THE DISCIPLES IN THE UPPER ROOM.
Acts 1: 13, 14
“Orphan Sunday:
Sermon by:
Rev. C. Pronk
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(re issued May 2006)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 347: 1, 2, 3
Law of God
Psalter 334: 1, 4
Scripture Reading: Acts 1: 10 – 26
Text: Acts 1: 13, 14
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 140: 1, 3
Sermon
Psalter 369: 1, 3
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 239: 1, 2
Doxology: Psalter 315
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Beloved Congregation,
Before Christ ascended into heaven He commanded His disciples : “but tarry ye
in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high”. And they obeyed
this final command of their Lord. This was not easy. Their Master went up to heaven to
enter the Jerusalem above which is free. But they had to return to the Jerusalem that is in
bondage with her children, to the city that had rejected the Messiah and where the Lord
of glory had been killed.
Yet they returned, as Luke says, with great joy. And when they arrive in the city
they do not each go their own way, but they stay together as one family. They gather in
an upper room, Luke says. Which upper room this was, we do not know. Perhaps the one
belonging to Mary the mother of John Mark, or else the one where they celebrated the
Lord’s Supper with Christ. In any case, all the disciples of Jesus come together there to
wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Let us take a closer look at this little flock of Christ as they are gathered.
THE DISCIPLES IN THE UPPER ROOM. We see them in
1. their diversity.
2. their unity.
Who were all gathered in that upper room after the ascension of Christ? Luke
gives us the list of names. According to the roll call there were Peter and James and
Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and
Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
So the eleven disciples were there. They are the apostles of Christ. Or, to use a
military expression – the joint chiefs of staff of King Jesus.
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This is not the first time a list of the disciples’ names is given. We can find
similar lists in Luke 6, Matthew 10 and Mark 3. What is the reason for listing them again
in this chapter – for the fourth time? Well, first of all to point up the blessed fact that
none of the disciples have been lost except Judas the son of perdition.
When the Shepherd was taken prisoner in the Garden of Gethsemane His sheep were
scattered all over Jerusalem. It looked as if Satan had triumphed, not only over Christ, but
over His church as well. But now after the mighty victory of Christ over His arch-enemy
we find all the disciples gathered into one place. The petition of the High-priestly prayer
has come true – “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom Thou hast given
Me, that they may be one, as We are”.
Yet there is also a second reason why Luke mentions the names of the disciples.
If you compare this list with the one given in Luke 6 you will notice that the Evangelist
has not just copied what he had written there. In his Gospel, Luke places the names of
Simon and Andrew beside each other. But here in Acts he puts Peter and James together,
while he places Andrew beside John. Why this change? Well, as you remember, Peter
and Andrew were brothers after the flesh, and so were John and James. But here in Acts
we witness a re-grouping, no longer according to blood ties, but spiritual ties.
When Jesus called His disciples, they left their social calling and followed Him.
But even though they entered a spiritual community they at first still grouped themselves
according to blood ties or ties of friendship. But the more they got to know one another, a
re-grouping took place. Each felt himself drawn to the other according to spiritual
qualities and character traits.
In the church of Jesus Christ this is still the case. There is a relationship among
members of Christ’s Body that is deeper and stronger than that resulting from earthly ties.
The communion of saints is of a unique character.
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The first disciple named is Peter. We all know him, the bold, impetuous one who
could never sit still or keep his mouth shut. We all like him for his genuineness and
honesty. Peter could never hide his feelings. You could read his thoughts. His love for
Jesus was intense. Yet in many ways he lacked depth. His love needed purification.
And this came by his fall. His denial of Christ had this blessed result that he finally came
to know himself. And when Christ forgave him and restored him to his apostleship, a
different and more reliable Peter was born. A pillar of the Church he would be.
After Peter, James is mentioned. He is the son of Zebedee. His brother is John.
James is a Boanerges, a son of thunder. Once he prayed for fire from heaven to devour
the Samaritans, so that Christ had to say: “you know not what manner of spirit you are”.
So James was a hot tempered man too, just like Peter. The two make a good pair.
Then there is John. He too is a Boanerges. But John’s heart was soon broken by
the love of Jesus. He is the disciple of whom it is expressly remarked that Jesus loved
him. He had a favourite place in the bosom of the Lord. Read his Gospel and his letters
and you will see why he is called the apostle of love whose favourite saying was: “little
children, love one another”.
Andrew is next on the list. He is Peter’s brother and had brought Peter to Jesus.
He stands in the background, yet he too is an apostle of Jesus Christ.
And there is Philip who brought Nathaniel to Christ. He is the man who asked:
“Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us”. To which question Jesus replied: “Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father.”
Thomas is present too. He is the quiet, melancholic type. When Jesus said that
He wanted to go to Jerusalem , it was Thomas who said pessimistically: “Let us go up
also that we die with Him.” After Christ’s death he saw no hope anywhere. He shuns the
Company of his fellow disciples. Until the Lord appears to him – then he says in
adoration: “My Lord and my God.”
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Bartholomew is there also. He is the Israelite in whom is no guile.
Matthew’s name is next. His other name is Levi. He is the one Jesus called out
of the tax office. He, the publican, was called by the Lord of glory. But this Jesus had a
reputation of receiving publicans and sinners and eating with them. Is it any wonder that
Matthew, or Levi, loved Jesus intensely?
There are yet three more disciples. James the younger – the man who wrote the
epistle of that name. He is the activist whose life principle is: faith without works is a
dead faith.
Then there is Simon Zelotes – a man full of zeal, but tempered with wisdom.
Judas, the brother of James is there. His other name is Lebbaeus, which means
the man of the heart. He also wrote an epistle.
These then are the eleven apostles, the witnesses of Christ and soon all of them
will be martyred and be heroes of the faith.
But there were other people present as well. Luke mentions that there were
women too. They were also Jesus’ disciples. They had taken care of the Lord, providing
Him with clothes and other necessities of life. One of these women is mentioned by
name. It is Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is the one whom the angel called blessed
among women. No, this does not mean that she was without sin, as Rome teaches. She is
here in the upper room in the name of her Son Who yet was her Saviour and Lord.
The blood tie was no longer dominant as it had been at first. She had learned the meaning
of what Jesus had said once: “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in
heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother”.
And finally, there are also the brothers of the Lord. What a blessing that they are
there too. For in the Gospel’s we read that Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him.
But evidently they had been converted. And now they are with the disciples, gathered
together in the upper room.
Many more unnamed disciples are present. More and more came in until finally
one hundred and twenty of the faithful could sing:
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How pleasant and how good it is
When brethren in the Lord
In one another’s joy delight
And dwell in sweet accord.
II. Yes, that could be said of this little congregation in the upper room. They dwelt there
in sweet accord. As our text says: “these all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication”.
I read once that old Rev. Gispen, well-known in the Netherlands, said in a
sermon on this text: the biggest miracle here was that one hundred and twenty Jews could
be together in harmony. But apart from the fact that they were Jews it was a great
blessing that they were so united in mind and heart. Often when believers come together
there arise differences of opinion, differences of insight. We have that too, let us be
honest. And too often we concentrate more on what divides than on what unites us.
These one hundred and twenty disciples were all different too. Not only were
they different in character and personality, but no doubt the Lord had led them in varying
ways too. Yet, in spite of these differences, they were one in faith, hope and love. And
what was it really that bound them together – the fellowship with the risen and ascended
Lord. Yes, and also the promise of the Lord that He would send them His Spirit.
This Sunday is often called the orphan Sunday. It is the Sunday between
Ascension and Pentecost. During the ten days between those two great events the Church
lived in a sense alone – without Christ. Sure, there was the promise: “I will not leave you
comfortless” or as the Dutch State-Bible translates it accurately: “I will not leave you
orphants.”
So for a little while they would be orphans, alone in the world. And the one
hundred and twenty disciples felt this too. They missed Him Whom their soul loved.
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And it was this lack, this want that united them together. There are many things that can
bring people together: class, social standing, money, culture – they are all things that
unite people according to the proverb “Birds of a feather flock together”.
But not only do possessions bring people together. Also the lack of them often
proves to be uniting force. Poor people stick together too; they form a class of have
“nots” over against the “haves”. And this is true in spiritual life too. Spiritual poverty is
also such a blessed tie that binds. Here in the upper room are one hundred and twenty
poor in spirit who earnestly long to be filled with the Spirit. What an enviable position to
be in – their hearts have been made receptive. Therefore they will soon be filled with the
goodness of God’s house. The Spirit of the Lord will make the ploughed furrows soft
with showers.
This is what we all need congregation, receptive hearts, i.e. hearts prepared for
the coming of the Holy Spirit. Do we have such hearts today? Is there a dependance on
the Lord? A longing for His communion, an expecting of His grace and mercy?
Those things are so pleasant in God’s sight. No, what the Church needs today is not first
of all learned people, large numbers, or imposing buildings; but poor people, humble
souls, empty, needy sinners who cannot find any ground for comfort in themselves, but
who raise eyes and hearts to heaven, hoping in God’s salvation and living out of and on
the promise of the Father.
And beloved, that kind of people, even if they belong to different denominations,
enjoy each other’s company. They like to be together because they are led by one and the
same Spirit.
In the upper room was such a group too. With one accord they continued in
prayer and supplication. But someone may say: weren’t the disciples supposed to be the
salt of the earth, a city set on a hill? But by staying in the upper room they are hiding
their light under a bushel. Hadn’t Jesus said: “Go ye therefore, baptizing all nations and
teaching them”? Yes, that is true, but Jesus had also said something else.
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In John 10 e.g. He says: ”I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and
shall go in and out, and find pasture”. So first we have to go in, then go out. First praying,
then working. First in the upper room, then in the market place.
This principle is often overlooked. The activists in religion are constantly talking
about going out to reach the world for Christ. But they are in great danger of becoming
superficial. Many, it seems to me, are trying to work for God, before they are prepared by
God. When Jesus said: “Go ye into all the world and preach to every creature” Peter
probably leaped to his feet, ready to start running. But then Jesus said: “Peter, come
back, and tarry in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high”.
Peter had to go in before going out. And so do we all. We first have to go in to the upper
room until we be endued with power from on high.
On the other hand, there are people, and I’m afraid many of us belong to that
class who know all about going in but forget what it means to go out.
What we need is to do both. First a time of preparation in the Upper room, then a
time of witnessing in our environment. First prayer and supplication, then activity in
God’s kingdom. That is what made a Luther the great Reformer that he was – first a long
period of meditation in the monastery – then a lifelong labour in God’s vineyard.
Moses spent forty years in the desert with his sheep to be trained for his life’s
work as leader of Israel. Paul, after his conversion spent some time in Arabia as
preparation for his great task.
And here one hundred and twenty disciples spend ten days in the upper room,
waiting for the Holy Spirit. It was no passive waiting, but a waiting spent in prayer and
supplication. It was earnest, heartfelt prayer that went up to heaven during those ten days.
They all knew it: we have not deserved this promise of the Father; not only Peter, but all
of them had sinned away this blessing. Hadn’t they all fled when the Shepherd was
taken? So if the promised Spirit would come, it would be grace, free grace.
And not only were they praying with one accord, but they continued in this.
If prayer is already so difficult, what about keeping it up? No, it is not so hard to fold our
hands and close our eyes, and to bend our knees. Anybody can do that. But to lift up our
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souls unto God – who can do this without the Holy Spirit? No one. Such a prayer is
possible only by the Spirit of prayer and supplication. Have you learned to pray this way
yet, beloved?
Without the Spirit our prayers do not go beyond the ceiling. Why? Because the prayers
We send up are selfish prayers. Even our prayers for conversion, how often the motive is
only to escape hell? We would like to go on living the way we do, but we know full well
that such a life ends in perdition. So we pray, Lord save me!
Is it then wrong to pray for deliverance from hell? No, beloved! The Lord
Himself says: “Israel, turn to me, for why should you die.” Yet, although we may begin
to pray like that, we should learn to seek salvation because of what God is in Himself –
the all-blessed Fountain of life, the God we have offended by our sin.
The disciples in the upper room prayed like that. They wanted God and His
communion; His fellowship was dearer to them than life itself. Here we can test
ourselves. Is it God we want or something that God gives? Is it the Giver or His Gift we
are after?
The disciples prayed for a gift, that is true, but this gift was God Himself – His
Holy Spirit or the presence of Christ. And they had no other pleading ground for their
prayer than the promise given them by Jesus.
Here we also see how faith is tried. They received the promise of the Holy Spirit,
but for the fulfillment of that promise they had to wait ten days. This is how the Lord
works. He gives us a waiting period so that we learn to desire the fulfillment of His
promises that much more. God fulfils His promises only in the lives of those hearts have
been prepared to receive them.
Do we have such hearts? As we saw earlier, that is a heart that has been made
empty and poor. The sinner knows then that he does not deserve anything, and yet …
Yet He asks for everything, namely God Triune.
Maybe you ask, if God has promised to send His blessing, in this case the Holy
Spirit, why was it necessary that the disciples had to be in prayer and supplication?
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Whatever God promises He fulfils, doesn’t He? Yes, but only in the way of prayer. Our
Heidelberg Catechism says it so beautifully: “God will give His grace and Holy Spirit to
those only who with hearty sighing unceasingly beg them of Him and thank Him for
them.”
So God gives His Spirit to those who pray Him for it. But such prayer is already
a work of the Spirit, which proves that such prayers and sighers have Him already.
But why pray then for something you already have? See congregation, this is
now the way God works. Wherever the Holy Spirit begins His work, the first thing a
sinner experiences is that he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit. Such an awareness of want or
lack produces true prayer for the gift of the Spirit. So the awareness of our poverty and
lack is the first fruit of the Holy Spirit’s saving work. In principle we have Him then
already. All that is necessary now is that He breaks through – in Dutch “doorbrekend
werk” And such a break-through comes only in the way of prayer and supplication. In
that way room is made in the heart so that the Holy Spirit may come in like showers on a
thirsty land.
Pentecost is preceded by the Orphan Sunday. But for all who experience this
Sunday as the disciples did, Pentecost is sure to come. Those one hundred and twenty
would never have been there together with one accord on their knees if King Jesus had
not been on the throne and if the Holy Spirit had not been on His way to the upper room
already. It was the promise of the Father that gave them hope. The word of the Lord has
quickened them as it quickened David in Psalm 119, where we again and again hear
David plead with the Lord to “quicken me according to Thy word”. He cries “Let my
supplication come before Thee: deliver me according to Thy word”. Again we read that
he says: “I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep Thy statutes”.
Beloved, is this also true of you? Have God’s promises ever quickened you,
made you active in prayer and caused you to plead on them as a poor sinner before His
throne? That is already a sign that God is about to fulfill these promises. By nature we
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leave God’s promises well alone. Then we see nothing in them. Or we flatter ourselves
that they have already been fulfilled in our lives, but when, or how, we don’t know.
If such is the case with you, it may well be that it is your own work – and not God’s
work. For when God works in our heart we know it too. Then there is a deep awareness
of our own unworthiness and yet a longing for Him. Things that never interested us, now
become attractive. God’s people then become our people. Yes, with David we say: “I am
a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts”. In short,
our lives begin to be oriented to heaven. And no wonder, for what else can be expected of
people who have been made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus?
You say, I dare not say that of myself. That may be so, but the Bible says that
where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also. And beloved, if your heart goes out
to heavenly treasures: that Jesus may also be your Ascended Saviour, then He is your
Ascended Saviour, Who is also at the Father’s right hand interceding on your behalf.
May that be your comfort today, you who hope in the Lord and wait for Him
more than watchmen wait for the morning light. Next Lord’s Day will be Pentecost. Then
the Church will commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of Christ He
was poured out upon the Church. We believe that this was a once for all event. Pentecost
is a fact of salvation (Heilsfeit) and as such cannot be repeated. The Holy Spirit came to
stay with the Church, never to leave her again. Yet we may and we must pray that we as
a church and as individuals may experience the Holy Spirit and His blessed operations
more. Such prayer is needed more than ever before. How little is seen in our
congregations of the true work of the Spirit! What could be the reason for this? O, let us
search our hearts and see if we are perhaps quenching or even resisting the Spirit by our
worldliness and lukewarmness. And are we not also lacking in brotherly love and unity?
Therefore, what we need, more than anything else on this orphan Sunday, is to lift up our
hearts unto heaven and with one accord fall on our knees in prayer and supplication.
And let our prayer be that of the Bride in Solomon’s Song; “Awake, O north wind and
come thou south wind, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out”.
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Yes, that is what we need – the north wind of conviction, the cold blast of the
withering Spirit that blows away everything that is ours. But then also the south wind of
the love of God, shed abroad in sinners’ hearts through that same Spirit Who takes it out
of Christ Jesus and shows it unto us.
Then the Beloved will come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits.
Then it will be Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With thy all-quickening powers;
Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours.
Look how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys;
Our souls can neither fly nor go,
To reach eternal joys.
In vain we tune our formal songs,
In vain we strive to rise;
Hosannas languish on our tongues,
And our devotion dies.
Dear Lord, and shall we ever live
At this poor dying rate?
Our love so faint, so cold to thee,
And thine to us so great?
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With thy all-quickening powers;
Come shed abroad a Saviour’s love,
And that shall kindle ours.
(Isaac Watts)
Amen.
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