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We have seen that the meetings which the early disciples had with the Lord Jesus can be classified into two kinds: meetings with the resurrected Christ and meetings for the ascended Christ. According to the record of the last chapters of the Gospels and the first chapters of Acts, we can only have these two kinds of meetings—there could not be a third. It is quite interesting, as we have seen, that of the four Gospels, two emphasize the resurrected Christ, and two emphasize the ascended Christ. John tells us that He is our life; so He could never leave us. Matthew tells us that He is Emmanuel, God with us; so Matthew also tells us, “Behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age” (28:20). Therefore, these two Gospels emphasize the resurrected Christ, the One who is always with us. But Mark and Luke, including the Acts, testify that this resurrected Christ has ascended to the heavens. The meetings for the ascended Christ are not recorded by Matthew or John, but by Mark and Luke.
What is the difference between meeting with the resurrected Christ and for the ascended Christ? There is a big difference. We meet with the resurrected Christ mainly for our enjoyment. Our meeting with the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is mainly for breathing Him in, that we may partake of something of Him. Consider all the meetings the disciples had with the resurrected Christ: the main thing in all those meetings was the breathing and the eating. On the evening of the first Lord’s Day, the resurrected Christ came and breathed upon them (John 20:22). Then at the Sea of Tiberias He asked them, “Children, you do not have any fish to eat, do you?” And He said, “Come and have breakfast” (21:5, 12, 15). By breathing and eating, we enjoy the Lord. We meet with the resurrected Christ, the present Christ, for our enjoyment of Him. This Jesus, so near to us, so present and available, is for our enjoyment. He is not for our education, not for our being taught, but for our enjoyment by breathing and eating. Of course, this is something which is entirely missed by Christianity. However, I have full assurance that the Lord will recover this and that He has begun the recovery already. Praise the Lord that some are already learning how to meet with the resurrected Christ for their enjoyment. If we are not learning this, our meetings are meaningless and to no avail. We all must learn how to breathe Him in and feed upon Him for our satisfaction. Sooner or later, the Lord will make this so clear to all the local churches. We will forget about the old way of meeting—no more mere teaching and ministry, just breathing and eating and enjoying Christ.
Now we need to see more regarding the meetings for the ascended Christ. To meet together is not just a matter of enjoying Christ but also a matter of functioning so that the church may be built up. To meet with the resurrected Christ is for our enjoyment, but to meet for the ascended Christ is for the building up of the church. For the building up of the church we need to function, and to function we need the gifts. On the day of Pentecost three thousand were added to the church. A little later five thousand more were added. All these were brought in by meetings for the ascended Christ. To build up the church we need to bring new ones in and build others up one with another. All this requires the function, the gifts. We have been clearly told that all the gifts have been given, not by the resurrected Christ but by the ascended Christ. “Therefore the Scripture says, ‘Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men’” (Eph. 4:8). By His ascension He has received the gifts, and He has given the gifts to His church for the building up of the Body.
Here we must go a little slowly that we may be more clear. If the Lord Jesus was only resurrected, we could have full satisfaction with Him, but the church could never be built up. In the meetings recorded in Matthew and John, there was the breathing, the eating, and the full satisfaction, but it was rather difficult for the church to be built up. In fact, without the ascension of Christ, it is impossible. Not one of the disciples including Peter had received any gift. Not one of them had any function and could perfect others. They came together to breathe in the Lord and to feed on Him, but that was all they could do. Why did they not have the gifts? Because even Christ had not yet received the gifts. As far as life is concerned, resurrection is sufficient, but as far as gifts are concerned, resurrection is not sufficient. Resurrection is for life, but the ascension is for the gifts. All the believers received resurrection life by and with Christ’s resurrection, but none obtained any gifts until the Lord ascended on high and poured out the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33). It is so clear. Meeting with the resurrected Christ is for our personal breathing, eating, and satisfaction, but for the perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the Body, we need to meet for the ascended Christ.
Here in Los Angeles we have many meetings with the resurrected Christ, but on some occasions we also have meetings for the ascended Christ. Now we need to be exercised more that we may learn not only to meet with the resurrected Christ, but even more for the ascended Christ. To meet with the resurrected Christ is easy: we can on such an occasion have a sense of the Lord’s presence. It is not difficult to obtain some feeling of the presence of the resurrected Christ. However, when meeting for the ascended Christ, it is frequently very difficult to obtain any feeling. We all can testify that many times we do sense the presence of the resurrected Christ, but we do not have the sense that we are in the heavens with the ascended Christ. This requires living faith. To meet with the resurrected Christ we may have the feeling, but to meet for the ascended Christ we need not the feeling but the faith. We can feel something of the resurrected Christ, because He is here; but how can we feel something of the ascended Christ? How can we feel something which is in the heavens while we are here on this earth? You see, this must be by faith. We all need to exercise our faith to meet for the ascended Christ.
Today in Christianity this matter of the ascended Christ has been made a matter of feeling. Some will tell you that you must pray and fast for three days and three nights, and then something great will fall upon you, giving you a certain kind of feeling. So many dear Christians single out the cases of the Samaritans in Acts 8 and the Ephesians in Acts 19 to show that when we are saved we should have a wonderful experience and speak in tongues. But we must never forget the principle of the first mention. The first group of people who were saved as recorded in the book of Acts were the three thousand on the day of Pentecost (2:41). Concerning these, there is the record in Acts 2, covering a number of good points but not saying a word regarding their speaking in tongues. But do you not believe they had the filling of the Spirit? Surely they did.
This matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was once for all accomplished on the day of Pentecost. It is not for any individual believer as such, but has been accomplished for the Body of Christ, the church, and is given absolutely to the church. Now, since we have all been baptized into the church, the Body, we have the position to believe that what was accomplished for the church on the day of Pentecost is for us. Therefore we may claim it, take it, and apply it by living faith. Though we may feel nothing, we may boldly take by living faith what has already been accomplished.
Let me tell you some real stories. You cannot deny the stories—they are history; they are facts. For instance, I learned of some actual incidents of the saints suffering persecution during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in China. At that time many Chinese Christians were slaughtered. Most of those Christians had not received much teaching; they only knew how to believe in the Lord Jesus, the living One, and how to call upon His name. They knew little concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but when they were persecuted and martyred, they were wonderfully empowered with the Holy Spirit. I met one brother in the Lord who eventually became a full-time preacher for the Lord Jesus. He told me that in 1900, when he was a young man, he was an apprentice at a market in the old capital of Peking. One day, due to the Boxers’ persecution and execution of the Christians, the market was closed, but he was within. Suddenly, he told me, the street without was filled with tumult and shouting. He peered through the crack in the entrance and saw the Boxers, swords drawn, leading a young girl, not over twenty-five years of age, to her execution. Do you know what this girl was doing? She was full of joy, singing and praising the Lord. Though she was being led to her death, she went fearlessly and joyfully. Though she was in the midst of hateful, threatening, murdering Boxers, she could sing and praise. When this young man saw this, he said to himself, “I must contact some Christians to learn their secret.” He did, and he was saved.
Tell me, what kind of experience did that girl have? That was the real filling of the Holy Spirit. That was the real experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! We can tell the Lord’s people that the baptism in the Holy Spirit has already been accomplished upon the church, the Body of Christ. It is ours; we can apply it by faith. What will be the outcome? What will be the issue? That is His business.
Now, whenever we come together, if we must function for the building up of the Body—this means for the ascended Christ—you and I must immediately exercise our faith. We are the Body of Christ, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is upon the Body. We can claim the baptism and act upon it by living faith to function in the meetings for the building up of the Body.
Why do we say we must be outside of religion? Why do we say that we need to abandon all forms? Simply because religion and forms bind and kill us. We need just to be in the spirit and exercise our faith to realize the ascended Christ. Oh, we need to be wild for this Christ! We need to be fully released—not so much in the exercise of our physical body but in the exercise of our spirit, the exercise of our faith.
Let me illustrate. We had a co-worker, a sister, six or seven years older than I, through whose preaching I was saved. In 1925, when she was twenty-five years of age, I heard her preach for the first time. She was but a young girl, yet I can testify that in my entire life I have never seen preaching so prevailing as hers. She was a young lady who naturally was shy, but many times in a situation which required something to be said for the Lord, she immediately forgot herself; she did not exercise her body much, but she exercised her spirit and her faith mightily. She spoke with full assurance that she was speaking from the heavens. People trembled before her. She did not jump, she did not exercise her body, but she exercised her spirit and her faith with boldness. She was not bound by any kind of religion, form, or teaching—she was absolutely out of these things. She was more than one hundred percent in the spirit, exercising her faith to speak. I tell you, that kind of exercising of the spirit and faith not only frightened the people but frightened the demons.
Let me give you another illustration. That young sister whom we described being led to her execution was instructed by the Boxers to be quiet, but the more they commanded her to be still, the louder she sang. To be wild in that way is really meaningful for Christ. She said in effect, “You persecutors tell me to be quiet, but I will not be quiet; I will say something for Jesus! I will never be bound by you; I will be wild for Christ!” Again, that kind of exercise and boldness shakes both men and demons.
We need to be fully released and bold to speak and sometimes shout for the ascended Christ, but we must do it in the spirit meaningfully and discernibly. If I realize that it is time for me to speak for Jesus, I will do it from the spirit, boldly and with living faith. This kind of speaking is powerful, full of impact, and with heavenly authority. We do not need any forms, and we need not keep any regulations; yet we must be in the spirit, exercising our faith to believe that we are in the heavens. Suppose we are going to have a gospel preaching meeting on the coming Lord’s Day morning. Then it is a matter for everyone of us, brothers and sisters, old and young, not just to shout, but to be in the spirit, exercising our faith, just as the soldiers on the front line fighting the battle. Everyone must be on the alert; everyone must be in the spirit, believing by living faith that he is joined to the ascended Head. Then when the time comes, we can immediately stand and with a strong spirit speak something from the heavens. This is a kind of meeting for the ascended Christ. We exercise our spirit with our faith to realize what Christ has accomplished by His ascension.
The Lord is not only resurrected but also ascended. By His ascension He has received all the gifts and passed them on to all the members of the church. By His ascension all His members have received something. You cannot say that you have not received anything. If you feel this way, you need to exercise faith—it is not a matter of feeling, but faith. According to the principle in Ephesians 4, the gifts given by the ascended Christ are for building up the Body, for perfecting the saints, and for bringing in new believers.
Brothers and sisters, let us forget all the things we have learned in the past and simply learn to have these two kinds of meetings. Let us come together with Christ to breathe Him in and feed upon Him. Then at the same time, whenever there is the need of bringing in the new converts, perfecting the saints, and building up the Body, we must all realize that our Lord has ascended and that He has given all the gifts with all the functions. We must simply exercise our faith and apply it. We not only need to realize the presence of the resurrected Christ, but also the power, the authority, the headship, and the lordship of the ascended Christ. This requires the exercise of living faith in our spirit. I trust that in the coming meetings we will take the opportunity to be bold and even wild, not physically but spiritually, to release something of Christ and for Christ.
