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Scripture Reading: John 12:24; 20:17; 15:5a; 3:28-29; 14:2, 23; 1 Cor. 10:17; Heb. 2:12; Eph. 5:30-32; 1 Tim. 3:15a
The Gospel of John speaks repeatedly about how we should have subjective experiences of the Lord. He became flesh for the purpose of working Himself into us. He became the living water so that we may drink Him, the bread of life so that we may eat Him, and the breath of life so that we may breathe Him. Nothing can be more subjective than the subjective experiences produced when water, bread, and breath get into us. We have to receive the Lord into us so subjectively that it is like receiving water, food, and air into us.
However, we have to see that these subjective experiences are for the producing of the church. All the subjective experiences that are linked to the Spirit and are hinged on life are for the producing of the church. The issue of our receiving the Lord into us is that we become constituents of the church. To be sure, in the Gospel of John we are shown the subjective experiences. Though the term church is not used, we should not overlook the fact that this book speaks of how the constituents of the church are produced.
In the Scripture Reading above, five crucial points are presented. First, the Lord said that He was a grain of wheat. This grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, and it bore much fruit (12:24). These many grains are the increase of Christ, the reproduction of Christ. Originally, it was one grain; then this grain died and grew up to become many grains. Christ was the one grain, and we are the many grains. We were not the many grains by our human birth. When the Lord’s life came into us and the Lord dispensed Himself into us, we were regenerated to become the many grains to be made into one bread. Even though we are many, “there is one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Originally, the many grains were grains individually, but now they have been ground to powder and blended together to become one bread. This one bread signifies the church. Every time we break the bread at the Lord’s table, we testify that the church is uniquely one. This bread is one Body, and this one Body is the church.
Here we must see that the church is not a composition originated by human will; it is not an organization worked out by a group of people. That is not the church; that is a society. A society is organized by people, whereas the church is produced out of Christ. The church is an issue of His dispensing Himself into us through His death and resurrection to make us grains of wheat. When we as the grains of wheat are blended into one, we become the one bread, and this one bread signifies the one Body. Therefore, we have to see here that the church is produced by Christ’s entering into us. In other words, the church is produced by our subjective experience of Christ. If Christ did not enter into you, you would remain only as a part of the adamic race; you would not be a part of Christ. However, because Christ entered into you, He as the one grain of wheat made you a grain of wheat also. This is how the church is produced.
Second, in John 20, after His resurrection the Lord said to Mary, “Go to My brothers and say to them...” (v. 17). Before His death and resurrection, when the Lord was on earth, He never called His disciples brothers. He called them friends, but He never called them brothers. Why? It was because at that time the Lord’s life had not yet entered into the disciples. It was through resurrection and in resurrection that His life entered into the disciples. Now since they had His life, they became the Lord’s brothers. According to Hebrews 2:12, these brothers are the church: “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” What is the church? The church is the composition of the Lord’s many brothers. Individually, we are the Lord’s brothers; corporately, we are the church. The church is the composition of the firstborn Son and the many sons of God. Hallelujah!
But how can we become the Lord’s brothers? We must see that we are not the Lord’s foster brothers; we are the Lord’s own brothers. We are His own brothers because we have His life and His nature. We are just like Him. Just as He has the life of God, we also have the life of God. Just as He has the nature of God, we also have the nature of God. He is the firstborn Son of God, and we are the many sons of God. Therefore, we are His many brothers. In aggregate we, the many brothers, are the church.
One cannot become a constituent of the church merely by being baptized and “joining the church” yet without receiving the Lord into him. In my youth every Sunday morning I went to a chapel for Sunday worship. At a certain point in time the pastor and elders considered me quite good and therefore baptized me one Sunday morning. In this way I became a member of their “church.” However, the fact is that I did not pray or confess my sins, nor did I read the Bible. Would you consider that to be the church? No. Today you and I have to be clear that the church is a composition of the Lord’s brothers. The Lord Jesus is God’s firstborn Son, and we are God’s many sons. Every one of us, as sons of God, has the life and nature of God the Father, and when we are put together, we are the church. The church is realized when we experience the Lord in such a subjective way.
Third, in John 15 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (v. 5a). The branches are not branches if they do not have an absolutely subjective experience of the vine. The branches and the vine are one and cannot be divided. The life in the vine is the life in the branches, the nature of the vine is the nature of the branches, and the substance of the vine is the substance of the branches. There is no difference at all between the vine and the branches. Strictly speaking, all the branches are parts of the vine.
Then how are the branches produced? Each one of them grows out of the tree. When a small sprout first comes out of the ground, there is no branch. After a certain period of growth, the branches appear one after another. By this we see what the church is. The church is composed of the branches growing out of Christ. The church is the aggregate of all the branches of Christ. Every one of us who believes in Him is a branch of Christ because it is He who comes into us to grow in us. Therefore, we are all members of His Body, and when all these members are put together, they are the Body.
Consider my body. You cannot say that my fingers or my arms are not my body. In reality, my body is made up of my four limbs and all the other parts. When the limbs and all the other parts—all possessing the same life—are put together, that is a body. We must know the church to this extent. What is the church? The church is formed by all the members of Christ being joined together in the life of Christ as the Spirit. Thus, our experience of Christ is absolutely subjective. Without such an experience, we are not His members, and we are not the church. However, praise the Lord, today when I sit among you, I do feel that among us and in us there is a flow of life just like the blood circulating in all the parts of our entire body. This flow of life is the Spirit, and the Spirit is Christ. It is this life, this Spirit, and this Christ that makes us the church.
I would say again that even though the Gospel of John does not have the term church, it mentions the grains, the brothers, and the branches. Do these not signify the church? You might say, “This is not so clear, because the grains, the brothers, and the branches are all individual. You cannot say that they are the church.” But, in addition, you can look at John 3:28 and 29, where John the Baptist said to his disciples, “I said, I am not the Christ...He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” The Bridegroom is Christ. Then who is the bride? The bride is the church. This is corporate, not individual. This is one bride in totality.
The first bride in the universe was Eve. How was Eve produced? When I attended Sunday school as a child, I heard the teacher say that God made man with the dust of the ground. I thought that God made two persons, one male and one female. This impression stayed with me until the time that I was saved. When I began to read the Bible, I wanted to find where it was recorded that God made a man and a woman with the dust of the ground. I did not find this. So I wondered how the woman was made. Putting aside all the traditional impressions, I carefully read Genesis 1 and 2 again. Then I discovered that God created only a man; He did not create the woman. After the man was created, God brought all the created animals and birds to him, and the man gave them names. However, he did not find anyone who was like him. Only then did I become clear that God did not create two persons; rather, He created only a man, because we are told that Adam could not find a companion. Then I saw that God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and while Adam was sleeping, God took out a rib from his side and made a woman out of it. The Hebrew word for made in the King James Version actually means “built.” God took a rib from the man and built it into a woman. Therefore, we need to know that Eve was not created; she was built.
Strictly speaking, Adam was created, and Eve was built. With what material was she built? She was built with a part of Adam. Therefore, we can say that Eve came out of Adam; she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. Because Eve was a part of Adam, the two could be one flesh. In God’s building, Eve came out of Adam. Under God’s joining, Eve returned unto Adam. She was the first bride.
This first bride is a type of the church. The church is the bride of Christ. Strictly speaking, this bride is not created but built. With what material is she built? She is built with the material that came out of Christ’s side. When Christ was asleep on the cross, His side was opened, and there came out not only blood for redemption but also water for imparting life. This water is the eternal life, which is typified by the rib of Adam. The rib could not be broken, because the eternal life can never be destroyed by death. This eternal life is the material for the building up of the church. Therefore, we must have eternal life in us. Without eternal life we do not have the material for the building of the church.
Consider this: Before you were saved, perhaps your parents were already in the church, and they told you how lovely and sweet the church is. You were not interested because within you there was no material for the church. Then one day you were attracted by the Lord and moved by the Spirit, so you said to the Lord, “O Lord, I’m a sinner. I believe in You. O Lord Jesus!” How wonderful! Once you repented and called on the name of the Lord in this way, you began to feel that the church was so good and so lovely. In the past you criticized your parents for always going to the meetings; now you also are constantly going to the meetings. Not only do you go to the evening meetings, but you also go to the morning watches. I tell you, if there were no church on earth today, I would not want to live. I have a family and a great number of children and grandchildren, and I love them all, but it is difficult to be with them all for five minutes. However, when I come to the church meeting, I feel so good even after five and a half hours have gone by. Within me there is the love for the church. If you say I am a “church addict,” I will confess that I am. We have all become addicted to the church, and we are all “church addicts.”
Not only so, if you did not draw near to the Lord, if you did not call on the Lord for a week, and if you did not pray to Him for two weeks, then your love for the church would grow cold. But, if you call, “O Lord!” you will love the church. If you pray to the Lord in the morning, you cannot help but come to the church meetings at night. If you are not willing to come to the meetings, it is a sure sign that you are far from the Lord. This is a fixed principle.
You need to know that how much the church is in you depends on how much you love the church. I can truly testify that I am reluctant to spend even one dollar for myself, but I am quite happy to spend ten dollars for the church. Sometimes my friends and relatives laugh at me and tell me that I am a fool. They say, “You don’t want to buy this, and you try to save on that, but when it comes to the church, you don’t care how much you spend. What is the matter with you?” I am not a fool. I am here enjoying the sweetness of the church.
The church is not something organized, nor is it something produced by handshakes. In America, I observed that after finishing the sermon, the pastor goes quickly to the door of the chapel to shake hands respectfully with the people and invite them to come again the next week. Nevertheless, for some pastors, the more they shake hands, the less people come. In the past I received letters from one or two friends, advising me that, as a servant of God, I should not have such a serious look on my face and that I should shake hands with people. However, I have to say that it is not my face that attracts people; it is Christ who attracts them. The expression on my face cannot attract you, but Christ can. The church is neither organized nor man-made. Rather, the church comes out of the enjoyment of Christ. The enjoyers of Christ will not leave, no matter what you do to them. This is what makes us different from Christianity. At the Lord’s table we are neither an organization nor a religious group; rather, we are those who have enjoyed Christ inwardly. His water of life has flowed into us from His pierced side, and with that rib in us we are being built into today’s bride. We are not Americans, Chinese, Germans, or Japanese, but the flowing Christ is flowing into us. Hence, we all have the same kind of material, the same one rib, with which God is building a universal woman, who is the bride, the church.
Here you can see that not only are there the many grains, the many brothers, and the many branches, but there is also the one bride built with the one rib. Therefore, in the Gospel of John there is the church, which is produced out of our subjective experience of Christ.
Chapter 14 says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes” (v. 2). I believe that among you some still hold the old mistaken concept that My Father’s house refers to a heavenly mansion. As many times as I have read the Scriptures, I have not found any verse saying that the Father’s house is a heavenly mansion. The phrase My Father’s house is used twice in the Gospel of John. It is used the first time in 2:16, where it refers to the temple (v. 15), the Body of Christ. Based on this, My Father’s house in chapter 14 must still refer to the temple, the Body of Christ. We must interpret the Scripture by the Scriptures. Therefore, the definition of My Father’s house in chapter 14 must be according to chapter 2. “My Father’s house” is the temple, the Body, and this is the church today.
John 14:2 says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” The singular form of the Greek word for abodes in this verse is used in verse 23 of the same chapter. What does abode in verse 23 refer to? It refers to a believer. There it says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” The meaning of this verse is implied. It seems that the Lord was saying, “On the one hand, My Father and I will take him as Our abode. On the other hand, My Father and I will be his abode. My Father and I will come to him to make an abode with him so that he will have an abode, and We also will have an abode.” Also, 15:4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” This is a mutual abode. Then, in the Epistles we learn that this abode is the house of God, the church of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15a).
We have to see that the Gospel of John refers to the church in five different ways. First, many grains are ground to powder to become one bread. Second, many brothers in totality become the church. Third, many branches joined to the vine become one entity. We are members of His Body, and though the members are many, they are one Body. This is similar to the branches; though they are many, they are still one vine. Fourth, there is one bride. Fifth, the one bride is the house of God, “My Father’s house.” All these different terms depict the church from different angles and aspects. However, the main point we should not forget is that the church is produced as a result of our subjective experience of Christ.
It is not enough to know theology and doctrines or merely to read the Bible. If you have never contacted Christ by calling on Him and eating, drinking, and breathing Him, even though you have all the knowledge, you still have nothing to do with Him. You may be a member of Christianity, even one who occupies a very high position there, but you still may not be a constituent of the church. To become a constituent of the church, you must call on the name of the Lord and receive Him into your spirit by drinking Him as the living water. You must also receive Him into you by eating Him as the spiritual food so that He may be assimilated into the inward parts of your organic being. Then He will become you, and you will have a subjective union with Him. Moreover, you can even breathe Him in as air. It is only by taking Him in that you can become a constituent of the church. You are a grain, you are one of His brothers, and you are a branch, that is, a member, of His Body. You are also a part of the bride, and you are a part of His eternal dwelling place. This is the church.
Brothers and sisters, here I would like to say that in these two chapters we have covered all twenty-one chapters of the Gospel of John. In these twenty-one chapters we are told that one day the God who was in the beginning became flesh to accomplish redemption for our sins as the Lamb of God and that He became the all-inclusive Spirit after His resurrection from the dead. This all-inclusive Spirit can be touched by us at any time in any place. He is our living water, our spiritual food, and our air. When we drink Him, eat Him, and breathe Him, we enjoy Him. When we enjoy Him in this way, we will have the subjective experience. This subjective experience makes us His grains, His brothers, and the branches (the members) of His Body. It also makes us His bride and God’s dwelling place.
Finally, you have to remember that the conclusion of the entire Bible is the New Jerusalem. On the one hand, the New Jerusalem is the bride; on the other hand, it is the tabernacle of God with men, which is God’s dwelling place. The entire Bible ends with a bride and a holy city as a dwelling place; both items were mentioned in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John says that we are the bride and the dwelling place of God. How do we become the bride and God’s dwelling place? It is by our experience of Christ. In the last two chapters of Revelation you see that the New Jerusalem is the bride, the holy city, the dwelling place, and the tabernacle. There the river of life is flowing in the city, and the tree of life is growing on both sides of the river. As we are supplied by the living water and nourished by the tree of life, we become the bride, the tabernacle, and the dwelling place of God.
The writings of the apostle John include his Gospel, his Epistles, and finally Revelation. He ended his Revelation in the same way that he began his Gospel. In his Gospel he spoke about how God flows out for us to drink so that we may become the bride and the dwelling place of God. When he wrote his conclusion in Revelation, he gave us exactly the same picture: God Himself flowing out of the throne as the living water, and as we drink and eat of Him, we become the bride and the dwelling place, the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah, this is the church! The church is produced because we have the subjective experience of Christ in life. We thank the Lord that today we are all in this experience.
