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In this message we shall cover a number of aspects of Christ’s work in His heavenly ministry.
The first thing Christ did in His heavenly ministry was to receive from God the Father the believers as gifts, after bringing them to the heavens, and giving them to the church. Ephesians 4:8 says that the ascended Christ “gave gifts to men.” “Gifts” here does not refer to abilities or enablements for varied services but to various gifted persons, especially those in verse 11 — apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. After conquering and rescuing them from Satan and death through His own death and resurrection, Christ in His ascension made the rescued sinners themselves such gifts with His resurrection life and gave them to His Body for its building up. When the victorious Christ ascended, He led a train of vanquished foes and constituted them into gifts to His Body.
Ephesians reveals that Christ is the gift-making and gift-giving Christ. Because Christ is the Head over all things to the church, He is able to make gifts and to present them to the church. Ephesians 1:22 says that Christ is the Head over all things to the church. The word “to” is crucial. It implies transmission. Whatever Christ, the Head, attained and obtained is transmitted to the church, His Body. In this transmission the church shares with Christ in all His attainments. Because all that Christ is and has is transmitted to the church, He is able to constitute us as gifts to the Body.
Before Christ gave the believers as gifts to the church He first had to receive them from God the Father. In His ascension Christ brought the believers to the heavens in His train of vanquished foes. Then He must have presented the believers to God the Father. Immediately God gave all the believers to Christ as a great gift. Therefore, having received the believers as gifts from the Father, Christ then gave them to the church. On the one hand, Christ received gifts from God the Father; on the other hand, He gave these gifts, which include all the believers, to the church. Hence, the believers are not only materials for the building up of the church; they are also gifts who build up the church. We all are materials for the building and also gifts to do the work of building.
Christ ascended to the Father both secretly and publicly. Early in the morning on the day of His resurrection the Lord told Mary that He was ascending to the Father (John 20:17). In this secret ascension He presented Himself to the Father as the firstfruit of resurrection. Forty days later the Lord Jesus ascended publicly. In His public ascension He presented to the Father all the believers as fruits of His resurrection. He led the believers captive in a train of vanquished foes and then presented them to the Father. Therefore, Christ had two ascensions with two presentations to the Father. After the Lord Jesus presented to the Father the believers as the fruits of His resurrection, the Father gave them to the ascended Christ as gifts. Christ received these gifts from the Father and then gave them to His church to build up His Body.
Ephesians 4:8 is a quotation from Psalm 68. Psalm 68:18, prophesying of Christ, says, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men.” This verse speaks of Christ receiving gifts. But Ephesians 4:8 speaks of Christ giving gifts. The prophecy uses the word “received,” but the fulfillment uses the word “gave.” How are we to understand this? When Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, he was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the revealing Spirit is not bound. Psalm 68 was written before Christ’s ascension, and Ephesians was written afterward. This may be the reason that Psalm 68:18 speaks of receiving and Ephesians 4:8, of giving. Psalm 68 prophesied only concerning the receiving; it did not go on to say anything concerning the giving. But when Paul quoted Psalm 68:18, the giving had been accomplished. Therefore, Paul wrote of this fact, saying not only that Christ received the believers as gifts, as prophesied in Psalm 68, but also that He gave the believers as gifts to the church. Paul took Psalm 68 as the basis for telling us that after His ascension Christ, the Head, gave gifts to the church.
After receiving the believers as gifts and giving them to the church, Christ, in His heavenly ministry, sent forth the Holy Spirit, promised by the Father, upon the believers economically for His propagation to produce the church. In Luke 24:49 the Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you, stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The promise here is the promise of Joel 2:28 and 29, fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:4-5, 8; 2:1-4, 16-18), for the outpouring as the power from on high for the believers’ ministry economically. This is different from the Spirit of life, who was breathed into the believers (John 20:22) by the resurrected Christ on the day of His resurrection for His indwelling so that He might be life to them essentially.
In order to carry out the work of propagation for the producing of the church, Christ’s disciples needed to be equipped with the Spirit economically. Essentially, they had what they needed; economically, however, there was a lack. They were to wait in Jerusalem until the ascended Christ poured out upon them the promise of the Father, the promise of the economical Spirit. After His ascension and enthronement, Christ poured out the economical Spirit upon the believers, who had already become members of the Body of Christ essentially. What had been accomplished by Christ in His resurrection was something essential. But the sending forth of the Holy Spirit upon the believers, accomplished by the Lord in His heavenly ministry, was economical.
The Spirit in John 20:22 is the Spirit expected in John 7:39 and promised in John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-8, 13. Hence, the Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. This fulfillment differs from that in Acts 2:1-4. That was the fulfillment of the Father’s promise in Luke 24:49. In Acts the Spirit as “a rushing violent wind” came as power upon the disciples for their work. In John 20:22 the Spirit as the breath was breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the resurrected Christ imparted Himself as life and everything to them essentially.
As for the Spirit of life, we need to breathe Him in as the breath. As for the Spirit of power, we need to put Him on as the uniform, typified by the mantle of Elijah (2 Kings 2:9, 13-15). The former as the water of life requires our drinking (John 7:37-39); the latter as the water for baptism requires our being immersed (Acts 1:5). These are the two aspects of the one Spirit for our experience (1 Cor. 12:13). The indwelling of the Spirit of life is essential for our life and living; the outpouring of the Spirit of power is economical for our ministry and work.
In receiving the Spirit essentially and economically the believers followed the pattern set up by the Lord Jesus. The Lord was born of the Holy Spirit essentially. This means that the Holy Spirit was the essence of His being. Then when He began His ministry at the age of thirty, the same Holy Spirit who was the essence of His being came upon Him economically. The same Spirit who was the element of Christ’s being essentially for His living came upon Him economically to empower Him, or anoint Him, for His work to carry out God’s economy.
The Lord’s believers followed the same pattern. In Christ’s resurrection we were born of the Holy Spirit as our spiritual essence. Then after Christ’s ascension the same Spirit was poured out upon us economically that we may work to carry out God’s economy. Now we have the Spirit within us essentially for our spiritual being and existence, and we also have the same Spirit upon us economically for our work and ministry. The sending forth of the Holy Spirit upon the believers economically was an important aspect of Christ’s work in His heavenly ministry.
In His heavenly ministry Christ is the Lord, exercising His sovereignty over all for the accomplishment of the divine economy (Acts 2:36). In Revelation, Christ, as the Lord in the heavens, is revealed as the Administrator in the divine government in the universe, carrying out God’s governmental activities over all things on this earth, with the view that all the situations on the earth may serve the purpose for the fulfilling of God’s plan and His promises that the divine economy might be accomplished.
In His heavenly ministry Christ, as God’s Anointed, is doing a work to carry out God’s commission to Him concerning the New Testament economy (Acts. 2:36). Christ in His ascension has not only been made the Lord of all, but also the Christ of God to work out the spreading of the gospel and the building up of the church that God’s chosen people may be saved and perfected for the constitution of the New Jerusalem to be God’s eternal habitation and manifestation, according to God’s New Testament economy, for God’s eternal satisfaction.
Christ is Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:22). As the Head over all things to the church, He makes all things work together for the producing and building up of the church. In His ascension, Christ was not only made the Lord of all and the Christ of God, but also given to be the Head over all things to the church, that all things may be subjected to and headed up in Him (Eph. 1:10) through the building up of the church which is His Body, the fullness of Him, the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23), for the eternal expression of the Triune God, the Father embodied in the Son, the Son realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Trinity expressed through all of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified saints.
As the Head of the Body, Christ in His heavenly ministry is perfecting His members by giving them growth in life for the building up of His Body (Eph. 4:12, 15-16). This is the finest work Christ is doing in His heavenly ministry. By His sovereignty He brings us together for the accomplishment of the divine economy. Now He is doing a very fine work to perfect us by giving us growth in life. This growth is for the sake of the Body, the church. Through the growth of life we shall arrive at a full-grown man and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is the Body of Christ, His expression.
Ephesians 4:15 speaks of growing up “into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” Here we see that we should grow up into Christ, not grow up into ourselves or into anything apart from Christ. Furthermore, this verse clearly says that we are to grow up into the One who is the Head. This indicates that our growth must be in the Body. In order to grow into the Head, we must surely be in the Body. It is of great significance that Ephesians 4:15 speaks not of growing into the Savior or into the Lord but into the Head. This growth can take place only in the Body.
Ephesians 4:15 says that we must grow into the Head in all things. As the members of the Body are perfected through the ministry of Christ, they will grow up into Him in particular matters. We have Christ within us, but in many matters we are still in the self. Hence, we need the growth that will bring us out of ourselves and into Christ. This can take place only through the ministry of Christ.
In Ephesians 4:16 Paul goes on to say, “Out from whom all the Body, fitted and knit together through every joint of the supply, according to the operation in measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Our growth in life is to grow into the Head, Christ, but our function in the Body is to function out from Him. First we grow up into the Head. Then we have something which is out from the Head.
Ephesians 4:16 indicates that growth is not for individuals but for the Body. Any growth that is not for the Body is not genuine. The words “each one part” refer to every member of the Body. Every member of the Body of Christ has its measure, and this measure works for the growth of the Body. The Body causes the growth of itself through the supplying joints and working parts. Both the joints of the supply and every single part with its measure are needed for the church to build itself up. The growth of the Body is the increase of Christ in the church. This results in the Body building itself up.
Ephesians 4:16 tells us that all the Body causes the growth of the Body. This means that the Body grows by the Body itself. The Body makes the growth of the Body. For this reason, Christ, the Head of the Body, gives the growth in life to the members so that they may be perfected for the building up of the Body.
