgment, when Herod, who had destroyed James and was proposing to behead Peter, glorified himself and not God, and was immediately eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. So, also, Elymas, the sorcerer, was struck blind for attempting to mislead and pervert the Roman deputy. 11. General signs and wonders were wrought by Jesus Christ. For example, the remarkable story, in the nineteenth chapter, of the magicians of Ephesus so wrought upon by the word of God that they brought their books, containing their incantations and magical formulas, by which they imposed upon the credulity of the people, and then burned them in the presence of all men. The price of those books was probably about ten thousand dollars; an immense fortune in those days, one Roman penny being the hire for a day’s labor. No wonder the writer of the Acts says, “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” 12. Christ showed His presence in the daily administration of affairs in His Church. For example, notice His individual care over converts. A eunuch is going down to Ethiopia. An angel is brought on the scene, with the Spirit of God and the evangelist Philip, all co-operating to bring one inquiring soul to God. In the next chapter Christ appears to Saul of Tarsus, and converts the archpersecutor. In the tenth chapter an angel and the Spirit of God deal with Cornelius and with Peter, heaven and earth combining under the leadership of Jesus Christ to bring one individual soul to the knowledge of salvation. Thus the whole twenty-eight chapters of the Acts record Christ’s manifold fulfillment of His promise: “Lo, I am with you.”