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Scripture Reading: Matt. 24:14; 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 12:15
Matthew 24:14 says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Verses 19 and 20 of chapter 28 say, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.” Acts 1:8 says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” This verse speaks not of preachers but of witnesses.
We Christians need to realize that preaching the gospel must not be a move or an activity. It must be a part, an aspect, an element, of our Christian living. After we are saved, the Lord leaves us on the earth mainly for the purpose of being His witnesses. However, the word witness in Greek has a deeper meaning than we might understand. The word witness in Greek is “martyr.” It is not related merely to preaching but to testifying, not only by word but by our life and living and even the sacrifice of our life. We need to testify the Lord Jesus to others at a cost, even at the sacrifice of our life.
More or less we have a wrong concept due to our particular background. We may think that to preach is merely a kind of work, move, activity, or movement. Rather, the real preaching and outreach of the gospel must be a part of our daily life, our Christian living. We are living here for this, and our living is preaching. We preach not only by word but by our living. Moreover, we preach not in a light and cheap way but at a cost, even at the cost of our life. We have to sacrifice our life for testifying Christ to others. This is why Acts tells us that the preachers of the gospel are the martyrs of the Lord. We have to be the Lord’s martyrs. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians that he was willing to spend and be utterly spent for them, that is, to spend whatever he had and whatever he was (2 Cor. 12:15). This means that he was willing to sacrifice his own life, to pay the price at the cost of his own life. I look to the Lord that our concept would be changed. Do not consider that this is a work, movement, or activity. We have to consider that this is a matter of life, an item of our Christian life. We are living here for this, and our living is our preaching.
When we are indifferent to the preaching of the gospel, we are careless about it. However, once we are stirred by the Lord to pay attention to this matter, we have peculiar ideas. We often have the thought that the gospel should be preached in a powerful and miraculous way. This is not the case. Testifying and witnessing for the Lord are a matter of life. Anything miraculous is not normal. I would not say it is abnormal, but it is strange and special. The normal condition is that we live for the gospel, and the outreach of the gospel is the main part of our living.
Many Christians pick up the verses from the Word concerning the powerful preaching of the gospel. No doubt there are such verses in the Word, but if we have a balanced and proper view when looking into the Word, we can see that the most important thing is the testimony of our life. Is it a miracle for the branches of a vine to bear fruit? Some may refer to the preaching in Acts, but I would refer you to the Gospel of John. Do you believe more in miracles or in life? Do you live more by medicine or by normal food? Medicine is very useful, and many times we need it. However, medicines are only for healing. The bearing of fruit by the branches is the overflow, the outworking, of the inner life. We simply abide in the Lord and let Him abide in us, and we deal with all the hindrances to life and fellowship between us and the Lord. In this way we pave the way for the Lord to live Himself out through us. That is the real bearing of fruit.
We may like to take the easy way, the miraculous way. We would like to go to sleep one night and the next morning be full of fruit. That is a dream. Consider the orchards. In any kind of orchard the trees grow, and the husbandman labors. He waters and cares for the plants, and the plants grow. Then gradually, at a certain point, they bear fruit. There is nothing miraculous in an orchard. The church is an orchard. We should not have the dream that all of a sudden we will be full of fruit.
Someone may ask, “What about Pentecost?” Pentecost was the result of the work and labor of the Lord Jesus for three and a half years. It was also the result of one hundred twenty people giving up their country, their family, and their everything. Even at the cost of their lives they stayed in Jerusalem, regardless of the threatening situation, and they prayed for ten days. Have you paid the cost? If you have not paid the price, how can you claim the power of Pentecost? Pentecost was the harvest of the labor of the Lord Jesus for many years. How much have you labored? You cannot have a dream; you have to drop all the dreams. Brothers, let us be normal. We must realize our duty, our responsibility, and our labor. We have to work, we have to pray, we have to spend whatever we have, and we have to be willing to be spent in whatever we are. Take this as a real burden, not as a dream.
Learn to fellowship with the Lord and to live in, by, and with the Lord. Learn to walk in the presence of the Lord. Then in this way, if we have the desire to cooperate with the Lord, He will open the way. He will pave the way for us to contact our neighbors, schoolmates, classmates, and relatives. It is by this that we will bring people to the Lord; it is by this that we will bear the real fruit. I say again, this is not a work, a movement, or an activity. This is a Christian living, and since it is a living, it must be normal. A living is not miraculous. We must have a living in a normal way. Many times the Lord did some genuine miracles in the church. I have no doubt about this. I saw this kind of thing, but it did not happen most of the time. Most of the time the gospel is normal. We live for Christ, and we walk with Him. We come together, we pray, and we declare and proclaim the Lord’s victory. Then the Lord will pave the way and open the door for us to bring people in.
This is a lifelong matter, a matter for the long run. We must change our idea. We cannot have these things as something in a dream. In Matthew 28:19 the Lord spoke concerning the preaching of the gospel, saying, “Disciple all the nations.” In addition, the apostle Paul said that when he preached the gospel, he travailed (Gal. 4:19). To travail is to bring forth, to deliver, a child. All mothers know how much they are spent in travail for their children. We have to spend, and we have to be spent. We are not only preaching the gospel; we are living here for the gospel. This is our life, and this is our living.
In order to have long-lived preaching, we have to make this matter normal. Anything that is normal has a long life, but nothing miraculous can have a long life. We can never live in a miraculous way. We have to live by the normal way. I do not oppose the miraculous way, but that is neither in my hand nor in your hand. That is in the hand of the Lord. Our duty and our responsibility must be normal. We are here for the preaching of the gospel, so we must have a living for the gospel.
This requires us to be overcomers; it requires a real overcoming life. Our life must be victorious and overcoming. This is especially true in this country. This is not a heathen country. Although there are a good number of unsaved ones, nearly all the people have heard something about the gospel. Therefore, in this country there is an even greater need for a testimony in our daily walk, a testimony in the way we live. We must have a practical, real testimony in our daily life. If someone is a teacher, he must be different from the other teachers. In the office as a co-worker or employee, we have to be different, not in the negative sense but in a very positive sense.
In addition, we have to spend something, and we have to be spent. We cannot do the work of preaching in a light way or in the way of a dream that we will receive special power in order to bring in many people. According to history, a greater percentage of people has been saved through a proper testimony than through the so-called miraculous way. I was not brought to the Lord in a miraculous way. I did see a great number of people brought to the Lord through the miraculous way, but regrettably not many of them still stand fast. It is mostly those who are brought to the Lord through the testimony in the lives of the believers who stand steadfast and grow in life. From my whole Christian life I cannot point out many persons who were saved through miracles who could stand fast and grow adequately. There are some, but very few. However, I can point out many others who stand fast in the Lord and grow adequately. Through what means were they saved? It was through a life testimony. We must all realize that the preaching of the gospel must be a part of our life.
I believe that among us the Lord will recover mainly four items. First, we must learn to experience Christ in the spirit in a living way. This is the basic matter, the foundation. We must know Christ not in mere teachings or in the gifts, but in life—the inner life and our daily life in the spirit. Second, we must realize the proper ground of the oneness of the Body. We must always keep the oneness and not do anything in a divisive way. Wherever we go and wherever we are, we keep the unique ground of oneness. In this way we can fulfill God’s eternal purpose, coming together to have a local expression of the very Christ whom we experience. Third, whenever we come together on the ground of the local church, we need to have the living, rich, adequate functioning in the meetings to express Christ. In order to express Christ in the church meetings, the saints must exhibit the riches of Christ. Fourth, we must have the outreach of the gospel through our daily living. These four items—to know Christ as our life, to come together as a local expression to exhibit Christ, to have a rich functioning in our meetings, and to reach out to others to bring them into the Lord’s testimony—are the main items in the recovery of the Lord’s testimony.
We must realize that the preaching of the gospel is not a kind of movement among us. This is a part of our daily living. Therefore, we all have to live for this and work and labor for this day by day. In order to help us, we sometimes need to have a gospel preaching meeting, but we do not trust very much in the gospel meeting. This is just a small part of our gospel preaching. The main part of gospel preaching is our daily living. Even if we do not have a gospel preaching meeting, after one or two months we still will baptize some new ones. This is normal.
We must not follow the way of today’s Christianity to have a campaign and then baptize people. That is not normal. The normal way is that we in this city simply live in, with, and by Christ. We come together to express Christ and serve Christ one to another. Then we have a testimony to the unbelievers, and some of them are brought in. Without any kind of gospel preaching meeting, new converts are baptized into the Body again and again. This is the normal preaching of the church. I do not mean that we never need a gospel preaching meeting, but I stress the normal way because the traditional way of preaching cannot have a long life. We cannot have a healthy, long life by taking medicine. We can live a long and healthy life only by taking normal, proper food. Our preaching can endure only by the normal way.
The proper preaching of the gospel first depends on our testimony. If we brothers and sisters do not have the proper testimony in our daily living, our preaching will be poor. It will never be prevailing because we will not be able to gain the ground with people. If we all live in Christ and have a real testimony in our daily living, we will gain the ground in our neighborhood, office, and school and among our relatives. This testimony paves the way and gains the ground for the gospel. Then once we have the ground through our living testimony in our daily life, we have to work. First we have the life; then we have to work based on the life. In any kind of orchard, there must be life. The growing of the plants is something of life. However, we also need to work, the more the better.
Two brothers may work together with some sisters, coming together to pray, fellowship, and determine what main steps are needed to take care of the new ones. The first step may be to determine whether they have believed in the Lord Jesus with repentance and confession. We should pray for a person specifically with this in view, and after that we can go to contact him. If we find that he has not truly believed, we have to do something to help him to believe. Also, if we find that he did not have a real repentance and confession, we must explain what it means to repent and confess and help him to know how to repent and confess. This requires that we know how to work, just as carpenters learn how to make furniture out of raw materials. Otherwise, we will do things only in a very general way. This is a lifelong business, a business for the long run, and we must all learn how to do it. Second, we may need to know if the new ones are clear about salvation. As a third step we should know if they are ready and willing to be baptized, and then we should know if they are clear about the church life. If we coordinate in this way, we will help each other mutually.
Each step should be carried out within a deadline of one week. Then after three or four weeks of contacting people in this way, we will be clear about their condition. We should be flexible, though; this is simply an illustration with principles. However, we still should be legal about some things. Every day, for example, we have to sleep once and take at least three meals. If we are not a little legal, we cannot have a proper living. Therefore, we are all under the training, and we are learning. We all have to learn not only to preach the gospel but to be built up ourselves. Therefore, we need much coordination. From the past we have learned that to have the adequate coordination, there is the need of certain brothers to bear responsibility to assign something to others. It is by this coordination that the work will go on and on. This requires much exercise and that we be trained through our practice.
To do all this is not too much. This is something we have to work on. Do not forget that, on the one hand, to preach the gospel is to travail, to give new birth to persons. To this end we need to labor. On the other hand, to preach the gospel is to disciple people, to make people disciples of the Lord. To carry out this kind of education requires that we work in a certain way. We trust in the work of the Holy Spirit; there is no doubt about this. However, the principle today is that without human cooperation, even the Holy Spirit cannot do much. The Spirit’s work needs and depends on our cooperation. The more cooperation we render to the Spirit, the more work the Spirit will do, and the better cooperation we render to the Spirit, the better work the Spirit will do. We need to render an adequate and better coordination with the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes after contacting someone we may encounter certain problems. There may be some problems that are hard to deal with, and we may be unable to solve them. Then in coordination we may determine which brothers can handle this matter. Some brothers may have experience and be able to help this kind of person. We may even feel that one brother is not adequate, so we can assign two brothers to deal with the problems. It is in this way that the whole “machine” will work. This is the way for many brothers to coordinate. It is the proper way to save time and work efficiently. Whether the “machine” will keep going or will stop, however, depends on how we run it.
We are limited by time because we are not full-time workers in the gospel. However, if we practice to find the proper way, we can improve our way. I hope we all would learn the best way, not to be too heavily burdened with the work, but to do our work as a duty. We all must learn. We are living here for the gospel. Even if we do not have the time every day, we can separate some time at least once a week for the work of the gospel. If you do a little, I do a little, and every member of the church does a little, we can put all these little portions together into something significant. Moreover, we must do this for the long run, not just once for all or even once a year, but as a regular duty.
If this responsibility is too much for a few brothers, then in fellowship more brothers can be brought in to help. All things can be very flexible. If there are thirty-five new ones, the brothers and sisters can divide into two groups; one can work on seventeen, and the other can work on the other eighteen. The Lord’s yoke is not hard, and His burden is not heavy. The Lord has no intention to overwork us. Still, we must look to the Lord for the patience to learn these things.
The proper church life is just like a family life. We cannot build up a family in a miraculous or special way. We have to build up a family in a very normal and ordinary way. This requires our time. It takes at least twenty years for our children to grow up as mature men. The church life is the same way. Even if today we have some miracles in the gospel, I would like to quench them a little. The brothers who were with me in Taiwan can testify that several times after I returned there, I poured cold water on their work if it was done in a miraculous or extraordinary way. This is because I know the danger. If you drive a car eighty miles an hour, I will ask you to slow down a little. It is better to drive thirty or forty miles an hour in a normal way. Recently the son of a co-worker in Taiwan wrote to tell us about the many miracles and healings there. He even laid hands on others, and people were healed. After I read that, I felt to write something to quench his fire a little. I want to help people to take proper food in a normal daily way. Do not eat strange and special foods. Simply eat the normal food; then your family will be healthy.
Dear brothers, I ask you in the Lord’s mercy and by His grace to learn a little patience and go on in a proper way. Do not expect too much; simply go on little by little. Then in the long run you will see what the result will be. I have no intention to ask you to overwork. I simply have the desire to see that you all learn how to serve the Lord in a proper, normal way, in the way of life. We are living here for the gospel. As to what we have, we simply spend what we can, and as to what we are, we are willing to be spent for the gospel’s sake. Please do your best to work, pray, coordinate, and cooperate. Then this “machine” will keep going on and on. In the long run we will baptize many new ones. This is not too much. Monthly we can have a preaching meeting to help us, and we can all live for the gospel and work in a proper way for the long run. This is a lifelong matter. Gradually, monthly, some new ones will be added into the church. This is just a part of our training. After people are baptized, there is another section of the work that we must care for. Bringing people in is just the beginning, the first part, of gospel preaching.
