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Scripture Reading: John 21:15; 15:16; 1 Thes. 2:7; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Thes. 2:11; Acts 20:20, 27, 31; Col. 1:28-29; Eph. 4:11-12; 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 24, 26, 31
I. Meeting with the new believers in their homes:
А. Feeding them as the Lord’s lambs that our fruit may remain — John 21:15; 15:16.
B. As a nursing mother cherishing her own children — 1 Thes. 2:7.
C. Leading them:
1. To know the Lord:
а. As God — Rom. 9:5.
b. As man — 1 Tim. 2:5.
c. As the Savior (including the Redeemer) — Luke 2:11.
d. As the life-giving Spirit — 1 Cor. 15:45b.
2. To know the Lord’s salvation:
а. That the Lord has redeemed them with His precious blood — 1 Pet. 1:18-19.
b. And has saved them with His life — Rom. 5:10.
3. To know themselves:
а. That they have the life of the Lord — John 3:36a.
b. That their spirits have been regenerated by the Lord Spirit — vv. 3, 6.
4. To exercise their spirit to call on the Lord, to pray, and to take in the Lord’s riches — Rom. 10:12.
5. To enjoy the milk of the Lord’s word in the Bible and to grow in life — 1 Pet. 2:2.
6. To consecrate themselves as living sacrifices to God — Rom. 12:1.
D. This being the pattern revealed in the New Testament — Acts 5:42.
II. Having small group meetings that are full of mutuality with the saints — Heb. 10:24-25:
А. Leading, enlightening, and encouraging the saints:
1. To open up and fellowship with one another.
2. To pray for one another.
3. To care for and shepherd one another.
4. To mutually ask questions for learning and teaching the truth.
5. To mutually ask questions for the pursuit of and instruction in the growth in life.
B. Exhorting and consoling the saints as a father — 1 Thes. 2:11:
1. Teaching the saints all the counsel of God — Acts 20:20, 27, 31.
2. In all wisdom, presenting the saints full-grown in Christ to God — Col. 1:28-29.
3. Equipping and supplying the saints to do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is to build up the organic Body of Christ — Eph. 4:11-12.
C. Assigning the saints:
1. To go to preach the gospel by visiting people.
2. To nourish and care for the new ones.
3. To lead the believers to attend the small group meetings.
4. To lead the believers to attend the bigger meetings of the church.
D. This being the major part of the practice of the church life.
III. Attending meetings of the church that are full of mutual speaking and listening — 1 Cor. 14:26:
А. All attendants having something to supply to the meeting.
B. Everything being for the building up of the saints and the church.
C. There being the need to fully supply the riches of Christ to others.
D. Being the goal of the function of the New Testament priests of the gospel:
1. The saints being perfected to grow into maturity, being edified in truth, having the experience in life, and being able to prophesy to supply Christ to all His members so that the church may be built up organically.
2. The priests of the gospel preaching the gospel to gain the sinners to offer to God, caring for and nourishing the new ones, leading them to grow in life to present themselves as living sacrifices to God, perfecting the saints, teaching them in all wisdom, presenting them full-grown in Christ to God; all of these being for this one goal.
E. Being the consummation of the function of the New Testament priests of the gospel:
1. Prophesying being to speak for the Lord, for the building up of the church — vv. 3-5.
2. This being the excelling gift among all gifts in the New Testament — v. 12.
3. To be earnestly desired by those saints desiring spiritual gifts — v. 1.
4. Being what every believer can and must do — vv. 31, 24.
Prayer: Lord, our hearts rejoice and our spirits praise. In this last age You have given us Your revelation in such a deep, far-reaching, and clear way. Lord, You have gathered us together here tonight to study Your holy Word. We are open to You. We call on You in a humble way. Lord, speak an intimate word to us. Although we are young and weak, You are strong and mighty within us. Lord Jesus, may we know You. We do not depend on ourselves, nor do we look at ourselves. We look only to You. Thank You that You have shown us so clearly Your ordained way which is the way revealed in the Bible.
Lord, draw us again tonight that we would run after You. Put Your burden within each one of us that we would all receive Your burden to finish the course You have set for us and to be persons after Your heart and for Your pleasure.
Lord, grant us ears to hear. May You be with our speaking. May You be one spirit with us in our speaking. Lord, vindicate Your own way and confirm Your own words. We call on You in one accord on the ground of the church. While we call on You, You have to do something for Yourself. Lord, we accuse Your enemy. You have to destroy him. Remove his power of darkness. Lord, deliver all of us from his hands and his bondage. We want to give You the glory and give him the shame. May blessing and building be with the saints and the church. Amen.
The first work of the priest of the gospel in the New Testament is to visit people personally and bring in sinners to offer to God as sacrifices. After this first step there are still three more responsibilities. These are my burden for tonight. Let me begin with a word of introduction. Christianity today is a great religion. There are millions of Christians throughout the world. They can be divided mainly into three categories: the first is Roman Catholicism, the second is the different denominations of Protestantism, such as the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, etc., and the third is the free groups. These free groups belong neither to the Catholic Church nor to the Protestant denominations. Although they can be considered a part of Protestantism, they do not belong to the big denominations of Protestantism. They are scattered and free. Today on the whole earth, whether it be the Catholics, the Protestants, or the free groups, and although each has their own way of serving God, all three groups are the same.
In the New Testament God ordains that every believer should be a priest of the gospel. Moreover, the service of the gospel priest is a priesthood. Every believer has to be a priest from the time that he is saved. A priest is one who serves God. The New Testament priest is a gospel-preaching priest; that is, he is a priest who serves God in the gospel. This is not the duty of a few people. Rather, it is the universal responsibility of all the saints. This, however, is not what we see in Christianity today. Christianity employs a few clergymen who have studied theology and have learned some biblical truth to serve God. These clergymen are only a minority among all the believers. Most of the others are considered laymen.
What about the situation among us? We have had the proper teaching among us in the past, but there was not the practice. We said that we are all New Testament priests of the gospel and that as priests we should offer up gospel sacrifices. The gospel sacrifices are not bulls and goats; rather, they are the saved sinners. When you save a sinner and offer him up to God as a sacrifice, you are a priest of the gospel. Paul says in Romans 15:16, “That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable.” Paul said that as a priest of the gospel, he offered up the Gentiles to God as offerings, which are the sinners saved through his gospel.
Perhaps you would say, “But this is Paul. I cannot do the same thing.” This is a “feudalistic” mentality, one under an ecclesiastical and clerical concept. It is “feudalism” within Christianity. Paul said that as far as being a Christian is concerned, he was less than the least of all saints. On the other hand, according to the Bible, God chose Paul to be the pattern to all those who believe in the Lord Jesus. Since he was a pattern, whatever he did should be done by us. Whatever he could do, we should also be able to do.
Our way in the past was wrong. Whenever we talked about preaching the gospel, we considered that a certain brother would stand on the platform to release a message. He was the one who had the ecclesiastical position and clerical power. As to the other brothers and sisters, their job was just to help that one to lead the songs, pray, and read the Scriptures. Some would also help in cleaning the hall, arranging the chairs, inviting the friends, and preparing the love feasts. During the time of the meeting, they did not have to say anything. All they needed to do was to help the gospel friends turn the pages of the Bible and hymn book and help them write down their names after the meeting. Because we took the wrong way, the gospel service that should have been for everyone was left to a few who were capable in preaching the gospel. The rest of the brothers and sisters all became Levites. This was a deception of the enemy.
In God’s wisdom He wants everyone to be a priest. Satan’s deception is not to stop people from preaching the gospel entirely. Rather, it is to turn God’s wise way into human ways. God wants every saved person to be a living member of the Body of Christ, but man’s way is to invite big evangelists to conduct campaigns. All the other believers then become the Levites helping in miscellaneous affairs. Everyone depends on the particular one to preach the gospel. There is no need to go out to knock on doors or learn to speak. In this way everyone’s spiritual function is killed. Even today many Christians still do not know how to preach the gospel.
Today’s Christianity can be considered half paralyzed. Among us four and a half years ago, the situation was similar. I observed the situation and knew that the condition was wrong. The Lord’s recovery had fallen into a condition of stagnation, and there was no progress. Although through our publications the Lord’s recovery was sent to all the major continents of the world, the rate of increase and spread in all the churches was not satisfactory. Hence, I knew that our condition was wrong. This stagnant condition was a sign. I cast aside all considerations and dropped the work in the West to come to Taiwan. I have spent the past four years specifically on the study of the new way. I have restudied the Bible and reconsidered church history as well as the practices among us.
There have been over sixty years of history among us. I was personally involved in the last fifty years, and I am very much aware of the true situation. During the four and a half years that I was in Taipei, the Lord gradually showed me the truth in the Bible. I have made note of these crucial verses in the New Testament according to what I saw. I have told you before that there are four steps that we have to study in the new way. The training center is a laboratory. The first step that we have to study is the preaching of the gospel. The second step is the nourishing of the new believers. The third step is to teach and perfect them so that they may become useful. These three steps are the begetting, the nourishing, and the teaching. There is a fourth step, which is the building.
The words beget, nourish, and teach can all be found in the Bible. For example, Paul says, “I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15). He does not say “saved you” but “begotten you.” What you need is the life of God. By dispensing the life of God into you, I beget you. After begetting, there is the nourishing. The Lord said to Peter in John 21, “Do you love Me?...Feed My lambs” (v. 15). Paul also says, “We were gentle in your midst, as a nursing mother would cherish her own children” (1 Thes. 2:7). The most important work of a nursing mother is to nourish the baby. Paul cared for the saints like a nursing mother would care for her own baby. Peter says to the saints in 1 Peter 2:2 that believers should “as newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.” When a new one is born, he needs to be nourished. Only then will he grow. The third step is the teaching. Paul says that he was not just a nursing mother to nourish and cherish but a father to entreat, console, and teach. Ephesians 4 says, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints” (vv. 11-12). Teaching perfects people. In this way not only do the saints grow in Christ, but they also mature in life.
After the saints are perfected, have knowledge in the truth, and have the experience in life, they will spontaneously be able to speak for God, that is, to prophesy. First Corinthians 14 shows us that prophesying is the most excelling gift because it builds up the church. Christianity has taken the easy way. They train special ones to be the pastors to preach and give a sermon every week for edifying the believers. This is a wrong way. There should not be the replacement of many by one. Instead, everyone should be working, because 1 Corinthians 14:31 says, “You can all prophesy one by one.”
The way that Christianity takes is one that avoids the difficult and chooses the easy. It establishes the one but replaces the many. This is wrong. What we see in the Bible is not like this. The Bible exhorts all of us to speak and all of us to prophesy. Although we may not do too well at the beginning, as long as we lay a good foundation, it will be easy later. The old system makes a person lazy, but in the Lord’s recovery everyone has to be diligent to strive and pursue seriously. Everyone has to pray-read, enjoy the Lord’s word, and fellowship with the Lord in His word. There is also the need to allow Christ to grow in us. But this is not all. We have to go and preach the gospel, nourish the newly saved ones, and perfect them in the small group meetings so that they will learn to prophesy in the district meetings.
Let us now take a look at the outline. After preaching the gospel to save sinners and offering them up to God as sacrifices, there are still three big steps to be taken.
When you have a home meeting with the new believers, never assume that you know how to have such a meeting. You must learn to have a home meeting. God is a creating God. He can create; He does not have to learn. But every human being needs to learn. You have to realize that in order to take care of a meeting in a new believer’s home, you must first learn.
We should consider the new ones as the Lord’s lambs and feed them accordingly. This feeding will cause your fruit to remain. In the past after we baptized people, there was a lack in feeding. Therefore, in the end many were lost. Now when we go to the home meetings, we must feed them properly. In this way they will remain.
When you preach the gospel, you beget as a father. After begetting, you immediately nourish as a nursing mother.
First, lead the new ones to know the four aspects of the Lord: to know Him as God (Rom. 9:5), to know Him as man (1 Tim. 2:5), to know Him as the Savior, as well as the Redeemer (Luke 2:11), and to know Him as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). After you have learned these four aspects, you should not teach others in a legal way. Rather, talk to them spontaneously. Perhaps you can speak these points in four messages. In the first message help them to know that the Lord is God. Then help them to know that the Lord is man, that He is the God-man. Following that, help them to know that this God-man is our Savior and our Redeemer. In the end help them to see that this Lord has become the life-giving Spirit and is now living in us. If they want to know more, there are many books among us concerning all these items. You can introduce all these books and publications to them.
After they know the person of the Lord, you have to help them know the salvation of the Lord. The Lord has redeemed us with His precious blood and saved us by His life. The redemptive aspect of the Lord’s salvation has been accomplished. But He is still saving us daily in life. Redemption by the blood and deliverance in life added together equal the Lord’s salvation for us. The Lord’s salvation includes both the redemption by the blood and the daily deliverance in His life.
After this you have to lead them to know that they themselves have the life of the Lord. Formerly, they only had the human life. Now that they are saved, they have the life of the Lord. Furthermore, their spirit has been regenerated by the Lord Spirit.
If you want to lead them to exercise their spirit, you must first exercise your own spirit. You must not only lead them to know that He is the Spirit and that they have a spirit; you must also demonstrate that you are a person who uses your spirit and speaks from your spirit. Then you should help them use their spirit, pray with their spirit, and call on the name of the Lord from their spirit to take in the Lord’s riches.
You should also lead them to enjoy the milk of the Lord’s word by using some verses in the Bible. This kind of enjoyment will help them to grow in life.
When they were saved, you offered them up to God as sacrifices. However, at that time it was you who offered them. After you have nourished them and they have grown in life, you have to tell them that now they have to offer themselves to the Lord as living sacrifices. Romans 12 says, “I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service” (v. 1).
Acts 5:42 says that every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.
The small group meeting is different from the home meeting. After people are saved and have been led and fed for a while, they should come together. Their meeting together is the small group meeting. Do not wait too long to bring them to the small group meetings. At the same time you are feeding them, bring them to the small group meetings.
The Chinese are taught from their youth by their families that they should speak little. Therefore, the Chinese never like to open their mouths in public. It is very difficult to get the sisters to speak in the meetings; therefore, we have to encourage them to open up. When Christians come together, as long as they open their mouths, there is the benefit. It always helps when things are talked out and fellowshipped among each other.
Perhaps one sister sees another sister coming to the meeting. She may say, “Sister, please pray for me. This morning I hurt my shoulder.” By then, two other sisters may come in. This sister may tell the other two about it. The two may say, “Let us pray!” In this way they start praying for the troubled sister. This is prayer concerning physical needs. Sometimes the prayer can be about spiritual needs. One brother may feel that he just cannot break through in prayer. Another brother may say, “Have you committed any sin, or have you loved the world? Is it due to sin or the world in you that your prayer is blocked?” Before he finishes his words, a few sisters may pray, “Lord, enlighten our brother that he would see within.” Once our mouth is open, spontaneously there is the fellowship; and once there is the fellowship, spontaneously there is the mutual prayer for one another.
When brothers and sisters fellowship and pray together, there is the mutual care and shepherding.
Some may ask in the meeting, “What is the meaning of bearing the cross?” Among the seven or eight persons present, each may say a little. One brother may say, “The cross was the tool of execution for the most severe criminals in the Roman Empire.” Another may say, “When the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, we were all crucified with Him. Hence, we should remain in His death, and should not come down from the cross. This is the meaning of bearing the cross.” This way of speaking allows everyone to learn the truth.
In Acts 20 Paul says, “I did not withhold any of those things that are profitable by not declaring them to you and by not teaching you publicly and from house to house” (v. 20). “For I did not shrink from declaring to you all the counsel of God” (v. 27). “Therefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I did not cease admonishing each one with tears” (v. 31).
“Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ” (Col. 1:28). Paul not only hoped that the saints would grow in life, but he admonished and taught every man in all wisdom so that they might be presented full-grown in Christ to God.
All of you have to learn to teach the saints. This does not mean teaching them in the meeting but teaching them one by one in the homes during your visitation. This kind of teaching requires time. You may first pick out from among the brothers and sisters those whom you can lead on more easily. If you perfect two each week, in half a year you will be able to perfect quite a few. In your small group a few will become capable, and the others will follow and learn. In this way a good foundation will be laid. I have seen clearly that the success of the new way depends on some willing ones who learn first and then, in turn, pick up the burden to teach others.
In this matter the full-time co-workers bear a big responsibility. Not only should they teach in the meetings, but they have to go to the homes of the saints and teach them mouth to mouth and one by one.
Those who are under our care in a small group must be able to do what we do. This kind of small group meeting will surely increase in number. When the number increases, we can subdivide the group. The small group meeting is the main part of the practice of the church life. In other words, the practical church life exists in the small groups. You may say that the small group meeting almost equals the church life. The small group has the ability to perfect people, helping them to know the truth, to grow in life, and to function organically. In this way they will also be able to do what we can do. This is the church life.
Meetings of mutual speaking and listening are the prophesying meetings. The church in Taipei now practices this in the district meetings. In this kind of meeting everyone has something to supply. In addition, all the prophesying in the meetings is for the building up of the saints and the church. Your prophesying is to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord’s riches. Moreover, you have to speak the Lord into people. Hence, there is the need to fully supply others with the riches of Christ.
When the saints are perfected to grow into maturity, being edified in truth and having the experience in life, they are enabled to prophesy. In this way Christ will be supplied to all His members, and the church will be built up organically. The preaching of the gospel by the priests of the gospel to gain sinners for an offering to God, their caring for and nourishing of the new ones, their leading them to grow in life and to present themselves living sacrifices to God, their perfecting of the saints by teaching them in all wisdom, and their presenting them full-grown in Christ to God are all done for this one goal.
Prophesying is to speak for God for the building up of the church. This is the excelling gift among all gifts in the New Testament and is to be earnestly desired by those saints desiring spiritual gifts. It is what every believer can and must do.
Dear brothers and sisters, these are the crucial verses concerning the new way, the way ordained by the Lord, revealed in the Bible, and discovered by us through our research during the last four and a half years. I have presented them to you to give you a full picture. Since all of you love the Lord, I hope that you would spend some time to pursue and to learn these things. Sooner or later the Lord will have to recover the new way, for this is the word spoken by the Lord in the Bible. In the end times I believe that the Lord will do this. If we are lazy and loose, we may delay the Lord’s work. But the Lord will not be delayed by man forever. Sooner or later He will find a group of people who put the new way into practice that His will may be fulfilled, that the church may be built, and that the bride of Christ may be fully prepared.
Please press on with this determination in mind. Beginning today, the elders and co-workers should pick up this heavy burden. You should teach not only in the meetings but one by one in every home. The secret of the three levels of meetings — the home meetings, the group meetings, and the district meetings — lies in your willingness to learn to teach. Let me repeat that this way is absolutely correct. If you and I are faithful and diligent, it will succeed among us. I believe that it will succeed.
