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In the Gospel of Matthew, the first Gospel, the Lord Jesus was completely outside religion; in other words, He had nothing to do with religion. Now we will take a look at the last Gospel, the Gospel of John.
John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When was the beginning? What is the meaning of the beginning? The beginning in this verse is the beginning before time existed. It refers to eternity past before the beginning in Genesis 1:1. In eternity past, before the beginning of time, the Lord Jesus was the Word. Word in the original Greek does not refer to an instant word or a brief word. It refers to a constant word.
As the Word of God, Christ speaks concerning God in a constant manner. As the Word, Christ speaks concerning God. Christ is the constant definition, expression, and declaration of God. Verse 18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” As the Word of God, Christ explains God. This means that the Word is God Himself.
God is mysterious. We believe that God exists, but none of us has seen God. Some people are experts in electricity, but no one has seen electricity. We can see light, the expression of electricity, but not electricity itself. A person may say that electricity is inside a light bulb, but if he breaks the light bulb, he will not see electricity. Likewise, God is mysterious. God is omnipresent, and His existence is real, but no one has ever seen Him. We praise the Lord that when the Lord Jesus came, the invisible God was declared through the Lord Jesus.
One day Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (14:8). The Lord Jesus said, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). The Lord’s answer shows that He is the expression, manifestation, and explanation of the Father. Our Lord Jesus is God.
Verse 1 of chapter 1 says that in the beginning, before time, the Lord was the Word. Verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” How mysterious this is! One day the Word became flesh. This means that the Word became a man named Jesus, and He tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. What is reality? The Gospel of John says that the Lord Jesus is our real light (8:12; 9:5) and air (20:22). He is also the bread of life (6:35, 41, 48), the water of life (4:14; 7:38), and the eternal abode (14:2, 23). He is our light, air, bread, water, and abode. The light from the sun is not the real thing; it is but a shadow. The Lord Jesus is the real light. If we do not have Him, whether we are under the powerful shining of an electric light or under the shining of the sun at noontime, we are still in darkness. The Lord Jesus is the real light. Only when we have the Lord Jesus do we have real light.
Likewise, no matter how much fresh air we breathe, that air is but a shadow; it is not the reality of air. The Lord Jesus is the real air. No matter how much water we drink, without the Lord Jesus, we will still be thirsty. No matter how much food we eat, without the Lord Jesus, we will still be hungry. We may live in a luxurious penthouse or a palace, but without the Lord Jesus, we are homeless and wandering. Only when we have the Lord Jesus do we have a home, a place of rest. All things are but shadows; only the Lord Jesus is reality. We may think that the clothes we wear are real, but if we do not have the Lord Jesus, we will realize that we are naked when we meet Him.
There are three main categories of the Old Testament law. The first category is related to the tabernacle with its furnishings, such as the Ark, the golden lampstand, the table of the bread of the Presence, the golden incense altar, and the various offerings. These items are all types of the Lord Jesus. The second category is related to ceremonies, including circumcision, the Sabbath, and the feasts. An Israelite had to be circumcised, keep the Sabbath, and keep the three annual feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. These ceremonies are also types of Christ. The third category consists of commandments and ordinances, such as honoring one’s parents, not stealing, loving one’s neighbor as oneself, and dietary regulations.
The tabernacle with its furniture, the offerings, the ceremonies, the commandments, and the ordinances are all shadows. The Lord Jesus is the body, that is, the solid substance, the reality, of the shadows (Col. 2:16-17). The Lord Jesus is the real tabernacle, the real table of the bread of the Presence, the real lampstand, and the real golden incense altar. The Lord Jesus is also the real burnt offering, the real meal offering, the real peace offering, the real sin offering, the real trespass offering, the real wave offering, and the real heave offering. He is all the offerings. Not only so, He is also the real Sabbath, our real rest, and He is our real circumcision. He is also our real feast. When we have Him, we have a feast daily and are truly joyful. In order to truly honor our parents, our honoring must be Christ. Apart from Christ, our honoring is merely a shell, without any reality. Christ is the reality of honoring our parents. In order for our children to honor us, they must have Christ. Without Christ, their honoring is unreliable and temporary. They may honor us in the morning but argue with us in the evening.
The Bible says, “Husbands, love your wives” (Eph. 5:25). Do the brothers who are husbands really love their wives? We must admit that our love for our wives is problematic because it is unreliable. In the beginning we loved our wives very much, but now we do not love them that much. The Bible also says, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord” (v. 22). I know a certain sister who complained to the Lord, saying, “You are unfair. If You had given me a husband who is as good as Mrs. Chang’s husband, I would be subject to him. You gave me a bad husband, and You want me to be subject to him. This is unreasonable.” It is not easy for a wife to be subject to her husband. A wife’s subjection to her husband is Christ, and a husband’s love for his wife is also Christ. Christ is our reality. Without Christ, there is no reality.
According to Colossians 2:16-17, eating, drinking, feasts, new moons, and the Sabbath are all shadows, but the body is of Christ. Christ is the body of every positive thing. Even our humility is a shadow. Christ is the reality of our humility. Some sisters are very gentle, but is this gentleness real? Some brothers are well mannered, but is this real? Without Christ, our gentleness is not real, our humility is not real, our patience is not real, and our manners are not real. Christ is our real gentleness, our real patience, our real humility, and our real manners. Without Christ, everything is vanity. Christ is the reality of every positive thing.
The Bible says that husbands should love their wives. If a brother determines to love his wife because of this word, he will become a religious person and grit his teeth in order to love his wife. This also applies to the sisters. A sister who forces herself to be subject to her husband because of what the Bible says is a religious person. When she is not in subjection, she is rebellious, but when she is in her self-imposed subjection, she is religious.
Some sisters may say that this is very difficult and ask whether they should be in subjection. Do not refuse to be in subjection, and do not try to be in subjection. We should neither be rebellious persons nor religious persons. What should we be? We should be Christians. We do not care for being in subjection, nor do we care for not being in subjection. We care for only one thing — living by Christ. We should not read Ephesians 5 as a law or a commandment; rather, we should take it as our enjoyment. We should pray-read the words in Ephesians 5 and receive them into our spirit to be our supply. Then instead of a sister gritting her teeth to be in subjection or making up her mind to submit, she will inexplicably be subject to her husband. Being in subjection to her husband will be so spontaneous that she will not realize or sense that she is in subjection. This is what it means to be a Christian.
The Bible says, “Always rejoice” (1 Thes. 5:16). In the past I tried to practice being joyful. However, I discovered that when I did not practice to be joyful, I did not have many problems. However, once I tried to be joyful, problems would arise, and many unhappy things would happen. Instead of good news, I would receive only bad news. Finally, when I decided to give up on the matter of being joyful, I experienced the real joy that is in the Lord. The Lord is my joy when I am in Him. When we are in the Lord, no matter how many problems we have, we are joyful, and our difficulties deepen our taste of the Lord. Our taste of the Lord is deepened in our difficulties, and our taste of the Lord is sweeter in our hardships. Real joy comes from Christ.
What is reality? Reality is Christ. Christ should be everything to us in our living. He is the honoring that we have toward our parents. He is the love that brothers have toward their wives. He is the subjection that sisters have toward their husbands. He is joy, peace, patience, humility, and gentleness. He is our all.
Our meetings have totally changed. The middle-aged and older sisters are living, and they exercise their spirit with a released voice. The meetings have changed because the saints are released. The meetings are no longer dull and dead. This is very good. It is good to be living and to exercise our spirit, but we must have reality. We must meet in reality. We should not just declare things; otherwise, what we declare becomes an empty slogan. Even though there are times when it is necessary to be loud, if we are always loud, we will have many problems. There should be reality in our meetings. Reality is the Christ we have experienced. We must bring the Christ we have experienced to the meeting.
John 4:23 says, “An hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness.” Here the Greek word translated “truthfulness” can also be translated as “reality.” The Lord spoke this to a Samaritan woman. A Samaritan is half Jew and half Gentile. Like the Jews, they worshipped God according to the law of Moses. The law of Moses contained two important matters concerning the worship of God. First, they had to worship God in the place that He appointed. They could not worship God in the place of their choice. Second, they could not appear before God empty-handed. They had to bring offerings with them (Deut. 12:13-14; 16:16-17). The offerings were produced from the good land of Canaan. Before the Israelites worshipped God, they had to labor on the land of Canaan. This labor included turning the soil, digging rows, sowing seeds, watering the seeds, and pruning and caring for the plants. After this labor, there was a harvest. Those who raised cattle, sheep, pigeons, or turtledoves also needed to labor in order to have a harvest. Then at the time of a feast the Israelites brought the best, the top, portion of the harvest, that is, the firstfruits of the harvest or the firstborn of the flock, to Jerusalem and presented it to God at the temple as an offering. This is the way the Israelites worshipped God.
It is easy for us to have a natural and religious concept concerning worshipping God. To some people worshipping God means to prostrate themselves before God or to kneel down to God. Moses spoke many times concerning worshipping God in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but he never told the children of Israel to kneel down, bow down, or prostrate themselves. Moses taught them to worship by bringing offerings and presenting them to God. The offerings included the morning and evening offerings. The priests needed to know how to slaughter the animal sacrifices, how to skin the sacrifices, drain the blood, cut the sacrifice in pieces, and wash it with water. They also needed to know which part should be burned completely and which part should be kept, that is, which part was for God’s enjoyment, which part was for themselves, and which part was to be shared with their neighbors (Exo. 23:14-19; 34:18-26; Lev. 1—7; 23; Num. 7—9; 15; 28—29; Deut. 14:22-27; 15:19—16:17). When the children of Israel offered in this way, they worshipped God.
The offerings are Christ. Our real worship to God is to labor on Christ. In our daily life we should labor on Christ. The middle-aged sisters need to manage their homes and care for their husbands and children. Surely, this is not easy. Although the sisters may have a difficult time with house chores, peculiar husbands, and naughty children, God has given them such an environment to cause them to labor on Christ. Crops grow when the sun shines, the rain falls, and the wind blows. Sometimes a husband’s words are like the blazing sun, the children’s tears are like the pouring rain, and the children’s quarrels are like the blowing wind. However, in these situations the sisters can grow a good crop of Christ. These are the best opportunities for us to labor on Christ and to experience Christ. The sisters who experience Christ through their husbands and their children reap a rich harvest. When the saints experience Christ in this way, they bring Christ to the meeting on the Lord’s Day in varying measures. When everyone brings Christ to the meeting, the meeting is full of Christ, and God receives real worship.
Although children are not without problems, parents often wrongly blame their children. Parents often do not understand their children’s feelings. Children are provoked in school, and they have pressure from their studies. These are sufferings. However, the children should realize that these sufferings are good opportunities for them to labor on Christ. A young brother who does not have a father to trouble him, a mother to misunderstand him, classmates to take advantage of him, or pressure from his studies will not experience or enjoy Christ in a deep way. Brothers who have businesses also have problems. They have deadlines to meet and payments to make. The saints who are employers cannot find employees to hire, and those who are hired find it difficult to work for their employers. The saints who are principals find it difficult to manage the teachers, and those who are teachers find it difficult to be under the principal. Everyone has a difficult situation. The Lord uses these difficulties to help us experience and enjoy Christ daily.
Our need is to learn how to enjoy and experience Christ. God has placed us in Christ. The children of Israel entered into the land of Canaan and were each allotted a portion of the land. Whether or not they were willing to labor on the land was a serious matter. If an Israelite was lazy and did not rise early to diligently labor, his plot of land would be desolate, and he would not have a harvest at the end of the year. When it was time for the Feast of Pentecost or the Feast of Tabernacles, others would go to worship God with bundles of produce, but he would be empty-handed. Not only would he be without offerings to present to God, but he would also starve. What a pitiful sight that would be! Similarly, as believers, we each have a portion of Christ. You have a portion of Christ, and I have a portion of Christ. If we do not draw near to the Lord in the morning and we do not talk with Him, enjoy Him, or experience Him during the day, we will be very poor. However, if we are diligent to fellowship with the Lord by enjoying Him in the morning and experiencing Him during the day and especially during difficult times, we will have the element of Christ within us.
If we have many experiences of Christ, we will be able to bring the Christ whom we have experienced to the meeting. Suppose there are four thousand saints in a meeting, and everyone brings their portion of Christ. There would be no need for a message, because all the saints would be anxious to present their portion of Christ. Two hours would not be long enough for all the saints to present their portion of Christ. A brother may share how he experienced the Lord at work. A sister may share how she experienced the Lord at home. A young person may share how he experienced the Lord at school. One by one the saints would testify to exhibit Christ. Such a meeting would be very rich. This is our true worship to God. This is also the kind of worship that God wants.
In the meeting it is good to declare short sentences with the release of the spirit. However, the short sentences that we declare with the release of our spirit must have content. The content should not be merely words from the Bible or phrases from hymns. Our content should be the Christ whom we experience daily. May the Lord have mercy on His church so that we not only release our spirit and call on the Lord but also daily and moment by moment enjoy and experience the Lord as our reality. When we meet, we do not bring doctrines with us; rather, we bring Christ, the reality.
We need to worship God in spirit with Christ as the reality. To worship God in spirit does not mean to worship God with the Holy Spirit but with our human spirit. The present condition of our meetings is good because many saints have learned to release their spirit. However, we need to exercise more. We should not use our mind so much; rather, we should exercise to have a strong spirit. Whenever we come to a meeting, we should bring Christ, that is, our experiences of Christ, and our spirit must be living. We do not have to wait until we reach the meeting hall before we begin to sing and to call on the Lord. We should begin to sing and to call on the Lord on our way to the meeting. Then when we sit down, our spirit will come forth in a released way. In this way, we will have the experiences of Christ as well as the release of the spirit. In such a meeting God will be glorified.
However, when we come to the meetings without experiences of Christ and do not release our spirit, the responsible brothers need to repeatedly encourage us to open our mouth and to function. In such meetings very few saints rise up to speak, and there is no content in their speaking. Furthermore, their spirit is not living, and they do not know how to exercise their spirit. As a result, one person speaks for fifteen minutes. This deflates everyone’s spirit and kills the meeting.
Hence, we must labor on Christ daily. Every saint must have fresh experiences of Christ. Our experience of Christ must be fresh, not old. Then when we come to the meeting, everyone will be strong. There will be no need for the responsible brothers to urge us to speak, because we will all leap up to release our spirit. When our spirit is strong and our testimonies are rich, simple, and concise, the meeting will be rich, and God will be glorified. This is to worship God. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we worship God in our spirit with Christ as the reality.
