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In the last chapter we covered six principles of meeting from the last chapters of the Gospels and the opening chapters of the book of Acts. Now we will consider another eight principles. From all the instances of the Lord Jesus meeting with His disciples after His resurrection, we can see fourteen principles regarding the matter of meeting.
We must realize that after the Lord’s resurrection, including the time of Pentecost, the record we have is that of the Lord Jesus continually meeting with His disciples. Have you realized that when the Lord was resurrected, His disciples were immediately requested to meet together? In other words, after the resurrection the disciples immediately became a meeting people. When we read Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20 and 21, and Acts 1 and 2, we see that the disciples did nothing but meet. I do believe they met every day. They resigned their jobs; they surrendered their homes; they gave up everything for meeting. From the morning of the resurrection day, the Lord began to meet with them, not only with a good number in one place but also with one or two. In the morning of the resurrection day, He met first with Mary (John 20:14-18), then with a few sisters (Matt. 28:8-10; Luke 24:9-11); in the afternoon He met with two brothers (vv. 13-31); then in the evening He came and met with all His disciples (John 20:19-23; Luke 24:36-49). From that day either the Lord made His presence manifest, or He hid Himself. But the disciples continually came together. Meeting together became their life, their business, their occupation. They were a meeting people.
In the past years Christians have paid much attention to the stories of the Lord’s resurrection, but they have neither apprehended the principles of meeting nor applied these principles to today’s Christian meetings. Now the Lord has opened our eyes and shown us in all these stories many principles of how to meet. Therefore, we must apply all these to our present meetings. We need to have them wrought into our being. Whatever we are, wherever we go, we must apply them, forgetting the old way of Christianity. We need the Lord’s deliverance from all the old ways of meeting.
I have mentioned already that Peter and John with all the other disciples in the early days, though they had seen and met with the Lord in His resurrection, automatically continued to frequent the temple. Why did they do this? Because they were used to it, they were accustomed to going to the temple. We cannot find a word in the New Testament telling Peter and John that they should do so. In principle, the Lord Jesus told them, “Go to Galilee; I will meet you there,” and, “Go to the mountain; I will meet you there.” The Lord Jesus never told them to go to the temple. Doing this, however, was in their blood. Today it is the same. We do have some temples today — the old way of Christian “services.” I do not like to hear this word service applied to our meeting — “We are going to the Sunday service.” This use of the word service spoils the real meaning of the word. Service in its spiritual meaning refers to serving the Lord. Do you believe that in today’s Christianity there is some real service rendered to the Lord on Sunday mornings? We all must come out of that old religion and leave everything associated with it. I am afraid that some have come out but are still wearing the old religious cloak. We need to not only come out from it but leave all its trappings. Take them off and throw them away. We need to meet in an up-to-date and absolutely new way.
The new way of meeting is fully revealed in all the records of the Lord Jesus meeting with His disciples. After His resurrection He came back again and again to meet with them, and in the record of these occasions, we see Him setting up the principles of meeting. By His examples we have the principles. We have seen six of these; now let us consider the seventh.
In Matthew 28 we read that when they saw the Lord Jesus on the mountain, immediately they worshipped Him (vv. 16-17). When we meet with the Lord in His resurrection, we meet on one hand as His very brothers, but on the other hand, we have to worship Him. It is not just to greet Him, not just to hail Him as did His disciples, but to worship Him. This does not mean that we need to kneel. We may kneel or we may not kneel. To worship Him means to adore and exalt Him as the very Lord in our spirit. If the situation permits us to kneel, that is good; but many times it is not so convenient. In any case, it is not a matter of outward forms, but absolutely of the inward spirit. We need to worship Him. We need to adore and exalt Him in our spirit. We need to praise Him, sometimes even with shouting — “Hallelujah! Jesus is the Lord!” I would say that to shout in this way is much better than kneeling in deadly quietness. The worship I am speaking of is not the dead worship of today’s Christianity. I tell you, if a young sister could shout in the meeting, “Jesus is my Lord, Hallelujah!” that would be marvelous worship.
This is real and living worship. It is not a religious performance. It is in the Spirit exalting, adoring, and magnifying the Lord Jesus. Do not bring that old, dead, religious way of worshipping into the meetings. We must keep ourselves so living in the matter of worshipping the Lord.
In John 20 we read that when the Lord Jesus met with His disciples, He breathed upon them (v. 22). Oh, how we need the Lord to breathe upon us when we meet together! I have heard the saints pray many times before they have come to the meeting: “O Lord, give us a good speaker. Lord, You know the church today needs sound teaching.” I believe that some of you in the past have prayed in this way. But we must pray, “Lord, we need Your breathing. Today in resurrection, breathe upon us.” Brothers and sisters, we do not need so much teaching, but we do need the breathing. So many teachings kill us. It is the Lord breathing upon us that makes us alive; it is the breathing that gives life and imparts Christ into us. We all have to pray, “Lord, in our meetings we need Your breathing much more than any kind of teaching. Give us a gracious visitation, Lord, and breathe upon us; breathe upon everyone who comes to the meeting.” We need to pray in this way before every meeting. Forget about the old way. Take the way the Lord set before us by meeting with His disciples after His resurrection. Perhaps in your entire Christian life you have never heard anyone speak about coming to a meeting to be breathed upon. But it is so clearly mentioned in John 20. In the first evening after His resurrection, the Lord came to His disciples, and the main thing He did was to breathe upon them. This was their basic need, and this also is our basic need. Therefore, this is a basic principle for our meeting together with the Lord Jesus. Are we willing to receive His breathing?
This matter of breathing is of two aspects: He breathes out and we breathe in; He exhales and we inhale. If we shut ourselves, though He breathes upon us, we get nothing. We must learn to open ourselves to Him and say, “Lord, we are not just opening our listening ears or our understanding mind; we are opening our receiving spirit. Our ears are open to You, our mind is open to You, and even the more, our spirit is open to Your breathing, Lord. O Lord, breathe Yourself into us. Regardless of whether we understand or not, O Lord, breathe upon us. We would like to receive something of Yourself deeply within our spirit.” We need to prepare ourselves for the meetings in this way. A radical change is needed to rid ourselves of the old ways. Even while we are in the meeting, we need to say, “O Lord, I am here open to You. I only want to breathe You in. O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” This really refreshes.
We really enjoy pray-reading the Word together in the meetings. It is much better than preaching or teaching, because it includes breathing. When we pray-read the Word, we just breathe the Lord Jesus into us. We have received some letters recently from some in a distant land who recently became acquainted with pray-reading the Word. They practiced it and were much impressed, but they wrote expressing the fear that they were not practicing it correctly. However, I believe they need not be concerned. All they need is simply to open themselves to the Word and breathe it in. It is the exercising of our spirit to inhale what the Lord exhales. This is the breathing upon us of the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit. When He came to His disciples after His resurrection, He came as the life-giving Spirit and breathed upon them. He is doing the same today. If we are open to Him, He is breathing out, and we are breathing in. This is one of the main principles of meeting. We all need to help the new ones when we come together to give the Lord an opening to breathe something of Himself into them. We come together not to receive some teaching but to be breathed upon by the Lord Jesus — to take in the Lord Jesus by breathing.
In all these cases of the Lord meeting with His disciples after His resurrection, He spoke to them. Every time in their meetings they had the Lord’s speaking, the Lord’s new speaking. Whenever we come together, we need the Lord’s speaking. This is nothing of a teaching coming from dead knowledge, dead doctrine, dead theology. The Lord’s speaking is something new, something which is not only constant but instant and up to date. We need the Lord’s living, up-to-date, and instant speaking. It is based upon the Lord’s breathing. If the Lord is free to breathe upon us, He is also free to speak to us. This kind of speaking today may be through you or through another. Sometimes it may be through a young brother, a new convert. We do not mean that the Lord’s speaking will necessarily come through a good speaker. Let us forget the term speaker. If we use this term, we must realize that every one of us is a speaker. Are you not a speaker? You speak all the day. Some of the sisters are excellent speakers in their homes. Sometimes people ask, “Who is the speaker in your meeting today?” What would you answer? You may say, “the Lord Jesus.” That would be right and good, but you should also be able to answer that all the attendants are speakers. If we have five hundred one attendants, we should have five hundred one speakers. If we have five hundred one attendants and only four hundred ninety-nine speakers, we are wrong; we are short of two. I know that some will not say Amen to this, because they are afraid to be this kind of a speaker.
There is a great difference, obviously, between this kind of meeting and fallen Christianity. In the living church meetings, all the attendants are speakers. We all need to be a mouthpiece for the Lord Jesus. Today the Lord may speak through you, and tomorrow He may speak through others. We all must be ready for the Lord to speak something to His church through us. Read all the cases of these meetings in the Scriptures again. In every case the Lord spoke, and He spoke much.
The disciples were with the Lord for three and a half years before His resurrection, but they did not know Him well. They knew Him in the flesh, but they did not know Him in the Spirit. They were with Him, but they were ignorant of Him. It was not until after His resurrection that the Lord met with His disciples and purposely opened their understanding by opening the Scriptures. “Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He explained to them clearly in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). At that time there was only the Old Testament, including the books of the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets. The Lord Jesus opened up the entire Old Testament to point out to them who He is. He helped them to know Himself through the Scriptures (vv. 44-47).
Today we still need this. We still need to know Christ with an opened Bible. We need a spiritual understanding with the Scriptures opened in such a way that we see all the secrets behind the writings. So in our meetings we must look to the Lord that He would grant us this, that He would give us an opened Bible that we may see more things of Christ. We need Him to breathe upon us, but we still need the proper understanding of who He is. Christ opened the Bible and the understanding of the disciples so that they might really know Him.
In the meetings that the Lord Jesus had with His disciples, they saw the resurrected Christ. Before the Lord’s crucifixion they saw Christ in the flesh; they did not see Him as the resurrected One. But after His resurrection, every time they saw Him, they saw Him in resurrection. Today in every meeting we need to see the Lord Jesus as the resurrected One — not just to understand Him but to see Him.
Thomas was not in the first meeting with the Lord Jesus; he missed the opportunity of seeing the resurrected Christ with all the others. Then when Thomas came in the next meeting (John 20:24-29), the Lord Jesus showed Himself to Thomas in resurrection. Thomas not only understood that He was resurrected, but he saw Him, the resurrected Christ.
Moreover, in the last meeting the Lord had with His disciples, they saw Him as the ascended Christ (Acts 1:6-11). This is not a small matter. In all our meetings we need to see that the very Christ with whom we are meeting is the resurrected One and also the ascended One. We are all identified with Him. He is resurrected, and we are resurrected in Him. He is ascended, and we are ascended in Him. If we realize this, our meetings will not only be in resurrection but also in ascension. The praising will burst forth. We will all say, “Hallelujah, we are in the heavens!”
If we read carefully the account of the Lord Jesus meeting with His disciples, we cannot find a hint that some of the disciples were sorrowful in the meeting. Before the Lord Jesus came to meet with them, perhaps some were sorrowful, but when they saw Him they were excited and glad (John 20:20). Tell me, if you were there that day on the Mount of Olives and saw the Lord Jesus ascending into the heavens, could you be still, could you be calm? This is the proper way for us to come together: whenever we meet, we need to see the One who is resurrected and ascended. Today we meet not with the Jesus who was in the flesh but with the resurrected and ascended Christ.
In the Psalms we have the Songs of Ascents (chs. 120—134). When the people of Israel were ascending Mount Zion to be at the feast in the presence of the Lord, they sang the Songs of Ascents. Today we need some new songs of ascents, some new songs of coming up to the meetings. They should go something like this: “Oh, we are going to see the resurrected Christ; we are going to see the ascended Christ in our meeting!”
The disciples met with the resurrected and ascended Christ in their meetings. Is this not wonderful? Then what kind of Christ do we come to meet with in our meetings? Yes, the resurrected and ascended Christ! We are with Him in resurrection, and we are with Him in ascension. Learn to meet Him in this new way. If we meet with such a One, all the problems, all the traditions, and all the religion will be under our feet. We will be in resurrection and ascension. The Lord Jesus is not just our Savior; He is the resurrected and ascended One. He said to Thomas, “Touch Me and see what kind of Christ I am. Touch and see.”
How could Peter and the one hundred twenty be so bold on the day of Pentecost? Because they saw the resurrected and ascended Christ. After they saw Christ ascend into the heavens, they went back to their place, and regardless of what others thought of them, regardless of what others did to them, they did not care. They were so strengthened and released by such a vision. Do we need the teachings? Do we need the doctrines? There is a place for them, but above all we need to see the resurrected and ascended Christ.
The Lord did something more: when He met with His disciples after His resurrection, He gave them a commission (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47-48; Acts 1:8). He told them to go and preach repentance for forgiveness of sins. Moreover, He told them to go to be His witnesses, His living witnesses. And He told them to disciple the nations and baptize them into the Triune God. This is the gospel preaching; in the Bible the gospel preaching includes all these things — the preaching of repentance and forgiveness, the reality of all the preachers as living witnesses of Jesus Christ, and the baptizing of people into the Triune God. To bring the Triune God to people and to bring people and put people into the Triune God is the gospel. We are not bringing people into Christianity or a kind of religion but into the Triune God. This is the commission the Lord gave to His disciples.
Today, if we meet in the proper way, surely we will be commissioned with something by the Lord. In John 21:15-23, after the disciples had eaten together, the Lord asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Then the Lord said to him, “Feed My lambs” and “Feed My sheep.” This is the commission in the meetings. It not only includes the gospel preaching but also the feeding of the lambs, the younger ones, and the sheep, the older ones. If we meet properly in all the meetings, there should be some kind of burden transmitted from the Lord to us. We will be burdened by the Lord with something for His move. If we can meet week after week and year after year without receiving any kind of commission, we are wrong. I am not urging you to get busy in some kind of Christian activity, but I am saying that if we meet in a living way, the Lord will commission us time after time with some of His work. We will be commissioned with something of the Lord. In the proper meetings the Lord is acting all the time to commission people.
In Acts 1 we see that after the disciples met with the Lord Jesus, after they saw Him ascend to the heavens, they returned to Jerusalem and were occupied continually in prayer (vv. 12-14). What kind of prayers did they pray? Did they ask the Lord to give them good jobs? This is the kind of prayer in today’s poor Christianity. We need to pray for the Lord’s move. We need to pray for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. We need to pray for the building up of the churches. If we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all we need will be added to us (Matt. 6:31-33). We need not and must not spend so much time and energy praying for jobs or housing, etc. Forget about this. There is no need sometimes even to pray for health. If we care for the Lord’s kingdom, He will care for all we need. If we seek His kingdom, He will give us His kingdom with so many other things added. We all have to learn how to pray. This is one of the principles concerning the matter of how to meet. We need to meet in this way: to pray in one accord for the kingdom, for the spread of the Lord’s recovery, for the building up of the local churches.
On the day of Pentecost when the disciples met together, suddenly the Holy Spirit filled the room where they were sitting, and they were all clothed with power from on high (Acts 2:1-4). In so many meetings we need this kind of empowering. While we are meeting in a proper way, suddenly we will simply be empowered from the heavens.
Pray over these chapters of the Gospels and the book of Acts again and again to be deeply impressed with these principles. It is useless only to know them. May the Lord be merciful to us that we may put them into practice. This is the proper way for us to meet with the Lord.
