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Scripture Reading: Acts 2:33; 7:55-56; 9:10-16; Eph. 1:20-22; 4:8, 11-12, 15-16
Of the various offices into which Christ was inaugurated at His ascension, the two greatest are that He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5) and the Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:22).
As Ruler of kings, He is administering all the governments on the earth. The purpose of this administration is no doubt the spreading of the gospel. By this means God’s chosen ones are being gathered in. From studying world history we can see that the course of events has been for the spread of the gospel. Our common calendar, which is in worldwide usage, is based on the birth of Christ. Even atheistic countries, like Russia and China, use this calendar, thus implying that they are under Christ’s sovereign ruling. According to Christ’s calendar, we are in the year 1980. This date does not refer to the Roman Caesars or to the Russian Czars but to the number of years since Christ’s birth. Our Christ is Ruler over the whole earth for the spread of His gospel.
I would like to testify of this from my own experience. Toward the end of World War II, I told the saints that China would be liberated from Japan, that it would become a republic, and that we would have freedom. This did happen. Japan surrendered unconditionally in 1945. We exulted in our freedom. From 1946 through 1948 the gospel preaching among us quickly spread far and wide. In 1948 a missionary traveled throughout China and then reported to his mission that the gospel work was in the hands of the “little flock” (as they referred to the churches), and it was so prevailing that there was no need to send foreign missionaries. This was truly the case. I was in Shanghai in those days. How happy we were! The churches numbered four to six hundred throughout China. One day in Tsingtao, a former German concession and a beautiful modern seaport, over seven hundred were baptized. In the 1930s the number of those baptized was quite small, rarely more than ten. After 1945, however, the number baptized at one time was usually over one hundred. Our joy was short-lived. Almost overnight, it seemed, the political situation changed, and from 1949 the work was very much frustrated.
I left China in April 1949 and from that time had no open correspondence with those whom I knew there. All these years I grieved over that great work. Watchman Nee was imprisoned in 1950 and died in prison in 1972. I was heartbroken, fearing that the whole work was lost. My only comfort was that, through the loss of the work in China, the Lord brought His recovery to the United States and then to Europe, South America, Africa, and Australasia. But whenever I thought about the work in China, my heart ached. Many of my contemporary co-workers died in prison after spending years there. Brother Nee’s term was the longest. He died the day before he was due to be released.
In 1979 the situation changed once again. The United States and China opened diplomatic relations. China opened its doors to visitors. Now the news has come out. My heart is no longer aching; it is leaping for joy! I have learned that from 1949 the Lord’s table was never stopped in some cities. The saints in mainland China consider the years from 1949 to 1970 as a time when the church was dormant. Then in 1970 a new generation, born and educated under the present government, came of age. Some of these young people were raised up by the Lord and became prevailing. Even though they had no Bibles, just some written verses, they began to preach the gospel.
The response was overwhelming. The way had been prepared for the gospel. The new generation of the church began to preach by teaching the young people a gospel song. These empty young people loved singing songs about Jesus. In addition, many sick people were miraculously healed. Thousands of young people believed. The officials made things difficult for them, but it had no effect. They imprisoned some of the believers, but there were too many, mostly in the countryside. If ten were imprisoned, two hundred would go to visit. Prison, they told the officials, was to be preferred, because then they did not have to work. They could simply sing the hymns. If they were released, they would believe all the more. In one province there were over three hundred thousand believers. In just one city there were over twenty thousand.
I say this to show you that the Lord Jesus is the Ruler of kings. I thought China with its nine hundred million people was lost, as far as the gospel was concerned. Last year, however, the world situation and China’s need caused her to open up. Is this not the Lord’s government? Praise Him!
His office as Ruler is primarily for the spread of the gospel. By the Lord’s control of the world situation, the recovery has come to the Western world. Now, after thirty years, His sovereign hand has caused the doors of China to open again. Hundreds of thousands of young people have been saved. Who can hinder the Ruler of kings? This is 1980, the year of the Lord, according to His calendar. The Chinese government last year printed a hundred thousand copies of the Bible. They have also opened the doors of the cathedrals in the leading cities for the Christians to meet there. In Shanghai over fifteen hundred crowded into the first building they opened. They have since opened two more. All these events prove that Jesus is the Ruler of kings. He is carrying out His heavenly ministry. He is administrating the whole earth so that the gospel may be spread.
In addition to His sovereignty over the nations, Christ also exercises His headship. As Head over all things to the church, He works to gain His chosen vessels.
Let us consider just one vessel, Saul of Tarsus. If we read Acts 9, we can see how much Christ did to win Saul. He Himself came purposely to gain him. He had even more to say to him through Ananias (vv. 10-17). Although His intention in Acts 9 was to capture Saul, His words to Ananias were more detailed. Notice how busy the Lord was, just to gain one vessel. He appeared to Saul as he traveled to Damascus. Then He gave Saul a vision that Ananias would come and restore his sight. Then He went to Ananias in a vision and conversed with him about going to see Saul, who, He said, “is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My name before both the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how many things he must suffer on behalf of My name” (vv. 15-16).
Why did the Lord spend so much effort for just one person? The purpose of Saul’s being gained was the building up of the Body of Christ. There was the need of such a vessel. Yes, there were Peter, and James, and John. But they were not sufficient. The Lord still had need of one like Saul. Thus, He Himself stepped in to win this one vessel.
Do not take your being saved as a small thing. It was accomplished because the Lord Jesus exercised His rulership. He arranged that you should be born in the country in which you were born. Your place of birth was not accidental but under His administration. You were born in the right country, the right town, and the right family, and at the right time He brought you to Himself. You may have been in Switzerland or Germany or France or Spain or Denmark or Norway or England. One day He arranged for you to be at a certain spot, and you repented, believed, and were saved. If you had been in Moscow, the opportunity to be saved and now to be meeting here might not have come to you. It was under the King’s rulership that you got saved.
Do you think that the Lord has finished His work with you? No! By His rulership you were saved. Now His headship comes in. Consider how it is that you are attending these meetings here. You have come from all over Europe; some have even followed me from the United States. What has brought you? There is no entertainment, no beautiful music — only two-and-a-half-hour meetings with a Chinese speaking. To an outsider what is attracting you is incomprehensible, yet some of you would have wept if you had not been able to come. How do you account for this? It is that you are now under Christ’s headship, which is not only over you like His rulership but within you. He is the Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:22). Your coming together here is the Lord’s doing.
The dear Lord is working. He is not merely sitting in the heavens. When Stephen was stoned to death, Jesus was standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55-56), watching over and caring for His members. To persecute a believer is to persecute Him. He said to Saul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?...I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (9:4-5). Stephen was part of Him, and so was Peter. Every member, every believer in Him, is part of Him. He is caring for them all. He is working in each one so that they might all be useful. He is making them apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers so that they might be equipped to perfect the saints, so that the Body might be built up.
You are all under this dear Christ’s heavenly ministry. The day will come when you will be sent out, not by any man but by the ascended Head. Some of you will go to Austria, some to Greece, and some to Israel with the heavenly ministry of the ascended Christ. Christ’s working is not slow. The recovery has been in the Western world only seventeen years. Yet it has spread to North, Central, and South America, to Africa, to Europe, and to Australasia. In the Far East there are churches in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Hundreds of churches have been raised up without any organization. Whose doing is this? It is the work of the ascended Christ.
We in ourselves cannot build the church. Under His heavenly ministry, however, we can be equipped to be useful members in His Body. The Body itself is built up directly from the supply of the Head. “The Scripture says, ‘Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men’...And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (Eph. 4:8, 11-12). When Christ ascended to the heavens, He gave gifts — apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. These gifts perfect the saints so that in every local church the members are edified, equipped, and qualified to function.
As every part of the Body functions, we “grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (vv. 15-16). All the members grow into the Head. Then out from the Head the supply will come so that the Body may be built up. This is the way the local churches are built up by the supply of the Head.
The Head is busy ministering. While we are meeting here, receiving what is ministered out of Him, He is ministering there, taking care of all the members of the churches. The Lord’s recovery is not just another Christian work. It is a reflection of His ministry in the heavens. It corresponds to what the ascended Christ is doing there. We are cooperating and coordinating with the heavenly ministry of the ascended Christ.
His ministry, as we have seen, is twofold. On the one hand, He is administering the whole world as Ruler of the kings of the earth in order that His gospel may be spread and God’s chosen people may be gathered together. On the other hand, as the Head of the Body, He is ministering to edify, equip, and qualify His members so that they in turn may perfect others. Then He will send out some to new places to spread the recovery. Hallelujah for this heavenly ministry!
