Search
Scripture Reading: Matt. 9:15; 25:1, 6; 28:19-20; John 3:29; 14:17-20; 15:5; Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 12:13
In the past two chapters we have seen some exhaustless matters concerning Christ. This is why we have four Gospels, or four biographies, to tell us who Christ is and what kind of person He is. The first Gospel is by Matthew, and the last is by John. In this chapter we will not cover anything from the Gospels of Mark and Luke, but we will look a little into the first and last Gospel.
The Scriptures are the breathing out of God. Furthermore, we must realize that not only the composition of the Scriptures is God’s breathing, but also the arrangement of the books. For Matthew to be first and John last is very meaningful. Every book in the Scriptures opens in a particular way. For instance, Genesis commences with, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” However, Matthew opens another way: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1). John opens with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). Matthew says that Jesus was the son of David and the son of Abraham. He was the son of human beings. But John tells us that Jesus Christ was the One from the beginning. Matthew starts from Abraham, and then David, and then Jesus Christ. This is easy to understand. But John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Matthew goes back, and John comes forth. Matthew goes back from Jesus to David and then to Abraham, whereas John comes forth from the beginning.
When was the beginning? Many Christians today like to study the Bible, but not one can tell us when the beginning started. We all desire to know the Bible. I began to study the Bible fifty years ago because I loved the Lord. Once when I was reading the Bible, I came to John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word.” Immediately my young mentality attempted to understand. What is the beginning? I looked into a concordance. It referred me to Genesis 1:1. There I read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” I still could not understand. So it is better not to be too concerned about our understanding. Rather, we should pray-read the Word: “In the beginning. Amen, Lord. In the beginning was the Word. Amen! O Lord Jesus!” This is the best way to receive God’s Word.
After trying to understand the beginning, I tried to understand what the Word is. It was very difficult for me. Furthermore, it said that the Word was with God. Immediately I was clear. There were two, the Word and God. But then it continued by saying that the Word was God. Then I asked, Are there one or two?
Do you think that you can understand the Bible? I can tell you that you do not even understand yourself. Do you know how many hearts you have? You have two hearts. One is your physical heart, and the other is your psychological heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, / And it is incurable; / Who can know it?” I would tell Jeremiah that my heart is in good condition. I have just had a medical examination. But this is not what Jeremiah means. He is not talking about the physical heart but the psychological heart. It is this that is corrupted. You see, you do not understand yourself. Tell me, where is our heart, and where is our conscience? We cannot say. So we really do not understand ourselves well.
In a much greater way, the Bible is far beyond our understanding. But the Bible is like food. We may not understand it, but we can eat it. In the Far East they do not have what you call in this country “grapefruit.” When I first heard this term, I simply did not understand. Then I thought that it must mean some kind of fruit of the grape. One day, however, I ate some grapefruit. Then I realized that it was not something of the grape. I really did not know what it was, but I ate it and enjoyed it! Even today, my mind does not fully comprehend it, but my body benefits from it.
The same principle applies to the reading of the Bible. It is not so much to be understood as it is to be enjoyed. When we open to John 1:1, we should not try merely to understand it but rather enjoy it by pray-reading. “In the beginning was the Word. Amen. O Lord Jesus. In the beginning, Amen, was the Word, Amen. And the Word was with God. Oh, the Word, Amen, the Word was with God. Hallelujah! And the Word was God! Amen, the Word was God. Oh, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Amen! Hallelujah!” When we take the Bible in this way, it is similar to our eating of food. We may not understand much, but we really enjoy something. And we will be nourished within.
If we try to understand Matthew and John with our limited mentality, we will only be confused. Matthew wrote a book about Christ in which he tells us that He is the son of David and the son of Abraham. But John tells us that He is the Word, and the Word is God. John makes it clear that He is the Son of God. So what is He? Is He the son of David or the Son of God? Praise the Lord! He is all-inclusive. We cannot analyze, and we cannot systematize Christ. There is no “-ology” with Him. There is just the pure Word. We should learn not to analyze but to simply take the true Word.
Matthew goes back to Abraham, but John starts from the beginning. Before the foundation of the world, before creation, the Word was there. And the Word was God! Then one day this Word who was God became something else. “And the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). He became flesh to tabernacle among us full of grace and reality. He is a wonderful person! Then John continues by telling us that He is the Lamb of God: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). Following that, in chapter 3 he tells us that Jesus is the Bridegroom: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom” (v. 29).
Jesus is so wonderful! He is not only the Lamb but also the Bridegroom. He has many aspects. For redemption He is the Lamb. Mankind is fallen and full of sin. Therefore, He must be the Lamb to take away the sin of the world. But He is the Bridegroom for the marriage. Redemption is not the goal; redemption is just the procedure. Marriage is the goal! In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. Then the Word became flesh. So He is the Word, God, and then the flesh. And the flesh is the Lamb. He must be the flesh to shed His blood as the redeeming Lamb. And He is also the Bridegroom.
In just the first three chapters of John we see that He is five things: the Word, God, the flesh, the Lamb, and the Bridegroom. He is so much. As the Word and God He became flesh. This means that He became a man, a human being. Then this human being is the Lamb of God to redeem man. Hallelujah! But this is not all. He is also the universal Bridegroom. In the whole universe the most pleasant person is Jesus as the Bridegroom. John the Baptist said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” So He comes for the bride.
Then in the following chapters of John we are told that He is the bread of life. Moreover, in John 10 we are told that He is the door—not the door to heaven but the door out of religion! God’s people in John 10 were confined in the Jewish religion, and Jesus came to be the door so that they might come out. He took the lead to come out of that Jewish religion. Peter followed, John followed, and the blind man of John 9 came out also. Eventually, even Saul of Tarsus followed. He came out of that religion. Jesus is the door out of religion! This is still true today. Jesus is the door for religion, not for people to enter but for them to leave. Then, when we come out of religion, He is our Shepherd. And under His shepherding, He is our green pasture. We read furthermore that He is the life, the truth, and the way. He is the light and even the living air for us to breathe. He is so many things!
John in his Gospel makes us clear that for Jesus to be so many things to us, He must become the Spirit. In chapter 14 the Lord said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (vv. 16-20).
He said that He would ask the Father to send us another Comforter. But we should not consider this other Comforter as another one besides Himself. No, this Comforter is the Lord as the Spirit of reality. This is why He told the disciples that He was not going to leave them. He was coming to them. His going away for three days was for His coming. Those three days would be a kind of process to transform Him through death and resurrection into the Spirit. After the resurrection the Lord came back to the disciples. He had been fully processed through crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Now He is not merely God; neither is He only God in the flesh. Now He is God in the flesh crucified, buried, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Now it is so easy to take Him in. This is why we read in John 20:22, “When He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.”
As the Spirit He is so available that we may breathe Him in, and we may receive Him so easily. Then how do we breathe? The Bible says in Romans 10:12 that the Lord is rich to all who call upon His name. So the way to breathe Him in is to call on Him: “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” This is why, whenever there is a person who will call on the name of the Lord Jesus, something happens. If you too will only call on His name, you will never be the same. It is not that you decide to correct yourself, but something happens within you, and you have some change. Sometimes the change occurs immediately. Sometimes it comes after a few hours or a few days. This is not a religion, and it is not something psychological. This is Jesus! When you call on His name to breathe Him in, He comes as a living person into you. If the electrical waves in the air are real, Jesus is more real. Today, on the entire earth, Jesus as the life-giving Spirit is so real. Whenever a person anywhere on the earth says, “Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus,” he breathes in the living air. This is our wonderful Jesus!
Some may ask, “Is not Jesus in heaven?” Yes, He is. But we must all know that the Jesus who is on the throne in the third heaven at the right hand of God is now so real as the Spirit on the earth. He is omnipresent. We cannot limit His location. He is everywhere, just like the air. He is as available as the air to us. Right now, wherever we are, if we will call, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus,” something will happen, and we will get something. And this something can never be rejected by us. Hallelujah! Jesus is so real, so living, and so available.
We have seen in the Gospel of John that in the beginning He was the Word who was God. Then He became flesh to be the Lamb of God to bear the sins of the world. And this He did. He accomplished redemption on the cross almost two thousand years ago. But that was not His ultimate purpose. His ultimate purpose was to get the bride. Yes, He did come to save us as sinners, but that was not His goal. His goal was the bride.
According to the Bible, the first mentioning of anything sets up a principle. The first mentioning of marriage is in Genesis 2. Here we have the marriage between Adam and Eve, and the first principle concerning the bride. It is so clear in this portion of the Word that the bride must come out of the groom. Eve was made with something taken out of Adam. A rib was taken from him; that was her source. With that rib God built a woman. Then this woman went back to Adam, and they two became one. This is the principle of the bride.
How then can Christ as the last Adam obtain His bride? When God created Adam, He brought all the animals to him. Adam looked at them and even named them, but he could not find his counterpart. Not one could match him. Not one was in his image. Then God put Adam to sleep, and out of his side He took a rib and built a woman. Then when Adam awoke, he looked at the woman and it seemed that he said, “This is my counterpart. She is something out of me. She has my nature, she has my life, and she also bears my likeness.” Now Adam was complete. Without Eve, he was only a half. When the two halves were put together, there was a whole. If as a man you do not have a wife, you are not complete. You are just a half. You need a wife to match you. A horse cannot match you; a bird cannot match you. It must be someone from the same origin as you are, having the same life and nature that you have. This is a principle.
Do you think that by our natural life we could be the other half of Christ? I cannot match Christ, and you cannot either. Then how will Christ get His bride? It must be something out of Him. We know that when He went to the cross, His side was broken, and out came blood and water: blood for redemption, and water for imparting life. It was through this that something out of Christ came into us. And it is by this element within us that God will build us up to be the bride of Christ. Something of Christ has come into us to make us His bride. We are one thing, but by Christ coming into us, we are made something else. Hallelujah! We all have something within us that has come out of Christ, and it is by this that we will be builded up and return to Christ as His bride.
How can Christ come into us? He died on the cross for our sins and shed His blood. Then He was resurrected, and by resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This life-giving Spirit is symbolized by the water. In typology in the Old Testament, the living water came out of the cleft rock. Today Christ is the cleft rock. Out of Him has come the living water, the Spirit who is just Himself. When we believe in Him and call, “O Lord Jesus,” whether we understand justification or not, we are justified. Now Christ as the Spirit has come into us, not as a power or an influence but as a living person. Now we are not only saved but also regenerated. And this living person in us will make us the bride. It is a mystery, but this is what the Bible tells us.
The ultimate consummation of the Bible is a bride. The New Jerusalem, in Revelation 21 and 22, is called the wife of the Lamb. The Bible closes with the bride of the Lamb of God.
Today Christ is working within us in the churches to build His bride. This is His ultimate purpose. This may be new to you. Some of these terms and even this whole concept may be strange to you, but do not be bothered by this. Many specific points of God’s revelation have been missed by Christians. Today, in the Lord’s recovery, He is recovering all these things. He is opening all the mysteries to us. All these truths are based upon the pure Word.
Now, I believe, we are all clear about the Gospel of John. In the beginning, Christ was the Word who was God, and this Word became flesh to be the Lamb of God. Then, on the cross He took away our sins, and by resurrection and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. When we believe in Him and call on His name, our sins are forgiven, and He Himself comes into us. By His life working within us, He will build His bride. This is why He is eventually revealed in the book of John as the holy breath. (The Greek word for spirit and breath is the same.) After His resurrection He came back to His disciples to breathe into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). This is all made clear to us in John’s Gospel.
Now we must return to Matthew. Matthew tells us that Jesus is the son of David and the son of Abraham. John starts from the beginning. But regardless of how John starts, or from whom Matthew begins, eventually they both tell us nearly the same thing. Matthew also tells us that Jesus is the Bridegroom: “Jesus said to them, The sons of the bridechamber cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?” (9:15). The disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus to ask Him about religion, but Jesus told them that He was the Bridegroom, caring nothing for religion.
Then in Matthew 25 He told us that He will come back as the Bridegroom. “At that time the kingdom of heavens will be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom...But at midnight there was a cry, Behold, the bridegroom! Go forth to meet him!” (vv. 1, 6).
However, Matthew still differs somewhat from John. John tells us that the Bridegroom will come into us to make us His bride, but Matthew says that the bride must be put into Him. The Gospel of John closes with Jesus coming as the life-giving Spirit in resurrection to come into His bride, but Matthew closes with Jesus coming after His resurrection to tell His disciples to baptize people into Himself: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19).
Have you seen these two aspects? One aspect is that Christ comes into us; the other is that we are baptized into Him. It is so wonderful that we have one verse that covers both aspects: “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). On one hand, we have been put into the Spirit, and on the other hand, we must drink the Spirit into us. Eventually, it is rather difficult to say who is in whom. This is why Jesus said in John 14:20: “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
In the translation of Matthew 28:19, there is a real problem. The King James Version says, “Baptizing them in the name.” So many Christians think that this means to baptize others in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. As they are baptizing them, they say, “I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word for the preposition in is into. It is the same Greek preposition used in Galatians 3:27: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” It is just like the water into which we are baptized. When we are baptized into the water, we are put into the water. So the real baptism is to put people into the Triune God, with the water as a symbol. Whenever we baptize others, we should not do it in a formal way. We need to exercise our faith that we are putting them into the Triune God. As they have believed in the Lord Jesus and called on His name, we baptize them into Him as the Spirit. It is not a formality; it is a reality. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Then after we have been baptized into Him, we must drink of Him. We all need to drink of the one Spirit. So eventually, we are in Him, and He is in us.
This is the two Gospels of Matthew and John. John concludes with the fact that Jesus gets into us. Matthew ends with the fact that we are put into Jesus. Hallelujah! We all have been baptized into Him, and now we all are drinking of Him as the Spirit. He is such a wonderful person, yet He is so one with us. May the Lord remove all the veils from our background and from our concepts so that we may see the vision from the pure Word. In these two Gospels it is so clear that the main purpose of the gospel is for Christ to be the Bridegroom to obtain His bride. He is the wonderful Bridegroom, and He is everything to us so that we might become His bride as His counterpart for eternity.
