What does it mean to tarry?

Perhaps I had better here speak of this tarrying. Many earnest seekers for power have taken it as the example for us now, and have practised and taught that we should tarry, waiting on God for a distinct enduement from on high. With many this is even confounded with the baptism of the Spirit, sealing and all the rest; while some who are clear enough as to there being but one baptism for the believer, so soon as he accepts Christ, still think that there is a special outpouring of power for the waiting, praying saint. Far be it from me, dear brethren, to cast a slight upon faith and prayer. God forbid. And without question God does answer the sincere prayers of His people, even when not intelligently offered. But our object is to get clear and scriptural conceptions of the truth, which will surely help and not hinder faith and prayer.

Are we warranted then by this scripture in expecting a definite and well-known enduement in answer to distinct waiting and prayer for it? The answer seems most clear and simple. What were they waiting for? not power primarily, but the descent of the Holy Spirit, and with Him came power and all else. Now we have seen abundantly that the Spirit has come from heaven once for all; that He comes to every believer, once for all, sealing, baptizing, indwelling. What then are we to tarry for and pray for? not surely for that Spirit whom we already have. Prayer and waiting always have their place, but not in connection with the gift of the Spirit, nor can this passage be used in the way mentioned.

Their Lord says to them, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments,” and they obeyed His voice. He had given them two commands, “Love one another” and “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem , until ye be endued with power from on high.” Fallen nature cannot wait, it is impatient, for it distrusts God. The Israelites could not wait for the coming down of Moses from the mount; King Saul couldn't wait for the coming of Samuel. These disciples were tested at this very point; the Lord said “Wait,” and they gathered together in Jerusalem in subjection to Him, bound together in the bonds of Divine love, and waited according to His word. “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren” (Acts 1:14). They proved their love to Him by their patience, love, unity and dependent expectancy. And He, in His place in the glory, could point them out to the Father as a band of men and women who loved Him, and proved their love to Him by keeping His commandments, the fruit of His own work; and He prayed the Father to send them the Comforter. The Spirit of God came down, sent by the Father, in answer to the prayer of the Lord on the day of Pentecost, to indwell and empower those men and women who loved the Lord and kept His commandments, and to be with them for ever.

Verse 34 adds one further thing. We are not only to wait patiently for the Lord, but also to "wait on the Lord, and keep His way." Waiting for Him means exercising trustful patience until He intervenes. Waiting on Him means the maintaining of that holy intercourse and communion with Him that ensures obedience to His will, while we wait for His intervention.

In determining the force of this exhortation attention must be given to the connection. It refers back to v. 21, where the apostle sets out the character of the abuses which had crept into the Corinthian assembly in connection with the Lord's Supper. It appears that some had gone so far as to eat their "own supper" by themselves. This, he plainly tells them, was not to eat the Lord's Supper (v. 20); and the consequence was that one was hungry and another drunken. All sense of unity and fellowship was lost in their own selfish practices and gratifications, and this led to the solemn admonition and rebuke of v. 22. Thereupon the apostle supplies the corrective of these evil habits in a re-statement of the terms and character of the Lord's Supper as he had received it from the Lord. Then he points out the consequences of eating and drinking unworthily, the need of examining oneself lest anyone should eat and drink judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body, not connecting the bread and the cup with the thing signified. Already, he reminds them, the Lord's hand was upon them because of their carelessness and levity (v. 30), and he takes occasion from this to say that, "if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." The next verse (33rd) gives the conclusion: "Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another," and do not continue to eat one before another as you have been doing. Let there be unity, so that all may eat together in remembrance of the Lord. No doubt these words also enjoin tender consideration for one another, that even in eating the Lord's Supper we are to look upon the things of others rather than upon our own things; but what is given above is their precise connection and explanation. The enjoyment of the Lord's love, who in the same night in which He was betrayed instituted the Supper, and the active exercise of love one to another in the common bonds of our fellowship, will speedily correct all abuses and disorder.

"And then we have to consider each other too in this connection. We read, "Therefore, beloved brethren, when ye come together, tarry for one another." That does not only mean to wait until all can be present — surely there is much more in it than that. It means that we have to be marked by consideration, forbearance, love, grace — that, in fact, the way the Lord has treated us is the way we are to treat each other. That comes out in the 18th chapter of Matthew most definitely, for immediately the Lord had spoken of coming to His own, when they are gathered together, Peter asks, "If my brother sin against me seven times shall I forgive Him?" and the Lord said, "I say to you not seven times, but seventy times seven." Tarry for one another when ye come together, and by mutual forbearance and sympathy and love and grace be to each other what the Lord has been to you. If the love that caused our Lord to give Himself for us, fills our hearts, we shall surely love one another. There will be neither forbearance nor consideration if there is not love. But if there is love there will be both.

Further, notice that repentance and remission of sins were to be proclaimed, "beginning at Jerusalem." Jerusalem was the worst spot — the place where He was murdered. Observe also to whom He says, "And ye are witnesses of these things." It was not only the eleven who were there when the Lord came into their midst, hence it was not an apostolic company. It is good to remember this, and Scripture is very clear as to it. "And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them" (Luke 24:33). The apostles were there, but the brethren were there, and the sisters also I judge The two from Emmaus joined them, and then to the assembled company the Lord comes and communicates His mind, saying finally, "Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). They had to wait for the coming of the Holy Ghost. We have not to wait now, for from the Anointed Man in glory the Holy Ghost has come, and with Him has come power for all that we are called upon to be and to do as children of God, and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without doubt the Holy Ghost is often grieved in us by the allowance of the flesh, and the outflow of the "rivers of living water" of which Christ spoke (John 7:38), is checked or hindered.

This is the only “tarrying” meeting acknowledged by Scripture. “Tarrying” meetings so-called, as practised today, are dangerous, for they are conducted in such a fashion as to open the door to Satanic delusions, and are a practical denial that the Spirit has come.

This, then, brings us to our third point, and that is, the Blessed One's departure; and my object in speaking of it in this connection is to show how that marvellous mission of the disciples was to be carried out. Repentance and remission of sins was to be proclaimed world-wide, but in order to carry this out power was necessary; and therefore He says to them: "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." v. 49, As if He had said, I have laid the ground of your peace, but now you want power. You have the peace, I pronounced peace and showed you the foundation of it; but you must have power in order to deliver this wonderful testimony, to preach it in My name amongst all nations.

Do you see why I connect this with the departure? Because I greatly desire that all our hearts should get a truer sense of the significance of those wondrous words, "power from on high." Not power from earth; not power from learning; not power from education; not power from skill of any kind here; not power from or by men; but "power from on high." And, as some one has said, and I believe it is perfectly true, "It is the power that is irresistible, and yet the easiest quenched, if He, who is Himself the power, the blessed Spirit of God, the third Person of the adorable Trinity, be grieved." May we ever keep this in mind, even how the smallest unsuitable thing will check that power, will retard its exercise. The remembrance of that would bring us to where our solemn responsibility lies. Have we not frequently grieved Him? Have we not even in that to which it relates quenched Him often? Oh, how have we not, by our own ways, interfered with the manifestation of this power! Mark this a moment more, for that is all that concerns us at this time: this power is "from on high," but not merely from the place to which He was going, but from that to which He was to be exalted. Power was to come down from the scene of His exaltation, and was connected with His exaltation. "Being," says the Holy Ghost by the apostle Peter, in the Acts, after the blessed Spirit had come down, "Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." Chapter 2:33. Thus we find that which is identified exactly with this utterance of the Lord Jesus here. And this "power from on high," He distinctly tells them, was "the promise of the Father." Acts 1:4. Now put those two things together. "The promise of the Father" — to whom, beloved friends? To Christ Himself. Not to us, but to Him, the exalted, glorified Man. "Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He" (that is, Christ) "hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." That is to say, the Lord Jesus Christ, having accomplished everything as Man on earth according to God's purposes, having fulfilled everything according to God's pleasure as the perfect Man, and having gone on high, He, exalted, received from God, the Holy Ghost to give to others; as Man too, for He received this promise, He received the Holy Spirit, as the exalted, glorified Man; and the apostle identifies the very fact of His departure with that great reality.

It is very well to keep in mind that it is to be done in His name. When we speak to souls of Christ we should speak as His representatives. He came into the world; “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,” and if we are to speak at all of the Saviour we do so as representatives of Him. How the grace of our God is unveiled! They had to start in Jerusalem itself. The Lord revealed Himself to the disciple that had sinned the most; the Gospel had to go to the city that had sinned the most, the city where He had been crucified. There was forgiveness for that city, and for the worst men in that city. If the worst can be forgiven, then, you see, none ever need despair. So the Lord instructs them; how their hearts must have been overjoyed and blessed as they listened to His words. We have in the first chapter of Acts the last words they hear from His lips: “Ye shall be witnesses unto me,... unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Then He says, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.” Do not attempt to speak for Me until the Spirit of God comes, for the work of God can only be done by the Spirit of God; the Spirit of God is the only power in this world for God, and if we attempt to serve Him in our own strength, the result will be disaster. I do not suppose Satan cares two straws about a man preaching the Gospel if he is doing it in his own strength and wisdom. So He told them of the only power that can carry them through and enable them to serve the Lord rightly; that is why 3,000 were converted on the day of Pentecost.

But he also knew that this deliverance could still tarry. His faith answered therefore to the word: “Though it tarry, wait for it” (2:3). He therefore waited for it in the assurance that the deliverance would be preceded by distress.