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John 15:4-5, 7-8; Phil. 1:27; Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 8:1
I. The increase of the church
А. The need to increase
B. The wrong concepts
C. The normal way
D. The God-ordained way to increase the church
II. The spread of the church
After seeing the vision of the church and how the church may be built up, we must proceed to see the matter of the increase and spread of the church. Many Christians think that after they are saved initially, they simply wait to go to heaven. They have no idea that they were saved as members of the Body to build up the church. Some among us may think that we have nothing to worry about, because by His mercy, we are in the church. It is true that all of our sins have been forgiven. It is also true that we are in the practical local church life. Yet, we must labor diligently in building up the church. In this lesson we will address two of the most crucial matters concerning building up the church — increase and spread.
[The increase of the church is to impart Christ to others and make them a part of Christ. The branches of the Vine bear fruit by imparting the life of the Vine to others and making them a part of the Vine. If the branches of a vine do not bear fruit, there will be no increase of the vine. The fruit-bearing of the branches is the increase of the vine tree. So the increase of the church is by the fruit-bearing of all the members. All the members must bear fruit; otherwise, there will be no increase of the local church.
Today in Christianity, nearly everything is abnormal, even the preaching of the gospel. Christianity today depends upon the giant preachers with huge gospel campaigns, but this is not so in the Bible. In the Bible, especially in the gospel of John, the real gospel preaching is the fruit-bearing of every member.] [It is just like the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem: it bears new fruits every month. This is the proper preaching of the gospel, and this is the increase of the church. It does not depend upon great preachers and large gospel campaigns. The normal daily life of the members of the church is simply to bear fruit; then there is the increase of the church.
The proper way to preach the gospel is to impart Christ into others as life. We should not trust in the great preachers; we have to trust in ourselves. Every member of the church is a branch to bear fruit. Consider the fruit tree. Every kind of fruit tree bears fruit at least once a year — this is a natural law. I do believe that as living members of the local church, we must bring at least one new convert a year to the Lord. Suppose a branch of the vine does not bear fruit year after year. What do they do with it? They prune it or cut it off. Every local church must encourage every member to bring at least one new convert to the Lord every year. Even to bring in ten or twelve a year is not too many, for that is simply like a cluster of grapes.
In the local church, we should be fruitful. Whenever we come to the church meeting, we must come with some new ones. Do not come to the meetings alone — that is not a glory; that is a shame! We need to come to the meetings with others for the increase of the local church.]
[In the gospel preaching, there are some wrong concepts that I must point out to you. In some of the denominational churches there is much activity in the outreach of the gospel. This is good, but the problem is that there is too much human effort and struggle. This is wrong, but this does not mean that we should retire from fruit-bearing and not bear fruit. We should not be old in bearing fruit; we should always be renewed. There is no retirement in the spiritual life.
Another kind of concept in Christianity is that we must wait and pray for a great revival — then the Lord will send a giant speaker, and we will come together to have a gospel campaign. This is abnormal.]
[There is a third concept — at the other extreme — which is also wrong. Some say, “Look at those people! All their gospel campaigns are just in the energy of the flesh!’’ Of course, we must realize that all our gospel preaching must be the overflow of the inner life. But those who criticize in this way have been criticizing others for years, yet they themselves have not brought in any new ones. It seems that there is no overflow of life with them. So they have gone to the other extreme.]
[What is the normal way? The normal way is not to use our human effort; nor is it to depend upon a revival campaign with a giant preacher. Fruit-bearing is the outflow of life; so we must grow in life and also take the responsibility of fruit-bearing. The church should encourage every member to pray for the bringing in of new converts to the church. We should spend at least two or three hours weekly to take care of some new ones. It is not right for a church to remain the same in number year after year. Suppose that after five years we still have the same number. This is absolutely wrong. This means that we do not have the exercise of the flow of life.
What do I mean by the flow of life? I mean that we must abide in the Lord and enjoy the riches of His life. Then we must be burdened for fruit-bearing. We must pray, “Lord, my daily life is to bear fruit.’’ Then the Lord will give us a deep realization for two or three persons for whom we should care. We may know 50 persons, but at that time the Lord will burden us with only two or three. We will pray for them, mentioning their names to the Lord. Then we need to seek the Lord’s guidance regarding how to contact them. Perhaps we will invite them to dinner along with some of the brothers and sisters; then there will be others to help in ministering life to them. The brothers and sisters in the church should help one another in a mutual way in the matter of fruit-bearing. We should not do this just once in a while, but constantly. This is our daily life. We should spend at least two or three hours weekly in this matter. Do not expect a quick job. It is by doing it steadily and constantly that we will see the results.
If every year each one would bring in one new convert, within a year’s time the church would be doubled. And after another year, it would be doubled again. The young people should bring in one new one every six months. It is not too much to bring in one new convert in one hundred and eighty days. In fact, it is too little. If each one could bring in two a year, by the end of the year, the church would be doubled twice. This is the increase.
Some may say that this is too much. Suppose then that each one brings in one every two years, or that two brothers bring in one each year. In six years, the church will have doubled three times. That is not bad. And you cannot say that it is too much for each one to bring in one every two years. What an increase there would be!
We must not trust in the big gospel campaigns, we must trust in the increase of the church. The increase of the church is the fruit-bearing, not a great campaign. As a branch we must bear fruit, and one fruit every two years is so easy.]
[Going out to visit people is the most effective way to spread the gospel for the kingdom of God. Actually, visiting people by knocking on their doors is not a new way but an ancient way. This way began from the garden in Genesis 3. Every Christian should knock on people’s doors to bring others the gospel. To knock on people’s doors means to visit people. To visit people by knocking on their doors is actually the God-ordained, Christian way to spread the gospel that has been picked up by the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses to spread their heretical teaching. It is regrettable that the proper people, the Christians, have nearly given up the God-ordained way to spread the gospel. But now the Lord is leading us back to this way.
We have to take the way of going out to visit people by learning how to do it and by being trained. The greatest hindrance to our being trained to go out to visit people is our concept. We may be holding on to our past practice of preaching the gospel. Our past practice may have been good, but it is not nearly as effective as our present practice of going out to visit people. The first requirement of our being trained in the new way is to drop our concept. We must drop our concepts and pick up the instructions of the training. We cannot be trained by the Lord if we hold on to our old practice. If we would forget about our old way and pick up the Lord’s new way, we will see the positive results.
In the Lord’s new way we must be believing, assured, bold, and aggressive. We have been sent to visit people by the ascended Christ, and while we are talking to people we are linked to Christ. We have the position and the authority of the ascended Christ to direct people to believe and be baptized. Because we have been entrusted with the authority of the ascended Christ to preach the gospel, we should not ask people questions. We should not ask, “Will you believe?’’ We need to direct them to believe. We should not ask others if they want to be baptized, but we need to direct them to be baptized. We need to be like John the Baptist who told people, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near’’ (Matt. 3:2). John the Baptist preached with an imperative, not with questions.
In our natural man we always want to be nice, good, and humble. We like to ask others, “Would you please believe in the Lord Jesus?’’ But if we ask others questions in this way, we will be rejected most of the time. Our asking of questions opens the door for rejection. We need to speak everything in the way of a command. We are the Lord’s heavenly ambassadors who have been committed with all the authority in heaven and on earth to baptize people into the Triune God. We need to direct people to repent and confess their sins. We need to lead them to pray. After a little prayer we need to tell them that they are now ready to be baptized. If we would exercise this divine authority, many of the people we visit will be like lambs. We will be able to lead them out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. The most effective way to preach the gospel is not to ask questions but to direct people to repent, pray, and be baptized. When we baptize a person into the Triune God, he will become another person. Baptism changes people because we are baptizing them into the name of the Triune God, which is the sum total of the divine Being.]
The church increases locally and spreads universally. As a local church increases in life and number, we call it the increase. When a local church spreads to other cities to have more local churches, we call it the spreading of the churches. It is wrong for a church to exist in an area for 10 years without spreading to other cities. We need to spread the church life from city to city, from country to country, and from continent to continent until there are local churches everywhere on earth.
[If we read the Book of Acts carefully, we will see that the spreading of the gospel had two lines. The first line was the migration of the saints — not the going out of the apostles. Acts 8:1 says very plainly that all the saints were scattered abroad, except the apostles. We have always thought that the apostles had to go out and the saints had to stay. But the Lord scattered all the saints and kept the apostles in Jerusalem. The sent ones stayed, and all the others were sent out. This was the first spreading of the gospel. It was not by the apostles going, but by the scattering of the believers. This is what we call migration. The spreading of God’s kingdom really does not only depend on the apostles, but also on the believers migrating from city to city.
According to Luke 21:24, Jerusalem has been returned to the people of Israel. This is the strongest fact that the time of the Lord’s return is very near. Therefore, locally we must have the increase, and universally we must have the spreading. As a local expression, we must have many saints going out. We are not here for our interest; we are here for the Lord’s recovery. And the time is near; the Lord is coming back. We must take care of His interest. We must look to the Lord that some will be burdened to go, and all of us should be willing to be burdened to go. We are the descendants of Abraham. Abraham was a stranger who continually sojourned on the earth. It is not right for us to be so settled in one place. We have to move from one place to another. We must be here for the Lord’s interest. If we are here as a local expression of the Lord’s Body without an increase locally and a spreading universally, we are wrong. Do not think that we are more spiritual than others. If we do, we are too proud. We must be so living and burning all the time for a certain amount of increase locally and for a measure of spreading universally.
We are living today in the richest country on the earth. Everything is so available, and we are in the very center of the populated world. It is exceedingly easy and convenient for us to go north, south, east, or west. We must spread the Lord’s testimony to many cities in this country and Canada, as well as to Mexico, Central and South America and Europe. We must look to the Lord that we will have such an increase locally and such a spreading universally.]
The increase and spread builds up the church in each locality as well as the Body of Christ throughout the earth. The Lord will come for His bride when there are built-up local churches spread throughout the inhabited earth. We must give ourselves to pray, to read the word, and to be trained to preach the gospel that we may be part of the great work for the increase and spread of the church life throughout the earth to bring the Lord back. If we are diligent in this matter, we will have a great reward.
