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Although we may have the riches of Christ, it is possible to have them merely in an objective way. The riches may simply be the riches and yet not have anything to do with us. To know the riches of Christ objectively is one thing; to enjoy them subjectively is another. Buying groceries is very different from eating prepared food. We must learn how to eat all the aspects of Christ revealed in the Gospel of John, 1 Corinthians, and the other books of the Bible. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the all in all. How profound He is! How all-inclusive! Nevertheless, as profound as He is, Christ is for our enjoyment. The way to enjoy the riches of Christ is by eating, and the way to eat is by calling on the name of the Lord.
First Corinthians, a book that unfolds many aspects of the riches of Christ, reveals that the way to eat these riches is by calling on the name of the Lord. This Epistle even opens with the matter of calling. The second verse of chapter 1 says, “To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours.” This book was not written to those who study but to those who eat, that is, to those who call on the name of the Lord. We all must learn to call upon His name, for the riches of Christ are made available for our enjoyment through our calling on Him. As Romans 10:12 says, “The same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him.”
Many Christians know how to pray but not how to call. I used to think that praying and calling were the same. Later, I learned that they were different. When I call, I pray; but when I pray, I do not necessarily call. Although I may receive answers to my prayers, I do not receive nourishment by praying. But whenever I call on the Lord, I receive both the answer and the nourishment.
Children are experts at calling on their parents. A little girl does not say, “Mother, I need some water”; instead, she says, “Mama, give me a drink!” Whenever she calls like this, she gets something to drink. Likewise, there is no need for us to say, “Lord, thank You for being so good to me. Lord, I need You very much. Every day and every hour I need You.” This is praying, not calling. When we call on the Lord, we may say, “O Lord Jesus! I need You, Lord! O Lord, how good You are! Lord, You are my health day by day!” Receiving an answer is secondary; being nourished is primary. Whenever I exercise my spirit to call on the Lord, I am richly nourished.
All Christians have called upon the name of the Lord at some time. However, most of them call only when they are in trouble. They do not call during times of peace. Why should we wait until trouble comes to call on the Lord? We need to form the habit of calling on Him at all times. Every morning when I rise up, I take several deep breaths. This is very refreshing and invigorating. Likewise, we need to breathe in the Lord by calling on His name. If we do this, we shall enjoy fresh air and nourishment. The Bible does not say that the Lord is rich to all who study about Him or meditate on Him. No, the Bible says that the Lord is rich to all who call on His name. When we call on His name, we touch Him and receive His riches.
In this chapter we come to the matter of the church. We have seen who Christ is and what Christ is. Now we must see that all the riches of Christ are for the church. In the foregoing chapters we have seen seven aspects of Christ in His divinity: God, the Creator, the Lord, Jehovah, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We have also seen various aspects of Christ in His humanity, such as the Prophet, the Priest, the King, the Apostle, and the Bridegroom. All that Christ is in His divinity and in His humanity is for the producing of the church. If we would know the church, we need to know how the church comes into being.
The first mention of the church in the Bible is in Matthew 16:18. In this chapter the church that is revealed is a prevailing church. Prior to speaking about the church, the Lord had asked the disciples who He was, and Peter had said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (vv. 13-16). It is wonderful to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But as soon as Peter had received this revelation, the Lord said, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (v. 18). This word indicates that after we see who Christ is, we must also see the church, because Christ is for the church. Christ is the source, and the church is the product. If you know the source, then you must also know the product.
The Lord told Peter that he was a stone and that He would build His church upon Himself as the rock. The Lord seemed to be saying, “Peter, you are a stone, and I am the rock. I shall build My church with stones upon this rock. The church I build will defeat Satan, for the gates of Hades will not be able to stand against it.” The gates of Hades is a biblical term denoting the power of Satan. The power of Satan cannot prevail against the builded church.
The church built by Christ will bring in the kingdom. Verse 18 speaks of the church, and verse 19, of the kingdom. Verse 19 says, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in the heavens.” When the church is built, the kingdom will come. The church and the kingdom are two aspects of one thing. The proper church is also the prevailing kingdom.
In verse 19 we have the keys of the kingdom, and in verse 18, the gates of Hades. We have seen that the gates of Hades refer to the power of Satan. Now we must see that the keys of the kingdom refer to the authority of God. Which is stronger — the power of Satan or the authority of God? Of course, the authority of God is much stronger than the power of Satan. The church built by Christ is the kingdom of the heavens, and this kingdom has the authority of God. Thus, the power of Satan cannot prevail against the builded church.
Certainly you have never seen such a church in Christianity. But what about the church in the Lord’s recovery today? We need to be fair in answering this question. Although the church life in the Lord’s recovery is much better than anything in Christianity, it is still not that high. We must go higher and higher. Whenever we come together, the kingdom of the heavens must be present, and the authority of God must be here. Then the power of Satan will be defeated. The day is coming when such a church will be built up among us. I believe that in many major cities there will shortly be churches that are the kingdom of the heavens filled with the authority of God and able to defeat the power of Satan. Although this has not yet been accomplished, we have the Lord’s promise: “I will build My church.”
Today the Lord Jesus is still building the church. At present we cannot find such a prevailing church in London, Paris, or Rome. Although there are thousands of Christians in these cities, there is no church like the one described in Matthew 16. Praise the Lord that He is recovering the church life! In Stuttgart there is a church different from anything found in Christianity. We admit that not even the church in the Lord’s recovery is fully built yet; we are still in the initial stage. But the Lord will continue to build His church. He was building yesterday, He is building today, and He will be building tomorrow. He will keep on building until the church fully becomes the kingdom of heaven possessing the authority of God to defeat the power of Satan. When that day comes, the churches will be ready for the rapture; they will be ready to be taken by the Lord as His bride. At that time the Lord Jesus will come back.
We know that when the Lord Jesus comes back, He will come as the Bridegroom. In order for the Bridegroom to come, the bride must be prepared. If the Lord came back today, would the bride be ready? Certainly not. How can the Bridegroom come if the bride has not been prepared? For centuries Christians have been talking about the Lord’s second coming, and many are still doing so today. The more they talk and wait for Him to return, the more He seems to delay His coming. The reason for this is that the church has not yet been built. It would be a shame to the Lord to come back without having a built-up church. His enemy, Satan, would say, “Jesus, have You come back? What about Your promise in Matthew 16? Jesus, You still have not built Your church! Look at Your church. It is a mess, filled with idolatry, fornication, division, and confusion. Is this the church You promised to build?” What a shame this would be to the Lord! Therefore, the Lord continues to build His church.
The Lord is not building with a large number but with a rather small number. Nevertheless, in the various major cities strong churches will be built up. Then at His coming back He will be able to say to Satan, “Satan, look! In all these major cities I have built up My church. In My church there is no division, confusion, idolatry, or fornication. Satan, what do you have to say about this?” At that time the Lord Jesus will be able to boast to the enemy. However, today He can do little boasting concerning the builded church. Therefore, we all must press on and give the Lord the opportunity to build up His church in a pure way, in a victorious way, and in a prevailing way so that He can put His enemy to shame. Even now the Lord has a church in New York City and in Los Angeles, the devilish center of the movie industry. Is this not a shame to Satan? In these churches there is no division, confusion, idolatry, or fornication. There is only the all-inclusive Christ. Hallelujah! I strongly believe that the time is coming, perhaps within ten years, when the situation regarding the church will be beautiful. The Lord’s promise to build His church will be fulfilled.
In Matthew 28:19 the Lord revealed the way to build up the church: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The nations, pagans, need to be discipled. After they have been discipled, they must be baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Christianity has made baptism a formal ritual. But in Matthew 28 baptism is not a ritual; it is the immersing of the believers of Christ into the Triune God. In Christianity a pastor may baptize a new convert either by sprinkling a few drops of water upon him or by immersing him. In either case he may say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” But whether the new convert is sprinkled or immersed, he remains the same. Nothing has changed.
Years ago, in South America, a Catholic priest baptized a certain native boy and changed his name. After bringing him into the cathedral and sprinkling water upon him, the priest changed his name to John. At that time Catholics were not allowed to eat meat on Fridays. On a particular Friday John was preparing some venison to eat. Realizing that he should not eat meat on Friday, John decided to change the venison into fish. He said to himself, “If the priest could change my name by sprinkling water on me, then I can change this venison to fish by sprinkling water on it.” Therefore, he sprinkled water on the venison and called it fish. As the priest walked by, he smelled the venison cooking. Offended, he rebuked John, saying, “John, don’t you know that today is Friday and that you are not allowed to eat meat? You must eat fish today.” John replied, “I have done the same thing to the venison that you did to me. You sprinkled water on me and changed my name to John, and I sprinkled water on the venison and called it fish.” This illustrates what a ritual baptism has become throughout much of so-called Christianity.
Genuine baptism is a matter of putting people into the Triune God. The Lord Jesus did not tell the disciples to baptize the nations into water; He told them to baptize the nations into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One writer has pointed out that the name here denotes the person of the Divine Being. Hence, to baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to baptize them into the person of the Triune God. Whenever we baptize others, we must exercise our spirit and our faith to say, “We do not merely place you into the water; we are immersing you into the Triune God. Before now, you were outside the Triune God and had nothing whatever to do with Him. Now we are putting you into the Triune God; hereafter you will be one who is in the Triune God.”
After the Lord Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to His disciples. Although the doors were shut where the disciples were, on the day of His resurrection, the Lord, with a physical body, mysteriously entered the room (John 20:19). As He was speaking with them, He breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). After His resurrection the Lord Jesus came back to breathe Himself into the disciples. Many Christians know what took place on the day of Pentecost, but they do not know what happened on the day of the Lord’s resurrection. They do not know that on the day of His resurrection the Lord Jesus breathed Himself as the Spirit of life into His disciples. After the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into them, we are not told that He left them. This indicates that He stayed within them. After He breathed Himself into them, He remained within them as their life of resurrection. Most Christians think that the Holy Spirit was not given to the disciples until the day of Pentecost. This is a mistaken concept. Fifty days earlier than Pentecost, the Lord breathed the Spirit into the disciples, and they received the Spirit of life. According to Acts 1, the disciples were able to pray for ten days. How could they have done this if they did not have the Spirit within them? The only way one hundred twenty believers could pray in one accord for ten days was to have Christ as the life-giving Spirit within them.
Although the disciples had the Spirit of life within them, they did not yet have the Spirit of power upon them. For that, they had to wait until the day of Pentecost. At that time the ascended Christ poured Himself upon the disciples. On the day of resurrection the disciples received the life of resurrection, for they received the Spirit of life. But on the day of Pentecost the ascended Christ poured Himself upon His disciples to empower them. Therefore, on the day of Pentecost the disciples had both the Spirit of life within them and the Spirit of power upon them. Within and without, they were permeated, saturated, and filled with the Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost the church was fully built up. Inwardly the believers were filled with the Spirit of life, and outwardly they were immersed into the Spirit. They were absolutely in the Spirit. As a result, they became a prevailing church. This was not a matter of organization or formality. It was a matter of a group of believers being filled with the Spirit within and immersed into the Spirit without. They were in the Spirit, the Spirit was in them, and thus they were one with the Triune God. Immediately, they became a prevailing church. That church was the kingdom of the heavens; it had the authority of God and was able to overcome the power of Satan. This was the church on the day of Pentecost, and this is the church the Lord is building up in His recovery today. In order for this to take place, we all must be filled with the Spirit of life and immersed into the Spirit of power.
First Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” How does the church come into being? It is not by human organization but by immersing the believers into the Triune God. By being filled with the Spirit of life and by being immersed into the Spirit of power, we become one with the Triune God, and the Triune God becomes one with us. Eventually, we are one in the Triune God. This is the way we become the one Body, the church.
May the Lord grant us all a clear vision that the church is neither an organization nor merely a group of people; it is the disciples who are filled with the Spirit of life and immersed into the Spirit of power. When we are permeated and filled with the Spirit both within and without, we are the church. Those in the church are extraordinary. They are filled with the Spirit, immersed into the Spirit, permeated with the Spirit, and one with the Spirit. These are the people of the church, the people of the kingdom, those who have the power and authority of God to overcome the power of Satan.
Ephesians 3:8 reveals that the apostle Paul preached the unsearchable riches of Christ. All the believers have received these unsearchable riches. In these chapters we have seen and received the riches of Christ. However, we still need to pray that these riches would be applied to us and become our enjoyment. For this we need to pray, as Paul did, to be strengthened into our inner man (v. 16). Here Paul seemed to be saying, “O Father, strengthen the believers into their inner man. Do not strengthen them into their mentality or into their physical bodies but into their inner man.” The inner man is our spirit. Although we all need to be strengthened into our spirit, into our inner man, the natural strength of our mind needs to be reduced. Many Christians are strong in their mentality. They have a large head but a very small spirit. Their mind is filled with thoughts and imaginations. While they are sitting in a meeting listening to a message, their thoughts may travel around the world. Furthermore, they find it very easy to talk. However, if you ask them to pray, they will immediately be quiet. Prayer requires the exercise of the spirit, but talking comes out of the exercise of the mind. Those with a large mentality find it easy to talk but difficult to pray. This proves that their inner man, their spirit, is weak. Thus, they need to be strengthened into the inner man and reduced in their mentality. If this takes place, their head will become smaller, and their spirit will become larger. As a result, they will like to pray more and talk less. They will begin to say, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Jesus is Lord!” They will enjoy saying this because their spirit will have been strengthened and expanded. We all need to pray, “Lord Jesus, strengthen my spirit and restrict my mind.”
We also need to pray, “O Lord, strengthen my spirit so that You may make Your home in my heart.” When we were saved, the Lord Jesus came into our spirit. How much of Christ do you have in your spirit? If you sense that you have little of Him in your spirit, you should pray that He would strengthen you into your inner man. If you learn to call on the Lord, your spirit will be filled with Christ as the life-giving Spirit. This is the way to be strengthened into the inner man. The more you say, “O Lord Jesus,” the more Christ will come into you, spread into your heart, and take it over. As Christ spreads in you, He makes your heart His home (v. 17). Although all Christians have Christ in their spirit, few have Christ in their mind, emotion, and will, which are the different rooms of our heart. Christ desires to fill all these rooms and to make our heart His home.
According to Ephesians 3:19, eventually, we shall “be filled unto all the fullness of God.” This means that we shall not simply have Christ in our spirit but that He will make His home in our heart and take over our entire being. As a result, we shall inwardly be filled unto all the fullness of God. When we are filled unto all the fullness of God, we become the practical and prevailing church. This church is the kingdom of the heavens with the authority of God to overcome the power of Satan. By this we see that the building of the church does not come by outward organization but by the inner life, that is, by having Christ fill us, saturate us, and permeate us until we are filled unto all the fullness of God. This is Christ’s way to build His church.
