Basic Lessons on Service

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

These basic lessons on service were given by Brother Witness Lee from February through December 1979 in Anaheim, California. They were given to the elders and co-workers in Southern California for the purpose of training the saints.

How to meet _{lesson 1}

Outline
I. The church being the assembly, the gathering of the called-out ones
II. To meet being to worship God and to serve Him
III. To meet being to minister Christ to others
IV. To meet being to build up the church
V. How to meet
A. Into the Lord’s name
B. By exercising our spirit
C. With the experience of Christ
D. Ministering Christ
E. By prophesying
F. Without division

The Lord’s table meeting (1) _{lesson 2}

Outline
I. The ministry meetings
A. To Preach the Gospel
B. To give a report of God’s work
C. To read the apostles’ writing (the Scripture)
II. The church meetings
A. The Lord’s table meeting
1. On the first day of the week (the Lord’s Day)
2. To partake of the Lord’s table
3. To eat the Lord’s supper
4. To remember the Lord
a. The focus of the Lord’s table
b. By breaking the bread to apprehend with appreciation and thanks the Lord’s physical body being broken for us

The Lord’s table meeting (2) _{lesson 3}

Outline
c. By eating the bread
1) To enjoy the Lord as our life supply
2) To testify that we live by the Lord
3) To have fellowship in Christ’s mystical Body
d. By drinking the cup
1) To review the redemption of the new covenant
2) To receive God’s blessing
3) To have fellowship in the blood of Christ
5. To declare the Lord’s death
6. To express our desire of the Lord’s coming back
7. To worship the Father
8. Warning
a. Proving ourselves and discerning the Body
b. Not eating the bread and drinking the cup unworthily
c. For the worse, if meeting with divisions
d. The Lord’s chastening

The practice of the Lord’s table meeting (1) _{lesson 4}

Outline
I. Remembering the Lord
A. By praising instead of by praying
1. Not to ask the Lord to do things for us
2. But to bless the Lord with well speaking concerning His person and work
B. Addressing praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God
1. Realizing the economy of the Divine Trinity
2. Learning to differentiate the Lord’s names from the Father’s names
C. Calling hymns
1. Learning to know the hymns
2. Learning to apply the hymns at the appropriate time
D. Distributing the bread and the cup
1. Neither too early nor too late
2. When the remembrance of the Lord reaches the high tide
3. Better with some thanks given to the Lord

The practice of the Lord’s table meeting (2) _{lesson 5}

Outline
II. Worshipping the Father
A. After eating the bread and drinking the cup
B. By praising
1. Christ, the Firstborn of God, taking the lead among His brothers
2. We, the many sons of God, following Christ in praising the Father
C. Addressing praise to the Father
D. Calling hymns
E. By presenting Christ to God the Father
1. As the peace offering
2. Enjoying Him before God the Father
a. As our life supply
b. As love in resurrection
c. As power in ascension
d. In cleanness
The Lord’s table meeting replacing the Feast of the Passover
Praising the Lord with the hymns
The Lord’s table in ancient times
The crucial point in our service

The practice of the Lord’s table meeting (3) _{lesson 6}

Outline
III. The worship in the dispensing of God
A. To worship the Father
1. By becoming the Father’s children
2. By knowing the Father’s name
3. By enjoying the Father’s presence
B. In the Son as the reality
1. By Experiencing the Son as the good land
2. By enjoying the riches of the Son as the rich produce of the good land
3. By presenting the Son to the Father as the peace offering
C. In our spirit mingled with the Spirit of God
1. By being born of the Spirit of God in our spirit
2. By being baptized into One Body in the Spirit of God
3. By drinking of the Spirit of God
4. By being in the unique place of worship where God’s habitation is
D. In the dispensing of the Triune God

The practice of the Lord’s table meeting (4) _{lesson 7}

Outline
IV. Presenting Christ as the peace offering to the Father
A. The peace offering being the center of the basic offerings
1. From God’s side based upon the burnt offering and the meal offering
2. From our side based upon the trespass offering and the sin offering
B. The required peace offering
C. The peace offering for thanksgiving

The practice of the Lord’s table meeting (5) _{lesson 8}
The practice of the Lord’s table meeting (6) _{lesson 9}

Outline
E. The enjoyment of the peace offering
1. God’s portion
a. The blood
1) To satisfy His righteous requirements
2) To maintain His holy position
3) To keep His glory
b. The fat
1) The inward riches for His satisfaction according to His glory
2) The protection of the inward parts
c. The two kidneys — the most tender of the inward parts
d. The appendage on the liver
e. The fat tail of the sheep or the lamb — the additional riches
f. A satisfying fragrance made by fire from offering items b through e as food to God

The practice of the Lord’s table meeting (7) _{lesson 10}

Outline
2. The offering priest’s portion
a. One cake out of each of the following as a heave offering unto Jehovah — Christ in His humanity as nourishment in ascension to the serving one
1) Unleavened, Perforated, Thin Cakes Mingled with Oil — Christ Living a Crucified Life Mingled with the Spirit and Easy to Be Contacted and Received
2) Unleavened, hollow wafers anointed with oil — Christ living a humble life under the anointing of the Spirit
3) Cakes of fine flour saturated and mingled with oil — Christ living a fine human life saturated and mingled with the Spirit
4) Leavened bread, signifying the sinfulness of the offerer and the offering priest as a reminder to them
b. The right thigh as a heave offering unto Jehovah — the power of Christ in ascension for the strengthening of the serving one
3. The priesthood’s portion — the breast as a wave offering before Jehovah — the Love of Christ in resurrection for nourishment to all the priests
4. The offerer’s portion
a. The flesh of the cattle — the supply of Christ
1) Of the peace offering for thanksgiving (of emotion) — good for eating for one day
2) Of the peace offering for a vow or a freewill offering (of the will) — good for eating for two days
b. Cakes of all four kinds as described in 1), 2), 3), and 4), under 2a — Christ in His humanity as food to His offerer
5. The congregation’s portion

The church-building service _{lesson 11}

Outline
I. The church being built by itself, not only through the joints of supply but also through each one part
II. To each one of us grace having been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ
III. As each one has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the varied grace of God
IV. The practical service — ministry
A. As deacons and deaconesses
B. Serving others
C. Helping others
D. As a servant, even as a slave
V. The examples of such service
A. The Lord Jesus
B. Epaphras
C. Tychicus

The grace-ministering service _{lesson 12}

Outline
I. All the members of the Body of Christ being gifted
II. Every member having been given grace
III. All the members being stewards of the varied grace of God
IV. The service in the church being the function of the members with grace
V. Grace being God embodied in Christ as our enjoyment
VI. To serve in the church being to minister Christ as grace to others
VII. The goal of our service

The danger and loss of not using our gift _{lesson 13}

Outline
I. The danger
A. Beating our fellow slaves — mistreating fellow believers
B. Eating and drinking with the drunken — keeping company with people who are drunken with worldly things
C. Hiding our gift in the earth
1. Being passive, not active, for the Lord’s service
2. Merely keeping the Lord’s gift, neither losing it nor gaining a profit by using it
II. The loss
A. To be cut off from the Lord at His coming back — to be separated from the Lord in His coming glory
1. To be chastened dispensationally
2. In weeping and gnashing of teeth
B. To lose our gift
C. To be cast out into the darkness outside of the Lord’s coming glory

Strange fire _{lesson 14}

Outline
I. The incense should be burned before the Lord with the fire from the altar of burnt offering
II. The fire on the altar of burnt offering burns out all the natural and negative things before God
III. The strange fire signifies the natural enthusiasm
IV. Strange fire in the priestly service causes death before God
V. The priests should control their natural affection, not sympathizing with the victim condemned by God’s holiness
VI. The offering of the strange fire might have been related to the drinking of wine

Taking heed how to build _{lesson 15}

Outline
I. The unique foundation having been laid
II. Building on the unique foundation
III. Building with gold, silver, and precious stones
IV. Building with wood, grass, and stubble
V. Every man’s work will be tested by fire
A. If any man’s work stands the fire, he will receive a reward
B. If any man’s work is consumed, he will suffer loss

The impotence of our natural being in the things of God _{lesson 16}

Outline
I. Our spirit having been deadened
II. Our soul neither receiving the things of the Spirit of God nor being able to know them
III. Our heart being deceitful above all things and being incurable
IV. Our mind being filled with vanity and darkened in understanding
V. Our will being hard
VI. Our flesh being unable to be subject to God and to please God
VII. Our self needing to be denied
VIII. Our body being of sin and of death
IX. Learning to have no trust in our natural being in the things of God

Knowing the flesh _{lesson 17}

Outline
I. The fallen man becoming flesh
II. The flesh versus the Spirit
III. The flesh lusting against the Spirit
IV. The works of the flesh that damage the church life
A. Enmities, strife, jealousy, and outbursts of anger
B. Factions, divisions, sects, and envyings
V. People of the flesh persecuting those of the Spirit
VI. Nothing good dwelling in the flesh
VII. The flesh being enmity against God
VIII. The flesh not being subject to the law of God
IX. The flesh being unable to subject itself to the law of God
X. The flesh being unable to please God
XI. Not trusting in the flesh
XII. Not sowing unto the flesh
XIII. Not fulfilling the lust of the flesh
XIV. Crucifying the flesh

Further knowledge of the flesh _{lesson 18}
The denial of the self _{lesson 19}

Outline
I. The difference between the self and the flesh
A. The flesh being the corrupted and transmuted body
B. The self being the fallen and rebellious soul
II. When the flesh dominates the self, the self becomes an evil person
III. When the self subdues the flesh, the self becomes a “good” person
IV. The self being independent of God
V. The self being the embodiment of the soulish life, one with Satan, and expressed through the mind — opinionated thoughts
VI. The self being the hidden, damaging factor of our service in the church
VII. The self needing to be crossed out

Rejecting the natural strength and ability _{lesson 20}

Outline
I. The natural strength and ability having no divine element
II. The natural strength and ability acting on their own, not according to God’s will
III. The natural strength and ability seeking their own glory and satisfying their own desire
IV. The natural strength and ability needing to be dealt with by the cross
V. The natural strength and ability becoming useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord
VI. The case of Moses
A. Educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and being powerful in his words and works
B. Doing something for God’s people according to his own will
C. Being put aside by God for forty years
D. Learning to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him
VII. The case of Peter
A. Being self-confident in his natural strength and ability
B. Being put into a test
C. Becoming a complete failure
D. Learning to serve the brothers by faith in the lord and with humility

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