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Scripture Reading: Luke 24:27, 31-32, 44-45; Acts 8:30-35
Paying our full attention to the present move of the Lord among us — the building up of the home meetings — is absolutely scriptural. The more we come back to the New Testament to study the matter of Christian meetings, the more we are convinced that in God’s intention, Christians should pay their full attention to the home meetings. It is scriptural to emphasize that we need to come back to the home meetings to set them up, establish them, and build them up.
In the 1930s Brother Nee told us repeatedly and insisted strongly that we should give up the Sunday morning service meeting in all the churches. He proposed that we use that time on Sunday mornings to preach the gospel to our relatives, friends, colleagues, and schoolmates. But it is hard to break people of their habit. Today people do not work on Sundays and, as a kind of custom and habit, come together as religious people to give a service to God. We are very much the same. When Brother Nee proposed this strongly, nearly no one among us paid much attention to it. Everyone was used to coming to a big morning meeting on the Lord’s Day to sit and relax and listen to a good message. The good message is a kind of music that becomes people’s amusement and their enjoyment. If you stop it, and you ask them to preach the gospel, that means you cut off their amusement, and you ask them to labor. They do not know how to preach the gospel in their homes. If they could collect their relatives, who would speak for them? Even to collect relatives is not so easy. So no one would do it, and that forced Brother Nee somewhat to let it go.
In the Far East, in the rich Chinese families, none of the family members cook, but rather they hire a professional, trained cook. At every meal time, this professional, trained cook prepares a feast for them. It is not a meal but a feast. At noon there may be twelve dishes, and sometimes at dinner, fifteen to eighteen dishes. They have a feast every day. I lived in Shanghai for years, and I saw this. The rich Chinese all got spoiled by this kind of feasting. I use this as an illustration.
The Lord’s recovery is also rich. In every meeting you have a professional cook making a feast for you. Now your feast is stopped, and your cook is fired. You are charged to go to the kitchen and stand in front of the hot oven. To cook in this way and to have to eat what you cook is not bad. Consider the society in any country. If the country is going to be strong, the families have to be built up. The building up of the country depends upon the families. If every family needs a professional cook, that spoils the entire country. A feast is rich, but it is not healthy. If for every meal you have a feast, you probably will not live to be sixty. Just because you have been taking in so much rich food, you will die of a heart attack. If you want to avoid getting a heart attack, do not eat rich food. The more I eat plain food with no sugar, little oil, and nearly no salt, the more I feel comfortable all day. But to eat this kind of plain food is really a suffering. Likewise, to take away your big meetings is a suffering to you. That is just a suffering in taste but not the real suffering in fact. To take American desserts away from you rescues you from the upcoming heart attack. My restricted diet rescues me from committing a gradual suicide. Dear saints, do not think that I am too much. Your attending the big meetings to sit there listening to a good speaker week after week, year after year, is to commit a gradual suicide.
Look at the situation in today’s Christianity. The big speakers and top giants always speak, speak, speak. They gained a great number of people, but where is the real building? There is no building, yet the Lord Jesus said clearly in Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” This was a strong word, yet two thousand years have passed, and today where is the building? Through the centuries in Christianity you could see only activities, schedules, and projects but no building. No need to say the members of Christianity, even the pastors have not been built together. It is difficult to find two famous pastors who would work together. Everyone carries out his own project. Who would work together with others? Brother Nee said that in Christianity they just shake hands over the fence. Shaking hands cannot last too long. After shaking hands, everyone goes back to his own activity. You could not see Christians who are built together.
I was a member of the Chinese Independent Presbyterian Church. I was baptized there, and I attended the service there for years, but I rarely talked to anyone other than the pastor. Then I joined the Brethren assembly in my town. I went to their meetings five times a week for seven and a half years, but I scarcely talked to anyone. In such a meeting there was little contact with others.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord said that He would build His church upon the rock of the revelation concerning Christ. Then in chapter 18 the Lord Jesus said that He is in the midst wherever or whenever two or three are gathered into His name (v. 20). In this verse the Greek preposition eis, translated “into,” indicates that these two or three who are gathered into the name of Christ are gathered out of themselves into His name. The name always denotes a person. These two or three are gathered out of themselves into the person of Jesus Christ. Here they meet together.
In such a small meeting, how could you avoid the contact with others? When you meet in a gathering of five hundred, it is hard for you to speak and easy for you not to speak. But when you meet with just one other person, you cannot avoid speaking. Let me illustrate the speaking that might take place in such a small meeting. Perhaps one brother may say that he does not know how to speak and that he does not have anything to speak. He does not like to read the Life-study message, nor does he like to read the Bible. The other brother may tell him, “Years ago I did not like the Bible either, but now I like it very much. I did not like it in the past, because I did not have the appetite. Then one day I regretted and repented of my lack of appetite for the Bible. I had a thorough confession of my sins before the Lord. After that I was so happy that I was filled. I jumped, I laughed, and I exulted. Since that time I have loved the Bible, and I have the appetite for the Bible.” Then he may help the first brother to receive grace by confessing. This is building up. The first brother will become thankful to the Lord and grateful to this brother. He will never forget him, and he will love him. This kind of experience builds us together.
Then these brothers may fellowship about how enjoyable it is to come together in this way. Perhaps one brother may express a concern for brothers who do not come to their meeting. They may pray with tears, “Lord, have mercy upon Dave, have mercy upon Don, have mercy upon James.” By this kind of prayer these two brothers love each other and get into each other’s heart. They are built together. This kind of building together will impress people to the uttermost. Then the two would go to see the backsliding brother. This brother may know that the two were not one in the past, but now he sees that they are so one. There is hardly any need for them to say anything. He would be impressed and inspired. It is so easy to recover him. Gradually, day after day, this one and that one will be recovered. These small meetings will build up the saints, keep the saints, recover the backsliding ones, and also bring in the new ones.
Those who are accustomed to the enjoyment of the big meetings have to realize that the big meetings can never build up. In Taiwan after 1960 we slowly and unconsciously drifted back to the way of Christianity. Gradually we gave up the practice of the small groups. Although year after year we baptized more than eight hundred, eventually not many were preserved. We did not have the preserving strength. We did not have a proper reservoir to keep the rain because we did not practice the home meetings. We had strong Sunday morning meetings in some halls, but that did not fulfill the purpose of building. So we surely discovered the shortage, the need of the home meetings. We have to endeavor, struggle, and strive for the building up of the home meetings.
To turn our attention from big meetings to small meetings may temporarily be a kind of suffering, but for the long run it will be a very healthy activity in the Lord’s recovery. We are not accustomed to having small meetings in the homes. We like to have the big meetings. We even pray for big speakers. That means we want a big cook to come, to cook feasts for us. But to eat feasts every day is not healthy. The most healthy way is to eat home-cooked meals. Home cooking is really healthy. Everyone can live a long life by eating home meals. Even if they never have one feast in their whole life, still they will be healthy. But I assure you, if every day you attend a feast, you will soon die.
A big feast is tasteful, but for the long run it is not healthy. Big meetings are tasteful and enjoyable, but for the long run they do not build up the Body of Christ. Occasionally, we may all come together for a big feast like the Israelites in the ancient time. They stayed home and ate their home meals for nearly the whole year. Only three times a year they all came together to have a feast lasting not more than seven days. This is very good, but after this you have to go back to your home meals to make you healthy. Learn to treasure the small meetings. Even if you do not feel so tasteful as in the big meetings, try to enjoy it. Try to talk with some new ones or with some who are weaker, who have been away from the church meetings for a while. Try to talk to them. This will help the building.
Now let us come to the divine speaking with the Life-studies. In the past some have had the thought that we use the Life-studies in our meetings to replace the Bible. But we do not replace the Bible by anything, even by using the Life-studies. Rather, I must say honestly, and you have to admit the fact, that no book ushers us into the Bible as the Life-studies do. Anyone can prove and can testify how much we love the Bible, how much we pay our attention to the Bible, and how much we get ourselves into the Bible through the study of the Life-studies.
So the Life-studies are not to replace the Bible but to open the Bible and to expound the Bible and to release all the unsearchable riches in the Bible. Quite a few in the past came to me to express how the Life-studies opened the Bible and helped them to know the Bible. After I got saved at close to twenty years of age, I began to study the New Testament. I got stuck on the first page. I wondered, “Who is Abraham?” I got a lexicon, which told me that Abraham was the father of Isaac. Then when I looked up Isaac, it just said that Isaac was the son of Abraham. After that, whenever I came back to Matthew, I just skipped the first seventeen verses. I would not read that portion on the genealogy of Christ. There were too many names that I did not know how to pronounce. It seemed impossible for me to understand, and I thought to myself, “Probably there’s no one on this earth who knows this portion.”
But today if you have trouble with the first seventeen verses of Matthew 1, you can go to the Life-study of Matthew. There are seven messages on the genealogy of Christ. Those messages open up this portion and expound its full significance to you. They also release all the riches. In the summer of 1936 I was able to write an article that was later published as a book in Chinese entitled Gleanings from the Genealogy of Christ. The messages I gave in the Life-study of Matthew on chapter 1 are all based upon that article. Now that portion is fully opened and expounded, and all the riches are released in black and white. This is not to replace Matthew 1; this is to open up that difficult section of the Word with a full exposition and with a rich presentation of all its unsearchable riches. This is the use of the Life-studies.
For the six chapters of Ephesians we put out ninety-seven Life-study messages. Ephesians contains a lot of deep, profound, spiritual terminology. How could you understand what is the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints? And what is glory? It is difficult. I have been spending years to study the text, to study the Greek text, to study some expositions, and to study to know the Bible by experience. Through many years of study and observation I surely got an accumulation.
The Bible has been in the hands of Christians for over nineteen centuries. A number of great scholars have studied and expounded this book. Following the lead of Brother Watchman Nee, some of us have read and become familiar with all the great writers’ masterpieces. The Life-study messages are now just the cream of the milk produced in nineteen centuries. I presented them in a very simple way and in very plain English.
All my writings have been polished by the American brothers and sisters because English is not my native tongue. Sometimes in their polishing they added in some deeper words. When I made the final review, I always took away all the deeper words added by them. Whether the word is deep or shallow, as long as it conveys the thought to people, that is good enough. I like for people to be able to read my writings without a dictionary. Right away they can understand what the black and white says. Then the Holy Spirit has a way to work within them. If you use language that is too deep or too profound, their mind might be fully occupied just with the language. This leaves no capacity in their mind to understand the spiritual denotations or the spiritual significances. Such a thing is absolutely wrong. The language in the Gospel of John is so simple: “In the beginning was the Word”; “I am the light of the world”; “I am the bread of life.” Probably even some in kindergarten today could read John. The denotation, the significance, is very profound, but the language does not bother people. The language does not occupy people’s mentality. This is the way we have taken with the Life-studies. They are written in a very simple and plain way with the intention to open the Bible.
I believe that if you do have a heart to read any book of the New Testament with the help of the Life-studies, right away that book would be opened to you. This is what the Lord Jesus did in Luke 24. First, He opened the Scriptures (v. 32); then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures (v. 45). The Scriptures were altogether closed to the disciples. In the Pentateuch, in the Psalms, and in the Prophets there are many things concerning Christ, but none of the disciples saw anything. Why was this? It was because the Scriptures were not opened to them, and their spiritual understanding was not opened. So the Lord Jesus came to the two disciples going down to Emmaus. They saw Him, but they did not recognize Him until they sat to eat with Him. Once their eyes were opened, Jesus disappeared from their sight. They said to one another, “Was not our heart burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening to us the Scriptures?” (v. 32). Then they turned to go back to Jerusalem. There the Lord Jesus appeared to them again and opened their understanding to realize what is mentioned in the law of Moses, in the Psalms, and in the Prophets concerning Christ. The purpose of the Life-studies is just to open up the Bible.
Another example of the opening of the Bible is found in Acts 8. As Philip the evangelist was traveling, the Spirit told him to go and join the chariot of an Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch was reading the passage of Scripture in Isaiah 53. When Philip asked him whether he understood what he read, the eunuch answered, “How could I unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:31). So Philip explained to him the significance of what was spoken in Isaiah, that Jesus Christ as the Lamb was slaughtered for our sins. That was a real gospel. Right away the eunuch believed and was baptized. Without the help of such a guide when you open up some of the books of the New Testament, it is really hard for you to understand.
Readers of the New Testament have found at least fifty points that are very difficult for people to understand. In the Life-studies I solved each one of these major problems. For instance, after Jesus was buried in the tomb, He went to the spirits in prison. What was that? There are many different explanations, but after much study I came to a conclusion and wrote an adequate footnote on this matter (1 Pet. 3:19 and footnote 3). When you come to any book in the New Testament with the help of the Life-study, you will have no problem with the difficult points.
The main purpose of the Life-study is to minister life. This is why I call it a Life-study. In history this term has never been used. No one has ever called their study of the New Testament a life-study. Actually, it is a study that concerns life only. These Life-studies are not intended to pass on mere knowledge to you. There is some amount of knowledge, but I purposely limited it. The main purpose is to minister life. I have received many letters expressing appreciation for the Life-studies. These letters testified that every page and every paragraph supplied life. Many good books are just like a deep mine; you need to read through eight pages before you get one diamond. But the Life-studies have a diamond within the first half of a page. It seems that I am boasting. Actually, I am not boasting; I am speaking the fact.
I am burdened concerning how we use the Life-studies in the home meetings. In the past some have selected a good speaker and charged him to read a Life-study several times and to remember all the crucial points of the message. On Sunday morning the speaker came to the platform to speak this message. Because this way has not always been so successful, some have changed their way. They asked all the saints to read the Life-study before coming to the meeting. In the meeting one or two would take the lead to have some read a paragraph at a time. After the reading of a paragraph, there was the opportunity to speak if anyone was inspired. Eventually, this way was not successful either. So some tried to read selected portions of the Life-study in the meeting to see if there was an inspiration from the aggregate of several sections. This way also became a failure. Eventually, nearly all the churches do not know how to use the Life-study messages in the meetings. They all know that diamonds, jewels, and jade are here in the Life-studies, but they do not know how to use them.
In Hong Kong those who sell diamonds are trained to be able to present a diamond from many angles. They can explain everything about a diamond in such a way that the customers are attracted, showing it to them from many angles, and explaining everything. With this explanation half the listeners get attracted, asking, “How much? Let me see it.” Those salesmen were trained. They surely know salesmanship. But we are not like this. We do not know how to show the angles of the diamond. We do not even know the difference between a diamond and jade. We have all the precious stones, yet we do not know how to use them. This has forced me to consider the situation. Sometimes I could not sleep so well at night just considering this matter of how to use the Life-studies.
We should use the Life-studies, but not in all those other ways. Forget about all those ways. We should use the Life-studies in the small meetings. Let the saints know that we are going to use a certain message of the Life-study as the very material for our speaking in the meeting. Then when we all come to the meeting, we will begin to read it. There are at least seven ways to read. First, you have to read in a short way. Just read a short portion. Sometimes you do not need to read a full sentence, because you may realize that a phrase or a clause is crucial. For instance, you may read, “But when it pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (Gal. 1:15a, 16a). When you read this, you could surely realize that this is not a common word; this is too crucial. Therefore, you should not read ahead too quickly. You have to linger for a while: “It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.” When you pause, some others will repeat it. First, you read a short portion. Second, if that portion is crucial, repeat it. But do not repeat it in a formal way. We must repeat in a living way, not in a dead or formal way. This repeating-reading is very living, very meaningful, and very impressing. “It pleased! It pleased God to reveal His Son in me!”
A third way is to read with some explanation but not with too much. Sometimes some wordings or terminologies in certain messages are not common. People just do not know the meaning of them. For instance, Matthew 1:21 says, “You shall call His name Jesus.” You may repeat, “Jesus! Jesus!” But nobody knows what Jesus means. You have the repetition, but there is the need of some explanation: “Call His name Jesus. Call Him Jehovah the Savior.” Read it in an explaining way. In your reading, you will give people the meaning. Sometimes you may feel this explanation is good and worthy of repetition. Then you would say, “Jesus, Jehovah the Savior. Oh, Jehovah the Savior!” This impresses people. This way requires a lot of learning. Therefore, we all have to learn. Especially in this age, in the twentieth century, everything requires a lot of learning. To be a twentieth-century believer in the Lord’s recovery, you cannot be too simple.
Another way is to pray-read. Sometimes when you have crucial verses, you have to pray-read them. When you read these verses, you realize that they are crucial and that they should be repeated. After one reads, right away you repeat. This is to pray-read. You also need to read with some variation in your voice, just like music. Sometimes the melody goes up and comes down. Sometimes it is faster; sometimes it is slower. Sometimes you have to read loudly, and sometimes you have to read not so loudly. We have to learn this. We are not machines. We are not robots. We are very living. We know how to lift up our voice and how to lower it down. We all have to learn the proper way. We have a sober mind, and we have a spirit. We just exercise our spirit, and we know when it is the time to utter something. We also know how long we should utter it and how much we should say.
To open up the home meetings may afford some who like to speak a good chance to occupy the entire time with their speaking. This is a real concern. I beg you all, for love’s sake — we all love the Lord, we all love His Body, we all love His church — for the sake of this love, we all have to function properly. Do not occupy others’ time. Do not speak too long; do not speak too much; do not pray too long. We all have to learn this. Then we could practice using the Life-studies in a good way.
We can also pray-sing. When we read a verse, perhaps you will have a hymn or a chorus that just matches that thought. For instance, Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” There is a hymn with just such a chorus: “Christ lives in me, Christ lives in me.” When you read, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me,” right away someone may take the lead to sing that chorus: “Christ lives in me, Christ lives in me.” This is why I call it pray-singing.
Then there is another way to read: to read in order to apply, an applying-reading. You may read a verse and apply this verse to your situation, to your present need. There are more ways of reading. It is not limited. We all have to be living, open, flexible, and adjustable. Let us all try and learn. We are all still in the learning stage. The best place for you to practice this learning is in the home meetings.
Recently, I attended a small home meeting in Taipei. At first I was disappointed. By the scheduled time of meeting there were only an old man, a small girl, and a young schoolteacher. Slowly others came in. Eventually, a backsliding brother took the lead to speak a gospel hymn. A sister played the piano, and all began to sing the hymn. Afterward, the backsliding one gave an explanation of the whole hymn. By the end of the meeting I was very encouraged. This proves that the home meetings really work. They bring in the backsliders and make them the leaders. They bring in the people from the denominations and bring in the new converts. They bring in many different people, and eventually, everyone feels happy. However, there is still one problem. Many still do not know how to use the Life-studies.
We need to use the Life-studies in order to enrich the home meetings, to strengthen the home meetings, to refresh, and to make them so alive, so attractive, even so attracting, and so upholding. I believe that we will reach this goal. If we would endeavor, we will surely reach the goal, and the churches will all be built up. Once the churches are built up, the increase will surely come in. If we all begin to speak, the Lord will honor our speaking. Sooner or later this one will be saved, and that one will be saved; there will be some saved here and there. All these saved ones will be brought in. This is the way.
