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Scripture Reading: Matt. 18:20; Acts 2:46-47; 5:42; 20:20; Heb. 10:24-25
Prayer: Lord, we thank You from the depths of our being. By Your grace You have visited us, called us, and separated us from this evil age. Lord, when we see so many brothers and sisters meeting every day, we know that You are doing a work of grace in our heart. We look to You that Your work within us would be deeper and weightier every day.
Teach us to truly know that we are one spirit with You. We believe that You are among us; we declare that You are with us. We have a spirit, and we have Your Spirit in our spirit; these two have become one. We want to exercise our spirit to speak and to listen. Reveal Your words, heart’s desire, and hidden mysteries. We want to be freed from oldness, traditions, and everything of the past; we want to live in freshness. Lord, grant us instant light, and speak a fresh word to us. May Your Spirit impart Your thoughts, feelings, and words so that we would touch Your presence and so that we would also sense that You have touched the depths of our being.
Lord, we worship You that You are with us. You promised that if we kept Your teaching, You would be with us until the consummation of the age. Therefore, we believe that You are speaking to us and that You are here with us. Cause every one of us to lift up our spirit to worship You and to open our heart to thank You.
Lord, we truly desire to receive rich grace from You again. Supply us individually, and supply all the churches. Supply all those who are under Your name; we know that there are still thousands of brothers and sisters in this city who are not meeting with us. We pray for them, just as You prayed for them. And Lord, just as You have visited us, we ask that You would visit them. May Your light shine upon them through us, and may Your truth reach them through us so that they would see the light, know the truth, and walk in the way of life.
Lord, destroy the enemy, destroy the demons, destroy Babylon, and destroy human organization. Release Your children, save Your Body, and strengthen Your testimony. In Your victorious name we bind the evil one. We stand on Your promise to trample serpents and scorpions under our feet. We curse the evil one, and we rebuke him before Your throne. Lord, we stretch out our hands of faith to touch the throne of Your authority, to destroy the authority of darkness, to rescue Your church, and to build up Your Body. You have overcome, and You will overcome unto eternity. Conquer our disposition, naturalness, and self. Glorify Your name; only You are able to protect Your glory. Lord, we truly worship You. We beseech You to speak to us again. Lord Jesus, we exalt Your name, call on Your name, extol Your name, and praise Your name, which is above every name. Amen.
In this chapter we will fellowship concerning meetings. According to our concept, meetings are something very ordinary. In the Bible, however, meetings are not an ordinary matter. Meetings are first mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew 18:20, following the Lord Jesus’ reference to the church in verse 17, which speaks of telling a matter to the church. In verse 20 He said, “Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.” In these two verses there are three matters: the church, the meetings, and the Lord’s presence. These three things are interrelated. Where there is a church, there should be meetings; where there are meetings, the Lord is present in our midst.
The Old Testament shows that God’s people lived a life of meeting. The greatest type in the Old Testament is the type of the called race of Israel. God did not save the Israelites individually; their salvation was a corporate salvation. Every household of Israel kept the passover at the same time, and together they crossed the Red Sea, journeyed through the wilderness, and reached the good land. They journeyed through the wilderness, reached the foothills of Mount Sinai, and set up their camps together. From the night of the passover, no one in the called race of Israel lived individualistically. They lived a meeting life, and they moved as an assembly (Acts 7:38).
At the base of Mount Sinai the whole assembly of the children of Israel gathered before God, who descended upon Mount Sinai and called Moses up to the mountaintop to reveal the pattern of the tabernacle to him. This was a kind of meeting. Even the building of the tabernacle at the base of the mountain was not an individual work but a corporate work, the work of the assembly. All the Israelites built the tabernacle of God with each tribe doing its part.
After the tabernacle of God was built, the whole assembly of Israel set out and journeyed onward. Even when they were moving forward, they walked together as an assembly. No Israelite acted individually. Rather, all the people of Israel moved corporately as an assembly. Moreover, God’s leading was unique — a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. At that time there were at least two million Israelites, including men and women, young and old. Even though there were many Israelites, there was only one pillar of cloud by day and one pillar of fire by night. God’s leading did not involve two million pillars of cloud and fire. The children of Israel were a corporate people, not scattered individuals, and their entire living was a meeting life.
The Israelites in the Old Testament are a type of the church in the New Testament. When the church began in the New Testament, there were only one hundred twenty disciples plus the Lord Jesus. On the day of Pentecost three thousand people were added to the church (Acts 2:41). Thus, the number of the Lord’s believers became three thousand one hundred twenty, and they immediately started to live a meeting life. Verse 44 says, “All those who believed were together,” and verse 47 says, “The Lord added together day by day those who were being saved.” This means that the Lord added people to their gatherings, and it shows that they were an assembly. Verse 43 shows that when they gathered together, the authority of God was with them, and fear was upon every soul. Soon another five thousand men were added (4:4). If women were added to this number, surely there must have been ten thousand, all of whom were living a corporate life, a meeting life.
The needs of the multitude of believers resulted in two types of meetings. The first type involved joint meetings of all the believers. The temple was used as a gathering place for this kind of meeting, because the temple was a public area, spacious, and able to accommodate many people. The second type of gathering was from house to house. In these gatherings, the believers continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, learning the truth, breaking bread, praying, and announcing the gospel from house to house (2:46; 5:42). Acts 20:20 also speaks of these two aspects in the work of the apostle: “I did not withhold any of those things that are profitable by not declaring them to you and by not teaching you publicly and from house to house.” When Paul was in Ephesus, he taught publicly, and he went from house to house teaching, persuading, instructing, and declaring to the believers all the counsel of God, not withholding any of the things which were profitable. According to the Bible, the meeting life of the early church involved large, joint gatherings and smaller gatherings from house to house. The gatherings in the homes are the small group gatherings that we are emphasizing today.
If we read the New Testament carefully, we will see that the gatherings of the church have two functions. Joint gatherings are in the nature of school education and home gatherings are in the nature of nourishing. In the joint gatherings we teach and speak the truth in the Word of God concerning God’s New Testament economy. God’s New Testament economy is not a small matter. When Peter started to speak in Acts, the revelation of God’s New Testament economy was only beginning to be released, but by the completion of Paul’s fourteen Epistles, the mystery of God’s New Testament economy was fully unveiled (Col. 1:25-26). The twenty-seven books of the New Testament contain the full revelation of God’s New Testament economy, which involves the Triune God passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension and becoming the life-giving Spirit to be dispensed into His believers. Through His process, the Triune God has released the divine life and can impart the divine life into us to become our life and nature. Individually we are sons of God, and corporately we are members of the Body of Christ, the house of God with a corporate meeting life.
Meetings are indispensable for the believers. When we stop meeting, the issue is spiritual death. Our experiences tell us that it does not take long to sense that something is wrong when we fail to gather with the saints. If we do not meet for six months, we will be quite dead in our spirit. Meeting with the saints is a crucial matter in the spiritual life of a Christian.
In the meetings we must learn the truth. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty-seven books in the New Testament. We should learn the content of them all, especially the books in the New Testament. If we thoroughly learn these twenty-seven books, we will be clear concerning the truth revealed in the Old Testament. We should not think that we must first know the Old Testament in order to understand the New Testament; rather, the New Testament is the key that opens the Old Testament.
Every saved person should learn the truth in the New Testament. We should thoroughly understand the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s fourteen Epistles. The Epistle of James contains warnings based on the failures of others. The Epistles of Peter, John, and Jude all render help. Revelation, the last book in terms of its position and its completion, is a “sealed” book to Christians all over the earth. Many pastors do not comprehend the mysteries it contains, and they keep it at a respectful distance. This is a great mistake. We must enter into the book of Revelation, because the New Testament is open to us, and God desires to show us His complete revelation.
When I was saved, I loved to read the Bible. However, I could not comprehend much of what I read, especially the Gospel of Matthew. Reading the genealogy in the first seventeen verses of chapter 1 made it difficult to continue to read the Gospel of Matthew. No matter how much I studied these verses, I could not understand them. At that time there were not many reference books to help me. Consequently, when I would begin to read the New Testament, I would start from Matthew 1:18. I read in this way for many years, but eventually I felt that this was not right. Often, things that are difficult to understand logically are quite precious, whereas things that are easy to understand are not necessarily valuable. If everything was made of gold today, gold would not be very valuable. As I began to consider this, I realized that there must be a “treasure” in verses 1 through 17; consequently, I made a decision to consider them more carefully.
When I first started studying these verses, it was a labor, especially since it was difficult for me to find reference books in a small city in the northern part of China. From 1925 to 1936 I spent much time writing a pamphlet called Gleanings from the Genealogy of Christ. I studied these seventeen verses thoroughly and explained them quite clearly. I believe that whoever examines that pamphlet will gain much help from it. [Editor’s note: Much of the content of this publication has been incorporated into the first seven messages in the Life-study of Matthew.]
In 1974 I received a burden to write footnotes for all the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. I added footnotes to verses that, according to my own experience, were difficult to understand, difficult to expound, and profound in terms of the revelation of truth. At the same time, I felt that I should give messages to present the main points of each book as they related to the experience of the divine life. Since 1974 we have conducted biannual trainings in the United States to release messages on every book in the New Testament. These messages have spread throughout the earth. After eleven years and twenty-two trainings, in 1984 the translation of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament was completed and published with footnotes, outlines, and cross references. In addition, Life-study messages of each book have also been published.
Over the past one thousand years, many books related to the New Testament have been published, and we have spent much time studying the important books; nevertheless, many of the published books do not provide much help. We have gathered together the main points from the important books and, using simple words, included them in the footnotes of the Recovery Version of the New Testament. Hence, as long as a person reads the footnotes and the Life-study messages, all the riches we have received will be displayed before his eyes. It is easy to understand the New Testament with the footnotes and Life-study messages.
The whole set of the Life-study of the New Testament has approximately one thousand one hundred messages, and each message is about ten pages long. Altogether, there are over twelve thousand pages, and it is quite profitable to read them. I hope that all the churches would utilize the Recovery Version of the Bible and the Life-studies to teach the truth to the saints. I often tell others that if I could have been introduced to the Recovery Version of the New Testament and the Life-study of the New Testament sixty years ago, I would have spent much time to enter into them. If you are willing to spend eight hours a day for pursuing, you will be able to read the New Testament very thoroughly in two years. If you do not have eight hours, it is all right to spend four hours. The brothers and sisters who are consecrated as full-timers must spend fours hours a day to fully get into the Recovery Version and the Life-studies. In this way, after four years you will enter into the revelation of the New Testament. Then everyone will be able to teach others and speak with inspiration for God to others, that is, to prophesy. With so many prophets and teachers, the churches in all the localities will be in a glorious condition.
Small group gatherings are in the nature of home nurturing. The number of people who can gather in a home is usually not very large, and it is always sweet to get together. Therefore, we have a burden to establish the small group gatherings. We should learn from the Lord’s way and have a maximum of twelve in a group. When there are more than twelve in a group, they should be divided into two groups. Since the number of people in a small group gathering is small, the nature of the meeting should be to nurture the saints. Rather than emphasizing the truth, the focus should be on nourishing, fellowshipping, shepherding, supporting, caring, and bearing one another. Both educational and nurturing meetings are necessary.
The educational aspect of a joint meeting can be carried out with two kinds of meetings. The first kind supplies life by releasing the truth, and the second kind teaches the truth by expounding the Bible. The first aspect of education can be accomplished by nourishing the saints with a life message at least once a week. Such a message cannot be without foundation; it must be a living message, based on the pure word of truth, and be full of the light of life and the supply of life. All the saints will feel very satisfied after such a meeting. According to my experience over the past decades, the best time for such a meeting is from 10:00 to 11:30 A.M. every Lord’s Day morning. Today in countries throughout the world, Sunday is a day of rest — schools have no classes, factories are closed, and many commercial businesses are not open. Thus, the brothers and sisters have time to listen to this kind of message. Therefore, we should have ample time for a meeting on the Lord’s Day morning. If the starting time is too early, it will create difficulties for the saints. It also should not be too short so that there will be ample time for the release of the truth. Moreover, there should be time for the saints to share and give testimonies. All these matters should not be carried out in a hurried atmosphere so that every saint will receive help, light, and the life supply. These meetings cannot be conducted in a small group gathering; they should be held in the various meeting halls, and the messages should be released, in rotation, by brothers who can minister the word.
The messages released on the Lord’s Day mornings related to life and truth are for the purpose of supplying life; the primary emphasis is not on teaching the truth. Therefore, we still need a meeting for teaching the truth by expounding the Bible. The goal of this meeting is to help the saints understand the truth. Over the past few years we have presented the truth using new terms, such as the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit. These new terms are used to better express the mysteries of the truth. Without these terms it would be impossible to express and to convey the truth. However, our apprehension of the truth depends upon our understanding of these new terms, but there is not much time on the Lord’s Day morning to teach these basic truths. In order for the saints to receive this kind of teaching in the truth, another time is needed. These truths need to be taught at least once a week.
There are altogether about one thousand one hundred messages in the Life-study of the New Testament; although the quantity is quite large, we should not be afraid to teach the truth that they contain. As long as we have the heart to study the messages, progressing in a proper order, we will be able to finish them. We all know the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare. Although the hare was fast and the tortoise was slow, the hare lost the race because it did not run methodically. In contrast, the tortoise ran in a steadfast manner, step by step, and it eventually won. We do not have to teach the truth in a quick way. For example, it would be good to cover only fifty-two lessons in a year. However, since the truth in each topic is interrelated, fifty-two lessons will enable us to understand more than one hundred topics. This is not a heavy burden to bear. It is not even necessary to finish one message in a meeting. One thousand one hundred messages can become two thousand two hundred messages. Simply proceed one day at a time and learn the truth for that day, and before we even finish one thousand one hundred messages, our knowledge of the truth will increase greatly.
When our knowledge of the truth increases, so will our ability to speak these truths. If a person receives a university education, his speaking will be different from that of an uneducated person. The most productive citizens are those who have a proper education. This is also true of those who have a spiritual education. It would be good to have a meeting to teach the truth by expounding the Word once a week. After careful consideration before the Lord, we feel that it is more suitable for this meeting to be on Thursday night.
After the three thousand people were saved on the day of Pentecost, “they continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles” (Acts 2:42). This means that the apostles were teaching the truth every day, and the saved ones were being taught and thereby lived in the teaching of the apostles. Before the day of Pentecost, the three thousand who were saved were living under the teaching of the Old Testament, but once they were saved, they turned from the teaching of the Old Testament to the teaching of the apostles. From that day onward, they “continued steadfastly” in the teaching of the apostles. Because we do not know God’s New Testament economy, this is our need as well. We need two educational messages every week, one on the Lord’s Day morning and another during the week. This will help us enter into the teaching of the New Testament.
The small group gatherings are related to the aspect of nurturing in the homes. Acts 2:42 speaks of “the breaking of bread” and “prayers,” and verse 46 says that the believers practiced “breaking bread from house to house.” This clearly shows that the bread-breaking meetings can be held in our homes. Thus, we would like to practice the breaking of bread in small groups in our homes.
This is something worth our study and consideration. If there are only seven or eight who meet regularly in a small group, it will not be very easy to have a spiritual atmosphere for the breaking of bread. Therefore, we should consider combining four or five small groups in the same neighborhood for the breaking of bread. A combined gathering would have about twenty to thirty people, and it would not be too difficult to hold the meeting in a saint’s living room.
Based on our experience of many years, however, we also realize that the saints will lack an opportunity to meet other saints if we break bread in small groups throughout the year. After much consideration, we feel that we should have a joint meeting to break the bread in each of the district meeting halls on the first Lord’s Day of every month. This will give the saints a chance to meet each other and to have an enlarged fellowship once a month. The breaking of bread can be on both a smaller scale in the small group gatherings and on a larger scale in the district halls. Furthermore, the atmosphere of a Lord’s table meeting with twenty to thirty people cannot be compared to the rich and uplifted atmosphere of a larger meeting of the saints.
I began breaking bread in the local churches in 1932. In the past fifty-three years, I have been in several Lord’s table meetings that were very uplifted and weighty. One Lord’s table meeting in Chefoo was quite uplifted but not so weighty. Another Lord’s table was in December 1984, in Irving, Texas, after a ten-day training. During this meeting, one thousand six hundred saints gathered together to break bread on the Lord’s Day evening. This meeting was truly unprecedented. Everyone who was there can testify that the meeting was wonderful and beyond description. The praises and prayers could hardly be described in words. Whoever attends such a Lord’s table meeting will feel satisfied their entire life. Although it is not possible to have a large Lord’s table meeting every Lord’s Day, we should have one at least once a month.
Presently, we do not have a large meeting hall. Hopefully, the church in Taipei will build a meeting hall that can hold ten thousand people and that has the best sound system. Then the whole church can gather at least once every three months to break bread together. For the breaking of bread, there is a need for large and also small gatherings. On the first Lord’s Day of every month, the saints should come together in the district meeting halls to break the bread. On the other Lord’s Days in the month, four or five small groups, depending on the number of people, should gather in their homes to break bread.
Regarding prayer meetings, the church cannot be without prayer. The prayer meetings should be held in small groups, just like the Lord’s table meetings. They should be held in small groups throughout the year so that people will not have to go to the meeting halls. According to the Bible, every local church needs four kinds of meetings. First, the church needs a meeting to supply life by releasing the truth. Second, there is a need for a meeting to teach the truth by expounding the Scriptures. Third, we need to meet to break bread to remember the Lord and to worship the Father. Fourth, we need to meet to pray, telling God of our needs and praying to execute His will on the earth. These four meetings are indispensable.
A small group should gather once a week in the homes, and we also need to preach the gospel in our homes. Strictly speaking, every brother and sister, whether strong or weak, progressing or backsliding, should preach the gospel in their home. We should keep the principle of preaching the gospel in our own homes and not ask others to preach for us. We all know that the best-tasting rice is the rice that we have cooked for ourselves. Even if we do not know how to “cook,” it only takes a little practice. Therefore, we encourage the brothers and sisters to open their homes. Every household should preach the gospel. Sometimes the wife can preach the gospel, the husband can give a testimony, and the children can strengthen the words of their parents. Sometimes the children can preach the gospel, the mother can give a testimony, and the father can strengthen the words of the children and the mother. It is very meaningful when the whole family rises up and preaches the gospel. Some recently recovered saints, who used to be unwilling to meet, are taking the lead in this kind of family gospel meeting. In addition to the aforementioned meetings, we suggest having a small group gathering every other week and a family gospel meeting in the intervening weeks. In this way we will have five kinds of meetings.
In conclusion, there are five kinds of meetings: a meeting on the Lord’s Day morning to supply life by releasing the truth; a meeting on the Lord’s Day evening for breaking bread, being held jointly in the districts halls on the first Lord’s Day of every month and in small groups on the remaining Lord’s Days of a month; a prayer meeting on Tuesday night; a meeting for teaching the truth on Thursday night; and then small group gatherings and family gospel meetings on one of the convenient remaining nights of the week.
Although these are meetings of the church, they may be a burden to saints who are newly saved or recently recovered. We should never force others to attend these meetings; instead, we should lead them slowly. We should not ask a brother who has been recently saved to attend too many meetings; instead, we should ask him to join a small group gathering. If he can attend a small group gathering every week, his inner man will be nourished, and he will gradually be strengthened. We also need to be aware of the capacity of a newly recovered brother. A person who has only recently recovered from an illness cannot eat too much at the beginning; he can only increase his intake of food gradually. However, once his condition improves, his appetite will return, and he will ask for more food. Likewise, after a dormant brother returns to a small group gathering, his spiritual appetite will slowly return, and he will spontaneously ask about the Lord’s table meeting. After attending these two meetings for a period of time, he will ask about meetings related to the release of the truth. Then we can bring him to the meetings where he can be supplied with life related to the truth of the economical Spirit and the essential Spirit and eventually bring him to meetings that release the truth by expounding the Scriptures. In this way we can gradually lead the saints into a fuller meeting life.
I hope that we would not create an atmosphere that causes people to feel that they are worldly unless they attend every meeting of the church. This kind of atmosphere will kill them. Seriously speaking, attending every meeting does not ensure that one is spiritual. In fact, for some, it might be better to meet less frequently. I know a sister who felt as if the Lord ignored her prayers for her husband’s salvation. When I heard this, I told her that if she would go to less meetings for a few months, her husband would believe in the Lord, because her constant attendance made her husband afraid to believe in the Lord. When she slowed down, it was possible for her husband to catch up with her. If we treat the saints who do not attend every meeting as if they love the world more than the Lord, we will create a standard that can be attained only by angels. We should not have this kind of situation.
The church can be compared to a restaurant that prepares many different kinds of food. Even though many different dishes are available, no one expects every customer to eat them all. It is wonderful when a saint with a large capacity and supporting schedule can attend all the meetings, but we should not give others an impression that they are less spiritual if they do not attend all the meetings. This will discourage many and may even cause them to turn to the world because of their discouragement. These are words based on experience.
In the past twenty-eight years the church in Taipei baptized nearly fifty-eight thousand people, but not many remained because we did not make adjustments concerning our meetings. Those who did not remain often said, “I have believed in Jesus and been baptized, but since I cannot go to so many meetings, I will not go to any meetings.” We lost many in this way.
I sincerely hope that these more than fifty thousand people can be recovered. Many of them meet at least once a year and continue to give financial offerings. This shows that they have not forgotten the church. When they come to meetings, they should not be looked upon coldly or condemned for loving the world, and when they give an offering, they should not be criticized for not being in the meetings. No one can withstand such treatment. If we display this kind of attitude, we will drive many brothers and sisters away.
Among those who have been saved, some may not be so much for the Lord, some may have difficult situations, and some may have many human responsibilities, all of which restrict their ability to attend many meetings. We should sympathize with their situations. Even if some can attend only the first Lord’s Day meeting of every year, we should love them and be thankful that they have not lost contact with the church. Our capacity must be enlarged. As long as we care for them continuously, they will progress gradually.
Since some saints come to a meeting only at the beginning or at the end of a year, we should make an announcement during these meetings and ask them to leave us their telephone number and address so that we can update our information cards. In the past we ignored the information cards we received, but if we can determine which saints come once a month or even once a year, we can take care of them according to their situation and regain many of them.
It is good to attend the meetings, but we should realize that this is not possible for everyone. We all want to see an abundance of fruit, but this requires a long-term view. We need a long-term view in order for the church to uphold the saints. The fruit on a tree is often hidden among the many branches and leaves of a tree. Our “tree” may be full of leaves but have little visible fruit; however, next year we may bear ten pieces of fruit. This is progress, and as long as the saints remain in some of the meetings of the church, they will have a chance to progress.
I hope that our capacity will be enlarged and that we will be open to everyone. If we are, the saints will keep coming. Some may come once a year, others may come twice a year, and still others may come three or four times a year or once every month. Because of this situation, the church needs five kinds of meetings. If someone can “eat” all five “meals,” this would be wonderful. However, it is still good if someone can eat only one meal or even just half a meal. This should be our attitude; I hope we all understand this.
Although some brothers and sisters do not meet, they are still preaching the gospel and telling others to believe in Jesus, as well as encouraging their relatives, friends, and children to come to the meetings. We should maintain an atmosphere of receiving all the brothers and sisters. We should not have any “laws” that kill people, and we cannot forsake our fifty thousand dormant brothers and sisters. We need a broad heart to go forth to restore the dormant ones and those who have lost contact with us. The Lord Jesus considers one lost sheep to be more precious than ninety-nine who are not lost (Luke 15:3-7). Therefore, we must treasure the dormant saints and those with whom we have lost contact. We must take care of them with the Lord’s heart.
