The Octave of Redemption (Transcript)
by T. Austin-Sparks
The forty days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord. I'd like to read one or two passages, firstly from the gospel by Luke, chapter 12 at verse 49, 49 and 50: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I, if it is already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." I think I should point out that the real sense of those words would be better given in this form: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and oh, that it were already kindled, but I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened, pent up till it be accomplished!"
In the book of the Acts chapter 1, verse 3: "To whom He also presented Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God".
And in the book of the Revelation chapter 1 at verse 17: "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the First and the Last, and the Living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades".
And we approach this particular aspect with the same question as that with which we have approached the others.
Why the Forty Days?
We are going to try to sum up our answer to that question in three ways, although there are many details and much more than ever we could cover in so short a time.
Evidently those forty days were very much more full than any records that we have indicate. We have only ten recorded appearances of the Lord during the forty days, and five of them took place on the first day, leaving thirty-nine days for five (if that were all). But John, in speaking of His appearance after His resurrection, did say: "And many other signs did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book", and I think the context would lead us to conclude that the "many other signs" were after His resurrection. And here Luke confirms that, by speaking of the forty days as containing "many proofs". Many proofs, so they were evidently very full days, and being so, that period was one of very great importance. We are not going to stay with the various appearances, that is not our purpose, we want to get hold of the significance of the whole.
Now, this note in the Octave of Redemption has not been struck nearly as strongly and firmly as it ought to have been. Sometimes, you know, a hammer in the piano gets a bit worn or injured, and when you go up the scale, that particular note is weaker than others, and you know that it is missing. And I think that this note of the forty days has lost a good deal of its strength, or has not been given the strength and positiveness and fulness of volume which it ought to have been given. And I think that you will see that is so as we proceed this morning. You see, this was the great turning-point, and everything for Christianity rested upon this aspect of the whole of redemption's plan.
A tremendous number of things rested upon this. We can only mention a few and they are sufficient to indicate what a tremendous thing it was. Let us note that this is one of the great 'forties' of the Bible. It is not an accident that it's forty days after His resurrection. There are eight major 'forties' in the Bible - I leave you to look them up, but I can mention some.
There was the great forty years of the life of Moses in Egypt - a time of deep preparation and testing, especially the testing of his heart. How we would like to stay with each one of these because they have such a message of value in them. But you know, if you have all the wealth and treasures and learning of one, at least, of the greatest countries or empires in history at your disposal, open to you, it's a fairly good test of where your heart is! And Moses came through a test like that at the end of those forty years, showing that his heart was not in that: his heart was for God and God's interests.
But forty is always the number of probation, of testing and proving and deciding. And it was fairly decisive, was it not, with Moses at the end of those forty years?
But then commenced another forty, with Moses in the backside of the desert; and if the first forty was a time of testing of his heart, the second forty was a time of testing of his faith. I leave you with that. What a tremendous probation that was, forty years: disappointed undertakings, disappointed hopes and expectations, and the consciousness that he was responsible in the main for it by his own folly. I say it was a test of faith, but he emerged.
And then the forty days of Moses in the Mount. And what a time of testing that was for Israel down below! Forty days. Forty days, forty nights, at the Mount and the testing of Israel down below. Yes, it was meant for that, I think, really to find them out; and we know, we know how they emerged from that time. They were proved, right enough. The thing was decided very definitely, and out from that God had to make His great movement over the Levites, a subject full of instruction; but to be left there.
And then Israel's own forty years in the wilderness. What a time of testing, probation and decision it was! There are others, but we leap right over from there to the New Testament, and our Lord's testing for forty days in the wilderness - very testing. And then finally, to this one. You see the character, the nature and meaning of it: a time of testing, of proving, of establishing, deciding and settling. That's the meaning of forty. And all of that was gathered into the forty days after the resurrection.
But look at some of the factors included in this period for Christianity, for the church, for the future. All the work of the apostles hung upon this; you will see that as we go on, that is perfectly clear, for what good were they before the beginning of the forty days? What could they have done as we find them when He was in the tomb?
He might have risen and gone to Heaven and though they'd not seen Him, and though in some way it might have come to them that He was in Heaven - ah, but there would have been something of very great importance lacking if it had been like that! The door would have been open for all kinds of things to come in. But the Lord did not leave it like that. Their future work rested upon these forty days. The Lord was laying the foundation for everything with them during that period.
And so as a first, and not unimportant thing, the very work of the apostles rested upon these forty days. And the very existence of the church rested upon the same ground; that we shall see again presently, more fully, but the existence of the church demanded these forty days. The ability for Christians to suffer, to endure, and to conquer, required these forty days. The many proofs, the many proofs, the ground soundly and solidly established that He was alive - essential for all the suffering and the steadfastness and the overcoming of believers in the days which were ahead.
Again, the assurance of an eternal future for believers rested upon this, that death is not the end; that there is a Life which has conquered death; and which Life is for them, and that an eternal future is secured unto them - it rested upon these forty days.
Again, the very nature of the believer's resurrection body is established by these forty days. 1 Corinthians 15 makes that perfectly clear, positively stated that this, this mortal shall be put off and immortality shall be put on or incorruption and the believer's body shall be made "like unto His glorious body". Like unto His glorious body, but what's that like? Have we anything to go upon? Is there any solid ground for believing that after resurrection you have a body? Well, the Lord was taking great pains to make it perfectly clear that He was no phantom, no disembodied spirit. "Handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have". Our knowledge of a resurrection body, its fact and nature, was established during those forty days.
And the hope concerning those who are asleep. That hope is established by this period, just to mention those things amongst others is to indicate that this was no unimportant period or phase of the great octave of redemption. It's redemption that is focused upon, and in, this period.
Everything had to be well founded and grounded, with "many proofs". As we said earlier, Luke was a meticulous historian: he tells us that he had taken pains to ascertain, to find out and make sure of the facts that he was recording. And Luke says "by many proofs, by many proofs" that I have quoted already. John said, "many other signs did Jesus in the presence of His disciples". By many proofs. The object? Setting the evidence, leaving things without any doubt, or leaving one thing without any doubt. What is it? Jesus lives - Jesus lives again after death! In other words: the Lord is risen!
Well, now we come to look at these three things which, to some degree at any rate, sum up the answer to the question: why the forty days? What I've already said, of course, is a good answer, but that's not the whole answer.
We want to come firstly to the Lord's own conception of His resurrection. What did the Lord Jesus Himself conceive to be the particular value to Himself of His resurrection? And the answer is in those words which we have read from Luke 12:49-50: "I came to scatter fire on the earth... how I am pent up... I have a baptism to be baptized with, oh that it were already accomplished!" There is no doubt that He is speaking about the baptism of His passion, of the Cross, but He was looking through the baptism and was thinking of the other side as His release [it was really].
And the very first thing about these forty days is that it was:
The Release of the Lord.
"How am I straitened, how am I pent up, how am I confined! I have come to scatter fire on the earth, to broadcast the fire over the whole earth: but here I am, tied up to these few miles of a little country, tied up to time, tied up to all the conditions of life here, limited in every way...". Oh, how limited He was: limited in His own movement, limited in His disciples, limited in every way. He was longing to be out, to be free, to be released. He looked upon the Cross as the Way of His release, and the resurrection as His release.
Now, the Lord had, at the commencement of His ministry, made a great announcement. You remember that His first recorded ministry in Nazareth was when He took up Isaiah 61 and spoke of the sevenfold, the sevenfold aspect of His ministry: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me..." heading right up to this: "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord". Now, that more correctly translated is: "to proclaim the year of the Lord's release". And there is little doubt that in His mind He was thinking of the Jubilee, because those words are the words which belong to the Jubilee year: the year of release. And everything that had got into bondage - man, woman, child, houses, land, or anything else - had to be released in the Jubilee year, the fiftieth year. Now Jesus, right at the commencement of His ministry, said: "I am come in relation to God's Jubilee, God's fiftieth year, the year of the Lord's release".
There were thirty Jubilees from the exodus of Israel to the beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus – a little bit of Bible study for you, if you like! Here is the thirtieth Jubilee beginning. Now, while He made the declaration in the words of Scripture and you have seen it: setting at liberty them that were bound, opening the prison to the prisoners, letting the oppressed go free - He knew what He meant. And He made the announcement that He had come to bring in the greatest, the greatest of all the Jubilees! The realisation that the fulfilment of that was just a little way ahead yet, perhaps three-and-a-half years ahead; it took effect in the forty days, it took effect in the forty days and was the outcome of the forty days, first of all: as to Himself.
He came into His own release, His complete emancipation by the resurrection. It was the Lord's own release, setting free. See Him now, look at Him now: no geographical confinement can hold Him! He is outside of all that. No time limits can hold Him; none of those old features of limitation and straitness now obtain. He is out! Time doesn't matter, distance doesn't matter.
On the day of His resurrection He walked with two to Emmaus, broke bread with them, and... disappeared! They tore for their very lives back to Jerusalem to tell, but He was there before them! It was like that all the time. Well, I'll not dwell upon that, it's so apparent: He's set free. His release has come. You can tabulate all the marks of that release during the forty days. But that was His side.
But He had not only come to proclaim His own release and to secure it through the Cross., although we consider all the values to us of that, see what He is doing with these disciples, the nucleus of His church, the larger company, yes, up to five hundred brethren at one time, says Paul. See what He's doing! He is establishing the ground, the evidence that He knows no limitations, He knows no bounds and bonds - He is free!
That's something for the church; a tremendous inheritance for us. We're glad of that aren't we, today, that geography doesn't matter! It doesn't matter, whether it's fifty, or five hundred, or five thousand miles; it doesn't matter. It doesn't obtain. Time doesn't matter - none of these things matter: He is free! That's a tremendous thing for the church to realise and to have established by "many proofs". Those verses, you know, used to put in the other words that have been taken out: "many infallible proofs". Well, if it's not in the original text, we shan't be wrong in putting it into the text. Many infallible proofs!
But there was the other side.
The Release of His Own
The release of the men and the release of the church, to proclaim the year of the Lord's release. Look at the men before: terribly tied up in themselves, weren't they? Very limited in every way: limited in their capacities for spiritual things, in their understanding, in their spiritual intelligence – so manifestly so. In so many ways they were limited.
Paul's word to the Corinthians might very well have applied to them: "ye are straitened in your own selves". But look at their release during these days! You can see it growing, you see it's happened and it's happening all the time: they have been released! You have only got to look at the difference between Peter in the judgment hall and Peter on the day of Pentecost. One man limited, bound, straitened, defeated; the other man out! Right out, he's a man emancipated! They were all like that, all like that. It was the year of Jubilee for them which He had proclaimed and by His resurrection had brought in and which was sealed by the Holy Spirit on the the fiftieth day, the Jubliee day. Remember that 'Pentecost' is the 'fiftieth day'. The fiftieth year is jubilee, and Pentecost the fiftieth day.
Yes, it's jubilee, it's release; everything bears the stamp, you see, of that. And so Pentecost was but the crown of these fifty days, and the making good especially of the values of the forty. It was their release.
In the event that you and I were really in the good of these forty days, we should be liberated and released men and women. I'm really struggling not to say such a lot of things. That's my trouble in a matter like this. [Draw] yourselves upon Thomas. Was there ever a man more tied up than Thomas? He was tied up with himself, and tied up with his own temperament, that kind of temperament, you know, that doesn't believe anything unless you have absolute proof. He never takes anybody else's word for it, he must have it proved and demonstrated. And what a poor, miserable fellow he was, just turned in upon himself, going out for a walk by himself and leaving all the others. "Except, except I see, I will not believe". That shut him up to a little prison of his own soul.
No gospel, no good news, is any good to anybody like that, because they don't have it, they won't have it, they can't; the very best news, the very best news that you can think: "Yes, but that is, after all, only what you say..." that's the reaction to the very best thing. "Well, you say that, you believe that and I haven't any proof that it is so." Here's poor Thomas representative of a whole class of people temperamentally.
But look at the man. Forty days settled all that for Thomas, settled it so thoroughly that when the Lord said: "Well, take your evidence, reach out thy hand... take the evidence", it's never recorded that he did. "My Lord and my God…" he's overwhelmed, he's a man released. And so it was true of them all and we could go round and show how each one needed release - and it came during the forty days, they were men out! And there they are, standing up together on the day of Pentecost: men who are free!
The effect, the effect of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus ought to be that effect in you and in me! It ought to release us from ourselves and our own little world; and it does! Thank God it does, if we come vitally into it. And if you don't know that in experience, let me say my dear friends: that's your inheritance. The good of these forty days is your inheritance: it's for you, for us all! It is not a chapter in history; this is not a point of Christian doctrine; this is an up-to-date power for every life, for our release from ourselves. It's something offered to your faith to take hold of. The year of their release, but our release, the church's release, that Jubilee is not over yet. That Jubilee is not over yet!
Now I come to the next thing, the third thing. The Lord Jesus had said to them, as He was going to the Cross, as He sat with them in the last hours before the Passion: "All ye shall be offended because of Me: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered". What a scattering, what a scattering took place!
They, one and all, forsook Him and were broken up into fragments, we might say, 'all over the place', like a shattered, shattered vessel. Inwardly in pieces and outwardly in pieces through His Cross. And very, very truly that took place. Now look at the forty days. What's He doing? He is bringing together again all the pieces! He is collecting all the fragments. Here, and there, and there, He's finding those pieces. Two have gone off in this direction, others are here, and others are there; there is no sign of any integration, oneness about them. They're all in pieces. But now, during the forty days, He is finding them all, collecting them all up, bringing them together.
At the end He has got them all together, but it's a 'togetherness' that has never been before, it's a oneness that they had never known. This is the value of the forty days.
Now, remember, it could not have been otherwise. There were all the elements of disintegration in them before, and it had to be - it could not be otherwise. Now that wants thinking about, because here you have, shall I say, the church in representation in division, all broken up into fragments, with no mutual confidence, no believing one another - doubting one another, suspecting one another - a broken-up church, a divided church, a scattered church. Not only divided and scattered, but in an atmosphere of questions and suspicions and doubt and all that sort of thing. It's true, that's how they were.
And that was all, all because of the conditions which were in themselves before the Cross; the ground was there for it. Now just think: they had an association with Him, they knew all His teaching, they saw His works, they companied with Him during that time, they came under His influence and His spell - they were His disciples; and yet, and yet, there was all that there latent which made possible all these divisions and suspicions and questions. It can be, it can be if our relationship to the Lord Jesus is only an objective and outward kind of thing. You know it's His teaching, of course we do, His teaching is right. We have, sometimes a relationship with Him, yes, some measure of devotion to Him - all that kind of doctrinal, theological, historical relationship to the Lord Jesus, short of something deep and tremendous wrought inside; short of that tremendous action of the Cross to break the natural man and open up something other from Heaven.
In saying this I am saying more than my words perhaps convey. But you know it's possible and very often that is the ground of all the scattering and the division and the quarrelling and the suspicion and everything else and all the questions. The Cross has not done its work to break the natural man - even in his relationship to Christ, in his apprehension of the things of Christ - to break all his natural life and split him wide open for something from Heaven.
There is a long, long story bound up with a statement like that, and a terrible story. It's like that. And so I say it was not just because Christ was crucified outwardly that they were scattered and disappointed, I say the seeds of that scattering were in them! The ground was there.
But now, now what happened? A new ground is being put inside. They have been broken. There is a broken man and now a new ground is being put in, a ground of another Life and another kind of knowledge of the Lord. That's the great thing about the forty days, another kind of knowledge of Him! They've never known Him like this. Indeed, indeed they are finding it sometimes difficult to believe that this is He, that it is He at all, when some doubted. Some doubted: "When they saw Him... some doubted...". 'Is it He? Is it He' And Jesus came to them and said: "Fear not...". And Jesus called to them, as they were not sure yet.
It's another kind of knowledge of Him, you see, it's knowing Him on another ground. Paul said: "though we have known Jesus Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more..." no more, no more! It's a different kind of knowledge of Him as the essential basis of a true oneness: a knowledge which has come, on the one side, through a terrible shattering of all natural knowledge, and, on the other side, through a new coming of the Lord to the shattered man and woman. It's always like that. Until you've been broken, you are not in a position really, for the Lord to come and show you the greatest things, the deepest things, the truest things. These are abiding principles.
And so He gathered them (or shall we say regathered them) regathered them and established a new oneness upon a new kind of knowledge of Himself, and upon the basis of a new kind of Life. They are off now, off the ground of their own life; they are on the ground of His Life. Their life was a divided life.
His Life is a Uniting Life
It's all very well for us to say, dear friends, that we are all one in Christ because we all share one Life. Well, of course, that is true, but it might be quite a superficial statement. You know, we really, really only come into the practical value of that one Life if the Cross has done something in us. The practical expression of the oneness of that Life demands this deep work of the Cross. It may be positionally true that we are all one in Christ, because we share His one Life, the eternal life that He has given; positionally true and it may be actually true, but the expression of it may still be waiting.
And that's just true today, isn't it? Oh, we can say, "all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who have received the gift of eternal life are one - one by reason of the one Life that they all share with Him and in Him". Yes, but still, look at the expression amongst Christians! Where is the manifestation of the oneness of that Life? That's tragically lacking.
Here, here, you see, the manifestation of it came about when the Cross had done its deep, breaking work in their natural life, and turned them over on to another ground, where all their apprehension of Him was a spiritual one, when their knowledge of Him was a spiritual one. It was on the ground of something tremendous that was happening in them.
And these forty days were not only days of things happening to them: you could see something happening in them correspondingly all the time. I pointed out earlier the very fact, the very fact that before, when He made the slightest hint of His departure, they were thrown into consternation and terror. But now, they are moving rapidly toward the place where, far from consternation that He is going from them, they are quite happy about it, quite full of joy. It's alright, that's all gone, that fear; something is happening in them, isn't it, as He appears by the space of forty days: regathered on a new ground.
There's a factor that to me is of tremendous significance and comfort. You know, it was not so very long after this that they were all scattered abroad again because of the persecution which arose about Stephen, they were all scattered abroad and it's perfectly safe for them to be scattered. The old scattering was a devastating thing: all loss, all weakness, all wrong. But they can be scattered anywhere, all over the world now, and it is as safe as eternity. It's all to good, you see, when the thing is done inside, it's all right. It's all right! An Ethiopian no longer needs a Philip to lean upon: he can go his own way rejoicing, without Philip or anybody else, when the thing is done inside. When it's done like that, you can trust people will go on; they'll go on. They'll go on! Thank God that it's like that! Persecution? Yes. Scattering, imprisonment, ah, but they are going on; the thing is done inside. It's very blessed to recognise that.
And these are the values which sprang out of those forty days and many others. But dear friends, this is here in the Word for us, it's handed down to us. This is not just history, church history, of what happened long ago. This book of the Acts (which, as we have said, might very well be called 'The Book of the Lord's Release') is given to the church as the very basis of the church's life. It's for us, it's for us. We have a tremendous heritage in these forty days and if only we were really established upon those values, what a difference it would make! What a difference it would make.
And I do want especially to lay hold of that factor of the re-gathering and the consolidating in a new fellowship. That itself is needed, no more is needed. Perhaps it's a terrible indictment on the present situation amongst Christians, with all the fragments and the divisions, and all the questions and suspicions, and all the rest, it's an indictment that believers are not really standing in the meaning of this thing done by the Cross, to destroy the natural ground, the natural life, to make room for the spiritual and heavenly. That's where it all focuses.
I'm quite sure that the deeper the Cross goes in us, on the one side, of our natural life, our natural life in all its forms, the deeper the Cross goes in that and the more we are opened to the heavenly life, so the more we shall be together, be together and be established. That is a statement of fact, but it's a test, a real test.
From the little that I have said, you can see that these forty days were very, very important days, and they stand as a very important epoch in the life of the church for all time.