'Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that
they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took
knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.'--ACTS iv. 13.
Two young Galilean fishermen, before the same formidable tribunal which
a few weeks before had condemned their Master, might well have quailed.
And evidently 'Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and
Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest,' were
very much astonished that their united wisdom and dignity did not
produce a greater impression on these two contumacious prisoners. They
were 'unlearned,' knowing nothing about Rabbinical wisdom; they were
'ignorant,' or, as the word ought rather to be rendered, 'persons in a
private station,' without any kind of official dignity. And yet there
they stood, perfectly unembarrassed and at their ease, and said what
they wanted to say, all of it, right out. So, as great astonishment
crept over the dignified ecclesiastics who were sitting in judgment
upon them, their astonishment led them to remember what, of course,
they knew before, only that it had not struck them so forcibly, as
explaining the Apostles' demeanour--viz.,'that they had been with
Jesus.' So they said to themselves: 'Ah, that explains it all! There is
the root of it. The company that they have kept accounts for their
unembarrassed boldness.'
Now, I need not notice by more than a word in passing, what a testimony
it is to the impression that that meek and gracious Sufferer had made
upon His judges, that when they saw these two men standing there
unfaltering, they began to remember how that other Prisoner had stood.
And perhaps some of them began to think that they had made a mistake in
that last trial. It is a testimony to the impression that Christ had
made that the strange demeanour of His two servants recalled the Master
to the mind of the judges.
I. The first thing that strikes us here is the companionship that
transforms.
The rulers were partly right, and they were partly wrong. The source
from which these men had drawn their boldness was their being with
Christ; but it was not such companionship with Christ, as Annas and
Caiaphas had in view, that had given them courage. For as long as the
Apostles had His personal presence with them, there was no perceptible
transforming or elevating process going on in them; and it was not
until after they had lost that corporeal presence that there came upon
them the change which even the prejudiced eyes of these judges could
not help seeing.
The writer of Acts gives a truer explanation with which we may fill out
the incomplete explanation of the rulers, when he says, 'Then Peter,
_filled with the Holy Ghost_, said unto them.' Ah, that is it! They had
been with Jesus all the days that He went in and out amongst them. They
had companioned with Him, and they had gained but little from it. But
when He went away, and they were relegated to the same kind of
companionship with Him that you and I have or may have, then a change
began to take place on them. And so the companionship that transforms
is not what the Apostle calls 'knowing Christ after the flesh,' but
inward communion with Him, the companionship and familiarity which are
as possible for us as for any Peter or John of them all, and without
which our Christianity is nothing but sounding brass and tinkling
cymbal.
They were 'with Jesus,' as each of us may be. Their communion was in no
respect different from the communion that is open and indispensable to
any real Christian. To be with Him is possible for us all. When we go
to our daily work, when we are compassed about by distracting and
trivial cares, when men come buzzing round us, and the ordinary
secularities of life seem to close in upon us like the walls of a
prison, and to shut out the blue and the light--oh! it is hard, but it
_is_ possible, for every one of us to think these all away, and to
carry with us into everything that blessed thought of a Presence that
is not to be put aside, that sits beside me at my study table, that
stands beside you at your tasks, that goes with you in shop and mart,
that is always near, with its tender encircling, with its mighty
protection, with its all-sufficing sweetness and power. To be with
Christ is no prerogative, either of Apostles and teachers of the
primitive age, or of saints that have passed into the higher vision;
but it is possible for us all. No doubt there are as yet unknown forms
and degrees of companionship with Christ in the future state, in
comparison with which to be 'present in the body is to be absent from
the Lord'; but in the inmost depth of reality, the soul that loves is
where it loves, and has whom it loves ever with it. 'Where the treasure
is, there will the heart be also,' and we may be with Christ if only we
will honestly try hour by hour to keep ourselves in touch with Him, and
to make Him the motive as well as the end of the work that other men do
along with us, and do from altogether secular and low motives.
Another phase of being with Christ lies in frank, full, and familiar
conversation with Him. I do not understand a dumb companionship. When
we are with those that we love, and with whom we are at ease, speech
comes instinctively. If we are co-denizens of the Father's house with
the Elder Brother, we shall talk to Him. We shall not need to be
reminded of the 'duty of prayer,' but shall rather instinctively and as
a matter of course, without thinking of what we are doing, speak to Him
our momentary wants, our passing discomforts, our little troubles.
There may be a great deal more virtue in monosyllabic prayers than in
long liturgies. Little jets of speech or even of unspoken speech that
go up to Him are likely to be heart-felt and to be heard. It is said of
Israel's army on one occasion, 'they cried unto God in the battle, and
He was entreated of them.' Do you think that theirs would be very
elaborate prayers? Was there any time to make a long petition when the
sword of a Philistine was whizzing about the suppliant's ears? It was
only a cry, but it _was_ a cry; and so 'He was entreated of them.' If
we are 'with Christ' we shall talk to Him; and if we are with Christ He
will talk to us. It is for us to keep in the attitude of listening and,
so far as may be, to hush other voices, in order that His may be heard,
If we do so, even here 'shall we ever be with the Lord.'