CHRIST STILL WORKS BY R. E. NEIGHBOUR

The Baptism in the Holy Ghost or Before and After Pentecost

An Exegesis of Acts 1 and 2

by

R. E. Neighbour, D.D.

© 1930 by Union Gospel Press. Database © 2010 WORDsearch Corp.

To my beloved brother, W. B. Musselman of the Union Gospel Press and to His God-Given Staff who have made possible the publication of my Books and Booklets, this Book is Most Affectionately Dedicated.

The Baptism in the Holy Ghost: Or Before and After Pentecost.

Chapter II.
Christ Still Works

"The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.
"Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen" (Acts 1:1, 2).

At the close of the gracious greeting to Theophilus, in which the inspired writer speaks of his former treatise (the Gospel of Luke), we have these striking words: "Of all that Jesus began both to do and teach". The inference is very plain: The Gospel of Luke records only the beginning of both the teachings and doings of Jesus Christ; the Book of Acts continues, but does not complete either His teachings or His doings.
The direct teachings of Christ were completed with the last inspired word of John's Revelation; the doings of Christ are not yet completed.
How refreshing is this statement: "Of all that Jesus began both to do and teach". How true is the implication: Christ still works.

I. Christ Is Not Dead, He Still Lives

The Lord Jesus lived and walked and wrought among men for the space of thirty-three years. He died in ignominy and shame, being crucified between two thieves. With his last breath all hope that He should have redeemed Israel died out of the hearts of the disciples. They once had strong hope that their great Master was the Messiah who would lead the Children of Israel out from under the Roman yoke. However when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took down the body of Christ from the Cross, and laid it away, their sky of hope became black with the clouds of despair.
A dead man ceases to work. His voice is no longer heard among men; his hands are folded "at rest," his labors are over. He may live in the lives and deeds of his successors who caught from him their inspiration, but that is not the dead at work.
1. Why Then Did the Holy Spirit Bear Witness through Luke That the Christ Taught and Wrought until the Day That He Was Taken Up? Let me quote the words of Acts 1:1-3.

"The former treatise have I made; O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God".

Now, let us read these verses again and put the emphasis on the expression, "Until the day in which He was taken up".
From this reading one supposes that death in no way ended the teachings or the doings of Christ. He died but He continued to teach and to toil. How could this be? The answer is plain—it is because "He shewed Himself alive after His passion".
The earth phase of the Lord's teaching and toiling in behalf of men and among men did not cease, as the work of all others has ceased, with death. He wrought in a special and definite sense "until the day in which He was taken up".
According to this the Holy Spirit bears witness that the death of Christ did not end His earth functionings. From the cradle to the tomb, are the boundaries God places over human activities. However Luke places the boundaries of the beginnings of the activities of this particular Person, the Son of God, from the cradle to the ascension.
Had death concluded the earth ministrations of Jesus Christ, had He remained entombed and held by death as all others have been held, we had never known the Church—Christianity had never been born.
It was what Jesus taught and did after His resurrection that led on to the story of the Acts of the Apostles.
There are a few things worth tabulating.
(1) It Was After His Resurrection That Christ Breathed upon Them and Said, Receive Ye the Holy Ghost.
(2) It Was After His Resurrection That Christ Wrought Many Signs before His Disciples Which Are Not Written in the Book of Books.
(3) It Was After His Resurrection That Christ Showed Himself Alive with Many Infallible Proofs.
(4) It Was After His Resurrection That Christ Taught the Disciples Many Things Pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
(5) It Was After His Resurrection That Christ Commanded His Disciples to Tarry in Jerusalem and Await the Promise of the Father.
(6) It Was After His Resurrection That Christ Gave Commandment to the Disciples to Go into All the World and Disciple the Nations.
(7) It Was After His Resurrection That Christ Gave Promise of Power to His Disciples.
Surely with the wide scope of meaning hidden in these seven statements, the Spirit was right when He wrote "until the day in which He was taken up".
What is the deeper meaning of all of this to us?

1. It means that Christ was distinct from all other men in the boundaries of His earth term of service.
2. It means that death in the case of Christ by no means closed His personal walk among men.
3. It means that "things Jesus taught and did" in a most vital and enlarged way, went on after His decease.
4. It means that when Christ removed His bodily Presence from personal contact with men, He went away alive and not dead.
5. It means that a dignity and a glory is placed upon the "empty tomb" of Christ which naught can erase.
6. It means that the post-mortem activities of Christ became the great source of the future life and activities of His Church.

How wonderful it all was! Jesus Christ loosed from the pangs of death; Jesus Christ alive and moving among His own; Jesus Christ teaching many things, and opening up the vista of the coming call of His Church; Jesus Christ strengthening and comforting His own.
In all of this there is a wonderfully invigorating message for the Church of all time. Christ is still saying to the Churches, "These things saith the First and the Last, He that was dead and is alive".
Let not our parting glimpse of Christ be at the tomb of Joseph where His body was laid. Let His last words be not those of the Cross. Let us pass with Him into those days beyond His passion, where He showed Himself alive. Let us catch the inspiration of His final words and works after His death and before He ascended up to the Father's right hand.

"Until the day in which He was taken up" adds new luster to His last command, "Lo, I am with you". It is not a dead Christ, but a gloriously living and victorious Christ, clothed with all authority and power, who says, "Go," and, "Lo, I am with you".

"Until the day in which He was taken up" adds new luster and glory to His own Divine Personage. Jesus Christ was not mere man, He was very God. His words and works "after His passion," proclaim Him Son of God; they put the crown of Deity upon His brow; they substantiate all He ever claimed as being one with the Father.

"Until the day in which He was taken up" adds new meaning to many words He spoke before His passion. Let us read once more the things He spoke before His death, under the shining light of what He said and did after His death.

How lifeless, how void of meaning would His statement, "I am the Resurrection and the Life" have been if Christ had not shown Himself alive after His passion.
How utterly useless would have been His words, "I am the Light of the world," had Christ not shown Himself alive with many infallible proofs.
How hopelessly impotent would have been the words, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life," had Jesus Christ, after His passion, never been seen of His disciples during the forty days after His death and resurrection.
How meaningless had been the words, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting" on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven", had the Lord Jesus never left the tomb and never taught many things about the Kingdom of God after His passion.
Thank God that Luke, the one, who, through the Spirit, wrote so faithfully and so convincingly of the Virgin Birth of Christ, now writes through the same Spirit so wonderfully of the forty days following Christ's passion, in which Jesus our Saviour continued to do and to teach many things.

II. Christ Is Not Dead, He Still Works

We wish now to emphasize the word began. Let us again quote verse 1. "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach".
The beginning of the doing and teaching of Christ, as we have already showed, ended when He was taken up into Heaven—His completed doing and teaching did not end there. We now come to the very heart of our message for to-day.
Christ Still Works. When He ascended up on high He had only begun His Word and work; after he was taken up, He continued what He had begun.
1. He still works because He is still alive. The question asked the weeping women who came to the tomb on the first day of the week, was, "Why seek ye the living among the dead"? Then the angel said, "He is not here, but is risen".
To John on the Isle of Patmos, Christ said, "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore".

2. He still works because He is still vitally connected with the things wrought down here. Jesus is with the Father. He has passed into the heavens. He is seated on the Father's throne. Yet, withal, His personal contact with things on earth has in no wise ceased.
When Stephen was stoned, he saw Heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God. This assures us of Christ's personal concern in the earth testimonies of His saints.
When Saul of Tarsus went on his way to Damascus with letters of authority, He was stopped by the Lord, who said unto him, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest". Thus again Christ demonstrated His concern and His contact with the saints who served Him on earth. Their sufferings were His.
The Lord Jesus is personally in touch with the ones who work His will among men.

3. He still works because He is personally represented on earth and among His saints by the Holy Spirit. Just as Christ on earth did the works of the Father, spoke the words of the Father, and wrought the will of the Father, so the Holy Spirit does His will, works His works and speaks His words.
Christ ere He went away said, "All authority is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth. Go, * * and, lo, I am with you". This authority, this power is vested in the Holy Spirit, and we receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon us.

4. He still works, because He works in and through His saints. This is no far-fetched statement. Where is the Christian worker who has not felt the presence of his Lord with Him? Christ said, "Without Me ye can do nothing". We have all learned the truth of these words. Paul wrote, "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day". He also wrote "There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve".
We have more than "good wishes," more than the "sympathy" of Christ in our work, we have Him. His bodily absence from us, in no wise hinders His actual Presence with us. The truth is that His absence increases His blessing on our work. He plainly said, "It is expedient for you that I go away". He said, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you".
We remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto My Father".
Christ wrought with all power when on earth, but He works in a far larger way, and in a far wider sphere through His disciples, now, than He wrought then.
Luke's contention is true. The words and the ministry of Christ until the day that He was taken up, were only the words and the work that "He began, both to say and to do".
Concerning the words continuing, we can only bear witness that He still spoke after He had gone away. He Himself had said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now". Perhaps many of these "many things," He said after His resurrection, during the forty days, but many more He said through the various Epistles of Paul, and Peter and James and Jude and John.
Concerning His works continuing, we can only bear witness that He still works unto this hour. His promise of His continued Presence and power was unto the end of the age. Thank God, He is still the life, the light and the power of every true service in the Gospel.
If some one would urge that the Lord does not Himself personally work, that the Spirit is the One who is here and who does the work; we reply that Christ wrought when on earth through the Spirit as truly as He now works through the Spirit. He was begotten in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit; He was anointed of the Spirit at His baptism; He was filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit and in the Holy Spirit He went about doing good. The words we are now considering in Acts 1:1-3 assert that Christ on the day He was taken up gave commandments unto the Apostles by the Holy Ghost.
Not only did Christ know the Spirit's Presence in all of His word and work, but He taught definitely that the Spirit would come upon His saints to panoply them for their work. This we will consider in our next address.
Just now we assert that Christ still works. He is not dead but liveth. He is not cut off from His saints but indissolubly joined to them. The Church is one body at work, and Christ is the living, directing Head of that body.

III. A Word of Final Encouragement

If the Church had been sent forth to do a work for Christ, it might well have despaired. However, the Church sent forth to do a work with Christ, may well take heart.
Disassociated from our Living Head, we fail; associated, we succeed. Alone we can do nothing; with Him who strengtheneth us, we can do all things.
Years ago, when but a youth, plodding our way along in the work of our Lord, we almost despaired. We were at the end of our row. We had emptied our barrel, and preached every sermon we possessed. We had told all we knew, and doubtless some things we did not know. When we were about to desert the special revival services we were conducting, because we had "run dry," the pastor encouraged our hearts. He told us that God still lived. That the Lord would stand by us and teach us what we should say. For three more weeks we preached on, night after night, with increasing power and blessing from on high. From that day unto this we have sought to live in the consciousness of His abiding Presence. We have sought to work in the power of His might.
In this statement of Acts 1:1-3 the Church has every reason for encouragement. Why? Because Jesus Christ even until the day that He was taken up, had only begun to do and teach. It is He who still works.
Our work is His in a real and a blessed way.
He still says, "Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men".
He still says, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you".

The Baptism in the Holy Ghost: Or Before and After Pentecost.