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Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 1:8, 11-12; John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Thes. 2:11; Eph. 4:11-12
I. Concerning the gospel — Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 1:8, 11-12.
II. Concerning the home meetings — John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7.
III. Concerning the small group meetings — Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Thes. 2:11; Eph. 4:11-12.
Prayer: Lord, we worship You from the depth of our being. We are filled with adoration to You. Lord, how we thank You that in this end time You have come to us in many ways and have spoken to us with words of love, light, and revelation. You have not left us in darkness but have brought us into Your light. Tonight we are meeting in Your light. May Your light shine among us. May every corner be full of Your shining that every heart be enlightened by You. Lord Jesus, speak to us. How we thank You that You are one spirit with us today. Your Spirit has become one spirit with our spirit. May You be with the speaker as well as the listener tonight. We are all one spirit with You in this Spirit. Our spirits are joined together, fellowshipping together, and even mingled together. We receive Your word in our spirit. Lord, may You overcome in the Spirit, and may You subdue us in the Spirit. Gain us, and even capture us in the Spirit. Fill us up, and saturate us.
Lord, we thank You for being with us this way. We pray that You would speak to us intimate words in Your presence. Speak to us words that are in Your heart so that we would not only hear them but would see them, enter into them, and even experience them, that we can become a good testimony to Your word. Lord, shame Your enemy. We even bind Your enemy, the evil one, who is Satan, the devil, in Your prevailing name. Lord, tonight we chase him out of here. Glorify Your own name. Bless Your children, and build up Your Body. Lord, may You speak to us intimate words tonight. Speak to us the secret so that we may receive the keys. O Lord Jesus, grant us the utterance, and grant us ears that can hear. Lord, Your victorious blood is our trust. We come to You always by Your blood, and we serve You and are accepted by You through Your blood. Cleanse us again, and sprinkle the blood upon us. Anoint us fully, and pour out the anointing, which is the all-inclusive, completed Spirit upon every one of us. Amen.
Tonight is our second meeting here. I know that you have all heard messages recently concerning the new way. Hence, tonight I want to fellowship a little concerning the secret of the new way. We know that to do anything, there is the need to have the secret. Otherwise, one will labor in vain and not succeed. Therefore, I will do my best to show you point by point the crucial items of this new way.
Although the term the new way has been with us since October 1984, for the last four years or longer, most of the brothers and sisters still have a natural understanding concerning the new way. Their understanding is not deep. They think that the new way is to change the method of preaching the gospel. Formerly we invited people to come to listen to the gospel. Now we preach by visiting people instead. However, we have to realize that this way has not been invented by us. Rather, it has been discovered by us.
In the Bible the first one to preach the gospel by visiting people was God Himself. When Adam, the man created by God, was tempted to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his eyes became opened; he began to know his own shame, and he made an apron out of fig leaves and hid among the trees in the garden to avoid the face of Jehovah God (Gen. 3:1-8). At that time God did not give him up. He came to seek after him and preached the gospel to him. God was not inviting people to come to Him in heaven. Rather, He came personally from heaven to earth and came to Eden where Adam was, and He called, “Where are you?” (v. 9). This was God’s calling. It was God knocking at the door of Adam’s heart.
Although the words Where are you? sound simple, the meaning is profound. It is not a question of where you are geographically but a question of where you are before God. God wants to show you that today you are in the place of condemnation by God. You are in a place of being lost, the place right at the portal of the lake of fire. That is why God came to visit you and to preach the gospel to you.
In God’s first visit His gospel was only a promise; there was no fulfillment. He said to the deceiving snake, “I will put enmity / Between you and the woman / And between your seed and her seed; / He will bruise you on the head, / But you will bruise him on the heel” (v. 15). This is the promise contained in the gospel. The main focus is the seed of the woman, who is Jesus, the One begotten of the virgin Mary in the New Testament. However, God did not fulfill the promise in Genesis 3 at that time. After two thousand years, at the time of Abraham, God promised to give to Abraham the good land and through him to bless all the families of the earth (12:3). What God promised to Abraham was the seed of the woman. He was confirming His original promise. After another two thousand years, which was four thousand years after man’s creation, a messenger of the Lord appeared one day to a righteous man, Joseph, in a dream and said, “She [Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus...And they shall call His name Emmanuel” (Matt. 1:21, 23). It was by then that God’s promise to Adam was fulfilled.
Next we come to the New Testament. When the Lord Jesus was thirty years of age, He came out to fulfill His preaching ministry. During those three and a half years, He did not gather together one gospel meeting. Neither did He put out any advertisement to invite people to come hear the gospel. Rather, He came among men to visit men. Luke 19 gives a record of His coming to Jericho, a cursed city, to visit a tax collector by the name of Zaccheus. The tax collectors were much despised by men then. They were not at all respected by others. The Lord Jesus, however, visited this one. Zaccheus received the Lord’s visit and took Him in for hospitality. This is one example of the Lord visiting people (vv. 1-10).
John 4 records that the Lord Jesus was going from Jerusalem to Galilee. According to the map of the ancient world, there were many ways to travel to Galilee. But the Lord said that He had to pass through Samaria (v. 4). This was not a necessity geographically. The Lord did this because there was a dishonorable woman who was a God-chosen son of peace in Samaria. The Lord knew that it was not an easy thing to visit her. Therefore, the Lord handled the matter wisely. He waited for her at the sixth hour by the well where she came to draw water and visited her (vv. 6-7). By this we see that the Lord Jesus came personally to be among the people to contact them.
Hence, both from the Old Testament and from the New as well, we see this light. The old way of gospel preaching in Christianity is wrong. We should not invite people to come listen to the gospel. Rather, we should follow the Lord’s example to visit people.
The Lord called Peter and Andrew in Matthew 4 and said to them, “I will make you fishers of men” (v. 19). We know that for a fisher to fish, either with a hook or with a net, he cannot do so by standing there and inviting the fish to come ashore. He must go to where the fish are. For example, one day Peter asked the Lord Jesus concerning the matter of paying taxes. The Lord told Peter to “go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. And when you open its mouth, you will find a stater; take that and give it to them for Me and you” (17:27). This shows us that to fish, we have to go; we cannot ask the fish to come. The way we have taken in the past was really wrong.
The God-ordained and God-revealed way in the Bible is to go. At the end of the four Gospels we see the same revelation. In Matthew 28:19 the Lord said, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” In Mark 16:15 He said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.” Even when the Lord was on earth, not only did He go to visit people Himself, but He sent disciples to go out as well. First, He sent the twelve disciples (Luke 9:1-9). Next He sent the seventy (10:1-24). In the end, when the Lord resurrected from the dead, He sent all the disciples to all the world to proclaim the gospel, not only to all the nations, but to all the creation as well. This is the way that God has shown us from the Bible.
Hebrews 10:20 says, “Which entrance He initiated for us as a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh.” The veil here is a type of the flesh of Christ. When the flesh of Christ was crucified on the cross, this veil was split, and a new and living way was opened for us. This way is now prepared in the new creation and is ready for us to walk on. For the same reason, our flesh has to be broken, and we have to deny our soul-life. Only then can we walk on this new way in resurrection. Everything that is in the old creation is old. Only by being in the new creation can there be newness. If we preach the gospel by the old creation and serve God by the flesh, our way is an old way. But whenever we preach the gospel and serve God by the new creation, that is, by our spirit, we have the new way.
What then is the new way? The new way is the way of death and resurrection. This way requires that we deny ourselves. By this we would not be in ourselves, the natural realm, the old creation, or the flesh but would be fully in the new creation and in life. This is the new way. The secret of the new way is death and resurrection. The natural man cannot take this way. Much less can the flesh take it. It is wrong for a man to assume that, just because he has a higher education or has lived through all the sufferings of the human life, he is qualified to preach the gospel. If we have this thought, even if we say that we are taking the new way, in reality we are not in the new way, because everything we do is in the old creation. The service in the new way requires that we deny the self, the flesh, and the natural strength.
The Lord treasures our love towards Him. He asked His disciple Peter after His resurrection, “Do you love Me more than these?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You” (John 21:15). Peter dared not say too much. Before the Lord went to the cross, he had said to the Lord, “Even if I must die with You, I will by no means deny You” (Matt. 26:35). But when the Lord Jesus was arrested and judged, he denied the Lord three times (v. 75). I believe that this was a big blow to Peter. It showed him that he could not love God with his natural strength. The natural man is worth nothing; it is useless. Man’s natural strength must be denied and dealt with.
After the Lord’s resurrection, He specifically sought out Peter. On the one hand, He called Peter with the miracle of the casting of the net to train him to trust God for his living (John 21:1-14). On the other hand, He recovered Peter’s love to Himself, and He charged him to shepherd His church. He prepared him for his future martyrdom, so that he would not follow Him with his natural strength but would follow Him in resurrection and in the new creation.
We have to see today that we must preach the gospel to all the nations, to bring them the Lord Jesus, the Bible, and the truth, and to dispense to them grace and life. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” We cannot remain in our homes or in the meeting halls. We have to go forth to bear fruit. As to how far we should go, we should follow the Lord’s leading. But we have to see that when we go to preach the gospel, we cannot depend on our natural strength. Such strength is worth nothing. We have to learn to take the Lord’s strength as our strength and to preach the gospel in resurrection.
When we visit people for the preaching of the gospel, we will encounter all kinds of difficulties. Second Timothy 1:8 says, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me His prisoner; but suffer evil with the gospel according to the power of God.” The gospel here is personified (see Rev. 6:2, footnote 2, Recovery Version). Since the gospel is persecuted and put under a hard trial, we the gospel preachers, as the companions of the gospel, must suffer evil and be persecuted along with the gospel.
This is why, when the Lord sent us out to preach the gospel, He gave us first Himself. The word go in Matthew 28:19 was spoken by the Lord in His resurrection. He said, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” Every one of us who has believed into Him is resurrected with Him. In resurrection He has entered into us. First, we received the Lord Himself. Then He gave us His power. In addition, He gave to us all authority in heaven and on earth (v. 18). For this reason, when we preach the gospel today, we do not do so by our two lips only. Rather, we command people to believe in Jesus by the Lord Himself, by His power, His authority, and His word. We must have this kind of faith, realizing that we are one with the Lord, that we are joined with Him as one spirit, that our going is His going, and that He is going with us. When we speak, the Lord speaks. Those who receive us, receive the Lord, and those who reject us, reject the Lord.
In addition to this, when we preach the gospel, we must not be afraid of difficulties. Although the Lord is with you, although His power is your power and His authority is your authority, and you can even heal sickness, cast out demons, and work wonders and miracles, all of this does not mean that you will not encounter difficulties.
When Paul preached the gospel, he also performed many miracles. However, sometimes he was also arrested and imprisoned. At such times the Lord did not always release him or rescue him. As a result some co-workers were tried and began to doubt. Some even left Paul. Hence, in preaching the gospel, there are times when we will encounter difficulties. We have to be prepared. We must persevere and must not be discouraged by any means or stopped by any frustrations. We need to realize that to take this new way and to preach the Lord Jesus in death and resurrection is a lifelong task; it is not a matter of being stirred up by a moment of interest and of continuing for only a month or two. We have to take this new way all the days of our life. For this reason Paul exhorted us not to be ashamed of the gospel but to suffer evil with the gospel according to the power of God. This is the secret of preaching the gospel in the new way.
According to our experience, if three or four brothers and sisters go out to preach the gospel by knocking on doors twice a week, spending two hours each time, they will gain three or four. If they continue to do this for three weeks, they will have over ten new ones to care for. We have to care for these ones continually for about half a year. Only by this will they gradually grow up.
In caring for the new ones, after we baptize them, we should not leave immediately. After they have changed their clothes, we should talk with them for at least an hour. This is to feed them with milk for the first time. Thereafter, we need to feed them by going back to them once every three days. During the first month, we should go to them as often as possible. Only by this way will they have the full care.
Paul said to the Thessalonian believers that he was one who “as a nursing mother would cherish her own children” (1 Thes. 2:7). Paul was a brother. But in treating the Thessalonians, he was like a nursing mother cherishing her own children. The word cherish is difficult to translate. In the original language it is used to describe a mother soothing her child. Sometimes the child feels cold, or he is bitten by mosquitoes. He would feel uncomfortable and would cry. The mother would then soothe the child by covering him with a warm blanket or applying some ointment to him. In addition, the mother would embrace him affectionately and would rock him back and forth, up and down in her arms. When the child is comforted, the mother is at peace. This is the meaning of cherishing.
We are a failure if we go to the home meetings today in a way that is like the preachers or pastors going to a worship service; we should not wait for an appointed time and then go to the brothers and sisters’ home in that way to lead them in singing the songs and reading the Scriptures. Paul was a pattern to us. When he nourished the new ones, he cherished them like a nursing mother. We have to comfort and soothe the brothers and sisters. Perhaps they have difficulties. We should then give them some answers or some consolations. After they are more stable, we can bring them to the small group meetings. When they see the other brothers and sisters fellowshipping with one another, praying and caring for one another, and mutually asking and answering questions, they will be shepherded and cared for.
If the three or four brothers and sisters whom we gain through door-knocking during the current period are no longer able to meet with us after they have met with us in their homes for two months, we have to ask our companions to help us to knock on more doors and take on more new ones to care for. In short, we need to have three to four new ones under our care and guidance all the time throughout the whole year.
The small group is the all-inclusive unit of the church life. If the small group meeting is not strong, the church life will not be strong. The secret of a sustained, healthy church life is simply the small group meeting. The small group is the practical church life and the practical church service.
However, we must remember that the small group meeting is not a worship service. A small group meeting is not one where everyone meets together at a specified time and place. In the new way we may begin meeting at home at a quarter after seven, even when the scheduled time for meeting is half-past seven. Actually, our meeting should begin from the time we have our revival in the morning. During the whole day, we live in such a revival until we come to the small group meeting.
On our way to the meeting, whether we are riding in the car or walking on the street, we should either be praising or singing. When we arrive at the saints’ home, even when there are only one or two there, we do not wait. There is no set program or procedure for the small group meeting. Nor is there any leader. Every brother and sister is a leader. When you are there, you are the leader. When I come, I am the leader. Everyone who comes can be the leader, and everyone is free to sing, pray, or read the Scriptures.
Furthermore, everyone can ask questions in the small group meeting. Everyone can also answer the questions. For example, I am an old man. I have a problem about whether I should retain a beard. I can ask, “Can a man of my age keep a beard?” Such a question can be raised in the small group meeting. The small group meeting is there to solve my problems. If there is a young sister in the meeting, and she thinks that she is not a brother, nor an elderly one, nor a leader and should therefore sit there quietly, she is wrong. We have to see that everyone who comes to the small group meeting is qualified to speak.
If the young sister realizes this, she may say, “To me keeping a beard is a troublesome matter. Recently, we were pursuing a study of the book of Leviticus. There it says that all the hairs of the body have to be completely shorn. Although I am a young sister, I feel that according to the Bible, it is better not to have a beard.” Another elderly sister may say, “She is absolutely right. Although she is young, her words contain the biblical light. To me it is troublesome for an elderly person to have a beard. It is more simple for him not to have one. In these days no one likes to see people with a beard. Whoever has a beard makes others feel uncomfortable. Those without beards are more proper. For the sake of the Lord’s testimony, it is better that the brothers do not have beards.” This is a good example of a teaching. After this a small sister speaks again, and then another brother adds something. Finally a more experienced one may put in a few words. In less than five minutes the question is answered.
This is a very good practice. Those who dared not speak before will now dare to speak. Those who could not speak before are now able to speak. Those who considered that they were unqualified before will now realize that everyone is qualified to ask and to teach others. Throughout the fifty-two weeks of the year we should have this kind of meeting at least once a week. All the attendants of the small group meetings will then be like children of an educated family. When they speak, they will be filled with light and truth.
Do not be afraid of speaking the wrong thing in the meetings. We are all learning here. If we are not learning, we will not make any mistake. If we are learning, surely we will make some mistakes. We are practicing at the same time that we are learning. This is the secret of the small group meetings in the new way.
Furthermore, if there are those who have physical illness, they can share that matter briefly in the small group meetings. Perhaps the brothers and sisters will receive the burden immediately to pray for them. In this way we can see that the small group meetings include shepherding and nourishing. For example, the church in Taichung has over seven hundred brothers and sisters. If we have ten or more to a small group, we can have over fifty small groups. All the ten or more brothers and sisters in each small group can shepherd one another and nourish one another. This will be more thorough than the care of eight or ten elders. For this reason the function of the small group is all-inclusive.
The small group meeting should carefully avoid one thing. If fifteen brothers and sisters have been meeting for half a year, they will be very familiar with one another and will care for and love one another. After half a year their number may increase to over thirty. At that time they should divide into two groups. However, everyone may be unwilling to divide. At that time we should be careful. Perhaps the natural affection has become too strong among them. We have to see that we only have love between the brothers and sisters; we do not have any tie in friendship. Everything of the natural affection has to be rejected. We care for one another only by the love in the Lord. Only then will the Lord have a chance to spread His kingdom.
If we truly desire to take the biblical way, we must pay the price to live a revived and renewed life. We should not depend on ourselves but should depend on the resurrected Lord and His power, His authority, and His speaking. Every week we should consecrate two evenings for the Lord. We should do this, not only for a year or two but until we see the Lord face to face. This is not an easy matter. It requires much prayer on our part so that we will deny ourselves and will not trust in ourselves. Only by this can we persevere and put such a thing into practice.
The Lord Jesus spoke to the disciples the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. He said that the sower went out to sow and that four kinds of results were borne. The seeds that fell beside the way are the first kind. The birds came and devoured them. This means that although the Lord sowed the seeds, some hearts are hardened by the traffic of the way. This typifies the heart of some being hardened by communication with the world. As a result, it becomes hard for the seed to get in (vv. 3-4). Second are those who appear to be good ground outwardly but actually are shallow and rocky places. There being not much earth, the seeds immediately sprang up. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered (vv. 5-6). In the third case the ground was the normal earth. But it was filled with thorns. The thorns typify the anxiety of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, and the temptations of the lusts (v. 7). When we have these three kinds of things, it will be difficult for the Lord’s word to have the ground in us. The fourth kind of result comes from those that fell into good ground (v. 8). The good ground typifies the good heart. It does not have the worldly traffic to harden it. Nor does it have hidden sins, the anxiety of this age, or the deceitfulness of riches. Only this kind of heart can receive the Lord’s word and can allow it to grow and bear fruit, even up to a hundredfold.
This parable of the Lord is very scientific. He pointed out laws from our everyday, practical lives. We cannot break these laws. Hence, we have to deny our self, trust the Lord, and depend on His resurrection power, His authority in ascension, His Spirit, and His word. In this way our heart will have no worldly communication, hidden sins, or bondages of lusts. Instead, it will be fully a fertile ground. Only then can the will of the Lord be accomplished. This is what the new way is striving for today.
Everything in this new way requires the Lord’s grace. Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am...yet not I but the grace of God which is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). For this reason all of us have to know the grace of God, which is just the very God enjoyed by us in death and resurrection. Only when we are in this One can we be the top kind of person to take the new way that is humanly unattainable. This way is absolutely not in the old creation or the natural realm. Rather, it is in the new creation and the realm of resurrection. This is why in everything we have to trust in the resurrected Lord, in His resurrection power, in His authority in ascension, and in His all-inclusive Spirit. May the Lord be merciful to us.
