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Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rom. 15:16; Eph. 4:11-12; Acts 2:36; 2 Cor. 4:5a; Acts 13:2; 1:8; Matt. 28:18-19; Acts 4:31b; 1 Cor. 2:4; Acts 6:10; 11:18; Rom. 12:4; 1 Cor. 12:7, 11; John 21:15-17; 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 24, 31; Eph. 4:16; 1 Pet. 2:2; Col. 1:28-29
Prayer: O Lord Jesus, we thank and praise You from the depths of our being. You have blessed the previous three meetings, and now You have brought us to this meeting tonight. As You have given us a glorious beginning and a glorious continuation, do grant us a glorious conclusion so that we may see a blessing from You greater than what we have witnessed on the previous evenings. We pray that You would speak to us again and release to us the wonders in Your Word. Cleanse us with Your blood and anoint us with Your holy ointment. Anoint the speaker as well as the hearers. Anoint everyone in this meeting so that we may all receive a supply from You. Lord Jesus, glorify Yourself and sanctify Your holy name. Lord, we exalt You, we worship You, and we joyfully praise You. Amen.
In the previous three chapters we saw the origin of the Body of Christ, the elements, essence, and reality of the Body of Christ, and the living of the Body of Christ. Now we want to consider the service of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is an organism with its origin, its constituents, its elements, the essence in its constituents, and its reality which is manifested without. All these things spontaneously produce a certain kind of living.
In the previous chapter we said that the living of the Body of Christ takes Christ as the Head, the life, and the center, has the Spirit as the essence and the reality, takes the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ as the rule, and takes life and the Body as the principle. I believe that we have all seen this and have received an amount of help from it. We now come to see the service of the Body of Christ. Although the word service is common, it is not a simple matter. According to its proper meaning, it is better to render this word as ministry. In common terms, a ministry means a special assignment. This is like a mail carrier who has been particularly sent to accomplish a special goal.
Although outstanding results are yet to be seen after four or five years of struggling and striving, the practice of the new way is becoming more and more apparent each day. This morning we had a meeting with the new ones who came in through the spread of our gospelization work. Among the two thousand attendants, over thirteen hundred people were saved within the past year in different towns and villages. They are the fruit borne by our gospel teams that have gone out. This work of spreading the gospel in the countryside is truly a special assignment. For the past fifteen months, since January a year ago, our brothers and sisters have gone to the countryside with a commission. They have been farming laboriously by sowing in tears. Now they are bringing in their sheaves with joy.
I sat there watching them meeting and singing. They did not look like new believers but like professionals who knew how to sing, smile, and express themselves. I was deeply touched by them. I could tell from their testimonies that some were older, and others were younger; some were highly educated, and others were not; some were rough, and others were refined. Such a variety of people was simply too wonderful. This is the fruit of the new way. There was not even a hint of Christianity among them. They were living, organic, spiritual, and full of life. This is why I feel that since the Body of Christ is a living organism, its service must be living and organic. If we as the members of Christ can neither laugh or weep, jump or shout, it is difficult for our service to be effectual. Only when we are living can we serve successfully. When we are solemn and dull, we can only bind and shackle others. In gospel preaching, we ourselves must first be released by the Lord before we can release others.
The service of the Body of Christ is not only living and organic; it is also particular. Even the smallest thing we do in the Body of Christ is particular. Whether preaching the gospel or feeding the lambs, each member must receive a particular burden from the Lord and do his best to fulfill his own service. If a church has many preaching the gospel and shepherding the lambs, if it is full of gospel and shepherding activities, it will surely be prevailing. You all must learn to do the Lord’s work by special assignment so that you can fulfill your service in the Body. This does not mean that you must be full time but that you should contact people spontaneously in your daily life. You can preach the gospel to your classmates while playing ball with them, and you can feed the lambs over the telephone. In any event, we all must serve in the Body of Christ, and we must do so in a particular way.
The service of the church as the Body of Christ is the service of the New Testament priesthood of the gospel (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). It is the service of the New Testament, and it is of the gospel and of a priesthood. A priest is individualistic, but a priesthood is corporate. It is much like a ball team, which is a corporate entity. A ball game is not played by any one individual but by a group. Our service must also be carried out as a corporate entity, the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. The foremost thing of this service is to center on the preaching of the gospel to save sinners and to offer them as sacrifices to God (Rom. 15:16). In a general sense gospel preaching is soul-winning. This is not wrong, but such a goal is not high enough. Our emphasis in gospel preaching is not on this but on God receiving an offering. According to the revelation of the Old Testament, our God daily anticipates our offering to Him. Actually, the offering of sacrifices must be done not only daily but also every morning and evening.
Our gospel preaching today is not merely to win souls but to save sinners one by one and offer them as sacrifices to God. This is the focus of our service. When I was first saved, I heard that I must preach the gospel diligently to save souls. Later, I also heard that I must preach the gospel diligently in order to bear fruit. Fruit-bearing seems a little higher than soul-winning. In the last two years I began to realize that we are God’s priests and that our gospel preaching cannot merely be soul-winning or fruit-bearing. It is to save the sinners and offer them to God as sacrifices. Suppose you preach the gospel to someone and baptize him after he believes and receives. Now you must remember to offer this person as a sacrifice to God in your prayers. If you do this, you will be a joyful person. This is the focus of our service as the New Testament priests of the gospel.
Furthermore, the service of the New Testament priesthood of the gospel has as its goal the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12). The focus of our service is to save sinners and offer them to God, and the goal is to build up the Body of Christ. After we preach the gospel, lead a sinner to salvation, and offer him as a sacrifice to God, that sacrifice becomes material for the building up of the Body of Christ. In returning to Taipei this time, I am very happy to see that you have gone on in the new way. Although the speed of advancement is not that great, you are nevertheless progressing in a solid way. I am especially delighted to see so many new ones brought in through the spread of our gospelization work. They are being offered to God as sacrifices, and they have all become materials for the building up of the Body of Christ. Without materials it is vain to talk about building. Now we have so much material for the building up of Christ’s Body. This is the result of the new way.
Furthermore, we must take Christ as Lord in the service of the Body of Christ and of the church (Acts 2:36; 2 Cor. 4:5a; Acts 13:2). This is according to Christ’s desire and for Christ’s purpose. We must not take any person as Lord except Christ. When we serve in the Body of Christ, we must learn to seek the Lord much in all things through prayer and ask Him to lead us in order that we may know His heart’s desire and understand His purpose. Only He is the Lord. Although we do not see Him, He is still the Lord, and although we cannot touch Him, He is present with us. Through Him we can deal with and be brought through all the hindrances and problems that we encounter in our service. Thus, we must learn to acknowledge Him as Lord, to fellowship with Him constantly, to seek His presence, and to know His heart’s desire and His purpose.
In the service of the Body of Christ we not only take Christ as Lord but also take the Holy Spirit as power and authority (Acts 1:8; Matt. 28:18-19). To do anything we need power and authority. The Holy Spirit is our power and authority in the service of the Body of Christ. The Lord said in Matthew 28:18-19, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” When the Lord spoke this word, He had already given us all power and authority. Thus, we must consider it a fact that the Christ who was transfigured as the Holy Spirit is with us when we go to preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit who is present with us is our power and authority.
There may be times when you preach the gospel to a stubborn and unyielding person. You should pray in your heart, “Lord, Your authority is here. Exercise Your authority over this one.” When you apply the authority that the Lord has given to you in this way, quite often you will witness people being softened to such an extent that they eventually receive the Lord into their hearts, call upon the Lord’s name, and get baptized. Therefore, learn to preach the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31b; 1 Cor. 2:4; Acts 6:10) and to dispense life by the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:18). The Holy Spirit is present with you. Do not speak by the natural man outwardly; rather, speak by an inward exercise of the power and authority given by the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, we also need to take the Body as our means (Rom. 12:5). This Body is not our body but Christ’s. When you go to preach the gospel, the entire Body is going, not you alone. You are preaching in the Body and serving in the Body. We are the Body of Christ, and in this Body every member serves (v. 4; 1 Cor. 12:7, 11). Moreover, each one serves in the coordination of the Body, resulting in a corporate service of the Body (Rom. 12:5). In preaching the gospel, it is best that three or five join together, with some of them going out to preach, others praying at home, and all having fellowship together afterward. This is coordination.
The big gospel meetings of the past were good except for one shortcoming: only one spoke and not all could function. Suppose everyone here in the audience would go and contact people for gospel preaching by either visiting, making phone calls, or writing gospel letters. I believe that the result of all this would be much greater than that of one man speaking every day. I realize that you are often occupied, but still you can do this kind of work once a week. You can make telephone calls. Try to get some telephone numbers. You can begin by calling up your relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, or classmates and talking with them on the phone. You can also make an appointment to visit them or write a gospel letter to them. I absolutely believe that if you would do these three things together—letter writing, telephoning, and visiting—in the coordination of the Body, they will be very effective.
In most big corporations today, tasks are spread out among many people and not concentrated in the hands of a few. Our mistake in the old way was due to the principle of being dependent on one or two persons to do everything. Modern business administration seeks to abandon this principle in favor of division of labor and mutual cooperation. This is also the principle of our practice of the new way—everyone should be involved. The clearest example of this is that two thousand new fruit have been brought in during the past year or so by two hundred people who went to the countryside to spread the gospel. Surely we would not have gained this fruit if these two hundred had not gone out. In the same respect, would we not have gained still more if we had sent out more? If we had relied only on a few speakers, the number we would gain in a few years would probably be quite small.
For this reason I want to share with you one thing that can be easily achieved. I hope that after their graduation from college, our young people would not be anxious to further their education or to find jobs immediately. Rather, they should set apart two years of their time for church service by serving the Lord on a full-time basis. They should spend a year in the training and another year in the villages. After two years they can then consider how the Lord would lead them—to serve the Lord full time for the rest of their lives or to serve the Lord with a job like most others. By this way there will be a rotation of serving ones among us to bring the gospel to all of Taiwan.
We have not fully preached the gospel even in Taipei. The total number of saved people in Taiwan does not amount to five percent of its total population. If the college graduates among us would be led to serve the church for two years upon graduation by preaching the gospel in a persistent, steady, and diligent way through phone calls, gospel letters, or visitations, and if they would be coordinated with all the saints in the corporate service of the Body, I do believe the church will experience a great increase.
I have been taking the lead in the practice of the new way here for more than five years. There are still three things that I would like to do which have not been done. First, the majority of the eighty or more elders in the twenty-three halls in Taipei are young people. All these elders need shepherding. Yet we have not had the appropriate persons to shepherd them in the past few years. Second, in the past practice of the new way we have stressed only door-to-door visitation for gospel preaching and not telephoning or letter writing. From now on we must do all three. At the same time we need to hold “reaping” meetings at least once a month so that our gospel can be preached more thoroughly and completely. We should bring our contacts from our districts, groups, and homes together to hear the preaching of the truths of the gospel by the gifted ones that they may be reaped. Third, we do not yet have an adequate meeting hall to accommodate the increase of believers among us. I anticipate that in the near future we will be able to build a meeting hall that can seat ten thousand people on our property on Hsin-Yi Road. Then we can have conferences every two or three months to release the Lord’s messages. This is also a great need. Do pray much for the ongoing developments concerning the building up of that hall.
The corporate service of the whole Body is the scriptural way. It causes every member to fulfill his or her organic function in the Body. There are four main items in such a service. First, we must preach the gospel to save sinners (Rom. 15:16). We must continually bring the gospel to people to lead them to salvation, either by visiting them by knocking on their doors, calling them on the phone, or writing them letters. Second, we must feed the Lord’s lambs and shepherd His flock (John 21:15-17). Third, we must perfect the saints to build up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12). This matter is not found in Christianity, and yet it is revealed in the Scriptures. It is the Lord’s mercy that we have adopted it as part of the Lord’s recovery. The gifted ones should not be the only ones who perfect the saints; the saints themselves should become gifted ones to perfect others. Fourth, every saint can prophesy and speak for the Lord to build up the church, the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 24, 31).
The Body of Christ builds itself up through every joint of the supply and through every functioning member (Eph. 4:16). There are two kinds of members in the Body, the supplying joints and the operating parts. The operation of our physical body depends on the joints. In the Body of Christ we also need some who can be joints for the purpose of supplying others. The supply stations of the blood are the joints in the body. Without the joints, the Body cannot receive the supply. In addition to the joints, there is the need for another group of members, such as the hands and fingers, with their own particular functions. With the joints of supply and every functioning part, the Body can now build itself up in love. Our physical body builds itself up. If we do not eat, we are unable to build up our body. This is the same with the church. We all are members. But some are joints supplying, and the other parts are being active in fulfilling their function as members. In this way the Body will build itself up.
Finally, we have to mention the three steps of offering by the priests of the gospel in the Body service. The first step is to lead sinners to salvation and to offer them as sacrifices to God (1 Pet. 2:9b, 5b; Rom. 15:16). Next we have to nourish them so that they may grow up and present themselves as living sacrifices to God (1 Pet. 2:2; Rom. 12:1). Initially, they were saved and offered to God, but now, as they have grown up, they offer themselves to God. Finally, the gifted ones still need to labor and struggle in all wisdom to present every saint full-grown in Christ to God (Col. 1:28-29). At this point the saints will have become full-grown in the stature of Christ, and the Body of Christ can be fully built.
I hope that after these four meetings the church here has seen something and that the brothers and sisters know the origin of the Body of Christ as well as its elements, essence, and reality. I hope that they will have the living of the Body of Christ and the service of the Body of Christ to fulfill their function in the Body service. Then the Lord will have a way among us. May the Lord give grace to each of you, and may each one of you receive these words and practice them diligently by His grace.
