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Scripture Reading: John 15:16; 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2; Acts 5:42
In this chapter we will begin to cover the second step of the God-ordained way: the nourishing and cherishing of the new ones that they may remain. In John 15:16 the Lord said, “I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” We have been charged with three things: we should go forth, we should bear fruit, and our fruit should remain. However, to ensure that our fruit will remain is not an easy task. In the past in the Lord’s recovery, although we were short in the matter of gospel preaching, we brought many to the Lord and baptized a good number. However, very few have remained. The Lord is now teaching us a very crucial step. We all must learn what to do so that our fruit will remain.
In John 21:15 the Lord charged us to feed His lambs. This is to do something for the fruit that we have borne so that they might remain. If we love the Lord, we must feed His lambs, the little ones, the small ones, the young sheep. The fruit in chapter 15 becomes the lambs in chapter 21. To bear fruit is to multiply, to produce the lambs. But after producing the lambs, we still have to bear the responsibility to feed the lambs.
In 1 Thessalonians 2:7 Paul says, “We were gentle in your midst, as a nursing mother would cherish her own children.” Whenever a mother comes to cherish or nourish her little babe, she is always very gentle. In this verse Paul does not use the word nourish, but he uses the word cherish. Cherishing includes nourishing, but it indicates more tender care than mere nourishing. When a mother cherishes her babe, generally, she will also nourish it.
When a baby is crying, the mother would not rebuke or spank it; the more the baby cries, the more gentle the mother would be. To cherish is to do everything in order to meet the little one’s need. Many times the mother knows why the babe is crying, but sometimes she does not know. When she comes to the baby and holds it, she may realize that the baby is hungry or cold. She would nurse her babe or hold it in a very loving way to warm it. Everything she does would become a kind of cherishing to that little babe to make it happy.
After we baptize someone, we must immediately consider ourselves as gentle, nursing mothers. Even Paul, the great apostle, became a nursing mother; he was so gentle with the young believers. After we bring people to the Lord and baptize them into the Triune God, we must take care of them.
After a new one has been saved and baptized, we should begin to meet with him in his home. The best way to carry out the home meeting is simply to cause this new one to feel happy. The first and main thing we must do is to make this one happy. Someone may ask, “After baptizing someone and after he has changed his clothes, what is the first thing I should cover with him: the first lesson of Life Lessons or the first lesson of Truth Lessons?” To use these materials at this time may be a kind of “spanking” to that newborn babe. After the baptized one has changed clothes and comes to us, we must have a kind of attitude, appearance, and gesture that is so pleasant to make this dear one also feel pleasant. If we are not gentle but are so dignified or strict in our gesture toward the new believers, they may be offended by us and may not want us to visit them again. While the newly baptized one is changing, we must learn how to exercise in such a way that our whole being would express a contagious joy. Then when he comes to join you, you might stand up and greet him, “Hallelujah! It is so good that you have been saved! Congratulations!” This will warm his heart and make him pleasant and happy.
We must cherish the new ones to make them happy. We have to learn how to speak to them in the best way. Whatever we say must be said so pleasantly. We may begin, “This Bible is really good. Look how it is bound and printed. It is really beautiful.” This kind of speaking will cause this one to feel quite pleasant. He would be happy for us to talk with him further.
How many of us have gone to a home to have a home meeting in the way of making people feel pleasant? To nourish and cherish the new ones, we have to be fine and gentle. Some brothers are very eager and intense. Their way of speaking may be too strong or rough. This may intimidate or somewhat frighten the young ones. Others are like preachers, theological school graduates, always presenting one portion from the Bible after another to instruct them. Their gesture would give people the feeling that they are proud. This kind of talk, this kind of attitude, this kind of gesture, will always cool down the new ones.
If you were in a home talking with a man and his young, four-year-old son came into the room, what would you do? This is an opportunity. You might simply reach out and touch this boy’s head softly and speak to him. This is the best way to warm up the father’s heart. You could stop talking to his father and just speak to this child for a few minutes. Then the father would be so pleased that he might tell you some things concerning his son. To care for people in this kind of gentle way is not so easy to learn.
Suppose three saints have brought an old man to the Lord and have baptized him. How should they meet with this old man? While this one is still changing clothes, perhaps one of the three, a young sister, would begin to sing a song concerning the joy of salvation. To sing a hymn or a song is often the best way to begin, but you have to sing the right song, and you have to sing it with the right voice. You have to be pleasant and natural in your singing. It is hard for me to teach you this. This is something you must learn by practicing. You can practice by speaking and singing to yourselves at home, and you can also practice every time you are with the new ones.
To preach the gospel and to gain people by contacting them in a way that will make them happy require much learning. Actually, this kind of learning is endless. For me to teach you these things is not easy. You have to pick up the principles and learn through your practice. Do not take this matter lightly. It is not enough to have some knowledge of the Bible. You also must know how to take care of people in a way that their hearts would be open to you.
We should not merely make the new one pleasant or happy; that is not our purpose. We must be on the alert while we are talking to him in order to know what kind of person he is. The best way to do this is to leave some time for him to say something. We should not occupy all the time. While we are making him feel pleasant, we must give him some time to say something. By his speaking we can get to know him by realizing what his feeling, thinking, and intention are. We should learn to encourage him to speak more. Then we will know what we should say. We will realize whether or not this is the right time to get our time with him “on track.” If this is the proper time, we can introduce a subject related to spiritual things. We must learn all these things. It is not so simple, but if we have a good preparation, it will be easy to talk on the “right track” to this person.
When you talk to people about spiritual things, you should first touch the objective side. You should not touch the subjective side too quickly. Immediately after baptism, some may touch the subjective experience, telling the new one that he has a human spirit. However, this may be too soon. If you have the burden to talk about this, you must lay a foundation. First, you must tell him, “God is Spirit, and the Savior I have preached to you is this very God. Today, He is God, He is the Savior, and He is the Spirit.” You must lay a foundation by telling him something objective. This gives him a basis for the experience. After the objective teaching, you can come to the subjective experience. You can say, “He is the Spirit, and we also have a spirit.” We should avoid talking about subjective experience without first presenting some objective truth.
This is true not only for the home meetings but also for any kind of meeting. In any kind of speaking, you must first present something as an object for people to seek after, to touch. Otherwise, if a person is thoughtful and you tell him that he has a human spirit and that he can receive the Lord Jesus into his spirit, he may say, “Who is the Lord Jesus? Why can I receive Him into my spirit?” Your talk concerning subjective experience can stir up many questions. You must lay a foundation with the objective truth.
In principle, after one is baptized, the first thing we should tell them about is our God and Savior. After we have prepared the situation, the atmosphere, we must exercise to tell this new one about God, the Savior, Jesus Christ. There are many ways to present God to people. We may talk with one man about God in this way: “Many times, regardless of who we are, all human beings do have a feeling that in this universe there must be some sovereignty.” This could touch people’s inner feeling. In our talk about God, we may also tell him, “If you go to Buddha, you will find out that this Buddha cannot solve your inward problems.” By this we touch the matter of idols. We may continue, “There is only One who can satisfy us, solving our problems, dispelling our doubts, and answering the questions within us. This One is the very God whom we worship, whom we believe in, and whom we have preached to you.” This is one way.
Another way to speak to him concerning God, which is also from the inner feeling yet from another angle, is to talk about the conscience. We may say, “Everyone who does something that hurts others, even if he can justify himself by certain reasonings, feels deep within that he is not right and that he is offending someone. Who is this someone? Why does man have a conscience?” This is another way to lead him to the point concerning God.
By these examples we can realize that we must learn many things. The home meetings depend on our talk with the new ones. After our talk has induced a new one to speak a number of sentences, we may realize that he is a person who takes care of his conscience. Therefore, we may talk about God based on the conscience. With another, we may realize he is a very ethical person. Then we can talk about God based on his being ethical. In principle, the first thing we have to tell the new ones about is God.
We should always limit ourselves to one talk per visit, and in this talk, we should thoroughly cover one matter. We should not raise up subject after subject. To cover a number of subjects will not help; it will hurt.
After our talking to them about God, many people need to know that they are real sinners. This is according to Paul’s sequence in the book of Romans. He tells us first about God; then he tells us about sin. This is a good sequence, but we should not follow it in a legal way. We should follow it in a very living way, in a very flexible way. We should first help someone to know God and then help him to know himself. We should help him to know that he is a sinner, even sin itself.
To talk about sin is not easy. You should not say, “God is good; God is righteous. But you are not good; you are not righteous.” This way of speaking is poor. In speaking of sin, you should begin by using the pronoun we. You should say, “God is very good, but we are sinners.” Then the second time you may say, “God is righteous, but I and you are not righteous,” putting yourself first. The third time you may change a bit more, saying, “You and I are not righteous.” Now you have come down to the fact gently. However, to jump down suddenly would hurt your talk and would hurt your purpose. If you say, “You are a sinner,” this may close the door. After you go, he would put the Bible away and say to his wife, “This poor preacher — he called me a sinner.”
We can illustrate that we are sinners. However, we should not ask people, “Have you ever stolen from people? Have you never lied to people?” When we illustrate, we should use ourselves, saying, “I can testify to you that I did a lot of stealing when I was young. I stole chalk from the school. Many times I stole some money from my mother’s pocket.” When we are talking about ourselves, this really means we are talking about the new one. Surely everyone has stolen something. When we say that we stole, that means everyone steals. Our speaking will touch everyone’s conscience. Many times when we talk in this way, we will induce the hearer to say, “I must be honest. I did a lot of stealing. I even stole from my wife.” He would confess to us. This is very good. Then we may say, “This is very good that you would tell us that you have stolen from your wife.” To bring someone to this point is like the work of a surgeon. We can do a lot of things at this juncture.
To learn how to talk about people’s sin is not so easy. We must learn to always use ourselves as an illustration. After this we may say, “I must also be honest with you. I am a bad person. My temper is too bad. I love my mother to the uttermost, but after only five minutes I got angry with her. How do you feel about this? Is this not sin? In the Bible God charges us to honor our parents, but quite often I did not honor my mother.” If we illustrate in this way, we will touch his conscience.
Whenever we talk to people about sin, the best conclusion is to have a prayer of confession. However, we should not tell people to pray and ask them to confess their sins to the Lord. We do not need to instruct them to confess their sins. We should simply begin to pray, “Lord, forgive me. I am a sinner. I did a lot of stealing, and I did a lot of lying.” We should simply take the lead to confess our sin. Spontaneously, they will learn from us, and after we pray, they will continue by praying, “O God, I am also a sinner.” They will follow us. This is the best way to talk to people concerning sin. After such a prayer, we have to tell them about God’s forgiveness. However, we cannot cover this subject in the same talk. At the conclusion of our talk, we should help this one a little bit to know that our sins have been forgiven. At another time when the situation is right, we will be able to talk with him about forgiveness in a thorough way.
