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Scripture Reading: Acts 8:26-39; 9:10-11; 10:1-3, 9-22; Col. 2:18-19; Eph. 4:14-16
Ever since His ascension the Lord has been ministering in the heavens. For this ministry to be worked out on the earth, however, requires a correspondence to it on our side. Nearly twenty centuries have gone by, but not much has been fulfilled on earth. Thus, as this age draws to a close there is an urgent need for us to correspond to the Lord’s ministry.
The verses above illustrate this correspondence on our side. The references in Acts all relate to a move in life for the spread of the gospel. During the time of the Acts, the disciples were moving on with the Lord in life. This was so in the case of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, Ananias and Saul, and Peter and Cornelius. All three were moves in life that corresponded to the Lord’s ministry in the heavens.
The references in the Epistles, in contrast, illustrate the growth and function in life rather than a move in life. What is revealed in Ephesians and Colossians is not a move for the gospel but the growth and function of the Body. The one is to bring people to the Lord; the other is to build up the Body. For people to be brought to the Lord requires a move in life; for the Body to be built up, the growth and function in life is needed.
The move in life to bring people to the Lord is outward, but the growth in life for the building of the Body is inward. For both the outward and the inward aspects we need to correspond to the Lord’s ministry in the heavens.
In Acts 8, 9, and 10 the Lord moved His disciples outwardly for the preaching of the gospel. He was ministering in the heavens to move some of His disciples. Suppose Philip at that time had been away loving the world, Ananias had fallen into sin, and Peter had gone back to Galilee to go fishing. Christ would then have been ministering in the heavens, but there would have been no response on earth. Praise the Lord, these three were ready to respond!
In response to the Lord’s heavenly ministry, Philip left Jerusalem for Gaza (8:26). While he was walking along in the desert, he was responding to the heavenly Christ. The Lord had one disciple there in the desert whom He could move. When He said to Philip, “Approach and join this chariot” (v. 29), Philip ran up and heard the eunuch reading Isaiah. Do you see how Philip was corresponding to the heavenly ministry? It was through this that the Ethiopian eunuch was brought to the Lord. This was the corresponding on Philip’s side to the move in life for the preaching of the gospel.
The situation in Acts 9 was similar. Ananias must have been praying when a vision came to him from the heavens. The Lord spoke to him via heavenly television and directed him to Saul. Saul was also praying when the heavenly television transmission came to him, and he saw Ananias coming. There was a marvelous triangle of Christ ministering in the heavens, with Ananias and Saul corresponding to it on earth, all aimed at bringing Saul to the Lord.
In Acts 10 a Roman centurion named Cornelius was praying when an angel came and told him to send for Peter. Suppose Peter had been unavailable when the messengers came to him from Cornelius. If Peter had gone fishing, the messengers would have had to return empty-handed and disappointed. As it was, Peter, just before the men arrived, was also praying when the heavenly television transmission came to him. A vessel like a great sheet descended from heaven, full of unclean animals. Peter was told, “Rise up, Peter; slay and eat!” (v. 13). His reply was, “By no means, Lord” (v. 14). This wonderful television program was repeated three times (v. 16). While Peter was puzzling over what it meant, the messengers appeared at the gate, asking for him. He went with them, and Cornelius, his family, and probably the soldiers as well, were all brought to the Lord.
This is the proper gospel preaching. It is a move in life under the heavenly ministry of Christ. It is not a movement organized by a mission board. Christ as the Head exercised His headship to move His disciples here and there. They were on the alert, responding to His ministry from the heavens. I hope that the preaching of the gospel in the recovery will be like this: a prevailing move in life, corresponding to the Lord’s heavenly ministry under His headship.
Let me give you an illustration from my experience regarding this matter.
In July 1932 I had just come back home from my work at the office when a brother came. Actually, he was looking for someone else, but that other brother was away. Since it was still early in the evening, I suggested that the two of us go to the beach. While we were on the way, he raised up some spiritual questions. I replied that it would be good to sit on the beach and talk over these matters. This we did, conversing from about seven to eleven. We talked about baptism by immersion. (Our denomination practiced sprinkling.)
As soon as we finished our conversation, he said to me, “You are the right person to baptize me. I am the right person to be baptized. You must baptize me tonight!”
I was just a young man, about twenty-seven. I was not a pastor or an elder or even a deacon. I shrank back. “No, no, no!” I said. “I cannot. I am too young. I am not a pastor or an elder or a deacon. No!”
He rebuked me. “You just preach, but you won’t practice. You have been telling me who is the right person to baptize, where is the right place, and what is the right time. I have been considering: here is the right place (the sea is in front of us, full of water), this is the right time (a summer evening), I am the right person to be baptized, and you are the right person to do the baptizing. How can you refuse?”
I was subdued. Even though we had not brought any change of clothing, we went into the water, and I baptized him. After that, we were both in the third heaven.
Two days later, on a Thursday, I was in the office and needed to record his name. I could not remember how it was spelled. Since one of my colleagues knew him quite well, I asked him how the name was spelled. He was curious that I should need to know the spelling, and he asked me what had happened.
“You want to know what happened?” I replied. “The night before last I baptized him in the sea.”
He was astonished, but I was astonished also when he said, “You baptized him! Well, I would like you to baptize me too tonight.”
Because there was another colleague who had also been brought to the Lord, I replied, “Let me talk to So-and-so first.” When I talked to him, he was happy to join us. After office hours the three of us went to the beach, along with the brother whom I had baptized earlier. This one I asked to do the baptizing, but he refused. It bothered me: why was I baptizing people, as though I were a pastor? Nonetheless, I baptized the two new ones.
Afterward, we were rejoicing to the uttermost. We wandered along the streets, talking about the Lord’s grace. We made so much noise that a man behind us pursued after us and then asked, “Are you Witness Lee?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Why?”
He told us that he had just come from a prayer meeting of a mission church, where they were complaining that I had baptized one of their candidates; they said I was neither an elder nor a deacon; how then could I baptize people? Then he added, “When I heard them talking, I decided that I would like to get in touch with you. I never dreamed I would find you like this. When will you have the next meeting?”
By the Lord’s Day there were eleven of us. After one week we began to have the Lord’s table. The Lord exercised His headship to bring people in. Though our number was small, we were corresponding to the heavenly Christ. Since those days, much has been accomplished, not by organization but by His ministering in the heavens and some of His disciples corresponding on earth.
Now that we have covered some of the wonderful things that transpired in the book of Acts, illustrating the Lord’s move in life to gain people through the preaching of the gospel, let us go on to see how the Body is built up. It is the Epistles that deal with this matter. Rather than being accomplished by a move, the building up of the Body comes about through the growth in life. For this finer, deeper work, there needs to be a finer corresponding.
Christ is the Head, and we are the members. Colossians 2:19 reminds us that we must hold the Head, “out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.” To hold the Head means that there is direct communication between us and Him. There is no separation between Him and all the members. The members correspond to whatever the Head ministers. The result of this correspondence is the growth in life. By holding the Head, there is an inward growth, not an outward move. In this close communication between the Head and the members, all His riches are ministered into the members, and all the negative things are swallowed up by the supply of life from the Head.
The way we grow is by holding the Head. Growth does not come about from the study of the Bible or the understanding of doctrine. Such knowledge is not much help to our growth. The Head is the source of life. When we hold Him, that is, keep ourselves intimately connected to Him, His riches and life supply enter into our being and become our growth in life.
“Holding to truth in love, we may 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” (Eph. 4:15-16). These verses go a step further than Colossians 2:19. We are not only to hold the Head but also to grow up into Him in all things. To hold the Head is close and intimate, but to grow into Him is a deeper and finer correspondence. Words are inadequate to convey what is meant by this growing up into Him, but perhaps some examples may help us to grasp the thought.
Married life was ordained by God and is to “be held in honor among all” (Heb. 13:4). The sisters surely are pleased to have a husband, and the brothers, a wife. If you are not yet married, you no doubt are thinking how wonderful it would be. Marriage is surely a wonderful arrangement. Nonetheless, as one who has been married for over fifty years, I must say that married life is not easy. If you are not married, you are not aware of all the troubles that arise. What is the cause of the problems? Mostly it is because your marriage is still not in the Head. You may be willing to grow into the Lord in everything else, but in the matter of your marriage you would retain yourself. Deep within you may have the intention to keep your marriage outside the Lord. Some sisters suffer much in their married life because of this. You have a reservation, perhaps never expressed in words, about growing into the Lord in your marriage. Thus, in this point you are not corresponding to Him while He is ministering in the heavens.
Sisters especially seem to like shopping. Thus, they often have a problem corresponding to the Lord in this matter. The first thing in the morning they may have a wonderful time praying and enjoying the Lord. But right after breakfast they may pick up a newspaper and find some special bargains advertised. The Lord is forgotten. They must go to the stores right away, or the things they want will be sold out. The One who is in the heavens is also within, however. His word is, “Don’t go.”
They reply, “Lord, just this one time give me a little liberty.”
Is not this the way you are? In your prayer earlier you were corresponding to Him, but now your desire to go shopping has annulled that corresponding. Now the Lord has no way. He has to suffer, and you will suffer too. If you go shopping this way, you will find it hard to pray afterward. Two or three days may go by without your being able to pray. For this period of time there is no correspondence on your part to the Lord’s heavenly ministry. He is gone, and there is no communication between you and Him during those days.
It is not only the sisters who have such a weakness. I have my weaknesses too. In many things I have grown into the Lord, but in certain other things I also would say, “Lord, all this time I have been loving You. Can I not have just a little rest from loving You? How about giving me a few hours off?” From my own experience I know that this is also what happens to you. You do not need to come to talk to me about your weakness. I was once a young man too and had the same kind of weakness. While I was indulging that weakness, I was absent from the Lord, and there was no growth in life.
Sometimes it is in the big things that we find it hard to grow into the Lord; many times, however, it is in the small things. We may think that the Lord is not interested in the small things, like how we wear our hair. Whether the matter is big or small, if we do not grow into Him in that thing, our corresponding to Him is arrested. I would say that especially in the small things we must grow into Him. This growth into Him keeps us in direct correspondence to His heavenly ministry under His headship. This ministry requires a very fine correspondence on our part. Then we shall grow.
When we hold the Head and grow up into Him in all things, out from Him will come the life supply to the Body. As we hold Him and grow up into Him, the riches of the Head will flow out through us. I like these two phrases, into Him and out from Him (Eph. 4:15-16). There is first the growing into Him; then the life supply will come out from Him. When this is true of us, we are corresponding to the Lord’s ministry in the heavens. Then the functions will emerge for the building up of the Body.
There is the need for our twofold correspondence to the Lord’s heavenly ministry. Among Christians today, at most there seems to be only the move in life for the preaching of the gospel. There is little growth in life for the building up of the Body. We must not neglect either aspect. The Lord needs us to correspond to Him so that He can move in us to bring people to Himself. He also wants our response that we may grow up into Him so that something of Him may come forth to supply and build up the Body.
As we correspond to the Lord’s ministry in these two aspects, His will is fulfilled. If we are short in this corresponding, the Lord has no way to carry out His heavenly ministry. It is crucial for us in the recovery to see this. For the spread of the gospel and for the building up of His Body by the growth in life, the Lord must have our correspondence on earth to what He is ministering in the heavens. We need to pray much for this correspondence.
