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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:8-16
I. Building up the Body being different from building up a congregation:
А. Building up a congregation being organizational.
B. Building up the Body being organic.
II. Building up the organic Body of Christ:
А. Needing Christ as the Head — Eph. 4:8-11:
1. Having perfected the gifted ones through overcoming and ascension.
2. Having given the gifted ones to His Body.
B. Needing the gifted ones — vv. 11-12:
1. Having apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.
2. For the perfecting of the saints to be able to do the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.
C. Needing the perfected members — vv. 15-16:
1. Holding to truth in love.
2. Growing into the Head, Christ, in all things.
3. Being joined together and being knit together:
а. Through every joint of the rich supply.
b. Through the operation in the measure of each one part.
4. Causing the growth of the Body.
5. Building up the Body in love.
Thank the Lord for giving us these messages. I consider this very important, and I treasure it very much. In these first two chapters of this book our burden is to help the brothers and sisters to see in a brief way the goal of God’s ordained way and the way to practice it. For this we need to speak for the Lord according to the high standard of the Bible. I hope that every brother and sister will exercise his or her spirit and sound mind to understand and receive this word. I also look to the Lord’s grace from above that I can present this new way clearly and completely.
First of all, we need to know that the God-ordained way, which is the new way that we have been talking about in the past three years, is an ancient way in the Bible. The way that the apostles brought in two thousand years ago and the way that the early church took was this way. However, due to her degradation, the church gradually fell into the world, deviated from the revelation in the Bible, and took an old way, which we have spoken about. After receiving light in the Bible before the Lord, we, by the Lord’s grace, are willing to recover the lost, scriptural way. Therefore, in the Lord’s recovery this has become a new way. Actually, this new way that we are recovering is the ancient way that was practiced by the church two thousand years ago. This is the way ordained by God according to His eternal purpose.
You may say that this way, from the beginning to the end, was revealed to us in the New Testament little by little in a very clear way. However, due to the fact that there is nothing of this new way in our natural concept, we could not discover it simply from our reading. When we read the Bible, we have deeper impressions mostly concerning the things that are already within us; hence, we echo them immediately upon reading. However, concerning those profound things within God’s heart, we have no idea, and we cannot understand even after much reading. Let us take Ephesians 4:8-16 as an example. There are many points that are profound; we can read them, yet we have no way to understand. We find it difficult to understand such a profound matter. We need to look to the Lord to grant us revelation and light that we may see the profound things of God in this portion of the Word.
This portion of the Word primarily talks about the building up of the Body of Christ, which is the goal of the God-ordained way. When we first mentioned the new way, it seemed that the impression we gave the brothers and sisters was that the goal of the new way was door-knocking. But I have to say that preaching the gospel by door-knocking is not the goal of the new way. Even all the home meetings, group meetings, or district meetings are not the goal of the new way. The goal of the new way is the building up of the Body of Christ. Then why do we still have to preach the gospel by door-knocking? It is because the building up of the Body of Christ requires material. In order to obtain the material, we have to preach the gospel. The reason we go out to knock on doors is for preaching the gospel, leading people to be regenerated, to be saved, and to become material for the building up of the Body of Christ. The home meetings are for the perfecting of the newly saved ones, for leading them to function in the meetings. A further step is to have group meetings to group the saints together so that they may have a place for mutual fellowship, to be knit together, to care for one another, and to be built up with each other. Then we arrive at the district meetings where we help people to enter more into the church life, to function organically in the meetings, and to speak to and supply one another for mutual building up. All these added together are for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Every one of us has a body, which is our physical body. Christ also has a Body, which is His church. Apparently our body is an organization organized by many members grouped together. However, it is not quite the same as a table made of many pieces of wood. The table is a lifeless organization; the body is an organism of life. As long as something is a part of the body, regardless of whether it is big or small, it has the organic feeling and function. Similarly, the Body of Christ, the church, is not an organization but an organism. Therefore, our building up of the church of Christ is not building up a congregation, an organization, or a social group. The old way of tradition in Christianity does not pay attention to the Body of Christ but only to the outward organization. That old way encourages people to join a religion. Once they have joined the religion, they become a member of that group. Then everyone comes together to elect each other. They form a board of directors, a committee, and elect different kinds of committee members. This is a congregation, not the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is a group of people who have repented, believed, and received Jesus as their Savior and life. They have been regenerated in their spirit, and they have the Holy Spirit moving and filling them within to cause them to be transformed, to grow, and to become organic members.
Tonight I am standing here. If I did not have an organic body to coordinate with my life, then this living person of mine would have no way to be expressed. The Lord Jesus is a great One who fills all; He needs a great organism to express Him. However, until today He still has not obtained this great organism, which is the proper church. We have been in the Lord’s recovery for many decades, and the Lord’s recovery has spread to the six major continents, having more than eleven hundred local churches. However, the percentage that we are organic is not that much; we are still lacking the organic expression of the life functions. Our situation is still mostly one of organization. This is altogether the result of the old way. Therefore, there is an extremely great need for us to walk from the old way to the new way that has been given to us by the Lord in order to develop the organic functions of the members so that the Lord may have an organic Body.
For the building up of the organic Body of Christ, first there is the need of Christ as the Head. In order to have a body, you must first have a head; this head is Christ Himself. Christ being the Head is through His overcoming, which is His death and resurrection. He defeated the enemy on the cross and through death destroyed the devil who has the power of death. Moreover, He came out of Hades by overcoming death, and then He ascended to the heavens. Through the victory of His death and resurrection, as well as His ascension and exaltation, He captured the captives and perfected the gifted ones. Originally, we were those chosen by God before the foundation of the world; however, due to the fall, Satan had captured us through sin and put us into death. But God has not forsaken us; He Himself became flesh, passed through death, resurrection, and ascension to deal with our sins, to destroy Satan, to abolish death, and to capture us from the hands of Satan that we may sit together with Him in the heavens. It was in this kind of setting that we were redeemed, regenerated, and received the life of God and the Holy Spirit. Here we are being transformed and are growing; thus, some become the gifted persons. Peter, Paul, and the many apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, were all these kinds of persons.
Following this, Christ gave these gifted ones to His Body. This was so not only during the apostles’ age but also throughout the generations. Among the thousands of believers, the Lord has perfected many gifted persons: some became apostles, some became prophets, some became evangelists, and some became shepherds and teachers. These the Lord gives to the church for the building up of the Body of Christ.
These gifted ones, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, are perfected by the Head, Christ; these are needed by the Body. Their work is not to build up the church directly but to perfect the saints so that they can also do the work of the ministry, to build up the Body of Christ. Although the direction of the work of these four groups of people is different, their goal is the same, that is, the building up of the Body of Christ, yet not directly but through the perfecting of the saints. The old way in the tradition of Christianity is to have a pastor do the preaching and a sanctified class of people do the holy work; the church is built by a clerical class, and the thousands of congregational members are not the builders. However, the new way ordained by God is carried out by a few gifted members who do not build up the church directly but perfect every saint to do their work, which is the work of the ministry, the building up of the Body of Christ.
What we have to do in the new way is to perfect the saints. The former old way only required the brothers and sisters to come to the meetings and listen to messages. As a result decades have passed, and not many have been perfected. It is as if we were conducting spiritual education for the last few decades, yet today not many have graduated, and not many teachers have been produced so that it is difficult for us to increase and spread. This adequately proves that our way had problems. Therefore, we have to change to take the new way to perfect the saints.
Although the work of all the gifted ones may differ, they are all for the perfecting of the saints. For example, to be an apostle implies primarily three things: pioneering to preach the gospel and bring people to the Lord, establishing churches, and setting doctrinal principles and expounding the truths. The apostles are those who not only can do these things but who also perfect others to do what they do. The prophets are also like this. They not only speak for God and speak forth God, but they also perfect others to be prophets. We also have the need of the evangelists among us today to lead the brothers and sisters in how to preach the gospel by knocking on doors and to seek out the sons of peace among the wolves. All this requires practice, so even the more, the evangelists need to do the work of perfecting. There are also shepherds and teachers who are those taking care of people, shepherding people, and teaching people. Similarly, they need to go to perfect others to cause more and more saints to be able to do these things.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, the new way is a way that allows the gifted ones in the church to perfect all the saints. First, the gifted ones perfect each one of the saints to be able to preach the gospel and to bring people to the Lord. Following that, they set up meetings in the new believers’ homes and lead them to testify for the Lord, to read the Lord’s Word, and even to speak for the Lord. Then the new believers learn to care for one another, to feed one another, and to function organically. If we would learn humbly and practice faithfully according to this way revealed in the Bible, with all of the gifted ones — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — going to lead every believer to do these four things and to perfect them to do these things, then among the saints there will be an abundance of those who are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. What a blessing the church will receive!
For the sake of building up the organic Body of Christ, all the perfected saints need to hold to truth in love, that is, to hold to the real things such as God, Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church, so that we can grow up into the Head, Christ. Then out of the Head we will have something real, which is for the building up of His Body. Then through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation of the measure of each one part, the whole Body can be joined and knit together to cause the growth and increase of the Body of Christ so that it builds itself up in love. When every member is thus perfected, growing in life, functioning organically, and being built up into a Body in the organic union, the Lord will have an organic Body in our midst to be His full expression. What a glorious and blessed situation that will be. I hope that all the brothers and sisters can see this vision clearly and pray for this so that they themselves may become blessed persons on this God-ordained way, manifest the organic functions, and be built up in the organic Body of Christ.
When you have this desire, you will need to get into many things and learn in each matter. Learn how to preach the gospel, learn how to speak for the Lord, learn how to care for people, and also learn how to perfect others to do these things. You need to also learn to be apostles pioneering to establish churches and expounding the truths. Thus, every saved person among us who walks in this God-ordained way will be functioning and will know how to preach the gospel, speak for the Lord, shepherd, and perfect others. As a result of this, the church will greatly expand, and the Lord will have a built-up and organic Body. May we all see the goal of this new way accurately, endeavor wholeheartedly, learn seriously, overthrow the old way, and walk in this God-ordained way.
