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Scripture Reading: Heb. 1:1-2; Acts 2:42; John 14:10; 5:24; Matt. 28:19-20; John 16:12-15; Rev. 2:1, 7; 1 Cor. 4:17b; 7:17b; 2 Pet. 3:15-16; Rev. 1:1-2; Matt. 1:18-25; Rev. 21:1-3, 9-11; Luke 1:30-31, 34-35; Heb. 2:14; Acts 10:38; 1:21; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 5:24; John 3:14; 24, 12:31-33a; Heb. 9:12; John 19:34; Matt. 16:21b; Acts 2:24; 3:15; 5:30; Rom. 4:25b; Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29; John 12:24b; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 7:39; Rev. 22:17; John 20:17; Lev. 23:10-11; Acts 1:9-11; Heb. 2:7; Acts 2:36; 5:31; Eph. 1:22
This series of messages will cover first the apostles’ teaching and then the New Testament leadership.
Many Christians have never heard a message regarding the apostles’ teaching, and it may be that they have never even heard such terminology. Nevertheless, there is such a term in the Bible. Acts 2:42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This verse indicates that all the three thousand who were saved on the day of Pentecost continued in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.
In this verse there are two things pertaining to the apostles: the teaching and the fellowship. According to my knowledge, after the apostles, only one group of Christians has paid adequate attention to this verse. Beginning from the 1820s, the Brethren stressed the apostles’ teaching very much. John Nelson Darby and other Brethren teachers stressed that we must continue in the apostles’ teaching and in the apostles’ fellowship.
We must continue in these two things — in the teaching of the apostles and in the fellowship of the apostles. If we intend to continue in the fellowship of the apostles, we must first continue in the teaching of the apostles. Teaching must come first; then fellowship follows. Very few Christians are able to tell us what the apostles’ teaching and the apostles’ fellowship are. Because these two things have been altogether neglected, all of Christianity is confused and divided. Today Christianity is characterized by confusion and division.
If there were no constitution in the United States, there could be no proper government. The Constitution controls all the laws. No legislation can be established that is not in the realm of the Constitution, because the Constitution is the very base or realm of any law that the legislators would make. The Constitution of the United States is higher even than the president of the United States. If a president does something that is contrary to the Constitution, he will no longer be justified in remaining in office.
During this past year some said that the church is the church of the saints, just as a democratic country is a country of the people. However, no democratic country is a country of lawless people. Rather, a proper country is a country of people who keep the constitution and live under the constitution. Even the number-one person in this country, the president, must be under the Constitution. Everyone in this country must be under the Constitution absolutely.
Our constitution is the apostles’ teaching. I came to this country and began my ministry in December 1962. I have been ministering and serving here for over twenty-seven years. From the first year I said that everything we do must be according to the apostles’ teaching. The apostles’ teaching is our constitution. It is sad that nearly all of Christianity does not know the apostles’ teaching or even that there is such a thing. We received much help in this regard from the Brethren, who passed on to us some basic, proper teachings that are according to the apostles’ teaching.
In the term the apostles’ teaching, the word apostles is plural, but the word teaching is singular. The apostles’ teaching is the teaching of the apostles. It is not the teaching only of Peter, of John, or of Paul but of others as well.
The apostles’ teaching does not concern matters such as whether we should baptize people in fresh water or salt water, whether we should use wine or grape juice at the Lord’s table, or whether the sisters should wear a head covering or not. All these minor things are not counted as the teaching of the apostles. Christians have fought over these things for centuries. Such disputes are nothing but vanity. This shows that Christians have not seen the light of the apostles’ teaching.
The apostles’ teaching is the entire speaking of God in the New Testament. The entire New Testament is the apostles’ teaching. It is true that matters such as foot-washing and baptism by immersion are included in this book, but they are not the basic, intrinsic, central, and elementary thing.
In the universe there is a marvelous matter — God’s speaking. The first marvelous thing in the universe is God Himself. What a tragedy if there were no God in the universe! However, if there is a God, yet He would not speak, we would be in misery. Without God the universe is a tragedy, and without the speaking of God we would be in misery. But, Hallelujah, we have God, and we have God’s speaking.
God has spoken, and today God still speaks. There are many matters in God’s speaking. For instance, Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son, whom He appointed Heir of all things, through whom also He made the universe.” Today God speaks to us in the Son. He does not speak to us in many portions or in many ways or through the prophets but in the Son. He speaks to us in one person, the Son. Darby has pointed out that in the Greek, the article in the English phrase in the Son is not present. A literal rendering of the Greek would read, “God...has...spoken to us in Son.” Darby had a marvelous realization. He said that since there is no article, it must mean that God speaks in the person of the Son. There is only one God (Isa. 45:5; 1 Cor. 8:4), and the name of our God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). This is similar to the practice in many societies of naming one person with three names — first, middle, and last. This is quite meaningful. M. R. Vincent indicated in his writing that a name always denotes a person. Thus, God’s speaking “in Son” means that God speaks in the person of the Son. The New Testament is very particular. From such a passage we can realize that God’s speaking in the New Testament is in the way of incarnation.
The incarnation is recorded in the four Gospels. The Jesus who spoke in the four Gospels was the very Son of God, and the Son of God is God Himself. Thus, we can say that the Lord Jesus’ speaking was God’s speaking in the Son as the man in the four Gospels (John 14:10; 5:24; Matt. 28:19-20). John 14:10 says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.” The Father and the Son are one (10:30). When the Son spoke, the Father was speaking. The Father spoke in the person of the Son.
God’s speaking did not stop in the four Gospels. He also spoke in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles from Acts to Revelation (John 16:12-15; Rev. 2:1, 7; 1 Cor. 4:17b; 7:17b; 2 Pet. 3:15-16; Rev. 1:1-2). While God was speaking in the Son, one day the Son told His disciples, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you” (John 16:12-15). It is as though the Lord Jesus was saying, “When the Spirit of reality comes, He will bring you into all the reality. Yet even He Himself will not speak anything of Himself. He will receive from Me, and then He will declare to you whatever He receives of Me.” This means that after the four Gospels there would be God’s further speaking.
God spoke further in Acts, in the fourteen Epistles of the apostle Paul, in James, in Peter’s two Epistles, in John’s three Epistles, in Jude, and in Revelation. All these are God’s speaking in the Son. First, God’s speaking is in the person of the Son. Second, God’s speaking is in the person of the Spirit. God spoke first in the Son as the man in the four Gospels. In Acts, in the Epistles, and in Revelation, God spoke further, in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles. In the four Gospels God did not speak “through” someone. But in Acts, in the Epistles, and in Revelation, God spoke in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles. The apostles through whom God spoke in the Son as the Spirit were only a few. They were Peter, John, Paul, James, and Jude. Nearly the entire New Testament was uttered by these five persons.
The four Gospels were spoken by the Lord Jesus. Then in Matthew 28:20 He told His disciples that whatever He had commanded them, they were to teach to those whom they would baptize into the Triune God. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 record the so-called Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 13 records the seven parables concerning the mystery of the kingdom. Matthew 24 and 25 record the prophecies given by the Lord on the Mount of Olives. These three portions of the Gospel of Matthew are marvelous. No philosopher or great teacher can speak words of depth and wisdom like those recorded in these portions. No doubt these six chapters were taught by the apostles to the believers who came to the Lord after them. John 14, 15, 16, and 17 are profound and far beyond our understanding, yet they were spoken by the man Jesus. Jesus charged His believers to teach these portions to the ones who would follow after them. All the contents of the four Gospels must have been repeated again and again by the apostles.
After the Gospels we have Acts, where Peter and Paul spoke. Then we have the fourteen Epistles spoken by Paul, the one Epistle spoken by James, the two Epistles spoken by Peter, the three Epistles spoken by John, and the one Epistle spoken by Jude. Finally, we have Revelation, which the Lord Jesus spoke as the Spirit and which was given through John. In reading Revelation carefully, we can realize that this was the word spoken by the Lord as the Spirit through John, because John wrote that book. This is marvelous! In chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation there are seven epistles. At the beginning of each epistle it is the Lord Jesus who “says.” But at the end of each epistle we are told to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” This indicates that the Lord’s speaking was the Spirit’s speaking, because He is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). This speaking was written through John. All the epistles written to individual churches were also for all the churches (1 Cor. 4:17b; 7:17b; Col. 4:16). This was God’s speaking.
Paul was used by the Lord in his speaking to complete the word of God, especially concerning the mystery of the Triune God (1:24-25). Paul completed the part of God’s speaking that concerns the mystery of the Triune God, but John completed the entire speaking of God. Therefore, at the end of Revelation there is a concluding word, which says that no one has the right to add anything to this book or to subtract anything from this book (22:18-19). In the book of Revelation God’s speaking is fully completed, fully perfected. No one can add anything to it. Joseph Smith of the Mormons claimed that he received something in addition to the Bible. Such a claim is devilish. No one can say that there is any speaking of God in addition to what is in the Bible. God’s speaking is complete. Thus, when God speaks today, He simply repeats what He has already spoken.
The teaching of the apostles is the entire speaking of God in the New Testament — first in the Son as a man, then in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles. In the New Testament God cannot depart from the principle of incarnation. He must speak through man. In the four Gospels the man was Jesus. In the succeeding twenty-three books, the men were the apostles. Today we are the men. God speaks in the principle of incarnation.
The apostles’ teaching is the entire speaking of God concerning God’s New Testament economy from the incarnation of God to the consummation of the New Jerusalem (Matt. 1:18-25; Rev. 21:1-3, 9-11). This speaking is not concerning baptism, head covering, foot-washing, or the Lord’s table; it is concerning God’s New Testament economy. Many Christians have never heard the term God’s New Testament economy. The Greek word for economy may also be translated “arrangement,” “administration,” or “plan.” God has a plan, and thus, He has an arrangement. In order to carry out His plan under His arrangement, He needs an administration.
Every day I have a plan. I rise up early in the morning to be with the Lord. Then I eat breakfast. After breakfast I walk for about ten minutes. Then I go to do my day’s work. I may read or answer some correspondence, or I may listen to the reading of some messages, or write some outlines, or study some verses. At 11:30 I may have an appointment. After that I have lunch. In the afternoon after a nap, I may have another appointment. Then I have dinner. After dinner I may have an evening meeting. This shows that I have a plan.
God’s New Testament plan was to get Himself incarnated (Luke 1:30-31, 34-35). How marvelous this is! For thousands of years God remained as the divine God, but He had a New Testament plan. The first step of His plan was to become incarnated, to get Himself mingled with man in order to enter into man. This was the procedure by which God was brought into man that He might mingle Himself with man.
God was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:18, 20) and spent nine months in Mary’s womb. In this way He partook of man’s blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14a). After His birth He passed through human living (Acts 10:38; 1:21). Human living was a part of the incarnation. God became a man in order to live on this earth. He did not become a man to stay on the earth for only a few hours and then go back to the heavens. No, He stayed here for thirty-three and a half years. He spent approximately thirty years in a carpenter’s home. Then He began to travel as a traveling preacher. That was His living. He suffered very much, and He knew the feeling of summer and of winter. He knew all the turmoils common to man.
The second step in God’s plan was the marvelous, all-inclusive death of Jesus Christ. Such an all-inclusive death dealt with sin (2 Cor. 5:21) and with sins (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:3). It also dealt with the old man (Rom. 6:6) and the flesh (Gal. 5:24). The all-inclusive death of Christ also dealt with Satan, the serpent (John 3:14; Heb. 2:14b), and with the world (24, John 12:31-33a), which is hanging on Satan (1 John 5:19). This death solved all the problems between man and God and accomplished God’s eternal redemption, signified by the blood flowing out of the crucified Jesus (Heb. 9:12; John 19:34).
The all-inclusive death of Jesus Christ also released the divine life as the eternal life, signified by the water flowing out of the crucified Christ (v. 34). The all-inclusive death of Christ is our death and is our history, because we are in Him. How marvelous is His death!
After His all-inclusive death the Lord Jesus resurrected (Matt. 16:21b; Acts 2:24; 3:15; 5:30). The resurrection of Jesus Christ testifies that God is satisfied with His death for us and that we are justified by God in Him and with Him (Rom. 4:25b). Our being justified in Him is the objective justification, and our being justified with Him is the subjective justification. Christ now lives with us, and we live with Christ. Thus we live a life that enables us to be justified subjectively.
In His resurrection Jesus the man was begotten as the Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:4). The resurrection of Jesus Christ was Christ’s birth. Jesus the man was born as the Son of God. The resurrection of Christ also imparted the divine life into the believers of Jesus Christ and begot them as the many sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29; John 12:24b).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ also made Him the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Finally, this resurrection consummated the Triune God and made the Spirit of God the ultimate consummation of the Triune God as the Spirit (Matt. 28:19; John 7:39; Rev. 22:17). Before His incarnation the Triune God as the divine person did not have the human nature. Thus, we may say that He was perfect but not completed. He was short of the human nature. Through incarnation He obtained the human nature, yet He was still short of something in that He had never entered into death. Even after He died on the cross, the Triune God was still short of something because He had not yet entered into resurrection. In resurrection the consummation of the Triune God was completed. It was not until this consummation of the Triune God in resurrection that the Triune God’s title the Father, the Son, and the Spirit was mentioned. After His resurrection the Lord Jesus met the disciples on a mountain in Galilee (Matt. 28:16), and He told them to go and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (v. 19).
The Triune God has now been completed; He has now been consummated. Christ’s resurrection was the consummating of the Triune God. The Spirit of God is now released, and the Spirit of God is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God as the Spirit. The title the Spirit is simple, but the significance of this title is not simple. The Spirit is the processed Triune God. John 7:39 says, “This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Jesus was glorified in His resurrection. After He was glorified, the Spirit was there. In the last chapter of the last book of the New Testament, the title the Spirit is used (Rev. 22:17). In such a title no reference is made to God, to Christ, to the Son, or to the Father. The Spirit is the consummated, processed Triune God. This One is the Bridegroom. Our Bridegroom is a marvelous person — the Triune God, processed and ultimately consummated as the Spirit. In the Spirit are the Father, the Son, the human nature, the all-inclusive death, and the resurrection. Everything is in the Spirit. The Spirit is the Bridegroom, and the regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite man is the bride. At the end of the Bible there is a wonderful couple who constitute a wonderful story of the Bridegroom with the bride. Still, with Christ’s resurrection God’s plan was not yet finished.
The final part of God’s plan is the ascension of Christ. The New Testament reveals that Christ’s ascension had two parts — the secret part and the open part. Most readers of the Scriptures have not realized that there was a secret part to Christ’s ascension. This secret part took place early in the morning on the day of resurrection. On that morning the resurrected Christ did not see anyone but Mary. After Mary realized who He was, she tried to touch Him, but He would not allow her to do so because He had not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17). Later, He came back to His disciples and offered Himself to be touched by them (v. 27). Before His coming back to the disciples, He did not allow anyone to touch Him, because the freshness of His resurrection should be presented to the Father for the Father’s satisfaction, that God might taste His freshness in resurrection. This was typified by the firstfruits of the harvest (Lev. 23:10-11).
There was also an open part to Christ’s ascension. A number of the Lord’s disciples saw His open ascension. At that time the angels came to declare that Christ would come back in the same way as they beheld Him go into heaven (Acts 1:9-11). The open part of Christ’s ascension was for Christ to be crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:7), to be made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), to be made a Leader and Savior (5:31), and to be made Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:22). Such an ascension is the consummation of Christ as the Savior. A little man, a Nazarene, was made the Lord of all and the Christ, the Accomplisher of God’s economy. Christ was made the top Leader among all the leaders so that He also could be a Savior. If He were not a Leader, He would not have the capacity to save us. As a Leader, He has every kind of capacity to be our Savior.
If the Lord needed a war between America and Russia in order that one hundred people may be saved, the Lord could arrange a war just for the salvation of those one hundred chosen people. When I was a young person, my mother had a very close relationship with the missionaries. Through her I came to know quite a lot about America. I loved America, and I thought about it frequently. But I never had the thought that I would come to America. Rather, during the Second World War, I thought that after the war China would be freed and that it would be helped by the United States to build up a great democratic republic that would match the United States in order to secure the Pacific. Having such a view, my thought was to develop Inner Mongolia. However, eventually I came to the United States. My coming to this country was accomplished through the Second World War. If there had been no Second World War, I could never have come here. This is not a small thing. Many Chinese people of high quality have come to America because of that war. This shows that the Lord Jesus is the One who was managing that war.
Each day I wait with anticipation for the newspaper. Recent political changes in Russia indicate that the Soviet Union is becoming a democratic country. I am waiting to see whether China might also become democratic before long. The great image in the prophecy in Daniel 2 had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, an abdomen and thighs of bronze, and two legs of iron. The feet of that image were partly of iron and partly of clay (vv. 32-33), that is, of iron mixed with clay. When the Communist Party was the only party governing Russia, all the “clay” was annulled. Now the clay has risen up to say something. This helps us to see the fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel 2. According to that prophecy, the Lord Jesus will come back as a stone cut not by man’s hands but by God. This stone will smash the feet of the great image, on the ten toes of iron mixed with clay (v. 34). Without the events of this previous year, the prophecy in Daniel 2 could not be fulfilled. Hallelujah, Christ is the Leader who manages all things!
Christ is also the Savior. To become the Savior He accomplished everything. He passed through death, entered into resurrection, and ascended to the heavens. He was glorified; He was crowned with glory and honor. He was made the Lord and Christ and was also made the Leader and Savior. Furthermore, He was made Head over all things to the church. Now He is fully consummated as the Savior, the One who is able to save (Heb. 7:25). Christ is also omnipresent. He is the life-giving Spirit. Like the air that surrounds the globe, He is waiting for people to believe into Him and to receive Him.
The first four basic steps of God’s plan include incarnation, the all-inclusive death of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the ascension of Christ. The Triune God has been completed, and our Savior has been consummated. These are the things that the apostles’ teaching covers. We need to learn to know all these things. The first step in God’s plan was the incarnation of the Triune God. The incarnation of the Triune God was God’s being born of a virgin. Matthew 1:20 tells us that that which was begotten in Mary was of the Holy Spirit. God was born of a virgin, and He stayed there for nine months. This God partook of man’s blood and flesh. We may not like blood and flesh, but God desired to partake of man’s blood and flesh so that He could be the same as we are. He became a man to bring God into man. Before the incarnation God was God and man was man. But through incarnation God entered into man so that God may mingle Himself with man. The result of this mingling was a God-man; God and man became one. Then He passed through human living. During Jesus’ years, there was a man who was God living on this earth.
We need to go around the globe to teach all these things. We should not teach concerning the kind of water in which people should be baptized or concerning the use of grape juice or wine at the Lord’s table. We should learn all the main things contained in the apostles’ teaching.
