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Scripture Reading: Luke 1:26-38; Matt. 1:18-23; 2 Cor. 3:5-6; Gal. 1:15-16; Rom. 1:9
The opening chapters of the New Testament present a clear picture of the New Testament service, a service that is outside of religion and one that is living, fresh, and up to date, a service with Christ Himself. As we shall see, the goal of such a service is simply to bring forth Christ.
In these pages we will trace the New Testament service in the Gospel of Matthew from its beginning with the conceiving of Christ of the Holy Spirit, to finding Christ by following the heavenly living star, on to testifying of Christ in a living way, and then to the matter of following Christ. Finally, we will consider the matter of life and the matter of work in the New Testament service according to the parables of the ten virgins and of the talents. In all these aspects it is a governing principle in our service in the church life that the New Testament service is a service of coordination in every step to fulfill the Lord’s purpose.
The birth of Jesus Christ is the first instance of the New Testament service. The birth of John the Baptist was something transitional; it occurred between the Old Testament dispensation and the New Testament dispensation. The birth of Jesus, however, was absolutely of the New Testament. In fact, it initiated the New Testament dispensation.
In the Bible a principle is established with the first mention of any matter. The birth of Christ is the first matter mentioned in the entire New Testament, and in this first instance we can discover by the Lord’s revelation all the principles and main items of New Testament service. Here is a case of how to serve the Lord in the New Testament, and in this case are all the principles. We will see that the birth of Christ is a unique example of New Testament service.
The first principle in New Testament service is that this service is absolutely different from the old way of religion. New Testament service has nothing to do with the old way; it is absolutely new. If we would spend time to read the Old Testament carefully, we would be deeply impressed with the service in the Old Testament age. There was a temple with a group of priests and an altar upon which they offered sacrifices. In addition, there were many regulations. However, when we come to the New Testament, everything is quite different. There is no continuation of the Old Testament service. The old is simply terminated, and something new and quite different is brought in.
With the birth of John the Baptist, there was still something related to the temple. This is why the birth of John was not absolutely of the New Testament dispensation. It still had something to do with the Old Testament. The birth of Jesus, however, had nothing to do with the temple. It was absolutely new, different, and other than the Old Testament service. The angel Gabriel did not come to Jerusalem, and he did not even go to Bethlehem. He went to Galilee, a despised province, and to a little town called Nazareth, which was even more despised. He did not go to Jerusalem, to the center of the old religion, but to a small town in a despised region. This is where the Lord began the New Testament service.
Whenever the Lord begins some work of the New Testament dispensation, in principle He begins in a small way. We consider the apostle Paul to be a great man, but the name Paul means “little.” Paul was a little one; he was not great in the way many religious leaders are great.
We need to consider a practical application of this principle in our church life today. If some of us would migrate to another city to begin the church life there, we should not try to do something in a great way. That is against the principle. If we could build a wall fourteen feet high, we should not build it fourteen feet and three inches. It is better to build it thirteen feet and ten inches. We should not try to be great, but instead we should keep ourselves small. Any kind of advertisement is against the principle of the New Testament service. The New Testament service did not begin from the big religious center, Jerusalem. It began from the small town of Nazareth. It is absolutely different from the way of the old religion.
Furthermore, according to the principle in the New Testament, the service began with a young girl, a virgin. According to the principle of the Old Testament, the women were not counted. In the book of Numbers, the women were not included in the record of the numbering of God’s people. Even in the New Testament, when the Lord Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, we are told that there were five thousand men, apart from women and children (Matt. 14:21).
In addition, in the Old Testament, women were not appointed to the priesthood or to the kingship. There were some prophetesses, but prophets and prophetesses were not needed in a normal situation. When the situation of God’s people was normal, there were the priesthood and the kingship. Only when things were degraded did God raise up the prophets to recover the priesthood and the kingship. In the normal situation there was no position in the Old Testament service for women.
However, at the beginning of the New Testament service, God did not come to a man but to a woman. God came to a young girl, a virgin. It was not to an experienced person but to someone so new, because God was about to do something new and different. It was so new that it was beyond human experience, human learning, human thinking, and human culture. For a virgin to be with child was absolutely new in the history of the whole human race. In the entire history of man there had never been such a thing. This is something completely against natural law and human culture. The service of the New Testament is something new and contrary to everything old.
We need to consider our own standing in relation to this matter of service. Could you consider yourself a young girl, a virgin? If you say no, then you are through as far as the New Testament service is concerned. New Testament service is only possible with such virgins. This may sound strange, but we all need to be virgins (25:1; 2 Cor. 11:2). We should not consider ourselves men. If we take the standing of a strong man, we have nothing to do with the New Testament service. The basic principle is that the New Testament service begins with a virgin. If you were to ask me who I am, I would say, “Praise the Lord, by His mercy, I am simply a little virgin.” To enter the New Testament service we need to be like a virgin, so simple, knowing nothing. We need to be unloaded, unlearned, and inexperienced. We should not think that because we are aged, are learned, and have the highest culture, we are qualified. No, in that case we would be through. We need to be a virgin, so new, so fresh, and even unlearned.
I am so glad that the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary. If he had come to an experienced woman over eighty years of age, he would have had to spend considerably more time because of her knowledge and experience. Such a sister probably would not say that she was a slave of the Lord. However, because she was young and inexperienced, Mary was simple. The older ones may have asked many questions, but the young ones could simply say, “May it happen to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). There is no doctrinal thought to occupy them. The older ones have many doctrinal considerations, many doctrinal questions.
I am so happy that Mary was as simple as she was. She had some knowledge: she said that she had known no man; therefore, how could she conceive? If she had been completely unlearned, she would have said nothing but, “May it happen to me according to your word.” She was still somewhat preoccupied by knowledge. We think that knowledge is good, but knowledge is actually a frustration. The New Testament service is absolutely different from knowledge. For a virgin to conceive a child is against the natural concept and against all the knowledge the world can offer. Nevertheless, we praise the Lord that Mary eventually said that she was a slave of the Lord.
The Lord did not send an angel to Jerusalem and to the temple, but He sent Gabriel to Nazareth. There he spoke to a young girl, a virgin, not to a man. Furthermore, the Lord did not tell Mary to do anything, but He said that she would conceive and bring forth a son. In the Old Testament service God told the people to do this and not to do that. There were many regulations and requirements. The Old Testament service is a service of doing, but the New Testament service is a service of conceiving and bringing forth Christ. It is not a matter of doing something, but of conceiving Christ and bringing Him forth. Regardless of how much we do or how well we do it, it means nothing. That belongs to the Old Testament service. The New Testament service is to conceive and bring forth Christ. Christ should be our service. This is absolutely different from the old way.
We all know that whenever a person is saved or a Christian revived, he is eager to do something for the Lord. That, however, is not the New Testament service. That is the Old Testament service. New Testament service is not to do anything for the Lord but to allow the Lord to do something in us. We need to stop our doing so that the Lord may work something into us to be conceived and brought forth. We should forget about our doing. That is the old way. The New Testament service is to stop all our doing and let the Lord do something in us. Then we will conceive and bring forth Christ.
Furthermore, the New Testament service is something completely initiated by God. Mary did not expect such a thing to happen. Suddenly the angel appeared — this is a strong proof that it was not initiated by Mary, but by God. If it were something of the old way of religion, there would have been some idea or concept there already, but this was something initiated by God. Therefore, it had nothing to do with the old way of religion. The New Testament service is something new, something up to date, and something as a new start. It has nothing to do with old things and is not initiated by man. In principle, it is initiated by God.
We need to learn to apply all these principles to today’s service. Even our visiting of others should not be something initiated by us, but something initiated by the Lord. It should be a surprise to us. We should not visit others in a natural way; our visiting should be something newly and instantly initiated by God. While the people were paying their attention to the priests and the leaders, God went to one little virgin to have a new beginning. We need to learn that the initiative should be of Him and out of Him. This is the New Testament service.
The recovery of the church life is simply the recovery of the New Testament service. The principles have been lost, but the Lord is going to recover them in the local churches. Today many try to learn things in the old way, the traditional way. There are schools for this purpose. Some say that you need to go to these schools to learn how to serve the Lord. This is not the Lord’s way. God does not care for all the knowledge and all the tradition. He needs only a little virgin without any experience or knowledge. This is the first case, the unique case, of New Testament service. Throughout all the centuries, the Lord has been doing things in the same principle. May the Lord be merciful to us so that we will drop the old traditions. We need to learn to be a virgin, even learn to be unlearned.
When the Pharisees were arguing with the Lord Jesus concerning the matter of divorce, He told them that “from the beginning it has not been so” (Matt. 19:8). We need to go back to the beginning. Simply to go to Moses is not sufficient. Moses allowed divorce, but from the beginning it has not been so. For the New Testament service we need to come back to the first case of the New Testament. We think that we need to do something for the Lord, but from the beginning it has not been so.
The New Testament service is simply a service of conceiving Christ of the Holy Spirit. It is not something of knowledge, letters, regulations, thinking, imaginations, or dreams, but of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament service is that of conceiving the holy thing of the Holy Spirit. Have you noticed in Luke 1:35 that Christ conceived by Mary is called “the holy thing”? “The holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God.” The New Testament service is the very holy thing conceived of the Holy Spirit. To serve the Lord in the New Testament is not a matter of having something conceived of Bible knowledge. It is the holy thing which is conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Mary was the first one to serve the Lord in the New Testament dispensation. Whatever she did and whatever happened to her should be the principle. In a sense, she was a person who really had nothing to do. She was simply a virgin who knew nothing. Suddenly, the power of the Lord came upon her, brooding over her and within her. This is the service of the New Testament. It is not something conceived of knowledge about certain things, and it is not something conceived of the environment or of circumstances. It is something conceived of the Holy Spirit, something which is apparently against nature, culture, and teaching.
How much we need to be unloaded and to become as simple as a young virgin! A virgin like Mary is not strong, experienced, or preoccupied, but so weak, so young, so keen, so fresh, and so open. We all need to learn to say, “I am a slave of the Lord. May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the Lord will send Gabriel to us with good news, and we will be commissioned to conceive something holy of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, we will bring forth One who is the saving power. This is Jesus, the saving One. We will bring forth Emmanuel, who is God with us — not simply in an individual way but in a corporate way. We will bring forth the corporate Emmanuel. This should be something conceived by the Holy Spirit; it could not be conceived in any other way. It is not something initiated by us but something initiated by God.
May the Lord be merciful to us that we may become unlearned like Mary. We need to be so young, so fresh, so inexperienced, and so open to Him. Then we will bring forth Jesus as the Savior, the great One, the King, and Emmanuel. Our service will bring forth the saving power, the greatness of Christ, the kingship of Christ, and the corporate Emmanuel. This is the New Testament service.
