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Prayer: Lord, You are the One whom we seek; we know that You are concealed in Your holy Word. We pray that You will release Yourself from Your Word. We all desire to hear You, to see You, and to gain something from You. Lord, we place ourselves before You to receive Your enlightenment and penetration. We pray that You will expose our true condition, that in Your light we may know ourselves as we know You. Amen.
In this chapter I would like to fellowship with you concerning several portions of the Word that are very fundamental and practical and with which we need to check our service and work today so that we may be clear about the way to go on.
Romans 15:16 says, “That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit.” To labor is to not be lazy but to be industrious; it includes striving, expending great effort, and endeavoring to go on by struggling. This can be likened to the endeavoring of the ancient Greek Olympic athletes. Unfortunately, most of the English versions do not include the word laboring; some render this portion only as “serving as a priest of the gospel of God.” We know that all New Testament believers are priests, but five years ago we did not point out what the New Testament priests do. What the priests of the Old Testament did was mostly to offer sacrifices and handle the offerings, but what do the priests of the New Testament do?
In Exodus 19 God called the children of Israel, saying, “Now therefore if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My personal treasure from among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel” (vv. 5-6a). In the beginning, God’s ordination was that all the people of Israel would be priests. However, not long after that, they worshipped the golden calf and blasphemed God. This caused Moses to shatter the stone tablets and to charge the people to stand on God’s side and slay their brothers. At that time, only the Levites did as Moses had asked (32:25-29). Then, in Deuteronomy 33:8-9 God blessed Levi through Moses, saying, “May Your Thummim and Urim be with Your faithful man, / ...He who said of his father and mother, / I do not regard him; / And his brothers he did not acknowledge, / And his children he did not recognize; / For they have kept Your speaking / And have guarded Your covenant.” From then on, only the Levites could be priests, and a nation of priests became a tribe of priests. Furthermore, only the house of Aaron could be priests; the rest of the Levites were only the serving ones. Then, in Numbers 16 the rebellion of Korah and his company took place because they were not content to remain in a secondary position in the service. So Moses rebuked them, saying, “Hear now, O sons of Levi: Is it a small thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the assembly of Israel to bring you near to Himself to do the service of the tabernacle of Jehovah and to stand before the assembly to minister to them?...And do you seek the priesthood also?” (vv. 8-10). This shows that the children of Israel in the Old Testament were divided into three classes: the priesthood of the house of Aaron, the serving Levites, and the common people.
However, in the New Testament all the believers in the church are priests. This takes us back to God’s original intention. After the passing away of the early apostles, people gradually became unclear concerning the service rendered to God; thus, the teaching concerning the “clergy-laity” came forth. First, Ignatius in the second century taught that an overseer, a bishop, is higher than an elder. From this erroneous teaching came the religious organization of bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope. This teaching is also the source of the episcopal system of ecclesiastical government. Then, in A.D. 590, the archbishop of Rome was recognized by the Eastern and Western churches as the pope; thus, the Roman Catholic Church was officially formed. Later, after further gradual development, there came to be not only bishops, each governing a district, but also archbishops, each having jurisdiction mainly over a country. Then, still higher in rank are the cardinals, who surround the pope to rule over all the Catholic churches on the whole globe, and thus may be considered the pope’s cabinet members. If the pope dies, the cardinals elect a new pope from among themselves. In the sixteenth century Martin Luther rose up to make reforms; as a result, the Protestant churches came into being from the Catholic Church. In the early stage the Protestant churches were state churches in nature. A number of the northern European countries began to form state churches, such as the Anglican Church, also known as the Episcopalian Church in England, and the Lutheran Church in Germany. The kings of the states became the leaders of the state churches. This way of governing the churches was the same as the practice in the Catholic Church. A century later, in approximately 1690, some saw the truth concerning the church being governed by the elders, not the bishops; as a result, the Presbyterian Church was established. This was the beginning of the independent churches. After this, some saw the truth concerning baptism by immersion (instead of by sprinkling), so they formed the Baptist Church. After this, there was a gradual recovery of the church, but in the matter of service, the church still could not escape the influence of the clergy-laity system.
In the seventeenth century the Moravian brothers were raised up. Because of the persecution from the Catholic Church, the state churches, and the independent churches, the brothers fled to the estate of Brother Zinzendorf. From that point on, the recovery of the church life began. In 1828 some brothers rose up in England. They broke away from all their background and lived and served altogether according to the truth of the Bible; they did not deny the Lord’s name, and they kept the Lord’s word. Unfortunately, after no more than half a century, they became degraded. Then, in 1922 the Lord raised us up in the Far East. In the beginning we adopted mainly the practices of the Brethren. Later, we discovered that in a considerable number of areas we had not entered deeply enough into the biblical truths. First, in 1934 Brother Nee released the book entitled The Meeting Life, in which he spoke concerning the establishing of the elders and the governing of the church. In 1948 he published the book entitled Church Affairs, in which he pointed out emphatically that the traditional meeting on the Lord’s Day, like the following of the customs of the nations by the children of Israel in the Old Testament (2 Kings 17:8), was abominable to God. Therefore, he said, we should push it out so that everyone can function. However, because the traditional way of meeting had become a firmly established habit and custom among mankind and had penetrated into the very blood of Christians, it could not be uprooted instantly. Later, the Lord’s recovery went to Taiwan. Because the time was not ripe to have a change, we went on according to the old practices; after about thirty years we gradually slipped back to the condition that presently exists in Christianity, and we came to a standstill.
I hope you all can see what the Lord’s recovery is. Beginning from the Brethren, the Lord’s recovery first was the recovery of the oneness of the Body of Christ; then it was the eliminating of all the practices that are not scriptural. Hence, we broke away from the denominations, and we desired to have only the Lord’s name and the Lord’s word. We wanted only Christ and the church and did not want any division. The more we went on with the Lord, the more we discovered that in our service and meetings, our practice was not absolutely according to the Lord’s word. We realized that we did not begin in an absolute way; we merely inherited the ways of the past so that the more we practiced them, the more they proved to be unworkable, and the more problems we had.
The Lord did bless His recovery so that by 1984 there were eight or nine hundred churches raised up on the whole earth, covering the six major continents. However, unconsciously we fell into a condition in which there was a lack; that is, our inner life was not sufficiently fresh and living. All the churches, in both the East and in the West, were in a dormant state, in a condition like that of Sardis. Moreover, the increase in the number of believers was very slow. Among the churches in the United States, for example, from 1962 to 1977 the yearly rate of increase was close to thirty percent, which is probably something very rare in church history. Later, because of the attack by the slandering ones, the church was affected. From 1977 to 1984 the rate of increase of the believers was no more than two or three percent yearly. In October of 1984, after I finished the last life-study of the New Testament, I determined to go back to Taipei to thoroughly restudy this matter.
After six years of study I discovered some passages in the holy Word that we had altogether neglected. The first is Romans 15:16 concerning the priests of the gospel. We have said that all believers should preach the gospel and that all are priests, but in practice we still have the clerical class in that only a few are functioning in this way. The second passage is 1 Corinthians 14:26. More than forty years ago Brother Nee saw the matter mentioned in this verse and spoke concerning it, but up to the present time we have not practiced it. The third portion is Ephesians 4:11-16, which says that the Lord has given some gifts to the church unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of His Body. These gifted persons need to perfect the saints, and then the saints will be able to do what the gifted persons do and will properly function. In this way the entire Body grows gradually and is built up organically. The fourth portion is John 15:16. There the Lord said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” As we enjoy Christ as grace and as our life, the result will be that we will bear remaining fruit. Then another passage is John 21:15-17, which says that the fruit we bear becomes the flock under our shepherding. Finally, Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another.” This kind of meeting, in which we consider one another and exhort one another, refers to the group meeting. We must admit that we have not been properly practicing what is taught in the aforementioned verses.
We have said that the main work of the priests is to offer sacrifices. However, the sacrifices offered by the New Testament priests are absolutely different from the sacrifices offered by the Old Testament priests. In the Old Testament the priests offered bulls and goats, but in the New Testament the priests offer as sacrifices those who have been saved into Christ and who are joined to Christ. The bulls and goats as sacrifices in the Old Testament are types of the coming Christ (Heb. 10:5-7); but the redeemed sinners are in the Christ who has come, and they have become members of the Body of Christ. They are presented to God by the New Testament priests of the gospel as living and spiritual sacrifices. First Peter 2:5 says that we, “as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” This shows that the intention of God’s heart is to have a spiritual house for Him to dwell in and to have a priestly body, a priesthood, to serve Him. As priests, we serve corporately in coordination to tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, as mentioned in 2:9, that we may offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, that is, saved sinners, according to God’s economy. Therefore, we need to realize that to preach the gospel is to tell out God’s love, grace, forgiveness, redemption, and so forth, that we may bring sinners to the Lord and offer them, the members of Christ, as sacrifices to God. This is the first step of the priests’ offering of sacrifices.
The second step of the offering of sacrifices is to nourish the believers that they may grow in life so that they can present themselves as sacrifices to God. Romans 12:1 speaks of this. We should exhort the believers through the compassions of God that they may offer themselves as a living sacrifice to God. The third step is that we who are priests should do according to what Paul says in Colossians 1:28-29, that is, admonish every man and teach every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man to God full-grown in Christ. This requires us to labor and to struggle. All that we have is Christ, and all that we offer also is Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 14:26 and footnote 1, Recovery Version). Only by doing this can we be the priests of the gospel.
Since we are priests of the gospel, we need to preach the gospel to save sinners. Since we are branches of the Lord, we need to bear fruit. In the past we practiced “preaching the gospel by the church,” meaning that everyone took part in preaching the gospel, and the effect was not bad. However, we did not reach the level of being priests of the gospel. Since every believer is a New Testament priest of the gospel, everyone needs to preach the gospel to offer saved sinners as sacrifices to God. This is the service that is according to the Scriptures. For this reason, since 1984 we have seen the need to change our practice. In the past six years we were continually experimenting and trying out various ways and did not have a definite way of practice. From 1984 we had some realization, and in August 1986 a training center was formally established in Taipei as the laboratory to research the God-ordained new way. It was not until August of last year that I felt that we had found a definite way; we have finished the preliminary step of the study of the new way and have something to present to the churches.
First, every church must receive grace from the Lord to stir up and motivate the brothers and sisters to build up the habit of contacting people, and the best way to contact people is to knock on “warm doors.” Every brother and sister should make a list of twenty names that includes their unsaved relatives, friends, classmates, colleagues, and neighbors. The people on the list will serve as the objects for the saints to contact in their preaching of the gospel in mutual coordination. Some relatives whom you have been contacting for years are still not saved. But the result might be different if someone else preaches to them, and it is possible that they will be saved. There are many examples of those who have been saved in such a way. There are over one thousand three hundred churches in the Lord’s recovery on the whole earth. If every church has fifty priests of the gospel who go out to contact the acquaintances of all the saints, the gospel will spread.
Next, group meetings must be established in all the places. To properly practice the group meetings, we must be living and organic. There are no set ways to have group meetings, and to have such a meeting is not to have a “worship service.” Group meetings are for free fellowship, prayer, and mutual care and shepherding. In the meeting there is no program, no schedule, and no one who takes the lead. On our way to the meeting, we should begin to praise and sing. When we arrive at the brother or sister’s home, we should not wait but should begin to fellowship and share, sing, or pray, doing everything according to the Spirit. If there is a need, we should pray for one another and care for one another. We can also tell one another about our present condition and can nourish one another. At the same time, we should also carry out some teaching of the truth. This is not to have some specially appointed ones do the teaching but to have the mutual asking of questions and mutual teaching. In this way all the individual fellowships will add up to a very good message; this will render help to the attendants. This kind of practice still needs our deeper study.
For the practice of the new way, first we must be revived every morning, and then we must have an overcoming daily life. Every day we should rise up early to call on the Lord’s name and have fellowship with the Lord. Then we should get into His Word and use two or three verses to enjoy Him. This will enable us to have a new beginning with the Lord in the morning. After this, to serve as a reminder, we may jot down the points concerning which the Lord inspired us with when we were with Him. When the weekend comes, we can put together the inspirations of the six days and compose a very good draft of a prophecy with which we can prophesy for the Lord in the Lord’s Day meeting. We should not only do this ourselves, but we should also perfect others to do this so that more saints will be able to function. Thus the meetings will surely be fresh, rich, and full of supply, not only attractive to people but also able to build them up.
Concerning the way to bear fruit, first you should set aside three hours every week to contact your acquaintances for the preaching of the gospel. If you are willing to do this, every month you will baptize one person. After that person is baptized, you should immediately give him a lesson concerning the way of life. The lesson does not need to be too long; the important thing is to tell him that the Lord is the processed Triune God, that He died on the cross for our redemption and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit, and that now He is in the spirit of those who call on His name, to be their life and reality. At any time we can turn to Him from deep within, call on His holy name, and pray to Him. Whenever we encounter some problem or need in our living, we should immediately call on Him. After you finish the lesson, you should lead him to practice. You can demonstrate so that he can see what you are doing, and also ask him to demonstrate for you, until he learns how to do it.
Besides this, you should tell him that we Christians not only need to pray but also need to read the Bible. First, you must tell him that from that night on, every night before he goes to bed, he should read one chapter of the New Testament, and that this will help him to have a pleasant sleep and will also benefit him in the long run. Next, you should teach him how to pray-read. Then ask him to have morning revival with you over the phone for ten minutes, beginning the next day; by doing this he can contact and enjoy the Lord. Do not read too many verses each time; to read just two or three verses is good enough. Not only so, you should also visit him every three or more days. In the first month of his baptism, it is best for you to visit him seven or eight times, to have face-to-face fellowship with him, to minister life to him, and to give him some proper proposals and definite guidance. Not long after this, you will be able to see that he is growing in the Lord and has changed; thus, he will have become stable.
During the same period of time, after he is saved, you should bring him to a group meeting. In the group meeting, the main thing is to do the work of perfecting; it is best to spend half the time to do this work. You can use the verses for the morning revival as the content, and everyone can open his mouth to share and fellowship what he has received during the week. Those who are more experienced can fellowship some deeper points; if some make errors in their sharing, the experienced ones should exercise wisdom to make adjustments. Then unconsciously, the truth will be released, and the attendants will spontaneously be nurtured and edified.
Another point is that when we preach the gospel, we not only can go to knock on “warm doors,” but we can also bring our relatives, friends, colleagues, and classmates to the group meeting. In the meeting, we should not greet them in a conventional way or converse with them regarding mundane matters; rather, we should exercise the Lord’s authority and act according to the Lord’s command, leading them to believe, be baptized, and be saved. We must believe that whatever we do in the Lord’s name will count. Matthew 28:18-19 tells us that the Lord has received all authority in heaven and on earth, and He commanded us to go to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Therefore, we should not be afraid; we simply need to say by faith, “Today Jesus Christ commands you to believe in Him.” If they say that they do not know how to believe, we should lead them to pray and call on the Lord’s name; then we should say to them that to call on the Lord is to be saved. After this we should tell them to be baptized immediately. We should never think that we need to speak until they are clear and then lead them to be baptized. It is the Lord who regenerates people; it is not time that regenerates. First, we baptize people into the Triune God; then we teach them what the Lord commanded us (v. 20).
The practice of the new way requires that we be slow and steady like a stream. The more I study it, the more I feel that we cannot be too hurried or too quick. However, we should know that the Lord will fulfill these Scriptures in us. We must look to the Lord’s mercy to lead us completely into these things.
