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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:2-5, 7-11, 14-19
According to chapter 1 of Ephesians, the church has been constituted for its existence through the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The dispensing of the Divine Trinity is of the Father as the source (vv. 3-6), of the Son as the course (vv. 7-12), and of the Spirit as the flow (vv. 13-14). The dispensing of the Father as the source includes the Father’s choosing (v. 4) and predestination (v. 5). The Father’s intention in choosing us is to dispense His holy nature into us so that we may be holy. The Father’s predestination is so that we will receive the Father’s divine life. Upon receiving the Father’s divine life, we are born of God to be His sons in order to enjoy the sonship.
The church is also constituted through the Son’s redeeming. The Father chose and predestinated us. Then the Son came in to redeem us. The Son’s redeeming brought us into a condition in which we could become the Father’s inheritance. God the Father inherits only that which has the divine nature. His inheritance must come up to the standard of His divinity. For this reason the redemption of Christ must bring us into God Himself. His redemption is not just a matter of redeeming us from sin; it is even more a matter of redeeming us into God Himself, into His very divine element. This divine element constitutes us into a precious treasure for God’s inheritance.
The divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity according to Ephesians 1 consummates in the Spirit’s sealing (vv. 13-14). The entire being of the complete God reaches our being through the sealing of the Spirit. The sealing of the Spirit saturates the sealed ones. The Spirit as the living seal is also the sealing ink applied to our inward being in the image of the seal. The ink stamped onto a piece of paper will eventually become dry, but the Spirit as the sealing ink remains “wet” all the time unto eternity. Because the Spirit as the sealing ink remains “wet,” the Spirit continually saturates and permeates us until our entire being — spirit, soul, and body — is sealed. Eventually, through the divine sealing, we human beings become the expression not only of the God who creates but also of the regenerating, sanctifying, transforming, and glorifying God. We become His expression, His fullness. This is the aim and goal of the divine economy, God’s eternal arrangement as His eternal plan. God desires to make His chosen ones His expression, His fullness, in a corporate way.
The stewardship of the apostle is to dispense, to minister, the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel to the nations (3:2, 8). Some may think that only the apostle Paul has received this stewardship because he was the top apostle. Many believers also maintain that there have been only twelve apostles throughout church history. This concept is based upon the erroneous teaching of some of the Brethren teachers, which stated that the twelve disciples selected by the Lord Jesus were the only apostles. According to this teaching, Paul replaced Judas as the twelfth apostle instead of Matthias. They say that Matthias was excluded because he was selected by lots and not by Christ directly as Paul was. This teaching, however, is not according to the entire revelation of the New Testament. Acts 1:26 says that after the lot fell upon Matthias, “he was counted with the eleven apostles.” In the next chapter the Holy Spirit inspired the writer of Acts to say, “Peter, standing with the eleven” (2:14). This indicates that Matthias, who was chosen in 1:26, was recognized as one among the twelve apostles.
Furthermore, there are other apostles in addition to the first twelve apostles. Barnabas was an apostle (14:14). Silvanus and Timothy also became apostles (1 Thes. 1:1; 2:6). In Revelation 2 the church in Ephesus was commended by the Lord because they discerned the genuine apostles from the false apostles (v. 2). This implies that there were more apostles than the twelve apostles; otherwise, it would have been easy to identify the false apostles.
Apostle is an anglicized Greek word that means “one who is sent.” Every proper believer is a sent one. There are examples of sent ones in the Old Testament. Isaiah was such a sent one. When he saw the glory of Christ (John 12:38, 41) and heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” Isaiah said, “Here am I; send me” (Isa. 6:8). Whoever is sent by the Lord is an apostle. A little sister who is willing to be sent by the Lord to preach the gospel to her parents is an apostle, a sent one.
In the Lord’s new way we have been instructed, encouraged, and charged to go out to preach the gospel. Going out to preach the gospel equals being sent. As you go out to preach the gospel, you must have the realization that you are being sent. You should be able to declare to the Lord, “My going out is Your sending.” Because everyone who goes out to preach the gospel is a sent one, the number of apostles is unlimited. To be sent out by the Lord is the intrinsic significance of the word apostle. Each day, if we would answer the Lord’s call by saying, “Here am I, send me,” we would be the Lord’s sent ones, His apostles.
The stewardship mentioned in Ephesians 3:2 was given not only to Paul but also to all the believers. Paul was a person fully consecrated to Christ, only caring for Christ day and night. The saints who have full-time jobs are a little different from Paul in that they must be occupied in making a living. In addition to this, there are various other affairs they have to take care of in regard to their families; otherwise, they could not survive. But even with such responsibilities, at least three hours could be spared during the week for the Lord’s sake. You may tell the Lord, “Lord, I cannot be Your apostle with all my time because I must earn a living. But I want to give You three hours a week. During these three hours I would visit sinners with the gospel, feed the new believers, or perfect the saints.” If you would do this, you would be an apostle of Christ during those three hours.
If we would be faithful with our time and dedicate three hours each week for the sake of the gospel, we would at least be genuine apostles during those three hours. You may be a salesman for a large company during your normal work hours, but when you go out to preach the gospel for the three hours that have been dedicated to the Lord, you are no longer a salesman but an apostle fulfilling your stewardship to dispense Christ into people. As you go out to knock on doors, there is no need to tremble before men. You have received a glorious commission to dispense, distribute, and minister the glorious Christ into people. If someone should ask what you are doing, you could reply, “I am distributing the glorious Christ.”
In the full-time training in Anaheim, I trained the trainees not to preach the gospel according to the natural way. I instructed them not to ask questions of those to whom they are preaching the gospel. Rather, I encouraged them to speak in a bold way. We may say, “I have come to dispense Christ into you. He is glorious. He has sent me here to tell you that you must believe in Him. If you believe in Him, you will receive eternal life. Let’s pray.” If the person responds by saying, “I do not know how to pray,” we can say, “Please, pray after me: ‘Lord Jesus, I love You. Lord Jesus, I receive You. You are my Savior and life. Hallelujah! Lord Jesus. Amen.’” After a person has prayed to receive the Lord, he should then be directed to be baptized. This also should not be in the way of asking whether or not the person would like to be baptized. Rather, the person should just be led to be baptized. To ask questions either at the time of prayer or at the time of baptism is unwise. To preach the gospel in the way of authority is to be a proper sent one, an apostle.
Paul received the stewardship through the grace given to him. We also have been given grace to take the God-ordained way. Before going out we should pray, “Lord Jesus, thank You that You have given us a commission to go out with Your authority to minister Yourself to sinners. Lord, go with us.” When you go out in this way, you go full of power and authority. This authority may be likened to that of a policeman. The policeman who directs traffic seems to be just a small man with a uniform standing in the middle of the street. However, a car, which is more powerful than the policeman, must stop at his command. The car has power, but the man has authority. The policeman has the authority because the government is behind him supporting him. We must obey him, or we risk receiving a fine. When we go out to preach the gospel, we also must realize that the entire divine government is behind us. We go out in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus. When we go to visit people in the homes and tell them that we have come in the name of Jesus, Satan trembles. Satan and the evil angels must retreat because the name of Jesus is full of authority.
To preach the gospel according to the New Testament is to distribute Christ in His authority. You receive the authority by your prayer to the Lord before going out. In your going, God operates by distributing to you the sufficient grace as your capital to carry out the preaching of the gospel. In this way you go out with the power, authority, and position as one of the apostles of Christ. You have the stewardship and the commission. In Matthew 28:18-19 the Lord said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” The Lord Jesus has received all authority, and He has charged us to go. Our problem is that we often do not act on what the Lord has given us. The Lord as the Head of the Body has given all the members of His Body authority to disciple the nations. We must assume this authority and go. We are apostles to those whom we baptize. Because Paul was the one who initially brought the gospel to the Corinthians, he could say, “If to others I am not an apostle, yet surely I am to you; for you in the Lord are the seal of my apostleship” (1 Cor. 9:2). We also are apostles to those whom we lead to believe and be baptized.
The apostle’s stewardship was for dispensing the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:2-5, 7-11). The stewardship of the grace of God was given not only to the apostle Paul (v. 2) but to all of us as well. This stewardship was given by revelation concerning the church as the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations (vv. 3-5). The revelation of the mystery makes the apostle a minister, with the grace of God dispensed into him, to minister to the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ through the dispensing of the rich Christ (vv. 7-8). When we go out to visit people with the gospel, we go out to minister Christ with His unsearchable riches to sinners. We do not go to minister doctrine, philosophy, logic, or religion. Rather, we go to minister the unsearchable riches of Christ directly into people. We do this in much the same way as a waiter or steward serves a meal to the patrons of a restaurant. A waiter would not just come to the patrons and describe how clean the restaurant is, how qualified the cook is, or how the food is being cooked. If he would do this, those waiting for their food would grow very impatient. Our preaching of the gospel in the past was very often just like this. We gave a lot of explanation, doctrine, and teaching to people but very little Christ. Therefore, the response was usually not very positive. We must learn to minister the rich Christ to people directly.
The stewardship of the grace of God was given to the apostle to enlighten all that they might see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages had been hidden in God, who created all things (v. 9). The mystery is no longer hidden; it is an open fact today.
The stewardship of the grace of God is for the constituting of the church, through the dispensing of the unsearchable riches of Christ, to make the multifarious wisdom of God known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies, according to God’s eternal purpose made in Christ (v. 10-11). When you go out for three hours a week to minister the riches of Christ into sinners, you must realize that the result will be that the church is constituted. It is a shame to us that many of the churches have existed in many cities for a number of years, yet the number of saints is still relatively small. How could a local church be built up with only a small number year after year? In order to build a house, there is the need of material. You cannot build a great house with a little material. In Haggai the Lord charged the children of Israel to go up to the mountain to bring wood in order to build His house (1:8). We must go out to disciple the nations in order to make them members of the Body of Christ. By the increase of the material, there will be something with which to build the church. This is the stewardship that was given not only to Paul but also to the entire Body when the Lord charged the disciples after His resurrection in Matthew 28:18-19.
Through the dispensing of the riches of Christ, Christ is ministered into sinners. He is no longer outside His believers; He is now inside them. The Christ who was crucified on the cross now lives in us. Christ has been ministered into us, so we now have Christ making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:16-17). Since we have received Christ, He is working and moving within us. He is working and moving in the heavens, in the church, and in our environment, but His main work is to work Himself into us, to make home in our hearts, to get Himself settled down within us.
The Lord desires to settle Himself down within us, but we often keep Him within a small part of our being. When I travel to different cities, I often stay as a guest in the homes of the saints. Since I am a guest, I do not settle down by unpacking my suitcase completely. On the contrary, I leave my suitcase partially packed because I know that after a few days I will leave again and have to repack everything. I also realize that as a guest it is inappropriate for me to touch things within the saints’ homes unless I have been given permission to do so. As a guest, I am restricted in my activity. This illustrates how the Lord Jesus is often restricted within us. The Lord Jesus is often like a guest within us. He may have been living within us for fifteen years, but He may still not yet be “unpacked.” He also may not dare to do things within us because we have not given Him the permission to do so. He may still be restricted to our spirit, unable to occupy the rest of our inner being.
Our being may be likened to a house with many rooms. The Lord may be limited to the “living room” of our inner being. Because the Lord is limited to the living room, it may have become a little prison to Him. We have other rooms in our being, but they are secret rooms because we have not allowed the Lord to enter these rooms. These rooms include our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. We love the Lord Jesus, but we may not have given Him any ground in our emotion. This may also be the case with our mind. In the way we live, in the way we dress ourselves, and in the way we drive our car, there may be no ground for Christ. In the same way, many of our decisions may have been made without any ground given to Christ. We may be the only one occupying our mind, will, emotion, and conscience. As a result, Christ has been a guest within us and even a prisoner within us.
Paul first told the saints at Ephesus that he was a steward with a commission to distribute, to minister, the riches of Christ into the believers (vv. 2, 8). But in carrying out this stewardship, he realized that Christ was not yet settled down within them. Christ was dwelling in their spirit, but He had not yet settled down in their heart. Christ was in the center of the saints’ being, in their spirit, but He had not yet come into the parts of their soul surrounding their spirit. The parts of the soul include the mind, emotion, and will. These parts of the soul with the conscience of the spirit form the heart. Christ was limited and imprisoned within their spirit; He could not spread into the inner parts of their being. This is the reason that Paul prayed for Christ to make His home in the hearts of the saints. For Christ to make His home in our hearts means that He is able to spread Himself into our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. In this way Christ will occupy our entire inner being. Thus, Christ will become settled in our being, and our inner being will become His home.
The operation of the Divine Trinity is needed for Christ to make home in our hearts. It is for this reason that Paul prayed to the Father as the source that He would strengthen the saints into their inner man with the dispensing of the riches of the Father’s glory (v. 16). The Father’s glory is the Father’s splendor. Splendor refers to the outward expression of something. If you are a proper person, you will have human virtues such as wisdom, knowledge, and love. If you are such a person, you will have a certain kind of expression. This expression is your splendor, your glory. The glory of God is just the expression of what God is in all His divine attributes. These attributes include love, light, power, patience, and mercy. The expression of God in His attributes is His splendor.
Christ makes His home in the hearts of the saints through the Spirit’s operating within the saints with the dispensing of the divine power (v. 16). The Spirit is within us as the power of God. Just as power can be a synonym for electricity, the Spirit is a synonym for the power of God. Today many Christians lack this proper knowledge. They may know that the Spirit is within them, but they do not realize that this Spirit is not only their life but also their power. The power has been installed. Our need is to “switch on” the Spirit. The Spirit will then operate within us with the dispensing of the divine power.
Christ makes His home in the hearts of the saints through the operation of the Triune God (v. 17a). The Father strengthens us according to the riches of what He is, the Spirit operates in power, and the Son makes His home in our hearts. With the Father’s strengthening and the Spirit’s empowering, the Son has the ground, the opportunity, to enlarge Himself in our inner being. He enlarges Himself in our being by penetrating into our mind, spreading into our will, occupying our emotion, and taking over our entire conscience. In this way Christ occupies our entire inner being, making home in all our heart. This takes place by the dispensing of Himself into all the parts of our heart.
As Christ is making home in our hearts, we are being rooted and grounded in love (v. 17b). We are God’s cultivated land, God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). As God’s cultivated land, we need to be rooted for growth, and as God’s building, we need to be grounded for building up. Being rooted and grounded is in love. To experience Christ, we need faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith enables us to realize Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Both faith and love are not ours but His. His faith becomes our faith to believe in Him, and His love becomes our love to love Him.
Christ making His home in our hearts enables us to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ — the breadth, length, height, and depth (Eph. 3:18). Christ is unsearchable, untraceable, unlimited, all-inclusive, and all-extensive. He is the breadth, length, height, and depth. These are the dimensions of the universe. No one can say how broad the breadth is, how long the length is, how high the height is, or how deep the depth is. All these dimensions are Christ. As we allow Christ to get settled in our inner parts through the dispensing of His riches into us, gradually we will realize with all the saints that the Christ we enjoy is unsearchable, unlimited, all-inclusive, and all-extensive. We will apprehend with all the saints His breadth, length, height, and depth.
Christ making His home in our hearts causes us to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ (v. 19a). To know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ is to realize that Christ is everything to us. Christ is our breath, our rest, our daily life, and our home. He is also our drink, our food, our clothing, our wisdom, our knowledge, our sanctification, and our redemption. He is everything. As a result, His love is knowledge-surpassing.
When Christ is fully settled down within our hearts, we, the saints, are filled with the dispensing of the unsearchable riches of the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God unto all the fullness of God for the corporate expression of the processed Triune God (v. 19b). This means that what God is becomes what we are. We are filled with the dispensing of the unsearchable riches of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God to such an extent that we are filled unto all the fullness of the Triune God. This fullness is the expression of God, and this expression is the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God.
Our eyes need to be enlightened to see the church according to God’s high standard. Much of today’s speaking about the church is too low. We need a vision to uplift our view and to rescue us from a low understanding concerning the church. We make mistakes that devastate the practical church life because our understanding is too low. We need to be rescued. This rescue comes from a proper view and an uplifted vision concerning the church, the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God.
