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Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18-19; 18:17-20; Eph. 3:16-21; Rev. 12:5
There are two important books in the New Testament that speak of the church. One is Matthew from the Gospels and the other is Ephesians from the Epistles. In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus spoke of the church only in the Gospel of Matthew. We should pay special attention to the fact that the Lord spoke of the church in the Gospel of Matthew, which is the gospel on the kingdom. In the Gospel of Matthew, a book on God’s dominion and kingdom, the Lord Jesus spoke of the church. Furthermore, when the Lord spoke of the church in 16:18 and 18:17, He also touched the matter of authority. After saying that He would build the church upon Himself as the rock, He spoke of the kingdom of the heavens, telling Peter that He would give him the keys of the kingdom of the heavens (16:18-19). A kingdom involves dominion; the kingdom of the heavens concerns God’s dominion. The keys of the kingdom of the heavens denote the authority of the kingdom of the heavens. In verse 19 the Lord said, “Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in the heavens.” These are matters of authority.
In chapter 18 after speaking of the church a second time, the Lord again spoke of authority (vv. 17-20). Some people believe that in chapter 16 authority was given only to specially designated apostles. This view is advocated by the Catholic Church. But chapter 18 shows that the authority given to Peter by the Lord in chapter 16 was also given to the church. This means that the authority of the church does not belong to the apostles individually; the authority of the church belongs to the church corporately. The Gospel of Matthew shows clearly that the kingdom is related to the church. If there is no church, there is no kingdom. This also means that God’s dominion and authority have been given to the church.
In order to see God’s authority, we need to look at Genesis 1; however, we will not fully understand Genesis 1 unless we understand the Gospel of Matthew. Since God wanted a man to rule for Him on earth, He created Adam so that He would have someone who could be entrusted with His authority on earth. In Genesis 1 God’s authority was entrusted to a man; however, in the Gospel of Matthew authority was entrusted to the church. As God gains the church, His authority can be exercised on earth. In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus referred to the keys of the kingdom of the heavens and the church, which the gates of Hades cannot prevail against. God has entrusted the keys of the kingdom to a group of people on earth; this is the church.
In Genesis 1 it seems as if an individual man has been entrusted with God’s authority. However, in Matthew we see that this man must be a corporate man, the church. An individual man cannot be entrusted with God’s authority; this man must be the church built upon Christ as the rock in order to be entrusted with God’s authority. For God’s authority, dominion, and kingdom to be exercised on earth, the church must be built upon Christ. The church is entrusted with God’s dominion; it is also the place where God’s authority is linked to heaven and exercised on the earth. Perhaps we have not yet seen the extent to which the kingdom is related to the church. Without the church, God’s authority cannot be realized on earth.
In Matthew 6:10 the Lord prayed, “Your kingdom come.” How can God’s kingdom come? Revelation 12 reveals that God’s kingdom comes to earth when the church rules for God (vv. 5, 10). Matthew reveals that God’s authority comes to earth through, by, and in the church. In order to understand authority in Genesis 1, we must understand the Gospel of Matthew.
The church’s preaching of the gospel is also a matter of authority. In Matthew 28 the Lord said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (vv. 18-19a). The church has both the obligation and ability to preach the gospel because of this authority. The real preaching of the gospel is our bringing God’s authority to every man, every place, every family, and every group of people. We can “go...and disciple all the nations” based on authority, with authority, and for authority. In order to know authority, we must know the church; the church is where God’s authority is exercised. This is what the Gospel of Matthew shows.
The book of Ephesians concerns the church as well. However, this book does not present the church from the aspect of authority but mainly from the aspect of image, the aspect of life. In other words, Ephesians emphasizes the church being filled with God’s life and nature. The book of Ephesians does not emphasize the aspect of authority. This book presents the content of the church, which is the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Christ, who is God Himself. When Christ indwells us through faith, we are filled unto all the fullness of God. This means that all that is of God is within us, and we can be like God. This is what it means to be like God and to have God’s image. Therefore, in order to understand Genesis 1, we must also understand the book of Ephesians. In Genesis image and authority are presented. This image is made clear in Ephesians, and this authority is made clear in Matthew. Image and authority are seen in the church.
These two matters, authority and image, are related. According to the order in Genesis, image is first and then authority; however, in the New Testament authority is always mentioned before image. We must pay attention to this important principle in the Bible — God’s image is God expressed; only when God is expressed can there be His image. For example, when God is expressed in Revelation 4, there is an image, and that image is glory (v. 3). Ephesians speaks of God becoming everything in man and of God being glorified in the church (3:16-21). Whenever God is expressed, He is glorified. When God is glorified, His image is expressed.
Suppose God is expressed in our daily living as a result of our thorough fellowship with Him. People may sense that God is glorified in us, or that God is glorified through us; they may even feel that they see the likeness of God in us. The glory that is expressed is the image of God. The New Testament speaks first of authority instead of image. God can be expressed only through those who submit to His authority. When we submit to God’s authority, His glory can be seen in us, and His image will be expressed in His glory.
This is also the sequence of the last sentence of the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:13: “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Where there is God’s ruling, God is expressed, and God’s image, God’s glory, is present. At the end of Revelation we see that the entire New Jerusalem is an expression of God’s image. In Revelation 4:3 the God who is sitting on the throne is like a jasper stone in appearance; in 21:11 the light of the city New Jerusalem is like a jasper stone. This shows that the expression of the New Jerusalem is the image of God, the glory of God. God being glorified through the New Jerusalem is based on the establishment of God’s dominion on the earth. In other words, His glory is upheld by the city; the city is God’s dominion, God’s authority. Whoever damages the city damages God’s glory; whoever damages the city prevents God’s glory from being expressed. Here we see the relationship between authority and image.
Image and authority, however, are the outward expression, not the inner source. Authority is an outward expression, and glory is also an outward expression; neither authority nor expression is the inner source. The inner source is life. Revelation 21 and 22 show that outwardly the New Jerusalem is an expression of glory, but inside the city there is a river of water of life and the tree of life. In Genesis 1 there are outward image and authority (vv. 26-28), and in chapter 2 there are the tree of life and the river with four branches (vv. 9-14). This shows that in order to have authority and express glory, there must be life within; we must allow life to flow within us. God’s life proceeding out of God’s reigning throne brings authority with it (Rev. 22:1). The divine life brings authority into whomever it flows. Only when the divine life flows into man with the divine authority can man rule for God, and only then can God’s glory be expressed through man.
We must see that God intends to gain a place and a means on earth for His authority to be exercised so that His image can be expressed and He can be glorified. The church is the place and the means. It is impossible to obtain God’s authority and image if we disregard the church. Without the church we do not have God’s authority; without the church we do not have God’s expression. Both God’s authority and expression are in the church; without the church God’s authority and expression are absent.
Let us now consider our condition. Everything in a church depends on authority; it does not depend on location or numbers. It does not depend on whether we are powerful, excited, lively, or zealous. Rather, everything in the church depends on God’s authority. This authority is God’s ruling; it is the authority of God expressed through man. We may be zealous but not express God’s authority. We may be excited but not express God’s authority. We may even seem to be very spiritual but not express God’s authority. We may be this or that but not give others the feeling of fear, awe, and God’s dominion.
For example, we may attend a concert and feel excitement, liveliness, and happiness yet not have a sense of authority. However, if we walk into a presidential palace, we may sense something entirely different from a concert hall. In the president’s office we will immediately sense authority. This should be the situation in the church. In a proper church meeting we should sense God’s authority. Regrettably, some people may feel as if they have entered a concert hall, or even worse, they may feel as if they have entered a place of contention. They can only sense man’s opinion, dissension, and the flesh; they cannot sense God’s authority. Of course, all opinion, dissension, and the flesh should be condemned. However, even seemingly good things like liveliness and harmony may still be below the standard if they do not convey a sense of God’s dominion or God’s authority.
Quarrels and opinions in a local church are the issue of human relationships and the flesh. However, a church that is lively and in full harmony yet does not give others the sense of God’s dominion and ruling may also contain only the element of man and the things of man. It may not have the element of God. It is proper to love, but love must be with authority. Love without authority is either leaven or honey; it does not come from God or from God’s authority. Real love is neither leaven nor honey but salt.
When the saints in a local church love one another in God, others can sense God’s authority. This can be compared to salt in the meal offering. The salt in the meal offering is something of God and of the cross; it is something eternal. It is neither leaven, which is corruption, nor honey, which is of the emotion. Behind real love is authority. Whoever touches such love touches authority; wherever this kind of love is, there is God’s authority.
The brothers and sisters may say, “We all love one another, and the church is full of love.” However, if everybody is happy and loose, this kind of love may simply be of the emotion. The love that is of the spirit and that comes out of the Lord’s love is the embodiment of authority; love is the embodiment of authority. Any proper expression in the church should also be the embodiment of authority.
Whether a church is normal or meets God’s requirement can be tested by authority; it can be tested by the presence of God’s authority and ruling in the church. When people touch the church, do they touch God’s authority and sense that God is ruling and enthroned? Or do they sense the ruling of the will of man and the things of the world? This is a test to the church. Many times man’s zeal, excitement, or even man’s working for the Lord is “enthroned.” In the church life we often touch these things instead of touching God’s dominion. It is only when we are enlightened before God that we can truly see that the church is entrusted with God’s ruling.
We should allow God to rule in our work, in our love for the brothers and sisters, and in our zealousness for the church life. There is something within us that flows out from the throne in the heavens; this flow brings God’s authority into us and among us. When people touch us, they should touch God’s ruling. May we all see that this is the church; this is the proper condition of the Body of Christ on earth. In this condition we have God’s glory and image, and we can also sense God’s presence.
However, people may not sense God’s presence when they touch zeal. For example, we may touch people who work fervently and serve diligently in the church life, yet we may not sense God’s presence with them. I believe we all have had this experience. However, whenever we touch God’s authority, we immediately bow our heads and worship the Lord, saying, “Lord, I worship You because You are here.” When we touch authority, we touch the Lord Himself. Zeal cannot represent the Lord, neither is it the Lord. We should all be clear that authority not only represents the Lord, it is the Lord Himself. The normal expression of a church involves the presence of authority.
Some responsible brothers may say, “We are the authority in the church.” This word should not be spoken lightly; those who speak in this way need to be dealt with and disciplined because they are speaking nonsense. According to the revelation of the Bible, the responsible brothers in themselves are not the authority. When they allow God to reign in them, the God who is expressed through them is the authority. When they and the church in which they serve allow God to reign, the expression of God’s authority is among them. This is the authority in the church.
Authority is nothing other than God expressed among us. Any local church that does not have the expression of God does not have authority. The exercise of man’s authority by organization, arrangement, or having a name or position is shameful and hypocritical. The real authority comes when a group of God’s children submit themselves under God’s lordship and allow God to reign. When God is enthroned in our midst, there is authority among us. The responsible ones in the church are deputy authorities established by the Lord, but if the Lord cannot sit on the throne and reign in a church, that church will have no authority. There may be responsible ones, but there will not be any authority. The real authority of the church is in God’s having the position to reign in the church. Then authority will automatically be expressed in the church.
May the Lord give us grace so that we do not think that we have obtained the light after simply reading a message on authority or listening to a message on the Body of Christ. May we be inwardly touched by the Lord’s grace and enlightened to see our real condition. How much of God’s authority is truly being expressed among us? How much of God’s authority is in our meetings? God is asking these questions, and we also should ask ourselves these questions. We must see this basic principle — God’s authority is not expressed in an individual man but in a corporate man; this man is the Body, the church. We must not remain in Genesis 1; we must proceed to the Gospel of Matthew to see that authority is expressed in the church. There must be a group of people who are saved by God to become the church entrusted with His authority. In other words, only a group of people who are built up as the Body of Christ can express God’s authority. The requirement of authority is on the church.
Some brothers and sisters may think that as long as there is a church, there is authority. Actually, it is not this simple. The standard of the church is quite high and strict. The standard of the church requires that we abandon sin, the world, and the flesh; it also requires our complete termination. Although there are opinions among the churches in Taiwan, generally speaking, the saints are in one accord. However, we should still confess that we have not touched much authority.
We have not touched enough authority in the churches, because there is too much of our forbearance, patience, meekness, gentleness, or any other human virtues in the church. These virtues are all out of man and belong to man. It is possible for all these positive virtues to simply be the elements of man. If this is our situation, God’s salvation in us is still superficial and lacks depth. Our person, our self, must be subdued, broken, and crossed out by God because we still have many things in us that are not built upon Christ as the rock and instead are outside of Christ.
When there are elements outside of Christ that are present in us, there is no authority. We may have good things, gain the praises of others, be gentle and mild, and even be zealous in our work yet have no authority. Authority is in the church, and the church is upheld by Christ. In other words, the church is built upon Christ, and Christ Himself is the material for the building of the church. The extent to which the element of “man” is present in the church is the extent to which authority is diminished. The amount of the element of Christ in us determines the amount of authority we have. Some may think that if they pray much, they will have authority; this is wrong. They might receive some power after much prayer, but they cannot receive authority. Real power lies in authority. Please remember, authority issues from what is built upon Christ; the amount of authority that we have depends upon how much we have been built upon Christ.
To be built upon Christ is to build with Christ as the material. The amount of authority present in the church depends upon how much the church is built with Christ as the material. We must not only put aside the bad things in us; we must put aside even the good things. We must learn to be dealt with and broken by God. This should not be simply a matter of doctrine but a matter of experience. As the Lord enlightens us, He will touch us little by little, showing us that some things that are good and correct in us are not built upon Christ; that is, they are not built with Christ as the material, and they are not built up by Christ from within us. They may be good, but they still come out of us, not Christ.
Some saints say that it is difficult to be in one accord because the more capable ones do not have much regard for them. Even if there was such a “one accord,” it would not be worth anything. The real one accord depends upon how much we have been touched by God; if our capability, weakness, ability, and inability have been touched by God, there will be the real one accord. Only the part of our being that has been built upon Christ, that is, built with Christ as the material, is of real value. Only the part of our being that has been broken by God is related to the church, and only in this part is there authority — a sphere in which God rules.
Theoretically, all saints should be very clear concerning this point. However, after serving in the church for a period of time, we will see that we still have the element of the self. We may not seem to have much sin, the world, or even the flesh, yet the elements of our very being are present in us. The Lord must show us that our being is the greatest enemy of Christ and the greatest obstacle to Christ; we prevent God’s authority from being expressed, and we nullify the church so that it cannot be formed.
A certain local church has been generally commended to be truly wonderful, and we also feel that it is quite good when we go there; however, it does not have much of the element of Christ. What does this mean? It means that although the church is good, all the things there contain the element of man. Although they are not bad things, they all contain the element of man. We sense that man rather than Christ is there and that the church there is built with man rather than with Christ as the material.
We all need to learn to pass through the cross and be filtered by the cross. When we feel that God is touching us, we should have dealings according to that feeling; this is valuable. We should let the Lord deal with us when we have a feeling about a certain matter. As we are experiencing God and serving Him, we may have the feeling that He is touching something within us, making us aware of a particular element of our self. He shows us something that is not built by Christ, not built with Christ, and not built upon Christ. If we do not neglect this feeling, the light within us will become brighter. If we can take a further step to deal with this feeling, we will be delivered. We may experience this at critical junctures in our life as God takes us through these situations. Even if we fall and cannot get up, the grace of God will come to be our supply to enable us to stand up once more.
Regrettably, when God enlightens us and touches our feeling, we are often negligent and let the feeling pass in a light way. This is the reason, to a large extent, that the services and activities in the churches are still full of the elements of man. Not many have been touched by God or have prostrated themselves before God. We should be willing to say, “Lord, forgive me. This is of me; I am using myself as the material. I am neither building upon Christ nor through Christ.” If we would say this more often, all the churches would be different. Any church in which we can touch God’s authority is a real church, a church that is built with Christ. There is no church if the saints in a locality are not built by Christ, upon Christ, and with Christ. They may meet together and conduct activities, but the reality of the church is not present.
If the reality of the church is not present, there is no authority. We cannot separate the church from Christ, nor can we separate the church from authority. Only when we touch Christ and live Him out will the church be present. Only when we allow Christ to be built up within us will the church be real. These are words of experience, not doctrinal expressions. Doctrinally speaking, the church always exists; however, experientially speaking, the church does not exist if we are built only with items of the self, items of man, and not with Christ. We do not need to be stirred up in our flesh or to be involved in disputes to nullify the church; as long as we build with the self, the church is not present. When the church is not present, authority also is not present, and people will be unable to touch authority in the church. May the Lord show us that there can be authority only in the church that is built through Christ, by Christ, and with Christ as the material.
In addition, we need to pay special attention to one matter. Since our meeting together is a time of blessing, we often sense some excitement; it is difficult to totally avoid a lively atmosphere, because we are human. However, we need to bear in mind that this liveliness, this excitement, is often a veil to keep us from being enlightened. In Matthew 11:29 the Lord wanted us to be meek and lowly in heart, to take His yoke, and to learn from Him. When we gather together, we must not be too excited, because this can easily cause us to be loose. Just as we drop our personal duties and household chores to come together to meet, seek God, and learn something of God, we should be willing to avoid unnecessary conversations that can become distractions. Of course, this does not mean that we should neglect any real spiritual needs.
Being enlightened depends on God’s mercy; it may not come by our asking. Nevertheless, we need to bear some responsibility for being enlightened. On a clear sunny day some receive sunshine, but others do not. Receiving sunshine is man’s responsibility. If we are overly excited, talk too much, or are too lively, we build a “high wall” that prevents “sunlight” from shining in. We must all learn to be calm. Of course, this does not mean that no one can pray loudly, but we should be careful if our voice causes discomfort in others’ spirit. The Chinese often say that poetry is the most beautiful form of writing; in spiritual matters, prayers and praises are the most beautiful things. Words of praise are beautiful words, but words of anger are ugly words. If our voice is too loud or too high, it will disturb the spirit. The spirit is the most tender and delicate part within man. If impulsive things come out of a released emotion, the spirit will not be released. However, when we are in the spirit and touch the spirit, there will be an echo of this spirit deep within the saints.
Hopefully, this word will help us realize that we lose the Lord’s blessing because we are often distracted. When we attend meetings in various localities, we should not spend much time shopping or visiting relatives and friends. These things may offend the Lord and cause us to lose the Lord’s blessing. We will lose the Lord’s blessing if all our time is spent shopping or visiting our relatives and friends. We need to understand that our willing and our running do not change God’s mercy. Rather, we need to bear some responsibility to be in a condition that is conducive to being shown mercy. May the Lord grant us His grace.
