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For our fellowship concerning the worship of the Father, which is in the second section of the Lord’s table meeting, let us read Matthew 26:29-30: “I say to you, I shall by no means drink of this product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father. And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Verse 29 reveals what the Lord Jesus said after He established His supper. Verse 30 begins, “After singing a hymn...” This simple statement implies a great deal. There are three questions that we need to consider with this statement. First, who sang the hymn? Second, to whom did they sing in praise? And third, why did they sing? According to the context, the Lord Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn, and they sang it in praise to the Father. Immediately after the Lord established His supper, He and His disciples sang hymns of praise to the Father. The significance of this is deep.
When the Lord established His supper in verses 26 through 28, His desire was that His disciples remember Him. This is according to 1 Corinthians 11:24, which says, “This do unto the remembrance of Me.” The Lord told His disciples that the central point of the table meeting is the remembrance of Him. However, whenever the Son did something in the New Testament, He never forgot the Father. If in establishing His supper, the Lord had only said, “Do this in remembrance of Me,” He would not have expressed anything of the Father to the disciples. Therefore, the phrase after singing a hymn implies something of deep significance. It indicates that after the disciples remembered the Lord, He led them to sing and praise the Father. This is the worship to the Father.
Although the phrase after singing a hymn is simple, many times simple phrases in the Bible express important points. When the Lord Jesus established His supper, He was burdened, preparing to deliver Himself into the hands of those who would kill Him. Therefore, He took the opportunity before He was killed to establish His supper for His disciples to remember Him. If He had stopped there and had then gone to the Garden of Gethsemane and delivered Himself to those who would kill Him, the disciples would not have been led to the Father. Hence, the Lord’s leading the disciples to sing praise to God was to leave them with the impression that they must not forget to worship the Father when they remember Him.
Hebrews 2:11-12 says, “Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.’” The thought in these verses follows Matthew 26:29-30. After the Lord established His supper, He sang a hymn with His disciples to praise the Father. This was to impress them with the matter that even after remembering Him, they should worship the Father. Then the Lord died on the cross and resurrected after three days. In His resurrection many brothers were produced. Before the Lord’s resurrection He had only disciples, not brothers. First Peter 1:3 says that we were regenerated through His resurrection. Hence, when the Lord Jesus saw Mary on the morning of His resurrection, He said, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17). As the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus was born to be the firstborn Son of God on the day of His resurrection. In His resurrection all those who believe into Him were also begotten as the many sons of God, His many brothers.
Hebrews 2:11 says that the Lord Jesus, the One who sanctifies, is one with His brothers, the sanctified ones, because both He and we are born of the Father. Verse 11 also says, “For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” This verse can be compared to John 20:17, where the Lord said, “Go to My brothers.” At that time the disciples were weak. On the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, Peter denied the Lord three times (Matt. 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18, 25-27), and the others were disappointed and fled. This was to their shame. They were not worthy to be called brothers, but the Lord was not ashamed of them. Because of what the Lord accomplished on the morning of His resurrection, He was not ashamed to call them His brothers.
The last portion of Hebrews 2:12 says, “In the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” Here You refers to the Father. Hence, this portion can also be rendered, “In the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to the Father.” In which Christian meeting is it most suitable for the Lord Jesus to sing hymns of praise to the Father in the midst of the church? By inference, this meeting must be the Lord’s table meeting. Furthermore, after the Lord Jesus established His supper, when He led the disciples to sing a hymn, He was not inside of them, because He had not yet resurrected and could not enter into them. However, on the morning of the Lord’s resurrection, all the disciples became the Lord’s brothers. On the evening of the same day the Lord entered into the disciples by breathing into them (John 20:22). From that time onward whenever the disciples met together, the Lord was with them. Hence, the Lord singing hymns of praise in the midst of the church means that He sings within His brothers. And without a doubt, such singing of praise is most appropriate in the Lord’s table meeting.
This light was not seen until the nineteenth century when the Brethren were raised up in England. They emphasized the truth according to 2 Timothy 2:15, which speaks of cutting straight the word of the truth. In their study of the Word, they found out that the New Testament worship consists of the remembrance of the Lord and the worship of the Father. This is not like presenting offerings by killing bulls and sheep in the Old Testament. Rather, it is the believers coming to the Lord’s table and taking the Lord as everything to enjoy the Lord and thus remember Him. The true remembrance of the Lord is the enjoyment of the Lord. The more we enjoy Him, the more He is remembered. After we remember Him, we then praise the Father. This is the worship in the New Testament.
In the hymnal compiled by the Brethren, the first category in the table of contents is “Words of Praise.” The contents of the first hymnal prepared by Brother Nee consisted entirely of hymns translated from the Brethren’s hymnal, and the first category was also “Words of Praise.” Some of the hymns were for the praise of the Father and others to praise the Lord. When we compiled the hymnal that we are using today, we put these hymns into two categories: one is the worship of the Father, and the other is the praise of the Lord. The light concerning the worship of the Father was first seen by the Brethren over one hundred fifty years ago and was passed on to us. Therefore, in the churches we break the bread to remember the Lord, and then we worship the Father. This is the true worship of the Triune God in the New Testament.
It seems that there is not much speaking in the New Testament concerning the worship of the Father. For this reason, we would like to give a further word of fellowship.
The Bible reveals that God is one and yet three. This is a great revelation. God is unique, and His name is Jehovah. God is also three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Ever since the second century, this issue has been a focal point of debate. The church fathers and early Bible scholars focused their study of the Bible on the Triune God and the person of Christ. They had different explanations and different views. The views of orthodox Bible scholars were more or less the same, but they could not come to a precise conclusion.
These debates continued for two centuries. In A.D. 325, when the Roman Empire ruled a vast territory and the Lord’s gospel had spread over the entire Mediterranean region, the emperor, Constantine the Great, felt that he had to resolve these doctrinal matters among Christians so that people of different ethnic backgrounds within the Empire could get along in complete harmony. Therefore, he ordered the main bishops to gather in Nicaea for a council in which he served as the chairman and exerted his political influence on all the parties. The conclusions of the council became the Nicene Creed. This creed is still taken as the fundamental belief in Catholicism and Protestantism.
The Nicene Creed speaks mainly of the person of Christ and the Triune God. We cannot say that the wording of the creed is not appropriate; however, its view is not as thorough, detailed, or complete as the Bible, because the Bible does not reveal the person of Christ and the Triune God by a set of articles but rather in a way that dispenses God into us as enjoyment. Therefore, the tone of the Bible is very sweet. For example, Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; /...And His name will be called /... Mighty God, / Eternal Father, / Prince of Peace.” When these points, however, are written as articles in the creed, the complete, thorough, and sweet taste is altogether lost. As a result, man’s understanding also fell short.
When the Brethren were raised up in the nineteenth century, they declared that they did not want any creed but the Bible, because the creeds had replaced the Bible. After the Brethren, other Christian groups made similar declarations. Sixty years ago we also declared that we care only for the Bible, not the creeds. Since that time we have made an effort to study the person of Christ and the Triune God. In the initial period, I was very close to Brother Watchman Nee; you can say that we fought shoulder to shoulder in these matters. Hence, I know his beliefs, that is, what he believed concerning the person of Christ and the Triune God, and I agree fully with him. I inherited his view and have continued to study these issues until today. As a result, my study has become more thorough and detailed.
In 1949 I began the publishing work in Taipei; during that early period The Ministry of the Word magazine was the main publication. In 1960 I went to America and began to publish books in English in 1963. There are now a large number of publications, including the Life-study of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. According to my estimation, during the past twenty-two years in America, I published more than three thousand messages, among which are the twelve hundred Life-study messages, comprising about one hundred twenty thousand pages, as well as about twenty thousand more pages in other books. The main topic of these books concerns the person of Christ and the Triune God. Around 1983 I came to the conclusion that the revelation in the Bible concerning the Triune God has two aspects, the essential aspect and the economical aspect. In other words, there is an essential aspect of the Trinity and an economical aspect of the Trinity.
The essential aspect speaks of God’s existence, and the economical aspect speaks of God’s move and God’s work. The essential aspect of the Trinity relates to His existence, whereas the economical aspect of the Trinity relates to His move. Almost all the fundamental Bible scholars over the centuries acknowledge these two aspects: the essential and the economical. The essential aspect refers to the fact that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one in existence. This is based on Isaiah 9:6, “A Son... / ...will be called /...Eternal Father,” and also on 2 Corinthians 3:17, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Son is called the Father, and the Lord is the Spirit. Therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. This refers to His essence, His existence, not to His economy, His move.
Furthermore, it is also clearly stated in the New Testament that the Triune God has a move; that is, the Father made a plan, then the Son accomplished the Father’s plan, and the Spirit applies the Son’s accomplishment. These are the three steps of the move of the Triune God: the Father’s plan, the Son’s accomplishment, and the Spirit’s application. For this reason, when the Son came out of the water, after He was baptized in the river Jordan, the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and the Father spoke to Him from the heavens (Matt. 3:16-17). This is economical, not essential. In John 17:1, after the Lord spoke to the disciples, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” This is the Son on earth praying to the Father in heaven; this does not refer to the essential aspect of the Trinity but to the economical aspect.
In the Lord’s table meeting we first remember the Lord, and then we worship the Father. This is a matter of His economy. The essential aspect of the Triune God is for our experience and enjoyment; the economical aspect is for our service and worship. The Triune God dwelling in us emphasizes the aspect of His essence; our worshipping and serving the Triune God emphasize the aspect of His economy. We should never think that since the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one, our worship of the Father is the same as our remembering the Lord. This can be compared to our calling “O Lord” or “O Father.” In the table meeting we should never pray, “Father, thank You for shedding Your blood for me.” Neither should we pray, “Father, You loved me so much that You even died for me.” These prayers confuse the essential aspects of the Trinity with the economical aspects of the Trinity. This brief speaking is the essence of the studies in theology for the past two thousand years. It is altogether according to the Bible.
No matter how much Christianity is in confusion, our teaching is according to the sixty-six books of the pure Word of God. I have studied thoroughly almost every verse concerning the Triune God in these sixty-six books, and I have written many messages concerning the Triune God. Therefore, I am able to say in a simple and clear way that with respect to His existence, the Triune God has an essential aspect, and with respect to His move and work, the Triune God has an economical aspect. We need to enjoy Him and experience Him according to His essential aspect. We also need to serve Him and worship Him according to His economical aspect. Hence, in the table meeting we must follow the Spirit to remember the Lord, and then we must follow the Lord and the Spirit to worship the Father.
The last group of hymns in our hymnal under the category of “Worship of the Father” is titled “His Praise from Many Sons.” This group of hymns is the highest. Many Christians do not understand what “His praise from many sons” means. It refers to the praise offered by the Lord Jesus together with His brothers. Hymns, #50 is in this group and contains deep truth concerning God’s economy. It is a hymn of praise to the Father from many sons. This is related to God’s economical aspect.
Because it is difficult to have a Christian prayer meeting, the attendance in the prayer meeting of almost all Christian groups is low. For this reason, it is our responsibility to find out how to increase the attendance in the prayer meeting. If each of us is revived in our spirit, the attendance in the prayer meeting will increase twofold. Every person who prays knows that individual prayer has a certain taste but that prayer in a meeting has a strong and rich taste. Therefore, I treasure my personal prayer, and I also treasure the prayer meeting; neither can replace the other. A person who prays much by himself will attend the prayer meeting. Hence, we cannot expect attendance in the prayer meeting to increase without spending time before the Lord by ourselves. We must ask the Lord for a revival: “O Lord, revive our gathering.” We should even set aside time to fast and pray. In this way the number in the prayer meeting will increase.
For sixty years, from the time I was saved up to the present, I have been attending prayer meetings. First I attended prayer meetings in a denomination, then in a Brethren assembly, and later in the prayer meetings of the church. According to my experience, everyone who comes to the prayer meeting must have a spirit of prayer. As soon as we step into the meeting, we should not care for anything but to pray. If someone is praying, we should wait until he finishes and then continue the prayer. We should not rely too much on the responsible brothers to lead the meeting. We should not expect them to call a hymn, open the prayer, or announce the items for prayer. Such a prayer meeting will not be strong.
In the prayer meetings of the churches in America, whoever arrives first begins to pray, and those who come later join in the prayer; everyone prays. No one waits until seven-thirty to begin praying, they do not sing first and then have an opening prayer, and there is neither a message nor an announcement concerning items for prayers. They just pray. This kind of prayer meeting is powerful and very living; oftentimes the prayer lasts for one and a half hours.
Generally speaking, if someone stands up to announce some items for prayer or to call a hymn in the middle of the prayer meeting, it is an interruption. The spirit of prayer should not be interrupted. Once it is interrupted, it is not easy to raise the meeting. Hence, when we come together to pray, we must take this as the goal. We should not rely on a program, nor should we depend on a few designated people. As soon as we come together, we should begin to pray.
Someone may ask what we should pray for if the items for prayer are not announced. Since we are all in the church life, we should know the needs of the church. When we come to the prayer meeting, we should not pray for trivial matters but for important matters, such as God’s will, God’s kingdom, and the propagation of the church. For instance, the church in Taipei is now at a turning point, a new beginning; we should pray earnestly for this. This does not mean, however, that no one should make a prayer request. If a family member is very sick, a saint can look for an opportunity to fellowship this matter by following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Then he can make a request for prayer.
The prayer meeting will be dead if we pray according to a list that is distributed to every hall or district. I am not saying that we should not have such a list but that it should not become a routine. When the brothers and sisters come together to pray, they should pray mainly for God’s kingdom, the propagation of the gospel, and the building up of the church. Furthermore, they should also pray for the saints’ growth in life and for the move of the church. These matters are our major concerns, and we should remember them in our prayer. If the elders, co-workers, and deacons realize that there is a crucial matter in the church that needs to be made known in the prayer meetings of the church, then it is proper to make an announcement. In addition, it is also good to allow the saints to fellowship some personal burdens. They may have a relative or a friend who needs to be saved and needs the intercession of the saints in the prayer meeting. This is acceptable. In any case, the prayer meeting should be living and not regarded as a routine.
Furthermore, there should not be long prayers. When I was young, I attended the prayer meeting of a Brethren assembly. Every time there were dozens of saints who would come to pray. Whenever one prayed, their prayer was very long; hence, many people dozed off on their knees. We should avoid this. Strong prayer is not usually long. I pray two sentences, another prays two sentences, and yet another follows by praying two sentences. After praying in this way for one item, we can move on to another item. In the end all the saints will pray as one man. This is the best prayer meeting. The more we pray, the more living the prayer becomes; and the more we pray, the higher and stronger the prayer becomes. We need to learn and exercise to have simple but strong and uplifting prayers. We should not worry about what to pray for next. The Holy Spirit will lead us to pray for different burdens one by one.
