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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:4-6, 11-16
I. The constituents of the divine mingling with the believers — Eph. 4:4-6:
А. God the Father, who is over all, through all, and in all, as the origin, the source — v. 6.
B. God the Son, who is the Lord and the embodiment of the Father, as the element — v. 5.
C. God the Spirit, who is the realization of God the Son, as the essence — v. 4.
D. The regenerated believers, who have believed, have been baptized, and have the hope of their calling, as the human element — vv. 4-5.
E. The Father being embodied in the Son, the Son being realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit being mingled with the believers.
F. This mingling being the constitution of the Body of Christ.
II. The building as the consummation of the Body — vv. 11-16:
А. The members perfected by the gifts to do the work of the New Testament ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ — vv. 11-12.
B. That all the members of the Body may arrive at:
1. The oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
2. A full-grown man.
3. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (the Body of Christ — the church) — v. 13.
C. That all the members of the Body may be no longer tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching — v. 14.
D. But holding to truth in love, may grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things — v. 15.
E. Out from whom all the Body:
1. Being joined together through every joint of the rich supply of Christ.
2. And being knit together through the operation in the measure of each one part.
F. Causing the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love — v. 16.
Prayer: Lord, this morning we ask You to give us a trance that transfers us from the visible circumstances into the invisible scene. We want to see something that is invisible to us. We want to see You. We want to see Your Spirit. We want to see Your economy. We want to see Your doing and Your working to dispense Yourself into our being. Thank You, Lord Jesus; thank You, God the Father; thank You, life-giving Spirit. Thank You that You all are working within us. Especially in these days, we are enjoying Your intensified presence. Give us a trance. Amen.
We need to see something more than the physical universe created by God. In this universe there are two scenes, two views. One scene, one view, is visible. We can see the visible universe with the heaven, the earth, the sun, the moon, and millions of items. But the Bible shows that behind this visible scene, there is a scene that is altogether invisible to our senses. The Old Testament book of Daniel shows us these two scenes. On the one hand, the Greeks were fighting against the Persians, and the Persians were resisting the Greeks. That was seen by everyone with their physical eyes. But behind that scene were the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece. Daniel 10 records the fighting in the unseen world between Michael, the prince of Israel, and the evil princes of Persia and Greece (vv. 10-21). This is an example of the two scenes in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament Jesus came. He was altogether visible for people to see. One night a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus came to see Him and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). All the things that Nicodemus spoke about were in the visible realm. But the Lord Jesus answered him by telling him that he needed to be born anew to see the kingdom of God (v. 3). He told Nicodemus that he needed regeneration. At that time on earth, no one understood what regeneration was. Nicodemus did not understand, because he was in the visible realm. He asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” (v. 4). The Lord spoke of regeneration in the invisible realm, but Nicodemus tried to understand it in the visible realm.
The divine revelation in the holy Word, especially in the New Testament, speaks altogether of invisible things. All the things that we have covered from Ephesians 1—3 are invisible to our eyes, invisible to our natural understanding, invisible to our natural realization, and invisible to all our physical senses. Many readers of the Bible understand it merely according to the letter in the visible realm, but they never see anything invisible.
Ephesians is a book mainly on invisible things. In Ephesians 5 Paul charges the husbands to love their wives (v. 25), and he charges the wives to submit themselves to their husbands (vv. 22, 24). Do you think such a word is concerning something visible or invisible? Humanly speaking, everyone knows what this means. A husband’s love and a wife’s submission are visible to our senses. But what the apostle speaks of here is altogether invisible.
The apostle’s teaching of submission is absolutely different from the teaching of Confucius. Confucius also taught submission, even a threefold submission. However, what Confucius taught is something visible, but what the apostle taught is something invisible. Why is it invisible? It is invisible because the submission taught by the apostle Paul is not a natural submission.
In herself and by herself, no wife can submit according to the apostle’s teaching. The apostle’s teaching of submission starts from being filled in our spirit (5:18). To be filled in spirit with Christ causes us to overflow with Christ in speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks to God (vv. 19-20) and also causes us to subject ourselves to one another (v. 21). Submission comes out of being filled in spirit. This is the invisible submission.
I can testify that many missionaries who went to China understood the Bible merely in an outward, natural sense. Some of them told the Chinese that the Bible teaches the same thing as Confucius. Confucius told people to honor their parents, and the Bible says the same thing. As a young student, I said to myself that there was no need for these missionaries to come to China. We had the teachings of Confucius for years, and we did not need the same ethical teachings.
In order to be brought out of the natural concept in reading the Bible, we need a trance. Acts 10 says that one day when Peter was praying on the housetop, a trance came upon him (vv. 9-10). All of a sudden, he was in a trance. He was transferred to another sphere. In this other sphere he saw some things, and these things were altogether invisible to the human eyes.
Do you believe the human mind can understand that our God, the Father, chose us before the foundation of the world? Long before we were born, God chose us for holiness and put a mark upon us for sonship. Do you believe that the natural mind, no matter how intelligent, understands what it is to be sanctified unto God and what it is to be made sons of God who enjoy the divine sonship? Many readers of Ephesians 1 have their natural concept about what it means to be holy as God is. Confucius also taught people to be holy, and he is considered as a holy teacher to the Chinese. But this holiness and the Bible’s holiness are two different things.
The Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again, but Nicodemus understood this in a physical sense. He wondered how he could go back into his mother’s womb and be born again. The Lord Jesus, of course, meant something else. He was not speaking of being born of our parents with our natural life but of being born of the Spirit with the divine life. These are two absolutely different things.
When I was young, I studied the Bible and understood it nearly ninety percent according to the natural concept. It took me many years to gradually have all my natural concepts washed away. I pointed out previously that I have expounded Ephesians many times. Thirty-eight years ago, in 1953, I expounded Ephesians in a detailed study during a training that I conducted in Taipei, Taiwan, for four months. However, I consider these messages today to be the top study of Ephesians. I believe that this time my natural man has been thoroughly purged of all the old concepts. All my former understanding has been purged away with the best “detergent.”
This present study of Ephesians is altogether new. Our sharing on Ephesians in the past was not wrong, but it still was somewhat in the visible view. Today everything we are sharing concerning the Body of Christ is invisible and intrinsic. This is why I had the burden to pray the prayer I offered to the Lord at the beginning of this message. We need to pray, “Lord, we ask You to give us a trance. For years we have been in the sphere of understanding Your holy Word in our natural concept and in the natural view. We need a trance that transfers us out of the natural concept into another sphere so that we can see the things that man in his natural understanding cannot see.”
Previously, we saw from Ephesians 2 that while the Lord Jesus was being visibly and outwardly crucified on the cross, He was working invisibly. Visibly, He was being crucified. Invisibly, He was creating the one new man. This was a great work. We pointed out that Ephesians 2 is in two sections. According to the proper sequence, the second section (vv. 11-22) took place first. This is because Christ’s crucifixion should come before God’s enlivening. When Christ was crucified on the cross, we believers, both Jewish and Gentile, were included in Him and crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20). His crucifixion cleared up the oldness. Then we received His resurrection life as the element to germinate us. In His resurrection His new element, the divine element, His resurrection life, was applied to us.
The first section of Ephesians 2 (vv. 1-10) reveals that God the Father came in to coordinate with God the Son. God the Son was clearing up the old man and the old creation on the cross, and He was creating the new man in Himself as the new element in resurrection. In the meantime, God the Father came in to enliven each one of us with the resurrected Christ as life, as the enlivening element. He made us alive, raised us up from the dead, and uplifted us to the heavens with Christ.
Who can see this? This is a record of the invisible things in the invisible world, in the invisible sphere, and in the invisible scene. We can be certain that the Triune God saw this, and that He revealed this to the apostle Paul. The Triune God gave Paul a “video” of what was going on while the Son was being crucified on the cross. Paul saw this on the “heavenly television.” This is why he prayed for us that we might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation (1:17). Revelation means a video. We need a video. For us to hear alone is not adequate; we need to see. We need to see the video of what took place when Jesus Christ was being crucified.
Actually, crucifixion was a means for Him to create us into one new man. We were crucified with Him on the cross. Then God the Father came in to enliven us with the resurrected Christ as life, as the enlivening element. While Christ was creating, God was enlivening. We need such a video, such a vision, of what took place in the Lord’s death and resurrection. When we read Ephesians 2 in the past, we probably did not see such a vision. One day when I read Ephesians 2, I saw this. I did not see this vision in the past as clearly as I do now. Praise Him! Today I feel that the heavens are opened, and I am receiving a fresh vision, a heavenly video.
As a part of the new creation, I was created at the time of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. As a part of His organic Body, I was also enlivened by God at that time. According to my human concept and feeling, I was saved sixty-six years ago. But according to God’s viewpoint, I was made alive about two thousand years ago. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, I was also crucified. Then God the Father came in with Christ’s resurrection life as the element to enliven me. I have seen this vision. I have a heavy burden because I want all of us to see such a vision. I am burdened that all of us would be granted by God’s mercy to have a trance. We should not remain in the old sphere any longer. We must have a trance and be transferred into another sphere. We need to see what the Body of Christ is intrinsically.
In the previous chapter we saw the intrinsic view of the Body of Christ in Ephesians 3. This chapter tells us that God the Father strengthens us with power through His Spirit into our inner man (v. 16). We should experience the Father’s strengthening us into our inner man every day. Whenever I have a time with the Lord, I receive this strengthening from within. When we spend time with the Lord in prayer, we are strengthened into our inner man. Then Christ has the way to make His home in our heart. Christ’s making His home in our heart is not a matter that is once for all. This should be a continuous matter. Before I come to the platform to speak, I need to spend some time in prayer to allow God the Father to strengthen me into the inner man so that God the Son can come in to get Himself more settled in my inward parts. This practice equips me to speak.
We have to see a vision of Christ making His home in His believers’ hearts. This is something invisible. Who has seen this? The people in the world would think that we are speaking foolishness, but we are in a trance. We are in another field, another realm, which cannot be substantiated by our natural and physical senses. This morning when I was walking into this meeting, I had the speaking within to ask our God to give us a trance. This was a new subject for prayer. We need to pray, “Lord, we ask You to give us a trance that transfers us from the natural sphere into another sphere, the spiritual sphere.” I desire to see all of us in such a trance. When we are in this divine trance, we are in Him. He Himself is our trance.
We need a trance to see the intrinsic view of the Body of Christ in Ephesians 4. This chapter says that we need to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit (v. 3). Then it continues by saying, “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (vv. 4-6). Who understands this? No one can understand this with their natural understanding. There are four persons in these verses — one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. These four persons have been grouped together; the first one is human, and the last three are divine. The Body is human, the Spirit is divine, the Lord is divine, and God the Father is divine.
Why are these four persons grouped together here in Ephesians 4:4-6? Have you ever seen such a vision, such a scene? We have seen many groups of people, but have we seen this small group of four persons — one human and three divine? We may have read Ephesians 4 many times without seeing this group of four persons. To see this group of persons is a great light. This is a vision, a video. Four persons are here, and they are all very active. The Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father are all actively being mingled together.
We may have seen something from Ephesians 4, but the scenery we have seen is imperfect. We have a broken video. We have not seen a complete, perfect view. The Spirit, the Lord, and the Father, are doing one work. They are working to mingle Themselves with the Body. Ephesians 4 presents the real scenery of the Body of Christ. This group comprising four persons — the Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father — forms a unit, and this unit, this entity, is the Body of Christ, the church. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is mingled with the believers. This mingling is the constitution of the Body of Christ. We all have to see this. If we see this, all the problems among the saints and among the churches will be gone. All the problems can only be resolved by such a vision.
Today among some in the Lord’s recovery, there is still competition and ambition for position and for a name. This is a shameful thing to say, but it is a fact. Why are these things still going on? This is because we do not have the heavenly vision. We are short of the spiritual, heavenly, divine video. If we see this video, this video will solve all the problems. The mingling of the Body with the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father in Ephesians 4:4-6 is invisible. Such a scene is not visible to the human eyes or realized by the human senses. This is why we need to be in a trance.
We have said that the Body of Christ, the church, is human, but it is not naturally human. The church is heavenly human. The natural humanity has been crucified, resurrected, uplifted, and mingled with the three of the Divine Trinity. We are mingled with the Spirit, possessing one hope; mingled with the Son, through faith that joins us to Him and baptism that separates us from Adam; and also mingled with the Father as the One who is over us, through us, and within us. The Body of Christ is such a mingling of humanity with divinity.
God the Father, who is over all, through all, and in all, is the origin, the source, of the entire view of the Body of Christ. He is the origin of the Body. God the Son, who is the Lord and the embodiment of the Father, is the element. The Son is mingling Himself with us by faith and baptism. God the Spirit, who is the realization of God the Son, is the essence. The Spirit is being mingled with us with a hope that one day we all will be thoroughly transformed, conformed to the image of the Son, and glorified in Him. This is the working Divine Trinity mingling Himself in a thorough way with His chosen people as the Body.
This mingling has started, but it is not yet finished. It is still going on. We have ministry meetings and church meetings to be gathered together into Christ so that we can be thoroughly mingled with Him. We are not merely attending meetings in an outward sense. Behind these meetings, there is something unseen. That unseen thing is the mingling. While we are attending the meetings, we are being mingled with the Triune God. On the one hand, we are being mingled with one another, but the top mingling is the mingling of the Triune God Himself with all of us.
We surely can testify that we have more of God mingled with us in the meetings, but when we leave the meetings, we have to remain in this mingling. We need to be those who are being mingled with the Triune God all the time. This mingling solves all the problems. Two sisters may quarrel with each other because they are out of this mingling. But when they get back into this mingling, it causes them to forgive each other. Some husbands and wives may be having problems with each other. After being mingled with the Triune God in the meetings, however, their problems are resolved. The divine mingling solves all our problems.
Ephesians 4:4-6 reveals a group of four persons — the one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father — mingled together as one entity to be the organic Body of Christ. This divine mingling is the reality of the church life. There is another portion of Ephesians 4 telling us that the members need to be perfected by the gifts to do the work of the New Testament ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ (vv. 11-16). When we are being mingled with the Triune God, we are so happy with the Lord. We love Him, and we want to do something for Him. We desire to be very useful and helpful in the church life. How can we do this? We need to be perfected. The Lord as the Head perfects us, not directly but indirectly through His gifts — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. Thank the Lord that in the church we do have these gifted people. These are the ones who can perfect us.
According to our experience, this perfecting takes place mainly in the group meetings. Every church needs group meetings. The Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father are a group. They are grouped together to fellowship, to have a “group meeting.” The church also needs group meetings. There should not be too many saints in a group meeting. It is better if twelve to fifteen can come together in each group meeting.
The practice of having group meetings is according to Hebrews 10:24 and 25: “Let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.” These verses show that we should not forsake our own meeting. The group meeting is our own meeting in which we come together to incite and to exhort one another. You stir me up, and I stir you up. You adjust me, and I adjust you. This is what it means to perfect.
In the group meetings we should not have an assigned speaker. This is the clergy-laity system of Christianity. To meet in group meetings in our homes is an intimate and mutual way of meeting together. In the group meetings, all of us can receive the perfecting from the mutual asking and answering of questions.
One new brother might say that he has a problem because he does not know whether his baptism was genuine or not. Another brother may say, “I also had the same trouble ten years ago, but I was confirmed by Mark 16:16, which says that he who believes and is baptized shall be saved. The Lord showed me that this verse does not say, ‘He who believes and is baptized with a definite feeling that he was genuinely baptized shall be saved.’ The Lord only said, ‘He who is baptized,’ and I have been baptized.” Then he can say to the new brother who is doubting, “Were you not baptized? Did Satan baptize you? Of course not. A dear saint baptized you. That was a genuine baptism. There is no need for you to be bothered.” Then another brother may testify, “I also had the same kind of trouble many years ago. I doubted about my salvation, but I got through by standing on what the Word says. The Lord is faithful. He never will deny His Word.” This is an example of the content of a group meeting.
In a group meeting there is mutual fellowship, mutual intercession, mutual comfort, mutual care, mutual shepherding, mutual asking of questions, mutual answering of questions, and mutual teaching. There is no assigned leader, teacher, or speaker. Everyone is a leader, teacher, speaker, and student. All the activities in the group meeting are in mutuality. If the saints have this kind of meeting once a week throughout the year, they will all be perfected.
Our old, unscriptural way of meeting was a waste. In the old way a brother comes to the meeting place and sits down to wait for the meeting to begin. It is 7:25 P.M. The meeting should start at 7:30 P.M., so he waits for others to come. Eventually, everyone arrives, and they are all waiting for someone to start the meeting. Now it is 7:40 P.M. The meeting has still not started because the elders are not there yet. Then one elder comes in, and this elder does not know what to do. The meeting depends on him, but he does not know how to start it. He does not know what hymn to sing, and he does not have anything to pray. Eventually, another elder comes in. Then the first elder becomes happy. The elder who came in then motions to the first elder to call a hymn. After the singing of this hymn, the first elder indicates to the second one that he should pray. After he offers a prayer, though, who is going to speak? Nobody knows. Eventually, no one speaks. Then one of the elders may ask the saints to give testimonies of their past experience. This is an illustration of the old way for us to hold a group meeting.
In the organic, new way of meeting, everyone comes to the meeting with rejoicing and singing. Isaiah tells us that when Israel returned to Zion, they came back with rejoicing and with singing (51:11). We should start our group meeting from our home by singing and praising. We may declare and sing, “Praise the Lord! This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.” We should come to the meeting singing, praising, and testifying. All of us are the speakers in the group meeting. Such an organic group meeting is the way for us to be perfected.
Ephesians 4 says that the saints are perfected that they may do the work of the ministry, the New Testament ministry, and this ministry is to build up the Body of Christ (vv. 11-12). In the group meetings everyone can speak. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 that when the church comes together, we can all prophesy one by one (v. 31). To prophesy is to speak for the Lord, to speak the Lord forth, to minister the Lord to others by our speaking. This perfects the saints.
All the saints are perfected to do the same work as the apostles, as the prophets, as the evangelists, and as the shepherds and teachers. It is by this perfecting that the church will be developed. Then the church will be growing up to have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:13). We will eventually be full-grown. We will no longer be little children who are tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching (v. 14). We will hold to truth in love that we may grow up in everything into the Head, our Christ (v. 15). Out of Him the whole Body will grow through the functioning members, that is, through the joints of supply and through every part that functions in its measure to build up the Body (v. 16). Then the Body will be built up not by big preachers but by every member of the Body. This means that all the Body will cause the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
In Ephesians 4:4-6 we see the mingling of four persons as a group. Then in the next section of Ephesians 4, there is the building up with a bigger group of all the members of the Body of Christ. Mingling is the beginning; building up is the consummation. We are enjoying the mingling, and we are on the way to being fully built up. Then we will reach the consummation of the completion of the building up of the Body of Christ. Now in the universe there is a building that is the top consummation of the divine mingling of the Triune God with the uplifted humanity in the heavens. This building is the consummation of the church life. The built up Body of Christ is the goal to which we all have to attain, and this is the destination at which we all have to arrive. We have to go on and on until we arrive at this destination.
There is not such a vision in the natural field. We can only see this in the spiritual view, the spiritual field. I believe that by this fellowship we can see a video of what is taking place in Ephesians 4. The one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father are grouped together and are being mingled together. While this mingling is going on, we all are being perfected to do our work to build up the Body of Christ. Then the Body will be built up by itself through its functioning members. This is the intrinsic view of the Body of Christ in Ephesians 4.
