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Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:8-14
I. Christ’s prophecy — Matt. 16:18:
А. “Upon this rock [Christ and the revelation of Christ received by the apostles] I will build My church.”
B. “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
II. Christ as the ascended Head giving gifts to men — Eph. 4:8-11:
А. Some apostles:
1. Those who have received the revelation of God’s New Testament economy concerning Christ and the church — Matt. 16:16-18; Gal. 1:11-12, 15-16; Eph. 3:3-4, 8-11; 5:32.
2. Those who are able to preach the gospel of Christ to save the sinners chosen and called by God, bringing them unto Christ — Gal. 1:16a; Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 11:2.
3. Those who are able to establish local churches and to appoint in them the elders for leading, shepherding, teaching, and overseeing — Acts 14:23; 1 Tim. 5:17; 1 Pet. 5:2.
4. Those who are able to determine doctrines, to release the truth, to perfect the saints, and to build up the Body of Christ — 1 Tim. 2:7; Eph. 4:11-12.
B. Some prophets — speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into men — 1 Cor. 14:1, 4-5, 23a, 24-26, 31.
C. Some evangelists — preaching Christ and the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel to save the desolate sinners, bringing them unto Christ.
D. Some shepherds and teachers — shepherding and teaching the believers.
E. For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry — the building up of the Body of Christ, that the saints may arrive at — Eph. 4:12-14:
1. The oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
2. A full-grown man.
3. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
4. No longer being little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching.
From this chapter forward, we will consider the building up of the Body of Christ. Here I am not speaking concerning the building up of the local churches. Rather, I am speaking concerning the building up of the Body of Christ. The local churches are local — they are in the different localities and are plural in number. Today on the whole earth, over the six major continents, there are about eleven hundred churches in the Lord’s recovery. But the Body of Christ is unique in the whole universe. There is only one Body. All the local churches in all times and places are part of this unique Body of Christ.
The Lord prophesied in Matthew 16 that He would build His church, which is His Body, upon this rock. On the one hand, this rock signifies Christ; on the other hand, it signifies the revelation seen by the apostles. The Bible shows us that, on the one hand, the Body of Christ is built upon Christ Himself, with Him as the foundation (1 Cor. 3:11). On the other hand, it is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets (Eph. 2:20). The foundation of the apostles and the prophets is the revelation they have seen, which is the whole New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation.
The church is mentioned for the first time in the whole Bible in Matthew 16. Although there are several types in the Old Testament typifying the church, the word church is not found in the Old Testament. Therefore, in the Old Testament the church is a mystery hidden in God. None of the ones such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, or Isaiah knew about this. The Old Testament saints did not know why they were fearing and worshipping God and why God was caring for them; they knew only that the Messiah, the Christ, would come. They earnestly expected Him to come to establish the kingdom of the heavens on earth. They did not know that God wanted to obtain a church as the Body of Christ. In the New Testament, John the Baptist appeared, calling people to repent and to believe in the gospel. The Lord Jesus continued what John had preached, and as a result, Peter, James, John, and many others received it. Of these, the Lord appointed twelve as apostles and sent them out to preach the gospel, but none of them knew that all this was for the church. I believe that by the time they came to Matthew 16, the disciples had been following the Lord for about two to three years. At that time the Lord brought them out of Jerusalem and the land of Judea, away from the holy city, the holy temple, the sacrifice, the incense, and the places full of religious atmosphere, to the region of Caesarea Philippi in the north, at the foot of a mountain by the border of the land of Judea. There the Lord asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). This time he did not say foolish things; his sky was clear, without clouds. He received the revelation that according to His ministry, the Lord Jesus is God’s Anointed for the fulfillment of God’s purpose and that according to His person, He is the Son of God, the embodiment of God. Here Peter uttered some stunning words. Immediately, the Lord told him that this was not revealed to him by man but by God the Father. Furthermore, the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church” (v. 18). In this word the Lord showed Peter that it is not enough just to know Him as the Christ; Peter must also know that upon Him He will build the church. Christ is only the Head; He needs a Body, which is the church, to be His match. The Head and the Body cannot be divided; Christ and the church are a great mystery (Eph. 5:32). Not only must we know Christ; we must know the church as well.
It has now been nearly two thousand years since the time of Christ’s ascension. The greatest thing that has happened during this time is the producing of the church. What we are doing here today is to “stir up” churches. To say that we are building up the church means that we are “stirring up” churches. What were Peter and Paul doing? They were stirring up churches. What were the Western missionaries doing when they left their countries and kinsmen and crossed the ocean? They were stirring up churches. At present, Christ on the throne in heaven is sending His seven Spirits to enliven us. For what purpose? For the purpose of stirring up churches everywhere, until the whole world is so stirred up that it is filled with churches. The Lord said that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth, and then the end will come. Today the end has not yet come, because the gospel has not yet been preached in the whole inhabited earth, and the whole earth has not yet been filled with churches. You have heard that there is the gospelizing work in Taiwan. This gospelizing work also includes the “church-izing” work. We hope that by the end of 1991, every town and village in Taiwan will have a church. Thank the Lord! In Korea there are about three thousand brothers and sisters who are willing to offer themselves to the Lord to “stir up” churches here. I believe that after five years the situation in Korea will be changed, and all the places will be filled with churches.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord continued by saying, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it [the church].” The gates of Hades are the authority of Satan’s darkness; they are also the authority of death. However, they cannot prevail against the church, for the church is the Body of Christ, the Head, who sits on the throne in heaven. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. Since the church is His Body, the gates of Hades cannot prevail against the church. This ascended Head has already been crowned with glory and honor on the throne (Heb. 2:9). He has also received authority from God the Father and has been made Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36) and the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5). Now He operates by His Spirit, which is sevenfold intensified (4:5; 5:6), to apply all that He has accomplished and obtained to us for the building up of His Body. This is the work of Christ in heaven. Heaven, where He is, is joined to our spirit. The spirit within us is linked to heaven. The book of Genesis in the Old Testament records the story of Jacob when he dreamed of a heavenly ladder in the wilderness. On the ladder there were angels of God ascending and descending (28:12). The heavenly ladder is a type of the ascended Christ. The place where the ladder was set up was called Bethel, and it was the gate of heaven (vv. 18-19). Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. We are now living on earth. How then can we come to God’s throne in heaven? The key is the spirit mentioned in Hebrews 4:12. The Christ who is sitting on the throne in heaven is now also in us (Rom. 8:10), that is, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). God’s dwelling place is this spirit. Bethel is the house of God, the habitation of God, and the gate of heaven. There Christ is the ladder, linking earth to heaven and bringing heaven down to earth. Since our spirit is now God’s dwelling place, this spirit is the gate of heaven. Here Christ is the ladder, joining us, the people on earth, to heaven and bringing heaven to us.
Sometimes when you wake up in the morning, you feel very weak. But when you call “O Lord Jesus,” immediately the ascended Christ will be transmitted into you like electricity, and you will be strengthened within. Sometimes you feel tired and do not want to come to the meetings. But as soon as you say softly within, “Lord!” something will start moving within you, and you will end up coming to the meeting. The more you come to the meetings, the more you will be joined to heaven, and the stronger you will become. All the tiredness will be gone. This is Christ bringing heaven to us within, enabling us to overcome Satan’s might of death.
Ephesians 4:8-11 shows us that this ascended Head gave gifts to men. After Christ ascended, He first gave some gifted persons to the church. These gifted persons are people who “stir up” churches and also perfect others to “stir up” more churches.
The ascended Head gave four kinds of gifts. The first class is the apostles (v. 11). These apostles receive the revelation of God’s New Testament economy concerning Christ and the church (Matt. 16:16-18; Gal. 1:11-12, 15-16; Eph. 3:3-4, 8-11; 5:32). First, they receive the revelation, and the revelation makes their spirits burning and causes them to forget about themselves. They then go out to preach the revelation so that others may also be burned. These apostles also preach the gospel of Christ to save the sinners chosen and called by God, bringing them to Christ (Gal. 1:16a; Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 11:2). They do not preach the superficial gospel, one that tells people about going to heaven instead of hell; rather, they preach to others the all-inclusive Christ as the gospel. Furthermore, the apostles are able to establish local churches and to appoint in them the elders for leading, shepherding, teaching, and overseeing (Acts 14:23; 1 Tim. 5:17; 1 Pet. 5:2). They are also able to determine doctrines, to release the truth, to perfect the saints, and to build up the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 2:7; Eph. 4:11-12). These are the four things that an apostle should do.
The prophets are the second class of gifts given by the ascended Christ (v. 11). The prophets are those who through the Lord’s revelation, speak for the Lord, speak forth the Lord, and speak the Lord into others. Sometimes they are also moved to utter some predictions. For the perfecting of the saints and the building up of the Body of Christ, they are second only to the apostles and are a very important class of people.
The evangelists are the third class of persons given by the ascended Head. They can preach Christ and the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel to save the desolate sinners, bringing them to Christ.
The shepherds and teachers are the fourth class of persons given by the ascended Head. According to the grammatical structure in Greek, the shepherds and teachers here refer to one class of gifted persons. The shepherds should know how to teach others, and the teachers should also know how to feed others. They are able to shepherd and teach the believers and are also able to feed the new ones in the same way that a mother feeds, shepherds, leads, and teaches her children.
The four classes of persons — the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers — preach the gospel to save others on the one hand. On the other hand, they raise up churches in the localities. Then they also feed, shepherd, and teach the saints. Furthermore, among these saints they speak for the Lord and speak the Lord into them. In this way all the saints are perfected. The meaning of perfecting can be illustrated by university students being taught by professors of different subjects. After four years of studying, they graduate and are able to do the same things that the professors do; they have all been perfected. Christ as the Head gave these four kinds of gifts to the church for the purpose of perfecting the saints that they also may be the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the existing system of Christianity. It only trains some preachers to gather a congregation on Sunday for a service where one speaks and the rest listen. Most of them after listening for decades still have not received much perfecting.
In the Lord’s recovery all the gifts, such as the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers, should do the work of perfecting. In other words, they should all do the work of training. They should be like the professors perfecting the students. In this way, after a few years the saints will be perfected and will be able to do the work that they do. At present, the publications among us are very rich and numerous. There are at least four thousand different messages. If you would spend the time, these materials are very good to help you be perfected. I heard that you have translated all the Life-study messages of the New Testament into Korean. If you would spend two hours every day for two years to read these Life-study messages, you will be equipped. In four years’ time you will be able to finish all these messages.
At the same time, you are in the church seeing how the apostles raise up churches, how they appoint elders, how they preach the high gospel, how they bring people into Christ to enjoy the riches of Christ, and how they determine doctrines. For example, someone asked me this morning about the difference between the denominations and the church. In a simple word, first, the denominations are denominated; they have divided the Body of Christ. The church is not denominated; it is one. All the believers, whether they are sprinkled or immersed, are in the church as long as they are saved. Second, the denominations do not have a definite ground. The church, however, has a definite ground, which is also the unique ground. Here we stand on the ground of oneness in the different localities to worship God together and to build up the Body of Christ together. I believe that after five years many of you will be able to be apostles, preaching the gospel from city to city and from village to village, establishing churches, releasing the truth, and building up the Body of Christ.
Next are the prophets. The present atmosphere in the church meetings is that you are being trained to speak for the Lord. For example, the sharings after a message are mostly repetitions of words that you just heard. After speaking this way for a while, you will be able to speak for the Lord. Perhaps the first time you stand up, you are afraid to speak, and you are scared. But as long as you keep practicing, your boldness will increase, and your voice will get stronger. Gradually, you will not only be able to speak for the Lord, but you will also be able to speak forth the Lord and to speak the Lord into others. After the meetings, people may not remember much about the messages they heard. But they will feel that there is One following them all the time. The reason for this is that you have spoken the Lord into them. After you return home, do not only chat with your family; instead, you must learn to speak the Lord’s word to your family, to speak forth the Lord, and to speak the Lord into them. In this way they will discover that you have changed, and they will also change through your speaking. This is to prophesy. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 that you can all prophesy one by one (v. 31).
The evangelists’ perfecting of the saints makes every saint burdened with a spirit for the gospel. It cheers and warms up the gospel atmosphere for the saints that they would become burning to preach the gospel. In preaching the gospel it also helps them to speak to the point, not deviating from the subject. While they speak, the listeners’ hearts, mouths, and spirits will all be open, and they will receive the Lord to be saved. The shepherds and teachers’ perfecting is like perfecting people to be mothers. Many brothers and sisters cannot feed people after they have been brought to salvation. They are like the mother who cannot nurse her child; thus, the new ones do not receive much supply and teaching. Hence, we all have to be shepherds perfecting others, and we all have to learn. The more we do these things, the more we will improve, and the better we will become at doing them.
In the end, after this kind of perfecting, the saints will be able to be the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. Every member will be able to function and will participate in the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In this way we will be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching. The whole church will grow into a mature man with the stature of Christ. This is the building up of the Body of Christ.
