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Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:5-7, 18-21, 27; John 15:4-5, 8, 12; 17:21; 2:23—3:3
The book of Philippians shows us that the church in Philippi was a church that always bore the gospel as their responsibility. In the New Testament there are a number of Epistles, but only Philippians deals with the preaching of the gospel in such a clear way. We do not have such a clear mention of the preaching of the gospel in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, or any of the others. What is mentioned in 1 Timothy is not as clear as what is mentioned in Philippians.
In addition, all Bible students agree that the book of Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ. There is not another book that deals as much with the experience of Christ. If we read this book carefully, we will see that the first chapter tells us that Christ is life within us so that we may live by Him and live Him out. The second chapter tells us that Christ is the pattern set up for us. The third chapter tells us that Christ is the mark of the goal, and the fourth chapter tells us that Christ is the secret. Such a short book is very profound and prevailing in the experience of Christ.
Although Philippians is mainly on the experience of Christ, it also deals with the gospel preaching of the church. This shows us that the preaching of the gospel is related to the experience of Christ and is in the experience of Christ. At the beginning of chapter 1 Paul says that the preaching of the gospel is a good work begun by the Lord and that He will complete this work until the day of Christ Jesus (vv. 5-6). At the end of this chapter he speaks of striving together—fighting as one, not individually but shoulder to shoulder—along with the faith of the gospel (v. 27). In verses 18 through 21 Paul says, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truthfulness, Christ is announced; and in this I rejoice; yes, and I will rejoice; for I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” According to the whole context, the proper way to preach the gospel is to live out Christ and magnify Christ in our body. This is not merely to preach by words, and not even to preach by miracles, but to preach by a life which is Christ Himself.
Chapter 15 of the Gospel of John is on life, while chapter 17 indicates the building. Verses 4 and 5 of chapter 15 say, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Verse 8 says, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so you will become My disciples,” and verse 12 says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you. In chapter 17, verse 21 speaks of the building: “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” Then it speaks of the result, the issue: “That the world may believe that You have sent Me.” Chapter 15 speaks of fruit-bearing through abiding in Christ, and chapter 17 speaks of the world believing through the oneness of the believers. Our oneness in Christ is the strongest testimony. It is through this that the people in the world realize something of the salvation of Christ; then they believe that Christ is the very One sent by God.
The proper way for the church to preach the gospel is the way of life and building. We have to abide in Christ, live with Christ, and live out Christ, and we have to be built up together as one in love. Then we will be prevailing in the preaching of the gospel. What then of miracles? This same book shows us where the miracles are in the preaching of the gospel. Verse 23 of chapter 2 says, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed into His name when they saw the signs which He did.” The miracles seemed to bring many to Christ. Then verses 24 and 25 say, “But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” The Lord Jesus would not commit Himself to anyone who came in through the miracles. There is no doubt that the miracles brought a crowd to Jesus, but Jesus did not commit Himself to them.
In the original text of the Scriptures there are no chapters and verses. Therefore, chapter 3 continues chapter 2. Chapter 3 begins, “But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This one came to Him by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (vv. 1-3). It is not a matter of miracles but a matter of being born again. The Lord Jesus would never commit Himself to anyone who came in through the miracles unless that one was born again. In chapter 2 a crowd of people, stirred up and convinced by miracles, came to Jesus, but Jesus would not commit Himself to them. Then between chapters 2 and 3 there is the big word but. “But” there was a man who came to Him to have personal contact.
Even Nicodemus had the wrong concept. He saw the signs that Jesus did, so he thought Jesus must be someone great, a great rabbi. However, the Lord Jesus pointed him to the way of life, indicating to him that what he needed was not a teacher but One who gives life, not one who does miracles but One who regenerates people. It is as if Jesus said, “What you need is not teaching or miracles. What you need is the inner life. You need to be born again.”
We must give up our wrong concept from our background and natural understanding. The preaching of the gospel is a part of the church life. We are the members of the Body of Christ. The Body as a whole is the very vessel to contain the Lord and to express Him. The church’s preaching, therefore, must be the issue of the church life. If we all live by Christ and with Christ, spontaneously we are the living and functioning branches of the great vine tree. He is the vine tree, and we—the members of His Body—are the branches. When we abide in Him and let Him abide in us, spontaneously the issue is that we bear fruit. The bearing of fruit by the branches is the outworking of the inner life, the manifestation, the expression, of the inner life. When we abide in the vine and let the vine abide in us, the life of the vine nourishes us, saturates us, and bears fruit through us. The outward fruit-bearing is the work of the inner life. It is something spontaneous in life, not something in activity or in the so-called power and miracles. The bearing of fruit by the branches is not something miraculous. It is the daily life of the branches. The branches simply abide in the vine and let the vine abide in them. They do not have any special or extraordinary feelings. They just live in that way. Then the life of the vine moves, works, saturates, nourishes, and brings forth fruit.
This corresponds with the book of Philippians. In that book we can see that the preaching of the gospel is in the experience of Christ and is the experience of Christ. When the apostle Paul preached the gospel, there were some miracles, but eventually he was brought into the realization that the proper preaching is not a matter of miracles but a matter of life. If gospel preaching were a matter of miracles, Paul would not have been martyred. However, the Lord would not do anything miraculously to deliver His apostle. He left His apostle in the prison to be martyred without a miracle. The unbelievers might have come to challenge Paul, saying, “Paul, where is your Jesus? If He is able, He should save you. It seems that He is not as powerful as we are. We put you into prison, and He can do nothing to save you.”
Even the Lord Jesus Himself suffered this kind of challenge, yet He would not do anything to save Himself. Let us learn the lesson. The more people say that we are poor, the more we have to be poor. Any kind of challenge is from the enemy, and we should never take it. The people said, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” (Matt. 27:40). It is as if the Lord replied, “No. For you there is no other sign but the sign of the prophet Jonah. I have to die, and I have to be buried.” Never be challenged. The Lord Jesus, who was God, was never successfully challenged. The more people challenged Him, the more He was silent. Today the gospel is prevailing through death and resurrection. The Lord did no miracle to deliver the apostle from prison, but there was the mighty, prevailing manifestation of Christ through this apostle. He said, “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:20b-21a). This is the real preaching of the gospel.
I look to the Lord that we all would not expect anything in a miraculous way. Rather, we all must pray, fellowship with the Lord, and learn to abide in Christ, to be built up, and to be one in Christ. Then we will allow life to flow out to regenerate others, to bring life to others. This kind of preaching will be a part of our life, a part of our living, and a part of the church life. We all must realize that we do not have a certain kind of activity. We do not encourage the brothers to have a movement. This is not a movement. If we consider this as a movement, we are one hundred percent wrong; we are “in one bed with different dreams.” I speak the truth: I do not have the dream that we are here in a movement or activity. I say one hundred times “no.” I have the clear vision that we are here simply as small Christians. We are poor, and we are nothing. We have nothing, and we do not want to have anything. We never pretend to be anything, but by the Lord’s mercy, we want to learn how to live and abide in Him and how to be built up with one another.
I am just a little finger; by myself I am nothing. We as members have to be built up together as a living Body—living by Christ, living with Christ, and living out Christ. This is the proper Christian life. If you would receive the mercy and grace of the Lord, forget about your background. I was in a certain background for years, but I have forgotten it. We must never be so foolish as to neglect the lessons of history throughout the last two thousand years. The proper way to bring people to Christ is the way of life, and the proper way for the church to be built up is also the way of life. We are not the people in the first century. We are in the twentieth century. Nineteen centuries have passed already, and there have been many lessons.
Many persons sought the miraculous things, but what came out of that? I would ask someone to point out from history the benefit of that. On the day of Pentecost there were miracles, but what was there after that? Was there the real building up of the church in the book of Acts? It seems only that jealousy and other problems came in. There was not the real building up. After Acts there is the book of Romans. Is there anything miraculous mentioned in the book of Romans? After that we need the two Epistles to the Corinthians to adjust us from the wrong thought to the life of the cross. Then there is Ephesians, the unique book written purposely concerning the church. Is there anything miraculous in the book of Ephesians? Let us come to the Lord in a quiet way, forgetting about our backgrounds. The proper way to have the church life today is the way of life, to know Christ inwardly, to know our flesh, our self, and the natural man through the cross, and to learn to abide in Christ and live by Christ, not by ourselves. Then we will be built up together. Then we will have a spontaneous issue of the church life, which will be the prevailing and proper preaching.
We must be delivered from the wrong concept. Never be frustrated; do not challenge yourself and do not be challenged by others to try to have the power to do miracles. Forget about that. I saw much of that in the past. Recently in Taiwan six hundred people were healed in two days. To speak the truth, however, I do not appreciate that very much. We all have to learn to know Christ in the living way, in the inner way, to know Christ in our spirit. It is in Christ as our inner life that we are built up as one to be a living expression, the living Body to express Him. And it is through this expression that people gradually, one after another, are brought into the life of Christ and also into the church life. It is in this way that the gospel will be preached and the Body will be built up.
Never be frustrated, never be confused, never challenge yourself, and never be challenged by others. I say boldly that the way of miraculous preaching is the wrong way. The right way for the church to be built up is the way of life, and the right way for the church to preach the gospel is also the way of life. Do not listen to so many voices. Within you there is the discernment. The Lord Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice (John 10:16). Do you feel those challenges are the voice of the Lord Jesus? There is no need to argue. We must use our inward discernment to realize what voice is the voice of the Shepherd.
I would like to stress a thousandfold: The proper way for the church to be built up is the way of life. We do not want to have any more confusion. There already has been too much confusion and frustration in history, even up until today. We do not like to have these frustrations again. We want to be simple. We just pay attention to one thing, that is, Christ as our life and everything. We do not care for anything else. Do not be frustrated and confused, and do not frustrate and confuse others. Simply learn to be simple. We are nothing. We are just little members of Christ. Therefore, we must learn to live in Him, live with Him, and be built up together. We do not expect and we do not appreciate those miraculous things. This is my speaking not only today; since I have been in this country it has been the same. The trouble I have seen in various places was simply that people repeated the tragedy of history. We, however, have learned the lessons from history, and we do not like to repeat the tragedies.
Forget about teachings, the so-called gifts, miracles, and other such matters. Only one thing works well, that is, to take Christ as life in an inner way and to be built up in this life as the living Body. All the apostles—Peter, Paul, and John—were brought into this same realization when they became old. Read their writings. In the last book of the whole Scriptures, Revelation, nothing miraculous is presented in a positive way. According to Revelation 13, it is the Antichrist and his false prophet who will do many miraculous things when they rise up. Rather, Revelation tells us clearly that we have to sacrifice, to die, to be martyred, as the last apostle, the aged John, did.
Learn to live by Christ, live with Christ, and live in Christ, and learn to be built up in this life. Then the preaching of the gospel will be the issue of this kind of life. I look to the Lord that we all will be brought into such a proper understanding. Allow me to say once again, we have to forget about our backgrounds. We must not be influenced by these backgrounds. We are not speaking here about preaching in the old way of our old backgrounds. We are talking about gospel preaching as a part of the church life. I look to the Lord, and I hope that one day the church here will have not only a formal gospel preaching, but that gradually people will be brought into the church not mainly through that kind of preaching but through the daily living of the believers. Do not have the concept from your old background that we are having a kind of movement or activity. Rather, when we speak about the preaching of the gospel, we mean that it is a part of the church life. This is why in this chapter we have read from Philippians and the Gospel of John, to show us that the preaching of the gospel is a part of the church life.
I say again, do not challenge yourself, do not challenge others, and do not be challenged to take the way of movement or miracles. We simply realize that we are little members of Christ, abiding in Him, learning to live with Him and to be built up together. Then we believe there will be the spontaneous issue that people will be brought into the church life through us. This is the genuine gospel preaching.
In the past we learned that preaching the gospel in the church is a very good means for us to be brought together to be fitly framed and blended one with another. Therefore, there is the real need for some brothers and sisters to bear the responsibility for the blending. They have to be the “blenders.” If we coordinate well in the gospel, all the brothers and sisters will be blended together. We are too independent, and we like too much to be private. To be Christians, however, we cannot always keep our privacy. We have to be blended with others. If we are all blended, this will give a very strong impression to the unbelievers and new converts.
A brother may pray for a friend, a relative, a neighbor, or a classmate, preach the gospel to him, and have a certain amount of contact with him. Even in material matters, though, it is not prevailing for someone to do something by himself. It is more prevailing for him to ask one, two, or even five brothers to help him to deal with this person. If in the church there are certain ones who bear some responsibility, the brother can submit the name of his friend or relative to them with particular details. Then these responsible ones can consider this person, and they may realize what his need is. They may realize that this person needs a certain other brother to help take care of him, and they can pass this name on to that brother. Then that brother should take this as a responsibility from the Lord. Spontaneously, he will contact the first brother to fellowship about the new one, and then they will find out what they must do. Then after one or two weeks the responsible ones may look into the situation again and feel that this person can be cared for further by a third brother, and they will pass the burden to him. This is simply an illustration of the principle of blending.
If we take this way, our friends and neighbors will realize that Christians are wonderful people—old and young, high and low, American and Chinese, all working together as one for one goal. This will be a strong testimony to them, and it will be very easy to bring them to the Lord. Then after they are saved, it will be easy to bring them into the church life. From this we can foresee and anticipate that the building of the Body will be realized through this kind of preaching.
The whole church, all the members, must be prevailing to function in preaching the gospel. This is the main part of the church life. The church lives here for the testimony of Jesus, to win people from the usurping hand of the enemy. We are living here day by day for this, and we fight for this. To live for the gospel is the proper way to have the church life. Monthly and yearly, we live for the gospel to win people for Christ. We are not seeking merely to be spiritual. Rather, we are living for Christ to expand and enlarge His kingdom.
We must realize the proper way to carry out the gospel preaching, and we must realize that our purpose as the living Body is to defeat the enemy and to release, to win, the souls who are under his usurping hand. This is carried out simply by the living of the church, by the church life. We do expect that one day the church here will not have any outward preaching meetings, yet each month a certain number of people will still be brought into the church. This is the normal way. A good number of people will be able to stand up to give testimonies telling how they were saved simply through the living testimony of the dear brothers and sisters. We all must agree to learn this way, to abide in the Lord, to live with Him, and to be built up together.
We should submit the names of those we contact to others for fellowship. These persons will then become the material with which we work. When we receive the names of people to care for, we should never do it by ourselves. We should do things in a cooperating way, contacting related brothers or sisters to pray and fellowship with them. It is in this way that we all will be built up together more and more. We will have much fellowship in this matter. How wonderful that will be! This is the flow of the lifeblood in the Body; if we have this flow, the Body will be healthy.
Question: A man of about eighty years old came to our gospel meeting. Coming from a religious background, he likes to visit with us, but he seems satisfied merely to be saved. How should we go on with a person like this?
Answer: With such an aged person, we first must find out whether or not he has been truly saved. Then if he has been saved, we have to find out whether or not he has the assurance of being saved. If we have some doubt about these two matters, we should endeavor to help this person to realize the Lord’s salvation. However, if he has been saved and has the assurance of salvation, we have to praise and thank the Lord. Then if we have more time, and if we have only this one person in our hands, we can help him further and work on him for the Lord. However, if we do not have much time, if we have more persons to take care of, there may be no need to spend more time with him.
Question: A few months ago a certain person came to the United States from Taiwan and is now learning English. He senses the emptiness of this world and was touched by the gospel. He prayed with us, but he needs more help in the confirmation of salvation. He is very busy now. How should we follow up on him?
Answer: This person needs some real help to pray with repentance, to confess his sins. All the brothers who have contacted him need to pray for him, to remember him before the Lord that the Lord would grant him the repentance and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:31 speaks of repentance and forgiveness of sins. This indicates that at a certain point this kind of person must not only realize that he needs Christ and must not only believe in Christ, but he must repent before the Lord. We cannot cause people to repent. This requires a work of the mercy of God. More or less, we have passed on the knowledge of the gospel to him, but now we have to pray for him, because there is the need of the real work of the Holy Spirit within him to cause him to repent. Then he will confess his sins and experience the forgiveness of sins. At that time his spirit will be made alive. First, all the brothers who have contacted him need to pray for him. Then the next brother who contacts him needs to help him to realize a real repentance and a living confession. This will require some fellowship with him, some kind of talk to help him to realize his need. Then the Holy Spirit will have the ground to make his spirit alive. No doubt he is busy, but when his spirit is made alive, something will energize him from within, and he will spare some time for coming to the meetings. If we do not do this, we will merely help him to be religious; that does not help much.
If we take the way we have fellowshipped here, the Holy Spirit will work wonderful things. What we do will pave the way and open the door for the Holy Spirit to come in, not only to work on the unbelievers but also to work on us. It is in this way that “one stone will kill two birds”—we will have both the gospel preaching and the building up of the church. This will cause us all to be living. We will spend our life, our time, our energy, and our money for the Lord’s kingdom, winning souls for the Lord. This will be very much blessed by the Lord, and it will influence people.
If we love one another and cooperate in coordination, this will influence the people of the world. If we are one in Christ, the world will believe that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, the One sent by God. This will be a real influence on the unbelievers. In this way the doors will gradually open widely and effectively. Therefore, we have to build this up. If we go on in this way, we will see a glorious outcome. We can compare this to an orchard. If we work on it a little to plant and care for it, one day we will have glorious blossoms and bountiful fruit. We are working here to build up an “orchard.” Many “trees” will grow up and will bear fruit. This is the proper way for the preaching of the gospel through the church.
We are now on the right course. The only thing we need now is for all the brothers and sisters to continue to work some more. I hope that we all will work by prayer. We should pray for all the names that come to us, remembering them before the Lord. It is not by us that people are saved; it is by the Lord Himself. We simply pave the way; we open the door. We are the channel, the influence, but the living One must be the Lord Himself. He is the only living One, so He must come in. Therefore, we have to pray whenever we receive the names of new contacts, and we should pass their names on to others for them to pray also. I believe that the Lord will honor this kind of prayer. We work through prayer. We do not have any trust in ourselves, in our doing, or in our working. We trust in the Lord Himself, and we simply do our duty to cooperate with Him.
I look to the Lord and pray that we all will learn to go on in this way, in the way of life and in the way of being built up. Then the Lord will be lived out through us and be ministered to others, and they will receive life. More materials will be added to the church, and the church will be built up in a living way. Brothers and sisters, go on in this way. We will see the glorious result in the long run.
