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Scripture Reading: Acts 1:3-5, 8-9, 12-14; 2:1-4, 16-18; 4:8, 31; 13:2, 13:9, 52; 6:3, 5; 7:55; 11:24; 8:29, 39; 16:6-7
I. In Christ’s resurrection, after breathing Himself as breath into those who believed in Him, He was physically with them for forty days, sometimes appearing and sometimes disappearing to train them to be accustomed to His invisible presence so that they would realize the kingdom of God as the reality and sphere of the living of the divine life — John 20:26; 21:1; Acts 1:3.
II. After charging the disciples to wait for the Spirit promised by the Father to fall on them so that they could be His witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth, He visibly departed from them according to God’s economy and was taken up into heaven — vv. 4-9.
III. As far as God’s essence is concerned, He was still with the disciples by being in them. Hence, they were able to withstand the threat of the Jews and remain in Jerusalem to wait for the promised Spirit of power from God, and the one hundred twenty people were able to pray in one accord for ten days, cooperating with God’s administration in heaven to bring in the great act of God at Pentecost — vv. 12-14.
IV. At Pentecost this exalted God-man, who has ascended to the throne to be made Lord and Christ and Head over all things by God (2:33, 36; Eph. 1:22), poured Himself out as the Spirit of power on those disciples who had already received Him as the Spirit of life and who were waiting for the Spirit of power. In this way the ascended Head baptized His Body into Himself as the all-inclusive Spirit — Acts 2:1-4, 16-18.
V. From now on, those who believe in Him are filled outwardly with His Spirit of power (v. 4; 4:8, 31; 13:9), and they are filled inwardly with His Spirit of life (v. 52) to be inwardly full of His Spirit (6:3, 5; 7:55; 11:24), becoming a group of people mingled as one with this all-inclusive Spirit. He is in them as the Spirit of life to be lived out of them to express Himself. He is also outside of them as the Spirit of power to be preached and propagated by them as His continuation and spread on the earth.
VI. Those who are filled and saturated with His all-inclusive Spirit within and who are filled and equipped without are led by Him to spread His kingdom on earth in order that His church may be established — 8:29, 39; 13:2; 16:6-7.
The Triune God cannot be analyzed by our limited logic and wisdom. The Bible gives us the fact of the Triune God, but if man tries to understand Him by analysis and deduction, he will be like a blind man touching an elephant; what he touches will be only a little part of the whole elephant, and he will still be very unclear. The Bible is not for man to reason with. It is a book of revelation. Only by revelation will man know the mysterious part of the Bible, that is, the Triune God. First, revelation includes facts. For example, tonight I am standing here, and all of you are sitting there; this is a fact. Second, there is the light. With the fact, there is the light. In addition, there is the third matter, a healthy sight. When you put the three together, you have revelation. Although the Bible is not for us to reason with but is rather for us to see, we need to see it without any colored glasses. Many times, although man has all three of the above matters, he looks into the pure, clean Word of God with a pair of black glasses. As a result, the Bible appears black. The Bible is not black. It is the glasses that are black. What man needs is to change his glasses. We must have revelation. It is through revelation that we can understand with a pure mind and an open spirit the deep truth concerning the Triune God.
The Lord’s recovery began sixty-two years ago in 1922 in Foochow, the hometown of Brother Watchman Nee. From mainland China we spread to Taiwan and then to America. We have always given people a strong impression that among us we emphasize the truth very much. The Lord’s recovery among us can be considered a recovery of truths. From the first day until now, not only have we not changed our attitude; rather, we have strengthened it. I hope very much that through these four chapters and by revelation, we can have a deeper understanding of the Triune God. We should not be shallow Christians, saying what others say in a superficial way. Rather, we should be equipped by the truth of Christ that we may become those who preach this truth.
So far, there have been three categories of teachings concerning the Divine Trinity. The first is modalism, the second is tritheism, and the third is the revelation concerning the Divine Trinity. Both the first and the second are heretical teachings. Only the third is correct according to the proper revelation of the Bible.
When the theologians debated about the persons of the Trinity during the second and third centuries, one group asserted that the Father, Son, and Spirit are just one God who appeared in three different modes at different times and places. Therefore, this school of teaching is called modalism, and those who held to this teaching were called the modalists. The strongest proponent of this teaching was Sabellius. Hence, in proper church history, his teaching, Sabellianism, is also known as modalism. He asserted that God is three and one. This is correct. But he said that in the Old Testament, God was the Father; in the New Testament in the Gospels, the Son came, and the Father ceased to exist. In other words, in the Gospels the Father became the Son. During this period, only the Son existed; the Father did not exist anymore. In the Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation, the Spirit came, and the Son ceased to exist. The Son became the Spirit. During this period, only the Spirit existed. Both the Father and the Son had ceased to exist. For this reason there are three modes of God: the mode of the Father, the mode of the Son, and the mode of the Spirit. These three modes are not simultaneous but appear consecutively one after another. When the second came, the first passed away. And when the third came, the second was over. This is a great heresy.
From the second and third centuries on, a group of people rose up to oppose modalism. They strongly asserted that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three different persons — that They are distinct as well as separate, yet They exist simultaneously at any one time. This kind of teaching resulted in tritheism, and it formed an extreme contrast to modalism. Modalism stood in one extreme, while tritheism stood in another. Both are heresies. Orthodox theology rejects both of these kinds of teachings. In A.D. 325 the Council of Nicaea and its subsequent creed avoided these two kinds of extremes.
I have clearly presented before you the essence of the four Gospels. You can see that we do not believe in modalism or in tritheism but in the revelation of the Divine Trinity. In the Old Testament the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all there. Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God was there. Then verse 2 says that the Spirit of God brooded upon the surface of the waters. The Spirit of God was also there. By chapter 18 there were three men who appeared to Abraham. One of them was the Lord Jesus. He appeared as a man, and Abraham washed His feet and served Him a feast. He also ate the feast served. By Exodus 3 this man was the Angel of Jehovah. This Angel appeared again in Judges and in Zechariah. The Father was in the Old Testament, the Son was there, and the Spirit was also there. This is not like modalism, which says that in the Old Testament there was only the Father; there was no Son and no Spirit. When we come to the Gospels, we have seen that while it was the Son who came, He came with the Father and by the Spirit. The Son said that He was never alone, because the Father was with Him, and that He was in the Father, and the Father was in Him.
This is not all. The Son was conceived of the Holy Spirit and was born of the Spirit. The Spirit was in Him as His essence. At the age of thirty the Spirit furthermore came upon Him to be His power. He lived and moved by this Spirit, and He worked and fought also by this Spirit for the fulfillment of the Father’s divine economy.
Essence and economy are two most important, key words in the study of the Triune God and the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus could be conceived and born as a God-man because He had God in Him as His essence and element. In addition, at the age of thirty the Holy Spirit came upon Him. This does not mean that before thirty He did not have the Holy Spirit in Him. Indeed, the Holy Spirit was already in Him. The coming of the Holy Spirit upon Him as His power is the economical aspect. There is a distinction between essence and economy. The Holy Spirit was upon Him for three and a half years. He worked and cast out demons by the power of this Spirit; this is the economical aspect. From His conception, through His birth, and through His living on earth, the Holy Spirit was in Him as life; this is the essential aspect.
Because in the past nearly no one knew the distinction between the essential and the economical aspects of the matter, a great heretic came out by the name of Cerinthus. He taught that Jesus was not God and that He was only a man born of Joseph and Mary. It was only at the age of thirty that Christ (i.e., the Spirit) came upon Him as a dove. He worked and cast out demons by this Christ for three and a half years, until He died on the cross, when the Christ left Him. This was why Jesus prayed on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” The heretical teaching of Cerinthus was a conjecture based upon the two facts of the Holy Spirit coming upon the Lord Jesus at His baptism and the forsaking of God at His crucifixion on the cross. Cerinthus made a wrong deduction in considering God to be with the Lord Jesus for a period of time and then leaving Him after three and a half years. Cerinthus did not have the revelation. He did not realize that the Holy Spirit’s coming upon the Lord Jesus at His baptism and the forsaking of God at His death on the cross were not essential matters but economical matters.
Over fifty years ago, Brother Watchman Nee often told us that the Lord Jesus was the Son, but in eternity past He was the Father, and after resurrection He was the Spirit. Hymns, #490 was written by him. Stanza 5 says,
The above verse is written from the economical point of view. A form is a mode. If you do not know that in God’s divine economy there is the essential Trinity and there is the economical Trinity, and if you do not know the difference and the distinction between them, you will think that Brother Nee was teaching the heresy of modalism. Essentially speaking, the Triune God is one. But economically speaking, there is the distinction of three. I will not say that there are three modes, for I do not want to be mistaken for a modalist. This is why I use the expression distinction of three. In the Lord Jesus’ conception, birth, human living, death on the cross, and resurrection, the Triune God was in Him passing through all these processes together with Him. The Father was in Him, the Son was in Him, and the Spirit was in Him. The whole Triune God was in Him. Essentially speaking, the Father and the Spirit never departed from Him. But in the aspect of God’s economy, after the Lord Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit was upon Him as His power for three and a half years. Then at the time when He was put on the cross, God forsook Him. This was not according to His essence but according to His economy. Over twenty years ago, I wrote a book in English entitled The Economy of God. In this book there is a passage that reads, “Thus, the three persons of the Trinity become the three successive steps in the process of God’s economy” (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1964, vol. 3, p. 154). Here I said “three successive steps in the process of God’s economy.” In the book The God-Men, my opposers changed the word economy to existence, making it read that there are three successive steps in God’s existence. This is far off from what I wrote. What I said was that the Triune God has three successive steps in His economy. But the opposers changed my words to read that the Triune God has three successive steps in His existence. This is a great misrepresentation! In God’s existence there are not three successive steps, because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are coexistent from eternity. There are three, yet They are one God. This is the essential Trinity. But in God’s economy the Triune God has three successive steps. First, the Father planned. Next, the Son came to accomplish what the Father has planned. Last, the Spirit executes what the Father has planned and what the Son has accomplished. This is the economical Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit have a distinction in Their existence and economy. Anyone who fails to realize this distinction will drift into heresy. I hope that you can clearly understand this difference so that you will not be deceived by the seemingly right but actually wrong teachings.
We now come to the Christ in the Acts. Item number one of the outline says that this pneumatic Christ who is in resurrection breathed Himself as breath into the believers. After this He was with them for forty days in a physical form. At times He appeared, and at times He disappeared, training them to be accustomed to His invisible presence. When the Lord was with the disciples for three and a half years, His presence was visible. Although the disciples treasured this very much, there was no way for the Lord Jesus to get into them. The Lord Jesus needed to pass through death and resurrection to become the Spirit so that He could enter into them. This is why in John 14:20 the Lord said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In His flesh the Lord Jesus could only be among the disciples, being with them physically; He could not be in them to be with them invisibly. But after His death and resurrection He became the Spirit and, as breath, He could be breathed into them to be with them eternally. By John 20:22, after He breathed Himself as breath into the disciples, He was in them, and He was with them in an invisible way. But the disciples were neither appreciative nor accustomed to this. For this reason the Lord Jesus stayed with them for forty days to train them to get used to this invisible presence.
The Lord Jesus was visibly present among the disciples for three and a half years. One day He suddenly disappeared. Then, on the evening of resurrection, He appeared again. The disciples were able once more to see Him and to talk with Him. But then, all of a sudden, the Lord hid Himself from them again. Eventually, they felt that they were bored and were not accomplishing anything by staying there. Peter said, “I am going fishing.” They said, “We also are coming with you” (21:3). And they all went fishing. The strange thing was that the Lord Jesus had chased away all the fish. That night they caught nothing. At daybreak the Lord suddenly appeared on the shore and said to them, “You do not have any fish to eat, do you?” They answered feebly, “No” (v. 5). Then the Lord told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat. They did, and the net was filled. At that point they realized that it was the Lord Jesus. When they got onto the shore, they saw a fire of coals there with fish and bread. The Lord called them to come and dine, and He gave them bread and fish. After they ate, the Lord talked with them. But then, in an instant, the Lord Jesus disappeared again. Nobody knew where He went. All these instances were the Lord Jesus’ training of His disciples to be accustomed to His invisible presence.
This is not all. Acts 1 says that after His resurrection the Lord appeared to His disciples for forty days, speaking to them concerning the kingdom of God. Formerly, all the disciples had a wrong understanding concerning the kingdom. They thought that the kingdom was just a matter of rule and kingship. Hence, when they were together, they asked the Lord if it was the time for Him to restore the kingdom to Israel. During that time the Lord told them that whether this was the time or not was not a question to be answered by Him, for such a matter belongs to the Father’s economy. The kingdom that He talked about was not the kingdom according to their concept. What He meant was that the life of God would increase in them until it became a sphere, the reality and sphere of the living of the divine life, which is the church. Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God, which today is the church, is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Only this is the kingdom of God. They should wait to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, and then they would receive power from above and would be His witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. This is not a matter of essence but a matter of economy.
Item number two of the outline says that after charging the disciples to wait for the Spirit promised by the Father to fall on them so that they could be His witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth, the Lord Jesus visibly departed from them according to God’s economy and was taken up into heaven. After He was with them for forty days, at times appearing and at times disappearing to train them to be accustomed to His invisible presence, and after He taught them to understand the kingdom of God, He left them and ascended officially and formally to heaven before their eyes. Had not the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into them? Why then did He physically leave them again to be taken up into heaven? We must realize that the ascension here is economical rather than essential.
Item number three says that as far as God’s essence is concerned, He was still with the disciples by being in them. Hence, they were able to withstand the threat of the Jews and remain in Jerusalem to wait for the promised Spirit of power from God, and the one hundred and twenty people were able to pray in one accord for ten days, cooperating with God’s administration in heaven to bring in the great act of God at Pentecost. Here were one hundred twenty Galileans who were not afraid of the threat of the Jews in Jerusalem and were gathered together to persevere in prayer with one accord. Formerly, they could not comprehend the Lord’s word concerning His death and were arguing among themselves as to who were the greatest ones among them and who was to sit at His left and at His right. But now they were sober. They were no longer arguing. All one hundred twenty of them were in one accord, praying earnestly for ten days. This is not a small thing. It would be hard enough for twelve persons to pray together, much less one hundred twenty. And they were praying for ten days! This was not all. Peter stood up to expound the Bible and did it accurately. This proves that he had the Holy Spirit as his essence within. The ten days of prayer brought in a great act of God at Pentecost. This was a great move in God’s economy. It was something that God desired to execute in heaven, but it needed man’s prayer on earth. By the Holy Spirit in them essentially, one hundred and twenty people were able to pray earnestly in one accord for ten days. This brought in the great move of God in His economy.
Item number four says that at Pentecost, this exalted God-man, who has ascended to the throne to be made Lord and Christ and Head over all things, poured Himself out as the Spirit of power. On the day of Pentecost, it was not a breathing but an outpouring. The disciples had already received the Spirit of life, but they were still waiting for the Spirit of power. The Spirit of life is for existence; it is essential. The Spirit of power is for work; it is economical.
Following this, item number four continues by saying that the Spirit of power was poured out on those disciples who had already received Him as the Spirit of life and who were waiting for the Spirit of power. In this way the ascended Head baptized His Body into Himself as the all-inclusive Spirit. First, at Pentecost the Jewish part of the believers was baptized into the Spirit. Then at the house of Cornelius, the Gentile part of the believers was also baptized into the Spirit. In this way the whole Body of Christ was baptized into this all-inclusive Spirit.
Item number five says that from now on, those who believe in Him are filled outwardly with His Spirit of power. When Acts speaks of the filling of the Spirit, it mainly uses two Greek verbs. One is pletho, which means an outward filling. The other is pleroo, which means an inward filling. We can use the baptistry as an illustration. On the one hand, the water fills the pool inwardly. On the other hand, when you are immersed in the pool, the water does not fill you inwardly, but you are filled by the water outwardly. Both words are used in Acts 2:1-4. Verse 2 says, “As of a rushing violent wind, and it filled [pleroo] the whole house where they were sitting.” Then verse 4 says, “And they were all filled [pletho] with the Holy Spirit.” Concerning the house, the wind filled the house inwardly, but concerning the people in the house, the Holy Spirit filled them outwardly. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus are filled outwardly by His Spirit of power and are filled inwardly by His Spirit of life as described in Acts 13:52, where the disciples were said to be filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Eventually, they were made full of His Spirit. The words full of are a third Greek word, pleres. This is not a verb but an adjective. Examples of usage of this word appear in Acts 6:3, “full of the Spirit and of wisdom,” in verse 5, “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” in 7:55, “full of the Holy Spirit,” and in 11:24, “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” To be “full of” the Spirit is a condition of the believers after having been filled inwardly by the Holy Spirit. Both being “filled” inwardly and “full of” are for life and are essential, whereas being “filled” outwardly is for work and is economical.
The Lord Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit’s conception, having the Holy Spirit as His essence for His existence. At the age of thirty, the Holy Spirit fell upon Him to be His Spirit of power for work. In the same principle, with the disciples on the evening of resurrection, the Lord came to breathe into them for them to receive the Spirit as their life within; this is essential and is for existence. After fifty days, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them to be the Spirit of power; this is economical and is for work. The Lord Jesus Himself had this twofold experience; the disciples also had this twofold experience; we the believers also have this twofold experience. For a new believer, as soon as he says, “Lord Jesus, I receive You as my Savior,” he has the essential Spirit in him as life. By this he can live a spiritual life. At the same time, he can receive the economical Spirit as his outward power to equip him for the Lord’s work and testimony.
First Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free”; this is economical. “And were all given to drink one Spirit”; this drinking is essential and is for our living. The outward baptism of the Spirit is economical and is for work; the drinking in of the Spirit is essential and is for living.
Many times we have this twofold experience. For example, in my daily life, I may be full of meekness, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of joy, life, and wisdom. All these came about by the essential Spirit. But now when I have to speak for the Lord, I have to pray, “Lord, I need two aspects. I need the essential Spirit to fill me and to saturate me within, and I need the economical Spirit to fill me without and to clothe me with the heavenly power.” By then, I not only have the Spirit of life within; I also have the Spirit of power without. The outward clothing of power is the Spirit of power. It is like the uniform of the policeman, which gives him the authority to carry out his duty.
He who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. To believe in the heart and to confess with the mouth by calling is the way to be saved. To be saved does not mean merely to be forgiven of sins; nor does it mean merely to be delivered from perdition. The most important part of salvation is to receive the living Lord, to receive Him as the essential Spirit within as the life for our living and to receive Him as the economical Spirit without as the power for working and fighting for His kingdom. The Spirit of the Lord is like the air. How available and bountiful He is! We can never exhaust His supply. All we need to do is open our mouth to call on His name. This is just like breathing. The Spirit of the Lord will then fill us within. The more we open our mouth to call on the Lord’s name, the more we breathe. The more we breathe in this deep way, the more we will be filled inwardly by the Spirit of the Lord. The more we call on the name of the Lord, the more strength we will have. The more we call on His name, the richer will be our life within, and the stronger will be our power without. Through calling on the name of the Lord, we will receive the essential and the economical Spirit and will receive it even more abundantly.
The last part of item number five says that when the believers are filled inwardly with the Spirit of life and are filled outwardly with the Spirit of power, they become a group of people mingled as one with this all-inclusive Spirit. He is in them as the Spirit of life to be lived out of them to express Himself. He is also outside of them as the Spirit of power to be preached and propagated by them as His continuation and spread on the earth.
Item number six says that those who are filled and saturated with His all-inclusive Spirit within and who are filled and equipped without are led by Him to spread His kingdom on earth that His church may be established. This is indeed glorious! Now at this point, in the Acts we have the church as well as the kingdom. This is the Christ revealed in the book of Acts.
On the one hand, the Lord Jesus acts as Lord and Christ in heaven. On the other hand, He is in us as life and upon us as power in order that we may live Him. In this way we become His continuation and spread and are made His Body to spread His kingdom and to build up His church.
